Top 3 Magic the Gathering Universe Beyond I Want?

3. Vampire the Masquerade

This is a license that I think has a chance, but also doesn’t. Vampire the Masquerade Rivals exists which is supposed to kind of be in a Magic the Gathering spot. That said, I’d love a set of this, and I think it’d drop into the Magic the Gathering system amazingly well.

Mainly, we already have Innistrad, we already have vampires in Magic the Gathering. Compared to the others, it’s something that already exists. Now, this is a more modern setting than Innistrad, so that might be a concern, but you’d be able to use some of the same mechanics for Vampire the Masquerade.

But one thing, that I think people might call out, is the masquerade, how do you make it so it isn’t just vampires fighting vampires. The whole point, or part of it, is that vampires run things from the shadows and want to stay hidden. So, how do you make that work in Magic the Gathering? I think there is a template for that with the ring tempting the ring bearer in Lord of the Rings set. It’s a tracker to see if you break the masquerade. So you can improve it, get it further from breaking, but as you attack it might get closer. So it’d be a balancing act which I think would be fun.

While Vampire the Masquerade is my #3, I think out of the three it’d be the easiest to do in Magic the Gathering.

2. Wheel of Time

With a lot of these, it’s hard to come up with an in game reason why they would be fighting each other. That’s the issue with a lot of IP’s, they are built around stories. But we just saw a massively successful one where it doesn’t make sense in Lorcana. Even Lord of the Rings or Doctor Who it won’t always make sense. So I just need to assume that logic is out the windows.

The nice thing with Wheel of Time is that you have different groups throughout that you can play around with. The Aes Sedai, Rand’s group, some of the bad guy groups, Aiel, and more. What does is it builds out a systems where you can create synergies between certain groups and work better with each other versus with other groups. So from that perspective I think it could work. And if it’s just a straight up battle, that would make sense for at times in the story with almost any group fighting the others. Or you could have them going up against dark friends and dark ones to do better than the other team.

But in the world of Magic the Gathering, I think it’d work. Plenty of groups to build commander decks around. And there are plenty of interesting characters to draw from.

1. Sword Art Online

Now, I think there are other anime that would get done first. With the success of the live action One Piece show, that’s the one I could have scene. But anime’s are generally pretty stingy on giving out their licensing for stuff, especially for something that isn’t just their thing. And One Piece technically has a TCG out, but not one that’s even close to the name recognition of Magic the Gathering.

But Sword Art Online, on of my favorite anime, I think could work as a trading card game. Possibly a player versus the game set-up game. Or there is dueling within the first season and the world of Aincrad. So let you take on heroes and characters from Aincrad and face off against one another, build up decks with abilities to augment what your characters can do. And let you switch heroes out, if you meet a condition they can jump in and take over the attack, like in the show.

In terms of Universes Beyond, I think switching would just be a flip card that you could have as a commander. And it’d likely break the game in some way that Magic hasn’t done before. But that’s what Magic the Gathering does regularly anyways, add in something new that changes up how the game works. And Universes Beyond are actually a decent testing ground for that.

What Set Would You Want?

I know that some of the upcoming ones might interest people that are already coming. There is Final Fantasy, Doctor Who releasing today, and Assassin’s Creed, all worlds and IP’s that people enjoy. But is there one that they haven’t announced you’d be interested in.

More generically, probably not in Universes Beyond, I’d like a set where they lean into Gundam. Giant powered machines doing the combat and being able to play around with that and piloting them, adding on mods to them, things like that. It’d feel different, but in the mechanics of Magic the Gathering, I feel like it’d work quite well.

Let me know your thoughts or favorite one.

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We see here two tweets that got me thinking about this topic. And it’s not a topic that I’ve been ignorant of, in fact, it’s one that I think about fairly often. And the first tweet is much more general than just board games, but Rodney Smith talks about how it matters with board games as well in his video.

The Golden Rule of Being a Fan

We start today in an interesting place. I won’t directly touch on the topic, because I think we as fans of things need to consider what I hope is what we all want.

We want more people to find joy in our fandoms.

Basically, the rule, as is said simply up there, we want more people to join into our fandom. We want more people to love and find joy in the things we love and find joy in. The more people who find joy in the things we find joy in, the more we have in common with people, and the more we can share the joys of our life. That is the ideal that I hold for being a fan and one that I hope that fandoms as a whole can agree upon.

Where It Goes Wrong

However, it often goes wrong. And Rodney talks about it with board games, and I’m going to talk about it in that light as well generally, but this covers a lot of things. It tends to go wrong when current fans expect other people to be fans in the same way they are fans.

