Much Ado About Riley

[lunabee34]

I've been thinking a good deal about Riley's character and his place in slash fandom after last week's club_joss discussion of trepkos's "Moonstruck I." He's so often cast as the villain of a Spander or Spangel piece (and not just the villain, but the Villian LOL), that I had never read a slash story in which Riley played a positive role until emella pointed me to eliade's Reprise.

Many of the Buffyverse fandom classics (I'm thinking jameschick's Quantum Xander and Lazuli's Repossession) are built around the premise that Riley is really a huge, evil sadist. And I'm not saying that's wrong; I enjoyed reading both those stories very much. I think that pushing the boundaries of characterization is really what fanfic is about. For this same reason, I enjoy stories that explore Angelus equally as well as those that focus on Angel. One thing I think the Buffyverse hammers home is that we all have an inner Angelus just waiting to come out to play.

When I was watching the show, I never really felt very strongly about Riley's character; I don't like the actor all that much. He's never really pushed my buttons. But I certainly didn't hate him or anything. What I found after reading so much fanfic that cast him in a negative role is that I started to hate Riley's character unreasonably. When I found Reprise, I had to step back and think, "Now why do I hate Riley so much? He's really kinda goofy and noble." LOL

After that, I began to enjoy Riley more. I don't like Marc Blucas's execution of the character; that doesn't mean that the character isn't really complex and fascinating (guy living a double life, gives it all up for what's right, etc).

So, after that long-winded intro:
1. Riley as the slash bad guy
2. fanfic affecting character perception

Discuss!

Comments

[emella.livejournal.com]

:) Love this post she made. :D

I think as far as that scene goes, Riley was just being stupid. I'm fairly certain(due to the fact that he'd only killed about 20 vamps) that Riley had never seen/been around a werewolf, and I'm pretty sure he didn't know Oz, like at all. So at first he probably had this idea that Oz was like some sort of alpha male-wolfish-stoic-possesive guy, and that sweet calm Willow wasn't the type to be into that. So it could be that Riley is assuming, or that could just be me. ;)

I read pretty much only slash, and I can confirm that the most hated character besides Buffy in Spander is Riley. It's really interesting to hear that he's a villain in het as well, I would have never guessed. :)

[shannon730.livejournal.com]

I'm sure it was stupidity and assumptions on Riley's part. Never said my dislike of him was rational. :) But it stuck with me. I read an essay once (don't remember where) about why fans disliked Buffy's father so much, since very little canon information up to season 5 suggested he was a bad parent. One reason given was the Nightmare episode. That it's one of the few times you see Hank Summers and while it's not real he was just horrible to Buffy.

Oh, yeah, Riley's hated in Het. Oddly I read mostly Willow/Spike, or Willow/Angel and there isn't a reason for the hatred really. In a Buffy-centric fic I can see it, but in Willow fic it's just misplaced. Of course, I tend to just leave out characters I don't like. Which is why Buffy plays a very small role in most of my fics. :)

[emella.livejournal.com]

Oooh, See the first place my mind goes to when I think of Buffy's Dad is him missing her birthday. It's like out of the whole 4 or 5 times they really talk about him, he misses her birthday. I guess I just sort of see him as absent, not really a bad parent.

Oh man, I could never ship Willow/Spike, it's probably the Slasher in me, but there's just something about them. *shudders* Not to be like weird or mean or anything like that. :P You probably don't dig my pairings. ;)

I honestly can't see anyone but maybe Spike, and a teeny bit Buffy, hating Riley. Riley didn't do anything to anyone but those two, and Buffy doesn't ever really have the right to hate him, I mean she was pretty much ignoring him. Ah I dunno, just my thoughts. :)

I know what you mean about leaving out characters, in all of my fics I either ONLY concentrate on the main pairing or stick with those people that I know/can write. Well those that I think I can write anyway. :)

[shannon730.livejournal.com]

Ah, that's okay, I don't like Spander. Or specifically, I don't like Xander. :)

I agree, there isn't a lot of reason for anyone but Buffy to be hostile toward Riley. I'd love to understand the reasoning behind the Riley or Initiative as rapists stories because I can't see the canon basis for it at all.

To me Riley is easy to leave out of a fic. Same with Anya and Tara, You can avoid them. Leaving Xander out of fics...now that's hard. He's a big part of Willow's life (Pre-chosen) so it's hard to just not have him involved.

[emella.livejournal.com]

I think people just jump from thinking violence to sexual violence.

OOOOoooh. An interesting disscussion topic would be how is fic/fandom affected because most of us are women. Like do we associate violence with sexual violence because we're women?

As far as leaving people out I agree about Riley. I've never had issues with Anya or Tara, simply because I haven't ever needed to write them. I do like fanon Xander, but I can understand wanting to leave him out, but not being able to. :) Anywho, good luck with fic writing. ;)

[trepkos.livejournal.com]

Like do we associate violence with sexual violence because we're women?

I think the two are almost inevitably linked somewhere in the most primitive parts of our brains - in any species where there is communal living and competition for mates, violence is quite likely to have happened before mating, whether as part of establishing dominance in general, or in fighting off other males for a particular opportunity to mate. If the female resists as well, there's more violence.
I think if people were more prepared to recognise this, in themselves and others, they might be more alert to ways of preventing sexual violence occurring.

[trepkos.livejournal.com]

I meant, of all our brains, men and women, BTW.

[emella.livejournal.com]

Yeah, It's a predated thought process that's been ingrained since like the dawn of time, so it's hard to stop from immediately going to that place.

I agree with you on the recognizing, it probably would open peoples eyes to how they view the world and others. ;)