Template:Infobox Buffyverse Character
Spike (né William "the bloody" Pratt), is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the cult television programs, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. The character is portrayed by James Marsters.
Biography
Character history
William Pratt was born circa 1853 in London to Anne Pratt and as yet unnamed husband. William's surname was not revealed in the series and for years was widely accepted to be "Walthrop" in the fandom, which made it fanon. However, creator Joss Whedon recently revealed it to be "Pratt". William Pratt was the birth name of legendary horror actor Boris Karloff.
Since the actor who plays him is 5' 11" (1.80 m), its safe to say the character shares the same height.
In 1880, at approximately 25 to 30 years of age, William was a brown-haired, ineffectual gentleman who lived with his mother and wrote poetry. He was called "William the Bloody" behind his back by his peers, because his poetry was so "bloody awful." This nickname (with more deadly connotations) would follow him in the future as a vampire. After his romantic overtures were rejected by the aristocratic Cecily, a despondent William accepted comfort in the arms of Drusilla only to be bitten and transformed into a vampire. He had always been very close to his mother, and after he became a vampire he also turned her into a vampire to prevent her from dying from an illness. (While new vampires in the Buffy universe typically turn completely evil and delight in killing their families, Spike was a notable exception and was as devoted to his mother as ever.) Unfortunately his mother proved to be a truly evil creature, taunting Spike that she had despised him all along, and he ended up reluctantly staking her. Spike then began a new life with Drusilla. Euphoric with his new-found vampiric abilities, and hungry for revenge on his peers, he abandoned the genteel hypocrisy of Victorian life. He became a rebel, adopting a working class accent and becoming prone to impulsiveness and violence. He adopted the name "Spike" because of a habit of torturing people with railroad spikes. (It should be noted that one of his detractors in his human days exclaimed he'd rather "have a railroad spike driven through my head" than listen to William's poetry, a possible inspiration for the torture.)
In the company of Drusilla, her sire Angelus and Angelus's sire Darla, Spike terrorized Britain, Europe, and Asia for almost two decades. Utterly devoted to Drusilla, Spike had a slightly strained relationship with Angelus, rather like two rival brothers; although Angelus enjoyed the company of another male vampire in their travels, he found Spike's eagerness for battle an unnecessary risk to be unbecoming, since Angelus regarded killing as an art, not a sport. The level to which Spike felt any closeness to Darla was never really clarified, although in the flashback in "The Girl in Question", both Angelus and Spike express outrage that Darla and Drusilla allowed the Immortal to ravish them concurrently, noting "You never let us do that!" The clear implication that there ARE some things that the two vampire women "let" their paramours do with both of them suggests that Darla's affections might not have been reserved solely for Angelus.
In 1900, in one of his proudest moments, Spike killed Xin Rong, a Chinese Slayer, during the Boxer Rebellion; it was her blessed sword that gave him the scar on his left eyebrow, which remains a century later. Shortly afterward, Spike and Drusilla lost touch with Darla and Angelus (who, unknown to Spike or Drusilla, had recently been cursed with a soul), and the couple wandered the world seeking amusement and mayhem, occasionally separating to pursue separate interests but always reuniting. During World War II, Spike was captured by Nazis and transported aboard a submarine which was in turn seized by Americans; after he and two other vampires killed most of the crew, Angel made Spike and another vampire Angel had just sired, leave the sub, by forcing them to swim to shore before the submarine reached the United States. By the 1950's, Spike, having reunited with Drusilla, spent some time in Italy.
At some point in a century or so of being his own boss, Spike employed a pair of Fyarl Demons as muscle, which is noteworthy since in the Buffyverse vampires and demons rarely get along. He attended Woodstock, where he drank blood from a hippie and spent the next several hours watching his own hand move. Spike has been known to drive in broad daylight despite the fact that his vulnerability to the sun requires him to cover most of the windows, leaving him with little means to see where he's going.
