Legends, Loot, & Lore: A Players's Guide to Dungeons and Dragons
"Legends, Loot, & Lore" is a fun Dungeons and Dragons podcast where host Andrew and co-host Catherine dive into the thrilling realms of D&D, delivering news, tips, interviews, and fascinating tales of legendary adventures, all from the perspective of someone new to or interested in playing Dungeons and Dragons.
Legends, Loot, & Lore: A Players's Guide to Dungeons and Dragons
Critical Hits on Screen: A Journey Through Dungeons & Dragons' Most Iconic TV Episodes
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Roll up with your twenty-sided dice and spell books, as "Legends, Loot and Lore" embarks on a spirited tour of Dungeons & Dragons' most memorable forays into television. Together with Catherine, a fixture in our podcasting party, we pay homage to the rasterized realms where D&D not only rolled initiative on screen but also cast a charm spell over viewers. From the demogorgon-fueled adventures in "Stranger Things" to the nostalgic trip to the "Freaks and Geeks" basement, we parse through how our beloved tabletop epic has crit-hit its way into the heart of pop culture, with a few unexpected digressions that are as delightful as they are insightful.
The dice gods have spoken, and we've got the definitive list from Inverse.com, but not without our own twist. Catherine and I don our wizard hats and conjure an analysis of television's most iconic D&D episodes, where we might not always see eye-to-eye with Inverse's rankings. We celebrate the power of role-playing to bring people together, laughing along with "The IT Crowd," reminiscing with "The Goldbergs," and even imagining how the Scooby Gang from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" would fare on a D&D campaign. It's an episode brimming with the kind of nostalgia and camaraderie that could only be inspired by countless nights around the gaming table.
As our quest nears its end, we share our personal picks for the episodes that have truly honored the spirit of D&D. We ponder how the characters from "Gravity Falls" would stack up in a campaign, chuckle at a Key & Peele sketch that marries hip-hop culture with monster-slaying, and even delve into the psyche of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" characters as potential D&D heroes. So, whether you're a dungeon master or a curious newcomer, join us for an episode that's as much a celebration of shared storytelling as it is a tribute to the rolling of the dice that binds us all in the fantastical world of Dungeons & Dragons.
Inverse.com - D&D TV Show Episodes Ranked
Screen Rant - Buffy Characters as D&D Players
Campaign Eddie Funko Pop
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Welcome adventurers to another fun, exciting, just jam packed full of interesting tidbits of information. Today is a new episode of Legends, loot and Lore. We've got our Mountain Dew and our Funyuns and we're ready to talk all things television with our guest Catherine.
Speaker 2Hello.
Speaker 1Hello Catherine.
Speaker 2Am I even a guest anymore? I'm always here.
Speaker 1You're always here. Special guest star, I'm going to have to bump you up to recurring cast.
Speaker 2Right.
Speaker 1When we were going to negotiate your contract.
Speaker 2Like I paid for this. I didn't think there was any pay for this?
Speaker 1Not at all. Yeah, not at all. So Catherine has been diligently watching episodes of television all about Dungeons and Dragons, so we can talk about that today. Before we dive into everything, I just want to first thank everyone who listens to the podcast. I look at all the analytics and see it's fascinating to see where everybody is from. So thank you for everybody out there, wherever you are, for listening to this wonderful little podcast of ours. It really is a labor of love. So thank you for that. The other thing we should talk about, because we've gotten a few episodes into season two now and big question is where is Joe? Who? Exactly? No, my co-host. Joe, joe, joe, oh, joe.
Speaker 2You know Joe, I do know Joe, I know Joe really well, actually yes, you do. I do.
Speaker 1So season two took on a new twist. Our good co-host and friend, joe, has gotten engaged. Yay, congratulations, joe and Christine. So he is busy, often in wedding planning land, so he is not joining us for season two. Maybe when things settle down he will be back to join us, but that is where Joe has gone off to. So we wish him well and hopefully this new side quest that he's on will be tremendously wonderful and happy for him. We couldn't be more excited for the two of them. So best of luck to you both. Now on to the fun stuff.
Speaker 2Oh, is Joe's wedding not fun?
Speaker 1Joe's wedding is not fun, oh, I see. Well, it hasn't taken place yet.
Speaker 2Well no, and wedding planning, honestly would not want to do again.
Speaker 1So no, yeah, did that. You did that once, yep, yep. Anyway, you were helpful, I was helpful, you were. I was just going to say I've done more than once.
Speaker 2Well, yeah, you had experience.
Speaker 1That's right. Not my first rodeo, all right. So why don't you take our listeners through? So we're going to talk about what a website inverse has called the 13 best D&D episodes from TV, and they rank them from, I don't say worst to best, but I guess maybe, favorite to least, favorite to favorite. Maybe I don't know what their, what their ranking criteria was for these, just sheer opinion on which one they liked best.
Speaker 2And I disagree with some of it.
Speaker 1Absolutely. We definitely disagree with some with some of the ordering of these, but we will discuss that. So we're going to take these in order. We'll talk about the episodes themselves, some of the themes that these episodes touch upon and other things like that.
Speaker 2So I'm assuming you'll link to the article in the show notes, because it does, for the most part, tell people where to watch these things.
Speaker 1Yes, I will.
Speaker 2I've got to say you mind if I jump in and say a little bit.
Speaker 1Jump right in.
Speaker 2So I had this idea a little while ago when I got, shall we say, roped into what was originally going to be DMing the new campaign and then became me becoming a rock no, and I was thinking about just how prevalent D&D actually has been in pop culture for a very long time.
Speaker 2But it wasn't really until Stranger Things and not even the first season of Stranger Things really, the Eddie Munson Hellfire Club season of Stranger Things where it really blew up in the mainstream, which I find fascinating.
Speaker 2I know Fable mentioned in our last episode that their D&D club at school went from I don't know something like five or six kids and then they got another 20 because of Stranger Things. And that's when I started thinking about how interesting it would be to look at how different TV shows had handled Dungeons Dragons and where I might have remembered it, like I did from an episode of Buffy, and where I'd kind of forgotten it and where maybe I never noticed it before. So I started Googling and found this article from inversecom where they rated what they considered the 13 best episodes of Dungeons Dragons that featured Dungeons Dragons, and these are mostly mainstreamy shows that feature it in some way, not shows that are specifically about it. So you're not going to have, like your Vox Machina or Critical Role or something like that, because those are obviously influenced by D&D. That's their whole deal.
Speaker 1They are D&D.
Speaker 2Exactly so. These are more of some comedies, some dramas, some cartoons that feature D&D in one way or another, so I enjoyed watching most of what was on this list. I think I really liked the Futurama episode, but I would have loved it if it were shorter.
Speaker 1So yeah, that one I did not watch. I watched a good portion of these, but I did not watch them all.
Speaker 2So some of them I'll speak to, yes, and some of them we'll both speak to Are you ready to dive in? Yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 1So up first, which will be my first disagreement, number 13 is the Big Bang Theory's the Love Spell Potential episode, which is season six, episode 23.
Speaker 2And by the way, there are two episodes on here where the episode numbers they have don't match what's on the article or what's on the streaming services. So, I will call those out when we get to them just so that people know what they're looking for.
Speaker 1Fabulous.
Speaker 2Thank you.
Speaker 1So this is one I watched as well. So what's your? I mean, let's get your take first.
Speaker 2Okay, I mean I know there's a lot of controversy over Big Bang Theory. People either seem to love it or hate it. For me it's a big comfort show, like whenever I travel for work, if I'm in a hotel, when I fall asleep I'm I've got Big Bang Theory in the background because it's just kind of always there and it's stupid and I don't feel bad if I miss some of it. So I like Big Bang Theory. I enjoyed this episode.
Speaker 2I thought it was fun to see you know somebody like Penny, who is clearly not into all of the for lack of a better term nerd things that Sheldon and Leonard are into, but play it anyway and to some extent enjoy herself. But I liked the way they used it to explore some of what was going on in Sheldon and Amy's relationship, because Love Spell has been put on their characters and Amy gets really upset and it kind of forces a conversation, which is great. I also really loved all of Walowitz's voices throughout the episode. He does a lot of a lot of impressions and it gave him an opportunity to really utilize those impressions, which was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1Yes indeed.
Speaker 2There was Nick Cage, Christopher Walken.
Speaker 1Little Al Pacino in there. Yes, yes. He was I'll just. I got to jump in because these were his voice. His voice work is amazing. Yeah, his Nick Cage is great.
Speaker 2It was fantastic, it was so good. I love how the last two words of everything were shouted yes, you always shout always shout the end of the sentence.
