The Real Man

At first glance, it is easy to peg Spike as carefree, untroubled, and easygoing. This is about as true as Ed is cold and brooding and moody. Seriously, Spike is one of the most complex (anti)heroes ever created, and one of the most realistic characters I have ever come across, in spite of the near improbability of the world he moves in and the events that have happened to him.

->> Myth 1: Spike is lazy, inattentive, and incompetent.
While it is true that Spike seems to go through life with eyes half-closed, his senses are always sharp. It would be easy to dismiss him as too slow and silly and nothing but comic relief, and that would be a mistake. The years he spent inside a crime syndicate has heightened his awareness of danger and of human thoughts and moods. In The Real Folk Blues Part I (Session #25), for example, as he and Jet sit in a bar to mourn the departure of three of their companions, Spike seems relaxed, distracted, and sleepy. Yet he senses the Red Dragon assassins quickly surrounding the bar and reacted even faster than Jet - ducking before the hitmen opened fire. He thinks fast on his feet while giving the opposite impression, which comes in useful at times, like when he charms Katrina into revealing her plans for a future with Asimov by appearing to be a carefree clown. One cannot help but laugh when he manages to pick Asimov's pocket even as Asimov attempts to strangle him. And I'm certain that Twinkle was too busy sneering about how the apparently clueless Spike and Jet wasted their time holding her captive to realize that Spike was planting the exact same virus she was threatening the solar system with in her pocket. One can get away with so many things when people think one is useless or stupid.


->> Myth 2: Spike doesn't see his crew members as comrades.
This happens when people make the mistake of thinking that Spike and Vicious are exactly the same person only on opposite sides. The two of them are alike in many ways, but not in this. Spike may appear to be indifferent toward the rest of the gang, but he cares about them in his own way. For example, he claims to hate pets and animals, but he rescued Ein at the expense of an 8 million wulong reward. In fact, it seems that the things he claims to hate are exactly the things he cares about and the only reason why they make him so irritable is that they make him vulnerable. Not many people would let Hakim go just to catch Ein. And if Spike did not care about the others at all, then Toys in the Attic would not be the same. In a later preview, he even admits to liking a kind of woman with a certain attitude, when he previously placed the same kind of woman in his list of hated things. In Session #26 (Real Folk Blues Part II), he played up Jet's injury to get Faye to come back, perhaps knowing that he may never return and not wanting to leave his partner alone. In Wild Horses, Spike even places his newly overhauled ship in the path of virus-carrying harpoons to save the Bebop from taking a direct hit.


->> Myth 3: Spike is nothing more than a cold, heartless killer.
Okay, this may be partly true, considering that he used to be a member of the Red Dragon Syndicate and was certainly not employed to make friends and promote peace and love. But he is not without compassion, though it isn't obvious at first glance. In the movie opening scene, one of the robbers that he and Jet are trying to nab holds an old lady hostage and tries to get Spike to drop his weapon, similar to the scene in Ballad of Fallen Angels where one of Vicious' lackeys orders Spike to put down his weapon while holding Faye at gunpoint. In both situations, Spike acts completely indifferent to whether the hostages live or die. His seeming coldness distracts the robber and the hitman, giving him the opening he needs and then finishing them off with a single shot. In Jupiter Jazz Part I, he is obviously unwilling to shoot through Lin just to get to Vicious. Then there's how he gave up a chance at getting free money by selling Roco's Grey Ash seeds and helping Roco's sister, Stella, regain her sight instead. This he even does in person, thinking that Stella deserved at least a visit from him, as well as the truth about what happened to her brother. When Vicious attacks Gren's ship in Jupiter Jazz II, Spike even saves him by shooting Vicious' second missile out of the sky. Even though one could say that his panic and concern for Gren's injuries is just him wanting to bring the bounty back alive so he could be welcomed back to the Bebop, it does not explain why he bothers to tow Gren's wreck of a starship into outerspace and send it off in the general direction of Titan. Such an act reeks only of compassion, with not a hint of selfish thought.

There are even numerous episodes where Spike's unexpected flashes of compassion and sympathy create and resolve conflicts. In Session 2, as I have already mentioned, he saves Ein. In Sympathy for the Devil, he goes out of his way to fulfill Giraffe's dying wish and saves the man's friend. In Session #7, he goes after VT to help her in her chase after Decker - even though VT has made it clear that she hates Spike's kind (i.e. bounty hunters). He gets involved with Roco and his sister in Session #8, and lets a senile old man responsible for a certain Gate scam go (Bohemian Rhapsody). He even attempts to make Faye feel better in #15 (even though he was shooting at her only a few hours before), and only helps to save an entire city in the movie by stealing a serum the minute he manages to escape from a holding cell in order to counter Vincent's virus, although he does not do this to be a hero at all.

Obviously, even though he (and bounty hunters in general) are painted as selfish human beings no better than the criminals they chase, Spike proves the generalization wrong over and over again - even though this is not his purpose, and he is certainly not out to save the world or redeem himself. He simply does the right thing because he thinks he should (or he feels like it), without creating a fuss out of it. His final line in Toys in the Attic shows this perfectly. There is no moral to the story, there's no grand plan. Things happen the way they happen, and he does something mostly because it's what first leaps to his mind (whether good or bad), thus making him an interesting study in contrasts rather than a hateful, towering hypocrite.


->> Myth 4: SPIKE HAS A DEATH WISH
This is the biggest misconception about Spike, and certainly the conclusion most people would jump to if they did not pay attention to all the things said and even only vaguely implied during the course of the show. Spike does NOT WANT to die. A man with a death wish does not jump at the tiniest chance of salvation (Wild Horses), nor would he fight to stay alive against overwhelming odds and a murderous lunatic (Pierrot Le Fou). He even says as much himself in the very last episode, during his final conversation with Faye. Spike's daredevil antics do not stem from a desire to put an end to his life but to make himself feel alive again. Spike has basically put his entire life on hold the moment he left the syndicate. His days spent on the Bebop are merely filler until the time he can pick up where he left off. Because he sees it as such, normal day-to-day life seems to hold little meaning. So he cruises along, barely making a living. It is only when challenged by a bounty or a seemingly impossible mission does his blood begin to pump again, only then that he wakes up and feels alive once more. Of course, he comes even closer to this every time he faces Vicious, since Vicious, Julia, and the Red Dragons represent the only kind of reality he knows and understands.

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