#f: d20

[wynought]

since i haven't seen it being pointed out before

all of the first stoats' names essentially mean "light"

kiran is of sanskrit origin meaning "ray of light" (and, according to wikipedia, an explicitly unisex name), uri is a hebrew name meaning "my light", hester is a variant of the name esther (of biblical/jewish origin) which comes from the same old persian root as the word "star", and, while i didn't find any particularly reliable source, various babyname websites at least seem to agree that jomei is a japanese name meaning "spread light"

additionally, their names seem to correlate with their purpose/position in last bast:

jomei is the speaker, they are in charge of propaganda - quite literally spreading the belief system and worldview of the first stoats aka the Light. it feels like this name is extremely straightforward in its meaning, but i was also unable to find much else on it, so there may be some additional hidden truth that i'm missing so far.

hester is the silence (the one with the gas mask missing their lower jaw and tongue) and their sphere of influence is secrets. now, i'm no religious scholar, and i have all of my information from quite literally the introductory paragraphs of the wikipedia article on the name esther. however, it seems that queen esther only took this name after ascending to the throne of persia to hide her true identity. this is reflected in the hebrew root of the name esther translating into "hide"/"conceal". (i am unable to provide more info on this, but anybody with a working understanding of how hebrew works and/or with more insight on the book of esther, feel free to interject/correct/add on to this)

uri is our beloved stoat pope. apparently, the name uri comes from the verb for "to shine" (to either be or to give light) and the mark of possession, resulting in the first connotation i mentioned earlier - "my light". this possessive marker, however, can also be interpreted as the name Yah which would be an abbreviation of YHWH - a marker of the divine, if you will. Therefore, Uri can also mean "Yah is my light", a very fitting name for the stoat whose department we only see called "faith".

i was unable to find a deeper meaning behind kiran's name, although to me "beam of light" feels very much like a name befitting the first stoats' leader. considering the way they commanded the wolf of theseus, it also seems to reflect the way their magic/their brand of control worked (their line of sight was part of how they controlled the wolf, indicating that was a key part of either their magic or the conditioning inflicted on the wolf - i'm partial towards the latter, considering how the wolf reacted to tula after she healed it). if anybody has anything more concrete to offer, though, i am all ears!

anyways, the first stoats' names are really cool, and we as a fandom don't talk enough about them because they died so fast. huge props to aabria for this fun bit of world building!

(disclaimer: as mentioned above, i have no background in theology or judaism, nor do i have any deeper knowledge of sanskrit, hindi, and indian mythology/folklore, nor japanese, and japanese mythology which would give me a deeper understanding of these names. my information comes from google and while i did try my best to verify the claims, i am fallible and happen to currently be very tired, so please correct me, if i made any mistakes!)

#burrow's end #d20 #burrow's end spoilers #d20 spoilers #f: d20 #f: burrow's end #c: kiran (be) #c: stoat pope uri (be) #c: the silence hester (be) #c: the speaker jomei (be)

[frogsandmagic]

Let’s make one thing clear! Riz would have killed kalvaxus whether that was his dad’s murderer or not. He was working on the case, not because of his tragic backstory, but because he noticed his babysitter went missing, then noticed a bunch of other girls had also gone missing. He was already working the case to start out with because he realized something was up and worked on the case no one else seemed to be paying attention to or caring about. He wanted to figure out the mystery to help those girls.

Riz doesn’t get good adventures because he’s tragic, he gets good adventures because he’s smart and can find connections where no one else can. Because he refuses to give up when he finds a mystery. (to the point where he has a mystery tattooed all over his body)

#he cares about people! and wants to find out the mystery f #to help others! #and he’s also just smarter then you kipperlilly and that’s not his fault #fhjy #dimension 20 #fantasy high #fhjy spoilers #d20

[geezmarty]

this scene uppercut me and then killed me dead where I stood

#a court of fey and flowers #battlemaster of ceremonies #dimension 20 #f #a court of fey and flowers spoilers #dimension 20 spoilers #d20 spoilers #acofaf spoilers

[thatoneartistinthecorner]

Dungeons and Daddies cover art redraw!