Speaker 1But yeah, it was for me. You've talked about this on the podcast before how dungeons and dragons can be a vehicle for dealing with very complex issues in people's lives and addressing them in a way that is not necessarily so overwhelming as maybe sitting in therapy or things like that, like a traditional therapy session. So it's because you're playing as a character, so you're not necessarily yourself, but it is you because you embody the character. But we talked a lot about this with Ryan McLaughlin and Dr Cannell in the episode about D&D and therapy and therapeutic sessions and in school scenarios.
Speaker 1So again, dealing with a very serious relationship issue between Sheldon and Amy I keep wanting to say Penny, sheldon and Amy, I do too, but yeah, but it also ties in the whole thing about how D&D is just a bunch of nerdy guys sitting around a table. So this is men and women coming around the table and finding their own way to enjoy it, and I think that's what it's about. It's what you bring to it. It's not really about D&D itself. It's sure it's a nerdy game, but it's a role-playing game. So whatever you put into it, I think you get out of it and I think the three women of the Big Bang Theory really started to grasp that in this episode. Any other thoughts?
Speaker 2No, I think that's it for this one.
Speaker 1That's that one. Yeah, number 12, south Park's Bored Girls.
Speaker 2I loved this one.
Speaker 1Was this? Is this correct when it says season 23, episode 7? Yes, excellent. So again another one I watched with you because it's South Park first and foremost. This was fun though, yeah, so talk about the episode.
Speaker 2So basically the boys of South Park have a game club. I think they play more than just D&D, but D&D is part of it.
Speaker 1Yes.
Speaker 2And it's the Dice Studs Gamer's Club.
Speaker 1Yes, it is.
Speaker 2And two girls decide that they want to join and, of course, are encouraged by the school because everything should be equal, and the boys have a really hard time with it because the girls are really good at all the games.
Speaker 1Well, it's first of all, it's just the this is a boys club kind of thing. I was like, was it? They don't. They don't say it's a boys club, but they're like. But there are no girls. So like, now they're like. What do we do now that there are girls?
Speaker 2here it's also the Dice Studs.
Speaker 1What is the Dice Studs? So, okay, fair. So they are the Dice Studs. Now these two girls want to join. And it's so funny because, yeah, the girls just like they don't take over, but they're just so far better at the games.
Speaker 2They read the instructions.
Speaker 1They read the instructions.
Speaker 2They watch YouTube tutorials. It's amazing.
Speaker 1I love their, I love their painting of the miniatures. When they break out their cases of miniatures, they're like you paint your miniatures. They're like, oh yeah, we watch a new YouTube tutorial about it.
Speaker 2And then eventually, cartman goes to. Cartman goes to. Is it the school board? Where he's fighting for segregation of the clubs, and so he ends up winning somehow. And there are boys clubs and girls clubs, and the girls club, when they enter, is straight up packs, like it's tables of gameplay. It's painting miniatures over here. It's like this wonderful fantasy world of gaming and the boys are just absolutely horrified. It's so much better than what they have Exactly, yeah, it does.
Speaker 1It reminded me so much of packs You've got. You've got tables of different types of games. It's like here's your RPGs, Like here's like your other games, and they've got this elaborate club and tons of girls playing playing all these games.
Speaker 2I like the one where it's like that's not even out yet.
D&D Episodes in TV Shows
Speaker 1Oh yeah, we get screeners, oh yeah, because because they've got like a video, they do like a video show about reviewing games, a YouTube channel reviewing games. It's amazing.
Speaker 2That was so good. The rest of the episode was typical South Park kind of insane satire. But the D&D and like the gaming portion was very, very funny.
Speaker 1It really, it really was, it was, it was just so. It was just funny to see see all these these girls just again just reading the rule books, watching video tutorials. Yeah, they just like aced this role playing game, playing, playing D&D with the boys and it was just so funny to to say yeah, yeah, I really enjoyed that episode.
Speaker 2I haven't watched South Park in a long time, but I liked that a lot.
Speaker 1That was a really good episode. Yeah, onto Number 11, the Sarah Silverman program, which I have honestly never watched.
Speaker 2Me either, and I like Sarah Silverman.
Speaker 1I love Sarah Silverman.
Speaker 2But I just had never seen this before.
Speaker 1Yes, so this is an episode called Board of the Rings, season two, episode one. So what happens in this episode as far as D&D is concerned?
Speaker 2So Sarah has a pair of next door neighbors, a gay couple named Brian and Steve, and I guess it is D&D day. On the calendar it says DDD day, which Brian interprets as Dungeons and Dragons. Day, but it actually meant day date, so Steve is all put out because they were supposed to go to the park and have a picnic and do all sorts of stuff.
Speaker 1And Steve got all dressed up. He was so put out that he got all dressed up for this thing.
Speaker 2And all the nerds are showing up to play D&D in their costumes with them. They're ready to go. So it's a show that ends in the D&D group going to try to save a clinic that's being blown up. So it's goofy and funny, but I don't think I don't even know if I would put it on this list. Honestly, I didn't think it was as compelling as some of the others.
Speaker 1There are some funny parts to it. The one that jumps out at me is when Steve, the angry boyfriend, he's like do you even realize what time of day it is?
Speaker 1That was so good and he rips this blanket off the window and it's like daytime again. He's like you've been playing all night long. You're like what? Yeah, they don't even realize it because they're just having so much fun. And I think that's one of the things about D&D it really is. You can really lose yourself in the game, and these guys do that quite dramatically by playing all night long, powered by. It looks like Tab and Funyuns in the episode still.
Speaker 2I mean, that's what was 2003. So Wow, that was 2003. My goodness.
Speaker 1Yeah, interesting, but yes, and they do save the clinic miraculously, of course, but Steve got shot by a crossbow right in the butt. That was fun. Obviously, I would probably leave that on here Again. I'd leave it in the double digits, but I'd keep that on here. Let's go to one of your favorite, not one of your favorite, your favorite show, yeah, of all time. Of all time. Number 10 on the list is Buffy. The Vampire Slayer, episode chosen.
Speaker 1This is the series finale this is the series finale of Buffy, so a little late to the game To talk about D&D. But so what is your take on Buffy? Fan of fans.
Speaker 2I mean, this is a very brief scene within a very fraught episode, so I actually like it for what it does. It's Giles and Dawn and Xander and why can't I think of his name right now?
Speaker 1I don't know.
Speaker 2Andrew, yeah.
Speaker 1I'm sorry.
Speaker 2Yeah, that's his name.
Speaker 1No, but you couldn't remember that name.
Speaker 2Haven't we discussed the fact that I have a mental block toward characters and other people named Andrew? Cause I do, I can never remember other people named Andrew. It's really weird it is weird.
Speaker 1I know we've had this conversation before, but Anyway.
Speaker 2so it is Giles, xander, dawn, Andrew, playing on your sleeps because they cannot sleep because they're about to go battle the big bad evil and they don't know if they'll come out alive, and so it's a reprieve from their anxiety and it gives them something to do while they're not sleeping, because they're kind of the extra characters who don't have a lot of skin in the game. But it comes with the best line ever where Giles is playing a wounded dwarf with the mystical strength of a doily.
Speaker 1And mystical strength of a doily, it does make me. You love that one I do?
Speaker 2I mean? It's up there with Giles's best lines, although there are others like look at my mask, Isn't it pretty Americans? Oh, I'm sorry, it raises the dead Americans.
Speaker 1Very nice.
Speaker 2So yeah, I mean it's a very fun kind of reprieve in the middle of a very serious episode where, like, a lot was going on.
Speaker 2So, it's fascinating that they even worked this in, honestly, because you have the very brief return of Angel to help out. You've got, you know, like all sorts of stuff happening. Spike becomes a true champion and all of the potential slayers become slayers, come into their slayer power and then they have to, like, fight the big bad. So it's kind of a fun couple of minutes in the middle of a very tense episode.
Speaker 1Right. I think the one thing at this article point and that, which is a really good point, it's a nice callback to one of probably the inspirations for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, that probably a lot of people on the staff of that show have been players of Dungeons and Dragons. So it was a nice kind of just homage to the game that helped probably in some way shape or form get Buffy to be created. You know there's a lot of things in Buffy that feel very D&D-ish over the course of the show. So this was just a nice kind of short little wink and nod to the game and all that it had to contribute to the show of Buffy.
Speaker 2I might have added this to the honorable mentions area, like they have a. I mean, I love it and, believe me, I'm always delighted to see Buffy listed in anything, because it is truly my favorite show and probably always will be. But this is a very short piece.
Speaker 1Right, it's almost like blinking. You'll miss it.
Speaker 2Yeah, I mean, you're talking an hour long show, so that's like 42 minutes without the commercials and it's maybe like two minutes of it. Yeah.
