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Spike's Soul: What Does it Mean?

© Peggin

Note from the editor: I'm still working on the Glenn Quinn tribute, but in the meantime enjoy this fabulous analysis of Spike. It contains mild Season Seven spoilers.

Over the last couple of years, fans of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" have engaged in a considerable amount of debate regarding what, if anything, it means to have a soul in the Buffyverse. The bulk of this argument has revolved around Spike, who used to be one of the most vicious vampires in existence, but who appeared to want to change once he realized he had fallen in love with Buffy.

Some people have taken the position that the soul means everything. They believe that neither Spike nor any other vampire could ever be good without a soul. People who favor this position seem to give a lot of weight to various statements made by Giles in the first couple of seasons and to how radically Angel changed when he lost his soul. Others have taken the position that the soul means nothing; all that matters is free will. According to proponents of this position, any vampire could potentially decide to be good and, by virtue of that decision, will have the ability to be good.

Watching Spike's development from "Fool for Love" through "Never Leave Me", I have come to the conclusion that there is no simple either/or answer to this question. I think both sides of the debate are right. The first camp is right in their assertion that a vampire is incapable of giving up evil without a soul. However, the second camp is right in their assertion that free will is all-important. Free will, combined with the desire to be good, is what allowed Spike to make the choice to get a soul.

Many advocates of the “free will”position base part of their argument on an exchange between Buffy and Giles in the Season Three episode "Beauty and the Beasts".

GILES: In my experience, there are two types of monsters. The first can be redeemed, or more importantly, wants to be redeemed.

BUFFY: And the second type?

GILES: The second is void of humanity, cannot respond to reason. Or love.

When "Beauty and the Beasts" first aired, I didn’t give much thought to whether Giles’s statement might apply to a soulless vampire. At that time, I had always assumed that all vampires were evil, the only exception being Angel and even him only when he had a soul. I had never considered the possibility that a soulless vampire could so much as want to be a good person, let alone actually becoming a good person. I only started to question what Giles might have meant by this statement after I fell in love with Spike.