"Good guys" who are really Bad and

[Willow Rosenberg]

"Bad guys" who are really good...Does such a thing exist in the Buffyverse?? I got this thread idea from a funny lil post N4H made...I'm sure it'll drum up some discussion...

 

[Xander]

Well most of the characters in Buffy are "grey" characters, they are not wholly good or wholly evil and thats what I love. So yeah lets go vague and say everyone as I'm lazy.

 

[nerd4hire]

I remember an interesting discussion on this board one time where people were talking about the difference between classic, champion, perfection style heroes like the old Superman, and Anti-heroes like let's say...well...Angel.

To me the Whedon writers seem to be fond of Anti-heroes. The heroes of Buffy/Angel/ are often paving the road to Hell with good intentions. Firefly and Fray have heroes flawed by their environment, forced by the basic goodness of their nature to try to do the right thing.

What confuses me sometimes is why some fans would be attracted to this hotbed of anti-heroes called the Whedonverse, then criticize the "good guys" for being flawed.

That's what anti-heroes are.

 

[Willow Rosenberg]

I think this type of characterization makes for more realistic and likable personalities despite their obvious flaws. You can't really relate to a perfection-style hero like Superman, because perfection isn't in Human Nature.

 

[Mr_Gordo]

I guess that's another reason why some people didn't dig Riley. He was a bit of a goody goody. Sure he got himself bitten later on, but he was a really good guy. People need the drama. They need the pain, and good guys don't bring that as much. Thinking about Lindsey. He was a character that I absolutely loved. He was on the other side of the fence. "The bad guys", but I absolutely loved his character. One of my favourite eps was when he got his hand back. And Christian Kane played him beautifully.

 

[LadyLavinia]

I guess that's another reason why some people didn't dig Riley. He was a bit of a goody goody. Sure he got himself bitten later on, but he was a really good guy. People need the drama. They need the pain, and good guys don't bring that as much. Thinking about Lindsey. He was a character that I absolutely loved. He was on the other side of the fence. "The bad guys", but I absolutely loved his character. One of my favourite eps was when he got his hand back. And Christian Kane played him beautifully.

I don't think that Riley was anymore a "goody goody" character than the others. Remember, we saw Riley from Buffy's perspective. And in her eyes, Riley was "Joe Normal", the perfect guy for a normal life. She had blinded herself from his less than admirable traits - except for in late S4, when he had expressed his distrust of all demons - including Oz as a werewolf, and when she found out about his trips to the vamp whore in "Into the Woods".

In the end, Riley was just as "grey" as the others.

 

[Willow Rosenberg]

I don't think we necessarily saw Riley from Buffy's perspective...the show is shown, not through someone else's eyes, but for what their world really is. The problem with Buffy though was that she tried to see Riley in black and white, instead of realizing that no one really falls under that categorization.