I have this stupid ass theory about Drusilla's spirit/humanity/soul (whatever you want to call it) and how it affects her line.
So, we can all agree that Spike is just. Different, even before he gets a soul. (And if we can't, shush, we are now.) He's a little odder, a little more human, a little less vamp, and even other vampires allude to it (well, mostly the polycule, but still) and how off he is. We also know Angelus (and a wee bit Darla) torture and break Dru before she's ever turned, he systematically focuses for weeks on breaking the humanity of Drusilla and then decides to turn her to leave her spiritually broken for all eternity. I have this stupid little headcanon theory that I hug with every fiber of my fandom being, that while he was manipulating, torturing, playing with Drusilla for ages, he shattered her soul, he broke her spiritually, he fractured her humanity (call it what you like). And I think that when Drusilla was turned, it made it more difficult to, let's say, scoop out all the human soul bits and leave a vessel with a demon only. I like to think he shattered her so completely that little shards and fragments remained, and that, tragically, Drusilla had slivers of her human spirit left behind (think of how she talks about her mother, sisters, uncle, etc, after 150+ years as a vampire). And that it's forever fractured any of her line, any vamps stemming from her, and any of their descendants. So, well. There's Spike *waves generally*. There's Holden, my god. There's the very human-like women (woman, was it just the one?) Spike turns in season seven. There's some depictions in the novels of "dolls" Dru makes (young, pretty women in pretty dresses) and they all act very human and Spike-ish (one wants to go get her dog from her sister, but burns in the sun because Drusilla can't raise no babies, she is the mid-point of 'if you don't raise your kids, you'll raise your grandkids').
And when you look at how Penn and James (and Elizabeth?) were and acted, compared to Drusilla and her line? Hell, even Lawson, who was a bit off for soul-related reasons, just kind of adds to this all and how different he is from Drusilla's line.
I think that Drusilla is broken and her line is broken. I think Angelus shattered her humanity before turning her and it left shards behind, and that she and her line continue to leave/pass on shards.
I've had this idea for about 18 years and am now out of ways to word it so in conclusion, idk, I hope you pick up what I messily threw down.












