There’s a weird twist playing out on our Facebook and Twitter timelines right now, and it has to do with Game of Thrones. HBO’s super popular show is back, and with it comes a slew of spoilers on Facebook and Twitter.
If you care about that sort of thing, the only safe way to watch the story spoiler-free would be to get up early Monday morning (if you’re in India) and watch Game of Thrones Season 6 online; or just tune into it on HBO if you’re in the US. If that’s not possible for you, we have a short guide on how to avoid Game of Thrones spoilers online.
Even if spoilers don’t bother you personally, they affect the way stories are told today, and excessive spoilers frankly prevent people from enjoying their shows and movies. But that’s not all – as many already know, HBO’s Game of Thrones has overtaken the books in terms of story timeline and everything that’s happening in the show right now is essentially a spoiler for future books. A Song of Ice and Fire.
Some book fans decided to skip the show to access the books intact, and while we’re leaning in the opposite direction, there’s something very interesting about spoilers on social media these days.
It used to be that people who read the books knew what was coming, knew when big events would happen, and for the most part we kept quiet. Sure, book readers who knew the Red Wedding was coming did things like set up cameras to capture their friends’ reactions, but for the most part, book readers kept the spoilers away. Despite this, the few times you let slip some minor upcoming plot events (and as we’ve often written about the contrast between the books and the show, this often came up) were times when fans of the show lined up to boo and hiss the horrible book snobs ruining the show for everyone.
However, if you’re a book fan who chose to skip the show because you don’t want your reading experience ruined… good luck because no one seems to care. Spoilers are apparently horrible, terrible things that only a Frey would indulge in – when they come from the books. When it’s the series that spoils the books, apparently it doesn’t matter.
Go to Twitter and Facebook and spoilers are everywhere and it’s not the little things either. If you were to hint at Jon Snow’s fate in Season 5, people would go ballistic – but looking at social media right now, people aren’t particularly shy about discussing what happened to Jon in Season 6.
It’s almost as if the spoilers themselves aren’t what matters – just who is sharing them.
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