Last volley?---SPOILERS

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

sc, the word you wanted wasn't "degrading", but 

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into 

flaming

which I'm attempting to avoid.

Three things only

1) A fragmented soul for Willow on top of an addiction seems
superfluous. Willow's growing confidence with magic is a storyline that
traces back much farther than "Bargaining". Besides, why should Joss
do an addiction analogy and then make the catalyst an outside agency?
That would dilute his point, if it is his point.

And as Casandra (please note the spelling) mentions in her post, she's
actually uncertain now.

Buffy seems a far better candidate for a fragmented soul, since, as Jim
(Kirayoshi) points out, her soul was actually in transit (we have no
reason to believe Willow's was) and the urn was broken during the
transition ritual. Yes, Buffy and Willow could both have fragmented
souls, which would bind them tighter and be kind of romantic, but it
seems redundant. Joss probably prefers to tell two stories and contrast
them than tell one story twice.

And yes, nasty things have to be said to the addict. But that's okay, I
dig angsty confrontations. Bring on "Dead Man's Party", "Revelations",
"The Yoko Factor". Clearing the air is good (a long-time "Buffy"
theme). And even if things go badly on air, what's important is that
the audience sees Willow as someone who needs help rather than needs to
be destroyed. An anti-Willow backlash among the fans, like Casandra
fears, would make it difficult to do positive storylines for the
character later. And if Buffy's actions are motivated by love (rather
than "get this bitch away from me") that makes it much easier to repair
the friendship, without which the show is basically shot, since it's the
strongest one. We couldn't really take much comfort in Buffy-Xander
affection if her much stronger bond with Willow was gone forever, could
we?

2) Your characterization of Willow's actions in "Tough Love" does her a
great disservice. That fight wasn't about magic, no more than it was
about Buffy's coping with Joyce's death. It was about Tara not trusting
Willow's love for her, thinking she would go back to boys.

And you make it sound like Willow just wanted power and used Tara's
injury as an excuse to hit the dark magic. If Willow was just looking
for an excuse, she'd had one for monthsGlory. Willow did that out of
love for Tara, risking the damage to herself (and probably their
relationship) to save the woman she loved. Remember this is the ep
right after the one where Buffy is told "Love is Pain" and is urged to
"Risk the Pain." Willow does that here, and it's even more wonderful
since she knows Tara wouldn't approve. 

You can say noble self-sacrifice, or good intentions-road to hell, but
to characterize this as "Aha! Now I have an excuse for more power!" is
an unfair cheap shot.

Why Willow does all this for Tara (grrr) is another question,
but&let's move on.

You could also say the ep makes Tara a tragic figure. Tara doubts
Willow's love, so Tara is alone and gets hurt by Glory, and therefore
Willow risks herself (and the relationship) to save Tara, which she
couldn't have done without the increased power. Hmm, you can even lay
all this at Tara's door, but that's an easy out.

3) Am getting somewhat tired of you saying I use "love" to describe too
many different things and yet when I described Spike's emotions as
affection, jealousy, lust, obsession, adoration, or comfort, you said
they were all forms of love and I was making your argument. Either I'm
using too many words or too few, but probably not both.

And yes, friendly love is different than romantic love, but both emanate
from the soul. Again, the higher emotions thing.

And if you fail to grasp why I think something, like the love=soul
theorem, it's called I have an opinion. It doesn't agree with yours.
Deal, please.

I'm not even getting into my own beliefs, I'm just stating my
interpretation of the show based on my understanding of the concepts
presented thereon. If Spike can love Buffy without a soul, then Angel's
loss of his soul shouldn't have had the (YEARS' worth of) consequences
it did. Cuddly Spike invalidates all the evil Angelus did, and since
those are the show's finest eps, I choose not to go "Yea, Spike! Soul,
schmoul!"

(It certainly makes Jenny look stupid for dying trying to restore
Angel's soul, if he could have loved Buffy without it, right?)

Dan

PShit several on-line dictionaries and all I got for "love" in French
were conjugations of "Amour/aimer". Well, once they gave "make love"
as "coiter" (as well as "faite l'amour"), but I'm pretty sure "coiter"
is more sexual congress than making love.