Why does everyone hate Riley?

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Mr_Gordo

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I just re-watched season 4 again, and I really don't understand it. I don't see why people hate Riley so much. I thought he fit into the group fine, and was a solid boyfriend to Buffy. Something that the other boyfriends that she has had can't claim. Sure he doesn't have super-powers like Angel, but he loved Buffy in a more healthy way than any of her other boyfriends. Angel, and Spike were freaks who love Buffy, but their kind of love is sick. They obsess over her. 5 years after Angel left Buffy, he uses his contacts at W&H to spy on her...can we say stalker. I'm not gonna even start on how Spike's obsession with Buffy is freaky.

People also complain that Riley was whiney, and needy. I can't really blame him after the crap Buffy put him through. Like after he had that operation in season five to fix that heart problem. She doesn't even offer to walk him home or anything. Doesn't even wait for him to get up off of the operating table. She just ditches him to check on her mom. As far as everyone knew up to that point, Buffy's mom simply had a bad headache and a dizzy spell. Riley almost died(and had a gimped up leg from being shot with a crossbow), and she blows him off, and leaves him to go home by himself...in Sunnydale. If I were a vamp, and I saw a guy hobbling home, I would think easy pickins.

Riley was the boyfriend most grounded in reality(ok, super secret soldier guy, sure...I'll give you that). Just a nice guy who every chance he had, tried to be there for Buffy. Gee, I can see why people hate him so much.<sarcasm>
 
I completely agree with you! I don't get the Riley hating either. He was a nice guy..very sweet and definitely easy on the eyes. He was human and he had human faults, none of which were as bad as Angel & Spikes'. But I guess this all stems from a girl's need to have a "bad-boy" type. Riley was just too good.
 
I didnt actually mind Riley, I just didnt like him with Buffy, it was boring. He annoyed me cause he couldn't take it that Buffy was stronger than him..
 
At first, I thought Riley was a great character, but in the end, when he began to get jealous of Buffy's abilitied, THAT's when he started to get on my nerves!
 
Yeah but if you think about it, if you could pummel your boyfriend, it might cause some insecurities on his part. I know mine would be quite disturbed if I had to stick up for him or defend him against harm. Its an ego thing.
 
Personally I don't hate Riley, I just hate Ruffy. At first it was okay, but it started to get on my nerves since it wasn't funny anymore. On the other hand I did like Riley's friendship with Xander, it led to some funny moments.
 
Cordy_Chase said:
Yeah but if you think about it, if you could pummel your boyfriend, it might cause some insecurities on his part. I know mine would be quite disturbed if I had to stick up for him or defend him against harm. Its an ego thing.
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Really? My hubby would suddenly think I was even super cooler 😉 :gun:
 
Well,I don't like any guy who is with Buffy and is not Angel...and no!,I don't like Buffy,I just want Bangel😛

Plus,Riley was...grgrrg,he alwyas got on my nerves,especially in The Joko Factor,glad Angel kicked his ass
 
I don't think that Riley was jealous of Buff's powers. Relationships can't work when one person is much more dominant than the other(doesn't matter if it's boy or grrl people). I'm not talking strength either. I'm talking personality. Buffy is a dominant person. Buffy totally has a superiority complex. It becomes more and more aparent in season 5. Especially after Riley leaves. By season 7, she has become bossy the cow. If she wants to have a normal relationship, she would have to stop being so dominant

When the initiative was gone, Riley had no purpose. Some people need purpose in their lives. Most the time people can get through those feelings, but when your girlfriend has the same mission you once had, and does it infintely better than you ever did. It's understandable that he would feel insecure about Buffy being superior.

I like Riley, but I stopped liking Ruffy when Buffy started ignoring him. During season 4 they were great. Then school was out for summer, and Buffy started the ignore thing, and it just snowballed from there.

I hated that ep in season 6 where Riley came back. It was so tacky, and lame. They did the same thing in season 5 of Angel with Buffy. Personally, I don't need closure if it's going to be as lame as Riley coming to town with his wife, hunting demons and flying off in a helicopter at the end. I would much rather it left open.
 
i don't hate the guy...i...just...i don't like him. like dan from charmed. i mean they're ok..they...just...feel a little off to me. and its a more of a not like ruffy than not liking riley. he...i dunno. i dun hate anyone, but, not really a fan of riley.
he...just doesn't appeal to me in anyway. *shrugs* i'm weird but....
you can't just change, you have to want to, or to just let yourself go. if you become bossy, you can't just decide, oh im going to stop being bossy now.
eh...riley was ok, but...it woulda been just fine without him. thought it was a bit odd, he didnt realize it was faith, and not buffy, the one time, but..eh....
 
I don't see why people hated him. I was glad that Xander actually had a male friend to talk to after Oz left. He was in desperate need of one in Seasons 6 and 7(making Willow his "best man?" Please.) I thought it was completely out of character for him to go to that vampire brothel. And I agree about his return being tacky, but most of Season 6 was tacky.
 