A board game example, a person who loves euro games might look down upon a new gamer who likes lighter games like Munchkin. A television example, a Doctor Who fan might look down on someone who prefers Peter Capaldi to David Tennant as the Doctor. A movie example, a Star Wars fan might look down on a new Star Wars fan who enjoys the prequel trilogy.

You can see how it works, because someone doesn’t enjoy the fandom in the exact way that someone else does, it isn’t as good. Their enjoyment of the fandom is less valid than the person who has been the fan longer or is the fan in the “right way”.

How We Tackle This

I could have spent more time on the negative, because it gets me annoyed. Rodney Smith is one of the nicest people out there and you see how passionate he is about the issue. But I see too many other posts who will just talk about the negative aspect and not about how we can help change things. And honestly, we need to change things. We look at big aggressions or slip ups and they are bad, like the gamers who scoff at female gamers, or similar to that, and we point fingers and call those people horrible. But it’s extremely insidious and easy to step on someone’s excitement out of a place that looks like it’s better. It is equally as harmful though to getting new people into the fandom or hobby.

The most common example of this is, and again going to board games, a conversation on Facebook or Twitter that goes something like this.

Newbie: “I’m so excited I just picked up Munchkin, I’m so excited to play it.”

Person in Hobby: “Munchkin sucks.”

Person 2 in Hobby: “Have fun with that game.”

Person 3 in Hobby: “Munchkin isn’t a good game, you should play Scythe instead.”

Written out like this, you can easily see what the issue is. The newbie is excited for their new game, they are probably just getting into games and like lighter fare that is closer to what they have played before. The first response is just bad. If you don’t like the game, great, don’t step on someone else’s fun and excitement. The second response is probably fine, I through that one in there to make it look more realistic in responses. The third one is also bad because again it’s negative and ruining someone’s fun. It hedges itself in being positive by giving unsolicited and not useful advice. If this person posting their excitement is truly new to the hobby, Scythe is not a jumping in point, or whatever the person’s favorite game might be.

It might seem weird, but I’ve seen all of these responses and more negative ones. Why doe we like to be negative about things and ruin other people’s joy? As Rodney says in his video: “It’s not special not to like something.” Maybe it’s a power play, but honestly, I think most of the time it’s because people are excited or excited and disappointed might be better. They see someone say, “I got a new game” and they think it’ll be something maybe they’ve been interested in and then when it isn’t get they get disappointed. I think that this is where especially comments like “X isn’t good, try Y instead” come from. The person is trying to get their excitement back by getting someone to agree with them or to like their thing. But to the person who posted, it’s just negative.

So what’s better? To quote Thumper from Bambi: “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” Honestly, it’s that simple, there is nothing that requires you to respond to a tweet or Facebook post on something you don’t like. In fact, it’s 99% of the time better to ignore them and show support to things you do like. A newbie to a hobby or fandom will generally gravitate towards the parts that are positive and away from the parts that are negative, as most people will. But if there is too much negative, a newbie might just leave a hobby or fandom. If you do feel compelled to respond, let’s see a better response.

Newbie: “I’m so excited I just picked up Munchkin, I’m so excited to play it.”

Person in Hobby: “That’s awesome, I hope you enjoy it.”

Doesn’t say that you like the game, but you are wishing joy upon the person and eventually, maybe that person will agree with you that Munchkin isn’t great and they want to play Scythe, but let them get there and let them grow into the hobby instead of pushing away.

But let’s look at another situation:

Newbie: “I’m thinking about getting Munchkin, is it a good game?”

Person in Hobby: “Munchkin sucks.”

Person 2 in Hobby: “I used to like Munchkin.”

Person 3 in Hobby: “Munchkin isn’t good, you should get Scythe.”

Now, I went with all wrong answers here. Now, the person who started asked for an opinion on Munchkin, saying Munchkin sucks is an opinion, but doesn’t give any information nor is it said in a constructive or useful way. It’s aggressively negative for no good reason. The second one is saying the same as the first, just in a much nicer way. And the third one, the person asked for advice, but it was about Munchkin, not about Scythe or whatever the person’s favorite game again.

It falls into the same lines as the other example above and reasoning as to why those are not good responses. Let’s say that you really don’t like Munchkin, what is a better response?

Newbie: “I’m thinking about getting Munchkin, is it a good game?”

Person in Hobby: “I’m not a big fan of Munchkin, I don’t like how much take that there is in it. If your group likes that sort of thing though, it’d probably work for you.”

The big difference, it’s a nicely stated that the person doesn’t like the game. They only talk about the game the person asked about. And they gave a reason why they don’t like it. I even wrapped it up with an encouraging thing clarifying that for some people the game will work.

