| “ | Not now, C.A.R., I'm delivering a vital life lesson to Todd. | ” |
–Riley, "Maid for K" | ||
Riley Eugene[1] Daring (born as Riley Eugene Fleem[2]) is one of the main protagonists in The Replacements. She is the older, more responsible, more trustworthy, yet more naive sibling who enjoys school.
Official character description
"Idealistic optimist and hopeless romantic. She has a thing for Johnny Hitswell and anything sweet. Riley is a consistently slightly above average student and a good baseball player. She's most likely to use her replacements to help others, whether they want her help or not."[3]
Biography
She and her younger brother Todd are the adopted children of Agent K and Dick Daring. These two previously lived in a orphanage because their parents are out of the picture. It is unclear what truly happened to them (but it can be assumed that they passed away). She is twelve years old at the beginning of the series, and she turns thirteen in "Riley's Birthday".
She has a crush on Johnny Hitswell and they became a couple in the second season. However, in "Heartbreak in the City", Johnny broke up with her because of her controlling attitude.
In "The Spy That Wasn't Riley", Riley tries one of her dream careers as a spy instead of a window washer that the Career Day test and the ex-guidance counselor Mr. Lasley told her she was meant to become, and almost blows up Antarctica when she stows away on Agent K's mission to stop Dr. Scorpius; however, in the end, Riley saves the day even though Agent K's mission is seemingly too dangerous for her to handle. In "She Works Hard for the Movies" we learn that Riley has an Aunt Debbie and her middle name is Eugene. In "Ratted Out", she sang the very first song of the entire series, "My Rat Buddy".
Personality
Riley is caring and has her heart in the right place. She generally means well and will apologize to someone if she does or says anything wrong to them. She stands up for what she believes in and uses Fleemco to make good changes for everyone surrounding her; or at least, that's her goal. She usually tells Todd not to call Fleemco for the wrong reasons, but this winds up backfiring on her as she gives Todd the ideas on who to replace and why. She is a B-grade student and more academically gifted than Todd, and is seen as a model student, having been named Student of the Month on at least one occasion and being a summer school tutor.[4] At one point she was part of the journalism staff at school.[5]
She enjoys playing baseball,[6][7] playing the violin,[8] ponies, Hornet Hive Scouts, and candy. She is a fan of Susie May, who is her violin-playing inspiration,[8] Dustin Dreamlake,[9] whose music she enjoys thoroughly, and D.K. Growling, whose books she loves.[10] Riley loves reading and the library, unlike most of the kids, and was annoyed when Todd replaced their librarian with a rock-and-roll superstar.[11] Sugar makes Riley hyper and dislikes mean people.
Although she is more sophisticated than her younger brother, she is very tomboyish and a bit more childish than others her age; Riley was enjoying herself getting dirty [12], hanging inside trash cans [13], playing sports (including baseball), practicing skateboarding, having gross stuff (practically belching and farting), playing video games [14], jamming to rock music, and hanging out with Todd. She still has an imaginary unicorn friend,[5] she has a picture of herself hugging what appears to be Big Bird,[15] and she watches a preschool show called General Giraffe and the Goofy Gamehouse Gang whenever she "feels blue."[16]
Riley is always afraid that her parents and brother will embarrass her and ruin her social life; that being the case, she did not want her parents to throw her a birthday party in "Riley's Birthday", claiming she wanted a pleasant day. However, her family disregarded her wishes, but the party ended up being a success anyway as Dustin Dreamlake was able to perform at her birthday party, despite things looking as though it was going to be a disaster at first, thanks to Dick's lame attempts at "connecting" with the invited guests. She even wants to make her mother happy and proud but she used someone to make her crush jealous until she ends up regretting it.
It becomes a goal of Riley's in "Hollywoodn't" to be a director; however, she is shown to be too desperate and Celebrity Starr is now a snobby, revenge-seeker. It is not until Riley informs Todd that Celebrity's only goal is to get revenge on Shelton Klutzberry, her ex-boyfriend, and he begins to get suspicious of this actually being the case that Celebrity gives her the job in hopes of distracting her and making her forget about what Celebrity is really doing.
