JUST ROLL WITH IT
JRWI is an (absurdly powerful) ttrpg podcast featuring the Council (Slimecicle, Condifiction, Grizzly, & Bizly). Its current main campaign is Riptide. It also has a variety of Patreon campaigns and oneshots, such as Prime Defenders and (my favorite,) Blood in the Bayou! Its been going on for 2~ years, and it means the world to me.
so why do i care
Jrwi is actually a very recent interest of mine. I got into it late June in 2023 because a few of my friends liked it. actually, it didn't stick at first-- i had attempted to listen a year earlier, but i just couldn't pay attention. but after a year of listening to a lot of long ass podcasts and video essays i was ready to use my big brain and suuuper large attention span to watch.
very quickly, i became obsessed. i caught up on riptide (about 105 episodes at the time) in less than 2 months (you know, like a normal person) because i have an unfortunate habit of binging media as quickly as possible and because i got very attached to the characters. i have something different i like about each of the different campaigns, so let's talk about that :)
at the time of writing, i have caught up with riptide, finished bitb, and started prime defenders! i'm also keeping up with the suckening as it's being posted. riptide is mostly the focus of my obsession, though, so let's talk about it. onwards, to hyperfixation station!!!!
RIPTIDE
riptide is the main + public campaign! it's a pirate-themed dnd campaign, set in the mostly-ocean world of Mana. it follows the riptide pirates and the bullshit they get into (mostly helping random-ass islands and getting in trouble with the navy, you know how it is.) i am currently obsessed with it. one problem, though, it is, at the time of writing, on hiatus for up to 6 months, but of course.. that doesn't stop me from theorizing.
if you haven't seen it, go watch it here!!
WHO THE FUCK IS THE MOLE.
right, so for some context: in ep115, the gang gets back from visiting a navy base. they find a LOT of info, the most crucial of which being that there is a navy spy on captain lizzie's-- one of their friends and fellow pirates-- ship. while there's a decent amount of people on her crew, there's only three that we know well. so let's talk about the different possibilites.
first, marshall john. i could see an argument for it being marshall john. after all, he's a reformed navy guy. his mind got changed VERY quickly after just, like, talking to gillion in ep 1. he's been friends with the crew since the very beginning of the campaign. so, you could argue he's a spy.
however, i just like... don't think it's him? because he got put in the goddamn BLOCK. (navy prison.) he almost died in there. that doesn't seem like how navy would treat their spy. i feel like it'd be kind of weird anyway, like, oh he's with the navy, jk no he isn't, JK HE ACTUALLY STILL WAS THIS WHOLE TIME!!!11!!! i don't think it's him.
next, is the leading suspect: caspian. he's is a water genasi from the undersea. i don't like this theory, because i like caspian. /j okay but actually, this one has the most evidence. we don't know a whole lot about his backstory, and there's a LOT of foreshadowing throughout all his interactions. if i had the time i would comb through his clips and analyze all of them, but, alas, i do not.
he's been with lizzie forEVER, which begs the question of when he became a spy, and if the elders (rulers of the undersea, basically.) are working with the navy or not. he also called gillion everyday until the callnch (phone. basically.) was broken in ep88, which is sweet, but also could've been a good way to keep an eye on the riptide pirates. i like to think it's a little bit of both. +he helped him train, and if he's working with the elders too, then.. hm. also his first goddamn line was "be careful who you make friends with." which. okay. i see you grizzly. (dm.)
there's a bunch of other stuff i could prolly find, but a bit against this theory is the fact he gave gillion destiny's blade. aka caspian's former sword. aka d-blade "cut through destiny" tidestrider. it's a POWERFUL sword. why the hell would he do that. Is Destinys Blade In On It: heated discussion locked at 143k words. i don't know, but i still i think it's him, and i'm feeling very abnormal about it because he's my favorite npc.
okay so next is like.. rudith. but i do NOT think it's him because i never remember him and neither do the PCs LMFAOAO. it's going to be one of the other ones with more connections to the PCs!!! the one argument i've seen for him is that blending into the background would be good for a mole, which makes sense! i still don't think it's him, but i see the vision, i guess. also the irony of the healer being the spy.. lol.
"i think it's lizzie" -charlie fucking slimecicle (← player) himself. he;s coping so hard
so, yeah, that's why i think it's jay again! /j (jay was a navy spy before but then she got better, for context. or did she........ LMAO. they make this joke in the rolled i'm not original.watch jrwi