I do have a sneaking preference for soulless-but-wanting-to-be-moral-Spike over souled-and-basement-dwelling-Spike, but you didn't hear me say that.
As do most people, I think, as soulless and trying for redemption is a more interesting moral issue - other than positive feedback, soulless Spike has no reason to do good at all. But he does, often to the tune of negative feedback or outright abuse, which brings up any number of questions about why people do anything... it's a more complex situation. Adding the soul, at least in the Whedonverse shorthand for virtue that it seems to have become, had the effect of somewhat cheapening those same issues, along with removing the fascinating question of the Scoobies' own relative morality - after all, aren't they getting positive reinforcement for doing good? Aren't they also falling off the do-gooders truck when that positive reinforcement goes away?
I could write a whole essay on the meaning of the basement image, but that's another project.
In the Basement
As do most people, I think, as soulless and trying for redemption is a more interesting moral issue - other than positive feedback, soulless Spike has no reason to do good at all. But he does, often to the tune of negative feedback or outright abuse, which brings up any number of questions about why people do anything... it's a more complex situation. Adding the soul, at least in the Whedonverse shorthand for virtue that it seems to have become, had the effect of somewhat cheapening those same issues, along with removing the fascinating question of the Scoobies' own relative morality - after all, aren't they getting positive reinforcement for doing good? Aren't they also falling off the do-gooders truck when that positive reinforcement goes away?
I could write a whole essay on the meaning of the basement image, but that's another project.