Is Riley serious?

WileyDairyGnome

WileyDairyGnome

Strong like an Amazon
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Sineya
I was just watching the episode Who Are You, and it really made me realize how annoying and stupid Riley is.

When the church is being held with vampires, Buffy (well, Faith, but whatever) goes to fight them, but Riley is all like "You can't go in by yourself, wait for my big government army to help you, blah blah blah". Buffy asks how many vampires there are and he says "Three". 😡 WTF? Then he's like "I'm going in with you, you can't go alone!" (Even though he's hurt to the point you can't poke his stomach)

Is he stupid? Personally I would be so insulted as the slayer for him to say that to me. Buffy has saved the world 3 times without his or any governmental army's help, fought countless vampires and demons, I think she can take on 3 vampires. Meanwhile, Riley is busy shooting vamps and demons with guns.

I know I'm just ranting, but this just really bugged me. I never really liked Riley, but this just made me lose even more respect for him. I know he's always had issues with Buffy being stronger than him, but this is just ridiculous.
 
NY State of Mind
NY State of Mind
Riley will forever be the man that knew too little :p
I had to jump in since you were taking a shot at Riley, Chris. 😛 😉

Yea he is overprotective in that scene, but you can see he easily changed his mind once Faith proved to him he was unable to help. 😉 But yah, not stupid, just protective of Buffy(even though he know she can take care of three measily vampires haha).

Also, he had issues at first, but it went away with time. I don't think it's that big a deal for him. Except when he realized that Buffy was distant in S5, and that he might not be what she *wants*. Which by that point he think has to do with him not being superhuman. 😛
 
BuffyElevated
BuffyElevated
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brinkster130
brinkster130
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PassionBecoming
PassionBecoming
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T
ticonderouga
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I think Riley is a nice guy, just not what Buffy needs. I keep wishing I could find a guy like him. His overprotectiveness is kinda sweet, but it can also come across as annoying.
 
I think as everyone else has said he was just being over protective and he was pretty much like that in a lot of situations where Buffy faced even minimal danger, if none at all.
 
I think it was a bit stupid to be honest. There's being protective and then there's misunderstanding the whole role of being a slayer. I always thought his view to be very old fashioned and if it were me I'd be quite offended that he didn't think I was strong enough to take on 3 vampires. If it was something like the ubervamps then that would be a bit more acceptable, but it's not like it wasn't something she couldn't handle.
 
Z
zobothehobo
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WileyDairyGnome
WileyDairyGnome
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In my opinion, it comes from the same place as his feeling of envy for Buffy's slayer powers. He doesn't like the fact that Buffy is stronger than him. It's hard for him. He might be in denial, or simply a jerk.
 
Riley is not stupid.

Yes, he was being over protective; the girl he was head over heels in love with was about to run into a church where vampire were holding people hostage. He was simply worried for her safety. Misguided sure, stupid no. It didn't take much for Buffy (Faith) to convince him of such.

Yes, the worrying was unnecessary as she is the slayer, but you need to remember that for Riley the whole concept of a slayer is still fairly new. For his entire life (a little over 20 years) he has never known about the slayer, and for the past several years that he has been working with the Government where he has been doing so with the belief that they were the only ones fighting the demons and vampires. It takes time to adjusting to something that big. Also, on the time note, he did get better with time. We saw the distaste for demons and vampire change, he grew to understand that things weren't black and white and he understood Buffy's role in the world.
 
BuffyElevated
BuffyElevated
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PassionBecoming
PassionBecoming
There's my pal!
Honestly it was stupid. Now if it was stupidity because he was blinded by love or he's just that thick is something to be debated. I think it was misunderstanding of slayer power plus love. it doesn't make it less stupid though.
 
I don't think it was stupid of Riley. I don't care who you are, Slayer or not, fighting 3 against 1 is not good odds, and he knew that. I don't think he meant to say Buffy couldn't handle it; I just think he was trying to be protective and didn't want to see her outnumbered.
 
brinkster130
brinkster130
[No message]
lol us guys just can't win with you women can we?

We're trying to be all alpha and protective even when we have no super-powers. And we still get slapped down for it. 😀

Seriously though, I think Riley just wanted to feel needed most of the time. He's a good guy.
 
BuffyElevated
BuffyElevated
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Lol, I think the least serious thing about this episode was one of the dudes transporting Faith (Buffy) to England called the other one a "ponce", as though English people actually talk like that haha.
 
WileyDairyGnome said:
When the church is being held with vampires, Buffy (well, Faith, but whatever) goes to fight them, but Riley is all like "You can't go in by yourself, wait for my big government army to help you, blah blah blah". Buffy asks how many vampires there are and he says "Three". 😡 WTF? Then he's like "I'm going in with you, you can't go alone!" (Even though he's hurt to the point you can't poke his stomach)
Click to expand...

