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ESSAY:
A
Century of Slash: Angel & Spike (The Angel/Spike Shipper Guide)
AUTHOR: Kita
Spike & Angel: A Shipper’s Manifesto
1. A Little Bit Of Background
Angel, played by David Boreanaz, is the original Jossverse vampire with
a soul. Initially brought on to Buffy the Vampire Slayer to be Buffy’s (disposable)
antagonist, the actor proved so popular that he was signed as a regular, and
instead went on to become Buffy’s love interest.
Pay attention, the above theme is going to become familiar.
Angel was cursed by Gypsies to feel eternal remorse for his hundred years
of evil deeds as a vampire; he was given back his soul. Unfortunately, the
curse had a catch. After experiencing “perfect happiness” with Buffy on the
night of her seventeenth birthday, he lost his soul to love, forgiveness,
(and her virginity) and reverted back to his former evil self, Angelus. He
then wreaked havoc on her life, the town of Sunnydale, and Willow’s goldfish
throughout the rest of S2, before Buffy tearfully sent him (newly re-ensouled,
on his knees and to swelling music) into Hell.
You might wanna pay attention to that theme too. Buffy, and souled vamps
who fall in love with her only to die spectacularly are also rather recurring.
Luckily for them, they also always come back.
Before Angel(us) was gutted with a magic sword and sent to the fiery pits,
the audience learned some more about his past: exploits, companions, and lovers.
Enter Spike, aka William the Bloody, played by James Marsters.
(I mention the actors’ names in this essay for several reasons.
First, it is hardly a coincidence- because rarely is anything a coincidence
in Jossverse- that the actors, much like the characters they play, are polar
opposites: Angel is tall, dark, handsome, mysterious, brooding, and prone
to great dramatic gestures. Spike is smaller, fair haired and skinned, handsome,
in-your-face, boisterous, and…prone to great dramatic gestures.
Second, the actors have brought a great deal of themselves to their roles,
and have commented publicly on the nature of their characters, and their characters’
relationship with one another, in ways that will prove illuminating later
on in this essay.)
Spike came to town with his long-time paramour, Drusilla, meant to invoke
the literate viewer’s recollection of the incestuous story of Caligula. Inappropriate
familial relations: a primary significant theme between Spike and Angel, in
all their incarnations.
Drusilla was turned into a vampire by Angel, and we find out later that
Spike was turned by Drusilla, even though over the course of the next five
years, Spike will continually refer to Angel as his sire. So- are they like
brothers? Father and son? Is Spike his own grandpa? Does the family tree
even branch? You make the call. Incest is all *cough*relative*cough* when
you’re a vampire.
Spike was also meant to be a villain of the week (or plot arc), but proved
popular enough to- you guessed it. It did take Spike a bit longer to become
Buffy’s love interest, an entire four seasons after his initial appearance.
In the interim however, Spike and Angel found plenty to banter and bond over.
2. The Beginnings of a Ship
Their onscreen relationship begins with ‘School Hard’, when Spike, in the
midst of trashing the high school and hunting Buffy, is obviously quite excited
to see his old hunting partner, Angel. (Whom he calls Angelus, not knowing
yet that he has gained a soul, a conscience, and a girlfriend who’s the Slayer).
Angel and Spike hug, almost share a meal (Xander), but something- and we’re
never told what, chalk it up to some very open-to-interpretation intuition,
sets Spike off.
“You think you can fool me?” he shouts, and he’s obviously furious, betrayed.
“You were my sire, man. My Yoda!”
(Later, Xander will ask Angel what a sire means. Angel will look broody,
mysterious, and subtextual about it. But in the mean time, we get that these
two had some kind of bond, and now that it’s over, Spike is pissed.)
It is telling that later on, even before Angel loses his soul, he does not
once go after or try to destroy Spike or Drusilla. In fact, upon running into
Drusilla one night, he makes a specific point of telling her to “take Spike
and just go.”
