hello! sorry if this is annoying but how is spike shown as an unreliable narrator? i can never pick up on these things :,)
Hey Anon! No worries not annoying at all.
What I'm mostly referring to is him telling Buffy that after becoming a vampire he swiftly got himself a gang, implying himself to be the leader, and then cut to Angelus smacking him about. As well as with the name William the Bloody, apparently not a vampire thing. And who knows if he actually did the spike thing and got his name that way or just overheard that one dude criticising his poetry. I'm paraphrasing A LOT of this haha I only saw the ep once and have moved on. Oh also him going "I've always been bad" cutting to a soft poetry boy.
But the main idea is, and the series is very aware of this, that Spike hypes himself and especially his scariness up. Do I recall correctly that in his first episode he says he was there for the crucifixion? Right, a Victorian poet. And it's not a continuity error because in that very episode we find out he's younger than Angel. Essentially, Spike constructs his story the way he wants to and doesn't deny when people make him out to be a little scarier (and more competent) than he actually is. And all of this checks out in terms of his character.
In instances like these when the show confirms he is unreliable I like the trope. Like I say I think it adds to his character, wanting to seem bigger and badder than he actually is. When we consider William and how he was humiliated and ridiculed, of course Spike would want to reframe the narrative. That said I don't think what he says about the two Slayers he killed is false or unreliable, but who knows we might see something to the contrary later.
I'd really have to rewatch to make sure but I also think his telling of the events of his breakup with Dru could be the case for this. We see in Fool For Love that Dru sensed and was annoyed by his obsession with Buffy and it wasn't just a case of her leaving him unprompted. But yeah, all of this makes sense for Spike's character. Of course he can't be trusted to tell the whole truth, of course he'd try to make himself come off in a better light.
also in my georgia timeline nick comes to her abt far harbor stuff a few years post-game so georgia being georgia is like Of Course I Will Help You, One of My Dearest Friends, & has a hard time leaving her lil family behind :(