Buffy the Vampire Helper
Apr. 5th, 2010 07:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deird_ljSo apparently, Buffy should have killed Spike in season 4 – except the season was badly plotted, and the writers were trying to get Spike into the show as a regular so she couldn’t kill him – but otherwise she absolutely would have killed him rather than helping him.
This seems to be a common opinion around LJ. And I completely disagree.
For the most part, it’s all about The Initiative. An episode in which Spike is captured by the government, and then escapes. Why does he? Because the Initiative are incompetent… and kinda evil.
To the Initiative, there are two ways to classify things: human, or hostile. Either you’re a normal human, or you’re something nasty that should be locked up or killed. At most, it might label you according to species – Polgara, vampire, werewolf – but then they all get treated the same way regardless of species. The only distinction that really matters is the aforementioned human or hostile.
Buffy and Riley discuss this in New Moon Rising:
They don’t see a distinction between Random Snarly Demon, and Oz. Both exist to be experimented on.
(Also – they’d have no problem killing Clem. Or Lorne. See? I said they were evil.)
This attitude doesn’t just make them evil. It also makes them incompetent.
In Doomed, we get to see the Initiative dealing with a new threat:
Whereas the Scooby Gang identify it as a Vahrall demon (“Slick like gold and gird in moonlight, father of portents and brother to blight; limbs with talons, eyes like knives, bane to the blameless, thief of lives.”) and conclude:
The Scoobies have a plan to save the world – while the Initiative are busily running around town, looking for a “pattern-less” demon to lock up in the cells. If they were the only ones on the job, the world would have ended right in the middle of season 4.
The same goes for Spike. If the Scoobies hear that Spike is in town, they instantly drop everything and start focusing on stopping him. To the Initiative, though, he’s just hostile; vampire; number 17. They lock him up, forget about him – and because they don’t realise who they’ve captured, they don’t realise how much they need to watch him. So… he escapes.
Buffy, on the other hand, is not incompetent. Or evil. So when Spike ends up on her doorstep, she evaluates him individually, assesses who he is, and decides the best course of action – which is definitely killing him. Or at least letting him die:
And then:
Buffy has no particular interest in keeping Spike alive. But she doesn’t tend to kill demons who don’t pose a “deadly threat to humanity”. She doesn’t like Spike – she hates him – and she knows how evil he is, but right now, he’s not a threat. So she’s happy to let him die, live, or anything really, as long as it doesn’t interfere with her Thanksgiving dinner.
But then… Spike makes a deal with her.
This has happened before. In fact, in one of my fanfics, I called Spike the “Alliance Forger”, because he is constantly making deals with Buffy.
The first one was way back in Lie To Me, when Buffy and Spike made a brief “let the stupid vampire worshippers go, and I won’t kill your girlfriend” deal. And then there was the alliance in Becoming, and the temporary truce in Lovers Walk. Spike has no problem temporarily being on Buffy’s side – and neither does she, actually.
Spike has gone back on his word quite a few times (mostly by violating the “get out of town and never come back ever” clause); Buffy never has. If she’s made a deal, even with her worst enemy, she sticks to it.
So she sticks to this one. The deal is basically: Spike gives information on the Initiative, and in return, Buffy takes Spike in (temporarily) and gives him blood and so forth. And definitely doesn’t kill him… for the moment, at least.
Buffy doesn’t go back on her word.
It’s meant to form a contrast. The Initiative, who are increasingly portrayed as the bad guys, are seeing vampires as impersonal objects, to be given numbers rather than names. And at the same time, the Scoobies are hanging out with a vampire who is definitely not just a number. As Willow puts it:
The good guys might kill vampires – but they also know them. They don’t just see mindless beasts roaming the town. They see an organised group, who need to be monitored – who need to be researched. They need to know who the leaders are, and what they’re planning. They need to know where each vampire stands in the pecking order, and how likely they are to have powerful friends backing them up. They need to know when the next apocalypse is likely to occur.
For the Scooby Gang, the “hostiles” are very personal.
Once the deal is made, Buffy sticks to it to the letter. She frequently jokes about killing Spike, but she never does.
In Something Blue, she tells him:
And yeah – if he went for her, she’d kill him. Happily. But for the moment, the truce still holds.
(The same thing happens in Out Of My Mind. Buffy’s observation on Spike getting the chip out is “That means I’m allowed to kill you.” And she certainly plans to kill him – once she’s allowed to again.)
So, what does Buffy get out of this? Information.
Spike has information on the Initiative, on Adam… He knows what Dracula is like, where Harmony is living, and how the Slayers died. He’s very useful. And he’s making Buffy better at what she does.
The Initiative will always be incompetent, because they’re flying blind. They see a demon and go “Hostile, six feet tall, big claws.” Meanwhile, Buffy knows its name, purpose, and hideout – and now she’s got even more info, because Spike’s around and willing to share (for a price).
Killing Spike wouldn’t just be welshing on her side of the bargain. It would also be giving up a valuable resource.