One final example that I see often as well:

Newbie: “I’m just getting into the hobby. I have Catan, Ticket to Ride, Munchkin, and Exploding Kittens, what game do you think I’d like?”

Person in Hobby: “Those games suck.”

Person 2 in Hobby: “I remember when I liked those games.”

Person 3 in Hobby: “Scythe”

Again, it’s fairly easy to see what is wrong with these. They are very negative, two don’t answer the question and they tell the person they are doing it wrong. At least the first two do, the third one is just Scythe again. And it might seem like I’m picking Scythe, but honestly it’s one I see a lot of people use, I could also say my favorite game as well, Gloomhaven. But it’s also not useful to suggest massive games that the person would struggle with. It’s possibly less hurtful than the other two, but can push people away because it’ll make them feel inferior if they try a big game like Scythe or Gloomhaven and are overwhelmed by it because of what they have played before.

Then answering a question like this, think of it as stepping stones. You might want them to play Scythe, but that means you need to help get them there, taking the same steps that basically every gamer did from Classic Games to Modern Classics to Hobby Games to Scythe. If you need help with that, here’s a bit of a cheat sheet.

So what’s a better response?

Newbie: “I’m just getting into the hobby. I have Catan, Ticket to Ride, Munchkin, and Exploding Kittens, what game do you think I’d like?”

Person in Hobby: “Hmmm… I think that Five Tribes or Small World could be interesting for you.”

Person 2 in Hobby: “Good question, what do you like about those games? Something like Potion Explosion could be interesting, maybe if you like the set collecting and completing stuff parts of Catan and Ticket to Ride.”

Pretty easy to see how these are better. They give suggestions in line with or a bit more complex with that the person has played before. I think it’s always good to ask clarifying questions as well. The second person asks the general question of what is liked, but then gives a specific element of both Catan and Ticket to Ride, set collection in their reasoning. That sort of engagement makes the new person feel more involved in the hobby and in the group.

Go Forth and Grow the Fandom

Now, we are all going to slip up on this. I know that I do it from time to time as well. For me, it is something I intentionally don’t want to propagate throughout a hobby or a fandom that I love, this negative response. And I truly believe that most gamers, most fans, they want their hobby to grow. With that, I do believe there is a bit of letting go of your fandom or hobby just like you hold it. That can be hard, but when you can do that, your hobby and fandoms will grow. You will learn new things and see things in a new way, and it’ll strengthen your own joy in a fandom or hobby. I hope in the upcoming years we see more fans of board games grow and more fans of every fandom come into light and that we can all enjoy those similar things in our own way remembering that just because someone likes something a bit different than you, it doesn’t have a negative impact on your own joy.

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But we’re all familiar with zombies in popular culture. The Walking Dead both as a comic and a TV show really brought them into the limelight and turned what was just a bunch of shambling monsters into something more terrifying where the humans might be the monsters. But we still kept getting the more standard zombies as well with movies like Shaun of the Dead. But The Walking Dead was really the show that let zombies expand. And even hit board games where the popular Dead of Winter gives you a potential traitor in your midst and everyone being selfish to some extent.

There has to be a lot beyond that, so what are some other things you can check out?

Book/Movie – Pride, Prejudice and Zombies
This one people might be more familiar with. It did have a movie come out and while it wasn’t an extremely successful movie to pick up on the zombie theme, it was advertised. But I think that the movie and book are worth checking out. Pride, Prejudice and Zombies is a lot of fun because while it twists the story from Pride and Prejudice, it stays true to many of the themes. It still has the sarcasm and it takes itself seriously. Even though the world is in the midst of a zombie apocalypse (or at least England is), there are certain principles of being a lady and a gentleman that can never truly be done away with. It’s a funny juxtaposition of those two things, and is something that Jane Austen did in her own work.

Game – Zombicide Black Plague
While this isn’t a unheard of game in the board gaming world, it does take on more of a classic zombie feel. You’re fighting off endless hordes of zombies in various scenarios that might just be about killing zombies but might have more going on as well. I have the Green Horde stand alone expansion for the game where you can get some orcs into the world as well, so there’s magic as well as zombies. There’s also Zombicide and Zombicide 2nd Edition that put it in a more modern setting, I went with Black Plague for the list because Zombicide, the original, has some issues with it, and the 2nd Edition I don’t believe is out yet. But if you want to be in one of those movies where you’re dealing with wave after wave of zombie trying to survive, but you’re not worried about the people as much as the zombies, this one’s worth a look.