Relationships
Todd
Riley taking control of the television.
Riley and her brother Todd share a typical sibling rivalry, which stems from her being older and more mature than him. "Serf's Up" begins with Riley bragging about it and taking control of the television causing Todd to miss a wrestling pay-per-view event. There are times when she takes advantage of Todd, such as in "Fiddlin' Around", where she blackmails him to cover for a replacement. However, she is very concerned about her younger brother's well-being. When Todd snuck out to the carnival the second time in "Carnie Dearest", she went to pick him up all by herself; while doing so, she accidentally gets enslaved by the carnival. She also tries to give Todd helpful advice, but Todd sees her as a nag; most of the time, Todd would not have gotten in trouble if he had listened to her. She is self-aware about this; a gag in "Todd Strikes Out" reveals that she's subscribed to Naggy Older Sister Magazine. Overall, Riley always loves Todd; she affectionately called him "baby brother" in "Running from Office", and her last line of the entire series was "Thanks for having my back, bro."[2]
Tasumi
Riley meeting Tasumi for the first time.
Tasumi is Riley's best friend. They met each other after Riley got lost trying to find her homeroom. Riley stumbled into a janitor's closet and saw Tasumi, who was hiding in there because she ripped her armor. She fixed Tasumi's armor with her father's duct tape. Riley is entertained by Tasumi's tall tales about being part of a crime-fighting team in Japan, which she takes at face value. A rift between the two occurs in "Best Friends For-Never?", where they get into a fight over a shirt; they nearly settle it in a wrestling match, but after remembering how they became friends, they throw the match. In "Tasumi Unmasked", Riley obsesses over uncovering Tasumi's true identity after seeing Tasumi's likeness in a video game; she later forces Tasumi to take her helmet off, which eroded Tasumi's trust in her. Later, when Tasumi tells Riley the truth, Riley does not believe her story until the paparazzi comes to Tasumi's house. Tasumi gets sent back to Japan, but Riley uses Fleemco to replace her band with orangutans, and Tasumi moves back to Pleasant Hills for good.
Abbey Wilson
Abbey is Riley's other friend. Riley grew up in an orphanage, whereas Abbey is rich and lives in a giant mansion. Despite their class differences, Riley and Abbey mostly get along. Although Abbey is part of Riley’s friend group, Riley’s relationship with Abbey is not explored as often in the series. Riley's patience with Abbey's vanity runs out in "Bowled Over"; Riley gets Abbey to admit that she thinks she is prettier than Riley, which leads to Riley competing against Abbey in a beauty pageant to prove her wrong. At the end of the episode, Abbey apologizes to Riley, and Riley shows her appreciation by intentionally losing the bowling tournament so Abbey could win.
Johnny Hitswell
Riley and Johnny.
Johnny is Riley's crush. Riley and Johnny play on the same little league baseball team, and she worries that Johnny sees her as just another teammate. In "CindeRiley", she gets a makeover to impress Johnny at the fall dance; after Sierra pranks Riley, Johnny tells Riley that she is less shallow than the other girls, then they return to the dance floor. In "The Perfect Date", Johnny asks Riley out on a date; after the date, he kisses her when he drops her off at her house. At the beginning of the second season, Riley realizes that Johnny is officially her boyfriend, despite having been on two dates by that point. She also gets increasingly clingy toward Johnny throughout the season. In "Heartbreak in the City", Riley follows him all the way to New York City, paranoid that Johnny would dump her for a model. There, Johnny ends up dumping her for being too controlling. Riley has a hard time letting go of Johnny, as in "Double Trouble", she joins an environmental group because Johnny was the head of her chapter. When she finds out that Johnny is bringing a date to the group's awards dinner, Riley also tries to find a date in order to make him jealous. At the dinner, she reveals that Johnny's date looks almost exactly like her. Sierra convinces Riley that she was dumped for a copycat. Unbeknownst to Riley, the copycat is Johnny's cousin, not his new girlfriend. Influenced by Sierra, Riley shoves Johnny's cousin into a fountain, further souring Riley and Johnny's relationship. In "R2: A Tale of Two Rileys", Johnny admits that he wants to get back together with Riley, but he explains this while talking to her robot duplicate, and it is not shown if he and Riley do get back together.