(click for better quality + zoom in under the cut)

#art #my art #artists on tumblr #toaitc art #fanart #dnd #dndads #dungeons and daddies #dungeons and dragons #henry oak #derryl wilson #glenn close #dndads glenn close #ron stampler #ron f stampler #d20 #cover art #i hope you like it 🙏

[vampirehayfever]

fig getting defensive over her mom is so sweet

#f*ck bobby dawn #they have such a sweet relationship now #sandra lynn faeth #figueroth faeth #fig faeth #emily axford my beloved #emily axford #dimension 20 #fantasy high #fantasy high junior year #d20 #fhjy spoilers #fantasy high junior year spoilers #d20 fantasy high #dropout #intrepid heroes #brennan lee mulligan

[dissapointeddruid]

Every day i wake up and remember Mentopolic PC's are comcepts and if The Fix focuses on breathing so does Elias, and if Conrad's talking to other citizens they become kinder and more balanced, and if Anastasia looks into the memory they see more details cause she pays attention and just

This season is so fu... good

#dimension 20 #in the words of conrad: f..... #mentopolis #d20 #d20 spoilers

[feelingtheaster99]

God what a way foreshadow the importance of the Five F’s and then have Freeze, which no one thought would be particularly helpful come in CLUTCH in freezing the legs to kick through a window

#I wonder if we’ll see the other F’s #also it’s so funny #because at the beginning of the ep sibohan was like we should freeze the legs #but they didn’t have time #nor did they have the freeze key #and then they very naturally stumbled upon the key themselves #GOD I love this show so much #dimension 20 #d20 #mentopolis #d20 mentopolis #mentopolis spoilers #mentopolis speculation #mentopolis grappling with death #grappling with death #sibohan Thompson #imelda pulse #mentopolis freeze #mayor logic #live reaction #brennan lee mulligan #edit #frank freeze #mentopolis frank freeze #d20 frank freeze

[bruqh]

sometimes a family is just you, your mom, your biological devil father, your ex step dad, you ex step dads new wife, your ex step dads new wife’s son, your current step dad, your current step dads adopted daughter and her sister, your step dads niece, and this other girl you took in because her family sucks

#dimension 20 #d20 #this starts at fig #ive also resigned myself to sklonda and gortholax break up because it hasnt been mentioned in this season :( #rip riz and sklonda as part of the family tree #f u gorgug for hording parents when everyone else is sharing like 4 that are still alive

[looseduke]

how old do we think lou wilson’s pinocchio is. personally i think ten. i think this because ten year old boys are just like that

#i used to teach dance before The Illness #had this lil boy who was super respectful in front of the teachers #then u would overhear him w his twin brother dropping more f bombs then u would think grammatically possible #dimension 20 #neverafter #lou wilson #d20 pinocchio

[hamiltonforpowerpoint]

I just finished ACOFAF believe y’all think RueHob is toxic? Is it perfect? No but y’all placing all the blame on RUE. Saying that they only love this idea of Hob is crazy

Some things I want to touch (To my understanding this is what I perceived)

Rue didn’t choose to serve the court of wonder like it was some planned decision. Rue was an orphan who was kidnapped and forced to stay in the fae relem no? I think it makes sense for Rue to take the place next of the ppl who raised them.

So Oscar/Rue took the love at first sight route. Doesn’t inherently make it selfish, unreasonable, or shallow. I’ve heard plenty of stories of ppl getting together within days/weeks/months of meeting each other. Some people feel differently

Just because Rue lived in a place of lavish doesn’t mean they can’t be sad. Idk maybe it hit me more personally bc I saw it as yk yt parents non-black kid adoption. Rue being an OwlBear just trying to fit in in the society around them. We always say money doesn’t buy happiness why can’t this apply to Rue?

The love Rue wanted was romantic love. They may have had the love of the people, court, Wuvy, etc but it wasn’t the love they WANTED. Is Rue not allowed to want love? Love that is of kissing and holding and not making face and contracts?

It’s almost like the Bloom is made to make connections of any kind 💀 Again I don’t understand why it’s wrong for Rue to want to love somebody/love them. Rue didn’t force Hob to fall in love. Rue didn’t feed him a love potion or pushed him till he breaks.

I feel like we are a being harsh on Rue for being more emotional/dramatic but at the end of the day this is a dnd game. These characters actions rely on the descriptions provided by the player. If they add in a sigh here or a tears in the eyes there I don’t think it’s fair to fully put that on the character without the context of performance.

