#dndad rambles

[ivefallenforyouandicantgetup]

I’m really worried about how the group dynamic is changing for the teens. (I don’t know how to make a post have the read more thing so this will probably be a long one.)

I have to start by talking about Scary, of course. You probably saw my last post on Scary from maybe a week or four ago about how she’s becoming isolated from the group. That of course worries me still, but it seems like things got almost a little better in this episode. The teamwork and vibes between her and Linc were very… friendly!! Until the end, of course, when she insisted that they had to do what Willy said.

Linc and Taylor have become super close! It’s honestly really fun, they’re super goofy together and their energies match well!

But… them becoming close has isolated Normal from the group. With the flow between Linc and Taylor that they’ll definitely have each others backs in every way, it’s putting an invisible wall between them and Normal, who they KNOW will likely react differently than they would.

Norm’s started walking a tightrope with them all. He can’t get too close to Scary, because if he does, then Linc will likely see it as him betraying them and hate him. (Plus, Scary did something awful and is pretty mean to everyone) But Norm can’t really seem to fit right in the group with Linc and Taylor either… He wants to, and you can tell he’s trying. I can honestly feel his anxiety that he’ll mess up whenever he does anything in his voice. (Will is awesome) And you can tell that he KNOWS that Linc is annoyed by him. But he keeps trying because he doesn’t want to lose his only friends.

Then there’s the obvious. The pick. He put out his idea, one that he knew would probably be better, and not a single one of his friends considered it. Scary immediately argued against it, and Linc ignored it and snapped the pick. (I don’t remember Taylor saying anything, but I could be wrong about that.)

That action from Linc drew a line completely between them. It was an obvious sign that Normal’s thoughts aren’t even worth consideration to him. Now that Linc’s the leader, he influences what Taylor thinks as well. And Hermie wasn’t in the episode, but last we saw of them Normal and him were on awkward terms.

[llumimoon]

THEY WERE NOT KIDDING ABT THE BOT NAMES LEVELING UP R YOU KIDDING

PLUMP UROLOGIST????????????

[risetherivermoon]

happy pride month to whatever the fuck darryl wilson had going on...

[zoynkzz]

Thought a lot about the Close fam, doodling ensued

[mj-thrush-gxn]

rudy rout

[babacontainsmultitudes]

🤔 Admittedly I was a little disappointed by the reveal (but certainly not surprised the foreshadowing was heavy in this episode lol), but not actually against how Beth (and Will) seem to be playing with it thus far- which is to say that I do think it has a lot of potential, and I suspect there's more to what we're seeing).

;) Big ol' ramble below

Mostly the theory has turned me off until now (at least insofar as I've witnessed it transpire in the fandom at large) because it struck me as so painfully ironic to see Trudy, a 1950s housewife, struggle to exist under the system that she's in, fail to fit the mold assigned to her, and be denied her personhood very literally for it (this being ironic insofar as how it mimics how she would have been treated back then). This and because frankly I just think she's a lot less interesting if she's fully a robot LOL, but I'll hopefully get to that in a bit.

Not that the hints at her mechanical nature and the relevance of Tucker's background were lost on me; I can appreciate why those would contribute to a plausible, fun and I think still mostly harmless theory (now fact). However, minus one or two specific posts I've seen on the matter (namely a recent one suggesting that if Trudy is a robot Beth is probably taking inspiration from The Stepford Wives, :( sorry person who made that post I couldn't find it I wanted to credit yoouuu), I've seen the theory just about exclusively presented in a manner that, rather than explore the metaphorical and political significance of Trudy being partially or fully mechanical, at best disregards the parts of her narrative that are at their core about sexism (among other related things), and at worst negates them entirely (i.e. Trudy only thinking and acting how she does because she's a robot malfunctioning and not because the world itself is causing harm and she rightfully wants something more than the role she was forced into, Trudy not even having any real thoughts and feelings of her own, etc.). I just think it kind of sucks to shove all those important things about her aside and say "actually, there's no person suffering here, she's just a robot" and perhaps worse yet to imply that she does have thoughts and feelings but because they result in Weird™ behavior it must be a problem with her code and not at all relate to what women were subjugated to during this point in American history.

