[ SECRET POST #2005 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2005 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.


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02.


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03.


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04.


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05.


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06. [nf]


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07.


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08. http://i.imgur.com/H1X1Z.gif
[linked because uh not sure if this is porn or not; live action]


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09. http://i.imgur.com/pNcu1.jpg
[porn of the drawn variety - Tintin]


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10.


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[ ----- SPOILERY SECRETS AHEAD ----- ]











11. [SPOILER WARNING for Hourou Musuko]



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12. [SPOILER WARNING for Prometheus]



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13. [SPOILER WARNING for Homestuck]



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14. [SPOILER WARNING for Avengers]



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15. [SPOILER WARNING for Merlin]



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16. [SPOILER WARNING for Tangled]



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[ ----- TRIGGERY SECRETS AHEAD ----- ]












17. [WARNING for ... pretty sure this has something to do with rape]



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18. [WARNING for rape]



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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 000 secrets from Secret Submission Post #286.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

18. [WARNING for rape]
http://i48.tinypic.com/2rnzqcl.jpg

[(Anonymous)]

Woo! Riley! *pom poms*

[murderershair.livejournal.com]

Hey, I don't hate Riley! And I've run into some other people who range from lukewarm to full on adoring him!

To be fair, I'm largely a fandom lurker, but hey.

[(Anonymous)]

Um...Spike IS a would-be rapist.

[(Anonymous)]

huh? Spike still has a shit ton of fans. That guy is paired with everyone.

Not sure about Riley

[oftheark]

I liked Riley. I'm glad he got to move on and be happy, because Buffy would only have continued to make him miserable. She didn't deserve him.

[visp.livejournal.com]

Well, they are those things. They have other sides to their personalities, but they're both kinda shitty people who have done some pretty bad things.

[popkin16]

I like Riley - he was never a favorite, but I like him well enough. I was into Buffy when I had no access to a computer, but awhile back - on a whim - I checked out the fandom and was pretty surprised by how much hate there was for him.

[(Anonymous)]

Black IS a shade of grey. Riley can crawl in a hole and die.

[cyren2132]

All this Riley love is making my heart happy. I've long-said that, while his actions near the end of his relationship with Buffy were not of the good, his *feelings* were valid. The two of them were just incompatible. I don't agree that he's a douchebag, and I REALLY don't believe he's misogynist -- he's just a person who did an unkind thing (a few times) while he was hurting. In short, he was flawed. And THAT'S my issue with fandom. People say they want all these flawed, complex characters but then when they get one: DOUCHEBAG! MISOGYNY! EVIL!

[(Anonymous)]

Can you judge a soulless vampire the same way as you'd judge a human being? Can you judge an animal the same way as you'd judge a human being?

[castorochiaro]

Uh. How is Riley a misogynist? Is it because of his actions in Season 5? Because...yeah, those were bad, but it was more because he wanted a thrill than anything else. Still terrible, but I legitimately can't grasp how that would translate into misogyny.

Anyhoo. I liked Riley. He was a sweet, simple guy. Liked Spike too, but he got kind of irksome after a while. Think he was at his prime when he was a villain.

[tabaqui]

Riley's biggest flaw as a character was that he was boring, in my mind. That, and he collected sentient species so that they could be vivisected and experimented on, which is revolting. Otherwise, he was pretty meh all the way 'round.

[scarfman]

Riley got dealt a bad hand; he was the love interest who happened to be on the plate when the alltime fandom darling 'ship came along, and got a crapload of inappropriate abuse for it. Now, any time I see the same effect anywhere else (Sam Anders, Martha Jones, Pete Shanahan, Nyota Uhura, etc.), I call it "Riley Finn syndrome". He didn't deserve what the writers did to him; he didn't deserve to be made either an object lesson or a poster boy (I can't tell which the creators meant) for the nice-guys-lose-out-to-bad-boys trope. I forgot what I was driving at. I think it was just, I don't think people really dislike Riley. Either they resent his perceived object to their favorite other 'ship, which he never was because that 'ship was never going to end well, or they resent what the creators did to him in order to write him out when they needed him gone.

[got_swagger]

LOL

I don't hate Riley, I just like to make fun of him.

He was kind of goofy and he tried really hard to make a difference, but sometimes, I just had to LOL. ("I get to play the cowboy!") I can understand his frustration towards the end of S5 and while I don't hate him for it, it really didn't do much to propel him into my Favorite Buffy Characters, Ever. But he was a good guy and I don't get the hate.

