Re: FIC; Bitter Business (4/4)

["Jim Means" <JIMMEANS@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: <danspector@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <buffyloveswillow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, April 03, 2004 11:47 AM
Subject: Re: FIC; Bitter Business (4/4)


Hmm, nicely written, but, as you may have guessed, I've gotta diverge on
a few things:

First, the only way Spike's 6'2" is if he's wearing 4-inch heels.
Official heights given in actor bios on the 'Net:

J. August Richards: 6' 4"
Marc Blucas: 6'2"/6'3"
David Boreanaz: 6'1"/6'2"
Nick Brendon: 6'0"
James Marsters: 5'10"/5'11"

And most of the " 5'11" " claims are from sites that also list his
birthdate as 1969, rather than the 1962 JM apparently tried to conceal.
I actually wouldn't be surprised if JM was even shorter than that and
"cheated up" a little.

Hmm, he always seemed a little taller to me.  I keep forgetting that SMG's a
bit petite.


Oh, okay, character stuff.

. I like very much your concept of the demon feeding on fear and thus
possibly starving to death and leaving Spike "hollow".  I could see a
non-killing Spike being pitied by Buffy, perhaps even accepted, although
I think most likely ignored and "let be".

(If something like this had happened in S4 then the non-staking of Spike
wouldn't have seemed like a pathetic contrivance to keep Marsters on the
show.  As it was, relying on the chip was assinine, given that the
Scoobs had no guarantee, nor even an idea. how long it could
last-which turned out to be just three years.  During which, he caused
it to fire less than a dozen times-if Spike had been more intelligent,
more persistent, he probably could have burnt it out in a week.

(S5, where Spike can kill people even if the chip if he wants ["Fool For
Love"], where Buffy lets him roam free to live/screw/conspire with
murdering vampires like Harmony [Spike doesn't blink an eye when she
talks about killing the shop clerk in "Family", he's practically proud]
and Drusilla [Spike feeds on her kills in "Crush"] and he is thus
equally guilty of the murders they commit [they're vampires, he could
stop them-but he doesn't], can only be taken with enormous doses of
disbelief/alcohol, IMO.  Or, possibly, a lobotomy, given that Buffy
and/or Joss seems to have had one.)

. "Kindred spirit" seems to be pushing it, though.  Should Buffy
really be empathetic to someone just because they can't brutally destroy
people's lives any more?  Does the sight of Charles Manson in jail make
you want to go "oh, poor baby"?  (Charlie is, allegedly, a pretty good
musician, btw.)

I say 'kindred spirit', not meaning friend or ally, but someone who was
thrust into a dark world without permission and had to learn to survive it.

. Spike's respect for Nikki and return of her coat is contrary to all
depictions of him in S7, obviously.  He killed her, stole her stuff, and
never gave it another thought-not even with his apparently-defective
"soul".

The fact that he wasn't entirely sure that 'Nikki' was her name, IMO,
indicates that he didn't respect her so much as he respected the title of
Slayer.  I may be wrong, but if he didn't respect Slayers, he wouldn't have
bragged about being the 'Slayer of Slayers'.  I saw that as more of a
respect for Buffy as an honored foe than for her predecessors.

. And here's where we seriously diverge, because what I absolutely
can't countenance is claiming that Spike resisted Glory's torture for
Dawn.  That's Spuffer-puffery, Spike-pimping of the worst kind, IMO.

And keep in mind that that paragraph was Buffy's POV.  She
believed(emotionally, and perhaps wrongly) that Spike was defending Dawn.

Dan, I love you like a brother, but I did not write this chapter expressly
for you.  I knew going in that some readers out there(you in particular)
would not be satisfied with any ending that didn't end without Spike's
actual and irreversible death.  Me, I don't see ol' Spike as you do.  True,
I hate St. Sunkencheeks with a fiery passion normally reserved for religious
fundamentalists.  But, IMO, St. Sunkencheeks didn't exist until Season
Seven.  And my story veers off from the end of Season Five.  Remember, in
the prequel 'Return', Buffy made the conscious choice to return to the
living, thus sidestepping that whole They-dragged-me-out-of-hell crap!

As this pertains to Spike;  Spike, as he existed from his first
appearance("Who do you kill for fun around here?") to Season Four, was one
of television's best villains, if not the best.  Better than Davros, better
than Number Two, better than Krychek or the Cigarette Smoking Man, better
than Kahn Noonian Sighn or Gul Dukat.  Why? Because he was the most
multi-dimensional.  He was evil, no bones about it.  But he was so much
more.  As much as I oppose Spuffy, I can understand the appeal; Spike was
the attractive side of darkness.

But that path was barred to him ever since he was taken by the Initiative.
He probably tried to attack a hundred people off-camera when he got chipped,
and after a while got sick of the chip kicking in every time.  But the more
he got saddled with the role of hero, the more he reluctantly accepted the
role.  Now we see that this may have to do with the weakening and eventual
death of his demon.

Do I think he's earned a soul?  No.  Neither does he.  That's the whole
point.  Titania's not gonna just give him anything, like she said.  Whatever
Spike receives from her, he will have to earn.  This leads to the question;
What does Spike want?  The answer; he doesn't know.  His old life is no
longer an option, and he has no idea what he wants to do now.  At least in
Avalon, he will have a chance to find out.

One thing that he won't become is St. Sunkencheeks!

And, OT, I really can't see Faith remembering the "warm champagne"
cocktease word-for-word like she does here.  It's nothing she hasn't
done with hundreds of other guys.  Get some, get gone.  Sure, I can see
Spike remembering the start of his Buffy-obsession and putting up the
quote in his psycho-stalker shrine, but Faith probably forgot the
incident before she got to Riley's.

Did she?  I saw that scene, and the subsequent seduction of Riley, as the
turning points in Faith's life.  When she told Spike, "Because it's wrong",
she finally started to get the message herself; her whole 'Get some, get
gone' credo had led to her sorry state, and she wasn't happy with it
anymore.  Which is why she bolted on Riley after he said, "I love you,
Buffy".  As I see it, she probably replayed that whole day in her head over
and over while in stir.  She, like Spike, is in a transitional stage in her
life.  Hopefully in the next story arc, this will be made clear.  Trust me,
Dan.  I know what I'm doing.

Kirayoshi
Just to set the record straight, I am not now, nor have I ever been, a
Spuffy!


"It is said that whoever makes the best egg salad shall rule over heaven and
earth.
Don't ask me why egg salad.  I have enough aggrivation."
  --"What's Up. Tiger Lily?"



"It's a good fight, Buffy, and I want in."
"I kinda love you."
Buffy & Willow, 'Choices'

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