Spike, once he accepts that he loves Buffy, never seems to want to bite her at all,
Yeah! I wonder why that was, actually.
I think it's as simple as this: All of Spike is in love with Buffy, not just pieces of him. It may be a scary obsessive demon love, but the demonic parts of him, too, see her as Buffy, not food.
That aside, Spike's just less vampy than your average vampire. He doesn't go into game face often, even when angry or aroused; he tends to fall out of game face unless he's really thinking about it; and while he complains about the taste of pig's blood now and again, he never seems to have the problems Angel does with craving human blood in general. When he goes after Alley Woman, for example, he's doing it in spite and anger and "I'll show her a monster!" rather than out of any irresistable craving for blood.
Angel has this whole recovering-alcoholic thing going in regards to human blood, but that's never been Spike's metaphor. The only time we ever see Spike exhibit that kind of bloodlust is in NLM, which is anomalous in a lot of ways. The most sense I've ever seen made of that episode is Peasant's essay comparing Spike's First-controlled killings to the spree killing that many predator species exhibit when presented with a superabundance of prey. Predators prevented from continuing a spree killing can react with violent or irritable symptoms which could be compared to withdrawal, though it's a behavior rather than a substance that they're 'addicted' to.
no subject
I think it's as simple as this: All of Spike is in love with Buffy, not just pieces of him. It may be a scary obsessive demon love, but the demonic parts of him, too, see her as Buffy, not food.
That aside, Spike's just less vampy than your average vampire. He doesn't go into game face often, even when angry or aroused; he tends to fall out of game face unless he's really thinking about it; and while he complains about the taste of pig's blood now and again, he never seems to have the problems Angel does with craving human blood in general. When he goes after Alley Woman, for example, he's doing it in spite and anger and "I'll show her a monster!" rather than out of any irresistable craving for blood.
Angel has this whole recovering-alcoholic thing going in regards to human blood, but that's never been Spike's metaphor. The only time we ever see Spike exhibit that kind of bloodlust is in NLM, which is anomalous in a lot of ways. The most sense I've ever seen made of that episode is Peasant's essay comparing Spike's First-controlled killings to the spree killing that many predator species exhibit when presented with a superabundance of prey. Predators prevented from continuing a spree killing can react with violent or irritable symptoms which could be compared to withdrawal, though it's a behavior rather than a substance that they're 'addicted' to.