Speaker 1Again, like you said, it's a nice nod, Probably an honorable mention, not necessarily number 10 on the list. Next up is number nine, Gravity Falls episode. Title Dungeons, Dungeons and More Dungeons. And this was from season two. This is episode 13. So this is one I did not watch. So tell me, tell me all you know about this Gravity Falls episode.
Speaker 2This was actually a lot of fun.
Speaker 1Was it.
Speaker 2Yeah. So of course, dipper is a fan of Dungeons, dungeons and More Dungeons, which is a D&D, obviously.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2Inspired game and he has. So they live with their one uncle, their one great uncle, and they have the other great uncle who kind of just came back on the scene, and this is an opportunity for Dipper to bond with him because, the other uncle has this weird mystical polyhedral die that actually takes them into the world of D&D, and then they have to play against all of the characters from the game to defeat them and come back into the real world and it's a lot of fun they.
Speaker 2The quote they mentioned in here is really funny because Dipper's trying to get his great uncle and his is Mabel, his sister, I have no idea Other kid.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2This is a show that I kind of have dipped in and out of, but I never really watched, but she says this is like homework the game because there's so much math.
Speaker 1There's a lot it is. They call them math rocks for a reason you gotta do a lot of math. Yeah, shout out, shout out to Steve, who's always complains about having to do all the math, but he never forgets to rage.
Speaker 2No, he always rages Always rages the other quote that they call out in here. That is very funny.
Speaker 1Yes.
Speaker 2Is only a game designed by nerds, would have charisma as a fantasy power.
Speaker 1Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2It was. It was a really cute episode. I enjoyed it. It was one of two. This one and the Voltron episode actually like took the characters into well actually no, I guess also Futurama, so three but really took them into the actual game and you see, like the characters that they're fighting against become real, and it is pretty cool actually. It was fun.
Speaker 1That is cool. I mean, yeah, it makes it. I guess that's the the luxury you have being an animated series where you can actually transport your characters into the game. Yeah, but again brings up a very interesting point that we've mentioned this before. What happens is when people discuss sessions of D&D, it's never. Do you remember when my character did this? Right, when my character did that? It's like do you remember when we drew our swords and like we battled like the hobgoblins and shot them with our crossbows and you and I we had advantage on the one. We hit them from both sides. It's like you recall the action like, kind of like in a first person position. You don't think of it as my character did this and my character did that, it's I did this or we did that. So you get very drawn into the story and an animated show can really make that point that you really do get drawn into the story. It's almost like your LARPers for real world IRL. Hello, kat.
Speaker 2Oh, I think this was the one.
Speaker 1Yes.
Speaker 2To where the other people were LARPing that you just reminded me of that Were people LARPing. The characters that were like oh, I don't want to play that game because I prefer they called it something else. It was like floorping or something.
Speaker 1Floorping.
Speaker 2There was a definition of floorping but it was LARPing. And they're all out there and like the cardboard outfits with like egg cartons taped to their chest Amazing. And at the end they talk about like do we use this to avoid?
Speaker 1the realities of life.
Speaker 2And like it was very funny.
Speaker 1Oh yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun.
Speaker 2I've got DeeDee over here. Give me one second.
Speaker 1Yes, what are you doing? You want to come here, kat. I'm on the podcast. Come on, deedee, come on, come to mama.
Speaker 2Come on, come on baby.
Speaker 1No, you don't.
Speaker 2You want to sit on that chair and keep trying to get my leg. You gotta come down. What are you doing, hi?
Speaker 1All right, but don't be digging those claws into my leg All right next. All right, so let's yes.
Speaker 2This is one with a wrong episode.
Speaker 1This is one with a wrong episode. So number eight, number eight comes Teen Titans Go, episode called Riding the Dragon. So what is the actual season? Is it season three?
Speaker 2It is season three, but on Max it was episode 51.
Speaker 1Ah, so streaming this on, max, you'll see it as episode 51. The article labels it as episode 50. Yes, so another one I didn't get to watch, so talk to us about.
Speaker 2Okay, this one was tough for me because I have literally never watched an episode of Teen Titans Go. So, I don't know who most of these people other than Cyclops and Robin are, but we'll just go with that. They're playing a game called Dragon's Fire, and it's Everyone but Robin and they basically just enjoy riding the dragon. You know they're all on the dragon, they're singing about riding the dragon, but then Robin shows up and he insists on following the rules.
Speaker 1Joe. So Joe is our rulekeeper.
Speaker 2Basically ruins everybody's good time.
Speaker 1Joe does not do that, by the way. Joe does not ruin our good time by sticking to the rules. But yeah, so there's yeah, there are and we've talked about this the rule, of course, cool, you know, it's all about what's going to make a fun, enjoyable session for everybody, so it's not about adhering perfectly to all the rules. If something is, if you're your party, your characters want to do something kind of outside of the box, you know. You know, roll with it. If it's something they're going to enjoy doing and worth giving a try, let them do it. And I think that's a good point to learn from this is that you don't have to follow the rules strictly when you're playing D&D. It's a great guideline, it's a great basis, but you can always jump off from there.
Speaker 2Yeah, I mean, it's not like you're going to ruin the game if you don't Right absolutely. It was a cute little episode but yeah, I mean, it was difficult for me. Most of these I've seen at least an episode or two of before, so I had a feeling for who the characters were. This one. I had absolutely no idea, so a little more difficult.
Speaker 1but how would you rank this? Would you put this at an eight, like how, how?
Speaker 2Honestly, I would move. I would move Gravity Falls up a bit. I would definitely move Big Bang Theory up.
Speaker 1Yeah, all for sure.
Speaker 2This. I could move down a little bit, maybe into the double digits, but I do get what they're saying with it. It was an important episode in terms of what you just talked about.
Speaker 1Like, you don't always strictly have to follow the rules in order, to have a good time, exactly, but that's a good lesson to learn from that episode for sure.
Speaker 2On the next one, I want to mention something too, after you talk about it.
Speaker 1Okay.
Speaker 2Or when you introduce it.
Speaker 1Okay, so episode number seven on the list from the IT crowd, which is a show that I very much like and enjoy. The episode is titled Jen. The Frado season four, episode one.
Speaker 2So now the article is from last year and states that it's on Netflix, but it's no longer on Netflix, it's only available on Britbox. I bought this episode, but you could totally do a free trial of Britbox if you wanted to watch it, and I think this one's worth watching. It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1I think the show is fun in general If you are if you are a what we do in the shadows TV show fan. Matt Berry, vaslo Cravensworth.
Speaker 2And here I thought that was just a voice he put on for last night. Turns out that's his voice.
Speaker 1Great, great to see him there. Chris O'Dowd is in this show, who's fantastic. So, anyway, so, so, anyway, so so Jen gets, gets a job as the with the entertainment manager. Yes, so she's. She's in charge of entertaining various clients or vendors that come into town. So anyone coming from out of town, she's got to, she's got to basically show them in the town and show them a good time.
Speaker 2But everyone tries to talk her out of this job because it's not just showing them a good time, it's showing them a particularly sexist type of good time.
Tabletop Games in Comedy and TV
Speaker 1Yes, so. So typically the people coming into town are men, and it's there they're. They're looking for a wild, raucous, debaucheryous time, and so when the the, the one scene, when the, when the three guys come in for the first time and Matt Berry's character introduces them to, to her, they think she's the entertainment, and he's like, no, she's the entertainment manager, and so she's. She's got to figure out how to how to entertain them, for I think they were in town for a week.
Speaker 2Cause, it turns out the vagina monologues was not the appropriate place to take that?
Speaker 1No, it was not, not at all. So eventually she sent so there, and there's a subplot that we'll talk about, but eventually she sends them down to Moss's Moss, moss, moss, moss, moss, moss, moss, moss, moss, moss, moss one more time.
Speaker 1Whoo, she sends them down to Moss and he is playing a game, he's hosting a game of D&D, and so so again we have the. Well, this is the first time that we have the, the two cool people Right that are. They're too cool for D&D. Yeah, they're getting exposed to it and, surprise, surprise, they end up having a great time, grand old time, playing D&D. Really love it and had had just a tremendous time. So what else did you get from from this episode?
Speaker 2So Chris O'Dowd's character, roy, has just gotten dumped and is devastated and moping and just kind of pathetic.
Speaker 2He's photoshopped her out of every picture, which is hilarious because it's just him doing everything alone, riding a bicycle built for two by himself, on a teeter totter alone. It's great, it's really funny. But Moss has really built this game as a way for Roy to be able to get closure on that relationship and ends up being this kind of like emotionally touching point in time for all of these kind of alpha male obnoxious guys. So it's. I think they did a really nice job of of kind of building it up and then having these guys all kind of be so delighted with it as a game and as an activity that, like, they're so happy with her as the entertainment manager.
