Is there something different about Spike?

[Robb Stark]

I was thinking about how Spike, without a soul, is just...different from other vampires, even the profiled ones like Angelus, Darla and the rest. He's shown the ability to develop more than any other vampire in the Buffyverse. I don't think he ever regrets killing people, but clearly he is able to love unlike any other soulless vamp. He feels remorse for the things he's done to Buffy, and he shows a very definite affection for Joyce and Dawn (which go beyond just what he felt for Buffy I thought).

He just seems more human than any of the other vampires, and I'm not just talking about how he falls for Buffy. I mean, Angelus is pure psychopath. He's witty and he can be funny, but he rarely, if ever, displays anything but total cruelty to humans. But Spike, he not only interacts with humans, he's able to have varying types of relationships with them as well. I never really got that sense from any other vamp.

He just seems to show more emotional development, by far, than anyone else of the soulless club.

 

[Taake]

He just seems to show more emotional development, by far, than anyone else of the soulless club.

Spike fans will not like my answer... , so sorry to you in advance but...

...for me it's all about a deus ex machina.
Spike seems to show more emotional development because he needs to as he becomes a series regular. Going against the rules they have set up themselves didn't seem to concern the writers of Btvs a lot. Spike was popular, he was a good character, therefor he got 'special circumstances' to explain why this was another vampire we should emphasise with. Soul or no soul. So no, for me Spike wasn't different at all, not really and wouldn't have appeared so either hadn't they felt a need to keep him around for so long.

 

[RogueDemonHunter]

I think the chip is a contributing factor at first, by just spending time with the Scoobies, and having the temtation of killing them removed. But then it becomes more when he becomes more developed and honestly i don't know how to word it or say it that well, but yeah hes different, but thats why hes awesome.

 

[EVIL UU]

NO, there's nothing special about Spike.

One word: Dracula. He doesn't kill anybody in Sunnydale and shares a friendly chat with Joyce.

Spoiler

Later on he goes through a depression and even helps out Buffy.

Face it, Dracula is as human as Spike. And what about Harmony? What about Holden Webster? What about vampires from the canonical "Tales of Vampires"?

Spike seems different than most vampires Buffy deals with because of his age. Buffy slays mostly newly risen hotheads and hardly ever deals with older vampires.

 

[Robb Stark]

Spike fans will not like my answer... , so sorry to you in advance but...

...for me it's all about a deus ex machina.
Spike seems to show more emotional development because he needs to as he becomes a series regular. Going against the rules they have set up themselves didn't seem to concern the writers of Btvs a lot. Spike was popular, he was a good character, therefor he got 'special circumstances' to explain why this was another vampire we should emphasise with. Soul or no soul. So no, for me Spike wasn't different at all, not really and wouldn't have appeared so either hadn't they felt a need to keep him around for so long.

I hadn't really thought about that. [MENTION=11194]EVIL UU[/MENTION] raised a very good point as well when he mentioned Harmony, who is more or less just as human and developed as Spike by S5 of Angel. She also fits the bill of Spike in S4/5, where she's part of the cast and therefore has to work with and interact with the other characters beyond just "Blah! bite/slay me!". Good points.

 

[The Scourge]

The real reason: He was a regular and they couldn't have him be one-note the whole series.

My fan-wank: Drusilla was always connected to The Powers That Be by her visions, and this connection didn't go away when she was turned. Therefore any vampire she sires is different than the usual crop of vampires we get.

Sure, its not true; but it sometimes makes me rage less when fans say that Spike is so awesome that he is a great man and hero even without a soul.

 

[nmcil12]

Spike fans will not like my answer... , so sorry to you in advance but...

...for me it's all about a deus ex machina.
Spike seems to show more emotional development because he needs to as he becomes a series regular. Going against the rules they have set up themselves didn't seem to concern the writers of Btvs a lot. Spike was popular, he was a good character, therefor he got 'special circumstances' to explain why this was another vampire we should emphasise with. Soul or no soul. So no, for me Spike wasn't different at all, not really and wouldn't have appeared so either hadn't they felt a need to keep him around for so long.

