One of my big problems with Spike getting a soul from BtVS is that it means no character has to grapple with the fact that...everyone was kinda a huge dick to Spike in a horrid way for AT LEAST one whole season. Maybe more.
I'm rewatching Buffy with my gf who's never seen the show before. And by the time we got to 6x18 and Xander loudly shouting about 'that soulless thing' my gf turned to me and was like. 'this is no longer funny haha or even making a point, everyone is just being mean to the guy who regularly saves their lives and tries to help them and has done nothing but continuously try to get better'.
And it's true! Giles tells Spike at one point towards the end of season 5 that he isn't in the group, that being nice to them or helping isn't a way to Buffy. And definitely there's this sentiment online that spike is 'made soft by the love of a woman' and that 'hes a bad boy that only Buffy could change'. But that's...not really true? That's certainly a motivating factor in season 5. But by the end...
Well. In the gap between season 5 and season 6 buffy is DEAD. his supposed 'only motivator' for being a good person? Gone. And he DOES NOT KNOW that anyone is trying to bring her back. He FULLY BELIEVES SHE WILL NEVER COME BACK AND HE WILL NEVER SEE HER AGAIN. he is not trying to win any brownie points with a future version of Buffy he is hoping to date. And he still fights side by side with the Scoobies. He still protects Dawn and seemingly hangs out with her in a babysitting capacity regularly. He is in on keeping the vamp/demon population low to protect the town and regularly patroling. He's...essentially one of the gang? So much so that he's genuinely betrayed that they didn't tell him their plan?
And then Buffy comes back and it's like we, the viewer, are supposed to forget the whole past 6 months of Spike helping everyone and forming bonds with everyone. The show for the next 9 episodes will not be able to decide whether or not Spike is a good guy or not. A goofy guy? A love interest? But oh boy will people continue to make snide comments and be mean to him.
Midway through season 6, Spike discovers that the chip 'isnt working'. My partner was telling me how for a very brief moment they were SUPER intrigued by this storyline. Spike has kissed Buffy twice at the point he finds this out, but they're hardly together and she is consistently being rude to him because she is mad about said kisses. My partner was like ohhhhh we are going to get a whole plot now about whether or not Spike IS good or not without the chip, and this will lead to eventually Spuffy when Spike proves that he's really truly changed. And that will stop Xander and everyone being mean to him because everyone will have to examine the fact that oh. It's not just the chip. It's him. Spike would thus essentially become no different to Anya - perhaps the show would even draw that parrellel as Xander overcame his whole thing about Spike being The Worst.
But instead, they leave THAT plotline until season 7 when Spike already has a soul so it's no longer particualrly relevant. Instead, he can only hurt Buffy. And from here on out, they're sleeping together. Now, I do find it compelling that Spike spends the next few episodes thinking that his only way to be with Buffy is to show her that she's dark 'like him'. For a while this seems to be setting up a question of not just is Buffy dark and scary but...is spike? He believes he is, but we the viewer have seen proof he's not really. The worst he's done all season is gambling?? So...okay. perhaps we could get an arch about Spike realising he doesnt have to drag Buffy to the dark - she can drag him to the light (what ends up happening anyway by season 7s conclusion).
But then we have my least favourite, Buffy-bashing episode of season 6. As You Were. Buffy gets to know just how bad her life is compared to Joss Whedons favourite love interest Riley Finn. And turns out Spike has been the evil and incompetent bad guy Riley has been tracking all along!! Gasp. Hey look audience, remember, spike is soooo bad and so much worse than this previous love interest who now has a cool wife and a cool life. Not only that, but spike is also stupid! Hes bad at being a bad guy (despite the fact that we KNOW spike is incredibly competent at being a bad guy, because he's killed two slayers in the past single handed, a feat so scary he's the only bad guy in the show to ever be described as managing to kill more than one).
So spikes character development kinda goes down the drain. Buffy breaks up with him which again could have spurred...something interesting! Perhaps spike grapples with what he is without her. but instead we get what we got which is Xander and Riley and all the others being vindicated by a very very OOC SA scene that everyone universally hated. TRY AND LIKE HIM NOW you can practically hear Joss Whedon laughing at your face throughout that entire scene. How dare the women in my audience actually care about this guy??? Well. Female audience who liked this guy enough to bump the ratings and make him a main character, we're gonna drag you through the dirt and make you feel awful about that, in the most violent way possible. But hey! At the end of this spike can have a soul! Ain't that super and great!
And that just. Removes any nuance? People were mean to this guy for a whole season, and he never got to actually have much of an arch or prove they were wrong despite us, the viewer, seeing that they were wrong on multiple occasions and that he does indeed have a good side without a soul. Xander and Riley are vindicated and so is everyone who ever said a mean word about Spike. Buffy is punished again for her sexual choices (a theme from season 2 onwards) and is basically told she's a bad little girl who should have known better than to sleep with this guy in the first place because of course it would end up this way. He's evil. Ontologically. Because he has no soul.
And it's just...so mean spirited. The whole thing. There was a point where the meanness from the Scoobies towards spike was justified (season 4 into season 5), but that meanness just serves nothing in season 6 beyond trying to remind the audience this guy who's been slowly becoming good is actually evil and bad because he...doesn't have a soul? He's just ontologically evil. What a fucking sad thing to reinforce by giving him a soul and saying that was the only way for him to ever get better or be loved.
Idk man. I know people enjoy that spike goes and improves himself for Buffy via his own initiative by getting a soul, but I just find it reductive of a much more interesting dynamic they almost had. The choice to be good via soul would have been much more interesting if it was just...the choice to be good. And I find spikes treatment in season 6 overall by the Scoobies to do nothing but make the Scoobies look like dicks. And the way you can feel contempt for a female audience in the things they do to turn you against him in season six is just...sad. and a big yikes.
Five lock screens inspired by some of Buffy The Vampire Slayer couples: Buffy x Angel, Buffy x Spike, Willow x Tara, Xander x Anya, and Giles x Jenny Calendar.
Each design has its own color theme but keeps the same cohesive style perfect for matching your fave ship or rotating through them all.
Available for free now on Payhip.
Willing to adjust to certain dimensions upon request.
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