Funny / Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

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"BRAAAAAAAATTTEE..."

The film effortlessly captures the unique brand of insanity that occurs when a few friends get together to have a little fun with a tabletop RPG and what it must be like for the people who have to live in the world influenced by their shenanigans.

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The Film

The film

• Edgin and Holga are sharing a cell and get a new inmate, a large hobgoblin man. As he shows an interest in Holga, Edgin calmly tells him not to interrupt her when she's eating her potatoes. He doesn't listen, obviously, and as he touches Holga's face, she calmly wraps up her snack and then proceeds to break his kneecaps before knocking him out. Edgin doesn't even look up from his knitting.
  Edgin: I think I'm gonna do this without fingers, and make it a mitten. Who am I trying to impress?
  • His little comment to himself becomes funnier when he ends up reuniting with Kira and gifting her the finished mittens. She visibly appears less than impressed by the crummy prison-quality knitting, and Edgin still seems disappointed.
• While telling the judges his backstory, Edgin constantly pauses to ask where Jarnathan is, a judge who was supposed to be there, which increasingly annoys the present judges. At one point, Edgin even looks to the camera as he pauses yet again to ask where that particular judge is.
• Speaking of Edgin's backstory, the judges don't seem to have a problem with him spending twenty minutes detailing years of his life leading up to the crime that got him sent to prison; they're just annoyed he keeps interrupting himself, acting like avid viewers watching a dramatic soap opera that keeps getting interrupted by commercials. It's even Lampshaded when Edgin accidentally starts to retell his backstory near the beginning (with the appropriate flashback playing out again) instead of where he left off and a council member complains he went too far back.
  • Which is also a meta-Funny Moment, as it's very much like how a DM who's delivering exposition may also lose their place in the monologue, if they're interrupted by a player's snarky comment or off-the-wall questions.
• Holga met Edgin when he was drunk off his ass in a bar and took pity on him... although Edgin ends up clarifying she took more pity on his baby daughter than him. Edgin calls Holga like a sister to him, with a scene showing her chowing down on multiple potatoes and Edgin gingerly trying to take one. A single glare from Holga makes him back down immediately.
  • Even funnier is that even baby Kira is intimidated and seems to be trying to push herself away in the little swing she's sitting in as soon as Holga glares at Edgin.
• Edgin recounts how he and Holga began stealing to make ends meet, and says how they couldn't leave Kira alone when they went on a heist... So they just brought her along.
• Turns out that the missing judge, Jarnathan, is an Aarakocra. Edgin and Holga conduct a daring prison break by tackling him through the window, his wings slowing their fall enough for them to survive. This is while the other judges are trying to explain their pardon was approved.
  Norixius: But we approved your pardon!
  • Even more comically is the way in which they explain is the exact way a befuddled DM might react to the players derailing the session by doing something suicidally stupid and unneeded.
• At a tavern collecting their thoughts, the barkeep asks if Holga and Edgin were a couple. They are both mutually disgusted at the thought.
  Holga: With lips like those?
  Edgin: [as they leave] What's wrong with my lips?
  Holga: They're too big for your face.
  Edgin: Lots of people like my lips!
• As they enter the city to meet with Forge, it cuts to Holga and Edgin sitting on a bench and waiting. Edgin asks how long has it been with Holga replying "two years". He then clarifies he meant how long had they been sitting on the bench.
• Sofina dips her icy finger into Forge's tea cup when he asks for her to cool it down, much to his disgust.
  • As it turns out she's a member of The Undead, so yeah...
  • Which is funnier: that Sofina is so divorced from humanity she has no idea why Forge would find that gross, or that she knows exactly how gross it is and is taking an opportunity to Troll him? Made even funnier considering Sofina lampshaded later how she can barely stand Forge, meaning she's just messing with him.
• As Edgin and Holga are about to be executed via axe decapitation and are asked if they have any last words, Holga stalls for time by complimenting the executing guard's axe design and asking about his caretaking methods for the blade. The guard is understandably dumbfounded but indulges her anyway, stating he polishes it with linseed oil once a month, allowing her to kick up a conversation with him that gives her enough time to dig up a stone brick and start a brawl. After Holga takes his axe for herself, she's about to ask Edgin something when he cuts her off by saying they'll stop by the market to get linseed oil.
