Riley Blue: Aligning DJ

[myril]

Place to discuss Riley Blue, née Gunnarsdóttir.
 
picking up from episode 1.12 thread
 

Riley is my less favourite character, I guess, even if I like her too. She was too passive this season. I think she'll have a different role next season, though, more active. And I agree that she could be the next "mother".

 

Riley is a character some people find too passive and less favorable as such, you're not alone. From what I observe online she's one of the lesser liked characters of the eight, mostly liked for being one part of Wiley. Aside that I disagree with the assessment of Riley being too passive, but I might have simply a different definition of passive, why is it that being seen as passive, or too passive is something that obviously is making a character not so interesting or less favorable?
 

IMO Riley is a very strong character, and especially interesting because she is not the usual run around-action-kick-butts-type of protagonist. She's observant, open minded, perceptive, thoughtful, maybe a tad too thoughtful for her own good, unintrusive - things seen as traits of introverts. She and Capheus share to be deeply immersed with emotions, Capheus more the sunny, bright smiling day side of it, while Riley is the blue(s), the moon, the night side of it. I don't think it's any random that the drug guy going after her is called Nyx, the name of the Greek goddess of night. Moon, night, motherhood, femininity - all often associated with each other and with being passive, whatever is defined in detail as passive.
 

Riley Blue she is called, shown with blue in her hair. Makes me think of the blue flower - a symbol for inspiration, desire, love, reaching for the unreachable, mysterious and romantic. The blue flower connects human, spirit and nature and through that connection the self finds its meaning and identity. A rather rational Humanism linking with the irrational, with emotions (German romanticism). In K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly blue flowers are the source for Substance D, mors ontologica, a drug blocking connections in the brain, splitting personality. edit: Scanner Darkly was made into film with Keanu Reeves, not by The Wachowskis though but by Richard Linklater, released 2006.

 

There might be a lot more to Riley than perceived on first view and thoughts.
 

Kinda ironic that one eventually have to do some thinking to see more layers to Riley Blue, who is so much about emotions.

Edited August 18, 2015 by myril

[samhalliwell]

In my opinion, after rewatching the season, the things that make Riley not be an instant favorite really go back to her backstory with the husband and baby. It's not that she's underwritten or uninteresting, but these characters are supposed to function as the lenses through which we see the world in each of their corners, which is why everything about Riley seems so aloof and disconnected until she connects with Will and, more emphatically, when she gets back to Iceland.

 

In short, IMO, Riley's story is about someone running away and pretending that The One Thing in her past that was horribly painful and traumatic didn't really happen and hurt her as deeply as it did. This, in addition to the very prominent drug use, basically resulted in very a numb, almost lifeless depiction of the entire London section of her chapter: a tonal description of Riley's actual mental and emotional state. As everything with this show, this becomes apparent once you see the whole thing in hindsight, which is simultaneously genius and somewhat frustrating to articulate (appropriate for this show, LOL).

Edited September 2, 2015 by samhalliwell

[ToxicUnicorn]

In short, IMO, Riley's story is about someone running away and pretending that The One Thing in her past that was horribly painful and traumatic didn't really happen and hurt her as deeply as it did. This, in addition to the very prominent drug use, basically resulted in very a numb, almost lifeless depiction of the entire London section of her chapter: a tonal description of Riley's actual mental and emotional state.

 

I agree with all of this.  Riley wasn't interesting at first because she was keeping herself so blank.  I was not happy about the "you're hexed" explanation for her trauma, or her encounters with Yrsa the Mean Cave Woman.  However, I thought her tragedy was portrayed well and made everything about her more believable in retrospect.

 

I'm reading the threads all out of order, but I've come across a few comments that talk about Riley as the one who will represent motherhood or something for the group.  I hope that is not the case (or only a part of her story).  I want her skills as a DJ to come back into play - didn't she say something about how she was able to choose the right music to make people forget?  If she were able to discern peoples' wishes, somehow, that would be cool.  I also wouldn't mind some kind of music/math/puzzle related ability.  Even something to do with rhythm or sound/light would be interesting.  Maybe it's me, but I don't want her to be reduced to some kind of brood mare.

 

I also think she is unique among the group to tell the story of what waking up to new senses is really like, since she started out in such a numbed and isolated state.

[Holmbo]

On 2015-09-12 at 4:48 PM, ToxicUnicorn said:

 

I'm reading the threads all out of order, but I've come across a few comments that talk about Riley as the one who will represent motherhood or something for the group.  I hope that is not the case (or only a part of her story).  I want her skills as a DJ to come back into play - didn't she say something about how she was able to choose the right music to make people forget?  If she were able to discern peoples' wishes, somehow, that would be cool.  I also wouldn't mind some kind of music/math/puzzle related ability.  Even something to do with rhythm or sound/light would be interesting.  Maybe it's me, but I don't want her to be reduced to some kind of brood mare.

I was doing a rewatch and noticed that at one point it's mentioned that the connection between sensates is a kind of vibration that can be felt. Perhaps Riley will be able to understand this connection better because of her experience with music and its affect on people.