I heard that happen b/c Angel couldn't be dark if somebody like Charisma was there. Her being all sunny and happy like.
^Correct. And Marti wrote it based on a real-life experience where she herself tried to get a boyfriend to stay with her by forcing herself on him. She reversed the male/female parts for that scene. The director and actors took her written scene and went much further than she'd intended by making it an attempted rape. Marti hadn't intended that, and Joss had nothing to do with it.
Of course, under this rationale, all vamps should be executed without question. They're demonic animals incapable of NOT killing. Which is why it's ridiculous that they spare Spike and Harmony because they make funny jokes.
You're aware that the rape incident in question was the impetus for the Demon-Spike to go get himself a soul right?
I always thought that was why it hurt so much when Spike won his Prize, the demon seeking the soul wasn't being buried or burned away, but was being cleansed and integrated with the soul.
If we follow what was established in S1-2 of Buffy, which admittedly I'm not sure was followed up on later... when a person becomes a vamp, their soul, the part of them that makes them human, leaves and goes to heaven/purgatory, and a demonic being takes residence in the body retaining the memories of the person. And then when a vamp is re-en-souled, that soul is taken from the afterlife and restored to the body.
On Buffy and Angel it seems like sometimes vampires don't completely loose their human souls, or the human personalities were so strong that the human personality pretty much takes over most of the time.That assumes that all demons are inherently evil. As Angel portrayed more often than Buffy, some of them are fairly normal guys. The vampire-flavor of demon does seem to tend to the the evil side of the Force, but that's by no means an absolute.
On Buffy and Angel it seems like sometimes vampires don't completely loose their human souls, or the human personalities were so strong that the human personality pretty much takes over most of the time.That assumes that all demons are inherently evil. As Angel portrayed more often than Buffy, some of them are fairly normal guys. The vampire-flavor of demon does seem to tend to the the evil side of the Force, but that's by no means an absolute.
Of course Spike and Harmony are the two major examples of this, the demon and the human soul versions are very similar personality wise.
It's actually a pretty cool concept, I wish they would of given us more information on why it happens (unless it's just a random fluke).
Also, not to split the hair too thin but it wasn't a rape, but an attempted rape.
As I recall Angelus did MUCH worse than that, possibly worse than Spike in his time.
Though I must admit, after hearing the root of that plot element I wonder how it would have played if the gender roles were revered and treated with the same unflinching (yet still creepy) honesty. A woman forcing herself on a man is usually treated almost comedically, as if it's every man's dream but a violation is a violation and abuse is abuse. Believe it or not this stuff does actually happen and I'd be interested to see how people's reactions differ when the gender roles are reversed.
If we follow what was established in S1-2 of Buffy, which admittedly I'm not sure was followed up on later... when a person becomes a vamp, their soul, the part of them that makes them human, leaves and goes to heaven/purgatory, and a demonic being takes residence in the body retaining the memories of the person. And then when a vamp is re-en-souled, that soul is taken from the afterlife and restored to the body.
So when Angel and Spike don't have their souls, they are completely not responsible for any actions they take. It's not them, it's the demon controlling their corpse.
Of course, under this rationale, all vamps should be executed without question. They're demonic animals incapable of NOT killing. Which is why it's ridiculous that they spare Spike and Harmony because they make funny jokes.
As interesting as that concept is, going back to the Trill analogy, I think it's merely the fact that Spike's decision to seek his soul merely allowed William to more readily integrate his "previous life" with his new one. Rather than completely rejecting what had come before as Angel did, he merely accepted it and moved on.
You're aware that the rape incident in question was the impetus for the Demon-Spike to go get himself a soul right?
In terms of the story, it took something that unequivocally wrong for him to realize how far gone he was.
Ah, back again to rape being about the rapist, not the girl who it is being done to. As for story potential? Where did it go? All we got was ever increasing piles of junk, more shirtless anorexic Spike, and "hug your rapist, for he is the only one you can rely on, cause he truly wuvs you"-scenes, which more than ones literally gave me urges to hurl. And that is NOT an exaggeration, during S7, I've literally spent time actively keeping my lunch and/or dinner down.Now whether or not Soul-Spike can be forgiven or redeemed after something like that is something filled with lots of story potential, which I believe was the point.
