I love that "Tell Ruby I love her" was kind of a desperate, last words line, but then when Brennan recontextualizes it as her spirit standing near she realizes she has a little more time to speak and the priority immediately becomes "She has to know she's not at fault." Protective to the last
murph was so right when he said regardless of success, liams rope trick was the difference between jet "getting murdered in an attic verious dying in a magical demiplane with your close friend"
My daughter hates that I watched this and was so like, "see ... Bratty kids can't just stay home and behave... Serves then right for sneaking out when they should know better by now". Much different than Lapin which made me truly sad.
God, the worst part of this is Ruby's turn in the shop, seeing actual despair and helplessness as both Siobhan the player and Ruby the character have no idea what to do. Watching Siobhan struggle with knowing she couldn't fight off the attackers and having to run, combined with her in-character and also likely very real survivor's guilt, is just devastating.
Hope everyone doing good and staying safe. If you need to talk to someone or need help, there are people who care. Sending support and hearts. ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
honestly, I do wish Lapin's death was talked about more, but obviously I understand that Jet, being related to 4 of the PCs and several major NPCs, had a bigger impact on the party and story than an advisor of the king's. I just love Lapin so much and wish he had as much support in universe as he does in the fandom
@@dwell7315 I agree. I wish Lapin had lasted much longer, not only his character was truely fascinating and fun, but it was rare for Zac to have such a role. He almost never plays the role of the serious/cunning/scheming one, and for the very little time it lasted, it truely felt like the role was made for him.
Lapin might be my second favorite Zac character (#1 will always be Skip from Starstruck Odyssey). The way Zac would suddenly loom in on Lou, thereby startling Amethar, was too funny. And the line "where's your bulb now" was just too good. But Cumulous had some very funny moments, especially when Zac was miming as an unconscious Cumulous being shoved off a cliff and then dangling from Ruby's rope. And also, when he kept finding magical weapons and artifacts and crying over them.
On the lighter side, in the end it went like Emily: "Oh, you're going to kill my character? Fine, just you wait so i can reroll a multiclassed sorcerer cleric to completely destroy your campaign."
@@acolytetojippity in fact, looking at all the secondary characters, they were all overpowered, had their been a time of a first wave TPK, the combined strength of the second team would’ve been explosive
tbh because that roll was 40ish and her hit points were like 60 she should have rolled a DC16 check or been killed outright both times from 'massive damage'
I have no context for this clip, but seeing Siobhan tear up like that and really struggling immediately is both the most heartbreaking thing to witness, and also the best thing that could happen to a DM & campaign
@@mdtexeira the episodes premiered on TH-cam week after week, what the OP was referencing was the Live Chat for those premiers, which was an experience, shit got pretty awesome and gut wrenching
I usually hate spoilers but I’m really grateful someone told me about this in advance so I wasn’t blindsided. I’ve watched this season more times than I can count and I still get a little choked up at Brennan’s and the sisters’ faces. I love this team so much for their incredible storytelling ability.
I got the opposite. I saw fanart that was of Jett as the captain of the Tart Guard and thought she'd be fine. It fuckin destroyed me and I couldn't finish the series. It's a good thing you could prepare. Edit: Jett. Not Ruby.
@@thestranger954 Did you mean Jett (Emily Axford)? The show is so, so worth finishing, my friend. Please let them make the loss matter. Saccarina is a delight when she joins the team ❤️
i legit sobbed when this happened and wasn’t spoiled before - it was a great first time experience bc i didn’t realize how emotionally invested i was until that point, and i still cry on every rewatch too. the fact that the girls are also crying adds a lot to it as well, i never knew you could be so connected to a PC that you can’t help but mourn them, and that elevated the rest of the campaign for me.
