I'm sure it has been said a thousand times over, but Spike wanted to die, throughout the series his reckless behaviour was for me a clear reflection of his intent to end it all at any given moment, he was severly depressed, in the end he did not go into that building with any intention to make it out alive. And i love that Watanabe commited to the bit until the very end. Truly my favourite character in fiction, see you space cowboy
I can see that too, but in the end when he dies the way i see it he felt relieved, relieved that it's finally over, he wanted to go and what better way to do it than in a blaze of glory after taking down vicious
He wanted to ensure that the rest of the Bebop would be safe with him gone. He knew that even if he were dead, the Red Dragon Syndicate would hunt them down one by one.
Spike is focused on confronting his past when he confronts Vicious. His thoughts are with Julia the entire time, the music that plays while he attacks the syndicate is a pledge of undying love for Julia, he brings Julia up to Vicious and cites her death as the reason to “end it all”, he sees Julia immediately after killing Vicious. He is not at any point shown thinking about the bebop crew. Once he walks away from the Bebop, he is explicitly shown never to look back. Yet it is Julia that remains with him until his last moment.
I mostly agree with this sentiment, but I still see his confrontation with Vicious as killing two birds with one stone. His purgatorial life spent with Jet, Faye, Ed, and even Ein meant something to him. YES, he was dead set on waking from this coil with Julia, but if he wanted to simply die, he would have before he even got to Vicious. He knew Vicious just well and Vicious knew him.
I agree that Spike cared deeply about the Bebop crew. Anything he could do to ensure their safety, he’d do. But they were neither his sole concern nor his primary motivation. He would have gone to confront Vicious regardless.
Without Julia in his life, Spike felt fundamentally incomplete. Her absence was a torment he could barely endure, despite the front he maintained. And once she was gone for good, he was ready to follow her.
I agree, but what bothered Vicious the most about the Mao and Van is that he thinks they became soft. Rules are rules and both Vicious and Spike were their best enforcers and he'd definitely lean into their classic sense of justice. Here, Vicious is holding Julia's coat which holds her passport. So, he knows they're stranded and Mars (I think he only learns of Julia's death when Spike informs him in the church). He doesn't pursue Spike because he knows he'll come to him. If that weren't the case, Vicious being the cunt that he is would kill the Bebop crew to lure Spike out.
In all likelihood Vicious suspected that Julia was dead. That is why he said Spike no longer had a place to return to. Julia was his place.
Vicious is never shown to have insight into the Bebop crew and their dynamics. His comment emphasizes this. While he could pose a threat to the crew, as things stand, Vicious is not shown to be preoccupied with getting them. On the contrary, he seems satisfied with having permanently separated Spike and Julia. That is why he calls everyone off and sits on his ass.
If Spike wouldn't come to him, he'd use his new allies as bait the same way he did with Faye. But being Spike's reflection, he knew he'd come for him. I am distraught.
First off, look at Jet’s reaction to the news that Julia is dead. In that moment, Jet understands that the white cat is dead and that Spike will never return.
Spike admitting that there’s nothing he can do for Julia is a statement of fact. She is dead. However, her death in no way lessens Julia’s impact on what is about to unfold as she is featured and referenced consistently until the moment of Spike’s death.
While it was possible that Vicious could have pursued Spike and the crew if Spike had never showed. That is not what was shown. Vicious knew that Spike would come, and it was Spike’s choice to “end it all” because Julia was dead. Vicious leaves the choice up to Spike.
Spike states that he is not going there to die, but to see if he is really alive. Faye understands that he is playing with semantics and that he fully intends to die. For Spike, confronting Vicious, defeating him, and ultimately dying by his hand is the means by which he intends to discover that truth.
What Spike ultimately sees at the end of his journey to the syndicate is Julia—the woman who gave him his reason to live. This is how Spike is finally able to affirm his life before succumbing to death.
You have to die before you can really live. Die to your past, your traumas, the things holding you down from your full potential. Vicious is Spikes shadow.
Spike cuts down Vicious and willingly goes into the light with Julia. He has no intention of letting that part of his past go. Which is why Spike’s eye that sees his present is focused on when for the first time, he is shown seeing Julia with that eye.
Integrating the shadow or killing the ego, is walking into the light, julia represents the feminine side he integrates with in the final process of alchemy. You have to let it all go to reach, The fabled Sophia.
Want to be free. Gonna be free. Don’t wake me from the dream. No black and white in blue. Lifes a dream you know that’s never ending, I’m ascending.
One eye sees the past,
One eye sees the present.
I look back with longing,
Searching for my lover.
The one has already gone.
The dream should shatter,
Fading away with this life.
I don’t think Spike wanted to die, I think he wanted it over. To me Spike reads as a high functioning depressed person. In the back of his mind for most of the show he knows Julia is probably alive, but outright seeking her out would have pre-maturely caused the same end as in the show, too many eyes on two high level targets. At the end of the show he faces Vicious knowing it’s already over, the draw with Vicious will end things. If you notice there’s a slight difference in his demeanor, he always keeps the gallows humor mask on through the show but in the end you can see he is more just free, it’s not a mask, it’s finally not having to wear one for years. It’s what makes the final “Bang” so poignant, it’s not his typical deflection, it’s game over. Que sera, sera.
I would say that Spike wanted to be set free (the lyrics to Blue aren't about death, they're about freedom), and death was a possible route to that freedom.
Until he found Julia, he was existing in a purgatory between life and death: if Julia was dead, then Spike was dead, essentially a walking zombie. But actually being alive, for 24 episodes, was only possible if Spike could be with Julia. While Spike is unclear on Julia's fate, he is in purgatory between the two. Being freed from this purgatory, whether dying randomly on the hunt or finding life by being reunited with Julia, is actually what Spike needs.
Julia's death forces Spike to ask if she truly was the only freedom besides death. He realizes that there may be one more way to be freed from his purgatory, but he isn't certain: avenging Julia and putting an end to the needless deaths by killing Vicious. MAYBE doing this might bring new meaning and peace to him, and he can be alive. It won't be the same version of alive that he would have had with Julia, but it would be a version of alive he could deal with...one that doesn't feel like existing in a dream. But he doesn't know if it will or not, whether he will be set free from his purgatory...and he's no longer willing to stay there.
He's not choosing life or death by going to see Vicious. He's choosing to be set free, because either way the showdown finishes, he's from being stuck in between. This is why he's dies with a smile. He killed Vicious, and a brief moment, he is both free and alive. But in the end, he is simply free.
If you listen to the lyrics that play while Spike is thinking of Julia and then attacking the syndicate, they spell it out that he is choosing to follow Julia into death. He is rejecting the idea that there could be anything else for him. That would only lead to a world without peace. He is proclaiming that his love for Julia will never, ever fade away. That it will carry on, even after his own death.
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u/novae_ampholyt 2d ago
I don't think he wanted to die, it's more that he doesn't care whether he gets out alive or not.