The huge spoiler in one of the wallpapers

[DavidBV]

I was showing my daughter the oots wallpapers and only by a fraction of a second I noticed in time the huge Durkon spoiler in the last one. (she's now in the middle of DStP)

I think there should be a fifty foot flaming letters SPOILER WARNING right as you enter the wallpapers page, just saying...

[Bulldog Psion]

What I find more interesting is that Bandanna appears to be assisting the Order on their quest.

[TurboGhast]

The spoiler is not as bad as it first appears since it lacks context for why darken looks like he does, but it still is there.

[An Enemy Spy]

Haley is fighting a snowman with an ice bow. Is that a good idea?

[littlebum2002]

Haley has an ice bow now? Thanks for the spoiler!!!

[D.One]

Haley has an ice bow now? Thanks for the spoiler!!!

What is the date in which each of those wallpapers was released?

[Domino Quartz]

What is the date in which each of those wallpapers was released?

I'm pretty sure he's joking.

[Onyavar]

The sad thing is, you as the person introducing someone else in the works have the duty of preventing them from ever learning the spoilered fact for maximum impact of the reveal.

Tell them to not read the forums and not stray away from the archive until they are up to date. If reading only in print, hide book Number 6, where Vampire Durkon WILL be on the cover picture.

Of course, as soon as Book 7 is printed and its species is common knowledge, people will claim that shrouding the MitD for that whole time was really a boring and silly prank and the series would be better with the MitD always visible.

[Reboot]

Haley is fighting a snowman with an ice bow. Is that a good idea?

Sure. Consider the difference between ice cream at serving temperature and ice cream that's too cold to scoop.

Basically, she could deep-freeze the snowman and cause it to either stick or shatter when it tries to move. (And if the former, a whack from Roy's sword should shatter it anyway).

[Yuki Akuma]

Haley is fighting a snowman with an ice bow. Is that a good idea?

Unless the snowman absorbs Cold damage*, it's probably fine. It's the only weapon she seems to own at that point, anyway.

_{* And very few monsters in D&D are actually healed by energy damage.}

[Snails]

I would call it a sneaky little bit of "foreshadowing" rather than "spoiler". I am sure we all saw it, but did not think anything of it, due to context.

After all, in the very same picture, Elan is pointing out something in a book to Roy. As if Elan ever understood things that could be found in books better than Roy.

[ChristianSt]

I would call it a sneaky little bit of "foreshadowing" rather than "spoiler". I am sure we all saw it, but did not think anything of it, due to context.

Given that the Wallpaper was released after Durkon was vamped, I don't see how you could classify that as "foreshadowing" .

[Lissou]

The sad thing is, you as the person introducing someone else in the works have the duty of preventing them from ever learning the spoilered fact for maximum impact of the reveal.

Yeah. My husband has been reading oots for the first time (finally) and it's been tough. He only reads the prints so I'm not worried about him accidentally seeing the last page, or reading the forum, but as he's been moving along the story he points out the characters he recognizes from the poster and there were a few times he asked "annoying" questions. He asked why Roy wasn't wearing the crown in the poster, and deduced that he must lose it somehow (he was still reading War and XPs at the time and hadn't reach that point). He asked why Soon was shown as a ghost while the other members of the old order were not (and decided that maybe it was because he was already dead when he was first introduced to the readers). Those obviously aren't huge spoilers though.

Right now he's reading Don't Split the Party and keeps changing his mind about whether he thinks Roy will be resurrected by the end or not. I re-read Blood Runs in the Family recently and had to constantly hide the cover so he wouldn't see Roy being alive. I tend to be more careful about spoilers than the average person though.

Oh, and he also figured out that Tsukiko wouldn't be killed by the blade barrier in War and XPs because she's relatively prominent on the villain side of the poster and he didn't think someone who was only there for 2 strips would have a reason to make it onto the poster at all. He reads kind of slowly so it was a few days before he saw Tsukiko appear again.

In his case though, it's more about finding hints and guessing stuff than it is "spoilers". He doesn't care about spoilers at all anyways. Heck, I've even told him major things about OOTS before he started reading it, such as what happened to Durkon (he has a terrible memory though, and he probably didn't pay much attention to my fan rambling, so he forgot all of that, fortunately).

He's really good at seeing foreshadowing, too. When he read the strip with Sabine complaining about Nale and V talking about V's mate, he pointed out that there hasn't been a lot of character development for V so that was probably pretty important (and it is, since being that protective is what leads V to go berserk later on).