Agree, but I also think that from the first he was introduced as having that special "something different" quality. With that first turn of his head when he goes from Vamp face Spike into his human face and his treatment of Drusilla, we had a vampire that was more than just an evil monster vamp.

There is no way that Spike Evil Big Bad as a one layered character could have ever been included as a regular. Even as the potential primary evil villain the character would have to have been developed into a true Master Evil Villain that had multi-layers. His story and history with Angel/Angelus would also have had to been a significant story arc and the series simply could not have supported a story with great depth and still have Buffy and Angel as the primary love interest characters.

Angel/Angelus would have been explored and defined as very different from Buffy's world view that Angel was on automatic Good vs Evil because of his history. This is of course if the character of Angel and Spike were developed from the first as the super compelling and complex characters that we had as the series developed.

The entire series play super loose with plot logic and unresolved issues about the characters and not only with Spike. OMWF is perhaps one of the greatest examples of plot devices as needed - basically Xander was used an accessory to murder and not one single character seemed to care one bit.

 

[whitewolf]

[MENTION=11194]EVIL UU[/MENTION]

Dracula isn't exactly a normal vampire either. From what little we know of him in the Buffyverse, he seems to be something more than a normal vampire. He has powers the others don't and he can't die. Buffy staked him twice and we see him floating as mist waiting to reform.

 

[white avenger]

Spike fans will not like my answer... , so sorry to you in advance but...

...for me it's all about a deus ex machina.

I can't speak for all Spike fans, even though certain people consider me to be somewhat rabid on the subject, but I have no problem with this at all. I would suggest, however, that a better term than "deus ex machina" would be simple self survival. Once Spike was no longer able to hunt and feed on his normal prey, due to the chip, he had the choice of either starving or attaining a new food source. Complicating his new life style, he was being pursued by the Initiative, as well as Buffy and her friends, and was helpless to defend himself from them. Having no desire to either starve or be dusted, he made a logical, intelligent, if somewhat desperate, decision to form a more or less working relationship with the Slayer and her friends in exchange for food, protection, and shelter.

Spike, because of the chip, was forced to make major changes in his life style in order to survive. That says nothing more for him than that he was intelligent enough to realize that and make the choice, even if he did so reluctantly, and even though he tried, unsuccessfully, to find a way to reverse the situation and return to being the monster that he once was. It would have been interesting to see how Angelus, or the Master, or any other major vampire from the series would have handled the same situation (I know, they would have been able to handle it exactly the way that Joss and his writers wanted them to, but that's not my point)

The changes in Spike (and, detractors to the contrary, there WERE changes, he just tried not to let them show. The Big Bad had a reputation to live down to) were made as the result of his enforced new life style, but that is neither better nor worse than any criminal who recognizes the fact that his old life style is forever closed to him and makes the choice to develop a new life style more acceptable to the new people and conditions in which he finds himself. He may not ne the model citizen at first, but he learns, he adapts, he gets better, and, with time, he even begins to like the new him and honestly has no desire to return to his old existence.

That's what happened with Spike.

The "difference" between Spike and every other vampire in the Buffyverse is that he was given, or forced into, an opportunity, saw the simple logic in taking it, and as the result of that decision, eventually became what someone whose opinion meant a very great deal to him described as a better man. And her Champion.

That's what is different about Spike.

 

[BuffyElevated]

I just think vampires are different because of their personalities. Angel says that vampires carry a lot of their human selves with them even after they're turned, and I think some vampires are more in touch with that humanity than others.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

I think it depends on how you view the demon in a vampire.
I equate it to this.
When a vampire turns a human, the vampire is giving 'life' to another one, (procreating).
So each one (demon/ vampire) has its own personality. Just like a human.

 

[Jod]

I think Spike was different totally. Even when he wasn't chipped he still wasnt half as nasty as Angelus was, spike didnt even have many kills and like people said above ^^ he felt remorse when he didnt Have to.
Once he was chipped he still helped fight for a good cause (occasionally making mistakes but hey who dont) and personally i think that makes him a good guy as it doesnt matter why hes fighting for good..it just matters that he is.
Spike is (to me) a very interesting character a lover and a fighter 😉