Speaker 1Oh, absolutely, yeah, it's.
Speaker 1Again it goes back to the, the therapeutic benefits of of of Dungeons and Dragons, of role playing, tabletop, role playing games in general.
Speaker 1Chris O'Dowd's character, roy yeah, he's not able to get closure from this, from this, the relationship breakup, and so Moss, moss's character, builds into the game the ability for him to to get closure in a similar manner to to what he'd experienced in real life and and really feel that kind of that, that sense of relief and and being able to move on. Because in the episode he's just, he's just moping around the office, he's just crying, he's terribly upset and broken up about this, this relationship ending and and really not getting to. You know, cause she never said goodbye to him and so now he got the chance to let all that emotion out and say goodbye here, here, this character in the story, say goodbye and and that translated into his personal life. So, again, tremendous benefits of of tabletop role playing games in in therapeutic situations. And this was, I think, in in in a in a comedy. It was really very um kind of poignant kind of poignant.
Speaker 1It was very, it was a very touching, touching real moment. So for him, which I thought was great, oh, onto number six, this is a good one, oh, yes, I actually made Andrew watch this when he came home yesterday, because I enjoyed it so much so so worth it? I don't. I don't even remember this episode when it aired. So number six on the list. Another favorite show of mine, the Goldbergs, and the episode is called Dungeons and Dragons. Anyone In three, episode 20, lay out the story for us.
Speaker 2So obviously, adam and his friends are nerds, and this is this is when Adam was really tiny too.
Speaker 1So you're so young, oh my.
Speaker 2God, yes, um. So this the the Adam piece of the storyline, because there's a separate um storyline that's going on about, um, his sister going to college, right, the fallout of the parents with that. But um, the Adam piece of it is talking about the hierarchy of gym class, right.
Speaker 2Like how the losers always get picked last so it's always the nerdy kids who are, uh, not very athletic who are getting picked last. And so Adam and Dave, Kim and their other friends, you know, are lamenting how they're never going to get to be cool now while they're still in middle school. But when they get to high school, their brains will be the thing, and of course big tasty shows up out of nowhere to disabuse them of that idea, but gives Adam the idea to go to the coach and ask to be able to be a team captain so he can pick teams.
Speaker 1Of course he gets carried away and little, little power went to his head, yeah, and picks all the athletes and leaves his friends in the dust. And he and he's, and he's got, he's got the, he's got the thought process, like well, because I'll be cool and through me you guys can become cool.
Speaker 2But I'll have to be pretty mean to you for a while. Yeah. So that does that turns out terribly so of course the jocks destroy the other kids basketball, and the coach is so horrified by it that he says that Dave Kim can be the captain and he can choose the game the next time.
Speaker 1Yes, that's the key part here. And what does he choose?
Speaker 2D&D tournament module.
Speaker 1That's right.
Speaker 2So they sit down to play and Adam's trying to teach the jocks how to play D&D and it's going terribly.
Speaker 1Yes.
Speaker 2There's a couple of them wrestling over here. There's what is the one want to do? Oh yeah, he wants. He wants to get a girl.
Speaker 1Right, exactly.
Speaker 2And of course it's Lord, big of tasty, to the rescue.
Speaker 1Lord big of tasty.
Speaker 2Because of course he's had a, he's had a character sheet ready to go in case he was ever invited.
Speaker 1Absolutely.
Speaker 2And he kind of gets them into it and and ultimately the, the jocks, get really into D&D as well. So it's a super even matchup when they arrive at the tournament. But ultimately Adam throws it in a very nice callback to what'll happen if you touch it. Gelatine's cube, I touch the Jell-O.
Speaker 1Oh.
Speaker 2I touched the Jell-O.
Speaker 1That was great. Loved that, loved that scene. It was very cute. So much Because it's well, because it's every character has died except for except for him and Dave Kim. So they're, they're the two characters remaining, and there's a gelatinous cube there that they're.
Speaker 2And the whole thing had been trying to teach the jocks that the gelatinous cube is gonna kill you right you know, you can't just attack the gelatinous cube, you can't throw things at the gelatinous cube. Exactly so Ultimately it becomes this thing about like understanding who your friends really are and where your loyalty lies, and and doing that through the the kind of guys of Dungeons and Dragons yes, and then and I love the poor coach because he's like Guys, it's, it's, it's 6, 30.
Speaker 1I, just, I, just, I just want my life back. There's the line about he had no idea that it was going to last four hours, but again this touches on the point and that that D&D really is an inclusive game and it's for anybody, it's not just for the nerds, you know, and it's even the most popular jocks in the school. Can can get something out of it and really have a good time you can get caught up in kind of the Joy of it, right absolutely most definitely that was.
Speaker 1That was such a fun episode.
Speaker 2It was a great episode. I didn't remember it either, but I thought it was amazing.
Speaker 1Yeah, it was, it was really good it was, it was a lot of fun, it was just I, I mean, and I love just, I love Adam, he's so funny, he's just, yeah, he's just it's just because he feels, because he comes down to the point, so he, so he touches the Jello, the gelatinous cube, and and he realized that it was more important to To have his friends than to win, of course, which, which is, which is a great point. You know it's, it's. It's another great thing about D&D, it's about friendship. Yeah, you know it's about. It's about the party itself. You know, it's the, it's the old rule. You know you never split the party. Everybody stays together. That's what happens. When you split the party, bad things happen. So Adam, adam realizes this and sacrifices himself and his team and, and, and and a pizza party, because I think, I think it was a pizza party one piece of pizza per child one slice per child.
Speaker 2Because Dave Kim was gonna eat all the pepperoni he's like I can eat all the pepperoni.
Speaker 1Coach shouts one slice per child. Watch the episode. It's crazy.
Speaker 2It's a really good episode. It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1Definitely now on to okay. So that's the big one.
Speaker 2Which I think should be higher than number five.
Speaker 1I mean really, really, the only reason this article was written was because of this show.
Speaker 2Yeah, it really is what got me thinking about exactly.
Speaker 1So Number five, a a bizarre Ranking for for this it's really two episodes ranked together. The show is stranger things. There's the episode called the vanishing of will buyers, which was season one, episode one, when that, when it touches on Well, Mike has his whole game.
Speaker 2He wrote the story, right, yeah and that's the whole demogorgon.
Speaker 1I mean they even turned it into a box, yeah, of the game for people to play. Yeah, I mean that's how popular it became. And also the episode, chapter one, the hellfire club, which was season four, episode one, eddie Munson, the which is, which is, I think, one of everybody's favorite favorite characters other than the main actress. I think he was just, he was. He's beloved.
Speaker 2Honestly, the breakout of D&D into mainstream culture in the 2020s, I believe.
Speaker 1Most, most definitely. I mean, you see so much hellfire club merchandise. Yeah, if you go to the comic cons and and all those things, it's just everywhere. I'm looking thanks to funco pop of campaign, eddie with his awesome Campaign setup.
Speaker 2Oh yeah, I love that funco.
Speaker 1Thank you for that, by the way. Oh, you're welcome.
Speaker 2We should link to that because it was a target exclusive, but it's pretty cool. It really is Campaign.
Speaker 1Eddie, but anyway. So let's talk about Stranger things and a lot of what happens in Stranger Things.
Speaker 2Yeah, it's Very intertwined with I mean, you're with D&D, your big bad in season four they refer to as Vecna right, because that's the campaign they're playing, right, and the big bad is Vecna, exactly it's, it's, it's so ingrained in it at season one is yeah.
D&D in Stranger Things and Voltron
Speaker 2Mike wrote this whole story and then it turns out that's actually like happening, right the show itself is so, just like grounded in Dungeons and Dragons is why I don't know why it's not Higher on this list, because I'd say this is the most Dungeons and Dragons. These shows have been the most Dungeons and Dragons, these show that you could think of without it Specifically being about Dungeons and Dragons like a critical role or Vox Machina.
Speaker 1This is probably this is probably the most popular show on the on the list In the the late 20s, early 2020s.
Speaker 2Stranger Things is a sensation, it is it's hugely popular.
Speaker 1I think his big bang theory was was was pretty popular, but I think Stranger Things is probably even more. I'd argue that it's more popular.
Speaker 2Two different genres yeah right, you're looking at like silly sitcom and then, but again I'd say Stranger Things is so much more like Just intrinsically entwined with D&D. Right, oh, absolutely really can't have one without the other right, so that's why I think it should really be higher than number five on this list.
Speaker 1I agree, I completely agree.
Speaker 2I love Stranger Things, you know it's funny. I wasn't so much of an Eddie Stan in the beginning like I had to.