TV Series – iZombie
Obviously the big TV show is The Walking Dead, but this show based off of a Vertigo comic by the same name and produced by the producer of Veronica Mars is a lot of fun. Liv Moore, get it, is turned into a zombie and now her perfect life of planning to become a doctor and getting married has to be put on hold. Not only is she a zombie, she realizes that she gains memories and knowledge that the person whose brain she eats at last, so she goes to work for the police, in their morgue, and can get access to brains to help solve cases. It has a bit of a procedural nature to it, but a lot more fun. And there’s a good supporting cast of characters around her. The villain of the show is really good. CW also didn’t mess with this show like they did with Veronica Mars, which keeps the show stronger throughout.

Movie – Cockneys vs Zombies
So the first time I went to a con, CONvergence in Minneapolis/St. Paul area, I went at the last minute because they were screening Cockneys vs Zombies and I was following the writer of it on Twitter since he’d also worked on Doctor Who. This is a good, absurd, and British zombie movie. I really highly recommend this one as it just has some wonderful moments in it. While I wouldn’t call the story anything amazing, I think that they did a great job of adding in a few expected jokes, but is clever ways. Possibly the best moment, and spoilers so you can skim ahead to the next heading if you want, is there is a nursing home/assisted living home, and when the zombies come there, one of the residents is outside. Of course that resident is slow and has a walker, so we get a great slow speed, high intensity chase as a zombie slowly shambles after the resident who is slowly walking using his walker. And that’s not the only joke that works well, definitely a zombie comedy worth checking out.

Game – Zombie Dice
When you want a faster game to play, Zombie Dice is a simple game in the style of Farkle or other dice games. You’re rolling dice, pushing your luck to see how many brains you can get, but if you push your luck too much, you can get shot, and if you get shot you don’t collect the brains you’ve gathered this round. The game is very simple but it works well in decent sized groups because turns take a few seconds and you just need to remember your total of brains. It’s one that works well with families as well, again because of the simplicity.

Book – Chemistry
Now, I don’t know much about this series, Kristen is the one who has read it and loves it. I’m just hearing about it through her. From what it sounds like, it has elements of being a Twilight Parody but with zombies instead of vampires. And that the writing and characters are more interesting and better. And that’s coming from Kristen who still enjoys the Twilight Saga for the cheesiness that it is. This book, and series, just do have a similar story but in a more interesting way with more developed characters. So if that sort of fiction interests you, I know that Kristen and other she’s read it with, have enjoyed the books a lot.

Now, there are a whole lot more zombie themed things out there. Some of them are more serious and plenty of them are pretty silly. I wanted to highlight some that are maybe a bit more well known while others that are a bit more out there, that is you’re a zombie fan you could checkout. What are some of your favorite zombie things?

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5 – Futurama
Yes, it’s an animated show that had a weird break in the show, but I love it. The humor is great in the show and for a show that is a comedy, there are so many heartfelt moments that tug at your heart strings, it’s very impressive. And for all of that, you still have Bender and Zoidberg who are generally just weird. I think what works so well in Futurama is that it feels like it relevant to life without taking time to bring up specific real world events. Other animated shows lose some of the timeless quality that Futurama has, because they try and talk directly about the real world instead of talking generally, over all, it’s a show that I can sit down and watch most episodes over and over.

4 – Supernatural
There have been a few seasons of Supernatural at this point, and I’m a few seasons behind at this point. But the fact they’ve been able to keep it going so long and while it isn’t always extremely new and fresh, they have done a ton of different things with the show. I like how it has transitioned between strong horror elements and then lighter episodes and seasons that are meant to be more self aware and goofy. I think it shows that the show has evolved over time, even if the characters seem to have stayed pretty similar throughout the whole show. Will I ever get caught up on Supernatural, who knows, but the episodes that I have watched, I really enjoyed the show, and that was around 10 seasons worth.

3 – Dark
I haven’t watched the second season of this yet, and I feel bad about that, but the first season was so amazing. I love the idea of time travel in stories, and sometimes they manage to get it right, Dark gets it right. This show is so extremely thematic and atmospheric that you get sucked into it from the very beginning. Downside is that I think it’s best with subtitles, not dubbed, but if you can get past that fact, the story is really engaging and weird. Definitely one that I need to get back to soon and start from the beginning and go straight through season 2. The downside to the show is that it is dark, so while I watched it in the later parts of winter, it can be a bit depressing to watch.

2 – Psych
Some of it as to why Psych has dropped is that there hasn’t been any new Psych, but we’re getting a new movie in 2020, so that might push it back up again. But Psych is a show that I can sit down and with the exception of the first season which I’ve seen so many times, I can watch and enjoy basically any episode. The humor is great, the stories are absurd and fun, and overall they just get the show right. The chemistry between the characters is really good as well. I also love the references to different bits of older pop culture that are strewn throughout almost every episode and different spoofs of movies and TV shows that they do in their episodes as well.

