He has the most curious expectations of humanity. His idealism is sweet, but odd.

I wonder how he's going to take Warren.

Actually I always did have an issue with the whole Spike is good because he has a soul issue with Warren being a normal human doing his horrible stuff. But then, I wanted to see something more complex, like Spike deciding to do evil because he had a choice.

Spike wasn't good because he had a soul, was he? I mean, he wasn't driven to be evil, but I see that as different. He could have been evil with a soul, but he got the soul so he didn't have to be evil anymore.

And he was kinda not-as-evil there at the end. It was more of an exercise of will to stay on the straight and narrow, and his will was just not up to it (ergo Seeing Red, etc).

It's more my own feelings about Spike. Although I haven't rewatched those episodes in a long time. I just remember feeling frustrated because it felt like Spike was retreading Angel's storyline and wanting Spike from the early seasons, which would have been limited growth.

I agree with you. 100%.

Tell me more about retreading Angel's arc. He had a crazy spell, but we got to see it, and he was on board with the soul thing right away, since it was his idea, not a torment. Also, he had no curse, so all of that angst completely didn't exist.

I can't see a mirror to Angel without the angst, honestly. It was such a big part of him.

It's my own feelings about Spike.

Also clouded by not rewatching the episodes so I admit I may remembering certain things wrong.

But I , personally, didn't really like the whole Spike had a Soul thing. Spike became less interesting to me. It felt like a Angel Lite.

I think more to the point perhaps: I thought it was strange that ostensibly both Angel and Spike wanted to be "better people" after seeing/falling in love with Buffy. Yes, it is true that Spike didn't follow Angel's trajectory EXACTLY, but having them be in competition with each other physically, for Buffy, having them both ensouled, I didn't like it.

I liked Spike as a straight up villain. I get that ultimately the major characters got some redemption arc (even Darla!), but for me it was just too much. I liked the uniqueness of a vampire with a soul. Did we really need two - and then for them to be on the same show?!

Spike didn't follow Angel's trajectory EXACTLY

I'm not saying it has to be exact. I'm saying that it's missing a major defining characteristic. Cheerful aggro Angel is ... not Angel. Even if Angel things happen to him. It's not a character arc in my book, because the characters are so radically different.

That's another thing, by the time Spike got a soul he didn't feel like a radically different character to me. By that time it just felt like ...almost like they ran out of ideas to keep Spike around so they just rebooted Angel getting a soul. A little different, but not radically different and not original.