#buffyv

I know I'm connecting a lot of dots with this one (that have probably been connected before), but she quiet literally wrote the episode where he is reintroduced in season 4 with "Harsh Light of Day", where he becomes part of the Scoobies with "Pangs", "Doomed" and "A New Man".

Then later on in Season 5 saved his character with the masterful "Intervention" where in the same episode she writes Spike creating the sexbot he also shows his worth by being tortured (where we see him being penetrated) and not breaking.

In the season 6 episode she wrote "After Life" where we see Spike's trauma of Buffy dying and how he is literally the only Scoobie to be able to look after her after being resurrected, as he himself has gone through the trauma of dying then digging out of his own grave. Also in this episode we see that he has now taken the mantel of Dawn's supernatural protector, out of surviors guilt from the events of the season 5 finale, and then later on how those events have haunted him every night. Jane then wrote Spike to be the only person in Doublemeat Palace to offer Buffy a way out of working there.

Season 7 Jane co-wrote the highly acclaimed "Conversations with Dead People" then "Sleeper" and "First Date" where we see Spike's fall to The First and where he killed people, but also where we see how he has risen in Buffy's eye's to being trustworthy in "First Date".

With all this being said you can probably understand now why I'd say a lot of Spike nuance is credited to Jane Espenson. To quote James in the SDCC 2012 Buffy panel "Joss would come up to me about 3 episodes in to every season and say he has no idea what to do with me", so this meant the other writers (mostly Jane) to take over with writing Spike. So you can see why it's not too far fethced to say she is the reason behind his popularity as she set a lot of the ground work after s2, outside of James's himself giving a masterful preformance. Later on in the SDCC 2012 Buffy Panel she says "we knew we had this amazingly verstial character largely because we had this amazingly verstial actor, we knew whatever we put infront of James he could do..." this shows that she felt comfortable making Spike into whatever she wanted.

For my last point, there's a lot of examples here that the fandom loves to highlight Spike's being Angel's opposite, like how Spike's treament of a Minor having a crush on him compared to the soul having Angel's. Spike's complete polar opposite on how he see's love as something postive to protect, where as Angelus's use of love as a tool to torture someone with. William loved and respected women where as Liam only used the ones around him.

This all leads me to the conclusion that Spike was more popular than Angel mostly because of Jane's input and groundwork on the character after season 2, and we all know how Joss felt about Spike's popularity and there's no way Jane didn't make all his postive traits the opposite of Angel by coincidence.

🇫🇷 French

⚠️TW 🚨 : allusions aux agressions et au harcèlement

Un des moments particulièrement marquants dans Buffy : la perte de l’âme d’Angel (2x13-14).

Pas seulement parce que, oui, c’est la catastrophe, mais parce qu’on peut faire un parallèle direct, encore, avec la vie de tous les jours. (Bon après, une part de moi aime quand même pas mal le personnage d’Angelus, c’est un méchant fun ! Plaisir coupable. Et l’acteur à l’aise de s’éclater.)

Ces hommes (la plupart du temps), qui semblent adorables, de vrais anges et qui, après avoir eu ce qu’ils voulaient, deviennent de vrais salauds immoraux. C’est encore plus marquant quand, comme là, l’homme est plus âgé et que c’est littéralement la première fois pour la fille.

Je ne peux imaginer l’impact émotionnel, mais il doit être immense.

Dans la série, on utilise le côté surnaturel avec l’âme d’Angel, le vampire, et sa malédiction (mettons de côté Spike pour le moment). Angel ne le fait pas par choix. On montre vraiment Angel et Angelus comme deux êtres agissant distinctement, mais partageant un même corps et les mêmes souvenirs. Jamais Angel n’aurait fait ce qu’Angelus a fait, et inversement d’ailleurs. Dans la vraie vie, il n’y a pas d’excuse. Angelus est la part la plus sombre d’Angel. La part qu’Angel refoule et contrôle, car ses actions sont immorales. Sans âme, il n’y a pas cette distinction. C’est aussi parce qu’il sait que c’est une part de lui qu’il s’en veut autant (et parce qu’il a les souvenirs et sensations). Ce serait une personne complètement distincte de lui, comme quelqu'un qui a littéralement pris le contrôle de son corps (parce que, dans les séries fantasy, c'est quand même assez récurrent), OK, il serait mal, mais pas à ce point-là. Bien entendu, c'est mon point de vue.

D’ailleurs, les vampires, en règle générale, sont un superbe parallèle avec l’homme qui ne sait pas se retenir. Un vampire voit une personne et, vu qu’elle a du sang, il la veut (genre, sexe, origine, etc, tous égaux !). Le crime de cette personne ? Vivre. Un peu comme les hommes qui trouvent toujours des excuses : la démarche, les vêtements, le maquillage, toute seule dans la rue, etc. Le crime de ces femmes ? Vivre comme elles l’entendent. Les hommes ont le droit de s'habiller comme ils veulent, même torse nu en été, et pas les femmes ?

Un vampire peut utiliser des poches de sang ou des personnes consentantes. Un homme peut utiliser sa main ou des personnes consentantes.

Et puis bon… Un vampire a littéralement besoin de sang pour « vivre ». On ne meurt pas parce que son entrejambe est resté calme.

P.S. : 2x16, Alex, un ado plein d’hormones, a su et pu se retenir (sans qu’on lui dise) de profiter de la situation alors que toutes les filles lui tournaient autour, y compris Buffy qui a toujours refusé de sortir avec lui. Parce que c’est ce qu’il fallait faire, c’est moral.

🇬🇧 English version

(Translated with AI from my original French post)

⚠️TW 🚨: Allusions to assault and harassment

One of the most striking moments in Buffy is definitely Angel losing his soul (2x13-14).

Not just because, yeah, it's an absolute disaster, but because we can draw a direct parallel, once again, with everyday life. (I mean, granted, a part of me actually really likes Angelus—he’s such a fun villain! Total guilty pleasure, and you can tell the actor is having the absolute time of his life.)

Those men (most of the time) who seem sweet, like actual angels, and who turn into absolute, immoral bastards the second they get what they wanted. It hits even harder here because the man is older and it’s literally the girl's first time.

I can’t even imagine the emotional toll, it must be massive.

In the show, they use the supernatural element of the vampire's soul and his curse (let's set Spike aside for now). Angel doesn't choose this. The show really portrays Angel and Angelus as two distinct entities acting independently, yet sharing the same body and the same memories. Angel would never do what Angelus did, and vice versa. In real life, there is no excuse. Angelus is Angel's darkest side—the part Angel represses and controls because those actions are immoral. Without a soul, that boundary vanishes. It's precisely because he knows it's a part of him that he blames himself so deeply (and because he retains the memories and sensations). If it were a completely separate entity, like someone literally taking control of his body (which is a pretty common trope in fantasy shows), sure, he’d feel bad, but not to this extent. Of course, that's just my take.

In fact, vampires in general serve as a perfect metaphor for men who refuse to control themselves. A vampire sees a person, and since they have blood, he wants them (gender, sex, background, whatever—everyone is fair game). What was that person's crime? Just living. It's just like men who always find excuses: the way she walks, her clothes, her makeup, being alone in the street, etc. What is the crime of these women? Living life on their own terms. Men are allowed to dress however they want, even going shirtless in the summer, but women aren't?

A vampire can use blood bags or find consenting people. A man can use his hand or find consenting people. And honestly… A vampire literally needs blood to "live." No one ever died from keeping it in their pants.