#jrwi crit

[kindleaf]

it is so crazy that edward's abuse and blood bond that can very easily be interpreted as an sa allegory against an asexual character was so frequently treated as like. funny and made the butt of a joke. i don't. i don't think they were thinking about it the way a lot of us do. different backgrounds, different perspectives, all that. but that's. nuts to me.

[jrwiconfessions]

I love jrwi, love the campaigns. But It really make's me sad and kinda frustrated how much of the fandom stuff just seems to boil down to shipping. I hate shipping outside of actual relationships happening in campaign but even then the characters will get boiled down to everything they do is about said crush/relationship. Just frustrates me sometimes, and make's me feel very isolated. I'm like the witch that lives in the forest outside of town cause everyone else is convinced I'm evil and boring for not wanting to participate. Like do what you enjoy sure but like, idk wish their was less shipping and less expectations for me to be drawing ships and enjoying ships.

-

[burning-sol]

Currently circulating critical discussion of JRWI:

(all times are in AEDT) (i apologise in advance if there any errors in summation, quotation or image descriptions)

A FORMER POST THAT MAY BE RELEVANT ON POC IN RIPTIDE (JUNE 30TH 2022)

Captain Lizzie (Riptide)

@ / notferinweII on Twitter Feb 1st 8:07AM READ HERE

as a black lesbian this stinksss

“people will tell me, the creator of the character, that im wrong” the same guy who “never meant to imply Lizzie was POC” the same guy who compared her skin tone to kylie jenner AND rihanna (rihanna who is a black woman herself) , said she was a pale white pirate woman but also

has olive skin but also has tanned skin but also grew up pale blonde hair that darkened in the sun throughout her time on the black rose pirate ship . a very long and insightful thread about the lack of poc characters in jrwi was posted in JUNE with the singular black npc

being announced on november 13 2022 for episode EIGHTY SEVEN of riptide . on the same day , you wrote a post about wanting us the viewers feel comfortable , REPRESENTED , and respected . lizzie’s skin colour absolutely changes her character because she could be strong WOC rep .

now lesbian lizzie has been a very strong headcanon throughout the community for a very long time (i’m going to ignore pistolwhip’s influence for a second this is just about lizzie) due to the extreme lack of lesbian or even sapphic rep in jrwi as an entire podcast .

you yourself stated you want all to feel represented in your campaign . and yet whenever you’re asked about lizzie’s sexuality you brush it off and say “it doesn’t matter” maybe to You but it very much matters to lesbian jrwitwt who are often left grasping at crumbs and battling

intense lesbiphobia (not lesbophobia 😉🥂) from the community in general . a canonical lesbian would be big for lesbian fans !! we love and adore lizzie as a character and we would love to see really ANYTHING about her canonized but it’s always silence .

now back to pistolwhip . i can understand the resistance to making them canon as it could take away from the action of the story (im really trying to see the other side here i’m trying) however the way you constantly dismiss the ship

but still milking fans for fan service… what happened to "u guys dont want pistolwhip" when lizzie called jay sunshine. or when lizzie winked at jay and told her to "be safe"? the way you constantly insists that "you guys dont want this to happen" while simultaneously egging

fans on is tiring for all involved TLDR : canonize lizzie’s skin tone and stick to it . if she’s white , say it. the lack of canonization while being upset fans “take the character and say i’m wrong” is a weird thing to get angry about considering little about lizzie is canon

@willotstreet Feb 4th 3:57AM READ HERE

Quoted in full:

representation that is left up to interpretation is not representation. you are asking the viewer to imagine the representation is there, without actually committing to including it yourself. be better.

Disability

@jayferins Feb 4th 11:20AM READ HERE

An anon asks about what Grizzly had said about a disabled character in PD, also adding in their own notes about Drey's disability. To summise their notes: it's surprising Drey is the only disabled character in Riptide; his diability is primarily a punchline for jokes; Drey is treated as being unfit to fight due to his disability, which can easily be remedied in fantasy through use of mobility aids that can also be altered to make for cool magical weapons. I myself would like to note that Chip has a prosthetic finger, which makes this choice even more strange.

To summise the response: meeting a former villain who's now a wheelchair user, the characters ask what happened; Dakota (played by Grizzly) reacted extremely poorly and said to their face they, "deserved it," and that, "you had it coming, karmas a bitch," in reference to being disabled; being disabled is not a punishment or a sin, it's just something that occurs, and this mindset is a bad one to have; Grizzly defended the decision to play the character this way when he recieved criticism about it.

Neurodivergency

@jayferins Feb 4th 5:21AM READ HERE

An anon comments, to summise: the amount of jokes made about schizophrenia and the psychotic comments aren't it; the way they treated Vyncent's character with the Greats wasn't that great; the jokes are treated like nothing which is frustrating knowing the amount of harm perpetuated stigmas cause.

@colestyle Feb 4th 5:30AM READ HERE

To summise: there's good moments with the plurality in PD but others that aren't to point of op skipping them; Dakota (played by Grizzly) made jokes that were especially bad; despite the plot relevance it's still irking, and it's upsetting how it just goes away by the end of S1.