Of course, she doesn’t, and we get fun with threesome bondage in the episode
“What’s My Line”, in which Angel, tied to a bed and gagged, is tortured with
Holy Water by Drusilla, and called ‘baby’ by Spike. I couldn’t make stuff
this good up if I tried.
(The two male vampires will have numerous chances to do one another in,
both souled and unsouled, over the course of the next five years. Instead,
they snark, smack one another around, and in the end always leave the other
alive. In fact, by the time Spike shows up on Angel’s show, they make a habit
of saving one another’s lives on a regular basis. They do not, however, ever
stop the snarking.)
Near the end of Season 2 BtVS, following the deflowering of Buffy and the
de-souling of Angel, we see the crazy familial bond in action again: the newly
freed Angelus goes to the warehouse where Spike and Dru are staying, and
Spike can barely contain his excitement. He’s bouncing in his seat, and babbling
right along with Drusilla about being a family again. In fact, when Angelus
leans down to kiss him, he closes his eyes. (If you watch the scene, you
can see Angelus stick his tongue out right before he presses his lips to
Spike’s forehead.) Then, Spike, who has apparently lived over a hundred and
twenty years, and killed two Slayers, collapses in giggles.
They instantly become rivals for Dru’s affections (it is made clear throughout
both Jossverse series that this has been a long time rivalry). The boys snark
at and hate one another with a lovely to witness fiery – uh, passion. Angelus
slaps Spike on the back of the head in pretty much every scene, reinforcing
Spike’s place as subordinate in the family hierarchy. Which alludes to yet
another recurring theme- every time these two are on screen together, there
is jostling for Alpha Male, complete with growls. The only component of said
fight for dominance which we don’t actually see onscreen is humping. Except,
we do: the over-the-car-hood scene in “In the Dark,” which occurs seasons
later, when Angel has his own series, but Spike is still jostling.
From the forehead kiss scene in ‘Innocence’ on, the subtext rapidly becomes
text. And for the next five seasons of Buffy, then continuing when Marsters
moves to Angel’s series full time, Angel and Spike are rivals for not only
Drusilla’s affections, but Buffy’s as well. (Not to mention Champion status
and the right to Shanshu, or once again become a ‘real boy’.) These guys will
fight over anything.
Hm.
3. Let’s Talk Meta
In her book Between Men, scholar Eve Kofosky Sedgwick writes of a concept
she calls "homosocial desire." Sedgwick defines the term as: "Homosocial"
is a word occasionally used in history and the social sciences, where it describes
social bonds between persons of the same sex; it is a neologism, obviously
formed by analogy with 'homosexual,' and just as obviously meant to be distinguished
from 'homosexual.'
To draw the 'homosocial' back into the orbit of 'desire,' of the potentially
erotic, then, is to hypothesize the potential unbrokenness of a continuum
between homosocial and homosexual-- a continuum whose visibility, for men,
in our society, is radically disrupted" (Sedgwick 1-2).
Homosocial desire is characteristic of "male bonding" and other social situations
where men gather. There is, Sedgwick writes, a "continuum between 'men loving
men' and 'men promoting the interests of men'.
And how is it that men bond? In the Jossverse (and one could argue in reality)
it is often through violence. And sometimes, Sedgwick argues, it is through
a woman.
The Angel/Spike/Buffy(Drusilla) arc, which persists throughout the entire
run of both series, is an excellent example of the sort of homosocial bonding
through an erotic triangle with which Sedgwick's essay is concerned: "the
bond between rivals in an erotic triangle" is "even stronger, more heavily
determinant of actions and choices, than anything in the bond between either
of the lovers and the beloved" (Sedgwick 21).
From Drusilla’s affections to Buffy’s, from fighting on the side of good
to gaining a soul, Spike, since Day One, has followed in “Daddy’s” footsteps.
And has resented the hell out of it.
But, Sedgwick writes that male bonding through rivalry "is not detrimental
to "masculinity" but definitive of it" (50). Although homoeroticism is stereotypically
associated with effeminate behavior among men, homosocial relationships such
as Angel/Spike are characterized by stereotypically masculine behavior.