I'm glad it was slightly spoiled for me because had I not known as bad as it broke my heart I can't imagine how much worse it would have been if it blind sided me
I was spoiled by the wiki fairly early on, though I didn't mouse over the "spoilered" parts regarding the new PC's, I did see "Status: Deceased" on Jet's wiki page, which led me to look up what episode it happened in so I didn't get ambushed
I know a lot of people are nervous about character death, and rightfully so, after all, people get attached. But I gotta admit, I always like to ask that at Session 0, if "Death will be a thing". Not because I want to avoid it, but because knowing that there -can- be consequence is what makes it FEEL like the characters come alive, and feels like they can be lost, and builds that attachment far higher. The hardest lesson I feel most players need to learn, is that failing a roll isn't failure, it's just another path to the story, and that a character's death isn't the death of the game. It's just time for the next character to be played to shine. (Depending on the ideas of the campaign and intent)
@@megaman1on1 I really think character deaths need to be pretty intentional, though. Here, although this character death may have been a surprise, it was a significant story beat, and there was an element of sacrifice; Brennan helped to pad it out, thanks in part to Ally's interference, in a way that made it feel meaningful. I've had DMs before who give the whole "We don't pull punches, the possibility of death makes the characters' lives more significant" speech, but then the deaths were like to a random poison trap or some other dumb garbage, and ultimately it just made players feel much LESS attached to their characters, and made the story a janky mess without a consistent cast at all
@@Aburaishi Plus they kind of deserved this death. If you look at all the details about how they got there in the first place, it was like 100% their own fault. They're in a situation where they're so surrounded by enemies that they need to stay in a castle to stay safe, and when a really obviously suspicious letter shows up, they instead sneak out like children again to satisfy their immature curiosity. Brennan did this on purpose specifically to kill them because they weren't learning just how seriously bad everything is right now. The bulbians are on their way to *genocide* candians. Right. Now.
@@treeofrage7622 that's something you'll need to learn to change in your future games. Some of the most memorable moments I've had in campaigns is the deaths of characters. Notice how they are close to tears here... that kind of emotion now... leads to an even greater feeling of triumph later. The skill of a DM does come into that though, needs to serve the story. Obviously would suck for a MC to die to something ridiculous and ruin a good story. Something to think about :)
@@treeofrage7622 I mean is making a new character really that difficult? The character sheet itself is about 15 minutes, and for the backstory it really depends on the depth of it. It’s not like you’re going to be or should be killing characters every single session
I can't believe this video was uploaded today. I *just* got to this place in a Crown of Candy and am honestly broken. When even the DM is holding back tears you know some sh*t when down. Beautiful storytelling, but it ripped my heart to pieces.
There is a moment in Ruby's turn where you can see Brennan kinda smiles a bit. And I don't mean that in a "look at the evil DM" kind of way, but in a "He looks so proud that his players bought in". I would consider my life COMPLETE if I get any player to feel that kind of desperation at my table.
The most powerful part about this to me is not the mourning of a character death, but the mourning of sisters. Both Siobhan and Emily have sisters themselves. You can tell they felt it. Ruby says as much, calling Jet the other half of her in later scenes. And the sister thing makes the Saccharina storyline even MORE heartbreaking because as “too much” as she is for the other characters at first, you know that if Ruby was in the emotional place to embrace her, Saccharina would have loved and protected Ruby INSTANTLY with her entire heart. It’s the big sister effect. I don’t know if people without a sister get this. I just got a surprise little sister in one of my campaigns and let me tell you, I have yet to have a conversation with that kid, but I would kill or die for her. I’m an older sister in real life, too. And the character I play in that campaign is my favorite character I’ve ever created and I’m so connected to her. And STILL even without ever having a conversation with this little sister of mine, the only way I would not fight my own character’s death or destruction is if in some way it would save her sister. I’d be devastated, but I’d let it happen. In ANY other circumstance I’d be bullying the party to find my Druid mom to cast raise dead or true resurrection 😂
i feel the same way about my brothers, i haven't really had a sister so i imagine that the relationships a little bit different but i know i'd die for any one of them any day of the week
I don’t have a sister, but I have a twin brother. I’m only a minute older, but I’ve always thought it was my job to protect him. I know it got annoying because I tried to be almost a second mother and keep him from doing stupid shit, but we are still best friends despite of that. As a twin, this death broke me. The PCs played this so well that this scene is what comes to mind when I think of D&D and the storytelling possibilities. They are little people made of candy but the grief feels so real.
