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Date Posted: 20:45:49 11/01/05 Tue
Author: Finn Mac Cool
Subject: Re: I think your analogy is too favorable to Riley
In reply to: Sophist 's message, "I think your analogy is too favorable to Riley" on 17:55:42 11/01/05 Tue

First off, Riley didn't know looking after Dawn was a "key" part of the overall mission. He didn't know about Dawn's cosmic importance, so, to him, it was basically baby-sitting duty.

Second, while I can't remember the episode (I think it was "Out of My Mind") Buffy tells Riley, "I don't like you patrolling alone." Buffy didn't just say "I'd rather fight alone" (though I believe other episodes showed that to be a dangerous attitude to take), but also "I don't want you getting involved in all this more than you have to, let me take care of it." There's also "Fool For Love" where we see that Riley is a good demon fighter even without medical enhancement, but Buffy still insists that he only go patrolling with three of her less skilled friends in tow. It's very important to Buffy to not but the people she cares about in danger, but that becomes a problem with someone like Riley who both has a desire to be in the middle of the danger and the ability to persevere in that environment.

Now I do agree that, ideally, Riley should have been the one to change as he was the one who betrayed the other's trust. However, as I said in my other post, you can't always make yourself change. You can almost always conceal your feelings and act like they've changed, but sometimes change isn't possible. Riley had been in this situation for a long while, and by that point I think he had probably decided that he couldn't change. Could Riley have changed? I'm not sure, but what's important is that he didn't think he could. The ideal situation would have been Xander talking to Riley to try to get them to patch things up, to see if he could change, but by the time anyone realized their intervention might be necessary, Riley was over at the helicoptor pad while Buffy was still hanging around the Magic Box. Buffy could be found and talked to, but circumstances made that impossible to do with Riley. Yes, Riley should have been the one to change, but, given the circumstances, he couldn't, so the options were either Buffy changing or abandoning the relationship. The poor person who lost their job after a debilitating accident should get the winning lottery ticket instead of a corrupt CEO, but life doesn't always work that way. The best solution is not always possible, and I don't think it was possible in the B/R breakup.

You can certainly argue that Buffy should have let Riley go, and I'd say that entirely depends on what mattered more to her. Salvaging her relationship with Riley would mean giving up a lot of emotional security and giving up her right to be furious with him. If that was worth more to her than what a future with Riley was, then she sould have let him go. However, if Riley was worth the pain, then she should by all means have tried to get him back. Ultimately, for decisions like that, no one is in a position to make the call except for the person whose emotions are on the line. Buffy made her call, and I respect that.

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