Spike's story before he appears in Sunnydale unfolds in flashbacks scattered among numerous episodes of both "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel". They were not presented in chronological order. A guide to finding the flashback or flashbacks to a particular event is at Angel, Darla, Spike and Dru: Before 1997.
Style
William's natural hair color was medium brown; in 1943 he was seen with it dyed black and slicked down; and by 1977 he had begun to bleach it, keeping that look at least until he was last seen in May of 2004. Spike has claimed that Billy Idol stole his look from him.
Spike has a taste for long black leather jackets, including one that he took from a Nazi officer and another that he wore as a trophy of Nikki Wood, a Slayer whom he killed in 1977 after coming to New York specifically to find and fight the Slayer of the time. It is unclear how many times the two fought before Spike killed her in their final battle, as is how else Spike might have occupied himself in New York or whether Drusilla was with him during this period. Spike wore Nikki's jacket for over twenty-five years before it was finally destroyed in a firefight in Italy, after which the Italian branch of Wolfram and Hart supplied him with a new, nearly identical coat.
Spike smokes Morley cigarettes, lighting them with a trademark silver Zippo Lighter.
Sunnydale
Spike first appears in Sunnydale in Buffy's second season, in the episode "School Hard", accompanied by his longtime love Drusilla, who was suffering from crippling weakness (having been attacked and viciously beaten and injured by an angry mob in Prague; this indicates that vampires can actually be harmed physically to a degree that it would take years or decades for them to recover); Spike initially believed that the Hellmouth's energy would cure Drusilla, and the presence of a Slayer he could fight only made the town more attractive to him. Upon discovering that Angel(us) was also in Sunnydale, Spike seemed genuinely glad to see him, suggesting that despite their many differences, he still considered the older vampire a friend. However, Angel's loyalty to Buffy soon ended that camaraderie, and when Spike later learned that Drusilla could only be cured by the blood of the vampire who had created her, Angel, Spike was willing to kill him without a second thought. (Early on, before his past is clearly revealed to viewers, Spike refers to Angel as his "sire," but in later episodes, it is made it clear that Drusilla is the one that sired Spike. However, because Angelus is the one who sired Drusilla, it can be argued that he is also the sire, or at least the "grandsire," of Spike. It can also be said that Angelus was the one who had to act as Spike's sire by teaching him about the vampire world, since the insane Drusilla was hardly qualified for the job.)
For much of the second season, Spike and Drusilla are major enemies of Buffy, until Spike is so severely injured in a fight with Buffy and Kendra that he spends several months confined to a wheelchair. Originally, Whedon had intended to kill Spike, but fans were so attached that Spike was simply crippled. When Angel loses his soul after making love with Buffy, he joins the pair, and eventually plots to destroy all of humanity, as a way of getting rid of the stench of humanity that Buffy's love left in him. Spike at first celebrates their reunion with Angelus, again demonstrating that genuine affection exists between the two, but when Angelus woos the appreciative Dru as a lover and persistently taunts the (temporarily) helpless Spike, their longtime rivalry is renewed. This rivalry eventually motivates Spike to ally himself with Buffy in their attempts to defeat Angelus; there is some ambiguity regarding his motivation in doing so, since despite his initial claim that he just wants Drusilla back, he also makes a memorable speech:
- “We like to talk big, vampires do. I’m going to destroy the world. That’s just tough guy talk. Strutting around with your friends over a pint of blood. The truth is, I like this world. You’ve got – dog racing. Manchester United. And you’ve got people: billions of people walking around like Happy Meals with legs. It’s all right here. But then someone comes along with a vision, with a real passion for destruction. Angel could pull it off. Goodbye Piccadilly, farewell Leicester bloody Square."
Spike takes out Drusilla and removes her from the fight; but doesn't stay around when Angelus corners Buffy with a sword in his hand. Spike and an unconscious Drusilla leave Sunnydale and travel to Brazil.
