If you’re one of those people who insists on being offended by Game of Thrones “spoilers” yet refuses to catch up on books that have been out for over a decade, you might want to take some notes.
The Daily Dot has rounded up a number of add-ons and filters you can use, both on social media and the wider internet, to help you avoid stuff getting spoiled.
They’re all super easy to set up, though be warned, they’re not fool-proof; a filter is only as good as the list you’re able to provide, so the more words/terms you punch in, the better the chance you’ll have of staying spoiler-free.
You might want to start with Unspoiler, then burrow deeper depending on how you use Facebook and Twitter.
How to stop the Internet from ruining ‘Game of Thrones’ for you [The Daily Dot]
Comments
32 responses to “You Can Stop The Internet Spoiling Game Of Thrones For You”
Eh, that opening paragraph is pretty douche baggy.
Agree, what a knob-head. It’s an arrogance that implies that anyone that hasn’t read the books isn’t as sophisticated as those who have. I would bet any money that the majority of people that have read the books have only read them in the last two years.
I didn’t read them until last year! I only got up to Season 2 on the show though, I am gonna wait for all the blurays to come out and then watch them all in one go.
I cant stand having to wait between episodes.
I was the same, except now we’ve got to wait for the next book. Didn’t think that one through…
This Axis of Awesome song seems appropriate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CLCOvZOh1o
Unfortunately, my experience with GoT fans is that people who’ve read the books become very elitist about it and look down on those who are experiencing the story through the TV series first; even if they intend to read the whole series after the HBO series concludes.
Same shit happened with The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter.
I bet if HBO decides to make a Dark Tower series suddenly every man and their dog will become Stephen King fans.
“Have you read the book? No? Oh, it’s much better. The characters are different enough that the show – while good – is kind of jarring. And they leave out so many scenes that really give it some depth and enrich the context.”
Re: Any book to movie/tv series ever. 🙂
The Dark Tower is in production, with Ron Howard behind it. The last I heard it was going to be a series of movies, with entire seasons on TV being released between them. I think they may have cast Javier Bardem as Roland.
And you’re right, by the way… I’ll probably be one of them.
Oh damn, I have had book one sitting in my work bag for about 12 months while I’ve been reading other things, better get on board so I can be all “oh ho ho, yes, I’ve read them” (j/k)
I thought they already did
the best thing about having read all the books way back is being able to give false but believable spoilers
While I’d agree with that (probably being one of them ;), at least the book readers tend to not be the people I see spoiling the show online.
Actually, most of the spoilers seem to come from the Buzzfeed wannabe sites these days….anything for clicks.
This. All those that i know who have read the books are quite respectful of others who haven’t. Most of my discussions about GOT start with, where are you upto in the books/tv series.
And Mashable’s spoiling of the recent episode was horrendous.
Yeah exactly, and like why catch up on the books now and ruin the suspense and mystery of the show ?
There’s definitely some context to be taken into account, where people deliberately aren’t reading the books because they want to enjoy the show on its own, given how different it is from the source material.
But at the same time, how far do you go? You’ve got pretty damn good odds of seeing some epic moaning about spoilers on Kotaku, even on pages with spoiler warnings in them.
I’d be sick of it too. I mean, it’s a tad snarky, but it’s not a bad dig in pointing out the relatively unrealistic expectations some folks have about spoilers. Hell, I remember people complaining about Kotaku providing ‘spoilers’ by posting The Walking Dead Season 2 digital cover art/store page which just happened to feature one of the characters on the front. It was the COVER ART. All bets are kind of off, at that point.
A sense of perspective is needed, I think.
And a reasonable statute of limitations.
If the sequel is imminent, after a certain point the difficulty of avoiding spoilers is entirely the viewer’s fault. If someone cared that much, they’d realize the release of the next season/sequel/whatever was probably time to get caught up. If they don’t/won’t, it’s not really unreasonable for everyone else having the discussion to assume that they just don’t give much of a shit about it.
If they cared, they’d watch.
Expecting things to stay spoiler-free past current relevance in the FaceTwit age of communication-gluttony is… the definition of naive.
