Leaks and spoilers have become a way of life for Game of Thrones fans, and part of our filming season viewing experience, albeit a controversial one. Thrones star Maisie Williams does not care for this particular aspect of fandom, however, sharing her feelings with Radio Times today in a new interview.
When it comes to Game of Thrones spoilers leaking out in advance of the new season, Williams tells RT, “It really, really upsets me…Because, there’s only a certain group of people who’d look at that anyway, compared to the audience that watches the show. It hurts. It’s just like, oh we wanted to tell this story, and yeah, lots of people don’t want to read it, and don’t want to look at it. But then it’s even more annoying when you know [the leaks] might be from someone on the inside, and it’s just like… you’re trying to make something really cool, that is really cool, and people really like, and it’s like ‘stop ruining it’.”
The actress explains that she feels, “It’s such a childish, annoying thing to do. And yeah, it’s sad. It really annoys me,” and further adds adds, “I don’t know if that’s unexpected, that I’d be like ‘Oh, I don’t really mind!’ People still watch it, but it does really grind my gears.”
Williams is correct; it’s not unexpected that she’d be a bit irritated with fans spoiling surprises, though after seven years’ worth of filming, you’d think she would develop a thicker skin by now. There’s a symbiotic relationship between Game of Thrones and its fandom, and the passion for spoilers has in a roundabout way helped support the show’s rise to the most popular television program in the world.
HODOR
A girl should hold the door.
Spoilers are fine, I don’t have a problem with people who like them. It just bugs me when there are folks who actively try to ruin the surprises to other people.
Also, when entire episodes leak to the web. I just know the series finale will leak…it’ll be something difficult to avoid whenever it happens (hopefully it won’t happen a year in advance, like it happened with the story details for S7).
It’s pretty much impossible to keep anything under wraps now due to internet and social media. The “Who shot JR?” moments just aren’t possible anymore. So cry me a river. If HBO hasn’t been able to find whoever leaked things this season, then it’s on them.
Also keep in mind that some things (not season 7 related this time) can actually be leaked on purpose to maintain hype and interest. Tons of info on upcoming albums, movies and shows gets released that way.
I think there’s definitely a major distinction between fun discussion of casting and filming reports (which this website excels at) and the script “leaks” that spoil entire seasons (which many on Reddit love). The former, while admittedly “spoiling” some aspects of new seasons, is respectful of the production, while the latter widely spreads any juicy plotlines around the internet so as to make it hard to go on a fan website without seeing unwelcome spoilers.
Speculation and filming pics are one thing; deliberate leaking of confidential materials is another. I’m with Maisie on this. Whoever is leaking script details from the inside should be banned from ever working in the entertainment industry again. IN MY OPINION.
Ashara D,
I agree. Casting leaks and guessing games are fun. Analysing production stills is awesome. But this year, some jerk saw fit to leak the whole season. There’ll be none of that fun speculation now.
I’ve been trying to stay away from it (have not been clicking on any spoiler posts here) but have still been spoiled for at least three key plot developments just with casual browsing on the internet. I’m not angry for myself as such, but the cast and crew put in so much work to make this bloody brilliant show, and this douche just pulls the rug out from under him.
Actually, no, I AM angry for myself. What’s happened with S7 is absolutely f’ing appalling, and my viewing pleasure will be significantly diminished by the fact that I have been spoiled by careless (or deliberately callous) internet users. That does piss me off.
http://watchersonthewall.com/new-details-conor-mcgregors-role-game-thrones/
https://youtu.be/x5X8waOODZQ?t=53m48s
Watchers, you might want to revisit your sources.
reddevil,
People always deny they’re in Game of Thrones until it airs, these days. He definitely filmed a cameo as one of Euron’s pirates, heard that from more than one source. I doubt they’d cut it, they don’t usually cut celeb cameos.
No matter how much “spoiling” is done it will never be as exciting as when the show is put together and your watching the magic on screen. So who cares, bring it on. I hope this show continues for a long time.
I don’t mind spoilers, I do mind reading them when I don’t plan to.
As far as the origin of the leak/spoiler is concerned I absolutely agree with previous comment.
As someone who started watching GoT because of Sean Bean and HBO (not too proud to admit but it is true) after episode 2 I stopped (Sansa neverforget) I somehow got spoiled about the Ned Stark ”situation” and it took me 3 years to start watching again and the only thing I had spoiled for that period was the Red Wedding, and I am on the internet a lot.
The point is, we can avoid the spoilers if we want to.
2 years ago 4 episodes leaked before the premiere, I could have watched them, I didn’t.
Last year we all knew that Jon will be back in some way, we knew about BotB and yet I didn’t read than infamous reddit thread.
This year, due to some heave abstinence crisis I couldn’t control myself and I saw the pictures, I clicked on spoiler’s tags, maybe I know too much now maybe I don’t, but I will never ever spoil it for anyone else unless asked to.
Team Arya forever!
