Why does everyone hate Riley?

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Do you hate Riley or do you hate The Writers?

Those who hate Riley really need to re-examine their reasons for hating him; he was introduced as a new character, but the writer's did a 180 and decided to phase him out. In order to do that they decided that he no longer liked a strong Buffy as he said many times in Season 4. They also took away his natural strength and ability to fight by first claiming it was from lack of steroids in his food and then writing in some "Riley's extra chip" episode where Spike and Buffy compete for the services of an Initiative doc (the writers apparently forgot that Riley ripped out his control chip with a piece of glass in Season 4).

Then the writers decided to have Riley, yes; Iowa born corn-fed Riley, Mr. True Blue become a closet Vamp Sucking Ho. He was down in the east end of Sunnydale, hanging out on corners, selling his GI Joe gear for 5 dollar sucks from any willing vampette he could find.

The writers wrote Riley's character into the ground then wrote him off the show. They could have just killed him and had Buffy mourn his 6 foot 5 frame for a bit but no, they trashed his character to hell and back. Maybe this was done for the sake of the Spuffy set, tho I'd hate to think the writers were pandering to shippers so blatantly, but still, don't hate Riley for having been written into a whiny wimp in Season 5. Blame the writers for not giving his character a better send off.
 
ShastaMcLaren said:
Those who hate Riley really need to re-examine their reasons for hating him; he was introduced as a new character, but the writer's did a 180 and decided to phase him out. In order to do that they decided that he no longer liked a strong Buffy as he said many times in Season 4. They also took away his natural strength and ability to fight by first claiming it was from lack of steroids in his food and then writing in some "Riley's extra chip" episode where Spike and Buffy compete for the services of an Initiative doc (the writers apparently forgot that Riley ripped out his control chip with a piece of glass in Season 4).

Then the writers decided to have Riley, yes; Iowa born corn-fed Riley, Mr. True Blue become a closet Vamp Sucking Ho. He was down in the east end of Sunnydale, hanging out on corners, selling his GI Joe gear for 5 dollar sucks from any willing vampette he could find.

The writers wrote Riley's character into the ground then wrote him off the show. They could have just killed him and had Buffy mourn his 6 foot 5 frame for a bit but no, they trashed his character to hell and back. Maybe this was done for the sake of the Spuffy set, tho I'd hate to think the writers were pandering to shippers so blatantly, but still, don't hate Riley for having been written into a whiny wimp in Season 5. Blame the writers for not giving his character a better send off.
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No matter what the writers tried to do to Riley, I still liked him and I always will. I never thought he was the right guy for Buffy (and I'm a Spuffy fan), but I have never considered him as a one-dimensional "white bread" from Iowa. When I first watched S4, I found myself rooting for him. And I never thought he was that uncomfortable with Buffy being so strong. I always thought that he was uncomfortable with Buffy treating him like fragile china, once he lost the Initiative steroids, instead of an experienced demon fighter. And I also thought he couldn't deal with Buffy's distant attitude, along with his inability to have a life outside of Buffy during his stay in Sunnydale.

But I never believed that he was some kind of machoistic jerk. If he was, he would have never taken Maggie Walsh (a bona fide ball buster) seriously, or married an obviously aggressive personality like Sam.
 
ShastaMcLaren said:
Those who hate Riley really need to re-examine their reasons for hating him; he was introduced as a new character, but the writer's did a 180 and decided to phase him out. In order to do that they decided that he no longer liked a strong Buffy as he said many times in Season 4. They also took away his natural strength and ability to fight by first claiming it was from lack of steroids in his food and then writing in some "Riley's extra chip" episode where Spike and Buffy compete for the services of an Initiative doc (the writers apparently forgot that Riley ripped out his control chip with a piece of glass in Season 4).

Then the writers decided to have Riley, yes; Iowa born corn-fed Riley, Mr. True Blue become a closet Vamp Sucking Ho. He was down in the east end of Sunnydale, hanging out on corners, selling his GI Joe gear for 5 dollar sucks from any willing vampette he could find.

