I love you goofy looking aarakocra, dragonborn and tabaxi. I love you hiring bridgerton guy just to be hot and untouchable and having his first major scene staged so that one tiddy is always artfully exposed. I love you well choreographed fight scenes and a beautifully chaotic representation of six seconds of combat. I love you compelling plot point of attunement requiring a successful role with your spellcasting modifier. I love you solving puzzles by shoving round p(ainting)egs into square holes. I love you forcing Justice Smith to do a British accent for no reason. I love you level 20 NPCs who can’t help the party against the big bad for ambiguous reasons. I love you bigby’s hand slap fights. I love you Nat 20s on potato attacks. I love you owlbears, mimics and gelatinous cubes. I love you dragons, I love you dungeons. I love you dnd movies that love dnd.
the d&d movie was so good. they captured the energy perfectly. exposition and character building and meeting that takes 10 minutes. travel across 3 countries in like 5 minutes. bullshit plans that work so hard. a dragon for no reason other than its a fuckin dragon. Chekov's gun but it's Chekov's arsenal. A paladin's autistic swag. nat 20 on the potato. crying. a very quick "where are they now" segment. everything.
"But why did the characters in Honor Among Thieves ally with an obviously evil wizard, then act surprised when she betrayed everybody" buddy, look at their fucking pre-betrayal party comp. A wizard, a wild magic sorcerer, two rogues and a barbarian? They've got no heals, no defensive buffs, everybody except the barbarian has fuck-all for hit points, and stratospheric DPS. I guarantee you their main combat strategy is to have the barbarian tie everybody up in melee, then drop massive AoE damage directly on top of her and hope the rogues make their Evasion saves. This is not a party whose culture is characterised by an excess of caution, is what I mean to say.
Honour among thieves is good in ways that drive me a bit insane thinking about the state of modern fantasy in film/television.
Like, the scenes in the underdark were visible?!?! You know that in GoT or whatever other production that shit would be impossible to see because it's the underdark or whatever. But like no!?! The place was conveyed to be underground and fucked up and I could hear everything?!!
Also, Edgin expresses complicated feelings like sadness and self loathing and he's not belittles for it! The party sits on the rock with him and then he introspects and is framed as a positive male character who's not the most physically capable in a fight!
Holga's divorce, Simon's arc, these things drive me fucking insane because there's a lot of angsty shit in this film but it's not a sad film! There is love and joy and happiness in this shitty found family who bicker and support each other. I just, need shit like this, I need Avengers Tower Fics of the party because I genuinely believe they care about each other and that feels like almost a rarity
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)
One of the great things about Holga is that she is a Barbarian.
How she moves, how she fights, how she hits, it all feels Heavy. She feels Tanky, able to hold on multiple enemies at once. Her punches feel like they have weight and we see the soldiers struggle fighting her, using their numbers to compensate that she otuclasses them in Physical Prowess.
She is the embodiment of the DnD Barbarian. which is that If she hits you, You Go Down.