I disagree. It depends on your definition of "evil". As I said, the demon would be amoral and self serving, and would do whatever it could to ensure its own survival, which unfortunately for humanity means feeding on human blood. They would take great pleasure in it because they lack the capacity to distinguish between right and wrong. Or rather, the capacity to care.
No, it isn't, the demon isn't amoral, the demon is EVIL. These things don't kill for their own survival, that only happens once in a hundred times. Virtually every time they kill, they kill because it gives them pleasure. And while they're at it, they'll happily torture the people to death.
A human without a soul would be a-moral, a vampire demon, however, is NOT the human without a soul, it's a twisted, pure evil caricature of the human.
It's evil. We've seen this multiple times over. Every time we see a vamp rising, like Gunn's sister, like Jesse, like the vamp the potentials had to fight in S7 - they've instantly changed, right down to the mannerisms and the way they walk, they're instantly predators. They're killing machines, bringers of misery and pain, pure evil from the get-go.
Trust me, I am of William's kind. I can very much relate to his character, and a lot of people like him and myself can absolutely be gentle, unassuming, not have the strength to stand up, and for whatever reason have buried a strong personality. It's strongly implied that a human's deepest desires from the recesses of their mind can be brought to the fore when they become a vampire, such as Evil Vamp Willow being a lesbian long before regular Willow realised that about herself. So, not a contradiction in terms at all, really.
Well, Spike isn't, he didn't change. Unlike all the other vamps, his manners, the way he spoke, the way he moved, didn't change. And that's the biggy. That doesn't mean his human self remained, it means there was nothing good to twist into evil.
Now, that's a contradiction in terms, as you previously said, "Just because Spike, Drusilla and just about every vampire really has human traits because they're personalities are based upon the human that once inhabited the corpses they were..." If this is the case then they clearly have retained something of their human selves.
There are no human selves. They have no human selves. The humans are dead. They're simply the demons that took over the corpses, and molded themselves a personality based upon the brain that remained. There's nothing of the human there, apart from the physical remains, and all of that is twisted.
That's something that changes over the course of the series. Giles, Season 1: "A vampire may have the memories, even the personality of the person it took over but it's still a demon at the core. There is no halfway." Okay, it's a demon at the core, but that demon has assumed the memories and to some extent the personality of the human being, hence Angel's reply to Buffy's comment in Season 3 that a vampire's personality has nothing to do with the person it took over; "Well, actually... that's a good point." Clearly, the intention at this point in the series is that something of the human survives the siring process.
No, it does NOT change, because it is THE SAME THING. I've explained this already, but I'll do it again:
The only things that are left of the human, are the BAD things.
Everything good is instantly twisted into an mirror evil caricature of the human being that inhabited the body before.
So now it comes down to interpretation. The two interpretations are:
1. Yes, the vampire's personality has something to do with the person, as it is the evil mirror caricature of the person, and the bad things are still there.
2. No, the vampire's personality has nothing to do with the person, because everything important that made the person up is gone, it has been twisted about into a pure evil, predatory, mirror monster, the other side of the coin.
The two interpretations are equally valid, and equally right. They are in fact, the same statement. It all depends on what you find more important; that the personality of the human was used to mold that of the demon, or that anything that really mattered about the person, is gone.
Hmm... now that's an interesting take that I hadn't considered. But I was going by Spike's line, "What have I done...? Why didn't I do it?" Maybe only his demon side became disgusted with himself, but he clearly is confused about the nature of what he has become, and there would have to be some vestige of his humanity at play in order for that confusion to arise.
Of course the demon is confused, but that has nothing to do with the human, there is no human there, nor any humanity. It's simply the fact that he's been busy compromising his evil self to get in Buffy's panties and going about protecting and being nice to her and other humans, other food, when he used to just slaughter them all and take what he wanted. But it's that chip in his head that keeps him from doing that, and he's left it inside his head instead of having done nothing but try and take it out.
