Anti-Spoiler Campaign – Good news for Kdrama fans

Some like their plot twists wrapped up tight

How sad is it to be watching a kdrama and midway you feel like checking some info on the series or its actors – then bam you land on a media site and see a comment saying, ‘oh I loved the drama but when so-and-so DIED…’

Whoops. It almost physically hurts to have to bump into something like that and ruin the whole drama for yourself.There’s no way to un-see it and you just feel as if the world has ended for a minute.

Much as many out there know it’s Kdrama etiquette 101 to avoid posting spoilers, some just don’t get it. They don’t realize you can make comments on a plot turn without actually saying exactly what it entails.

When the finale  of Shine or Go Crazy (or “Watch and go crazy” as some people call it) happened, a lot of netizens had a lot to say about how good/bad it was. In a few months someone who hasn’t watched the drama might stumble on the more detailed comments while midway into the drama and might feel discouraged about continuing with it.

Spoiler offenders should face the Kdrama police…

This is of course way different from the issue of recaps. Anyone checking out recaps or reviews of a drama is definitely not worried about spoiler trauma. Only in recaps or reviews should one mention plot developments that might be termed ‘spoilers’ to someone who hasn’t seen the episode(s) yet.

If you want to stay in the dark about if your beloved character died, lost his/her love or turned out to be a bad guy, at least until you’re ready, then how can you stay off the spoilers?

Don’t Ruin the fun

People give away huge plot twists like it’s nothing. Little knowing what damage it can cause to a drama watcher’s psyche. What’s the fun without the mystery? Please don’t ruin another person’s TV viewing in your haste to talk about a show or how the ending went.

With the number of members coasting different online forums (eg Soompi) and then Facebook and Twitter all on the kdrama buzz, it’s only fair to have a solution to unwanted spoilers. It’s no longer sufficient simply posting a huge “SPOILER ALERT’ sign before the spoiler starts.

There’s a major twist about this guy in Hyde Jekyll Me but I’m not telling…

Soompi does have a feature that manages to shut down a spoiler which is good. Only by clicking on the ‘spoiler’ button do you expand the spoiler so you can read it. But what about the rest of the digital world out there?

You can try to avoid media spoilers all you like but somehow they get at you out of nowhere.

Sites such as Asianwiki seem to be pro-spoiler because as far as I know the comments don’t get moderated. And that’s how I found out what happened to Kim Eun Ki in the Maids drama series while just halfway through the show (he was my favorite character so the spoiler ruined a LOT of the drama for me). Obviously, checking on the Maids’ Asianwiki page during my viewing was a HUGE mistake.

Spoilers can blast you out of nowhere. Oh the burn…

Spoiler revolution starts from you. How can you curb your enthusiasm after watching that great show that makes you just have to talk about how it ended? Why not try only ‘hinting’ at what happened? For example, if A married B in the end you don’t have to say it, instead say ‘I like how A and B had a positive conclusion”

How to avoid spoilers

The best bet is just stay away from media sites until you catch up. You may be an episode or so behind that ongoing drama, or may have just picked up a completed series and have started getting into it. Either way you can stay off the internet grid till you feel it’s time to brave the information available out there.

I visit some sites with one eye closed and the other open while following a thread on a chosen drama. But that’s never been a sure-fire solution.

Well Google may just have the answer I’ve been looking for.

How the Google Spoiler-Free Patent affects Kdramas

Recently Google got the patent to design a system that blocks spoilers from your line of notice. Details from TV shows, movies and books can be blocked until you’re ready to see them. I’m no digital whiz so I’m not sure about the ‘how’ of it, but I know this: Google will know some stuff about your viewing interests to be able to tell what to filter out of your vision online.

There will be a system in place where you let Google know what episode of that show/drama you’re on. As such Google will ‘track’ your progress with the shows you’re watching at a particular time and ‘protect’ you from stumbling on something related to an episode you haven’t viewed yet.

Just what Kdrama fans need

Kdrama fans and viewers are one of the most diverse in the world and depend on online streaming content to update on their favorite dramas. Which means we spend a good amount of time online checking up on those dramas. As such we definitely won’t say no to a better way of enjoying kdramas without having to worry about finding unexpected spoilers on the web.

The streaming universe has now opened a whole new opportunity for Kdrama fans to have access to all the Korean drama we want. Now would be the best time for Google to speed up development of that patent as more and more of the growing Kdrama fans are going to need it!

Some disasters can never be undone – like spoilers

I definitely like the idea of a personalized Spoiler Filter. For someone like me who catches up on kdrama series from different periods past and present, I definitely want to uphold my sense of excitement and mystery when discovering that unfamiliar drama be it from 2008 or 2014 or even just last week.

For example while watching Chuno and Iljimae for the first time ever recently, I was fortunate to not get any spoilers from any of the sites I visited while researching the dramas. I was just lucky I guess. I couldn’t say the same while watching Hwang Jin yi weeks back. I looked up one Ha Ji-won blog article and the writer from out of nowhere gave out a major plot twist from Hwang Jin Yi  that absolutely wrecked the rest of the drama for me.

Maybe I’m just too sensitive and shouldn’t let little things like spoilers get to me. But if it wasn’t such a big thing, then Google wouldn’t have snatched up that patent. They may or may not decide to ever bring such a facility to fruition but there’s  still that hope that a spoiler-free digital world will one day emerge.

Spoiler-free people are happy people

We all know how kdrama plots and endings can go any which way and kick you in the base of the spine when you least expect. Still, wouldn’t you much rather find it out for yourself rather than let someone carelessly splatter it on the pages of some media site for you to find? I know I would.