Post by stargazer1682 on Jan 7, 2019 22:17:44 GMT
The question of whether or not Buffy and the others should have given Spike a pass for as long as they did after he got his chip has always been a questionable one; and I've generally found Dru's brief return in season 5's "Crush" contentious, given how it leads Spike feeding on someone at the Bronze, but something really stuck out to me this time around, which was Dru telling Buffy how "Spike's been feeding again," and the implications that go with it.
While it seems to be that Dru snapped the girl's neck before Spike fed on her, ostensibly working around him having the chip (although for the longest time, I thought Dru was using her mental powers to help him ignore or not feel the pain of the chip); Spike is still complicit in this act. It's not like he was a hapless bystander and took advantage of the situation, much less felt guilt about it afterwards, like Angel did with the guy who was shot in the diner. He went with Dru, scoped the place out and knew exactly what was going to happen, and may have even taken active, vocal part in the decision making process off screen.
Now don't get me wrong, this is what vampires do, it's their nature, but it doesn't change the fact that innocent lives were lost, blood was spilled and Spike had the blood of at least one victim literally on his lips. He's culpable of in the recent death of two people, even if one is more ancillary because Dru fed on him; chip or no, harmless or not, that should earn him a steak through the heart as direct consequence. Sure, it's not going to bring those two people back (and hopefully they wouldn't "come back" on their own), but just letting Spike continuing existing afterwards condones the deaths he's in part responsible for as insignificant. Like, "oops, Spike got off his leash again and killed the postal worker and a pedestrian; I guess we put him back on the leash again, he just won't be allowed inside the house."
No, you take that mutt to the vet and him put down, Brenda! That is not acceptable behavior. That postal worker was my wife; and the pedestrian is a future version of myself who went back in time to try and save her; and now I am horrified to know my own fate...
While it seems to be that Dru snapped the girl's neck before Spike fed on her, ostensibly working around him having the chip (although for the longest time, I thought Dru was using her mental powers to help him ignore or not feel the pain of the chip); Spike is still complicit in this act. It's not like he was a hapless bystander and took advantage of the situation, much less felt guilt about it afterwards, like Angel did with the guy who was shot in the diner. He went with Dru, scoped the place out and knew exactly what was going to happen, and may have even taken active, vocal part in the decision making process off screen.
Now don't get me wrong, this is what vampires do, it's their nature, but it doesn't change the fact that innocent lives were lost, blood was spilled and Spike had the blood of at least one victim literally on his lips. He's culpable of in the recent death of two people, even if one is more ancillary because Dru fed on him; chip or no, harmless or not, that should earn him a steak through the heart as direct consequence. Sure, it's not going to bring those two people back (and hopefully they wouldn't "come back" on their own), but just letting Spike continuing existing afterwards condones the deaths he's in part responsible for as insignificant. Like, "oops, Spike got off his leash again and killed the postal worker and a pedestrian; I guess we put him back on the leash again, he just won't be allowed inside the house."
No, you take that mutt to the vet and him put down, Brenda! That is not acceptable behavior. That postal worker was my wife; and the pedestrian is a future version of myself who went back in time to try and save her; and now I am horrified to know my own fate...
