First thanks to the Board Mama for her hard work and allowing these long posts. Remember this is not her job, she deserves our thanks! Also to the other posters who keep inspiring me - specifically Rosalind, cjl, Tach, Destiney, Linda D, sugamama, Yoda, etc.
WARNING - THE FOLLOWING MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Spike and Anya, our two demons, have been used as metaphors for twisted love since they were introduced. They have represented almost every aspect of love imaginable in the Buffyverse - in most cases the darker aspects. Their actions mirror each other as do the themes they represent.
Last night on the subway I read a poem by W.H. Auden, which made me think of Spike and Anya and their current relationship with Buffy and Xander. I couldn't get it out of my mind. It's called "More Loving One I Can Tell By"
Look up at the stars, I knew quite well
For all they care, I can go to hell
But on earth, indifference is the least
We have to dread, from man or beast
How should we like it, were the stars to burn
With a passion for us, we could not return
If equal affection cannot be, Let the more loving one be me.
Who are the stars in this relationship? Buffy and Xander? Or Spike and Anya? I believe the former, but if the currently emasculated Spike and Anya were to recover their powers … At any rate, the poem expresses the pain of unrequited/scorned love. The pain of loving something that could care less. I know Xander has returned Anya's affections, but from Anya's pov Xander just scorned her in the worst way possible. He left her at the altar. Told her that he could not marry her. The same thing has happened to Spike, in As You Were, Buffy told him that she couldn't love him. From Spike and Anya's point of view the line: "For all they care, I can go to hell" is an apt one.
Let's back up to what Spike and Anya used to represent and in some sense still do. Both characters were introduced on the show as demon villains, as metaphors. In several blurbs on FX, Joss Whedon and Company have said that their demons are meant to metaphorically represent either an emotion or fear of the characters. They explore the fear and it's effects on the characters metaphorically through the demons. We often use myths, legends, parables to explore subconscious fears and emotions - it makes it easier for us to deal with them.
Back to Spike and Anya - what did they represent? Lust, Scorned Love, Infatuation, Obsession are the words that come to mind. Twisted Love. The male and female equivalents of it.
When Anya was first introduced in the Wish - she was introduced as the Patron Saint of Scorned Women or as Cordelia puts it: "She was, like... a good fairy. A scary, veiny... good fairy." She tempts her victim or as Anya would put it, her client, with a wish for vengence. Anya is the metaphor for rage. She symbolizes the feelings we have when someone rejects us, scorns us, casts us aside.
Here is the scene between her and Cordelia:
Anya: Can I just say... Men.
Cordelia: Second it.
Anya: Apart from being without class, the guy's obviously blind. Deserves whatever he gets.
Cordelia: I'm not even thinking about him. I am past it. I am living my life.
Anya: Still, I mean... Don't you kinda wish...
Interesting scene. Anya, the demon, is saying take the easy way out. Scorn him. Make him suffer. At this point Cordelia is attempting to do it the hard way, working past the pain. Later of course, Cordelia gives in and makes an odd wish, which surprises Anya. She doesn't wish to inflict harm directly on Xander. She wishes that Buffy wasn't there. Not because she sees Buffy as a rival, but because Cordy can't admit that Xander was ever worth her notice. Cordelia deals with rejection by rejecting the rejecter. I scorn you!
I only liked you because someone else did. As Cordelia puts it: " I never would've looked twice at Xander if Buffy hadn't made him marginally cooler by hanging with him." And then she makes her wish, turning the Buffyverse into a dark alternate reality that doesn't change until Giles smashes Anya's power center, effectively emasculating her. Rendering her human.
If Anya represents the woman scorned, Spike represents the male. Spike from the moment he was introduced in School Hard was all about Lust. He and Drusilla were ME's view of what "lust" looked like in the flesh. Raging hormones. Forbidden love. Passion. Fire. Lust. In season 2 Spike with or without Drusilla was Lust personified.
