Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves / YMMV

And You Thought It Would Fail: Much of the early discussion of the film was that of worry, with trailers and marketing that didn't inspire a lot of confidence, multiple delays, and a poor track record of adaptations leading to many critics expecting a cringeworthy dud. The intense pre-release publicity was also nearly derailed when a mere two months before the film's final release date, a draft of a universally-disliked proposed update to the Open Game License was leaked to the public, provoking intense protest that included threats of boycotting the film before Wizards of the Coast went on massive damage control.^Explanation Then the film came out, and it was well received by audiences and critics alike, many praising it as a charmingly faithful adaptation of not merely Dungeons & Dragons as a game but also of the experience of playing a loose yet entertaining fantasy romp with close friends. All that being said, the film only netted a third over its production budget, making it an Acclaimed Flop after factoring in marketing costs.
Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Edgin's status as a Bard despite not using any magic associated with the class has been a recurring point of discussion among fans. While the Doylist reason for it is matters of story balance (allowing Simon to be the resident magic caster of the party), there's debate surrounding the idea that perhaps he is casting spells in a non-obvious way (his official character sheet lists him with spells including Friends, Charm Person, and Suggestion), or that there is no magic — that he's simply good with people and those abilities are interpreted in the film in only a symbolic sense. Some have argued that due to his typical Lovable Rogue traits and history of thievery, Edgin is actually more of an actual Rogue with high charisma, or at the very least multiclassing in it. The creators imply in an interview that Edgin is meant to represent a player who is somewhat casual and therefore doesn't tend to remember his spellcasting abilities, in favor of focusing on the Indy Ploy and straightforward action-hero stuff.
- Did Forge have any genuine affection for Kira, or was it just satisfaction at getting one more blow at Edgin and Holga? He is gentle with her for most of the movie, but he refers to fatherhood as being a "god" and is all too happy to threaten to kill a child in exchange for some treasure.
- Is Themberchaud really an Adaptational Dumbass who's no more intelligent than a feral beast, or is he simply not interested in striking up a conversation with his next meal?
Ass Pull: The Hither Thither Staff, conveniently there to help the party overcome an obstacle. An incredibly rare justified example because it's exactly the kind of twist that a Dungeon Master would pull if their players were completely failing to solve a critical puzzle and didn't want their party to fail the campaign in such a stupid and humiliating manner. Ironically, the staff ends up becoming far more useful to the party than the anti-magic helmet they were actually looking for.
Awesome Music:
- The trailers make good use of "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin — and they were the Trope Codifier for Heavy Mithril so it's basically coming full circle.
- Tame Impala's "Wings of Time", the film's end credits song.
- "Into The Castle", which plays during Holga's fight with the guards in the forge. The heavy percussion and chanting vocals really get the adrenaline pumping.
- "Juice of the Vine" is an immensely cheery Ode to Intoxication that just makes you want to grab a tankard of beer and sing along.
Catharsis Factor:
- Sofina and Forge both shouting "No no no!" in complete shock as two years of scheming, backstabbing, plotting, and manipulation all go down the drain because of a handful of half-rate adventurers who initially weren't even directly opposed nor aware of their plans a day or so ago.
- In a meta sense, many a player has wanted in campaign to do what Doric did to Sofina and absolutely thrash the BBEG. And for the extra measure of throwing her into a building and having a pillar crash onto her as insult to injury.
Cliché Storm: A common description for the film, even among critics who've praised it, is that it doesn't try to reinvent the wheel, playing many of its fantasy tropes (and even some common metagaming tropes) more or less totally straight, overall resulting in just a reliably "good" mix of action, fantasy, and comedy. This isn't really seen as too big of a problem since not only is D&D itself the codifier, if not progenitor of many of those tropes, the film approaches them with a lighthearted, mildly self-aware, yet ultimately sincere tone, which is to the film's benefit as it makes it accessible even to audiences unfamiliar with the source material, and it's evocative of the social atmosphere many find endearing about playing a typical campaign of D&D — Troperiffic as hell, but with the right people, you'll likely still have a good time.
