Jim Ford

“...use of the soul in Buffy: a personal or cultural belief which is blind to all else, which refuses to acknowledge gray area and insists on its own infallibility, as we've seen in our own history, is dangerous and detrimental.”

“One wonders if Spike would ever have achieved true decency or validity in their [Scooby Gang] eyes, no matter what he did, as long as he was missing the thing which they believed makes a being valid, worthy, moral, and redeemable- a soul.”

“My question is, how and why would a being who has no soul, and no conscience, and no ability to judge between morality and immorality, suddenly become capable of perceiving it [Spike's attempted rap of Buffy] as a "wrong" which needs to be "righted"?”

“...the presence of this thing called a soul, and only this thing called a soul, makes a being in the Buffyverse capable of choosing to behave in a profoundly moral way or makes a being capable of redemption.”

“The Wizard, being a wise man, knows there is no such thing as a "heart," a "brain," or "courage" that could be bestowed and have an impact on the receiver. These are concept only- not tangible things.”

“He [Spike] has already demonstrated a capacity to love, already demonstrated a capacity to be selfless, and, possibly most importantly, has demonstrated that he has a conscience.”

“Redemption becomes possible when we strive to find selflessness, conscience, and a capacity to love within ourselves where before there was none.”

“Entertaining for a moment that it is purepsychology, the that "soul" is a concept in the imagination and nothing more, what can we determine? Also, for a moment, completely rejecting the treatment and use of the soul concept in the Buffy series because of its contradictory presentation and because of its negative potential, the question then becomes, if there is no such thing as a soul, then what about redemption? Is it possible in the Buffy worldview...for any being to be redeemed without a soul?”

“We all search for our meaning, and if we do not find meaning in who we are or what we do, we often search outside ourselves for someone to tell us both, sometimes to the detriment of ourselves and the larger society...”