🙃
My favourite thing about the D&D movie is it never stops trying to be a D&D movie even down to the most minute, unsung details. There’s initiative order gags (I’ll go last!) there’s rolling a 1 gags (setting off the trap on the bridge by inexplicably just walking up to it) there’s stat gags (nobody had high enough Intelligence to be in danger from the Intellect Devourers). Almost every spell is identifiable, from Xenk using smite to Sofina whipping out Finger of Death. Simon’s character arc is about his self-confidence being tied to his mastery of magic because Charisma is the spellcasting stat for sorcerers. The era of movies based on games being afraid of their source material is over.
I think one of the reasons drag kings aren’t as popular as drag queens, aside from the fact that straight women don’t like us, is that people are uncomfortable acknowledging masculinity as a performance. Like we as a society know that femininity is a performance, with its own costumes and rules. Masculinity is also a performance, and nothing makes that more clear than someone making an exaggeration of it
The thing about the D&D movie which is absolutely genius is that the game mechanics basically insulate them against any of the most frustratingly fun sucking movie criticisms. “But why were the guards looking the wrong way?” Failed their perception check. “Why did the spell stop RIGHT before they would have died” Dropped concentration. It gets to be dumb and fun anyone that TRIES to be the plot hole police gets ever increasingly obscure D&D rulebooks thrown down in front of them and called a fake nerd. There’s NOTHING those type of guys hate more than being a fake nerd. This movie is untouchable.
Okay so I just saw the new Dungeons and Dragons movie
gotta say from the moment they went with the “let’s dive out the window onto the Aarakocra” plan even as the council was like “WE PARDONED YOU” I knew it would be great because that is the exact kind of stupidity a D&D party would get up to
Specifically D&D™️ things about that new movie that I enjoyed very much
- The entire party having low intelligence/wisdom bc let’s be real who doesn’t have either one of those as their dump stat
- Receiving a magic item from the DM -> forgetting about it -> a party member going WAIT DONT WE HAVE THAT -> everyone using the shit out of the magic item and completely wrecking the DM’s plans
- Travelling between locations that are geographically days/weeks away takes <5 minutes because the DM doesn’t want to do random encounters + the party doesn’t have a ranger who needs to feel useful by tracking
- No healer + no rogue/ranger = everyone is constantly exhausted and has no idea of the traps/monsters in their surroundings ever
- Druid being the most OP member of the party
- The DM’s friend/sibling coming over to play their high level paladin from another campaign for an afternoon and then just noping out
- The DM planning an elaborate battle arena with multiple well thought out stages and the players immediately find a way to circumvent it
The portal caravan scene was the most unapologetically D&D part of the movie imo
-the creative use of a magic item, not for it’s obvious and intended use
- each member of the party getting to do different parts from buying a painting to using wild shape
- the extreme convoluted nature of all the steps
- being extremely clever but still getting fucked up by bad execution(bad rolls)
-obvious holes in the plan like the guards clearly being able to see all of them working out just cause the other people are way to oblivious (when you get saved only cause an npc rolls a 5)
i have seen 3 different takes IN A ROW of xenk from the dnd movie OBVIOUSLY representing:
- the DM’s friend who wanted to bring his high level character in to play for one session
- an NPC the DM realized was OP and couldn’t let stay with the party
- the one friend in the group whose schedule is never open, so the one time they actually make it they get to do all the coolest bits to make up for that
and none of these are wrong.
Okay but I don’t think anyone has spoken about my favorite part of the movie, which is how the characters used the Sending Stones exactly how everyone uses them in their home game— as walkie talkies or cellphones, as opposed to the R.A.W.
Xenk is a rules lawyer.