What question? The question was never bothered with. Spike with soul acted not a single shred different as Spike without a soul, after all, "asshole-Spike" was popular so even if he's now a "good guy" he's still the same asshole. We wouldn't wanna mess with a ratings bringer, right? That incidentally "new-Spike" comes across as the same Spike and thus as every other abusive, raping boyfriend or husband who utters "it'll never happen again" for the umpteenth time, and Buffy comes across as the weak-willed, victimized, women who sprout "but he's different now" - conveniently paraphrased as "but he's got a soul now" - and take the abuser back, only to wait for him to do it all over again (and indeed, he's wining and guilt-tripping Buffy shows he's already performing the mental abuse again) and again, and again, and again...The question of whether Soul-Spike was even the same person who committed that act? Was one of my personal favorites.
-Angel was a demon, cursed with a soul (His two halves always at war)
-Spike was a demon, who sought and won a soul (Birthing something completely new in the process.)
I always thought that was why it hurt so much when Spike won his Prize, the demon seeking the soul wasn't being buried or burned away, but was being cleansed and integrated with the soul.
Hey, if Angels can fall then demons should certainly be able to ascend.
No, I don't think it's the same soul they once had, because Angel isn't Liam.
On Buffy and Angel it seems like sometimes vampires don't completely loose their human souls, or the human personalities were so strong that the human personality pretty much takes over most of the time.That assumes that all demons are inherently evil. As Angel portrayed more often than Buffy, some of them are fairly normal guys. The vampire-flavor of demon does seem to tend to the the evil side of the Force, but that's by no means an absolute.
Of course Spike and Harmony are the two major examples of this, the demon and the human soul versions are very similar personality wise.
It's actually a pretty cool concept, I wish they would of given us more information on why it happens (unless it's just a random fluke).
Maybe it has to do with what type of people they were before going vamp. Liam was pretty much as asshole, so it's no surprise Angelus was one of the most evil vamps around. Darla pretty much the same. Her vamp self wasn't an entirely radical difference from whom she was before the bite.
I think human personality plays a very big role in what kind of vamp they become.
It may happen but I imagine it's EXTREMELY rare for a couple of reasons:
1.) Show me a sexually aggressive woman that a man doesn't want to have sex with.
Let's see... do you just want women that are physically capable of sexually dominating a physically weak nerd, or want women that are capable of taking on and beating even the reasonably strong men... well, if I got the latter, you should know that are a whole lot more that can take the other:2.) Show me a woman physically capable of sexually dominating a man against his wishes.
Regarding the personality of the human versus when they become a vampire... I vaguely remember something regarding that. I believe it was the episode where Willow's vampire self from Anyas world comes to the main universe. I believe towards the end Willow said something about how she could be something like that. Buffy replied saying something regarding how a humans personality has nothing to do with the vampires. Angel then says like "Actually..." but Buffy cuts him off trying to protect Willow. The implication was clear though. The Vampires personality is definitely affected by the human. I wish I could remember if that was the episode, but it fits in right in my mind. There was definetly an episode where Angel tried to say the human personality does affect the soul and then got cut off.
Edit: Got the episode right...It was on Wikipedia:
Willow: It's horrible. That's me as a vampire? I mean, I'm so evil, and skanky — and I think I'm kind of gay.
Buffy: Willow, just remember, a vampire's personality has nothing to do with the person it was.
Angel: Well, actually — [Buffy glares at him.] ; that's a good point.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppelgangland
Yes, but didn't Angel try and deal with it and move on. I always kind of felt that had Darla accepted him for who he was after he got his soul, Angel would have kept on never rejecting what he did. He felt some guilt, but he didn't have the "mission" and drive that he had from the series. It took absolute rock bottom for him to come to that. With Buffy and then later the Angel character around, Spike never had to hit rock bottom. He was supported from the very beginning.
You're aware that the rape incident in question was the impetus for the Demon-Spike to go get himself a soul right?
In terms of the story, it took something that unequivocally wrong for him to realize how far gone he was.
In short, the rape was about the rapist, not about the girl almost getting raped, which is WRONG, disgusting, and craptacular.