Speaker 1Really I know Well see, and here's the thing to that I wanted to talk about a little bit, yes so obviously I have played D&D with you. Yes, you have.
Speaker 2I DM'd Strahd. I am part of the current campaign, but it wasn't until this current campaign that I really like started to Love it. Mm-hmm and I don't know what the thing is. That kind of like clicked in me for this, but I I didn't love it the way I do now when I was watching Stranger Things, right. So it didn't mean as much to me. It didn't capture me in the way that it captured a lot of the kids who showed up for like fables D&D group at school.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2But I understand now what the I mean. I was willing to watch all these episodes of TV to talk about yeah you were. I understand now why it's kind of captured so many people over the years.
Speaker 1Sure.
Speaker 2I just really, yeah, I mean I don't. I'm gonna keep repeating myself, I think if I, if I try to talk about it more, because I really just like they named the big bad after the character they were playing. D&d like it's it's that entwined right like that is such a big part of how these kids bond and such a big part of what makes Dustin feel accepted and his just absolute affection for Eddie and his willingness to be with him, even when they're kind of facing certain death.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2It shows a lot of like how much you can bond with people playing D&D.
Speaker 1Oh sure.
Speaker 2You know, I think part of the reason that I'm enjoying our new campaign is that we're playing with Fable and James, and it's three people then you and Fable and James who. I feel very comfortable with.
Speaker 1Okay, sure.
Speaker 2And all of you who are listening to me do a stupid voice.
Speaker 1Well, I'm sorry. Who's your character? San Rose Bumblebumble, that's right. Proprietor of the Bumblebumble B&B.
Speaker 2Who is just recruiting everybody that she comes across Absolutely. But it's not that I haven't enjoyed it in the past. I've always enjoyed a one-shot Because I didn't want to immerse myself in In kind of the game itself. But I think I also have a lot more time right now.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2I'm done with my MBA. I'm currently unemployed, so it doesn't feel Anybody looking for a marketing director out there. Yeah, I love marketing campaigns. Please hire me. I like to work. I work, so much work.
Speaker 1That's right. I work all the work. So much work, so much work.
Speaker 2There's a 90-day fiance reference in case anyone listening enjoys that. That is Zed. He works, so much work.
Speaker 1Yes, anyway.
Speaker 2Yeah, so that's right. Stranger things, it should be higher on the list. That's the last thing I have to say.
Speaker 1I agree. So two things that I took from, because I don't want to spoil it if you haven't seen Stranger Things yet, but for me it harkens back to the 80s, the satanic panic Of the 80s with Dungeons and Dragons, because you had a lot of that, because of what's happening in the episode, so Because I think this episode takes place in the 80s, if I recall correctly. Yeah, so this is back in the 80s, so you're right in, right back in the satanic panic. For those that don't remember, those days, everybody thought they were summoning demons and the devil and it was amazing.
Speaker 2Well, that was the beginning of that Goldbergs episode where Beverly comes in and says that he can't play D&D Because she saw an episode of 2020, that talked about how bad it was, and then he pulls the okay, mama, I won't play the thing that brings me joy and she gives in. That's right. But what was it? You're a little devil, but you love Mama's Kisses.
Speaker 1Yeah, something like that. So funny, so cute, yeah. But the other thing I love about this episode of Stranger Not this particular episode, but the season four of Stranger Things was Eddie's arc, because for a lot of it he is the Dungeon Master and so the Dungeon Master really runs the game, you know, yeah. But in the end he got to be the hero, which I thought was super cool, because it's the one kind of drawback to being the DM You're not actually a character in the story. So for all the DMing that he was doing, kind of running the story, and in the end he got to be the hero, which I thought was really cool. Yeah, so, alright, on to number four on the list. We're getting close. Yup Future Rama Bender's Game.
Speaker 2So this says season five, but when I streamed it on Hulu, it came up as season six.
Speaker 1Okay.
Speaker 2They called these movies because they're all about an hour. It was episodes nine through twelve.
Speaker 1Episodes nine through twelve of season six. According to Hulu Got it.
Speaker 2I enjoyed this one. I thought it got a little long. It basically starts out with the kids and I don't know who these kids are. Again, I've watched Future Rama. I'm not clear on some of this.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2So these kids are playing D&D. They are using what turns out to be this. It's one of two crystals that'll render Dark Matter useless, which is what they use to power their ships. Okay, but, the only thing you need to know is that they're using the anti-Dark Matter crystal as their twelve-sided die.
Speaker 1Oh my.
Speaker 2Yeah, so they've written numbers on it. Oh my yeah. So that becomes kind of the undercurrent of the whole episode. Is Mom, who's in charge of all of the Dark Matter minds, is trying to keep it away so that it doesn't render the Dark Matter useless, because that's how she's made her fortune blah, blah blah. But Bender comes into this game of D&D and initially is like do I even have an imagination? Because it can't come up with anything like all he's doing is repeating what the other people are saying.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2And finally it creates a character Titanius. Hold on, I have to look it up again. Titanius Anglesmith, fancy man of Cornwood.
Speaker 1Alright, Titanius Anglesmith, Fancy man.
Speaker 2So there's a whole Dark Matter mishap that causes them to go into the game. So this is another one of those immersed in the game.
Speaker 1Got it.
Speaker 2Which is very entertaining and it does. You know. People start learning things about themselves and they do spoof a lot of like. There are Star Wars references. There's a very heavy hobbit Lord of the Rings kind of influence.
Speaker 1Sure.
Speaker 2Where Fry basically becomes Gollum. Yeah, Alright cool Because they have to destroy the anti-Dark Matter crystal.
Speaker 1Right right, right right.
Speaker 2You know it's the ring and yeah.
Speaker 1Of course.
Speaker 2So they all kind of learn something about themselves. Right Like Leela is very she's very violent and she's learning how to become less so, because you know she's so done with just like randomly killing innocent people and beings and whatever. Okay, so it's an interesting four episodes. I disagree that it should be this far up the list.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2But I also feel like I just wasn't enjoying it that much.
Speaker 1For the vast amount of content in it that is D&D related. Yeah, I see why they might have ranked it that high.
Speaker 2But overall the quality of the yeah, I think they liked the call-outs to different, like other kind of similar universes.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2Which I get. But yeah, it was a lot.
Speaker 1Interesting, but I like your point that they learned something about themselves. Yeah, again, that's a common thread through a lot of these TV shows that people are learning things about themselves that they didn't realize it is. There's a tremendous amount of learning that can take place from D&D.
Speaker 2Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1Oh, interesting. So I'm just I'm just reading the inverse article. So it says earlier in season two, the anthology episode, anthology of interest one actually actually featured D&D co creator Gary Guy Gax playing himself. The clip was included in the DVD release of Bender's Game as a tribute to Guy Gax, who died during its production, so so you can check that out as well. Onto number three, another favorite of yours, oh my gosh, yes, voltron, legendary defender. The episode is called Monsters and Mana. Season six, episode three Tell us all about Voltron.
Speaker 2How long do you have? Keith was my boyfriend when I was in the fourth grade. Was he really he was?
Speaker 1Which which.
Speaker 2I mean it was the original with the with the lion.
Speaker 1Which which line was he? He's the red line. Oh, the the head Charge line. Yes, oh, now I get it.
Speaker 2Okay, so let me tell you why tiny Catherine loved Voltron so much.
Speaker 1Please.
Speaker 2Because you had Princess Elora, who was an equal to the rest of the team, and little Catherine loved seeing women who were equal to their male counterparts. I didn't even realize that that was what I was doing at the time, but I obviously was felt very strongly about being seen as an equal, even when I was like seven or eight. Interesting, yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 1What you see, amazing, what you, what you pull out about yourself watching these.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Watching these shows.
Speaker 2Oh yeah, I mean, even as a little kid, I just wanted to make sure that, like everybody knew I could do what they could do.
Speaker 1Right, that's great, yeah, so. So a bunch of paladins playing D&D.
Speaker 2Yep.
Speaker 1So what happened? What happens in this episode?
Speaker 2Okay, yeah, I just wanted to clarify, because there's no Lance. Oh, no wait, there is a Lance. There's no Sven in legendary defend defender. There's Shiro Got it. And that is the character who who? Every time he dies, he becomes a paladin again. It's the only character he'll play.
Speaker 1That's all right. And again, again, I will. I will shout out to our player, Steve, in our Monday night campaigns, who is always a barbarian he is, he is, he is perfected. Every, every new campaign is a new barbarian. He's, he's. He's perfecting the barbarian class, which is great. He's almost to the point where he doesn't forget to rage, which is great, so that that's a plus.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1So we're good at that, so yeah, so there's nothing nothing wrong with with creating the same same class of character every every time you play. I just think it's fun. Go with what you like.
