5 Reasons To Worship Community’s Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 

I’m a total geek, yet I don’t know anything about Dungeons & Dragons other than I’ve heard of it; and (way) back in the day I saw this TV movie that featured a game that was pretty much a D&D ripoff called Mazes and Monsters. It starred Tom Hanks and an actor named Chris Makepeace, who I’m only bringing up because he once starred in a movie called My Bodyguard with Adam Baldwin. Yes, that Adam Baldwin. Anyway, I loved the way Community dealt with this game of fantasy and intrigue. It was just so well done so I came up with five reasons to worship “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons”:
1. The scope of the episode. The show transformed itself to fit this Dungeons & Dragons universe: from the opening theme song; to the sound effects; and the entire story that was fashioned by the writers. It was intense and serious; but not without a ton of hilarious lines. Some of my favorite parts of the episode: the walking montage; Annie’s description of what Hector would do to the elf maiden, which Kara Howland recently dubbed her Moment of Goodness; and the gnome waiter dying was so sad. The cast really jumped into this adventure a hundred percent.

2. Fat Neil. I hate even writing the words “Fat Neil” but I liked how the group tried to help him out. Most of them were doing it from the goodness of their heart; I’m OK with Jeff doing it out of a sense of guilt; and Pierce helping Neil despite his evil self. And Neil went through a whirlwind of emotions during the episode, didn’t he? He came out of the other side in a much better place. Inviting Pierce to play Dungeons & Dragons again was really cool of him. Charley Koontz played Fat Neil to perfection.

3. Abed the Dungeon Master. He’s the storyteller of the group so he was the perfect choice to embody the role of Dungeon Master. Danny Pudi rocked it once again. Loved how Abed (or Ay-bed as Pierce called him) couldn’t name the characters well. Here’s a rundown:
-Shirley was a dwarf named Zippity-Doo
-Jeff was named Mawwwwwrrrrrr
-Troy was named Bing Bong the Archer
-Annie was Hector the Well-Endowed
-Britta was Lavernica
-Neil was Duquesne (Well, Abed didn’t name him)
-Chang was Brutalitops the Magician
-Pierce was the villainous Pierce Hawthorne then Draconis the flying dragon

4. Senor Chang. The show is working in Chang more and more. He was such a welcome — and funny — presence. Any way they want to work him in they should go ahead and do it. I’ll suspend my disbelief anytime they need me to. I love Ken Jeong. I especially loved the way Chang was eliminated from the game; he walked off in shame and simply disappeared. It was so sad to see him go.

5. The Narrator. The person narrating the episode — with the oh so pretty voice — turned out to be the maintenance woman vacuuming up at the end. Genius.

Some favorite lines:

“So, we’re just going to ignore that hate crime, huh?”

“Shouldn’t there be a board or some pieces or something to Jenga?”

“AT&T of people!” “You’ve been shot by an arrow.” “Ow!!!” “Yeah, that hurts.”

“What am I not good at?” “Sex.”

“You remembered to invite Al Jolson, here.”

“I’m…ew! Hector the Well-Endowed! Abed…” “I didn’t know you’d just grab them at random. I made that one with Troy in mind.” “Yeah…I bet you did.”

“Great! I stroke her hair lovingly and spoon her for the appropriate amount of time before leaving.” “How long is that?”

“Huzzah!”

“He is faced down, barely moving, a pool of blood underneath.” “I can’t tell you how long I’ve dreamed of this moment…in the game.”

“This is why I wanted to play Chutes and Ladders!”

“I hope you had a good time. Excelsior!”