The “Game of Thrones” Superfans Who Want to Ruin it for Everybody

The Free Folk of Reddit live for spoilers, and don’t care if you can't handle it.

Illustration by Yimeisgreat

Ever since she was a kid, Steph Bailey has read the last page of a book first. Some readers love surprises, but Bailey finds suspense anxiety-inducing. She reads books exhaustively, exploring every nook and cranny, digging through the text in search of deeper meaning. Knowing the ending focuses her search, allowing her to discover things that normally might have taken two or three readings to discern. While some run from spoilers, she welcomes them with open arms.

“Instead of wondering what’s going to happen,” she says, “I wonder how they’re going to get to the final curtain.”

In September and October 2016, a Reddit user named awayforthelads posted synopses for every episode of season seven of “Game of Thrones,” the HBO fantasy series whose appeal is partly founded on shocking, gruesome twists. For anyone reckless, daring or foolhardy enough to read them, awayforthelads’ synopses had the potential to spoil the show’s entire second-to-last season. But with seas…