Joss on the betabronze yesterday:

Warning! Possible Spoilers!!

joss says: (Wed May 21 06:10:05 2003)

Okay, so that was a thing. Thank you for hanging in with me, guys. Now at last, I can tell you guys what happens next tuesday without lying.

1)I will probably have a beer.

2) earth, more or less turning, pretty certain.

3) I might read.

Cool! Now I get why everyone loves spoilers! I totally RUINED my beer-having for people who like surprises! I see now that I was shackled by Buffy, and now I'm free.

Which, oddly enough, is not how I feel.

Hope you liked.

See...that kind of upsets me. Am I, or any of the rest of you in this thread who were spoiled, less valuable fans because we are into spoilers? I honestly spoiled just because I couldn't handle the not knowing. I went many seasons not knowing, and I was spoiled for the seasons (most of 2, all of 1) that I only caught in reruns simply because by the time I was there, the series was moving on. So, that to me, is also being spoiled. Doesn't mean I enjoyed them any less. Doesn't mean I didn't cry when Angel went bad, or when Buffy ran him through and hightailed it out of town. Just like now, I didn't appreciate the finale any less because I knew what (mostly) would happen.

I guess to me, aspects like who dies aren't that big. It's the little things. The dialogue you can't always be spoiled on, the small details of gestures and the like that you can't predict. That to me is what counts.

Edited because I forgot which thread I was in.

Tina, welcome-welcome, and big with the 6 love right back at you. Try and take consolation in the fact that you will be able to tell that story for the rest of your life.

Did you ever think of just cracking the cop upside the head so you could finish the episode? If Joss had been writing your life, that's probably what would have happened.

So I have to say that I actually had my own little Gilesbot scenario all worked out in my head. It was the result of trying to figure out a way I could be satisfied with the how/where/what of Gilesbot this season, and it was silly but went thusly:

The world is saved and the gang is doing whatever the gang does after saving the world. Giles slowly drifts away from the group, somewhere where they can't see him. He starts move slower and slower, and then finally lies down. When he does, his head falls off.

Nothing more. Nothing about the who/why of the magic that kept him going until the end. Maybe he had a spell set up in the case of his death to bring him back. Or maybe some power-that-be got involved. Either way, it wasn't a permanent spell, and he wasn't able to think straight or have any energy all season.

Kind of a bummer ending for Ripper, but there it is.

I've gone both ways (on the spoilage). It is not so much that one is right and the other is wrong. It is a different experience.

All in all, my unspoiled experience was more fun, and seriously folks, a lot less effort.

HEC! VICTOR!!! I'm actually very dirty right now, because I've been gardening. So, take that as you will.

"I'll take Dirty Ple for $500, Alex."

"Suck my Soft-pac!"

"What is Ple's favorite insult?"

"Correct!"

The Husband of the Voice of Reason is brilliant.

Well, of course. Do you think that Jilli would settle for less than perfection?

Heeee! I'm all chuffed, I am!

tina, there shouldn't be a prize for worst finale day story, but you and Gus (rabid monkey bite) are angling for it, for sure.

I think it really doesn't matter a whole lot whether your prefer spoiled or unspoiled. I tend to avoid spoilers because I enjoy the first experience of seeing what happens. But then I also always enjoy an episode more the second time I see it--which at that point I'm totally spoiled, having already seen it once. Yet it works better and has more resonance for me that second time.

So I guess I avoid spoilers mostly because I know that I'll get to see it spoiled later. But I'll only get to be surprised by it once.

Seekret message for Hec suck my soft-pac, bucko.

Heeee! I'm all chuffed, I am!

(Sudden image of a pullstring Talking Husband of Reason Doll that says just that.)

I understand the frustration of a creator and the spoiler conflict. But I don't think that making the unpure ones out to be the second coming of the hellmouth is the way to go. It's all a matter of preference...the unspoiled are very clear about their wishes and the spoiled respects them. It just makes me sad that Joss finds the people who go with the option to spoil not a real audience or something. Cause that is what I got out of it.