This post will contain no “Game of Thrones” spoilers. I could easily spoil the next four seasons. I have that power. I can say “X character dies” or “Y character does this” and ruin the suspense for many. I however had the chance to read the books free of spoilers and that is not something I wish to ruin for anyone.
I take spoilers very seriously. I love fiction far too much to actively ruin any reveal for anyone. “Lost” was a huge one for this as it was show built up around mysteries and plot twists. People loved spoiling that show for those who were not caught up and still do. “Game of Thrones” unfortunately suffers from this as well.
On Sunday’s “Game of Thrones” a large event happened that is shocking and acts as a huge game changer for the rest of the series. I read “Storm of Swords” a few years back and I still felt like I was punched in a gut while watching it. Book readers like myself have anticipated this episode since the beginning of the TV series run. All I would say is that the episode was going to be really good and to avoid the internet if you are even an hour behind on watching it. Posts were going up on message boards, Facebook, Twitter revealing what happens before it played out on screen. Is it the watchers of the TV shows fault for not knowing what happens in a book that was released 13-years ago? No. It is the fault of the egotists who spoil the show.
Everyone loves an egotist. Not.
If I were to tell you that Harry Potter was a wizard I would technically be spoiling “The Philosopher’s Stone” for you. However, that is a reveal that is so known in our culture that it does not hold much of an emotional weight at all. Same with the Darth Vader reveal in “The Empire Strikes Back”. Mentioning who lives and who dies in “Game of Thrones” does not do anyone any favours except for the person spoiling it.
There was a study I read about in The Guardian a few years back that I found again and am posting here. It looks at books that people have said they have read but in reality have not touched. 65% of people admit to lying about reading a book. George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four” is the most common text people lie about reading at 42% followed by “War and Peace” (which I’m reading now) at 31%, “Ulysses” at 25% and The Bible at 24%. This study shows “that reading has a huge cultural value in terms of the way we present ourselves as intelligent and engaged people.”
It is not surprising that people have read all of George RR Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” series. I picked it up when I heard anticipation of the TV series and read them all. Others clearly did the same. Oddly enough besides myself I have only talked to three other people who have read the fourth and fifth books but I know of so many who have picked up the series.
More accurately though a spoiler for this one would be “character X does nothing”
There is a culture behind people saying “the book was better”. It is often true as you almost always have to make choices in what to keep and cut in adaptations of any sort. A lot of it has to do with the feeling of accomplishment and superiority that is created by finishing a book than watching the equivalent story in a bite-sized movie or TV show. While I would recommend people read “A Song of Ice and Fire” as the books range from ‘pretty good’ to ‘Sunday night’s episode amazing’ no one should actively try to ruin the experience for anyone. I could not stomach the books that “True Blood” is based off of as I hated the first-person narrative of a boring character focused on which vampire she wanted to bang. However, “True Blood” is a show that is much of a guilty pleasure to me as “Downton Abbey” or eating an entire oven-pizza in one sitting.
I always think of adaptations as a companion work to the original and not a replacement. I condemn the act of actively ruining major plot points because you happen to be ahead of the curve. You enjoyed the ride now let everyone else do the same. No one ever looks superior for knowing plot points before others do but you sure look like a turdsack when you reveal “X HAPPENS TO Y IN EPISODE Z” when no one asked.
Cersei is referring to people who spoil things.
tl;dr: do not actively spoil fiction for others, not one cares that you have read the books and know what is coming.
Bear Pursuit 