Sue the Fury,
It’d be such an insignificant, non-speaking cameo, not an important role, no reason for any secrecy from the guy. Ever consider your sources might be deliberately misleading you?
And it’s not about cutting him out, he denies any involvement in it.
Sue The Fury. I doubt that he would have any reason to hide it whatsoever.
He seemed to be speaking honestly in that clip, he seemed completely bewildered about why his name was even mentioned in game of thrones. He did not have any air to him trying to cover it up.
I’m sorry, Sue, but you asking the 19yr old Maisie Williams to have a thicker skin is just not on. She’s well within her rights to have some privacy and she should not be bashed for it.
reddevil,
I wouldn’t worry, it’s only #tits&dragons
Maisie is not talking about or asking for privacy. She isn’t speaking about the media intruding on the private lives of entertainers.
The only contention I have with this article is that I think you can have thick skin, while still being angry that your co-workers in the production crew are basically leaking the entire script of the season. She doesnt seem to be talking about people taking outdoor set photos, or photos of actors at local bars and airport terminals. I’m sure that’s normal for them at this point.
I would imagine that GRRM would be angry if one of the people who work for his publicist or publishing company somehow got a hold of his 90% completed book and posted scans of the entire thing on reddit months before it was released.
Agree that types of info which are released on this site are fine and fun for speculation. But some jerk from inside the production leaking the full script is very uncool. I think the latter is more what Maisie is referring to in her interview.
I’m a spoiler/leak junkie, I can’t for the life of me resist reading them. But I agree with Ashara D. People who deliberately leak entire confidential scripts/episodes should be severely punished.
Maisie wasn’t asking for privacy, that’s a complete misrepresentation of what she said. We’ve always respected her privacy- far more than mainstream media websites, actually, because we virtually never post about the actors’ personal lives. We’re strictly talking spoilers, and at her age, I think she should be savvy enough to get it. But I understand being passionate about your work, and annoyed by things. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion re: spoilers.
reddevil,
They never have before. And frankly, I’m tired of reddit folk coming over here to start drama. Behave or leave.
And when that ever happened in the history of this site and history of “other” site?
People like to create conspiracies about everything.
I’m with Maisie on this. In fact, I’ve been wondering if some of these “leaks” aren’t intentional and red herrings to boot. DnD have been known to prank the cast. Then there’s the S2 Tyrion factor. I don’t think all of these leaks are what we think they are.
The North Remembers.
Still a leak-denier. I think parts of it will come true and parts of it won’t.
Perfectly reasonable thinking by Maisie. If I were a part of the cast I’d feel the same as Maisie and the rest of them. When they’re producing and writing the show, acting out these scenes, I’m sure all of them get excited for the audience to see what they’ve done as it airs. They want everything to be fresh and new, a surprise. There are many people that feel leaked scenes don’t have an effect on their enjoyment of the show, but there are others that do. I’m one that doesn’t mind as much since the first half of the series was ‘spoiled’ by the books and I still loved every minute of it, but I understand those that don’t want to know things.
I think of watching reaction videos, how surprised the viewers are during certain events and how they wouldn’t have the same reaction if they knew (it) was coming. One example in this past season is the Arya/Walder scene. Had that scene been written out in a detailed leak and everyone knew the serving girl was Arya and what she was going to do, it wouldn’t have had nearly the “Oh my gawd!” reaction. I personally suspected it was her the first time there was focus on this unknown serving girl, but I still didn’t know what was going to happen exactly. Apparently others had zero clue (see Hunter Boyle’s reaction video on YouTube for example).
I couldn’t keep myself from reading the supposed leaks. I’m just too curious. As just a fan I get excited to hear/see anything about what’s to come. While I think it’s great to have an idea of what’s to come and can chat with others about those things, I can certainly understand those being involved with the show not being thrilled.
* Oh! What I do hate is those specific scene-by-scene spoilers that have leaked prior to air because of whole episode leaks. We’ve had those in the past and those are completely different in my opinion. So on the Sunday of the S7 premiere if the episode leaks early I’ll get pissed if people start talking about specific scenes and dialogue.
People who intentionally leak information such as scripts are in the wrong. However, she and the entertainment industry as a whole, are going to have to learn to get used to people who take photos of exterior film shoots. There is nothing you can do to stop it, and in the modern world you can take an HD photo on your phone and upload it to thousands of people 30 seconds later. This will then inevitably be reported on by many sites that cover entertainment and pop culture.
It is what it is. And they have to learn to live with it.
Clob,
But that scene was written out in a detailed leak. 😀
mau,
I figured someone would say that “it was,” but I chose not to note the possibility since I didn’t see it. Until this offseason I avoided Free Folk and the like so what was and wasn’t leaked was limited for me.
Just a note: I’m watching E’s live red carpet and they just showed Maisie. She’s wearing a cute pink dress. Has she been at ALL of the awards shows this year!? Nice to see.
I love Maisie, and love spoilers, but if i was an actor I suspect it would rankle if someone from the inside let out a bunch of info. It is just inevitable. I find the fake leakers more annoying.
