The Good Ship Spike
Dec. 2nd, 2003 08:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shipperxHaving read a few comments about it here and there, I guess it's my turn to post thought of Shipping Spike Post BtVS:
I'll state up front that I'm one of the people who are more than willing to ship Spike with someone other than Buffy. I understand why people who have invested so much in Spuffy have a knee-jerk reaction to the thought of Spike with someone other than Buffy, but I'm not one of those people. I can understand that after having invested so much in Spuffy that someone is unwilling to invest again. It makes perfect sense. I have a hard time investing in M.E.'s stories at all because I don't have enough trust left to "trust the story" any longer. That sense of romantic hope we Spuffies felt in late Season 5 and Early Season 6 is gone and it's not going to come back. . .which leads me to what is probably my most harsh statement in this post : IMO Spuffy is dead. Actually, in my more bitter moments I'm more critical of it than even that. Hate to be cheesy here, but there's an Evanscence lyric that keeps coming to me "never was and never will be."
They say that hindsight is 20/20 (unless you're Pat Dye in which case you say that hindsight is 50/50... which may be the more applicable quote in this case because I admit that I'm looking back at Seasons 6 & 7 subjectively and not objectively). Anyway, stripping the last three years of BtVS of all my romantic Spuffy hopes and wishes, without all the could'a, would'a, should'as and what we have falls short of having ever been a romance. It's two separate stories. Buffy's story and Spike's story and how it influenced them as individuals but NOT as a couple.
In Season 4/5 we have a Spike who is stripped of everything that had previously made up his life. He's lost Dru. He can't fight. He can't live the normal life of a vamp and Spike, being Spike, did what he always does -- he railed against fate loudly and recklessly, then he regrouped and found a new direction in Season 5. He found purpose in the Slayer's and her friends' lives. He found direction. He kept his promise to a lady as best he could and became the errant knight.
But the thing is, M.E. didn't see this as a romance. They saw Spike as some errant figure who served Buffy. The scene at the foot of the staircase in "The Gift" is telling. Buffy doesn't respond, and Joss didn't feel she needed to. There IS no Buffy in that Staircase Scene, just the wonderfully compelling Spike. Buffy is all but absent in the scene. Romance is about two characters. That scene wasn't about two characters. It was about Spike.
Then we have Season 6 where so many of us wanted, needed, and believed we saw romance with Spike and Buffy. But looking back, that wasn't the story they were telling. I shake my head at the story they were telling. I don't understand WHY they chose that story. But, again, stripping it of all romantic illusions, the story that ME set up and intended was one of Buffy faltering and falling low... by consorting with Spike. Buffy was "in a bad place" where she behaved badly and when she found herself she would break away. Yes, ME somehow overlooked that in the writing of that story they had Buffy behave like an abusive bitch from hell. They weren't looking at the dynamics between the characters so they just didn't see that when you looked at the character's actions Buffy used the hell out of Spike. They weren't looking at that. ME likes to see characters as standing for something. They are metaphor... which can just as easily be translated into "we've pigeonholed the character." At any rate, what I once complained was the problem with the story, is in fact the way that ME tends to view the story. It's not about what a character does, it's about WHO the character is.
Buffy was the hero. So consorting with Spike was "Hero in a bad place." Spike wasn't a person. He was the "bad man" who represented Buffy in a "bad place" (I'm not saying this is how it played. It played like Buffy turned into a user, a bitch who exploited someone's love for her to turn him into her undead dildo and 'relationship' she could degrade herself with. Then she left him in the dust). But from ME's point of view, it wasn't about the dynamic between the characters. What they were was more important than who they were. Spike = bad place. They didn't mean it as romance. They meant it as a parable. And, of course, Spike was to discover that he was the "bad place" and to realize that he was "beneath" Buffy. They went into the season to "break" Spike. After all, his most pivotal scene in the season (that was actually about HIM and not about Buffy) was the realization in the Clem/Crypt Scene that he was "nothing." So the real purpose of Season 6 wasn't to bring Spike/Buffy together. It wasn't romance. It was to have Buffy walk away from Spike because he was beneath her... and to have Spike realize that he was beneath her.
