Guide to Literature Spoilers

The movie spoilers come at a slow rate, spread out over three years. The EU stuff is thrown out in huge, indigestible pieces.

 

You certainly bring up a valid point, Dev. However, that is the nature of the mediums. The novels don't spend years in production.

 

aye, they can and they have.
The novels, being a seperate medium are inherently different. They have a much smaller audience, yet a more devoted audience, and yet create a similar amount of discussion..
it's just wrong to take a way every suprise an author has poured into his novel.

 

Who is Jimmy?

 

i wish people would refrain from posting spoilers. putting spoiler in the title is a nice touch, but it just eats you alive to know someone else knows something you don't.

 

Jimmy's death spoiler was posted in both SBS spoiler threads, and non-spoiler threads, for the morbidly curious.

 

?That wont happen to Jimmy, Susan maybe, and Alex is also a pretty good guess, but not Jimmy? I don?t even know who I?m talking about??

I say this to myself at least once every day. Denial can be a very powerful thing. If you tell yourself something long enough you will actually start to believe it. In the end you might even start to forget what you are trying to deny.

I realize that this is far from being a real solution to this particular problem, but without denial all I have to look forward to in the next book is how this happens. I would buy the book for that reason by its self, but it?s just not the same.

 

Well, I agree with you admins, but unfortunately, now for SbS, it's to late... This 'insider' has posted it in both spoiler and non-spoiler threads. You acted quite fast enough, but it was too late. A few people already knew it. And then discussion was totally inevitable. Fortunately, someone had the more or less good idea to come up with the nickname Jimmy. I'm surprised most people still don't know who he is, and I think it's a good thing. (That's why I never actually said who he was, even when someone PM-ed me - okay, I agree, maybe I shouldn't have discussed the implications of his death, but I did it with enough warnings before it, so nobody can blame me for not having warned them)

Now for the future, I think the one-week before release thing is a really good idea. It's a rule that should be added rapidly to this board. And I hope nobody will step the line for the other books, like this guy did for SbS...

 

I'm down with the whole idea of locking or editing posts with huge, possibly lawsuit inducing spoilers in them. It might sound a bit harsh, but expecting everybody to be discreet about such things just won't work. You might have 10 people that know something, and 9 of them can keep their fingers quiet. But, that tenth guy, he's going to grab that ball and run with it as fast and as far as he possibly can. Before he's brought down, or ran out of bounds, quite a few people are going to see him run. Just my two yards.

 

The Falleen (PrinceXizor) has a good point. There will be no stoppid SBS spoilers. Perhaps the admins can have spoiler crack downs or something

 

No one answered Kansas Navy's question of "How did the MAJOR spoiler (you know what I'm talking about) leak out in the first place?"
If this truly was some insider with an advance copy of SbS, or real inside knowledge, than that person should be chastised and not allowed insider info again.



The releasing of the info about Chewie's death so far in advance strikes me as a crass publicity move. WAY in advance we were told that a "main" character was going to die. Weeks were spent worrying about Luke, Han and Leia. I'm sure many ppl ordered the book to be sure they found out as soon as possible ("Gotta get the book . . . Gotta know who croaks . . . Gotta get the book") I wouldn't be surprised to find this current "rumor" is a carefully engineered publicity stunt to increase orders.~~ I'm not saying it is, just that it wouldn't surprise me if it was ~~

I don't think LFL is terribly concerned with spoilers. Look at how hard it was to avoid spoilers for TPM. If you looked at the soundtrack before you saw the movie, you knew Qui-Gon had a funeral. If you checked out the action figures, you knew that Padme and Amidala were the same person.


I'm treating rumors of Jimmy's demise as just that, rumors. The first topic that I read about the SbS spoiler started with a post that went something like "I read that someone said that an insider said (Jimmy) dies in SbS"
In that tread, the originator of the report was not identified and the news came to us 2nd and 3rd hand. This makes said information an Urban Rumor. About as reliable as the tale of the lady who dried her poodle in the microwave.

 

Sorry, Dew, but some of us (including me) saw the 'release' of the news when the insider posted them.

 

Anyone taking bets on how long "Jimmy" will stay "dead" ?

 

He'd better be as dead as Chewie.

 

The extent of my Jimmy discussion is that "Jimmy" will not die.

As far as spoilers go, LFL does indeed pour much resources into making sure its movies do not get spoiled.