Coming from a family that was outwardly about togetherness, but inwardly about themselves, and seeing how earnest and caring you all are for your siblings gives me an awful bittersweetness.
Hope everyone doing good and staying safe. If you need to talk to someone or need help, there are people who care. Sending support and hearts. ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
This was a heartbreaking moment. There was a hope the first time I saw it that someone would be able to save her. But it is also Game of Thrones inspired, so it wasn't totally surprising. Just sad.
what makes it even more heartbreaking is... Ruby running probably wasn't the optimal play. Story-wise it makes sense to run for help, but if she had been able to use her turn to go invisible and then go into the Rope Trick with Liam and Jet, the Locket of the Sweetest Heart would have let her grant advantage. So Jet's saves could have been flat, rather than disadvantaged. But well. This campaign setting was designed to kill characters and break hearts. And so it did T-T
It was a tough call...at 3 hp, if she had stayed, Ciabatta's men might've been able to finish her off hitting at disadvantage...If they'd had even one other party member at the time they'd of stood a chance thanks to the action economy but that was just so brutal.
I honestly don't know if that's true necessarily. Rope trick would have protected them for an hour, but Jet may have still died and the Ceresians would likely have come back to the castle to "follow" them, and might have ambushed a very weak Amethar, or Theo with Caramelinda. Even if none of that happens, Jet is still unconscious and Ruby's still at 3 HP and they have to get all the way to the castle then run all the way to the ship. Obviously this was a massive lose-lose, but I think Ruby running is both in-character for her to do and the best play for everyone's survival. That being said, I'm still sad that Liam/Ally chose, by complete chance iirc, to attack the one attacker who happened to not be a goon. With the amount of damage he dealt, it's likely he could have killed two of the underlings, letting both Ruby and Jet take much less damage. It just so happened that Liam dealt enough damage to severely wound Ciabatta but not kill him, which also likely would have called off the attack.
I’m not sure the character of Ruby would do that though. She’s very young and foolhardy and this was her biggest reality check. For her to not be able to think straight here and be utterly traumatized, only able to freeze or flee, is extremely realistic to the character. It’s really commendable that Siobhan and Emily did not let their wisdom and experience as players and older adults to influence their characters’ decisions which were going to lead here.
@@math9172 Since the Unconscious condition is mechanical, not literal, I imagine Jet was able to speak those words to her physically as she fell. So the last thing Ruby heard Jet say as she fell to the ground and lost consciousness was, "Run." The rest was history.
My sister died suddenly when my parents were away on vacation. I dont know how to deacribe it to someone who hasnt been through it. But seeing this made me remember how helpless and alone i felt waiting for my parents to get back home.
This season was full of great “fringe” spellcasting moments. Detect Poison and Knock are also spells nobody ever takes, that got the chance to be completely badass.
when i first saw this i had to stop watching the season for literal months. im gonna try to finish it now cause i wanna know what happens but FUCK. this is so devastating and it was definitely not helpful that i was watching this on the anniversary of my sister’s death and didnt know jet was gonna die
If you haven't gotten around to it yet, I cannot recommend it enough. While Jet's death is talked about extensively (as you might imagine) as it's obviously super important, it creates some incredible character moments, especially between Ruby and Amethar and Ruby and Emily's new character, Saccharina. The finale could not more perfectly tie up everyone's arcs in very satisfying ways, and is well worth the heartbreak it takes to get there, imo. If you have already gotten around to finishing it, then ignore me entirely lol
I watched this campaign the week I lost someone very close to me. I watched this scene the day I found that person after a week a coma had passed. This scene was the carthtic cry I needed. I could cry and cry and cry over a fictional character the way I couldn't let myself cry for my friend. I am telling you now D20 is sometimes just the kind of therapy I need.
