Joss was never, ever going to write Spike as good without a soul. Yeah and this simplified morality is something that has always wigged me out about BtVS in particular. I mean, Anya has a soul (according to D'Hoffryn in "Selfless"), but she was a way more prolific murderer than Angelus, Darla -or- evil-Spike. So really, what is it about a human soul that supposedly generates conscience? Why are demons like Clem good? Are they 'near-human' and have souls? Really it's just a mess.
This is in part why I have always preferred the way things are set up on AtS, wherein Angel's soul is presented as the thing that makes him feel guilt and compassion as opposed to a thing that makes him a ~good person~. Naturally, this is the reading of it that Joss had less to do with. (God bless Tim Minear.)
I am just all about Dawn, really. By S7 she and Anya are the only characters left that I honestly respect, and even Anya loses me in places. So giving Dawn more agency in saving the world would have been great, and would have honestly felt more natural to me than Spike the Christ.
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Yeah and this simplified morality is something that has always wigged me out about BtVS in particular. I mean, Anya has a soul (according to D'Hoffryn in "Selfless"), but she was a way more prolific murderer than Angelus, Darla -or- evil-Spike. So really, what is it about a human soul that supposedly generates conscience? Why are demons like Clem good? Are they 'near-human' and have souls? Really it's just a mess.
This is in part why I have always preferred the way things are set up on AtS, wherein Angel's soul is presented as the thing that makes him feel guilt and compassion as opposed to a thing that makes him a ~good person~. Naturally, this is the reading of it that Joss had less to do with. (God bless Tim Minear.)
I am just all about Dawn, really. By S7 she and Anya are the only characters left that I honestly respect, and even Anya loses me in places. So giving Dawn more agency in saving the world would have been great, and would have honestly felt more natural to me than Spike the Christ.