RadioTimes.com<\/a>. \u201cBecause the original idea for Buffy was that that vampires were just metaphors for the challenges of high school, or the challenges of life. They were designed to be overcome, they were designed to die. Buffy is not an Anne Rice kind of thing, where you\u2019re supposed to feel for the vampires. It\u2019s why we\u2019re hideously ugly when we bite someone, they did not want that to be a sensual kind of thing. It was supposed to be horrific. <\/span><\/p>\n\u201cSo trying to fit Spike long term into that kind of show is a weird fit. And so they were always like, coming to me at the beginning of every season saying, \u2018We don\u2019t know what to do with you! We have a plan for the season, we have a plan for all the other characters, we have all the arcs of all the other characters, we just don\u2019t know what to do with you again.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n\u201cAnd because they were so creative, they were able to figure something out. But what it meant was I think that I was plugged into the other arcs. I was the villain, and then I was the wacky neighbour, and then I was the wrong boyfriend, and then I was the fallen man trying to redeem himself. And then ultimately a kind of guinea pig hero by the end.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n James Marsters as Spike in Buffy the Vampire Slayer<\/span><\/figcaption> Disney+<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n He recalls: \u201cMost secondary characters, their dialogue is kind of like, \u2018Good job, Buffy. What do we do now Buffy? Everybody wait for Buffy!\u2019 and I was absolutely the opposite. \u2018Sod off Buffy, you\u2019re stupid Buffy, we\u2019re all gonna die, Buffy.\u2019 I think that, because as an actor, I love acting so much, I was having so much fun playing the role.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI think that you could have both, you could have someone that was really pushing back against the good guys, and really not going along with the programme but it doesn\u2019t get annoying, because the actor playing him is just having a delicious time doing that and so it\u2019s fun.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nWhile Marsters is quick to credit the writers\u2019 creativity, there is one storyline he wasn\u2019t that fond of.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only one that I thought I had a better idea was \u2013 in season 4, they made me a cast regular and the question really becomes at that point, \u2018How do you stop Spike from trying to kill Buffy?\u2019 Because he can\u2019t keep trying and failing. That gets redundant and it gets cheesy really fast.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo you have to find a way to get him to stop trying to do it. And the way that they came up with was to put a chip in my head that would just make it impossible for me to kill. But I call that the Deus Ex Chip [from Deus Ex Machina]. It comes from Greek plays where you would drop a god in on a machine at the end of the play, and the god would just be like, \u2018You\u2019re evil, you\u2019re good. You\u2019re gonna get punished and you\u2019re gonna get rewarded, end of play!\u2019 and it was just a really cheap, non-imaginative way to resolve things\u2026<\/p>\n
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation<\/i> <\/span>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI thought it would be more interesting if Spike fell in love with Buffy. Buffy, of course, would never fall in love with Spike. That would be ridiculous<\/em>, I thought. But if he fell in love with her, he could try to win her affection and fail over and over again, and you could do that in horrifying ways, you could do that in comedic ways, there\u2019s many different kinds of iterations that you could follow that kind of game plan on.<\/p>\n\u201cIn that way, it would be more active for Spike in how he\u2019s not going to try to kill her anymore, as opposed to just being prevented by a machine. That\u2019s the only one and I\u2019m probably not right about that either. It probably would have meant that Spike needed more screen time and with a cast that large, there\u2019s just not that much time, you probably needed something very quick to get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n
He adds: \u201cI mean, the whole thing is, how do we get this guy on without having him ruin the theme? If it had been me producing that show, I would have killed Spike off in a heartbeat. As soon as the audience said, \u2018Oh, we want him. Oh, have him with Buffy. Oh, we love that character.\u2019 Like uh-uh. He\u2019s ruining the whole thing. I would have killed me off after probably three episodes. I\u2019m kind of a bastard when I\u2019m producing! I\u2019m heartless! So I\u2019m very lucky that they had more imagination and courage than I would have shown, frankly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nSpeaking about the writing process on Buffy, Marsters explains: \u201cOne of the reasons the Buffy writing was so good was that, to come up with an episode, the writers were being asked to come up with their worst day, the day that they don\u2019t talk about, the day that keeps them up at night, when they really got hurt or when they really hurt someone. And then, metaphorically speaking, slap fangs on top of their dark secret, write a story about it and let the whole world know about it.<\/p>
\u201cWhen you would come down to a set and you would see the writer on that episode, they would almost look ashamed. Because I think they were afraid that they would be found out, that you would guess what they were actually writing about, and they didn\u2019t want you to know that dark secret. It was a sustained act of vulnerability and courage from a core of really talented writers.\u201d<\/p>\n
One large conversation surrounding the Buffy finale, and Spike and Buffy\u2019s story in general, is that of consent. One scene often spoken about is the bathroom scene in the episode Seeing Red, in which Spike attempts to rape Buffy. In the episodes preceding it, Spike and Buffy become lovers \u2013 although it\u2019s inferred throughout their whole relationship that she never truly loves him.<\/p>\n
Marsters recalls a female writer penning the bathroom scene in question. He said she recalled her own experience of \u201cthrowing herself\u201d at an ex-boyfriend years before, and she wanted to \u201cflip the sexes\u201d to have Spike throw himself at Buffy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the crushing experience that she wanted to write about. I think that, because Buffy is a superhero and was fully capable of throwing Spike through a wall, they could flip the sexes. The point I was trying to make when I read that script was everyone who watches Buffy is Buffy, that\u2019s the trick of storytelling\u2026when I watch Buffy, I\u2019m Buffy. And the people out there watching Buffy aren\u2019t superheroes. So I\u2019m gonna be doing this to them. You can\u2019t flip the sexes on these characters and not have blowback, it\u2019s going to have unintended consequences.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other thing is that they were very frustrated because they couldn\u2019t convince the audience to stop rooting for Spike, they did not want the audience to say, \u2018Spike and Buffy forever,\u2019 that\u2019s just not what they were going for. They kept having me do worse and worse things trying to get people to realise.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven Spike at one point goes, \u2018Hey guys, I\u2019m evil.\u2019 Because the audience refused to do that, they finally landed on that scene. They kept having me do worse and worse things and finally they\u2019re like, \u2018OK, we\u2019re just gonna have him do that to Buffy, like there\u2019s nothing else that we have that\u2019s going to make this point.\u2019 That was another reason for that scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you know those things, maybe it will inform how you react to that scene. I don\u2019t know if it means it was the right thing to do. I know it doesn\u2019t seem to age well but what I want people to know is it wasn\u2019t a cavalier decision. It wasn\u2019t just like, \u2018Oh well, these things are OK and it might be sexy and spicy if we do this.\u2019 That wasn\u2019t what the writers were thinking at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very well considered and it was coming from a good place. It was the hardest day of my professional career, it sent me into therapy. I collapsed on set, I couldn\u2019t even speak, I was shaking. That was a horrible day\u2026when that script came, I was contracted to do anything that they said to anybody that they said to do it. I was legally compelled to do that scene. It wasn\u2019t fun to watch probably, but it wasn\u2019t fun to film either.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spike\u2019s story ends in the finale episode, Chosen, when he sacrifices himself in a literal blaze of glory to destroy the Hellmouth \u2013 saving the lives of Buffy and her friends, and countless others.<\/p>
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