To Read Spoilers, or Not to Read Spoilers, That Is the Question

I have an odd back and forth relationship with spoilers. Sometimes I don't care about them at all. I've even been known to Google the endings of movies if I have a computer with me because I get curious and impatient. I've been watching Naruto for years now and still haven't caught up. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't looked things up before because it's too tempting knowing that there's far more information out there than what I have.

I don't regret doing those things either. For some reason it seems like no big deal, and I'm not entirely sure why that is.

When City of Heavenly Fire came out, I was extremely careful to avoid all spoilers because I didn't want the ending ruined for me. However, I'd had spoilers for all five of the books before. I even know most of what happens in the Infernal Devices, and I haven't even read that trilogy yet. Knowing those spoilers never bothered me, but I became very committed to not seeing any CoHF spoilers before I finished the book. I'm still not entirely sure why I reacted so differently to that book than I had in the past.

I think a lot of it had to do with it being the ending. Knowing what leads up to the ending is one thing, and knowing that doesn't really bother me. I still want the "grand finale" so to speak to be a surprise though. If the Naruto anime finishes before I catch up, I'll probably be more careful about avoiding spoilers. Still, I know spoilers for the ending of the Ouran manga, which I haven't reached yet, and while I'm trying not to learn anymore, I'm not really bothered because all that I know is stuff that I kind of guessed anyway. I guess that makes it less bothering to know.

I do know that I fully support using spoiler warnings. It's a bit hard on the Internet to put spoilery stuff out there and make absolutely sure that you'll keep it away from anyone who doesn't want to see it. Sometimes warnings can only be so useful. I also completely understand that stuff happens on the Internet, and sometimes people are trying to avoid spoilers and people are trying to hide spoilers, yet people will still get spoiled. Still, I'm completely for trying as hard as possible to make sure that only people who want to see spoilers will see spoilers, even if sometimes stuff just happens.

I can both completely understand why someone would want to avoid spoilers and why someone wouldn't care about learning spoilers. As for me, I suppose I fall somewhere in the middle. A lot of the time spoilers don't bother me. I'll even look them up because I can get on the impatient side. Sometimes though, I like to keep the surprise, such as with City of Heavenly Fire, and I avoid spoilers with all that I've got. I'm trying to get more patient though. I don't want to constantly fill the need to Google things when I'm impatient to know something. Not when I could be using that time to actually read or watch more of the story.

It happened last night while I was reading. I started to flip ahead to see how the romance pans out because there seems to be two potential boys for the main character. Then I told myself to stop and that I'd find out in time. Just typing this out right now is making me tempted to go and look again. (I will say that is one advantage of ebooks. It's harder to look ahead when you're tempted.) I'm going to try and make an effort in the future to be more patient with the stories I read and watch. I'll find out the answers in time. I need to be more content with enjoying the story as it comes and not just be anxious to get answers.