I think Joss was passionate that I would not corrupt his theme, which was basically trying to find a metaphor for all of the problems you encounter during adolescence. Vampires stood in for those problems and I think I endangered that theme by being popular.

But it strikes me that one of the key challenges of adolescence is precisely that dangerous and scary and evil things are popular.

Ha ha ha wow, that's really interesting. I never thought of Spike as taking Cordelia's role.

Really? Until he started banging Buffy in Season 6 that was pretty clearly his role to me.

But it strikes me that one of the key challenges of adolescence is precisely that dangerous and scary and evil things are popular.

Things look shiny and then cause harm.

I never thought of Spike as taking Cordelia's role.

He was brought on to Angel to do the same thing. But Illyria did it better.

Illyria had the benefit of replacing an annoying character with an awesome one rather than the reverse.

The way things ended aside, Spike was not a downgrade for me when he moved into Sunnydale. That was a gradual process.

Then again, I liked Illyria too, so there's that.

I loved him as a villain in Season 2, but by the time he became their Cordelia surrogate in Buffy: the College Years I think the character was a shadow of his former self.

R.I.P. Robin Sachs. So sad.

Wow, he was only 61.

He was older than Anthony Stewart Head. I didn't realize that. He always seemed much younger.

Wikipedia says he died on February 1. Also that he was in Babylon 5. Which makes me want to push up my viewing of that show now.