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lifes-a-simple-plan · 3 months ago

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I don’t think Spike (or Buffy) acts out of character during season 6.

So, I just watched Buffy for the first time last month, at the age of 29. As I am not able to enjoy things normally, I am currently rewatching the whole show (doing a episodes tier list while I am at it) and I’ve been reading a lot of things about it (Wiki, tumblr posts, reddit posts, comments on YT video, etc.)

One of the things that keeps on igniting debates is the sixth season and I wanted to share my thoughts on Spike and Buffy's behaviours, because this season made me think a lot and I had to read more to order my thoughts.

Some things to know before I jump on the topic, so you know the “context” :

I absolutely adore btvs, I think the show is a masterpiece,

Season 6 is one of my favorites (with season 5),

I am a Spuffy fan, but I don’t really think they are right for each other on the long run (I am still trying to order my thoughts on that, might be another rambling and I might change my view on it !),

I really appreciate reading the different perspectives and opinions on the show, I think it says a lot about its quality that different people, with different experiences, can interpret things in their own sensible way. Depending on what you’ve been through, where you were at in life when you watch the show, you could perceive things in a complete different light.

English is not my first language, things might not be as clear as I thought they were.

On to the topic of Out of Character claim regarding Buffy and Spike but especially Spike in season 6.

First, the “truths” of the show, I don’t mean the writers’ intentions because I don’t pretend to know them, but the things that I consider to be the core principles of the serie :

A vampire without soul cannot be good by themselves (i.e. without external motivation). I don’t say it is a good or bad concept, I just say it is the hill the show decided to die on. It is a core concept introduced in the first season, a key part of Angel as a character and, as a consequence, a common thread throughout the serie.

A soulless vampire has no moral compass and act according to two things : their desires and their community (copycat behaviour). They will do what they want (which vary a lot for each vampire) and, if they are in a community, they will follow the actions of said community and/or the community’s strongest. It is said that Angelus made Spike the way he is now (a soulless vampire), Darla made Angelus, she made him a vampire and the vampire he is (his behaviour), Angelus did the same to Drusilla, Angelus and Drusilla did the same to Spike. Furthermore, we frequently see vampires living in group with a leader and acting together.

Spike main personality trait is that he loves and his love is strong. And that is something he keeps as a vampire. He loves his mother so much, the first thing he did when he became a vampire is turning her so she could be cured (the first thing he did was an act of selfish love). He is totally obsessed with Drusilla, all he did in season 2 is for her and to keep her (he is very possessive), even his cameo in season 3 is all about his unhealthy and obssessive love for Drusilla. “I want Dru back, I just got to be the man I was […] I’ll find her, wherever she is, tie her up, torture her until she likes me again” (3x8 “Lovers Walk”).

That was a very long introduction and I think I can start my (much longer) “essay” :

I don’t think Spike or Buffy act out of character during season 6.

When Spike realises he loves Buffy, he is alone. He has no community, no group (I don’t think Harmony can be considered a community), he has the chip, cannot be vampire nor human, he doesn’t belong. Thus, he has one thing to follow, his desires which are :

Being loved by Buffy

If 1 can’t be achieved : Have sex with Buffy

If 2 can’t be achieved : Being important to Buffy

At this moment This is his only raison d’être.

He knows that Buffy doesn’t like him. She said so before, she has and continue to show him. And for that to change, he needs to act in a way that will please Buffy. And to achieve that, Buffy becomes his mirror.

He starts testing various behaviours and adapting when he doesn’t have the desire outcome. He tries to help her patrolling, he assists Dawn, he tries to be realiable, to comfort her when she is sad.

He is literally:

But everything he does is directly linked to how Buffy will respond, she is his moral compass (I don’t say he considers Buffy his moral compass per se, just that Buffy motivating all his doings, her morals “become” his).

And this is where I will focus on Buffy, because I said that she is Spike’s mirror and moral compass.

In Season 5, Buffy is strong. She is confident in her Slayer’s role, she’s righteous, she knows she does good. Even when things go bad, she has convictions, she has her friends, she will protect them, protect Dawn and the World. She doubts her strenght (to fight Glory) but never her character. At this point, she is hard on Spike. She doesn’t tolerate him crossing the line, she’s cold bordering hostile.

Up to 5x14 “Crush”, she is using him for information and sometimes she pays his help. In Crush, when he tells her he loves her, she is disgusted because he’s done nothing by himself to prove he is good. He asks for something, "Just... Give me something, A crumb... the barest smidgen" and she gives him nothing. But Spike has one raison d’être and he will keep on trying. “Fella’s got to try though” (5x10 “Into the Woods”)

The first real good thing he does is in 5x18 "Intervention”, resisting Glory’s torture and keeping Dawn’s identity as the Key a secret. He gets is first “reward”, a kiss and an acknowledgement from Buffy. This will train his response, he knows now that protecting Dawn, being a hero in this time of crisis against Glory will make him closer to Buffy. All he does in the end of season 5 is according to that.

