You know when someone's view of canon is so different from yours that it just makes you go "bzuh? what show were they watching?" I had one of those moments several days ago, when I read something about how someone didn't like Buffy because she turned into a monster in later seasons and thought souled!Spike was a travesty because he didn't need to seek redemption, and that unsouled!Spike could have been redeemed and could have learned to be a good guy.

I'll address the Spike thing first: That happened in the show. Spike tried to rape Buffy, then thought, "oh, that was wrong of me, you know I bet I'd be less prone to making immoral choices if I had a soul." Unsouled Spike deciding to become ensouled was the moment for his character. Everything before that was buildup, and everything after was denoument. Yes, even his many sacrifices, because they all hinge around that moment, when Spike decided that he wanted to be a Real Person who could make his own choices, free of demonic influence and complete with a conscience. Like, I kind of fail to see how you could miss it. Yeah, souled!Spike was more boring than unsouled!Spike... but evil!Spike was even less boring. The better of a person Spike is, the more boring his character gets. It's just what happened in the show, and good!Spike didn't get spicier until Angel when their witty repartee brought some of the old spark back.

And then the thing about Buffy. This person's problem was that after the first few seasons, Buffy stopped being a good and caring person and started being crueler and more manipulative. Maybe it's just because I study politics and philosophy and we read a lot of Machiavelli et al., but I don't think a good leader can be anything but kind of monstrous. I want to say something lame like "you show me a good leader who is still a good and kind person and I'll show you a fraud," but I won't. Except I did. But that's basically my feeling on it. But the thing is, you can be a terrible, petty, selfish, cruel person and still accomplish things that are good and meaningful. And yeah, I think Buffy was occasionally petty, selfish, and cruel. But ultimately? She saved the world. A lot. And that's what counts.

Plus I really just like stories about how one has to sacrifice parts of oneself one might prefer to have in order to become a hero. And stories about flawed heroes. And really, anything where people aren't all happy and shiny. Though I should note here that shows can be happy and shiny without the people in them being that way (see: Arrested Development).