And Season 7... Season 7 was mostly a shell game played with Spuffies. Give Spuffies just enough hope to keep them hanging on to the bitter end. Yeah, I fully believe that there was that aspect to the story. I believe that ME is just that cynical. So while they weren't telling a romance, they were well aware that many people viewed it that way, and they were willing to exploit that even if they never intended a satisfactory resolution. However, going back to ME has a way of pigeonholing characters, I think ME actually had a point to make and an agenda with Spuffy in Season 7, one that they did meet... and that was Spike letting GO of Buffy. It was Buffy walking away without the demons (who all ended up dead or faded into the dark mist) and walking into the sunlight with her human friends. That wasn't accidental. So, again, whatever statement Whedon makes about "a beautiful relationship," the truth was he was going for Buffy exiting without demons. There was no romance to speak of. It was a story destined to end exactly where it did end. And where it ended, was a gut wound to everyone who had followed the romance that was never what ME was selling. While it's certainly possible to look at those seasons and see that romance, to see all of Spike's love and devotion and to feel it goddamned DESERVED to find some fulfilment, that wasn't what ME valued. They would cynically play with it and its fans, but it wasn't what mattered to ME and their view of the series. That's why it's also perfectly valid to look at the same story and see Buffy using Spike until the moment he died -- unloved and unmourned. It isn't that ME meant that story, any more than they meant the romance, actually, it's that they weren't paying attention to the characters actions. To ME the what you are matters more in their stories than what you do, at least insofar as how our actions actually reflect who we are. To ME the character is their title. Buffy = hero no matter what. So the end was, as Joss said so often, written in stone. Buffy walking out of the cave and away the demons and into the light. A wholly unsatisfying ending if you were following the emotions and the characters within the story, but the ending that fit Joss's parable.
And (to bring this back to Spuffy) this is why I believe Spuffy is dead.
The parable is over.
The parable they intended for Spike and Buffy was told and was completed. What's left is only the parts ME didn't care about -- the feelings. It's just the fluff that was unimportant to them and that they used cynically, and will use again cynically if the need arises. The story of Spuffy that ME wanted to tell was told and is over. It's done, completed the way that ME had intended it to be completed.
One thing that even those who agree that Spuffy is mostly over tend to hang onto when considering Spike in a future ship is that it's "too soon." I disagree here as well. I don't have a problem with immediately moving on, and I've wondered about that. Why am I so willing to see the story go forward without any sort of buffer period. I mean, sure there's the whole bitter distaste for Buffy part of it, but it's something more than that. Something different. This weekend I finally figured out why it's not "too soon" for me. I finally realized why I found myself disagreeing whenever I read someone say that if Spike moved on it's sort of like Willow/Kennedy which I did think was too soon after Tara. This weekend I realized that it has to do with BtVS Season 7. I realized that all of Season 7 was about Spike letting go of Buffy.
Spike ended Season 6 thinking he was nothing. When he got the soul, he became convinced that he was truly "beneath" Buffy, but as we oh-so-tragically see time and again, Spike still had hope, no matter how small. Then we have Potential where, I honestly don't know whether Spike was given more hope or less. But the hallway scene and the scene with Spike offering to leave indicates to me that Spike was beginning to reach a stage of being ready to let go. I tend to think ME is showing their hand in the LMPTM scene with Giles.
While I think Giles is full of shit about the way that it's maturity to flat leave Buffy, I think ME intended it seriously. They see leaving her "for her own good" as the better choice (which is why they are reinforcing it this year). I think it's bull, but ME actually seems to believe this. Spike is a demon. Buffy's heading toward the light. What you are matters more than what you do, and Spike (in ME's eyes) SHOULD leave Buffy if he is "mature" and "unselfish." That was the intended destination.
