honestly i’m so confused by the serpents.
like in 2x12 when tall boy wanted to go on about how betty had no place there because she was a “northsider on serpent land”. and from all the hints we have about fp’s past we know that he was once a northsider. i’m sorry but you can’t convince me that before daddy forsythe kicked fp out that they lived on the southside. i get that tall boy has issues with fp, but like, that whole exchange just had me rolling my eyes. it didn’t help that jug wanted to solidify the fact that betty was one of them, because i guess since she did the dance he can just unilaterally decide that. but also the comment just made it appear as though being a serpent was more about birth than about initiation, which we know isn’t the case here. like it would have still been stupid if he said she wasn’t initiated, but at least it would have made more sense.
more than that though i don’t understand what the serpents are meant to be. i get that the show wants to go for this 1950s greaser aesthetic, but like, that’s just not the serpents that we’ve been given? i’m sorry. you’ve given us a biker gang that’s morally opposed to selling drugs, which is fine because motorcycle gangs didn’t get into the drug trade until much later, but that’s what they do. like. why go for this aesthetic.the only time the serpents have ever looked like a greaser was that five minute drag race sequence.
also the narrative loves to have jughead equating the struggles of serpentdom to the struggle of poc, and that’s really what confuses the fuck out of me. for 1) the show has actual poc characters that they could explore those struggles with like any other show in existence would do 2) you can’t have a boy who joins a gang that was initially founded as a way to show that the uktena were still united and still standing for one another that was then in subsequent years dominated by white men to illustrate the struggle of the poc that the group themselves literally erased.
also had an issue with the implication that 1) every serpent lives in shady pines trailer park [or whatever it’s called] 2) none of them could pay their bills. it was alright to see penny back last night, but you really want me to believe that the city of riverdale would literally evict half of the population? like… the entire town if fucking economically depressed, that’s a canon fact, like. where do you think they’re going to go? i don’t care what the lodge’s want you can’t convince me that anyone would be stupid enough to think that was legitimately a good idea. point number two is slightly more important to me, as i mentioned earlier IN CANON RIVERDALE IS FUCKING ECONOMICALLY DEPRESSED. the twilight shutdown because of this, hiram lodge is able to purchase all these businesses because yeah he’s fucking loaded and shady af, but prices are also hella cheap because there isn’t shut to be had in riverdale. half of the town is struggling to pay their bills and i can’t think of a single person that would think that it’s a great idea for half the fucking population was suddenly homeless. riverdale is not prepared for that shit. and i understand that the trailer park is supposedly on city owned land so they’re in a different position than other people in riverdale, but like… hiram will only be able to keep his southside holding a secret for so long.
in conclusion i’m lowkey over the serpents. aside from the ten minutes they spent running drugs for penny any of the interesting/lucrative activities they’ve done is because it was bankrolled by some wealthy northsider. so i vote that they go on a retreat and figure their shit out. i’d say they were about to be homeless, but since the head was returned this will all be swept under the rug and we’ll all go back to not caring.
