When the episode aired, people either loved or hated that speech
Really? Coming into fandom after the fact, I got the impression that Spike/Spuffy fans pretty much universally loved that moment.
I think they were deliberately making a parallel between the two of them - both of them end up leaving Buffy, convinced she doesn't/won't love them no matter how much they love her.
Well, whatever they were trying to say, I think that's a pretty fair assessment of Buffy's character. She'd been hurt, had poured everything she had into her relationship with Angel only to have it blow up in her face, and so she never let anyone get that close again. I'd say maybe we're supposed to see progress in that Buffy seems to let Spike in more than Riley, but a lot of it probably depends on your interpretation of the final episodes and whether you think Buffy loved Spike at the end.
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Really? Coming into fandom after the fact, I got the impression that Spike/Spuffy fans pretty much universally loved that moment.
I think they were deliberately making a parallel between the two of them - both of them end up leaving Buffy, convinced she doesn't/won't love them no matter how much they love her.
Well, whatever they were trying to say, I think that's a pretty fair assessment of Buffy's character. She'd been hurt, had poured everything she had into her relationship with Angel only to have it blow up in her face, and so she never let anyone get that close again. I'd say maybe we're supposed to see progress in that Buffy seems to let Spike in more than Riley, but a lot of it probably depends on your interpretation of the final episodes and whether you think Buffy loved Spike at the end.