“I’ve always, always wanted to take care of you.”
Caring about someone (the right way) is one of the cornerstones of relationships, romantic and otherwise, in the BMW/GMW universe and something that’s become abundantly clear in that regard is that, while Lucas and Farkle both care about Riley and Maya very much, they do not understand them or care about them in the same ways. And that’s very telling.
In Rileytown, Lucas can’t figure out what’s wrong with Riley. He doesn’t understand what’s happening with her until who tells him? Farkle.
Farkle figures out what’s going on with Riley before anyone else (par for the course, really). And yes, Lucas’ berserk button goes off when he finally does find out what’s going on, but this is a reaction he has towards all of his friends when they’re threatened by a bully (See Farkle in Flaws and Zay in SoL.) Despite rilucas shippers’ attempts to twist that moment into a grand romantic overture, it’s not. That’s how Lucas always is when it comes to his friends and bullies.
Anyways, the main point is that this is one of many examples of Lucas simply not understanding Riley when she’s going through something, while Farkle understands before anyone else.
Another interesting point of contrast in the episode: Lucas jumps to Maya’s aid (“How are you fine? You don’t look fine.”) after being ice creamed, despite the fact that Riley is the one who stomps out of Topanga’s, tears in her eyes, a clear emotional wreck. Riley runs out and Lucas’ first concern is Maya. You could argue that it was simply because he’d been assigned to “contain Maya”, but that raises a lot of questions in and of itself.
When Maya and Lucas are voted best couple in Yearbook, Lucas never bothers to reassure Riley about their “thing” and he leaves her to stand alone in defending it to the class. He never comforts her or dismisses the notion of him and Maya, which is ironic since it is the sole source of her Morotia meltdown (Which, of course he doesn’t. He can’t. He can’t dismiss the Maya thing because he does like her and he does have feelings for her.) Anyways, initially, he doesn’t even understand what’s going on with her. (“Is this a New York thing?”)
Meanwhile, as soon as it happens, Farkle shows up in the bay window and says, “Riley, I came over to check on you because, well, I expected this.”
Farkle knew what would happen after the best couple debacle and he came over to check on her because of it. Lucas, on the other hand, doesn’t have a clue what’s going on with her (yet again) and even once he does, the one thing he could do to fix it, he doesn’t.
STEM is to riarkle what Creativity is to lucaya. It’s one of the many many parallels that exist between the two ships (which you can ignore if you’d like, but the fact that they’re consistently hitting the same plot beats should be a major sign.)
Anyways, it’s a good example of Lucas and Farkle caring about Maya and Riley respectively in ways that are unique to those two pairs.
In Creativity, Lucas says “I don’t want that for Maya. I want Maya to be happy.” He then goes on to talk about wanting her to have the opportunity to get better and to share her talent. In STEM, Farkle essentially echoes Lucas’ sentiments, but to Riley, stating that he wants her to get better at what she loves. He says, “There’s no situation where I wouldn’t want that for you.”
The reality is, we’ve never seen Lucas get worked up about Riley’s happiness the way he did about Maya’s, nor have we ever heard him say anything about wanting her to get better at what she loved. Meanwhile, Farkle’s voiced that sentiment and, time and again, put Riley’s happiness above everyone else’s (i.e. Texas, New Years).
In First Date, we see Lucas tell Riley, “Go over there, Riley. Be with your best friend.”, when he notices Maya’s sadness after her exchange with Josh.
Meanwhile, despite it being very clear that Riley is going through shit during lucaya’s date in Texas, Lucas sits back down with Maya to finish their date after telling Riley that he can’t be her brother (which really just adds to her angst). And yes, Maya says now me, but Lucas had been backing up towards Maya from the minute he was able to clarify that he couldn’t be her brother (which btw does not automatically mean he felt he had to be her boyfriend either. Other relationships exist outside of the very false brother vs boyfriend dichotomy) and at no point did he seem to be able to pick up on Riley’s angst or bother to tell Maya to help her out. He tells Riley he can’t be her brother, gets goaded by Charlie into a mini pissing contest (which, as has been stressed many times before, is not about Riley. It’s about Lucas’ ego. It’s not sweet and it’s not a good thing.) and then happily sits back down with Maya to finish their date (yes, happily. Peep the smile on his face when he sits down. He’s awkward, but he’s not unhappy as rilucas shippers like to paint him).
