Some Thoughts on Jughead in Riverdale

I’ve been holding off on writing about Riverdale, the CW’s new, totally cracked reimaging of the Archie universe – it’s like Dawson’s Creek meets Twin Peaks meets Archie comics, and it’s ludicrous and amazing – but after the events of last week’s episode, I knew there was one thing I had to talk about sooner rather than later (spoilers for episode 6, “Faster, Pussycats!  Kill, Kill!”)

For a few episodes now, the hints have been there for a potential romance between Jughead and Betty, and last week, Jughead went for it, kissing Betty during an intense moment.  Things got crazy immediately afterwards (the two of them have been conducting their own investigation into the death of Jason Blossom, a Riverdale golden boy whose murder shocked the town, and there was an important lead they had to follow up on,) and the two finished the episode without circling back to the kiss, but I would imagine the matter is far from closed.

Plenty of news outlets, in writing about Riverdale, have picked up on the Jughead of the Chip Zdarsky comic series being asexual, and Jughead’s kiss with Betty had many of them quick to declare that this Jughead is now and forever straight.  Before I keep going, I do want to point out that this isn’t necessarily the case (even if any wiggle room comes mostly from my own wishing thinking.)  It’s entirely possible that Jughead is a romantic ace who has feelings for Betty.  If he doesn’t know this yet, he may start to figure it out over the course of whatever romance they might have.  It could also be that Jughead is an aromantic ace who doesn’t realize it yet.  If he has a platonic crush on Betty, he could very easily assume his feelings are romantic – it’s hard to understand what you are when no one has given you a name for it or told you it’s possible – and so kissed her because That’s What You Do.  We could be heading for a storyline of Jughead realizing what he really wants with Betty is the beautiful friendship they already had.  (Since I myself am aro, and I read Jughead as an aro ace in the comics, this would probably be my first choice, but I acknowledge that, even among ridiculous meager asexual representation, romantics don’t get their share, and there are a lot more romantic aces in the world than aromantics.)

So, yes – there’s every possibility that Jughead could still be ace, aro or otherwise, and I’ll cling to that until the show definitively proves me wrong.  But that’s not actually what I want to look at today.  Especially after posting my most recent Dear Hollywood Whitewashers yesterday, it struck me:  why am I not more upset at the prospect of Riverdale’s Jughead not being asexual?  After all, people of color may be underrepresented in Hollywood, but ace representation is just over infinitesimal.  I’ve encountered shockingly few asexual characters, and I’ve been looking – not to mention, most of the ones I’ve found are only potential aces who aren’t expressly identified as such.  So why am I not raging at the thought that Riverdale might have straightwashed my favorite fictional ace?

Don’t get me wrong.  The thought disappoints me; I’d love seeing an ace Jughead on TV, and my impression so far of Cole Sprouse, who plays him on Riverdale, tells me he’d do a bang-up job at it.  There are definitely more interesting, unique places the story could go if the show takes advantage of this aspect of Jughead.  But there are extenuating circumstances here, which Sprouse detailed quite articulately after episode 6 aired.  In an interview with Archie Digest:  A Riverdale Podcast, he outlined his thoughts about the matter.  There’s a lot to go through, so I’ll summarize rather quote. 

First of all, I’ve watched and read a handful of other interviews with Sprouse (and other cast members, but I’m naturally biased toward Jug,) and one thing that’s immediately evident is that Sprouse does his homework.  In preparing for the role, he read a lot of comics featuring Jughead in different incarnations, including Zdarsky’s Jughead, the current Archie series being handled by Mark Waid, and the classic-style “digest” Archie comics that you’d find in, say, a grocery store checkout line; he also read up on the history of the character and, after checking out the Zdarsky iteration, asexuality.  In preshow interviews, I saw him expressing the same general sentiment in multiple places – asexual representation is something that’s sorely needed on television and he’d love to play Jughead that way, but that’s not necessarily the direction the show is going to go with him.

In his “post-kiss” interview, Sprouse brought up a few salient points.  1) Jughead is the only comic that expressly identifies Jughead as ace.  Even though it’s consistent with his 75-year history, it in and of itself is both a recent development, having only occurred in 2016, and still the exception rather than the rule.  Even other Archie universe comics that run concurrently with Jughead – like Archie, Betty & Veronica, and Reggie and Me – don’t specify him as ace.  Now, this doesn’t mean it wouldn’t have been a golden opportunity for Riverdale to capitalize on this unique side of his character in Jughead; it’s just to point out that the “prevailing Jughead” is not an expressly asexual one.  2) The long history of Archie comics also features recurring seeds for Betty/Jughead, and just as there are asexual fans who want an ace Jughead, there are longtime comic fans who want to see that pairing play out on screen.  (Even more reason for Riverdale’s Jughead to be a romantic ace – the best of all possible worlds!)

And ultimately, 3) Riverdale is its own take on these characters.  For all of the comic history and canonical parsing, the show is doing exactly what it wants here, and while the characters remain versions of themselves at their core, the series takes wild departures with the details.  This is, after all, the same show that gave us a murder investigation, a Betty with mental health issues, and a “hot, young Miss Grundy” in an illicit relationship with 15-year-old(!) Archie.  There are departures.  It’s not a situation where we’re looking at a mostly-faithful adaptation except when it comes to Jughead’s relationships with girls – this is a case of “anything goes.”

(Quick side note:  to the extent that this is an issue, it’s also a purely storytelling one, not a casting one like the Dear Hollywood Whitewashers posts have addressed.  Though it still reflects a problem with representation, it’s not taking a role out of a marginalized actor’s hands and giving it to someone who has more opportunities.)

The last thing I want to mention here is that I appreciate Sprouse’s continuing comments about asexuality and the importance of representation for us.  He comes across to me as very genuinely cognizant of the representation that’s been lacking in this community, and I very much get the sense that he is/was the loudest voice within the show arguing for that sort of characterization.  I hope he knows that what’s happening on the show now can still be compatible with that representation, and now that the show’s been renewed for a second season, maybe he can bring the creator, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, around to that line of thinking.