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I'm not religious so I don't understand the
talk of souls and redemption. I think of vampires, not as
serial murderers, but as man-eating tigers and of Buffy as
a tiger hunter. We can't have man-eating tigers roaming the
streets or man-eating vampires roaming Sunnydale. It is the
man-eating part that makes it necessary to slay vampires,
not the vampire part. Tigers are dangerous to humans. Humans
have long demonized anything that is dangerous to them, from
lions and tigers and wolves to other humans. The Watcher's
Council might have demonized…demons. Is Spike a serial murderer
or just a dangerous predator? Does he need to be redeemed
or merely tamed? The changes we have seen in Spike remind
me of the words of the fox in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's
The Little Prince. The little prince asks the fox,
"What does that mean--'tame'?"
"It is an act too often neglected," said
the fox. "It means to establish ties."
"To establish ties?"
"Just that," said the fox. "To me, you are
still nothing more than a little boy who is just like
a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need
of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To
you I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand
other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each
other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To
you, I shall be unique in all the world . . ."
"My life is very monotonous," he said. "I
hunt chickens; men hunt me. All chickens are just alike,
and all the men are just alike. And in consequence, I
am a little bored. But if you tame me, it will be as if
the sun came to shine on my life. I shall know the sound
of a step that will be different from all the others.
Other steps send me hurrying back underneath the ground.
Yours will call me, like music out of my burrow. And then
look: you see the grain-fields down yonder? I do not eat
bread. Wheat is of no use to me. The wheat fields have
nothing to say to me. And that is sad. But you have hair
that is the color of gold. Think how wonderful that will
be when you have tamed me! The grain, which is also golden,
will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love
to listen to the wind in the wheat . . . "
The fox gazed at the little prince, for
a long time. "Please--tame me!" he said.
"One only understands the things that one
tames," said the fox. "If you want a friend, tame me .
. . "
"What must I do, to tame you?" asked the
little prince.
"You must be very patient," replied the
fox. First you will sit down at a little distance from
me--like that--in the grass. I shall look at you out of
the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words
are the source of misunderstandings. But you will sit
a little closer to me, every day . . . "
So the little prince tamed the fox. And
when the hour of his departure drew near--
"Ah," said the fox, "I shall cry."
"It is your own fault," said the little
prince. "I never wished you any sort of harm; but you
wanted me to tame you . . . "
"Yes, that is so," said the fox.
"But now you are going to cry!" said the
little prince.
"Yes, that is so," said the fox.
"Then it has done you no good at all!"
"It has done me good," said the fox, "because
of the color of the wheat fields."
"Men have forgotten this truth," said the
fox. "But you must not forget it. You become responsible,
forever, for what you have tamed."
Spike has been tamed by his love for Buffy.
He has established ties, first with her, then with Joyce and
Dawn, then with the Scoobies. The more tame Spike becomes
the more ties he establishes with people, the more of them
become unique to him. People are slowly ceasing to be just
Happy Meals with legs. He sees more and more of them as special,
not as interchangeable snacks. In Lover's Walk Spike
threatened to put a bottle through Willow's face and to kill
Xander and we believed him. It seems unlikely that today's
tamer, more "tied" Spike would do such a thing. Willow and
Xander are no longer ciphers to him. When Spike goes to test
his chip he doesn't try it on any of the Scoobies but on alleygirl,
someone with whom he has no ties.
As Spike became tame Buffy's step called him
like music out of his underground crypt. Even when she punched
him or mocked him he would seek her out, patrol with her,
hang about outside her house, sneak into it, protect her,
help her, suffer torture for her, was willing to die for her.
Because she had tamed him, even if it was not deliberate.
The tamed Spike became a friend and every day it seems she
sits a littler nearer to him.
As Spike has been tamed so he has tamed Buffy.
Despite having killed hundreds or thousands of vampires for
Buffy this vampire has become unique. For every time Spike
threatened and planned to kill the slayer and then preferred
to dance rather than to strike so there was another time when
Buffy swore to kill Spike, promised to kill Spike, tried to
kill Spike but then never did. Never pursued him when she
had the advantage. Never tried as hard as she could. Almost
like, I have a hangnail, I can't go chase and kill Spike.
The real reason seemed to be: it's fun fighting with Spike,
bickering with Spike, even tormenting Spike. If I kill him
I'll miss the fun. Who else ever made her as angry, as engaged,
as passionate as Spike? As her step calls him out of his crypt
so his calls her into it.
The more Spike has been tamed by his love of
Buffy the more she and he need each other. As women once were
said to have the function of taming man, civilizing the beast,
so Spike's relationship with Buffy has tamed him, turned him
into a man by treating him like a man. He even has furniture
now and more than one outfit. The fox says, "what you tame
you are forever responsible for." Spike behaves as if he were
responsible for Buffy, even when she is unwilling or disdainful
of his help. When will Buffy feel a comparable responsibility
for Spike, the vampire she has tamed?
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