#rivervale icons

[graceygraicigracy]

Jason Blossom + Laura Palmer + The Dead Girl Narative

one genuine complement i have for riverdale season 1 (aka before the show got interesting) was the decision to kill off jason and have his ghost pretty much the driving purpose of the whole show. usually in tv shows like riverdales, beginning with a murder, that murder is always a woman. she exists solely for this purpose, to be figuratively undressed by the (usually male character) solving the case. the victim is beautiful in death, posed, and angled towards the camera.

the treatment of jason blossoms death can be compared and contrasted with another iconic flip of the 'dead girl narative', laura palmer. ok now that im thinking about it its kinda crazy. both offer an interesting commentary on this narrative.

we are able to learn about these characters through what they left behind. we see jason live on through his sister and twin children. we can see this, but we are never able to actually learn from the source itself, both laura and jason. jason's only lines in the entire series are of his counterpart in rivervale, and laura's are her backward lines in the black lodge. this furthers the dead girl narative, their only actual words being from twisted versions of themselves, just like the twisted versions that those not close to them found after their deaths.

another similarity is the world's impact in the wake of their death. post mordom they ate still there and present, driving every action in the town, the root of all evil. the town of riverdale will never be the same, and laura palmer leaves behind a trail of bodies.

i would love to talk more abt it, but this is just the barebones of my analysis! if anyone has any questions or comments abt their reqding of this plz let me know! id love to hear it!

[darkshrimpemotions]

so, having watched the first 6 seasons… what did you think of riverdale? did you like it? i'm interested in hearing your thoughts on the show :))

I genuinely cannot believe a show with the premise of "edgy grimdark take on Archie comics" is so fucking good. It has no business being this good. No business whatsoever.

Season 1? A murder mystery in a small town full of odd characters and secrets, family issues and generational traumas. Pretty standard CW fare, but with an added element of class commentary that was surprisingly thoughtful. Every character is so interesting and well fleshed out. Every episode feels so intentional. Fantastic balance of plot and character development with an ending I TRULY did not see coming. 10/10

Season 2 is more of a thriller, or a slasher even. Funnily enough though the plot got more sensational, the characters felt more grounded. The story felt very character focused and driven. Every insane detail made perfect sense in the context of what the characters were dealing with. They also really built on the class commentary from season 1 and fleshed out the world of Riverdale. Iconic Jughead moments in every episode. 11/10

Season 3 focused far more on plot, sometimes to the direct detriment of characters in ways that frustrated me. But the plot was interesting enough to keep me from being too bitter about that, especially as the season went on and the character-driven storytelling started to reassert itself. Overall I preferred seasons 1 and 2, but season 3 is iconic in its own way for sure. Betty supremacy this season! 9.5/10

Season 4 was a welcome return to what I genuinely consider to be the central theme of Riverdale as a whole: class struggle and the wicked excesses and abuses of the capitalist elites. I loved the return to more grounded, character-focused storytelling, and the boarding school mystery is a classic trope. It was also nice seeing the characters less siloed into separate stories and more in pairs or groups. There were definitely storylines I cared about more than others (Veronica's endless cycle with her dad began to grate after three seasons of the same shit over and over; I wanted to see her win!). But overall it was a fantastic season that made incredible use of its non-linear storytelling device. Also? Cooper-Jones family absolutely owned this season for me. 12/10

Season 5 was hard for me at first. I balked at the state of everyone after the time jump, especially Veronica ans Jughead. But eventually I realized that the thing that made me balk so hard was how heartbreakingly realistic it was. Once I got past that, I was able to truly enjoy this extremely grounded small town political drama. Archie and Veronica really shone this season, though I continued to be frustrated by Ronnie and Hiram's storyline. This was definitely the season where Archie came into his own, though, and in my opinion Veronica's true victory over her father as well. Toni had a much more central story as well, given how deeply entwined with Riverdale and the Serpents she is, which I loved. This felt like a more adult take on seasons 1 and 2, with the characters now adults who are fully responsible for how their community turns out, rather than kids just trying to survive it. 10/10

Season 6 was pure unfiltered wackadoo in the best way possible. The writers have never adhered to genre conventions, but in this season they took genre as a concept, ran it through a crosscut paper shredder, burned the scraps, and scattered the ashes. The addition of magic made an odd kind of sense given Riverdale exists in the same universe as Greendale, and the Rivervale episodes had me riveted and horrified. The fact that magic in Riverdale is grounded in pre-existing worldbuilding and character development certainly helps. Like of course Betty can see threatening auras and Pop's is the final battleground between good and evil! Of course the devil is a businessman and angels are comrades! Of course the police are corrupt agents of violent control! Riverdale really said the ultimate battle between good and evil is fought with unions, mutual aid, and class solidarity. Chef's kiss. 27/10

I cannot wait to see how it all ends. Though I'll be sad that it's over.

