What exactly is a spoiler to you?

[D-Ray Kenobi]

My stance is that I want my experience this December to be equivalent to anyone watching Empire Strikes Back in the theater for the first time back in 1980. I don't mind knowing who the characters and factors are, what their motivations are, and the general arc or elevator pitch for what the synopsis of the story is. I could say that I don't want to know even any of that, and that I'd want to experience the story like I would the original Star Wars in 1977, but let's face it, that's impossible in today's world.

What I don't want is specifics. I wouldn't want to know that Han gets frozen at the end of Empire Strikes Back, so I don't want to know the fate of any character in The Force Awakens. I don't mind knowing location names, character names, general biographies, or even minor story beats. What I do mind is anything that could take away the impact of a big story turn, and that's what I'm trying to avoid.

I don't think Lucasfilm or Disney will pull a Terminator and put the biggest surprise of the story in the freaking movie poster, especially when Abrams is so notoriously protective of his Mystery Box. But still, in today's marketing environment, I'm a bit wary. I think I'm going to start tuning out after the poster and last trailer is released.

[Mara Jade Skywalker]

Welp, a pic of Luke is out and it is not official. Good luck dodging it when it's on the front page of every blog. It showed up on my Facebook feed. Turned on my phone, there it was.

I DODGED IT!!! I avoided Facebook for a day, Nightly until today, all the TFA threads on another board I frequent, and only looked at Twitter on my phone for a few days (where I have image preview turned off).

 

I WIN FIVE INTERNETS.

[ShadowDog]

You'll see it on a magazine cover before you get a chance to look away.

[pavonis]

Everything is a spoiler. Therefore I choose not to worry about them. In fact, I embrace them. Abrams has made it rather difficult to find anything out, though. Very disappointing.

[Driver]

 

Welp, a pic of Luke is out and it is not official. Good luck dodging it when it's on the front page of every blog. It showed up on my Facebook feed. Turned on my phone, there it was.

I DODGED IT!!! I avoided Facebook for a day, Nightly until today, all the TFA threads on another board I frequent, and only looked at Twitter on my phone for a few days (where I have image preview turned off).

 

I WIN FIVE INTERNETS.

 

This is a good example of why I am confused. You had said you didn't want to see Luke. But you also said official releases are okay.

 

So this pic leaks, and you dodge it cause SPOILER.

 

But what if tomorrow Lucasfilm releases the same pic officially. Is that still a spoiler to you?

 

Same content, content you said you don't want to see-- but officially released.

[Guest]

I missed the Luke pic because I just wasn't on the internet for those 30 minutes.

[Driver]

i could post it.

 

 

(in spoiler box of course)

no seriously, here: DO NOT LCIK IF YOU DONT WANT TO SEE IT... NANCI

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The Choc]

I think the difference is that if it's officially released you can probably be sure that it's not something that's like a secret for the movie. For instance if they release Luke's pic then you can just figure at some point Luke will show up, looking like that. But if it's not released it could be a major mystery of the movie, like "where is Luke? what has he become? there could be rumors and hearsay all over the movie about it.

[Lucas1138]

That was my point when I used the Luke example during the great spoiler debate.

 

Of course, I've seen the pic and

[The Choc]

 

 

 

Yeah, its exactly what you'd expect him to look like so its barely a spoiler. Only think would be if like during the movie there were heavy clues that maybe Luke had gone bad. Maybe even The First Order and Kylo Ren claim Luke is on their side or something. So then whenever we do finally see Luke to see him dressed in Jedi robes still and presumably a good guy could be a bit of a surprise/relief.

 

Because if it's not something like that it's kinda strange to have secrecy about how he looks since he looks exactly like we'd expect.

 

 

 

[Driver]

I think the difference is that if it's officially released you can probably be sure that it's not something that's like a secret for the movie. For instance if they release Luke's pic then you can just figure at some point Luke will show up, looking like that. But if it's not released it could be a major mystery of the movie, like "where is Luke? what has he become? there could be rumors and hearsay all over the movie about it.

Yeah-- that is all fallacious to me.

 

Company's knowing what's right: again, see Terminator Genysis or TPM Soundtrack titles. People say JJ's mystery box is all powerful-- but he can't supervise Disney's marketing department and every single toy package being made in China.

 

And WE KNOW Luke is in the movie. He was cast, that was announced. Unless he was literally wearing Darth Vader's armor there's not much that can be spoiled by his costume.

[The Choc]

I basically agree, I don't care about spoilers. Was just stating the reasons why someone else would care about the difference between official and non official stuff.

[pavonis]

I'm with Driver. Companies aren't monolithic, and often their subdivisions aren't all pulling in the same direction, so to speak. It's ridiculous to think officially released Disney promotional material isn't spoilery. If anything, their material is far worse, since they literally have all the material to pick from for advertising purposes, and don't care if some portion of the fans think it's too much. They're aiming for the general public, not the hardcore fans. The general public isn't spoiler-averse to any significant degree.

 

 

For all we know, Luke is dead, and his costume is just what his "Force ghost" will appear in. Or maybe that costume will show up as the last known appearance of Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, and his real appearance will be far different.

 

[Mara Jade Skywalker]

I've asked my friends who saw the pic if I should just go ahead and look at it. Trust me, I am super tempted and am this close to caving and telling one of them to send it to me. BUT every single person I've asked has told me to wait, that that's not how I want to see Luke for the first time because it's a behind the scenes pic and not one of those awesome promotional shots like we got in EW last.

 

Considering that I would have been super disappointed had I seen that leaked pic of Leia (I looked at it after the fact), but when I saw her in the Behind the Scenes video I thought she looked freaking awesome, I will defer to my friends on this matter. Y'all can think I'm crazy if you want.

[D-Ray Kenobi]

I would have avoided it if I could, but saw Luke crop up on my Facebook feed later that night when it leaked. I actually wasn't that upset to have seen it. Without going in to details, there isn't anything that spoilery about it unless your imagination had already been running wild.

But going into some minor details that could be considered spoilers...

It's nothing that surprising. From Mark's "contractually obligated" beard, everyone had pretty much already assumed he'd be the elder wise Jedi type anyways.

The only thing that was a little bit surprising to me was something that is a bit of a spoiler...

Is the very light tones of his Jedi robes. I get it that maybe Abrams is going after some Biblical visual metaphor, but I think it's a bit much from this picture.

 

[ShadowDog]

To your second spoiller, we don't know what they plan to do in post regarding color correction. Maybe the costume was shot like that so when they shift everything in post it'll look "normal"

[Ryn]

Like TRON!