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Richard B. Riddick

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Richard B. Riddick
Race Furyan
Gender Male
Birth Shortly before the Furyan Massacre
Death
Affiliation Necromongers, Crematorian convicts
Occupation Lord Marshal; former soldier, convict, and mercenary
"Richard B. Riddick. Escaped convict. Murderer."
—Riddick introducing himself to Paris P. Ogilvie


Richard B. Riddick is the titular character of the Riddick series.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Early Life

Riddick was born on Furya. He was an Alpha Furyan, giving him an advantage in strength and endurance over normal Furyan infants. Before Riddick's birth, a Necromonger officer named Zhylaw consulted an Elemental seer (implied to be Aereon), who told him that a male Furyan (only a child at the time of prediction) would kill him in the future. In retaliation, Zhylaw attacked Furya in an attempt to massacre all male children, going so far as to personally strangle newborn infants with their umbilical cords. He strangled Riddick with his umbilical cord and believed him dead, but Riddick actually survived (probably due to his Alpha Furyan endurance), and would always remember the attack on his homeworld[1].

In later life, Riddick repressed his memories of the massacre on Furya and came to believe that when he was born, his mother attempted to kill him by strangling him with his umbilical cord and dumping him in a trash bin[2]. Despite this, he periodically received visions and messages from a Furyan survivor named Shirah, which he believed to be signs of mental instability.

Little is known about Riddick's childhood, save that he had no education.

[edit] Ranger Career

Once grown, Riddick became a Company ranger. He was assigned to Sigma 3, where he worked as a sweeper. Sweepers worked in the tunnels, where they drew out spitfires. It was incredibly dangerous, and the method of drawing them out required two sweepers to lay in wait while another acted as a distraction for nearby spitfires so the other two sweepers could kill them. Riddick was wounded multiple times doing this, and since the ranger team played dice to choose the decoy, Riddick learned to cheat at dice. During his tour on Sigma 3, he learned how corrupt the Company was.

He was promoted to the prestigious Strikeforce Academy on Sigma 3's moon. There, he became a much more efficient soldier. After graduating from the Academy, he was once again assigned to Sigma 3, this time to "enforce security". Riddick learned that life on Sigma 3 was nearly slavery, and enforcing security there meant murdering and torturing. Riddick spoke out against it, but the Company refused to change their inhumane system on Sigma 3. Instead, the Company disposed of the evidence Riddick gathered and sent him to a prison known only as Deep Storage[3].

[edit] Criminal Life

Riddick spent less than three years in Ribald S. Before his third year was up, he overpowered a guard and took his uniform. Riddick shot two guards and a pilot before escaping on the prison planet's only space freighter.

The Company put a million-credit contract on Riddick and he became a wanted man pursued by every bounty hunter, bushwhacker and Merc in the space lanes. Every time he killed one of them, their deaths were added to his list of serial killings.

Over several years, Riddick evaded all who wanted to kill him, though several times he was caught. He spent time in the Hubble Bay Penal Facility, Ribald S Correctional Institute, Tangiers Penal Colony, among other places. He took a psychological evaluation at one of these prisons, whcih stated that he was a violent sociopath and a murderer. He escaped each prison, with relative ease.

During one escape, Riddick joined a mercenary outfit that augmented a company of E-TAC soldiers fighting in the Wailing Wars. Of the 500 men in that outfit, Riddick was supposedly the only man to leave the planet alive. Rumors suggested that Riddick killed most of his own platoon.[4]

[edit] Slam City

Once, Riddick was captured by a group of mercenaries and sent to Ursa Luna Maximum Security Prison - also known as Slam City. He was put into cryosleep during their journey to the prison. When the warden of the Slam City demanded that Riddick be unfrozen to prove that he was alive, Riddick escaped. He briefly held a mercenary hostage, and escaped into the bowels of the prison. There, he survived attempts on his life by the guards, shiners and automated security weapons.

He escaped the prison area of Slam City, and killed a medtech and stole his uniform. He then moved towards the hangar, but his cover was blown while doing so. He killed two guards, and escaped in a spaceship. Riddick only spent 11 hours and 22 minutes in Slam City.

Shortly after his escape, the head of Slam City put a bounty on Riddick. The relative ease of his escape from Slam City brought Riddick to the attention of William J. Johns, who accepted the bounty. The prison staff had developed such a fear of Riddick, though, that they did not want him brought back to Slam City, and requested that he be brought to Hubble Bay Penal Facility.

[edit] Butcher Bay

In Butcher Bay he got his special eye-shine from a mysterious furyan woman named Shirah, but for the next couple of years he thought it was Pope Joe, who just fixed his arm wounds. Shirah reminded him of this later on while he spent 5 years on UV 6. Later, Riddick had his Furyan Awakening through Shirah on Crematoria. He ended up killing the leader of the Necromongers and became the new Lord Marshal.

[edit] Warrants

Riddick was wanted for the kidnapping and murders of Mercenary Guild members:

  1. Philip P. Norwood
  2. Colin W. Grant
  3. Benton Ju

[edit] Behind the scenes

Richard B. Riddick first appeared in Pitch Black: Slam City, a Shockwave prequel comic on the official Pitch Black website, one month before the release of the movie. In the film, and in all subsequent appearances the character has been portrayed by Vin Diesel.

In Jim and Ken Wheat's original script for Pitch Black the Riddick character was a woman named Taras Krieg[5].

[edit] Weapons

Riddick is very well trained with any kind of weapon that he can get his hands on, but his weapon of choice is undoubtably the Knife. Silent, quick, and deadly, in Riddick's hands the knife is a weapon that is a swift ender of lives. But perhaps Riddick's most famous weapon are the Ulaks that he is seen using during his escape from Crematoria and the knives that the player receives in The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Athena.

This is not to say that Riddick can't or won't use anything else. On the contrary he has been known to use anything from pistols, rifles, shotguns, to necromonger rifles and anything in between. But it should be noted that Riddick is an efficient killer even if he doesn't have a weapon. His hands can be just as deadly as a knife or gun.

A replica of the Ulaks Riddick uses in the Chronicles of Riddick

[edit] Weaknesses

Other than his sensitivity to sunlight--due to his "eyeshine"--Riddick's only known weakness is his fondness for children; a fact which ultimately led to his capture by mercenary Johns in the events before Pitch Black.[6]

[edit] Appearances

Riddick as he was depicted in Escape from Butcher Bay

Riddick as he was depicted in Dark Fury

[edit] Other appearances

Riddick's first appearance outside of the Riddick series was in the game Fallout Tactics. He is a potential recruit that becomes available in the Gamma bunker after you've reached the rank of Junior Knight, and after you've saved him in the random special encounter called Pitch Black. Like his movie counterpart, Riddick is a stealth focused melee fighter skilled in unarmed combat who possesses night vision.

Riddick has also appeared as a playable character in the Xbox game Deathrow. He is one of the final players available on the Convicts team and has the highest amount of strength and aggression of all recruitable Convict players, although he has the equal-lowest teamplay rating in the game.

[edit] Sources

  1. ↑ The Chronicles of Riddick (Unrated Director's Cut)
  2. ↑ Pitch Black
  3. ↑ Pitch Black (novelization) page 27
  4. ↑ The Chronicles of Riddick: The Hunt For Riddick
  5. ↑ Wheat Script FAQ at PitcherBlacker
  6. ↑ According to DVD special feature Timeline


Preceded by
Zhylaw 		Lord Marshal of the Necromongers Succeeded by
None
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