Loyal to the nightmare of my choice- An analysis of Riven from Winx Club
I’m at a point in my life (not long before I turn 18) where it’s natural that I’d start yearning to revisit my childhood and look back on the things that made me happy as a kid. And recently, my feed has been showing me memes I forgot about from Winx Club, a show I was captivated by when I was younger, and it got me thinking. What better way is there to honor my childhood than rewatching some of the media I loved when I was a kid that I forgot about? While I initially started doing it for fun, to my surprise I started to realize about 7 episodes into the first season that there was a good amount of substance in it despite it being targeted towards a younger audience, particularly in the way that some of the characters’ backgrounds and fears motivate their behaviors. The following episodes only proved that further, and one character stood out to me in particular throughout the run time, that being Riven.
In today’s analysis we’ll be focusing on how insecurity, sense of self, and standards around masculinity combine into his character and motivate his actions throughout the first half of season one. I’ll also discuss how Musa and Darcy impact his development and the subtext that may indicate that he’s queer coded (in the sense that this part of his arc is representative of the experience of a lot of young queer men). I’ll note that I’ll be referring to Sky and Brandon as the Prince and the Blond guy so there isn’t confusion about who I’m referring to since their names apparently switch later on for some reason.
Already by the end of the fourth episode, Riven has a decent amount of characterization. He’s abrasive, sharp-tongued, and cocky, often instigating turmoil and arguments between the specialists (particularly the blond guy) with his snarky comments and arrogance. Right off the bat we see he’s competitive and prefers to handle situations on his own, having a difficult time acknowledging his faults and blaming others for his failure when they try to work with him.
His apparent ego coupled with his stubborn independence and frustration with the idea of relying on others shows that his need to prove his strength is likely masking something deeper, that being an intense discomfort with vulnerability. Yet when the other specialists say they’ll kick him off the team if he refuses to cooperate with the Winx in the fourth episode, he chooses to stay with them anyways despite his pride, revealing that he does indeed desire human connection and isn’t as confident in his own abilities as he lets on.
What’s interesting is how his aggression, which is typically associated with masculinity, is contrasted with how he actually chooses to express himself (mainly through fashion, occasional dialogue, and mannerisms) in ways that would be considered feminine at the time the show was released. Wearing a crop top and saying things like “sweetie” to your bro are just some examples of things he does that were stereotypically feminine in 2004. This juxtaposition of his different attributes calls into question how his need to prove himself and inability to be vulnerable may not just be related to insecurity with his abilities, but also with his identity as a man.
Because he’s unsure of how he fits into male gender roles, he overcompensates and tries to bury his lack of confidence in himself by attempting to be hypermasculine in other aspects. And of course, the consequence of this response is how it’s damaging to his relationships. In trying to mask his insecurity, he isn’t being true to himself and therefore struggles to have deeper, genuine connections.
His characterization is reinforced in multiple ways during the 7th episode, the episode that sort of lays the groundwork for the major conflict he encounters in the next two episodes and their unfortunate resolution by the 10th.
He charges in alone to fight the Minotaur thingy and insults the blond guy when he says they should work together, again offended by the idea that he isn’t strong enough to defeat it alone. He speaks lowly of the women he’s at the party with and sets himself above them, dismissing Musa as “better than some of the others” there (if you think that might imply misogyny I want you to hold that thought). But most importantly, when he’s found by Darcy and the others she states that he has extremely strong negative energy. His perspective on masculinity is immature and unhealthy (I predict that it’s primarily been shaped by trauma from past experiences) for not just the people he’s surrounded by (which we’ll get deeper into shortly), but also his own psyche and self worth. As is the case for many teenage boys, it’s not surprising that this attitude is emotionally taxing and even physically exhausting for him to maintain.
This leads up to what I think is one of the most interesting scenes in the show yet as far as gender criticism goes. Riven, the blond guy, the prince, Stella and Bloom are all in the city for the magix equivalent of Mother’s Day. After Riven reveals that he and the other two are going to be participating in a race being held for the holiday, the prince teases him for not having anyone to cheer for him, insinuating that he can’t find a girl that’s into him.
And he immediately becomes defensive at this comment, feeling his masculinity has been attacked/questioned since social structures put pressure on men to attract women as accessories to and proof of their masculinity. Because of this, he tries to affirm his manliness to himself and his friends through performative masculinity. He claims he can have any woman he wants and tries to make a bet with his friends where if he wins the race, he can pick any of the winx to go out with at the ball. And he picks Bloom.
This in and of itself is a VERY problematic assumption on so many levels. It not only is completely disrespectful to the blond guy who very obviously has feelings for Bloom, but it’s even more disrespectful to Bloom and the other winx who he’s treating as possessions, not even considering if they’re not into him. (Remember how I brought up misogyny earlier?)
Thankfully, Bloom doesn’t take any shit from him. She calls him out on his deplorable behavior and reminds him that it’s her choice to decide who she wants to go out with, stating that regardless of the outcome of the race she doesn’t want anything to do with him. But he completely ignores this sentiment and takes the disrespect a step further by grabbing her chin and getting in her personal space, insisting that she’s just hiding her feelings for him.
