The Riverdale Fandom: Enigmatic Escapism

 

Riverdale Fan Art (1)

Dark & Addicting

    According to IMBd user Sleepin_Dragon, "there is something rather addictive about it." Sleepin_Dragon, in his recent review of the 2017 American television series Riverdale, also refers to this teen drama as "hugely enjoyable escapism" (2). Inspired by the 1939 Archie Comics, Riverdale is well known for its ability to "deliver a deliciously dark story that will entertain," according to another IMBd user, atlasmb (2). Riverdale is produced by Warner Bros for the CW Television Network and is also available on Netflix, which has aided in the show's rise to fame. In short, Riverdale presents the story of Archie Andrews and his friends, who are students at Riverdale High, as they uncover the dark secrets within their small town (3). Click here to get a better sense of the show's "dark" nature and engaging plot that fans have come to love.

    Riverdale fans, as suggested by the aforementioned IMBd reviews, are largely drawn to the show because of its dark, engaging plot that provides an escape from reality. However, this information alone provides an incomplete view of the Riverdale fandom, as there are numerous other significant dynamics that must be recognized. Although Riverdale is based in the United States, the series has achieved popularity not only in the US, but also in India, Australia, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Canada (4). While Riverdale fans may be found worldwide, the fandom is generally limited a young audience. For the most part, the Riverdale fandom consists of teenagers and young adults who are drawn to the relatability of certain elements of the show, such as the major theme of self-discovery as a high school student (4). In fact, Amy Mackelden, seemingly a fan of Riverdale herself, wrote an entire article on nickiswift.com, a celebrity gossip website, called "Things Kids Love About Riverdale That Adults Don't Get," which provides a detailed and logical overview of several reasons why this series has become so popular among today's youth. Several reasons Mackelden provides and explores in detail include the presence of "teenagers acting like adults," the countless captivating relationships, the physical attractiveness of the characters, and "the elaborate fan theories and online community" (4). Outside of the general demographics of Riverdale fans, it is also crucial to understand more about the "elaborate... online community" of the Riverdale fandom that Mackelden references in her article. 

Lili Reinhart, who plays the role of Betty,
             interacting with fans (5)

The Riverdale Fan Club

    It seems that for every fandom, there is at least one major online fan club, and the Riverdale fandom is no exception. The site riverdalefansonline.com seems to be the main online fan club for the series outside of the world of social media. Interestingly, this site was created in 2017 by a seemingly middle-aged woman named Ruthie. While she does not explicitly reveal her age, Ruthie does reveal that she has been married to her husband for 25 years and the couple has four children together (6). She writes in her brief bio, which may be found under the "about" tab on the website, that she and her friend Stephanie run the account together and post "the latest spoilers, news and photos for the hit TV show, Riverdale" (6). This personal information is important because it proves that there are exceptions to the fact that Riverdale fans are typically younger. Ruthie's assertion that Riverdale Fans Online is "your one stop for all things Riverdale" (6) seems to be accurate, as the site is very thorough and provides a variety of options for explore related to the series. Riverdale Fans Online even offers numerous links to outside sources, including a link to this online Riverdale Fan Forum, which provides a space for fans to interact with one another about anything and everything related to Riverdale. Users can create posts, as well as view and respond to others' posts. One could spend hours delving into these threads, which range from serious discussions of specific scenes to lighthearted personal conversations between fans to speculation about future episodes. The moderator of this forum, a user who goes by the username dragonfire, appears to be an incredibly dedicated fan, evidenced by her creation of countless threads, including brief overviews of every single episode of Riverdale that has aired thus far (7).

