I didn't like Spike when he was obessessed/in love with Buffy - I thought he was at his best with Drusilla - those two were great together and I really wished they had kept them together.
It's funny - I hated Spike in Buffy but loved him in Angel - does that even make sense?
The whole kiss of Buffy and Angel is that they are still in love despite everything they've been through - Buffy said she wasn't 'cookies' yet and she wanted to wait till she was 'Cookies' when she was, Angel was the one who would get together with her.
I didn't mind Xander - he had his good moments but he did have moments where I wanted to hit him like telling Faith that Angel was bad and Faith would have killed him if it wasn't for Buffy but I did feel that he redeemed himself in the end - he was there when Buffy needed him and that what it mattered - he did lose Anya and he loved her.
Yeah - I got what you meant about everyone turning on Buffy whenever she did something wrong - she was killed and went on a bender (1st/2nd season) - they blamed her for the kidnaps. She slept with Angel without the two of them knowing about the clause in the curse - she got blamed. She kept Angel's return a secret - she gets blamed for that. She dies to save the world and comes back but refuses to tell them anything and she gets blamed for everything.
It made me wish Glory had killed them all and killed Buffy to let her go back up to heaven where she really wanted to be.
If you ask me - Joss should have stopped with Buffy after she dies by throwing herself into the portal - she did her job, she saved the world, everyone she knew and loved was safe and happy - yes, they were upset that she died, but they would have gotten over it time - that was a good point for them to finish with it. They only did 5 seasons of Angel and I felt when they finished it, that was a good point because it made you wonder what happened next.
And thinking about Spike just made me realised that I really liked Spike and Fred! *goes off to look for some fanfiction of those two*