It’s very, very, very difficult to take someone seriously when they go to zealotry over persecuting spoilers for something that is already incredibly pervasive, and GoT sort of walks that line where because the books have been out for so long I’m honestly surprised there hasn’t been more spoilerage than there is. (But not too surprised. Part of that was probably sadism on the part of book-readers waiting for TV-viewing GoT-newbies to experience the shock of some particular scenes, though. Let’s not pretend that came from an altruistic place. There’s a reason there were cameras ready and waiting to capture reactions.)
so… its my fault when some prick spoils something for me? oh. ok then. I’m sorry.
Yes its your fault. Don’t click on discussion forums, wikis, or articles with *possible spoilers* tags and you will be fucking fine. This isn’t an elitist talking, just seriously when discussing a story thats been out for years with other people on the WORLDWIDE INTERNET and not expecting one person out of thousands to spoil the current ending is a bit like talking about the bible with a church full of priests when you’ve only read the old testament, and don’t expect them to know or talk about a paragraph of the new one.
No, it’s not his fault. Yesterday the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald’s online had an image of an important character looking very uncomfortable, then a headline that referred to a murder. That’s basically unavoidable.
Unavoidable? If spoilers are such a big deal I’d suggest people don’t wait 3 days to watch the episode.
I think common sense works the best.
I kid, who the hell uses common sense anymore?
Oh the things I could spoil…
But I won’t because i’m not a dick…
Thank you! Take note other book-readers who would love to drop a spoiler here and there:
@Zar still gets the pleasure of acknowledging he knows knowledge that we don’t know and the thrill of letting us know that he knows knowledge we don’t know but without actually letting that knowledge be known and forcing us to know the knowledge he knowns that previously we didn’t know.
That image itself is pretty spoilerish. I mean, it’s obvious that it’s Sanza
not sure if serious…
Luke, that’s a douchey thing start a story with. Also, I have read the books. But I still love the show, and I don’t want to be told exactly which events are going to happen in every episode before I get to see it, which is sometimes a few weeks after they air. Blindly separating people into those who have and those who have not read the books is an elitist attitude.
I do approve of this addon, if it works though.
Yes, the books have been out for a long time, but so have like, a gajillion other books. I can’t read them all.
It seems pointless to read the books anyway as long as the show keeps getting made. I read the first book and found the show more enjoyable, so I might as well dedicate my reading time to the vast pile of other books in my backlog and continue to experience the GoT story via the medium that’s doing a better job of it.
As such, I’d prefer not to know what’s going to happen in the show ahead of time, but I don’t care enough to actually be offended by spoilers. If anything, people getting all smugly enigmatic about it are more irritating. “Yes, [character] is a cool character. Might not want to get too attached, though.”
What an asshole.
I’m about as much of a book purist as you can get. I read the books after watching season 1 and loved them. The plot points make more sense, the characters are better (I’m looking at you Jon) and they’re just much more intricate and engrossing than the show. I encourage anyone who likes the show to read them.
HOWEVER, I abhorr spoilers. So what if the books are old? It doesn’t give you an excuse to ruin the story for people who haven’t experienced it yet. Journalists are particularly bad. If you want to run an article titled “shock death in Game of Thrones”, fine, but don’t make a thumbnail of the death scene or the person who died.
I’ve read the books and I still hate the TV spoilers. I haven’t watched any of the trailers for this season so that I could experience the show brand new.
I’ve had the courtesy to not talk about major plot point for X years and then by 5pm Monday afternoon there’s pricks all over the interwebs posting screenshots! Don’t tell me it’s Joffrey’s wedding episode. You’ve just spoiled me being able to find that out for myself.
You can also stop the Internet spoiling Game of Thrones for you, by not visiting Kotaku.
In case you missed it, spoiler alert!
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2014/04/the-big-thing-you-mightve-missed-in-last-nights-game-of-thrones/
Yeah, I couldn’t help feeling like this post, and that aggressive opening line, were a response to that. That article was pretty far over the line, and if I hadn’t read the books I’d be pissed. It would have been fine if it had enumerated that it contained book spoilers for unrevealed as yet things, but it purported to not be spoiler for people who HAD watched the episode, and then.. .Spoiled a lot. I’ve stood up for Kotaku a lot on various complaint posts, but that one was way over the line, and this one is clearly telling people who think that to FOAD.