Complete Monster:
- Szass Tam, master of Thay, is an evil Lich who was no longer content to be one of the ruling Zulkirs. Luring in the population of the capital city, Szass Tam cast the Beckoning Death to consume the souls of the people and turn them into undead abominations he used to conquer the entire land. Sending his agents through the land to expand his empire, Szass Tam is the mastermind behind the scheme to unleash the Beckoning Death upon Neverwinter and expand his domain.
- Sofina, an undead Red Wizard and servant of Szass Tam, assisted in the Beckoning Death and blocked numerous civilians from fleeing their horrific demise. Infiltrating Neverwinter and placing its Lord Neverember into a coma to secure the rise of Forge Fitzwilliam, Sofina assists in all Forge's depravities and betrayals. Summoning the Beckoning Death, Sofina plots to unleash it on the civilians of Neverwinter only to furiously rain magical destruction upon the city when the attempt fails.
- Forge Fitzwilliam is a seemingly charming con artist, who betrays his old friends Edgin and Holga while "adopting" Edgin's daughter Kyra out of sheer delight in having someone he can shape and mold to look up to him while poisoning her against her father. Forge runs Neverwinter as a despot, with killer Gladiator Games and efforts to wipe out the forest druids. Plotting to flee with his treasure, Forge lures the entire city to the latest games to die in the Beckoning Death and threatens to murder Kira should Edgin try to stop him.
Creepy Cute:
- Doric's owlbear form is more specifically Intimidating Cute. It's a fearsome, near-unstoppable engine of destruction that also happens to look adorably cuddly.
- Additionally, obese dragon Themberchaud is simultaneously a gigantic, rampaging god-monster trying to eat our heroes, and a fluffy, adorable chonk you’d want to hug a plushie of.
Diagnosed by the Audience: Xenk is often read as autistic, with fans citing his being Literal-Minded, seriousness at odds with the rest of the party, and strong morals as evidence for this interpretation.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Jarnathan, the poor Aarakocra councilman of the Cold Open that barely gets a line in before getting smashed out a window as an unwilling accomplice to a prison break. Twice.
Evil Is Cool: Sofina is a powerful Red Wizard who dances between The Comically Serious and genuinely threatening, alongside being a Person of Mass Destruction in the film's climax who takes all the heroes at once (even killing Holga temporarily). All of this is accompanied by a cold and sadistic performance by Daisy Head.
Fanfic Fuel: See Fanon, below. Since the movie feels so true to the experience of playing D&D, an easy fanfic idea would be to write the player and DM interactions that lead to the scenes we see on film.
Fanon: Lots of people, with varying degrees of seriousness, believe that the events of a movie are meant to be a tabletop campaign that a bunch of friends are playing. Perhaps the most fun way to watch the movie as a D&D fan is to imagine the "real-world" interactions between the players and the DM that result in what's being shown on screen:
- Most characters have a contemporary way of speaking and many have American accents. Simon being the only main character doing a British accent despite his actor also being American could be read as a player who is particularly committed to roleplaying.
- During the graveyard interrogation scene, the first corpse the party temporarily resurrects speaks in as gravelly and strained a voice as you would expect, but as the scene continues and the party questions other corpses, their voices gradually become clearer, where the final one they talk to sounds like any other normal person. One can very easily read this as the hypothetical DM starting off with a raspy zombie voice as part of roleplaying as the corpses, but steadily getting tired of it the longer the bit goes on and eventually giving up.
- The film's frequent juxtaposition of common and exotic names gets interpreted as not just merely preserving this phenomenon as it happens in the game's universe, but also reflective of whenever players or the DM get put on the spot and have to imagine a name at random. "Jarnathan" gets frequently cited as a "DM name" improvised for a throwaway NPC, usually the kind that players end up unexpectedly obsessed with and quickly rope into their shenanigans (i.e. exactly what happens in the film).
- Xenk is so different and more powerful than the main party because he is an NPC controlled by the Dungeon Master. His frequent expositing allows the DM to give necessary lore and backstory to the players, and his abrupt exit is similar to other DM-controlled NPCs who serve a temporary purpose to the campaign but eventually have to be removed to let the actual players take the reins. Alternatively, he could be a character controlled by a friend who had a scheduling conflict and could only join for part of the campaign, something that frequently happens with D&D player groups. His high power level and extremely literal character may even reference the builds frequently given to younger siblings or novices just dipping their toes into the game and just getting the hang of RP.