I agree with Maisie, not talking about spoilers this site provides, because that is just making people more excited about the new season and helps people speculate but the fact that a crew member who works with all the actors and other crew members and puts months of their life dedicated to creating this show goes online on sites like reddit and leaks what happens in the season everyone works so hard to create is really uncool and it does ruin it for people so I really feel for the people working so hard on GOT for something like that to happen.
Flayed Potatoes,
They have freaking thousands of people working on this show,you think it’s so easy to find him ?
By now, the hysteria about the show and whats gonna happen each season is out of control. The yin-yang of the leaks and false leaks, speculation and interpretation make it worse. I mean, jeeze louise, since S1 these guys have been under humongous pressure and legal constraints to not spoil the show–they gotta be almost paranoid. So when some goofballs in the crew or friends of the crew or whatever little twerps spill the beans and grab a little attention or just plain make things up, its bound to be damn annoying. And the actors work so hard to create WTF moments that end up being ho-hummish because half the audience and critics already knew the outline of what was coming. Also, a lot of people don’t want to know spoilers but almost can’t avoid them, which the actors must also feel bad about. Maisie’s concern is mature and thoughtful. At 19 shes still a kid, so even if she hasn’t developed the necessary thick skin on this subject, FFS folks should give her a pass.
re: SAG red carpet, Alfie Allen says they’re shooting a lot of the final season in Norway.
I’ve been waiting for an appropriate post to recommend SmokeScreen’s YouTube GoT channel videos which are analyzing each episode for instances of parallelism, as well as foreshadowing for Season 7. Tinfoil and spoiler-free, and posted on an almost daily basis, this is an in-depth study (up to only Season 1, Episode 5 after 14 videos) I think the WotW community might enjoy to help get us through the off-season.
Here’s a link to the 1st video. <a href="[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_1-XYtoQd0&w=560&h=315%5D” target=”_blank”>[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_1-XYtoQd0&w=560&h=315%5D
Congrats to GoT’s stunt ensemble team for its third SAG award.
Gustav Rodriguez,
The leaker was someone who had access to the full script, so that narrows things down.
I discovered this site last year since I had no book material to go by anymore and I loved the photos, casting, and minor leaks that made it fun to speculate. That, as well as the hype for season 7, was ruined for me this year since quite by accident, I stumbled upon this other spoiler stuff. I don’t blame the actress. I mean after all, there is so much more to Arya now. This is a completely different person than the 6 year old I loved when she left her home. Yes, that girl is still in there but we can’t pretend that what Arya has become just doesn’t exist and she is just “arya of Winterfell who is going home.” I am sure the actress wants to portray all the deeper levels of her character. Remember she may come home but after her experiences, how will she adapt to her old life? Will she be able to? That is the fun of speculation.
Game of thrones lost to Stranger things again……
still can’t believe they haven’t won this award yet.
Sag Awards and the Golden Globes do not like GoT. Only the Emmy’s do. Thrones will NEVER win the ensemble award.
New S7 footage at 0:31! HYPE HYPE HYPE
I think if you read the responses just in this thread alone you’ll see that everyone or most agree with her annoyance with leaks. It seems to me that people can totally understand her viewpoint.
Rhaenys Stark,
I’m going to need someone who can slow down the clip lol
Matthew The Dragon knight,
It’s a perfect example of why so few put as much weight in any awards that aren’t the Oscars and the Emmys. They continue to create new awards ceremonies in an attempt to separate criteria, but from my pov it’s simply to provide accolades to more people and programs.
Adam,
was it on the E! live from the red carpet?
John and Arya…WHAT!
What is happening at the beginning of the clip?
Go maisie!!!!!
Ser Joshua,
Yes, please. I would even buy it chapter by chapter at this point
Ser Joshua,
Disclaimer: Maisie Williams is my higher power. She can do no wrong in my book. Besides, her condemnation of “the leaks” is completely justified.
Ser Joshua:
Thank you for emphasizing the critical distinction between what we generically (but inaptly) call “spoilers”, and what Maisie is rightly upset abou, i.e. “the leaks.” Outdoor location shoots, casting news, and which actors are at which filming location —– collectively but inaccurately lumped together under the terms “spoilers”, don’t constitute theft of someone else’s creative work in progress, or “ruin” it by churning out a cheap counterfeit knockoff and disseminating online before the genuine, creative work is finished. In fact, the actors’ own tweets and Instagram posts, along with photos taken with fans, demonstrate that so-called spoilers are not considered “confidential” or propriety information.
The “leaks” – to which she is plainly referring – are a different story. From what I gather, a production company employee or someone else with access to unfinished scripts or episode summaries stole them, read them, and wrote up his or her own “Cliff’s Notes” version to disseminate online well before the actual episodes are ready to air. Whatever this criminal’s motives may have been, he or she has premptively plagiarized and devalued the hard work of the producers and actors, and probably ruined in advance the viewing experience of countless fans.