Their roles as men are emphasized by their violent competition over women,
and their fight scenes have decidedly sexual overtones, such as the use of
poles, stakes, and other phallic objects. The beaten party is often left on
his knees, in a position of submission. (See BtVS: “What’s My Line”, AtS:
“In the Dark,” “Soul Purpose”, “Destiny” for some of the most spectacular
examples of fighting as sexually charged metaphor).
Sedgwick calls male rivals such as this the "two active members of an erotic
triangle" (21). The third participant, the desired woman, is passive, serving
as a representative of and link between men: "patriarchal heterosexuality
can best be discussed in terms of one or another form of the traffic in women:
it is the use of women as exchangeable, perhaps symbolic, property for the
primary purpose of cementing the bonds of men with men" (26).
"[T]he choice of the beloved is determined in the first place, not by the
qualities of the beloved, but by the beloved's already being the choice of
the person who has been chosen as a rival," writes Sedgwick (21). In other
words, it isn’t the girl the rival necessarily wants, it’s whatever happens
to be the property of the initial male. Because what is truly desired, is
the initial male himself.
Indeed, in the climax of the Buffy/Angel/Spike triangle, which occurs near
the end of the final season of Angel, the episode “The Girl in Question”-
Buffy isn’t even present. She is seen only for a moment, a blur of shining
blond hair across a dance floor. Immediately after, the only two souled vamps
in the universe have a beautifully sequenced fight with leather coats flying
in slow motion, pursue several running gags including sharing a small Vespa
with their arms around each other , and even end the night commiserating over
their love ‘lost’. In fact, Buffy has never once even shown her face.
This is supposed to be the romantic rivalry on which their souls and destinies
hinge, but the entire episode focuses solely on Angel and Spike, their long
standing history with one another, and the fact that they may fancy themselves
slaves to her heart and whim, but ultimately, they are alone- together.
Sedgwick's writings on homosocial desire show that their mutual desire for
the same women indicates, rather than disproves, the homoerotic nature of
Spike’s feelings for Angel, and vica versa. For writers of Angel/Spike slash,
their joint attraction to Buffy is not a hurdle to be overcome but, rather,
a means to bring them together.
4. Let’s Talk Canon
Or, one could skip the girl and head straight for the idea that the two
have been shagging like bunnies since before Buffy’s grandfather was born.
Witness the scene from “Destiny”, where a newly made William (not yet calling
himself Spike) first meets his grandsire, Angelus. He’s drunk, surly, and
not a little unkempt, and the upper class William is seemingly unimpressed,
if not a bit afraid. In a moment of spectacularly macho showmanship, Angelus
holds his hand into the sunlight, watching it burn. Not to be outdone, William
follows suit, even lets Angelus hold his hand while it catches fire, all while
Drusilla watches and giggles. More competition for a girl? Maybe. But here’s
what Angelus says next:
“Don't mistake me. I do love the ladies. It's just lately... I've been wondering
what it'd be like to share the slaughter of innocents with another man. Don't
think that makes me some kind of a deviant, hmm?”
William does not seem to think so, because he goes hunting alone with the
crazy Irish stranger in the next scene. (The next scene, which is cut-tagged
directly from a present-day sex scene. The folks in Jossverse have never been
afraid to play to their slasher audience.)
Spike and Angel, as mentioned earlier in the essay, represent archetypal
opposites: Angel is the Hanged Man, the hero destined for tragedy. He can’t
keep his friends and comrades in arms alive (the series ends with every single
original member of the AtS cast with the exception of Angel dead), and he
can’t keep lovers lest he turn evil and kill them. Somehow, everyone always
ends up following him anyway, right to the end. And the first volunteer to
join him in a battle that even he calls suicidal? Spike.
Spike is the Trickster, never-static, ever-evolving, rule breaking and obnoxious.
Hard to like but impossible not to.
I wouldn’t be so pedestrian as to leave you with the statement about opposites
attracting. So I’ll let the actors and writers do it.
