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Re-Integration

We know of at least three human souls that were brought back from death and re-united with the physical body a vampire had taken over -- Angel, Darla, and Spike. As mentioned earlier Darla returned fully human, so the demon who had killed her did not get pulled back. Instead, Darla was revamped later by Dru.

One question I have about vampires is whether they are all the same demon (essentially, clones) or if each demon is somehow unique apart from its human host. It does not seem likely, for example, that the same demon who was killed in Buffy S1 is somehow restored to Darla's body once she's revamped in Angel S2. But if the vampire parasite just creates clones of itself when it finds a human
host, the question becomes somewhat irrelevant. Darla's human brain retained the memory of its life as a demon because the physical form was restored from its point of destruction (in Buffy S1) but with the original human inhabitant restored from its demise in 1609. ( Read more... )

I was considering something I mentioned in a discussion about "This is the Picture", which was the repeated use of young women as mentally ill or institutionalized in Joss Whedon's work and how Spike was a rare male recurring character who was shown in the same way. That led me to thinking more about his ensoulment and what a human soul even means in the Buffyverse.

Getting a Soul

There has been, in Buffy fandom, a vigorous debate about what the writers intended to do at the end of S6 with Spike's storyline. Was he always intended to get his soul? The official story is yes but there has always been doubt on this topic. And I'm not sure why because, to my eyes, nothing else really made any sense. ( Read more... )