By "Touched" we see Spike reach the point of no expectations with Buffy. By "End of Days," we see he has almost no hope where she is concerned, and he's no longer as open with her as he'd once been. And then we have the Bangel bullshit kiss. Hope died.
The reason why I don't think Spike needs, and why I don't think it's necessary to spend much time mourning Spuffy is that Spike spent ALL of Season 7 mourning Spuffy and letting go of Buffy. When Chosen happened, he'd let go. This is why, for myself, I have no need to see the relationship mourned or a buffer period. That was last year. It's not like Willow who basically just restarted without the mourning. Spike mourned. Spike broke his heart over Buffy. And he didn't let go easily... but he did let go. So I don't need the "time" that many people seem to demand of Spike because I think that time was spent. We were just so distracted by WANTING Spuffy that we didn't notice that he'd already mourned the death of the relationship.
And then there's the other argument of Spike needing to be alone and "growing beyond" the Love's Bitch. I'm not one of those people either. Characters aren't people. Characters have to function in a way that is compelling and is recognizable. You can't strip the core of a character out of a character because then -- who are they? It's great to tell a person to grow out of a certain character trait...but a fictional character needs those traits to drive drama.
Years ago, I remember Matthew Ashford mentioning that there was a tendency in his storylines to "cure" his character of a indiosyncrasy or to "solve" some aspect of the character and how he didn't really believe that was a good thing because the character needs those indiosyncracies, the character needs problems in order to fuel drama and to feed a storyline. Without them, the character becomes bland and has no story left to tell.
So while if Spike was an actual person I'd suggest he learn to be alone and not need people, for the CHARACTER of Spike, I think that's a disastrous choice. Characters are created with motivations. Spike's motivation as a character is that drive for love. So, Love's Bitch or not... that's Spike. For the character to really be the character that we love, he needs tp be driven by love.
And...er... I have some stuff to say about Sparm, Frilly, and Spana as well, but that will probably have to wait for tonight.
I'll state up front that I'm one of the people who are more than willing to ship Spike with someone other than Buffy. I understand why people who have invested so much in Spuffy have a knee-jerk reaction to the thought of Spike with someone other than Buffy, but I'm not one of those people. I can understand that after having invested so much in Spuffy that someone is unwilling to invest again. It makes perfect sense. I have a hard time investing in M.E.'s stories at all because I don't have enough trust left to "trust the story" any longer. That sense of romantic hope we Spuffies felt in late Season 5 and Early Season 6 is gone and it's not going to come back. . .which leads me to what is probably my most harsh statement in this post : IMO Spuffy is dead. Actually, in my more bitter moments I'm more critical of it than even that. Hate to be cheesy here, but there's an Evanscence lyric that keeps coming to me "never was and never will be."
They say that hindsight is 20/20 (unless you're Pat Dye in which case you say that hindsight is 50/50... which may be the more applicable quote in this case because I admit that I'm looking back at Seasons 6 & 7 subjectively and not objectively). Anyway, stripping the last three years of BtVS of all my romantic Spuffy hopes and wishes, without all the could'a, would'a, should'as and what we have falls short of having ever been a romance. It's two separate stories. Buffy's story and Spike's story and how it influenced them as individuals but NOT as a couple.
In Season 4/5 we have a Spike who is stripped of everything that had previously made up his life. He's lost Dru. He can't fight. He can't live the normal life of a vamp and Spike, being Spike, did what he always does -- he railed against fate loudly and recklessly, then he regrouped and found a new direction in Season 5. He found purpose in the Slayer's and her friends' lives. He found direction. He kept his promise to a lady as best he could and became the errant knight.