CONVERSELY I don't think Trudy being a robot (or at least partially one) at least from what Beth and Will have presented us thus far, inherently suffers from any of these issues? First and foremost because Trudy definitely appears to possess sentience, thoughts, and emotions of her own, matters which immediately complicate her degree of personhood and don't inherently box her behavior in as a bug in her programming rather than an issue with the world she's been put in, quite the opposite in fact! I think they have a very solid groundwork laid out here to make a strong statement with Trudy's narrative (and perhaps ask the question of what is really malfunctioning here), all the more so since [I pull out a Rebecca Swallows-style conspiracy board] I don't think she's entirely robotic in nature? Actually you should just read Mack's tags in this post cause he has great thoughts on the matter (of which those are just some of them), but if I can direct your attention to one thing in particular, it would be Beth's fact (I *believe* from episode 2) about Trudy never graduating high school because of her essay where she suggested that "perhaps women could one day domesticate themselves", a statement that could of course be interpreted a number of ways but ultimately threatened the patriarchal status quo enough (in suggesting women's independence) to cost Trudy her diploma. Taken on its own this fact appears to contradict the theory that Trudy has always been robotic in nature, because it doesn't really make sense that Trudy would have been set up to go through high school (or school at all really) when Tucker's intention was/is for her to be the perfect housewife. You may then suggest that Trudy's memories of this are fabricated and not actually her lived experiences, in which case firstly perhaps you should reread my earlier point on the robot theory being used to actively negate and otherwise disregard the portions of Trudy's narrative that pertain to sexism and feminism, and secondly it really doesn't make any sense to me that Tucker would implant those kind of memories into Trudy's brain? To be completely honest if she's been a robot from the very beginning (rather than someone who became a cyborg, which is what I'm trying to suggest here), then I don't see why Tucker would program her with actual sentience in the first place (suspending my disbelief here with regards to the possibility of programming sentience to begin with). It seems much more likely to me then that Trudy was not always a robot, and instead altered by Tucker to force her into a role of subordination and remedy her """imperfections""". This option is significantly more interesting to me one, because it implies that Trudy has actually lived a life up until the present, full of its own complexities and strife (and dreams, and real actual memories worth exploring, etc.), and hence is not by any means "just a robot", and second because it amplifies the hypothetical statement being made on the lives of the real living women of the era and how they were treated and seen as being "in need of fixing" for not conforming to gender roles or otherwise acting "out of line" with what was expected of them.

OKAY THIS GOT OUT OF HAND SO I'M CUTTING MYSELF OFF HERE but I wanted to my share my current thoughts what with this ending and where I'm at so hopefully that was at least interesting to whoever has chosen to read through this one okay thank you byyyyyyyyye~

[kaseyskat]

okay since they said that the san diego show is gonna be the only one Not recorded, i'll do my best to summarize the show for y'all!!!

-glenn's dad fact: the glenn close trio instagram (? i think?) is full of pictures of glenn standing next to a picture of the real glenn close

-darryl's dad fact: he and carol go to san diego very frequently because darryl likes the breweries and carol likes surfing! they have not "had sex" there once, but they HAVE made love (statements that made me cringe out loud)

-henry's dad fact: he and mercedes make a fake san diego burrito for themselves and the twins. it sounds awful.

-ron's dad fact: he thinks san diego is a type of eggo waffle

-the prompt that we rolled was called DADDY BABIES. the plotline? the dads (and paeden) went to the dimensional witch tilt toblerona to ask her to give them the strength of their youth back so they could find their kids. instead, tilt turned them into babies.

