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+SPIKE+
| "We
like to talk big, vampires do. 'I'm going to destroy the world.' That's
just tough-guy talk. Strutting around with your friends over a pint of
blood. The truth is, I like this world. You've got dog racing. Manchester
United. And you've got people. Billions of people walking around like Happy
Meals with legs. It's all right here." |
 In
the complex world of vampire relationships, Spike is kind of like Angel's
grandson, in that his sire was Drusilla, whose sire was Angel. Fairly early
on, Spike sought to outdo his granddaddy in terms of evil and sheer savagery
- in his short time, Spike managed to make Angelus look, comparatively,
nice. In the show itself, however, Spike has never seemed strictly evil.
His role has been that of the comic-book villain, but also that of
someone who was a part of Buffy's life, rather than simply an evil figure
like the Master, sitting around doing very little except holding demon
dinner parties in a church somewhere. Spike has always been there to get
under Buffy's skin.
  While
Angelus was always fairly explicitly nasty, killing off recurring
characters no less, Spike has always managed to be evil, without
actually killing anyone. As such, Spike is a character
you can hate, but that you aren't necessarily encouraged
to. Spike was always trying to kill Buffy and her friends, but
somehow because he never managed it, he wasn't anything like
the same as his grandsire.
His lack of in-your-face
evil was reinforced by the Initiative chip, which allowed him
to become a truly 'safe' character. Neutered, he initially seemed
to simply be a bad cat with his claws removed - but gradually
it became apparent that there was more to Spike than there was
to Angel, or to many other vampires. While with Angel there
was a clear delineation between his being evil and having no
soul, and his being good and having a soul, Spike was capable
of human emotions such as love, despite having less soul than
a lawyer who really doesn't like James Brown at all.
So, chipped and ready to
not go, Spike's evil seemed to be outweighed by his apparent capacity for
good - he has three time helped save the world from Angelus, from the Initiative
and from Glory. Whether or not he did this to somehow redeem his crimes,
or just to get into Buffy's pants, is debatable. However Spike is a complex
character - an evil fiend of hell, who happily commits the worst atrocities
for fun, but also somehow not a bad chap. Or, perhaps, Spike's secret is
not that he is capable of being good - but that he's only ultimately capable
of evil.
+LINKS+
JamesMarsters.com
- by
all intents and purposes, this is the official site, even if James Marsters
himself isn't actually directly involved with it. Has everything, details
wise. Want to know how many Shakespeare plays he's been in? I'll give you
a clue; lots. Also has a good messageboard.
Addictive
Stigmata
- an
excellent Spike, Dru and Willow (all at the same time? probably!) 'shipper
fanfiction site.
Tabula Rasa - Spike redemptionist site, with some interesting essays.
The Bloody Awful Poet's Society - championing the redemption of Spike.
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