He never picks up on Riley’s sadness and he doesn’t send Maya to help her.
Yet again, it’s made clear that Lucas doesn’t get Riley or prioritize her happiness over all else. Farkle, on the other hand, attempts to understand Riley and, as made even clearer in New Years, prioritizes her happiness over that of everyone else’s (including Maya and Lucas’). He blabs Riley’s feelings with complete disregard for what’s happening between Maya and Lucas, for the moment they’re sharing and the happiness they’re feeling.
“Sometimes you’re just too much for me, Riley,” Lucas says, before walking away angrily from a teary eyed Riley.
People like to act like Maya is this destructive hot button that pushes Lucas over the edge (using Ski Lodge part 1 as a reference, which is funny because Lucas and Maya get along just dandy, looking out for each other and trying to save the world, until Riley takes over the fantasy and makes them argue all the time), but they have never had a moment like the aforementioned.
The one moment that’s even remotely comparable is Lucas’ chastising of Maya’s reckless behavior in Ski Lodge (“She could have been killed”), but that was literally a direct parallel to, “you could have gotten hurt on that stupid bull”. His frustration comes from a place of concern. He’s mad because he cares so much about her and he doesn’t like when she goes too far.
Meanwhile, his frustration at Riley is just about her being extra and him being annoyed by it.
And he never recants on her being too much for him. He never takes it back. He never apologized for it. He apologizes for abandoning her and Maya, but he never apologizes for saying that she’s too much for him.
Additionally, when they’re all upset with Riley, the only person (besides Maya of course) who shows up at Topanga’s is Farkle. Yes, he’s upset and he makes his comment about her kind of ruining their first day, but he still goes to see Riley at Topanga’s and tries to explain to her their side of things.
Meanwhile, Lucas doesn’t even bother.
Another really telling moment that rilucas shippers tend to overlook is permanent Record. Riley starts to lose her sense of self because she gets a bad grade and who, ultimately, reminds Riley of who she is and gives her the motivation to work harder and improve her grade? Farkle.
Here’s the thing. That episode would have been the perfect opportunity to show Lucas and Riley getting closer, to telegraph that connection they have thanks to those “deep conversations” they’re apparently so good at.
But, that’s not what happens. Instead, it’s Farkle who comes through her window and offers her words of encouragement, echoing words Lucas says about Maya a few episodes later about who she really is (which…👀).
So, where IS Lucas in all of this? Oh, yeah. He’s busy being relatively flustered with Riley and offering wonderful words of encouragement such as this gem of a conversation:
“Lucas: I’m you!
Riley: You’re me?
Lucas: Yeah, all of a sudden I’m a loser.”
So, while Farkle is going on about how “You’ve always been Riley. That’s you’re permanent record.”, Lucas is calling her a loser.
Real World vs. True Maya:
As pointed out a few weeks ago, Real World vs. True Maya are two great examples of Lucas contrasting reaction to the girls’ inner conflicts in particular. When Riley gets handed an assignment that clearly makes her uncomfortable and causes emotional strife, Lucas, who is now officially her boyfriend, speeds out of the room. He’s literally the first person out the door, jumping out of his seat, his books covering his face.
Instead of staying to offer his girlfriend some sort of moral support, or even just waiting and leaving with the rest of the class, he jets.
But, when Maya’s experiencing her own version of inner turmoil in True Maya (which mimics Riley’s in Real World, in that it’s about their fundamental understanding of who they are), Lucas is super concerned about where she is and what’s going on. When they’re at the bakery, he pleads with her (“Maya, I’ve been down this road. Forget it! I missed a whole year of school because I thought I had to be something.”) and ignores Riley throwing in that she still likes him.
Instead of running from Maya’s inner turmoil like he does with Riley’s, he walks towards her, trying to get her to listen to him, because he’s been there. He gets it.
This is by no means a comprehensive list, but is, instead, a handful of examples of the differing ways in which Lucas and Farkle react to and care about Maya and Riley.
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