Darth Ludicrous is correct in his assertion that authors' works do not deserve to be spoiled and at least deserve to be read as intended, and not flipping through the novel like cliffs notes in a bookstore to "read" it.

GAW is also correct that spoilers have their place. (In his case, it is a morbidly, disturbing - very disturbing - sense of "highway roadkill" rubbernecking to see who dies But, a valid reason to buy the book nonetheless) Whether it is confirmation that something a reader wants done in a story, or a character who a reader wants to appear, etc. All of these things help a book. Some call this "spoiling," while others would not have otherwise read it without such information.

In the end, I think it all boils down to personal accountability and responsibility. There should be as few limitations as possible. Of course if something is going to get TF.N in legal trouble, one would expect the admins to do their job. However, if the problem is that someone was stupid enough to look in a "Spoiler" thread and then whine they got spoiled - tough luck.

There should perhaps be a single perpetual "EU Spoiler Thread," where people can post spoilers. Spoilers posted elsewhere should be handled with extreme prejudice by the admins. This spares anyone from being unfairly spoiled and allows those whose knowledge of spoilers will enrich their experience - because they'll have chosen to read it.

 

Having a single thread would be an excellent idea.

My interest in this particular death has nothing whatsoever to do with wanting to see some "highway roadkill." It is just that the death one this type of character is something that I have been greatly looking forward to since Jedi Eclipse.

 

But, if a single official spoiler thread is created, it would always have to be on the first page. My suggestion for that would be to create a link of it in nice bold, capital letters and put it into the coding of the forum so it would be available no matter where it falls to in terms of thread order.

 

Yeah, GAW - I agree.

That's kind of what I meant with "perpetual." It would always have to be "up" for new people who may come in wanting to scoop TF.N with some spoiler.

 

I've posted spoiler reviews of both BP and EOV:R, but:

1. Spoiler warnings were put in the title.

2. The only reason I was able to do so was that I bought the books, over the counter, in local bookstores.

This could be proved by questioning, say an Admin PM's me asking a specific quote that could only be supplied perfectly by my having the book, if my claims were to be challenged.

I know BP would have been lacking impact if I'd read spoilers, same for Rebirth.

Don't ask me the solution though, ain't got a clue as it's a tad tricky a problem.

Jedi Ben

 

"Just read what is given to you from various fansites. Let them psyche you up, and be content with finding out the juiciest parts of novels on your own by reading it."

I dare you, I mean, I just really dare you to go here and post that nonsence.

Attack of the Clones - Spoilers

And no, there is no difference. Perhaps my suggestion for a Spoilers allowed lit board wasn't too far off.

 

Cigam...
"I dare you, I mean, I just really dare you to go here and post that nonsence."

Yeah, but you wouldn't be tarred and feathered for talking about being content with spoilers you're given - you'd be flamed because you said the word "novel."

 

Point taken, but you understand my meaning.

 

Spoilers have been half of what's keeping me reading the NJO. I hadn't planning on buying Star by Star in hardcover like I did VP and BP, until I found out that Jimmy dies. Now I'm seriously considering pre-ordering it to make sure I have a copy on the first possible day.

Spoilers rarely do anything to actually spoil books for me- the actual events arn't so important as the plotwork around them. Knowing Jimmy will die is one thing (a thing I am most grateful for), but it's the how that interests me and makes me want to buy the book to see how and why and where things go. Will he die saving the life of someone he loves? Will he die trying to excact revenge over the death of someone he loves? Will he fall to the Dark Side before he dies? Or has he already fallen? That is a big portion of why I will buy the book, because I know Jimmy will die and I want to find out how and why.

 

Gandolf...
"Spoilers rarely do anything to actually spoil books for me..."

Will you be saying the exact same thing if the spoiler turns out to be untrue? Spoilers can work both ways.

Seriously. It seems you and GAW have similar outlooks on one specific key SbS spoiler - (while it does seem yours is more geared towards Jimmy in particular, whereas GAW looks to be happy that it could be either Jimmy or those closely like him as long as it's one of them.)

Will SbS be spoiled for either of you (and GAW) if that one specific spoiler doesn't come to pass. That is, if that whole spoiler line was untrue. Would you be more dissatisfied than if you never heard that anyone was going to die, much less Jimmy or those like him. The book could be the best novel ever, but if Jimmy lives, would it affect your opinion of it in any way - because you had some other expectation based on a false spoiler?

 

Well I DON'T want Jimmy to die, I am furious I found out, and right now I'm in a state of miserable denial.