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Joss has said that Buffy is dead and buried. So where is her Soul? Perhaps, there will be two Buffy's next season, one corporeal, the one we are wondering how we get back; and one Spiritual, just like the First Slayer.
I think it would be neat if Spirit-Buffy would be somehow make herself known to a Willow, who perhaps will travel a little too far down the dark side during S6. Spirit-Buffy would become Willow's Spirit-Guide. Spirit-Guide Buffy would then lead Willow back to the light in a series of episodes that delves into Willow's inner psyche.
So where does a corporeal Buffy come from. Just as Dawn was made from Buffy by the monks, a new Buffy is made from Dawn (Adam's Rib so to speak.). When a new human-being is created (in any way), that new life has a Soul bestowed upon it by the God of our reality/universe (yeah, my Catholic Catechism is speaking here). So a new Buffy would have a NEW SOUL, and would be a new person!
BUT WAIT! As the monks' magics gave Dawn and all who knew her memories; so too would Willow and Tara be able to give the new corporeal Buffy her memories as extracted from Dawn and the rest of the Scoobies. Now this would be why Buffy would not be all there, for instance, she would have incomplete memories of Riley. She would have the knowledge of the relationship, but not the feelings that would come from having lived it. Much of her past life would be incomplete in that manner, probably leading to some of the same rebellion that we saw in Dawn??
Now Willow would have been doing some intense studying these last 3 months in order to re-create Buffy. The power that she gains during this period and the success in recreating Buffy would drive her somewhat over the edge into the Dark Side. It would be Poetic Justice if a Spirit-Guide Buffy would then bring her back.
All of this leads me to some other thoughts, mainly that Dawn does not have a Soul - as other humans? Apparently, that is what is alluded to when some of the brain-sucked crazies said to her that there was nothing in there. Was being a human vessel for the Key so overpowering that a Soul was not infused into the new human that became Dawn? Perhaps so, and now that she has been bled, Dawn has received not only the Gift of her human life from Buffy, but perhaps she has been given a Soul. Might be why the earrings are returned!
So why didn't Doc discover that Dawn did not have a Soul when he met her in Forever or when Glory first saw her? Could be they just did not look farther than her humanity. Evidently, sniffing out a Soul is not something that you do automatically when you are a demon - or a God. Glory was not sure what form the Key was in when She saw Dawn those two times, so she would have taken her humanity for granted.
Aren't Souls what BtVS is all about anyway? The Humans have them and the Vampires are the Soul-less Undead. While a Soul is much more than a Conscious, how is it that Spike has seemed to regain his conscious. Does the chip inplanted in his head do more than just give him pain when he does violence on a human?
I found it most interesting that the Vantol (or was it Vantrol, never could quite hear that very well) that Angel turned into was green, scaley and horned, rather reptilian in nature. The human brain includes the Reptilian mid-brain, which may be the source of aggression, self-motivation, etc. In other words, all that is important to a Vampire. Is it our soul that which suppress the Reptilian mind? Could this be what the chip in Spike is also doing?
Whew!........enough already...
[This message has been edited by Lijdrec (edited July 23, 2001).]