Life size would be hard to get through the car window, but I guess that could be worked out.

Yeah, I'm willing to put up with a little inconvenience there.

One of you needs to get Electric Barbarella out of my head before I kill someone, btw.

The Duran Duran song or is there now a object that can be planted within one's head by the same name?

Life size would be hard to get through the car window,

Dude, did you not see the opening of Faith, Hope and Trick?

A follow-up thought from last night: if the other characters weren't supposed to know why Riley left (beyond the surface problems in Buffy and Riley's relationship), the show did a bad job of presenting that, too.

The writers could have made it clear that Xander et. al. were reacting badly to the breakup due to a lack of knowledge; for whatever reasons, they did not. Which is weird, if you assume the character's reactions would have been different if they had known -- and they certainly should have been.

It seems as though the viewer is meant to agree with the "Riley got suckjobs because Buffy neglected him" interpretation. Which, as I said, doesn't match with what we saw onscreen -- or with the fact the show is not called "Riley, Boyfriend of the Vampire Slayer."

Well, first, Buffy and Riley had to break up in S5. It was part of the "stripping everything away" motif that made it impossible for her to let Dawn die in "The Gift."

I'm in the minority that thinks that Buffy did make a relationship error early in S5. Not by ignoring him in the sense of not worrying about his needs. But by freezing him out and not letting him be supportive. The only thing she let him do was babysit Dawn. Once. She goofed by refusing his help. However, because Buffy was dealing with a genuine crisis, I'd call this a minor error.

But Riley knew as early as "The Replacement" that Buffy didn't love him (and I agree with that view). And instead of being mature and quietly ending the relationship immediately or after Joyce's crisis was over, he sought out new company while keeping the relationship going. Cheating -- one of the two worst relationship sins possible (the other: abuse).

What ME could have done was have Riley tell Buffy that he felt frozen out of the relationship and had decided to transfer (to U of Iowa?). Voila! No more vamp hos. No return to the military (out of character, as far as Riley had one). Less ridiculous for Buffy to blame herself.

I had liked Riley throughout season 4 and 5 and found ItW annoying because they made it blatent cheating. There were ways they could have had Riley getting deliberately bit which would have worked better, I think. They could have used it as a drug metaphor.(Riley, in a fit of jealous stupidity seeks out Sandy. Much to his surprise, it makes him feel physically better than he has since the Initiative stopped their experiments)

It could also be thrill-seeking or a subconcious death wish.

After being caught Riley realizes he needs to get his head together, and he can't do that in Sunnydale. Voila! Riley leaves, Buffy feels sad, but there is no real blame.

I still think that season 5 would have worked better if Riley had turned out to somehow be the Glory-host. Maybe getting the initiatve implants fully removed allowed her to manifest or some such.

I had a whole alternate season mapped out in my head at one point, as several things would have to be done in at least a different chronology, if not completely different events, but I can't remember all the details now.

I came up with the idea after hearing all the rumours that Xander was originally supposed to be the Glory-host, which also would have played out better, I think (they might have ended up using the Toth stick again rather the Troll-"god" hammer).

Just how big an HSQ would it have been for Giles to do what he did to Ben if it was Riley or Xander? Even Riley would have had a much bigger impact than Ben.

I don't think Giles would have been able to do it if Xander had been the Glory host. I hope Giles wouldn't have been able to do it—that's a level of Watcherly pragmatism I'm very uncomfortable seeing come from the show's father figure, and would contradict to some degree what we found out about him in "Helpless."

Although I think it's perfectly in line with Wesley's character on the spinoff.

I don't think Giles would have been able to do it if Xander had been the Glory host. I hope Giles wouldn't have been able to do it—that's a level of Watcherly pragmatism I'm very uncomfortable seeing come from the show's father figure, and would contradict to some degree what we found out about him in "Helpless."

It would have had to play out very differently. Xander would never have tried to give up Dawn like Ben did (I don't think Riley would have either), and I suspect both Xander and Riley would have asked to be put down under the circumstances. I don't think Buffy could have done it even then, but I bet Giles could.