Speaker 2I think part of what they're pointing out with this particular one is how the characters that you create in D&D can so much, can tell so much about how you feel about yourself.
Speaker 1How so.
Speaker 2Well, I mean so the, the Voltron Force, basically are Paladins, right.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2They're these like noble forces for good, and that's how he sees himself right, right. Chirro sees himself that way, and so he's always going to be a Paladin, because that's who he is Right, and I think that's kind of part of the episode is that like they all kind of fall back on the thing that they are.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2You know Elora is noble and she's kind, and you know Pidge and Chunk. I don't know if is he still Chunk, I see.
Speaker 1Can you call him Chunk anymore?
Speaker 2Call me Chunk if you want. I know Pidge is still Pidge.
Speaker 1This is not. I don't know what's.
Speaker 2Well, I mean, if, if Spen's not Spen anymore, what is my life?
Speaker 1Where did Spen go? Spen, spen, where are you?
Speaker 2Who is Keith dating? In Voltron, legendary defender Keith is dating Elora now.
Speaker 1Too much drama.
Speaker 2Chirro's married.
Speaker 1What has happened to Voltron? I haven't, I haven't watched it, so Chirro is married to Curtis.
Speaker 2That's cute, huh.
Speaker 1See the things, the things you learn, the more you know.
Speaker 2Are you very happy with yourself now?
Speaker 1That was great.
Speaker 2Lance Chirro Pidge. What is his character's name?
Speaker 1He doesn't have a name.
Speaker 2No name. Yeah, I don't think he's Chunk anymore. That's sad for me, we'll get to fat Neil, okay Well, anyway, everybody really uses their character to show who they are Right.
Speaker 1So, so I'll ask you a question.
Speaker 2Yes.
Speaker 1So you are playing Zan Rose Bumblebumble, yeah, who is a monk, a rock-nome monk? Yes, so this was a character Joe and I created, yeah, in preparation for this campaign. So what would? What would? What character? What type of character? What type of character would most reflect who you are?
Speaker 2That's a good question.
Speaker 1Isn't it? I'm here to. I'm here to ask the good questions.
Speaker 2Oh, thank you, let's see Thinking about what I would like the most.
Speaker 1Yes, think about this.
Speaker 2Hmm.
Speaker 1Would you be a druid I?
Speaker 2might be a druid. My eye was drawn to druid. I might also be an elf.
Speaker 1One elf is a race, druid is a class.
Speaker 2Oh, I don't know the difference between those things.
Speaker 1Okay.
Speaker 2Should I listen to your podcast?
Speaker 1You might want to go back a couple episodes. We touch on this.
Speaker 2Okay yeah, probably a druid, maybe a rogue.
Speaker 1Really.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1You see yourself as a rogue Interesting.
Speaker 2No see, I don't see myself as a rogue.
Speaker 1I'd like to see myself as a rogue You'd like to see, I think that's part of it too. Right.
Speaker 2It's how you want to see yourself.
Speaker 1How you want to see yourself sure.
Speaker 2So when I was a kid, in addition to Voltron, I was very into He-Man, She-Ra, GI Joe, and I had created my own GI Joe character. Nice and her code name was the cat, because she was so stealthy.
Speaker 1Clever.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1I like that. Also, it's my name, did she did her outfit have little ears.
Speaker 2This is not Batman.
Speaker 1Catwoman. No, just the cat, the cat, the cat.
Speaker 2That's her code name. The cat yeah Because she's so stealthy.
Speaker 1Got, it Got it.
Freaks and Geeks and Community
Speaker 2So I'm saying a rogue stealthy. Okay, I feel like that could be a good fit as well.
Speaker 1Interesting.
Speaker 2Yeah, okay, dee, dee's back.
Speaker 1Hi Dee Dee, Hi Peanut, Are you coming up? You want to jump up here she can't decide what she wants to do. Come on Come on Dee Dee.
Speaker 2Oh, there's a good girl.
Speaker 1Dee Dee has entered the chat.
Speaker 2All right, all right, should we keep going?
Speaker 1Yes, let's keep going.
Speaker 2So also when we're done with these. I have one other thing I want to talk about, because I found an awesome article about creating um playable Buffy, the Vampire Slayer's and Sittler characters in Dungeons Dragons oh really yeah, ooh, that could be fun. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1We could replay Curse of Strahd with Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters. Okay, so let's move on, because we've only got two left and then at least one honorable mention. This is an episode I absolutely loved. Freaks and Geeks. This is number two on the list. Freaks and Geeks episode is called Discos and Dragons and it's season one episode. Well, I guess there was only one season of Freaks and Geeks.
Speaker 2This is both the season and series finale.
Speaker 1Yeah, this was it so technically episode 18, but the last episode, so give us the synopsis.
Speaker 2So basically you've got all the kids who do AV, who are kind of nerdy and want to be cool and play Dungeons and Dragons, and then you have Daniel, who is played by James Franco, who is I don't want to say cool, but like he's a stoner and he's very aloof and he tries to pull the fire alarm during a final that he can't cheat on, so he doesn't want to fail right and gets caught and his punishment is to spend the rest of the year with the AV club and ultimately they end up inviting him to their game of D&D, which for some reason he attends, even though he's very confused by the whole thing. Right, and he ultimately becomes Carlos the dwarf.
Speaker 1I just love that.
Speaker 2Carlos.
Speaker 1Well, what was the other, oh well? Well, we'll get to it, but you're thinking advanced D&D. When he makes, he makes a lot. He's like I'm not very creative with names Carlos the dwarf.
Speaker 2Exactly.
Speaker 1So anyway.
Speaker 2Okay, so it starts out with Daniel being real reticent about playing. Yes, he's not sure why he's there, he's not sure why this is cool, and by the end he's like, so into it. So it's another one of those with the theme of like oh, it kind of brings people together, right? Because he immediately wants to play again tomorrow.
Speaker 1Yeah. So he's like, yeah, he's like meet again tomorrow. And a couple of things that my takeaways from the episode. First of all one, just getting Jason getting to see Jason Siegel dancing disco, so yeah. And for the other plotline to this episode, amazing Hammond was at Lizzie Kaplan as the disco duo. Fantastic, absolutely fantastic. But again, you know, it's because the one character you know he thinks he's like he had himself a girlfriend and he thinks he's like too cool to play D&D now. But then when James Franco's character agrees to play, then he's like, oh, maybe it is cool to play D&D. So he goes back and agrees to join them. So it was like it was a whole big thing. But again, it's just the whole notion that D&D is seen as a nerdy game. But it really isn't.
Speaker 2Yeah, anyone can get into it.
Speaker 1Anyone can get into it.
Speaker 2They give it the chance.
Speaker 1And the one thing that I find really interesting. I want to bring it up. Well you're doing that.
Speaker 2I'm just going to mention that. John Francis Daly, who is one of the characters, Sam, oh, you were going to talk about this.
Speaker 1This is what I was looking at. Yes, so he's one of the co-directors of Honor Among Thieves the. D&d movie. Correct, yes, it all comes full circle. Yeah, so, yeah, so John Francis Daly was one of the creators of the Dungeons Dragons movie. Yeah, Absolutely fantastic.
Speaker 2I'm trying to see how long ago this was made, because everyone was so young. Oh my God.
Speaker 1Seth Rogen.
Speaker 2James Franco, jason, why can't I think it was the last name, all of a sudden, jason Siegel. Thank you.
Speaker 1I think this was 2000 or 2002. Oh God man, oh God painful.
Speaker 2Okay, Well.
Speaker 1I was pretty young back then too, I'm going to look it up.
Speaker 2We were all pretty young back then.
Speaker 1Let's see when was Freaks and Geeks was 1999 to 2000. Yeah, I thought it was early, right around then. So yeah, they were all so young, martin Star.
Speaker 2Oh my God, he was so little.
Speaker 1Oh man, it's incredible. Yeah, now they're all grown up making D&D movies of their own.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, love the full circle on that, because I guess he stopped acting and became a director.
Speaker 1John.
Speaker 2Francis Daly and yeah.
Speaker 1Very cool.
Speaker 2Yeah, because Honor Among Thieves is a really fun movie. I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 1I mean, we don't have to get into that at this point, no, but but yeah, I dug Honor Among Thieves for many reasons. So yeah, yeah, it's just a cool kind of callback to Freaks and Geeks.
Speaker 2Judd Apatow, who was one of the creators of the show, yeah, you don't say it has, like every actor that Apatow works with all the time.
Speaker 1My name, I know All right. 23, 24 years ago.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Okay, all right, number one. Number one, number one. This is there's in this. In this listing they only list one episode of the show, but there's really two episodes of this show that deal with D&D, but the show is community. Yeah, six seasons in a movie. Six seasons in a movie Six seasons in a movie. Still waiting on that.