The first time he sees Buffy at the Bronze, he is stalking her in the shadows. Watching it again last night - he reminded me of a sexual predator, a cat, circling its prey. He wanted her - that was obvious. Sort of like you might want someone you see across the room - love at first sight? No. Lust. Later in their fight scene in School Hard, everything about it is reminiscent of sexual foreplay. His lines are crude and suggestive. In fact, if you think about it, all of Spike's appearances as the Big Bad, prior to his emasculation by the chip, are sexual. Their fight scenes are like foreplay. He even describes them as such much later in Fool For Love.
Buffy: You think we're dancing?
Spike: That's all we've ever done. (leers).
But let's go back to School Hard. In their fight scene, Spike is lecherous, crude and suggestive. The scene is not your typical vamp/slayer battle. As the scene starts - Spike is straddling a long pole and leering lecherously at Buffy. Stroking his chest.
Buffy: (holding the ax) Do we really need weapons for this?
Spike: I just like them. They make me feel all manly.
(He drops the pole and slowly steps toward Buffy. She drops the ax.)
Eventually he tries to ream her with a long wooden stud - her mother Joyce saves her, hitting him in the head with the ax. Very sexual scene with all sorts of phallic symbols. If Anya represents what happens when you scorn women - Spike represents what happens when you scorn me. He is the lustful, leering, big bad wolf in the little red riding hood fable. And what's interesting is that instead of making him disgusting or ugly, the writers have controversially made him sexually appealing. Sheila, the bad girl in School Hard, certainly does. He doesn't force her to follow him, instead he tempts her.
Sheila: Who are you?
Spike: Who do you want me to be?
Sheila: Did you see...
Spike: ...those two losers who thought they were good enough for you?
Sheila: What happened to 'em?
Spike: They got sleepy.
Sheila: Huh?
Spike: And you got something a whole lot better
The next time we see poor Sheila - she's strung up as food for Spike's Drusilla. But isn't this a digression from our main theme? Also where's the parallel to Anya? Look again - Anya also believes in tempting people to get what she wants. We saw how she tempted Cordelia in The Wish, became her friend, gave her the amulet, and then poor
Cordy ended up getting what she wished for. Both Cordy and Sheila got exactly what they wished for. Sheila - lust. Cordy - vengence. And both weren't all that happy about it. Well Anya tempts someone else, this round Willow, in Dopplegangland. She convinces Willow to use dark magic to get her amulet back and ends up pulling SkankyWillow from Cordy's Alternate Wish Universe into the Buffyverse.
Back to Spike. In School Hard, and the episodes that follow up to and including The Initiative in Season 4, Spike is the man who will not be rejected - who will force himself on you, takes what he wants, and you'll like it dang it! Oh he'll try to tempt you first, seduce you. And when he gets what he wanted…well, you're cast aside. It's important to note the similarity here - both Anya and Spike react to rejection violently. They are like the stars in Auden's poem - watch out - we burn! Don't you dare think of rejecting us! We control what happens here. We take what we want. We're the ones who do the rejecting.
Before we jump to Harsh Light Of Day, let's take a brief moment and look at Lover's Walk. If THE WISH is about the consequences of vengence/scorn then Lover's Walk is all about lust and who is the villain? Old Spike. In Lover's Walk - Spike kidnaps Willow and Xander - who are attempting to suppress lustful feeling for each other. Spike want Willow to do a love spell to make Dru love him. When he grabs Willow she's busy doing a de-lusting spell. It's ironic that she and Xander are interrupted by Mr. Lust himself - Spike. And Spike, obliges them, by trapping them in an old abandoned factory, alone, with each other, and their lust. Their lust is what places Cordelia in grave danger and momentarily breaks up Willow and OZ. In Lover's Walk - Spike also points out the lust between Buffy and Angel, declaring that it's impossible quell physical love, desire: "You're *not* friends. You'll never be friends. You'll be in love till it kills you both. You'll fight, and you'll shag, and you'll hate each other till it makes you quiver, but you'll never be friends. (points at his temple) Love isn't brains, children, it's blood... (clasps his chest) blood screaming inside you to work its will."
