Paratti and others were talking about why they like a character, especially rebels. This raised the question in my mind: is Spike really a rebel? It seems to me that rebels and people with a strong individualistic streak can easily get confused. I am horribly aware of this because I was always an individualist – I hate being told what to do and will walk out on any situation if I feel I’m being bossed around too much. However, the crucial factor is that I walk out alone and I walk away. Now I would say that the definition of a rebel is someone who tries to take the others with him and once he’s out the door turns round and throws a brick at it.
Is Spike like that? The only occasion I can think of him acting that way is in School Hard, where he is indeed the archetypal rebel. But interestingly, what he is rebelling against is not the good normal society of Sunnydale and all it represents but the structure and ritual of the Anointed One’s court. It occurs to me that maybe this is part of the secret of his initial appeal to the fans – he was the first representation of a villain of the week who, on the my-enemy’s-enemy principal, could on one level be said to be on the same side as the viewer. And that impression held all through Season 2 when Spike was not just the plain evil one but a wild card who as often as not just surfed on the fun kicked up by the true villains as caused the trouble himself (think Halloween) – culminating of course in his turning to aid Buffy against Angelus.
Come subsequent seasons though that is of course gone – rendered impotent by the chip Spike was reduced to just snark (Season 4) and increasingly creepy behaviour (Season 5). And has been noted many times as his function was changed so did his entire core character. There is so very little in common between the Spike of Season 2 and that of later seasons. Season 2 Spike was a social animal, something of a charismatic leader, cunning but not educated. I think that does make him a rebel. By Season 4 he was being portrayed as a loner, one who sniped from the sidelines rather than being actively involved. This is the guy who has reacted against his social class (which by Season 4 they had decided was patrician rather than the pleb of Season 2) but he still makes use of it when the mood takes him (think The Yoko Factor). Nothing of the rebel in that. He doesn’t lead any more he just follows – first Buffy and then Angel over on AtS.
In fact he becomes the complete little beta male in every way, which is how most people seem to refer to him these days. I always think of the classic example of this as the scene in Triangle when Buffy orders Spike and Xander to see to the defences and they both troop off at once without a seconds thought as to her authority.
We never again get even a glimmer of the Spike who took over the gang so effortlessly, who even when in a wheel-chair was standing up to Angelus and insisting he behave when a guest in ‘my home’ (note ‘my’, not the ‘our’ that would have included Dru.)
So where is the rebel in Spike? In his appearance? In the fact he rides a motorbike? In the fact that very few people in Sunnydale like him? That isn’t being a rebel that’s being an outsider. Which can carry a character for quite a while, especially given the American obsession with the outsider as some sort of moral ideal. But ultimately for a character to succeed they need to reengage with the society around them – otherwise it just becomes real life where outsiders lead lonely lives of no influence without significant plot points arising. In fiction, the outsider has to become a rebel again.
But what is there for Spike to rebel against? He can’t rebel against demonic authority because he is now completely outside demonic society. Nor can he rebel against human society since that is now epitomised by the stars of the shows – Buffy and Angel, the good guys. So all that is left is for Spike to rebel against his own character and the fate that dictates in the Jossyverse a creature without a soul is doomed to be evil.
Cue the redemption arc and why so many fans loved it – because it enabled the merely outcast Spike to turn back into a rebel. As Paratti puts it, she loves ‘characters that are more than they’re supposed to be and who move in an upwards direction to transcend who and what they used to be’
. That’s redemption in a nutshell.
Now me, I was never a redemptionista and I can never quite work out if I like rebels. I think one of my main objections to liking rebels is that we’re supposed to – everyone likes rebels. They feature in just about every story told. They are the hero with the dark edge, the temptation given in to, the smashing out at authority that we all hate but not just smashing but believing you can make your punches connect. And don’t you just luuurve that, our storytellers are purring, don’t you just want to drift off into that fantasy where cute looking girls and guys can change the world to the way they think it should be rather than the way it is?
So me, being me, I object to being told what to think by the storytellers and wander off to find a different character to focus my interest on. This is why I prefer Guy of Gisburne to Robin Hood, AtS Season 1 Wesley to AtS 3+ Wesley, Cromwell to Lilburne. I find them richer – the mix of subordination and insubordination, realism and dreaming, unattractive and attractive characteristics. And frequently they’re not rebels, they’re just misfits.
Added to that is the personal value I put on loyalty – something I have always considered one of the highest virtues, probably because loyalty creates the safe environment I crave – and it is not surprising I am ambivalent about rebels.
So which version of Spike do I prefer? Interesting question.
I fell in love with him during School Hard, which implies I like Rebel Leader Spike, yet actually I think it was just his sense of fun that most appealed to me.
I cheered when he reappeared in Season 4 and I loved the dubious tightrope he walked between Iago figure and disinterested commentator. I would have liked them to take the Iago themes a lot further but I still liked what we had. And I enjoyed the change in his class status and how it fed in.
Season 5 Spike is probably my least favourite – and yet from my own statements this is the one I should like the most. He’s not a rebel, or anything much except for an outsider. I think I was too much in mourning for what had been lost – I spent the whole season just wanting the chip out and couldn’t see much beyond that desire. He was defanged and helpless with ever increasing lust, and helpless isn’t something I want to identify with.
Season 6 and the redemption was starting to show through the cracks so clearly even I could see it. I started to like him again, but not a great deal up till Seeing Red. That turned the tables and suddenly I was sympathising with him in every way – I felt I had followed the motivation behind his actions. I thought it was believable. I am aware these aren’t very popular opinions – that’s probably one of the reasons I hold them.
Season 7 was rather different. I started to actually gun for Spuffy which was something I had never given any consideration to before. Mad Spike incidentally wore thin after one episode for me, but once he was saned up I liked him and how he struggled to find a new identity for himself.
It’s been said Spike had no character development in AtS Season 5. I’m not so sure about that (that’s probably a different essay, though) but I definitely adored what he became. Of course what he became was pretty much the incarnation of my own ship – Angel’s loyal lieutenant, still snarking to the end. And incidentally there is no way that was a rebel.
Of course the real answer is one I suspect most fic writers will give – I like best the Spike of my stories rather than any of the Spikes we actually got on screen. I have a scary tendency to over identify with him. But then that is how I write – I think myself into a character’s head. Considering which, I really need to save the time I would spend worrying how I write Spike for the far more serious matter of how I write Angelus.
And as for what I like about Angelus’s character…
More tea, anyone?