Of course, I completely agree with you since you've seen the Spike/Buffy story and you're more of an expert on it than I am. In many ways, their stories are completely different. When you start comparing them, piece by piece, element by element, their stories are utterly different and I wouldn't claim they're not. In fact, I adore the fact that they are completely different. Wouldn't it be boring just watching the same scenes over and over again with different faces? I definitely think so.

I can't really speak on Spike/Buffy, so I'll just take your judgment on it. However, I disagree with the fact that Spike had parts of his humanity before he met Buffy and Damon didn't before he met Elena. I think the inherent difference in the two lies in the fact that in the TVDverse, there exists a convenient "switch" that vampires can turn off when they become vampires. That's what Damon did. In Buffyverse, Spike did no such thing. In BtVS, vampires are considered, by and large, purely evil creatures with no hope of redemption. They don't need a switch. I'm not sure what's so special about Spike that he could fall in love with Buffy, but I do know that Damon had humanity before he met Elena. He just didn't want to feel it. He didn't want to admit he had it. Yet both of the characters had the ability to love. Even though Spike eventually got over Drusilla, I do believe that he truly loved her. The way he doted on her clearly expressed that idea. In much the same way, Damon loved Katherine for 145 years, even when he claimed to have shut out every inch of his humanity. It was only when he met Elena that he realized that he couldn't shut out his humanity and that his image of Katherine had been a mirage. Spike realized that Drusilla wasn't worth his time and effort without any help from Buffy, obviously, but regardless, they both realized that the person they had been in love with for years wasn't worth it.

I disagree that Elena is Damon's only link to humanity. Damon might have found himself gradually being unable to keep that switch flipped when he met Elena, but ultimately... that's not his only link to humanity now. He cares about his brother. He loves his brother, even though he'd never say so in those exact words. Like he said in the S1 finale, he found himself wanting to protect Mystic Falls. If his only link to humanity was Elena, then he'd only want to keep her safe. He wouldn't want to protect Elena's friends, her family, her town. And yet... he did. Elena might have been the catalyst for Damon's return to humanity, but she is not, by any stretch, his only link to humanity. I believe that with all my heart. Now he cares about Stefan. Liz. Caroline. He's turning into a better man, with hardly any encouragement from Elena (that we've seen, with the exception of 2x13). He does selfless things without Elena's knowledge or approval. Elena doesn't even know the half of how selfless Damon has truly become.

I suppose we just have inherent differences in how we view Damon, in particular, but by and large, I agree that they have numerous differences. However, as an objective bystander, the end result of their journeys are quite similar. There are little nuances to each that make them distinguishable from each other, but yes, I believe they're similar. We just see the characters quite differently, IMO. Which is interesting. Variety is the spice of life!

You see, in BTVS there is such thing as a vampire without a soul and a vampire with a soul. In fact, there was always only one vampire with a soul - Angel. He got a soul because he was cursed. Soulles vampires are pure evil with no redeeming qualities... and yet Spike was different. I know you didn't see the later seasons ,but Spike went to fight his soul back on his own. No other vampire in history ever did that, because as you and I both mentioned, Jossverce vampires are pure evil and they love being that way; they have no humanity and no other vampire before Spike ever wanted to bring his soul back. But Spike ended up wanting that. He always had some humanity left in him that no other soulles vampire in Jossverce ever had.

TVD vampires are very different. They are able to have humanity and some of them are able to control their instincts, they are capable of love and friendship and caring and they can get alone with other people and live among them: like Caroline, Stefan, Lexy for instance. With Spike he was just ONE. The only vampire like that... Damon's story is great and I'm not, by any means, trying to bring his character down or anything (I thought that for some reason my previous post might look like that and I'm sorry if it did, because it is definitely not what I intended to do. I was just trying to point out the differences ), he is unique on his way of improvement and it's great. I think both of them have an amazing story and I highly recommend you to see BTVS so you can fully form a view on it

And I do see the similarity between both Elena and Buffy being the inspiration for Damon and Spike to change. These girls where able to bring the best in them

And as we remembered Damon...

Damon/Elena
Damon/Stefan

That is almost a perfect description I only want to add a little remark: not most boxes are shut and locked in Whedonverse, but ALL the boxes are. As you mentioned TVD switch thing is always "on" by default for all the vampires unless they choose to switch it "off", while in Whedonverse it was only Spike who fought back the monster inside him and brought his soul back willingly. No other vampire would ever make such a choice, because, as you mentioned, their boxes are locked, but Spike's was always half opened (even before meeting Buffy he was able to be selfless, to feel, to love the way other vampires could not) and Buffy was the one to open it wide.

Again, I am absolutely not trying to say that Damon's story was less epic or anything, it just was different in terms of the writer's world, you know? TVD vampires and BTVS vampires are very different and it makes both shows even more interesting to watch.

ETA: Just saw the last post on the previous page. I had forgotten about Darla. So it is almost like the switch. Darla's "box" was left slightly open as well, so she was also able to feel love. Yet some vampires don't choose to open the box and they choose to leave it closed. I'm over-simplifying things, of course, but that's what makes sense to me.

I think the box metaphor's too restrictive for the concept of a soul on BTVS/ATS. Just like with humanity, a vampire's actions depend on choice. We only know of a handful of vampires entire story and they were all very different and I always felt that it was easier to peg them as evil then to admit that there's humanity inside of the vampires and that maybe that humanity is what makes them the perfect killers.

Spike is a heavily romanticized vampire and that's probably why he doesn't work for me. Angel was a much more layered being in that he's perpetually beige when he starts to be about more than just Buffy. Darla was as well, when she started to find her own voice and narrative. There are a lot of other vampires that you meet who are not necessarily one-dimensional. Look at Dracula, The Master, Mr. Trick, Drucilla, Penn, etc.

Of course. The box metaphor is too restrictive for BtVS, just like the concept of a "switch" on TVD is often too restrictive. It's just a way to compartmentalize why and how vampires became different from the soulless vampires that Buffy, or anyone else, stakes and kills because they DO have no humanity left.

Also vampires are half breeds on BTVS, not so much in TVD. So you have to account for the demon inside of the vampire. We actually receive no information on exactly what type of demon "infects" the human when they turn. Not all demons are bad there either so that's also affects the type of vampire you get.

It's so hard to stop talking about these shows