What is spoiler? We explain what it means and why it divides opinions

In times of highly anticipated movie premieres – hello, “Avengers: Endgame” – and TV series that have almost everyone glued to the small screen – we are talking about you, “game of Thrones” – we see in every corner a little word that, for many people, is a mystery. It’s the one from SPOILER🇧🇷 On Twitter, on Facebook, even on Instagram, there are some people asking not to disclose spoilers, while many others think it’s cool.

If you are caught in the crossfire without understanding anything, we are here to explain what a spoiler is, after all.

SPOILER is an English noun that refers to something or someone who “spoils” something. The verb SPOILin turn, means “to destroy or diminish the pleasure, interest or beauty of something”, according to the Cambridge dictionary🇧🇷

If we do not have a precise translation into Portuguese for the verb “spoil”, we cannot say the same for the noun. The spoiler is the popular spoilerin Portuguese.

When we talk about entertainment, what can spoil the pleasure of watching a movie or series? According to people who hate spoilers, it’s knowing the ending in advance, or even plot details. Who dies, who survives, the solution to a mystery. This is all considered a spoiler.

In the old days, there were those who did this as a joke when leaving the cinema, and went through the queue at the entrance of the session counting the end of the film. But with the arrival of social networks, the possibility of spoil series, soap operas and movies has increased. The series are not always shown simultaneously all over the world, and it was common for someone who had watched it before abroad to want to brag and spoil it on Twitter.

Sometimes scenes or entire films “leak” before the premiere, as happened with “Avengers: Endgame”, and fans defend themselves as they can from possible spoilers on the internet.

The spoiler causes a lot of discord, especially on Twitter, where people have a habit of making comments while watching TV. Those who cannot or do not want to watch programs as they are broadcast need to be very careful if they want to maintain a mystery. And this generates a lot of fight on social media.

Anyone who wants to talk about a potential spoiler, but is concerned about not completely spoiling the little friends’ experience, puts a “spoiler warning” before the post. So, those who don’t want to know anything close their eyes, turn off the computer or cover their ears.

The truth is that avoiding spoilers is really challenging, and the best defense for some people is really the offense: being the first to watch and go talking about everything to everyone. The only way to ensure you won’t be impacted by spoilers is to disappear from social media and avoid talking about the movie or series in question until you’ve watched it. And, of course, try to see it as soon as possible – then you can participate in conversations without fear.