This speech is not just about lust. It's about unrequited passion. Passion suppressed, put on hold, and how it works at you, makes you crazy. Makes you do the wacky. Is this love? Or is it infatuation? Lust? (Now don't flame me here - I'm not talking about B/S and A/X's current relationships or Spike and Anya's current feelings. I'm talking about where they came from, because like Linda DeLurker and cjl mention in their posts - to truly see these characters and understand where the writers are taking them- we need to understand the metaphors upon which they were built.)
Lust is Spike's driving force. Just as Vengence is Anya's. And these emotions are the flip sides of each other. Both are the dark side of love. The side that leads to rape, obsession, stalking, cheating, scorn, etc. The type of love that anyone in their right mind should reject, because it is destructive.
Let's jump to Harsh Light Of Day (HLOD). HLOD is all about casual sex, rejection and its repercussions. It also deals with lust. The title itself symbolizes "rude awakening". 'Last night we loved each other, it was intimate, it was wonderful - but now in the harsh light of day - everything seems wilted, less romantic, and apparently what we thought was love was nothing more than a quick roll in the hay.' Three sets of characters are paralleled in this episode: B/Parker, X/A, and S/Harmony. In each set up - the male rejects the female. And in each set up the female is the initiator. She initiates sex. Harmony seduces Spike. Anya seduces Xander. And Buffy, although it is a little foggy here, more or less gives into Parker's 'let's connect routine'. Afterwards, all three women realize that it meant more to them than it did to the guys. There is a twist. Two actually.
I'll start with Xander and Anya. In this scene - Xander makes it clear to Anya that he is not ready to pursue a close relationship, that you need to build up to the sex not jump into it, but being Xander - a normal 18 year old batch of raging male hormones, he is unable to resist a naked Anya forcing herself upon him. Here's the scene:
Xander: So the crux of this plan is -
Anya: Sexual Intercourse. I've said it like a dozen times.
Xander: Uh, huh. Just working through a little hysterical deafness here.
Anya: I think it's the secret to getting you out of my mind. Putting you behind me. Behind me figuratively. I'm thinking face to face for the actual even itself.
Xander: Ah right. It's just that we hardly know each other. I mean I like you. And you have a certain directness that I admire. But sexual interc-what you're talking about well - and I'm actually turning into a woman as I say this…
Interesting scene. Now let's look at Spike. Spike gets his sexual gratification from Harmony. But it's not Harmony he wants. He's settling for her. He wants Buffy. When he runs into Buffy and Parker at the party, his comments make me think of Cordelia in the Wish running into Xander and Buffy and Willow. He's clearly envious. But hiding it.
Here's the scene, Spike and Harmony have just run into Buffy and Parker:
Spike: Well this is interesting. Sort of a double date. (edited for length and emphasis) Let's have a look at the new boy.
Parker (holds out his hand): Hi, I'm Parker. (Spike looks at it in fascination for a second, then Parker puts his hand down disconcerted.)
Spike: He's got. What's the word? Vulnerability.
Later, when Spike gets the gem that makes him invulnerable to sunlight, crosses, etc - he leaves poor Harmony and pursues Buffy. Their fight scene is very similar to the one in School Hard. He hurls sexual insults at her, reminding me of a rejected envious suitor. The rejected male. Like Anya - Spike sees what he wants, can't stop thinking about it, decides the best way to get rid of these lustful emotions to either kill it or have sex with it. Neither gets love. Unlike Anya - Spike is still a metaphor. Anya at this point is evolving beyond the metaphor - she's becoming a full character. Spike still represents lust , thwarted desire. He also echoes all the emotions rolling around inside Buffy and Anya - that sex by itself isn't really all that gratifying it's just a poke, it's just a moment and in the Harsh Light Of Day it means nothing at all. Here's the scene from HLOD:
Spike: So, you let Parker take a poke, eh? Didn't seem like you knew each other that well. What did it take to pry the Slayer's dimpled knees?
