Entry tags:
spoilers everywhere, but not for Venture Bros
I have been reliably informed by separate sources that I need to stay off the internet for a while, possibly as long as a year, because there are huge honking spoilers out in the open all over the place, in both fannish and non-fannish spaces.
This is very frustrating! Because a) I'm the sort of person who, if you tell me "Don't look at that, you'll get spoiled," actually won't look at it. If you want to surprise me with something, you can put it in the middle of a room under a thin piece of tissue paper and tell me it's a surprise, don't look, and I will find a way to avoid looking at it for as long as necessary. (... Please don't take that as a challenge.)
But also, b) I spend a lot of time on the internet, really. And the people who warned me figure that the rampant discussion of whatever this is will die down in a week or two, so really it's probably okay to look at things again after that -- but that I'm probably going to be spoiled anyway at some point, because these spoilers are so widespread that everyone's going to assume everyone knows them and will talk about them freely outside of cuts until they happen, so basically I'm doomed.
So now I'm in this place of "I should just look. Rip the bandage off, get it over with, get spoiled and be cranky and move on" -- but being constitutionally incapable of doing that. I cannot deliberately seek out a spoiler, it's against my very nature. So I keep taking a deep breath and reaching to click the links for my DW reading list, or Tumblr (I should just give up on tumblr, man; I can't manage more than a day or two every few months, from avoiding spoilers), or ffa, or whatever, then stopping cold, unable to click. It's like telling myself I should just go kick a rock with my bare foot, because odds are good I'll stub my toe accidentally at some point anyway, so why not do it myself on purpose?
It is not easy being a spoilerphobe in modern fandom, man.
On the flip side of that, the Venture Bros team are clearly my soulmates, as exemplified in this interview with io9: Why the Venture Bros. creators want you to know nothing about Season 5
♥ ♥ ♥
This: "the means of delivery are just as important as the package", is really it for me. The context, the nuances, make a huge difference to me, and once I know something in advance, the ability to see it fresh in context is gone. Either it falls completely flat when I see it, or I don't bother watching/reading it at all, because there's no point.
I'm honestly glad it's easier now for people who want/need spoilers to get them; I just wish so many people didn't assume that everyone must want to know every possible thing in advance.
OTOH, it's vidding season, and most years as June progresses I pay less and less attention to anything but the terrifying looming Vivivdcon deadline (oh dear god, it's June already). So there's that. And if I need a break from that, I'm way behind on the POI kinkmeme, with lots to catch up on, not to mention a bajillion things to read on AO3.
And meanwhile, Venture Bros starts its new season tonight. \o/
This is very frustrating! Because a) I'm the sort of person who, if you tell me "Don't look at that, you'll get spoiled," actually won't look at it. If you want to surprise me with something, you can put it in the middle of a room under a thin piece of tissue paper and tell me it's a surprise, don't look, and I will find a way to avoid looking at it for as long as necessary. (... Please don't take that as a challenge.)
But also, b) I spend a lot of time on the internet, really. And the people who warned me figure that the rampant discussion of whatever this is will die down in a week or two, so really it's probably okay to look at things again after that -- but that I'm probably going to be spoiled anyway at some point, because these spoilers are so widespread that everyone's going to assume everyone knows them and will talk about them freely outside of cuts until they happen, so basically I'm doomed.
So now I'm in this place of "I should just look. Rip the bandage off, get it over with, get spoiled and be cranky and move on" -- but being constitutionally incapable of doing that. I cannot deliberately seek out a spoiler, it's against my very nature. So I keep taking a deep breath and reaching to click the links for my DW reading list, or Tumblr (I should just give up on tumblr, man; I can't manage more than a day or two every few months, from avoiding spoilers), or ffa, or whatever, then stopping cold, unable to click. It's like telling myself I should just go kick a rock with my bare foot, because odds are good I'll stub my toe accidentally at some point anyway, so why not do it myself on purpose?
It is not easy being a spoilerphobe in modern fandom, man.
On the flip side of that, the Venture Bros team are clearly my soulmates, as exemplified in this interview with io9: Why the Venture Bros. creators want you to know nothing about Season 5
You two have been super-secretive about season 5. It's like you're the Mad Men's Matt Weiner of animation at this point. What can viewers expect coming up?
JP: It's not like we're being secretive. I just don't know why anyone would want to know about something rather than just watching the thing, you know.
DH: Yeah. And you could say for people to watch the show, we're not going to tell you what happens so you don't have to watch the show.
JP: Yeah, the means of delivery are just as important as the package.
DH: We spent a lot of time making sure this stuff happens in cartoons. so why blow by saying it out loud?
JP: And have people form opinions about crap.
Would that extend to like very broad things like "In this season, Dr. Venture is going to go on this adventure" or something like that?
JP: I mean, sometimes we'll say if certain characters are going to be around or not and sometimes we'll say there are a lot of exotic locations.
DH: It's like a crappy sales pitch. You do not want to hear us talk about might kind of happen.
Except that I’m interviewing you, and the whole reason I’m interviewing you is to ask what's happening in this season.
JP: Well, there's your mistake. Why don't you ask what you think you want to know and we'll see if we can answer it or be colorful about answering.
DH: Getting to your original point, I don't think that's really the point of an interview, to find out what's going to happen. You could find out how we write, you could find out what the show is about in broader terms, we could talk about all the past seasons. I'm not sure, I think you might be incorrect. I just want to point that out.
You reject my entire premise.
DH: I think it's a flawed premise that journalism is the art of asking what's happening next.
♥ ♥ ♥
This: "the means of delivery are just as important as the package", is really it for me. The context, the nuances, make a huge difference to me, and once I know something in advance, the ability to see it fresh in context is gone. Either it falls completely flat when I see it, or I don't bother watching/reading it at all, because there's no point.
I'm honestly glad it's easier now for people who want/need spoilers to get them; I just wish so many people didn't assume that everyone must want to know every possible thing in advance.
OTOH, it's vidding season, and most years as June progresses I pay less and less attention to anything but the terrifying looming Vivivdcon deadline (oh dear god, it's June already). So there's that. And if I need a break from that, I'm way behind on the POI kinkmeme, with lots to catch up on, not to mention a bajillion things to read on AO3.
And meanwhile, Venture Bros starts its new season tonight. \o/