Sides of Spike - Part II
Thank you for all your nice and insightful comments yesterday! So here's the second part of my little Spike through the ages series ( part 1 is here)
Season 4 First half - Chips and Chains
Harsh Light of day
When Spike returns in S4 he has act back together again. To say he's over Drusilla would be a big overstatement, but he is doing his best to reinvent himself as someone, who can't be hurt by women anymore. Even Buffy is prompted to laughing fits when she learns Spike is dating Harmony now.
Harmony is Spike's rebound girl galore. For once he has picked someone who is more into him than he is into her. He's smarter than her, more dangerous and he is generally a total jerk towards her. It's very obvious that he really wants to be an asshole these days, making sure that he's the one who comes out on top emotionally this time.
Spike's character in the beginning of S4 is probably closest to BW's bizarro Spike as canon ever comes, Spike wants to become the biggest baddy on the block and he he uses Harmony for sex without giving a damn about her. But, and this but is introduced almost simultaniously with the rest of the scenario, he's not happy. He's still hung up on Dru, his realtionship with Harmony doesn't satisfy him in the least, in fact he's so annoyed by her that not even the sex can make up for it and he tries to stake her. He can try as he likes the macho routine just doesn't work for him.
But he also has a honestly gleeful moment in the episode and that is when he fights and banters with Buffy. He enjoys the physical fight just as much as poking fun at her, for her own crash and burn affair with Parker. As much as he'd like to be different, he just feels much more alive when he deals with equals and people who challenge him.
(ah ja, and we learn that nekid Spike is pretty)
In the Dark
Ok, that scene on the rooftop is possibly the greatest funny Spike scene ever. I think it was that scene that completely reeled me in as a life long Spike fan. Nothing better than Spike doing the voiceover for Angel's manly batman routine. I love it to pieces!
I think there are two things that add to Spike's character in that episode. The first thing is that he hires someone to do his torturng. On one hand he wants Angel to suffer, on the other "the preshow" still isn't fully his thing.
The other is his realtionship with Angel. Angel is still an authority figure to Spike and as much as he likes to rebell against him and to mock him, he's also still a bit afraid of him, which makes it all the more thrilling to face off with Angel. Spike could have killed him, but where would be the fun in that?
And then there's the way he plays team Angel, looking through them just as easily as he does with the scoobies, only to get played by his own subcontractor. He's always a bit better in assesing the good guys than the bad guys.
The Initiative
Chip time!!! Very mean turn of events for oor little Spike, the only thing he still in enjoys is battling the good guys and then he gets chipped. On top of it all Spike's sexuality has been linked to fighting and killing before, but it never becomes more dragged into text than when his inability to bite Willow is equaled with impotence (in a scene that is another candidate for funniest Spike moment ever).
The chips seems to be quite a bit less sensitive in that first episode, because Spike does hit a lot of people, before and after it first fires when he tries to bite Willow. Maybe it had to grow in or something.
Spike not being one for government, nazis or cosmetic firms breaks out of the initiative lab (obviously the only demon who manages to do so) and goes back to Harmony, to start their pretty convinient relationship all over again. Funny thing is, he talks to her like he talks to Dru, telling her how they'd do everything she wants and giving her pet names, but of course he's still interested in nothing but his obsession with the slayer and his pet names soon derail into "my little ...mentholated pack of smokes" and finally even Harmony dumps him. Hee
Then he goes off to bite Willow, which is treated as an equivalent for sex so much by both of them, it's not even a metaphore anymore. The best part is, where they both try to lift up each other's spirits afterwards, carefully stroking each others bruised egos. :)
I tend to think that one thing the comic brigade doesn't seem to get is that asshole Spike (didn't have a soul, but that's another story) is most fun when he falls on his nose, is humiliated and suffers. I love bitchy Spike, but half of the fun is that he's working from an underdog position here, if he'd end up on top instead of chained up in Giles bath tub, it wouldn't have the same effect.
Pangs
We learn from this episode that everybody should have a tied up Spike in her/his home.
For all that Spike hates the Scoobies, he realizes that he's got a chance to manipulate them into helping him instead of killing him (after he fails again to get Harmony to do his bidding). Risky business but risks are Spike's thing ad he's desperate. Now that he can't wreck havock anymore it becomes his role to mock and manipulate.
