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How do you stop grief from keeping you stuck in the past?

Licensed therapist Jonathan Decker and filmmaker Alan Seawright are taking a look at the surprisingly wonderful Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. They talk about grief and failure, and why both can have good outcomes. Be like Edgin, the champion of failures! They commend the representation of male-female platonic friendship - we need more of it! And Alan explains why the movie is surprisingly good at tonal shifts between adventurous fun and deep emotion that elicit #cryingwithalan.

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Creepz

I have waited for this! i am so happy!

Lauren Wagstaff

This is a good one. Also Onward. I don’t remember if you guys did a video on that. Another great film on grief, specifically for kids (or, like me, adults) that lost a parent and feel like they missed out on things, didn’t have enough time.

Alan Seawright

We DO have a video on Onward! Dunno if we have a Director’s Cut of that one though… and I can’t be bothered to take 4 seconds to find out. 🤷🏼‍♂️ That’s why I’m not the producer of this circus!

Abigail Friedman

This movie was so delightful as a D&D fan - not just a really good movie, but so many places where they built in creatures and lore that didn't need to be there but made it feel richer and more realized. Also the greatest dragon to ever cross the silver screen...

Abigail Friedman

AND! I would so incredibly jump at the chance to run a one-shot if you ever really wanted to dip your toes into D&D...

Bravehome

Chloe Coleman got her first real seasoning in the powerful TV drama Big Little Lies (2017-2020). Her first movie role was in My Spy (2020), but my favorite roles of hers prior to this was in Marry Me (which you should definitely review).

zachary slatton

YOOOO I'm so excited to get home from work now! I loved this movie and im so excited to see this video. I honestly dodnt expect you to go over it!

Stefan and Erin S

I really loved this movie and I agree that the movie feels like DnD, and part of that is I think they got actors that are often typecast in particular roles and they totally typecasted them into these DnD roles in a way that plays up their best strengths while also being funny and very enjoyable and sort of tongue-in-cheek about it. Chris Pine is a great bard and Michelle Rodriguez is an incredible barbarian. Love it. -Erin

Sara Couture

We watched this movie with our Dnd group and we couldn't stop laughing. It feels so much like playing Dnd. The name "Jornathan" which is definitely a DM improvising a name, the fixation on using Jornathan to get out of jail instead of trust that DM won't let you rot. You can see when the character's don't role high enough or miss a saving throw. The dragon (need I say more). It was a true love letter to DnD fans everywhere (which Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast needed since that was around the OGL license controversy).

Kristina

I don't know anything about D&D and I loved this movie. I'm so glad people are talking about it because everyone should watch it if they haven't yet.

Allison Hall

That could be a really cool Patreon perk. If you can find someone that would be willing/eager to make a one shot, you could make one of the monthly special perks a one-shot over Zoom with a lot of the fans! (Also I loved the video and this movie and also Chris Pine) :)

Lorenzo Baxter

I'm not a DnD expert by any means, but I'm definitely stepping into it more recently. And I think Alan is right and wrong about the serious/goofy fun way of playing. On one hand, yeah obviously it's about having fun, but there are multiple ways to do that. Because on the other, it is a "Role Playing Game" I think Xenk was just the parties' Lawful Good Paladin. And as a current Lawful Good Monk in the game I'm playing.... in one form or another, they are consistently walking around with a stick up their ass 🤣 but that makes for some incredibly fun role playing moments with everyone else being put off by how overly self righteous I'm making my character, or just how consistent they are at being.... the stick in the mud of the party 😅 But yeah, I think the role-playing is important, especially at the start of a campaign. It helps you connect with your party members to see how they play, as well as their characters in game. Once that rapport and connection has been established, that's when having some funny or goofy ideas during either combat or just in world normally get to be absolutely hilarious.