Speaker 2Well, you know, then there was COVID.
Speaker 1Then there was COVID, but anyway this one. This episode is called Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. The other episode is called Advanced Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. The one we're going to talk about here for the most part is season two, episode 14.
Speaker 2But the other one, is season five, episode 10.
Speaker 1Season five, episode 10, for Advanced, advanced Dungeons and Dragons Now this actually go ahead, go ahead.
Speaker 2I think we were going to say the same thing.
Speaker 1No, no, you first.
Speaker 2So what I was going to say is this is a hard one to get to. You have to buy it because, it's been removed from the streaming services because Ken Zhang's character, Professor Chang, is dressed as a dark elf.
Speaker 1A drow.
Speaker 2And so it looks like he's in blackface.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2Shirley actually calls it out. She says are we going to address this hate crime?
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2But they've taken apparently a few episodes of 30 Rockdown for the same reason, so you can still get to it. You just have to purchase it and, honestly, it's worth watching, right. It's such a great episode of TV.
Speaker 1I just want to mention I'll mention this at the beginning because there is a trigger warning I just this episode actually does touch on a very serious subject, yes, that of someone unaliving themselves. So it really it's interesting for a comedy show who, I guess, touches on some serious subjects. This is a pretty serious subject to deal with, so there's a character by the name of Neil who ends up getting dubbed Fat Neil Right.
Speaker 2Because he was standing next to the other. Neil, he's not really skinny.
Speaker 1He's bald and black, but Jeff Winger doesn't like it.
Speaker 2He doesn't see things from that lens.
Speaker 1He doesn't see things from that lens. So Fat Neil.
Speaker 2But Fat Neil that.
Speaker 1Neil is struggling with mental health issues and is really quite depressed, to the point of considering taking his life.
Speaker 2Well, so Jeff Winger befriends Neil and starts talking to him about Dungeons and Dragons because it's what Neil loves, right, and he realizes things have really gotten to a bad point when Neil is in a very serious love and he realizes things have really gotten to a bad point when Neil gives him all of his D&D books because he won't need them anymore.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2And that is when Jeff convenes the study group.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2And Abed puts together a game of D&D for all of them to play.
Speaker 1Correct.
Speaker 2But while they do accidentally include Chang, they very intentionally exclude Pierce, because he is also known as Pierce the Dickish. Yes, and they don't want him making things worse, but of course Pierce is always going to make things worse.
Speaker 1Oh, yes, he does, and it only exacerbates things by then excluding him. He makes things even more bad. Yeah, then if he was just there from the get-go.
Speaker 2Yeah, because then he sets out to destroy them.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2But that does also lead to the best part of the episode for me. I pity Pierce.
Speaker 1Yes.
Speaker 2Everybody uses their action to pity Pierce.
Speaker 1That's correct.
Speaker 2Naked 67-year-old man in the stars. He will die of exposure in 13 turns. I wait 14 turns.
Speaker 1Wait 14 turns. It's a great, it really is a great episode. Again, they deal with a very difficult issue in kind of a lighthearted way, but it really just shows you just how much that party means to people.
Speaker 2Yes, I also loved that it gave an opportunity to show just how kind Neil as a character is, because he never immediately when Pierce starts being an ass, neil Jeff wants to fight back right. He wants 14 turns because he's going to wait for Pierce to die of exposure and Neil gives Pierce his cloak and then Pierce steals his sword and then Pierce helps his sword.
Speaker 1Pierce defiles. Pierce defiles Does horrible, horrible things to that sword.
Speaker 2Rub it on my balls and throw it off a cliff. Yes, that was one of the worst. I mean, it's such a funny episode.
Speaker 1It is.
Speaker 2And it's so well executed, like when they kill off Chang's character and he hands in his character sheet and then they show the character just disappear as he walks away. Right, it's all so silly, but again, as you said, it's handling this very kind of deep, deep topic in a more lighthearted way and they're all trying to be so protective of Neil.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2And Pierce is just so butt hurt and feeling excluded and oh, you're stealing my friends that it just devolves into chaos.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2And that's one of the things they said in this article. They said it says the episode never drags viewers down with hyper specifics. Nobody rolls for initiative, yet it harnesses the unbridled chaos that all tables devolve into.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2Yeah, like correct. There's just a lot of, and I thought they did that part really effectively in the second D&D episode where everybody is just shouting their actions over each other Right, Right right. I thought that was a kind of fun part of the second one.
Speaker 1Yeah, correct. So yeah, in many of these episodes the true mechanics of the game do not are not displayed. There's with all the dice rolling and things like that. They do a nice job of including D&D, but they speed up the actual kind of gameplay by taking some shortcuts. So you have to kind of suspend disbelief. If you're a D&D purist, you're not going to see a real game of D&D being played. But yeah, I think they address a really serious subject in a good way, because you and Neil gets to become the hero of the story.
Speaker 2Right, and the thing is, neil becomes the hero of the story because of Neil's innate kindness. Right, because.
Speaker 1Yeah, his character never changes.
Speaker 2Right, well, and it's a character he's played forever.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2His character is strong and true and I think has a lot of the and we've talked about this a bunch has a lot of the same characteristics that Neil has as a person. He is kind, he is put upon, people are mean to him and he remains kind.
Speaker 1He remains kind through all that.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, which was good.
Speaker 2It also shows you a different side to the study group, who are innately kind of selfish and obnoxious.
Speaker 1You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2In many cases unlikeable.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2They call. They call Abed, the undiagnosable.
Speaker 1What was Annie's character? Something the well endowed.
Speaker 2Oh gosh, yes, because she ends up playing him in both campaigns. He keeps coming back.
Speaker 1Yes.
Speaker 2Hold on.
Speaker 1But I love how Annie, just Annie, just Hector, hector, hector the well endowed.
Speaker 2Yes.
Speaker 1She describes the scene with the elf maiden.
Speaker 2The elf maiden.
Speaker 1I mean they just they play music over it, so you don't actually hear her.
Speaker 2But you can so read her lips.
Speaker 1You can totally read her lips. Well worth the scene watching it. Very funny. But again, yeah, so there's also advanced, advanced Dungeons Dragons Again touches on a somewhat serious subject yes, it's Professor Hickey. Yeah.
Speaker 2So he finds out that he wasn't invited to his grandson's third birthday party. He's very hurt by being excluded by his son, whose name is Hank Hank Hickey. Maybe that's why he's excluding him.
Speaker 1He named him.
Speaker 2Hank Hickey, david Cross.
Speaker 1Yes.
Speaker 2So they find out that Hank enjoys playing D&D. So of course they think, well, we fixed the whole situation with Neil.
Speaker 1They solved one problem with D&D. And they do it again.
Speaker 2Absolutely so. They gather to play, and this time the Dean is included and ends up yeah, ends up being Jeff's character's son, joseph Gordon.
Speaker 1Die hard.
Speaker 2Joseph Gordon die hard and is just an absolute nightmare because he is so in love with Jeff.
Speaker 1Yes.
Speaker 2And he ends up. He ends up unaliving himself on a sword because he insists on hugging his father who is holding his sword in front of him, right, but it's another one where it turns out that Professor Hickey and his son actually can get along better when they're playing D&D, because they can take out a lot of the frustrations they have with each other through the game.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2It's another very funny episode. I like when Shirley's character dies and she just picks up her person leaves.
Ranking TV Episodes for D&D Fans
Speaker 1Yeah, now that episode you can still watch on for free, yeah, on Netflix. But yeah, the other one you have to purchase.
Speaker 2Yep.
Speaker 1I think was it on Amazon as well.
Speaker 2No, they say Netflix and Hulu. Netflix and Hulu.
Speaker 1I did not check Hulu.
Speaker 2Let me do that real quick, because I want to make sure we're telling people the right thing.
Speaker 1So that covers the top 13. Yes, so would you. I would definitely put community.
Speaker 2Yeah, community is also on Hulu.
Speaker 1Excellent, I would definitely put community is number one.
Speaker 2I think community is number one.
Speaker 1I mean Stranger Things. I think should be like a special award.
Speaker 2Yeah, I mean Stranger Things. I think really brought D&D back into the mainstream Right.
Speaker 1That's like a lifetime achievement award yeah really.
Speaker 2Yes, I would leave Advanced Dungeons and Dragons at number one. It's just really funny. You know, I think the only ones, and I talked about it a little.
Speaker 2I think the only ones that I would change around. I'm not sold on Futurama being so high on the list. I do think the Voltron Legendary Defender episode and I didn't talk about it so much because I was hung up on names in the original Voltron series but I do think it was quite good in that it made the game immersive and it did show a lot of that. Like you create the character for who you are.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2Would I put it at number three? I don't know, but would I put Freaks and Geeks at number two? Probably not. Freaks and Geeks is a great episode, but it's not the D&D part of it. Again, it's not a.
