I like spoilers more than River Song does

Recently, some literary critic caused a big internet kerfluffle when he said that people who get made about spoilers are doing it wrong.

I'm obviously paraphrasing because I don't speak "literary critic" but that was the gist of it. He basically pointed out that if you could only feel tension or excitement or care about a story once, then you wouldn't enjoy re-reading or re-watching things. And science has proven that untrue, we do feel tension and get excited even about things we've seen a million times.

None of these statements are wrong. In an article about it, people pointed out that the problem wasn't the spoilers, but when people take away your own decision if you want to be spoiled or not by intentionally spoiling things.

This is also true. See, I very much abhor the people who love to spoil things for others. You know the type, the ones who flipped to the last page of Harry Potter to yell "Snape kills Dumbledore" at the people waiting in line for their copy.

But you notice something about that last paragraph? I didn't post a spoiler alert in that paragraph. Because I also believe that after seven years, there's a limit to how much a person can ask the rest of the world to censor themselves. It's all about reasonable expectations.

I also don't believe that spoilers actually spoil anything in most circumstances. I think people who say their experience is completely ruined by knowing the end of the story are not enjoy the story to the depths that they could be enjoying it. And I don't think anybody should be punished or yelled at or screamed at for saying it.

One person that was commenting on an article got extremely angry with everyone saying this and "how DARE they say how I should enjoy things?"

Well, for one, the guy is a literary critic who has probably spent a very large chunk of his life studying how people read and enjoy stories. So he's not just talking out his ear. But the other thing is, when you get so defensive you miss the overall point: imagine a world you could be opening up for yourself if you stop being so concerned and angry? Imagine how great things can be if you stop thinking "Oh, well, that's ruined" and just enjoy what you want to enjoy.

For example, a lot of my friends watch Once Upon a Time, which I'll be reviewing tomorrow. Because of that and my personal addiction to reading io9 all the time, I know a fair number of things that happened throughout the show. Including pretty much every single possible plot point from the episode Skin Deep.

On io9 I commented that because I tend to read the end of books/learn the ends of movies and if I think it sounds really stupid then I'd just not waste my time with it. Somebody took great offense to it, and railed against me saying that I am cheating myself of what could be the very best story I'd ever come across. First of all, if the ending is so bad I'd put it away, then there's no way that I would ever consider it the best story I'd ever come across.

But the other thing is, knowing the end brings me to things I might never experience otherwise. I was lukewarm about watching Once Upon a Time. I couldn't decide if it looked like something I cared to watch. Until my friend Cristi started talking about Skin Deep. The story she talked about was exactly up my ally and I knew that no matter what else the show was about, I'd love Rumplestiltskin. I watched the show last night, and it was by far the best episode of the show so far. I knew everything that happened in it. I knew all the plot twists, the end, everything and I still loved it. I still thought it was amazing and I was still thrilled to watch it and wanted to watch it again right afterwards.

I understand that my way of enjoying things is not the same as everybody else's. And I totally understand that if you prefer not to know, then you don't seek out spoilers. That's cool, we can all coexist. But there's a statue of limitations on spoilers, and maybe instead of saying your enjoyment is "spoiled" you can just say that it's changed. You'll get something different out of it. That can be cool too.

How To Train Your Dragon

I was very late to the party when it came to this movie. I knew that I wanted to watch it because so many people had such good things to say about it. But at the same time, other things seemed more important to rent and it never made it to the top of my Netflix queue. I ended up watching it on a very long international flight. I wasn't in the mood for anything too depressing or dramatic, and wanted something that I felt was almost guaranteed to have a happy ending. I'm very glad I picked How to Train Your dragon. I knew of the book that the film was (loosely) based on, and I wasn't sure how in the world they could manage to make a film out of it. But they did an amazing job, and the characters they created were so multi-dimensional.

The world was well realized, and the different types of dragons were fun and well done. And of course, Toothless was quite possibly the most ridiculously cute dragon ever animated. The story seemed perfect for any age, even the more frightening bits didn't seem too frightening for smaller children (though I'm not always the best judge of that). I think even adults will identify with Hiccup's struggles to fit into a world where he knows that he can't be what's expected of him.

I was especially impressed with the fact that this was a hero who struggles and wins through intelligence, curiosity, and learning. Hiccup doesn't just read up on dragons from the texts he's given, he tests the knowledge, finds what is and isn't true, and writes down his findings accordingly. He's a behavioral scientist, and it's awesome. He doesn't figure out that he really needs to summon his courage and hit things in order to win against the people who don't believe in him (the typical male coming of age story) but he has to get more intelligent and learn to be more strategic.

Overall, I highly suggest everybody watch it. But especially parents should watch it with their kids. These are the kinds of lessons our media should be teaching them, but it's done in a way that's not just fun and entertaining, but very well written and animated as well.


**SPOILER ALERT***





I have to spend some time talking about the end of the film, because I think it's also extremely powerful and deserves praise. Hiccup is able to tame and ride Toothless because he accidentally injures the dragon's tail, rendering him unable to fly. Hiccup designs a prosthetic tail fin that he can control to help the two fly together.

After the final battle of the film, you know that something bad has befallen Hiccup, but when he wakes up you see that he has lost a leg. One of the trainers for the kids is missing an arm, so this isn't unusual in the world they live in. But I think it's a very powerful moment that will teach kids amazing things without even trying. When Hiccup gets out of bed, walks on his new leg, and then discovers that it is designed to help him better control Toothless as they fly, kids will internalize a lot of great information. That you don't need a whole body to be a whole person, that you can and will do that things that you love even after an accident or injury. That Hiccup and Toothless are the same people after becoming disabled. The movie doesn't make any heavy handed statements about this, it doesn't try to teach a lesson, it doesn't become a "very special episode." Hiccup and Toothless just are. I don't know that I've ever seen a depiction of disability in children's media that was done as well.

Flash Game Review: Chuck the Sheep

I haven't really watched any tv shows this week that I haven't reviewed and I'm behind on my schedule so I'm going to give you something different: a flash game review!

I'm a big fan of casual games and simple games that you can waste a bit of time playing in between projects. Or while you should be doing projects, but we'll pretend that doesn't happen.

I happened across Chuck The Sheep a few days ago, and I sat and played for two hours when I was just going to check it out for a few minutes and bookmark it if I liked it. It's got everything I'd want in a casual game, and I've definitely been going back to it since the first day which is pretty rare for me.

The basic premise is that Chuck The Sheep doesn't want to lose his wool, so he decides to make a break for it in a homemade airplane. It's a pretty simple game that uses launch mechanics and only a few keys to play. You try to get a good launch by hitting space at the right time as a dial spins, you hit the up and down buttons to (kind of) steer. Shift gives you a boost, and space gives you extra shields if you've upgraded. Collecting resources means you can upgrade your ship and get further on the map with each launch.

I actually didn't realize at first that there is a physical goal (even though there's a progress bar at the bottom of the screen, I somehow missed it) so you actually can finish and win the game. But even after you get to the end, you can keep playing to finish your upgrades, level up, and complete more quests. The quests are fun and silly, and even the more difficult ones aren't impossible. Like I said, I finished the game in a few hours but it's enjoyable enough to have continual replay value so it has the best of both worlds for me. I hate games that don't actually end.

The graphics are great, they're adorable and fun. The game doesn't take a long time to load and I haven't found any glitches with it. The keyboard shortcuts make sense and are easy for you to keep your hand in one place and not be reaching randomly for the key you need. All in all, it's absolutely a game you should play through at least once if you like flash games at all, if only just for the adorable graphics.