I actually read the comic with what you posted above in mind. Even bought it knowing that. (You wouldn't know this, but I read your review and the responses to it before I purchased the comic.).
The timeline doesn't bug me so much as the characterization and dialogue. Spike, as the actor put it recently, is a tough character to portray or write - because he doesn't always appear to have an objective. For an actor that is the gas pedal to portraying a character, same goes for writing one. The first question you ask yourself when you develop a character is "what is his objective here?" "What motivates him?" "And how does this move the story forward?" Since Spike is written as a trickster character whose objective tends to be how to obtain pleasure and fun without dying, often doesn't even think about it, just does - very hard to write well. He's the type of character you have to intuite more than anything else. Which is why I love him but can see him being a bitch to write and very few people outside of his creators have managed it.
David for reasons that escape me has chosen to give Spike a conscience in this story - which works fine, if it takes place after he got his soul. (Which I'm okay with, I can ignore that Halfrek died. And this takes place out of time.) But if it takes place in S6 as you state above? Spike's characterization is somewhat jarring. Spike is "too" nice in this story and far too "preachy" in it. The last sequence in the orphanage simply did not work for me.
I'm not saying Spike is "necessarily" evil in S6, more ambiguous. Ambgiuity is not always an easy thing to pull off and I'm not sure that David did. Again, the story felt off for me. Jarring in places. I honestly can't see anyone but a die-hard Spike fan enjoying it.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2005-08-28 06:15 pm (UTC)The timeline doesn't bug me so much as the characterization and dialogue.
Spike, as the actor put it recently, is a tough character to portray or write - because he doesn't always appear to have an objective. For an actor that is the gas pedal to portraying a character, same goes for writing one. The first question you ask yourself when you develop a character is "what is his objective here?" "What motivates him?" "And how does this move the story forward?" Since Spike is written as a trickster character whose objective tends to be how to obtain pleasure and fun without dying, often doesn't even think about it, just does - very hard to write well. He's the type of character you have to intuite more than
anything else. Which is why I love him but can see him being a bitch to write and very few people outside of his creators have managed it.
David for reasons that escape me has chosen to give Spike a conscience in this story - which works fine, if it takes place after he got his soul. (Which I'm okay with, I can ignore that Halfrek died. And this takes place out of time.) But if it takes place in S6 as you state above? Spike's characterization is somewhat jarring. Spike is "too" nice in this story and far too "preachy" in it. The last sequence in the orphanage simply did not work for me.
I'm not saying Spike is "necessarily" evil in S6, more ambiguous. Ambgiuity is not always an easy thing to pull off and I'm not sure that David did. Again, the story felt off for me. Jarring in places. I honestly can't see anyone but a die-hard Spike fan enjoying it.