History Series / Riverdale

* KryptoniteFactor: When Archie became NighInvulnerable in Season 6, he finds out he loses his powers when he's arround palladium and asks Betty to keep it away from him. This, of course, is used against him by the season's Big Bad. [[spoiler:He later overcomes this weakness when Cheryl forged his skin to be impervious to palladium, but in the process he gains a new weakness: the daggers of Migido.]]

* KryptoniteFactor: When Archie became Nigh-Invulnerable in Season 6, he finds out he loses his powers when he's arround palladium and asks Betty to keep it away from him. This, of course, is used against him by the season's Big Bad. [[spoiler:He later overcomes this weakness when Cheryl forged his skin to be impervious to palladium, but in the process he gains a new weakness: the daggers of Migido.]]

** Reggie endured constant physical and emotional abuse from his father growing up- until he got hip to the fact that he towers over his old man and outweighs him by almost 100 lbs.

** Cheryl also mentions that she used to watch Series/WizardsOfWayverlyPlace, which had a Crossover with Series/TheSuiteLifeOnDeck starring Cole Sprouse.

** In Season 7, ''almost every adult'' in 1955 is some degree of abusive and controlling. The only exceptions are Mary (who’s a good person but ineffective overall), Jughead’s boss at Pep Comics (who has some shady business practices but is a JerkWithAHeartOfGold) and Brad Rayberry (who is genuinely nice if rough around the edges [[spoiler: until he’s murdered]])

* TownGirls: While all three female leads are very feminine in their own, they still have their particularities. Betty is the Butch for being an FBI agent and a WrenchWench, Cheryl is the Neither for being a fanservice-y NightmareFetishist LovableAlphaBitch with archery skills, while Veronica is The Femme for being a NiceGirl lacking the CuteAndPsycho tendencies of the other two, and is mostly interested in doing business, dancing and singing.

** However, it becomes increasingly clear throughout the series that Riverdale is rotten to the core, with all kinds of tragedies and crime happening, starting when the land was colonized.

** [[spoiler:The series 2 premiere confirms that Grundy is a serial offender of this as she is seeing kissing another teenage music student of hers, Ben.]]

* SuddenDownerEnding: [[spoiler:Season 1 ends with this. The mystery is solved, the couples seem happy together, but Cheryl snapped and burned down the Blossoms' residence, and Fred gets shot in the middle of a robbery at Pop's. Bring on season 2.]]

* SlidingScaleOfParentShamingInFiction: Pretty much ''every named parent'' on this show (with the exceptions of [[GoodParents Fred Andrews, Sheriff Keller, and maybe Hermione Lodge]] ) occupies a place on this scale, with the least monstrous sitting firmly on Type I while the Coopers and Blossoms alternate between Type III and Type IV. Alice Cooper moves more towards a Type II at the end of the season when everything is revealed, meanwhile... if there was a Type V, the Blossoms would be right up there.

** Cheryl's sleepover with Toni, Betty, Veronica, and Jossie in season two contains of scene of the girls attired in silk robes and brushing each others' hair, conga-line style, that pays homage to the music video for [[https://youtu.be/k2qgadSvNyU?t=1m27s New Rules]] by Dua Lipa.

* TheSeriesHasLeftReality: Not that ''Riverdale'' was ''completely'' grounded as it always had a campy tone, but the earlier seasons still took place in the real world, with some MaybeMagicMaybeMundane elements. By the sixth season the show has featured TimeTravel, parallel universes, superpowers and supernatural entities just to name a few.

* PreppyName: Many characters have some really pretentious names which usually reflects their high status in Riverdale society, especially the female characters.
** '''Elizabeth''' "Betty" Cooper, '''Veronica''' Lodge, '''Antoinette''' "Toni" Topaz , Cheryl '''Marjorie''' Blossom have downright royal themed names commonly found in European royalty and nobility, but not so much among commoners.