Your illustrative hypothetical of how GRRM would feel about a prepublication theft, scan, and online posting of a 90% completed manuscript of The Winds of Winter should be instructive to anyone who tries to minimize the repugnance of the “leaks.” But I would take it a step further and ask how all of the readers who’ve been clamoring for the book for so many years would react to a thief’s own rendition of the contents of the stolen manuscript: a dumbed-down piece of garbage in the words of some anonymous moron that gives away answers to mysteries and puzzles that GRRM has carefully constructed over so many years.
If I sound incensed, it’s because I’m offended by the notion that just because something hacked, ripped-off, copied, scanned, plagiarized, or downloaded can be disseminated over the Internet, people should just have to get used to it, or worse, should feel free to go right ahead and click on it.
To be continued…
# Team Arya
Dee Stark,
Go Maisie indeed. A girl has many gifts. She should be applauded for speaking up and speaking out.
Maisie is right: So many people work so hard year round to tell the story with the quality the audience deserves and expects. It is stupid, childish, and selfish for some anonymous thief to cash in on the excitement and anticipation the showrunners and actors have generated, and spoil the audience’s enjoyment of the finished product.
Can Anyone Imagine How Much Spoilers like This worth, who ever leaked the spoilers He Must Paid OR Get paid Handsomely if not hundreds of thousand SO if there is some one in the Crew Got a Good offer why not
IN SHOW-ONLY TERMS, WHY “THE LEAKS” ARE MORALLY AND INTELLECTUALLY REPREHENSIBLE
I avoid “the leaks” like the plague. On this site, a comment with the word “Leaks:” followed by a long swath of grey-covered text, is the equivalent of grey scale; if I touch it, I’ll get infected.
I am not criticizing anyone who yielded to the temptation to click on “the leaks”, especially now that we’re in the “long night”: what could be more than a year between the end of S6 and the delayed start of S7. However, I respectfully ask you to consider the following reasons for refraining from discussing “the leaks” on this site:
1. Sue & Co. have done a fabulous job in making this the best and most reliable source of casting and filming information about Game of Thrones. Virtually every other fan site’s content reports news from this site. (One site I need not name just rips it off, without attribution.) The moderators here have avoided republication of illegally disclosed or unauthorized “leaks”, and I believe that on many occasions they have judiciously refrained from reporting certain details of legitimately obtained, reliable information if disclosure would compromise the dramatic flow of the show or our enjoyment of it.
There are countless other sites on which the “leaks” are and can be freely discussed, including the source (Reddit?) of those leaks. Here, there have been separate posts (or spoiler coding) so show-only fans could freely participate in discussions without reference to books they haven’t read yet. The writings of GRRM and HBO’s authorized television adaptation are the “canon” for the site community discussions. That’s thousands of pages of books, and 60 hour-long episodes to date. I cannot fathom why something covertly cooked up by some anonymous, thieving stooge should be afforded equal dignity. Nor can the concoctions of a crook of unknown literary or theatrical expertise be relied on as a synopsis of unaired future episodes that haven’t even been completed yet. Incorporating the “leaks” into discussions as if they’re gospel also gives a feckless and faithless employee (or infiltrator) undeserved stature. Reading, repeating and reposting the fruits of his crime is analogous in some ways to knowingly using counterfeit currency. It certainly steels the thunder of the show’s producers, directors and scriptwriters. And as Maisie Williams correctly observed, it dilutes or destroys the viewing experience of the audience.
As for other commenters on this site, even vague references to “the leaks”, or inclusion in post discussions of statements like “the leaks are true”, signal to untainted posters that theories and speculation under discussion comport with what we’ll see happen next season. Further (and this has happened on several occasions), after a series of grey-covered “Leaks” comments, an uncovered responsive comment includes a “leak” detail – as if it were already accepted as fact.
Regardless of the precautions taken, the mere presence of a “Leaks” designation causes vigilant leak-avoiders to exit the site. That’s not fair to them, or those who value their contributions.
But there are a few more, and better reasons for jettisoning “the leaks”…
(To be continued…)
People cannot just stumble across the season 7 leaks. It requires a good amount of reading, you can STOP reading at any stage. At most you could stumble across only minor leaks here and there. As for blaming one leaker, there seems to be a lot of people involved in the process. The reddit folk (myself included) correlated and organised the information. The media took the information and published it, taking it outside of a small reddit sub into the general public. The leaker had even stated they were not involved in production or HBO. So who is most culpable here?
O don’t agarre with that. There’s propõe (like me) ano likes to red spoilers. O ser no problema with that. You’re not really annoying anyone If you tell a spoiler to someone who likes .
All I can give is my experience. If I hadn’t been spoiled, I might not have ever watched the show. When I heard about Ned’s death, it got me interested. Then I read some spoilers about the Red Wedding (not knowing the characters at all, so it was still somewhat surprising when I saw it) and I finally watched s1 and s2 about two weeks before s3 premiered. Now it’s my life.