• In the time it takes for Holga to beat the crap out of the rest of the guards, Edgin attempts to saw through his bonds... first using a blunt stone step, then a sword clenched between his knees. His only contribution to the fight is knocking out the last execution guard with his lute.
• Edgin realizes they have a sorcerer they can contact. Holga immediately disagrees about looking for Simon, saying he was terrible. Edgin scoffs and says that Simon must have improved while they were in captivity. Cut to Simon performing on stage, holding a single candle flame on the tip of his finger.
  Simon: No one can hold a candle to this trick. ([beat], no response, blows out candle) How about this one? You people like the smell of fresh-cut grass? (casts spell, small puff of green appears and vanishes almost instantly) Smell that? It's fresh-cut grass.
  Female Audience Member: My five-year-old can do that magic!
  • He then creates the scent of fresh-cut grass and casts a spell that does nothing but make him slightly blurry, which continue to lose his audience.
  • It turns out he's using most of his actual magical ability to steal the audience's valuables.
• Doric's introduction includes her in Owlbear form beating up a brigade of guards about to execute a fellow druid. While Edgin, Holga and Simon admire her combat skills from afar, one of the guards Doric threw in the air lands behind them. They don't even turn away to look at him.
• Doric initially has trouble remembering who Simon is.
  Simon: Remember? I courted you... you said I made you feel sad... not with anything I did! Just... from how I was.
  Doric: Oooohh...
• Doric asks Edgin what his role in the party is, and Edgin awkwardly explains that he makes the plans. When she points out that the plan is already made, so he's kinda superfluous, he argues that the plan might fail, so they'll need a new plan.
  Doric: So you make plans that fail?
• Holga interprets Doric not caring about the money to meaning they can keep her share.
• Holga's Running Gag of asking Simon to just use magic to solve a random problem, with Simon exasperatedly giving a Magic A Is Magic A lecture the first time. It's even funnier considering that they've both worked together in the past, which implies this isn't the first time Holga has asked this.
  • When the subject of talking to the dead comes up, Holga ask Simon to once again solve it with magic. Doric then reminds Holga just a few minutes before that Simon gave an entire speech about expecting magic to just solve their problems... only for Simon to admit that's actually something he can do.
  • This has the extra meta layer of Hypocritical Humor to it, if one is familiar with the sort of reputation magic has between Dungeons & Dragons players: solving a problem usually involves knowing the right spell to overcome it. And rarely due to the intended use of said spell.
• Holga's ex turning out to be a halfling? Maybe worth a chuckle. Holga's ex turning out to be dating another barbarian woman (who is in fact bigger and stronger-looking than Holga)? HILARIOUS.
  • The final joke at the end of Holga making eyes at another halfling man, implying that not only did her ex have a thing for large women, but that Holga herself had a thing for small men too? Gut-bustingly funny.
• Holga initially seems to find closure in her conversation with Marlamin. No fights erupt, there's hardly even a tense moment between Holga and the new woman, and both feel a little sad, but Holga is ultimately happy that Marlamin seems happy with her. The moment she leaves the house and gets close to Edgin...
  Holga: I'm gonna show Marlamin and the Elk tribe they were fools to let me go.
• Forge tells his rich guests that he has a wonderful secure vault for all the treasure they intend to bet on the games, and Sofina will explain all the details to them. Sofina stands next to the vault door like she's about to give a big expositional speech about the vault security, and says it has Mordenkainen's Arcane Seal on it. And nothing else. There are a couple beats of awkward silence before everyone else realizes that's literally all she's going to say. (This is especially funny contrasted with Forge's full-bore chumminess.)
• As the party are discussing the plan for Doric to infiltrate Castle Never and spy on Forge, Holga keeps coming up with the bizarre suggestion that Doric transform herself into a deer, an animal that would be completely out of place inside a castle. When actually sneaking in as a fly, Doric is discovered anyway and a lengthy chase ensues that sees her transform into various different animals in order to escape... including a deer. Holga can't help but bring up the fact that she did eventually need to turn into a deer.
