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critgoblin · 2 years

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i just finished my first watch-through of dimension 20 fantasy high, and man—all i want to talk about is riz gukgak and his bloody hands.

riz and his bloody hands. his white-knuckle grip on control. little freakazoid insomniac wound too tight. “i’m a harsh guy,” he says, but he’s got so much of a heart in him that he leaps into hell to save his father and charges blindly off into the nightmare king’s forest to save the world. he’s a harsh guy, but his greatest fear in the world is being left behind by his friends.

i love watching brennan and murph. because brennan is truly an extraordinary dm, and murph is THE plot-hound player. his characters move forward, ever forward, only ever onward. riz cannot sit still, he cannot lay fallow. the three days they’re aboard a ship in the open ocean, he wigs out and spends it spiraling below deck. he cannot relax. not even for a second, not even to sleep. because if he does--what? what will happen to him? what will happen to the teenage goblin kid with no father?

riz and his bloody hands.

and brennan knows murph well enough that he knows how to turn that into a character beat. he pits riz’s drive for knowledge against him. you love the truth. you seek it so much that you cut your hands upon the insides of crystals. what a metal and underrated line. because riz would destroy himself for the truth. he can’t handle anything less. he’s like one of those dogs that chews its own paws to shreds if it doesn’t have a job to do. it’s always the next mission and the next job and the next adventure. no time for slowing down because the world is perpetually ending and there’s only so much one little goblin can do on his own--even if he never sleeps. there’s no time for slowing down because if he has a moment - even a moment! - to breathe, to rest, what would he do with it? what does riz have, if it isn’t the mission? what does he offer the world, if it isn’t his brain and his bullets and his bloody hands?

at the end of the day, riz gukgak is just an empty little kid in a room full of empty mirrors. he’s just the kid who sleeps clutching his sword. that’s why kalina preys on him the way that she does. she’s the queen of masks and reflections. she sees right through to the fear inside of riz--that he isn’t good enough, that he is nothing more than some kid playing detective who gets his friends hurt. she toys with him, but i imagine she also sees some of herself inside of him. they are both in their own ways, empty shells.

and of course, the ironic truth is that riz is far from empty. truth-seeker, paranoid, whip-smart and frantic, riz tries so hard. he tries so hard that he dies for it. he’s the reason for their little team you know, he’s the instigator. he went after penny, and he went after the nightmare king, and he will keep going and going and going, tearing his hands open again and again and again until he gives out. the ironic truth is that riz has one hell of a heart on him, and it beats him bloody. it drives him forward, ever and onward. it will not let him rest, and so he will never feel how big it is. how much space it takes up inside him. how un-empty he truly is.

all he has are his hands, and they do not stop bleeding.

#sorry but i fucking love him so much #i wanted him to take a level in paladin after meeting his father soooo badly #but that would mean admitting he's got more inside of him than empty mirrors and cracked palimpsests #riz gukgak #dimension 20 #fantasy high #the bad kids #dimension 20 meta #riz gukgak meta

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alikandhoney · 11 months

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Deli and the Senator

I’ve had some thoughts about Delis whole deal with Ariana because it’s very interesting how it really hasn’t been analyzed very deeply by the cast. ( This isn’t a judgement of any sort btw, I’m going to get into my rather negative perception of the situation and I’m not saying they need to think about it this exclusively seriously it’s just something really interesting to analyze) This also starts to discuss how much of the groups "destinys" have been truly orchestrated.

This post is being written after the drop of episode 4 so be warned for spoilers ahead as well as talks about grooming.

Deli and Arriana's relationship has been a really funny running joke ( I was going to say prominent plot point but after episode 1 we haven't had a lot of direct interaction with that dynamic at all so it feels more of a beat through the jokes more than anything) but no one-- at the table at least I haven't been active on tumblr in a hot second-- has said a word to it at anything other than face value. Which is really odd to me because I feel like there's an elephant to at least passingly mention in it...

... So Deli was being groomed by her, right? we all agree on that? because everything about it feels inherently manipulative to me. She is introduced calling his grandfather father five minutes after she's teasingly propositioning Deli. Deli who is freshly 19 and hasn't scene her in multiple years... the timeline there doesn't look great. Just to start with. and we know he's been specifically saving himself for her and that all just reads so clearly manipulative. It's giving Daemon and Rhynera vibes ( rip to any fans of theirs but that's not all kosher *before* you factor in the incest) She is also clearly someone that Deli respects and wants to emulate on top of her inherent allure.

