Interesting to read something written before all was known (I came into fandom quite late.)

I feel the need to mention that I don't find Spike difficult to understand because I think he is intensely complicated. Maybe he is intensely complicated, but I believe Angel is just as much or more so (I should also mention you're talking to a die hard Angel fangirl here). But on that note, Connor and Willow and Wesley and Buffy and Xander and Darla and Faith and Holtz and more, I'm sure, are very complex as well. I'm not about to impose a heirarchy of complexity on these series' characters.

I tend to go with the idea that Spike is difficult for me to understand because of who I am, the way I think. I identify with almost every main character on the show at one point or other. I hardly ever did with Spike, and most times I did it was after he got his soul. That's not to say I don't have *sympathy* with him, all the time--often I wanted Buffy to love him just so he wouldn't keep breaking his heart and I wanted to wrap him up and feed him sandwiches and tell him, It's okay! *I* love you!

But, as I understand it, one of the reasons people love Spike so much is they identify with him. And I just plain don't.