5. Let Someone Else Talk
"The real love story this season (Season Five) on Angel is Angel & Spike."
-David Fury at W&H Auction Q&A session with fans.
“I would have liked to see the relationship between Angel and Spike explored
more. They have so much chemistry and history together.”
-David Boreanaz, when asked what he regrets most about not having a sixth
season, convention: Chicago 2004.
"Well, David and I talked about it and we decided that underneath all that
hatred, there's a lot of love. The characters! The characters have a lot of
love!"
-James Marsters, on method acting, convention: Atlanta 2003
For a dose of Spike and Angel HoYay! onscreen, I recommend the following
episodes and scenes:
School Hard- S2, BtVS (reunion scene)
What’s My Line- S2, BtVS (bondage fun)
Innocence-S2, BtVS (the only male/male kiss of any kind in Jossverse)
In the Dark- S1, AtS (featuring a hilarious voice over by Spike as
he spies on Angel. Not for the first time, Spike decries Angel’s masculinity
and sexuality, calling him various slang words for 'gay'. We wonder how he
knows so surely.)
Destiny- S5, AtS (the first thing a newly corporeal Spike does?*
Touch Angel’s chest. This ep also features the hand in the fire and deviant
line scene.)
Soul Purpose- S5, Ats (the Matrix style fighting! The angst! The
UST! Angel waking up in bed- with Spike! The expository explanation for just
about every issue Spike and Angel ever had!)
Damage- S5, AtS (a wounded Spike is comforted bedside by Angel. Contains
one of the most profound lines in the series, about innocence and forgiveness.
Begins the trend of having multiple episodes in a row close with a shot of
the two vampires together.)
The Girl In Question- S5, AtS (a 50’s style farce where Boreanaz
and Marsters play vampiric versions of Bob Hope and Jack Lemmon, without
the cross dressing. According to Boreanaz at a convention in Chicago, 2004,
he and Marsters suggested cross dressing. Joss vetoed it.)
Hole in the World- S5, AtS (Angel and Spike hold hands. No. Really.
And, according to dialogue, they’ve done it before.)
Power Play- S5, AtS (Spike confesses to having been ‘intimate’ with
Angel, once.)
(*Corporeal after being ressurected as a ghost, after dying to save the
world, for Buffy. Told you. Was a theme.)
Want to see what fanfic writers make of this pairing?
Largest collection of fic and essays on Angel and Spike as a ‘ship-
Capt. Peroxide & Deadboy (fangedfour.com/deadboy/) The BtVS Writer’s
Guild for the pairing.
Best historical fics, otherwise known as Fanged Four (Angel, Spike, Drusilla
and Darla in various and sundry combinations, heavy on the HoYay)-
Peasant's Plot (ficbitch.com/peasants_plot ) Epic stories, pre-Sunnydale.
Other sites with large collections of fic-
Slashing The Angel (ficbitch.com/slashingtheangel)
All About Spike (allaboutspike.com)
More of a visual sort? Try the vids over at Headtilt.com. Specifically,
I recommend “Closer”, a lush ode to the similarities, differences, and sexuality
of Angel and Spike, set to a dirty Nine Inch Nails song. So, it’s perfect,
really.
6. To Repeat- No, Is Too Much, To Sum Up
Finally, I’ve been asked why I personally ship Angel and Spike. Frankly,
that answer is much simpler. The first fanfic I ever read was Angel/Spike
slash. I’ve been a shipper since the glory days of School Hard. I waited impatiently
for six long years, but Joss came through for me in the last season of Angel-
in spades.
What’s the appeal?
Pretty man+ Pretty man = Two pretty men!
Centuries of history with long hair and tight pants, gladiator style battles
and UST so thick you could lick it.
Writers and actors who are willing to wink at and nudge those who ship the
‘ship.
Some of the most talented authors in Jossverse, who write the saddest, happiest,
simplest, most complex, sexiest, ohmyfuckingodhottest fic in the fandom.
Yea. I’m shallow. But who can resist the allure of all that for eternity?
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-Almighty!GAH 6/05
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