The real Reason Spike decided to get a soul?

[Dora]

You don't know anything about my "type". But I'm not going to get into a back and forth with you over this...needless to say, you're not a fan of Spike. And being a Spuffy fan, I am.

Dora, you need to keep the personal comments to yourself.

Sorry I just meant it as a joke.....I repeated what Sunnydale Glitz wrote and knowing she was a Spike fan no insult intended
 

i think im stepping on an explosive posting here, but gonna give my 2 cents anyway.
im in two minds about this. i think as we all know in the buffy universe vampires are shown to show feelings of love but that love is selfish ... so i do think spike knew the soul would get him buffy and that was his motivation.
however he did have the affects of the chip going on... the impacts of the chip -other then his inability to hurt innocents- were never clear to me.. did it alter his brain more then we thought or was he just able to think more about things because his initial reaction to be violent and aggressive were taken away. but then again was he even capable of such thoughts without a soul?
but i do genuinely believe being soulless you are incapable of a completely genuine love. but again, vampires still have remnants of who they were as people and William was sweet and kind and i do believe spike has these qualities just not so genuine without the soul.
im gonna stop this is gonna spiral.

Very good post and a very good point about the Chip maybe it did alter Spikes make up because Spike was able to make choices be good or bad which other Vampires seemed not able to do

 

[Dora]

i think im stepping on an explosive posting here, but gonna give my 2 cents anyway.
im in two minds about this. i think as we all know in the buffy universe vampires are shown to show feelings of love but that love is selfish ... so i do think spike knew the soul would get him buffy and that was his motivation.
however he did have the affects of the chip going on... the impacts of the chip -other then his inability to hurt innocents- were never clear to me.. did it alter his brain more then we thought or was he just able to think more about things because his initial reaction to be violent and aggressive were taken away. but then again was he even capable of such thoughts without a soul?
but i do genuinely believe being soulless you are incapable of a completely genuine love. but again, vampires still have remnants of who they were as people and William was sweet and kind and i do believe spike has these qualities just not so genuine without the soul.
im gonna stop this is gonna spiral.

I agree when Spike told Buffy in the church, I got the soul for you..... it was lie,
As he never asked for a soul I think the Demon gave him a soul without his prior knowledge
Once he had a soul he used it to manipulate Buffy feelings towards him

 

[AlphaFoxtrot]

I would say he got more than he bargained for, but yes. His decision to get his soul back was selfish. He wasn't doing it to make himself a better man, or to change himself in any way, or to do penance for the evil William the Bloody caused over the centuries.

 

[RachM]

I think that a lot of the confusion about whether Spike got a soul to be better or to get back in Buffy's pants comes from the fact that when addressing this question fans don't take into account the difference between Non-Souled and Souled Spike.

Before the soul, when he left at the end of Season 6, it's my personal belief that Spike was not thinking of being a better man, searching for redemption or wanting to "be the kind of man who would never" for Buffy. He was thinking solely about winning Buffy back, about having control of her again, of possessing her sexually once more. His demeanour and the language he uses ("Bitch is gonna see a change") seem to indicate this. And for me, this makes sense, because even though Spike can (and does) love without a soul, he's not a good person without a soul. He can't be. He has no moral compass, no sense of altruism. All of his actions are selfishly motivated, because he doesn't have the empathy, the morality which a soul provides. Without the soul, he's a monster.

However with the soul, he is different. With the soul he feels empathy, he feels remorse, he feels horror at what he did to Buffy. With the soul, his motivations stop being selfish (at least to a certain extent). With the soul he wants to make amends, he wants to be the man he believes Buffy deserves, he wants to redeem himself. Because with the soul, he feels. He cares. He has morality and a notion of right and wrong. With the soul he recognises the damage and that's why his tune changes from "Bitch is gonna see a change" to "To be the kind of man who would never ...". Once he has the soul, he is able to see the error of his ways and he desires the keep the soul to be that better man.

At least that's my two cents.

 

[Skanky Vamp]

Before the soul, when he left at the end of Season 6... He was thinking solely about winning Buffy back

Exactly. That's why I don't understand when people say he didn't get the soul because of Buffy. Of course he did. (I still say he wasn't going there explicitly for the soul though)