The writers wrote Riley's character into the ground then wrote him off the show. They could have just killed him and had Buffy mourn his 6 foot 5 frame for a bit but no, they trashed his character to hell and back. Maybe this was done for the sake of the Spuffy set, tho I'd hate to think the writers were pandering to shippers so blatantly, but still, don't hate Riley for having been written into a whiny wimp in Season 5. Blame the writers for not giving his character a better send off.
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Hate to be picky but the ep Out Of My Mind "where Spike and Buffy compete for the services of an Initiative doc" has little to do with the chip that had been removed, as you say, and far more to do with a reaction to the steroids making his heart go off like a frog in a sock. It was Spike's chip to be removed, Riley need some kind of heart op. Though you may have a point. Why would it take months for his body to react in this way to the steroids...?

As for hating/liking Riley or the writers I think you can only either like/hate any character depending on how they are written. Yes the writers may suck for turning a worthwhile character (I said in an earlier post that I didn't mind him at all to begin with) into a sobbing little manb***h but it was still the character of Riley doing all the things he did, hence the hate. This has nothing to do with Marc Blucas or anything else, it's just that the character of Riley ended up sucking big time. If you took any other character, Spike, Angel or whoever, in the show and made them boring, needy and whiny we'd be feeling the hate for them too. The fact his though that we like these characters because of the things they do. Yes it's the way they are written, but...

Why did they choose to go down this road with him? I don't know, but I think they should have included a sending off ep where Buffy sits him down and says, "This is for your own good." before unloading some 00 buckshot into his stupid melon head from a Mossberg 12 gauge.

As for Sam, don't even get me started. Nice looking chick but the elevator doesn't go all the way to the top... Ah, I could go on but I must...not...rise to the...bait... I can't help myself. I would have liked to have seen her sent off by Warren burying her up to her neck in the ground and running over her head with a ride on lawn mower.
 
S
StuckinTraffic
"running over her head with a ride on lawn mower." - LMAO!
riley

when season 4 was first aired i was'nt that impressed.. which im ashamed to admit because now its one of my faves..riley is one of my fave characters.. second only to willow (in any form)🙂
 
i don't hate riley. i'll be the first to admit that i disliked him back in season 4 when i first saw it, butr that's about it. i have nothing at all against riley, if anything - i pity that character.
1) he was brought in to replace angel (in a sense) which is mission impossible. so come on, he was bound to be hated.
2) he was very poorly written and i kept having the feeling the writers really didn't try that hard with him, i mean for crying out loud, the guy was named after marty's dog!
3) joss said it himself - nobody was getting over buffy and angel, just nobody.

so all in all, riley wasn't so bad, he was just a victim of really poor circumstances and you really can't hate a guy for that, can you?
 
Yeah, Riley was cool enough.

Like Maria said he had an impossible task when it came to being accepted as Angel's replacement. It was never going to happen.

However if you don't try compare him to Angel and just take him as his own character he was pretty interesting.
 
yes he really had potential. a shame they never put it in use. and i gotta say that i may be in the minority here but i liked theriley that came back in season 6 more than the one who left.
 
No i'm with you there honey. When Riley came back in As You Were he was a much more rounded character.

A shame that was the last we saw of him though!
 
really is a shame. i really wanted him back at least for another guest appearance after this. that's one of the reasons i loved "seven crows" so much.
 
Been trying to remember what magazine i read it in, probably an interview in either Dreamwatch or SFX, but somebody said that there was a plan to have Riley show up at some point in Angel's sixth season. Obviously it was only in the early stages of planning but Marc seemed to be up for it.

Now that would have been very cool, be nice to see how those guys would get on for their second meeting, lol!
 
I'm probably going to get ripped to shreads by the Bangel people for this, but here we go...

I liked Riley. He was brought on so Buffy could have a complete relationship with someone. While the Buffy/Angel relationship was the height of romance, it was, in the end, unworkable. They could never have a full and complete relationship. They could never have sex and even making out would be problematic. They would have to be in complete control of their senses (try that the next time you're making out with your Significant Other and let me know how it works) or things could get out of hand and you have Mr. Serial Killer back again. Buffy needed to have a relationship that was more than longing looks and chaste kisses. Hence Riley.