- As mentioned above under Ass Pull, the random retcon of a seemingly meaningless item into an overpowered Game-Breaker like the Hither Thither Staff after a party member completely screws up the campaign is an all-too-familiar sensation for any D&D player, as is the item taking on a life of its own and making other parts of the campaign basically irrelevant.
- Some of the more contrived and (un)lucky moments get explained away as players making particularly (un)lucky dice rolls, such as Simon instantly screwing up the bridge puzzle beyond repair being the result of a nat 1, or Holga successfully freeing Kira by chucking a potato at Forge's face being the result of a nat 20.
- Furthermore, the characters seem to either fall for or just plain don't check for traps, which can be explained as a Bard, a Barbarian, a Sorcerer and a Druid, none of the characters are actual Thieves (members of the Rogue class) and therefore don't have "Detect Traps" as an actual skill.
Friendly Fandoms: Naturally has one with fans of Critical Role with both having strong roots in D&D, to the point where many speculated the cast could make a cameo (they did not). Also spurred a light Fandom Rivalry due to Doric's uncanny resemblance to Keyleth and Holga's to Yasha, as well as whether this or The Legend of Vox Machina is a better D&D adaptation.
Genius Bonus:
- A pack of Intellect Devourers passes right by the party while they're infiltrating the Underdark. Xenk mentions that the creatures will go after whoever has the most intelligence. The party as it was currently constituted had no Intelligence-based classes in it going on the game's rules.
- Some viewers might guess right from his introduction that Forge Fitzwilliam will turn out to be a villain by remembering that the prefix "Fitz" ("son of") applied to a surname in medieval times sometimes indicated that the bearer was not born to properly wedded parents — in other words, he is literally a bastard.
- While the party is exploring the Underdark, Edgin and Holga are carrying lanterns to see in the dark, but Simon, Doric, and Xenk do not. As Simon and Doric are respectively a half-elf and a tiefling, both have natural darkvision, and thus don't need them (darkvision isn't innate to humans like Xenk, but based on what we know about him, it's certainly plausible that he gained darkvision through other means).
- When Xenk retrieves the Helm of Disjunction from its secret compartment, it appears to be half-buried in layer of dark, metallic sand. In most versions of D&D, treasure-detecting spells like Locate Object and Detect Magic are impeded by certain metals such as lead, so it's strongly implied that those are lead filings, and Xenk purposefully hid the Helm in the stuff to make it harder for people to find even with magic.
Ho Yay: Edgin and Xenk have a bit of this. Edgin's absolute disdain for paladins reads like the pair have history (despite only just meeting), and Xenk seems to purposefully wind him up during the moments they share together. You also can't mistake the moony looks everyone gives Xenk when he walks through any populated space!
Improved Second Attempt: The previous cinematic iteration of Dungeons & Dragons consisted of the hilariously terrible 2000 film and its two direct-to-DVD sequels. Meanwhile, Honor Among Thieves has received praise for being a fun and funny action-fantasy film with real heart and solid action, earning high praise from both fans and casual movie-goers alike. One particular point of praise is how unlike previous adaptations, Honor Among Thieves was made to resemble the experience of playing D&D as a very player-centric, social game before game mechanics and lore rather than strictly adapting its fiction, elevating what may be generic high-fantasy fare into a much more lighthearted, self-aware, yet fully earnest and down-to-earth romp.
Like You Would Really Do It: Holga's death leaves little in the way of dramatic impact due to Edgin having taken the Tablet of Reawakening from Forge not even half an hour ago. Due to Holga dying from a Red Wizard's blade, the same method that killed Zia which led Edgin to seek the Tablet to begin with, it becomes very apparent that Edgin will use the Tablet on Holga to revive her.
Love to Hate: Forge Fitzwilliam may be a traitorous, cowardly bastard, but Hugh Grant is clearly having so much fun hamming it up as a slimy conman that he's endlessly entertaining to watch.
Memetic Mutation:
- The movie going through multiple Release Date Changes led to many jokes about how it was just like a real-life D&D group that has to keep rescheduling sessions.
- The image of Edgin's illusory image breaking down naturally sees a lot of use in D&D memes for when a Bard screws up a roll… and the absurd amount of videos talking about the Wizards of the Coast OGL tribulations and subsequent problems when it became a Box Office Bomb.
