| abstract | - Congratulations! After plenty of Hype Aversion and general laziness, you finally decided to check out that series everyone's talking about. You go to the DVD store, buy the first season, set up your DVD player, turn on the TV, crack open the DVD case and... ... wait a minute. Isn't that a commercial for the latest season? Why is the first season's ruthless and merciless Big Bad being all chummy-chummy with the main protagonists? You mean he's going to turn good?! Feeling annoyed that a major event has just been spoiled for you? Irritated? Enraged? Too bad; the fans and apparently advertisers all agree it's your own fault for not being aware. Basically, a Late Arrival Spoiler is when a particular revelation in a current work is spoiled by official sources and merchandise. This could be due to a number of factors, like the toy division making an action figure of one of the heroes post-Face Heel Turn, or showing them off on the front cover (fandom and unofficial sources do not qualify). In any case, it all boils down to being spoiled because you started too late. Hence, it's a Late Arrival Spoiler. Sometimes hard to avoid in shows that feature major changes in setting and cast line-up that hinge on major plot twists in previous seasons. The Season 1 Big Bad is a major player on the good guys' side in Season 4 -- how exactly are you going to hide that in promos just for the sake of not spoiling the people who haven't watched Season 3 yet? Also a frequent problem in Long Runners and multi-volumes where the story unfolds over a long period of time. If the spoiler in question is common knowledge to people in general, then It Was His Sled. Compare Trailers Always Spoil and Spoiler Opening, when the plot is spoiled before the fans even get their hands on the product, as well as First Episode Spoiler, which tends to be the extreme of this. If it's a little less extreme, hits early but not immediately, it might be a Seventh-Episode Twist. Arguably a subset of All There Is to Know About "The Crying Game". Examples of Late Arrival Spoiler include:
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