Ara Raven

This movie was a great representation of my actual D&D experience (except that I will die on the hill that Chris Pine was playing a rogue with a lute, NOT a bard. BARDS ARE FULL CASTERS, DAMMIT!). As a player, I brought a lot of chaotic energy, but my drama chops are MASSIVE and I created and led some seriously dramatic moments. Now as the DM of an absurdly squirrelly, chaotic, ADHD party, I enjoy both spurring on their chaotic misadventures AND sucker-punching them with feels. Frequently in the same session, lol. The true joy of D&D is that it truly is what you make of it. The effort you put in makes the whole, enjoyed by everyone playing, that much better. And who doesn't love the crazy, over-the-top fantasy stuff like getting 8 hours of sleep per night?

Dylan Mancy

I haven't had the chance to see the movie yet but one of my first big campaign's was set in The Lost Realms, there's so much classic DnD stereotypes that I loved being played here in what I've been able to watch. DnD is so much fun and I love how its popularity has grown bc a lot of players can attest, it's sometimes a therapy of its own!

Adam Shockley

I watched this movie last night finally and loved it. I finally watched it cause I saw this video had come out and I wanted to watch the movie before watching this episode. My absolute favorite joke of the movie was the bridge scene. Loved the overly convoluted way to get over the bridge.

Sammie

This definitely feels like you're watching a campaign. The amount of times I cheered after a reference was made, seeing the displacer beast, thinking "Yeah they just failed that saving throw". And of course you can't have a D&D movie without an owlbear! Plus getting Tom Morello in there playing as his D&D character was great! It was a love letter to D&D fans everywhere. The moment when after they jump out the window and the judge says "But we've approved your pardon." Yeah.....my group has done stupid crap like that where we think *There is no way the DM is going to have them let us go.* "I STAB THE GUARD!" We finish fighting them and I hear a sigh from the DM "They were going to let you go......" "Oh.....Well I loot the corpses" But seriously I need to see you two play a one shot campaign cause I think it would be AMAZING!

Magnus Taliesin

"There are some people who take D&D very seriously and those people are wrong" I mean you're RIGHT tho! Like, that's not to say you can't take the STORY seriously or have a serious campaign, but in the end, the point is to have fun, because it's a game, and if you take THAT PART too seriously, you're just... either you're not going to have a good time, you're going to ruin the good time for the other people at the table, or (most likely) both. Having both had DMs as a player, and players as a DM who took everything WAY too seriously, it drags the whole energy of the table down. Take the story seriously (if that's the kind of campaign you're playing), take the characters seriously (if that's the kind of characters in the campaign), take the important moments as seriously as is appropriate, but don't take the GAME seriously.

Amber

If you told me Michelle Rodriguez and Rami Malik were siblings I would believe you.

BlackAdder

You should definitely do DnD session :D It could also be cool to make legend of vox machina episode about some characters I'm sure matt mercer would be willing to come as well :D I quite like that it seems DnD is lately getting appriciated as sort of therapy instrument. There is pretty cool video about that https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gUcx45ryT0&list=WL&index=188. I really hope that movies like this will make DnD more popular.

Manic Thiccsy Dream Girl

I've been an RP gamer for 20 years, and a Holga (stepmom) to my eldest since they were 3 years old. This movie went from being a silly romp I saw with my husband, to a movie I re-watched with my bonus daughter, bawling our eyes out & hugging as the final climactic scene played. Alan is dead-on: the grief & parenting arc is what makes it a great movie.

Meg W.

Ha. This movie is so freaking good. And accurate to how dnd sessions go. They can be crazy and hilarious, and then suddenly there’s this huge dramatic monologue coming out of nowhere from a character….and then they go off to fight a dragon 🤣

SaucyJTD

I went and saw this movie with my husband, and we enjoyed the ever loving hell out of it. We knew that Chris Pine and Michele Rodriguez would be amazing, but we were not expecting the heartfelt moments throughout the movie. Even though I saw them coming a mile away, I still enjoyed them.

Lilly Trammell

I do want y'all to review D&D 2001, Jeremy Irons. Just sayin'.