But the thing is, M.E. didn't see this as a romance. They saw Spike as some errant figure who served Buffy. The scene at the foot of the staircase in "The Gift" is telling. Buffy doesn't respond, and Joss didn't feel she needed to. There IS no Buffy in that Staircase Scene, just the wonderfully compelling Spike. Buffy is all but absent in the scene. Romance is about two characters. That scene wasn't about two characters. It was about Spike.
Then we have Season 6 where so many of us wanted, needed, and believed we saw romance with Spike and Buffy. But looking back, that wasn't the story they were telling. I shake my head at the story they were telling. I don't understand WHY they chose that story. But, again, stripping it of all romantic illusions, the story that ME set up and intended was one of Buffy faltering and falling low... by consorting with Spike. Buffy was "in a bad place" where she behaved badly and when she found herself she would break away. Yes, ME somehow overlooked that in the writing of that story they had Buffy behave like an abusive bitch from hell. They weren't looking at the dynamics between the characters so they just didn't see that when you looked at the character's actions Buffy used the hell out of Spike. They weren't looking at that. ME likes to see characters as standing for something. They are metaphor... which can just as easily be translated into "we've pigeonholed the character." At any rate, what I once complained was the problem with the story, is in fact the way that ME tends to view the story. It's not about what a character does, it's about WHO the character is.
Buffy was the hero. So consorting with Spike was "Hero in a bad place." Spike wasn't a person. He was the "bad man" who represented Buffy in a "bad place" (I'm not saying this is how it played. It played like Buffy turned into a user, a bitch who exploited someone's love for her to turn him into her undead dildo and 'relationship' she could degrade herself with. Then she left him in the dust). But from ME's point of view, it wasn't about the dynamic between the characters. What they were was more important than who they were. Spike = bad place. They didn't mean it as romance. They meant it as a parable. And, of course, Spike was to discover that he was the "bad place" and to realize that he was "beneath" Buffy. They went into the season to "break" Spike. After all, his most pivotal scene in the season (that was actually about HIM and not about Buffy) was the realization in the Clem/Crypt Scene that he was "nothing." So the real purpose of Season 6 wasn't to bring Spike/Buffy together. It wasn't romance. It was to have Buffy walk away from Spike because he was beneath her... and to have Spike realize that he was beneath her.
And Season 7... Season 7 was mostly a shell game played with Spuffies. Give Spuffies just enough hope to keep them hanging on to the bitter end. Yeah, I fully believe that there was that aspect to the story. I believe that ME is just that cynical. So while they weren't telling a romance, they were well aware that many people viewed it that way, and they were willing to exploit that even if they never intended a satisfactory resolution. However, going back to ME has a way of pigeonholing characters, I think ME actually had a point to make and an agenda with Spuffy in Season 7, one that they did meet... and that was Spike letting GO of Buffy. It was Buffy walking away without the demons (who all ended up dead or faded into the dark mist) and walking into the sunlight with her human friends. That wasn't accidental. So, again, whatever statement Whedon makes about "a beautiful relationship," the truth was he was going for Buffy exiting without demons. There was no romance to speak of. It was a story destined to end exactly where it did end. And where it ended, was a gut wound to everyone who had followed the romance that was never what ME was selling. While it's certainly possible to look at those seasons and see that romance, to see all of Spike's love and devotion and to feel it goddamned DESERVED to find some fulfilment, that wasn't what ME valued. They would cynically play with it and its fans, but it wasn't what mattered to ME and their view of the series. That's why it's also perfectly valid to look at the same story and see Buffy using Spike until the moment he died -- unloved and unmourned. It isn't that ME meant that story, any more than they meant the romance, actually, it's that they weren't paying attention to the characters actions. To ME the what you are matters more in their stories than what you do, at least insofar as how our actions actually reflect who we are. To ME the character is their title. Buffy = hero no matter what. So the end was, as Joss said so often, written in stone. Buffy walking out of the cave and away the demons and into the light. A wholly unsatisfying ending if you were following the emotions and the characters within the story, but the ending that fit Joss's parable.