Side note : I don’t think him staying to protect Dawn after Buffy’s sacrifice is selfless. He still has the chip, he is still alone, he cannot join a community of vampires or demons, he just has his love for Buffy and the promise he made her. It’s something to live by. Plus it’s in line with his character as a poet living for great love. End of side note.

Here comes Season 6. Buffy has been ripped out of Heaven, she is clearly depressed, she is not confident anymore, she doesn’t have any motivations to be the Slayer, thus she thinks she’s a bad Slayer and a bad person. She resents herself for being like this, she thinks she disappoints her friends but she cannot get better. She has lost her drive.

At the beginning Spike is here to help, his mirror at this point is Pre-sacrifice Buffy, he tries to be here for her and he is ! But Buffy is destroyed, she can’t count on her friends, Giles who could have helped her is gone, and she feels empty and/or bad, she just wants to feel something that is not suffering. “Give me something to sing about” (6x7 "Once More, with Feeling"). The line is blurry and she goes to the only person who has shown the kind of support she needed, Spike, giving him what he wished for.

She’s given him the “smidgen” he was asking for and he won’t let it go. He wants to talk to her, he wants to know if they have something. I think here he is still with the Pre-sacrifice Buffy moral compass and I am sure that Buffy treating him like a man, like someone she knows she can count on would have taken their relationship in a whole different way in season 6. Because Spike is good when Buffy treats him like a man, “I know I am a monster but you treat me like a man” (5x22 “The Gift”). But Buffy is not the same, she is suffering and she sees what she does with Spike as a proof of her wrongness, something she would’ve never done before her sacrifice, another evidence that she is not the same, that she is not The Good Slayer. How does she cope with this realization ? She externalises her self-loathing by insulting Spike, belittling him and what they shared while keeping on seeing him “The only thing that’s different is that I’m disgusted with myself” (6x10 "Wrecked").

And I think that’s when the shift occurs;

Spike doesn’t need to act heroic to gain what he desires,

He’s not treated like a man anymore, so why do good ? Plus he would rather defend himself against Buffy’s insults by being offensive and violent. “You’re not a man. You’re a thing.” (6x9 "Smashed”).

He sees that while Buffy insults him and says no, she keeps returning to him for comfort. He gets to be his “”bad self”” again without losing what he wants.

From this point in time, Spike loses the incentive to do good, he sees Buffy’s in a dark place (and I said she is his moral compass), he himself relishes in the dark so he tries to keep Buffy there, because when she’s there, she’s with him so that means that what he’s doing is working, right ? It is selfish, obsessive and unhealthy like his relationship with Drusilla (but Drusilla was also a vampire). I am not saying that he doesn’t want Buffy to get better but I think he wants her to get better through him and that means the “dark place” because she is not showing him another way (the mirror).

While they don’t act out of character, they act in a specific context :

Buffy is depressed and lonely, she’s got financial problem,

Willow is addicted to Magics

Tara is not immediately here because she has broken up with Willow,

Xander is caught up with the wedding,

Giles isn’t here,

There is no “Big Bad” threat, apocalypse-like villain to unite the team.

A lot of things aren't going well and it can appear exaggerated compared to the previous seasons. But the show’s always aimed to tell the stories of “personal anxieties associated with adolescence and young adulthood” (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Wikipedia) by using the supernatural as metaphors, and even if those metaphors are less subtle is this season the themes stay intact. Sometimes life sucks. Everything is going downhill, your friends are not here for you, you think you will fail, that you will be in this dark place forever. You don’t see a way out, your most reliable friend is going through a rough path and everything is against you. And there is no Big Bad that you can fight for all to be better, it’s a lot of little issues that take time to resolve.

It is important to understand that soulless Spike cannot be good for Buffy and eveything that happened during season 6 would have inevitably happened. Even if Spike and Buffy had managed to get into a healthy relationship, Spike is only good because Buffy is strong and confident and can draw the line, but that’s not how it’s supposed to be. He needs to be good for himself and not based on another person, nobody must endorse the role of the moral compass in a relationship. The first moment Buffy wavers, soulless Spike would have fallen in the same pattern, his “bad self” again. And Buffy wavers in season 6.

My conclusion : seaon 6’s events were bound to happen and nothing was out of character.

Thanks for reading all of that !

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lifes-a-simple-plan · 3 years ago

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My Top 10 Teen Wolf Moments

The time has come. The day, which I’d hoped would be years from now, has fallen upon us. Teen Wolf is over. *Cue intense sobbing*

I decided that as a way to hold onto this show that was such an important part of my life, I would make a post about my favorite moments from Teen Wolf before I start re-watching it for the billionth time!

#10 Allison Accepting Scott as a Werewolf (Season 1 Finale)

We know Scott’s first love extremely well. She was a character adored by many who was so much more than just his love interest. But their love was so wonderful and so powerful to watch, I don’t think anyone was immune to shipping Scallison. The moment for me that solidified their relationship was when Allison embraces Scott while he’s 100% turned. It told me that she was capable of seeing the boy she loved through the terror of finding out he’s a monster.

