Riley M. Greene is the secondary antagonist of Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, serving as the main antagonist of Season 1.
He is voiced by Matthew Rhys.
Appearance[]
Riley Greene is a tall, slender man with pale skin, a long black beard, a pointed nose, and green eyes, which most of the time glow, when he uses magic. Besides of that, he often wear long green robes
Personality[]
Riley Green in first appearance is a calm, educated and well-mannered individual. Though his arrogance shows in the 2nd episode, as he states that there is no place in Shanghai that he isn't allowed to go in. In truth, his abusive, narcissistic, power-hungry exterior hides a weak, short-sighted and insecure, yet stubborn hoarder who wishes to become immortal and all-powerful out of suffering from low self-esteem as time goes on in the story.
Riley Greene is amazingly heavily abusive towards his foes and henchman, especially Elle as he obviously doesn't treat her well. Despite her doing everything he wants her to, he flat out tells her that she will never be able to pay off her debt and will serve him forever as his left hand (useful but not essential). He also abuses his henchmen, refusing to learn their names so he won't humanize them and not caring about their health and safety dealing with the Mogwai. He doesn't even care when they are thrown off the shop by the gremlins. And when the gremlins start to work for him he treats them even worse, casually killing one when they fail to open the portal to the spirit world
He is disproportionally retributional, as he swallows Sam's grandfather when he turns out to be an obstacle in his path, basically devouring his soul. He is also quick to hurt or kill Gremlins when they do not follow his orders. Unfortunately, his abusive tendicies, massive ego and delusions of grandeur proves to be his downfall as the Gremlins outsmarted, betrayed and humiliated him by slicing his hand, leading them to take the knife and invade Shanghai themselves, while Riley was exposed for the cowardly insecure wimp of a man he truly is underneath his ruthless persona. Needless Greene did not take any of it of well and swore revenge on Claw.
Though it is later revealed that all his actions are the result of him trying to fill an empty hole dug into his heart, due to never being hugged by anyone, even as a child. Not even by his own mother.
History[]
Secrets of the Mogwai[]
Riley Greene is an evil sorcerer living in China. In his childhood, he never received any love from his parents and it made him bitter and insecure. As an adult, he worked his way up to a powerful influential man in Shanghai. At some point in his life he met a sorcerer who taught him Pearl Magic, which can be used to trap and absorb people to gain all their knowledge and skills. Greene immediately used this to absorb his teacher, and over time several other people, gaining multiple skills in the process. His ultimate goal became to find and absorb a Mogwai to gain immortality.
When Elle was seven years old, her parents ordered her to try and steal from Riley during the Autumn festival, but Riley caught the girl in the act and forcefully made her his servant. Among other things, he tasked her with finding a Mogwai for him. In "Never Get Them Wet", Elle finds a Mogwai at the Seven Brothers Circus and orders one of her associates to alert Greene, but by the time Riley arrives the Mogwai, Gizmo, has already been taken by Sam Wing and his grandfather. Riley is not pleased and warns Elle not to give him an excuse. She shows him the family flyer and tells him that she knows who grabbed his mogwai.
Elle thus leads Riley to the medicine store of Fong Wing. Sam's family hides with Gizmo while Grandpa Wing, who already suspects Riley is up to no good, confronts the sorcerer. Riley is not impressed by Grandpa Wing and through observations of the man's looks quickly concludes Wing is used to be a treasure hunter, also asking if he knows the value of what he had stolen from him. Riley offers to leave Wing and his family alone if Wing gives him the mogwai. Sam's grandfather laughs, saying that he does have the mogwai, but had never come home empty handed during his days as a treasure hunter. He pulls out a magic spin drum and begins playing it, shooting magic energy blasts at Riley's henchman to take them out.
Riley turned Sam's grandfather into a pearl he swallowed in order to consume his knowledge.