[DavidBV]

I would call it a sneaky little bit of "foreshadowing" rather than "spoiler". I am sure we all saw it, but did not think anything of it, due to context.

After all, in the very same picture, Elan is pointing out something in a book to Roy. As if Elan ever understood things that could be found in books better than Roy.

Yes, I agree that most readers that still don't know what's going to happen in regard to that big spoiler, will just not notice, or maybe think it's part of a joke they don't understand. But as soon as they're reading certain scene in BRitF, they *will* be spoiled.

[NerdyKris]

At a certain point you have to be responsible for your own enjoyment of the work. If you don't want spoilers about a decade long comic, you shouldn't be looking at any of the merchandise, wallpapers, or whatever extraneous materials for it. That's just common sense.

[Porthos]

You know, I am spoilerphobic as the next person*, but in a serialized work of art, one is just gonna have to expect the mention of Major Plot elements in later works.

* it depends on the work of art, actually. But there are some things I try to stay in the dark about.

Don't Spilt the Party has a major spoiler for War and XPs on the cover. Any and all discussion about Nale and Sabine are spoilers for Dungeon Crawlin' Fools. Especially any reveal of Sabine in demon form.

If someone gets the latest OOTS calendar, they know that Azure City falls. When it comes right down to it, if one is that concerned about spoilers for a product that is now in its 12th year in existence, seeking out miscellanea about the product is probably Bad News. If one wants to stay unaware of possible plot points that cover the entire span of the work of art in question, that is.

[ti'esar]

Plus, you know, it's not like it's hard to catch up on OOTS. I mean, sure, reading through nearly a thousand comics takes time, but they're free and accessible from the web, so all it takes is time. So it's not like you would have to make a big effort to avoid spoilers for very long.

[Lissou]

Yeah, and OOTS isn't widespread enough that you have a huge risk of people randomly shouting spoilers to you like they may with some other stuff. Not to mention I bet tons of people never go on the wallpaper page to begin with. Going without being up to date on the story definitely isn't very wise, just like going to the forums when you aren't up to date, for instance. You'd see tons of spoilers just in thread titles.

[NerdyKris]

You know, I am spoilerphobic as the next person*, but in a serialized work of art, one is just gonna have to expect the mention of Major Plot elements in later works.

* it depends on the work of art, actually. But there are some things I try to stay in the dark about.

Don't Spilt the Party has a major spoiler for War and XPs on the cover. Any and all discussion about Nale and Sabine are spoilers for Dungeon Crawlin' Fools. Especially any reveal of Sabine in demon form.

If someone gets the latest OOTS calendar, they know that Azure City falls. When it comes right down to it, if one is that concerned about spoilers for a product that is now in its 12th year in existence, seeking out miscellanea about the product is probably Bad News. If one wants to stay unaware of possible plot points that cover the entire span of the work of art in question, that is.

Exactly. The only way to completely avoid spoilers in later merchandise would be to never show any of the character development or new characters ever. That or do a gag a day comic where the characters or cast never ever change. And what happens with Ochul, Tsukiko, Bandana, Miko, Nale, Sabine, Thog, the MitD, or any other character who is introduced? You'd be cutting off massive possibilities for merchandise to say "Only ever display Roy, Belkar, Elan, Haley, Vaarsuvius, and Durkon as they appeared in the first strip."

I think people have a tendency to have a very self centered worldview when it comes to spoilers. The work and the world existed before the newest reader discovers it. If it gets spoiled, oh well. Do they also complain that recent X-men covers spoil the fact that Cyclops is a bad guy now? Or any cover of Avengers with the Legion of the Unliving spoiling every dead Avenger?

[Yendor]

The thing about merchandising and other supplementary material is that it's aimed at people who are already fans. And they're generally going to want that material to be up to date, with their new favourite characters and stories and whatever. Ignoring your current fans because some minority of hypothetical future fans might accidentally see something they don't want to isn't a sensible strategy.

[King of Nowhere]

I fail to see how one would look at the poster without having read the comic first. only chance is if you printed the posters and your brother/spouse/significant other sees it. Which is a fairly low-percentage scenario anyway. And if they are your significant ones and they haven't started reading oots by the time they see the poster, then it's likely they won't change their mind in the future either. So, all things considered, the chances of someone getting spoilered is pretty small