The problem with Star Wars spoilers

So, you’ve thought about Star Wars spoilers, and you’ve decided that you’re keen to start reading them and following up on sources. But there’s a downside.

Most people do everything they can to avoid Star Wars movie spoilers. I do everything I can to read them.

While I understand why some fans avoid them, I think it’s fun to read fan theories and speculate about what could happen. But there’s a downside to all of this and that is how do you know what’s legit and what isn’t?

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The answer to this question is you don’t. It’s entirely up to you, the reader to decide if the spoilers and information you receive is legitimate. It’s quite common for internet trolls to do whatever they can to throw people off by saying their source is “confirmed,” but you should always read a comment like that with a rather massive pinch of salt.

You also have to have rules, like guidelines if you’re into reading spoilers. I have a few of them that I follow without question: make sure you quote someone verbatim if you are using their spoiler information anywhere on the internet and also NEVER say that a spoiler is confirmed unless you’re hearing it from sources like StarWars.com, Lucasfilm, Disney or any other media outlet that the world knows is legit.

You might think what you’re reading is legit, but I’ve been burned before. Thankfully, I’ve only ever been burned on my own blog, which isn’t really the same thing unless you’re getting millions of eyeballs on your writing. The bottom line is you’re hearing or reading this information from a third-party source and unless you know that person IRL and have formed a good, stable, trusting relationship, treat everyone as a troll, period. That way, you can never really go wrong.

So, you’ve thought about spoilers, and you’ve decided that you’re keen to start reading them and following up on sources. The best source for any star wars-related spoilers for me has been Reddit.

In particular, the subreddit Star Wars Leaks is a reasonably good place to get up-to-date on current spoilers for The Rise of Skywalker. That community is very much into spoilers and legitimizing spoilers as well. But as I mentioned earlier, you need to take everything you read with a pinch of salt, even if the sources are proven to be correct in the past, they may not be accurate all the time.

The very nature of spoilers means that you have to be prepared that anything can change and what might have been discussed a week ago may no longer be valid a week later. This thread is a perfect example of how “spoiler” information went around on Twitter about the date for the new trailer. Various sources (all of them legit) said October 7, then it was the 21st and now, people are claiming that John Boyega’s agent said it was the 21. Within minutes of that update, Tumblr fans were already posting about the date being THE date for the trailer to release.

Spoiler information can be a slippery slope at best, and some fans can get really invested in specific spoilers if it means there “ships” are going to happen or not.

That’s why I never participate in spoiler discussion. I prefer to idle in the background, lurking and reading. It’s much safer and a lot more fun that way. Please remember to always try and have fun and if there is only one thing you take away from this post, let it be “take everything with a huge pinch of salt” and you’ll do just fine.

Do you enjoy reading spoilers? Let us know in the comments how you feel about spoilers and avoiding trolls.