JRWI Riptide episode 112 spoilers

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Who up Feeling Haunted

average ferin family interaction

someone on twitter pointed out that this means jayson had ava at like 16/17 and this completely changes my understanding of his character. my assumption was always that jayson had done things by the book - had a nice normal nuclear family, wife and kids and successful career by like 28. but he was way too young to have had kids. he was way too young to have held that high of a rank in the navy. i assumed he was a shit dad because he was raised traditionally and rigidly and ended up with no emotional intelligence but in reality he didn't have the chance to develop that part of himself before he was thrust into work and fatherhood. i speculate that part of the reason he holds his family to such high standard and is so militaristic with them is because when he was younger he fucked up and got punished and has been trying to compensate for it since, because he definitely was not supposed to have had kids that young. he's been projecting that regret and insecurity onto them. from the point of view of the story we're getting told, jayson is the face of the abusive and corrupt navy structure but he got his ideas from somewhere. jayson isn't just the perpetuator, he's also a victim. it's that depressing truth of the cycle of abuse. i wonder what he was like when he was younger, before all this. i wonder if his relationship with drey was better. drey would've been 13/14 when he saw his brother get into trouble for getting a girl pregnant, when he saw him get punished and whipped into shape and get thrown into things he wasn't ready for. do you think that might be the reason that he left? do you think the realisation hit him then, that his family didn't have their best interests at heart? did he see his brother become cut off emotionally and throw himself into working to earn the family's approval back? or did he see that the same desire for approval that existed before only got stronger for all the shit he was put through? is that what scared him off? there's so much to unpack with this

Lil drawrin of the Ferin family (Ava just graduated :D)

RIPTIDE SPOILERS AND THEORY

Okay so you know how Jayson didn’t want Jay to go to the Navy? What if it was a situation where he KNEW there was stuff going on, that people wanted a martyr and would do anything to get their way, and instead of for example, DOING SOMETHING, he does the selfish thing and prevents his kid from going into the Navy.

Which 1. is fucked up to me because imagine you come from a long line of painters and then one day your dad is like nope no painting for you only me and your grandparents and your sister and your cousins and your aunts and your uncles can paint but not you, you’re disconnected from the rest of our family and you aren’t allowed to do something you want. No matter what good intentions, that’s fucked up for a kid to hear.

And 2. it might confirm my theory from years ago where Jayson was actually in on it this whole time. He is far less removed this time and probably wasn’t the one to say the order but I think he definitely knew something was going on and turned a blind eye instead of doing something which would have saved Ayva’s life.

These are just insane ramblings because I am living for everything Ferin and these past few episodes have been watering me.

(I also think his preventing might also have something to do with Jay’s magic being different but we don’t know enough yet.)

it’s almost midnight and I just can’t stop thinking about Drey Ferin and his relationship with his brother and family

I wonder how much it hurt for him to realize that despite all his efforts to seek approval from his family, they’d never see him as anything, and in the end his own brother would seek to not just kill him, but torture him. His own fucking brother made him experience what was basically hell and all because he was a pirate. Drey had nothing when Jayson found him. He lost the real family he found, the real love and appreciation he deserved, everything his own family couldn’t give to him and just like that it was all taken.

And Jayson was just adding salt to the wound. Trapping him in the BLOCK and resolidifying just how little fucks his own blood-related family could give about him.

I wonder what he saw when passing through the desert. Did he see himself killing Captain Rose again? Or maybe Captain Rose still covered and dying in that black tar goo telling him that he had betrayed him and that he was unlovable and unwanted.

And now he’s been tasked to raise his brother’s daughter. A constant reminder of his brother’s cruelty but also the hope for a brighter future for the Ferin family.

JRWI: Riptide Jay Ferin come get your Jay Ferin character study (i can do better she deserves better but i needed this comparison OUT)

No but seriously she has plagued my mind. I didn't think she was my favorite until she was all that I thought about. She's my little thing.

realized i forgot to post this yesterday but HELLO JAY FERIN NATION I COME WITH A GIFT !! (daddy issues)

tag

you're

it

blame @drorey for this one

i was just relistening to the Feywild arc again and oh boy i think i may have found some connections with episode 114.