Spike appears in only one episode of season three ("Lover's Walk"), attempting to force Willow Rosenberg to cast a love spell on Drusilla, who had turned away from him because he's not enough of a demon for her, because of his alliance with the slayer and (as we learn later) because she suspects that he has feelings for Buffy. One interesting point in this episode is Buffy's remark to Angel that "I can fool Giles, and I can fool my friends, but I can't fool myself – or Spike, for some reason," foreshadowing Spike's role as the "truth-seer" of the group. Spike abandons the love spell idea, and resolves to win Drusilla back the old-fashioned way: by torturing her, as Angel did in 1860.
The Chip
Spike returns to Sunnydale alone in season four to search for the Gem of Amarra, a talisman that allows a vampire to endure sunlight and even a stake to the heart without ill effect. He becomes involved with Harmony Kendall, a shallow young vampire. Despite her beauty and affection, Spike considers her little more than a nuisance and sexual plaything. His unlife takes a pivotal turn when The Initiative, a secret government demon-fighting army, captures him and implants a microchip in his head, which causes crippling pain whenever he harms or attempts to harm a human being, though it allows him to fight demons. Unable to hunt for blood, he turns to the Scooby Gang for protection, bartering his knowledge of the Initiative. He helps Rupert Giles out of a tight spot for a price. He and Buffy briefly become engaged through an accidental enchantment by Willow, foreshadowing their later bond. (It is telling that, though Willow only told them to get married, both of them mention being in love with the other.)
Spike is still looking out for himself first and foremost however, and doesn't shy away from letting the Scoobies know it. On learning that Faith is briefly on the loose after coming out of her coma, he proclaims that he'll be the one to find Faith, so he can tell her exactly where the Scoobies are, and watch while she tears them all apart. Later in the season Spike allies with Adam, a demon/human/cyborg chimera created by The Iniative, and helps the creature in its quest to destroy the Iniative and the Scoobies. Spike's price is simple: he wants the Iniative's chip out of his head for good. Through the use of lies and lines, he briefly manages to split the Scoobies up and turn them against each other. They manage to overcome this however, and learn the truth; and when Spike realizes that Adam is double crossing him, he turns back to the Scoobies, even saving their lives against rampaging demons in the middle of a battle.
In season five, Spike becomes aware after some erotic dreams that, to his horror, he has fallen in love with Buffy. Buffy's younger sister Dawn, who has a crush on Spike, perceives his obsession with Buffy, and casually tells Buffy of it. Disgusted, Buffy rejects him, going as far as to uninvite him from her home (something she had not bothered to do in the two years since their brief alliance against Angelus). Still, Spike's feelings for the Slayer, his inability to harm humans, and his love of a good scrap lead him to fight alongside the Scooby Gang against the forces of evil. During this time, Spike impressed Tara Maclay, at least, as having genuinely been in love with Buffy; Tara also shared Spike's near-parental love for Dawn. There is, however, little further connection between Tara and Spike. Towards the end of the season Spike becomes one of Buffy's principal allies against the season's Big Bad, Glory, including, among other things, refusing to reveal the ___location of the Key to Glory under intense torture and fighting and nearly laying down his life to protect Dawn.
During season six, Spike and Buffy became lovers of a sort, engaging in a twisted sexual but emotionally one-sided relationship where she does not return his obsessive love. Their physical relationship starts after a demon's spell makes them share their emotions and Buffy expresses a need to get the fire back; but they do not get intimate until Spike finds out that his chip no longer stops him from hurting Buffy since she was resurrected by Willow's spell. Buffy most often initiates both the violence and the sex between them. This includes a dark moment where Buffy beats Spike severely enough to cause injuries that last at least a week. She also threatens to kill Spike if he ever tells anyone about them. Additionally, their relationship was challenged when Riley Finn, Buffy's ex-boyfriend, found Spike in possession of smuggled demon eggs and accused of him being "The Doctor" ("As You Were"). This was never conclusively proven and he himself claimed to be storing the eggs for a friend. Evidence against his being the Doctor includes his lack of a telephone, money, and any kind of knowledge in the safe storage of such eggs. (It has been conjectured that the true Doctor is "Doc", a demonic wizard seen twice in season 5, although the events of "The Gift" make it inconceivable that Spike would sincerely refer to Doc as "a friend".) When Buffy decides to call it off shortly thereafter, Spike at first tries to get her back by making her jealous by bringing an unnamed goth girl as his date to the wedding of Xander and Anya. He succeeds in making her mildly jealous but she keeps up her resolve to not resume the destructive relationship with him. Later, after Xander leaves Anya at the altar, Spike and Anya get drunk together and seek solace in each other's arms. Buffy catches them, and her jealousy at seeing Spike with Anya leads him to believe he still has a chance at winning Buffy back. Spike, his obsession out of control, tries to rape Buffy when she yet again refuses to resume their relationship. After she repels him, he flees to his crypt in apparent horror at what he has done.
