#me genuinely likely most of bells hells in character concept if not in execution

[shorthaltsjester]

i feel like a whole lot of the conversation around different party’s goodness would be . uh. mitigated by people taking seriously the notion that nice, kind, and good are not synonymous, and that when someone makes a claim that the mighty nein are good it does not require that they are nice or even kind. i would wholeheartedly agree that bell’s hells are probably more ‘nice’ in terms of politeness, but I think it’s also quite comedic that the party that’s celebrated for it’s alleged punk qualities is now being defended for its… niceness? sure okay 👍 very punk rock, so is bells hells the specialist guys to exist because they don’t care about society’s ideas or because they do? anyway, emphatic good does not mean nice, and in fact in the canon text caduceus asked the hells to make the kind decision and the hells have hmmmm very much not done that

[chasingfictions]

hmm, I love all of your takes so much.....I am trying to think of an opinion we haven't talked about...alright so I've been thinking about how I would have fixed "seeing red" & at least in terms of spike's arc I think I have a decent idea. because I do like the idea that he takes things too far & realizes he needs a soul, like, as a concept. the execution is where they lose me. what if instead spike tried almost successfully to turn buffy into a vampire so they could finally belong together? I think her disgust & horror could've nailed home that he needed to change for him just as well. I've also thought of the idea that he could just successfully kill someone somehow even with the chip & same outcome, but I somewhat do like the idea that for it to be drilled in for him it has to be a specific horrible action against buffy. trying to change her so she can be with him could be the ultimate bad thing he did. idk if that's an opinion so much as an idea for a fic or something lmao but there you have it lol

send me your opinions & I say whether or not I agree

Omg no i truly love this as a fix it???? bc for one thing it Does feel so pointed like, that spike never tries to bite her even once for the whole season when he can hurt her,, like the most he ever says in wrecked is “maybe some day I will bite you” but it’s SO empty as a threat??? like that’s never what he Wants it to be about, and like for all that people (erroneously imo) say s6 spuffy is entirely about spike trying to like, separate buffy from her loved ones and bring her “down to his level” , it’s really not. like he genuinely thinks she would be happier if she acknowledged and embraced her dark side, and ultimately he just wants to see her happy? see- “it’s nice to see you happy, you glow” in hells bells and the way in as you were the second buffy says “and it’s killing me” he stops arguing the breakup or even earlier in life serial “yeah it is [your kind of fun] and your life’s gonna get a lot less confusing when you figure that out”

so to go from entropy onwards where his arc is losing that perspective and becoming so warped in losing her that he decides to try to make her a vampire in a fit of blind desperation? Works with the story intentions for seeing red from a character arc place , doesn’t traumatize actors or audience, AND is kind of gorgeous within his arc of like?????

spike as buffy’s shadow !! spike tries to make buffy a souless vampire and that’s what triggers him to become a souled vampire ???? Bc spike is buffy!!! spikes arc is Buffy’s arc and you have Buffy’s shadow trying to put her back in the grave out of fear and anger??? and then a final episode where Buffy’s shadow goes underground to the cave and buffy is underground in that grave with dawn and they both emerge in this same moment, undead and reborn and re-reborn!!!! Out of the grave!!!! And what does that MEAN??? and sabdkrkfjdb??/?:!:!:

And ALSO fits with the themes that have been circling around since buffy vs dracula??? That buffy vs dracula makes buffys psychosexual longing for vampires explicit and it’s no coincidence that she starts flirting with beating up spike every episode after that episode . Buffy vs Dracula with dracula saying see you want to be like us, you want to be dead, and Buffy rejecting it. Fool for Love with spike saying every slayer has a death wish, you’re just a little bit in love with it, and the way spike IS right, and the subtext of him as a dead man saying that to her is RIFE, but in the end of that episode it’s not death they connect in, but LIFE. Spike shows up to kill her and instead they BREATHE TOGETHER, because of mortal mundane death, because of family, because of empathy. so??? an alternate seeing red could carry out that same throughline that’s been present since season 5 — fuck, since season 1, since nightmares — and once again, it’s a vampire telling buffy you want this you want to be dead. and they’re not wrong , but also they ARE. Buffy wants to be dead but buffy wants to be alive MORE. and her shadow , spike, finally recognizes that in that moment, recognizes that both are true at once, and seeks a soul. Souls as empathy and souls as the complicated stuff of feeling everything to the fullest and this act which lets both truths coexist, that buffy wants to die and buffy wants to live, because spike is dead and will always be dead but he has taken the stuff of life into him with this almost blind faith. (Someone stop me I’m thinking about the fool in the tarot again) ANYWAY. The vampire who sought a soul. The dead man who is so close to life who falls in love with a woman who is so alive and so close to death. spike returning in season 7, still dead, but having sought life, having sought the complication of life and its still working around inside of him. literally once more with feeling, LIFE’s NOT A SONG LIFE ISNT BLISS LIFE IS JUST THIS IT’s LIVING . YOULL GET ALONG. THE PAIN THAT YOU FEEL IT ONLY CAN HEAL BY LIVING. YOU HAVE TO GO ON LIVING, SO ONE OF US IS LIVING.

spike trying to turn buffy into a vampire affirming that!!!! YOU HAVE TO GO ON LIVING. fuck. FUCK. I’m broken rn hi anyway this is CANON and you’re so SMART and I know I already wrote a whole seeing red fix it but I wanna write another one about this or read yours this is so good I’m gonna cry,????? This is canon to me this is so smart HI