I feel like Riley is written as being a bit self-centered, at times, but, as others have pointed out, she is thirteen (or is it fourteen?) years old. At that age, everything is all about you and, by extension, your friends. As I dimly recall, everything is also life and death, end of the world, drama. I thought this episode had a really good lesson and I thought it was well put across. I agree fully with aslightjump that the shame is almost as bad, if not AS BAD, as the bullying itself. I thought Riley's saying she didn't want Maya to see her humiliated was very on the nose for how a young person would feel in that situation.
As for Riley's wide eyed innocence, I find it annoying when they write it over the top (like her looking for a bird for 10 minutes with her mouth hanging open like a fish gasping for air) but I don't mind that she is a little bit naïve. She has lived a sheltered life, first being "protected" from things by her parent's and then by her friends, so is it really surprising that adversity kind of freaks her out? I wasn't a naïve kid, but I am an adult whose favorite shows are on the Disney Channel (and I spend more time than any sane adult should thinking about those shows and posting about them on boards like this one LOL) and I tell people, in all honesty, that I embrace the "whimsical side of life". I can easily imagine Riley growing up to be the kind of person that I am....preferring the simple fantasy land of Disney to the harsh reality of the nightly news. I do wish the writers would tone it down a little bit with her, though. There are times that I question how Riley manages to tie her shoes and get to school without being abducted by a predator in the mornings (Am I the only one who could totally see her getting into a stranger's van to go look for a lost puppy?).
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