Alas, Buffy's morning-after glow was short-lived. Parker gave her the brush-off , making it clear he had already moved on to his next target. Parker doubled down on his odious behavior by putting the moves on Willow too. She had the good sense to reject him.
Treating a romantic partner badly, no matter how casual your relationship, is unacceptable. Trying to sleep with her best friend makes you a world-class creep, but the worst Parker moment was when he compared Buffy - and all freshmen girls - to a toilet. This earned him a clock in the face from Riley, which Parker wholeheartedly deserved At first blush, it may seem odd to place Xander Harris, right-hand man in the Scoobie Gang, at 9. He's so goofy and lovable!
While Xander may have his sweetheart moments , he objectifies almost every woman he encounters under the veil of "humor". Xander's jokes may have seemed harmless twenty years ago, but by today's standards he comes across as a major chauvinist.
He also happens to be a terrible boyfriend. Xander and Cordelia's relationship started as a covert kiss-fest, but soon blossomed into a full-fledged romance. Cordelia even sacrificed her social status as queen bee, choosing Xander over her friends. Xander repaid the gesture by repeatedly making out with Willow behind Cordy's back. The worst part is that when she caught them in the act, Cordelia ran off, fell through a basement step and was impaled.
As the show progressed, it seemed like Xander had matured. He got a good job, moved into a swanky apartment, and found love with former vengeance-demon Anya. Xander proposed to her, and things appeared to be coming up roses for the happy couple, though Xander had a slight case of cold feet. When the day itself arrived, Xander decided he couldn't go through with it and left a weeping Anya at the altar, forcing her to pick up the pieces, both of the canceled wedding and her broken heart.
Not cool, Xander. Like Parker, Owen Thurman barely counts as a boyfriend. He was Buffy's first crush at Sunnydale High and to her, Owen was the whole package: boyish good looks, a sensitive soul, and complete obliviousness to the Hellmouth.
All Buffy wanted was a normal life, and Owen was her path to get there. This all sounds like a dream, but in reality, Owen was horrible. He was a pseudo-intellectual who carried around Emily Dickinson poetry, which he referred to as his "safety blanket".
If that's not nauseating enough, Owen was judgmental and pompous, looking down his nose at "frivolous girls" like Cordelia. Like Buffy, Cordelia carried a major torch for Owen, and it was painful to watch these two tear each other down, with tripping and body shaming, in attempts to win his affection. Fortunately, Owen took himself out of the equation by almost getting himself killed after following Buffy on a patrol.
It became obvious that there was no place in a Slayer's life for an ignoramus boyfriend. Buffy, you're better off with the vampires. Remember when Buffy dated Scott Hope for five minutes back in Season 3? You're forgiven. Even though Buffy wasn't ready to dive back into dating after killing Angel, Scott pursued her like a dog with a bone. During this arc, Faith finally got a chance to apologize to to Riley for tricking him into sleeping with her while she was in Buffy's body.
Sam and Riley continued to work together in military operations against demonic activity, and Riley was later appointed as a member of the Magic Council. In the final appearance in the comics, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 11, the Finns succeeded in exposing a conspiracy to drain and weaponize magical energy.
As of the end of the comics, Riley was still married to Sam and still working with her within the military as an ally for the Scooby Gang. Hannah has been with Screen Rant since , covering news, features, movie premieres, Comic-Con and more!
The girl needs some monster in her man. Meanwhile, the viewer knows the real reason their relationship is doomed is that fans found Riley boring, lame, and about as sexy as hold music. In all these respects, Riley is uncannily like a dud boyfriend in real life. When he finally leaves you somehow you will never beat him to the punch , it will mostly be a relief. And yet, in 90 percent of these cases, you try to stop him from leaving.
Cue several scenes of Buffy photogenically sprinting, intercut with scenes of Riley photogenically waiting for Buffy, then photogenically giving up and turning to climb into a government helicopter.
Riley ducks into the whirring helicopter. There he sits gazing moodily into space as Buffy comes pelting into the shot. This feud proceeded in Buffy's dorm room where Riley barged in with his gun while Buffy and Angel were talking.
The men then argued before Buffy broke them up and explained to Riley that Forrest had been killed. Riley then left the room out of grief. Adam exploited this and used the chip in order to pacify Riley before the final battle. Riley, with no other choice, removed the modifier by lacerating himself with a shard of glass and pulling it out of his body with his bare hand. He then fought his best friend Forrest, who had been brought back as a demon-human-cybernetic hybrid like Adam, turned completely evil.
Though Riley's efforts were unmatched to Forrest's new abilities, Riley managed to kill him by making him hoist a gas canister which exploded after catching a live wire. The Initiative was destroyed in the summer of , [13] and Riley was relieved of his military standing. He was left at loose ends, and his behavior became reckless. A year after he met Buffy, Riley became a full time member of the Scooby Gang, though his suggested methods and tactics were foreign to them.
Riley began to see himself as beneath Buffy in strength, so he began to push his body well past its limits in the hopes that he would catch up to her. He became increasingly worried with Buffy's relationships with vampires, being jealous at Dracula 's allure to Buffy, prompting him to set out in his castle and hunt for him alongside Buffy's Watcher Rupert Giles , as well as noticing Spike's attraction to Buffy while coming to him for information about Dracula.
After learning that the drugs Maggie Walsh had given him were causing his pain receptors to shut down and his heartbeat to spike, Riley initially refused medical treatment from the government out of paranoia, but Buffy eventually managed to convince him. After a brief face-off with Spike and Harmony Kendall , who were attempting to force an Initiative doctor to remove Spike's chip, they successfully managed to get Riley heart surgery, though this reduced him to a normal human being, only adding to his feelings of insecurity and weakness.