-the dads still have all of their memories of who they are as people and they can talk to themselves and to paeden (tilt does not understand them though, tilt only hears baby noises) but physically Being a baby affects their mental state just a bit

-ron wanted to stay a baby forever. henry tried to explain the concept of ageplay to him, darryl got confused thinking that ron just wanted to HAVE a baby like with samantha, henry had to explain fetishes

-during the baby section, henry is the most "adult" and ends up having to corral the others. darryl is a close second, but glenn and ron both Suffer Immensely

-while tilt is making. applesauce? the babies scheme on how to escape, involving an elaborate scheme in which henry uses mold earth on playdoh to make fake versions of themselves blue in the face and choking in a plastic bag and ron throwing his voice to sound like a baby crying. beth made the worst fake crying noise ever but then also gave us an INSANE dolphin noise when anthony called her out on it

-(also the dads had to roll object permanence to see if they thought tilt was gone forever when she was out of their line of sight. glenn failed this check very badly. darryl even played peekaboo with him to demonstrate object permanence and it failed. anthony made a horrible horrible joke that glenn's not a bad parent he just has bad object permanence even when it comes to nick)

-somehow this works? they trap tilt toblerona (glenn using illusory mind prison to make tilt think SHES the one choking on a plastic bag, henry casting stone wall on her to build a lego wall around her and effectively cask of amontillado-ing her) and then wander around the house looking for a way out.

-they realize they need tilt's key to escape, but first they watch an episode of bluey! henry is the only one who saved on a roll to Not be sucked into watching bluey and ends up unplugging the TV and going on a tangent about how screentime is bad

-(which is really fucking funny because he very explicitly says "lark and sparrow are well behaved because we set boundaries and have them play outside instead of using screens" and we all know how lark and sparrow are like. not???? not well behaved. henry im so sorry to break this to you but they are not well behaved-)

-anyways they get back to tilt, find and steal her key, and then open the door, promptly getting sucked through dimensions

-(darryl thinks for a second that he's in the rapture and tries to baptize himself in case his baby form isn't baptized. henry tries to help but goes on another tangent and they miss the opportunity)

-when they awaken, they find themselves now as teenagers in a classroom! and they see a GOTH PUNK SEEKER OF DARKNESS (phrases that made the entire crowd erupt in screaming, myself included)

-this time, darryl is the most stable of the dads! glenn coming in second, and then ron and henry were both. very teenager.

-darryl immediately offers to play ball with link. link is interested but ultimately gets shot down by tilt, who explains that they are in interdimensional detention forever

-glenn and taylor immediately bond over how cool they are

-scary asks ron if she can copy his math homework because he seems smart with a tie. ron agrees to let her but is very nervous about it (we later find out this is because he is not very good at math)

-teenage henry is a fucking delight yall. he sits there staring out the window at the trees and writing poetry (with long hair! long hair teenage hen is real!!!) about the trees and enjoying nature

-scary has to roll not to fall in love with him the second she finds out that he writes poetry (she fails)

-normal tries to bond with his grandfather. henry brushes him off entirely. its heartbreaking and also hilariously funny

-normal goes fucking apeshit yall. he gets so fed up of henry ignoring him and the others not talking to him and being trapped in this small room that he takes a crossbow and threatens tilt with it. she calls his bluff and he SHOOTS HER?

-at least, he tries. she catches the bolt and then tells him that if he's serious he needs to actually stab the bolt into her heart himself. he does. he's unhinged.

-tilt tries to explain her entire sob story backstory. darryl interrupts to boo her and call her a loser.

-glenn and taylor throw a desk out of the window to break it open. going out the window Will Kill You.

-ron paints the window like a slip and slide to try and trick tilt into going into it. it doesn't work. however two guards come in and it DOES work on one of the guards

-the other guard eventually gets physically thrown out of the window by taylor, who proudly declares that this will not affect him at all

-henry goes to talk to scary. scary gets excited, but then henry just asks if she thinks that teen darryl would go out with henry because even though he's "not henry's type", something about him is captivating. scary is heartbroken.

-darryl overhears this and rejects henry on the basis of him still dating carol! but offers to set henry up with carol's friends.

-glenn and taylor use awful fireworks to blind tilt, the other guard (that taylor kills), and normal since he was in range.

