Spoilers, please
To my great surprise, I have recently changed my relationship with spoilers. My whole life I have had the staunch opinion that spoilers would ruin the experience of reading or watching a piece of media. I would plug my ears when my brothers would try to tease me with spoilers, and I would desperately beg my chatty dad to stop talking when he would inevitably stumble into spoiler territory because he can't help himself1. Sometimes I would even go into books or movies completely blind, wanting that extra layer of surprise in my viewing. If I did get spoiled on something, I would lose the desire to read or watch, because where was the surprise, the tension? Where was the experience now that I knew what was going to happen?
Over the last couple of years I've started adding Chinese dramas to what I watch alongside those from Korea. It took a lot more getting used to than Korean dramas, because I didn't know the language, the culture, genre, and tropes were different, and even the structuring and number of episodes was odd. But I love them just the same. How is this relevant to spoilers?
Today I finished watching a drama called The White Olive Tree2 3. And the entire reason I watched it was because I saw most of the spoilers on Youtube and wanted to experience the whole thing for myself. Occasionally my Youtube algorithm swings in clips from popular Chinese dramas, and if the thumbnail is interesting I'll watch it to see if the drama is worth investing thirty to forty episodes-worth of time into4. The clips from this drama were dramatic, emotional, and touching, showing various stages of a relationship built in front of a war backdrop. Both leads appeared to get injured multiple times, there were major hints about PTSD, and other consequences of war, but the gentleness of the male lead was interesting, and the romance appeared to be a beautiful one. And I'm a sucker for beautiful romances.
So I'd seen most, if not all, of the dramatic moments, just in random order and with no context. And seeing them, technically spoilers, only made me watch to watch the drama more. To see how the characters got into the situations. To see what order the events took place. To see what it all culminated into at the end. And I think that's the key. Yes, I had seen quite a few spoilers about character deaths and romance beats, but that didn't tell me how it ended, so the spoilers didn't ruin the experience for me. So I guess I don't have to be such a stickler anymore5.
I love him, but sometimes he likes to tell me the whole thing about what he just watched or read, without giving me the chance to experience it myself.↩
Available on iQIYI, which I bought a full year's paid membership just so I could keep watching past the 5th episode, I was so hooked.↩
This is also my first Chinese drama set in the modern era, rather than Wuxia (martial arts), Xianxia (cultivation and immortality), Xuanhuan (fantasy), or historical costume.↩
Seriously, Chinese shows are so much longer than Korean ones. 30-40 45min episodes vs 16-24 60min episodes.↩
The ending broke me, but Chinese drama endings is a whole other blog post.↩