Mis-blamed: It's not uncommon for people to claim that the controversies surrounding Wizards of the Coast, particularly with the game that inspired the film, caused the film to not do as well as it could've. While one could argue that it didn't help, the main culprit lies with Paramount deciding to release the film around the same time as box office juggernauts The Super Mario Bros. Movie and John Wick: Chapter 4, which played a much bigger part in the film not doing as well as hoped.
Moral Event Horizon: Forge Fitzwilliam is a duplicitous and treacherous snake from the moment we discover that he betrayed the group as well as his emotional manipulation of Edgin's daughter. His one redeeming quality is that he has treated Kira well in the two years she has been in his care and he seems to genuinely love her. But this all goes away when he holds a knife to her throat, fully willing to kill the girl he's adopted to get back his treasure.
Narm Charm:
- Holga and Marlamin have a heart-to-heart about the demise of their marriage. The conversation covers the usual tropes and clichés about unfulfilling relationships, and the character designs could make it too ridiculous to take seriously, but Michelle Rodriguez and Bradley Cooper (even while doing a funny voice) wring genuine pathos out of the moment as Holga finds closure and the two ultimately part as friends.
- Both Doric and Xenk have their introduction scenes so over-the-top, they go full circle from amusing, to eye-rolling, and back to amusing because of how eye-rolling they are. At least in the case of Xenk, this was intentional, given his status as Incorruptible Pure Pureness.
- Many of the decisions, contrived incidents, and other things that shouldn't work do simply because they're the kind of thing that'd actually happen in a D&D campaign if the players rolled poorly or well.
- Most of the practical effects in the film are pretty darn ace, so much that even the occasional blemish comes off as endearing. The animatronic tabaxi in Xenk's introduction scene gets singled out for looking especially clunky but is often forgiven as being the charming kind of clunky, similar to a puppet from a Jim Henson project or early Star Wars film (it also helps that the scene is overall intentionally meant to be a bit silly in showing how much of a paragon Xenk is).
- Themberchaud is a ridiculously obese dragon that gets around by belly-flopping and rolling... and is utterly out of the party's league, easily devouring the Thayan assassins and leaving the party no choice but to run away. In a movie with the corrupt lord of Neverwinter and an Evil Sorcerer (well, Wizard) he's still the highest threat by a mile.
Nightmare Fuel:
- As part of the intro, at least in some screenings, a dragon tries to rip its way out of the screen, complete with a Jump Scare. The appearance of the dragon's face at the end can also be unnerving.
  - In fact, this is a shortened version of a video that was shown off at the Paris premiere. At two separate points, the venue is suddenly thrown into chaos, and only the dragon's silhouette is shown as it trashes the set behind the screen.
- Sofina herself is a twisted creature with her pale face and horrible hands and that's before she's exposed as a Red Wizard, complete with her true appearance as a rotted, decayed-looking hag with moth-eaten robes.
  - The shriek she lets out upon realizing Doric is spying on them as a bee.
- The Beckoning Death, a red cloud that transforms anyone it touches into an undead slave to Sofina. The flashback to it unleashed and turning people (including Xenk's parents and a little girl) into monsters is chilling. It's also used by Sofina on some Neverwinter merchants, who are warped before our eyes.
- In Xenk's flashback to when he lost his parents to the Beckoning Death as a young child, he was barely out of the spell's range when he hesitated and turned back, looking for his parents. Then his already-transformed parents Jump Scare him by lunging out of the red fog as snarling reanimated minions attempting to drag him back in, scaring him into running off for good. Oh, and did we mention he was only a kid when this happened?
- Szass Tam’s first appearance, where his white eyes glint out of a cloud of darkness like a true horror movie monster.
- Simon's illusion spell of a singing Edgin, used to distract the Neverwinter guards. After Simon gets too distracted to keep the spell going, the illusion of Edgin starts repeating himself in an unnatural loop before his eyes begin bulging out of their sockets and his head shrinks down so far it looks like he's imploding. While firmly meant to be humourous, divorced from the scene people will find it horrific.
Older Than They Think:
- Numerous reviews and casual viewers pointed out the Cliché Storm as an obvious issue of the movie... except for the fact that this is Dungeons & Dragons media. D&D is in many ways the Trope Codifier for "generic fantasy" as most people understand it nowadays, making it near impossible to do something else than just play those cliches straight without bastardizing the franchise in some way.