After smoke clears, Riley is unfazed, saying he had learned that trick as a child, and shooting at Sam's grandfather with something he mastered as an adult. Both of them clash with magic, but Sam's grandfather is overpowered and captured into a small pearl by Riley. Elle tries to escape, but is not allowed to do so by Riley. Riley opens his mouth wide and swallows the pearl Sam's grandfather was in.
Riley and his team hear Sam's family. Sam's father tells Sam and his mother to leave, which they do instantly, followed through the city by Riley's men and Elle. Sam and his mother make it to an alley and manage to escape. After catching their breath, Sam's mother tells him to hide while she diverts the villains.
After helping Riley get to the mogwai, Elle tried to convince him to let her go.
Elle walks into Riley's room, where he is performing magic, digesting Sam's grandfather's knowledge. Elle says that she believes capturing the mogwai should cover her debt. Riley explains that if she is uneasy about what she had seen, it is because she is ignorant. He tells her that the creature is key to leading them to the Valley of Jade, which contains treasure. He tells her that they would never be even and she would always work for him.
A man walks out of the dumpling restaurant, while Sam and Gizmo make it. They look for the mogwai inside, seeing them trapped in some sort of cement because they had eaten after midnight. Riley walks in with Elle, revealing he knows Sam's name. Sam refuses to hand over Gizmo because of what he had seen him do to his grandfather. Riley reveals that he knows everything Sam's grandfather knew, including his plan to go to the Valley of Jade. Riley freezes Sam and takes Gizmo, taunting Sam until he is hit in the head from behind by Elle, which knocks him out.
Riley wakes up and sees the frozen mogwai come to life, angry and violent.
Riley was impressed by the amount of chaos evil mogwai could create.
A man screams and runs from angered mogwai while Riley tells them to calm down. One mogwai bites his finger off, which impresses Riley. Another man runs into the store telling Riley that they spotted Elle and Sam on a train with Gizmo. Riley does not care, however, since he only needs one mogwai and now he has many.
Riley walks up to his mogwai, telling them that they would be helping him make history. He tells the mogwai that he knows their three rules: water light and food. However, after swallowing human souls, he knows that life is their fourth rule. He knows that if he eats a mogwai he would live forever.
Riley tells the mogwai that the good thing about them is that he can get them wet, have them multiply and sell immortality to the highest bidders repeatedly. Riley takes one out of its cage and puts it in his mouth, saying that he feels it. However, he soon throws up, saying that the mogwai is disgusting and wants to travel to the Valley of Jade.
Hon and Fong tried to trick Riley in order to find a way to escape.
Riley visits Hon and Fong, opening a small hole in mogwai's cage, throwing water on one of them, which causes it to multiply into other rogue mogwai, which all start fighting chaotically. They are stronger than the ones before. One of the mogwai sees a vent on the ceiling as Riley says that he would not feed them so they would be more compliant. Meanwhile, Fong tells Hon that now was their chance to escape, telling Riley that his worker's arm would get infected if he did not treat it. However, Riley says he does not care, but they tell him that it would start smelling very bad. Riley agrees to let them help the man.
On Riley's boat, the a mogwai starts scraping the wall, showing the other mogwai that they can go through the vent on the roof. They work together and start moving through the air ducts.
A henchman tells Riley that the mogwai had escaped, except for the one in the jar, so he is ordered to search the ship. Meanwhile, the mogwai start moving through the air ducts and getting themselves wet in order to multiply into even more mogwai.
On Riley's ship, the mogwai reach the captain's cabin and shut the ship's lights off. The captain finds out and is attacked by a mogwai, who then takes control of the helm. Riley tells his henchman that they are dealing with creatures that were good at chaos, so they begin to sound the alarm, which has been taken control of by the mogwai.
On Riley's ship, the mogwai begin to attack everyone and take control of everything. Meanwhile, Fong and Hon are also surprised by the appearance of a mogwai in Greene's office. The mogwai starts throwing things at them until they make it disintegrate in a liquid. Another one comes in, and Fong manages to kill it with the ceiling fan. They are approached by many more, but Fong eventually finds a wand that is able to kill them instantly.
