Re: "Help" review, and disclaimers-A-Go-Go!

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

On Mike's idea that "Someday she'll tell you" refers to Buffy telling
Spike "I forgive you", rather than "I love you":

Well, that's certainly a popular theory among the more cynical Spuffers
(the other one is that she'll tell him right before he dies), but I
don't think so.  

I think Buffy has already forgiven Spike. She doesn't show any anger
towards him, she talks to him, touches him (she flinched once, but
touched him three other times), didn't disinvite him from her home and
lets him into every aspect of her life EXCEPT her romantic life.
Forgiveness is moot at this point--if Buffy couldn't forgive, she'd be
taking it out on Spike with fists or a stake.

And I don't think Spike wants forgiveness rather than love. In the
church at the end of "Beneath You", he asked rhetorically, "what does
man do what he does? For her" or something like that. (Sorry, the
transcript hasn't been posted yet, so I can't get the exact quote.) He
said he got the soul so that Buffy could love him, not forgive him. And
in "Help", he may have been vocal about his crimes, but he asked for
Buffy to stay with him, not forgive him.

And besides, the Spuffers are the largest segment of the fans and I
think ME will eventually give them what they want. After all, the idea
of doing "the Slayer dates **another** vampire" always seemed to me a
cynical way to try and recapture B/A glory, so I doubt that Joss is
ultimately going to spit on his largest group of 'shippers again.
Especially since Spike isn't leaving for a spinoff anytime soon.

Just some cynicism, sprinkled with bitter.

Dan