I hate this “no spoilers” culture that we live in right now. Producers and writers are so terrified of fans predicting the ending to their works to the point that they’re making nonsensical endings to their narratives. They’re messy, out-of-character, and outlandish, but, hey! at least they’re unpredictable!
Rian Johnson, The Last Jedi — completely ignored & disregarded the 3-film narrative arc J.J. Abrams has planned out for the sequel trilogy, and instead developed his own messy narrative full of subversions for the sake of subversion, and completely disrespected the legacy of Luke Skywalker’s character (Mark Hamill himself has reported several times that he doesn’t recognize the character).
Russos, MCU — give out fake scripts, actors play against green screens and are cut & pasted together in post, show fake/edited scenes in trailers, throw away previous character development (Thor, Ragnarok vs Infinity War and especially Endgame).
D&D, Game of Thrones — throw away a decade of foreshadowing and character development for shock value, not to mention they missed a whole ass Starbucks cup in a shot in 8x03 (either on set or in post, somebody should’ve noticed this).
I’m sick and tired of this. It’s not good writing, and it’s no longer entertaining to fans when the characters they know and love become complete strangers. There’s good shock value — “No, I am your father,” for example — and then there’s ignoring years of character development and turning a kind and caring character into a murderous maniac. There’s a difference, and I think writers still know what that difference is, but they’re pressured to create an ending that fans can’t predict because of this mass panic over “no spoilers”.
This needs to stop. Give me a happy ending. Who the fuck cares if we guess what comes next? That means the writers have done their fucking jobs. If we can guess what comes next that means the writers have successfully developed their characters and foreshadowed future events as you’re supposed to do in a well-written narrative.
No spoilers? Sure. I like to experience narratives without being spoiled. But don’t make the narrative unrecognizable by the ending. It’s just not good writing.
Oh this is some good tea ☕️
Well said! I completely agree.
Honestly animated television seems to have a better grasp on this, I mean look at Gravity Falls and Steven Universe. These are two series where the biggest twists and plot turns were predicted YEARS in advance. Predictability does not equate with bad writing. In cases like this, it means that the writers have done a great job laying down the groundwork of their plot and characters, in a way that lets viewers understand how they grow and develop! I just wish more of these writers recognized that.
I would like to point out the problem of “no spoilers” from an entirely different point of view.
Remember when the game industry blew up because the voice actors were kept in the dark of voicing main lead characters for tripleA games and so recieved the payment one would get for a low budget game? And when a voiceactor pointed out that ‘umm its pretty obvious I’m voicing the same character I did last time on that game that blew up and made billions of $$$ so I would like to be paid more’ shit hit the fan.
Yes. They keep actors, voiceactors and so on in the dark on purpose so they are UNABLE to negotiate on their DESERVED salary.
This problem probably grows into the field of everyone working in the entertainment industry.
It’s not just ‘no spoiler and secrecy’ that they call a project completely different then how it will be ‘a game that made millions part2’.
But by keeping people who work on it in the dark they tie them to low salaries.
If I knew I worked on 'Overwatch2’ instead of 'Tulip’ of course I would handle it differently. Not only would the morale of the ppl be better, but they would expect higher salaries because they knew they worked on an expensive project.
I honestly don’t know anything about the movie industry but I wouldn’t put past them to have the same reasons to keep actors in the dark as much as possible. (Who is directing, who wrote the script, who am I acting together with, who else iss in the movie that I do not know of, what kind of salary/benefits does the other person doing the same job has, will I be in the trailer, will this scene with me stay in the movie or will it be cut, does that effect my salary? )
