Shanshu Who? Spike's Case
Penned: 12/1/2003

Oh, look, it's a dueling thread. Here we have the place to make a case for Spike's shanshu. Note that this is not the opportunity to bash Angel or compare the two. This is simply arguments in favor of Spike becoming human as the prophecy has foretold.

Spike chose to get a soul. This shows a remarkable ability of self-sacrifice on his part and shows his moral evolution. The next logical step in his self-development would be becoming human.

Spike is responsible for, on at least two occasions, helping to save the world. In one of these cases, he willingly gave his life in the service of good, which is arguably the highest level of selflessness one can achieve. It also heavily recalls Buffy's sacrifice in the Gift and the parallel is meant to show that he has reached her level of service.

Even in his most evil days, Spike was able to show some degree of positive moral traits. He still loved his mother and wanted her to be well. He was extremely kind and loyal to Drusilla, loving her dearly in spite of her mental problems. He was good to Joyce when she was ill and showed respect for her after her death. He proved Tara was not a demon. He was protective of Dawn and kept her safe even though there was no possibility of a reward from Buffy due to her death. And when Buffy returned, he was the only one who apologized for her death and treated her gently and at her own pace. These were all good things that the chip, if it was present at the time, did not require him to do.

Spike was responsible indirectly for the helicopter taking away Riley.

As a human being, Spike apparently never harmed anyone, was a responsible person, and suffered acutely from the taunting and cruelty of other people. There is no reason to doubt that he was, in fact, "a good man." His siring occured because of a broken heart, and if he had been treated with a bit more kindness, he wouldn't have found his way into Dru's deadly embrace. In other words, becoming a vampire was not his fault.

At various times, Spike has saved the lives of all the Scoobies and has now added Gunn to the list.

Interestingly, when Westley was in emotional torment over shooting his robodad, Spike did do his best to comfort him in spite of not knowing him all that well.

The unexpectedness of having Spike receive shanshu would be in keeping with Whedon's penchant of surprise twists.

If Spike were human again, he could go help Buffy bake some metaphorical cookies.

It would be interesting to see what Spike would do with his returned humanity. Would he still try to remain the punk bad boy, or would he let that go happily and become the gentle man he used to be?

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