@herethereverywhere Feb 4th 5:52 AM READ HERE

To summise: op watched PD aware of Vyncent being plural and anticipating it, only to be upset by stereotypes of people with dissociative disorders being reinforced, and psychotic disorders being casually demonized; expectations weren't high but still not met; op reasonably states, "i cant say that i trust this show with these topics going forward unless the boys demonstrate an sensitivity that i have thus far not been privy to".

General Comments

@swordswaltz Feb 4th 2:28AM READ HERE

Insight that I feel should be quoted in full based on my own agreement and consensus amongst other users too:

i might have missed something but i'm just so unsurprised by jrwi's (mainly grizz's) lack of response to the lizzie thing. charlie and bizly have both made apologies for things that i think were considerate and they actually changed, but i feel like grizz and condi just kind of don't learn. grizzly's conveniently timed deleting of his questions page just adds to the feeling like, to him, it's not about actually growing and more about avoiding "being cancelled" i could be wrong (i hope i'm wrong) but past actions and words are usually indicative of future actions and words. i've had this small, growing frustration with jrwi the past maybe four months which sucks because i love this show. i do. i just want them to Improve. i feel like there's a lot of talk of improving and not a lot of progress.

I have already gotten worn out so sorry I haven't included more, but if you have any other comments or relevant posts feel free to add on.

[dykes4timrand]

diversity loss! jesse jrwi.

[swordswaltz]

i don't go to jrwi anymore but sometimes i still get viscerally annoyed with the transcript situation

[usernameproxy]

ok. the suckening is awesome. but why is there only one prominent female character so far? and why does that character not even have a first name?

[aramais]

considering prime defenders is going to end its run after next season I hope riptide can follow suit instead of extending for another 2 years. from a reach standpoint the campaign’s at a point of diminishing returns, where old fans drop off gradually and it’s harder to get new fans into the series to re-bolster the fanbase. I could understand another year (though idk if it would be feasible to wrap up everything by then, but regardless) but after that it seems most opportune to start a new era for the show

[wings-of-flying]

starting to think grizzly doesn't understand the meaning of the word 'tan'...

[serjn]

the more i listen to the fated the more i realized jared is an AWFUL dm

[ishhbowl]

hey guys. so. i've been losing interest in jrwi a lot (i haven't watched the last. what. 20 episodes of riptide) and because of that and also due to all the recent Shit thats been going on, once the gf poll is over i think im gonna stop making jrwi content. i still might rb stuff, and i'll still be active in the councilblr circle, but im just not really up to making posts or art that has to do with jrwi. uh. yea thats it

also vote niklaus 4 me :3

[aria-allium]

thing is i can sort of understand the sentiment behind wanting to consult a woman you know abt roleplaying a female character because you wanna be respectful but it’s also like. what advice are you hoping to get besides “just be normal abt it and you’ll be good.” like in theory it’s fine but in practice it just comes across as you not understanding that women also have complex emotions and that literally all you have to do is not play into offensive stereotypes.

[kindleaf]

like it is a comedy podcast. i understand this. i just think themes like child neglect and abuse and disability as "karmic retribution" aren't very funny.

[pineapple-kesari]

Anyone else sooo annoyed at episode 99... Jay literally rows at 20 for days straight (yeah she trades off but... her muscles man...), runs across the island to buy diamonds and FLIES BACK, watches her friend get brought back to life and then watches her mother collapse and has to take care of her and instead of literally just. helping in any way. Chip just gets drunk. Which okay yes it's comedic it's unfortunately accurate to their characters and yes he is a bastard but goddamn she's not even mad??? She just sends him to bed and makes soup herself like when did my girl get even an ounce of rest holy shit ??

I feel like this is just. what happens when 4 guys characterize a girl but like ohhh my god. i would explode. i would kill somebody. im so frustrated at her constantly being the strong one and having canonically no support and then not even having that frustration explored. we need an ice arena episode with jay STAT

[dykes4timrand]

to me kian stone is like

my beloved mutuals collective oc who i love and cherish vs grizzly’s blasphemous interpretation of that oc who. jacked off in front of innocent hospital workers

[swordswaltz]

jrwi critical posting below

i might have missed something but i'm just so unsurprised by jrwi's (mainly grizz's) lack of response to the lizzie thing. charlie and bizly have both made apologies for things that i think were considerate and they actually changed, but i feel like grizz and condi just kind of don't learn.

grizzly's conveniently timed deleting of his questions page just adds to the feeling like, to him, it's not about actually growing and more about avoiding "being cancelled"

i could be wrong (i hope i'm wrong) but past actions and words are usually indicative of future actions and words.

i've had this small, growing frustration with jrwi the past maybe four months which sucks because i love this show. i do. i just want them to Improve. i feel like there's a lot of talk of improving and not a lot of progress.

[cnidarian-tidalwave]

Really fucking hope that by the time riptide comes back they’ve hired an actual sensitivity reader and not an unpaid twitter user. Thatd be so great and nice.