I can't equate Harmony with Lorne. Harmony is like Chipped!Spike. She is on a dry drunk. She has some sort of motive for not killing (it's never been clear why she'd want a job when she could just be killing--I think this is one place where the mythology has really started to fall apart).

I think it's consistent with the mythology. Presoul!Spike was evil but he also had this persistent human habit of following his heart and falling in love. Harmony's humanity that she couldn't shake was her incessant need to fit in and belong. We saw a little of this in Disharmony, and finally she was willing to stop behaving evil to be a part of the MoG. But like ita said, it's only as long as there's supervision. If she could get away with it she'd have no compunctions.

triple x-post of course

I would compare Harmony with a chippedSpike - though he was actually still capable of open evil, he just couldn't be violent. But he curbed that out of love for Buffy, and I think a desire to have a group again. He'd lost Dru and Angel and Darla, and he tried to make something work with Harmony, but she was too annoying. Harmony when she was first seen in LA was suffering from loneliness. I think a good chunk of her motivation for good right now is fear of social ostracism - it's not that Angel would stake her, but that she wouldn't have anyone to talk to anymore. If the MoG all died in the next week, I think she might go back to killing - just like Spike, and previously Angel, she needs people to be good for.

Who did Angel need to be good for? Didn't he stop being evil pretty sharpish?

I know Buffy affected him, but I think she catalysed him, not that he needed her around anymore, except in the wuv4eva way. And see how that turned out.

Because she's a follower, and this is more fun than the cult, and Angel's cute?

and

Harmony's miserable when she's not part of a clique, and this is the closest she's been able to come since being vamped. Having minions didn't work, joining a cult didn't work, so why not try a corporation?

It was set up, I guess. I just can't buy how it started.

Presoul!Spike was evil but he also had this persistent human habit of following his heart and falling in love.

With Spike, he was physically prevented from sating his bloodlust, so something else started motivating his actions. I just don't buy the social pressure angle. I wish they didn't do the blood test thingie at the beginning of the season. I would have rather thought Harm was sneaking humans when nobody was looking, and have been mad at the MoG for being too compromised to think it through.

That said, I've just handwaved it this season, because I have enjoyed Harmony.

Who did Angel need to be good for? Didn't he stop being evil pretty sharpish?

Wasn't that Doyle's premise for getting Angel to accept assignments from the PTB via the visions?

With Spike, he was physically prevented from sating his bloodlust, so something else started motivating his actions.

Spike's lovey-doveyness was present long before the chip. Didn't the Judge tell him it made him stink of humanity or something? So vampires can have human traits that interfere with their evil vampire natures. Some have more than others. Even Holden had a human need to play head doctor, before his vampire nature overtook it.

Wasn't that Doyle's premise for getting Angel to accept assignments from the PTB via the visions?

Well, he'd started actively doing good before then. He stopped doing evil when he got the soul, did the odd not-bad thing, was shocked out of a lapse into rat-eating by seeing the pre-pubescent Buffy, then started doing good acts with her. And then without her, charged by the PTB, and then working for Shanshu.

I'm not seeing him doing good for someone the same way Spike was for Buffy, or Harmony is for anyone that asks firmly, the little slut.

Spike did love Drusilla, but that didn't keep him from killing other people. Pre-Buffy, Angel was prevented from killing humans out of guilt, but he didn't have any motivation for being proactively good.

(it's never been clear why she'd want a job when she could just be killing--I think this is one place where the mythology has really started to fall apart).

Maybe she's just really crappy at the killing, too.

Spike did love Drusilla, but that didn't keep him from killing other people.

Yes but if Drusilla wasn't a crazy evil vampire, but instead a girl who didn't want him to kill, it might have prevented him from it. The trait was able to get him to act against his vampire nature. Like in Triangle. The chip only prevented him from inflicting direct harm, he could have released Drusilla and had himself a really good day.