-scary tries to be bitter and calls henry out for being blind, but henry wasn't hit with the spell and immediately says some fakedeep shit about seeing more than most people do. it is insanely funny i cannot stress how funny teenage henry is

-link is now convinced that public schools were a mistake and he needs to leave Right Now. he rolls a nat 20 on taking the key, but uses it for himself to fucking dip. he just ditches them. he bolts for it. normal even tries to give him a high five and link completely goes NOPE.

-when nobody else has another form of escape, henry takes out his sketchbook? that apparently he always has as a teen? and uses summon creature to draw a boar and bring it to life. the boar smashes through the door and now they are saved!

-it is here that it is revealed this was all a dream but specifically a dream set pre-canon. darryl makes a comment about link being a narc. glenn tells taylor to never change because he's perfect exactly the way he is. scary tells ron that he sucks at math (and ron is very confused about scary's existence he doesn't know who she is).

-HENRY. tells normal to be the best version of himself. AND TO HELP HIM WITH THAT. he draws. TEENY. TO GIVE TO NORMAL AND INSPIRE HIM TO BE HIS BEST SELF. and that is how normal came up with teeny the teen as the mascot of teen high

-it was such a fun show, i'm so glad i got to attend! shame that it isn't being recorded

[startingfires]

"44 damage"

"what does that do to you?"

"it damages me 44"

HELP

[riverrcottage]

BIG NEWS EVERYONE ANTHONY BURCHS GAY PORN IS HERE

[zillylilguyz]

[thechaoticgrey]

no the hell he ain’t

[cookies-over-yonder]

so do you guys ever think about how maybe sometimes growing up link wondered a little about his biological parents. maybe he thought he might want to meet them someday but he never brought it up because it wasn't at all a priority to him just a little curiosity. and then on the titanic he sees his birth mother on the floor and trampled to death

and he just has to keep going because there's no time to process anything let alone that. and hey it's not like he was super keen on getting to know her anyway and he's lived his whole life without a mother and he doesn't need one because they're just like dads but women but sometimes that image of her dead body shows up in his mind and he can't help but wonder what she was like. what kind of mother she would have been. was she nice? she didn't deserve to die like that. but it happened over a hundred years ago so what does it matter anymore.

right?

[macksartblock]

I LOVE YOUR DNDADDIES DOODLES I LOVE SWIFTLI AUGH AUVH AUHH AUHU AUGH AUVH AUHH AUGH I LOVE YOUR ART SO MUHC

i dont draw swiftli enough given they are the embodiment of "love is stored in the infodumping" to me

[risetherivermoon]

honestly i was expecting an acoustic version of On My Way like they did last season but the more epic version with all the teens singing was sooo much better,

i think it really encapsulates the season and just the teens in general, very cool very good i loved it so muchhh agggshdghsg

[keepin-it-on-the-d-l]

Some songs that would KILL in a Dungeons and Daddies show/movie adaptation:

Stayin Alive by The Bee Gees playing as the Daddies fight The Library (cuts off abruptly when Erin gets curb-stomped)

Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) is also a really good pick for a fight song

Eye of the Tiger faintly playing every time Paeden is on screen

We Didn’t Start the Fire by Billy Joel playing as the Daddies flee Neverwinter (they did, in fact, start the fire and also kill a bunch of people with a pyramid)

Starman by David Bowie playing over some really fucked up Doodler shit (like the ending of At the Mountains of Dadness)

I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) HAS to play some time in season 1 right? It’s like the ultimate dad energy song and it fits perfectly for their objective

(Something really traumatizing happens)(hard cut to the dads in the Odyssey, sitting silently and looking traumatized as The Pina Colada Song plays for comedic effect)

Pls add to this in the tags if you want!!

Part Two here

[mj-thrush-gxn]

BEEN LISTENING TO DNDADS FOR A YEAR SO FAR, SO HERE IS MY PROJECT TO CELEBRATE!!!

this is a part 2!! here is part 1: [here], it shows how i’ve improved really well too, so that’s fun.