William's soul
Incapable of dealing with his emotions, he leaves town and heads to a remote area of Africa, vowing to "give her what she deserves." He seeks out a legendary Shaman/demon with the power to make him "What he once was." He undergoes a series of grueling physical trials (the Demon Trials) to prove his worthiness before a demon shaman, who promises to give him what he wants if he survives. In the final scene of the season ("Grave"), Spike survives the trials and the shaman grants his request, giving him back what he lost: his soul. Since Spike had not mentioned his soul, saying only that he sought to make himself worthy of Buffy, fans debated whether Spike intended to get his soul back or the Shaman tricked him. The Buffy writers though have clearly stated almost instantly, that yes, he did go to get his soul. This was confirmed in "Lessons", where the First in the form of the Mayor confirms that Spike chose to get his soul. Spike, tormented and more than half-mad with the guilt brought about by his newly restored soul, repeated this with his own words when he tells Buffy about his soul, at the end of "Beneath You":
- BUFFY: "This is all you get. I’m listening. Tell me what happened."
- SPIKE: "I tried to find it, of course."
- BUFFY (annoyed): "Find what?"
- SPIKE: "The spark. The missing— the piece. That fit. That would make me fit. Because you didn’t want— god— I can’t! Not with you looking."
He stands up and moves off into the shadows.
- SPIKE: "I dreamed of killing you."
Spooked in spite of herself, Buffy bends down and picks up a splintered piece of wood and wields it as a stake.
- SPIKE: "I think they were dreams. So weak. Did you make me weak? Thinking of you, holding myself and spilling useless buckets of salt over your . . . ending. Angel, he should have warned me. He makes a good show of forgetting but it’s here in me — all the time. The spark. I wanted to give you what you deserve. And I got it. They put the spark in me — and now all it does is burn."
Buffy is stunned.
- BUFFY: "Your soul . . ."
- SPIKE: (laughs) "A bit worse for lack of use."
- BUFFY: "You got your soul back. How?"
- SPIKE: "It’s what you wanted, right? (looking up) It’s what you wanted, right? And now everybody’s in here, talking. Everything I did, everyone I . . . and him . . . and it . . . the other. The thing beneath – beneath you. It’s here, too. Everybody. They all just tell me go. Go — to hell . . ."
- BUFFY (horrified): "Why? Why would you do that?"
- SPIKE: "Buffy, shame on you. Why does a man do what he mustn’t? For her. To be hers. To be the kind of man who would nev— To be a kind of man."
It was clear that all Spike had done, he had done for love of Buffy. In both series he appeared in, it was always clear that unlike Angel, who saw himself as seeking redemption (since he got his own series), Spike wasn't as openly concerned about that (though it must be mentioned that originally, Angel only started to help people because of Buffy, it's highly doubtful that Angel would have ever become a champion without her influence). What he had done as a soulless vampire did come to haunt him, as he told Angel in the Angel episode "Destiny," where they were preparing to do battle over Cup of Perpetual Torment, "You had a soul forced on you. As a curse. Make you suffer for all the horrible things you've done. Me, I fought for my soul, went through the demon trials, almost did me in a dozen times over, but I kept fighting. Because I knew it was the right thing to do. It's my destiny."
