Because I Want to Believe

I've spent more than a little time over the last few of days on fer1213's journal on this thread and then this one. They're a couple of quite large and fascinating dissections of the Spuffy relationship, including Spike's motivation in getting a soul, Buffy's emotional distance, "Seeing Red," and more (go read 'em, great stuff), but I've finally been inspired to spin off a train of thought on my own, partly as an apology for my last post there (I really do try to stay even-handed about all this stuff, really I do!), but mostly because this is one of the little back-burner essays I've been working on anyway and that this discussion gave me the energy I needed to finally get it done. So now that it's become suddenly topical to discuss S6 BtVS again, here goes. ( She Loved Him in S6, and No, I'm Not Kidding )