Hon and Fong walk through Greene's ship until they enocounter Riley himself. Fong points the wand at him, which holds a bright light, which Riley says means instant death to a mogwai, but does nothing to him. They run away from him, but stop when they see mogwai attacking a henchman. Since they stop, Riley approaches them from behind and freezes them.
Since he no longer had a crew, Riley struck up a deal with Claw, working together.
Using the wand, Riley kills many mogwai at once and demands a parlay with their leader. The lead mogwai pops out, so Riley says that he could take them out easily, but since they took out his crew, he needs to get to the Valley of Jade. He asks the mogwai, whom he names Claw, what she would like in return, to which the mogwai responds the ship so she can travel. Riley agrees to her terms and they become allies.
As the children walk through Ghost City, Riley's ship approaches as well. Riley tells his mogwai to go because he knows the key is around there somewhere. Riley asks a mogwai where to find the key, but he is not helped while Fong and Hon begin to wonder if their son is there as well. Riley questions his mogwai when they try to sing in order to make the portal open as well. He finds a mogwai who can sing, so it does and makes the portal open. Riley enters, followed by his mogwai.
Riley walks fascinated while his mogwai create chaos all over the place. Meanwhile, he is being watched by Radish, so he tells Theodora that they need to warn them. A creature tells Riley about goddess Nuwa, so he tells Claw about a new task.
Riley demanded that he be handed over the mogwai.
Looking up, Nuwa sees Greene's mogwai. Sam says that they did not break all of the rules, as Nuwa says that she would need to clean up their mess. However, she realizes that her magic is not working and starts feeling bad after drinking a bottle. Greene's mogwai attack Sam and Elle as Riley tries to enter the tavern. Riley tells her to hand over the mogwai.
The evil mogwai started wreaking havoc all over town.
The mogwai wreak havoc across town while Riley tells Elle to hand over the mogwai, saying he will forgive her if she does. Inside the tavern, Nuwa, Gizmo, Sam, and Elle hide from them. Nuwa complains that if Elle had not tried to go inside the portal, then she would not be poisoned and Gizmo would be safe at home. Elle fights off the rogue mogwai while Radish shows up, saying that he thought he and Theodora should warn them that Greene and the rest of the mogwai were there.
The evil mogwai keep attacking Sam and Elle, so Sam lights a fire, which scares off the rest of the mogwai. Riley still waits outside, telling his mogwai to wait until the poison takes effect because he prefers to win when he fights. However, when he sees that his mogwai are scared because of the fire Sam lit, he goes inside the tavern. He asks where his mogwai, the goddess and the children are. He believes he found Sam, but is surprised to see Radish there instead, who he shoots at in order to push him away.
Riley was forced to fight off the fox spirits when Elle diverted them towards him.
Elle is still pushing Nuwa, who still complains that Elle only wants to go to the Valley of Jade for treasure. Elle stops and runs into Riley, who says that she could still be somewhat forgiven. She realizes that she is still being chased by the fox spirits, so she runs away from them, telling Nuwa that she would introduce two monsters to each other. Riley sees her approaching and tells his mogwai to block her. However, Elle pulls away, which makes the spirits unable to divert in time, and so they run into the mogwai and Riley, who begins to shoot at them.
Evil mogwai laugh outside and join Riley as he makes his way to the Bagua room. Nuwa closes the door and tells Administrator to prepare a portal to the Valley of Jade. She tells Sam and Elle that they would be going through the portal as well. Nuwa tells them to try not to mess everything up as she hands them passports, mentioning that she would be trying to hold them off as much as possible. Everybody tells her to go with them, but she refuses, saying goodbye to Gizmo.
Nuwa heads outside, where she prepares to face Riley. The mogwai attack her, so she uses a power in order to send them all flying away. Riley uses his magic and shoots at her.
Having weakened the goddess, Riley turned Nuwa into a pearl and consumed her knowledge.
