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Lunchtime Poll

Lunchtime Poll: Your Milquetoast Boyfriend

Complete this word puzzle for me, Persephoneers:

Piz (3rd season,Veronica Mars love interest) is (Greater Than/Less Than/Equal To) Riley Finn (4th and 5th seasons, Buffy love interest). Think carefully about your response – is Piz’s unthreatening indie-rocker persona more appealing than Riley’s Midwestern good old boy shtick? Is Riley’s ex-military background more interesting, even if he ends up cheating on you with a vampire prostitute, than Piz’s steadfast steadfastness? Who has the broader shoulders? The more promising career? Piz’s music ambitions may lead to financial insecurity, but Riley’s monster hunting in the jungle could lead to grave bodily harm.

Sie by side pictures of Piz and Riley
Images courtesy of CW Network and 21st Century Fox.

Give us your answer in the comments. Show your work.

By [E] Slay Belle

Slay Belle is an editor and the new writer mentor here at Persephone Magazine, where she writes about pop culture, Buffy, and her extreme love of Lifetime movies. She is also the editor of powderroom.jezebel.com. You can follow her on Twitter, @SlayBelle or email her at slay@persephonemagazine.com.

She is awfully fond of unicorns and zombies, and will usually respond to any conversational volley that includes those topics.

6 replies on “Lunchtime Poll: Your Milquetoast Boyfriend”

To me, Piz = Riley for sure. I actually appreciate both Riley and Piz. They are boring milquetoast for sure, but they feel so real to me and I understand what both women see in them and I also understand why it would never work out.

I mean, Piz never pissed me off the way that Riley eventually does, but the writing is definitely on the wall for Piz’s relationship with Veronica. One scene that stands out to me is when he kisses her on the head and says she’s “adorable” or some such word when she’s sleuthing, having no capacity to understand the intensity with which Veronica lives and sleuths.

I love that Buffy and Veronica are both amazing, strong, flawed women who have boring but convenient relationships in which they learn about themselves and grow. Buffy definitely learns how to be in a relationship from Riley, and she always felt like such a real character that I had no doubt that she would take what she learned to her next relationships.

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