Too Much Battle Biting this Season?

[Buffyverse Fan]

Anyone else notice that it's suddenly become a common move for Angel & Spike to bite their opponents to win a fight?

It's not that it seems OOC for a vampire, it's just that I can recall one instance in the roughly 250 TV episodes of using that move, and it was the final episode of the televised franchise, when Angel killed Hamilton.

What does everyone think about vamp biting mid-fight becoming a go-to move for Angel & Spike? It seems they now use it more often than not...

 

[Xin Rong]

Are we talking about the comics?

 

[Kean]

I'm not crazy about it, mainly because it was used so sparingly in the show. It is a fairly big deal for Angel to bite someone and in the comics it portrayed has an insignificant move.

 

[Buffyverse Fan]

Are we talking about the comics?

Yes, I've actually lost count of how many times Angel has bitten to win a fight this season, it's a whole lot, I'd guess roughly half the significant fights he's had post-Twilight. Spike has been doing this too lately. It's just weird when it was literally a 1-out-of-100 thing in the television franchise for them, and it's now a 1-out-of-2 move.

I'm not crazy about it, mainly because it was used so sparingly in the show. It is a fairly big deal for Angel to bite someone and in the comics it portrayed has an insignificant move.

I agree!

I suppose there are two arguments to support it:
1) He never thought of it as powerful move prior to the NFA fight with Hamilton, and he's added it to he repertoire now.

or 2) In the TV series he wasn't so physically outmatched as often as he is now.

As for #2, that would make some sense, but it'll take more than that to take on Whistler. You would think that Angel would be attempting to find a way to beat Whistler, Pearl, and Nash beyond just biting them, because they each seem to be on par or stronger than Hamilton and the Beast...

 

[Kean]

I agree!

I suppose there are two arguments to support it:
1) He never thought of it as powerful move prior to the NFA fight with Hamilton, and he's added it to he repertoire now.

or 2) In the TV series he wasn't so physically outmatched as often as he is now.

As for #2, that would make some sense, but it'll take more than that to take on Whistler. You would think that Angel would be attempting to find a way to beat Whistler, Pearl, and Nash beyond just biting them, because they each seem to be on par or stronger than Hamilton and the Beast...

See, the issue I have is that none of the justifications of why Angel has been biting this season out weigh why he wasn't biting, because he was trying to be a good man. Angel's whole raisin d'etre has been to distance himself from the base demon. He can't, nor does he try, to deny what he is, but biting is something wholly vampiric. Every time he does it I feel he is just a little bit less human, that he's a little bit less in control. I find it especially problematic in the wake of S8 because I feel Angel would react to his actions in the complete opposite way and do his best to not engage that part of him, to seek more control.

To me, this is just another instance of a choice being made for the story not because it is true to the character, but because it looks cool on the page.

 

[white avenger]

I always saw Angel and Spike biting someone as pretty much the same thing as an alcoholic taking a dink of whiskey. In fact, Spike even refers to drinking human blood as "going back on the sauce." Feeding off of living humans must be a terrible craving for vampires, and the fact that Angel, and later, Spike, refrained from doing so was an illustration of their resolve not to be those monsters any more. Then, suddenly, in the last couple of seasons of both shows, the good guys are risking everything by drinking the real thing once more.