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

[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. ;)