Ikr, does anyone like Riley? Lol in all my time in Buffy fandom I've met maybe two people who actually liked him.
I think what made him so bad (partly, other than just being boring) was that it seemed like he was just brought in for the purpose of being a love interest to Buffy, without ever forming any meaningful relationship with anyone outside of her and having a stupid connection to S4's already meandering main plot. People love to bitch about fangirls hating on other shows bringing in female love interest being sexist -- and tbf yes, treatment of female characters is abhorrent in many fandoms, but I think Riley proves that shitty characters who are brought in as love interests aren't going to be popular either way.
I think you're right! The plot was stupid to begin with, he had no chemistry with anyone, he always looked like an outsider and not part of the "gang" and oh my God his face annoyed the fuck out of me.
I watched Buffy, wouldn't consider myself a 'fangirl' even though I was a teenager, and I didn't mind Riley at all- I just rewatched all the episodes with my boyfriend, and I liked Riley more because I think I saw the complexity a little different; like, he's your basic dude who wants to have a normal relationship, and then there's Buffy... who was obviously, waaaayyy too fucked up for anything normal. It just gave a whole different level of tragedy to their relationship compared to what I remembered from when I was... pfffftt.... 14? The scene where she runs to stop him but is too late, and he won't look out the window- it killed me. I cried. My boyfriend laughed at me for like 3 days, but whatev
I think what made him so bad (partly, other than just being boring) was that it seemed like he was just brought in for the purpose of being a love interest to Buffy, without ever forming any meaningful relationship with anyone outside of her and having a stupid connection to S4's already meandering main plot. People love to bitch about fangirls hating on other shows bringing in female love interest being sexist -- and tbf yes, treatment of female characters is abhorrent in many fandoms, but I think Riley proves that shitty characters who are brought in as love interests aren't going to be popular either way.