- “Why, I'll be super-amalgamated!”
- ―Dilton Doiley's catchphrase, heard in various episodes
| Dilton Donald Doiley | |
|---|---|
 ' | |
| Vital statistics | |
| Title | Riverdale High student / Forensic Chemist (T.S.I.) |
| First Appearance (TV series) | "Attack of the Killer Spuds" |
| First Appearance (comics) | Just Another (Para)Normal Day in Riverdale |
| Gender | Male |
| Race | Caucasian |
| Age | 17 |
| Status | Alive |
| Location | Riverdale |
| Relatives | Tanya and Kenny Doiley (parents) |
| Friends | Archie Andrews, Jughead Jones, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Moose Mason, Midge Klump, Ethel Muggs, Reggie Mantle |
| Voiced By | Ben Beck |
Dilton Donald Doiley is a reoccurring side character from the Archie Comics franchise, although he was promoted to one of the main protagonists of the TV show and comic series, Archie's Weird Mysteries, appearing even more frequently than Reggie Mantle.
Not much is known about Dilton's backstory in this particular canon, but if other incarnations are anything to go by, then he might be of Welsh-American heritage and was born as the only child to Tanya and Kenny Doiley, who share his dark hair, glasses, and dorkiness. He's presumably been known for his scientific feats throughout his life, and for years he has been a close friend of the Archie gang.
Though only implied by promotional descriptions, the events of Just Another (Para)Normal Day in Riverdale reveal that he was partially responsible for an accident in Riverdale High's physics lab, which turned the town into a magnet for countless supernatural occurrences.
Appearance
Default
Dilton is shown to be a rather short, seventeen-year-old boy with gelled-up black hair with one tuft of hair seen standing, thin eyebrows, and circular glasses; the latter have a gold bridge and thin frames that thicken at the arms.
By default, he wears a green Hawaiian shirt with yellow palm leaves (sometimes with a white undershirt) and pens in the chest pocket, blue shorts with two pockets, white socks, and gray loafers. On occasion, such as when he’s working, he wears black gloves and a white lab coat with four pockets, also containing pens. Such getup also sometimes includes navy blue goggles, not only during certain experiments, but also as a Halloween costume.
Alternate outfits
For one Halloween, Dilton dressed as a werewolf, with fake brown ears and a nose decorating his otherwise unchanged face. He also wore a torn bluish-white polo shirt over a tight, long-sleeved black top and blue jeans.
In The Archies in JugMan, Dilton's attire is effectively a combination of his two main outfits from the show. He now wears a white button-up shirt with short sleeves and once again with pens in the chest pocket, alongside a lime green undershirt, purple cargo shorts with two pockets, and golden brown loafers with white socks. The lenses on his glasses also come with a baby blue tint. Furthermore, his skin is slightly paler and his hair features flat coloration, lacking the shiny accents it had in the show.
In the comics, Dilton's usual attire is only seen two times and his clothes often switch like a majority of characters. Sometimes, even his glasses change style.
Other timelines/universes
In an alternate timeline where the generations are swapped, Dilton is now a middle-aged man with a slightly more portly build. He is also notably taller, but still short in relation to his friends. His glasses become more ovular while the hair on the top of his head has completely vanished, save for his usual cowlick.
For attire, he wears a white lab coat over a light blue, pin-striped dress shirt, a darker blue tie covered in yellow stars, and black slacks and loafers.
Personality
Dilton eager to examine JugMan.
Dilton is a nerdy, socially awkward, and slightly cowardly genius who attends Riverdale High and usually helps Archie Andrews and the gang save the day by building high-tech gadgets and concocting substances, although sometimes his inventions are the very cause of such conflicts. Nonetheless, he remains optimistic and is always eager to test out whatever new invention or theory comes to mind. Whenever a new find is discovered, he never hesitates to show up to investigate (sometimes appearing immediately after he's called) and can sometimes get carried away when pursuing his research. He also has a notably hard time destroying his own creations, and should one of them fail, he can sometimes show some hesitancy shutting it off, especially if it holds great potential. Nonetheless, he never gives up and is always furnishing his mind with bright new ideas. As suggested in "Twisted Youth", "Brain of Terror", and The Archies in JugMan, Dilton aspires to become famous for his brilliance, and join the scientific community.
Dilton as a Teen Scene Investigator.
