<P> In 1880, William was a struggling poet, often mocked by his peers who called him "William the Bloody" behind his back because his poetry was so "bloody awful ." The true origins of this nickname were not revealed until three years after it was first mentioned in Season Two, when it was believed to have purely violent connotations . William showed a strong capacity for loyalty and devoted love, which remained after his siring . After his romantic overtures were rejected by the aristocratic Cecily, William wandered the streets despondently and bumped into Drusilla . She consoled him, drained him of blood and made him drink of her blood, thus transforming him into a vampire--"siring" him, in the jargon of the series . Spike's grand - sire Angelus became his mentor (leading Spike occasionally to describe him loosely as his sire): "Drusilla sired me, but you, you made me a monster ." Whereas new vampires in the Buffyverse often delight in killing their families once they become evil, William was a notable exception . Having always been very close to his mother, he turned her into a vampire to save her from tuberculosis . But his mother, as a vampire, taunted William and insinuated he had always had a sexual fascination with her . William chose to stake her because he found he could not bear to see his mother behaving like the soulless vampire he had made of her . She, like most vampires, lacked his unusual capacity for some of the softer human emotions, like love and compassion . </P> <P> After staking his mother, William began a new life with Drusilla, to whom he was utterly devoted . Euphoric with his newfound vampiric abilities, he adopted the poses and trappings of a cultural rebel, affecting a working class East London accent and embracing impulsiveness and extreme violence . He adopted the nom de guerre "Spike" based on his habit of torturing people with railroad spikes--possibly prompted by criticism of his poetry: "I'd rather have a railroad spike through my head than listen to that awful stuff ." In "The Weight of the World" Spike mentions having spent "the better part of a century" in delinquency, suggesting criminal activities other than killing for blood . In the company of Drusilla, Angelus and Darla, Spike terrorized Europe and Asia for almost two decades . He had a strained relationship with Drusilla's sire Angelus, who continued a sexual relationship with her despite Spike's strong disapproval . Although Angelus did enjoy the company of another male vampire in their travels, he found Spike's recklessness and lust for battle to be unnecessary risks . Angelus regarded killing as an art, not a sport, and killed for the sheer act of evil; Spike did it for amusement and the rush . </P> <P> In 1894, Spike and Angelus developed a rivalry with the enigmatic Immortal, who later had Spike sent to prison for tax evasion . In 1900, Spike killed Xin_Rong, a Chinese Slayer while in China during the Boxer Rebellion . In 1943, he was captured by Nazis for experimentation and taken aboard a submarine, where he was briefly reunited with Angel . By the 1950s, Spike had reunited with Drusilla, and they traveled to Italy . At some point, Spike also became rivals with the famous vampire Dracula . The enmity between Spike and Dracula was explored in the comic series Spike vs. Dracula, in which their mutual hatred is caused when Spike, along with Darla and Drusilla, slaughtered the Romani (gypsy) tribe who had cursed their patriarch, Angelus, with a soul, although it is unclear if either Spike or Drusilla knew precisely why Darla was so angry with the tribe . That clan (unknown to Spike) was favored by Dracula and he sought revenge for their deaths . Spike later mentions in a conversation with Riley Finn, "Dracula? Poncy bugger owes me £ 11, for one thing," because Dracula tossed Spike's signed copy of Bram Stoker's Dracula in a fire in 1898 . Spike also notes that Dracula's fame has done more damage to vampires than any Slayer, since it made their weaknesses more widely known . Spike attended Woodstock in 1969, whereupon he accidentally became high after ingesting the blood of a hippie, he claims to have spent the next six hours following the incident "watching my hand move". In 1977 he fought and killed a second Slayer, Nikki Wood, aboard a subway train in New York City, taking from her a black leather duster which he wears throughout his appearances on Buffy and Angel until it is destroyed in an explosion in Season Five of Angel, whereupon he gets a new one that looks exactly like the old one ("The Girl in Question"). At some point post-1977, Billy Idol allegedly "stole" Spike's look and made it famous as his own (as revealed in Season Seven's "Sleeper"; see "Appearance" below); Spike's thoughts on this are unrecorded . Inasmuch as Buffy knew of the "theft" as of "Sleeper," Spike presumably shared the detail with her in an undepicted moment . </P> <P> Spike's flashback appearances, in chronological order, include: </P>

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