jwaneeta | SPOILER talk!

Zowie. My earlier post seems to have gone down into darkness altogether. Oh, well. There's spoiled-rotten talk below.

Things that make me verrrry happy: Spike chained to a radiator, sans hands. Oh, the joy. For an HC freak like myself, this is paradisiacal.

I do wonder a bit. A radiator? In Los Angeles? I spent the first 21 years of my life in southern California, and I never laid eyes on a radiator. I saw my first radiator when I went to New York. I had one in my apartment in San Francisco. Los Angeles? Not one. But then, I've never visited an abandoned LA distillery, so I guess it may be quite realistic.

And they can chain him to a dirigible, as far as I'm concerned, as long as they cut off his hands and make him the wounded underdog. Because I *cannot* get enough of wounded underdog!Spike. That this may be another crucifixion pose to add to the Spike gallery is a huge bonus, of course. Gosh, I'm bent.

As to Spike's donated apartment: also happy-making. Oh, please, please let it be shabby and mean. Angel's got the posh penthouse; Spike needs the poor-but-honest dump. Kaff. Merely for storytelling reasons, you see -- merely for the symmetry. Kaff, kaff.

Ah, it makes me warm to think of it. A basement apartment, yet. We all know Spike loathes basements at this point -- he'd be crazy not to. And I hope it looks lonely withal! When Wesley and Gunn pop in waving that newspaper (btw: huh? Has Angel ever been in the papers? What's with the sudden press interest in vigilantees?), I hope Spike is sitting in his shabby little basement efficiency looking lonely. Gee, maybe he's reading a tattered paperback by the light of a single bulb? Maybe he's using milkcrates and post office bins for storage and endtables?

Other things: Fred's setback. I think it would be very fine if she went bananas for an ep or two, but I've seen no solid evidence to support this hypothesis.

Re: evil puppets, or whatever they are: has there been nothing more on this front? Who fights them and why?

I'm sorry there's been nothing more of Lesley (Lindsay? Lionel?), after the bit about falling into that abyss/pit/demon locker. I was just getting into Lesley/Lesley/Lionel. I hope he gets out of that thing.

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Oh, that was ages ago, when spoilers for the hand-whacking first broke. Some of us speculated that in light of the dearth of female characters, SMG's disinclination to appear, and so forth, that Dana might be a try-out for a recurring character, and that maybe she was a potential romantic interest for Angel or Spike. That Dana's age was specified as mid-twenties made this more plausible.

You'd have thought we'd suggested that Angel should go back to raping underage kittens or something. The very idea of Spike and Dana becoming friends or more was denounced as sick because Dana had mutilated poor Spikey.

Never mind that Dana was nuts, hardly responsible for her actions, and would have to get considerably better before any relationship could occur. Never mind that Spike's done horrific things himself, and that his last serious relationship was with someone whom he regularly tried to kill (and vice versa.) Never mind that Spike has the emotional resiliancy of Kevlar, and is not at all likely to be thrown into years of wittering trauma by a little thing like losing an appendage, especially if it's only temporary. The idea that he could EVER entertain kindly feelings towards someone who'd hurt him was just WRONG! And Dana was obviously a sick bitch who should be disposed of as quickly as possible.

Ahem.

Actually only a few people were that adamant, but they were very vocal about it. Some of them allowed that it might be all right if Spike had a distant, kindly-old-mentor relationship with her. But romance would just be ICKY.

They want Sensitive Spike, but only with Buffy or some suitably bland and toothless female. They want a NICE romance. Which would bore me (and, I think, Spike) to tears. Actually I think what some of them really want is William with fangs. Phooey on that.

I've asked, but never get a reply (and sometimes I think my posts are removed:-)- but what do people at the BAPS list want for Spike? Can you get a bead on it? Because based on everything they don't want, what they want sounds dead boring to me.

I don't think there is one single thing. There's a group that wants sensitive, insightful, mature Spike, who's always kind and considerate and saves puppies. There's a group that wants him with Buffy, come hell or high water. There's a group that wants him with anyone but Buffy, ditto. There's a group that's more or less happy with what we've got now. There's a group which seems to believe that AtS is worthless save for Spike, and that it's an insult that the entire show doesn't revolve around him. There's a group gloomily convinced that Spike is only around to be a whipping boy to make Angel look good. There's a group which is rabidly antagonistic to Spike's wardrobe. You name it, there's a group for it.

I mean, I want things I'm not getting. I'd like more arc. I'd like Lilah and Cordy back. I'd like Lorne cut back to recurring til they can give him a story. I'd like more on the mindwipe. I'd like them to fish or cut bait with Buffy. But all in all, I think the season's been pretty decent, especially considering the limits they're working within, and several of the shows make my all-time favorites list. The weakest of them has had moments.

I've come to realize that a lot of people really are only fans of Spike in a romantic context, and specifically in a romantic context with Buffy. They only like him when he's love's bitch. Whereas I think for me, all I needed was the character to be willingly helping the good guys. I enjoyed B/S, a lot, but Spike was just as besotted with Dru, and his romantic streak is not in and of itself the reason I love the character. OTOH, while I did need him to be trying to do good of his own free will, I don't need or want him to be a flawless person who never does anything wrong, as some people seem to. Sure, there's probably a point at which I'd have to say "I don't like him any more." I reached that point with Buffy. But it took a lot, and up to the very end there were things Buffy could have done which would have retrieved my good opinion. (And she did a few of them; by the end I pitied more than disliked her.)

SPOILER talk!

Re: BAPS

Re: BAPS

Re: BAPS