I love brennans little smirk at 1:47 the satisfaction of hitting a huge story beat and also after trying to kill them the whole season, only go back to being bummed
God bless Brennan Lee Mulligan and the entirety of the D20 cast and crew. You can tell a lot of love and tears went into making this series. Just finished watching this episode for the first time and holy shit did it rip my heart out. FUCK CRULLER!!!
Me and my boyfriend started bawling when this scene happened... omg it makes my soul hurt right now 😭😭 it's the "works not over", that got to me so bad
I've been watching a handful of Dimension 20 stuff via clips since I don't have Dropout so I'm not attached to these characters but this still had me borderline sobbing on a Sunday afternoon? I think the look on Siobhan's face was what broke me
I have seen so much shit that would make a grown man cry, and I never thought that I would cry the hardest at this event. It is a dream of mine to someday play dungeons and dragons with these people. The raw emotion.
Currently playing one half of a brother-sister duo and holy crap do I understand this. I have a brother irl, and I'm a theatre kid who loves improv, so I get very emotionally invested in my character and the relationships she has with other characters. My character losing her brother was and is something both she and I struggle with.
Is Siobhan really emotional or is she just an amazing actress? I saw this scene and I was myself in tears for a good long time with her, Emily, and even Brennan getting choked up. When Ruby's shadow said goodbye, I could see that was also possibly a very emotionally charged moment where it could have prompted her to really cry. However, in the episode after Jet dies, at the very beginning of the episode before anything even happens she gets immediately into character and starts crying with just as much emotion as she does both the other times I've mentioned. Now, it is entirely possible that she was already that emotional just from the recap and the memory of what happened, but that one was quick and came out of almost no precursor to speak of. If she's acting... she is REALLY good.
The impression I got from what she said on Adventuring Party was that all of her tears were real. I remember her saying something about going into work after spending the weekend filming these and feeling a little embarrassed about how upset she still was because if any of her coworkers asked her what’s wrong she’d have to tell them she was sad about something that happened in her D&D game.
something else to mention is that they were filming 2 episodes in a day, with a break in between (they talk about this on adventuring party). The next episode after this one was filmed only a couple hours after, so while Siobhan is probably able to summon up the emotion with the drop of a hat anyways because she's an amazing actor, Jet dying really only happened a couple hours before they started filming the next episode- which (i would assume) makes it easy for Siobhan to get back into character and be just as emotional since it literally just happened
I think it's half and half. She was genuinely emotional at this moment AND she's an amazing actress, and if you think about it the two are basically equivalent. In order to play a character, you have to really become them and feel like them, and that's this immersion (her acting skills) that allows her to more easily feel emotions for her character.
Everyone championing emily in this scene doesnt understsnd that Brennan does all the leg work. "Hand on shoulder, good job soldier you got her home." From the aunt that the characters admired. Poetry.
I just wish there had been character growth around this. The immaturity that was the whole cause of this death was never embraced by the players as even a potential character avenue to explore
i've been wanting to rewatch some of my favorite d20 shows again recently but this scene singlehandedly keeps me away from rewatching acoc for the longest time don't get me wrong i love this campaign it's one of my top 3 but the heartache this scene caused me legitimately ruined me when i first watched it, like gasping-for-air sobbing at 2 am type of ruined
I mean it was definitely obviously this one though. Acoc was a tense season and there were a lot of tense and dramatic moments, but I don't think any of them came close to this one in terms of actual tragedy. Lapin was some dude we knew for 6 episodes. Preston was very cute but ultimately also died too early and had too little character depth (SORRY PRESTON LOVE YOU) for it to really stick out to me. Jet's loss stung more than anything because she was so so full of life and she had so many plans, so much love to give and receive, so much to fight for, and she spent the whole time trying to protect Ruby just because she loved her... and to make Ruby have to run away while her other half dies was shattering in a way that nothing else in the season ever really touched. To be fair I also hated Saccharina so maybe I'm biased against her scenes.
