Riven tends to be a bit of a lone wolf. He is very competitive, easily prone to jealousy and oftentimes aggression, and has an aptitude for sports and physical combat. Riven often puts up a cold front and has trouble expressing his emotions. He grew up alone, so he lives for himself according to his own rules. His mother abandoned him at birth which caused him to be wary of women in general.

Riven frequently doubts himself and is particularly sensitive to what people think of him which led him to question whom are his true friends. He is also easily affected when people laugh or humiliate him. Shown when Bloom dumped water on him and made him a laughing stock.

Some characters see him as a daredevil, clever, likes a challenge and touchy.

As time goes on, Riven becomes more compassionate and relaxed, no longer taking his friends jokes too seriously (even making ones himself), especially after the events of season 4. He also smiles a lot more but still has a tendency to be hotheaded and overly jealous. He can also be a bit silly which is seen when he happily hums to a song he was listening too.

Riven does have a conscious, though it can often be blinded by anger and misunderstandings, which are the two factors that lead his justifications and actions. However, he does learn from his mistakes and is willing to accept them, which is shown in the episode "Storming Cloud Tower," in which he defends himself from his monster-self, claiming that even he "has a heart". This statement is proven in "Morgana's Secrets", after the death of Nabu, Riven goes to a quiet place away from the others and cries for the loss of his friend. In Season 5, it seems that Riven is much more relaxed, happy and less angry overall, however, all this progress goes out the window in Season 6, as he returns to his previous competitive state.

It is shown in the comics that Riven is extremely protective of his friends, going so far as to remain secretive of a dangerous mission for fear of their safety. Because of this, he unintentionally hurts the people who love him. Even so, he is willing to risk that in favor of their well being. This is also shown in the series as well. In season 3, though his main reason in confronting Nabu was about stealing Musa (a misunderstanding), Riven, without hesitation says "nobody takes down my buddies!" in a threatening tone. And in season 6, Riven's sudden return to his competitiveness and constant training was, in fact, to make sure he was strong enough to protect Musa. But when he sees that his training was not enough to protect her, he decides to venture out to continue his training showing his determination. This compassion towards others is not solely limited to friends, as he was extremely unwilling to leave Griffin and her students behind while they were imprisoned in their school's dungeon during the Trix's ongoing invasion in season 1. Even though the Army of Darkness's scrapers would have surely recaptured him, he did not budge until Griffin reasoned with him. And once he snuck back into Cloud Tower with his friends, she was the first thing he had thought of and went to release her with Brandon.

In comparison to Brandon, Riven is much more straightforward and blunt. He is very realistic and will be vocal about his opinions; this is seen when the Winx were heading to Eraklyon to get an explanation from Sky for his sudden decision in marrying Diaspro. He reminds the girls that you cannot force someone to love you nor receive an explanation. He also tried to knock some sense into Timmy when Tecna disappeared into the Omega Portal even if it was hard for the latter to hear it. Nonetheless, he hears Timmy out when he says he is still able to sense Tecna's magical vibe (indicating she is alive) and quietly comforts him.