I don't buy the theory that Angel and Spike are inherently exceptional vampires and the only ones who can rise above their demon instincts (even in canon we have plenty of examples that they're not "special snowflakes," like Darla, Harmony, James & Elizabeth, etc.).
My mistake for being unclear, but I didn't mean that Angel and Spike are the only ones who are sentient. What I meant is that they're the only ones who wind up with human souls. Other vamps are sentient, but this is the result of a human brain animated by a demonic essence. By contrast, an ensouled vampire is a human brain animated by a human soul... similar to a normal human.
I think there are plenty of examples of characters' actions that disprove this theory, and there's verbal evidence, too, in lines like Angel's in "Doppelgangland," when he starts to protest that a vampire's personality is the human's. And Angel would know better than Buffy.
I don't think that he was going to assert that the vampire's personality [i]is[/i] the human's. Rather, he was disagreeing with Buffy's assertion that the vampire self has nothing to do with the human self. I find it more likely he was going to say something like, "What we once were informs all that we have become." (Darla, The Prodigal)
In other words, because it's a demonic essence animating a human brain, the personality is a twisted reflection, but a reflection of the human nevertheless. Vampire!You is more like an evil twin, rather than a different person entirely.
Saying they're cut off from it is mixing magic and religion, and that's a bit iffy to me.
I think they're already inexorably mixed, to some extent. Hell dimensions have certainly figured into the Buffyverse mythology, and the information we're given on TPTB, the higher planes, and Cordy do seem similar to the "zillions of heavenly dimensions" described by Tara as destinations for souls. Whistler being cut off from TPTB now also might corroborate that the higher planes are now unavailable, but I do get your argument about Joss choosing not to go there.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2011-11-12 07:57 am (UTC)My mistake for being unclear, but I didn't mean that Angel and Spike are the only ones who are sentient. What I meant is that they're the only ones who wind up with human souls. Other vamps are sentient, but this is the result of a human brain animated by a demonic essence. By contrast, an ensouled vampire is a human brain animated by a human soul... similar to a normal human.
I think there are plenty of examples of characters' actions that disprove this theory, and there's verbal evidence, too, in lines like Angel's in "Doppelgangland," when he starts to protest that a vampire's personality is the human's. And Angel would know better than Buffy.
I don't think that he was going to assert that the vampire's personality [i]is[/i] the human's. Rather, he was disagreeing with Buffy's assertion that the vampire self has nothing to do with the human self. I find it more likely he was going to say something like, "What we once were informs all that we have become." (Darla, The Prodigal)
In other words, because it's a demonic essence animating a human brain, the personality is a twisted reflection, but a reflection of the human nevertheless. Vampire!You is more like an evil twin, rather than a different person entirely.
Saying they're cut off from it is mixing magic and religion, and that's a bit iffy to me.
I think they're already inexorably mixed, to some extent. Hell dimensions have certainly figured into the Buffyverse mythology, and the information we're given on TPTB, the higher planes, and Cordy do seem similar to the "zillions of heavenly dimensions" described by Tara as destinations for souls. Whistler being cut off from TPTB now also might corroborate that the higher planes are now unavailable, but I do get your argument about Joss choosing not to go there.