Ok, confession time. I am a big ol' lovey dovey dork when it comes to the monsters roaming around my shop. I actually missed them when I went to the UK for three weeks and I took them up to the lake a few weekends ago under the pretense that "someone might want to buy one."
But there was one monster that captured my heart before these little nippers came into my life.
My favorite morally ambiguous vampire from Buffyverse. He's the only bad guy (on screen or in real life) that I have ever felt something other than exasperation for. Normally, I don't go for the bad boy who walks with a swagger and cigarette hanging out of his mouth. He's way too much work, and even if he does have a heart of gold underneath all the bad-ass-ness it's so wrapped up in confused emotions that its hard to find and rarely surfaces for any substantial length of time.
Nice guys are much more fun. You don't have to spend so much time and energy peeling off their oniony layers, so you get to spend all that energy having fun, talking, drinking coffee, and making out instead. The fights and the "why hasn't he called me in (insert pertinent time span here)" worries are virtually non-existent.
But Spike haunts me.
Perhaps because he is actually a monster I re-set my expectations of him and can enjoy "the monster in the man" metaphor that James Marsters (the actor who plays Spike) and Joss Whedon (creator/writer/director) play out for us. Perhaps by I am seduced by his English accent, spicy humor, and soulful declarations of love. It's probably a combination of all of those reasons.
Regardless, Spike remains my first true monstrous love.