Spike... again

[next_to_normal]

A couple days ago, gabrielleabelle made a post about Spike in AtS S5, and how she thought it would have been better if he'd never been brought back. I think we overwhelmed her with the response, lol, and since I am incapable of saying anything with brevity, I thought it best to post my thoughts in my own LJ. You might want to read her post first, as I address several specific points she made; however, I think these points are pretty universal for anyone who holds that position. Also note that, since this was initially intended to be a comment on her post, I make reference to and quote comments on her post.

Spike meets success as being more than a monster and saves the world. And that is the perfect ending for him.

Is it? I think if you're looking at only BtVS, there is definitely a character arc that ends at "Chosen." It's the big finale, so it's supposed to feel like the end. Spike has sought redemption and become a champion. But is it really the pinnacle of all Spike can achieve? He doesn't just save the world - he has to sacrifice himself to do it, and that's an important point. He's a hero, sure, but he only has to prove it once.

I see it as being much like Buffy's death in "The Gift." Sure, the noble, heroic, sacrificial death is a great gesture, but it's also the easy way out. It's a lot harder to live as a hero than to die as one. Buffy says so herself, right before she takes the plunge. Or just ask Angel, who has struggled (and sometimes failed) to be a hero for the last four seasons. For me, Spike's arc isn't truly complete until he's lived as a hero, and he doesn't get a chance to do that until AtS. That doesn't mean I don't think the writers could've done it better, but I'd rather they try - and maybe they failed, but they gave Spike some brilliant moments - than not giving Spike a chance at all. Otherwise, it feels like Spike had so much potential to be a hero, but never really got the chance to be one for more than moment.

In AtS S5, Spike reverts back to a slightly more moral BtVS S4 version of himself.

I disagree. While AtS S5 Spike certainly bears some resemblance to that era Spike, I don't see it as a regression. I see it as a composite. BtVS S7 Spike was wonderful in a lot of ways, but he wasn't fully Spike. As shipperx said, "Spike had always had a love of life, even though he was dead and, quite frankly, Season 7 had kicked that life out of him." He was very much changed by the soul, and for much of the season, he had difficulty integrating the soul with who he had been before. A Spike that needs to be goaded into killing demons is no Spike I know. :) On AtS, I see him fitting the pieces together, managing to regain his old attitude and snark (which, un-William as it is, is a part of Spike now, and he's incomplete without it) while still living within the bounds of the soul.

I also see him moving beyond the person he was for pretty much all of BtVS. His entire life, he's never been independent. He went right from his mother's arms to Drusilla's, and then he became Buffy's willing slave. Everyone loves to refer to Spike as love's bitch, but that isn't necessarily a good thing. I would be horrified by a woman who defined herself so thoroughly by the men she dated, so why is it okay when it's Spike? Yes, he has done incredible things for love, but I want to see him move beyond that. I want to see him do incredible things because it's his choice, not because it'll make a girl happy. His death in "Chosen" is great, but it's just a moment, and when it comes down to it, I do agree with snickfic: "I'd much rather watch him live with his past than die for it." AtS gives him a chance to live with it every day, not just make one grand gesture and go up in flame.

A lot of people say that he never really gained independence, that he simply traded Buffy's mission for Angel's. But that's not totally true. There's no need to repeat everything when elisi has written a brilliant meta about it, so I'll just summarize: Essentially, Spike has been doing his own thing for much of the season. He wasn't on board with "Evil Incorporated," he was helping the helpless on his own terms - until Fred died. To quote:

"Fred’s death crystallises his decision for him: He wants to stay. Because it feels like the right thing. Because he loved Fred. Because he cares about Angel. And because he can make a difference. No longer ‘who do *you* want me to be?’ but ‘who do *I* want to be?’ And he sure as hell didn’t sign any contract with W&H! As the rest are falling apart, Spike is finally finding himself - at peace (more or less) with himself and his place in the world."

Spike has never really been a leader on the side of good. He's always willing to stand behind someone, be it Buffy or Angel or even fake!Doyle, and follow their lead. But the important difference in AtS is that he chooses sides (first rejecting W&H, and then joining Angel's fight) because he wants to, because he has decided it's the right thing to do.

Spike gets used often to forward Angel's development. Which...well...it is Angel's show. Still, I yawn in Angel's general direction so I don't care so much about using Spike in that fashion. I wanted to see Spike develop on his own.

The only solution there is for Spike to have his own show, because that's the only way his character development is going to be front and center. I think we'd all have loved for that to happen, but it's not realistic to expect that from AtS. He was lucky that he managed to have such prominent development on Buffy, but still - it was her show, and his development was all tied to her. If he hadn't become her love interest, we would never have seen the kind of development we did. (In fact, one of the reasons Spike fell in love with her in the first place was because they'd run out of things to do with the character.)

