DeadlyDuo
Scooby
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2016
- Messages
- 9,016
- Age
- 30
I'm convinced that the victims Spike tortured with railroad spike were the "girls Dawn's age". There had to be something about those victims that made it noteworthy for Spike to get his name rather than just the method. He seemed to get the name Spike very quickly. In the mineshaft scene when Angelus called Spike William the Bloody and Spike corrected him, they said they barely got out of London alive. I think it was set the same year as Spike's siring which means it would've taken place not long after since they were in London when Spike got sired.I agree that's very problematic in the depiction of Spike, that we just hear about his evilest deeds, rather than see them. Also, his reputation may have outrun the reality, as in Giles thinking his name is due to torturing people with spikes. Or is that true? We never know for sure. We need that dissertation that one of the watchers wrote on him.
People disagree with me about the "girls Dawn's age", however in my opinion, it doesn't make sense narratively to have a character admit to raping underage girls when you want the audience to have sympathy for that character's plight. Just because the victim is female doesn't mean the crime was rape.

Stake fodder
Interesting theory! I have suspected Spike gave himself the name and then (perhaps) did deeds to justify it.