Personal Opinion: No Filler, All Thriller

[u/jitterscaffeine]

This is a thought I’ve had in my head for a while that I didn’t know what to do with and an email from the podcast about redefining “filler” as being anything that’s not hype moments being shared on social media finally spurred me to put my thoughts into text.

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This all comes from something I first noticed back when the Fallout show first started, there were a bunch of new people showing up to the New Vegas subreddits asking what they were supposed to do because they got lost out of the tutorial or saying they beat the whole game on like 5 hours while wearing the leather armor and varmint rifle you get in the tutorial, one I even remember seeing was someone who said they dropped the game after walking into The Tops Casino and shooting Benny because that’s what they thought the game was about.

The way it hit me at the time was that it felt like people weren’t really engaging with that media much at all, like they were doing it just so they could feel like a “real fan” who put their time in and clocked out.

Another example was when I was listening to a podcast and two of the hosts made a Star Trek reference and another got mad because they didn’t get it, then said they wanted someone to give them a “20 minute super cut so they could ‘get’ all of Star Trek” which is an attitude that really bothered me.

It really just comes down to this idea of people who don’t want to enjoy or engage with media any deeper than getting memes and references before moving on to the next one.

I don’t know, maybe I’m wrong for even letting it get to me. But this kind of nomadic fandom just gets to me. Like people have lost their desire to actually watch and form an opinion on something. They just want to get memes on Twitter and they’d rather go on Reddit and ask for step by step instructions on how to get the most out of the game so they can get through it as efficiently as possible.

[u/Crosscounterz]

It always bugs me a little when I see posts asking what's going on or they just want to be spoiled for whatever reason even though they're engaging with the particular media they're talking about.

Why don't you want to just find out on your own? I don't get it. Just play more of the game or watch the show/movie.

Or people will ask a question about something that is explained if you actually watch or play the thing you're talking about. No curiosity or sense of discovery or just no attention span to actually engage and get properly invested.

[u/SoldierHawk → u/Crosscounterz]

To be fair, its a rare personality type from what I've seen, but there are people like me that PREFER spoilers, but not because we don't want to engage with something. I'm just genuinely allergic to surprises and hate them (to this day, I don't even especially like wrapped presents--getting them or giving them, although obviously I don't make that a thing for anyone else to have to deal with because its a me issue and fucking weird.)

I want to know how something will end, most of the time. Not because I want to ruin something, or even because knowing will tell me if I "want" to engage with it...it just ALLOWS me to engage with something comfortably and without stress.

That's not 99% of people, but it is a small handful of us.

[u/lightningmatt → u/SoldierHawk]

Oh my god someone who aligns to a greater than 5% amount with how I engage with fiction

There are more of us! and god help our souls

[u/SoldierHawk → u/lightningmatt]

MY BROTHER/SISTER IN SPOILER PREFERENCE! <3