In short, there are a number of reasons why killing Spike might be a good idea. But something Buffy would do? I just don’t see it.
This seems to be a common opinion around LJ. And I completely disagree.
For the most part, it’s all about The Initiative. An episode in which Spike is captured by the government, and then escapes. Why does he? Because the Initiative are incompetent… and kinda evil.
To the Initiative, there are two ways to classify things: human, or hostile. Either you’re a normal human, or you’re something nasty that should be locked up or killed. At most, it might label you according to species – Polgara, vampire, werewolf – but then they all get treated the same way regardless of species. The only distinction that really matters is the aforementioned human or hostile.
Buffy and Riley discuss this in New Moon Rising:
“You sounded like Mister Initiative. Demons bad; people good.”
“Something wrong with that theorem?”
“There’s different degrees of…”
“…evil?”
They don’t see a distinction between Random Snarly Demon, and Oz. Both exist to be experimented on.
(Also – they’d have no problem killing Clem. Or Lorne. See? I said they were evil.)
This attitude doesn’t just make them evil. It also makes them incompetent.
In Doomed, we get to see the Initiative dealing with a new threat:
“Three metres tall, approximately 100-120 kilograms, based on my visual analysis.”
“Special hazards?”
“Unknown. Probably nothing we haven’t handled before. There is no pattern we can discern yet, so we got to assume that it’s on a basic crush-kill-destroy.”
Whereas the Scooby Gang identify it as a Vahrall demon (“Slick like gold and gird in moonlight, father of portents and brother to blight; limbs with talons, eyes like knives, bane to the blameless, thief of lives.”) and conclude:
“This thing isn’t digging up the bones of a child for fun.”
“Well, a demon’s got some pretty hilarious ideas about fun.”
“Bones of a child, though. I saw that. An ancient ritual – uses the blood of a man, the bones of a child, and something called the Word of Valios. It’s all part of a sacrifice – the sacrifice of three.”
“Let me guess – ends the world?”
“Well, yeah. It’s not big with the details, though. It doesn’t say how the world ends or what the ritual entails exactly.”
“The sacrifice of three… three people are going to die?”
“No, they won’t. Because claw boy is not getting all of his ingredients. We have to find that third one, the Word of Valios, and keep him from getting it.”
The Scoobies have a plan to save the world – while the Initiative are busily running around town, looking for a “pattern-less” demon to lock up in the cells. If they were the only ones on the job, the world would have ended right in the middle of season 4.
The same goes for Spike. If the Scoobies hear that Spike is in town, they instantly drop everything and start focusing on stopping him. To the Initiative, though, he’s just hostile; vampire; number 17. They lock him up, forget about him – and because they don’t realise who they’ve captured, they don’t realise how much they need to watch him. So… he escapes.
Buffy, on the other hand, is not incompetent. Or evil. So when Spike ends up on her doorstep, she evaluates him individually, assesses who he is, and decides the best course of action – which is definitely killing him. Or at least letting him die:
“What part of ‘help me’ do you not understand?”
“The part where I help you.”
“Come on, I’m par-boiling out here.”
“Want me to help make it quicker?”
And then:
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that Spike had a little trip to the vet, and now he doesn’t chase the other puppies anymore.”
“So you haven’t murdered anybody lately? Let’s be best pals!”
Buffy has no particular interest in keeping Spike alive. But she doesn’t tend to kill demons who don’t pose a “deadly threat to humanity”. She doesn’t like Spike – she hates him – and she knows how evil he is, but right now, he’s not a threat. So she’s happy to let him die, live, or anything really, as long as it doesn’t interfere with her Thanksgiving dinner.
But then… Spike makes a deal with her.
This has happened before. In fact, in one of my fanfics, I called Spike the “Alliance Forger”, because he is constantly making deals with Buffy.
The first one was way back in Lie To Me, when Buffy and Spike made a brief “let the stupid vampire worshippers go, and I won’t kill your girlfriend” deal. And then there was the alliance in Becoming, and the temporary truce in Lovers Walk. Spike has no problem temporarily being on Buffy’s side – and neither does she, actually.
Spike has gone back on his word quite a few times (mostly by violating the “get out of town and never come back ever” clause); Buffy never has. If she’s made a deal, even with her worst enemy, she sticks to it.
So she sticks to this one. The deal is basically: Spike gives information on the Initiative, and in return, Buffy takes Spike in (temporarily) and gives him blood and so forth. And definitely doesn’t kill him… for the moment, at least.
Buffy doesn’t go back on her word.
It’s meant to form a contrast. The Initiative, who are increasingly portrayed as the bad guys, are seeing vampires as impersonal objects, to be given numbers rather than names. And at the same time, the Scoobies are hanging out with a vampire who is definitely not just a number. As Willow puts it:
“It’s ookie. We know him. We can’t just let him poof himself!”
The good guys might kill vampires – but they also know them. They don’t just see mindless beasts roaming the town. They see an organised group, who need to be monitored – who need to be researched. They need to know who the leaders are, and what they’re planning. They need to know where each vampire stands in the pecking order, and how likely they are to have powerful friends backing them up. They need to know when the next apocalypse is likely to occur.