- When she was first revealed and confirmed to be a tiefling, Doric received a bit of backlash for not being a red-skinned, fiendish babe typically associated with the race, instead appearing with Sophia Lillis' natural skin tone with horns and a tail. This interpretation has its basis in early editions of the game which describe tieflings as largely human sans a few stereotypically "fiendish" features, with the more popular devilish image of tieflings not being codified until the 4th Edition (and even then, red skin isn't a strict rule — the Player's Handbook describes their potential skin tones as covering "the full range of human coloration" plus red as a bonus).
One-Scene Wonder:
- Jarnathan, the aaracokra council member who is press-ganged into Edgin and Holga's escape, is memorable for being a stand-out character design in a film with protagonists who are basically human, and for the costume being entirely practical.
- Themberchaud only appears as a one-off encounter and is never mentioned afterwards, but is easily one of the most memorable threats in the film for being a perfect combination of unexpectedly hilarious and genuinely fearsome, making for a sidesplitting yet intense and exciting chase scene.
Portmanteau Couple Name: Xedgin, for Edgin and Xenk.
Special Effects Failure:
- The animatronic Tabaxi costumes look rough in a movie that generally has excellent, or at least unobtrusive, makeup designs for its creatures. According to Word of God in the art book, however, this was the result of needing last-minute replacement actors and operators who weren't as familiar with how to operate the suits.
- The halfling characters' special effects (mostly looking like a full-size actor digitally scaled down and inserted in the scene) vary from "sort of believable" to obvious effects, mostly depending on the quality of the green-screen work.
Spiritual Adaptation: The humorous take on tabletop RPG-style Fantasy would make the movie a homage to The Order of the Stick or Slayers, or perhaps The Gamers: Dorkness Rising.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Of the four leads, Doric gets the least amount of focus and ends up feeling rather flat next to the other characters. Her backstory — being raised by wood elves after her human parents abandoned her for being a tiefling, leading her to despise all humans — is interesting but has little development, being relegated to one line at the start setting it up and one line in the denouement concluding it. Her power set is the most visually interesting of the core cast and contributes to plenty of cool sequences, but she doesn't utilize it through almost the entire second act. Her on-and-off romance with Simon is never brought to the forefront either, and comes off as just a throwaway excuse to bring her into the party.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Sofina and Xenk never interact once for the entire movie, despite both coming from the same city. This on its own wouldn't be a big deal, but because they both have connections to Thay, and the plot of the film revolves around Sofina planning to cause something like what happened in Thay, which played a role in Xenk's life, the film seems to be setting up some kind of interacting, but instead they never meet or talk. It makes sense in the context of the film's development, where Xenk was a last minute replacement for iconic D&D hero Drizzt Do'Urden and they needed another character with a reason for Edgin to mistrust, but it still represents a missed opportunity.
Unexpected Character: Nobody was expecting the party from the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon to make a cameo.
Viewer Name Confusion: Many viewers miss the fact that Chancellor Jarnathan's name abides by the classic trope of D&D characters being named by slightly modifying a mundane name, mishearing the aarakocra's oft-repeated name to actually be the mundane name of Jonathan.
Viewer Species Confusion: Gorg — the prisoner introduced entering Edgin and Holga's cell at the start of the film — isn't identified by race in the film, leaving some viewers, especially non-D&D fans, confused as to what exactly he is, with perhaps the most common misconception being that he's an orc. He's actually a hobgoblin.
Visual Effects of Awesome: The film boasts a diverse mix of effects, using CGI only for effects that could not be replicated physically, and otherwise using a mix of sets and practical effects. Of note, every non-human character is done with makeup or animatronics, as are several monsters. Even magic was done practically whenever possible, and it looks so seamless that it's impossible to tell. The director shows off some notable physical effects on his twitter.
Woolseyism: The insult "Son of a bitch" doesn't exist in Norwegian (except for the rather forced and awkward "Tispesønn"), so when Holga calls Forge a son of a bitch and a confused Xenk asks if Forge blames things on his mother, the subtitles instead has Holga say "Jævel", slang for "devil", with Xenk asking if Forge is being influenced by fiends.

YMMV / Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

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