I'll never like Spike, tbh.

[kallanda_lee]

I think it's just these are some of fandom's hot buttons, to be honest. And the Buffy fandom is horribly good in using different standards for different people. I mean, it seems to me I hear more whining about Spike's rape attempt on Buffy than about Angel going on a killing spree and killing Jenny or Willow skinning someone alive. Or Anya's demon stuff in the past.

In my opinion, Spike would never have gone through with it, and he did more than others to repent. Hell, he seemed to even have a conscience long before he had a soul.

As for Riley, I honestly just hated the whole relationship. And I thought Buffy and him weren't right for each other. Also, he was presented as her normal" boyfriend interest, while in many ways his behaviour was equally problematic as Angel's or Spike's, but he never had the excuse of not being human. Like this was supposed to be Buffy's "healthy" relationship while it wasn't.
However, he's not *that* bad if you compare him to some other characters.

[fauxkaren]

I like Riley too! I didn't used to and he's still not my favorite character. But for some reason on this rewatch that I'm currently doing, I finally GET him as a character.

[(Anonymous)]

SPUFFY!

Wait? Is there an active fandom for BtVS still? Where?

[(Anonymous)]

Yay for Riley love! I don't think he made the most interesting character in the 'verse, but I'd love to have a guy like him in my life even just as a friend.

Ok, thinking about Riley got me randomly thinking about the scenes of him looking after Dawn in S5 and how she kinda missed him when he was gone and now I really want platonic Riley+Dawn fic. Does any exist that anyone knows of?

[habilelapin]

I just found Riley a little dull, and kind of tacked on.

[(Anonymous)]

I hated Riley so much. But I never thought he was misogynist? I just didn't like his character. I thought he was boring.

[still_twitching]

Huh. The Spike bit is interesting. I'm not all that involved with the fandom (especially as of late), but whenever I did check out any Buffy fansites, Spike gushing and by extension, Spuffy gushing was par the course. Sucked for me, since I'd been burned out by his character thanks to Buffy's seventh season. And the first half of Angel's last didn't exactly help with that, either.

Now, Riley... Riley hate I'm very much familiar with. I was never on-board with sexist/misogynist/douche-canoe claims when it came to him. I think he really was just upset that she was - in his mind - keeping him at a distance. That's what I took his 'you never cried in front of me' line to be about. Not 'rawr, why didn't you sob into my broad, manly shoulders.'

[gabzillaz]

Never minded Riley. And I like Spike, even if I hate what he did in Seeing Red.

Then again, I love Dawn in the series and I'm not a big Xander fan, so what do I know?

Riley has grown on me over the years

[lunabee34]

I started watching Buffy in season five. I watched it through the end and *then* went back and watched seasons 1-4. On the first watch, I didn't like Riley, mostly (I realize now) because I liked Spike so much and he wasn't Spike.

On subsequent rewatches, I've realized how interesting his character is and how much I really like him. He is a person who begins in a position of moral absolutes who must learn that the world is actually comprised of shades of grey. That's really scary and takes a lot of courage to accept. Moral absolutes are easy. You don't have to think at all. Growing beyond that is difficult.

Riley also has been violated. His trust has been violated by a woman who he respects and (perhaps) even thinks of in a maternal role. She has abused him and drugged him. He has to deal with that, plus losing men in his unit that he was friends with and cared for, plus the realization that a lot of his physical prowess was chemically induced. He genuinely thinks that he has trained to his level of ability, not that he's been souped up to meet it. It's another lie he has to figure out how to deal with.

I think those things have more to do with why he starts frequenting vampire brothels LOL than anything to do with Buffy. Riley is messed up and hurting and he wants some kind of hurt he can control, some kind of risk he feels like he's handling.

Another thing that helped me come to terms with Riley's character is the ridiculous way he's portrayed in a lot of Old Skool Buffy fanfic. Tons and tons and tons of fics where Riley is a rapist monster. He rapes Spike (usually) but sometimes Oz and sometimes Angel. But mostly Spike. Back-buttoning out of those fics made me go, "Wait. Riley is not as awful as these fics make him out to be. Time to rewatch!"

[crazed_delusion]

I disliked Riley purely for the actor. I could care less about shipping blah blah blah crap.

I just can't stand the dude and don't think he can act *shrugs*