The Evolution Of A Champion

[white avenger]

(This has been mentioned briefly in other threads, but never had one of its own up until now, so...)

With the character of Angel, we have three distinct personas. There is Liam, family ne'er-do-well, drunk, and all around black sheep, who became...Angelus, rapist, tortures, and by his own declaration, "greatest killer in Europe since the Black Plague," who, through the aquisition of a soul, became Angel, self proclaimed champion and helper of the helpless.

Then we have the character of Spike, who began as William, bloody awful poet, who, upon becoming a vampire, took the name of Spike, Slayer of Slayers, who in turn, upon the the aquition of a soul became...Spike, the Slayer's Chosen Champion.

My question is, would it have been easier to differentiate un-souled Spike from souled Spike, if he had adopted, or at least TRIED to adopt, some other name the way Angelus/Angel did? (Visualize Spike proclaiming, "My name is now Randy, companion of the Slayer." at which time everyone rolls their eyes and says in unison, "Yeah, Spike, whatever.)

 

[Phantom Dennis]

Good question. I think a name isn't needed for re-souled Spike because he really doesn't seem all that different from un-souled Spike, attitude and personality wise. When Angel was created from restoring Angelus' soul its like he became a COMPLETELY different person, he became nicer and his kindness really showed through when he helped people. Whereas Spike (with soul) really just seems like he's being the same old Spike with his rude, wise cracking attitude, now he just helps people. The whole 'Spike getting a soul' seems a bit too rushed to me, like Angel said in S5, he only spent a few weeks moaning around in a basement to get over it. IMO Spike's characters really hasn't developed all that much.

Whew I went on longer than expected! Sorry for that long and confusing rant.

 

[Emzzie]

I totally agree with Phantom Dennis. When Angelus got a soul he was a totally different person. But when Spike got one, he was pretty much the same old Spike. His personality was the same, althought we saw some more vulnerable parts of him. Plus it only took him a couple weeks to get over what he did, not years as it took Angel. But again, he was distracted by Buffy and he had support, where Angel had nobody. Angel took a new name because Angelus and him were two completley different people. But Spike was still just good 'ol wise-cracking Spike.

 

[InsaneMystic]

/me agrees with PD and Emzzie.

I think it would have been unfitting - damaging, even, for Spike's character - had he gone down that route. One of the main reasons why I like Spike a lot more than Angel is that he doesn't go the schizo/MPS route Angel/us took; he copes much more "integratedly" than Angel. Spike accepts all the evil he's done as his past and goes on with that knowledge, while Angel is much more psychologically unstable, (though, to his credit, that may be from having the soul thrust upon him against his will instead of seeking it out... it's an act of psychic rape that may have damaged his sanity permanently. And hey, maybe that's why he's making life altering decisions over other people's heads... identification with the aggressor, anyone?) splitting and compartmentalizing his two parts up completely and then going clinically depressive over it.

I could easily Spike scoffing at the very thought of picking a new name - seeing that as something immature and "been there, done that" both because he had done it himself in his fledgling years, and (more importantly) because Captain Forehead had done so, too.

 

[Crashing Doors]

Well, I tend to think of things from a writing kind of stand point (not that I'm a pro or anything) and it would have been a bit difficult to change the name of a character in the final season. Really though, I never really liked that Angel used to be called "Angelus". I don't know though; maybe "Angelus" would have been the right spelling of the word back in his day, in which case props to the team. But I would have preferred if he was Angel when he was bad, Angel when he was good.

And the blue shirt seemed to get the job done. Souled Spike wore a form-fitting blue shirt. Although now that I consider it a little more, I could have seen Buffy calling him William a little bit more often, instead of just calling him Spike. Not the whole gang though, just Buffy since she was the one who really stood up for him.