right so in gills section of episode 79 when he enters the meeting room and does his sniff thing for evil and good he notices that one of the figures does not smell completely evil, in fact, it is only one part of him that smells like that. He also notices many others who are the same and some who are fully evil-smelling

pulling directly from the episode grizzly says "That same figure on the other side of the room that you attacked..." who we find out later to be Jayson Ferin "... a bubbling of evil within but it's not fiendish, it's not undead, it seems to be mixed with what is also a good energy as well. It's almost as if they've been fused together... you get this noxious odor but it's only like one part of this person."

this is especially concerning when we pair it with what we learned in the navy base. between the weird memory machine and the message left by faye ferin stating that her son is "stable" it makes me wonder if maybe the experimentation has been going on for a lot longer than we know and for more people than we think. especially because shortly after we hear about that small bit of evil in jayson we also hear about it in many others around the room.

now obviously some of these people could just be a little evil by nature but the discovery of triton skin on the ground before gillon is taken puts doubts about that in my mind.

anyways all this is to say i think maybe jayson is not full himself anymore and has lost a very integral piece to himself and is now just following orders, and i think maybe some of the members of the council in the undersea may also be under that effect, or are full clones so that the navy can spy on them.

this would fit with the undersea being in favor of lunadeyis and faye being in favor of aster, and we can assume that faye is very very high up in the navy.

i am worried.

AVA FERIN MIGHT STILL BE ALIVE

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS IN GENERAL

HEAR ME OUT, READ BELOW THE CUT AND TELL ME IF IT'S SOMETHING OR IF I'M SIMPLY LOOSING MY SHIT OVER NOTHING... BECAUSE IT MAKES SENSE TO ME—

Fey Ferin wants R.A.F.T to seize control over the world, and there's nothing that can stand in her way, not even her own family.

There might have been a time when Jayson Ferin was a good man. Based on what May says about him and glimpses we get from Jay's early memories (I recall one with the pin), it appears he once was. Perhaps Jayson desired change for the navy too, but that would be such a pain for Fey to deal with. So, she seems to have brainwashed him for months, possibly years by now (ep 79, Gilly detects corruption in him mixed with good energy), molding him into the perfect soldier who doesn't question orders and neglects his family for the sake of helping his mother to carry out this great fucking world domination plan.

Fey likely harbors resentment towards Drey for not being obedient like his brother, opting for a pirate's life over being loyal to his family and their ideals. Yet, Fey can't bring herself to kill him, so she puts him in a top security prison to let him rot instead.

Ava was the ideal soldier—strong, brave, and revered by all. However, for Fey, Ava's kindness, compassion, and desire for change is simply another pain to deal with. But of course, she would not kill her own family. And she couldn't let her just vanish either.

Perhaps Fey suspected that Ava had a soft spot for pirates, given her upbringing in Eagle's Den and being raised by such a softhearted daughter-in-law. But perhaps, on one occasion, someone witnessed Ava together with a pirate, and somehow that information reached Fey. And after learning that her granddaughter, her esteemed captain, had feelings for a pirate from the crew of the last remaining pirate lord she aimed to get rid of, Fey simply couldn't let this opportunity slip by.

Maybe Ava cooperated willingly, fought like hell, or simply was faced with a deal she couldn't refuse. R.A.F.T. wouldn't just eliminate their top captain, such a vital asset for the upcoming war. Instead, they created a doppelgänger, and chucked the real Ava into some top-notch secret confinement. Letting the dopple to become their pawn. A perfect martyred hero to be killed by those bad bad pirates. A perfect excuse to wage a war over.

But the doppelgängers aren't perfect. So when Lizzie tells Ava about a pirate who is like a father to her, Ava doesn't remember. And when Lizzie begs her not to fight, Ava doesn't listen because she doesn't remember the numerous times they sneaked out together to simply talk like normal people do. And when there's an order to shoot, Ava doesn't move away, as she remembers she was only created to destroy and to be destroyed.

Would Jayson know? Probably not. His hatered toward the pirates responsible for his daughter's death would likely fuel his brainwashed self even more. Very convenient for the long run.

Fey might permit her youngest granddaughter to infiltrate the pirates, banking on her own hatered over her sister's death to maybe one day make her an even better soldier than Ava ever was.

But maybe Fey was wrong.

And she knows it when she receives news of her son's escape from prison, and when her other son suddenly takes leave, or perhaps when a navy base on the Black Sea is breached.

