Personally, I think of both Spike and Angel as anti heros but for very different reasons. An anti hero is a central character in a story, novel, or play who lacks traditional heroic qualities, such as high purpose or moral strength. Both fit this description but from very different perspectives.
Angel lacks true moral strength. He often does things out of anger (such as not really helping Lindsey in "Blind Date", despite his big speach to Buffy about saving souls in "Sactuary" or locking all those people in the wine cellar in "Reunions") or high-handedly makes self-serving decisions on his own (such as choosing to return to a vampire in "IWRY", making the blanket decision to join Wolfram & Hart for all of the gang in "Home" or talking Lorne-Lorne-into killing Lindsey in "NFA").
Spike, on the other hand, lacks a high purpose. He very often does the right things for all the wrong reasons, even when he was evil (before the chip). We've seen him act out of love-for Drusilla, for Buffy, for Dawn, for Joyce and for Fred. We've seen him save the lives of the Scoobies, who he's always professed not to like at all. We've seen him take bullets for Lindsey, someone he had no reason to trust after the scam he pulled on Spike and we've watched as he developed a rapport with Illyria. We've seen that he believes in speaking the truth time and again.
And more importantly, IMO, is the fact that Spike sought out his soul of his own free will and has died saving the world. That's something that Angel has not done.
To me, that makes Spike more of a hero than Angel and I suppose that's the way I'll always see them.
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Date: 2008-06-20 03:37 pm (UTC)Personally, I think of both Spike and Angel as anti heros but for very different reasons. An anti hero is a central character in a story, novel, or play who lacks traditional heroic qualities, such as high purpose or moral strength. Both fit this description but from very different perspectives.
Angel lacks true moral strength. He often does things out of anger (such as not really helping Lindsey in "Blind Date", despite his big speach to Buffy about saving souls in "Sactuary" or locking all those people in the wine cellar in "Reunions") or high-handedly makes self-serving decisions on his own (such as choosing to return to a vampire in "IWRY", making the blanket decision to join Wolfram & Hart for all of the gang in "Home" or talking Lorne-Lorne-into killing Lindsey in "NFA").
Spike, on the other hand, lacks a high purpose. He very often does the right things for all the wrong reasons, even when he was evil (before the chip). We've seen him act out of love-for Drusilla, for Buffy, for Dawn, for Joyce and for Fred. We've seen him save the lives of the Scoobies, who he's always professed not to like at all. We've seen him take bullets for Lindsey, someone he had no reason to trust after the scam he pulled on Spike and we've watched as he developed a rapport with Illyria. We've seen that he believes in speaking the truth time and again.
And more importantly, IMO, is the fact that Spike sought out his soul of his own free will and has died saving the world. That's something that Angel has not done.
To me, that makes Spike more of a hero than Angel and I suppose that's the way I'll always see them.