Sierra McCool
Sierra and her posse harassing Riley.
Sierra is Riley's arch-enemy. Riley constantly competes with Sierra, mostly for Johnny’s affections. After Riley got a makeover to impress Johnny in "CindeRiley", Sierra pretends to let Riley join her "cool girls' club", then she shoves Riley into a fountain. In “Late Night with Todd and Riley”, Riley flips out when she discovers that she was not invited to Sierra's pool party. Sierra unexpectedly apologizes to Riley, so Riley invites Sierra to her sleepover. At the sleepover, Sierra gathers information to make it look like Riley is cheating on Johnny. When Riley finds out, she dumps an ice cream sundae on Sierra's head. In "Heartbreak in the City"; Sierra plants seeds of doubt in Riley's mind, which causes Riley to chase Johnny all the way to New York City. This leads to Riley getting dumped. Although Riley hates Sierra, she has respect for Sierra's cheerleading ability. In "Cheer Pressure", Riley replaces the strict cheerleading coach with a hippie so she could join the squad, and she learns the hard way that Sierra is a better cheerleader than her.
Shelton
It is implied that Riley does not like Shelton; in "You Got Schooled", she admits that she does not care about him. However, Riley is more likely than Todd to help Shelton when he's in need, though her well-meaning efforts usually fail. In "The Frog Prince", Shelton gets tormented for having an imaginary girlfriend. Riley calls Fleemco for a real girlfriend for Shelton, and the company sends a teen actress named Celebrity Starr. Later, Riley helps Shelton raise the courage to break up with Celebrity. In "Hollywoodn't", Riley chastises Todd for making fun of Shelton in Celebrity's new movie until Celebrity persuades her into directing the film.
Jacobo
Riley infrequently interacts with Jacobo outside of school. Although she calls Jacobo "pretty lame" in "Late Night with Todd and Riley", she has a mostly positive opinion of him. In "Private Todd", Jacobo takes Riley to an Orangutan Crew concert. He was going to bring Todd to the concert, but Todd wanted privacy at the time. Riley insists on keeping it platonic, and they have a good time.
Appearance
Official artwork
Riley has fair skin with rosy cheeks, straight, waist-length ginger-orange hair and teal eyes. In season 1, she wears a yellow shirt, blue jeans with a striped multicolored belt around it, green sandals, and a green hairclip. In season 2, the color of her belt, hairclips and sandals are changed to purple. She also has an different outfit: a blue hoodie, purple sweatpants, white socks, and blue gray flats. At night, Riley wore a blue nightgown in season 1, and purple pajamas with dark purple spots in season 2. However, she was shown wearing her attire from season 1, although this clothing was altered: the sleeves on her yellow shirt are longer for example. Plus, her design was changed as well, her skin is darker, her nose was visibly changed and her ears are sharper.
As shown in "Running from Office", Riley had her hairstyle since she was a baby. For a time, she had curly hair and braces, and she wore a yellow shirt with a green, white, and pink stripe.
Gallery
References
- ↑ "She Works Hard for the Movies"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Irreplaceable"
- ↑ "Characters". Disney Channel. Archived from the original on 20 December 2015. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
- ↑ "Quiet Riot"
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "The Truth Hurts"
- ↑ "Todd Strikes Out"
- ↑ "The Perfect Date"
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Fiddlin' Around"
- ↑ "Riley's Birthday"
- ↑ "Injustice is Blind"
- ↑ "Quiet Riot"
- ↑ "The Majestic Horse"
- ↑ "A Daring Romance"
- ↑ "Days of Blunder" and "A Daring Romance"
- ↑ "A Daring Romance"
- ↑ "Tasumi Unmasked"