** Archie as the resident BigGuy of the show, becomes invulnerable gaining in density and weight in addition.
** Betty who is very intuitive, deductive and street-smart, and who struggled most of her life with her own inner demons and killer genes, fearing she is an evil person pretending to be good, gains the ability to see danger and people's true intentions through AuraVision.
** PlayedWith in the case of Jughead, he develops [[{{Telepathy}} mind-reading]] abilities which can be explained by his CharacterNarrator role with his voice-overs.
** [[FieryRedhead Cheryl,]] who was always an intense person (with some pyromaniac tendencies) and a WildCard, develops pyrokinesis. Though in her case it's due to her ancestor Abigael's passage in her body. She doubles also as the resident DarkMagicalGirl, which goes in hand with a {{Goth}}ic NightmareFetishist like her.
** Tabitha becomes Riverdale's guardian angel, and gains powers like time traveling and controlling time. Being formerly a CEO, she is a meticulous person and problem-solving. The fact that she was chosen to be a guardian angel, goes in hand with her role as TheReliableOne and activism.

* NoBisexuals: Averted with most of the characters (Moose, Toni, ect). The case with Cheryl Blossom. A lesbian who is still obsessed with her dead twin brother Jason and harbors a Yandere hostility against anybody who didn't like Jason.

* NoBisexuals: Averted with most of the characters (Moose, Toni, ect). The case with Cheryl Blossom. A lesbian who is still obsessed with her dead twin brother Jason and harbors a Yandere hostility against anybody who didn't like Jason.

* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler: Miss Grundy, Midge, Clifford and Claudius Blossom, Tall Boy, Fred]]

* LockedOutOfTheLoop: The entire high school aged generation of Riverdale is completely ignorant of the Cooper-Blossom Feud, even though it has been going on for the better part of 75 years and Hermionie compares it to the Hatfields & the [=McCoys=].

** At this point, [[SlidingScaleOfParentShamingInFiction the only parents we see]] who ''aren't'' abusive or corrupt in some way are Fred and Mary Andrews, and Sheriff Keller. The original script also planned for Sheriff Keller to be abusive and homophobic to his son Kevin, though this was scrapped in favour of him being a ReasonableAuthorityFigure.

* FauxlosophicalNarration: A number of episodes feature Jughead's pretentious voiceoiver.

* FauxlosophicalNarration: A number of episodes feature Jugghead's pretentious voiceoiver.

** Various people under the Gargoyle King are goaded into committing suicide by cyanide through the game.
** Going along with the first point, [[spoiler: various men that were near Penelope wind up committing suicide one way or another - it's actually revealed that she poisoned them and faked their suicide, including Clifford's.]]

** Cheryl is this with the RichBitch archetype. She's the AlphaBitch of Riverdale High and a member of the wealthy Blossom family. Sure she's snobbish, arrogant and mean but it's somewhat a FreudianExcuse due to her family background especially her mom's abuse on her. Her twin bond with Jason is the main fact that Cheryl has humanity and a deeper personality though she uses to act as a RichBitch often.

** Archie is this to the IdealHero archetype. At first considered as the Riverdale [[TheAce golden boy]] (especially after Jason's death) by many other characters (his father Fred sees him as his sucessor in Andrews Construction , his best friend Betty idealizes him and Reggie is jealous of him due to his talent in football and ChickMagnet status), Archie became more flawed as having an affair with his music teacher, easily manipulated by adults who have their own interests and becoming DarkerAndEdgier. Sure he's still has a heroic and kind nature but he's more complex now.

** The first season starts with Cheryl's twin brother (who she has {{twincest}} implications with) Jason [[DeathByAdaptation dying]] and the entire season is about solving his death. In the pilot alone, it has Archie [[TeacherStudentRomance sleeping with his teacher]] only to {{blackmail}} her, Archie being MistakenForMurderer, references to the "rainbow party" urban legends, and Reggie getting underaged drunk. Most of the characters are [[AdaptationalAngstUpgrade much more miserable and depressed]] as well.

* CorruptionOfAMinor: Chic seems to start this to Betty at the end of "[[Recap/RiverdaleS2E11Chapter24TheWrestler The Wrestler]]".