Spike And Plans, Fanon Vs Canon

[lady_windermere]

In fanon it is usually the case that Spike's plans fall through because he is impatient, but is that true in canon? I don't think so, and I shall explain why.

When Spike first arrives in School Hard the others are making plans for The Night of Saint Vigeous. This is not a Spike plan, but he does offer to get rid of The Slayer for them. He has defeated two slayers before, and does his usual casing out Buffy's fighting style. He even gives her a run for her money until Joyce arrives. It could be said he was impatient then, and should, but it was not a Spike plan.

His main plan was to cure Drusilla, which he does. He has Du Lac translate book with the help of the Du Lac cross, and Angel for the ritual. He maybe injured, but he does cure Drusilla.

While in a wheelchair he and Drusilla assemble The Judge. That Angelus turns up and takes over doesn't take away that most of the work was done before he arrived.

He regains his ability to walk, and is able to convince Buffy to work with him to defeat Angelus so he can get Drusilla back, which he physically does.

Next the magic spell to make Dru love him again. Not a well thought out plan, but he does manage to capture Willow and Xander, even broken hearted and drunk for the majority of the time, then dashes off to use his own methods to get Drusilla back.

Now the Gem of Amarra, the thing is he does find it. That he then goes off to fight Buffy, he has always had Buffy in his sights, she is The Slayer. Then he goes to L.A. to get the ring back, knowing Buffy would give it to Angel, but is defeated by Angel and his friends.....so his plans are defeated by our heros, not Spike's impatience.

After that he is a member of BtVS as a regular, then on to AtS as a regular, and an outsider as well, so not a lot of time spend on his plans, and with the chip and then soul, the evil plans go out the window. I do think that Giles should've known better and accepted Spike's help more in being able to do research, but then Spike was one of their fighters.

Anyone else?

Comments

[kitty-alex.livejournal.com]

I agree with you. If anything, I think Spike's flaw is more his temper than anything else. He is really able be quite patient when he wants to be, but when he gets angry, he stops thinking clearly. Also, he trusts a bit easy and carries a lot of his human traits on his sleeve. Like with the Gem of Amara, if he did the torturing himself, he would have probably walked away with the ring, but instead he trusted that guy to do it for him and NOT want the ring. He trusted Dru to stay loyal to him. He trusted Willow to do the spell for him. He trusted the Scoobies to take him in, which is kind of why he was surprised when they wouldn't let him in at first. He also trusted the Doc and we all know how that ended up.

[http://users.livejournal.com/woman_of_/]

Yes, so true, temper and trust. I was very pleased that Fred was so trustworthy in AtS. At last someone he can count on!

[kitty-alex.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think that's why he was so loyal to Illyria and spent a lot of his time with her. He finally found someone he could trust only to have her taken away. Then in Spike's logic, it might be her shell, but it's still her because sometimes that's how he seems himself, I guess.

[http://users.livejournal.com/woman_of_/]

Coming onto IM, will chat there!

[dark-amia.livejournal.com]

A good plan. Smart. Carefully laid out. – But I got bored.

I think sometimes people take Spike’s words (like those above) too literally. Although he says the above to Angel and gets his ass kicked, Angel then goes in search of him. Spike knew Angel would find him at that bar because he had a trap set up in a nearby ally.

I don’t think all Spike’s plans fail. His plan to kidnap Angel clearly worked. Unfortunately for him he didn’t think through his plan carefully enough and foolishly thought a vampire that liked children had no interest in walking in the sun.

I think there are times when Spike can be very patient and I certainly don’t think it’s the sole reason for all his plans being failures.

[http://users.livejournal.com/woman_of_/]

Yes, he had a plan, and followed it. It was not that he was impatient, but that he was betrayed, which too many people do to Spike to be honest. He really needs to watch who he trusts

[kindredspirit75.livejournal.com]

I've always thought that Spike was smarter than anyone would give him credit for. Some of the examples you gave show that, even if his plans fell through, all was not lost.

I like that he had kept some of his humanity after he was turned as well. Spike's devotion to Dru is a true love story, surpassing what he ever had with Buffy.

Under all his snarks and bluster, there was still a good heart underneath and that's why I love him so much.

[http://users.livejournal.com/woman_of_/]

Oh yes, I agree....the only reason Dru had anything to do with Angelus was because she was an insane fool!

Spike had good plans, and looked after the people he loved!

[kudagirl.livejournal.com]

I agree that Spike did have well laid out plans. He video taped Buffy to learn her fighting style. He did make good plans, but circumstances got in his way most of the time. Not his fault.

Giles was angry with Buffy for trusting Spike more than he feared Spike. It was about her not listening to his wisdom more than anything. He still felt she should accept his advise and she refused. Spike had more than proved he could be trusted to Buffy, but Giles refused to see it. Giles left Buffy so she could learn to stand on her own two feet as an adult. Now she was doing it. It hurt him that she wouldn't listen to his reasoning. Male ego more than anything.

[http://users.livejournal.com/woman_of_/]

Yes, usually Buffy and her friends or Angel and his friends. So the heros stop him....even then sometimes.

I think Giles was out of order, and should've trusted Spike.

[erin-starlight.livejournal.com]

Agreed but I do think this line of thinking comes not only from School Hard but from In the Dark. When he fights Angel and mentions a plan (which Angel of course mocks.) Spike replies it was a good plan he just couldn't wait. (Though he is able to capture Angel later on due to said planning.) Maybe he just couldn't wait to wrestle with Angel. ;)

[http://users.livejournal.com/woman_of_/]

True, but really "In The Dark" he says it to make Angel think he doesn't have a plan, when really he is following his plan through. To caputure Angel, which works.

[inkingwords.livejournal.com]

I think it's more of a fanon thing cause he was patient on the show. He watched and plotted how he would kill his next Slayer. Then you had Dru, the Judge, finding the Gem, even getting at Buffy. There's other examples that I just can't think of right now. So yeah, fanon.

[http://users.livejournal.com/woman_of_/]

Yes, I think it is Fanon, there are so many examples for his plans suceeding! Just of course he cannot kill Buffy, cos end of show!

[inkingwords.livejournal.com]

I continued to think about this even after I turned my computer off last night. I feel like Angel, or I guess I should say Angelus seemed to be more impatient than Spike as far as canon goes(in my opinion). But in fanon, it seems that fanfic writers write Angel as being more patient. ::shrugs::

And as far as 'he cannot kill Buffy, cos end of show!', it never seemed to stop Joss from killing her off several times. :)

[http://users.livejournal.com/woman_of_/]

Totally agree, and a lot of times Angel or Angelus' plans fail so much. Just the title character so has to look good. It gets me, but with fanon, it is the majority rule.

Have to admit my favourite story of my own, Spike does kill and turn Buffy.

[shapinglight]

Oh, I agree. I've never really understood why people say Spike's no good at planning. He is, it's just that his impatience (as noted by the vamp minion in School Hard sometimes means that he fails at the execution.

[http://users.livejournal.com/woman_of_/]

Then he is often sucessful as well. Really it is when killing Buffy that his plan falls through!

[lusciousxander.livejournal.com]

Thing with Fanon is that when they catch something they stick it to the character. Like nicknames for example. Spike called Angel "Peaches" once and then it stuck as a permenant nickname for Angel and Xander's "G-man", like he never said "Giles".

[http://users.livejournal.com/woman_of_/]

Yes they do, and it does get repeditive and boring. Could do a whole list of items, but this one seemed to come up so much lately!