VICIOUS
VI
Spike's former partner in the Red Dragon syndicate. Carries a katana and a bird. Cold in the specific way that people are cold when they have removed the parts of themselves that found warmth inconvenient. Vicious is not a complicated character and the show does not try to make him one. He is the path Spike did not take, or the path Spike was always going to end up back on, depending on how you read the series. The blade to Spike's gun. They were the same once and the show never lets you forget it.
VICIOUS THROUGH THE ARCHIVE //
PAST, MEMORY & MOVING ON //
Open page →The Red Dragon conflict pulls Spike away from Jet and the Bebop even though he knows he is walking into a trap.
What changed
The audience sees that the Syndicate is not simply old backstory. Spike still responds to it as though unfinished business has a stronger claim on him than the life he currently has.
Spike finally reunites with Julia while the Red Dragon Syndicate is tearing itself apart.
Her death leaves Spike with no future version of the reunion to keep imagining.
Her death leaves Spike with no future version of the reunion to keep imagining.
What changed
The past is no longer somewhere else. Once it becomes present and is lost again, Spike chooses to finish the Red Dragon conflict rather than return to ordinary life on the Bebop.