Then, moving into episode three and the reveal of her involvement at the end-- I was shocked by the joke reaction that got because that has MAJOR implications on the nature of their relationship. It is a doubling down on everything I had said before because clearly she was grooming him for *this*. But it also means that she was grooming him *FOR* this. ya know?

It's not just that she was trying to influence him in ways to make him useful to her-- you have to ask, did she start grooming him for this purpose specifically? Was their relationship started for the sole purpose of making him into a man who could kill a queen, and creating leverage to force his hand?

I was really shocked in the adventuring party after 3 especially, that there was no comment on this. Even when discussing that reveal. If the relationship was truly only for the purpose of this that has so many implications on the course of Deli's life, especially now as we see what he as become by the end of the war. How much of this spiraling blind ambition was sewn into him but Arriana? How much of his life has been decided by leading him to that bridge with his spear in hand? His response to Pamela when she begs to know why he has done this was "Destiny has been designed."

Oh, how true that really is. How much of Deli's destiny has been designed for him? It also leads to the next question of how much has the rest of their destiny's been designed here? We don't know the rest of the members of the FDA, we know the bishop and I don't hesitate to assume that the broccoli bitch (read: Barassica) is involved. But depending on who fills those robes, might the others be in the same sort of boat?

The easiest to assume this might be true for is Raphaniel, especially after gaining the archbishops view of his place in the church. He has spent his life in service of the bulb-- not fully, obviously because it is clear how much his position is simply a tool for him. But that doesn't mean he hasn't been at the whim of this cauliflower in his placement in the church and uses in the large collective as a whole. So what parts of his work were decided to set him up for this task? and then thinking of that more over, depending on when Raphaniel started his time as a bishop at Greenhold, was Amaungeux's relationship with him orchestrated?

That thought feels like more of a stretch however still in the realm of possibility.

It would take unmasking a lot of movers and shakers to know the full extent of how much of "destiny" the fellowship architect?

#the ravening war #dimension 20 #d20 the ravening war #d20 trw #trw #Dellisandro Katzon #thane delissandro katzon #Senator Arriana Gemelli #tw: grooming #The Fellowship of Destiny's Architects #The FDA #bishop raphaniel charlock #Dimension 20 meta #The Ravening War Meta

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dnd-shows-have-my-soul · 1 year

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The new D20 season trailer comes out tomorrow and in honor of Matt DMing, I wanted to make a couple cast predictions.

First, Brennan, obviously.

Emily Axeford my beloved.

Two emotionally support CR cast members, (hoping it’s either Tal, Liam or Laura)

Another D20 cast member (Ally or Murph) or someone else within the TRPG space that I am unable to think of (like Carlos or Becca)

And Aabria, cause I need the trio to exist within a campaign besides pirates of leviathan.

Please. I beg,,,,

#dimension 20 #dimension 20 meta #matthew mercer #brennan lee mulligan #aabria iyengar #emily axford #god #there are so many interactions that I need to happen #but emily is at the top of the list #she is and will forever be the best dnd player in the world #and I need to see matt try to handle her and I need to see the cr cast witness it #also I feel like laura and emily would get along so well #and taliesin and emily have near identical laughs #I need two crows #dimension 20 theory #dimension 20 season 16 #please #critical role

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heliza24 · 4 months

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kind of obsessed with the decision to start so fully in media res that the bad kids were not only down spell slots and hit points but also deeply emotionally exhausted from a summer full of unrewarded heroism and fully committed to new npcs. like what a good way to fully suck your audience back in and also honor the lapse of time irl and in story time. truly no one does exposition like D20, Brennan is never not smart about perfectly balancing world building, character background and plot hook. and since we know the characters and the world we could start this campaign fully *in* the plot right from the word go. and then instead of an inciting incident leading to a battle, or a break from the character's normal reality causing them to fight for the first time (ie the first season), the end of this battle is the inciting incident for the rest of the season. being in combat and saving the world *is* the normal reality for the bad kids. and this sets up FHJY as a campaign that can be focused on something other than that, because the story starts at the end of that normality, or when something in that normality shifts. (is the inciting incident Fig's new powers? or how this battle resolves? TBD! but I have a good feeling about it regardless). SO smart. because if we went from sophomore year straight to a campaign that was focused more around school and the normal experience of being a teen? it would feel weird. but this is the perfect set up.

