fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2005 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2005 ⌋

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

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06. [nf]

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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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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!"

That last paragraph...what. I get that people didn't like Riley, but. How completely divorced from the any actual aspect of the show do you have to be to write fic like that.

Besides that, I really really like this line: "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." It's a clear and condensed version of what I thought when first watching him spiral out of control those last few episodes (ignorant of the fandom seeing something else entirely, apparently).

Oh, man. There is this Old Skool Spander story where while he is held by the Initiative, all the soldiers rape, rape, rape Spike every five minutes, and the ringleader is Riley. In fact, in what has to be the grossest and weirdest thing I've read in fanfic, Riley cuts holes in Spike, comes into those holes and shoves his dog tags into one of them, and then Spike's vampiric healing heals him with Riley's very special presents left inside him. In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that years ago when I got into fandom, I read and enjoyed aspects of that story, but now, it just makes me cringe. :(

That's horrible. :(

I think the worst one I ran into was one where Riley's just been sleeping with Buffy on orders from the initiative - he's really a spy of some sort. And then after they find out, he and Buffy get in this fight and Buffy literally castrates him.

I'd love to read more BtVS fic, but I've gotten very wary of it after continually running into stuff like this.

Oh dear. that's unfortunate. :(

There is some awesome awesome BtVS fic out there, Nonnie. I promise you that. Have a look at my recs: http://lunabee34.livejournal.com/tag/recs%3A%20btvs

Lots of slash there, but also gen and het. The farther back you go, the more likely you are to find me reccing fics that I probably would not enjoy at this point in fandom. :)

Try this rec post in particular for some goodies: http://lunabee34.livejournal.com/166767.html

Oh thanks! I'll have to check them out. I'm actually primarily a het or gen reader where BtVS is concerned, although I read slash in other fandoms. But I've just gotten so tired of all the character bashing - if it's not Riley it's someone else - and I just gave up. But I'll definitely check out your recs.

I hope you find something you like!

The Xander/Dawn that I rec in the second link is one of my favorite fics ever; it might appeal to you. :)

I agree with all of this. I really like Riley, and I am so tired of running into fic that makes him out to be so horrible.

I do think one of the things that got the whole vampire biting addition started with Riley was that it threw him for a loop when Buffy let Dracula bite her. With Angel, well, he knew they had been in love. But the Dracula business was a whole other thing. And then he gets in a bad place emotionally because of all the other stuff going on, and there's kind of been this little wondering in the back of his mind "what is it with this whole vampire biting thing"? So when the female vamp hits on him, he's like why not? In a vulnerable moment, he makes a bad choice. And then it's just downhill from there.

On Buffy's side - I don't think it was just about her mother. I think the bigger issue was the Dawn/Key thing. Buffy was hiding this whole huge secret from everyone but Giles, and I think that's part of what Riley was picking up on from her. Not that I'm blaming her - I adore Buffy. But I also think that people who hate on Riley for what happened are way oversimplifying the whole situation.

I completely agree with you here. I love Buffy too. I think she's a great character. But when she shuts Riley out of what's going on with Dawn, he picks up on that. You know when your partner is keeping something from you. And I know she had a lot of reasons to do so, but it really damaged their relationship.

I think you're right about the allure too. I mean, at that point, every person Riley was hanging out with had had a relationship with a supernatural person--vampire, werewolf, witch, vengeance demon. There was some natural curiosity mixed in with head being in a bad place.

[ SECRET POST #2005 ]

Riley has grown on me over the years

Re: Riley has grown on me over the years

Re: Riley has grown on me over the years

Re: Riley has grown on me over the years

Re: Riley has grown on me over the years

Re: Riley has grown on me over the years

Re: Riley has grown on me over the years

Re: Riley has grown on me over the years

Re: Riley has grown on me over the years