Was he boring? Maybe a little, but Buffy's treatment of him in season five really sucked. She may not have noticed it, but Buffy slighted him at every turn. Not telling him about her mom's illness, about Dawn being the Key and a dozen more things. Sure, she was dealing with Glory and everything else, but if you're not going to have the time to give a relationship want it needs, you shouldn't be in one. She should have cut him loose and, like Xander said, 'Break his heart and make it a clean break.' But she didn't and only in the end realized she did love him only to lose him.

For the record, I liked Buffy with Spike post-soul. That two people could be together after so much history proves something about the power of love.
 
I don't know why...but I don't like Riley he was just really annoying to me.
I maybe would've liked him if they chose a different actor :sad: I don't HATE him he's just my least favorite of Buffy's boyfriends. :happy06:
 
You know, I actually always liked Marc Blucas himself. It was just the character and how he always found reasons to be inferior to Buffy instead of finding his own niche as everyone else did. He was too whiny for my tastes.
 
i liked riley a lot all through season 4, especially after everything that he went through to be with buffy. in season 5 i still liked him but not as much. the only time i really wasn't happy with him was in buffy vs. dracula when he says something about buffy being in the thrall of dracula because she was 'transferring' her love/want for angel. but other than that i liked riley and i was sad when he left
 
I never really had anything against him, I think he was a nice guy most of the time. Problem was that I don't think he was right for Buffy at that time. I believe that he was what she thought she wanted, but I think she probably would have been better of alone.

One of his biggest moments are in "The Replacement" when Riley tells Xander: "But she doesn't love me." And the expression Xander makes after that pretty much shows how I felt after hearing that..
 
Gotta say, I don't get why everyone dislikes Riley. I mean, I don't think that he and Buffy could have really had a long-term relationship, simply because Buffy didn't treat him the way she should have, especially in Season 5. It almost seemed like she didn't think she was important enough to include in her life. They had been dating nearly a year, she's supposed to include him in her life, talk to him about things. And she didn't. That wasn't his fault. What WAS his fault though, was how he responded. He developed this need to prove himself through dangerous situations, which wasn't the smartest thing ever.

But Riley's just a regular guy, and Buffy couldn't seem to treat him like one. Maybe because her relationship with Angel was about six counties over from "Regular".

Plus, Marc Blucas is beyond yummy. He's edible. Mmmm.
 
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Jacklyn
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Joamna
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I don't get why people hated Riley, i thought he was a great guy and i thought he and Buffy made a cute couple in S4, i didn't like it when she started egnoring him either that wasn't nice. But i really liked Riley as a character and also because he's goodlooking, i also liked Graham but that's another matter. I mean what's not to like he's gorgeous, he has the most amazing body, he has a great personality and plus he's not a vamp (no offence or anything) so it means that Buffy can have a normal relationship (ok so not as normal as say normal because of the whole initiative thing) but i mean at least he could go out into the sun without worrying about bursting into flames. I didn't like the whole Buffy/Spike, i liked Buffy/Angel but she deserves to be with someone like Riley.
 
I don't really care for Riley. I think his character was way too bland to be enjoyable. I also think that he and Buffy weren't good for each other. Buffy is way to bossy and mean to ever have a good relationship (so I guess that's her fault, not his 🙂) But I still don't like Riley, besides him being with Buffy. Maybe it's just because I hate the Initiative. I think that the Initiative was dumb and really secret-evil. And Riley was a part of that. I mean, they killed demons indiscriminatly, and we all know that all demons aren't evil (Clem, Doyle, and Lorne just for starters.) I guess I think that he should have known better. So that's why I don't like Riley, it doesn't have much to do with him being with Buffy. I was glad that he found someone, though, in season 6.
 
princess_zombie said:
I mean, they killed demons indiscriminatly, and we all know that all demons aren't evil (Clem, Doyle, and Lorne just for starters.) I guess I think that he should have known better.
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I agree-the Initiative always felt like they were similar to Gunn's street gang. Kill demons first, ask questions later. Their attitude was not cool at all.
 
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