#dimension 20 #d20 #d20 fhjy #fantasy high #fantasy high junior year #my meta

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irisbaggins · 5 months

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In rewatching the season, I'm noticing how clever Aabria and Brennan were in crafting Tula's story. How well thought out everything was.

Specifically, the bear. It's been mentioned so many times before, but with the context of the completed season, I cannot help but be in awe at the skilful storytelling at display here. The way in which the Blue is described to appear wrong only in reference to Tula and her heart, the way in which Tula talks about curiosity and and having experienced knowing someone who died because of it. Of how Aabria describes to Izzy how Tula looks when she heals the bear, of how Aabria specifically points out that Tula recognises the commonalities between herself and the bear. These breadcrumbs that mean little in the beginning, that tell everything at the end. It's amazing, stunning, masterful storytelling. I am in awe.

#text_loke #meta from loke #Burrow's End #Burrow's End Spoilers #Aabria Iyengar #Brennan Lee Mulligan #i am forever in awe tbh #also the way i gasped at several of brennan and aabria's lines this episode #i'll need to pull some quotes from that whenever i get on my computer #and i desperately need to write a fic about everything that happened from Tula's perspective #but that would be AFTER i finally manage to finish the little beast i'm working on about that Last Fight from Tula's pov #'cos BOY i have a feeling i will write a lot. just 600 words on the intro before 'kill them all'. so y'know. a wordy little thing...#anyway. i love burrow's end so much. i cannot stop thinking about it #Dimension 20 Spoilers #D20 Spoilers

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qaey · 4 months

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it’s crazy how practically every time the bad kids split up it’s gorgug and fabian just kinda having a nice time with whoever they’re with and they go ‘i hope everyone else is doing as well as we are 🥰’ and it cuts to the other group and it’s just flames and screaming

#only when they split up in groups #when they’re alone it’s uh not as good #but anyway the light meta gaming is sooo funny constantly and always #fantasy high #fabian seacaster #dimension 20 #d20 #gorgug thistlespring #dropout #d20 fh #bad kids #the bad kids

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ourstoatmeansdeath · 2 months

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I've seen a few posts from people who think Henry was being shitty to Gorgug or setting Gorgug up to fail by allowing him to do 3 years of the artificer track at once. But I have a lot of experience in STEM, and I think Henry was being incredibly kind in a very engineering-coded way.

I did an undergrad degree in engineering and have been in STEM spaces for more than 10 years. And the STEM way of being an asshole is much more like what Porter did. So many people who don't look like they fit the stereotype of who belongs in STEM have been explicitly told to leave. Like, I was at a conference last year where a presenter asked all the people in the room who had been told to change their major to raise their hands. And there were lots of us with raised hands. (This was in a diversity equity and inclusion session, so a lot of non-traditional looking people for engineering.) If Henry wanted to be an asshole he would tell Gorgug to leave, or that the curriculum was "rigorous" and half-orcs can't usually hack it, etc. But he didn't!

Henry did the classic STEM thing of laying out all of the options, even the ones that aren't desirable. Since Porter won't sign the MCAT, the reasonable options are all gone. Henry mentioned that Gorgug doesn't need to be in school for artificing to be an artificer ("If artificing is something that brings you joy and brings happiness to your life, you don't need school. You can do that on your own.") Which is NOT something that STEM people do. I've never heard an engineering professor say that someone who does STEM stuff as a hobby can call themselves engineers. Henry is being absurdly kind by saying this.

When Gorgug says that he wants to do artificing in school, Henry gives the option to do all three years of school at once. [Note that Henry did not suggest this at first. Henry didn't offer it until Gorgug basically asked for a loophole.] This reminds me so much of all the STEM people who know a system really well and give you advice on how to navigate it. They note that their path isn't what the system was designed to do, but if you really want to do it you could do it this way. Which is exactly what Henry does. This also gives Gorgug the agency to decide for himself.