But he became ensouled, and became a Champion, dying at the Hellmouth for Buffy. Even though he didn't believe that she loved him, and he didn't think anyone cared for him, Spike still gave up his life to save the world.
When Spike first told Angel that unlike him, he was ensouled by his own choice, it may have seemed that Spike believed himself different from Angel because love had motivated his change, where Angel's was forced on him. It's an understandable sentiment, considering all the belittling Angel does where Spike's concerned. Angel rebutted with the fact that the only reason Spike wanted his soul was to "get into a girl's pants".
With the returning of his soul comes a conscience filled with guilt as well. He will have to learn to live with himself as Angel did when he was cursed with a soul. In the early episodes of season seven, Spike resides in the basement of recently reconstructed Sunnydale High School, close to the Hellmouth's opening. Tormented by The First Evil as well as by his newfound conscience, Spike appears to be going insane, and Buffy, after learning that he is ensouled, leaves him alone in the basement for several months, before she finally takes pity on him and has him live with Xander. But this arrangement backfires as Spike, under influence of the First Evil, is enticed to kill innocent people. After he discovers what he's done, Spike begs Buffy to stake him. Buffy refuses and takes him into her house and tells him she has seen him change.
To the dismay of Giles and most of her other friends, she trusts Spike enough to relieve his agony by allowing Initiative agents to remove his now-malfunctioning microchip. She also takes Spike's side when Principal Robin Wood, son of the slayer Spike murdered in 1977, attempts to kill him as retribution. Ironically, by attempting to kill Spike when he is under the First's influence, Wood frees Spike from a hypnotic trigger: a song called Early One Morning that Spike's mother often sang to him before he became a vampire. Late in the season, Spike and Buffy achieved an emotional closeness as he remained her only supporter when the other Scoobies abandoned her. In one of the series most memorable moments, Spike contemptously tells the rest of the Scoobies, "You sorry sods, she died for you, and you betrayed her!" In what had to be the ultimate irony, the only one that remained selflessly loyal to Buffy was Spike. They spend two nights together, though it is not clear whether they resume their sexual intimacy. Creator Joss Whedon has said he intentionally left it to the viewers to decide how they felt the relationship progressed though Whedon himself said he personally felt that it would be wrong for them to resume a sexual relationship.
In the final battle inside the Hellmouth, Spike, wearing a mystical amulet, sacrifices himself to destroy the First's army of Turok-Hans (pure demon übervampires). The amulet channels power that turns the Turok-Hans to dust and collapses the cavern containing the Hellmouth, sealing the Hellmouth and creating a crater which swallows the entire town of Sunnydale. Spike is incinerated in the process, but not before Buffy says "I love you." He replies, "No, you don't — but thanks for saying it."
Los Angeles
Despite his apparent death at the end of Buffy's final season, Spike returned as a regular on Angel in its fifth and final season, having been brought back by the same amulet. The amulet was initially given to Angel by Wolfram and Hart, and is mysteriously returned to the offices by mail. For the first seven episodes of the season, Spike is an incorporeal being akin to a ghost, with a connection to the human world that is unstable, causing him to disappear at random (but increasingly frequent) intervals. Spike tells Fred that every time he disappears he is being transported to Hell. Spike seeks, at this stage, to leave Wolfram and Hart and find Buffy, but when he tries, he discovers that he is mystically bound to Los Angeles and unable to leave. Later, it is discovered that Spike's disappearances are being caused by another ghost who toys with the many souls trapped at Wolfram and Hart. Meanwhile, Fred successfully creates a machine to recorporealize Spike. However, Spike is forced to use the machine to save Fred, in the process throwing away his opportunity to become corporeal but successfully stopping the source of his visits to Hell.
Later another mysterious package comes in the mail, addressed to Spike but with no return address. On opening the package there's a flash of light, and upon trying to walk through objects as he's become used to, Spike discovers he's corporeal once more. One of his first acts is to rekindle his physical relationship with Harmony again, who is now Angel's secretary.
