And this brings me to The Disney Spike Syndrome. I know you've read them you find a story on a site that mentions Spike as a character and the summary sounds like it's an interesting story then you start reading and you find a Spike presented under a G rated spotlight. Where he's nice and sensitive and cries and it’s enough to give you cavities.

And there are lots of fics out there like this. Where Spike could be the swooning goodie-goodie in any Disney movie you can think of.

Now I mentioned I wasn't a redemptionist but I have read redemptionist fiction. Redemptionist pose the question of spike turning his back on evil for the sake of love (in most fic's its Buffy's) But many redemptionist writer's understand something that Disney Spike writers don’t seem to. That Spike is a vampire has committed all kinds of acts of carnage and mayhem and can be an all out ass on occasion even in his currently chipped status. Redemptionist fiction isn’t always pretty. Really good (and I stress good here) ones can be angst ridden, have dark themes and internal conflicts as Spike travels the road to redemption.

The problem with Disney spike is that a few writers have taken moments where Spike was nice and embellished them to encompass his whole character in their story or have minimal insight into his character at all. Disney Spike fiction can occur through other means as well such as a writer who’s a new viewer to Buffy and novice fanfiction writer or a combination of the two.

Spike can be a nice guy; a bad ass and just plain stick his foot in his mouth. I think he’s uniquely perceptive so this quality in his character easily intermingles with his other character traits. So how do you avoid writing Disney spike?

How you write Spike can be determined by what season of Buffy you’re using as your point of reference. In season where are presented with a new aspect of Spike, a change in his character that makes us think of him in a new light. He started out as a bad ass in season two but later in season four we found a depressed and at one point suicidal vampire. But he has never completely been Mr. Sweet, Gentle, Sensitive and crying guy.

What about William you ask? William does possess these qualities and Spike has them in him but they aren’t the entirety of what makes Spike the vampire his is; only a piece in of the puzzle. If you took a Disney Spike fic and replaced Spike’s name with William 9 times out of 10 you may actually have a fic true to William’s character, as we know it. But the issue of William’s character is another question altogether.

The main thing that has to be remembered to avoid writing Disney Spike is that Spike is a vampire. Despite who his human self was, he has spent over a century traveling the world enjoying fighting and shagging Drusilla. He remade himself into a new image from his human self. He’s killed two slayers and enjoys the challenge and thrill of a good fight.

The chip in his head has made it so that he can no longer fight humans but in my opinion demons would seem more challenging to his fighting nature then humans which until he met Buffy weren’t a challenge at all The chip has also made it so that he’s no longer has the luxury of wanting something and taking it or being at the top of the food chain.

In the end it’s a balancing act between gentleness and bad ass and everyone will have their own take on how this should work. Just remember don’t forget the bad ass.