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Fannish questions keeping me up at night (BVTS)
Reading one of the topics from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
metafandom reminded me of a couple other discussion I've read recently, which in turn reminded me that I have absolutely no idea how a good portion of the Buffy fandom thinks.
I really liked Spike/Buffy. I was shipping them together in one way or another since the end of season two, not because I thought they were true love but because they would be a really spectacular trainwreck. And they were.:) I was happy. I love it when my read on characters is validated onscreen; it's why I was thrilled when it came out on Smallville that Lionel really did have comic!Lex's origin, even though Lionel is one of my favorite characters, and one really shouldn't wish horrible childhood abuse on favorite characters (although Lionel probably deserves it). That I still admit to liking Spike/Buffy (and season 6) already sets me apart from a good portion of fandom, but Seeing Red is where I start to wonder if I was watching a different show.
To me, the season 6 Spike/Buffy storyline was trying to say two things: the line between having a soul and not is blurrier than the characters would like, and playing with fire will get you burned (the season as a whole is, "Be careful what you wish for"). I saw the rape coming; Buffy and Spike had been playing with abuse and non-con the whole season, and I knew something was coming to a head because I remembered something Buffy seemed to have forgotten: Spike was a soulless monster. Of course he was going to snap eventually. What I thought was significant about the whole scene wasn't that he tried to rape her. It was that he stopped.
Not only did he stop, but he was clearly horrified by what he was about to do. Think about that for a second. This is a character who, a season or so prior, regularly killed people and drank their blood. He spent decades with Dru, who had tea parties with corpses. And we all know Angelus' reputation. But in that scene, this soulless abomination is repulsed that he almost raped someone (almost! Angelus would have bitten her, raped her, than done a life-size sketch and pinned it to the door).
This was amazing. After the episode, I went online to see what everyone else thought...and well, we all know what everyone else thought.:)
"OMG! Spike raped Buffy! They made him evil! Joss ruined Spuffy! This show sucks now! How could Spike rape Buffy, he looooooves her." And so on. With worse spelling.
Meanwhile, I'm sputtering, "But...but he's a vampire! He has no soul!" I still don't understand the flailing about that scene; it's like having a tiger for a pet, alternately smacking it in the face and scratching behind its ears, then falling over in shock when it bites you. Of course it bit you. It's a tiger. Petting it isn't going to make it forget its nature, just like Buffy knocking down walls with Spike isn't going to make him not a vampire. Especially when she's smacking him in the face every other episode.
The rape wasn't the point. That soulless Spike felt remorse for it was the point, since he shouldn't even be capable of the emotion.
Whenever this argument crops up, I never feel comfortable jumping in, because I know "But he felt bad! Isn't that amazing?" sounds horrible and endorsing of rape. No one ever deserves to be raped, although I would have liked to see Buffy take more responsibility for creating the situation in the first place, rather than just "Spike evil!"
But it is amazing. Even if no one else thinks so.
metafandom reminded me of a couple other discussion I've read recently, which in turn reminded me that I have absolutely no idea how a good portion of the Buffy fandom thinks.I really liked Spike/Buffy. I was shipping them together in one way or another since the end of season two, not because I thought they were true love but because they would be a really spectacular trainwreck. And they were.:) I was happy. I love it when my read on characters is validated onscreen; it's why I was thrilled when it came out on Smallville that Lionel really did have comic!Lex's origin, even though Lionel is one of my favorite characters, and one really shouldn't wish horrible childhood abuse on favorite characters (although Lionel probably deserves it). That I still admit to liking Spike/Buffy (and season 6) already sets me apart from a good portion of fandom, but Seeing Red is where I start to wonder if I was watching a different show.
To me, the season 6 Spike/Buffy storyline was trying to say two things: the line between having a soul and not is blurrier than the characters would like, and playing with fire will get you burned (the season as a whole is, "Be careful what you wish for"). I saw the rape coming; Buffy and Spike had been playing with abuse and non-con the whole season, and I knew something was coming to a head because I remembered something Buffy seemed to have forgotten: Spike was a soulless monster. Of course he was going to snap eventually. What I thought was significant about the whole scene wasn't that he tried to rape her. It was that he stopped.
Not only did he stop, but he was clearly horrified by what he was about to do. Think about that for a second. This is a character who, a season or so prior, regularly killed people and drank their blood. He spent decades with Dru, who had tea parties with corpses. And we all know Angelus' reputation. But in that scene, this soulless abomination is repulsed that he almost raped someone (almost! Angelus would have bitten her, raped her, than done a life-size sketch and pinned it to the door).
This was amazing. After the episode, I went online to see what everyone else thought...and well, we all know what everyone else thought.:)
"OMG! Spike raped Buffy! They made him evil! Joss ruined Spuffy! This show sucks now! How could Spike rape Buffy, he looooooves her." And so on. With worse spelling.
Meanwhile, I'm sputtering, "But...but he's a vampire! He has no soul!" I still don't understand the flailing about that scene; it's like having a tiger for a pet, alternately smacking it in the face and scratching behind its ears, then falling over in shock when it bites you. Of course it bit you. It's a tiger. Petting it isn't going to make it forget its nature, just like Buffy knocking down walls with Spike isn't going to make him not a vampire. Especially when she's smacking him in the face every other episode.
The rape wasn't the point. That soulless Spike felt remorse for it was the point, since he shouldn't even be capable of the emotion.
Whenever this argument crops up, I never feel comfortable jumping in, because I know "But he felt bad! Isn't that amazing?" sounds horrible and endorsing of rape. No one ever deserves to be raped, although I would have liked to see Buffy take more responsibility for creating the situation in the first place, rather than just "Spike evil!"
But it is amazing. Even if no one else thinks so.