Buffy & Spike = no dust

[Primal Slayer]

Im sure Clem and the others never tried to kill Buffy and she never saw them harm humans. Which is why she didnt kill them. Spike is a bit of different story.

 

[Lou]

Why would anyone want to hurt Clem? He's so cute and adorable......like Willy!

 

[fly on the wall]

Im sure Clem and the others never tried to kill Buffy and she never saw them harm humans. Which is why she didnt kill them. Spike is a bit of different story.

Not once he got his chip, he wasn't.

And IMO, Spike was a better fighter pre-chip and pre-soul. I think Buffy could have killed him S2/S3, but it would have been difficult and risky. He could have just as easily killed her; I think they were pretty evenly matched. Plus, she was preoccupied with her boyfriend turning evil and trying to stop him destroying the world to fuss much about just another vampire. It was worth letting him and Dru go, in Buffy's mind, if it meant stopping Angel.

 

[caitaintdead]

I think it's as simple as the audience liked him, the writing/directing team probably liked working with him.

I think Spike is a nice touch to the story, reminds me of cartoons and comics where the bad guy never wins but always tries again in the next episode!
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Edit:
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You put the words into my mouth! That's who I was thinking of but couldn't remember what the coyote was called... Turns out it's not that difficult.

 

[Lou]

You put the words into my mouth! That's who I was thinking of but couldn't remember what the coyote was called... Turns out it's not that difficult.

What can I say? We rock! The boards would be a sad place without us.
But he still jumped line!

 

[Schillaci]

Buffy fought with emotion which helped make her stronger. She wasnt just another weapon of the council like past slayers were. If Buffy could take on Faith in an all out fight, she could take on Spike and beat him just like she did in Harsh Day of Light. If Buffys emotions get targeted, she becomes almost an unstoppable force.

Plus she took out a Turok-Han and Caleb (or whatever their name is) and they are both definatly stronger than Spike.

No offense, but that's balls. The turok'han whipped Buffy's ass the first time they fought, and was shown to be much stronger, and a better fighter than Buffy. In fact most of Buffy's big opponents were stronger than her, but she beat them(with help).

Spike defeated two slayers, alone, and kicked Buffy's ass the first time they fought. As I already said in a previous post fighting is not just about power.

Also there was the demon that was exchanged with Buffy when she went through the portal. The one that Spike eventually killed. How powerful do you think that was? Would the exchange have worked if it was a bunny or a cat or did the being have to be of equal power to Buffy?
[been a long long time since I saw that episode, but I'm sure what I'm saying was implied]

But, Spike could have been killed quite a few times. He one way or another managed to either escape or get let of the hook. Not being killed isnt really a factor in suggesting(as WA did) that Spike(my fave character) is the 2nd strongest opponent Buffys ever faced.
I do think Spike is stronger than (maybe) Angel and Faith, but i just think Buffys a little bit better at fighting.
She improved each season, Master - Adam - Glory etc, and is THE legendary fighter in the Buffyverse. Theres no shame in Spike being a lesser fighter than her.

Is this what you were referring to when you said you disagreed with my third point? Its a kinda blinkered view. Buffy and Angel too were nearly killed on lots of occasions, but were somehow saved, usually by someone, or by some freak occurance.

The master killed Buffy twice(one of those was an alternative buffy where she had no friends or ties to the world). Buffy killed Angel. Spike never died by being defeated in combat. He sacrificed himself.

 

[T.I.P]

Is this what you were referring to when you said you disagreed with my third point? Its a kinda blinkered view. Buffy and Angel too were nearly killed on lots of occasions, but were somehow saved, usually by someone, or by some freak occurance.

Yeah, this is very true, in fact, theres probably quite a big list of the times Buffy had a VERY luck escape. And also gotta agree a fighters skill isnt all about the fighters power, coz tbh i think when Buffy beat the Master and, in fact ALL the big bad she faced, they all had more power than her but she still found a way to win. even Kakistos and Luke were stronger than Buffy and Faith but they couldnt win.
So going by pure and simple power, Spike was nowhere near the 2nd toughest opponent, but going by overall ability, Spike was definetly one of the best.

 

[raine4rose]

for me Spike is like Buffy
whenever there is a fight they could get a victory in the END.
Somehow Buffy is also afraid of Spike. Especially when Spike told him the story how did he killed the 2 slayer.
Buffy has an opportunity to killed Spike but Spike has a lot of opportunity to killed Buffy and Buffy's friend and family.

 

[Primal Slayer]

No offense, but that's balls. The turok'han whipped Buffy's ass the first time they fought, and was shown to be much stronger, and a better fighter than Buffy. In fact most of Buffy's big opponents were stronger than her, but she beat them(with help).

And she beat the Turok'Han completely by herself. With no help...

 

[xaphania]

She seemed to have no qualms in killing Spike in The Harsh Light of Day. If Spike hadn't scampered off into the sewers when she pulled the Ring of Amara off him, he'd have been dust.