Buffy: You're a pig Spike.
Spike: Did he play the sensitive lad and get you to seduce him? That's a good trick if the girl's thick enough to buy it. I wonder what went wrong. Were you to strong? Did you bruise the boy?
He states all of her fears, and to some degree echoes his own desires. He's been thwarted and he wants to kill her. Think about it - what do vampires do? In literature and myth - the vampire has been linked with sexual desire, sexual death. They bite the neck and the girl swoons. For Spike biting the girl on the neck is a sexual act and a violent one. It is I think often used as a metaphor for rape as well as seduction. (Not always, of course, there have been exceptions.)
Both Anya and Spike try to fulfill their desires in this fashion. They don't really understand love. The emotion consumes them. But it is interesting that Anya in harsh light of day takes on the role of the man - I'll have sex with you and its over. Spike is still playing the male role here - except he's almost saying what's in Buffy's head - why did you lower yourself? Just as Anya once echoed what was in Cordy's head in The Wish. "He hardly seems with it". Just as Anya's role in this piece is lust. I lust after you, Xander. So let's do what's necessary to stop it. In an odd way Spike and Anya have flipped roles here. Spike is vengeful, angry, coming on the scene just as Parker rejects Buffy and Anya is lustful, wanting to have sex with Xander. The two characters seem to mirror one another and it is interesting that when both are emasculated so that they can no longer harm living things, their metaphorical roles begin to diminish.
Why do I keep talking about emasculation? Why that word? Because prior to the removal of their powers - Spike and Anya were forces to be reckoned with. And both powers were metaphorically sexual in nature. Anya's was green energy emanating from a heart shaped amulet on her chest - the writers tend to refer to the female chest in a sexual way - see Fool For Love when Dru places Spike's hand on her chest to tempt him to drink. She does it in Crus as well. Spike's sexual prowess appears to be his fangs. But he'd been emasculated before - with a wheelchair. When he was confined to the wheelchair, he could still harm things, but not physically and not without lots of help. Angelus continuously derided him as "sit and spin". But that was temporary. The government chip has limited his ability to bite human things for a very long time. And In THE INITIATIVE & SOMETHING BLUE, the characters refer it as a sexual castration.
THE INITIATIVE discusses amongst other things - date rape and objectification of women. It is in this episode that Spike escapes his government containment cell to seek out Buffy and end his obsession with her once and for all. But he doesn't find Buffy, he finds Willow. And the scene that follows is an interesting and oddly touching one between two insecure characters who are frustrated with love and feel castrated by it.
*Spike has just tried to bite Willow and been, well, unable to perform.
Spike : I don't understand. This sort of thing's never happened to me before. (He's sitting on Willow's bed.)
Willow : Maybe you were nervous.
Spike : I felt all right when I started. Let's try again. (He leaps on her and draws back immediatly. He tries again and the same thing happens.) Ow! Oh! Ow! Damn it! (He gets up and kicks the dresser. He starts to pace around the room.)
Willow : Maybe you're trying too hard. Doesn't this happen to every vampire?
Spike : Not to me, it doesn't!
Willow : It's me, isn't it?
Spike : What are you talking about?
Willow : Well, you came looking for Buffy, then settled. I--I... You didn't want to bite me. I just happened to be around.
Spike : Piffle!
Willow : I know I'm not the kind of girl vamps like to sink their teeth into. It's always like, "ooh, you're like a sister to me," or, "oh, you're such a good friend."
Spike : Don't be ridiculous. I'd bite you in a heartbeat. (Sits back on her bed again)
Willow : Really?
Spike : Thought about it.
Willow : When?
Spike : Remember last year, you had on that... Fuzzy pink number with the lilac underneath?
Willow : I never would have guessed. You played the blood-lust kinda cool.
Spike : Mmm. I hate being obvious. All fang-y and "rrrr!" Takes the mystery out.
Willow : But if you could...