1 – Stranger Things
With three seasons under it’s belt, I can definitely say that this is my favorite show. Every season has been good, and I think through three seasons, I can only think of one episode that’s been bad. The kids on bikes aspect of the show as well as the other circles of people are really well done. The characters all have issues and flaws and the monsters are generally pretty disturbing. I like the 80’s feel of the show, and I really like how it takes horror tropes from that time and runs with them in interesting ways. Overall, it wasn’t close for my favorite show.

Kind of a weird combination of shows, let’s see if my honorable mentions help clear it up at all?

Honorable Mention:
Rain
The Simpsons
Grimm
Doctor Who
The IT Crowd

There are a lot of good shows out there which have just fell to the wayside for me. Killjoys was a ton of fun to watch, but I’m behind on that one now. The Mandalorian is coming out and while the show has been great thus far, it’s not even done with one season yet, so I couldn’t put it on my list. What are some shows that you really enjoy?

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But in that top 10 for TV shows, Kristen had Doctor Who on the list. And she thought that I might have it on my list, but it wasn’t even in my honorable mentions. And if you look at my top 5’s that I’ve done at the end of every year, you’ve been able to see that falling on that list and then off that list.

What does that mean for me having liked that show? Is it okay to have something fall off for you as a fan? And should you feel bad about not being as much of a fan anymore?

Let’s start with the first question, because that has a lot to unpack. What does that mean for me (or you) as a fan of something for a long time and it falling off our list of fandoms we’re big into? And also let’s toss in if we should feel bad about not being a fan anymore as well to our questions.

I think that there are several different emotions that can come through with this process. Both that I can think of easily are betrayal, but from different directions. First, as a fan, when our interest starts to wain in fandom, we can feel like we are being betrayed by the fandom. We want to keep enjoying it, but it isn’t enjoyable to us anymore for whatever the reason might be, and we feel like the show isn’t, but should be, doing what we want and need it to do to keep our interest. There can be plenty of reasons why it doesn’t keep our interests or meet our needs anymore. It can because of the fan base, it can be because of the show/movie/book/comic/etc. itself where the quality or the storyline has changed to not match our expectations, or it can be because we’ve changed our place in life or our mindset in life, and now the fandom doesn’t meet our needs anymore. The feeling that it betrayed us can also lead to resentment for what it did previously. Sometimes this is valid, but most of the time, we need to remember that the betrayal we’re feeling about where it’s ended up doesn’t undo what we used to love about it, and doesn’t invalidate our good times with the fandom before.

But, you can also feel like you are betraying the fandom. That’s why I combined two of the questions here, because as a fan, we often have to deal with our own emotions of feeling like we need to force ourselves to like something still, or if we don’t like something anymore, we are betraying it. As fans though, it isn’t our requirement to like something and it isn’t reasonable to think that we won’t have changing tastes throughout our lives. Also, if the thing we’re a fan of is good, even if it’s not for us anymore, it’s going to be growing, and fans will be being added, maybe not as fast as we’d hope, but us leaving the fandom isn’t going to cause the fandom to crumble. And the fandom, as a whole, isn’t going to be insulted that we don’t like something anymore. And even our friends in the fandom, if they are true friends, aren’t going to be resentful if we don’t love it like we used to. Now, I will add in the caveat that we need to be respectful when we leave, this comes back to remembering our good times with something and not letting our current feelings invalidate what has been before.

Let’s tackle that last question quickly as well, is it fine to stop being a fan of something?

The answer to that should be pretty obvious, the answer is yes. People change as they grow in life, as they develop new interests, and as what they are of a fan of changes. We shouldn’t feel like we are betraying something or being betrayed by it, because change is a natural progression of life. And while it might feel like you won’t find something the same or that you’re leaving something important behind, you’ll find things to replace it. I used to be much more into movies than I am now, or Doctor Who as the example was to start, but, let’s go with movies. The reason that I’m less into movies now is that with a 7 month old, it’s harder to watch movies and sleep. Movies are simply too often too long, and while I make an exception for Marvel movies pretty often, I’m much more apt to watch TV (and recorded TV shows at that), because two episodes is an hour and a half which is shorter than a lot of movies.

Another reason it’s fine to stop being a fan of something, is that you might come back to it. I might come back to Doctor Who. I might come back to movies, it’s just a season in my life where these things aren’t as meaningful to me. We have to remember as fans of stuff, that just because we stop liking something doesn’t mean that we can’t come back to it. And if someone we know leaves a fandom and then wants to come back later, we need to be welcoming. I think that can be an intimidating piece that keeps fans in a fandom longer than they’d want, because they are worried about getting back into it, if their fandom is peaked again.