So, when her promising soldier begins to rebel, it might be time to reveal the secret that she's been keping. Maybe it will help her granddaughter decide which side to choose in the end.

me rn:

But idk, that's just my speculation. If it turns out to be a load of bullshit you can point and laugh, but at this point it makes so much sense in that smooth brain of mine as I'm writing this at 7am after getting no sleep whatsoever.

ALSO, just something fun to think over:

In the rolled for 114, Grizz mentioned that the doppel/brainwashing machine had buttons with dates on them. And if pressed, it would display the people who had previously used it. I can't help but wonder if my theory about Ava is true if she might have showed up there. Or maybe it could have shown Jayson getting his fucking brain blasted. BUT WELP, someone rolled like shit (pointsatgillionpointsatgillion) and we'll never know now—

Does glory taste different to you than it did to me? /q

Jay's ep 100 speech to jayson :) wrote it down during my liveblogging but may as well put it in a separate post

"You keep saying that people took me away from you. No one took me away from you, dad. You haven't had me for a long time. You lost me. You lost me in the lies, the training, your obsession with your work, it was all you cared about. Things change, dad. After ava died, you weren't there. You weren't there for me or for mom. And when I tell you we hurt, we struggled, I say we hurt and struggled so goddamn much. And I'm sure you did too, but you made it so goddamn clear where your priorities lied with the family. And in my grieving, you were the only one who wasn't there. Jayson Ferin, you are someone I've known my entire life. You've known me longer than I can remember, and maybe I've made decisions that you don't agree with, but they are my decisions, and I would've hoped that in the years you've known me, that you would give me even a modicum of trust, a modicum of what I saw in you my entire goddamn childhood. And now, you stand here in front of me again, you're making the same mistakes... You don't get to just take me back, you need to earn it. And the way it stands, you're on a fast track to lose both me, and your wife. You are the strongest man I've ever known but you are a fucking pathetic father. So come on. Go ahead, finish it, do your fucking job-- if that's where your priorities still lay, as they always have."

my running theory is that ava and lizzie were girlfriends and then ava defected from the navy to become a pirate or was a spy in the navy for the pirates' rebellion and in the fight that ensued after her position was revealed she was killed. the navy blame the pirates and the pirates blame the navy and that's why lizzie fucking hates the navy and jayson fucking hates pirates. this is based less on what i think is canon and more on what i think will cause the most problems because i like the drama. however, i am not one to deviate too far from canon, so here is a very not chronological list of the evidence that i have collected that i will edit and update because more is sure to arise and i am for sure forgetting something.

The Tides Between Us #58 [1:11:25] "You just look so much like your sister, so I thought there was like no way... I wasn't actually gonna shoot you or anything." : lizzie knows who ava is, knows what she looks like well enough to recognise her and her family, but nonetheless had no intention to hurt jay despite her deep hatred of the navy. ava and jay seem to have had a good relationship, so lizzie would likely have heard good things about jay, and therefore hesitated to hurt her.

lizzie is the only person we have encountered so far that immediately recognised jay not from her wanted poster but from her looking like a ferin. it seems likely that she has had much more prolonged contact with ava than most others, including the navy soldiers they've met.

GRIZZCORD Questions Channel [22/11/22] "Ava was a brat! She was a troublemaker growing up. She was headstrong, very brave, very confident, and very reliable. And she kicked ass. She had a great smile, she had a great heart. She was very carefree, and a bit mischievous even. She'd be serious when it came to her job. She could be impulsive. She could be wrong a lot, and irresponsible. She stood up to her father often, she did not join RAFT to make him happy, she had her own reasons." : ava was a rebellious character, and one that seems likely to have pushed back against the navy's oppressive structure and defected. it's also possible that she joined raft to learn information about the navy to assist a rebellion, and fed that information to lizzie. in that case, it would make sense that lizzie is so fixated on starting this war against the navy - she wants to finish what ava started and lost her life for.

Breaking The Ice #32 [32:57] "I don't want to be with the navy because I'd rather be free. I don't want to live by their strict and rigid structure... I wanted to sail the sea, see the world." : the first part of the argument that jay uses to convince lizzie she is no longer navy. it's possible that lizzie recognised similarities between jay and ava's carefree attitude and hatred of navy structure in this statement.