  • During the start of her escape, Doric as a mouse crawls up into a piece of armor and shifts back into her tiefling form. She closes the front of the helm and salutes a passing guard as she walks by. He returns the gesture as he rushes past... pauses, and turns back around to confront Doric who's already picking up the pace.
• Doric mangles Mordenkainen's Arcane Seal into "Morty Keening's Arcane Seal."
• The entire Speak with Dead sequence as they screw up the initial questioning by not realizing the corpse can answer any question followed by interrogating a bunch of other barbarians. Not since Hellboy (2004) has raising the dead been so funny.
  • The first corpse they raise actually provides no information at all, because Edgin (and Simon) failed to watch their word choice.
    Edgin: Were you killed in the battle of the Evermoors?
    Corpse: Yes.
    Edgin: Great! I mean, not for you. Sorry for your loss. (to Simon) Four more questions, right?
    Corpse: Yes.
    Edgin: No. No, no. That wasn't for you. (to Simon) Did that count as a question?
    Corpse: Yes.
    Edgin: Damn it! Only answer when I talk to you, okay?
    Corpse: Yes,
    Simon: Why did you say "okay" at the end of that?
    Corpse: I didn't. (dies)
    Edgin: Fantastic. Where's the shovel?
  • The majority of the deaths of the barbarians who were passing around the Helm of Disjunction; they were Killed Mid-Sentence while they were standing around, weapons and guards down, in an open battlefield, instructing and explaining to their comrades why their enemies should never get their hands on the helmet. Talking Is a Free Action was averted BIG time.
  • Even funnier: most of the flashbacks by the barbarians are about 6 seconds long... the canonical length of a player's turn in combat. And apparently for every single one of them, their very last 6 seconds each.
  • The party learns that the Helmet of Disjunction was entrusted to the Chief's swiftest rider, so they go ask him what he did with it. Turns out he died before the battle even began when he slipped and bashed his head against the bathtub he just finished using. It's only after the next question the corpse reveals he is the brother of the swiftest rider, who they dug up because their names were so similar.
  • When Edgin gets the answers he needs with one corpse after asking it only two questions, Simon tells him he must ask it three other questions in order for it to go back to death.
    Edgin: Okay, uh... What's your favorite food?
    Corpse: Oats. No, barley!
    Edgin: Do you like cats?
    Corpse: Not really.
    Edgin: Uh... What's 2+2?
    Corpse: I'm bad at math. [dies]
  • Ending with one corpse left alive, still needing a final question to answer before he can return to death, and the party wandering off not asking it. The poor bastard is still there in The Stinger, asking the audience if they have a question for him.^note However, if Speak with Dead works like it does in the source material, it didn't pull the poor bastard's actual soul from the afterlife, instead merely infusing the body with an animating spirit so it can answer questions.
    • The best part? Edgin asks a question he thinks will take a long time to distract the corpse as they head off. The corpse finishes the question before the last party member leaves the screen. And Edgin and the rest just ignore its questioning after them.
  • Edgin tries to finish off the last corpse by asking "What's your favorite book?". The dead barbarian warrior comments that it's so hard to pick just one...
  • The whole scene is also hilarious on a meta level, in that it's exactly the sort of thing a trolling DM (who knows Simon's amulet has unlimited uses) might engineer to mess with the players for kicks. Or as some passive-aggressive warning to cut the table talk and focus on the adventure.
  • Another extremely funny thing to consider on a meta level is the noticeable pattern of the corpses' tone of speaking changing from a raspy, dry voice you'd typically expect of a long-dead corpse brought to life, to a completely normal, unaffected one by the end. Like the DM initially attempted to put on a theatrical undead vibe with their voice for roleplay purposes, but eventually said screw it and threw the raspy voice out the window because it was putting too much of a strain on their throat the longer the encounter went on.
• Xenk being presented as an over-the-top paragon of Paladin-ness. From his introduction rescuing a child (who, being a tabaxi, also happens to look like a Cute Kitten), insistence upon giving treasure to the poor, to his appearance near the end capturing Forge to tie up that loose end. Making it funnier is how the movie plays his Paladin status completely straight, exactly how this class would appear in a D&D setting.
  Dragonborn Beggar: Janklee.
