Riley Finn

Riley Finn is a secondary character in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer fandom, a soldier in the Initiative and the boyfriend of Buffy Summers. He also appears in the season 8 comics. He's portrayed by Marc Blucas.
==Canon==
Riley is introduced in season 4 in a dual role as a psychology TA and a member of the Initiative, an underground government/military organisation to study & combat demons & vampires, headed by Maggie Walsh. He & Buffy start a relationship which survives the twin revelations of their respective secret lives and includes a lot of enthusiastic vanilla sex (once with bodyswapped Faith).
Riley's initially portrayed as the opposite of Angel – normal, cheerful and decidedly human – but is later revealed to have enhanced capabilities from an experimental treatment. During season 5, after the destruction of the Initiative, the death of his friend Forrest and the loss of his enhancements, Riley turns darker, suspects Buffy doesn't truly love him and becomes so jealous of Angel that he takes to frequenting brothel-like dives where clients pay vampires to feed on them. He abandons Buffy, joining a demon-fighting covert-ops team and later marrying team member Mary-Sue Sam.
==Fannish Opinion==
==Fandom==
Riley was never a very popular character. B/A shippers (when he was introduced, the majority of fans) reviled him for being Angel's antithesis; Spuffy shippers hated him for unmasking chipped-Spike's evil doings. Even some of the rare Buffy/Riley shippers turned against him for abandoning her when she needed support. Many fans didn't like the Initiative, felt that he didn't fit in with the Scoobies, considered him bland, boring or forgettable, or felt he & Buffy lacked chemistry. 
The majority of fanfiction featuring Riley exists to bash his character; Roo writes Riley has been twisted, mangled and turned into an evil monster more times than I can count.Roo's Recs (accessed 26 September 2014) Neutral or favourable Riley portrayals are relatively rare but do exist. Aside from the canonical pairing with Buffy, he's also commonly paired in het with his mentor Maggie Walsh, his wife Sam, slayer Faith & Buffy's sister Dawn. Slash is fairly common; he's paired with his friend Graham, Xander, Angel & Spike, among others. Except in Riley/Sam stories, Sam tends to be dead or divorced at the opening of the piece to make way for the pairing of choice, where she's mentioned at all. Fan authors associated with the character include Alexandra Huxley and Marina Frants. 
Riley is a relatively rare subject for fan art but appears in the occasional manip, often with Buffy or Faith. Discussion usually focuses on his relationship with Buffy, with topics including who is most to blame for his break-up with Buffy and whether he's misogynistic for wanting Buffy to open up to him.
==Example Fanworks==
===Fanfiction===
*Another Peaceful War by Marina Frants. Character study after the end of season 4; an influential early positive portrayal (2000)
*The Quality of Mercy by Yahtzee. Explores Riley's addiction to vampire bites; Riley/Angel (2001)
*Rainmakers by Lar. Widely recommended Riley/Lindsey series (~2002)
*Spinning Wheels series by Alexandra Huxley. An AU season 6 with the premise Riley stayed in Sunnydale; Riley/Buffy (2002)
*-plex by Spyke Raven. Maggie Walsh raises Riley in a version of the Wishverse (~2003)
*Christmas, Iowa Style by Annakovsky. A rare futurefic in which Riley & Sam get to have a happily ever after (2003)
*Window On The World by ludditerobot. Ficlet about how Riley & Sam meet (2004)
*Swelter by Dana Woods. Riley/Graham ficlet (2005)
*Stumbling on the Fields of Praise by Dipenates. Character study focusing on Riley's religious faith (2010)
===Fan Art===
*riley by nightwing1975. Portrait in traditional media (2007)
*Riley by Tdesignstudio. Pencil portrait (2007)
*Riley Finn by Ukikun. Portrait not based on Blucas; digital drawing (2009)
*Lil' Riley by tea-bug. Cartoon-style full-length portrait (2010)
*Riley Finn - Twilight by tygrax. Season 8 Riley; three-quarters portrait; colour digital art (2011)
===Meta===
*In Defense of Riley Finn by Sean M. Tevis (2002)
*Mirrored Men: The Juxtaposition of Riley and Spike from ‘The Initiative’ through ‘As You Were.’ by Josey (~2004)
*Andrew, Riley, and Kennedy: What the Heck Was Joss Thinking? by bookishwench/Meltha (2007)
*On Unpopular Characters: Riley Finn by dgcatanisiri (2012)
==Archives, Mailing Lists & Communities==
*RileySlash: fanfiction archive for the eponymous mailing list
*Riley FINNatics: archive and fansite (offline)
*FINNSmut: adult YahooGroups list founded December 1999
*Riley-Finn: YahooGroups list founded August 2000
*RileyFinn: YahooGroups list founded November 1999
*oh_riley_factor: LiveJournal community
*rileyrocks: LJ community
*Die Riley Die: An anti-Riley fanfiction archive.
==Resources==
*Riley recs by Doyle at Ice Cream for Freaks
==References==
Category:Buffyverse Characters