I just watched the first episode today, trying not to binge watching, but I encounter a video where Emily basically destroyed Brennan's campaign and one of the comments was Emily's wearing the same shirt when Jet was killed, and my heart dropped, the way I got bamboozled from a TH-cam comments 😅
From a dnd campaign perspective this is moment is very important, and I can't tell whether they decided not to do everything they could on purpose because it tells a better story, but if Ruby had held her action and gone into the rope trick as well as Jet and Liam she could have given Jet advantage on her saving throws with their locket making the death throws a straight roll rather than a roll with disadvantage. She could have still died but it would've given her a better chance, and it would have given a moment for Ruby to spend with Jet in her final moments giving her the opportunity to say something which could have exacerbated the sombre tone of the story. It would've been interesting to see how that changed the parties interactions with Saccharina as well if Jet had survived. It is a GofT moment though that is the unique appeal of a story like this. It is crazy though everything that happened because if they had rolled worse Jet, Ruby and Amethar could've all died within the same episode. If Brennan was feeling brutal he could've also had Ruby take 3 opportunity attacks (with disadvantage for invisibility) on her way out the room possibly having Jet and Ruby both in Liam's rope trick making death saves but Jet making them straight and Ruby making them with advantage (with their necklace).
1:05 "Umm, you also fall victim to the poisoned condition..." ...The character just got beat down to ~negative 20HP, pretty sure the poison is redundant. I guess they got rid of the rule where when you hit negative 10 you die.
Basically if the damage done takes them over the edge and reaches their hit point maximum it’s insta death so if a character had 40 hit points and has 6 left and if hit for 47 that would hit them for the last of their health and go over their hit point maximum. That’s how they play this
Watersteel daggers were very much designed to have a “technically you might survive this” energy so it makes sense that they handwaved “massive damage”
@@andreacallegari7137 They were playing a Gloomstalker Ranger with levels in Assassin Rogue I believe. There's story reasons that the character didn't have any healing.
@@andreacallegari7137 Also you usually have to like pick the spells and if Ally didn't pick healing they probably didn't do so for a reason. Not everyone optimizes characters like that.
This was Brennan getting really mad at the characters still acting like children lmao. They KNOW that most of the world is out to kill them. There are assassins everywhere. And when their family is sent a suspicious letter that, in this time, in this setting, was obviously some kind of plot, they STILL go to check it out. They walked right into this because they wanted to live like children in a time where they couldn't.
that isn’t true that he is mad at them. they were kids in the campaign, like teenagers/young adults and that would have been their first reaction is to fuck around. idk where you got that bullshit from but don’t spread lies.
They ARE children. They’re teenagers. In spite of everything, this still makes perfect sense. They knew it might be dangerous and gravely overestimated their abilities. As intended.
@@emilysmith2965 Oh of course. My comment was to construe that everything within the story itself made sense, it just *also* matched with how the players were playing. Intentionally or otherwise. This was a big mistake, someone had to die for it.
I love that "Tell Ruby I love her" was kind of a desperate, last words line, but then when Brennan recontextualizes it as her spirit standing near she realizes she has a little more time to speak and the priority immediately becomes "She has to know she's not at fault."
Protective to the last
Hope you are doing good and staying safe. If you need to talk to someone or need help, there are people who care. Sending support and hearts. ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
murph was so right when he said regardless of success, liams rope trick was the difference between jet "getting murdered in an attic verious dying in a magical demiplane with your close friend"
Definitely saved Liam’s life though
Where did he say that, was it in an interview somewhere?
@@MattDawgGaming I believe it was in the adventuring party for this episode!
“Works not over” fucking sent me through the roof.
My daughter hates that I watched this and was so like, "see ... Bratty kids can't just stay home and behave... Serves then right for sneaking out when they should know better by now". Much different than Lapin which made me truly sad.
