"In sickness and in health" is a marriage vow and marriage is a sign of love. What's also notable about Spike and Dru is they looked after each other when one of them was sick or injured. Whilst we don't really get to see James and Elizabeth's relationship beyond flashback since she dies almost immediately when she appears on-screen in present day and the whole episode is James trying to avenge her death, we know that Spike and Dru have been together for approximately 118 years by the end of Season 2. The two couples that have the longest relationship on their respective shows is Spike and Dru on Buffy and James and Elizabeth on Angel. To me, that fragment of human love is the get out of jail free card, the last shred of hope for the monster, and it is the single most fascinating part of any vampire tale. It's sex and death combined one creature, and by extension, through the evolution of storytelling, love as well. How can vampire stories exist, then, if vampires cannot love? Sure there are true monster stories, but that's not what the vampire story has evolved to be, what we now regard as the quintessential vampire story. Mostly, it is the transformative nature of love that allows this redemption to take place. So too is the vampire, the ultimate damned soul, but the appeal of these stories is redemption. Many ordinary, everyday mortals in the real world feel like they are beyond hope, beyond help, or are simply unworthy. The vampires may be a bit twisted, so the love looks twisted, and maybe the love isn't reaching its full potential, but it is there.Īnother thing I've always found fascinating about vampire stories, in general, is that they are essentially about damned people. A couple made of people who have never danced a day in their lives is going to look awkward and less enjoyable to watch, though their level of passion and commitment to the dance may be the same as the professional couple. The professional couple are going to look breathtakingly beautiful, polished, and simply awe inspiring. One analogy I could give would be like couples dancing a complex ballet routine. What Dru and Spike have is more than that, and I do think it is love, but it is love practiced by two twisted individuals, so it looks a little off. However, affection is something I'd only use to describe my feelings towards a coworker, classmate, or passing acquaintance. I won't count selfish possession as love, because that's all it is - possessiveness. To me, love is something that exists on a spectrum. I personally take a much more grey/complex view of love. It can only use the definition they can understand: affection towards another, just like the Judge mentioned when he stepped out of his box, and saw Spike and Drusilla. And if we're using that definition in the Buffyverse, then a soulless being cannot love. To put their needs before your own.īy that definition, you don't even have to like someone in order to love them. Although you don't find it in a dictionary, the definition of love I learned was this: To want the best for someone. But I personally don't believe that is the best definition of love. While the answer I just mentioned is a good one, something occurred to me later that sparked another question: Is selfish love even love?Īccording to the dictionary (of Google) love is an intense feeling of affection, and by that definition, the theory works. It wasn't because it was the right thing to do, or that his actions would save the world, or even even to save Dawn it was so he wouldn't hurt Buffy, which would hurt him. Not giving Dawn up to Glory, even though he was tortured, seems like a selfless thing to do, however, he did this for Buffy. Take Spike's actions in "Intervention", for example. Anything they do will always have some selfish motive, even if it doesn't appear to. His answer is rather simple: Soulless beings can love, but only selfishly. The Judge can burn vampires if they have humanity, however, when it saw Spike and Dru, with Spike being probably the most human vampire in the show, he only mentions affection, not love.Ī great answer to this question can be found in Passion of the Nerd's Buffy Guides. On the other hand, we have the soulless beings themselves say they can. Many of the intellectuals of the verse say, no, they can't. Can soulless beings in the Buffyverse love? This has been a question that fans have talked about recurringly.
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