Who were in the wrongs for the ruins of Briley Breaking Up?

[Joshua]

Who do you think were in the wrongs for the ruins of Briley breaking up in season 5?

Buffy: Not paying attention more to Riley than she used to with Angel
Riley: For "Cheating" on her with vampires at a brothel

 

[Robb Stark]

I think they both were responsible for it. I'm always going to be more Team Buffy, but Riley was clearly looking for a deep, marriage like commitment from her, and that just wasn't going to happen. Xander summed it up pretty good in the episode where Riley leaves Sunnydale when he talked about how Buffy never really opened herself up after Angel left. I don't think that really makes it her "fault" for the relationship not working out in the end, but because of that "Briley" was never going to be anything really special like Buffy and Angel were.

Now, that being said, Riley did get pretty weird towards the end. I get that he was overcompensating in a lot of ways, but he screwed up pretty bad. For starters, he was always, ALWAYS, in the way whenever the fighting went down. He'd throw himself right up the middle with zero plan and inevitably screw things up. That happened so much. And yeah, the vamp-brothel thing was...weird. Really weird. His whole "need to be needed" explanation didn't really hold much water with me. I don't know...if I found out that my girlfriend was going to whorehouses because the people working their "needed her"...I don't think I would have reacted much differently than Buffy did.

 

[white avenger]

Neither and both.

Buffy had a very important job to do, something that Riley never did seem to grasp. As Buffy said, demon fighting was an adventure to him, something that he could walk away from at any time. To Buffy, it wasn't just a way of life, it was the way that she was going to die, an inescapable fact, and she was reminded of that fact every day. What little time that she had away from Slaying was very precious to her, as well as very limited. Riley never really realized that the quiet times that she chose to spend with him were all that she had to give.

On the other hand, Riley had what I call a Sir Galahad complex. He wanted to be the hero, the protector, the defender, and the savior. That was undoubtedly why he went into military service and almost certainly why he was part of the Initiative and later why he left Sunnydale to go back into the Army. It was the only way that he could once more be the one thing that he had always wanted to be, and the one thing that he had no hope whatsoever of ever being on the hellmouth. The best. As long as Buffy was there, he was never more than second best, and once Spike began seriously fighting demons, he slipped back even from his Number 2 position.

Buffy, I think, genuinely wanted to love Riley. She even went so far as to tell Angel that she did love him. And Riley most definitely wanted to love Buffy, but he wanted her to need and depend on him to a degree that she simply couldn't manage. As she would say several years later, it was the mission that counted, and Riley was never really a part of that mission.

Each wanted something that the other couldn't give, and neither could really completely understand why the other couldn't be exactly what they wanted and needed them to be.

 

[Jodast]

I think Riley was more to blame than Buffy was, but she was at least partly responsible. I don't remember very well whether Riley ever talked to Buffy about how closed off he felt she was. If he tried and she paid no attention then she is more to blame than my memory isgiving her credit for. If he didn't and he decided that getting chewed on by vampires was a worthwhile substitute to emotional closeness then he's a bit of a tit. Buffy's reluctance to open up is obviously her culpability in the whole mess. A relationship just won't work if both sides can't be completely open with one another.

Let's face it, Riley was the 'normal guy' relationship that Buffy, the show needed so that fans would be more accepting the next time Buffy the character decided to go for a supernatural love life. Had she jumped straight from Angel to Spike I would have thrown my arms up in the air with an exclamation of "Really!" Granted the character development wasn't there to make Spuffy happen there and then, but I am certain it was already known to the writers that they were going to go there in the not too distant future.

 

[dexeded]

Riley.

There was nothing wrong with Buffy being closed off from him. Some people are just like that. There was also nothing wrong with Riley not being fine with it. That's expected. What was wrong, however, was Riley not bringing the problem up to Buffy (since he was the only one feeling it) and talking it out. Instead, he chose to overcompensate and let his feelings fester under the surface, which culiminated in vamp whoring out.

'Course, you could always say it was the writers' fault since they needed an excuse for Riley to go...

 

[Deus Ex Machina]

Riley. I've watched the series through twice and I never felt that Buffy was closed off from Riley like the writers wanted me to believe.