Because I can do better than the snotty post I made on Tumblr.

[eilowyn]

Today, I made this post on Tumblr in response to a confession on the Buffy Confessions blog. I often do this to confessions I have feelings about. This one started with the snarky response, "Isn't it nice how people disregard season 7 in order to self-righteously get their Spike/Spuffy hate on?" but I expanded it. That post on Tumblr came from the

Comments

[rahirah]

I'm of two minds about that. S6 and S7 have two canon instances of someone in Buffy's circle killing people, and Buffy reacts very differently. She's all gung ho to kill Anya, but she's equally gung ho to save Willow. Now, maybe the difference is that Willow is human and Anya isn't, and I'm sure that's how Buffy herself would justify her actions. But I can't help noticing that Buffy just flat out doesn't like Anya much. At best, she tolerates her. While Willow is her best friend (or at least, Buffy still thinks of her that way, even though in reality they've drifted apart and don't know each other very well any longer.)

We can also compare her reaction to Faith (also human) killing people: Faith has to go to jail and serve time, but does Willow? Nope, she gets a vacation in England.

I realize that there are an awful lot of other factors that figure into Buffy's reactions to each case, but still, I have to wonder if Xander isn't right to a degree in claiming that Buffy's pure and noble morality is just a tad tainted by emotion: she's way more willing to cut slack for people she likes/loves. Which is a very, very common human reaction, after all...

[samsom]

You make a lot of sense but Buffy's decision to save Willow during the last three eps of s6 was probably helped by the fact that Willow had only killed one really banal, evil little human being during what can only be inadequately described as a fit of grief over Tara's death. Anya, even though it helped that Buffy never cared that much for her, chose to become a demon again, and chose to kill as part of her job as a demon. She'd also been killing over the course of months, which makes her closer to the Spike you're proposing than to Willow.

We can also compare her reaction to Faith (also human) killing people: Faith has to go to jail and serve time

But going to prison was Faith's choice, not Buffy's. Buffy really couldn't do much once Faith turned herself in to the police.

I do agree though that if she's emotionally involved with someone who kills, it's tougher. I'd like to think she wouldn't stake Spike because of her feelings for him but it's hard to ignore something like what you're proposing Spike does - the willful, albeit conflicted, taking of lives and hiding that from Buffy. Maybe that's where I have the problem - him doing something he knows Buffy wouldn't approve of and hiding it from her. Whatever her reaction, there would be a huge amount of anger in the mix as well, yes?