Riley and Nuwa keep fighting until a mogwai finds out he has a ring which is impervious to magic. Using it, he bites Nuwa and makes her lose her concentration, which allows all the mogwai to attack her. Riley approaches her, asking where his mogwai is, to which he is told that he would never find him, since he was not a god. However, Riley laughs and says that he has talent, eating her and acquiring all of her knowledge.
Riley rises after having taken Nuwa's power and laughs excitedly. The Celestial Administrator opens the door, saying that he only helps Nuwa with portals, telling him that he knows everything there is to know about him, including that his only power was stealing, which will never really fill his void inside because he was never hugged as a child. Riley is angered by this, and slices the administrator in half. The administrator says that he will never help him, but Riley opens up a portal on his own, declaring himself to be a god.
Riley floats down to Elle, Sam, and Gizmo, revealing that he had swallowed Nuwa, taking all her knowledge in the process. Riley also mentions that he originally intended to take all the mogwai in order to sell immortality, but he realized that the valley held just than just the mogwai, looking at the knife.
As Sam held the knife up towards Riley, the latter taunted him.
Gizmo and Elle are attacked by evil mogwai, but Sam manages to avoid them and grabs the knife, telling Riley to stand back. Riley says that the knife is dangerous, but Sam remembers his grandfather and knows that he could protect the mogwai. Riley taunts him, showing Sam his parents and telling him that the knife is very dangerous to use. Sam is now confused, worried about his parents as Elle tells him that it was a lie and he could use it.
Since he hesitates, Sam has the knife taken away from him by Riley, who says that he now only needed a taste of eternal life. He takes a mogwai and swallows him, declaring himself immortal. Elle and Sam exclaim in horror while Riley's eyes glow full of color.
Evil mogwai are rounding up the rest of the mogwai in the middle of the Valley of Jade, while Riley mentions that he still wants more, trying to create different things. Claw looks at the blade with interest as Riley plays around with it.
Riley flies up to Sam and Elle. Elle is tired of listening to Riley, asking him to kill her, but he says that he would not, as he is now a god and she is irrelevant. He mentions he has a present for Sam, telling him that he could not have done it without him, throwing his parents back at him, saying goodbye.
Claw tells Riley that both her and the rest of the mogwai had held up their end of the bargain, but Riley says that being a god had altered his perspective. he tells Claw to consider their deal changed. Riley tells them that he would go to Shanghai, but he could not have them wreaking havoc all over the world, so he tells them that they would stay there where they belonged. After that, Riley opens up a portal.
The evil mogwai start dancing and singing together, which surprises Elle, Sam, Fong and Hon. Sam mentions this is strange behavior, which probably indicates something is wrong. Riley turns around and Claw throws herself at him, hugging him. A mogwai tells Riley to allow himself to accept love, since he had always wanted a hug. However, Claw bites him, followed by some other mogwai. Riley frees himself, saying that he is the most powerful being and they would never win by brute force.
After having taunted the mogwai, Riley's hands ended up being removed from him.
Riley is distracted, telling Claw that he had enchanted the knife so that it would magnetize to his hand. As he says this, the mogwai let an axe fall on his wrist, slicing it off and causing Riley a large amount of pain. As he pathetically cries out in pain, the evil mogwai see that their plan had worked. Riley says that that was his magic hand, but he could still use his left hand. As he says this, Claw points the knife at him and wishes that Riley had no hands, so the left hand disappears as well.
Riley faints and Claw calls for Gizmo, saying that she wants fun and holding the knife up in delight. She turns all the remaining mogwai evil just like her, which another mogwai says she was doing to torture Gizmo. The evil mogwai jump into the portal, as Gizmo looks down.
Elle tries to grab her mogwai friend, but Claw pushes him into the portal and closes it behind her, leaving Sam, Fong and Hon trapped with her in the Valley of Jade.
Claw held Gizmo as her prisoner.
Fireworks go off in Shanghai as everybody celebrates the Chinese New Year. However, the celebration is interrupted by the portal Riley opens through which many evil mogwai fall. The mogwai cause chaos all over the city as Claw jumps into town with Gizmo with the knife of creation in her mouth. Gizmo tickles her belly, causing her to laugh, but Claw regains control and uses the knife to help the mogwai cause even more chaos.