It’s a tough topic to write about in some ways. I think with Doctor Who, there was just enough effort keeping up with it that it made falling away from it pretty easy. But thinking about it, the seasons and episodes that I do love, I do want to watch again sometime. So it isn’t like I’ve completely divorced myself from Doctor Who, and I’m sure at some point in time I’ll be back to it as something draws me back in, but when that happens, that will be the time. I can’t spend time feeling bad for any reason, because there are so many other great things to be a fan of.

What is something that you’ve had your fandom wain on? Did you feel bad about it, like it was betraying you or you were betraying it?

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So besides the cute title, what am I getting at in an article about spoilers?

Part of me wants to try and define a set of rules for when something is still a spoiler or not. When has it been around long enough that it’s fair game and when should you talk in hushed tones about something.

This comes up with Avengers: Endgame coming out in a week basically and people, for good reason, not wanting to be spoiled on what happens. It also comes up right now because there have been massive spoilers posted on Twitter, including leaked footage at this point time, and it’s still just over a week away.

I’ve defined a little bit of what a spoiler is, but let’s nail down a definition.

A spoiler is an element of a disseminated summary or description of any piece of fiction that reveals any plot elements which threaten to give away important details. Typically, the details of the conclusion of the plot, including the climax and ending, are especially regarded as spoiler material. It can also be used to refer to any piece of information regarding any part of a given media that a potential consumer was not intended to know beforehand. Because enjoyment of fiction depends a great deal upon the suspense of revealing plot details through standard narrative progression, the prior revelation of how things will turn out can “spoil” the enjoyment that some consumers of the narrative would otherwise have experienced.

Wikipedia

That’s a pretty long definition from Wikipedia there, but I think it covers it really well. To cut that down, it is spoiling anything related to the plot that is shared with the consumer of the plot by an outside point prior to the consumer getting to that point of the plot. Generally, I think that does spoil the anticipation for something knowing information about it head of time.

By that definition, technically any time someone is consuming that plot for the first time, no matter when the plot was created, you can spoil it for the person. However, in order for people to be able to converse and discuss the book, movie, show, audio drama, whatever it might be, you can’t worry indefinitely about spoiling the plot for people. I think that is where the tricky point in setting up rules around spoilers is, because, the joke of Bruce Willis seeing dead people in The Sixth Sense is actually a spoiler for me, but I don’t care, and probably a spoiler for some others, but because of how long ago that movie came out, that has to be fair game at some point in time to discuss.

Let’s talk about two upcoming/ongoing things and what sort of time frame they have on spoilers. The two things are Avengers: Endgame and then Game of Thrones. Both of these have a massive focus in the public eye, and because of that there will be spoilers but more so, there will be a ton of people wanting to talk about them. So how do you handle talking about things like that?

Firstly, I would always ask if everyone is caught up on Game of Thrones (or any sort of show) or has seen the movie before diving into the discussion. And this is talking about the immediate time frame. Especially close to when the episode or movie has come out, because some people aren’t able to see it immediately, even if they do really care about the story. And then respect that if people haven’t seen it or read it yet.

Next, I would set aside space and time when you can talk about it. You won’t be able to talk about it with everyone, but create a time, with people who have seen it at a mainly private location to talk about it. There’s always the temptation to go out after watching a movie and grab drinks and talk about it, you will spoil something for someone one. It is important to discuss and talk about pieces of media, but be considerate of where you do that, even if everyone in your group is up for talking about it, those around you might not be, and in that short time frame, it’s very possible that you will spoil something for someone else.

This one is especially true in movie theaters. I haven’t had it happen, but I have heard of it happening. Someone coming in for the next showing has the end of the movie spoiled by someone leaving. Wait until you are in your car before talking about it. If you can’t contain your excitement with the movie, talk about it generally. “That was amazing.” or “That was underwhelming” are fine, but saying that Captain America kissed Wonder Woman as they flew the Millennium Falcon into at the Reaver ship and just escaped the explosion by hopping into the TARDIS and going to Vulcan, just a bit too detailed. However, if I heard someone saying that when leaving Avengers: Endgame, that would be hilarious.

Finally, do give it some time before talking about it freely. Something like Game of Thrones and Avengers: Endgame, I would say when the DVD/Blu-Ray’s come out for each of them respectively, then they are fair game to talk about. At that point in time, someone who couldn’t make it to the theater, for whatever reason, is going to have more options to watch it and less excuses for having not watched it. Even then, I would still be respectful and keep an eye out for people who might not have seen it yet, because there are plenty of reasons why someone might not have seen a movie yet.

