Let me ask a (common) question: Why did Spike decide to run off and get his soul?

I know the automatic Spuffy answer to this-- Because he was in love with Buffy. I've heard this. And AFTER he gets his soul and becomes all un-crazified, I do not doubt this claim.

HOWEVER-- I have plenty of issues with the claim that Spike was in love with Buffy beforehand.

Let's go back and take a look at how Spike acts when it comes to girls and relationships throughout the show. Obviously the main relationship we see him is with Drusilla. It's clear, especially when Angelus comes into the picture, that Spike is completely dependent on his relationship with her. I'm not saying he can't live without her, just that he needs her مزید than he wants her. She may be crazy, and he may look after her to an extent, but he likes looking after her, he likes her needing him back. In a word, he's clingy.

When he is a human, he is very emotional too, as evidenced سے طرف کی the poem for Cecily. Spuffy شائقین will say this is proof that he loved Buffy-- he was sensitive یا open-hearted یا whatever-- but first of all, it just shows he was a pushover, and سیکنڈ of all William is as different from his vampire counterpart as Liam is from his.

I don't deny that he needed Drusilla, and he was dependent on her, یا even that he loved her, in the only way a vampire can love-- a sadistic, twisted love as evidenced all throughout season two.

So let's fast آگے a few years to season four. Now I'm only going to say this once: A mechanical chip manufactured سے طرف کی the military is not the equivalent of a soul. Just because آپ cannot hurt someone doesn't mean آپ lose the will to.

Spike lusting after Buffy made perfect sense. It added great humor and even some angst at times. Spike wanting to need her, یا have her need him, just like he was with Drusilla. He was obsessed with her, but he didn't love her. Most of his actions relating to her were selfish ones. So then Seeing Red comes along and he realizes he's a terrible vampire person and needs to get his soul.

The problem with this is-- What? Spike realizes he's a terrible person? Spike realizes he's hurting someone he loves? Spike loves someone?

Do آپ see my connection here? Spike is already acting like he has a soul. Which is a glaring gaffe on Joss Whedon's part if آپ ask me. But he doesn't. He just couldn't hurt Buffy for a while and somehow in that timespan (two years) out of the 120 odd years that he had lived managed to "fall in love" with her.

I think Spike was obsessed with Buffy. I do not think he loved her.

So Spike makes the ludicrous decision to go out and get his soul. Two years with a ruddy chip in his head and he's gone all soft, not just with Buffy but in general. Two years and he did a complete 180 on who he had been for the past 120 years. Do آپ understand why I consider this a gaffe yet?

I adore Joss Whedon, and am a loyal پرستار of Buffy, Angel and Firefly, but... But I just couldn't abide سے طرف کی this relationship he decided to toss in there. Because the motives were weak. I felt as if Spike's obsession with Buffy was just the vehicle in which to get Spike to a place where he would want a soul.

Let me get something straight: I love Spike. Personally, I'm not a "love-struck" Spike fan. I much prefer "evil" Spike, "crazy" Spike, "sarcastic" Spike یا "Fighting with Angel" Spike (Cavemen Vs Astronauts has become a divisive topic among دوستوں of mine). However, Spike obsessed with Buffy, I could buy. It made sense. He couldn't hurt her, what else did he have to do with his time? But Spike deciding to run off and get his soul because he was in love with Buffy made me go "Huh?" Where did that come from?

It just didn't make sense. No matter how much Angel loves Buffy when he's with-soul, when he's Angelus none of that matters. If آپ put a chip in Angelus's head would he loose his taste for Scoobie violence? یا in Drusilla's head? یا Darla?

آپ see? Substitute any other vampire and it just doesn't work. And if there's one thing Spike isn't, it's a pushover. Two measley years wouldn't be enough for him to realize-- without his soul-- the error of his ways because of his love for Buffy.

But that's just my humble opinion. Sorry, I needed to rant.