Season 5 Riley

Cohen

Cohen

Hellhound
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Sineya
Okay, so going back and watching the fifth season, I don't hate Riley as much as I used to. Like, I can see what's influencing his decisions better. I mean, okay, so letting vamps feed off of you, not a good decision, but I can see sorta why he started doing that stuff. Buffy is kinda brushing him off, not on purpose, but with her mom in and out of the hospital so much, he's been bumped down on her priority list. And he had started seeing that even in episode 1 of the season, before the health problems began. That he was kinda being pushed further and further away. I even think he said to Xander in "The Replacement" about Buffy "..but she doesn't love me." I don't know, I kinda okay with Riley now..not his decisions, but the reasons behind them..
 
P
Panda
when i watch the shows over again riley doesn't piss me off as much either haha
Riley is my least favourite character from any season of Buffy, ever. He's incredibly annoying and just bland. I was reeaaaaally happy when he left. Although, I see your point about understanding the motivations behind his decisions in season five, and it does kind of make him likable.
 
I didn't used to like Riley, but yeah, as I watched seasons 4/5 again he didn't bug me as much. I dunno why that is.....
 
I always liked Riley. Not a favorite, but I didn't find him annoying. But I was not sad he left either. Not so much a big deal to me.
 
It's actually the opposite for me. Going back and watching again, I dislike him much more than before. Season 4 he was an okay character, but season 5 was just character assassination for him. I get that he wasn't feeling very close to Buffy, but honestly, could the guy get over his ego for 10 seconds to realize he wasn't the center of Buffy's world while her mother was in the hospital? It just really bugs me how he was so selfish during that time. With Buffy discovering the truth about Dawn, plus her mother's illness and of course being the Slayer, I'd say she had too much on her plate to have to coddle Riley anymore than she already was. If the scene in the cave in Out of My Mind wasn't enough to convince him that she cared for him, then I feel no sympathy for anything he did.
 
Flawless Faith said:
It's actually the opposite for me. Going back and watching again, I dislike him much more than before. Season 4 he was an okay character, but season 5 was just character assassination for him. I get that he wasn't feeling very close to Buffy, but honestly, could the guy get over his ego for 10 seconds to realize he wasn't the center of Buffy's world while her mother was in the hospital? It just really bugs me how he was so selfish during that time. With Buffy discovering the truth about Dawn, plus her mother's illness and of course being the Slayer, I'd say she had too much on her plate to have to coddle Riley anymore than she already was. If the scene in the cave in Out of My Mind wasn't enough to convince him that she cared for him, then I feel no sympathy for anything he did.
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While I don't disagree with you completely, I do have a little trouble with this. With Riley needing to realize that he wasn't the center of Buffy's world... isn't that really what the true meaning of a relationship is? You sleep, eat and breathe your partner?

I really don't feel that her feelings for Riley were in the same category as some of her other relationships. Think about if Joyce had been sick when she was with Angel. Do you envision Buffy totally abandoning Angel to be with her mother? As much as a I hate the Bangel relationship, Buffy did show time and time again her commitment to Angel. She also showed it with Spike. She needed these men, especially when her world was falling apart.

She didn't really need Riley. They just didn't have the fire.
 
I don't think you sleep breathe, eat your partner...I am looking for a way to re-phrase that...
Not when it is just a relationship. You need to know your family is the most important thing to you. I think marriage is when you really eat, sleep breathe, yada, yada. That's how I feel anyways. That's how it was when I got married.
 
For a lot of season 4, Buffy did basically eat, sleep and breathe Riley. Willow even makes the comment in A New Man after Buffy says she's spending the day with Riley, she says "Oh yeah because that's what you do on the days when the earth rotates." Buffy did pull back from Riley in 5 but mainly it was because of all her other obligations. She and Giles started training sessions again, the illness with her mom and of course the Dawn situation.