That doesn't mean he doesn't develop at all, and again I'd refer you to elisi's meta on S5.

And I still can't buy the fact that Spike didn't even contact Buffy about his return.

I can, easily. And it goes back to what 2maggie2 said: "Spike was *certain* that Buffy did not and never would love him and that he viewed his death in the hellmouth as a letting go of her." I know plenty of people don't believe that, and as was pointed out in earlier discussions, that makes AtS S5 a lot harder to accept. I'm not often one to say you should or shouldn't believe something, because we all have our interpretations, but IMO it's a lot easier to believe he didn't think she loved him and let AtS S5 fall into line than it is to interpret "No, you don't" as "I know you do" and see virtually all of AtS S5 as OOC. There are mental backflips there I just don't understand.

He can't tell her he's alive because he doesn't know how to tell her without all the drama of asking her to make a decision about whether she loves him or not (especially since he thinks he knows the answer to that, and he doesn't want to be rejected again). He doesn't even need to ask the question; his very existence forces her to confront her feelings for him. Does she love him and want to be with him, or can she continue to live her life, knowing he's alive and in LA, and be okay with being apart? He doesn't want to put her in that position, and he certainly doesn't want her to feel obligated to be with him now just because she said something (he thinks) she didn't mean when she thought he was dying. He absolved her of her obligation to him in the Hellmouth, and he's okay with loving her unrequitedly.

It's not a decision that he makes rashly. Maybe if he hadn't had time to think about it, he'd have rushed off to Buffy. And maybe he would've been better off, because she'd have convinced him she loved him and they'd be happy. But he can't rush off right away, so he does have time to think, and he realizes it's probably not worth the risk of getting rejected again.

It's so very clearly a case of "Let's have Angel and Spike compete to get to Buffy!" which is the fan-dream.

I have to agree with ms_scarletibis and others here - if you think TGIQ was all about getting Buffy, you're not paying attention. It's not about Buffy at all. It's about Angel and Spike's relationship with each other, and their silly rivalry with the Immortal. There's a reason they have those flashbacks to 1890 in this episode - because it shows that it doesn't really matter what it is the Immortal has taken from them, all that matters is that he took it, and damned if Angel and Spike will let that happen again.

And when it comes to Buffy, I'm sure all that thinking Spike did isn't far from his mind. He's still wondering whether it's worth telling her he's alive. And I'm sure it seems easier to show up in Rome on business and "conveniently" run into Buffy and say, "Oh, by the way, I'm not dead," than it would be for him to actively reach out and put his heart on the line. The irony, though, is that Spike never actually gets to see Buffy, yet he comes away with the impression that she already knows he's alive, and she doesn't seem to care. It's Andrew, so who knows if he's telling the truth or not when he says Buffy thinks they should both move on, but essentially, Spike tried so hard to avoid asking the question, and got the answer he was dreading anyway.

This is the guy that doesn't ever give up. On anything. Especially not when he got the crumb he was finally looking for.

Except he's not the same guy anymore, and he's no longer looking for that crumb. That's true of the old Spike, because he wasn't afraid to look desperate, wasn't ashamed to prostrate himself at the feet of the woman he loved and beg for her to love him back. He did it with Drusilla, he did it with Buffy in "Crush" and again in "Seeing Red," and in more than a few season six episodes in between.

But this is not the same old Spike. This is Spike with a soul, Spike with a new sense of self. This is a Spike who understands pride and shame and selflessness. This is a Spike who is willing to walk away in "First Date" if it's what Buffy wants. This is a Spike who can look Buffy in the eye and say, "You used me." He's not going to beg.

He doesn't need to. He doesn't need Buffy to love him. He says as much in "Touched," and shows it in "Chosen." It doesn't matter if Buffy loves him or not; it's enough for him to have loved her.

We got such an opportunity to see Spike's development, post-soul, with his treatment of Harmony. Pre-soul, he was just an asshole to her. I was expecting to see something of a difference in AtS S5.

The soul doesn't change his personality, just his conscience. Like gabrielleabelle said, before the soul, he was "nicer to girls than he is to men" - but he was still an asshole to Harmony then. And he's still capable of being an asshole with a soul. But he's also capable of realizing he was an asshole, and being nice to Harmony in the next episode, as elisi pointed out.

I won't argue that there's no wonky characterization, because there is, but that's hardly unusual for this 'verse. If I've been willing to overlook it for all seven seasons of Buffy and the first four seasons of Angel, I think I can manage to overlook it when it's Spike on AtS S5. But overall, I think Spike's mindset fits pretty well with where I perceived him to be at the end of BtVS, and more Spike is always better than no Spike, so yes, I am very happy to have had him on AtS S5.

Comments

[next_to_normal]

Hee, thanks!