A few days back I discussed...er...ranted about? the apparant Spuffyness on Jess' site. ((Which she says is not Spuffy cause it's the Bot, and insists that it's the only healthy relationship we've ever seen Spike *have*)).

Let me make this perfectly clear. I'm not a Spuffy shipper. 

So damn Joss and his sinister attraction in "After Life". Damn the tender moments and the shared secrets. Damn James Marsters for playing it so well, I wanted to fall right along with him when he took Buffy's hands in his own, and asked, "how long was it, for you...where you were?" 

Damn Joss for making me like Buffy again. Damn Sarah Michelle Gellar for looking so pitiful with cavewoman hair and for playing that line about heaven so well, that even though I knew  *KNEW* it was coming, I still gasped and cried when she said it.

And damn them both for being so fucking pretty. 

You know, Sam brings up some excellent points about the nature of Spuffyness in her blog today. 

She talks about how Spike has always been the fellow who acts primarily in order to win the approval of his current object of affection. He killed Slayers for Dru, he hunted vampires for Buffy, and all with one goal in mind: To get inside the girl. 

She says Spuffy's relationship can be chemistry-filled without being fluffy, hell, without even being about true love. God knows the man generates unbearable sexual heat with even inanimate objects. And, yea,  who could possibly argue that Buffy has *always* had more sexual tension with Spike than with any other male on the show, except perhaps Angel.

Sam even talks about Spike maturing last season (although not necessarily developing an internal moral compass beyond "what Buffy would approve of." )

All of this makes a certain sense to me. 

But if I were to be blunt, I'd say this: James Marsters is a popular guy, and with good reason. And in order to keep him around for any length of time, he has to either fight or fuck Buffy. The fighting has been done, and it can only last for so long. It's now time to either get with the fucking, or get rid of James. There is simply no other role for Spike to play that makes any kind of sense in terms of characterization or plot. And I'm  *not* a fan of the James-moving-on plan.

Do I *like* Spuffy? No. But I like the idea of James playing a leading man. I like the idea of SPIKE BEING the leading man. And I think Joss, James and Sarah can play this without fluff. I think Spike can make love to Buffy because he loves her, and I think that Buffy can have sex with Spike because HE LOVES HER. And I think it will be painful and angsty and heart-wrenching because she doesn't love him. She's never gonna love him and he knows it. She knows it and we, the fans know it. Ah yeaaa, True Jossverse Tragedy at its finest. IF played that way, even the Angelho in me can get behind that. 

So am I a Spuffy-shipper? No. No more so than I'm a B/A shipper. But there are forces at work that can't be denied if you pay any sort of attention while watching this show. B/A was one of them. S/B is now another. 

Trust in Joss ya'll, but hedge your bets.

Spuffy!?

*~*~*~*
 

OF THE THEN
 

ARCHIVES