Wuvy Wuvy Wuvy. I love Wuvy but it’s clear that their relationship was platonic .l. I think Rue has felt that everything Wuvy has done (sort of) was due to responsibility of position/duty. Ofc Wuvy denies that but we don’t know how long Rue felt this way. I don’t think we see any evidence that says Rue told Wuvy to To change herself and make herself smaller I think Wuvy did that out of the love of her heart. If I had to take a major guess I would assume Rue made these changes to themselves first and Wuvy followed so that they wouldn’t be alone. While Wuvy may follow Rue command her actions are of her own. Did Rue do Wuvy wrong from time to time. Yes!

To imply that Rue is selfishly satisfying this hunger through Hob is crazy to me. I feel like y’all are babying this man. Hob was major and was set to be married. At the end it was Hob who went after Rue not the other way around. If he wanted to he could’ve atleast cleared the air with Rue then continue his duties. No one told him to hold on to Rue token. No one told him to dance with Rue. No one made him give Rue his badge. No one forced him to quit. He decided those things bc of his own heart not Rues.

Ig my question is if Rue only loves Hob bc of what he “represents” (like this idolization I suppose) why does Hob love Rue. He had his court, his honor, his goblins. A big chunk was Hob being to loyal to his court.

P.S The thing with the goblin court was f’ed up. Just makes Rue flawed not horrible.

TLDR: I’m more trying to fight I’m just RueHob number one defender. I’m not digging on anyone or being like “I’m right you’re wrong”. I’m just expressing my feelings after being on an 8 episode rollercoaster

#dimension 20 #d20 #acofaf #acofaf spoilers #a court of fey and flowers #captain kp hob #delloso de la rue #can you tell I’m peeved #I love them so much #I was like “finally a ship were the guy can’t wallow is self pity/woe is me #then I discovered y’all don’t f with them omg #this is general but I did gain inspiration from one post #I know I didn’t touch on the goblin marriage thing #ehhh I’ll do that now #but yeah tdlr they are both fucked up adults who choose to love each other

[wynought]

The Horror in Burrow's End

I have been having Thoughts (TM) about the horror aspect of Burrow's End for a while now, and I think I can put at least some of those Thoughts (TM) into words now. Spoilers for Burrow's End (up to, and including episode 8) and Neverafter below.

Many people have pointed out that Burrow's End has been more horrifying (or at least felt more horrifying) than Neverafter, Dimension 20's proclaimed Horror Season. There has been a lot of terrifying body horror and gruesome gore, and with the latest episode (episode 8, as of writing this) we've also seemingly risen to another level with the absolutely stunning Wenabocker tapes (kudos again to Carlos Luna, the acting and sound design were legitimately masterful).

But we've also had that with Neverafter; the opening scene with Rosamund waking up is a perfect example of body horror, the Stepmother is an advanced lesson in eldritch horror, there are powerful and unknowable antagonists all throughout the Neverafter. So why is it that so many (if not all of us) feel that Burrow's End is so much scarier than Neverafter? I think there's a multitude of factors at play here.

Of course, we have the difference in the cast - the Intrepid Heroes are a well-oiled machine of tight comedy at this point, they know each other, their strengths, their comedic timing, they know what they can get away with in terms of shenanigans. The Stupendous Stoats are all incredible performers and have obviously worked together before in various constellations. However, they don't have an Established Dynamic in the way the Intrepid Heroes do. It is also the first time that Aabria is DMing a full-on D&D game in the dome, with battlesets and minis, and everything that entails, and she has said herself that she usually does theatre of the mind - there's a good possibility she wasn't even aware herself, how exactly this would influence her own style and the atmosphere she would create. All of this contributes to a vastly different feel of Burrow's End compared to Neverafter.