There was already a glimpse of it in lover's walk and harsh light of day but in this and the following episodes it becomes Spike's MO to look right through people and also to call the scoobies on the convinient worldview they've build up for themselves. Spike becomes a Mephistopheles, who's not only evil himself but also sees all the little evils around him and points them out. Of course he also preys on them.
An interesting aspect that comes up in Spike's "I came, I saw and fet real bad about it"-speech. Spike without a soul is evil, he enjoys killing and feels no remorse for it, but he also understands what it does to his victims on a very fundamental level. He fully gets that they hate and want to kill him right back. It's a fair game to him that can't really be stopped with words. At some point, being sorry doesn't change anything and you have to stand up for what you did, Spike gets that here and he also gets it later on when he has a soul and actually feels guilty. After Danah cuts off his hands, he says there's nothing he could have said, since even if it wasn't him in her case, it was in many other cases and words can't mend what he did, or change how much he deserves to suffer for it.
Something Blue
Spell episodes, they always bring out new sides in people!
Spike is a lot more attached to the human world than most vampires, he owns quite a bit of stuff, he loves to eat for comfort though he doesn' need to, he likes to watch soap operas and to paint his nails black. Spike never has any trouble getting into things that traditionally fit a female stereotype. Nearly all men on Buffy have their girly aspects, but Spike displays them with a confidence, because he makes a virtue out of no caring to fit in.
In Something Blue Spike is in love again for real, with all the fun consequences that come with that for him. He doesn't share well, becomes protective and he's loyal to a point where he'd even take care of Giles for Buffy, because once he regards someone as family, they can count on him. When Spike falls in love the other person becomes his priority, soul or no soul.
Doomed
In which Spike does laundry and ends up wearing Xander's clothes and borderline suicidal because he can no longer hit things. I do have a love for vampires who do laundry, I dimely remember that I fell for Being Human too when Mitchell ironed his shirt. Vampires doing housework, total turn on! *drools*
Unable to fight with any other weapon, Spike sticks with dishing out unwelcome truths. The fun part is that Spike really doesn't lie very often (and when he does it's often not convincing), he's very open the fact that he'd drain them in a heartbeat if he could. He also delights in poking Willow and Xander's self doubts, but he only really becomes joyfully undead again when he finds out that he can fight demons.
Who cares if he kills the guys from his own side, as long as he can fight something? Certainly not Spike.
Season 4 First half - Chips and Chains
Harsh Light of day
When Spike returns in S4 he has act back together again. To say he's over Drusilla would be a big overstatement, but he is doing his best to reinvent himself as someone, who can't be hurt by women anymore. Even Buffy is prompted to laughing fits when she learns Spike is dating Harmony now.
Harmony is Spike's rebound girl galore. For once he has picked someone who is more into him than he is into her. He's smarter than her, more dangerous and he is generally a total jerk towards her. It's very obvious that he really wants to be an asshole these days, making sure that he's the one who comes out on top emotionally this time.
Spike's character in the beginning of S4 is probably closest to BW's bizarro Spike as canon ever comes, Spike wants to become the biggest baddy on the block and he he uses Harmony for sex without giving a damn about her. But, and this but is introduced almost simultaniously with the rest of the scenario, he's not happy. He's still hung up on Dru, his realtionship with Harmony doesn't satisfy him in the least, in fact he's so annoyed by her that not even the sex can make up for it and he tries to stake her. He can try as he likes the macho routine just doesn't work for him.
But he also has a honestly gleeful moment in the episode and that is when he fights and banters with Buffy. He enjoys the physical fight just as much as poking fun at her, for her own crash and burn affair with Parker. As much as he'd like to be different, he just feels much more alive when he deals with equals and people who challenge him.
(ah ja, and we learn that nekid Spike is pretty)
In the Dark
Ok, that scene on the rooftop is possibly the greatest funny Spike scene ever. I think it was that scene that completely reeled me in as a life long Spike fan. Nothing better than Spike doing the voiceover for Angel's manly batman routine. I love it to pieces!
I think there are two things that add to Spike's character in that episode. The first thing is that he hires someone to do his torturng. On one hand he wants Angel to suffer, on the other "the preshow" still isn't fully his thing.
The other is his realtionship with Angel. Angel is still an authority figure to Spike and as much as he likes to rebell against him and to mock him, he's also still a bit afraid of him, which makes it all the more thrilling to face off with Angel. Spike could have killed him, but where would be the fun in that?
