Board Thread:False Info and Speculative Discussion/@comment-26601629-20150715192253/@comment-6383956-20150719212125

NervousShipper wrote: I assume Spike is a lot like Drusilla, so consumed with the massive amounts of emotional and psychological damage and obsession that their demon is confused as fck. Well, this is a whole thing about vampires in Buffy -- there's always a part of the human that's left in the vampire. Drusilla just stuck with tons of psychological damage -- Spike got stuck with a pathological need to be loved. Not by everyone, just by whatever woman he decided on at the time. (Angelus was stuck with Liam's need to prove how much he didn't need anyone -- which is why Angelus is one of the few vamps who not only could but would literally destroy the Earth; Angel got stuck with Liam's feelings of worthlessness.)

Anyways -- I love Spike on Buffy. And I think BtVS and Angel are great, masterpieces of television in their own rights. But I gotta agree with NervousShipper that Spike should never have been brought over to Angel. Sure, there were some great moments.

But the entire point of Angel was that redemption can never be won, they all have to keep fighting eternally. (Even Cordelia, who really only needed redemption from being the Regina George of her high school. :P) But the point of Spike's arc on Buffy, ultimately, was to redeem him. And he fulfilled that by being flash-fried by a giant necklace. And Spike knew that. Spike felt he was redeemed already the entire time he was on Angel -- so not only was his purpose on the show somewhat lacking, he also threw a wrench in the gears of the show's message.