  Xenk: [completely sincerely] And janklee to you too, good sir.
• After watching Xenk save a Tabaxi child from the mouth of a fish, Simon tries to impress Doric by claiming he also saved a fish from a cat's mouth once.
• Xenk's combination of Sarcasm-Blind and Literal-Minded is also good for laughs.
  Holga: Forge is a real son of a bitch.
  Xenk: So you are blaming his mother for his corruption?
  • Even funnier is how later, in a court hearing, Forge tries to defend himself by blaming his nature on his mother.
• Edgin is riding alongside Xenk and gets so fed up with the paladin's way of speaking he turns to the others and asks someone else to ride next to him instead.
  Xenk: You may have foresworn your oath but your oath has not foresworn you.
  Edgin: Just because that sentence is symmetrical doesn't make it not nonsense.
• Xenk declaring they must travel through the "orifice" to the Underdark. Edgin actually has to pause and repeat what he just heard.
• Then as Xenk calmly hold the rope and falls down, the party look at how far down the tunnel goes.
  Simon: I'll go last.
• As they travel through the caves, Edgin whispers to Holga to keep her guard up on Xenk since he doesn't trust him. Likely due to his high passive perception, Xenk lets Edgin know he can hear him. Edgin whispers again to which Xenk responds in turn.
  Edgin: [angrily whispering] I hate you!
  [Xenk grins smugly]
• In the Underdark, the party runs into some intellect devourers. Xenk warns that they are more likely to attack you if you're intelligent, and to remain as quiet as possible. It's a tense moment... until the intellect devourers pass by with barely a sniff.
  Edgin: [beat] Well that's a little hurtful.
• Xenk is explaining the gnomish puzzle set up to pass the bridge, which involves only stepping on odd-numbered stones, except when they need to move laterally, and then halfway through the pattern flips — and then Simon puts his foot on a stone to lean, and the entire bridge falls apart. This is the only time in the movie when Xenk actually looks annoyed as he glares at Simon.
  Simon: I stepped on the bridge... I didn't realize that was where it started. So... sorry.
• The party promptly discovers that they've had a portal staff in their bag the entire time. Fans noted that this is the exact type of Ass Pull that a DM uses when the party screws up so badly that there's no other way out.
• While the shot of Doric passing through the portal to get inside a wagon is primarily awesome, it's ended off with a soft thunk as she Face Plants into a wall.
• The fact that they use the helmet once and it doesn't even help do anything, versus the staff which as pointed out above seems like a one-time item that the DM threw in just to get past an obstacle the party created themselves, ends up being more useful and being brought out more frequently to get past obstacles, is very much in the spirit of Dungeons & Dragons.
• There's something inherently funny about the morbidly obese dragon Themberchaud^note in general, really, but... trying to chase down our heroes.
  Xenk: It must have found a new lair!
  Edgin: Did he eat the last one?
• Even better thanks to the Mood Whiplash of the scene: the party realizes their presence has been noticed by a dragon, the face stares at them menacingly from the darkness, everyone panics... and then Themberchaud starts the chase by using his massive girth to slide down the mountain of bones like a water slide and a good portion of the next section is just trying to get out of his way as he rolls and rights himself because he tried to stop too quickly.
• There's also an extended shot where Themberchaud chases the heroes by barrel-rolling at them, in what has to be one of the silliest Indy Escape shots ever.
• When Xenk bids farewell, Edgin muses on his strange straight walk and whether he'll break it to avoid a boulder. Instead, without breaking stride, Xenk just steps on the boulder and keeps on trucking. You can still see Xenk walking away in the distance in the next few shots.
• Simon tries to help Doric with the portrait, only for it to fall off the wagon, leaving Simon's upper half being held by Doric while his lower half is held by Holga. Thankfully, the two guards who are behind the cart don't notice him flailing beneath the rolling wagon. (One can only assume that they both failed their Perception check.)
• The guards look up to see Holga off to the side holding a pair of legs and struggling. When she notices them, she gives them a cheerful wave as if this was just a normal occurrence.
• Just as they buy a room to open the portal to get into the castle, said portrait is placed down on the floor by a guard and then subsequently falls onto its face. So when the party does cut off the painting, they're met with a stone floor. The long pause the group gives as they stare at their new predicament is particularly funny.