I don't think so. Watch "Lies My Parents Told Me". When he became a vampire, Spike was pretty much the same as he had been in life. He even wanted to make his mother a vampire so that they'd be together forever (!). When he did so, she rejected him and told him that she hated him, and that informed his demonic personality in that he crafted this character in order to stick two fingers up to his mortal existence all because his mother didn't love him enough.
You don't get it. That he's the same, doesn't make him good, or human, it makes him worse than you can imagine. The following is what happens when a human gets sired:
1. Human dies, leaving only the physical remains. A dead, empty husk. There's nothing there but a corpse.
2. Demon enters/gets born in the corpse.
3. Demon takes the physical remains of what made a human; the brain, and uses it to mold itself a personality and take the memory to be able to blend in. This process is as follows: take everything good, and twist it into evil, take anything bad and makie it worse (if it can), and a dose of bloodlust and predaory instincts; the result is the mirror evil twin of the human that once called the corpse his/her body.
This has some consequences: the sweeter and nicer the human is, the GREATER the contrast with the vampire demon - and unless the human is as evil as any vampire demon or worse - the sweeter and nice humans become the worse vampires.
You can see this demonstrated throughout the shows. Good/massive contrast:
Jesse: good guy/instant predator.
Gunn's sister: sweet girl/instant predator that would seduce and kill "her" brother with glee.
Liam/Angel: a gutless, drunkard and womanizer, but still a nice, good person who genuinely loved his sister/worst vampire in possibly ever, that happily slaughter said sister and killed the father Liam never had the guts to stand up to.
Drusilla: sweet, faithful girl/one of the worst vampires ever.
Not so good/very little contrast:
Darla: cynical prostitute/hardly a difference; only gets real bad when she's with Angelus, otherwise the Master's pet.
Harmony: Oblivious nasty blond/oblivious nasty blond.
And then there's Spike.
Again, clearly not. If that was the case, then his mother's rejection would not have mattered to him. It clearly shook him to the core and informed the demon that he became. It took until Season 7 for him to realise that this turning point in his unlife had been the demon talking, not his mother. The demon that had been Anne had all the memories of being William's mother but was a twisted version of her personality. Spike was a twisted version of William, but when Spike became neutered by The Initiative that personality reasserted itself over time. I see what you're saying with your comment about evil, twisted humans showing human traits but again, I'm going by Spike's apparent uniqueness among vampires - look at what the Judge says to him in "Surprise"; "You stink of humanity." He wouldn't need to say that to any vampire if exhibiting human traits was the norm.
It only hurt the demon Spike, because the demon Spike is no different then the human William, because the human William is every bit as bad as the demon Spike. William/Spike is a sycophant, he uses his mother like a bloodsucker when he was alive, and planned on doing the same the thing as a vamp, because he's every bit as bad both ways. The demon Spike's shock, is that the demon that took over his mother, made her into the same sick twisted evil being as he always was, so her overly sweet, happy to be used, loving mother to sweet to speak her mind about what she thinks about him, and probably kill him in the process - and he can no longer use her. So, then he simply fixates on Drusilla, and when Drusilla is gone, Buffy is the next one. Drusilla wanted rough killing machine, she got it, Buffy wanted a protector for her sister, she got it, Buffy wants the killer back, there comes the trophy duster.
Spike is no different - alive human, demon vamp, or souled vamp - there's never a difference; there was nothing good to twist for the demon.
Certain facts are indisputable, such as the notion that vampires retain aspects of their mortal selves, and that the intention of the writers was to make Spike actively seek out his soul, for example. The motivation behind this is one of those things that one can read different things into and there isn't necessarily a right or wrong.
Uh, no actually. Both versions were written and filmed; one where Spike got the soul, and one where he got the chip removed. So indeed, the intention "the writers" is unknown. At best one can think that's the way Joss Whedon wanted it, but whether every writer wanted that, is a big if.
However, what the writers' intentions were, don't matter to what's actually on the screen. And indeed, on the screen, Spike went to get his chip out, and got double crossed.
Best. Post. Ever.