#9 Scott VS Liam (Season 5A Finale)

Scott and Liam have had a very interesting storyline together where Scott basically ends up a Papa Werewolf to this five foot tall ball of rage and every moment is so priceless to me. I think one of my favorite things to watch in the show was how they grew to look out for each other and had an amazingly deep bond. So of course I chose the scene they fought each other (technically to the death) as a top 10 moment. It had me on the edge of my seat and yelling at the TV, terrified for Scott.

#8 Stiles joins the FBI (Season 6B Premiere)

This was the only moment from season 6 that had me sobbing. Seeing him in his fancy shirt with his tie and his familiar goofy smile, happy for a reason that was unrelated to the supernatural and going out to pursue his dreams melted me into a puddle. The same thing probably would have happened if they’d had a scene where Scott entered a college and there was a sign that said “This way to become a Veterinarian!”

#7 Allison’s Death (Season 3B Finale)

This one hit me pretty hard as well. Allison had become such a strong character and one of the few human members of Scott’s pack. She was smart, resourceful, confident, and, above all, always ready to help those who could not help themselves. Her death shook me, and seeing Scott’s emotional response that her death triggered was painful. But her final moments were spent helping to save the day and being in the arms of Scott, and I feel like she wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

#6 Night School (Season 1 Episode 7)

Night School is my second favorite episode of the series. The first time I watched it I was terrified and seeing Scott lose control and turning after Peter roars was just insanely cool to watch.

#5 Melissa Saves Scott (Season 5A Finale)

Melissa, AKA Momma McCall, is my favorite of the adults! She’s sassy, gives great advice, and wants nothing but the best for her little baby werewolf Scott. Which doesn’t include dying. The moment she runs into the library and begins CPR, I felt so much better. I couldn’t think of how, but I knew he’d be okay if Melissa was there. Everyone needs their mommy some time.

#4 Stiles’ and Lydia’s First Kiss (Season 3A Episode 11)

I feel like Stydia is one of the most important romantic relationships of the show. Both Lydia and Stiles developed as characters and came so far from where they were. We know Stiles has had a thing for Lydia since day one, but I feel like this kiss, where she was just stopping a panic attack (yeah right),was the very first time she let just a small part of herself feel the love that was growing for him. And, while I didn’t have hardly any Stydia moments from season 6B, I think the most important one was when she looks at Stiles and recalls this kiss, telling Malia to kiss Scott to help him focus. It was a great callback to a great moment.

#3 Scott VS Peter (Season 4 Finale)

This has to be one of the best fight scenes in the series. Scott and Peter have not had a very good relationship (to say the least), but every time these two come to a head, I cheer. Peter was a pretty good bad guy (he’s no Demon Wolf), and I love how snarky he was to everyone around him. But in the end, he was always only willing to help if it served his purposes, and usually only if he could do it discreetly. When Scott was finally able to shut him down and beat him up, I had a field day.

#2 Scott Becomes a True Alpha (Season 3A Finale)

This moment was just so incredible! To know that our little baby Scott, of high moral and virtue, could become an Alpha without killing his way to the top might be when I felt the most joy watching the show. He did what NO supernatural creature is supposed to be able to do and broke through mountain ash through his sheer force of will. His strength comes from his ability to see right from wrong and never blur the lines. Scott knows that he has power and that whether he likes it or not, he feels responsible for saving Beacon Hills repeatedly. Scott’s development as a character is more like a slow burn. It’s harder to see how different he is from season one because he’s always been ready to take the moral high ground and be the better person, and for that he deserves to be the Alpha.

#1 Stiles Saves Scott (Season 3A Episode 6)

Of course this is my number one moment. If it isn’t your favorite moment, then I think you were watching a different show. Stiles and Scott are the backbone of this entire series. Everything they do, they do together (bite me season 6). So Motel California, my favorite episode of Teen Wolf of all time, having the bromance moment to end all bromance moments, easily took the top spot. When Scott is out of his mind, having been poisoned by wolfsbane again, he douses himself in gasoline and is holding a lit flare, ready to end it all. But who isn’t going to let that happen? Stiles. Because they are brothers, through EVERYTHING. Stiles’ speech had me crying for ages, and when he stepped into the puddle of gasoline to be with Scott, I lost it. The bromance is what I came for, and you bet your ass it’s what I’ll come back for time and time again.

Well, that’s it. Those are just some of my favorite scenes from this show that has been everything I needed from television. I’m going to miss having new episodes to binge in my wolf onsie, but Teen Wolf doesn’t really feel gone. And I’ll always have my DVDs. Thank you to the cast and the crew for giving me such a gift. I might not have gotten to see them graduate, or find out who the hell Greenburg was, or have every little thing I wanted to happen happen, but I did get a show I can love for the rest of my life.

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