Spike Shipper Poll - for the Spike Shippers Online

[shadowkat]

This is a Spike Shipper centric Poll. So if you consider yourself a shipper of Spike, the vampire, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel the Series, along with the comics, please take the poll. I'm trying to get a feel for the Spike shippers in fandom. Granted, there's a sampling error of 10% or higher, since not everyone will take this poll.

I'm curious to see how people who love the character of Spike, ship the character and view him. Do you read fanfic? Do you write it? What fanfic do you read and/or write? Do you see him as a glorious evil badass or the romantic poet? Soulful or Soulless (albeit I didn't put Soulless - I put Ambiguous). What are your views? I know mine. I want to know yours.
Hopefully more than one person will comment. Be awfully embarrassing if no one does.
Polls are tricky that way. They are only interesting if people take them.


[Poll #1836840]

Comments

[rebcake.livejournal.com]

I confused the "who do you ship with Spike" and "who do you read fanfic about" questions. I'll read fanfic about Spike with just about anybody, even characters I intensely DO NOT WANT to see with Spike with my own eyeballs. I'm not especially into Spangel, Spillow, or Spawn, but will still happily read fic with those pairings by good authors. Well, I actually haven't found a Spillow story that appeals, yet, but I'm sure there must be some way of selling the pairing that would work for me.

If I just went by the show, excluding fic, I would only ship Spike with Dru, Harmony (for the lulz), Buffy, Lydia the Watcher, Ilona Costa Bianchi, and possibly Faith, Fred, or Cordelia. Maybe a tiniest hint of Giles. If it weren't for fic, my horizons for Spike would be a lot more limited. ;-)

I think this is a good poll, as it isn't too reductive. It reflects that there is nuance in the Spike-centric fandom!

About the comics: Sometimes I really enjoy them (Xander and Dracula's combined story, for instance). At other times I intensely dislike them (too many examples!). Right now I am mildly interested, and am mollified because they haven't completely screwed up Spike's characterization. Yet. We'll see if he joins Buffy (and to a lesser extent Angel, Willow, and Dawn) on the trash pile of characters that don't act like themselves. I may have Opinions.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I'll read fanfic about Spike with just about anybody, even characters I intensely DO NOT WANT to see with Spike with my own eyeballs. I'm not especially into Spangel, Spillow, or Spawn, but will still happily read fic with those pairings by good authors. Well, I actually haven't found a Spillow story that appeals, yet, but I'm sure there must be some way of selling the pairing that would work for me.

Somewhat the same way. I checked practically all the boxes. My favorites, oddly, and most likely due to the writers that I read, are Spuffy, Spangel, and Spander. There's not a lot of good Spillow out there - I don't know why. It just hasn't worked for me. I've read some good Spawn. And some decent Spike/Giles, Spike/Riley, and Spike/Faith.
But nothing great.

When I say I have insanely eclectic tastes, not kidding. I have and will read practically anything in fanfic. People take risks in fanfic they don't often take in professional writing.

If I just went by the show, excluding fic, I would only ship Spike with Dru, Harmony (for the lulz), Buffy, Lydia the Watcher, Ilona Costa Bianchi, and possibly Faith, Fred, or Cordelia. Maybe a tiniest hint of Giles. If it weren't for fic, my horizons for Spike would be a lot more limited. ;-)

LOL! I tended to go with what the writers showed. Harmony/Spike, (Spike/Willow briefly in S3 and 4, until she came out as gay, then no),
Spike/Anya until that was killed. Spike/Angel - because that was strongly hinted at in subtext in S2 Buffy, S1 and S5 Angel, as well as S7 Buffy. Oddly the comics by Whedon have killed it dead. Briefly Spike/Faith, and briefly Xander/Spike (when they were roommates).

Mainly though Dru/Spike and Buffy/Spike.

I think this is a good poll, as it isn't too reductive. It reflects that there is nuance in the Spike-centric fandom!

Thank you! That was my aim. But harder to do than you might think. I wanted to see if I was right in my general assessment that Spike shippers tend to defy categorization. Generally speaking - they are mainly Spuffy shippers and above the age of 40, but that's not always true. And there's a lot of nuance. Also a lot of Spike fans like Angel.
And like the comics. Disliking the comics isn't really connected with Spike - since he doesn't really appear in them until much later and his appearance is rather...tame. No character assignation or OOC moments. It's actually the only thing I like about the comics - he's been serviced fairly well by them. The Spuffy ship...eh...the writers appear to still be playing the will they/won't they dance game they've
been playing since S7. It's annoying. And that did influence my view of the comics to an extent. Pick one or the other, this constant tease is unrealistic and irritating.

[kikimay]

the writers appear to still be playing the will they/won't they dance game they've
been playing since S7. It's annoying. And that did influence my view of the comics to an extent. Pick one or the other, this constant tease is unrealistic and irritating.

I'm sorry, but THIS.
Word.

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

Xander and Dracula's combined story, for instance

By far the best part of Season Eight!