His relationship with Buffy also began to deteriorate when Buffy continuously failed to give him the emotional intimacy, trust, and honesty he craved. This was mostly due to her mother's illness and her growing interest in spiritually discovering her potential as a Slayer, having a long conversation to Spike about the two Slayers he killed while Riley went out patrolling with Buffy's friends and recklessly destroyed an entire crypt with a grenade to kill two vampires after killing one that injured Buffy.
Seeking thrills, and wondering what Buffy found so appealing about vampires — having allowed both Angel and Dracula to drink her blood — Riley began to let vampires feed from him, becoming a regular at a vampire brothel , an establishment were vampires are paid to bite and feed on the blood of willing customers without draining them completely.
Buffy eventually discovered this with Spike's help and destroyed the building where Riley's secreting meetings had taken place. His behavior, as well as Spike's manipulations and a sense that Buffy would never truly love him, led to their breakup.
Despite Buffy's best efforts to stop him, Riley rejoined the military and departed. In South America, Riley met Samantha , a fellow soldier who with him initially forged a duo demon-hunters, discussing tactics and missions before discussing about Buffy.
They then got married shortly after. Nearly four months since the wedding, Riley returned unexpectedly in the next year, tracking a Suvolte demon about to hatch eggs that could wipe out Sunnydale, and the one planning to sell them, known simply as "the Doctor". However, he did not return to make up with Buffy but to ask for her assistance with Sam arriving shortly. Nonetheless, when he discovered that Buffy had been engaging in a sexual relationship with Spike, he was clearly affected, though when he discovered them in bed together and when Buffy attempted to explain the situation, he hid his emotions.
As it turned out, Spike was the Doctor, and Riley blew up the nest of demon eggs beneath his crypt. His mission completed, Riley and Sam left Sunnydale again after bidding the Scoobies farewell. One year later, when Spike's chip began to malfunction, Buffy successfully managed to contact Riley for help. Riley personally sent a group of soldiers to help, but told them that what they were to do with the chip — either repair or remove it — was Buffy's decision.
Over a year later, Riley joined Twilight Group to spy on Buffy, while convincing the Twilight organization that he was their "inside man" in Buffy's inner circle, and was marked with Twilight 's symbol on his chest.
He later met with Buffy in New York City. A few months after the Twilight crisis was averted, Riley was stationed in San Francisco where Buffy and the other Scoobies had settled down, and was among those who attended Buffy's housewarming party. Because magic was banished from this dimension, Riley used a surveillance van to watch out for human terrorists.
When Faith attempted to find her way by joining Kennedy's Deepscan , an all-Slayer security group, she reconsidered after she was given her a special assignment: to track down Riley, who was missing and last seen in South America.
Reunited after so many years, Faith recognized her erros against him and apologized. In turn, Riley replied that the only person to apologize to was Buffy. After the return of magic , Riley and Sam were present in Rome and Buenos Aires to deal with the attacks of a centipede demon and a giant horned gorilla demon , [29] provoked by the opening of portals through the Restless Door in power of the Mistress , the Sculptor , and the Soul Glutton.
Buffy appointed Riley for this role, acting as representative of human military forces. She was resistant, but they explained that, despite they had their own concerns with the way the government was dealing with the supernatural, they had been deployed in San Francisco, Rome, and Buenos Aires, seeing in first hand the crisis and its effects.
Buffy trusted their judgement, and accepted having her powers absorbed. Riley and Sam then visited Buffy after she was free from the Safe Zone, and revealed their plan to help the Scooby Gang and save the supernatural. They offered Xander and Dawn to leave the country, and fake I. Riley was the stereotypical "nice boyfriend" type. He was often depicted as friendly and very easy to be around with. He also was charming and occasionally witty. Because of his easygoing nature, Riley got along well with Scooby Gang and gained their trust, a sharp contrast from Buffy's previous boyfriend Angel following his soulless act.
Riley was rarely mean to people and very polite in nature, pleasant to just about anyone, the only exceptions being Angel and Spike — partly because they were vampires and partly because both of them carry a romantic interest in Buffy during his time as her boyfriend.
Buffy herself has described him as very reliable and solid, [34] which was proven to be true on many occasions throughout their dating years.
Also, Riley saw himself as "smooth" though upon his first time trying to flirt with Buffy, it only confused her due to his awkward ramblings, much to his embarrassment and frustration. Due to his affiliation with the Initiative, Riley was shown to fit well in a leadership role, effectively leading the Scooby Gang upon Buffy's request during patrol and also with his squads in the military.
Though because of his involvement with the military, Riley also carried a black-and-white outlook when it came to demons and humans. This was seen in his prejudice of Willow dating a werewolf at one point, much to Buffy's annoyance, [11] who had previously been involved with a vampire, his brutally lambasting Buffy and the Scoobies for harboring Spike, and also his berating Willy for serving demons at his bar while nearly shooting a human patron.
Despite his outward displays of confidence and carefree nature, he was revealed to have underlying insecurities and lack of self-confidence regarding his relationship with Buffy. This was because he had worried that he wasn't strong enough for Buffy who seemed to be drawn to less-than-human men. Despite briefly casting his worries aside thanks to Buffy, [15] it returned not long after. His character then took on a darker turn, as he became increasing more reckless, driven to the point of allowing female vampires to feed on him for a rush, as he felt more needed with them.
Riley also is seen to have a fierce jealous streak in him, as he had quickly came to blows with Angel in an alleyway while he was on his way to apologize to Buffy [12] and had violently confronted Spike on three separate occasions. Buffyverse Wiki Explore. Angel season 1 Angel season 2 Angel season 3 Angel season 4 Angel season 5. Other media.
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