God, the worst part of this is Ruby's turn in the shop, seeing actual despair and helplessness as both Siobhan the player and Ruby the character have no idea what to do. Watching Siobhan struggle with knowing she couldn't fight off the attackers and having to run, combined with her in-character and also likely very real survivor's guilt, is just devastating.
not to mention them being there in the first place is because Ruby convinced Jet to come with her. So even worse survivor's guilt
Hope everyone doing good and staying safe. If you need to talk to someone or need help, there are people who care. Sending support and hearts. ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
i appreciate that after this and lapins death the whole party were committed to ruining brennans life
honestly, I do wish Lapin's death was talked about more, but obviously I understand that Jet, being related to 4 of the PCs and several major NPCs, had a bigger impact on the party and story than an advisor of the king's. I just love Lapin so much and wish he had as much support in universe as he does in the fandom
@@dwell7315 I agree. I wish Lapin had lasted much longer, not only his character was truely fascinating and fun, but it was rare for Zac to have such a role. He almost never plays the role of the serious/cunning/scheming one, and for the very little time it lasted, it truely felt like the role was made for him.
@@dwell7315 well, we got to see lapin again in that kind of an afterlife giving Liam some great advice
Lapin might be my second favorite Zac character (#1 will always be Skip from Starstruck Odyssey). The way Zac would suddenly loom in on Lou, thereby startling Amethar, was too funny. And the line "where's your bulb now" was just too good.
But Cumulous had some very funny moments, especially when Zac was miming as an unconscious Cumulous being shoved off a cliff and then dangling from Ruby's rope. And also, when he kept finding magical weapons and artifacts and crying over them.
On the lighter side, in the end it went like Emily: "Oh, you're going to kill my character? Fine, just you wait so i can reroll a multiclassed sorcerer cleric to completely destroy your campaign."
She fully succeeded in this, as well lol. Saccharinea absolutely destroyed Brennan lol
all the cast's secondary/replacement characters were created prior to the game starting, iirc.
@@acolytetojippity they were, but that's a lot less fun of a story 😉
@@acolytetojippity in fact, looking at all the secondary characters, they were all overpowered, had their been a time of a first wave TPK, the combined strength of the second team would’ve been explosive
@@manticorephoenix we only got to see two of the backups right? Were the others revealed or like, were there sheets released?
you can tell how much of a surprise and how hard that was for everyone when Brennan choked up
And then later, as the king falls, he's thinking back to the daddy daughter special, and sees the light go out. That broke me.
"tell ruby i love her. and tell her she did the right thing" i'm sorry who gave you the right to break me like this emily
I can usually keep it together until that line. Makes me think about my own sisters and I just lose it.
I didn't realize you could make death saving throws at disadvantage, that's terrifying.
i mean it's a house rule here but bro if it was in rules as written the poisoned condition would be even worse
It kinda makes sense, you can have the burning condition when you reach 0 and die.
If you can roll at advantage, which you can with death saves through magic and item effects, you can roll at disadvantage as well.
Death Saving Throws are Saving Throws, so anything which affects Saving Throws affects them too.
tbh because that roll was 40ish and her hit points were like 60 she should have rolled a DC16 check or been killed outright both times from 'massive damage'
I have no context for this clip, but seeing Siobhan tear up like that and really struggling immediately is both the most heartbreaking thing to witness, and also the best thing that could happen to a DM & campaign
God, there will never be another experience like watching this live in chat. The WAVE of collective grief was something else
Pretty sure this wasn't streamed. I think D20 has only done one live show.
@@mdtexeira it was prerecorded, yes, but they had a countdown to watch the episode launch on TH-cam before it went behind the paywalls.
@@mdtexeira the episodes premiered on TH-cam week after week, what the OP was referencing was the Live Chat for those premiers, which was an experience, shit got pretty awesome and gut wrenching
+
We're all sobbing over candy people. Proof that a story is so much greater than just its components.
