The Myth: "To kill the Slayer you have to love her"
(or "I didn't know that Dru had the hots for Kendra")
(The title of this Myth comes of course from Angelus's words to
Spike). This page based on input from Kristen, Lisa, Colleen, Deanna,
Bluemuse and Jody. (Thanks to Colleen for the Dru/Kendra quote!)
19-Jan-2002
The writers are not setting Spike up to kill Buffy. The snarky
Spike quote, "The whole threats and swagger routine - how thoroughly
original" was the writers' inside joke that it was looking
ridiculous for Spike to be on the show still evil, and Buffy not
killing him. It would make her look incompetent and a complete moron
(as well as the other members of the SG).
Spike is part of the Scooby Family [hammered home through episodes
like Something Blue, Pangs and Family], even
though he is on the outskirts. And the Scooby members are all about
trust and love. No thouight of me biting you or you staking me.
Spike doesn't kill the one he loves. He's Wacky that way.
What did Angelus really know about killing Slayers?
Has he ever killed a Slayer? No. Angelus knows about killing priests,
nuns, gypsies and babies, but Slayers? Nuh-uh (we would have heard
about it if he had!). Spike knows about them.
Angelus is trying to brag, trying to tell Spike (the "experienced
professional") how it's done. Spike can't have failed to notice
that, despite Angelus's sage advice, his complicated plans completely
failed to produce any Slayer death. Meanwhile, Drusilla goes in,
does a quick little hypno-distract on Kentra, and one fingernail
slash later a new Chosen One is on the way. Would Spike really be
trying to follow a variation of Angelus's failed scheme, rather
than just trying to go for something quick and simple? Spike, the
man who couldn't wait the extra night to attack Buffy in School
Hard, and who abandoned his "good plan" and attacked
Angel directly in In the Dark because he "got bored",
biding his time for TWO YEARS in order to carry out someone else's
unproven plan?
What is Spike waiting for?
There is not one damn thing preventing him from killing her now.
Nothing. He's shown no desire to do so. He has in fact had ample
opportunity to see the Slayer dead. He didn't *have* to protect
Buffy from the demons in Family, but he chose to do so. He
didn't have to throw Buffy the knife to defend herself against the
snot monster from outer space, but he chose to do so. Spike didn't
*have* to go unchain Buffy when Dru made it to her in Crush.
He didn't have to protect Buffy in Intervention but he chose
to do so. He didn't *have* to have his hands cut to ribbons protecting
her noggin' in Spiral, again he chose to do so. He didn't
have to go after her in Once More With Feeling and pull her
back from the brink of death. He also didn't have to defend her
in Tabula Rasa. All of these were actions of his own choice
and any of which would have resulted in a dead Slayer. Spike has
actively PREVENTED Buffy's death
Spike has already seen Buffy die.
That was *not* the picture of a happy vampire at the end of The
Gift. Did the weeping Spike look like someone who wanted Buffy
dead? Did the Spike of Bargaining look like one who danced
on Buffy's grave?
Mythlet: Spike wants to do it himself
Okay, so what is the argument? That Spike didn't want someone else
to kill Buffy, he wanted to do so himself. So, now his chip doesn't
work. What the hell is he waiting for? Buffy slept beside him between
Smashed and Wrecked, he had a pretty open shot at
her then.
When the chip first stopped working, she wasn't being nice to him
and she wasn't having sex with him. He *could* have killed her.
Buffy would never have seen it coming. So if he wants to kill her,
why didn't he? She slept with him (I'm not talking just sex. I'm
talking unconscious). Again, he had ample opportunity to kill her
in her sleep. Did he? No. Heck, no one would have suspected him
if he had killed her. No one knew where she was and no one knew
he could kill her.
It's a perfectly absurd argument that Spike is trying to kill her.
If he's trying to kill her wouldn't he... you know... actually try
to kill her?! (unless he's waiting for their 25th wedding anniversary)
He loves her. He loves her because he loves her. He has no plans
to kill her.
Kristen writes (too good to snip):
What people who say refer to this line seem to overlook is that
it was said not by Angel, but Angelus. While I'm often loathe to
seperate the two, as that seems to discount the actions taken by
Angel when he was in his normal state (and we must remember, the
soul was a curse for him; Angelus is indeed his normal state), it
is important for the sake of this discussion. When the Judge touched
Angelus, he was "clean." Entirely free of humanity, including the
emotion of love. To him, the memories of the emotion were something
abhorent that he wished to exact revenge for, and being made to
feel human was seemingly the worst act Buffy could have performed.
When something is used to cause that much pain and gives no pleasure
to balance it, it is only one thing: a weapon. He wished to hurt
Buffy, and no affection remained towards her that would restrain
him from using the most dangerous weapons at his disposal. Love
had been what had hurt him most, and it was likely that, properly
used, it would be what would strike deepest into the Slayer's heart
as well.
Now the time comes to make the comparison between Angelus and Spike.
Spike is canonically less of a demon than Angelus. The Judge said
as much, saying that he and Drusilla possessed human emotions. Emotions,
it should be said, that would be considered positive by humans,
as there's no question that vampires possess such darker, destructive
feelings as rage. More than that, he spat out the words of "affection"
and "jealousy" (I continue to find the latter's inclusion interesting,
as it's been displayed in many vampires throughout the years, although
the former is of course notable to these two and few others). They
sounded like curses upon the Judge's lips, and therefore something
that would be undesirable for demons to feel. Nevertheless, Spike
was defensive when confronted with his feelings, and seemed more
than happy with them.
This would be verified in third season, when he freely admits that
he's "love's bitch." After the infamous speech in which he says
this, he then goes off to win back the woman he loves. Some may
say this emotion is less true for being directed from vampire to
vampire, but the Judge considered their emotions to be those of
the unclean humans. This would seem to suggest that, just as Drusilla
would say when she finally returns to Sunnydale, that vampires can
indeed love.
Cut from third season to sixth. Despite having emotions boiling
just under the surface, Spike has managed to keep them generally
contained in all but a few occasions. (With neutral to horrendous
results when he's failed; compare him standing at the base of the
staircase in the Summers' house in "The Gift" to his attempt at
explaining his feelings in "Crush." One was definitely better than
the other, but even so, it wasn't exactly a positive response on
Buffy's end.) But this time, it's different. There's a new demon
in town, and secrets are now just fodder for a bunch of showtunes.
It's no surprise that Spike didn't want to admit what he would
sing, because it literally goes against every fiber of his being.
He is undead, he died "so many years ago," but his love for Buffy
makes him feel alive again. The emotions he feels are so strong
that they threaten to break entirely free of him, but he's not professing
a desire to be free of them; instead, all he wants is for Buffy
to leave him be if she insists on remaining around to stoke his
emotional fires without being willing to return his love. Later,
he tells herthat "[she] has to go on living, so one of [them] is
living." Songs in this episode were truth, and he said nothing of
wishing to be free of human emotions or wishing to see Buffy dead.
Instead, Spike said was that he wanted Buffy to return his love
and that he wanted to see her live.
Quite a change from the vampire who said that "[Buffy] made him
feel like a human being. That's not the kind of thing you just forgive."
If love is a only weapon towards you, then love is similarly only
a weapon in your hands, used to harm those who have caused you pain.
If love is something you aspire to, have experienced, and know in
all its shades and variations, however, you see it as much more.
To kill this girl, you have to love her? That's not what Spike
would say, not at this point in the series' evolution. Love this
girl, and you can't kill her. You won't want to.
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