I really adore reading your thoughts on BtVS, even when I disagree. In this case, I very much agree with your Willow/Tara thoughts (I have always thought that the best thing about their relationship is that even when things were going great, the seeds were already planted for its ultimate failure), but don't agree quite as much on Spike. I agree that he is definitely more of a loser than a "cool guy" but I disagree that they wrote him better than the other characters in S7. He went from being my favourite character in S5 and 6 to being the character whose scenes bored me to tears. It's interesting how so many people look at S7 as when they really fell in love with Spike because I found his scenes very repetitive. And as much as I never really shipped him and Buffy, I at least found their interactions really interesting prior to S7, at which point I started rolling my eyes half the time when they were on screen together.

Anyway, I guess I'm not really disagreeing with you on any particular points so much as on personal preference.

Hey look, I have a Spike S7 icon. I feel a bit hypocritical now.