Second, some people weren't happy with the character development of Spike on BtVS and didn't like the character he had become in the later seasons and were fine with his storyline ending.

And just FTR, some of us were happy with the character on Buffy and were fine with his storyline ending.

I'm with brenda, with the caveat that I just finished a rewatch of "Smile Time," and I'm feeling all sorts of warm fuzzies for "You're a wee little puppet man!" and Spike getting the crap beaten out of him while he dissolves in giggles. That scene alone is very nearly all the justification you need for his S5ness.

And some of us were thrilled to pieces to see Spike show up on Angel and to have more details given on how the two of them have gotten along through the years.

Your Spike-On-Angel May Vary.

I enjoyed season 5 of Angel very much.

I love Spike to pieces and the fan girl in me eats him up in every episode of Buffy and Angel I can catch. The critic in me feels that the ending of Buffy Season Seven was kinda lamed up by Spike saving the day. Spike's magic amulet act made all the other efforts to close the hellmouth superfluous. If the scoobies had know what was going to happen they could have just chucked Spike at the hole and made a run for it. I really feel the best and most artistic end for his character arc would have been a casual staking at the hands of Buffy during season five. You annoy me. [poof!] The fan girl in me sputters, "but the SS Uniform! mrrowr!"

I liked Spike when he was evil. He was just annoying and unnecessary with a soul.

The line "There's a hole in the world. You'd think we would have noticed" always makes me shiver. And then Angel actually looking to Spike for help on a moral decision . . .

Angel having to confront Spike and all that history was wonderful, to me. Oh, yeah, there were lots of bits that were unnecessary, but a lot of good bits too.

Did anyone else find themselves wondering if Spike really had been responsible for what happened to the poor crazy Slayer?

Oh, yeah, there were lots of bits that were unnecessary, but a lot of good bits too.

This is true. And honestly, Angel in the last season was so far from the show we knew that I find it hard to get het up about the effect on the show overall.

I think Spike is like salt. Or bacon. Some people love it, and want it on eggs, salads, sammiches, in dip with crudites, you know, just everywhere, yum.

And other people like it fine, but when there's too much of it you can't taste anything else. I loved Spike as a condiment, occasional and there as a dash of different. When he became a regular, he was much less interesting to me, and he robbed the rest of the ensemble, in whose storylines I was more interested, of screen time and resolution. It was a tossup when he was added to Angel. It necessitated a change in mytharc. Spike fans approved. People who were more interested in other characters and their interactions, not so much. Personally, I don't think Spike enhanced the relationships or the characters on Angel, except for potentially higher ratings, and more Spike. But that's just one opinion.

Spike fans approved.

Not necessarily true. I was a really big Spike fan-- I wanted them to deal more with the issue of Spike's morality/how he is changed by loving someone/and how beings with souls can be bad and beings without souls could be good. THey did not go there, but I was reasonably happy with how his story ended in sacrifice.

I did not want him on Angel, because to me, that negated his sacrifice.