I enjoy reading the spoilers. I’m not sure why, but it doesn’t ruin anything for me. Seeing it on the screen is an experience reading/hearing about it just doesn’t compare to in the slightest.
Of course, I respect people who don’t want spoilers. Anyone who purposefully ruins a story for someone else is a real jerk.
Looper,
That being said, I actively avoid the full episode leaks that have been happening the last couple of seasons. There’s something about watching it live that’s so much more enjoyable. That one year where the first four episodes leaked a week before the show aired was tough though.
Oh, ffs. Why are they making such a big deal out of it? They’re still making their money, and at the end of the day she’s going back to her purchased flat in Central London as a 19yo. If I want to read every spoiler out there, I’m going to. They’re talking about it as if we were watching leaked celebrity nudes…As she said, the one who messed up is the person who released them in the first place. But then again, they’re not going to do a trial for this, are they?
Ten Bears,
I love your post. As a reader and watcher of the show, this garbage has truly diminished the depth of the books as well as the anticipation of the next season. This “leak” has been every where on the internet, including here UNCOVERED. I was skimming here reading reactions to a cast photo last fall when I found, quite by accident, an uncovered paragraph describing what I thought was fan fiction. And yes, it IS possible to read even one sentence and be ruined. And God forbid you question it then you are either in denial or you have to “see how it plays out on screen”. If you want to read the covered stuff and love it, then that is a person’s right and I respect that. But many of us feel that the fun of speculation th at is based on actual material from the show or books has been ruined and we aren’t anticipating the next season like we did in the past. And yes, there are quite a few of us out there.
Flayed Potatoes,
The little grey thing at the bottom right of the video window that looks like a cog and has an HD flag on it is the settings. If you click on it there’s a speed option and you can slow things down to half or quarter speed (or speed them up if you want to skim something) 😀
Ten Bears,
I get your sentiment, but I also understand why people want to discuss leaks, even here. The best part of an off-season is usually speculation/ guessing the different storylines/ characters based on the filming spoilers/ casting notices etc. However, there is really no point in speculating different possibilities if you already know how things are going to pan out. People will naturally be more interested in discussing what they already know rather than base their discussions pretending that they do not know what they do know.
And a majority of the people who follow off-season filming spoilers here have already read the leaks (not including the people who actively avoid all spoilers, including filming spoilers, like Dee Stark, Queen of thrones etc). If I were asked to stop discussing the leaks altogether, there would be really be nothing much I can discuss, except for award shows and such, and I guess it’s the same for a lot of other people. Banning leak talk altogether would only reduce the discussions even more.
So yeah, while I do think it’s unfortunate that these leaks happened and it’s taken away all the fun from the off-season, I don’t really blame people for wanting to discuss the leaks.
Scott123,
Trust me that has been discussed on this website but all the photos and filming spoilers have completely lined up with the spoilers. That is the one thing about the leaks, not a single one has been able to be debunked. But that doesn’t mean the person who leaks the info wasn’t off on the storyline. He could have provided a wrong detail here and there.
Django,
Uhm,the whole fucking season has been leaked,of course they are going to make a big deal about it and it’s not about the fact that they would lose money ,it’s about the fact that they are ruining something that people worked hard on just for their 12 minutes of fame on the interwebs,but of course you being an entitled person who thinks the world revolves around himself wouldn’t understand that . I know a lot of people say they are only reading the leaks for themselves and not spoiling others,but as it’s been proven times and times again the world is full of assholes who will no doubt spoil something to someone who doesn’t want to be spoiled just for pure sadistic pleasure .
KaySen,
To: “KaySen” —
You confess that: “The reddit folk (myself included) correlated and organised the information,”
YOU are culpable. Don’t blame “the media.” YOU essentially laundered stolen property. Do you really think you can just take someone else’s work and put it on the Internet, and then turn around and suggest you’re not “culpable” ? What does it matter “who is most culpable”? That someone else’s conduct in stealing and disseminating the “information” may have been more reprehensible than yours does not let you off the hook for what you have done.
You also wrote that “the leaker had even stated that they [sic] were not involved in production or HBO.”
The only significance I see in that admission is that the “Reddit folk”, you included, had to know the culprit had no colorable right to possess or give to you the “information” that you “correlated and organized”, and then posted online for the world to see.
Another thing: What does having to click on a subreddit to obtain the “information” have to do with anything? Once you Reddit folk made it available on the Internet, you effectively distributed to the world.
Look no further than this site, which has now been contaminated with hundreds of comments referring to “the leaks.” This used to be a forum for enthusiastic, intelligent discussion about the authorized HBO series based the published works of George RR Martin. Now it’s being polluted with an unauthorized re-telling of the supposed contents of episode scripts by a thief hiding behind the anonymity of a Reddit screen name, all facilitated and enabled by your own culpable conduct. But don’t take my word for it. I’m not purporting to give you legal advice. You and your “Reddit folk” cohorts can ask your lawyers about who is “culpable” in the eyes of the law.