Henry also goes out of his way to say that the people who work hard are the ones he would bet on. This is also so nice as a STEM person! I can't tell you the number of professors I had who said that a specific problem shouldn't take long, or "if you're efficient you should be fine." I also had a professor who said some people can code and some people can't, and he didn't know how to help the people who don't have a natural aptitude for coding. Henry saying he thinks Gorgug can achieve this through hard work is super enlightened for a STEM instructor.

tl;dr Henry is incredibly enlightened for a STEM instructor. He tells Gorgug that Gorgug can still be an artificer without formal schooling, and then when Gorgug expresses a desire for the formal education he tells Gorgug the path. If Henry does a heel turn I will be emotionally devastated lol

#brennan please no henry heel turn i need this #yes i know his last name is hopclap IT COULD BE FINE #maybe henry has a bad relationship with reuben #dimension 20 #d20 #fantasy high #fantasy high junior year #fhjy #gorgug thistlespring #henry hopclap #porter cliffbreaker #fhjy spoilers #fantasy high junior year spoilers #STEM #STEM culture #engineering #engineering culture #fantasy high meta

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thecryptidzenith · 4 months

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Alright. So this episode was great, but in terms of themes & setting the stage for the rest of the story, this line really stands out:

"You feel something. You look, the Night Yorb twinkling. You've spent your whole summer chasing this. You know all the things you've missed. Your whole summer vacation, all of your friends. Some of you had birthdays on the road this adventure, and yeah, there's lots of adventure, but all of you feel a tiredness in your bones knowing that the reward for saving the world yet again will be going back to school and having another year of working just this hard forever."

This monologue from Brennan is the most thematically/foreshadowy thing we get in the episode, and it does set quite the stage. This is a story about exhaustion and the price of adventure. It's a story about what the hells these six people are going to do with the rest of their lives.

Fig releases something at the end of the episode. Some piece of magic that will certainly mean something later. This is how it's described:

"You've been holding onto a piece of magic for a long time... If you take me, you know what you would save. And you smell something sour and curdled."

"There is a flash of light, a kind of lemony yellow creamy light that flashes out over the hangvan."

Pay attention to that word choice. The magic is "sour" and "curdled" and "lemony yellow creamy." Is it reminiscent of anything?

Gilear's connection with yogurt is established pretty early on in Fantasy High, and yogurt in general serves as a symbol for everything that Gilear is. A sad, pathetic adult and A Normal Guy. Brennan is very insistent when reading out Gilear's stats for the first time that he's just a guy! Some people have to be normal!

But our Bad Kids aren't normal. That's the whole point of them. They've saved the world. Falling to Gilear's level is terrifying. It's literally Fabian's nightmare.

From that part of Pirate Brawl:

"You hear a voice behind you" [Gilear!Fabian] "say: 'It's all going to be all right... I know it seems very far off, but there is a way for you to be happy.'"

And of course, the yogurt, the symbol of mediocrity, is here too. "The yogurt curdles in your stomach." Curdles. The same word used to describe the magic coming out of Fig. The yogurt that Fig gives to Fabian while he's having his breakdown in Leviathan is lemon flavored too.

Of course the primary conflict seen in the trailer is about difficulty graduating. That's a normal problem. That's a normal concern for normal people.

The fear of mediocrity can be strong. Especially for people as exceptional as the Bad Kids. But the fear that you'd be happier taking the easier path, that the road less traveled isn't inherently better, that your hardship is for nothing... that's even worse.

The reasonable thing for Fig to be releasing would be the red growth seen on the minis in the trailer. But no. She releases something lemony and creamy and sour and curdled.

#fantasy high #fantasy high junior year #fhjy #fhjy spoilers #d20 #dimension 20 #figueroth faeth #no i cant tell if im joking here either #meta #speculation

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mccoyquialisms · 1 month

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my fantasy high red-string-conspiracy-theory-board-of-the-main-mystery lore tracker (a long ass post) (because I love both mysteries AND organization of inconsequential information):

rough chronology of events:

In ages past there is a wedding attended in the Chaos Mountains by Sol and Galicaea of their sister the Witch Goddess to an unnamed giantkin god. This god is a summer god, sibling of the giant winter goddess Ruvina

Over centuries, the unnamed god's domain changes from the sun and summer to fire

This unnamed god is killed and their name was wiped from history. The other gods remember who this being is, but due to obliviati mori, cannot reference them directly to mortals. Red shatter stars appear around this time

