Problematic Fave Bracket - Semi-finals
William "Spike" Pratt (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) vs Ianthe Tridentarius (The Locked Tomb)
William "Spike" Pratt (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Ianthe Tridentarius (The Locked Tomb)
Vote for the character that you love despite (or because of!) their many crimes. Reblog to support your favourite!
Propaganda below:
William "Spike" Pratt (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Crimes:
Killed lots of people. Also most infamously tried to rape Buffy at one point.
Mass murder, assault, thievery, torture, attempted rape, innumerable other offenses. Cut a bloody massacre throughout Europe in the late 1800s. He’s quite rude and hits below the belt too lol. and hes british
Why do you like them?
He's wears a cool outfit. He thinks he's hot shit. He has mommy issues. He falls in love with every woman who can beat him up. He's my pathetic meow meow.
Vote Spike/"William the bloody" (bloody terrible poet, that is, because who the fuck says "effulgent"?)!!!
He's monogamous despite being in a polycule he has catholic guilt he's a hopeless romantic (but is also, unknowingly, arospec) he thinks the only way to love is to be sacrificed and HE HAS THE LOVELIEST SINGING VOICE EVERRRRR
(added by @thatwasfunnypleaselaugh)
He’s a genuinely evil person who goes through a seasons long arc to get redeemed.
Spike starts out being a no-holds-barred soulless evil villain with his only goal being to kill the protagonist Buffy. he would do everything to kill her if not for the fact that someone worse shows up and he needs to work together with her to stop the entire world from getting destroyed - he’s a vampire, but he doesn’t have a death wish.
He is very skilled at manipulation, and despite most of the main characters hating him outright, is able to pit them against each other for his own gain. He has an extreme bloodlust and thirst for violence, and upon being rendered powerless to hurt humans, almost killed himself bc he was so upset. He got back to normal once he realized he could kill his own kind, which indirectly benefited the good guys.
After seasons of wishing death upon Buffy, it comes as a shock to him to realize that he has evolved to being in love with her due to how twisted vampires are concerning pain, love, and hate. after a century of committing the most violent, heinous acts, spike makes the decision to get a SOUL, which is the single most important thing that the show delineates between being on the very black-and-white side of good and evil.
Before spike, there was only one other vampire with a soul, and he had to be Cursed with it by travelers. Spike actively chooses to GET a soul in order to be a better man worthy of buffy instead of a soulless monster.
(I mean, just look at this shot of spike draping himself over a cross while mad with guilt over all the harm he's done. very nice.)
But even while he’s supposedly evil, spike is remarkably humanlike, and he cares about other things than killing his own kind. He cares about Buffy and buffy’s family, acting as a guardian for her kid sister in her absence even while he’s soulless, and their friendship is one of the most humanizing aspects of spike.
He also used to be poet when he was a human and a lot of his sensitivity bled through to his vampire self so he’s much more emotional than the average vampire. And he’s serially monogamist. And throughout all this, a gigantic punk rock loser. Billy idol stole his look!
Spike is one of the best characters to ever grace television, especially because none of this would have ever happened if joss Whedon got what he wanted and killed him off in season 2.
Also he’s really pretty.
(submitted by @gottadomymanright)
Ianthe Tridentarius (The Locked Tomb)
Crimes:
Murder Cannibalism Lobotomy (consensual?) <NOT A DOCTOR Manipulative af Hitting on her lobotomy vic‐ patient Problematic age gap (22 vs 18) < I'm mostly kidding << Ianthe was not mostly kidding she was like "this age difference problematic as fuck & I'm going for it" Lying Imperialist royalty (x2) Ran a decades-long con using insane necromancy to convince people her AND her normal sister were BOTH necromancers (<the amount of power this requires is insane) Possessing a corpse (the one she cannibalized) (also I mean possessing as in puppetting its movements words etc not as in she simply acquired the body although she also did that) Gaslighting the main character (in a hot way) Became a disciple of the imperialist genocidal dictator of the universe Generally being creepy & weird I probably forgot a few things anyway vote for Ianthe
Why do you like them?
Her manipulative lesbianism ways have charmed & bewitched me. Also she's hot