He is quite possibly the most intelligent character on the show, spewing facts that often leave others stupefied; he has stated that he has no interest in dating, and that science is "his lady". He is also a Grade A student who turns in his homework ahead of time. In fact, because of his strong school performance, Dilton is allowed to work in the school lab whenever he wishes, to the point where he’s rarely seen anywhere else. Because of his scientific addiction, however, he is quite unpopular, isolated from society, and is often overlooked by most of the student body unless they have a scientific question on the brain.
Despite already being friends with Archie, Dilton would like to hang out with friends more often and not live in obscurity. He has even reached a point where he cannot complete a new invention without showing somebody. Nonetheless, Dilton takes pride in his contributions to his friends' mystery-solving antics, enough to join them in forming the "Teen Scene Investigators" after sitting through Matt Clark and Mary Fine's lecture on Career Day. Upon learning that forensics involves a lot of chemistry, his favorite branch of science, Dilton became the team's forensic chemist.
Alternate Riverdales
In the Archie Time Adventures episode "Alternate Riverdales", Dilton is the apple of Big Ethel’s eyes instead of Jughead, as she had a crush on him since fifth grade.
Powers and abilities
While he does not offer much in the way of physical capabilities, Dilton makes up for this with his genius mind. In addition to a wide range of scientific knowledge, including ancient facts, he is capable of concocting solutions and inventing devices on short notice. Many of such inventions are capable of surreal things such as time travel, turning humans invisible, giving animals speech, translating alternate languages, identifying the time period of ancient objects, beaming individuals into the dream realm, or sending items to alternate planes of existence.
Dilton is also noted to be fluent in morse code, and is an expert at hacking into electrical grids.
Relationships
Archie Andrews
Dilton teams up with Archie and Midge.
While not the best of pals, Dilton is on good terms with Archie and most of his friend group, who frequently seek him out for answers whenever a weird mystery is affecting Riverdale. Likewise, Dilton will often seek the gang out whenever he is the first to discover such a mystery, knowing it will take more than his brains to save the day.
Dilton doesn't mind having his intelligence valued by others, and has been on the receiving end of Archie's generosity on multiple occasions such as in "Attack of the 50-Foot Veronica". However, he secretly resents the fact that Archie doesn't hang out with him as often as he could. As of "Something Is Haunting Riverdale High", he and Archie have become closer, with the latter promising to spend more time hanging out with him. Notably, unlike most of Archie's other friends, Dilton is not bothered by Archie's quirks in the slightest.
Reggie Mantle
Dilton does not interact with Reggie very often, but he seems to have a bit of animosity for him; he does not appreciate his attempts to buy his trust or use his inventions for his selfish needs, and he has stated that "Reggie is never right".
Veronica Lodge
According to Time/Space Conundrum Or stop this time machine-- I want to get off!, Dilton also has a crush on Veronica Lodge, which she does not reciprocate, and was horrified when he came clean about it. Aside from this, the two tolerate each others' presence enough to where they can work together and solve mysteries without constantly bumping heads.
Midge Klump
On the same adventure that brought himself and Archie closer together, Dilton also became closer friends with Midge, after which they promised to hang out together more often. The two are alike in that they're both frequently overlooked and written off as one-note by fellow students.
Ethel Muggs
During his adventure with Archie and Midge, Dilton also formed a bond with Big Ethel. The two bonded over the fact that no one at school seems to notice them most of the time, but following that day's mystery getting solved, the two strove to hang out more often. Dilton doesn't appear to have a problem with Ethel's eccentricities, whereas Ethel seems to enjoy taking part in Dilton's experiments, such as his dream alteration device in "Dream Girl".
Trivia
- As the TV show went on, Dilton's voice sounded different (namely more nasally) from how it did in earlier episodes, and by the time of The Archies in JugMan, it became even more different. This is because his voice actor, Ben Beck, had gone through puberty throughout the recording process.
- Dilton is one of only two main protagonists to not have their name appear in an episode title, the other being Betty Cooper.
- Dilton likes to play virtual reality video games in his spare time.
- Dilton's garage doubles as a second lab for himself, unlike most incarnations, where his garage acts as his main lab.
- According to U.F.O. Uh-Oh!, Dilton is the manager for his school's baseball team.
- Painting the Town also shows him to be a member of his school's chess club.
- Despite being promoted to main character status for Archie's Weird Mysteries, Dilton is not mentioned in the show's intro, although he appears in it.
- In "Brain of Terror", Dilton reveals that he is a noted fan of Noam Chomsky, an interest possibly shared with Moose Mason.
- In the mainline comics, Dilton and Cheryl Blossom have been known to date at times, although the two never interact in the Archie's Weird Mysteries continuity.
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