Question How important is a vampire's soul, anyway?

[FullOnLehaneFan]

So, from my understanding, the Soul of the vampire enables them to feel remorse for their actions. Without it, they can only act selfishly.
What I don't understand is how much that changes the personality of the affected person.

Angel was still angel, before and after his vampirism. He had some... drastic changes, in demeanor, but he always loved his mother, even to the point of wanting to turn her as well so that she'd live forever. Spike also acted surprisingly altruistic, despite being soulless. He just needed a little motivation.

There was also an episode (that I cannot find and it's driving me nuts) where Buffy fought an old classmate that had turned fresh from the graveyard, and while they were fighting, they also had a heart-to-heart, which allowed Buffy to get some issues off her chest. This was indicative of her classmate's old personality, and it persisted through the vampirism. It was unmistakably a kind action, and it still happened without a soul.

In conclusion, if someone had a kind personality, and earned their life's meaning through helping other people out, how would that person act upon being a vampire? How much of the soulless effects could be counteracted by force of will?

 

[thrasherpix]

There was also an episode (that I cannot find and it's driving me nuts) where Buffy fought an old classmate that had turned fresh from the graveyard, and while they were fighting, they also had a heart-to-heart, which allowed Buffy to get some issues off her chest. This was indicative of her classmate's old personality, and it persisted through the vampirism. It was unmistakably a kind action, and it still happened without a soul.

That's from Buffy season 7 Conversations with Dead People. And I remember him getting off on Buffy's pain more than he was trying to counsel her in some compassionate way. He used his counseling techniques for his own evil amusement, and got turned on by her pain.

But that aside...the soul, and how it changes a person to be a vampire, is one of the reasons the show needed a series bible rather than each writer bringing his or her own vision (or even just what's convenient for the plot at the moment) that contradict each other.

 

[KaitKat]

This gets so muddled throughout the series for several reasons but what I believe the original intention was having a soul doesn’t make someone good, it simply gives them the choice.

Vampires are evil, the demon that takes up residence in the human body will have the human’s memories and their personality will be based off the personality of the human, but it will be a perversion of it.

 

[Ethan Reigns]

Harmony didn't seem to change all that much. Her fight with Xander in "The Initiative" has to be one of the best visuals of the entire show but her relationship with Spike is a bit pathetic. Turning into a vampire certainly didn't make her any smarter:

She betrayed Angel on his show but remains one of the most watchable characters in either show. I don't see much difference in Harmony with or without a soul. But then maybe a member of the mean girl clique at school isn't that far from being evil to begin with.

Spike is written differently in that he sacrificed himself to keep Glory from finding out that Dawn was the Key. He became infatuated with Buffy but perhaps the spell Willow did to have her will done was never fully reversed (which would explain Xander becoming a demon magnet and Giles being unable to see and comprehend what was in front of him) and that would become the pivotal point in his deviation from the norm as a vampire who could love without a soul.

 

[Dogs of Winter]

But that aside...the soul, and how it changes a person to be a vampire, is one of the reasons the show needed a series bible rather than each writer bringing his or her own vision (or even just what's convenient for the plot at the moment) that contradict each other.

There were definite issues with continuity, and what it means to be a vampire changed because of that. I may be misremembering but I think in an early episode Giles said something to the effect that once they became a vampire there is nothing left of the person they once were, and that obviously changed in later seasons!

I dont really have a problem with Spike but I know a lot of people who do feel that his character was often changed to suit the needs of the current episode / plot

 

[Dora]

Always had trouble with the whole soul thing, Willow was so wrong to bring Buffy's soul back from heaven , but is it not much worse to brink a soul back and stuff it in own dead body to fight cautiously with a demon occupying it. People say Spike got his soul for Buffy it was not Spikes soul it was Williams soul. Spike was (A) a demon and (B) not dead so Williams soul is stuffed in with the demon that killed him , imagine the torment for that soul , where angel /angelus had a definite change, Spike did not so I guess in Spike the Demon was much more dominate than Williams soul, where Angel spent time in remorse helping others , Spike didn't he did hardly change, showing little or no remorse