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A little thought...
Was thinking about Spike's soul quest and why he was so angry (leaving aside all the RL reasons). And then began thinking about 'Crush' and this bit in particular:
You think I like having you in here? Destroying everything that was me, until all that's left is you, in a dead shell. You say you hate it, but you won't leave.
He had seen what the soul did to Angel and it must have been terrible knowing that he was about to commit (something like) demonic suicide.
And that's all for today folks! :)
You think I like having you in here? Destroying everything that was me, until all that's left is you, in a dead shell. You say you hate it, but you won't leave.
He had seen what the soul did to Angel and it must have been terrible knowing that he was about to commit (something like) demonic suicide.
And that's all for today folks! :)
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Now I don't think so. Getting his soul back didn't make Angel a better person. The soul creates the *possibility* of becoming better - the choice is still up to the person in question. Because if there's anything to learn from S6 it's that souls don't make us 'good'. All the Scoobies have soul when they screw up - what it means in Spike's case is that he's finally 'up to their level' as it were.
I dealt with all of this at great length in my humongous soul-essay of course, but I did come up with a neat analogy there that I never expanded: Vampires are colourblind. They can see all the same colours (emotions, whatever), but can't see 'the hidden picture'. The extraordinary thing is that after the AR Spike becamse aware that there *was* a picture. But without the soul he would never be able to see it. I think that knowing what the problem is, is only the first step. If you don't do something about it, what's the point?
he and Buffy might actually have been forced to deal with all the issues between them instead of shoving them under a rug with "He's got a soul now!"
I keep disagreeing I'm afraid! *g* Because I don't think they could ever have dealt with it as long as he was soulless. He quite simply didn't understand why the relationship was wrong in the first place - didn't undestand what she meant when she said she was using him, didn't understand why she was so upset about Katrina... he didn't even understand why she couldn't let herself love him. Yes he developed a great deal, but there was no further he could go. A soul *was* character development.
(I'm really hoping that makes sense, because I'm meltingly hot and I think my brain has turned into goo!)
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It didn't? Then why didn't he eat that baby when Darla asked him to? *g*
That's why I said that they were using a very different metaphor for Spike than for Angel, but they didn't do enough work to establish that it was different.
And of course they could have developed Spike further without a soul--if that's what they'd wanted to do. He's a fictional character, and he is what the writers make him. They could have turned him purple and given him wings, if they'd wanted to. But they didn't want to do that; they wanted to do something else--something that would preserve certain themes and pieces of canon that they saw as important. All writers do that: write what serves the story they want to tell.
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Why did Lindsey help the children in 'Blind Date'? *g*
they were using a very different metaphor for Spike than for Angel
I see what you mean, esp. since Angelus was EVIL OMG! But in favour of my side I think I should point out that in Becoming it seemed that Angel had done absolutely nothing good with his soul at all until he saw Buffy. Stinky rat-eating Angel really wasn't 'good' in any measurable way.
They could have turned him purple and given him wings, if they'd wanted to.
Bwah! You know I think I've read a fic that goes like that... Um, but yes, of course they could have done anything at all. But much as I love Spike I don't see why they should break canon just for the sake of one character. Unless they went the David Fury 'Spike kept a bit of his soul' way which I'm sure is not what you meant.
Anyway, I don't ship Buffy with unsouled Spike, so I'm very happy that they gave him his soul back. :)
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Why did Lindsey help the children in 'Blind Date'? *g*
Because, in both cases, they felt a pang of conscience. (Lindsey says as much; he'll do a lot of bad things, but hurting children is a line he's not willing to cross.) Which neither of them would have felt if they didn't have a soul. I'm not saying that having a soul makes you the best person you can be. But in the Jossverse, it makes you a better person than someone without a soul, because you can at least be pricked by conscience even if you choose to ignore those prickings. Pre-Buffy Angel was not a hero, certainly, but he was indisputably a better person than Angelus.
(And I'm also not saying that an unsouled being might not also have chosen to save the baby or the children, for other reasons. But they would not have done it purely because it was the right thing to do--and that is what Angel did with the baby.)
The writers of a show cannot break canon, because they are the writers of the show. They MAKE canon. Canon does not exist as some inviolate platonic ideal which they are transcribing. They create it. They change it. And they 'break' canon every time they implement an idea which contradicts previously established canon. In the Jossverse, there are many, many examples of the writers 'breaking' their own canon when they felt it would make a good story--like, for example, there can only be one Slayer at a time. In this case, they decided not to go there, for reasons that were good and sufficient for them.
Personally, I don't think that making Spike act exactly like a souled human without a soul would be a good idea. But I wasn't interested in seeing Spike become exactly like a souled human. I've already seen that story with Angel. But they gave him a soul, made him Angel Lite Now With 30% Less Brooding Angst! I just have to shrug and accept that.
Since Spike has zero chance of ever ending up with Buffy in canon because of the attempted rape, I don't think the soul made them any more shippable. (In fact, even less shippable, because the self-hate and self-doubt the soul engenders was instrumental in convincing him that she doesn't love him. And that's when Spike moves on, when he really believes that there is no chance.) But soul or no soul, he's always going to be tainted and unworthy of Buffy in the eyes of the canon writers.
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(And as for Spike being Angel Lite - see icon! *g*)
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The thing is, though, I've read a million essays on why the soul is a great thing. And for the people who wrote those essays, it is. It's a way of dealing with the subject that speaks to them, which touches them deeply. It just doesn't speak to me in that way. There are several things ME could have done to tell the story they wanted to tell more effectively, but even if they had done those things, it still wouldn't really be the story I was hoping to see. Which is fine; it is, after all, their story. And at this late date, I don't expect to convince anyone that one story is better than the other. All I can do is say that X did or did not work for me, and this is why it did or didn't work for me.
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The number of things I say that about... *sigh* Why doesn't fandom pay?
Although I feel I should maybe point out that the essay is in two parts - the first part is quite simply my replies to your very eloquent response to