We are told that the existence of two ensouled vampires in the world is affecting the fabric of reality. The two vampires learn from Eve that there is a prophecy detailing how to restore the balance, involving both vampires competing to reach the Cup of Perpetual Torment. Angel and Spike's relationship had always been strained by competition over women, notably Drusilla and Buffy. Ego and personal hostility led to an extended battle between the two adversaries; Spike beats Angel to the Cup and drinks from it, believing it would bestow upon him great responsibilities and pain; When Angel asks him if it's the destiny he wants, or just to take something away from Angel, Spike answers honestly, "A bit of both." Then, for the first time in over a century of friendship and rivalry, Spike clearly defeats Angel. Perhaps the battle between them was best symbolized by Angel's being unable to hold a giant cross, which Spike, contemptously ignoring the pain, held and wielded with ease. Clearly, for the first time, Spike believed he was the better "man," and felt able to prove it. However, the prophecy turns out to be a sham (the liquid in the Cup was merely Mountain Dew), rendering the whole exercise seemingly useless. Though Spike regains a lot of his self-confidence with his defeat of Angel.
Beginning in "Soul Purpose", Lindsey McDonald, pretending to be the late half-demon Doyle with a connection to The Powers That Be, persuades Spike, until the ex-Wolfram and Hart employee's duplicity is discovered, that he is destined to "help the helpless," in much the same way as the real Doyle persuaded Angel of the same thing at the start of Angel. Spike, after a bout of depression, is brought back to being an affirmed champion of the good and, by the end of the season, Spike is a trusted member of the team, being entrusted to rescue an infant and destroy a demon cult in the final episode "Not Fade Away", in order to help defeat the Circle of the Black Thorn and wound the Senior Partners. Before Angel's team of demon killers enter their greatest and perhaps final battle, Angel gives them the day off, to spend as though it was going to be their last day. Spike, returning to his mortal roots as a frustrated poet, knocks them dead (figuratively) in an open mike poetry reading, finally finishing a poem he'd begun over a century earlier, before being sired by Drusilla.
After succeeding in his mission, Spike joins Angel, Illyria, and a badly-wounded Charles Gunn in the alley as the series draws to an end, preparing to suicidally incur the apocalyptic wrath of the Senior Partners, as a way of going out in a blaze of glory, a battle it is generally believed he survived. (Joss Whedon has spoken of a possible Spike TV movie set after the events of the series, so Whedon apparently still regards Spike as an active character.)
Powers & Abilities
Spike has the standard powers and vulnerabilities of a vampire. On many occasions he has tracked people or demons through the streets (or even sewers) by smell alone; unlike a dog he does not need to sniff the ground to track in this manner. He can also smell fear. He can identify and track someone by scent alone, though it's easier for him to track blood.
Spike's most distinctive trait is his love of combat for its own sake; even before he regained his soul, he did not much care if he fought for good or evil, only the desire to do violence. This was extremely ironic, because as a human he was quite meek, and gentle. But even the return of his soul did not extinguish the genuine love of battle Spike had acquired. Like most truly great fighters, he fights for the sheer joy and adrenaline rush of combat. When he first came to Wolfram and Hart, he and Angel were confronted by a Droxlar Beast, whom Angel attacked. Spike immediately moved to fight the Droxlar (although, being immaterial at the time, this proved impossible), despite being in the course of a bitter argument with Angel and having no particular reason to help him. Spike defeats Angel in "Destiny" but this may have been because Angel, at the time, lacked confidence in himself. However, Angel might not have defeated Spike, even had he been at his best. Spike's belief in himself had grown to where he simply felt he was "better" both morally and physically than Angel - it will never be known whether he was correct, if both had been at the height of their prowess. Spike is a street fighter whereas Angel's fighting style is more technical, making him Buffy's equal and Spike's better in terms of combat skills. Fans have used the example of Buffy episodes where Angel and Buffy have fought and verbally declared themselves equals; whereas Buffy has easily bested Spike on multiple occasions. Some fans also use the argument that Spike and Angel have fought in the past, though not to that extent, where Angel(us) has emerged as the clear victor. But they had never fought while both were ensouled, nor after 1900 when Spike first killed a Slayer. Spike, ensouled or not, does have a certain cunning and when angered or otherwise inspired, his fighting skills increase. In the end, no one will ever know which was the better. Some fans have speculated that Angel needed to lose to for his confidence to be shattered further. This was an excuse to bring Cordelia back to make her death final.
