photo: nbc
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons
Original Air Date: Feb 3, 2011
Meg – Staff Writer
meg@thetwocentscorp.com
Did you ever think you’d see Jeff riding a Pegasus? Annie seducing Elven maidens? Black Chang? In this week’s Community, we got all that and more.
I’ll admit I don’t know much about Dungeons and Dragons. I know there are dungeons…and, well… dragons. That’s pretty much the extent of it. So maybe someone who has played it can weigh in on whether Community’s homage was fitting?
A narrator sets the scene—once upon a time, there was Fat Neil. Fat Neil was mocked for being “large of bone.” He went to Greendale to start a new life, but people still made fun of him—even teachers called him Fat Neil. He takes some solace in playing his favorite game—Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), but is still pretty darn miserable. Despite being hilariously and unabashedly self-absorbed, Jeff actually notices that Fat Neil seems headed for a sorry end. Jeff realizes that Fat Neil is suicidal and he rallies the gang to stage an intervention. A Dungeons and Dragonvention!
Our heroes include: Jeff the Liar, Troy the Obtuse, Abed the Undiagnosable; and Britta the Needlessly Defiant. Pierce the Insensitive, also known as Pierce the Dickish, is excluded. The gang convenes a council and decides to invite Fat Neil (who I’m just going to start calling Neil) to play a game of D&D rigged so that Neil will win.
Pierce discovers that (for obvious reasons—at least to us) he’s not invited. He begins to plot. Evilly.
Its’ game time! Chang is made up as a Dark Elf, which would shock me, but since I’ve been to Ren Fest, this is nothing new (but it is awesome).
Abed is the dungeon master. Nobody other than Neil has a pre-made character, so Abed thoughtfully constructed characters for each player. Unfortunately, nobody gives a crap and they grab whichever character sheet is closest.
Neil is noble warrior Ducane—a character that he has lovingly crafted and maintained. Shirley is a dwarf named Zibbidydoo (prompting Abed to admit that he’s not great at making up character names). Chang is Brutalica the Magician. Troy is Bing Bong, the Archer (definitely not good with names). Annie ends up as Hector the Well-Endowed (the character Abed designed for Troy).
Abed explains that the gang needs to track down an evil dragon, kill him, and reclaim a stolen treasure. It sounds easy enough, but almost immediately they encounter trouble—six goblins are racing toward them! Britta hilariously wants to stop and talk to the murderous cretins—she thinks maybe the goblins have a reason to be angry and that they should talk it out. Before she becomes goblin giblets, Ducane decapitates three of the monsters.
The gang’s relief is short-lived, however, because Pierce storms in and demands to be included. Pierce is admitted to the game and, for his trouble, starts out naked. When Ducane kindly gives Pierce’s character (named, shockingly, Pierce) a cloak to clothe him, Pierce abuses the kindness and steals Ducane’s magical sword. When the gang tries to retrieve it, Pierce uses his turn to “attack Blackface.” Chang is decapitated and forced to leave the game. As a consolation, he gets a slo-mo retreat.
Pierce is being a complete jerk—to the point where he’s just unbelievably intolerable. Apparently the gang agrees with me because they decide their new goal is to “find and kill Pierce.” Neil wants to give up, but the gang presses on. Jeff remembers his mythology lessons and decides they need a Pegasus. The team goes to a local elf tavern and encounters a gnome waiter. Abed, playing the role of the gnome waiter, acts like Renfield. Britta gets off track a little and wants to liberate the gnomes. Before she can launch that campaign, the gnome tells the crew where they can find a field of Pegasuses (Pegasi?) guarded by an Elven maiden. Jeff tries his best line (unfortunately his line is “you’re the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen, and I would really like a Pegasus.” Heh). Annie saves the day and starts describing a wild seduction scenario pleasing to the Elven maiden—there’s frenzied gesticulating and pantomimed spanking as Troy furiously scribbles notes for future reference.
Meanwhile, Pierce descends further into evil. He murders the gnome waiter (much to poor Britta’s dismay) and steals a magic amulet that allows him to control the dragon, Draconis. Mad with power, Pierce uses his D&D turns to cast spells on Ducane, to “make him as fat as Fat Neil.” He then uses a “time stop” spell to freeze everyone in place. Even though he can’t move, Neil uses his turn to pity Pierce. The others follow suit. Pierce gets frustrated and unfreezes them. Neil throws his sword at Pierce’s magical amulet, shattering the spell and freeing Draconis. The dragon swallows Pierce alive. Neil wins!
Even though the gang is pretty mad at Pierce, Neil tells him that it was the best game of D&D he’s ever played and that if Pierce wants to play again next week, he’ll be around.
This was a really fun episode—I know I’ve complained in the past about too many theme episodes. But the reason this episode really worked for me is that everyone was true to his or her normal behavior (ie. Britta wanting to liberate the gnomes) and nobody’s character was sacrificed for a plot device—except for Pierce being a little over the top. I felt so much sympathy for Pierce last week, but his behavior this episode pretty much erased all that goodwill.
What did you think of the episode? Do you have a D&D character? If you had to have one, what would you be and what would you call yourself? Leave some comments and let me know your two cents!
TheTwoCents 
I LOVED this episode. I have played D&D, though not much, and I thought that Abed as the DM was perfect. This show is so on top of its game, and you can see it in the way that they craft things. Like, you could easily have just had them sitting around talking about Fat Neil, or seeing him get picked on, but instead they created this entire mood-setting intro. Same with the scene where Annie is seducing Abed’s maiden (GREAT scene, btw) and how they found a really creative way to show it.
The only thing that keeps me from making it a classic was Pierce, who was definitely over-the-top. I feel like they wanted Chevy Chase (or vice versa), but they’re not really sure what to do with him most of the time.
Hi Theresa! I too loved the intro and the setup – it was so fitting for the episode. I’m so torn on Pierce – I generally find him the least compelling character. There’s definitely potential – I really liked him last week. But they play him for either the buffoon or the villain too often.