At the Valley of Jade, Hon tries to tie Riley up, but has a hard time, as the latter has no wrists. Fong holds a knife up to Riley's face, but he says that he can no longer use his magic. Fong says that she would not take her chances with him, since he had killed her father, to which Riley responds that he had only reduced her father's essence into a pearl, subsequently getting hit in the head by Fong.
Sam was protected by his parents, who were not eager to have him running around again.
Sam, Elle, Hong, Fong, and Riley make it to Shanghai, where Hon says that they would never leave again. However, a window breaks and an evil mogwai enters. Looking through a hole in their door, they see the evil mogwai causing all sorts of chaos and hurting people. Hon knocks Riley out as he is about to change the mogwai's name, so Fong tells the children to put him in a trunk and then to fortify the windows. Sam says that they should fortify the back door as well, but Elle says that they were not staying, since they needed to save their mogwai friend and get out of the city. However, Sam refuses, saying that he cannot, since he had let him down once before and everything was his fault. Elle tells him to do better now that they could try again, but Fong says that they would stay inside the shop until the danger passed, so Elle leaves.
Meanwhile, evil mogwai approach Riley's box, where he bites one and asks where his knife is.
Riley declared that he would be growing his hands back for revenge.
Mogwai keep the chaos going all over town as Riley moves through the streets asking for their leader. He sees Claw from across the city and wants the knife back, but trips on his way there, declaring that he would use the knife to grow his hands back and to stop their laughing.
Sam runs across the city looking for Gizmo. However, when he finally reaches his friend, he sees that Riley has his friend in his arms and the knife in his mouth. Elle complains, but told that they could not possibly stop a god.
After getting the knife back, Riley created a portal to Tahiti, which shone a painful bright light for the mogwai.
As Elle and Sam rush towards Riley, he uses the knife to grow his hands back. Gizmo bites him in order to escape from his hands. As Riley begins to declare himself a god, Claw sneaks up from behind him and grabs him. Riley congratulates her for her boldness, saying that he would fulfill her dream of seeing the world, but she refuses, crushing him. However, Riley opens up a portal to Tahiti, which shines a bright light and causes all the mogwai excruciating pain.
Claw lets Riley go as she orders every single one of them to kill Greene. As she begins to melt, she reaches for him, but ends up exploding. Sam and Elle gag as Riley walks up to them, repeating that he is a god. He binds them with rope and Elle provokes him, which Sam and Riley say is not a good idea. Elle says he does nobody any good by bragging, but Riley says that he would earn respect by using the knife to turn everyone into cockroaches. He says that after destroying Shanghai, the rest of the world would have to respect him.
Riley was killed by the knife when he turned himself into a cockroach.
Elle keeps provoking Riley, saying that he was crushing them to death with them, but that it might be better for him to say "hug me, daddy." Sam says that if he does not have perfect focus, he could do something wrong. As Riley tortures them, they keep taunting him. When an emotinally cornered and unfocused Riley uses the knife, they keep telling him not to think of turning himself into a cockroach and Gizmo joins them. Riley spits out the magical pearls he had swallowed with people in them and he turns into a cockroach, which is killed by the knife falling back to the ground.
Relationships[]
Trivia[]
Four of Greene's victims.
- When he gets turned into a cockroach, Green first vomits up all the pearls with the people he ever absorbed. In total there are 17. Besides Grandpa Wing and Nuwa, four other victims of Greene are seen in detail after the pearls release the people trapped inside:
- Greene's personal chef: Greene absorbed him to learn his cooking abilities since he did not like other people handling his food. This was foreshadowed in "Always Buy a Ticket" when Greene mentioned he knows the secret to French cooking.
- The man who taught Greene pearl magic
- An opera singer whose singing abilities Green stole.
- A man dressed in what looks like a military uniform. It is not revealed what Greene wanted from him.
Gallery[]
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