Well, I mostly just meant his entrance; he was totally doing the School Hard swagger.
Character-wise I don't really think he's any Spike; I just didn't see any appeal in John. He's an aging cheeseball, not particularly intelligent or attractive, with no suggestion of depth or great drama or an interesting history. Just a sleazy brat with the mentality of a five year old, still thinking the world owes him something, still trying to get by on a youthful charm long-since tarnished, and completely lacking in empathy for or interest in those around him. He's just a shallow narcissist.
John's a character focused entirely on himself (and there's not even much self there to be interested in); Spike, even without a soul, was a character focused on others. He was all about passion, love, obsession (Drusilla and Buffy and Angel), even empathy (Buffy and Dawn). Plus he had depth (outrunning his nerdy past but never quite losing his romantic nature; trying to prove himself to the world) and at his best moments he had dignity ("Intervention," "The Gift"). Unlike John, who I quite honestly thought was a big joke.
So, I guess you could say S4 Spike because that's the season where Spike was least-developed; the writers didn't know what to do with him and treated him as comic relief. But I guess ultimately he's any Spike you want him to be. In the end, it's all just a fantasy about Spike finally kissing a boy, right?
(Oh! And the other thing that annoyed me was that I didn't sense any great depth of feeling between Jack and John. It'd been there in the past, but ultimately they were all about themselves. John wanted his diamond and Jack wanted his team. Contrast this to the Doctor and the Master where they are ENTIRELY ABOUT EACH OTHER; the Master's entire persona is based on the Doctor and he's only fucking with earth because it's the Doctor's favorite planet, and the Doctor's entire plan to stop him is really about finding a way to save him and run away together. The relationship there is far more interesting, because it's much more deeply fucked up and they are far more important to each other.)
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Character-wise I don't really think he's any Spike; I just didn't see any appeal in John. He's an aging cheeseball, not particularly intelligent or attractive, with no suggestion of depth or great drama or an interesting history. Just a sleazy brat with the mentality of a five year old, still thinking the world owes him something, still trying to get by on a youthful charm long-since tarnished, and completely lacking in empathy for or interest in those around him. He's just a shallow narcissist.
John's a character focused entirely on himself (and there's not even much self there to be interested in); Spike, even without a soul, was a character focused on others. He was all about passion, love, obsession (Drusilla and Buffy
and Angel), even empathy (Buffy and Dawn). Plus he had depth (outrunning his nerdy past but never quite losing his romantic nature; trying to prove himself to the world) and at his best moments he had dignity ("Intervention," "The Gift"). Unlike John, who I quite honestly thought was a big joke.So, I guess you could say S4 Spike because that's the season where Spike was least-developed; the writers didn't know what to do with him and treated him as comic relief. But I guess ultimately he's any Spike you want him to be. In the end, it's all just a fantasy about Spike finally kissing a boy, right?
(Oh! And the other thing that annoyed me was that I didn't sense any great depth of feeling between Jack and John. It'd been there in the past, but ultimately they were all about themselves. John wanted his diamond and Jack wanted his team. Contrast this to the Doctor and the Master where they are ENTIRELY ABOUT EACH OTHER; the Master's entire persona is based on the Doctor and he's only fucking with earth because it's the Doctor's favorite planet, and the Doctor's entire plan to stop him is really about finding a way to save him and run away together. The relationship there is far more interesting, because it's much more deeply fucked up and they are far more important to each other.)
(Sorry, I totally went off on a tangent there!)