Spike's Soul: What Does it Mean? : Spike's soul

» Dave_Kendall - Spike's soul

I have a few nitpicks with the article, but overall I thought it was a very well considered and intelligent analysis of Spike.

I disagree with the author that Buffy was showing respect for Spike, I didn’t see much respect for him when she said “You're a thing. An evil, disgusting, thing.” in Smashed. I think he was just convenient for Buffy, Spike himself realised that in OMWF “Whisper in a dead man's ear, It doesn't make it real.”. IMO Spike’s attitude towards Buffy only seemed to change after she stopped treating him anything like a friend and made it clear that she saw him as nothing but another monster. Also I think the Buffy/Spike sexual relationship severed any remaining ties between Spike and the scoobies that had built up during the summer. It’s hard to see how Spike could have interacted with Dawn and the others when Buffy was threatening him with death if he told anyone they were sleeping together.

Certainly it was horrible to see Spike try to drag Buffy into the darkness in Dead Things. Although I see that more as an act of desperation when Spike started to realise that his relationship with Buffy was doomed, rather than something he intended to do all along. I didn’t see Spike try to drag Buffy down to his level before the balcony scene in DT. To me his comments in Smashed were purely anger over the things Buffy said to him, he was simply giving as good as he got IMO.

If Buffy had treated Spike with respect and encouraged him to change, then I would look more harshly on Spike’s slip back into darkness and his treatment of Buffy. But how many human characters with souls manage to resist evil without friendship and encouragement? I thought that was part of the story they told with Faith, in the end she needed someone to believe in her before she even attempted to find redemption. Despite his soul, even Angel did very little good before meeting Whistler and Buffy. The soul wasn’t enough on it’s own, Angel needed positive contact with humanity to become a hero. I think Spike’s lack of positive influences and encouragement was almost as much of a disadvantage as his lack of a moral compass.

Also, I have less of a problem than the author with some of Spike's actions towards Buffy in season 6.

Personally I cheered when Spike tried to get Buffy to quit her Double Meat job. A job like that would depress anyone and surely fighting demons is even more dangerous after she's spent the day in a boring job. Also, while I acknowledge that Spike was too harsh with Buffy in Normal again and I know he wasn't being fair. I think to a certain extent Spike was right, part of Buffy's problem was her martyr complex. In the end Buffy did snap out of it and start living again because of a single epiphany, not through years of therapy. Which would have been more realistic, but not very good TV.

I find it hard to take the demon egg incident as seriously as it was intended, simply because As You Were was such a bad episode. It’s easily the worst BtVS episode ever IMO, not just because of the way it made Spike look stupid, but because of the plot holes, inconsistencies and simple bad writing. I actually liked Riley in season 5 and I always wanted to see his personal problems addressed on the show, yet AYW gave him all the personality of a cardboard cut-out. I really wonder how that episode ever got filmed when there’s so much talent at Mutant Enemy.

Having said all that, I really can’t believe that Spike knew how dangerous the eggs really were. Not because of any moral issues, but because he’s not a complete moron and he has a sense of self preservation. Surely if Spike was a professional demon egg smuggler who knew what the eggs were, he would have known that they needed to be frozen to stop them from hatching and eating everything in the area (Spike included). Plus Spike never left Sunnydale, didn’t have a mobile phone and spent most of his time around Buffy, so when did he have the time to set up the necessary contacts to become a smuggler?

If they wanted to convince me of Spike’s guilt they should have put some hints in previous episodes, 30 seconds of Spike talking with suspicious characters would have done it. But as it stands I think Spike was thoughtless enough to store goods in his crypt without first finding out what they were. That’s still evidence that Spike lacks a moral compass, it shows that he needs a soul so that he doesn’t make that kind of mistake. But it’s not as bad as him knowingly selling weapons of mass destruction to the highest bidder.

The rape attempt was enough to convince me that Spike needed to get a soul, but IMO the writers could have done it in a more subtle way over the course of the season, rather than going for one shock event. But it’s all worked out in the end as I’m enjoying season 7 much more than I did season 6.

-- posted by Dave_Kendall