Riverdale

Riverdale is a 2017 CW series, inspired by the characters from Archie Comics.

Tropes used in Riverdale include:

• Adaptational Heroism: Not that Veronica was ever an outright villain in the comics or other adaptations but she had a lot of Spoiled Brat moments and could readily step into the role of the Alpha Bitch if the script called for it. Here, Veronica is a reformed bully who is arguably a more objectively heroic person than Betty.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Cheryl Blossom later discovers that she's into women. Also Moose Mason comes out over the course of the series. Jughead, who has been canonised asexual by one writer in the 2015 New Riverdale series, and has been coded aromantic by audiences throughout the comics' history, has a girlfriend with whom he has both a romantic and sexual relationship on the show.
• Adapted Out:
  • Miss Grundy never put in appearance on the show. That late 20s/early 30s woman that Archie is romancing? She stole the identity of the real, and deceased, Grundy to hide from her abusive ex-husband.
  • Played with with regards to Chic, Betty's brother. He appears in the second season but he's soon revealed to be an imposter who knew the real Chic but the show is deliberately ambiguous on whether or not the real Chic is still alive. Season 3 reveals that he is.
• Adults Are Useless: Most of the parents contribute to making life harder for the kids, if they're not outright trying to murder them!
• Alpha Bitch: Cheryl Blossom. It was most prominent in Season 1 but shades of it still pop up every now and then.
• Ambiguously Bi: Veronica.
• Badass Gay: Toni Topaz although, while being promoted to series regular in Season 3, the character's actually been demoted to background character love interest and her characteristics sometimes removed, making her less badass than she was in Season 2.
• Become Their Own Antithesis:
  • Archie steadily succumbs to this Season 2 thanks to Hiram Lodge's influence. He kicks this in the penultimate episode but as he learns, it's not a good idea to cross a mob boss.
  • The girls in The Midnight Club:
    • Sierra Samuels is an activist and comments that being Mayor of Riverdale sounds like “a terrible job”. Cue Sierra introduced in the pilot as the perception-curating Mayor.
    • Alice Cooper is a Former Teen Rebel. Her dress sense alone gives away how much she's changed. She was once a proud Southsider but now spits on that heritage.
    • Hermione Lodge, the Lady MacBeth expy, was once Hermione Gomez, a meek, helpful, Catholic schoolgirl.
    • Penelope Blossom was once an independent Teacher's Pet before she consented to being a Trophy Wife. Then she went back on that and became a Machiavellian schemer.
• Betty and Veronica:
  • The titular ladies of course, with Betty as the Betty and Veronica the Veronica to Archie's Archie, although this is played with as the love triangle is only minimally touched upon at the beginning of the series, where its comic counterpart is the driving narrative force. It returns in Season 4b
  • Jughead as the Betty and Archie as the Veronica to Betty's Archie.
  • Betty as the Betty and Toni as the Veronica to Jughead's Archie.
  • Archie as the Betty and Reggie as the Veronica to Veronica's Archie.
• Bi the Way: Toni Topaz, Moose Mason, Fangs Fogarty.
• Blond Guys Are Evil: Charles, Chic, Hal... yup all that's all of them, and they're all evil.
• Broken Pedestal: It was already cracking and teetering, but the Season 2 finale sees Veronica finally lose any faith in her father.
• The Cheerleader: Cheryl Blossom.
• Daddy's Girl: Veronica.
• Darker and Edgier: Oh gods yes.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • Jason Blossom.
  • Dilton Doiley.
  • Midge Klump.
  • Mrs. Grundy. The real one and her imposter.
  • Hal Cooper.
  • Fred Andrews.
  • Clifford Blossom.
• Demoted to Extra: Kevin Keller, Toni Topaz, Reggie Mantle and Josie McCoy.
• Disappointed by the Motive: Alice Cooper is rather unimpressed that the Black Hood, Hal Cooper, started out because, at the end of the day, he's just a Momma's Boy.
• Driving Question:
  • In Season 1, who shot Jason Blossom? Clifford Blossom.
  • In Season 2, who's the Black Hood? Hal Cooper.
  • In Season 3, who, or what, is the Gargoyle King? Chic, orchestrated by Penelope Blossom
• Fake Dating: Archie and Betty
• Femme Fatale: Penelope Blossom, Hermione Lodge.
