Quandary about Spike's Chip.

[fenderlove]

When Spike was chipped, would the chip fire if he killed an animal? In S4, the Initiative fellows said that he couldn't hurt "any living thing" and there was the joke about him not being able to pick a flower (Spike says he could), but in S6, he's obviously feeding off of kittens at least a fraction of the time. Here's what I want to know- do you think that the chip would fire when he fed off of an animal? 'Cause getting a migraine just for what little blood would be in a cat doesn't seem worth it. Do you think maybe he killed them first and then drained them? Do you think that it fired but not to the point of causing him a headache? Or did the chip just not fire at all? Seems like it would be easier just to microwave bagged blood and be done with it.

Now I'm sad 'cause I'm thinking about Spike eating kittens... Poor little panda baby Siamese kittens. :(

Comments

[hexebusterjaxon.livejournal.com]

I don't remember him ever saying he ate kittens - he only played poker with them (Clem and the other poker playing demons said they were delicious).
He kept blood in a bottle in his refridgerator in his crypt (he took it out in a scene from Gone, if I remember correctly) so I guess he just bought/stole bagged blood.

[sueworld2003.livejournal.com]

I think despite that bit of dialog that Spikes chip was set to spare humans only. I suppose It makes sense doesn't it. The initiative wanted to created a slave army so having them unable to harm humans seems the logical thing to do.

[whichclothes.livejournal.com]

I think he'd be able to kill animals. He was able to kill demons and at least some of them were living.

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

I always just assumed he couldn't harm animals either (he played kitten poker, but never talked about eating the kittens), because otherwise, why bother with the bagged stuff when he just needed to drive a bit out of town and feed off any cows he found out in fields.

But then in Season 7 we saw Crazy!Spike hunting rats (which really confused me at the time). Unless he was so crazy and hungry that it didn't matter if the chip went off?

I rather suspect it mostly means that the writers didn't really think about it much. :-p

[rahirah]

I don't think that was ever defined. In S4, it's stated that he can't hurt any living thing. Harmony says that means he can't even pick flowers; Spike hotly denies that. He can kill demons, but it's never explained why. And in S7, he's definitely hunting rats... but we never actually see him catch and bite one, so we don't know if the chip doesn't fire for non-humans, or if he thinks the pain is worth the meal. There's also the factor that by S7, the chip was starting to fail, and we don't know how soon that started. It's possible that it stopped working intermittently. It's also possible that when he was under the FE's influence, it blocked or lessened the pain of the chip somehow, allowing him to kill all those people (and possibly rats, too.)

Basically I think you could have it work just about any way you need to for a story.

[lilithbint.livejournal.com]

I think it all ties back to pesky souls and the writer's interpretation of how that all works, and that Joss never cared about continuity or good storytelling if it got in the way of his grand scheme.
The mechanics of the chip were never really spelled out. It couldn't really be a soul detector so technically it could only be detecting life signs which would mean all animals. Arguably it could be set to determine intent on Spike's part in which case human could be the default although that would have stopped Spike from hurting Buffy, so perhaps the Initiative had identified some sort of demon gene and when Buffy came back from the dead her demon gene was activated?
I'm just going to go with artistic license and the writers changed it to suit.

[kidcyclone.livejournal.com]

This is a JW production, so continuity and the craft of writing are not particularly prized. I prefer my own interpretations of things, as always, regarding vamp biology/physiology. I could blather on about that for ages, but will sum it up as, 'JW says whatever sounds cool at the time, and does not bother to check that it does not contradict something said previously'.

Also, that bit with Angel's organs being all shriveled annoys me.

As for what Spike did with the kittens, I would reckon if kittens are so hotly prized as the equivilent of cash in demonic card games, that yes, he could trade them for blood or fags or booze or whatever. I don't think it's the quantity of blood in the kittens that is making them desireable to the demons-- there's something else going on, and it also seemed like different breeds of kittens were more desireable? Or maybe I just made that up.

I prefer peasant_'s explanation as to what Spike does with the kittens he wins-- Spike always just happens to set the basket down for a second to light a fag and the little buggers run away. :>