If Joyce had gotten sick in say, season 3, I don't think it would have made much of a difference who she was with to be honest. It was just all bad timing. She wouldn't have had the extra burden of Dawn, plus I personally think Angel would understand Buffy needing time away from them if it were to take care of her mother. Angel wasn't very clingy where Riley was. It's like he tracked her down every time she was at the hospital.
 
i agree with flawless faith. if she had been in the season 5 situation in season 3, i believe angel would have given her her space if she wanted it, whereas riley was just clingy. however, i dont think she would have wanted it (the space), and thats kind of the difference. i mean, i can totally see her turning to angel as a support system while her mom is sick etc., whereas with riley, she completely shut him out.
 
I never really hated Rilry, I just thought that he was too weak a character to be paired with the Slayer, especially after he lost what enhanced physical power the combination of chip and drug treatment gave him. It's not that I disliked him because of thi relative weakness, but more for the fact that he still tried to be competative with Buffy. Xander never had any particular powers either, but he accepted the fact and for the most part was still an asset to the team (somebody had to bring the jelly doughnuts). With Riley, it was more a "I'm a super warrior or I'm nothing" sort of thing.
 
I always have disliked Riley. It used to be a hatred, now as I rewatch the show it's just dislike. At the very beginning of season five he's not so bad...just sort of there...but after a while I start to hate him again. I was glad when he was gone, even though I felt sorry for Buffy.

Buffy, you can do so much better! (And I'm *not* talking about Angel OR Spike.)
 
I agree with you, I don't hate him as much as I used too and maybe hate is a strong word here since he's a fictional character...
 
The problem with Riley is... he's okay in season 4 because he's part and parcel of the Initiative story. But when that was over, unlike Angel who was INTRINSICALLY interesting as a character in his own right, without the Initiative, Riley was just... some guy. And not a terribly funny, appealling or charismatic one, either. Watching it, it really is shockingly obvious from the beginning of season 5 that the guy's dead in the water! lol!
 
Tranquillity
Tranquillity
Exactly! You've hit the nail on the head. well said.
To be honest, I think on some level Buffy had to have known that Riley wasn't going to be the one, and Riley must have known that too.

I agree with Spirit Of Fred in that she probably would have turned to Angel for support, while with Riley she shut him out. I think that just shows that her relationship with Riley was kind of a farce. In season 4, yeah it was clear she liked him... alot. But by 5 she had so much more to worry about and there was too much going on in her life to have to be constantly concerned with her "weak, kitteny" boyfriend.

I do agree with Xander when he tells Buffy in Into the Woods that Riley's just convenient. He's there when Buffy wants him to be but it's almost like the ended up with a superficial relationship in that Buffy didn't tell her so much of what was going on in her head and didn't let him in on how she felt. I think that's why Riley had that sense of needing to be needed, however twisted a fashion he chose to be needed in
 
the reily/buffy relationship was doomed from the start because they always had conflicting expectations of what it meant for them. in season 4 - for Buffy it was about moving on, being with someone who was not Angel and specifically choosing someone who was normal and nice and safe (or so she thought). A big portion of it was about sex too. He was her first experience of regular sex in a relationship and so, in season four Buffy is experiencing the first rush if sexual insatiability (not love) that comes with a new romance. By season five, that has worn off, as it naturally does, and the reality is that she just doesn't need him for much else. he is that nice, normal, safe guy she originally wanted but, he just doesn't do it for her. the realtionship has run its natural course. Reilly takes the realtionship more seriously than Buffy. i think he envisages white picket fences and him coming home from a hard days work (of doing what exactly?) to the little woman, baby on hip and a home cooked meal waiting on the table. This strictly defined relationship could never gell with Buffy. Buffy is the slayer and a strong, independent chick to boot and he never really gets that. when joyce is sick he expects her to act needy - like some horribly stereotypical female should but she can't because the strength and the independence are part of who she is and so because she doesen't react like he expected he doesn't know what to do with her, or how to relate to her. Thus the writing is on the wall for them.
 
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