Riff is a fascinating character, well written and far more complex then his outward appearance would indicate. Although he started off as your usual mad inventor, as time went on a number of incidents have shaped and defined him further as an individual.

To borrow from KOTOR 2, it is conflict that shapes us, defines us - we find ourselves, or find ourselves lacking. Sluggy Freelance's stories are an excellent crucible in that they test their characters, and often these characters can end up in either column - anyone from Angela to Shlock to the 'Arny' persons to any of the many casualties could be said to have been found wanting, and even our heroes have not always passed those tests presented to them.

I wish to focus specifically on Riff, and on how Pete's multi-layered and well-timed portrayls of him have created a firm image of a person and at the same time have made him a mystery.

To study this character, it is vital that we begin by facing his apathy - as indeed everyone who encounters him must first overcome. It appears Riff had a troubled childhood. His mother is overbearing and probably caused the young Riff to introvert. This is evidenced by the fact that he has very few true friends. This sort of isolation most likely lead him to his inventing career, which allowed him to rely only on himself.

But why would his apathy and indifference remain even in later life? When visiting in hospitals or trying to have relationship discussions, he immeadietly flounders, falling back on "I don't know" and desperately hoping the topic will change. This seems odd, considering he's spent years now in the company of the outgoing Torg.

However, there are a few moments that clearly show why he's maintained this apathy, and it is linked to another part of his identity that lies just beyond it - here's an example of what I mean:

http://sluggy.com/daily.php?date=011104

You see, Riff isn't purely apathetic, he cares enough that when prompted he can't help but risk himself for others. He could have most likely escaped - his survival skills have been tested in the past - but instead tried to save the party-goers. However, as this comic shows, these moments where his principals make him act when his defensive apathy wants him to flee are often when he fails. Perhaps another example to help clarify my picture?

http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=021207

The connection here is that in both cases, Riff acts - tries to reach out, tries to change things - and he fails. These failures are devastating, as they should be, and would be to anyone. The only way anyone could be expected to retain their sanity would be if they could somehow protect themselves - don't become connected, don't feel, shut out the outside world and let it all go away. Riff does this through his apathy. It's why he can't have a real relation. It's why he breaks down when things threaten his friends. He cannot handle it, and so he retreats.

So we have some small understanding of Riff now, a man disillusioned who chooses to hide himself emotionally to avoid dealing with the pain. He is not a bad man for being like this, and indeed, trying to change him could be fatal. It is one thing to avoid the pain of a bad childhood, that can be confronted. Failure on a massive level that causes deaths - especially the deaths of friends - can destroy a person if they face up to the reality of it. If someone (I'm guessing Gwynn) ever tried to change the core of his person, to do so would be like tampering with a timebomb. His apathy is a shield, like his inventions and his isolationist lifestyle. So long as he only cares about himself and nothing else, he is safe.

But then, it is not a perfect shield.

Riff has the tragic flaw of principles, in my opinion. His flaw is that he cannot cut himself off completely. No matter how many times he may fail, no matter how many he might lose or who might leave him (Sasha), he still can't hide in ignorance and live a normal life. When Riff moved to Alaska, losing contact with his friends and thus the main link he had to the paranormal, he could have easily isolated himself from society. Maybe become a new person, found new friends, forgotten tragedies of the past and fears for the future, started afresh. He ignores relations and all sorts of things, so why would it be so hard to ignore a few vampires that probably wouldn't bother him anyways? It is because it is not a perfect shield of apathy. His principles leaked through, and he could not help but once again plunge into the battle against supernatural evil.

What are these principles, though? He is apathetic because he fears he is a failure and shouldn't even bother to risk himself for principles that he thinks will fail anyways, and yet every time when he really has to he has not hesitated to act. These principles of his seem to primarily revolve around friends.

As I said, he seems to have suffered from a bad childhood, his mother most likely drove away many of his friends and his father seemed distant. In the real world, he has encountered a lot of problems and more then his fair share of enemies, but has still managed to keep a small group of friends - a couple people who are the only ones he has ever really connected to in his whole life. These few people are so important to him, that when anything threatens them he goes to extreme lengths to get them back. He built a giant robot of all things to save Gwynn. He traveled the planes of existance and the dimensions of the multiverse to try and save Torg (And, I might note, met failure once again). He is desperate to protect the few people who have meant something to him, in a strange way afraid to be alone again, even though his apathy tends to drive them away.