And then there's the way he plays team Angel, looking through them just as easily as he does with the scoobies, only to get played by his own subcontractor. He's always a bit better in assesing the good guys than the bad guys.
The Initiative
Chip time!!! Very mean turn of events for oor little Spike, the only thing he still in enjoys is battling the good guys and then he gets chipped. On top of it all Spike's sexuality has been linked to fighting and killing before, but it never becomes more dragged into text than when his inability to bite Willow is equaled with impotence (in a scene that is another candidate for funniest Spike moment ever).
The chips seems to be quite a bit less sensitive in that first episode, because Spike does hit a lot of people, before and after it first fires when he tries to bite Willow. Maybe it had to grow in or something.
Spike not being one for government, nazis or cosmetic firms breaks out of the initiative lab (obviously the only demon who manages to do so) and goes back to Harmony, to start their pretty convinient relationship all over again. Funny thing is, he talks to her like he talks to Dru, telling her how they'd do everything she wants and giving her pet names, but of course he's still interested in nothing but his obsession with the slayer and his pet names soon derail into "my little ...mentholated pack of smokes" and finally even Harmony dumps him. Hee
Then he goes off to bite Willow, which is treated as an equivalent for sex so much by both of them, it's not even a metaphore anymore. The best part is, where they both try to lift up each other's spirits afterwards, carefully stroking each others bruised egos. :)
I tend to think that one thing the comic brigade doesn't seem to get is that asshole Spike (didn't have a soul, but that's another story) is most fun when he falls on his nose, is humiliated and suffers. I love bitchy Spike, but half of the fun is that he's working from an underdog position here, if he'd end up on top instead of chained up in Giles bath tub, it wouldn't have the same effect.
Pangs
We learn from this episode that everybody should have a tied up Spike in her/his home.
For all that Spike hates the Scoobies, he realizes that he's got a chance to manipulate them into helping him instead of killing him (after he fails again to get Harmony to do his bidding). Risky business but risks are Spike's thing ad he's desperate. Now that he can't wreck havock anymore it becomes his role to mock and manipulate.
There was already a glimpse of it in lover's walk and harsh light of day but in this and the following episodes it becomes Spike's MO to look right through people and also to call the scoobies on the convinient worldview they've build up for themselves. Spike becomes a Mephistopheles, who's not only evil himself but also sees all the little evils around him and points them out. Of course he also preys on them.
An interesting aspect that comes up in Spike's "I came, I saw and fet real bad about it"-speech. Spike without a soul is evil, he enjoys killing and feels no remorse for it, but he also understands what it does to his victims on a very fundamental level. He fully gets that they hate and want to kill him right back. It's a fair game to him that can't really be stopped with words. At some point, being sorry doesn't change anything and you have to stand up for what you did, Spike gets that here and he also gets it later on when he has a soul and actually feels guilty. After Danah cuts off his hands, he says there's nothing he could have said, since even if it wasn't him in her case, it was in many other cases and words can't mend what he did, or change how much he deserves to suffer for it.
Something Blue
Spell episodes, they always bring out new sides in people!
Spike is a lot more attached to the human world than most vampires, he owns quite a bit of stuff, he loves to eat for comfort though he doesn' need to, he likes to watch soap operas and to paint his nails black. Spike never has any trouble getting into things that traditionally fit a female stereotype. Nearly all men on Buffy have their girly aspects, but Spike displays them with a confidence, because he makes a virtue out of no caring to fit in.
In Something Blue Spike is in love again for real, with all the fun consequences that come with that for him. He doesn't share well, becomes protective and he's loyal to a point where he'd even take care of Giles for Buffy, because once he regards someone as family, they can count on him. When Spike falls in love the other person becomes his priority, soul or no soul.
Doomed
In which Spike does laundry and ends up wearing Xander's clothes and borderline suicidal because he can no longer hit things. I do have a love for vampires who do laundry, I dimely remember that I fell for Being Human too when Mitchell ironed his shirt. Vampires doing housework, total turn on! *drools*
Unable to fight with any other weapon, Spike sticks with dishing out unwelcome truths. The fun part is that Spike really doesn't lie very often (and when he does it's often not convincing), he's very open the fact that he'd drain them in a heartbeat if he could. He also delights in poking Willow and Xander's self doubts, but he only really becomes joyfully undead again when he finds out that he can fight demons.
Who cares if he kills the guys from his own side, as long as he can fight something? Certainly not Spike.