For the Scooby Gang, the “hostiles” are very personal.
Once the deal is made, Buffy sticks to it to the letter. She frequently jokes about killing Spike, but she never does.
In Something Blue, she tells him:
“Oh, make a move. Please. I’m dying for a good slay.”
And yeah – if he went for her, she’d kill him. Happily. But for the moment, the truce still holds.
(The same thing happens in Out Of My Mind. Buffy’s observation on Spike getting the chip out is “That means I’m allowed to kill you.” And she certainly plans to kill him – once she’s allowed to again.)
So, what does Buffy get out of this? Information.
Spike has information on the Initiative, on Adam… He knows what Dracula is like, where Harmony is living, and how the Slayers died. He’s very useful. And he’s making Buffy better at what she does.
The Initiative will always be incompetent, because they’re flying blind. They see a demon and go “Hostile, six feet tall, big claws.” Meanwhile, Buffy knows its name, purpose, and hideout – and now she’s got even more info, because Spike’s around and willing to share (for a price).
Killing Spike wouldn’t just be welshing on her side of the bargain. It would also be giving up a valuable resource.
In short, there are a number of reasons why killing Spike might be a good idea. But something Buffy would do? I just don’t see it.
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no subject
Date: 2010-04-04 09:58 pm (UTC)This seems to be a common opinion around LJ. And I completely disagree.
You had me with this, because - yeah. But I agree wholeheartedly with your proper argument too. Buffy and Spike until S5 is one long story of each finding the other more useful alive than dead. (Or, well, I suppose from Spike's side there's a large chunk of killing!fail as well... ;) )
no subject
Date: 2010-04-04 10:19 pm (UTC)I just barely finished writing a scene where Spike gets dusted on Giles' doorstep in 'Pangs'. (Though the Initiative was leaving town, so that particular bit of information was devalued.) Now you've got me feeling all grumbly about it.
*grumbles*
no subject
Date: 2010-04-04 10:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-04 10:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-04 10:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-04 10:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-04 10:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-04 10:44 pm (UTC)Err, or maybe...
I'm very very sorry. I'll never ever write sense-making meta again.
(Tune in for my next meta: why Buffy hates all people with Nike sneakers.)
no subject
Date: 2010-04-04 10:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-04 10:45 pm (UTC)"Please - I told you everything I know. You have to let me go."
"I never agreed to that."
no subject
Date: 2010-04-04 10:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-04 10:51 pm (UTC)Personally, I love that scene like pancakes. Click! is one of my favorite panels. And lets not forget the vampire had just hunted down Renee in a schoolgirl outfit to oh, eat her. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2010-04-04 10:53 pm (UTC)I think the problem with this period is that staking Spike would basically involve her walking into his crypt one day and staking him in cold blood (though I could imagine her doing it during the fight at the end of OOMM), and that's not something I could imagine Buffy doing. There's provocation, but it's all provocation one step removed from actually inciting Buffy to stake him right in front of her when she has a stake and no distractions, without any time for her temper to cool or for him to make himself useful again. (I mean, by the start of S5 I think it's arguable Buffy's settled into a routine with Spike, where she expects him to be there for the cash, so it would take something above and beyond what she expects of him to make her go against that routine and stake him. And, well, by the end of OOMM the status is still quo as far as she's concerned.)
no subject
Date: 2010-04-04 10:53 pm (UTC)(Tune in for my next meta: why Buffy hates all people with Nike sneakers.)
You're going after the Nike sneakers now!!!! Well, that's just ruined ten other WIP's.
*throws up hands in frustration*
no subject
Date: 2010-04-04 11:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-04 11:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-04 11:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-04 11:03 pm (UTC)*That is to say, I would not feel like she's reneging, not necessarily that Buffy would feel that way.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-04 11:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-04 11:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-04 11:07 pm (UTC)I agree with your argument, but the show did kinda gloss over the above facts.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-04 11:12 pm (UTC)She knew he could potentially still be evil if he wanted to, but up until the deal with Adam, he showed no real inclination for it. But then he sold them all out to a demon who wanted to kill everyone. She knew he could try to get the chip out, but up until OOMM, he hadn't. But then he did, and immediately tried to kill her. I would expect both of those things to create more distrust of Spike than it does.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-04 11:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-04 11:17 pm (UTC)...apart from joking about starving people, wanting to eat Xander, giving Riley the thumbs up for trying to kill her, stealing Xander's stuff, promising to tell Faith where they were hiding and watch her kill them all, scaring people into giving him money...
He clearly still wants to be out there doing evil stuff, and he makes no secret of it. If Buffy hasn't picked up on it before Adam, she's not very bright.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-04 11:20 pm (UTC)...though I think Buffy should have killed him in S5 after Out of My Mind when he proved he could still be a threat despite the chip. However, I can fanwank that away by saying she was too preoccupied with her mother to bother.