So what do we have here, to recap? A man who has failed many times to live up to his own principles, and so has buried his emotions to avoid the pain. A man who is suppressed, isolationist, and reserved, driven to distraction, and yet still unable to stop himself from acting. A conflicted man - on one hand, his loyalty to his friends and his beliefs, while on the other, the weight of his failures and his fear of loss. Riff is someone who is held together only by never addressing his own issues.

If you feel unsure, peruse the archives at different points of history, and you will see the only evolution he has undergone is a slow build-up of tension. As more and more incidents piled on, more and more insecurities, enemies, and failures, he has become more erratic, and even his own apathetic shield is no longer capable of defending him. Note that when I say he has a build up of failures, I mean he has failed many times in the past without really recieveing closure on those failures - they linger within him still. His plans have degraded, and he is driven to even more innane distractions then usual in a supreme effort to stave off a growing pile-up of the past. Look at him now! He has said himself his plans are becoming worse. He has always loved video games, but now even when Torg has vanished he leaps at a game to make him forget his troubles. He's been giving less opinions and acting less overtly. Torg's troubles haven't helped, either. We haven't heard much from Riff as a person because we haven't heard as much from Torg, and Riff has lost the only person he could really talk to at all.

Where is he heading then? You cannot keep breaking a man's will forever, eventually he will break himself. If Riff cannot sort out his own past, then he is destined to become more and more eccentric and more and more alone, until finally he loses all contact with reality - shutting himself out completely to avoid facing the past. To face the past, he must find closure, and that is hard - for it is not always there to recieve. The 'Arny' is dead, as is Lucy, so he cannot apologize for being outwitted - this is surely something Riff would blame himself over. Perhaps he could recieve closure by killing the Kittens. Although Cloney was slain, it was slain by Torg as Riff's assault floundered, so I do not see how he could feel complete again for that. As for Torg's current problems, it doesn't seem as though Riff has any plan to help his friend.

There is of course a third possibility. If Riff can recieve just enough support, just enough closure, just enough contact and emotion to take some of the weight off of him for the pain of the past, then maybe he can remain where he is - close to the edge, but not yet broken. The most likely way this could happen is to give him purpose - feed him once again the same old troubles, and once again he will rise to the challenge. Torg is currently in a problematic period of his life, with numerous enemies hanging over his head like the Sword of Damocles, and the undealt-with guilt left over from his time in the DoL. If Riff makes his purpose into finding and saving his friend, that might serve as distraction enough to keep him sane for the time being.

Should Riff fall, it would be such a quiet thing. The only noticeable symptom would be him doing and saying less, which might very well just be because the plot is not focussing on him. The effects would be there, though, bubbling beneath the surface, and I believe Pete is so strong a writer that we might see some more hints of this in the future.[/b]

Does anyone really read these uber-long posts?

Depends on the mood I'm in, but usually, yeah.

And this made me laugh really hard, for some reason.


And you can make your "uber" more über by holding the ALT key and typing 0252.

...So Sluggy Freelance is basically an 8-year-long Pink Floyd album?

I don't! :D

I tried reading Dolash's first post and got a few paragraphs in then decided to go read my 700 page book - it's shorter.

Relaying this for an accountless friend:

Dolash... I love you.
*huggle suplex*

uber über über
zoüe Zoüe Zoüe
How do you switch to E?[/u]

You mean ë? ALT-0235

I have always thought that Riff is one of the most interesting Sluggy characters. I remember back in "The Bug, the Witch, and the Robot" when the bug played Riff's card as "the Coward" I thought this was odd since Riff seems as far from being a coward as he could be; he's recklessly brave.

But then I realized that both could be true. He's scared of doing anything difficult or uncomfortable, and he'd much rather hang out with his friends, play video games and tinker with his inventions. Basically, he's lazy (consider his almost illogical hatred of 9 to 5 jobs. He abhors them even more than Torg does).

But his highly-developed principles keep on pushing him into the role of hero. He did his first real save-the-daying in "Vampires" and has been going at it ever since. It seems to me that he doesn't think anyone else is capable of doing the job, and he doesn't even let them try. Case in point: http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=030613, or the way he just charged off alone in "Dangerous Days Ahead".

