Actually you bring up an interesting question about the whole souled/unsouled thing (and you're right that part of what made Spike seem forgivable is that in a lot of ways it seemed as though he had no real understanding about what it was he was doing. He didn't see why what he was doing was wrong).
Interestingly both True Blood and Being Human have vampires without soul nets. Being Human's vampires also don't have an issue with soulless vs. souled. However True Blood and Being Human approach vampirism a bit differently on a metaphorical level. I don't know that True Blood's heirachy and Fangs as a gay metaphor work in quite the same way to make Bill's actions understandable. Being Human's take is that vampirism is like a hard-core heroine addiction or something. There isn't a substitute for blood. There's just... going hungry. And staying hungry. And just like heroine addicts can fall off the wagon and go on a bender (and feel awful about it) vampires can too. And then there are vampires who just can't cut the addiction no matter how they try. Somehow it was the drug addiction part of it that actually make some of it forgivable in a sense and yet not forgivable in others. I mean... people wind up dead. But you can also buy that maybe they aren't completely in control of their actions. And when they beg someone to love them, to save them, etc. It often takes on the feeling of a drug addict. (Being Human's take on werewolf-ism seems to equate it with anger issues/domestic violence).
It's interesting to compare Bill's fall off the deep end with Mitchell's fall off the deep end. Both are pretty unforgivable, but somehow Mitchell's fall is one I pity him for. I don't really pity Bill's fall.
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Actually you bring up an interesting question about the whole souled/unsouled thing (and you're right that part of what made Spike seem forgivable is that in a lot of ways it seemed as though he had no real understanding about what it was he was doing. He didn't see why what he was doing was wrong).
Interestingly both True Blood and Being Human have vampires without soul nets. Being Human's vampires also don't have an issue with soulless vs. souled. However True Blood and Being Human approach vampirism a bit differently on a metaphorical level. I don't know that True Blood's heirachy and Fangs as a gay metaphor work in quite the same way to make Bill's actions understandable. Being Human's take is that vampirism is like a hard-core heroine addiction or something. There isn't a substitute for blood. There's just... going hungry. And staying hungry. And just like heroine addicts can fall off the wagon and go on a bender (and feel awful about it) vampires can too. And then there are vampires who just can't cut the addiction no matter how they try. Somehow it was the drug addiction part of it that actually make some of it forgivable in a sense and yet not forgivable in others. I mean... people wind up dead. But you can also buy that maybe they aren't completely in control of their actions. And when they beg someone to love them, to save them, etc. It often takes on the feeling of a drug addict. (Being Human's take on werewolf-ism seems to equate it with anger issues/domestic violence).
It's interesting to compare Bill's fall off the deep end with Mitchell's fall off the deep end. Both are pretty unforgivable, but somehow Mitchell's fall is one I pity him for. I don't really pity Bill's fall.