Buffy The Vampire Slayer: How Spike Had The Best Character Arc On 2000s TV

At one point or another, Spike was a villain, a reluctant antihero, a romantic love interest, a source of much needed comic relief, and a champion destined to save the world. But before he was any of these things, he was a man called William Pratt; an unsuccessful poet caring for his ailing mother whilst attempting to win the heart of his greatest inspiration, Cecily.

In the season five episode Fool For Love, it's revealed that he finally confessed his love for Cecily at a dinner party, was brutally rejected, and in his sorrow ended up consoled and turned into a creature of the night by the vampire Drusilla, who for over a century would be act as his beloved paramour and greatest source of strength.

Fool For Love forms a staggering two-episode portrait of Spike's early days as a vampire with season seven's Lies My Parents Told Me, which goes on to explain that he turned his dying mother into a vampire but was forced to kill her when he realised he'd created a monster.

After his mother's death, he embraced his monstrous ways, and took particular pleasure in torturing his victims and going head-to-head with Slayers. But the way he enjoyed his time as a killing machine did little to take away from the fact that, through his mother, it was clear Spike still had some of his humanity left; he was still able to care for things from his past life.

With Angelus, Darla and Drusilla by his side, he may have become one of history's most feared predators, but he was also something of an enigma in the vampire world, a monster with an ability to feel genuine emotion deep, deep down. It wasn't until he ventured to Sunnydale to kill Buffy that this became such an important distinction.

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