850 years before present day, the Witch Goddess's name is erased by her followers (encouraged by followers of Galicaea) and she is transformed into the Nightmare King. Before she does she performs the 4 trans-substantiations to resist being "unmade". Her familiar Kalina becomes a plague and begins to spread through the mortal populace. These events likely happen after the death of her spouse, as there is no reference to a spouse when the Witch Goddess was previously mentioned

Roughly 4-6 years before modern day, the pit fiend Bakur attempts to resurrect his god, whose name was lost "so they could not be worshiped." The return of this god is felt to be a significant threat to the world. Lydia Barkrock and her adventuring party stop him by sealing Bakur in a red gem in Lydia's chest, where she keeps him imprisoned with her rage

The Ratgrinders, then called the High 5 Heroes, meet in freshman year and consist of Kipperlilly, Oisin, Mary Anne, Ruben, Ivy and Lucy.

They xp level up by killing rats, twig gremlins and other small magical creatures in the woods behind Aguefort

The events of freshman year happen and Kalvaxus is released. During prom, Ragh spots Jace Stardiamond talking to Arianwen. He is later "barbarian healed" by Porter and after this can see Kalina. Kalina finds Ragh later and threatens Lydia if he talks about what he's seen

Sophomore year spring break happens and the Nightmare King is transformed into the goddess now named Cassandra

At some point Lucy began to return to the woods after party sessions to revive the rats they killed. She did this long enough and with enough regularity that the rats remember her name/face well and think of her fondly

Paperwork is submitted for Lucy to change her god from Ruvina to a god whose name cannot be read, just before her disappearance. A few days later a second request is submitted to withdraw this change. Neither form was ever seen by Lucy's teacher Yolanda Badgood

Lucy was killed near Lake Shimmerstone by multiple assailants with both weapon and magical damage towards the end of sophomore year, in the period of weeks after grades were complete, but before summer break. The area has multiple uprooted trees, some of which were used to hide her body. Unholy rites were performed over her body to force her soul to the beyond, so she cannot be revived.

Lucy is reported as dead but her body was never found. She was described as "not alive in this material plane" via divination

Because of the timing of her death, her party was not moved to pass/fail as all grades for that year had already been submitted

Night Yorb and the long dark summer happens

Buddy Dawn, a cleric of Sol, is specifically requested by the Ratgrinders to be their new cleric for junior year

Also over the long dark summer, the Loam farmers are accused of embezzlement and the Frostyfair festival is moved from there to the Thistlesprings tree at the recommendation of Lola Embers. Sklonda Gukgak is assigned as the Loam couple's public defender

Kipperlilly finds or is found by the rogue teacher and has passed the whole of junior year

Junior year begins. On her first day, Kipperlilly questions Jawbone on where YES! was created

Kipperlily announces she is running for student body president and her primary platform is for uniform equity under the rules without "favoritism"

In the mall of the Synod, the event that kicks off the battle is Cassandra becomes angry hearing Kristen isn't coming to help find followers. She says "This isn't fair!" as a razor-sharp flickering star of red light emerges from her chest. 24-point, red shatter stars infect nearby wizards and turns them into rage-filled, violent, giant versions of themselves. The people taken over by the shatter stars are instructed by an unknown voice to attack Cassandra

Cassandra is able to be calmed by a high persuasion and when she does, she expels multiple shatter stars. She seems to recognize them and says "I thought you were dead.”

Before Kalina is taken over by the shatter stars, she looks to Riz and says "Ragh Barkrock". She then slits Cassandra's throat, triggering a new round of rage in Cassandra

Cassandra suffers multiple attacks and begins to transform into a giant, red raging version of herself and attempts to kill the party. Before she's successful, the gang are swept away in a time loop back to Spyre. The Bad Kids see the Synod is destroyed, and Kristen finds she has shards of Cassandra in her pocket

Kristen attempts to commune with Cassandra and hears a voice say "She is at my side once more." The voice then mocks Kristen with YES!'s body and then tells Kristen it is coming for her, and it will break her irrevocably.

Ivy sees Fig disguised as Lucy at the party at Seacastor Manor, and has an inscrutable reaction to it, but did not seem surprised

The cloud rider engine in Fabian's basement is broken and a piece is found missing

Kipperlily does the food truck event with the subliminal OK messaging on the packaging

Ruben Hopclap performs at FrostFaire when he is attacked by Principal Grix. Grix is eventually killed by Fabian. The Bad Kids determine Ruben was doing some kind of ritual with a song about anger above an arcano-tech array in a 24 point star pattern, successfully releasing a large amount of some type of magical energy.

