i try to get people to think about whether knowing certain plot beats/facts in advance matters for something to achieve its goal as a creative work, yknow? I dont think knowing ishmael is gonna be the only guy on this boat is at the end is really gonna make Moby Dick not land.
I think a lot of works can be powerful even when you know the Big Reveal that so many people would shelter you from. My personal reference here being Steven Universe. Somehow the very first episode of that show i saw was
- a plot summary episode that basically summarized a bunch of important beats from the show
- the Big Reveal episode that immediately follows it
from some late season. cause it was on at a friend's place. and you know what, it still hit when i finally got back around to it after watching the whole show again, cause to the characters it was still a reveal, and what mattered way more to the story was that they were learning this for the first time, not that i as the viewer was.
I think video games are a bit weirder in this regard because in certain games like e.g. undertale, the player is also the main character, and so in some sense it maybe is more in line with the story's goals that as the main character, you have certain understandings revealed to you at certain moments. but like, not all video games are like this though
anyways, im sure this isnt crazy news to you or anything but ive been pondering how to explain this to people who are very particularly quick to consider any late-story information a spoiler
