The Potter book was ruined for me.
This is a story of spoilers and warnings, with too much of the former and not enough of the latter. Please, if you don't want the plot of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince spoiled, DO NOT read the comments to this post. I will be describing how it was ruined for me, and it WILL ruin it for you.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. Which is more than I got.
Labels:
books
10 comments:
Alright, this is your last chance. I AM ABOUT TO RUIN Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for you if you haven't finished reading it. STOP NOW! SPOILER WARNING! CLICK AWAY!!!
Are you still here?
I was subscribed to a newsletter from the website tshirthell.com. They have lots of funny T-shirts there, most of which you can't wear in public. They're fun to read, at any rate.
A couple months ago, I received one of their monthly newsletters, which had an innocuous link to click, saying, "Hey, check out our new shirt." The new shirt said, "Snape Kills Dumbledore, page 596."
I was stunned and gaped at it, open mouthed, not knowing what to do. I hadn't even started the book yet, and I knew it must be true, else why would they make the shirt? I wanted to back up, to undo, to go back in time a few minutes and not do what I just did.
To maintain my sanity, I convinced my self it was a joke based on something that happened in the story somehow. Then, on a trip through Upper Blackrock Spire in WoW, some dope said, "Hey have you guys read the new Potter book?" "No, don't talk about it please," said someone, "I don't want it spoiled." "Snape kills Dumbledore, lol" replied the first. That didn't help.
I've checked since I finished the book, and tshirthell has changed that shirt to say "Dumbledore dies, page 596." So despite their shitass attitude about the whole thing, they actually kowtowed to public pressure.
Sheesh. What a bringdown. I remember leaving The Empire Strikes Back on opening day with someone who said loudly to the waiting theatergoers, "Man I can't believe that Vader is Luke's father."
BTW, I agree with Dr. Heimlich's assessment that this is all so that Snape can fulfill an Unbreakable Vow and Dumby will return, like Gandalf. I can't believe that Rowling will leave us believing that Dumbledore's unshakable faith in Snape was misplaced.
That totally sucks.
For a horrible second there, I was sure I had somehow slipped and said something to ruin it for you. I really tried hard not to.
MORE SPOILERS BELOW
I do not, for the record, think that Dumbledore is coming back. I think he was the last crutch that had to be removed to pave the way for Harry to grow up. This is not to say that it requires the death of all patriarch figures (first Sirius, then Dumbledore) in order for a boy to grow to a man, but it just feels somehow necessary that Dumbledore is left out of the final equation.
I think in the next book, there will be no ass-saving from time turners or luck potion, no interventions from overpowered wizards coming just in the nick of time. I think it will just be Harry, his wand, his wits, and (maybe) Ron and Hermione.
Again, we have two years to debate and ruminate on it. Your guess is as good as mine.
All I know is that I better get some real Ron/Hermione in book 7 or I may need to hang myself.
No, nothing any of you guys said were a problem at all. Although I still think I might have ruined it for Ed, when I was talking about it at work with somebody else who had finished the book. Ed says he stopped listening when he heard us say Potter, but he may just be being nice. :P
Man, does that suck! Of course, this is exactly the sort of assholey thing that tshirthell.com is all about. Still, you had no prayer of knowing what subscribing to their newsletter was going to lead to.
Sorry to hear that it was spoiled for you (only finished it myself a couple of weeks back), but it does raise a question - when can it be generally assumed that something like HP is spoilable? There is such a morass of information out there about the plot and 'great surprise' that the default assumption is becoming "everyone knows".
Following on from Kathy's comments - I'm going to have to re-read the last 3-4 books (perhaps the non-filmed ones) to catch up with the proliferation of minor characters that get mentioned. Also the structure of the last book looks to be very different which will be interesting. And I'm not convinced by the notion of Dumbledore ex machina either.
By the way, I won't tell you who what happens in the Iliad...just in case :-)
Is that the "I just saved you 4 hours and $30" shirt? I saw it too, though luckily am not a harcore HP fan. I wonder how many they'll sell, because anyone wearing it in public surely risks getting thumped :)
BTW there's a British version too, with a different page number and price.
I believe there should be some kind of spoiler window. I don't know exactly what that is. Halfway through the day of release for a movie (my Empire story) is too soon, I think. The T-shirt revelation I got was about 2 weeks after the book came out. It was clearly an attempt to ruin my day; they could have said, "We have a cool new shirt about the new Harry Potter book," and I wouldn't have clicked. It was a trap, plain and simple, and I fell for it. "Here, click on this, stupid."
It may be that I simply read too much stuff on the internet to be immune to this kind of thing no matter how hard I try. That's what you get for being wired in, I guess.
Oh, gotcha. I had thought this had happened in the last few days.
In that case - Hector gets it.
I think the window for spoilers where movies are invloved is the Monday after it came out.
Books are a whole other ball-game though. I generally read a book in the first 2-4 days if I'm worried about it (like with HP).
Otherwise, I'm more than willing to take the blame of hearing spoilers if more than a month has passed.
Post a Comment