Additionally, both players and their characters in Neverafter were genre savvy, as was the audience. Neverafter was marketed as a horror season. We knew the tone going in, the Intrepid Heroes knew it going in, their characters were conceived as being horror versions of commonly known fairy tale characters. The marketing for Burrow's End was different; sure, we all immediately made the connection to Watership Down and The Secret of NIMH, and those aren't exactly known for their easy and happy themes, but I don't think any of us from the audience, or even the players were expecting the bear. This also ties into the player characters themselves. The Intrepid Heroes' characters didn't know each other beforehand; they grow together and they have/develop familial vibes, but they aren't family with all the added baggage that entails. Rosamund and Gerard may be cousins, but they're 100 years apart in age and have never met before. Pib and Pinocchio are successfully running scams together and do care for each other, but they don't quite have that long-time sibling dynamic. Mother Goose and Ylfa are arguably the closest to each other before the events of Neverafter, with Goose taking on a parental role, but they are stuck in their own recent traumas and seem to have gravitated towards each other more out of the need to fill the respective holes in their lives than out of a genuine, pre-established bond. Destiny's Children do grow and go on to become important people in each others' lives, but there's a difference between bonds forged by danger and choice, and bonds forced by necessity. The Stupendous Stoats were conceived as a family. Viola is Ava's daughter, and also Tula's sister, and also Thorn's wife, and also the kids' aunt, and also the co-leader of a cult. She has so many roles to fulfill already that 'horror protagonist' isn't even on anybody's list, least of all her own - and that goes for all the player characters. Their established dynamics mean that, for a bit, they don't, no they can't even realise what kind of story they are in. Thorn is living in a story where he is the tragic hero destined to save his people, Tula lives in a story about grief and loss and acceptance, Viola lives in a story of political intrigue, the kids live in a YA adventure novel a la Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Ava lives in Encanto (but don't tell her, she'd hate that). Then they encounter the bear and there's a slight record scratch, but, after having dealt with that mess, they go right back to their established roles. They react to the horror in a very, for lack of a better word, human way, they treat it as incidental to the reality they live in. They feel like a real family, slowly finding out just how scary their world truly is. The horror's impact on their lives is very different from the way Neverafter impacted the protagonists. We get to see the stoats' realisation that they're horror protagonists, but Destiny's Children had already gotten that message by the time they come together.

Another huge factor is the season length. Neverafter ran for 20 episodes, while Burrow's End is half as long. A lot of horror hinges on the audience and the protagonists being unaware of how exactly the antagonist/monster/spooky thing works. The audience usually knows on some level that there have to be some rules the horror has to abide by, the protagonists may or may not; but especially in something like an actual play TTRPG show there have to be some rules because this is a game, after all, and it would be incredibly unfun for the players, the DM, and the audience to have a fully unsolvable mystery. The problem with this is that the actual terror goes away once the rules are solved - sure, you can still do gore and disturbing stuff, and you can scare the protagonists, but your audience will expect an action-based story now, instead of a reaction-based story (e.g. the protagonist figures out that a silver bullet can hurt the werewolf, so now the audience expects them to stop running and make/find silver bullets in order to protect themselves, and either succeed in killing the monster or die trying). The longer your story is, the harder it is to keep up this level of suspense. You will either start to tread ground and the story will begin to feel stale, or you will reveal too much too early and lose that sweet sweet terror of the unknown. I think Neverafter was too long for an effective horror season; I don't think it is bad how many episodes we got, I enjoyed every single one of them. But I do believe that much of the horror aspect was lost around the halfway point - one of the worst things to happen to a D&D party, the TPK, happened in episode 2 and was "solved" (in the sense I talked about above) in episode 3. The Lines Between and the Authors were introduced in episode 8. The world's rules were established by then, and the Intrepid Heroes could start acting on them. Of course, there were still scary elements (the fact that Death itself had been imprisoned and was being tortured, the undead Dwarven army, Rapunzel's trickery and unsettling personality, etc. etc.), but to me this felt more like a very dark fantasy story, instead of a tale of horror. Burrow's End is so much shorter than Neverafter, and I think this works to its advantage as a horror story. The protagonist stoats' limited perspective on what is going on in the Blue Forest, in Last Bast, with the Blue in general, their general lack of knowledge on all things human make for so many different vectors of horror, and the abundance of mysteries means that even after 8 episodes there are still aspects of the world we are unaware of.