Simultaneously, Yolanda Badgood is killed at Lake Shimmerstone by immense concussive force damage, and afterwards her body is expertly hidden. She is subjected to the same unholy last rites that Lucy was.

The Bad Kids find Lucy and Yolanda's bodies, and Kristen releases their souls, who travel to the beyond on a "trail of moonlight"

Sklonda's clients are found murdered

Mazey reveals that the Vice Principal (i.e. Jace) does not become the Principal, and it would be the student body president who becomes the new principal of Aguefort

additional info we can reasonably infer or that don't fit neatly in the timeline:

Buddy's grandparents, and likely Buddy himself, have a vested interest in his grandfather becoming the cleric teacher. He went to Aguefort and is familiar with the school. Presumably he wants this to be able to preach about Sol and spread his influence

At some point before her death, Yolanda told Jace about her concerns regarding Lucy's deity-transfer paperwork

Cassandra is not dead, but is "beyond reach"

Lucy and Yolanda were noted to be in "realms beyond", which Brennan specifically noted they were taken from and "whatever was happening there"

The Ratgrinders are gunning for the bad kids and seem to be orchestrating situations to try to get them to take drugs

Porter's philosophical discussion with Fig regarding the concept of protection and how that is often inextricably tied with rage, that one can act as a fuel for the other

Porter is a paladin of the ancestors, and at some point was mentioned to be a goliath, though this seems to be debated in canon. If true, it's possible he's a descendant of giants

Kristen bring's up Sol's wrath and Buddy does not refute this, agreeing Sol's wrath is a well known aspect of him and he has been quite angry because of the dark summer/night yorb situation

As above so below. What the gods do affect their mortal followers, but conversely, what the mortals who follow them do also affect the gods

A god can only come back from death in a place a god had been born or created, meaning Bakur's decision to try to revive his fallen god in the Red Waste was what doomed it to failure

Bakur's documents are written in the language of giants, and his deity is said to be from the same region as Ruvina. Combining this with Adaine’s research, and the “mitochondrial magic print”, Bakur’s god is Cassandra’s former spouse

The cloud rider piece was likely stolen by the Ratgrinders as Kipperlily asked Aelwyn to research schematics of the device

Kipperlily seems to be keeping information from some of the other Ratgrinders, telling Aelwyn she needs to "protect Oisin" from their shady deals

Kipperlily's mother works for the city treasury and her father is in real estate. Neither are super wealthy, but Kipperlilly has been paying Aelwyn large amounts of money to obtain arcane components. Given the timing of this with the disappearance of a large sum of money from the Frostyfair accounts, the timing of the murder of the people who were blamed for it, and that the new chosen location happens to be the home of one of the Ratgrinders rivals, the Ratgrinders involvement is thought to be likely

Cassandra's whispered clue of "spies, tongue, curse"

Places outside Spyre, like the Synod, are easier for dead gods to reach

For whatever the Ratgrinders have planned, a student being the principal of Aguefort is essential for it. A lot of people have had to be conveniently absent or dead for this circumstance to occur.

This is all not even touching Aguefort's whole journey through time and possible time quangle issue and whatever the fuck Fig's Bad Luck Thing is. I'm not convinced that these are related to the god stuff and are likely their own separate issues. also, I am tired lmao. If you want to hear my rambling theories, I'll be making a separate post.

#fantasy high #dimension 20 #fhjy #dropout #my musings #did i avoid all of my responsibilities after work today to write this? yeah.#do I feel bad about it? also yeah but it was still fun.#fantasy high meta

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thisisnotthenerd · 9 days

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ok but all the bad kids were so strategic and effective in the last stand. i know gorgug's crits and fig's spells were huge but everyone really played to the best of their class. look here for the questions and killing blows.

adaine's spell usage was super effective--the mephits granting advantage and blinding opponents. the scatter to get the melee fighters where they're the most effective. using mirror image and her bonus action divination cantrips to not get hit. the use of the portents was excellent--keeping gorgug from taking huge damage from the purple worm and allowing fig to crit on the wyvern enhanced both of their strategy immensely. she split the difference between damage and utility very well.

