So did Buffy REALLY love Spike?(Spoilers)

[TannerSaysStuff]

To me it always seemed like she didn't love him but she wanted to.

[iigreenii]

^ It was the exact opposite for me. To me it seemed like she didn't want to love him but she did.

[jtmaster13]

I think in a way she was saying in those three words his entire speech he gave to her in that abandoned house. I think she loved what he was, what he became. How he tried and got his soul for her. I think she loved what he did for her, that brought a whole new level of trust and appreciation between them. I wouldn't go as far to say she was in love with him, but in that moment she loved what he was, and I think she did truly love him but was not in love with him.

[Josh]

I agree with those who said she loved him, but she wasn't in love with him. She trusted him and depended on him in the end.

However, their sexual relationship in Season 6 was more a product of Buffy's despair and wanting to feel. She was going through a rough patch and Spike was her outlet for feeling both pain and pleasure.

[joxerlives]

Oct 3, 2010 23:03:20 GMT -5 @iigreenii said:

^ It was the exact opposite for me. To me it seemed like she didn't want to love him but she did.

That's my view too, her love for Spike is not the love she has for Dawn and Angel but it is real

[Silver]

I would say that she really did love him but in a more mature way way than that of her other lovers/boyfriends. Even though she may not have realised it, their relationship went deeper than just the sexual attractions. Also I believe that Spike out of all her friends and family was the only one that actually understood her, where was coming from, why she did things the way she did. She had deep and sincere feelings for him, she trusted him with her life and the life of her sister, got angry when Robin and Giles tried to kill him. In the last episode she told Spike that she loved him, but of course he fobbed it off as not true, but this was the one time in her life that she truly meant it.

[Inappropriate Starches]

^I don't think it's the first time she really meant it, but I do believe that it was a more mature love. In some ways by default because at that point she had seen more and been through more. I think she did love him, but not more or less than previous lovers, just different.

[Randi Giles]

I think I've mentioned it before but I've sometimes questioned when she told Spike she loved him. As a Spuffy fan it is hard me to admit this, but I sometimes ponder when she finally told Spike that she loved him it was no different from how she told Xander. The only difference really is that Buffy and Spike had a sexual relationship of course. I think like with Xander she just had a certain friendship, respect and trust with Spike by the time season 7 end. Now I'm starting too get pissed that she didn't tell him that sooner so we could have seen the outcome of it.

[nokomis]

Oct 5, 2010 10:32:09 GMT -5 jtmaster13 said:

I think in a way she was saying in those three words his entire speech he gave to her in that abandoned house. I think she loved what he was, what he became. How he tried and got his soul for her. I think she loved what he did for her, that brought a whole new level of trust and appreciation between them. I wouldn't go as far to say she was in love with him, but in that moment she loved what he was, and I think she did truly love him but was not in love with him.

so what is the exact difference between loving someone and being in love with someone? I think she loved him and was in love with him. Afterall, she was sleeping with the guy. And its implied that they have sex in the final episode. You cant pinpoint exactly what love is but i think Spike and Buffy definately had the love factor. It wasn't all about the sex; it was about trust and companionship.

Maybe you guys mean that she didn't really care about him enough to be in love with him, a bit like Riley perhaps. But that changed near the end of S7 i think. I think Buffy's really complicated; she has a hard time defining to herself what love is and isn't. There was definately something special AND sexual between Spike and Buffy so i think it's safe to call it love.

[nokomis]

Oct 5, 2010 17:28:36 GMT -5 Silver said:

I would say that she really did love him but in a more mature way way than that of her other lovers/boyfriends. Even though she may not have realised it, their relationship went deeper than just the sexual attractions. Also I believe that Spike out of all her friends and family was the only one that actually understood her, where was coming from, why she did things the way she did. She had deep and sincere feelings for him, she trusted him with her life and the life of her sister, got angry when Robin and Giles tried to kill him. In the last episode she told Spike that she loved him, but of course he fobbed it off as not true, but this was the one time in her life that she truly meant it.

That's all so true.

[jtmaster13]

You can be sleeping with someone and not be in love with them, it could just be a mutual attraction, I have seen it before. Just because you have sex with someone doesn't mean you are in love and going to be soul mates for life.

[nokomis]

Well, if your sleeping with them AND care about them then it could be called love. Buffy cared about him in Season 7. So maybe she was in love with him.

[Smashed]

Oct 10, 2010 13:58:01 GMT -5 nokomis said:

Well, if your sleeping with them AND care about them then it could be called love. Buffy cared about him in Season 7. So maybe she was in love with him.

...But they weren't sleeping together in season 7.

And in Season 6 it was pretty obvious that she did not love him, from the time pummeled his face to his attempted rape.

So by your definintion of sleeping together and caring, no, they were not in love.

[Inappropriate Starches]

Well as was mentioned before, we don't know what happened on the last night, so they could have slept together. Also, I agree, she was not in love with him in the sixth season. I definitely buy her getting to that point by the end. She had watched his transformation, grown to trust him and did have a beautiful companionship with him at the least.

Love him I think she did. In love? I think so too, but am of course less sure. All I know is that Buffy by that point didn't use the L word lightly and I don't think she would have said it if she didn't mean it, even just to comfort him. If that was how she was thinking, she probably would have known he wouldn't believe her. I think it's a complicated question, and at this point we can't know for sure, but I think she did. As Joss said on his commentary when they came at the scene all wrong "love him when you tell him you love him, love her when you tell her she doesn't". At the very least he wanted them to look like they felt it.

[BuffyFanOne]

I personally think she was in love with the way he made her feel....not really him. At least at first.
I agree with what people are saying: That she loved him but was not in love with him. When she finally tells him she loves him even he sees that it isn't true. I believe that she might even think that she is in love with him, but aside from their sexual relationship, i really don't think their relationship was as much intimate as it was close. they have a lot in common and they were there for each other when no one else was/could be there for them.
Buffy died. She came back. She felt nothing.
Spike died. He came back. He had no soul.
The needed each other to validate who they were at that point in their lives. They reminded each other what they were meant to be. It was wrong for them to be together. With Angel there was always the soul that bridged the gap. He was a vampire and she was a slayer but he wasn't an average bad vampire. With Spike, he was so wrong for Buffy that their sexual relationship shocked her back to life.
She loved Spike because he brought her back, not because she was intimately in love with him...IMHO

[Miss. Rogueh]

I don't think Buffy loved Spike, not in the way she wanted to. She wanted to love him, but after all they had been through I don't think it was possible for Buffy to let herself.