#rvd meta

[leotanaka]

jughead’s nightmare in 1x07 revealing his horror at the idea of being forced into a stepford type situation, of having no individuality and having to conform to what society expects of him so he is just like everyone else vs. jughead being told in 7x11 that the real enemy has always been the “wholesome, conforming, homogenous america” while he is currently stuck in the same time period that his nightmare was set. 

[trashfordair]

i feel like this has been said a million times, but roberto tried so hard to blairena veronica and betty's friendship but failed so miserably.

for starters, the basis of their friendship is so very different.

with blairena, right from the beginning, from the moment we're introduced to them they're already feuding but you get the sense that they seem to owe each other a certain level of loyalty. even when you find out serena and nate, who is blair's long term boyfriend, slept together, you understand why blair is so upset. you get it. serena is her best friend and has been in her life forever, it is a massive betrayal. then as the show progresses, they both fuck up. they both hurt the other, they scheme and they tear each other down, but when it comes to it, they are there for each other, they apologise to each other and they hug it out. it feels genuine.

with veronica and betty, the writers try to do the same thing. they set up a love triangle with them and archie, but it doesn't quite work. yes, veronica is well aware of betty's crush on archie, she's informed by kevin almost immediately, but when she kisses archie, it doesn't really feel as big a betrayal. at that point, v and b have only known each other for days, v owes betty no loyalty, they're barely even friends at that point! i can understand betty feeling betrayed, but it just doesn't work in the way the writers want it to. then, as the show progresses, their friendship doesn't seem to grow organically (in my opinion). of course, the fact that they're constantly in life or death situations definitely plays a role in that, but afterwards it really just feels like veronica constantly giving and giving and giving, and betty takes and takes and she tears it apart! she makes multiple speeches where she insults veronica and she slut shames her and every other horrible thing she's said to her, the first time she kisses archie she and veronica have been "best friends" for two years, and i don't think we ever even see her apologise to veronica. the second time she kisses archie is four years since they've met (riverdale's timeline is never really clear, so im going off the seasons), she's had a full blown emotional affair with him, and still, we don't really see their friendship go through the pains of the betrayal. we only see the affair through the lens of their respective romantic relationships, and all we get is an "apology" and she's just, forgiven. how are we supposed to believe this friendship is so epic and so genuine if we don't even see veronica feel an inch of hurt by betty's betrayal? (yes I understand the whole genuine friendships should never be torn apart by a guy blah blah, but genuine friends would never have an affair with their friend's significant other, and if there is love there, there should, would be hurt too!) everytime their oh so great friendship should be challenged, it's over in a second, everything is forgiven and forgotten. who's buying that? no, I'm not saying they should be full out feuding/cat fighting like blair and serena, but tell me, if your friend did/said some of those things, are you going to tell me that you would forgive them in a split second just because they "had a reason"?

it. just. doesn't. work.

i don't touch on the betrayal of the significant other in both love triangles because i think the shows handled that

[leotanaka]

archie's music being tied directly to jason...

something something jason being completely removed from the narrative isn't only why archie is finally able to break free from the narrative in the 50s but also why the story changes from football & music to basketball & poetry.

for archie, football and music are both things he relates to jason and are what originally sow the seeds for him to slowly becoming jason (along with betty/archie = polly/jason but that's a discussion for another time) until they are one in the same.

basketball, however, is solely connected to his father (football was too actually now that i think about it, which kind of explains why he struggled to make his own decision and forge his own path aka because he was turning into jason AND his father) while poetry is his own, it's something that belongs to archie and archie alone and is a way for him to find his identity. there's no third party to overshadow his decisions, to turn him into someone else or force him to repeat the cycle because simply put: he's not interchangeable anymore.

50s archie is just archie.

[leotanaka]

the thing about the riverdale ending is that if you stop watching at episode 19 then angel tabitha won, she beat the narrative and all of the characters are free to live their lives but if you continue to watch until episode 20, then narrator jughead won and everyone is doomed to be trapped inside the narrative forever.

[leotanaka]

reading what jughead actually wrote (and not just narrated to us) is just...

i especially love the whole "this town is seen as decent, innocent and safe because it's what people want and they are either too young to know better or too old and don't want to know better".

and the emphasis on "safe" and the implication that jughead in particular could see exactly how unsafe riverdale really was (given he was homeless at this point makes perfect sense) and that he recognised the darkness that had overtaken the town and knew how unsafe riverdale was once you see what is happening below the surface.

also, this is how the show starts and yet it is clearly the THIRD page!

there are two whole pages of writing that happens BEFORE the narrative even starts.

[leotanaka]

the more i think about this moment, the more unsettling it becomes because the narrator is literally making the audience complicit in his actions - in trapping the characters inside of the narrative forever and by saying "we'll leave them here" it's such a "if you stop watching now, they are trapped here forever" but of course we aren't going to do that so instead it turns into "that's how it should end but if you decide to keep watching and rewatching, then they might not be trapped here forever but they will be trapped in the cycle of trying and failing to break free of the narrative for the rest of their lives with only one possible outcome and that is to never succeed." either way, the narrator gets exactly what he wants.

[leotanaka]

narrator jughead presenting himself as an angel (including being introduced with the same bell noise that was heard when angel tabitha returned and the caption saying he's angel jughead) and then music turning eerie and sinister when he looks into the camera and reveals that he's actually the narrator and not the angel...

what's the phrase? even the devil disguises himself as an angel?

[leotanaka]

riverdale is not about breaking free of the narrative.

riverdale is about fighting like hell as you try and break free of the narrative. it's about crawling over broken glass as you claw at the freedom and agency that awaits you while the narrative pulls you back in over and over and over again and forces you to constantly repeat the cycles you managed to free yourself from and then in a moment of mercy, the narrative just lets you go. releases you so that you can have your freedom and your agency, so that you can be happy and live your life but they never intended to let you keep it and once you've experienced that life, they pull you back into the narrative except this time you're dead and there's nowhere to run to or anything to claw at because they've all but turned you into their puppet and trapped you inside the narrative for all eternity.