There is one thing that a person can do that annoys me more than anything. They’re doing no harm to anyone except themselves. It still makes me crazy. That is, being surprised by historic events in period pieces.
I mean, come on! We live in a world where the wealth of human knowledge is accessible by a device that is never more than feet away from any of us.
A couple of years ago I was watching the show Merlin and mentioned it to a girl I was friends with who decided to watch it as well.
Now, I’m pretty familiar with the broader strokes of the Arthur legend. I took Arthurian lit, I’ve read the books and watched the movies. I’m familiar with what happens over the course of the story. Even if I did not have that depth of knowledge, the Arthur legend is pretty easily accessible.
My friend watched through the show a little faster than I did, I’m not much of a binge watcher, I don’t like to sit still. She texted me one afternoon, LIVID that I had let her watch a show that ended the way that Merlin did. I went ahead and skipped to the final episode, the one that had caused her so much emotional distress and watched through it. Being familiar with the broader strokes of the legend, I was not surprised by the end, though it did include some feelings, I’m not made of stone.
I texted her back. “Its pretty accurate to the legend. How did you expect it to end?”
“THAT’S HOW THE LEGEND ENDS? WHY DO YOU LIKE THIS?”
I don’t remember if I responded or how I responded, but I had no sympathy in the situation. Even if she was unfamiliar with the Arthur legend, why wouldn’t she have familiarized herself with it once she decided that she liked a show based on the story?
It bugs me. It bugs me so much.
I know that Merlin is not a historical piece. I’ve just been thinking about that particular interaction recently. I just started rewatching Reign. I saw the first season when it was coming out but then my life changed a little and I never got the chance to finish it. Now I am rewatching/finishing it. One of the first things I did when I decided I liked the show was hop onto Wikipedia to do some research on the actual historic facts and the people being portrayed.
“You can’t do that! Those are spoilers!”
There are no spoilers when the actual events took place 500 years ago! If you are interested in a show about a point in history or important figures in history what reason can you possibly have not to look into the actual events and lives of those people. You shouldn’t be surprised by actual historical events happening in a period piece that surrounds those historic events.
It’s stupid. It is something I absolutely should not care about. I do. It is probably my biggest pet peeve. If you’re interested in something and you have access to the depth of human knowledge at any given moment, you have no excuse to be surprised by the actual historic events happening.