9:16:07 PM : [link]

(Also posted at [BuffyLog].)

"Vampires are vampires." -- Buffy

What if Riley had been running off to a prostitute (of the streetwalker/call girl) variety? What if he had been sleeping with other women because Buffy wasn't providing him that something that he needed? Think about all the things that Buffy did provide Riley in their relationship. What Riley felt was missing was exactly Buffy as helpless woman running to him for help. When she mentioned that she had indeed cried during the crisis of her mother's brain tumor (almost unable to stop), Riley was not sad for her sadness, but upset instead that she had not come running to him for comfort. If he truly cared about her, his feeling would've been to comfort her then and feel for the sadness that she obviously faced in dealing with her mother's brain tumor.

I am not saying that Buffy was entirely blameless in the relationship. However, the way Riley handled himself and his needs made him an utterly disgusting person to me, albeit a very interesting one (hardly boring at all). The fact that Buffy feels as if she doesn't need to turn to anyone for emotional help is not a bad character trait. If she had been unwilling to accept support, if she had lashed out at people who tried to help her, then I would've found her to be a little amiss. But she never did.

WitchQueen -- I think what you wrote about the dance form called contact improvisation is very interesting and is very much like Buffy and Riley's relationship. It's in fact very much like all relationships. The problem arose because Riley didn't trust Buffy's emotions enough to turn to her with his fears.

4:21:22 PM : [link]

(Also posted at [BuffyLog].)

I'm always surpised by how the people who write for Buffy are able to come up with new ideas, new ways of looking at vampires. The vampire nest as blood-sucking brothel is the perfect way to get at questions of sexual exchange, money, and relationships. As Giles explains to Buffy, the vampires in this nest are able to get blood and money by servicing humans in need of that certain kind of blood-rush, near-death-experience of playing with demons. It is easy to see why the vampires would want to work in such a brothel -- they obtain life's necessities without many of the risks associated with hunting, being out in the open while feeding, etc. Because the humans come to them, too, they don't need to chase their meals. Simple.

The interesting part of the equation is figuring out why the humans are willingly involving themselves with these vampires. And there are perhaps as many reasons as humans involved. But Riley's rationalization shows us exactly how messed up he is. He has this need to be needed. And while that feeling is not a pathology (we all need validation from others), the particular way he wants to be needed by Buffy is just disgusting. In essence, he needs Buffy to come running to him when she faces any difficulties. He needs Buffy to cry on his shoulders all the time. He wants to protect her, to feel like he is the man of the relationship. All the while, he has forgotten that what they had in the relationship wasn't about the fighting, the patrolling, his physical prowess, but about how much they cared for each other.

When he felt jilted by Buffy, he should have tried to engage her about his feeling of neglect. But instead he ran off to be sucked by other women. His reaction was petty, retaliatory. And those emotions are never going to fly in relationships.

3:48:39 PM : [link]

My sister asked me if I like Spike. And I think I do. There's something about him as the tragic Romantic fool. His feelings for Buffy are much more appealing to me than Riley's were. (I suppose this is why I'm drawn to portrayals of relationships like Cathy and Heathcliff's in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights.) Spike's love for Buffy may never be reciprocated (and perhaps never should), but it is one that is self-sustaining -- an important aspect to love, I think.

And the point here isn't necessarily his intentions -- why he loves Buffy (in classic fashion, his love is utterly irrational) -- but that his actions always point towards a wish to take care of Buffy and be loved by her in return, despite the impossibility of such a return. It puts the lover in a strange position, of course, never really being able to demand of the loved. And that's where I was most upset by Riley's situation. He demanded. He was a crybaby. And it's not like he couldn't have asked nicely. But he didn't. He gave an ultimatum.

In a way, Spike is becoming like Angel in the earlier days of the show (when I liked him a lot more than I like him now). He lurks, he finds out things that Buffy should know about. He tells her. He recedes into the background.

Re: Angel

Yay for the destruction! The ending of the episode was rather unexpected. I am very glad that Angel did sacrifice the humans of Wolfram and Hart to Drusilla and Darla. Finally, he is not caught up in needing to save all humans because they are all inherently good. Will he become a rogue punisher as well as savior? I hope so. His role as a savior is too played out, trite, unimaginative and unreal. It's simplistic, pitting humans against demons without much thought to what makes humans worth saving (aside from invoking "the soul") and demons inherently evil. I thought Cordelia, Wesley, and Gunn's excoriation of Angel at the end was totally uncalled for. But this way, the show is pushing Angel fasting into dealing with these questions of his role as a pawn of the Powers That Be. I'm glad he didn't concede, that he fired them. He needs to strike out on his own, to figure out what he is doing in the City of Angels, why humans are downtrodden in the first place, who really needs saving. Life isn't as simple as he's been seeing it. He can't save the world by becoming the next Christ, sacrificing himself for sinning humans. (Somehow I can't see the show really straying from these ideals, though -- this detour is just that, a momentary crisis of meaning -- but I hope they take the opportunity to question their intentions here.)

2:12:11 AM : [link]

So much to think about in this week's episode. First response, glad Riley is gone. Build up to his departure was great except Buffy's ultimate concession to Riley's insane ultimatum.

