[i]This is Riley's tragedy - Buffy would never, ever need him the way he wanted her to. [/i]

Exactly! They just expected different things out of the relationship. And like I said before, my hangup with Riley was that he had no reason to think she was the type of person who *would* need him like that. That and the way he turned that around and threw it in her face, as if it was some kind of deficiency on her part... *deep breath*