Also, even IF he went to get himself a soul, which on screen tells us he didn't, he didn't do it because it was "wrong and he realized how far gone he was", he did it because in his mind a soul was what was required to get back in Buffy's panties. There is no other motivation, not a single care about anything being wrong, not a single little bit of guilt - obviously not, vampires aren't capable of it. Indeed, to a vampire, the more wrong something is to us, the more right it is to them.
Which, incidentally, is exactly the what was shown on screen; Spike was disgusted that he couldn't be a monster anymore, and went to get his chip removed so he could kill Buffy's friends and family, finally removing the ties that kept him from dragging her completely into the darkness, so he could finish doing exactly that.
In short, the rape was about the rapist, not about the girl almost getting raped, which is WRONG, disgusting, and craptacular.
Also, even IF he went to get himself a soul, which on screen tells us he didn't, he didn't do it because it was "wrong and he realized how far gone he was", he did it because in his mind a soul was what was required to get back in Buffy's panties. There is no other motivation, not a single care about anything being wrong, not a single little bit of guilt - obviously not, vampires aren't capable of it. Indeed, to a vampire, the more wrong something is to us, the more right it is to them.
Which, incidentally, is exactly the what was shown on screen; Spike was disgusted that he couldn't be a monster anymore, and went to get his chip removed so he could kill Buffy's friends and family, finally removing the ties that kept him from dragging her completely into the darkness, so he could finish doing exactly that.
Having read through your posts, I see that you're firmly entrenched in a particular point of view in regards to Joss Whedon and his work, so I won't bother trying to sway you.
But in regards to your understanding of Spike going off to "show them" as it were, you may want to watch it again.
That entire section was a "bait & switch". More plainly put, the writers wanted you to think Spike was out for Violence when in fact they wanted a cliffhanger for the end of the season to reflect something the audience wasn't supposed to expect.
In my case it worked, I was right there with you until that last bit of Dialogue when the Magic Guy gave Spike what he "wanted".
Now Again, some have said that this was a play on the concept of a Jin giving you what you asked for and not what you intended, but I don't really see that here, after thinking it though.
Whedon was quoted at the Dr. Horrible Panel at Comic-Con recently saying (and I'm paraphrasing) that he was gratified that people took so much from the stories that he and his fellow writers had created. Sometimes this included things that weren't there to begin with (as in, what was intended by the writers) but in fact actually was there and had been all along. He said he still was pointed out things by fans in shows he'd done and was discovering things he didn't even know was there until then.
Similarly, I think that even though we saw the same footage, we obviously didn't see or experience the same story.
Anyways, no hard feelings on my part, just wanted to say what I saw.
What Spike said and did, wasn't in the least bit ambiguous. He asked "to be made what he was". Well, Spike was never a souled, chipped vampire in any way shape or form.
I think the following dialogue from S7 "Beneath you" makes it pretty clear that Spike's purpose was to get his soul back. And writers are on record (Jane Espenson for example, if I recall correctly) that it was an intentional mislead: the audience was supposed to think he went to be dechipped, but the soul was his goal all along. As for the "make me what I was", before everything else (a vampire, soulless, chipped) wasn't he a man, with a soul?
But he once was a man with a soul.What Spike said and did, wasn't in the least bit ambiguous. He asked "to be made what he was". Well, Spike was never a souled, chipped vampire in any way shape or form.
That's the bait an switch part - leading us on with an assumption that turns out to be wrong.
My objection to the notion that he went to that demon to get the chip out is extremely simple: The chip is a technological artifact. Why it would even seem relevant to a mystical ritual is beyond me.
Why does everyone refuse to read what I wrote? I already explained this one as well. Remember how Spike treated the demon with barely contained contempt? And the demon returned the same? They hate each other's guts! They have a history together. And Spike hates the dude so much, 1. he can't trust him, and 2. he wouldn't go to him if his life depended on it. So he'd rather live with the chip in his head, then having to go crawl to the wish-fulfilling demon. It's only in his most desperate hour, when he has no other choice left, that he went there to earn his magical out.Besides, if he thought he could have gone there to get de-chipped at any time, he would have done it as soon as he heard about the place. Since we never got a "learning about it" scene, we must conclude he was aware of that possibility all along.
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