Speaker 1Goldbergs episode Goldbergs was really funny. Goldbergs was great.
Speaker 2Yeah, I'd move Goldbergs up a bit. Yeah, I mean, I do think I kind of feel like Dungeons and Dungeons and Dungeons and more Dungeons, or whatever it was called.
Speaker 1The Gravity Falls episode Dungeons and more Dungeons should be higher. Yeah.
Speaker 2It was very good.
Speaker 1But, all that being said, for our opinions on where everything ranks, this is still a pretty solid list of TV shows worth watching. If you're a D&D fan, you may become a fan of some of these shows, if you're not already. Like I said, it crowd yeah very funny. Big fan of that one Community wholeheartedly.
Speaker 2Oh man yes.
Speaker 1Wholeheartedly love that show, so there's a lot of good ones on here that I think are worth watching. It's funny Inverse mentions. There's a key and peel sketch called when hip hop and D&D collide. Where did you find that one? Was it on YouTube? It was on YouTube. It was on YouTube. So typical key and peel, if you're familiar with them, very, very funny. Jordan Peele is just hysterical as Kanye the giant, so don't let me check it out.
Speaker 2He wants his Alize. Don't you want some elven meat? No, I want Alize. And then he gets everybody else on his side. Oh yeah, Everybody's on his side. It's three minutes long.
Speaker 1It's for short sketch but very funny. But again, great honorable mention. We'd probably throw Buffy in there as well, just for the sheer lack of content that it was. It was just like I said. I called it a blink and you miss it. Moment in the series finale.
Speaker 2Yes, yes, do we want to talk about this list of Buffy characters that you could create, or at least some of them?
Speaker 1Let's do it. We got time.
Speaker 2All right. So here's the second point. It's called Buffy the Vampire Slayer 10 characters you can play in Dungeons and Dragons and how to build them. Would you like to choose a character? I mean, I can tell you, the first one they put up there is Mayor Wilkins, which, unless you're a real Buffy fan, you're not going to know who that is.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2Xander.
Speaker 1Who would I pick?
Speaker 2Yeah, I mean I can give you the list and then, if you want to pick somebody, I'll tell you what they have to say.
Speaker 1Like I knew, I know, I know which, which two I would probably pick. It would either be Xander or Oz.
Speaker 2I don't think they have Oz in here.
Speaker 1Okay, then I go Xander.
Speaker 2Okay, let me just check.
Speaker 1I patch Xander.
Speaker 2It is Well, the photo is original styles, okay, but okay. So Xander, they say, is an eloquence barred 20. I don't know what any of that means.
Speaker 1A level 20 bar I know what a barred is. Right.
Speaker 2Yeah, okay. So here's what it says.
Speaker 1Yeah, read it.
Speaker 2Despite Xander being the heart of the Scooby Gang, he isn't all that great at combat. What he does excel at is convincing even the most psychotic of people to put down their arms and talk. This makes Xander a shoe in for eloquence barred, as all of their class features are geared toward talking well. It's even been said that his superpower is motivating his friends, so a good feat to take for him is inspiring leader which grants temporary HP to people in the party. Expertise would have to be put toward persuasion and perception, as Xander is excellent at those qualities.
Speaker 1I get that.
Speaker 2That's pretty interesting. Yeah, anybody else you're interested in hearing about?
Speaker 1They have Giles on the list.
Speaker 2They sure do. What is what is so?
Speaker 1they have him as two different things.
Speaker 2Cleric Eldritch, night fighter. Oh, okay, and a hexblade warlock.
Speaker 1Ah, hexblade warlock, I could see that.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 1Interesting.
Speaker 2So we've got Giles' Buffy's Watcher, and he is arguably the most experienced and wise of Buffy's original group. He's already an accomplished fighter, but what makes Giles stand apart from his wards is that he also incorporates magic into his fighting after his dealings with the Devon Coven. While he's no wizard, he's a master at using magic to an efficient degree. Giles represents his pact with the Devon Coven and the Eldritch night fighter perfectly represents Giles' intelligence and magic casting Skill. Expert is a feat that they should take to represent Giles' impressive career. Expertise is best put toward perception being a watcher and all.
Speaker 1Very nice, that's pretty clever.
Speaker 2I do find it interesting that they make both faith and Buffy um. Faith and Buffy are both totem barbarians.
Speaker 1Interesting. Well, I mean because it's. They got supernatural. I don't want to say supernatural strength or kind of, but so so I could see that. I could see. I could see a barbarian. I might multi-class them as like a barbarian. Maybe they go totem barbarian.
Speaker 2Battle master fighter.
Speaker 1Okay, yeah.
Speaker 2I want to see if they did the same thing for faith, champion fighter for faith. Um, and I'll just run through what they say for the others Mayor Wilkins, who is the big bad. I don't remember which season he's the big bad in the season Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, it's one of the high school ones, because he tries to blow up the Right yeah. Anyway, they say Celestial Warlock and Divine Soul Sorcerer.
Speaker 1Ooh, talked about Xander.
Speaker 2Talked about Giles. Talked about Faith. Cordelia Mm-hmm. Divine Soul, sorcerer and.
Speaker 1Divination Wizard.
Speaker 2So this has got to be Angel Cordelia, not Buffy Cordelia Right, because she starts to have visions after Doyle dies in the first season and she's not going to die in the second season. So she's going to die in the first season and then Angel dies in the first season of Angel. So that's what they're going on.
Speaker 1Makes sense.
Speaker 2Yeah, Cordelia is the resident oracle of the gang and most of her help in the series is thanks to her visions.
Speaker 1So they're definitely talking Angel, not Buffy.
Speaker 2Right Anya and Archfey Warlock.
Speaker 1Ooh, I like that.
Speaker 2I mean she's a former vengeance demon. So it makes sense, angel they have as a kensei monk.
Speaker 1Fascinating.
Speaker 2He happens to be a master martial artist. He's said to be incredibly skilled in the art of weaponry. As for the race, he should be damp here.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2The rest of their vampire kit are all strangely fitting with the abilities of the monk class, such as Endurance, superhuman Speed and Long Life. A good feat for Angel would be mobile, further, making him hard to hit in battle. Interesting.
Speaker 1Okay, I can see all that.
Speaker 2Spike they have as a drunken master and a mastermind rogue.
Speaker 1Nice, I like that, I like that combo.
Speaker 2Okay. So this says Spike and Angel mostly have the same reasoning for their vampire traits, monk class and Dompere race. However, the difference is in their aptitude. Spike is a more impassioned and intellectual fighter who enjoys being in the fray and annoying his opponents into making mistakes. Drunken master with a dash of mastermind rogue fits Spike to a T. Drunken master involves a lot of unorthodox movements to avoid and deal damage. Mastermind rogue's master of tactics feature allows the player to use the help action in combat as a bonus. Action and cunning action shows his versatility. Expertise would be an insight. As he has said to Buffy, his greatest asset in combat was the ability to read his opponents.
Speaker 1Okay.
Speaker 2Willow is a divine soul, sorcerer, evocation wizard we talked about.
Speaker 1Buffy, and that's it. Cool, that was interesting, that's very interesting.
Speaker 2They have a ton of these lists. The next one is 10 DC superheroes you can build in Dungeons, dragons, that's cool. Yeah, they're interesting. It's kind of fun. Obviously, I was super excited Harry Potter, the Dungeons, dragons, alignment of 10 main characters, so they've got a bunch of these, which is interesting.
Speaker 1We'll definitely link to the Buffy article in the show notes.
Speaker 2It's all on screen rant. So if you just keep scrolling after the Buffy article, it goes into all the other.
Speaker 1It goes into all that cool, all right, excellent. Well, that covers the top 13 from this article. Again, we're going to post this on social media and everything. I would love to hear other people's comments as to other TV episodes and things that you've seen out there that mentioned D&D.
Speaker 2I've got all the time in the world to watch things too, so if you want to recommend episodes for the time being, I'd love to watch them.
Speaker 1You would. I would too Awesome. So thank you everyone for joining us. Once again, thank you to all of our listeners. I am so grateful to all of you for listening and giving this podcast a chance. Please share this podcast with your friends. You can help support the podcast as well by going to legendslootandloresupercastcom. Help us out in any way, shape or form. That would be greatly appreciated. Supercast is another platform, like Patreon, specifically for podcasters. So check us out there. Check out our Discord server. We've got all sorts of things going on. So keep on listening, keep on sharing the show and we'll see you again next week. Thanks so much.
Speaker 2Bye.
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