The vampire den as brothel -- interesting idea. Vampires suck humans' blood for money. Prostitutes give blow jobs for money. Same thing? Where is the line between money as pay for bodies/sexual acts, money as pay for personhood?

Riley's rationalization (ok, explanation) for why he did it: gives him validation. Makes him feel needed. Compelling argument for a relationship? He obviously wanted a girlfriend who would run to him every time she had trouble, difficult situations. Buffy was not like that. He felt unwanted. Really very selfish of him. Relationships and loving -- isn't it about taking care of others? Not about wanting attention, etc. Reciprocated love is what makes a relationship work. Glad he's gone. Wish Buffy hadn't "realized" that she needed to show him how much she needs him. Sure, is best in relationships (and necessary) for each to show love and caring. But what Riley did was petty, retaliatory (wanted to get Buffy back for her past relationship with Angel and her encounter with Dracula). He cares more about himself than Buffy. Really wants Buffy to run to him for help so he can feel important, macho, in control, powerful.

Although I don't like Xander very much and think that he has in fact been taking advantage of Anya, using her as convenience, thought his final scene with Anya was touching. Taken out of context (of portrayals of their relationship in past episodes), was moving. Sure, that is the sort of thing we want to see in relationships. Expressions of how much we love each other. But it really was kind of unbelievable. And that final turn of phrase, Xander saying that Anya makes him a man. So trite. Again relying on the other's fawning, subservience, to aggrandize self.

Why did Buffy run after Riley? She knew that what he did was completely his own fault. His misreading of their relationship, of her, because of his insecurities about his "man"hood. Wish she had stood up for herself. Made Riley see his mistake, come back to her (rather than the other way around).

More later.

11:53:17 AM : [link]

Date: Wed, 06 Dec 2000 11:46:03 -0500
From: [Tyler Curtain] | Block address
Organization: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Subject: Re: riley blood

You should post this to your buffy log . . .

morpheus wrote:

You know, I had forgotten about that opening scene. I was actually shocked that the powers-that-be allowed the blow job shot that morphed into blood-sucking. I suppose it escaped controversy because it was nominally heterosexual (on the other hand, a kiss between Willow and Tara is something Joss Whedon has said he'd been told by TV execs to avoid).

The Riley/vampire-women thing is really the first time the Buffy people (maybe) have addressed the idea of vampire feeding as sexual act. The feeding has always been physical and embodied, often occuring at a moment of sexual involvement, but it's never quite taken on sexual valences as an act in itself. In those situations of sexual encounters, the bite has always been a moment of betrayal and a move away from sexuality to blood-lust (although you could argue such betrayal is a part of all sexual encounters).

Now that you mention it, Buffy and Riley haven't been shown in a sexual relationship much this season (especially in comparison to last season when the running joke was that they were constantly in bed together). I would agree that Riley's problem is largely to do with his feeling left out of the supernatural world that Buffy and her friends inhabit. He has come from a past that glorified the hunt, the demons, and the night. This dual frustration of a distant Buffy (too caught up in the "normal" world) and his emasculation in the supernatural battleground seems to be resolving itself into his search for sexual consummation with the supernatural.

So,it would not surprise me if he did become a vampire. And it will probably be at the hands of Drusilla (did you watch Angel?), to add that extra touch of incest (another entry point into the sexual nature of vampire feeding/making) in the vampire-foes-of-Buffy. I just hope that it won't end with Buffy having to stake the vampire-Riley like she had to kill Angel before. It wouldn't work a second time, especially not with the woefully underdeveloped relationship that Buffy and Riley have.

P

--- Tyler Curtain wrote:
Hmm. OK. No problem, then. Thanks for dropping off the mail.

I'm surprized that you didn't write about the problems between Riley and Buffy as writ sexual: the amazing scene where another woman is fellating Riley, and as the cam pans, the blow job morphs into her sucking his blood while he -- watches TV?! watches football? --

I think that they may make Riley a vampire. I'm not sure I like that prospect.

But clearly Riley's problem is that he is painfully aware of the extent to which the others are imbricated in dual worlds, everyday/surreal, and that his head is in just one. His mistake is in thinking that it's something that he chooses to enter into, that it's something that he can control. Perhaps.

It was a great episode.

TC

8:56:57 AM : [link]

Hmmm....so yesterday's re-run, "Buffy vs. Dracula," reminded me of how much Riley has a problem with Buffy's past relationship with the vampire Angel. So is what he's doing now his exploration into this human-vampire connection that he thinks Buffy can't give up? Is love in the vampire? And also Dracula explained to Buffy that the bite occasions far more of a connection that she had really thought. At least for Dracula, the one who is bitten is as much invested in the embrace as the biter.

7:12:07 AM : [link]

When boys go bad...

I can't understand why Riley is doing the enigmatic and dangerous things he is. Maybe that whole (Freudian?) concept of "the death wish" has been accented in his situation. But really, is there any particular motivation?

Or, is there really any specific motivation for any of our actions? Stories and theories like to trace histories and genealogies, whether or not cause-and-effect situations are overtly in the narrative. But how much can we pinpoint reasons for our everyday actions? I find myself often retrospectively ascribing intentions to what I do. This is a conscious move to understanding, one that is perhaps invested in the idea of the subconscious and unconscious of my mind that really dictate my actions.