If I had to bet, I'd say she was bisexual even as a human.I mean, nobody really speculates about human!Darla's sexuality even when she's canonically, slept with Drusilla when she was a vampire.
Yea, that's the most I could see them as.Maybe hetero-flexible or curious or on the sexuality spectrum if it were a one time thing (like was implied in 'Power Play').
It would've been really interesting if the Angel/Spike relationship had been explored more post-AtF, and one way that could've been done was romantically.
But that's not what we got.
But you're right when you talk about how ensouled vampires are different. From my experience, regular vampires in the Buffyverse (as well as in most stories) often seem to be bisexual. They don't really care about gender or sex, just the sexual experience itself.
It's true that a lot of female fans from various fandoms love shipping straight men together. You don't know how often some of my female friends tried to make me read gay fanfiction when I was younger. 🤣 So, I agree that the writers could have thrown that Spangel line in there for that one reason.Call me cynical, but the romance between Willow and Tara was written to attract non-hetero interest and the throwaway comment "except for that one time" was just another instance of the same thing. A larger than random number of people on this forum define themselves as non-hetero and for a television show that had been a prime mover in this direction, it was another recognition that once you have enough people in an ensemble cast, not everything fits in a hetero pigeonhole. Just think of all the commentary that has been generated on this forum from the five words "except for that one time". I see it as "in for a penny, in for a pound" and see it as successful writing.
When it comes to Willow and Tara, I don't know. From what we know, it seems like the writers had early plans for Xander to be gay, but then changed their mind when Oz had to leave the show. The question is, why did they end up with a lesbian couple over a gay couple? Is it because they really liked Anya and wanted to keep that pairing going or is it because at that time two homosexual guys would have been harder to put on TV than two homosexual girls?
But yea, going back to Spike, he's way too obsessed with women to not be heterosexual. That's my feeling at least. 🤣