kristen's bless let the melee attacks hit when they would have missed and she held that concentration the entire time, while intermittently healing and reducing the number of enemies they had to face (skeletons & manticore) and getting out of the way where she wouldn't be targeted. if she hadn't been moved to the side by buddy no one would have caught kipperlilly. absolutely critical support casting. ally really took a lot from playing margaret and applied it here.

fig, despite feeling insecure about her melee attacks, did a ton with her melee cantrip/smite combos (insane) and ambient spirit guardians. by moving around the battlefield strategically and drawing attention as the fake proctor she dealt with the smaller enemies (jellies, stirges, rust monsters, mimic) and actively took down the shrimp dragon, wyvern, and pentacorn.

riz went the other direction; hiding and using the extra action from haste to get sneak attack multiple times in the round. his sneak attacks really served to whittle away at high hp counts when the bad kids had to split focus. plus the clutch defeat of the roper and umber hulk was excellent.

fabian wasn't critting as often as gorgug, but he followed a similar strategy to fig; where she drew attention and killed enemies with AOE and melee, fabian drew attention from single combatants and dealt with them effectively: he practically soloed the hydra and roper with assistance from riz and kept the umber hulk and crab man off of his allies as the final wave converged.

gorgug thistlespring. the crit king. initially he was doing big damage in a similar strategy to riz; he got huge hits on the gorgon and shrimp dragon before taking on by far the most challenging enemy, the purple worm, with assistance from adaine's attack spells. two full turns as the only combatant taking damage from the worm, while knocking it prone every single turn.

this was the battle of the brands for the bad kids, scaled for level 13 combatants. they put everything into this fight.

#dimension 20 #dimension 20 spoilers #fhjy #fhjy spoilers #fantasy high junior year #fantasy high junior year spoilers #intrepid heroes #adaine abernant #kristen applebees #fig faeth #riz gukgak #fabian seacaster #gorgug thistlespring #dimension 20 meta

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midnightfox450 · 4 months

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Y'know at first I was kinda bummed that this season started with a full combat episode because it set a weird opening tone for me that wasn't the comfort I was expecting. But then I realized that's likely entirely The Point.

Most Fantasy High seasons and oneshots start out with the Bad Kids at home. Brennan gives everyone a little time to introduce themselves, their families, and what they've been doing outside of adventuring. Typically it would make sense to start a new season with a bit of an "npc parade" reintroducing friendly faces to get everyone settled into the world again. It's been three and a half years since we've last seen them, after all. But there's no settling that needs to be done because in-universe there was no break at all.

There's literally no time for introductions. The Bad Kids have gone through so many changes over the summer but neither them nor we get any time to digest it. Besides essential battle companions, the episode is noticeably devoid of any friendly faces. No parents, no partners, no classmates. Instead there's all these new people so purposefully out of place. Who the hell is Balthazar? Who even cares? They have school in three days. It's the end of the world for the third time in two years and they have school in three days. And school just means the world will find a way to end itself all over again.

#Like oh i see it was meant to be jarring #I also got the vibe that they had actually played the beginning of the fight offscreen #which helped add to that feeling of being unceremoniously dropped into the world again #fantasy high spoilers #fhjy spoilers #dimension 20 #fantasy high #fantasy high junior year #d20 #fh #fhjy #fantasy high meta #dimension 20 meta #fhjy meta

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madamegoodparty · 9 months

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This season is about depression. But WHY is The Big Guy depressed?

Let's take a look at the clues Mr. Brennan "Anti-Capitalist" Mulligan has laid out for us 🔍

The Big Guy aka Elias Hodge, works for a "retro-futurist conglomerate" as a "mento-technological" researcher

There's a Prohibition on oxytocin, dopamine, and serotonin -- citizens are only allowed cortisol & adrenaline (hormones that're released when someone is under a lot of stress)

This Prohibition will (allegedly) be lifted once Elias receives recognition from his bosses

All Elias's pleasures and non-work related urges have been driven underground to the red light district -- so he's not allowing himself to focus on anything that isn't work

The Fix is basically a hitman working for the District Attorney, Mark Bition (Ambition) to eliminate any urge that has the potential to distract Elias from his work