• Doric suggests she can get underneath the portrait as a worm if she can chip a big-enough hole in the floor.
• Following the portal-painting plan getting screwed over, Edgin devises they go to "Plan C"... which is the same "Plan A" (get Simon to attune to the Helmet of Disjunction and unlock the vault that way), which he insists are not the same thing as Plan A as "Plan A has a stink on it". Doric's above proposition is happily dubbed a valid "Plan D" by Edgin, (which is not the same as "Plan B" because it also also has a stink on it).
• As the group sneaks back into Forge's castle, Simon casts an illusion of Edgin singing to distract the guards. Simon's foot gets caught on a rock, disrupting his concentration and causing the illusion to start skipping like it was a shitty DVD. As Simon tries to free himself, the Edgin illusion distorts even further, with its eyes bulging out, head shrinking into its torso and the lute handle sagging like a deflating balloon, much to the guards' horror. By the time Simon gets free, the illusion has even started to float away! With a scene like that, how could it not be displayed as the main image to this page?
  Guard: [extremely unnerved] What madness is this?!
  • The cherry on top is that the final shot of the illusion has it glitching out so hard that it almost sounds like it's dropping a Cluster F-Bomb; a time-honored saying of players whose carefully-laid plans are about to come crashing down at the first hurdle thanks to a lousy dice roll.
• Speaking Stones are the magical equivalent to walkie-talkies... right down to causing "feedback" if they are held too close together.
• Holga's confidence in Simon's combat abilities is established as she stays behind to fight the guards chasing them while he makes his way to the vault:
  Holga: Go, I'll hold them off.
  Simon: You sure you don't need any help?
  Holga: [absolutely serious] Certain.
  [beat]
  Simon: [sounding hurt] Don't need to be that certain.
• Sofina captures Edgin in a tentacle trap with Forge strolling in and monologuing to Edgin. As he prepares to leave Edgin to die, this is what he says:
  Forge: I don't want to see you die. Which is why, I'm going to leave the room.
  • Forge also mentions how "tenacious" Edgin can be.
• Also the fact Forge takes time to pull out a kerchief before moving the tentacle tip covering Edgin's mouth; he doesn't want to touch the slimy thing bare-handed. Then when he tries to ignore Edgin's plea to be put in the games for a fair chance, he puts the tentacle back over his mouth.
• When Doric comes to, only to learn that she and her party are about to be tossed into the High Sun Games, Simon is introduced gently thudding his head against the wall over and over again.
• Once Doric has an idea of how to escape the High Sun Games, she tells the rest of the party to follow her because she has a plan. As the party runs behind her, one of the members of the party who made it inside the cage to survive the round (the D&D cartoon team) yells "wait, what's the plan?!" after them. You just know that it was Eric…
• Sofina honors her end of the bargain and lets Forge flee with all of the city's treasures. While this could be chalked up to Pragmatic Villainy, there is a funnier explanation for why she lets him go: Sofina's plan consists of converting everyone in Neverwinter into her undead slaves, which suggests that she hates Forge so much that she'd rather have him out of the picture entirely than have him stick around as one of her minions!
• The super-dramatic slow-motion shot of Holga throwing a potato at Forge's face so that he will let go of Kira.
• Edgin's conscience gets the better of him making him realize he has to sacrifice the loot to save the people in the stadium. The others don't even have to suggest it, he just knows he has to all on his own.
  Edgin: ...Well, shit!
• During the fight, Sofina at one point manages to trap Edgin and Holga in the magical equivalent of a giant hamster ball^ExplanationIt's a spell known as Otiluke's Resilient Sphere. The next shot of them is in the ball, rolling and bouncing off the walls and buildings like a giant pinball arcade before they crash-land into a pillar.
• Simon and Sofina face off for a magic duel like gunslingers from Westerns. To hammer the similarity home, a basket rolls across the scene like a tumbleweed and the soundtrack tosses in a cue that sounds more than a little like the iconic theme from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Also, the duel itself turns out to be a magical arm-wrestling match with Bigby's Hands.