Spike has a special place in vampire lore for the rare feat of killing two Slayers in single combat. When Buffy asked him to train her, so she could avoid that fate, his most interesting warning was that his opponents were tired of fighting, tired of the struggle, which he could sense, whereas he never tired of the love of battle, and she could not afford to either, if she hoped to stay alive. He managed to hold his own with Buffy, even though she is physically stronger than him. In the last season, when Faith moved to attack Spike, after the gang had abandoned Buffy - much to Spike's open and very scathing contempt - he made clear he felt he could defeat Faith with ease, and she had reason enough to believe him that she did not try to stop him from leaving.
What gives Spike an added edge in both combat and personal matters is his skill in perception and observation, especially with regard to relationships and personalities. (Witness his warning to Buffy how he sensed opponents were tired of fighting.) Perhaps due to his failed attempt at poetry, Spike's perception gives him the previously mentioned "truth-seer" status. In combat, Spike has used this to his advantage, beating Angel in "Destiny" and even briefly overcoming Illyria during a testing of her abilities, when she was at the height of her powers. Indeed, she asked to "keep" Spike, in her own way a compliment to his abilities.
He has acquired a number of skills in his long unlife. Spike is a highly skilled in armed and unarmed combat. His fighting style seems to blend several different disciplines accumulated over fighting others. His style resembles a cross between kung fu, with its free style movements, and virtually every other martial art in the world blended into one flowing style, shifting from a classic karate stance to a boxer, nearly instantly.
Many fans have expressed that one of the factors making Spike so a deadly opponent is his complete disregard for tradition and rules, placing him on equal footing with Buffy - herself not much for rules and traditions. This applies to Spike in battle as well; perhaps inspired by his "great grandmummy" Darla, he has been displayed on occasion using firearms and modern weaponry as well as the bladed weapons more often seen in the Buffyverse.
When he fights he generally prefers to take advantage of his superhuman strength and speed. He has mastered many varieties of weapons, such as a rifle, knife, sword, axe, crossbow, stake, and a staff.
While not as skilled or as cruel as Angelus, Spike is also a skilled torturer as seen when he tortured Doctor Sparrow ("Shells"). Although capable of developing sound battle strategies, he inevitably loses patience with anything more complicated than outright attack:
- Spike: I had a plan.
- Angel: You, a plan ?
- Spike: Well laid out, strategic. But I got bored.
He is also seen picking locks; driving a car, a motorcycle and a motor home; using video game systems and a computer; treating injuries; pickpocketing: playing poker and pool. He is fluent in Latin, Luganda (a language of Uganda, where he met the demon shaman), and the language of Fyarl demons. It is implied that he has at least some knowledge of Italian.
Age has given him strength, speed, stamina and resistance superior to those of most other vampires. Like Angel, he can endure sunlight longer than average vampires, though no longer then a few seconds (though in both cases this is much more likely a result of storyline necessities or of plot points than of any actual increased power.) He also has the uncanny ability to sense his opponents weaknesses, making him an excellent fighter.
Romantic Interests / Intimate Liaisons
While mostly confirmed as a heterosexual who often gets obsessed over the women he falls in love with, Spike apparently had a homosexual liaison with one male vampire.
- Cecily Addams/Cecily Underwood: the object of William's affections in life; her rejection made him open to seduction and siring by Drusilla.