And (to bring this back to Spuffy) this is why I believe Spuffy is dead.
The parable is over.
The parable they intended for Spike and Buffy was told and was completed. What's left is only the parts ME didn't care about -- the feelings. It's just the fluff that was unimportant to them and that they used cynically, and will use again cynically if the need arises. The story of Spuffy that ME wanted to tell was told and is over. It's done, completed the way that ME had intended it to be completed.
One thing that even those who agree that Spuffy is mostly over tend to hang onto when considering Spike in a future ship is that it's "too soon." I disagree here as well. I don't have a problem with immediately moving on, and I've wondered about that. Why am I so willing to see the story go forward without any sort of buffer period. I mean, sure there's the whole bitter distaste for Buffy part of it, but it's something more than that. Something different. This weekend I finally figured out why it's not "too soon" for me. I finally realized why I found myself disagreeing whenever I read someone say that if Spike moved on it's sort of like Willow/Kennedy which I did think was too soon after Tara. This weekend I realized that it has to do with BtVS Season 7. I realized that all of Season 7 was about Spike letting go of Buffy.
Spike ended Season 6 thinking he was nothing. When he got the soul, he became convinced that he was truly "beneath" Buffy, but as we oh-so-tragically see time and again, Spike still had hope, no matter how small. Then we have Potential where, I honestly don't know whether Spike was given more hope or less. But the hallway scene and the scene with Spike offering to leave indicates to me that Spike was beginning to reach a stage of being ready to let go. I tend to think ME is showing their hand in the LMPTM scene with Giles.
While I think Giles is full of shit about the way that it's maturity to flat leave Buffy, I think ME intended it seriously. They see leaving her "for her own good" as the better choice (which is why they are reinforcing it this year). I think it's bull, but ME actually seems to believe this. Spike is a demon. Buffy's heading toward the light. What you are matters more than what you do, and Spike (in ME's eyes) SHOULD leave Buffy if he is "mature" and "unselfish." That was the intended destination.
By "Touched" we see Spike reach the point of no expectations with Buffy. By "End of Days," we see he has almost no hope where she is concerned, and he's no longer as open with her as he'd once been. And then we have the Bangel bullshit kiss. Hope died.
The reason why I don't think Spike needs, and why I don't think it's necessary to spend much time mourning Spuffy is that Spike spent ALL of Season 7 mourning Spuffy and letting go of Buffy. When Chosen happened, he'd let go. This is why, for myself, I have no need to see the relationship mourned or a buffer period. That was last year. It's not like Willow who basically just restarted without the mourning. Spike mourned. Spike broke his heart over Buffy. And he didn't let go easily... but he did let go. So I don't need the "time" that many people seem to demand of Spike because I think that time was spent. We were just so distracted by WANTING Spuffy that we didn't notice that he'd already mourned the death of the relationship.
And then there's the other argument of Spike needing to be alone and "growing beyond" the Love's Bitch. I'm not one of those people either. Characters aren't people. Characters have to function in a way that is compelling and is recognizable. You can't strip the core of a character out of a character because then -- who are they? It's great to tell a person to grow out of a certain character trait...but a fictional character needs those traits to drive drama.
Years ago, I remember Matthew Ashford mentioning that there was a tendency in his storylines to "cure" his character of a indiosyncrasy or to "solve" some aspect of the character and how he didn't really believe that was a good thing because the character needs those indiosyncracies, the character needs problems in order to fuel drama and to feed a storyline. Without them, the character becomes bland and has no story left to tell.
So while if Spike was an actual person I'd suggest he learn to be alone and not need people, for the CHARACTER of Spike, I think that's a disastrous choice. Characters are created with motivations. Spike's motivation as a character is that drive for love. So, Love's Bitch or not... that's Spike. For the character to really be the character that we love, he needs tp be driven by love.
And...er... I have some stuff to say about Sparm, Frilly, and Spana as well, but that will probably have to wait for tonight.