• Fille Fatale: Veronica, Betty and Cheryl.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Alice Cooper calls out the Black Hood, Hal Cooper, on this. For all his talk of cleansing the town of sin, murder is a sin (and indeed, a worse one than any of the "sinners" he's killed). Even his reasoning for shooting Fred Andrews, being an adulterer, is a hollow one. Because Hal is also an adulterer.
• High School Dance: The Pilot.
• Hotter and Sexier: Mrs. Grundy.
• Hypocrite: Hal Cooper is very much this. Despite his obsession with punishing sinners, he's guilty of far worse offences than any of the people he kills, such as trying to get his grandchildren aborted.
• In the Blood: The Black Hood claims that "darkness" runs in his family and that he passed it on to his daughter: Betty Cooper.
• Ivy League for Everyone: Betty, Jughead, Veronica, Cheryl - why not! Sidenote: do any of these people actually attend class?
• Jerk Jock: Reggie Mantle, although it turns out it's because his father hits him.
• Knight Templar: The Black Hood to Judge Claude Frollo levels.
• Lipstick Lesbian: Cheryl Blossom.
• Love Triangle: Veronica, Reggie and Archie.
• Lovable Jock: Archie Andrews.
• Mafia Princess: Veronica in Season 2.
• Mr. Fanservice: Every male character, parents included. The guys usually have multiple Shirtless Scenes. Kevin lampshades this in the Season 2 finale.
• Ms. Fanservice: Practically every female character, including the parents. The girls tend to have scenes standing around in their bras.
• Musical Episode: Once a Season.
• Not So Different: The Black Hood frequently opines that he's this to Betty Cooper, noting that both are driven by a desire to see justice done, even if they need to go outside the law to do it. The Season 2 finale shows exactly why: The Black Hood is her father.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Mrs. Grundy. Her real name is Jennifer Gibson but everyone just calls her Grundy.
• Outliving One's Offspring:
  • Clifford and Penelope Blossom outlive their son Jason. Because Clifford killed him.
    • Nana Blossom outlives both Clifford and Claudius.
  • Miss Klump is left to mourn Midge after the Black Hood killed her daughter in the tail end of Season 2.
• Pet the Dog: Despite his Adaptational Villainy and the feud he'd had with the man, Hiram Lodge, entirely out of pocket and not expecting any form of reward or even acknowledgement, paid for Fred Andrews' funeral.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Veronica is tiny but she can still knock out people with a single blow.
• Psycho Lesbian: The first indication of Cheryl Blossom's sexuality is her stalking Josie, her supposed best friend, and framing an innocent guy for it. She's not above instigating fights with people, is constantly emotionally abusive to people and during a break-up with her girlfriend, Toni, pushes, hits, verbally abuses and attempts to publicly humiliate her.
• Race Lift: Josie McCoy, Melody Valentine, Reggie Mantle, Veronica Lodge, Dilton Doiley, Pop Tate and Principal Weatherbee.
• SATs: Not easy when you just got done fighting a bear.
• School Clubs Are Serious Business: Betty uses the Blue & Gold student newspaper to attempt to fight actual crime, while Cheryl dramatically considers it a matter of life or death whether she can be a cheerleader.
• Sins of Our Fathers: Betty doesn't get in to Yale because her Dad was a serial killer.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Everyone's parents looked like their child in high school as seen in Chapter Thirty-Nine; i.e: Camila Mendes plays both Veronica and the teenaged Hermione in that episode.
• Teacher-Student Romance: Archie with Ms. Grundy who turns out to actually be Jennifer Gibson, a predator.
• Token Love Interest: Toni Topaz to Cheryl Blossom.
• Took a Level In Jerkass: Penelope Blossom gets worse every season. Quite an accomplishment considering that she was already an abusive mother and an utterly vile woman in Season 1.
• Twincest: Cheryl/Jason overtones are very prominent in Season 1, something which Veronica calls Cheryl out on in Episode 10. It's ultimately subverted as Jason was in a relationship with Polly Cooper who was his third cousin.
• Twofer Token Minority: Toni Topaz, black and bisexual, and, of course, a main character afforded zero screen time
• What the Hell, Hero?: Archie suddenly decides to become a mafioso-in-training under Hiram Lodge. He does suffer the consequences of this choice throughout Season 3.
• Whole-Episode Flashback: Chapter Thirty-Nine, The Midnight Club.