[ SECRET POST #2328 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2328 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 098 secrets from Secret Submission Post #333.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

04. http://oi40.tinypic.com/260eo0y.jpg

[(Anonymous)]

I never liked Riley, and I especially disliked Riley/Buffy.

[cassandraoftroy]

I didn't have anything against Riley, which seems to be an unpopular opinion in the fandom. Then again, I wasn't particularly wedded to her relationship with Angel, so I was kind of happy to see her move on, and Riley was nice. I did think they kind of shafted his character later on, though.

[feotakahari]

I was never that into this fandom, but I thought people's complaint was that it was too healthy--or more specifically, that Riley was too bland and too obviously what Buffy needed. (Though I've got to wonder where those people were back when Angel was first introduced, before he got the character development that kept him from being equally bland--maybe badass good-guy vampires get a pass?)

[(Anonymous)]

Season 4 Buffy/Riley was my favourite Buffy pairing too. I was looking forward to a relationship that consisted of two asskicking people, but where the girl was the stronger and more capable of the two and the guy had the supporting role. Look what we got instead. :/

[queerwolf]

Of course it was her healthiest relationship - he was the blandest guy that ever blanded. I really disliked them together and most of S4 for that reason.

[straycatblues]

To be honest,I didn't like any of Buffy's love interests (besides Spike,but he was a villain first and that's why I liked him).

[sootyowl]

I like Riley as well. I don't find him as boring as some people say he is. (He was sweet and cute whenever he was around Buffy. I still love it when him and Willow join forces to woo Buffy). He's just not the bad boy type like Spike and Angel.

[(Anonymous)]

I am with you OP, I loved season 4 Riley/Buffy and I hated where they took him in season 5.

I never liked Angel/Buffy or Spike/Buffy because they were both too melodramatic and fucked up for my taste. I really just wanted Buffy to be happy and Riley was the closest thing she had to a relationship that didn't completely torture her.

[(Anonymous)]

I would've been okay with Riley if he wasn't a misogynistic asshole and the writers tried to sell it as him being from Iowa.

[dancing_serpent]

I agree. I liked Riley and loved Buffy/Riley in season 4 a lot.

[arcadiaego]

I rewatched the series recently, and I agree. I think the way the relationship ended was really badly written and unconvincing.

[ketita]

Me too! I really liked them in S4, and was sad over the lost potential when they basically derailed his character. I thought they were cute together, and were actually pretty darn healthy (in S4)

[silverr]

I actually liked Riley as well. He's the sort of solid, honest guy that helps you set the Vernier scale for "normal" ...

... though I do see why it didn't work out long term.

[truxillogical]

I think what always raised my hackles with Riley was that he was "normal." But not, y'know, "Oh, he's so boring compared to vampires!"

It was that he seemed very traditional. He always seemed really uncomfortable with the idea that Buffy was stronger than him. It wasn't until season 5, IIRC, that they made him blatantly hate that Buffy sometimes showed him up in confrontation, but really, from the get-go, he always seemed to be the sort of guy who very much wanted to be The Man of the relationship, even if it was usually subtle and non-threatening.

And that's not, y'know, always a bad thing. My best friend's fiance is very much like that, and she loves him a great deal and is happy with that kind of set-up, so it's groovy (though it still kinda weirds me out a bit how quickly she went from Single to YouCannotTellWhereOneEndsAndTheOtherBegins, but hey, they're happy). But on a personal level, it's something I really dislike, so watching his scenes with Buffy always made me a little uncomfortable.

I kinda shipped Buffy/Spike, though. Which was unhealthy as all get out, but man was it fun (and terrible. But fun).

[lunabee34]

On the first watch, I wasn't impressed with Riley's character, but on subsequent watches, I have grown to like him a great deal. I think there was huge potential in his relationship with Buffy (and with the other Scoobies).

[dancing_clown]

I liked them too, OP. And I'm in this weird place wherein I hated THAT they broke up, but I loved the story of their breakup, if that makes sense. I see a lot of people dismiss it as "They only broke up because Riley's butthurt because Buffy doesn't need him to be a big manly man for her!!" but I think that argument just demonstrates a pretty weak-ass understanding of how human emotion typically works.

[(Anonymous)]

I still think he would've been better with Willow than Buffy.

Which is probably no one else ever thought of, but I thought they had a lot better on-screen chemistry together than Buffy/Riley did.

[(Anonymous)]

Poor Riley, I liked him. I disliked so much how the fandom blame him, in special when Faith raped him, yes that was pretty hard for Buffy, but Riley was a victim too.

[(Anonymous)]

I never really liked any of Buffy's long term guys. Riley was actually the better though - Angel channeled Edward Cullen (and Buffy can be a bit Bella-ish about him), Spike was okay until he tried to rape Buffy, which I never really got past... Riley was healthier.

Really, I almost wish the show had just kept Buffy single or mostly single. She was so annoying when she was swooning over guys, even male characters I liked.

[(Anonymous)]

I liked Riley, not as an example of someone I'd want to date, but as simply a flawed character. People complain about the "he just wanted to be The Man" thing -- and I understand that, to a point -- but if he didn't have any flaws at all, what kind of person/character would he be? His insecurity (I won't say it was misogyny because I think that word is far too overused these days) was a natural choice for the writers, considering Riley's job. Even a super secret military organization would've had their super secret soldiers go through regular military training first. There weren't any female soldiers in The Initiative that I remember, and their job was to protect the citizenry from demons; a gung-ho, we the mens attitude would hardly be a surprise considering the ego it must boost in them. I think his insecurities about Buffy were less "Iowa" than "military" (and I say that as a military wife).

I liked that Buffy got a taste of what it was like to date a good guy, someone who at his heart is nearly always good/good-intentioned, as opposed to Angel and Spike, who could never give that to her. Riley gave her a shot at someone who knew what she was without her having to feel she had to protect him (like she would have with Scott). Riley was the in-between, not civilian but not Scooby.

I think I liked Riley, too, because his flaws were simple human flaws. His insecurity made him more human. Buffy needed human. Because even Xander, human as he was, was such a part of the Scooby thing and such an extension of who she was that he wasn't just human to her. Angel and Spike were so over the top drama (trying to kill her, ending the world, rape, more trying to kill her and ending the world) that those things weren't flaws as much as they were plotlines.

As I word that, I think yeah, that's what I mean: I liked Riley because he was a character, a human being. I didn't love Angel or Spike because they were plot devices for Buffy to react to.

[(Anonymous)]

Agreed so very much. I liked Riley/Buffy. In the beginning it seemed to be such a healthy relationship. Though I know most Buffy fans hate the pairing.

[miarrow]

Ahh! The rare spotting of a Riley lover. I always enjoy knowing I'm not alone on that front.

[darkmanifest]

Chiming in, yeah, I really liked Riley and Buffy together, even on the first watch of the series. I was burned out on the Angel drama at that point, and I just wanted Buffy to have a normal relationship for awhile; even if the guy himself wasn't particularly interesting, so what? It should have been a nice, low-key era in Buffy's life that showed her romance didn't always have to come packaged with insanity. Then they just had to turn that into another dysfunctional angst-fest, too.

I was deeply confused when I discovered fandom hated his guts. Maybe they dragged Riley's involvement out way longer than it needed to go, struggling to make him relevant when it...wasn't really happening, but damn, between him and the doomed vampire (and I love that vampire), dude was a step up.

[tabaqui]

They were all right together, except for how he was a member of a secret military organization that was capturing and vivisecting sentient beings. Including people like Oz and whoever 'Adam' was before he was Adam.

So, you know...ick.