Sometimes he takes this attitude too far. That's why he continues to distrust Aylee and Sam, even though they're both (mostly) harmless. Riff's distrust of Sam almost got them all killed in "Kesandru's Well", but that didn't stop him. Why? Because it's Riff's duty to protect his friends and the world, and nothing will stop him from doing his duty.

This idea of bearing everything on his own shoulders (and his alone) is really unhealthy. It means he blames himself for things he couldn't possibly help (like losing Lucy to the Kittens), and it's why he deliberately kept Sasha from becoming involved in the fight with K'Z'K-possessed Gwynn and sent her away after DDA. Me, I think there must come a time when Riff realizes that he has to let the others help him and can't do everything alone. That, I think, will be the real conclusion of his character arc.

PS: Overanalyzing stuff is fun!

I think it makes sense that he's a coward who keeps throwing himself into situations. I think he really is scared and tries so hard to make up for it that he has to push himself to be the hero. Sort of like how when one of your teeth is loose you keep poking at it with your tongue and eventually you can make it turn all the way around and look! it's just hanging by a thread and I can make it wiggle back and forth!

While I don't necessarily agree with your views entirely, Dolash, I agree with most of it.

I'm not sure if we can blame Riff's fascination with technology entirely on family problems. I'm not saying that they're not a factor, but I mean Riff had a fantastic position. From the beginning's of Sluggy Freelance all the way to DDA, Riff was basically given a budget that I'd define as "unlimited within limits." I can't tell you how inventions and cool gadgets that I would personally have made (or at least attempted) by now if I only had a budget like Riff's.

Now, I *will* admit that for Riff to get into this position at all, it would necessitate astounding gadgeteeria prowess during his childhood. I suppose that you may be right there. More than his mother, though, I think Riff's weirdness might better be related to his father.

I mean, from what we've heard Riff's dad sounds like your traditional "Adventure Scientist" a la Indiana Jones. That'll definitely sound cool to any kid. Unfortunately, 1) his father probably wasn't around enough due to his travels, and 2) his mother probably frowned upon Riff going out late at night (who knows what raves will go on in a pyramid, after all).

I think the "Carnivorous Smurf" might be a good example to look to here. Notice that while Riff didn't yet seem to have any incredible skill with super science yet, he was still very goal oriented, and fell back on using tools to try and get what he wanted. If I wanted to make a wild claim without research, I'd say that Riff seemed to be intent on making his surroundings strange if he couldn't go to strange locales himself (but don't worry, I won't say that...until I can think of strips to back it up with).

I can easily see how if other events like Carnivorous Smurf populated his childhood how Riff could move to inventions. Begin by using arcane relics, come to situations where the relics you have won't serve your purpose, and then realize that you need to design relics by yourself if you're to have any good fortune continuing as you have.

That's not lazy. Riff is not a 9-to-5 person. Nothing is more poisonous to the soul of a decidedly non-9-to-5 person than being forced into a 9-to-5 job. It saps all of one's will to live, replacing what had hitherto been known as life with a hideous, self-perpetuating, scarecrow-like mockery.

Hmm... this doesn't work for me. I opened up a word document and tried it. Am I doing something wrong?

You have to type it on the number pad to the right, not those at the top of the letters, sorry.

Er... thank you?





I enjoy writing these long-winded posts not just for discussion, but also to help me clarify my own points - as many would agree, once you've written an idea down on paper it's much easier to focus then when it's simply in your head.

As for the further speculation on Riff, it is interesting to wonder just where these fears of his come from. A lonely childhood combined with a great deal of trauma in his adult life seem to sustain them, and his trust issues that cause him to take on so much responsibility - and thus, so much blame. His father probably caused just as many problems as his mother, if not more, for young Riff, which has made him who he is today.

You are right, Stel, to speculate that he can be both a coward and brave - he doesn't show his fear in the conventional way, he shows it through increasingly desperate plans, through blaming himself and indeed becoming reckless simply because he is even more afraid of failure. He blames himself for it, so that failure gets added on to the weight of failures he is already weighed down with.

He really is a fascinating character. If in the future he did learn to let go of the past and stop trying to take up so much responsibility - which often hurts his cause rather then helps it - then indeed, that too could perhaps help heal him as a person. Of course, what would really help is a few stellar victories, some wrongs righted, friends avenged - actually dealing with the past through action would probably have a better effect on him then dealing with it through personal introspection, as he would be 'freed' from the burdens that he carries and might be able to become a regular person again.