This violation is inherently degrading not just because she didn’t consent, but also because in doing so he shows he took none of what she said seriously. He acts as if his ego gives him the authority to decide what’s good for her regardless of how she feels about it, demonstrating a patronizing form of misogyny. Bloom rightfully decides that she’s had enough with his bullshit and slaps his hand away from her. She teaches him a lesson by using a spell to pour water over his head and tells him he needs to treat others with more respect.
Now, the thing that the series does wrong with this is how it portrays Bloom as having “gone too far” once Riven is rightly embarrassed by the turn of events and ashamed of his behavior. She feels the need to apologize when she wasn’t in the wrong whatsoever, which is admittedly a very bad lesson to teach young girls. At least Stella interjects and comments that he had it coming, but the fact the show treats Bloom like she needs to make up for embarrassing him when he absolutely deserved it is problematic and frustrating.
He storms off and Darcy sees him, commenting that she likes his attitude and finds him physically attractive. The trix take note of this along with the bad state he’s in, deciding to use it to help them achieve their goal. And regardless of how I feel about it Bloom decides she wants to make it up to him, which they use to execute their plan. The trix take advantage of this by sending an imposter of Timmy to give her a helmet they can control to make him mess up the race to give to Riven before the race begins. Bloom ends up giving it to him but quickly realizes she made a mistake, but when she steps into the race to try and stop the witches she sadly falls hook line and sinker into their trap. They set it up to look like Bloom was the one who messed with his helmet while she interfered in the race, and Riven is left in a very vulnerable position emotionally.
It’s deeper than him just being mad at Bloom in that moment because he thinks she made him lose. It’s a build up of the entire day. He feels like he was emasculated by his friends after part of his deep seated insecurity was named out loud and additionally is embarrassed by his failure in the race and to charm Bloom, reinforcing that insecurity. There’s only one thing on his mind right now, and that’s finding validation from someone. This makes him incredibly susceptible to Darcy’s manipulation.
She tricks him into thinking she saved him and goes to comfort him after the race, giving him what he craves in that moment that he feels his friends aren’t able to provide. He doesn’t believe Bloom and is frustrated that his friends aren’t immediately taking his side. And in what is a surprisingly real moment, he’s blinded by his ego and chooses to ditch the people who actually care about him, feeling betrayed.
Musa and Darcy are also foils to each other, and Darcy herself is actually a pretty good example of how women can perpetuate the patriarchy if they believe they can become more powerful in some way by embracing it. While she does like Riven, her crush on him is only motivated by surface level attraction and not love, and ultimately is using him as just another way to get what she wants. The first thing she notes when she sees him in public isn’t anything about his actual personhood or a desire to get to know him better like Musa, but how essentially… she finds his attitude and body sexy. Darcy offers the shallow affirmation he wants on an egotistical level while Musa offers him a genuine acceptance for who he is despite his flaws, which is what he actually needs. And what’s sad about his choice is that Darcy is only feeding his ego to make him reliant on her affirmation because that’s what she needs to do to keep him under her thumb, whereas Musa and the others would’ve helped him find an actual stable sense of self worth. The kind that comes from within.
What’s even more depressing is that he throws that opportunity away completely in his shortsightedness. After Musa sees him with Darcy in the restaurant and the other trix get a gang of girls to literally jump her, she finds him while trying to escape and begs him for help. To which he smirks and says “why should I?” And I’m here to tell you why you fucking should Riven. That girl is someone who genuinely respects, admires, and cares about you beyond just what you can do for her, and she has been NOTHING but kind to you. She’s coming to you in a time of desperation, and regardless of how you feel about her friends, standing up for her is the right thing to do even if it could cause you to lose what you want out of Darcy. But he turns a blind eye to this reality, and not just because he wants the present gratification he gets from Darcy.
Despite it being what he needs to do if he ever wants to grow, he feels like he could never allow himself to let his walls down because that would require him to be vulnerable with someone and expose his low self confidence. And so he abandons his friends, Musa, everyone that was genuinely supporting him, which will inevitably become self destructive.
Riven is also a fascinating character in how his motivations and internal conflict are extremely similar to the experiences of a lot of young queer men both past and present, and I think that there’s a good possibility that this was intentional. While I don’t like to throw around the term “queer-coded” I think there’s a decent amount of evidence to support looking at his character through this lens.
Being feminine as a man is stereotypically associated with queerness, and as I explained before a lot of the ways he chooses to present himself would’ve been considered feminine or unusual for a man at the very least at the time. Villains were frequently queer coded in the 90s and 2000s (that was the only socially acceptable way to have a queer character in your story), and while he isn’t a villain (even if he functions more as an antagonist later in the season, there’s a difference) he serves a more antagonistic role in the story. He’s often the shit starter for many conflicts and is also just mean to the other characters.
As for his experiences, trying to push people away and engage in performative masculinity to cover up fear and insecurity around your identity and how your community would feel about it is rather common among young queer men.
The pressure to conform to oppressive social systems like patriarchy is destructive to many of the people it’s supposed to empower as well as the victims, and I was pleasantly surprised to see this portrayed in an older show targeted at younger audiences, even if it wasn’t perfect. It’s something I’d like to see covered in more in stories because media is a powerful socializing agent that influences how we view ourselves and our place in the world from a very young age.
I’m excited (and a bit nervous) to see how Riven’s decisions affect him in the future and how his perception may change because of that.
I may make a follow up meta to this at a later point in his arc if enough people are interested, so let me know if you enjoyed this! Thank you for your time <3.
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