[bireggiemantle]

10, 14, and 20!!!

ty for the ask :)))

10. which episode is your favorite?

I already answered this as citizen lodge but another episode I love is the la llorona episode of rivervale :)

14. which amv is your favorite?

another one I've already answered, but an amv I really love is the teenagers one :)

20. favorite quote?

I can't remember the exact phrasing but that one quote betty has when she's about to chainsaw murder that trucker guy that goes like "you're not in america anymore. welcome to riverdale" or whatever she says. iconic

[jabitha-endgame]

Unpopular opinion time, but am I the only one who is tired of Tabitha being sidelined in her own romance so Jughead can be paired and interact with the blonde, white women? Our couple has been shortchanged the second half of the season and Jug has been non existent or with everyone BUT Tabitha. Annoyed. 😠

I don't feel like Tabitha is being sidelined in her romance as much I feel like Jabitha as a whole is being left out...

Tabitha has been STELLAR this season! She’s amazing and getting ample time to shine (it’s just annoying that the show doesn’t know how to balance having friendships and romance and plot relevance - so it’s pick and choose episode to episode...)

When Jabitha get content, it's so freaking good but we only get some every 4 or 5 episodes, which is so frustrating.

I get the writers/team wanting to have their "iconic" moment with Jughead and Sabrina in their comic book looks (and sadly Tabitha doesn't have a comic book counterpart so she wasn't a part of that "moment")

but Tabitha and Jughead's love for each other is so clear and such a big part of their story this season, that I do believe we will get a huge moment for them during the final battle/finale. That won't make up for shortchanging them this season, but if it sets them up for a fantastic final season then in the long run I will be ok.

It's really sad how little Jabitha we have actually gotten in the back half of this season, but their scenes together strengthen their romance and their bond, they are not being torn down, so I really feel like the show has them in this "holding pattern" until they want to move them forward, which is what their big ILYs will do (like they did in Rivervale).

[downahill]

i take back some of my praise for return to rivervale being a fun episode because unfortunately we’re back in realm of christian floppery………..polly isn’t jesus christ she’s a fun ex-cult member who gave birth to her cousin’s babies and tormented betty at the farm she’s “the girl next door’s Messy older sister.” she’s not earnest and saint-like she is campy and iconic……………

[farmlesbians]

riverdale and rivervale wish they were as iconic as rosewood and ravenswood

[turnallthemirrors]

percival’s origin story is literally so funny he was a villain in rivervale, ended up in a different universe, and decided to cause chaos anyway??? an icon, i’m obsessed

literally amazing. the core theme of this season is that British people are irredeemable agents of chaos and its brilliant.

[lstxrks]

- riverdale; betty icons

⭏ like or reblog if you save

[tribricies]

Icons Cheryl Blossom

follow me for more edits.

[reverseboy]

⊹˚CHERYL BLOSSOM PARTY GIRL◌‧₊˚·

;LIKE/REBLOG IF YOU SAVE/USE.♡̷̷ˎˊ-

• Créditos;🍒

[choniedits]

We edit each of the icons posted here, please like and reblog.

[fakehelper]

Camila Mendes as Veronica Lodge in Riverdale (Chapter Ninety-Six: Welcome to Rivervale) 

Please do not repost/remove credit, use in other edits (including gif icons) or in gif hunts. Please do not remove this text either. Thank you.

[izzysamosriverdale]

BA Wedding? Huh?

Barchies appear to be excited about a possible wedding in episode 100 (an “iconic, memorable scene”?) How is that going to happen in RiverVale if 1. Archie is dead, and 2. Betty didn’t care about him and let him be sacrificed?