More on the above point: District Attorneys are prosecuters, ie, are the ones responsible for punishing those who go against the state. So this further emphasizes that Elias is very strictly policing himself in order to succeed at work

Conrad Schintz (Conscience) is a tiny kid who has trouble making himself heard and doesn't have a lot of power

Speaking of kids -- all of Elias's childhood interests have also been driven underground, this time being kept under the care of Ms. Loathing. This, plus the line about "not deserving pleasure", hints that Elias is potentially struggling with self-loathing as well (also Loathing's line about "focusing on me is not going to do anything but make me stronger")

CONCLUSION:

All this paints a picture of someone who is driven by logic and ambition, to the detriment of his emotional well-being. Elias seems to feel that his only value comes from what he is able to produce for his superiors, and this causes him to suppress any part of himself that doesn't make him a more productive worker. This has led to him becoming extremely isolated and lonely as a result

We can also guess that the work Elias is doing doesn't align with his values, and that he needs to keep his conscience as quiet as possible in order to do it. Even worse, we now see that he's thinking about killing his conscience outright

This season is about the psychological toll being a cog in the machine takes on a person, and I cannot WAIT to see where we go next

#mentopolis #mentopolis spoilers #dimension 20 #mentopolis meta #🐺#idk i felt a little silly putting this together bc i feel like a lot of this stuff is obvious #but hey it was still fun to assemble the clues into one post haha #writing all this when i should be in bed asleep OOPSIE #the ppl running MY brain should all be fired

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captainofthetidesbreath · 11 months

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I am genuinely obsessed with the fact that we have not learned anything further about who Colin is, what his secret is, and what his general deal is.

Closest we got on that front was Colin's remarking that killing the Queen of Candia is not worth any secret, and that's not even about his specific deal, that's general moral outrage and immediate guilt and shame about his involvement.

Zac / Colin has the entire table / party breathing down his neck in an attempt to figure out what the deal is, and he has not betrayed even the SLIGHTEST amount of what goes on inside that little fondue brain at all in three episodes. Love it. No notes. Top marks. Bring me more of this.

#Colin 🤝 Raphaniel: Nobody gets to know ANYTHING about what they've blackmailed me with.#Colin Provolone #The Ravening War #Dimension 20 #TRW spoilers #d20 things #trw meta #trw things

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artificergorgug · 29 days

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Been thinking a lot about how Fabian uses the word triggering. He uses it in reference to the sexy rat, to the term 'turncoat', and (i believe) about Chungledown Bim

And he says it like a joke, right? Like the point is that Lou is making a joke because haha a sexy rat and a mirror abandoning Fabian and a funny-named gnome that wants to shit in his mouth are all funny concepts so why shoudn't it be funny that they're traumatizing

Except, I think Fabian is using that term earnestly. I think he is genuinely upset by how a sexy rat wanted to violate him in the nightmare forest and that in order for him to progress he had to lay down and give coerced consent to it

I think he is deeply hurt by people he loves leaving him. Sure, this time it's a mirror being a 'turncoat', but it's also his mom going on vacation with Gilear. And thinking about how Fabian interacts with Cathilda, treats her like a parent and a caregiver, you have to think that his dad was at the very least emotionally unavailable (if not physically so) and we all know about his mom's sensory deprivation egg

I think Chungledown Bim terrifies him in ways he can't articulate. The representation of how he's fallen short of his father's legacy persuing him endlessly. Being given spells and wealth and access by his devil father. Tracking him down to degrade him in an extremely visceral way

Fabian says that things are triggering with a smile on his face and a laugh in his voice. He's learned that saying the uncomfortable thing means money being thrown at a problem. He's learned that you're supposed to distance yourself from your feelings, to self-medicate

He doesn't have the skills or the practice to tell his friends in all seriousness that the things they say bother him. Remind him of his hardest days - in Leviathan, the Nightmare Forest, the Red Waste

And the part that hurts the most is that if he had this earnest conversation, his friends would be there. They'd respect him. Maybe help him unlearn some of the lessons that have shaped this ineffective request for help in the first place

But he doesn't ask and he says it as a joke and they hear it as a joke and nobody heals

#fabian seacaster #fhjy spoilers #d20 #fantasy high #dimension 20 #chungledown bim #ecaf #the sexy rat #trauma #meta #character study #i think i still don't know what character studies are

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