Via the Supergeek comes this PopPolitics “roundtable” discussion of the current (and final) season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. All the participants are enjoying season seven (although one of them is, like myself, profoundly bored with the Spike/Buffy relationship), so those of you in the “Buffy sucks why don’t they do the good season three stuff anymore?” crowd might not enjoy it. But I really enjoyed it – one of the most intelligent discussions of the current season I’ve seen, but not so rigorous that I can’t enjoy it when I’m half-asleep (like right now). :-)
Anyway, here’s round one; here’s round two; and here’s round three, which came out shortly after it was announced that this is the final season of Buffy.
Having said that, I’m going to ignore the substance of their discussion, instead going off on my own tangent. In round two, one of the participants says “Riley was a nice jock who never had a hope in hell of really understanding Buffy.”
Riley? A nice jock? Nice?
Really?
I disagree. By the time the character left the show, Riley had become a misogynistic jerk (not that I’m complaining; Riley’s misogyny and general creepiness was the most interesting thing about his character). In a way, season-five Riley was where Buffy writers began seriously examining misogyny among ordinary men, a theme that continued with the character of Warren in season six.
Consider how Riley starts his vampire habit; not with prostitutes, but by picking up attractive female vampires at bars. With at least one female vampire, Sandy (and maybe more we didn’t see), he flirted with her at a bar, went someplace private, and then…
Cut to a dark room where Riley and Sandy are alone. Sandy smiles up at Riley and runs her hands over his chest, pushing his jacket aside. Shot of Riley’s face as Sandy kisses his neck. She pulls back and we see she’s in vampire face. Riley looks a little apprehensive as he moves his head aside, exposing his neck. Sandy leans forward to bite him.
Riley jerks in pain as Sandy bites him, then slowly he relaxes as she begins to drink. He closes his eyes and puts one hand on the back of her head.
Suddenly he thrusts her away forcefully. Shot of Sandy staring at him, then she crumbles to dust.
Shot of the stake in Riley’s hand. Pan up to his face. We see blood running down his neck from the bite marks. He looks a little shaken.
If his victims were human, we’d call Riley a serial killer.
Of course, she’s not human; she’s a vampire, demon, evil evil evil. But so what? Buffy’s behavior towards Spike in season six was wrong because cruelty, malice, and using other people without regard for what it does to them is inherently bad; and it is bad despite the fact that Spike the mass-murderer surely deserved all that suffering and worse.
Riley then switched over to prostitution, and the set design made it clear: Riley was not using happy, well-off callgirls a la Sam’s girlfriend in the first season of West Wing. He was exploiting what looked like the poorest, most miserable vampires imaginable; finding a “relationship” where he could pay a powerless woman to give him what he wanted, and all the while blaming it on his girlfriend for not opening up enough to him. That behavior requires, I think, a fairly significant level of woman-hating.
I actually enjoyed this plotline – I like characters having dark sides, and making the nice jock a creepy misogynist certainly made the character more interesting. It was also compatible with what we had already seen of Riley’s character. Riley, after all, appears to be one of those guys who has no female friendships at all other than 1) his mother-figure and 2) his girlfriend. In general, guys who actually like women have some women friends who aren’t moms or lovers.
What bothered me is that some of season five’s writers – and in particular, Marti Noxon – seemed to take Riley’s side in the dispute: Buffy was in effect blamed for the end of the relationship and for Riley’s disgusting behavior. Remember, for instance, Xander’s speech to Buffy towards the end of “Into the Woods?”
You shut down, Buffy. And you’ve been treating Riley like the rebound guy. When he’s the one that comes along once in a lifetime. (Buffy looks dismayed) He’s never held back with you. He’s risked everything. And you’re about to let him fly because you don’t like ultimatums?
But Riley has been holding back, in huge and significant ways (for instance, by not mentioning his habit of being sucked by vampires for pleasure). And insofar as Buffy has been unable to trust Riley entirely, that may simply show how sharp her instincts are.
Fortunately, Buffy also had some fairly impressive anti-misogynist episodes, such as “I Was Made to Love You” – a Jane Espenson scripted episode that, by ripping apart the “live for your boyfriend” ideology, played like a rebuttal to “Into the Woods.” (Unfortunately for my theory, Espenson seems to endorse the it’s-all-Buffy’s-fault interpretation in “Intervention,” but oh well.)