Breaking The Ice #32 [33:13] "L: So you expect me to believe that you've run away from your family's line? // C: Is it that hard to believe? // J: Have you seen how the Ferins operate? It sucks. [Grizzly DM-Smiles] G: Roll a persuasion check, Jay, with advantage." : grizzly does a little sneaky smile when jay asks if lizzie has seen what the ferins are like, implying that lizzie is in fact more than familiar with the ferin family. he asks for the roll right after jay says this, implying that she has hit the mark with that line. lizzie tests jay's feelings about her family specifically, wanting to see whether she rejects her family's structure the same way ava did.

Breaking the Ice #32 [35:16] "...the reason why I'm, uh... so defensive over seeing a... a Ferin. Not too long ago... // I saw the fucking navy come on to the outlaws. They raided our soil. They killed... They killed some of their own." : ava died about a year before this moment, so it was recent enough that it's plausible that the battle lizzie speaks of is the one where the navy attacked as a result of ava's rebellion and she was killed. the difficulty with which lizzie speaks with the deaths of the navy soldiers suggests how personal this was to her, especially given her usual distate for the navy. she says the ferin name with a similar difficulty. she implies that jayson or other ferin family members were involved with this battle and she sees them as responsible for those deaths, including ava's, explaining her initial distrust of jay.

GRIZZCORD Questions Channel [17/9/22] grizzly confirms lizzie is "either lesbian or bi".

@/GrizzlyPlays on Twitter [17/9/22] "oh ur gonna love her backstory bro": grizzly responds to someone tweeting about lizzie being canonically sapphic, heavily implying that there is a key female love interest in lizzie's backstory.

The Tides Between Us #58 [1:19:31] lizzie has a tattoo of "an amalgamation of birds and other things that fly up [her] arm.": the tattoo of the birds could be a memorial to ava, as we know that the ferins are associated with birds.

Not Ferin Well #53 [38:36] "I have already lost one daughter. I do not even consider that man my brother. If this is how you really feel, I do not wish to lose another.": jayson speaks of ava, drey and jay with the same grief. the two living characters have simply defected from the navy and the family, but he speaks of them as if they had died just like ava. the loss that jayson feels about ava may heavily be in part that same sense of betrayal and family division over the same issue of leaving the navy to become a pirate. he feels that in combination with the grief over her death, which outweighs the betrayal enough that he doesn't disown the same way that he does with drey. ava's defection also would've happened towards the end of her life not long before her death so that impression of her is not what lingers for jayson in comparison to his relationship with drey.

Not Ferin Well [39:04] "I won't hurt these pirates, but you [addressing Drey] will stay in here. And you Jay, Jay you will come home. I will see to it that you are back with your mother, away from this delinquency, whatever this rebellious phase might be.": jayson may recognise ava's rebelliousness in jay's actions. the reason that he's so overbearing with her is because he's scared that she will go down the same path that her sister and uncle did. he denied her the freedom that piracy would offer because he's always been afraid that she would like that better than life in the navy.

so normal about cattide pirates. Definitely.

Anyways pleasepleaseplease send me asks or drawing requests about this au I will <3 u 4everrrrrrrr

Hey, hi guys. Real quick before I continue, spoilers for JWRI Riptide episode 114, but uhhhhh

IS FUCKING DREY A GOD DAMN DOPPELGANGER?!?

Sorry, sorry, but !!!!

Because let me tell you, when listening to Jay's grandma talk on the shell about the Black Sea project, I was extremely confused why the fuck she mentioned her son.

"The machine is stable. My son is stable..."

I originally thought of Jayson. Made sense to me, the guy was really pissed the last time we saw him and I sometimes forget that Drey is also a Ferin, so stable in my mind was mental health wise. Then I was thinking about it, and realized her son's mental health had nothing to do with the project so why the fuck would she mention it in her log. AND THEN my brother (who recommended JRWI to me) that had the "oh shit it's probably Drey" moment and honestly, he's probably fucking right!

Drey, who has memory problems. Drey, who can't use his arms. Drey, WHO HAS BEEN THERE THE WHOLE TIME!

And with Dopple Gillion, we know that the clone has some of the memories of the other person and the somewhat the same abilities, so it makes sense that we wouldn't know Drey was a fake, if he is a fake.

I still kinda think it might be Jayson. The clones can be somewhat manipulated. If the real Jayson was dead/dying, it would make sense that his mom would just clone her son. The perfect soldier. I mean, the guy had been away from his family for a long time. If he came back weird, no one would notice.

Either which way, Jay's fucking grandma experimented on one of her son's. One of the Ferin boys aren't real.