This neatly brings me to my last point: There is a unique dynamic at play in Burrow's End that contributes a lot to the uncanniness of the story. Namely, that the protagonists are stoats with no/minimal knowledge of humanity, while the players and the audience know so much more than the protagonists. TTRPGs oftentimes make it hard not to metagame, not to let your prior knowledge influence your character's decisions, and Burrow's End takes this to an extreme level. There is a difference between the "my husband was killed by the thunder on a cloudless day" kind of horror, and the "this stoat was shot by a gun, but his body wasn't collected immediately, meaning that probably wasn't a hunter, so why are people shooting stoats?" kind of horror; a difference between "humans are faceless monsters with hairless, yellow, smooth skin" kind of horror, and the "that's a person in a hazmat suit, why are they wearing hazmat suits?" kind of horror. The beauty of this is that we as the audience (and also the players, because the fun thing about TTRPGs is that you can be both audience and protagonist at the same time) get to experience double the horror. We can feel for the protagonists and their struggles in this dangerous, deadly world, where everything seems out to get them, and we get to understand things that they don't or even can't grasp. We get to put the clues together, painting by numbers in the negative space left by the stoats' explanations, while still reeling from trying to understand why the world works the way it does. We can piece the kind of environmental disaster together that caused the Blue, while being surprised by a horde of carnivorous chipmunks piloting a dying bear. We get to feel twice as afraid of this world by virtue of hearing the words "loss of coolant accident in reactor charlie" spoken by a human, but understood by stoats, and understanding what those words imply.

All in all, I am very happy with Burrow's End. I have previously stated that as a horror fan I was disappointed by Neverafter; I did enjoy it a lot, but it just didn't scratch that itch (not trying to badmouth Neverafter here, just stating my personal experience). Burrow's End is more than making up for that, especially since I didn't expect it going in. I am extremely impressed by Aabria's ability to first create, and then hand us the tools to unravel a mystery on this scale where every new piece of information makes the whole picture seem more terrifying, and her nerves of steel to not reveal too much information, even this late in the game (reminds me a lot of how long it took to figure out everything about Kalina in Fantasy High Sophomore Year, to the point of only fully understanding her in the finale episodes, while she had been a mystery for almost all of the season). It takes a lot to not spill all your very cool lore as soon as you get the chance, and the organic way things have been revealed to the stoats and to us is really something else. I'm just really looking forward to episodes 9 and 10 of Burrow's End, and also all of Aabria's future projects with D20. Thank you @quiddie for this beautiful season, I'm enjoying myself so much!

#burrow's end #d20 #d20 burrow's end #stupendous stoats #aabria iyengar #burrow's end spoilers #d20 spoilers #f: burrow's end #f: d20 #horror in burrow's end

[vitamin-zeeth]

Hey gang here's my playlist of songs I think fig and the Sig Figs would write

#theres a lot of chase petra sue me #theyre basically what i imagine f&tsf to sound like lmao thats why theres so many. also all theor songs are verrryyyyy fig faeth core #literally every one of theirs on this playlist is the most fig faeth thing in the world #d20 #fhjy #fantasy high #d20 fhjy #fig and the cig figs #fig and the sig figs #fig faeth #fig fantasy high #d20 fig

[stardustedknuckles]

I'M SORRY THE PRINCIPAL KILLED THE THERAPIST AND HIMSELF? WHAT? THE FUCK?

#Adaine immediately: if I kill myself f go I save Doreen? #Fuck lmao #Sdk watches d20 #Do i*

[faifromthewild]

So tired of purity culture and how people completely overlook true kindness, goodness and gentleness in media because the characters aren't perfect little angels.

Give me characters who are chaotic, quick to fall in love, queer, polyamorous, unhinged, morally dubious, mentally ill, neurodivergent, and/or broken or flawed. But somehow are also kind, good, gentle, loving, hopeful.

Don't erase these things simply because you don't understand them.

#purity culture #media #thinking about some of my favorite content and the themes present in them #the untamed #mdzs #heaven official's blessing #tgcf #a court of fey and flowers #d20 #beyond evil #none of the stories you love would exist if we demanded perfection from fictional characters #these stories work because the characters are complex #purity culture says people need to behave a certain way #well f&%k that #give me characters who misbehave #give me characters who break the rules of society #bc sometimes the rules of society are more harmful

[adaines-furious-feast]

There's something about the Freeze emergency response being in control of the entire brain for years maybe even decades that explains everything. But also jesus christ can this season stop reminding me I need to get my head checked out for like five seconds?

#mentopolis spoilers #honestly whats the worst f that can dictate your life? #no wonder ambition thinks Elias is holding Elias back #Elias is controlled by the one response that will stop him doing anything #good or bad #because what if #how did D20 make a character we never meet the most relatable character?

[adaine-abernantt]

Scheherazade, girlie…. Couldn’t have said it better myself

#what the f WAS THAT #dimension 20 #d20 #neverafter #neverafter spoilers