Spoilery Expectations

[deird_lj]

So, I was watching Normal Again and remembering the first time I watched it.


You see, back when I was first watching Buffy, I knew quite a bit about what was going to happen.
In fact, the very first thing I remember hearing about the show was that, at the end of a season, Willow's girlfriend Tara would die, and Willow would turn evil, get black hair, flay a guy alive, and then try to destroy the world.
(Did I mention I really dislike spoilers? *glares*)

But anyway...

See, the first time I watched season six, I knew that at some point Tara was going to die. But I didn't know when. And there's this moment, during the big basement fight towards the end of Normal Again, when Tara comes in and starts running down the stairs to help, and Buffy grabs her ankle and makes her fall the rest of the way.

AND TARA WAS DEAD. SHE'D SNAPPED HER NECK AND DIED AND WILLOW WAS GOING TO TURN EVIL, AND IT WAS ALL BUFFY'S FAULT. THIS SHOW WAS SO AWESOME AND HARD-CORE.


...clearly this did not happen.
But every time I rewatch that episode, I get a momentary flashback to what it was like thinking that Tara was going to die right then.


And yeah, I like going into things unspoilered, mostly. But occasionally, knowing some spoilers without knowing all the specifics can actually make you react to scenes in entirely unexpected and interesting ways.

Anyone else do this?

Comments

[evelynvaughn01.livejournal.com]

I was almost halfway through reading The Time Traveler's Wife (my favorite novel evah) when I finally started to notice some of the foreshadowing that things may not end in a happy jolly funtime place. So I hunted down some spoilers on the Internet (don't worry--won't share them here) to see if I should finish the book. Once I knew what would and would not happen, I was able to put my emotional shields in place and deem it worthwhile to carry on. And at several points I was even more surprised, because I knew the outcome of several things, but not the how-they'd-get-there.

So... yeah.