I trust Maisie Williams and her assessment of the malevolence and culpability of anyone involved in the dissemination of the “leaks.” She has credibility and a vast reservoir of good will. You and your cohorts have none.
HELL YEAH MAISIE YOU TELL ‘EM UNF! Spoilers are the worst!! Still not spoiled… THANK THE GODS!
Laura,
Same here. Personally, I like to know what is going to happen to know if its going to be worth my time. With GOT after reading the books and then the show I knew I would be invested to the end ??????
It’s like reading the last pages of a book first. Some people do, some don’t. It’s kind of a new phenom with internet + more compelling series on TV. It didn’t really matter how Shogun ended, or anything else more recent. I love spoilers. I want to know and then I can relax and focus. Obsessing on the end takes a lot of energy. Plus it’s been a long haul, even more so for the book readers, and now HBO is dragging out the finale. Two more years? I hope I survive long enough.
What she doesnt understand is there is a large portion of the worlds population that actually like to read the back of the book first.. oh to be young again lol
Isabelle_M,
Exactly
Ten Bears,
You missed the point entirely. I was throwing myself into the culpability pit. It is not entirely freefolk’s fault either, they never claimed the source was reliable, nor did they even know if it was real. It could have just as likely turned out to be fanfic. The media took the information and made it more widely available which brought a lot of people to the sub to read the leaks.
The point I was making is if people wish to cry about the fact they went and read the leaks and now wish to blame others for their own actions, then they have a massive list to blame. It was not just one person. Seriously though, in order to have been spoiled, people would have had to spend at least 30 minutes reading the leaks. It is like going to Mcdonalds and eating 10 big macs and then blaming Mcdonalds because you have no self control.
You can get upset about the theft of intellectual property all you want, but that won’t stop it happening. This is the internet, and if you are going to get upset about the leaks, then you also have to get upset about every movie, book, tv series etc uploaded and downloaded. The leaks at least was just a retelling, and the original in its entirety (unlike the case of books and movies) was never supplied.
Ten Bears,
I just wanted to further add; The leaker has done nothing more than someone who tells other people about a book or film. So you can make believe something very serious has happened, but it hasn’t.
Even worse are the people pretending to be the original leakers, putting out fake ones, and using multiple user names. That gets old fast.
KaySen,
Nope. The leaker isn’t just like someone who tells someone else about a book or film.
He f-cking stole someone else’s book or film before it was released, plagiarized it, and disseminated it to the whole world. I don’t know if his motive was jealousy,,greed, self-glorification or something else, but something “very serious” has indeed happened.
The leaker ought to publicly identify himself, accept responsibility, and apologize to showrunners and the public. So should you.
Perhaps the seriousness will become apparent if he is identified and prosecuted. I’d be interested to watch him on TV as he addresses the judge to apologize for his wrongdoing and say why he did it.
Hey, maybe you can filch a copy of his planned speech to the judge and beat him to the punch by posting it online before the hearing.
He should try to write and produce his own successful TV series instead of stealing someone else’s.
PS. I look forward to your further comments about the gravity of and culpability for these incidents.
Ten Bears,
You may need to look up what plagiarize means. He cannot be prosecuted no matter how much you wish it to happen (you don’t even know how he happened to come by the material). He did not hand out the script. He simply told people what was in it.
As for owning up, why would he do that? So people who read his spoilers but got upset they read them, get to throw tomatoes at him?
And yes I took his private messages about the contents of the script and made it public. I did it again today in fact. And I will continue to do it. Suck it up princess.
Anyway enough drama on this medium. You can have the last cry about it.
KaySen,
Dear KaySen:
Thank you for your prompt reply and confining admissions.
I anticipate seeing them again in the not too distant future as exhibits in evidence.
Your boast that you will continue “leaking, and telling me to : Suck it up princess ” shall serve as an appropriate farewell.
Now, will you kindly return to the bottom-dweller site from whence you came..
I agree. I read a book more than once, even when I know what is going to happen.
I would like to speculate on a number of plot threads and the underlying magic/science, based on the known books and the show to date. It would be fun to compare theories with the knowledgeable fans on this site (who better?), but fear of spoilers has killed discussion. If a theory is a good enough guess, it gets deleted. Using that logic, if you want to know what is going to happen, post a good guess, and if it is deleted, you guessed.right.
Yep. To me this is by far the worst part about spoilers, especially about real leaks like what happened last season. It becomes very difficult to have a legitimate discussion, especially in this sort of news-driven venue.
Like last season I’d see people post What seemed totally legit theories then people posting enigmatically how nope they wouldn’t happen… based on knowledge of the leak.
Ouch! very true. It’s ironic that the biggest defenders of the leaker are ruining his credibility by putting out fake ones in his name.
ghost of winterfell,
It would be if that was happening.
Actually I’m glad for any fake leaks. It’s basically the only way to do damage control against something like this. Now if I do run across a spoiler (only had a few minor things so far), I can’t be sure if it’s real or fake. It will still be annoying if it turns out it was a real spoiler I read, but at least I will have that doubt in my mind.