I don't know about the vamp brothel being out of character. I think it was as much in character as Buffy tasting Dracula. Riley could see her fascination with people that hurt her. When Spike started moving himself into her life, she kinda just let him do it. Like when he was telling her about how he had killed those 2 slayers. He had also went on to talk about how much he would enjoy seeing her die. He then comes to her in her backyard later toting a shotgun and looking like he was going to give her some "speed holes". He then sees her crying and goes all sympathetic. He goes to sit next to her to console her, and instead of throwing him out on his ass, she sits out there to talk with him. That girl is insane in the membrane. What I'm getting at is Riley picked up on that stuff. He comes over the next morning to not only find that Buffy's mom was in the hospital. But she didn't ask for him to be there for support, and consoling which she obviously needed. And, worst of all....SHE HAD A GUY WHO WANTED TO KILL HER JUST A COUPLE HOURS BEFORE, OVER FOR THE HEARTFELT CHAT, AND SHOULDER TO CRY ON RESPONSIBILITIES...Buffy is one sick twist. No wonder Riley left. People need to feel needed, and whenever he was there for her she brushed him off, and turned to the evil dead. I'm sure he was probably thinking..."What is it...what is it about the dark side of the force that she just can't get enough of...why does she spend the night with an evil vampire when she could have called me over...she picked evil blood-sucking fiend over loving caring me....". The curiosity is what lead him there....wondering what it was like to have a streak of darkness(or in Spike's case a full-on paint job complete with complimentary waxing, and a nice little ball to hang around his neck to give him that new-car smell)
 
i didn't hate riley..i just didn't like him.. lol
i don't like bad boys or anything..i like the caracter of Xander a lot, but Riley really anoyed the crap out of me... he was just a boring caracter, that besides buffy and a bit of friendship with xander he hadn't anything else to develop..
i also really ahted Ruffy..coz it seemed too forced.. and how the hell did he didn't recognize faith in buffy's body? i mean he was supoused to know her a bit to know she was acting very weird..
and he did seem to have a probleme with buffy being stronger than him..in the beggining he seemed to be ayacted to the dominate type of buffy, but afer he seemed to have his ego bruised..
i don't think it was all Buffy's fault..i mean i have screwed up a similar type of relationship so.. but i think Buffy needs someone that somewhat defys / chanlenges her..she has a dominant personality so she will be tend to "boss around" the realationship.. and Riley was just.. too acceptant and and good biy for her..
 
At first I didnt mind him,then he started to get on my nerves,I didnt hate him,I hated Ruffy,and plus,if he loved her that much he wouldnt go round getting bitten by vamps,ok,so now probably loads of people are gonna attack me and say he had reasons,but if I loved someone,and I felt there was a problem with the relationship I would talk to my partner about it,not go around getting my blood sucked out of me...just my opinion though...but I didnt hate him,just disliked him,I think most people hated him because of the Bangel thing,and they werent happy him and buffy being together
 
I liked him in the beginning of s4, and I thought Buffy&Riley were cute together. And it was nice for Xander to have a guy friend. But then it just got boring in the end of s4, and then in s5 it got annoying.
Riley was ok, just too boring in my opinion.
 
Shell said:
I think most people hated him because of the Bangel thing
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I think that's really it. Angel was around for 3 years, and the show really kept pushing that he was Buffy's love of her life. Then he left, and people were pissed. Next year all of a sudden, here's this new boy, and people were like "what about Angel?!?!?!".

I think the reason why I liked Riley so much was because I came in late to the Buffy universe. The first episode I ever saw was "The Harsh Light Of Day" where Spike came to town looking for the Gem of Amara. Up to that point I had not seen Buffy before. I avoided it in fact cause of the crappy movie associations. I got hooked right away, and got into it. In that first episode I saw Buffy opening up to Parker only to see her get trampled on. I felt really badly for her. Later when Riley started to get into the picture I was like, cool...someone who doesn't suck. I cheered when he decked Parker. It wasn't until a year later when Space(network in canada)started replaying Buffy on a daily basis that I started seeing all the older episodes. I guess then it is kinda opposite for me. Riley was the character that I first saw as a boyfriendly figure for Buffy, and liked him the most.

I guess the reason I got so annoyed with Buffy in season 5 was because the tables had been turned. In "The Harsh Light Of Day" Buffy opened up and got trampled on. In season 5, Riley was the one opening up, only to be trampled on. I felt badly for Riley, and was happy when he got out of that crappy relationship. I kinda always wished though that Buff would see the error of her ways, and beg for Riley back. It wasn't until that episode when he left, where Xander had that little chat with Buffy that she saw how pig-headed and mean she had been.

The Bangel thing is stupid in my mind. All of the older people I know tend to get wiser with age. This comes because when you've seen everything you gain that ability to take a step back and look at things objectively without being swept away with emotion. Angel is well over 200 years old. You would think he wouldn't be such a child, but he was such a baby up until season 3. I liked Angel in season 3 cause he started acting his age. He distanced himself from Buffy because he realized that there was no way that a relationship with her would work. I really liked him in his own show up until season 5 when he started acting like a baby again. I still loved season 5 of Angel(one of the best ever next to season 2), just thought that it was stupid how much of a little bitty baby he was being over Buffy, and Spike.
 
I didn't hate him when there wasn't ruffy. But when there was ruffy, then i hated him. I just couldn't stand him being there all the time, and he was nothing specail instead of being a soldier (Which I htought the whole inishative thing was completely weird to have in a show like Buffy the Vampire Slayer) And then there was the whole jealous of her strengh thing. I just all around didnt' like him :mad15:
 
i didn't liked bangel so...i don't dislike Riley coz of bangel at all lol
Riley was a good guy, and he tryed to be a good boyfriend..i just found his caracter...boring... i mean i liked Oz and i still liked Tara when she appeared..but i just think that his caracter didn't have the dept of the others or at least it was just me that found his deveopment very bad..and again..boring..
i just like flawed caracters..they seem..more human to me... he almays seemed to try..to hard to be perfect..
 
I just kinda do. I have no idea why, maybe because of Bangel and the future of Spuffy. I don't know. Riley just kinda creeps me out.
 
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