- Drusilla: A devoted couple for over a century, Spike and Drusilla were among the few vampire couples who actually loved each other. Dru, however, cheated on Spike with a demon in South America after realizing that Spike had feelings towards Buffy.
- Angel: Spike mentioned in "Power Play" that he "was never intimate with Angel... except for that one..."(time? He never finished the sentence). Whedon has confirmed in numerous interviews and forum posts the possibility of at least a one-night stand between the pair. In the DVD commentary to the episode "A Hole in the World" he explicitly says: "You know, um, I just wanna say Angel and Spike, they were hanging out, uh, for years and years and years, they were in, you know, all kinds of deviant, they were vampires... Are we thinking they never...? Come on, people! I'm just sayin'. I'm just sayin'. You know, they're open-minded guys. They may be evil but, you know, they're not bigoted or closed-minded."(The 'Buffy' fanbase has taken the line and the commentary track as Whedon's good-humored ribbing acknowledgement of Buffy fanfiction, where Spike and Angel are a popular romantic couple.)
- Harmony Kendall: Spike was involved with her from season 4 through early season 5, and coupled with her once in the last season of Angel.
- Buffy Summers: Spike became her ally reluctantly during season 4, and fell in love with her reluctantly in early season 5. During season 6 they started a sexual relationship which ended badly, largely because Spike sought love while Buffy merely sought physical comfort. During season 7 they became closer emotionally. When Buffy asks him what their night together meant to him, he replied that he'd never been as intimate with anyone, even during sex, as he had been, just sleeping at her side, holding her. His championing her, when all others abandoned her, showed his absolute loyalty to Buffy.
- Buffybot: When rejected by Buffy Summers, Spike commissioned Warren Mears, a young mad scientist, to build him a robotic replica of her.
- A goth girl, Spike's date to the wedding in "Hell's Bells".
- Anya Jenkins: drunk and on the rebound, they coupled in "Entropy".
- Winifred Burkle: While technically not romantic, Fred and Spike seem to grow into close friends. To save her he sacrifices an opportunity to get his body back, and afterwards she tells him she's been right all along, that he's worth saving. Also, Spike is one of the most obsessed with saving Fred when Illyria is implanted in her. Like Angel, he seems almost willing to do whatever it would take, but like Angel, he knows he can't let thousands suffer simply to save a friend. This relationship might explain why Spike and Illyria seem to have some sort of camaraderie between them, plus sharing an obvious joy in battle. In the finale of Angel when Illyria appears to tell them Wesley Wyndam-Pryce is dead, she feels loss, which she had never felt - and the urge to do battle. Spike happily tells her she is going to get her wish.
Appearances
Spike has appeared in:
Buffy
Buffy the Vampire Slayer : Spike was a series regular in the show's fourth (starting with "The Initiative"), fifth, sixth and seventh seasons, although he did not appear in "The Body". He appeared in 96 episodes, including guest appearances in:
- Season 2 (1997, 1998) - "School Hard"; "Halloween"; "Lie to Me"; "What's My Line, Part One" and "Part Two"; "Surprise"; "Innocence"; "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"; "Passion"; "I Only Have Eyes for You"; "Becoming, Part One" and "Part Two"
- Season 3 (1998, 1999) - "Lover's Walk"
- Season 4 (1999, 2000) - "The Harsh Light of Day"; "Wild at Heart"
Angel
- Angel
- Spike became a series regular in the show's fifth season. He appeared in 24 episodes, including guest appearances in:
- Season 1 (1999, 2000) - "In the Dark"
- Season 2 (2000, 2001) - "Darla" (flashbacks)
Whedon has proposed making a Spike movie starring James Marsters and Amy Acker and written and directed by Tim Minear.
Books and comics
- Books & comics
- Spike has appeared in numerous extensions of the Buffyverse, his biggest appearances are in the following stories:
- Published - Tales of the Vampires, Spike & Dru, Pretty Maids All in a Row, These Our Actors, Spark and Burn, Old Times, Spike vs Dracula, Old Wounds, and Lost and Found
- Upcoming - Blackout.