Other than that, it would be useful in order to prevent this in the future to identify and publicly out the original leaker, who certainly should at the very least lose his/her job and should be sued as well for breach of contract.
QueenofThrones,
There has literally been a deluge of fake leaks after the original legit ones lol. There was a period around christmas/ New year, when for a couple of weeks, there were new “leakers” popping up every single day, sometimes more than one a day all of them claiming to have spoilers for the next season. A lot of people have wondered if this was HBO’s way of doing damage control or whether they were just trolls looking to stir things up. Whatever it was, it was a period of high drama on Reddit lol.
As for the original leaker, I guess we will never know if he gets caught or not. Maybe somebody at HBO will address what happened after S7 has aired. There is no way they would do it before because that would mean giving legitimacy to the leaks.
ghost of winterfell,
As for the “original leaker”, whether or not he’s ever sued or prosecuted, he ought to be publicly identified. It would be poetic justice for his name and photograph to be posted online and broadcast around the world.
Incidentally, I’ve seen comments from people that they like to read the last page of a book first to know how it ends. To them I would say that they should feel free to buy the book the day it’s published, run home and read it however they want. But that doesn’t mean it’s okay to infiltrate the publishing company, steal the manuscript, and post the contents online before the book hits the shelves.
I just don’t see any justification for what this anonymous jerk and his coconspirators have done.
Ten Bears,
Since you are here in the comments section of a site that does release spoilers from sources (insiders) including videos and pictures obtained in many instances illegally (from elsewhere since some filming was done on private property), I can only assume it is not leaks you are concerned with, but rather the quantity. So your real complaint here is that you wish to be spoon fed the information week by week. You are actively participating, by being here, in the spoiler culture.
It is, and has always been your choice the level at which you can be spoiled. If you read all the leaked information, that was your choice and crying about it afterwards shows a person who cannot take responsibility for their own actions.
there will always be rubbish writing out there; whether unreliable print about kit harington’s love life or “news”
propaganda disseminated by certain political powers … just have to weed out truth from chaff… like the ridiculous thread Jon Snow is not from R + L…people are too free so they conjecture…Maisie’s frustration is understandable from dramatic point of view… sorta steals the thunder or impact… especially the ” ” dragon one…
KaySen,
Ten Bears,
I disagree this site may release pics and videos, Show us filming locations, things even cable shows get spoiled for but it never releases what is actually gonna happen next season scene by scene, they never release things like script leaks and in-depth details about every event in the upcoming season. This site gives fans the ability to maneuver different theories on what’s gonna happen to discuss with other fans who might add to that theory but now no one really sees the point of that, knowing basically everything that will happen. This site has info on what actors are where in the outside locations but without the leaked script we would have no idea what the characters are talking about, why they are there, what their motives are, the site also has barely any info on what happens in the filming that is inside so without the leaked scripts all the inside scenes should of been a complete mystery to us.
I get your point no use crying over spilled milk, I just hope the leaker doesn’t leak the final season as that would really ruin it for everyone, this season doesn’t matter as much but knowing how it ends before it airs will put a stain on the show.
Queenofthrones,
There are hundreds of sites to discuss “the leaks”, including the one that spread it to the Internet (Reddit “free folk”, I think).
There is no reason why this site should have to be infected.
You touched on one of the many reasons “the leaks” shouldn’t pollute this site: it kills the enjoyment and intellectual challenge of positing theories and discussing them, based on the actual, aired episodes.
Significantly, we now have 60 hours worth of authorized source material on which to draw. That’s roughly 82% of the projected total, assuming there will be 7 episodes in S7 and 6 episodes in S8. The 60 episodes thus far are a treasure trove of clues, foreshadows, and exposition. By and large, the commenters here are smart, perceptive and sometimes brilliant. (I admire even the cynical diatribes that are articulate and witty.) It’s not just the story itself, but the way it’s told and how it’s acted, that create the dramatic tension and frame the mysteries. (I can give scores of examples of rewatching scenes from past seasons and picking up on details that seemed incidental at the time, but which I now see were part of the big picture. )
With the collective brainpower of contributors, there’s more than enough authentic source material to fuel discussions, without contaminating it with the unreliable interpretation of S7 by some anonymous jerk.
Here’s another reason, as explained by Stephen King: (As Wimsey has noted), the “Chekhov’s Gun” principle of effective playwrighting (and screenwriting) means that if a gun is hung on the wall in Act I, it must be fired in Act III.
Stephen King (in his book “On Writing”, describing how to tell a story to an audience) explained that the reverse is true:
If something “plays a part in the end, it must be introduced early. (Otherwise, it looks like deus ex machina, which it is.)”
By the showrunners’ own accounts, G of T is in its “end game” stage. With 60 out of 73 episodes already aired, we’re undoubtedly well into “Act III.”
