Is Buffy “responsible” for Spikes feelings towards her?
Giles argues that Buffy isn’t responsible for what Spike thinks or feels. In order to understand what Giles means by this, we need to distinguish between someone being a “cause” of another person’s feelings and someone being “responsible”. If you trip and fall and inadvertently knock someone down, you are a cause of their falling down, but you didn’t intend it to happen. If you forcibly push them and they fall down, you are responsible for their falling down. One person cannot be responsible for another person’s feelings–feelings don’t work that way. However, your looks, actions, etc, might bring out feelings in another that they are inclined to feel when they see such looks or such actions. This would happen whether you intended it or not. Buffy acknowledges that her behavior attracted Spike, but her behavior would not have had this effect on him if Spike wasn’t already the type to respond sexually to violence and to have obsessions with slayers long before Buffy was even born. Buffy
