The Bloodshedverse | Spuffy with Bite

Riley and Harmony - two peas in a pod

Aug 30 2010 03:43 am #1Spikez_tart

While pondering the many ways in which Spike and Buffy mirror each other, it occurred to me that the people that love them, Harmony and Riley, have a lot in common too.

Riley	Harmony
Leader of his squad.	Leader of her gang of nerd vampires.
Is the rebound lover – sort of a double rebound in his case since Buffy has been dumped by Angel and Parker.	Spike picks her up along the way after being cuckholded by Drusilla.
Is jealous of his loved one’s previous relationship (with Angel and also a little with Parker), but doesn’t realize the real danger is from the new relationship (Spike)	Is jealous of her loved one’s previous relationship (Drusilla), but doesn’t realize the real danger is from the new relationship (Buffy)
His love is not reciprocated. Buffy may love him (or not), but she doesn’t love him in the way he loves her.	Spike doesn’t love Harmony at all. He’s occasionally nice to her.
Sees the world in black and white – good guys vs bad	Sees the world in black and white – cool kids vs nerds
Insecure – part of his jealousy. He can’t believe that Buffy really loves him. (And, he’s right.)	Harmony is constantly pushing Spike to be romantic or pay attention to her. She usually just makes him mad.
Physically strong, but not as strong or as good a fighter as the loved one. Buffy admits to Willow that she has to hold back to keep from hurting him.	Harmony is unable to beat Xander in a fight and they both result to hair pulling.
Is protective of the loved one. He tackles Angel to keep him away from Buffy.	She abuses Drusilla for having hurt Spike.
Is vindictive. He stakes Spike with a plastic stake.	Same. She shoots Spike with a crossbow bolt. She burns his CDs and other stuff.
Has lost his way or his personal mission. Before he met Buffy, he was a gung ho soldier guy, after hooking up with her, he becomes “the girl friend’s mission.”	She had plans to go to Paris etc. after high school and instead became a vampire. She no longer has plans or dreams.
Is a betrayer. He betrays Buffy by chasing after vampire hos. Possibly he betrays her again in marrying Sam, and setting up Spike on the demon eggs deal.	Same. She betrays Cordelia who took her in, and nearly gets Angel and his whole gang killed. She betrays Angel again in the end of Angel Season 5.

If we want her to be exactly she'll never be exactly I know the only really real Buffy is really Buffy and she's gone' who?

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Sep 03 2010 02:01 am #2nmcil

Good Post - you make very good points about these two characters and their relationships. One thing that is different about them - their public face. Harmony never hides behind a public face, she is what she is always the same in public or in private. Riley had, and this is strictly my interpretation of the character, a public face and his dark side face that he hid.

” Recent evolutionary models have demonstrated what politicians have long known: the best way to get people to collaborate and to think like a group is to identify an enemy and charge that “they” threaten “us.”

Michael Tomasello is co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

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Sep 04 2010 12:28 am #3Spikez_tart

Harmony can be deceptive too. She has the hurting part that she never shows anybody, just a little bit to Cordelia. And, she seems to be your friend, then she suddenly betrays you. Maybe it's just she's so stupid she doesn't know she's going to betray you until it happens. Whoops.

If we want her to be exactly she'll never be exactly I know the only really real Buffy is really Buffy and she's gone' who?