First off to the original post: Where in Inside Out does Darla state that she is in hell? Actually she doesn't. She states that she is send by the PTB to help Connor. Her whole appearance and behaviour indicates that she is more likely in some kind of heaven, in peace with herself.
Secondly, when somebody is sired into a vampire, his human soul is set free into some kind of ether (supposedly) and the demon takes its place. That's how Angel or Spike would be able to be re-ensouled, it's common consensus that they got their human souls back and not just any soul. Presuming that vampire demons have no soul of their own, when a vampire is dusted, the demon ceases to exist. The human soul should be sent to hell or heaven based on how the human once used to live, since it had nothing to do with the atrocities the vampire demon executed.
That's why I think that Angel can't be held responsible for his actions as a vampire after he is re-ensouled. But since he remembers everything he has done as his own doing, his conscience makes him feel responsible for his sins as a vampire and therefore he feels his soul is tainted and needs to be redeemed. And that's why he feels that he will go to hell after he dies (Hellbound).
We don't know much about human Darla before she was sired, only that she was a prostitute and an independend woman. We don't actually know if she was a bad person, so maybe when vampire Darla was killed in the BtVS episode Angel her human soul was sent to an appropriate place.
Uhm but Spike isn't really visiting hell, he is messed up by Pavayne. Spike only mistakes the *visions* of dead people for a punishment for his life as a vampire, when instead he is *haunted* by the evil spirit of the mass murderer whos body W&H was build upon. When Pavayne threatens to throw him into hell, it's not said that this would have been the natural way for his soul. We don't know where Pavayne would really have sent him, some kind of hell dimension sure, it seems that he sends souls somewhere so he can stay, haunting the place. But that doesn't mean this is the punishment for Spikes soul, meant by the PTB.Not worth screwing with your karma for because it's not a complete disagreement. I just want to point out that when Spike was still a psuedo-ghost at Wolfram & Hart and kept fading in and out, when he faded out, he was visiting hell. I know a lot of people think Angel was being overly dramatic or borddy in their conversation in 'Hellbound', but then why is Spike visitng hell? Hell was Spike's destination. Whatever force sends them to the after-life doesn't seem to care that they had no souls when doing evil or even that they became champions after they got them back. Aparently the human soul gets the punishment. Not saying it's fair... but haven't we noticed that the PTB aren't ever really all that fair? I'm still not sure I agree that the demon ceases to exist after passing, but I'm starting to see the logic behind that. Your assesment of the soul in the ether and all of that is perfect in my opinion. All in all just a few parts of your post I disagree with.
Old thread, but I've been watching season 2 dvds (all actually, just going through them in order)...
I'm going to say a Vampire, as a vampire, doesn't go to hell, even if they think they will, frankly because their soul is gone the moment they go vampy. I have to wonder tho, if a person who's soul is taken by something like Vampirism, actually goes anywhere, or if it just sorta goes to limbo or whatever.
The Angel or Spike feeling Hell calling is different, because they've got their souls back.
My feeling is, that a Vampire, despite doing really bad things, isn't any more evil in terms of afterlife stuff, as any other beast or animal.
Frankly, this is one case where I prefer the whole WoD take on vampires. You may be sorta damned, but you have a choice on how much you hold onto humanity or succumb to the beast. The whole "you automatically become completely and unrepentently evil, but also don't have a soul" gets complicated.