Vlad The Impaler and Spike

ILLYRIAN

ILLYRIAN

Druish Pervonian Wizard
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Giles said why William got the name Spike, something to do with railroad spikes.
Was the character inspired by what Vlad The Impaler is meant to have done? Impaled those who opposed him on spikes.
 
Yeah, the only difference being that Vlad was known for impaling his enemies (the Turks I think) vertically.

It was inferred that Spike impaled/tortured enemies by pinning them to stuff with railroad spikes, hence his name.

Hell, maybe Spike got the idea from Dracula, according to him their old rivals don't you know. 🙄
 
Blimey another ancient thread. You on a Spike trip today? 😀

Was the character inspired by what Vlad The Impaler is meant to have done? Impaled those who opposed him on spikes
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Maybe, although I've never seen interviews where the writers admit to that.
 
Silverspike said:
Blimey another ancient thread. You on a Spike trip today? 😀



Maybe, although I've never seen interviews where the writers admit to that.
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I was just responding to a thread that had no replies, that's all.
It was a straight forward question that I could answer.

Plus, I was performing a little test to see who would respond to this. 😉
 
Also its a thing I do, I pick a character and go through their old threads to see if there are any interesting debates worth 'reviving'.

I've pretty much done that with Faith, Buffy, Angel, Willow and Wes- Spike's turn. 🙂
 
It's an interesting comparison. I know that Vlad the Impaler is the inspiration for Dracula. Maybe there's a connection there?
 
Still a Scoobie said:
Off-topic but I don't care: I have a friend who's related to Vlad the Impaler.
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Is he/she a Romanian prince/princess?

It's funny this thread showed up just now; I'm reading a book on the history of the early years of the CIA and one of their main early guys served in Romania during WWII where he had an affair with one of Vlad the Impaler's descendents, a princess. They never saw each other again after the Soviet Union rolled over Romania and the King fled. It was an incredible story.
 
I'm a bit hazy on the details because it's a while since I heard the story, but the guy in question is distantly connected to a land-baron in what is now Hungary as well as Vlad and his family had to migrate around Europe because of several conflicts, e.g. the soviet expansion, until finally his grandfather came to England as a very young man around the time of WWII.
 
Back on the "Spike" thing, at the party that William was coming home when he met Drusilla, some jerk read one of his poems and remarked, very loudly, and to much laughter, that he would rather have a railroad spike driven through his head than have to listen to another of William's poems. Apparently, William the Bloody granted his wish.

At least that was what we were led to believe. We never actually saw any of William's spiked victims.

Spike and Vlad probably only met after William had made a name for himself in the vampire community. I can't imagine Vlad getting in debt to anyone who he thought wasn't in his upper vampiric class. he would just take the money from a fledgeling.
 
From the writers point of view I doubt Spike's name was inspired by Vlad the Impaler. Railroad spikes used for torture are worlds apart from the kind of impalement Vlad supposedly got his name from.

I think "Spike" was supposed to be like a catch phrase. Something hard and edgy, to fit his punk style, and something undeniably associated with him and his personality. Meant to show that we weren't dealing with "Angel" or any kind of regular Joe.

That Vlad impaled people on "spikes" and that Spike used railroad "spikes" for other but equally painful ends I think is just a coincidence.
 
See, this is why I do this- stimuate a long-forgotten thread and people come back to it to comment. Fun all around. 🙂

Good point about Spike gaining his name right at the beginning of his career, (I'd actually forgotten that) so maybe Dracula sought him out to compare notes.
'What length of spike do you use?' How many organs do you puncture?' that sort of thing. 😉

And then found him to be an 'uncouth commoner', and hastily left. 🙂
 
To be fair, Vlad The Impaler used Pikes to impale people, depending where through the body the Pikes was used the person might be either verticle or horizontal.
I've never heard of, or thought of Spike having a punk style, I think it was Buffy who said he gave Billy Idol the idea for that look.

And about that going off topic remark, if you want to go off topic I don't mind at all. Heck I do it all the time, for arguments sake.. .. when Angel washes his hair it looks all spikey, so if Angel was to be called Spike what would Spike be called? What if Spike was called Angel? Imagine the fun and reprocussions with regard to the Bangels and the Spuffyites.

And no references to Giles' comment of the Nancy tribe.
 
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