Riley Finn is a lot of things, but stupid isn't one of them. Overconfident, maybe. Dedicated and committed, certainly. His main problem stems back to the days of Maggie Walsh, who was obviously fixated, if not obsessed, with him. Riley is a young men, talented and brave, but probably not all that experienced. Maggie fed his ego, openly praising him, setting him above the men in his command, and he was just too naive to realize what she was doing.

Even faced with the reality of the situation ("I'll go all out if you will...) he still honestly believed that he could some day be the equal of the Slayer or one of the things that she fought. And, adding even more to his delusion, he was able to push Spike around whenever he felt either the need or simply urge to do so. Tangling with Angel was something of a wake up call, but that was after "Who Are You," so it really can't apply here. What does apply, however, is one simple fact.

Riley is a hero, probably the greatest example of one on the entire series, just like Gunn was on "Angel." Even if he knew without a shadow of a doubt that he would be going to his death in that church, he would never allow what he considered to be a normal human to go in there alone.
 
BuffyElevated
BuffyElevated
WELL SAID. Love it!
white avenger said:
Riley Finn is a lot of things, but stupid isn't one of them. Overconfident, maybe. Dedicated and committed, certainly. His main problem stems back to the days of Maggie Walsh, who was obviously fixated, if not obsessed, with him. Riley is a young men, talented and brave, but probably not all that experienced. Maggie fed his ego, openly praising him, setting him above the men in his command, and he was just too naive to realize what she was doing.

Even faced with the reality of the situation ("I'll go all out if you will...) he still honestly believed that he could some day be the equal of the Slayer or one of the things that she fought. And, adding even more to his delusion, he was able to push Spike around whenever he felt either the need or simply urge to do so. Tangling with Angel was something of a wake up call, but that was after "Who Are You," so it really can't apply here. What does apply, however, is one simple fact.

Riley is a hero, probably the greatest example of one on the entire series, just like Gunn was on "Angel." Even if he knew without a shadow of a doubt that he would be going to his death in that church, he would never allow what he considered to be a normal human to go in there alone.
Click to expand...

I love this. All of this... I don't think it could be said any better. 😀 Bravo, [MENTION=6758]white avenger[/MENTION]!
 
For once [MENTION=6758]white avenger[/MENTION], we agree on something 😉

I think the word "stupid" is what doesn't sit right with me. The way its being discussed in terms of Riley's actions is that he was consciously doing the wrong thing or is actually not of average intelligence; both of which don't fit with what Riley was doing in that situation. Like others have said, I think a lot of it comes from how he was brought up. In the beginning he was quite "old fashioned" but that also makes him heroic and chivalrous, which is, as WA said, what all the old great heroes were about.

My reading of that scene is not that he didn't think Buffy could handle it but that he wanted to fight by her side and do what he could to help, especially as it was in a church, his church at that. Even if he was still a bit blase about the whole Slayer thing, can you really call him stupid for that? Every single character had to go through the process of learning what the Slayer was all about, and not just the Slayer in general but Buffy as a Slayer. It shouldn't be any different for Riley, he should be able to go through that learning process and challenge the only perceptions he had ever known just like every other character was allowed to do. As one of the 'human' characters, it's indicative of his character.
 
I think that Riley couldn't play his soldierrole very good.However, it was not always his fault. Some army dialogues were just ridiculous!!
 
When I said "stupid", I said it because of the fact that Riley treated Buffy like she was just another soldier like him. He wanted her to wait to have a governmental back-up to fight only 3 vampires. She is the slayer, she has magical, ancient power in her. Sure Riley didn't know about the slayer until recently, but he sure does forget the details quickly.

I know he meant well, but I found it insulting the way he acted in that scene.
 
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brinkster130 said:
Riley is not stupid.

Yes, he was being over protective; the girl he was head over heels in love with was about to run into a church where vampire were holding people hostage. He was simply worried for her safety. Misguided sure, stupid no. It didn't take much for Buffy (Faith) to convince him of such.

Yes, the worrying was unnecessary as she is the slayer, but you need to remember that for Riley the whole concept of a slayer is still fairly new. For his entire life (a little over 20 years) he has never known about the slayer, and for the past several years that he has been working with the Government where he has been doing so with the belief that they were the only ones fighting the demons and vampires. It takes time to adjusting to something that big. Also, on the time note, he did get better with time. We saw the distaste for demons and vampire change, he grew to understand that things weren't black and white and he understood Buffy's role in the world.
Click to expand...

These are pretty much my thoughts exactly on the subject. I don't think he is stupid at all, just worried and concerned for the safety of the woman he loves. I can't say I can find fault in that. He wants to help her, not "save" her. He has said - more than once - that while he did have trouble adjusting to her being stronger than him at first, that he's fine with it and thinks it's pretty awesome.

(I akin this to the multiple times a day my husband asks me if I need help, tells me to be careful, etc. Does he think I'm stupid/useless/weak? No, he just wants to help and be supportive.)
 
brinkster130
brinkster130
*high five*
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