Spike : If I could, yeah.
And I'd like to take a moment to point out - there is a similar scene between
Willow and Anya in Dopplegangland where they do dark magic. And later a comparison is made between Anya and Willow in SOMETHING BLUE where Anya tells the gang that she also did magic to counter rejection. So both Anya and Spike have at some point identified with Willow. Spike takes the time in the above scene to discuss his inability to perform with her, making it clear that it's "not" her but him. Surprising scene. Why didn't he just take off? He had to know that if Buffy showed up, he'd be dust.
One final episode to ram the metaphors home: SOMETHING BLUE. This episode shows Spike and Anya in an interesting light and emphasizes just how emasculated they are. They have lost their power and in this episode are completely dependent on the SG.
First scene is between Spike/Buffy/Giles. Spike by the way is chained up in a bathtub in this scene, drinking blood from a novelty cup called love your librarian. I'm not sure the writers could have found a more emasculating/humiliating position for the poor guy. Here's the scene:
GILES: Spike, we've no intention of killing a harmless creature. But we need to know
what's been done to you. We can't let you go until we're sure you're impotent.
SPIKE:Hey!
GILES:Sorry. Poor choice of words. 'Til we know you're...
BUFFY:Flaccid?
SPIKE:You're one step away, missy -
BUFFY:Giles, help! He's gonna scold me! (Spike tries to lunge but the chains hold him back.)You know what? I think you don't want us to let you go. Maybe we made it too comfy here.
SPIKE:Comfy? Do I look comfy? I'm chained in a bathtub drinking pig's blood from
a novelty mug. Doesn't rate high in the Zagat's guide.
BUFFY:You want something nicer? (She leans over Spike, baring her neck to him.)
Ooh... look at my poor neck, all bare and tender and delicious...(Spike strains at his chains, wanting it...)All that blood just pumping away...
Look at all the sexual innuendos. Buffy is flirting with the guy, egging him on. Knowing he can't hurt her. Knowing that he's been completely emasculated. But has he? Here the metaphor is beginning to shift. By stripping away the one thing that makes Spike a force to be reckoned with, the writers can now explore the character. He is no longer just a metaphor for lust, for dark love, he is now possibly about unrequited love.
Anya too has been stripped of her powers. She is now being explored in a different way. In SOMETHING BLUE, she tries, unsuccessfully, to summon D'Hoffryn to help Willow and the gang. Just as Spike tries, unsuccessfully, to help Buffy and the Gang in the fight. They've switched sides. Why do they both help? Well Anya does because she has fallen for Xander. She is uncertain whether her love is returned but she is willing to hang in there to see. And Spike? He doesn't start helping until Willow casts the spell and he falls for Buffy - at which point he reacts out of concern for Buffy and by extension her friends. For the first time, the writers suggest that these two demons can possibly rise above their metaphorical states to a higher more evolved plane. That they can rise above lust and scorn and self-motivated/opportunistic love to actual, dare I say, redemptive love?
At the beginning of Season 4, both Anya/Spike are still fairly self-motivated. They are interested in satisfying their own desires, whether those be sexual or otherwise. They are more or less metaphors for lust and vengence. As we move through Season 4 and into Season 5, Anya and Spike start to become more complicated. Anya becomes more than a metaphor for vengence, in fact I would argue she moved past that metaphor by the fifth episode of Season 4. Spike has also moved past the metaphor. His character is no longer just about Lust. But - they are both still primarily motivated by love, love's bitca's if you will, whether that love be returned or unrequited. And I think also somewhat similar in their relentless pursuit of it. But this has gotten quite long - so we will have to leave that for the next essay, along with a couple of questions, first posed by Auden's poem. If these two were to achieve their desire, only to have it snatched away, how would they react? Would they revert back to the metaphor? The cliché?
Hope this made sense. Sorry it is so long. Thanks again for reading. Looking forward to your comments as always. (Although I think some of them may have gone to my head *G).
;-) shadowkat
