Eek, I feel a little on the spot now to make thoughtful comments. So my very, very long and rambling comment below is not me trying to be thoughtful, it’s just what I think. On other days, if all that comes out is “Guh!”, I hope you will see it as an equal acknowledgement of your fic. :)
I never thought Spike had a split personality – that would almost be too simple. But I do think he has a psychological disorder. I haven’t read a lot about the subject, but what I know is that for many crimes such as serial murder, stalking, etc., the criminal often has a very screwed up view of himself and the rest of the world. He sees his crime as the perfect way to be someone, to right some wrong, or to get love, attention, revenge, or something else that he has not been able to obtain through normal methods. While reading this story, what has come through to me is that something about Spike’s past has caused him to have that distorted perspective, and his crimes are his way of dealing with his anger. Also, his ego and his fascination with Angel are strongly tied into it. The fact that his crime has become so important in Angel’s life and has actually “stumped” Angel is clearly giving him some sense of pride and satisfaction. Now that he is in an actual relationship with Angel, he is well able to work it out in his mind so that he can be Angel’s lover and also continue his crimes, and it all makes perfect sense to him in some pathetic way. When Angel calls the criminal a psychopath, it snaps Spike into the real world for a brief second, but he is able to quickly recover and continue in his original thought process. Obviously, he also has a very clear vision that all rich people are bad and deserve misery, so his crimes are not only justified, but perhaps warranted. Spike’s ability to be so deceptive to Angel and cause Angel so much anguish, and to cause so much anguish to his victims without seeing how wrong it is scares me and fascinates me. Like the proverbial car crash. I think you’ve done an excellent job of setting all of this up. The conversation that they had in bed, and Spike’s thoughts as he reveled in his secret were so telling – but of what?. And the fact that Angel didn’t react more strongly when Spike said he wasn’t sorry for what was happening really caught my attention. I am very interested to find out what is motivating Spike. I am sure that as always, this story will take a turn that I never expected.
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Date: 2007-06-17 02:13 pm (UTC)I never thought Spike had a split personality – that would almost be too simple. But I do think he has a psychological disorder. I haven’t read a lot about the subject, but what I know is that for many crimes such as serial murder, stalking, etc., the criminal often has a very screwed up view of himself and the rest of the world. He sees his crime as the perfect way to be someone, to right some wrong, or to get love, attention, revenge, or something else that he has not been able to obtain through normal methods. While reading this story, what has come through to me is that something about Spike’s past has caused him to have that distorted perspective, and his crimes are his way of dealing with his anger. Also, his ego and his fascination with Angel are strongly tied into it. The fact that his crime has become so important in Angel’s life and has actually “stumped” Angel is clearly giving him some sense of pride and satisfaction. Now that he is in an actual relationship with Angel, he is well able to work it out in his mind so that he can be Angel’s lover and also continue his crimes, and it all makes perfect sense to him in some pathetic way. When Angel calls the criminal a psychopath, it snaps Spike into the real world for a brief second, but he is able to quickly recover and continue in his original thought process. Obviously, he also has a very clear vision that all rich people are bad and deserve misery, so his crimes are not only justified, but perhaps warranted. Spike’s ability to be so deceptive to Angel and cause Angel so much anguish, and to cause so much anguish to his victims without seeing how wrong it is scares me and fascinates me. Like the proverbial car crash. I think you’ve done an excellent job of setting all of this up. The conversation that they had in bed, and Spike’s thoughts as he reveled in his secret were so telling – but of what?. And the fact that Angel didn’t react more strongly when Spike said he wasn’t sorry for what was happening really caught my attention. I am very interested to find out what is motivating Spike. I am sure that as always, this story will take a turn that I never expected.