What I didn’t talk about in here was social media and online. How do you deal with spoilers then? For social media, I’d say it’s simple, don’t post spoilers publicly for the movie/show until it’s after the DVD/Blu-Ray is out. There isn’t a good way to really tag them as spoilers so that people can avoid them. On forums, I know one that I’m on will have two threads. One for general thoughts on the movie, and another for spoiler filled thoughts. I even, in my review of Avengers: Infinity War, did a non-spoiler and spoiler review, and I’ll be doing the same for Avengers: Endgame. And one important thing will be for me to remember to put enough header section at the top so that in article blurbs, spoilers aren’t shown.

So how do you deal with spoilers? Do you have any additional rules that I haven’t talked about? Do you think you should always ask before spoiling something no matter how long ago it was?

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1 Psych
Pretty easy choice for me, easier than some previous years, but Psych is just that perfect blend of parody/satire that I can really enjoy. The whole premise just works as well, someone who is hyper observant helps the police while pretending to be a psychic in a comedy format. The characters are also really good as well. They all grow and develop over time while not changing who they are as core characters.

2 Stranger Things
Creepy and classic, Stranger Things is probably a show that everyone knows about, but is so well done. It follows around different groups of people through the town of Hawkins as crazy things are going on in the town. It pulls from horror greats like Stephen King, John Carpenter, and others. It’s definitely my cup of tea as well because it takes place in the 80’s, and I’ve always just enjoyed that aesthetic.

3 Dark
While Stranger Things has that creepy classic horror vibe feel, Dark is actually just creepy and so well done. In the US it is on Netflix, and I’m not sure where it was released in it’s original German. I would say that you should watch it with sub-titles if you can because some line in English can be half as long or twice as long as it takes to say in German.  I’m always on the lookout for good Time Travel and Dark does an amazing job with it. It could be a tough show to watch for some people though because it is very thematic and deals with dark themes, as the name would imply. I’m waiting on the second season,  hard to believe it will be as good as the first, but one can hope.

4 Supernatural
This is a show that I’m not completely caught up, but the adventures and monsters that the Winchester brothers have to face off against just makes a good show. I like the horror aspects of it, the monster of the week, and the really campy nature of some seasons as well. I can’t say that I’ve loved every season of Supernatural, there have been so many and they can get a little bit repetitive, but they tend to do a good job of having enough unique episodes and evolving the show over time that it works well.  If you aren’t in for the campy or you aren’t in for the horror, the show might not be for you, because it does both at different points in times throughout the various seasons.

5 Stargate: SG1
This show almost made my list last year, and after watching the very first episode again after a long time, it reminded me of why I like it. There’s the nostalgia of it as it was the first big Sci-Fi epics that I watched. And then it goes all over the map, but they do a good job of creating an interesting story throughout most of the seasons, and there is a certain campiness that I enjoyed about it. While there are certainly better critically acclaimed Sci-Fi shows out there, SG1 is my favorites.

Another tough list to make and a lot of change. The biggest thing is that Doctor Who has fallen off of my list. There are just so many shows that putting down a list of 5 was hard to do.

Honorable Mentions:
Doctor Who
iZombie
Futurama
Eureka
The Librarians

What are some of your favorite shows? Are there any shows on the list that I have that you want to check out? Or do you have suggestions for shows that I might like based off of my top 5?

And like Peder, I primarily watch TV when I want some escapist fun, and that comes in many different forms that are hard to even really compare. I mean, one day I might be in the mood for a fantastical show; another day I might want to watch sci-fi; and at another time, I might want to watch a few episodes of a drama. I enjoy all those (extremely different) things about equally; it just depends on what sort of mood I’m in.

All that is to say that the rankings in this list are somewhat arbitrary, and might change depending on the day you ask me. Regardless, these are the five TV series that rise to the top of my list:

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To finish things off, I have to include some honorable mentions that were *this* close to making it on the list: Pushing Daisies (an absolute delight that ended way too soon), Firefly (the best space cowboy show ever), Outlander (three words: ALL THE FEELS), Community (just stupid-hilarious), Silicon Valley (the most fun I’ve ever had being stressed out and having secondhand embarrassment), Bob’s Burgers (way better than it has any right to be), and Sherlock (smart, sexy, and absolutely legendary).

Do any of your favorites overlap with mine? What TV shows would make it into your top 5?

