Reason No. &#@! for why I love Spike
Jun. 21st, 2009 11:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snick_backupI love Spike because his fabulous/amazing/heartbreaking redemption arc over the course of six (or seven, if we're counting Ats) seasons was unintentional. We know what Joss and co. thought a vampire in search of redemption looked like: he looked like Angel. Tortured, brooding, self-obsessed.
(Although, it occurs to me that Giles has a background structurally similar to Angel's - was bad, is now atoning - and he lives his atonement with much more simplicity, maturity, and self-effacement than Angel is ever going to manage.)
But Spike wasn't a vamp in search of redemption. He was a half-season villain, joyously murderous and laugh-in-your-face unrepentant. He was just bad, no holds barred. What ambiguity the writers gave him wasn't meant as an excuse or an opening towards his eventual u-turn; they didn't even expect him to survive the season. I can't help but think that that unapologetically evil portrayal is one of the arc's major strengths. I just finished rewatching S2, and the contrast between "What happens on Saturday?" "I kill you" and, say, "Time for something heroic" (Spiral) just about gives me shivers.
Folks, that is a redemption arc.
(Although, it occurs to me that Giles has a background structurally similar to Angel's - was bad, is now atoning - and he lives his atonement with much more simplicity, maturity, and self-effacement than Angel is ever going to manage.)
But Spike wasn't a vamp in search of redemption. He was a half-season villain, joyously murderous and laugh-in-your-face unrepentant. He was just bad, no holds barred. What ambiguity the writers gave him wasn't meant as an excuse or an opening towards his eventual u-turn; they didn't even expect him to survive the season. I can't help but think that that unapologetically evil portrayal is one of the arc's major strengths. I just finished rewatching S2, and the contrast between "What happens on Saturday?" "I kill you" and, say, "Time for something heroic" (Spiral) just about gives me shivers.
Folks, that is a redemption arc.