• As Sofina walks up to Edgin after casting another Time Stop spell, she tells his frozen form how she will make him suffer for ruining her plans. Edgin then finally breaks and tells Sofina who's right in front of his face how much her breath smells.
• Sofina meets her demise when, after being trapped into wearing a magic-suppressing cuff, Doric morphs into her Owl-Bear form and thrashes the Red Wizard around like a doll. When Sofina tries to get back up, Doric grabs her and violently beats her back into the ground. She ends up hurling Sofina into a wall for good measure, which crumbles and crushes her.
  • When Edgin tells her that Sofina is already finished, Doric smashed her a bit more just to be sure, before hurling her to the wall.
    Edgin: I think you got her!
  • Doric's body language at that point looks less like a focused berserker roar and more like a frustrated scream, grabbing Sofina by the shoulders and asking why she won't stay down. Given how much hell Sofina put her through between the chase scene earlier and repeatedly smacking her aside, its warranted.
• After Edgin uses the Tablet of Reawakening on Holga, upon waking up she looks bewildered before saying in a disbelieving tone, "Don't tell me you wasted it on me. Why would you do that?" Doubles as heartwarming and tearjerking as the fact that she thinks it should've been used on Edgin's wife so Kira could have her birth mother is both sweet and sad.
• Among the teams entered into the High Sun Games is the party from the 1983 cartoon series, still wearing the exact same costumes. And it turns out Bobby hasn't grown much in the decades since.
• As a Brick Joke from Xenk's moment of being Sarcasm-Blind, Forge tries to blame a poor upbringing due to his mother to the parole board at the prison in Icewind Dale... which convinces the board to immediately reject his pardon.
• When Forge's pardon is denied, he attempts the same stunt with tackling the Aarakocra out the window... except the board learned their lesson and replaced the broken window with brick rather than glass, so Forge winds up charging into a brick wall. What's even more hilarious was how they put up drapes to masquerade the wall, just to see if someone would try that stunt again.
  • And when Forge grabs him, one of the other parole board members calls Jarnathan's name... but unlike the first time, where they sounded concerned for his well-being, this time their tone says, "Dude, again?"
• As the party are getting medals for their deeds, Holga leans down towards a halfing man who's putting the medal around her neck. She gives the guy a long once over and looks at him flirtatiously.
• Simon convinces Doric to give their abortive romance a second chance... but it's very clear who's wearing the metaphorical pants.
  Simon: Perhaps you would consider having another go at it?
  Doric: [after a long think] Yeah, alright.
  Simon: [beaming] Really?!
  Doric: [immediately] Calm down.
  [Simon's grin fades, but only slightly]

Trailers, Promos, and Spinoffs

Trailers and promos

• This teaser repurposes footage from the 1983 cartoon series and uses Eric to voice fan nitpicking over Doric's abilities while everyone else tells him to shut up and the DM brushes away the inconsistency since he's the one who sets the rules of the setting.
  • Bobby calls Eric a "rules lawyer" which causes the rest of the party (except Eric of course) to laugh.
  • Even Dungeon Master gets in on it. Poor Eric can't catch a break.
    Dungeon Master: And Eric, you suck!
  • To boot, and possibly taking the sting out of the mockery for annoyed fans, this is also a Call-Back to Eric's executive-mandated role in the series.
• Another teaser (once again, reusing footage) has the 1983 group comment on their own cameos. Bobby is the only one who seems to like it.
  Diana: We fought a five-headed dragon — [cuts to Tiamat who roars] — and now we are just a glorified cameo.
  Bobby: I think it's cool being an easter egg!
  Eric: You're nine! That guy's like forty! You should be the most pissed!

The Druid's Call

• Doric meets a bunch of random girls in a tavern, one of whom is crying over a breakup. She volunteers to frighten her ex-boyfriend with her new owlbear form.
• The end of the book is Doric returning to the home of her abusive parents. Having found a loving family, close friends, and a job that she's proud of, Doric realizes that she no longer feels any pain when she sees them.
  And then, because she wasn’t perfect, she walked over to the sheep pen, opened the gate, and Wild Shaped into an owlbear.
• In the movie, Doric doesn't remember Simon when they first meet. The book reveals that they met twice before the events of the movie and she still doesn't remember him.