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I didn’t talk about this last time, so I’ll mention it now — what criteria do I have for picking my favorites for a top five list? First for me is enjoyment of the thing — which is obvious; if I don’t enjoy it, why would I have it on my list? But that enjoyment can come in many different forms. For example, with Lord of the Rings, I enjoy it because of how it shaped the works of fantasy that came after it, and because it’s a great trilogy, but when I compare it to something like Dresden Files, it’s clear that I enjoy them in different ways. For example, there’s more humor with the Dresden Files, and there is a more enjoyable escapism element for me with those books. Then compare that with Swallows and Amazons, which is a children’s/young adult book that hasn’t really influenced anything — while there’s a fantasy aspects to the series, you know it’s just the kids’ imaginations. Another of my criteria is how absorbed I get into the book/show/movie/game. Is it a form of escapism for me? If it is, it’s probably going to be higher on the list because something new, exciting, and fantastical that I can escape into is always fun.

So with that out of the way, here are my top 5 TV Series:

Quickly, some honorable mentions that I hated leaving off of the list. Stargate SG1 is a fun long-running sci-fi show. Haven is a show based off of Stephen King’s work that is more supernatural-feeling than horror. South Park is an irreverent show that takes the lowest common denominator all the time and is still one of the smartest shows you’ll watch. Warehouse 13, Killjoys, Firefly, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer are all a lot of fun as well.

What are your five favorite TV series?

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Does thinking of what I can’t get in the midst of all I can get make me a selfish, gluttonous TV-watcher? Definitely. However, I have a feeling I’m not alone in this sentiment. For every show we love that faithfully turns out fresh episodes every season, there’s one that takes two or three years to release anything new (I’m looking at you, BBC…).

So what’s a fan to do during these new-episode droughts? Well, as someone who’s experienced that pain many times over at the hands of shows like Doctor Who, Sherlock, and Outlander, I have a few ideas up my sleeve. Such as…

Rewatch favorite episodes

This one is obvious, but a tried-and-true choice. When your craving for that one great show just can’t be satisfied by anything else, find a way to get a hold of some previous episodes (via on-demand, reruns [if they even do those anymore??], your DVD collection, library copies, etc.) and set up a little “greatest hits” marathon for yourself. Though there may be nothing new to take in, you’ll always enjoy revisiting your favorites, and might even catch something new the second (or third…or fourth…or…who’s counting??) time around. You want to be a bit careful with this one, as it can be a bit of a slippery slope, but it’s a good method to use in moderation.

Try new shows similar to the one you’re waiting for

Unlike my first suggestion, this one allows you to both enjoy the kind of feels you get from the show you can’t watch while getting to branch out and take in something new by watching the ones you can. There are lots of ways to do this — you can use sites like this one that suggest new shows based on ones you’ve seen, you can ask friends who also like the stalled show if they know of any other good ones like it, or you can take the super easy (and somewhat risky) route of watching what Netflix/Hulu/Amazon Prime/etc. suggests based on your previously watched shows. You’ll likely find this method to be a bit hit-and-miss, but you never know — you just might find a new favorite along the way.

Visit fan forums and sites

With any show hiatus comes a legion of fans who are at turns excited for the new episodes to arrive and outraged that time isn’t passing more quickly until that day comes. And thanks to the internet, it’s easier than ever to find those legions and have a good venting/reminiscing/speculating session with them. Search for forums and fan pages for the show in question, jump in, and get talking! Besides being a great way to let off some steam, this is also a chance to make friends (even though they’re usually long-distance ones) with people who share your interests. I’ll spare you the obligatory “be careful giving out your info on the internet” speech, as it feels much too 2002-suburban-mom for my taste, but just use a little common sense and go to it!

Write some fan fiction (or do some fan art)!

I can practically see you guys rolling your eyes at me, but hear me out. While this solution may seem to be one for the truly desperate, it’s a really fun and — unlike most other methods — productive way to revisit your favorite show while you’re waiting for new stuff. If you’re artistically or linguistically inclined, try your hand at a little AU fan fiction, draw your interpretation of your favorite scene, or write a story based on what you think is going to happen next in the show (or, better yet, what you wish would happen but know will never actually take place). If the idea of putting pen to paper makes you cringe, search DeviantArt.com or any number of the endless fan fiction sites out there for the great stuff (or not-so-great stuff…hey, we don’t judge) that others are creating. These things may not fill the Game of Thrones-shaped hole in your heart, but they’ll be entertaining at the very least, and could even lead you to generate some great new ideas of your own.

These are a few ideas for things to do while waiting for new seasons of your favorite shows to come out, but I’m sure there are lots of others! What’s your favorite way to combat the show hiatus blues? Tell us about it in the comments!

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