All The Tropes:Handling Spoilers: Difference between revisions

* Spoiler tagging a pronoun is bad form. Yes, you want to hide the gender of the person in question, or it otherwise would be obvious, but do you really think it's impossible to see the difference between {{spoiler|he}} and {{spoiler|she}}? English language has a genderless pronoun: it's "they". There's debate as to whether it's grammatically correct, but it is still widely used, so you might as well use it, or rephrase.

* Consider how you structure the example; if you must provide material in spoiler tags and cannot get around it, then rather than scattering the spoiler material throughout the example (which is untidy and difficult to read), consider phrasing it so that a brief, non-spoilering summary or context of the example is followed with the spoiler-tagged material at the end; {{spoiler|Something like this, for example. It looks neater and easier to read from an aesthetic viewpoint, there is sufficient context provided for those who don't want to view the spoiler to understand at a glance why the example belongs on the page, and all the spoilers are conveniently located together for anyone who wants to highlight them, while being easy to avoid for those who don't.}}

* Don't tempt the reader, or leave clues in the specific thing spoiled. If you're saying "But it turns out the killer was Alice", don't put down "But it turns out the killer was {{spoiler|Alice}}" Sometimes (for example) "Alice" is the only person with that short a name in the cast - thus making it obvious. Sometimes you're better off just covering up the whole sentence.

* Don't use spoiler text as the equivalent of putting something in parentheses.

'''So Horrible I Think It Gave Me Cancer:''' Odds are, playing through ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' for the first time, you will come to despise the Fanatics Tower. It's not ''too'' bad if you're prepared for what's coming, but unless you're [[Guide Dang It|consulting a walkthrough or strategy guide]], it '''will''' get you. The Tower itself is highly uninteresting in terms of layout, consisting only of a climb up innumerable staircases with the odd treasure room and many, '''many''' [[Random Encounters]]. Adding to this difficulty, one can only fight with magic in this tower, and cannot attack normally (unless berserked, in which case it's all a person can do) nor use special abilities. The enemies similarly attack only with magic, making Wall Rings or constant Reflect spells a must. After fighting your way up this tower, you will fight the boss, who will put up a fairly tough fight, but far from an impossible one... {{spoiler|until he dies. When that happens, he delivers a parting shot: Ultima, one of the most powerful spells in the game. Odds are very good you won't survive this, and if you're not prepared with Life 3 or a helluva lot of [[Level Grinding|levels]], you will die from this. Since there are no save points in the tower, you will have to start the long ascent all over again!}} Congratulations! You've just wasted the last x number of hours of your life! Try again! However, {{spoiler|there IS an easier way to get through the tower, [[Guide Dang It|if you're psychic enough to know]] that when you locate a character and get him to rejoin your party, the spot he was standing on has a somewhat [[Game Breaker|Game Breaking]] item that will eliminate random encounters, making the hours-long climb take mere minutes instead.}} But again, you have to [[Guide Dang It|somehow know]] that this item is there despite no obvious signs of it at all ever anywhere within the game.

 

 

{{color|white|Even though the supersecretspoiler tag has been removed, you can just use white text if you feel it's really necessary, though. Note that this will not show up even if you have your profile set to always show spoilers, and most people won't even know it's there, so use it ''very'' sparingly.}}