I realise this was posted a looong time ago, but I had to comment anyway.
I agree AND disagree with the comments in here. I agree with the fundimentals, basically. Riley was completely in the wrong and Buffy was the victim. What I disagree with is some of the details.
Riley did not go out and choose ‘helpless’ girls. He chose girls who could quite possibly kick his ass and who CHOSE to live a life where they were paid to suck people’s blood. Riley to them, as Buffy puts it “is a snack.” Basically they are getting paid to eat, so that they don’t have to kill in order to do so.
Not only this but the girl at the bar probably would have either turned Riley or killed him. I mean that part definitely felt like “Wow Riley, you’re a jerk.” but to say that he hates women based on the fact he got himself into a situation he shouldn’t have (for a variety of reasons) is a bit of a stretch.
I dislike the way they portrayed Xander, as well, however. I can understand where he’s coming from on one end, realising that Buffy will regret it if she lets Riley leave. However I dislike the way they worded things, and his stance. I felt, as well, he was telling Buffy that it was her fault and it was up to her to make things right.
I think what I disliked most about the episode was at the end when Riley leaves. You know he’s GOING to leave, but the way they set it up. You in one way feel like Buffy should have left earlier, when really Riley should have realised that giving her an ultimadum like that is just being an asshole. I couldn’t believe he actually left like that. Out of everything he did, I think that was the worst.
As far as it goes, I never liked Riley. I thought the vampire thing was dumb and manufactured drama. I guess after the mega-angst of Angel they didn’t think buffy could have a relationship end because he’s dull.
I never felt the vampsuck storyline was a natural progression of his character. I do believe that Riley was a “nice jock,” the same way I believe Buffy and Willow were strong, smart women. I have to ignore the last three seasons in order to believe this, but hey, if I get to pretend they didn’t exist to believe in these characters, then everybody wins. :)
I thought the vampire thing was to underline Buffy’s fascinations with vampires and Riley’s short-sighted attempt to understand that and what she was as a Slayer.
I mean, he knew Angel was a vampire and that a strong connection still existed between Angel and Buffy. I’m not sure if Buffy ever explained her bite mark to Riley but he must have recognised what it was. And then the season (5) starts with Buffy allowing Dracula to bite her.
So after he’s had his adrenalised strength removed, what does he do to in his mind understand/compete with this girl?
I saw it as him trying to understand her fascination and in a dark way understand her impulses. His killing the vampire call girls was his way of maintaining control in a way that he couldn’t with Buffy – yes, that’s creepy but it’s in the same vein of creepy as, say, Willow wiping her girlfriend’s mind with magic while hitting her with a supernatural roofie.
I also seem to remember Buffy staking one of those vampire call girls in the back with a stake when she wasn’t posing a direct threat and Buffy’d indicated that she would let her leave.
I think stuff was done on both sides and withheld on both sides but they weren’t the love of each other’s lives. Neither was Buffy and Angel.
Riley’s ‘dark’ storyline just seemed tacked on for drama because the fans wouldn’t let go of the Buffy/Angel relationship and rejected the character as boring outright. So the writers make him a complete ass and then have him exit but make sure Buffy’s suddenly convinced that he’s the bestest boyfriend at the very last minute before he leaves, and can do nothing to stop him.
If anything *Xander* has shown himself to be a bigger misogynist over the years. The constant belittling of both Anya and Cordelia while dating them, and the slut-shaming of Buffy over her sexual choices (often revealing how bitter he was that she was choosing to sleep with everyone BUT him) make him exactly that guy that would be convinced the Riley was the best boyfriend ever for Buffy. Even his dreams in Restless don’t paint his subconscious mind as much different.
As for Noxon and Espenson. After reading some of their comments regarding the Buffy/Spike relationship I’m pretty much convinced they wouldn’t know a healthy relationship if it landed on them.
The closest any of the shows got to a healthy relationship was the potential one between Cordelia and Angel, and they made sure to send it down in flames before it could even begin. But then all of the writers on this show favour dysfunctional relationships over healthy ones whenever a relationship gets close to being healthy the destroy it, or one of the people in it. Or both.