[riverdale-retread]

Riverdale S6 E4 (Rivervale: Witching Hour)

Fanfic has three tiers of flavor: Mellow, Tangy, and Piquant. (I’m going somewhere with this, please stay with me).  Mellow flavor intensity stays mostly within canon, and often write the ‘in between’ moments for the gaps left between the shown scenes or ‘extend’ the scenes that have already been shown.  This seems to have happened a lot in ye olde days of fanfic when people got threatened by Anne Rice etc.  Much of current fanfiction is in the Tangy variety - use some canon factors, but play  with them with a great deal of freedom, such as: Fraught romances between characters that never share the screen in canon, for example, or recast positive relationships in negative lights and vice versa.  But the most intense flavor, Piquant, does what this fourth chapter of Rivervale does - take the choicest relationships, character traits, faces, voices and bodies from canon, and then toss it into a whole different genre/century/planet/ universe and then push blend.

Chapter 4 of Rivervale is Piquant flavored - historic fiction, and using familiar faces to create unfamiliar new characters, and fix whatever the writer did not like or thought needed further explanation from what happens in canon by a combination of horror and the occult!  I also think Jughead Narrator recently watched The Hours - the Phillip Glass type music and the seamless shifting in and out of the three different eras of Cheryls was SUCH a treat to watch.

I’m going to talk about the performances given by the actors which I rarely do, but the capacity to play historical and /or entirely ‘off’ canon seems very uneven in the cast, and the three best deserve their kudos (and I just also wanna just flail about my faves).

This episode’s MVPs are:  Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch), Jughead/Jack (Cole Sprouse), Bitsy/Betty (Lili Reinhart)

Cheryl:

This is obviously a Cheryl-centric episode, and I love these. Petsch is the lesser-sung lead actress of this show (the most praised for various reasons is Reinhart), and in many ways what she’s asked to do in normal times is to be the counterpart to Reinhart. Bring the camp to contrast to Reinhart’s emotional realism, the showy sparkle to highlight the warm Bughead/Jabitha glow.  Cheryl is a ‘big’ character, and Petsch gives ‘big’ performances, which is why these Cheryl-centric episodes feel like events to me.

Petsch physically has a *lot* going on:  Other than her BMI, everything about her is huge (eyes, lips, sheer mouth size, the *amount* of hair, elasticity of facial muscles) and bold, and this excess unexpectedly makes her look convincing in all the different eras of costume she’s asked to wear.   No matter what, she still looks like herself.  The other person who pulls this off is Reinhart, but that’s because the operative image of the picture book white girl prettiness that she embodies has not actually changed that much over time. And really, very few people alive could pull off that giant red wedding gown with the red veil.  Iconic, and she manages to look classical, demure and absolutely unhinged all at the same time. (Yes, this, more than the blood covered white wedding night dress lol).  

She’s best able to deliver the show’s arch approximations of how people nowadays expect people of those former eras to talk.  Cheryl always had odd rhythms and an ornately campy lines to begin with, but Petsch delivered weird-to-us sounding lines that are supposed to be period-correct (“I WOULD have the truth from you”) with the appropriate amount of sincerity, kept free of camp.

The Rivervale thesis about Cheryl is that in every era, she is gay. In every era she is some sort of cult leader/ teacher of women.  In every era she is highly problematic, not just for that era but for our current sensibilities as well.  

And this is just a weird mind-game I’m engaging in but IF we posit this is a thing written by Jughead from Riverdale OH BOY HE NEEDS TO LEARN SOME THINGS about which lesbian tropes to avoid. Cheryl has the strange fixation on her ‘soulmate’ brother, but she otherwise despises men to a degree that borders on outright misandry. Maybe I just know the choicest lesbians (this is possible) but gay women really do not care about men all this much. They just don’t think about men that much at all unless a particular dude is being a nuisance to them in particular.   Cheryl though says things like “I have no need for women with husbands” and  “Men are such monsters.”  She sincerely, kindly advises women to lightly poison (so you can go work) or drug (so you can get more sex) or fatally poison (instead of getting a divorce) their husbands .  She has a persistent horror of heterosexual sex and pregnancy - and it’s a strange touch that the episode left open whether Bitsy was enduring marital rape or just that she didn’t want to have another baby.  This is a weirdly retrograde and straight-man focused way of conceptualizing a lesbian character who moreover is completely aware of and accepts her own homosexuality.

The explanation provided by this episode - that Cheryl never existed and she’s been Abigail Blossom, under a cursed immortality, all this time - serves as a neat fan-fic type ‘explanation’ for why Canon Riverdale Cheryl is so ‘off.’  She talks strangely, for one (“Nay! Cousin!” or  “Pray tell” as Cheryl would be her Abigail self bursting forth) and has strange retrograde ideas (s1 disbelief of the girls who report abuse by football players).  It’s audacious, which is fun, but imperfect because it leaves so much unexplained. For example, does the Abigail self retain awareness of her past lives as she keeps moving forward in time? How was it that Nana Blossom was able to tell all those whackadoo stories about ‘the past’? 