Which means that whatever will play a part in the end has already been introduced. Therefore, as an audience we should be able to formulate theories (and try to disprove them) based on what we have already seen and heard – from the creators themselves, the way they presented it with GRRM’s imprimatur. (Who knows if the leaker knew what was significant, and what was connective tissue, when he “summarized” the scripts he stole. He could be a clueless idiot. We DO know he is untrustworthy, and a parasite.)
One more thing to think about: If you truly enjoy and appreciate G of T (and you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t), shouldn’t you have compunctions about using and spreading the bastardized accounts of an anonymous intellectual property thief?
There’s a doctrine called “the fruit of the poisonous tree” in criminal cases that excludes illegally obtained evidence, even if it’s true. So, for example, if cops break into your home, rifle through your drawers and take things, and knew they had no right to enter your house or search or seize anything without a warrant or your permission, none of the things they took can be presented to a jury – even if the prosecution says they desperately need it.
To me, the rationale is the same here: we shouldn’t reward the criminal (and contaminate our discussions) by using the fruits of his purloined scripts.
Many of us (possibly most) have not been exposed to “the leaks” and do not want to be infected. The “leaks” were supposed to be confined to the forum section to begin with. Experience has shown that even obscuring “leaks” discussion with grey scale (spoiler coding) is not effective.
As I see it, if it comes down to protecting the leaks-averse from infection, or allowing the leaks-embracers to force them to leave, there is only one morally correct and fair solution: Quarantine “leaks” discussion to a forum page, or suggest that the leaks-embracers go join the Stone Men on Reddit.
KaySen,
KaySen;
I thought you’d said your farewells and had gone back to your coconspirators at your Reddit hideout.
“I think we’ve had enough small talk. Why are you here?”
Lyanna Mormont S6E7
Ser Slim of the Backwater,
I couldn’t agree more about the “rubbish out there.” The world has changed. The Internet was once hailed as “the information superhighway.” Now it’s a cost-effective propaganda-spreading machine. Now we have misleading “click bait” instead of actual headlines of actual news. Someone can “tweet” total nonsense, and if it’s “retweeted” enough some people accept it as fact. And nowadays, there’s even a concept called “alternative facts.”
And you’re right about the fabricated “news” about people’s private lives. Anything that sounds salacious or scandalous spreads across the web and tops home pages, or pops up first in online searches. Meanwhile, the reality is obscured or ignored entirely.
Maisie Williams herself called out the “media” a while back for trumpeting a garbage headline about her, and actually wrote a suggested accurate replacement. The headlines blared that MW showed up “braless” at a gala. That was bunk. The truth was that MW appeared at a charity gala to help raise money for abused and neglected children. She was properly attired. But I guess helping raise money for charity wasn’t sexy enough for click-bait obsessed faux news.
Then a month or so ago, there was this flurry of stories about hacked “nude” photos of MW, replete with analysis about how this “scandal” would affect her career. All fabricated horses-it. There were no “nude” photos. Maisie was in a bathing suit with her back to the camera, sitting on a rock on the shore in Japan. Of course, omitted entirely was that she was in Japan as a member of an organization dedicated to stop the corralling and slaughtering of dolphins.
And now, of course, we’ve got a fake S7 of GoT, courtesy of anonymous jackasses.
Ser Slim of the Backwater,
Please do not take this personally. I concurred with the gist of your comments about rubbish writing and the garbage that passes as “news” these days.
However, towards the end, you wrote that “Maisie’s frustration is understandable from a dramatic point of view….sorta steals the thunder or impact… especially the [noun redacted] one…”
I wholeheartedly agree that the “leaks” — whatever they are – steal the thunder or impact from a dramatic point of view. Yet, by appending the last four words to refer to a specific, especially damaging leak of a dramatic development – albeit with a one word subject [the noun which I redacted above], you unwittingly telegraphed to uninfected readers like myself that there’s going to be a particularly significant event involving [redacted noun].
I don’t doubt that you tried to phrase this obliquely, but without spoiler coding to obscure it, that sentence reveals the subject of an apparently significant scene or development. I did not want to know that.
The bigger problem is that even without details, and even with attempts to use a general term so other leak-exposed readers will know what you’re talking about, there have been so many indirect (or simply uncovered) references to “the leaks”, that the aggregate effect is to expose the uninfected to the “leaks.” *
I’m sure you didn’t have malicious intent. I think you tried to obscure the exact details with the term “the [redacted noun] one.”
So forgive me for using your verbiage as an example, but I just wanted to illustrate that even with innocent intentions, any allusion to “the leaks” can inadvertently disclose them.
If I seem oversensitive, it’s because I believe the “leaker” and his accomplices committed despicable and immoral acts, and to even mention them compounds the harm they’ve caused.
* More egregious examples in other comments include sentences that begin with phrases like “Even before the leaks, we speculated that…”, or “The leaks confirm…” Of course, no matter how infrequently, an uncovered, explicit discussion of “the leaks” contaminates the reader before he or she realizes the contents are based on “the leaks.”‘