Fan Fiction

    Although Riverdale's plot is a major element that has attracted fans to the series, many fans are so invested in the show that they have chosen to either further the existing events or entirely change the events within the show through the creation of fan fiction. Wattpad and FanFiction.net are the two most popular sites fans use to create and read fan fiction, and there is certainly no shortage of Riverdale fan fiction on either site. As speculated by Mackelden, fans are drawn to the many "ships" (short for romantic relationships, whether existing or invented by fans) within the series. These ships are very popular topics for fan fiction writers, and a search for Riverdale fan fiction on Wattpad will reveal mostly love stories between existing characters, between characters invented by writers and existing characters, between existing characters and the reader through the use of second person point of view, etc. Interestingly, users on FanFiction.net seem to write more stories about subjects other than these ships as compared with Wattpad. There are also many crossover stories on FanFiction.net, in which writers incorporate characters from other books, shows, and movies, such Harry Potter. 

    The word "Riverdale" generates a result of 25.4k stories on Wattpad, as compared to 744 results on FanFiction.net. My personal favorite story from Wattpad is titled Riverdale Gif Series, which has over one million reads, written by the account @RiverdaleFandom, which is actually a group of several users who collaborate to create Riverdale-related content on Wattpad. This specific book is split into different sections for each character, with each section containing around ten short "imagines" based on gifs of each character (8). These "imagines" are very brief stories that place the reader in story through the use of the common notation in fan fiction of "y/n," which stands for "your name." Readers are prompted to insert their own name in these spots, so it is almost as if the characters in the story are talking to them. One unique feature of Wattpad is the ability given to users to leave comments on specific lines or sections of a story. In Riverdale Gif Series, for example, readers left many passionate comments on lines they thought were sad or that they really enjoyed. The interactions on this site, as well as the Riverdale Fan Forum, seems to suggest that Riverdale fans enjoy interacting and connecting with other fans.

The image on the left is of the fan fiction book Riverdale Gif Series on Wattpad (8).

Visual Media 

    Because Riverdale is a tv series, fans have easily accessible visual media to use in order to create their own videos, collages, etc., which Riverdale fans have most certainly taken advantage of. The two most popular platforms fans have used as a medium to create and post these fan edits are YouTube and TikTok. Some users on these sites use clips from the series to create video fan fiction in a way, such as in the case of this video about an invented romance between the characters Veronica and Jughead and this video exploring the relationship between Betty and Archie, which both deviate at least slightly from the narrative presented in the actual show. Fans have also posted videos on YouTube that are more like collages, such as this one dedicated to revealing the relationship status of members of the cast through the use of pictures from the cast members' social media accounts and the internet. The YouTube video below presents a collage of pictures of individual cast members both taken from the scenes within the series and outside sources, paired with text on top of the images revealing the real names of the actors and actresses, as well as their ages (9). 

    TikTok, a wildly famous website and mobile app, has also served as a place for Riverdale fans to gather virtually. Fans have posted a variety of short videos here, ranging from collages of their favorite moments of certain characters or ships to humorous videos like this one, which seems to reflect one fan's love for KJ Apa, who plays the role of Archie. 

The image on the right shows the top fan accounts for Riverdale on TikTok (10). Many fans have also created TikTok accounts dedicated to the individual cast members of Riverdale, the majority posting clips of released behind the scenes footage of cast members and moments from the series that are especially significant for the specific  characters that the cast member plays.

Social Media

    Fans of Riverdale seem to have a presence on nearly every social media site that exists through fan accounts, private fan clubs, and actively interacting with the cast members' personal social media accounts. Twitter, for instance, contains countless Riverdale-based accounts, including one particularly intriguing account, @bugheadlines. This user's account is dedicated to posting pictures and quotes related to "Bughead," which refers to what fans have established as the official ship name for Betty Cooper and Jughead Jones. The cast members themselves have amassed large followings on Twitter, such as Lili Reinhart, who has 3.4 million followers, and Madelaine Petsch, 2.2 million followers. Petsch, who plays Cheryl Blossom, tweeted on March 17, 2021 "watching the new episode [of Riverdale]... rt if you miss Choni," which received over 6,000 retweets and over 35k likes (11). Choni, as most Riverdale fans would know, is the official ship name for the characters Toni and Cheryl. 

