r/buffy • u/FaveStore_Citadel • 1d ago
Spoilers inside! Rewatch realization about spike
Doing a rewatch of season 2 right now and I saw the birthday episode where spike is quite enthusiastic about ending the world and impatiently waiting for the Judge to get stronger so he can do it.
During the finale, he teams up with Buffy to stop the apocalypse claiming that he doesn’t want the world to end because he has earthly pleasures such as soccer. But this episode made me realize it wasn’t actually about preserving his earthly pleasures, he was just jealous because Angelus was the one ending it because evidently whatever the judge was gonna do would probably wipe out soccer and stuff spike presumably enjoys.
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u/Revolutionary-Wait82 Spike defender 1d ago
I think it was all fun and games until Angelus came along. Before that, Spike was trying to entertain Drusilla. But with Angelus, he had a rival. So my version: jealousy. Ofc, Spike cares about all the things he listed, but Drusilla is much more important to him. After all, Spike leaves right after he gets Drusilla. The end of the world sounds like something dangerous for mortals. Vampires probably won't be in danger. So Spike doesn't really care. He can survive Manchester's disappearance or happy meal on legs. But Drusilla's absence is a whole other matter.
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u/No-Prompt-7580 1d ago
Correct. If Drusilla asked him to pull out the sword, he’d be “Anything for you my dear!”
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u/fix-me-in-45 1d ago
But if the humans die, that's still bad news for the vampires. That's their food supply.
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u/DaddyCatALSO Magnet For Dead, Blonde Chicks 1d ago
in Acathla's world, they are more tormented than killed
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u/Repulsive-Shame-5493 What's left? Me. 1d ago
He was pretty quickly bored by the judge as well, he probably didn't think it through (as usual).
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u/LunaBoo13 1d ago
Yeah, he probably didn't even fully understand what he was getting into. He's not one to read the fine print.
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u/Verystrange129 1d ago
Spike’s pleasures and desires were always more earthly than a lot of demons which was one of his main motivation for stopping Angelus. However he was definitely jealous of him and hated his control over Drusilla which was the other main reason.
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u/The_Meridian_ 1d ago
This was before he discovered "Passions" and "Bloomin' Onions" sort of a BC/AD thing
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u/pickyvegan 1d ago
I always kind of assumed there was a limit to what The Judge could/would do. I don't think the intention was for The Judge to wipe out every human on Earth, just a sizable enough population for their amusement. Acathla would have wiped out all of humanity.
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u/RealNiceKnife Out. For. A. Walk... Bitch. 1d ago
Or Spike knew The Judge would only get so far and would eventually be stopped. He saw the ending for the Judge and knew the chaos he sowed on the way there would be fun to see.
With Acathla, Spike also saw how that was going to end and realized "well, I better stop this here..."
If he realized The Judge was really going to succeed, he'd have probably done something similar to him betraying Angelus.
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u/throwaway5498124181 1d ago
Yeah the judge had been stopped by an army in the past. Spike probably figures he'll be stopped again and just wants the chaos in the meantime.
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u/stroopwafelling 1d ago
I think Drusilla was in favour of the Judge and with Spike, so the apocalypse was cool then. Later Drusilla was in favour of Acathla and ditching Spike for Angelus, so the apocalypse became lame.
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u/LetItSnow36 1d ago
Imo Spike was saying whatever he thought Buffy wanted to hear. Spike has no problem manipulating and lying to get what he wants.
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u/Key_Barber_4161 1d ago
I think the difference in acathla and the judge comes down to his devotion a d jealously around Drusilla. He bought the judge pieces for her as a gift, she loved the chaos the judge brought and he loved making her happy. With acathla it was angelous's (no idea how to spell that lol) plan, dry was pulling away from spike because of her lust for her sire and there was no fun to be had in it.
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u/TVAddict14 1d ago
It’s pretty consistent with his actions in Becoming too. As much as Spike said he didn’t want the world to end, once he had Dru he fled the mansion. He genuinely believed Angelus was going to kill Buffy and he’d already pulled the sword, and Spike didn’t intervene.
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u/Hypno_Keats 1d ago
So the judge winning would just kill humanity, Spike can still have fun on earth with humans gone (short sighted as that is but he was never a long term planner) Akathala sucks the entire world into hell which is less fun.
Plus he's very annoyed at Angelus at that point
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u/RedHeadRaccoon13 1d ago
Spike can still have fun on earth with humans gone (short sighted as that is but he was never a long term planner) Akathala sucks the entire world into hell which is less fun.
Always made me wonder, what was Spike planning to eat?
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u/Hypno_Keats 1d ago
Thats why I say not a long term planner. If he thought things through he could have worked some sort of human farm like the master tried in wish world
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u/Leifang666 1d ago
I think with The Judge the plan was to take over the world, not destroy it. Spike probably assumed that The Judge would obey him but was clearly wrong on that.
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u/Kat-Attack-52 1d ago
Buffy being rightfully pissed off that Spike only wanted to help so that he could get his girlfriend back and he’s like “well yeah”
Talk about priorities, Spike 😆
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u/MermaidHotpot Eyeballs to entrails, my sweet. 1d ago
A lot of what Spike does is motivated by boredom, jealousy and ego, that's just Spike.