“ | I may be love's bitch, but at least I'm man enough to admit it. | „ |
~ Spike’s most famous quote. |
“ | You listen to me. I've been alive a bit longer than you, and dead a lot longer than that. I've seen things you couldn't imagine, and done things I'd prefer you didn't. I don't exactly have a reputation for being a thinker. I follow my blood, which doesn't exactly rush in the direction of my brain. So I make a lot of mistakes. A lot of wrong bloody calls. A hundred plus years, and there's only one thing I've ever been sure of. You... Hey, look at me. I'm not asking you for anything. When I say I love you, it's not because I want you, or because I can't have you. It has nothing to do with me. I love what you are, what you do, how you try. I've seen your kindness and your strength. I've seen the best and the worst of you... and I understand with perfect clarity exactly what you are. You are a hell of a woman. You're the one, Buffy. | „ |
~ Spike’s uplifting monologue to Buffy. |
Spike is the tritagonist of the Buffyverse.
Spike was a vampire, notorious for his prosperity for killing and mayhem, having the deaths of two Slayers under his belt, who came to Sunnydale to restore his criminally insane lover Drusilla to health by sacrificing Angel, the love interest of protagonist Buffy. Although his plans were often thwarted time and time again by Buffy, over the years, the two gradually developed a complicated relationship that was fairly infamous for being mutually abusive, in some ways a dark mirror of her prior relationship with Angel.
While Spike has been on the side of good for a while, he has always been a wild card and was never fully trusted, and for understandable reasons. He is also the second worst vampire recorded in history. Unlike Angel, Spike never really repented for his misdeeds and did not turn good of his own volition - though in time, Spike would come to be a more heroic individual.
He was portrayed by James Marsters.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
- He killed Nikki Wood and Xin Rong, both of whom were slayers.
- He murdered the family of a man that he had a rivalry with just to get revenge on him. Though, the man arguably deserved to lose his family as punishment for cursing Angel with his soul.
- He killed everyone in an orphanage, including the helpless, unlucky and vulnerable children. He also showed no remorse for it.
- He struck a deal with Ford to sire him after Ford sold multiple teenagers to Spike, which resulted in Spike killing all of the kidnapped teenagers in cold blood.
- He assembled a team called the Judge and had his teammates assist him in trying to kill off all non-demon life on earth, meaning that he put the entirety of humanity on the verge of death.
- He had no problem with leaving Buffy to die at his hands and for the world to be sucked into Hell, despite the alliance he had with her.
- He kidnapped Xander and Willow and then forced Willow to put a love spell on Drusilla after she left him.
- He is extremely rude and disrespectful to his girlfriend Harmony, as he verbally abuses her, has constant arguments with her and even physically assaults for petty reasons. He also uses Harmony for sex and sometimes tells her to do things that she’s not comfortable with doing. Plus, this isn't subverted even after he redeems himself.
- Despite redeeming himself, he is still a big jerk, as he almost always insults Angel whenever he wants to.
- After saving a woman, he victim blames her.
- He had Marcus torture Angel to learn about the location of the Gem of Amara, which later resulted in Marcus trying to torture a group of children only to be stopped by Angel and his team.
- He teamed up with Adam to gang up on Buffy and her friends so that he and Adam could manipulate them into betraying each other.
- While he commits many heroic deeds, some of them are for self-serving, pragmatic and/or unintentional reasons and not out of the goodness of his heart.
- He tortured Dr. Sparrow.
- He forced Riley to break up with his girlfriend Buffy out of sheer envy.
- He kidnapped Buffy and Drusilla, and he planned on killing Drusilla in front of Buffy so that he could prove his loyalty to Buffy.
- He attempted to kill a woman after he thought that his chip stopped working.
- He attempted to rape Buffy to assert his love for her out of sheer sadism, which emphasises how unhealthy his relationship with her is.
- While Angelus is worse, Spike has less resources than him due to lacking any superhuman abilities. He also stands out due to genuinely attempting to commit omnicide and attempting to rape Buffy, which gives him some personal villainy towards not only her, but also the people who are friends with Buffy herself.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- He is a tragic villain due to having a past of being a poet who was picked on and bullied all the time which is played for sympathy.
- He genuinely loved his mother, and he was angry over staking her as she came onto him.
- Despite his personal villainy towards her, Spike still genuinely cared for Drusilla, as he comforted her through her sickness and complied with Buffy's demands to stop her from being sacrificed.
- He has many comedic moments after getting the chip.
- He has genuine respect for Buffy's mother Joyce and even expressed empathy for Buffy at her mother’s death.
- While his love for Buffy is incredibly unhealthy, Spike still has genuine care for her, because he endured torture to spare her the pain of losing her sister and honored his promise to protect her, and this was not against Spike’s will.
- He cares for Dawn, as he comforted her when she felt guilty about Glory's actions and he also helped her with a spell to bring back Joyce without wanting Buffy to know about it.
- He has some "Pet the Dog" moments such as trying to calm down an insane Tara when she exposes him to sunlight.
- He selflessly sacrificed himself to defeat the Turok-Han Army and later helped Angel to take out the Circle of the Black Thorn, and this is portrayed as a redemption for him.
Trivia[]
- Spike was originally a Villainous Benchmark due to passing the baseline, but failing the in-story standards to Angelus. However, when it was pointed out that he has less resources than Angelus as well as some personal villainy towards Buffy and her friends, Spike was subsequently approved as Inconsistently Heinous.
External Links[]
- Spike on the Villains Wiki
- Spike on the Heroes Wiki
- Spike on the Buffyverse Wiki
- Spike on the Inconsistently Admirable Wiki