Was Riley miscast?

[EffieT1]

My question is mostly for the riley haters out there who are quite plentiful, as a riley liker i just want to understand. By miscast i dont mean the actor but rather im referring to the role of the character, would you riley haters have preferred if he was just a friend, a new scoobie, a recurring character that eventually disappears or maybe even willow's love interest post oz (and before all the tara warriors attack, in this scenario willow would still have gotten to tara but maybe just later) or is the character just irredeemable in your opinions

Ps: i know i dont mention all the possible roles riley could have occupied (he could even have been evil) so if you think of one youd rather have seen him occupy then please mention in, but maybe like me youre okay with him being buffy's boyfriend (before the character annihilation he undergoes in S5).
Oh and by the way riley just not existing is not an option 😛

 

[CSIgirl86]

I really just don't like his character. No matter what role he had played he would have ended up being my least favorite character. If he had simply been an ally of Buffy's who occasionally appeared rather than a boyfriend I probably wouldn't have hated him as much.

 

[iShower4free]

I think as Buffy's first real love interest post Angel he was destined to be hated lol. But I think he wouldnt have been that bad of a character if he werent in a relationship with Buffy.

 

[Lyri]

I don't think this is a question that can really be answered very well.

Riley in a different role within the show would have been a wildly different character and Marc Blucas would have played him as such. Being just a friend, he wouldn't have had as many scenes with Buffy and probably a lot more with Xander and Giles, or even Spike, and so his dynamic and personality would have had to be changed in order for him to bond with someone and have something in common with someone who wasn't Buffy. If he was Willow's love interest, he might have even had a magical background rather than a military one, and maybe the Maggie and Adam storyline would have been linked more with the mystical side of the verse than the medical.

Personally, I liked Riley as he was. I liked seeing the perspective of someone on the outside, someone who had fallen into this life, but with a military background and made to follow orders. I thought it was interesting to see his fall, to see him struggle to cope with the idea that Maggie was using him and learning that not all mystical, demonic creatures are evil and seeing what that did to him, taking him down the path he did.

 

[Robb Stark]

I don't really have a problem with the character of Riley. I just think that he could have been done so much better. All of the key moments in S4 that were designed to make him cool or special never really took off for me.

I mean, his "I'm an anarchist" line is just cringe-worthy, when you can clearly tell that it was supposed to be a huge moment for him. "Riley on drugs" was just idiotic, and clearly pulled out of someone's behind late in the season because there is no indication at all for most of S4 that Riley is anything more than human. Maggie Walsh designing Riley and Adam to be defacto "brothers" was just ridiculous, when the intent was obviously supposed to be this huge emotional moment and plot reveal. Then Angel comes back and beats the hell out of him, after having the hugely emotional "I Will Remember You" episode and the arc with him, Buffy and Faith (easily the best parts of S4, and also the parts where Riley had the least impact and involvement. That's pretty telling). It was kind of hard to stay on the Riley train after all that.

I think the writing of the character, as opposed to the actual character himself, was the real problem.

 

[Blaze]

I'm one of those people that doesn't actually disliked Riley because he's with Buffy, I dislike him because well, he's Riley. Hell, I even enjoyed Parker a lot more than him before he turned out to be a huge jerk. And I'm not a huge Bangel fan so I was totally cool with Buffy moving on. Riley is basicly the character that I would never hang out with in real life. To me, the big problem is probably how close minded he is. I absolutely hated him in Mew Moon Rising. And I know he was hurt in s5, but the ultimatum he gave Buffy was simply and jerk move. Hell, he reminds me of the type of guy that would vote for Stephen Harper (sorry for the Canada reference here lol).

I could say a lot more, but I'm already getting off topic, so back on track! I probably would have disliked him even if he was cast otherwise. The only way I would have liked him was if they had actually entirely changed his personality.

Oh and dear, I would have hated him so much more if he had been with Willow!! Tara Warrior forever!!! 😉

 

[Mischlings]

I really want to like Riley - it actually bugs me that I don't like him. He's the kind of character that I should relate to and like for that reason (seriously, outside of the military background, I have a lot in common with him), but it's really all in the execution that it falls apart. I don't think that he should have had a very different role, I just think that they needed a little more character there (and probably an actor who doesn't deserve the nickname Captain Cardboard quite so much).

Not sure how coherent or useful that was.

 

[JReed1985]

Riley miscast?

Well first of all I am a Riley hater, I never liked him. Why? well I thought he was a damaged character to begin with. He came off as being a nice and helpful guy but they revealed him to be a commando and that's when his character truly started to suck. The nice guy and soldier character does not go together not without struggling to make him an interesting and appealing character.
All his time on the show and he doesn't deliver one liners or get a little cocky, especially when he throws a grenade in a crypt of vampires and gives no one liner. He maybe appealing for female fans but for male fans, what his appeal there?

 

[Robb Stark]

As others have said, it was all in the execution. Contrast some of the key moments and instances that were supposed to make Riley cool an likeable with the ones that were developed for Angel and Spike, which almost always hit their mark.

I outlined a few of Riley's above, and why they didn't work. That was never a problem with Angel and Spike. Finding out that Spike and Angel ran together back in the day, Spike's jacket story with Robin Wood and his mother, the love triangle between Angel, Spike and Drusilla. All of those were absolutely huge for Spike while adding to Angel at the same time.

Finding out he's a vampire, the discovery of the curse, the new knowledge that Angelus was the ultimate big bad vampire, all of those were big for Angel long before he got his own series. And once he did, the mythology around him was expanded so well.

 

[TiMER]

I'm indifferent towards Riley. Personally, I just like him for his body 😉

 

[BuffyElevated]

I don't think he was miscast at all. I thought Marc Blucas did an awesome job in the role, but I really think the writers ruined Riley. I loved how he started out, but I felt like they should have kept him a normal guy, and the whole vampire whores thing in Season 5 should never have happened.