The mad man and the galant knight

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

A post  by elisi made me think again and react...She wondered about Spike's anger when he left Sunnydale at the end of Seeing Red.

Of course there was an obvious reason to his anger on screen: it was there to mislead us to think he was going back to his evil ways so the soul request in Grave would be a complete twist!

But I think that his anger then also makes sense and shows a true consistency in the writing.

I think he was angry because he suddenly understood that he was stuck. Trapped by his love for Buffy, trapped by his vampiric nature that he could not change, trapped by the chip. He couldn't quit loving her, but couldn't stop being a vampire and at the same time he couldn't be a "complete" vampire because of the chip. He couldn't go forward and he couldn't go back. He was screwed. Spike is a creature in motion (and we all loved the way he moved!), being stuck is unbearable for him. He might have sung he was Buffy's "willing slave" (which btw totally recalls courtly love)but basically as a character he has always wanted freedom.

The soul quest was a way out!

So calling Buffy a "bitch" first showed his frustration echoing the famous "Out. For. A. Walk. Bitch" and secondly hinted at Spike's lines in OMWF during the "Walk Through The Fire" song :

SPIKE: I hope she fries
I'm free if that bitch dies!
[tosses cigarette away angrily, then jumps up]
I better help her out

The frustrated angry man and the Champion-ready-to-fight-for-his-lady, the mad man and the galant knight were both pictured in OMWF and were both still there when Spike left Sunnydale for his soul quest.

So yes he had wanted to help her out but at the end of the song we saw him ending up in a blind alley which was a metaphor of the whole cul-de-sac in which his unlife was!

BTW the "first I save her then I kill her" happened too. He saved her from committing the dancing suicide but later their affair was killing her as she said so in AYW. Their love was good and bad at once for both of them...again with the frustration and the trap.

Spike and Spuffy were on a dead end, so he had to figure it out and find something to open up a new path before them.

ETA: Just checked the transcipt and realized that Spike did not call Buffy bitch at the end of SR ! LOL 
he must have thought it very loud though...

Comments

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

Applauds. I agree with every single sentence.

[shutupemz.livejournal.com]

Yep, totally agree, couldn't of said it better myself.

[kcarolj65.livejournal.com]

Well done! *applauds* You bring up some nice points here.

I so admire people who see the meanings behind sets, blocking, scenery, etc., like the blind-alley metaphor you mention. I'm so wrapped up in the story and the performances that I very rarely think about such things. I remember one commentary on an AtS Season 5 episode when Gunn was in the foreground with Spike in the background over Gunn's right shoulder, the traditional "good angel" position. I felt like a total dummy for not getting it. Still do.

[spuffyduds.livejournal.com]

Oh, well thought out. Nice.

[adriana-is.livejournal.com]

Very good points. I do love it when someone, like you did here, brings up some of these points that I completely missed in the series. Makes for good food for thought. :)

[fishsanwitt]

Thank you for this post. It made me think :)

[rahirah]

I have discovered that people hear what they want to hear; I once had a discussion with someone convinced that Spike had gone to get his chip out, and she'd 'revised' the dialogue in Searing Red and Grave in her memory to include overtly hostile and threatening language that did not, in fact, exist. (Of course, I assume that pro-Spike viewers do the same thing in reverse on occasion.)