S6 Evil Deeds
Evil: morally reprehensible : sinful, wicked.
So, in my last post, the topic of whether Spike had been "evil" or not in s6 came up. Did Spike do some messed up things that season? Duh. Would I classify him under evil during that season? No. In my opinion, regardless of season, Spike always surpassed the expectations of the average vampire, or what a vampire should have been, in both BtVS and Ats. I wouldn't classify him as good or evil, though yes, he was supposed to be just plain "evil," but I would simply call Spike complicated.
I also think that that vampires should be judged on a different scale than the human characters (though this is specifically for BtVS and not Ats. While it's true that both series existed in a gray area, the latter is the only one who acknowledged that it was in fact a gray area. On Buffy, the good guys were supposed to be good through and through, and the bad guys were supposed to be irredeemably evil always. That isn't what the show gave us, but that's how the lead characters behaved for the bulk of the series, in spite of all evidence to the contrary. Ats was more self aware, and therefore, more even keeled, and thus judging the humans and demons on the same scale would be acceptable from my view).
But back to my point of varying scales, let me give some examples:
Of the two, which was more morally reprehensible?
*Drusilla killing Kendra, or Professor Walsh's attempt to off Buffy?
*Spike killing the Magic Box shop keeper, or any other hapless victim for a meal, or Warren attempting to shoot Buffy dead?
*Angelus killing Jenny Calendar to make sure his soul didn't come back, or The Mayor selling his soul for immortality so that he could one day become a big ass snake demon to eat people?
*Spike attacking Buffy in the bathroom, or Warren using the cerebral dampener to control Katrina in order to be his sex slave?
or, on that same token--
*Warren using the cerebral dampener to make Katrina his sex slave, or Willow using her spells to erase Tara's memories of a fight, and later has sex with her?
*Giles smothering Ben to stop a hell god, or Buffy shanking Faith, to save her boyfriend?
*Angelus, clearly insane, wanting to suck the world into a hell dimension, or Willow, clearly insane, wanting to obliterate life?
Were any of the above fair comparisons? And that's not rhetorical, by the way. Some would say yes, while I am sure there are some who would say no.
I'd love to hear the answers for some, if not all, in the comments.
And now, a poll.
Poll Evil Deeds in s6