My difficulty with your analysis is that it is missing a key point - the context.
Buffy is planning a major battle in a WAR. It's important to see this as first and foremost as a war story, not a romance. She's lost people. The previous episode - several slayers were injured and killed by a bomb. And she's been told to use every resource available.
Angel pops out of the blue. With a potential means to turn the tide. She can't risk him too - because if they take her out, she needs him to take up the fight elsewhere.
Spike is her lieutenant. She needs him in this battle. And she stays with him til the very end. The entire cavern collasping around her as she barely escapes it. She clearly planned on sticking it out with him or pulling him out. He stops her. How can't you see that? They are holding hands. She tells him he has done enough, let's go, take off the amulet. He refuses. She tries to stay, he tells her to leave.
Also before the battle - she warns her troops they may not survive, it's their choice if they want to fight against seemingly impossible odds.
Many die. Not just Spike.
So, no, I disagree with the interpretation that Buffy was willing to risk Spike because she didn't love him. Seriously she risked Dawn, Faith, Xander, Anya, Willow, and numerous slayers who were under her protection. Didn't they matter? She attempts to send Dawn away with Xander, but Dawn nicks that in the bud. And Buffy realizes she can't make their choices for them. This is their WAR too - they have as much reason to want to fight the First Evil as she does.
I honestly think she was getting rid of Angel. He didn't belong in this fight - it wasn't his fight any more. He no longer belonged by her side.
The other interpretation only makes sense if you ignore everything that happened that season, all the General Buffy talks, and the fact that she's fighting a WAR and steeling herself to lose everything.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2014-10-13 03:08 am (UTC)Buffy is planning a major battle in a WAR. It's important to see this as first and foremost as a war story, not a romance. She's lost people. The previous episode - several slayers were injured and killed by a bomb. And she's been told to use every resource available.
Angel pops out of the blue. With a potential means to turn the tide.
She can't risk him too - because if they take her out, she needs him to take up the fight elsewhere.
Spike is her lieutenant. She needs him in this battle. And she stays with him til the very end. The entire cavern collasping around her as she barely escapes it. She clearly planned on sticking it out with him or pulling him out. He stops her. How can't you see that? They are holding hands. She tells him he has done enough, let's go, take off the amulet. He refuses. She tries to stay, he tells her to leave.
Also before the battle - she warns her troops they may not survive, it's their choice if they want to fight against seemingly impossible odds.
Many die. Not just Spike.
So, no, I disagree with the interpretation that Buffy was willing to risk Spike because she didn't love him. Seriously she risked Dawn, Faith, Xander, Anya, Willow, and numerous slayers who were under her protection. Didn't they matter? She attempts to send Dawn away with Xander, but Dawn nicks that in the bud. And Buffy realizes she can't make their choices for them. This is their WAR too - they have as much reason to want to fight the First Evil as she does.
I honestly think she was getting rid of Angel. He didn't belong in this fight - it wasn't his fight any more. He no longer belonged by her side.
The other interpretation only makes sense if you ignore everything that happened that season, all the General Buffy talks, and the fact that she's fighting a WAR and steeling herself to lose everything.