Scholarly Interest in Riverdale 

and its Fandom

    Others like Amy Mackelden have also demonstrated interested in exploring why this series has become so widely beloved, including Paola Brembilla and Chiara Checcaglini. This pair examines the "cultural and social value" of Riverdale in their academic article in ZoneModa Journal. More specifically, this article seeks to explain "the mechanisms of Riverdale's timeless charm and cool attitude" through discussion of the CW as a whole, how the characters are represented, how the cast present themselves on and off screen, etc. This article dives into the very heart of the fandom, illuminating how and why this show is seen as so "iconic" (12). 

My Experience with Riverdale

    As a fan of Riverdale myself, I can absolutely testify that this series aligns exactly with the ways it has been described thus far: iconic, addicting, engaging, providing escapism, dark, entertaining, etc. Like many other fandom members, I was especially drawn to the various captivating relationships, in addition to the mysterious plot that always keeps you guessing. I found myself binge watching the series late at night and early in the morning, unable to watch fast enough. I recommended the series to others, wanting to be able to share my love for Riverdale with others and to be able to have conversations about the scenes that made me angry or sad or emotional in some other way. As evidenced by my own personal experience, as well as those of other fans, there are many things to love about Riverdale. Fans have taken numerous approaches to express their appreciation for this series, and it seems as though this fandom will only continue to grow.

Works Cited

1. “Riverdale Fan Art.” Pinterest, i.pinimg.com/736x/01/7f/86/017f865e65760e2ed0920bcb4978608e.jpg. Accessed 22 Mar. 2021.

2. “Riverdale (TV Series 2017– ) - IMDb.” Www.imdb.com, www.imdb.com/title/tt5420376/reviews. Accessed 29 Mar. 2021.

3. Wikipedia Contributors. “Riverdale (2017 TV Series).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Feb. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverdale_(2017_TV_series).

4. Mackelden, Amy. “Things Kids Love about Riverdale That Adults Don’t Get.” NickiSwift.com, 15 Feb. 2019, www.nickiswift.com/145672/things-kids-love-about-riverdale-that-adults-dont-get/#:~:text=There%20are%20so%20many%20reasons%20to%20love%20Riverdale%2C. Accessed 29 Mar. 2021.

5. “Lili Reinhart Greets Her Fans.” Celebs First, 2019, www.celebsfirst.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/lili-reinhart-greets-her-fans-while-visiting-aol-build-series-in-new-york-city-081018_5.jpg. Accessed 30 Mar. 2021.

6. Ruthie and Stephanie. “Riverdale Fans Online.” Riverdale Fans Online, Jan. 2017, riverdalefansonline.com/. Accessed 29 Mar. 2021.

7. “Riverdale Fan Forum.” Www.fanforum.com, 2017, www.fanforum.com/f157/index2.html. Accessed 29 Mar. 2021.

8. @RiverdaleFandom. “Riverdale Gif Series.” Www.wattpad.com, 2 Dec. 2017, www.wattpad.com/story/100188681-riverdale-gif-series. Accessed 30 Mar. 2021.

9. Stars Cove. “Riverdale from Oldest to Youngest 2019.” YouTube, 12 Apr. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy0DB1fHFgE. Accessed 23 Jan. 2020.

10. Tiktok.com, 2018, www.tiktok.com/search?q=Riverdale&lang=en. Accessed 30 Mar. 2021.

11. Petsch, Madelaine (madelainepetsch). "watching the new episode... rt if you miss choni." 17 Mar. 2021, 8:52 p.m. Tweet.

12. Brembilla, Paola, and Chiara Checcaglini. “‘Iconic and beyond Reproach’: The Socio-Aesthetic Relevance of Riverdale.” ZoneModa Journal, vol. 10, no. 1S, 20 May 2020, pp. 39–54, zmj.unibo.it/article/view/10553/10883, 10.6092/issn.2611-0563/10553. Accessed 30 Mar. 2021.

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