Crap I'm a little late to this discussion, but I wanna play
🙂
Every princess needs her knight, the other half of the symbiotic circle to complete her.
Um... No. Nobody needs another person to "complete them".
I agree with Dzh, People are designed to be together.
A Princess must believe in her knight, and vice versa.
When Angel ran out on Buffy
True. But angel did not run out on Buffy. He saw that he couldn't give her the half of the symbiotic relationship he was supposed to. She couldn't have a normal life, with Kids and family picnics. He left her so she could have that life. Spike doesn't seem to consider this at all.
Buffy also trusted Angel to have a second wave ready if their attack on the first failed. - I think this was kinda lost in the finale, but there was a high chance they could have lost the battle with the first, they needed a back up plan and she trusted Angel to be that, without having to tell him what to do she just knew he could do it.
I do also realise that she trusted Spike to handle the amulet.
That growth of each half of that symbiotic circle, means growth of the whole.
From the time Angel began dating Buffy, to the time he left her and fled to LA had he changed much? We know he rejects humanity before he meets Buffy, he distances himself from people. Yet he has not changed all the way through the relationship and even after. Doyle explains it to him "But he's cut off. From every thing. From the people he's trying to help."
Angel: "I still save "˜em. Who cares if I don't stop to chat."
Angel when we first saw him, was completely different from the Angel we saw after he dated Buffy. In season 1 and season 2, Angel had no problem being in the background and not taking part. He even says in Welcome to the Hellmouth the reason he doesn't fight the master is cuz 'He's not strong enough'. He clearly doesn't have this opinion after he dates Buffy, He is stronger and more confident. He does grow.
Not much growth there. Buffy grew..more closed. Not allowing anyone in. Seems like Angel threw her backwards, and he stood still.
This is a common reaction to the break-up of a serious relationship. It wasn't just because it was Angel. Also Buffy had to close herself off, the next person she had to date would most likely have been a normal person, she had to protect her identity a little, she couldn't just go into the relationship and announce who she really was.
When Buffy has difficulty sharing her power with Faith when she is dating Angel, but learns to share it when she is with Spike, do we just assume there is not a connection there? That surely Spike helped her grow, gave her the strength,"Because of the strength that you gave me last night." that she needed for growth.
I really don't agree with this, At the time Buffy had problem sharing her power, she was also a 18 year old High Schooler. She wasn't just dating Angel. By the time she has learned to share her power she was older and had responsibilities not just to herself but to the lives of others.
Also it wasn't just Spike's doing that allowed her to realise she had to share her power, Her friends telling her she was acting wrong and kicking her out of her home, would also been a big wake up call.
But I do agree Spike played a part in her getting to that point, but it was not him alone that allowed her to reach there.
That when a knight stumbles his princess will set him steady, and when a princess falters her knight will set her true.
You offered up an Example for Spike and Buffy but again it's not the only example, There were ones with Angel and Buffy.
The very moment Angel say Buffy - he was set steady, without even talking to her he saw the good and he wanted to be a better "perpire".
Buffy goes insane from hearing other peoples thoughts in season 3, and it's Angel that helps her through. She need to have as much of a normal life as she can - He try's to let her have that.
That any form of sacrifice for one half of that circle means full acceptance that they are a symbiotic circle.
Again you only offer up a Spuffy example. Angel sacrifices up the love of his life, so she can have a normal life (The fact that he lost his soul is absolute proof that it was love)
Buffy sacrifices her own Blood to revive him (Grad. Day) even after he told her he was leaving.
Angel gave up his chance to Be Human, So Buffy wouldn't be alone in the fight against Evil.
And Spike, when he sacrifices his freedom for a soul.
Spike didn't really sacrifice anything, He was already unable to Kill humans. He didn't have freedom. His soul caused him 4 months of feeling bad - Angel felt that for year.
And I know That just means Spike was able to separate the two people, but I don't think he should have been able to do it so easily. Clearly the Vampire still has some of the characteristics of the person, the original person is part of them, just soulless.
"It seems odd to me that the purity of the Buffy and Spike relationship would ever be considered as anything other than a veritable completion of two souls destined to be joined as one, in unison."
Two souls that couldn't go very far, there's only a certain amount they could have developed together, Buffy's biological clock would start ticking, and Spike couldn't give her that. He couldn't give her the normal life she deserved, No daytime wedding, no attending parent teacher meetings. She would have had to live her life in the Dark - Angel was able to see this, and was able to try and give Buffy that life. Spike Couldn't, he wanted Buffy to love him, and he didn't think about the bigger picture, He didn't care.
Again we are agreed. After how terribly her relationship with Angel went.
BUFFY: What was the highlight of our relationship"” when you broke up with me or when I killed you?
That she highlights these points to Angel is not lost on Buffy or Angel. Their relationship was all about pain, and the highlight was these two incidents. They couldn't deal with their problems, which got to a point where their problems was bigger than the sum of their relationship, and it broke them up.
The fact that this is all brought up, and, at the end of the discussion they are still discussing, that they think of a future together, I think says something.
As for Buffy, Angel left Buffy a wreck. He gutted her, so deficient was he in understanding a human being, he offered love, Buffy felt pain.
Angel wasn't deficient at understanding a human being, If anything he understood it more then she did, as I said already, He knew what she was going to eventually want, and knew he couldn't give them to her.
Willow: (about Riley)He's not making you miserable?
That Angel made Buffy miserable is clearly a sign of their "true love"...
Dawn: She sure cries a lot less with you than she did with Angel.
Riley: (surprised) Angel ... made her cry a lot, huh?
Wow, what love.
Yep. The Bigger they are the harder they fall, same thing applies to love, the more of it you have the more it hurts. It's a balance and you can't have one without the other, perpetual happiness doesn't exist!
Then the old classics:
Angel shows up and Buffy is kissing him.
She tells Spike she loves him, and he says "No you don't"
Then there's what Spike said in Lovers Walk about Buffy and Angel:
You're *not* friends. You'll never be friends.
You'll be in love till it kills you both. You'll fight, and you'll shag,
and you'll hate each other till it makes you quiver, but you'll never be
friends. (points at his temple) Love isn't brains, children, it's
blood... (clasps his chest) blood screaming inside you to work its will.
Buffy and Angel love each other (Again the loss of Angels Should proves this) And their love is not something they can control, It's a part of them.
When Buffy dies, Angel goes into serious morning, And When he find out she's alive, the two drop everything and go to each other.
Buffy's mom dies, and Angel comes to Sunnydale asap, just to be there for her.
And he shows up in season 7 and she is kissing him, and thinking that she does sometimes think of a future with him.
And then in Season 5 of Angel, Spike comes back to life and he doesn't even let Buffy know. Because he can't top the 'exit in a blaze of fire, saving the word' - what does that say about him? That it's more important to him that she thinks of him as a hero, then alive!