But see, asking questions like this takes all the fun out of both Riverdale the show and fanfic in general. Accept the premises and engage, or fuck off, really.

In any case - Cheryl has been an odd mix of highly entitled and highly vulnerable, and the triptych self shown in this episode posits that the headstrong, high-handed parts came from Abigail, and Poppy Blossom was 100% heart and feeling.   Cheryl the modern iteration whiplashed between the two.  This performance is a rendering of the same person in three radically different eras, in contrast to what Sprouse is doing, which to create entirely different people with the same face. 

By the way - At the school the only girl ever allowed to speak is Britta. This is a problem. The other girls - some not white even! - are literally set decoration.

Bitsy:

The chemistry and heat between Bitsy and Cheryl kind of threw into high relief how I unpersuasive I find Choni on screen. I adore the idea of Choni - Cheryl loving someone like Toni, who is consistently smart, the voice of reason and a source of kindness to her peers despite being from circumstances as dire as Jughead’s is adorable.  Cheryl being unable to sustain the kind of relationship that Toni would want was also an interesting development. But. Performance-wise, these two actresses do not generate heat, and it’s not to do with their actual personal lives.  When Petch’s limpid, you-make-me-weak adoring gazes finds its match like it does in the performance that Rheinhardt gives as Bitsy, I’m thrown right into the Ye Olde Lesbian Pulp fictions I used to read (Ann Bannon fans in the house perhaps??). All the yearning! The internal conflict! The swallowed tears! The passion!

I don’t think this was the intention, but the first Bitsy x Poppy kiss is followed by the first Abigail x Tomasina kiss and the LACK of romantic energy in the second pairing was just thrown into high relief. 

The scene at the jail where Bitsy shows her real despair and the retreats back to compulsive heterosexuality was a really marvelous bit of acting.  The fact that Bitsy smiles as she prepares to murder her husband through poison is the kind of wrong headed ‘women should just kill bad men’ type of thinking that keeps getting mischaracterized as feminism and lets men who do the everyday work of keeping women down (WHICH IS MOST OF THEM) off the hook as long as they are not actively daily raping someone.  Get outta here.

Jack:

We open with Jughead narrator who is  one of two characters that Sprouse plays here. Jughead Narrator is hard eyed and sarcastic.  We walk through the very well appointed, living museum house that is Thornhill. 

After Jughead Narrator comes Jack (No Last Name and not a Jones, probably? - is he a Jones??). Jack is actually menacing, and in a grounded way.  The absolute dislike, as well as what I immediately thought of as Anti-Choice rage in his face!  Very affecting because 99% of what I associate with this actor’s face is looking adoringly, almost on the verge of tears, at different people (Betty, Archie, FP, Jellybean, Gladys).  He is doing a LOT without being overbearing about it (compare to the inability of Kevin’s actor being able to do anything other than Kevin in period cosplay or Fang’s actor utterly unable to deliver ‘period’ lines).  The yanking Bitsy forward to say the coerced line about wanting another baby and pushing her back, and the glaring down at his wife with the same hatred as he does Poppy - nicely done.  And moreover, the kermit-froggy adolescent quaver he has in this voice somehow added to the general misogynist-on-a-bender frisson. When the mob of husbands comes to visit Poppy to threaten her, the only one that I was alarmed to see was Jack, leaning just so against the door frame, unabashed hatred on his face.  When Poppy shows up at the diner, he’s so furious he absolutely runs out of words.  If I used my compact and saw someone looking at the back of my head like that I would also cry.   And really the conspiracy of the men of the McCarthy Era playing with words this way - you won’t have to come back to THIS CELL - seemed so likely, and I liked the bold erasure of most real world details (due process, etc) for the drama of storytelling.

I found it amusing to consider that despite the sheer TERROR he had for her at the start and the weird stories and runaround she gave him as an adult, Narrator/ Riverdale Jughead has enough respect for Nana Blossom to give her body a calm send off into the Witchy Beyond and her soul a new start in a banging young body.  Well done.

