(Sidebar: I wonder if Buffy is speaking from experience here, if she recognizes that this is what happened with Angel, or if she's just disagreeing with Spike on principle.)
I believe she's arguing as much on principle as experience, because she does come into most of her interaction with a baseline moral/value system - and that total/obsessive devotion Spike defines love by is inimical to the broader sense of responsibilities held by someone who takes the Slayer role so seriously.
But I do also think Buffy has a longer memory than she necessarily lets on, and I also think she's evaluating things in light of past experiences. (Although, there's a certain limitation on applicability, since they broke up over what they viewed as unworkable curse and mortality/immortality issues rather than deciding 'love had burned them out' or something.) It's also likely she's thinking of other examples - maybe her parents, friends, I don't know...
But I do see what you mean with the experiences feeling like call-backs. Sort of - in the same way - I couldn't watch their argument over Katrina's murder in "Dead Things" without also thinking about Buffy & Faith's arguments in "Consequences". And the differences between how they interact, I think, mean a lot for her.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2009-04-26 10:07 pm (UTC)I believe she's arguing as much on principle as experience, because she does come into most of her interaction with a baseline moral/value system - and that total/obsessive devotion Spike defines love by is inimical to the broader sense of responsibilities held by someone who takes the Slayer role so seriously.
But I do also think Buffy has a longer memory than she necessarily lets on, and I also think she's evaluating things in light of past experiences. (Although, there's a certain limitation on applicability, since they broke up over what they viewed as unworkable curse and mortality/immortality issues rather than deciding 'love had burned them out' or something.) It's also likely she's thinking of other examples - maybe her parents, friends, I don't know...
But I do see what you mean with the experiences feeling like call-backs. Sort of - in the same way - I couldn't watch their argument over Katrina's murder in "Dead Things" without also thinking about Buffy & Faith's arguments in "Consequences". And the differences between how they interact, I think, mean a lot for her.