I've been reading too many post-Gift fics, which made me wonder:  how badly do you think Spike was hurt after falling off Glory's tower?  He seems to be limping in the shot that we see, but when he falls to his knees it seems to be because of the rising sun, and after seeing Buffy's body, he stays down.  I'd imagine some broken bones (and Doc's stab wound, obviously), but nothing like weeks and weeks of recovery.

In comparison, did Angel fall farther when Illyria tossed him out of W&H's window?  He spit up some blood, but was back in the building sniping at Harmony in five minutes.

I don't think that one can compare the physical prowess of vampires on Angel to the ones on Buffy.  Angel's show was meant to look cooler, and the vampires somehow stronger (we see Spike thrown off a building in "Damage."  Was it as high as the tower? :shrug: but he landed face first, and got up just fine).  They jumped off buildings (or were thrown for them) often and had quick recovery. 

Also, with Spike in "The Gift," he was already in poor form after being in Glory's clutches, then Doc stabbing him, and not only did he fall from the tower, he landed on top of a pile of bricks, which must have been nasty.  It seemed (to me) that it messed up his legs.  He tried to walk but collapsed, and then stayed down when he saw that Buffy was dead.

Might have had some hip damage from landing on the pile of bricks....

Yeah, they'd also been on the run, so no regular feeding schedule for Spike, either. I'm sure he prepped for going after Glory best he could, but...

I love the vamp stuff on Angel - they're not a joke. Vamps are such wimps on BTVS. I always imagined the AtS portrayal was closer to their real abilities, at least in the experienced ones.

CM

ITA you can't compare the treatment on the two shows.  Remember on Angel how Spike and Angel were shot up and it was treated as more an annoyance.  Spike skewered Angel and it was played for laughs yet on BtVS Angel was coddled when injured as was Spike (Glory, the FE for example).  I think in the context of THAT show Spike was supposed to be fairly badly injured in terms of broken bones and the stab wound.  I have no idea about recovery period.  After the FE rescue those broken ribs didn't mend for a week or so and he was still really banged up after Buffy laid into him in Dead Things.  Authors choice I'd say.

Kathleen

Angel also has crossover strength when he  comes back to see Buffy and tangles with Riley.  He makes really high leaps and stuff that Spike never does.  I agree that the vamps are a lot scarier on Angel.  In fact, most of the demons on Buffy aren't that scary.  Except Hush.  The Gentlemen were scary.

The Gentlemen were scary.

Oh yeah, they were really creepy!

I think Caleb was scary too, in fact I think he was scarier than most of the demons because (apart from the superpowers) he was so real. Nasty, scary evil misogonistic serial-killer. *shudders*

I always thought it was grief that had him falling to his knees, rather than broken bones.
Same here. I always assumed that he was able to get up and walk away (at least to flee the sunlight). The way he's covering his face and crying made it seem like he fell because he was overcome with emotion, not physical pain.

I'm pretty sure he had a broken leg. He tried to walk, then collapsed as if one leg had given way under him.  He was crying, but I don't think that's why he fell to the ground. It's probably why he didn't try to get up and keep dragging himself towards her body. He realized that she was truly dead and that there was nothing left to do.  We have no idea how he got out of the sunlight - many fanfics have him dragging himself under some debris until it was safe to leave. Others suggest that someone helped him away from the scene (although we don't see that happening in the epi) so that he wouldn't just stay there and allow himself to burn up.

Somebody watch the end of the epi again. Spike is limping a little toward Buffy's body, and then he sort of reaches where the sunlight is, tho I'm not sure if it hits him, and stumbles and then falls down as if one leg gave out. Then we get a close up on his face, after he falls. He isn't crying or in pain yet. He's sort of disbelieving, staring, realizing what's happened, and then he breaks down and starts crying and has to cover his face with his hands, but all that happens after he goes down.
Plus, people, don't forget Doc stabbed him before throwing him off the tower, and I think he was already hurting from recovering from torture session and fighting human knights and hiking in sunlight to the gas station in previous eps, and maybe he wasn't feeding regularly.

He stumbles and collapses before he realizes she's dead.  He fell on top of bricks.  And they weren't flat in a neat pile either. He wasn't made of steel.  Especially on Buffy--upgrade on super powers/healing didn't come till later on "Angel"  And also, Spike wouldn't cry from the physical pain, not to say that it doesn't hurt, but it wasn't like he was bawling his eyes out while being tortured by a Hell God, or even post torture.  So I don't see him crying from being shoved off a tower on top of a pile of bricks, most certainly damaging something along the way, either.