[jabitha-endgame]

cute little drawing of Jabitha hugging in their clashing matching hideous robes 🥰

[staliasjeronica]

Riverdale S6 Ep5 Thoughts *Spoilers*

- “Archie Andrews has somehow come back from the dead” lol too powerful he just “somehow” comes back I love it, so insane

- OMG CALL BACK TO S1 BETTY VERONICA AND ARCHIE “Archie and I aren’t dating but they are endgame” ew grundy… TONI?! S1 JUGHEAD AND HERE’S BEN BUTTON FROM THE MINUTE SNEAK YESTERDAY AHHH why does Ben look like Drake Bell 

- RIVERVALE/RIVERDALE SIGN ICONIC! OMG THE COMIC ABOUT THIS EP HEHE I LOVE THIS ALREADY SO MUCH 

Rest of thoughts under cut to keep the tag clean :)

- Jughead goes to Tabitha first 🥺💕 If it’s Veronica next I’m still shooting for JabithaRonnie oh it’s Barchie first </3 But anyways idc Veronica and Reggie

- HIRAM HAS ALWAYS BEEN DEAD IN RIVERVALE

- LMAO THEYM TALKING ABOUT REGGIE LOOKING DIFFERENT BECAUSE OF THE ACTOR CHANGE

- Cheryl finding out that her brother is dead in Riverdale. AND THIS IS WHEN WE SEE JASON NOW AHHH HELLOO JSAON. SPEAK NOW BITCH. CHER CHER <3333 I’ve always wondered what he and Cheryl would be like aww

- Veronica thinking about Jughead even though it’s giving her a headache muah

- S1 REGGIE HELLOOOOOOO SIR

- DILTON WITH LONG HAIR!!!! Ethelhead fans how are you guys? You guys alive?

- In one of those universes, Jughead’s with Veronica <3

- S1 REGGIE BEING THE STRIPPER SO TRUEEEEEE TO HIS CHARACTER FHASDJF but I do highly wish its was the other Reggie but anyways we love this!

- No but the first thing on Veronica’s mind with two Reggie’s is to have a threesome, I wish it were JabithaRonnie. NOT THE REGGIE’S NOT BEING INTO A THREESOME? We all know that would be what they’re into like it would be so in character for them

- RIP Jason you head one sentence but you’ll go down in history as a babie JUGSON CRUMB not Clifford Blossom being the Black Hood 😭😭

- VERONICA TREATING THE REGGIE’S LIKE CHILDREN

- Husband Hal ew bring back FP </3 butt whatever that Barchie kiss was so cute

- Cheryl </3 Toni’s reaction </3 MEEK DILTON DOILEY HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT LMAO

- evil!Dilton though kinda slaps. ETHEL POISONING HIM wow for once she’s actually good they didn’t do her dirty!

- The Reggie’s shooting each other but also why does Veronica like not care 😭

- OMG CALL BACK TO JERONICA KISS. COUNTERPARTS TO BARCHIE LIKE WE’VE ALWAYS SAID I’M GONNA OFF MYSELF

- Jughead you’re not making Riverdale sound any better with all the serial killers and such bjkjadf

- “LET’S DO IT, LET’S MAKE OUT TO SAVE THE UNIVERSE. HERE’S TO VUGHEAD BECOMING CANON” *Jeronica but idc I’m too happy

- “ALL RIGHT LODGE, ARE WE DOING THIS OR WHAT?” ending it all rn

- Archie keeping us from seeing Jeronica kiss again though smh writers please find a way to give it to us </3

- Did Jughead really think he was any match for Archie though fasdhjkafs 

- Betty in that wedding dress FUCK so hot

- Them literally blowing Bughead up fkhjdsfasj their kiss has absolutely no chemistry in it and knowing that’s on purpose I love that

- NARRATOR JUGHEAD? HE’S SO FUNNY I LOVE HIM PLS

- POP’S BEING HEAVEN

- Choni <3 One of Veronica’s comics being on the other side in Jughead’s scenes <3

- JUGHEAD GONNA BE WRITING ABOUT JERONICA ENDGAME LATER “I’m the narrator, he’s the writer.”

- they said fuck bh lives hehe

- platonic bh is so good the fact that they destroyed it for SEASONS for faanservice 😭😭 

- “Hey, Cooper” ????

- Jabitha moving in with each other again 💕💕💕 but blurring out their hug RUDE

- Woow Ethelhead won in RiverVale

- Barchie <333333

- Who the hell warned them though… oh is it the new guy we heard about?

- BERONICA OMG that went by WAY too fast