 

[Librarian Giles]

You make some very good points, and i'm sure she would of loved to dust him in the start of Season 4. But after that it was like killing a vicious dog, on a steel bound leesh, you just feel there is no point, and you would be doing it out of spite. In Season 5, Spike helped out the scoobie gang a lot and overall improved from the previous season. In S6, i think it was a combination of Buffy using him to "feel", and the relationship she built up with him. What i'm saying is, she used him and actually felt disgusted with herself and even a bit sorry for Spike, even though he is soulless.

 

[hannahfngrl26]

I think the reason is obvious. Storyline aside Joss said from the begining the James Marsters brought a dynamic to scenes that was gold. In his own words there was no way Joss was going to let him go so soon. End of story. And then it just goes from there.

 

[Perny]

Buffy KNEW Spike wasn't the biggest thread, so why waste time on trying to slay him, when she could lay him.... got that? Slay , Lay? Because she sleeps with vampires?

 

[Buffanator]

Buffy KNEW Spike wasn't the biggest thread, so why waste time on trying to slay him, when she could lay him.... got that? Slay , Lay? Because she sleeps with vampires?

HEH! Even tho I don't really agree with your theory...

"why waste time on trying to slay him when she could lay him"... I love that! :lmao:

 

[Blair Waldorf-Bass]

I don't know if anyone else shares the same opinion as me, but I think it was attraction. Just as there was an attraction between Spike and Anya, Spike and Willow, and all the people that could've been, there was the same type of thing between Spike and Buffy. Just my little two cents.

 

[Tueuse de Vampires]

I know it's widely know on BB that I put my studies off wayy too much to spend time here, but now I'm gonna attempt to prove that I actually do study from time to time (I do Psychoogy) and actually learn 😀 :

There's this thing called Propinquity (or proximity) effect. In my textbook it is defined as "The finding that the more we see and interact with people, the more likely they are to become our friends" (Aronson, Social Psychology, sixth edition, p.307)

As we know Spike hung out around the Scoobies a lot. He always seemed to be around, for whatever reason. Ergo, the Scoobies (and Bufy in particular) saw him a lot and interacted. Now, in this case we can say that they didn't really become friends...they started out wrong for that, but at least I think this interaction (and the fact that Spike was in fact harmless from mid s4 on) took the mortal enemy factor away. Sure, they (Scoobies) were constanly annoyed with Spike, but they didn't see him as the blood sucking moster anymore.

To underline the effect on somebody just being around, I would like to bring a study in the mix. In this study, professors were placed in a class of college students for a certain amount of time, without interacting with the students at all (so they were just sitting around nearby). In some classes they appeared not at all, in others only once, in again others half of the time, and in other all the time. At the end of the semester the students rated how friendly a person looked to them (this was done by showing them photographs of the professors). The result was the more time the professors spend in the class, the friendlier the students rated them (although they had never interacted with them, so couldn't tell if they were in fact friendly or not). So here we see that just being around has already an effect on how much you like a person. Coming back to Spike, we can recall him being around a lot. Of course he was being a pain in the butt a lot of times, but by just being around a little bit of sympathy might have been created.


So....how was I doing? Should I just quit college on the spot because I'm a hopeless case? 😛

 

[Blair Waldorf-Bass]

I know it's widely know on BB that I put my studies off wayy too much to spend time here, but now I'm gonna attempt to prove that I actually do study from time to time (I do Psychoogy) and actually learn 😀 :

There's this thing called Propinquity (or proximity) effect. In my textbook it is defined as "The finding that the more we see and interact with people, the more likely they are to become our friends" (Aronson, Social Psychology, sixth edition, p.307)

As we know Spike hung out around the Scoobies a lot. He always seemed to be around, for whatever reason. Ergo, the Scoobies (and Bufy in particular) saw him a lot and interacted. Now, in this case we can say that they didn't really become friends...they started out wrong for that, but at least I think this interaction (and the fact that Spike was in fact harmless from mid s4 on) took the mortal enemy factor away. Sure, they (Scoobies) were constanly annoyed with Spike, but they didn't see him as the blood sucking moster anymore.

To underline the effect on somebody just being around, I would like to bring a study in the mix. In this study, professors were placed in a class of college students for a certain amount of time, without interacting with the students at all (so they were just sitting around nearby). In some classes they appeared not at all, in others only once, in again others half of the time, and in other all the time. At the end of the semester the students rated how friendly a person looked to them (this was done by showing them photographs of the professors). The result was the more time the professors spend in the class, the friendlier the students rated them (although they had never interacted with them, so couldn't tell if they were in fact friendly or not). So here we see that just being around has already an effect on how much you like a person. Coming back to Spike, we can recall him being around a lot. Of course he was being a pain in the butt a lot of times, but by just being around a little bit of sympathy might have been created.


So....how was I doing? Should I just quit college on the spot because I'm a hopeless case? 😛

Wowzie. fun and long posts! 🙂 Besides the immediate attraction, I think that the gang did grow accustomed to Spike and came to really value him as a friend, sometimes their muscle, and lots of times, their comedy. Plus, he really understands people and their emotions so he ended up helping them out a lot (and breaking them up once).

No, you shouldn't quit college. That was actually really good. 🙂