Narratively, Joss always withholds commitment to a canonical reading until it yields maximum narrative payoff. In short, he will dick you around trying to figure out the worldbuilding rules, but will Joss you when it's convenient for him. The soul is one example.

Yeah but in this case I think he withheld committment when he needed to make it - the whole question of the relation of the possesion of a soul to the ability to make ethical choices. One obvious example (though a secondary one) was the whole inconsistent characterization of Spike. Admittedly the main problem here was keeping Spike going out of love for the character/actor when the narrative might have been better served by killing him. But even leaving Spike alive could have been done better; and I think the whole "nature of the soul" thing played a role in how badly and inconsitently Spike was characterized in later seasons. I agree that Buffy was more about character than world building. But the particular kind of ambiguity we had about the soul was a character NOT just a world building issue.

No, I agree he should've filled out that bit of his universe because it makes it a lot harder to judge his characters actions without knowing that.

I don't think that it makes it hard to judge the characters, it makes it hard to determine what happened after they died. Anya died a hero's death certainly (I mean, she was cleaved in half!). Joss always ried to stay away from religion in the shows. Riley was the only character that we knew went to church, and Willow's Judaism was played for laughs. Crosses always worked on vampires, whether the user believed or not.

I don't think that it makes it hard to judge the characters, it makes it hard to determine what happened after they died.

Yeah, I guess I mean the implications of soul-having rather than afterlife.

Right. well, as Angel said "the demon doesn't get your soul, that's gone" I can't recall if there was ever a connection between having a soul and a (positive) afterlife, i.e. is there ever a demon that goes to "heaven".

so say there is an afterlife and Buffy and Angel(Liam) meet up there. is he even going to have a clue who she is? since, ya know, the mythology says that the soul is "gone" and the soul is what i would assume would be in the afterlife.

so if Liam's soul went to the afterlife after Darla vamped him, he won't know what his physical body did after that fact.

this always frustrated me about the Whedonverse.

But, the gyspy curse restored Angel's soul to him.

Liam never met Buffy, so he wouldn't know her. I don't know what happens to vampires when they die -- is it more than an on-off switch? What did Darla have to say?

good point, ChiKat. i guess Spike would essentially be the same thing.

though, how do they know what happened to them pre-curse? how do they have those memories of being a bad-ass vampire?

Did the gypsy curse give Angel Liam's soul back?