Sobbing down big style
dungeons and drag queens will do the same!
its also my least favorite kind of candy that im crying about
Can I just say how heartbreaking it is to not only be able to see their characters but also themselves react this way. Emily and Siobhan are awesome
I usually hate spoilers but I’m really grateful someone told me about this in advance so I wasn’t blindsided. I’ve watched this season more times than I can count and I still get a little choked up at Brennan’s and the sisters’ faces. I love this team so much for their incredible storytelling ability.
I got the opposite. I saw fanart that was of Jett as the captain of the Tart Guard and thought she'd be fine. It fuckin destroyed me and I couldn't finish the series. It's a good thing you could prepare.
Edit: Jett. Not Ruby.
@@thestranger954 Did you mean Jett (Emily Axford)? The show is so, so worth finishing, my friend. Please let them make the loss matter. Saccarina is a delight when she joins the team ❤️
i legit sobbed when this happened and wasn’t spoiled before - it was a great first time experience bc i didn’t realize how emotionally invested i was until that point, and i still cry on every rewatch too. the fact that the girls are also crying adds a lot to it as well, i never knew you could be so connected to a PC that you can’t help but mourn them, and that elevated the rest of the campaign for me.
I'm glad it was slightly spoiled for me because had I not known as bad as it broke my heart I can't imagine how much worse it would have been if it blind sided me
I was spoiled by the wiki fairly early on, though I didn't mouse over the "spoilered" parts regarding the new PC's, I did see "Status: Deceased" on Jet's wiki page, which led me to look up what episode it happened in so I didn't get ambushed
I love how Brennan allows characters to die in campaigns, it raises the stakes
I know a lot of people are nervous about character death, and rightfully so, after all, people get attached.
But I gotta admit, I always like to ask that at Session 0, if "Death will be a thing". Not because I want to avoid it, but because knowing that there -can- be consequence is what makes it FEEL like the characters come alive, and feels like they can be lost, and builds that attachment far higher. The hardest lesson I feel most players need to learn, is that failing a roll isn't failure, it's just another path to the story, and that a character's death isn't the death of the game. It's just time for the next character to be played to shine. (Depending on the ideas of the campaign and intent)
@@megaman1on1 I really think character deaths need to be pretty intentional, though. Here, although this character death may have been a surprise, it was a significant story beat, and there was an element of sacrifice; Brennan helped to pad it out, thanks in part to Ally's interference, in a way that made it feel meaningful. I've had DMs before who give the whole "We don't pull punches, the possibility of death makes the characters' lives more significant" speech, but then the deaths were like to a random poison trap or some other dumb garbage, and ultimately it just made players feel much LESS attached to their characters, and made the story a janky mess without a consistent cast at all
@@Aburaishi Plus they kind of deserved this death. If you look at all the details about how they got there in the first place, it was like 100% their own fault. They're in a situation where they're so surrounded by enemies that they need to stay in a castle to stay safe, and when a really obviously suspicious letter shows up, they instead sneak out like children again to satisfy their immature curiosity. Brennan did this on purpose specifically to kill them because they weren't learning just how seriously bad everything is right now. The bulbians are on their way to *genocide* candians. Right. Now.
@@treeofrage7622 that's something you'll need to learn to change in your future games. Some of the most memorable moments I've had in campaigns is the deaths of characters. Notice how they are close to tears here... that kind of emotion now... leads to an even greater feeling of triumph later. The skill of a DM does come into that though, needs to serve the story. Obviously would suck for a MC to die to something ridiculous and ruin a good story. Something to think about :)
@@treeofrage7622 I mean is making a new character really that difficult? The character sheet itself is about 15 minutes, and for the backstory it really depends on the depth of it. It’s not like you’re going to be or should be killing characters every single session
Siobahn is so shook throughout this entire episode. The tears and the hand holding between her and Emily.
There was something so cinematic about this moment coupled with the King’s fall when watching this the first time. This was gut wrenching man
I can't believe this video was uploaded today. I *just* got to this place in a Crown of Candy and am honestly broken. When even the DM is holding back tears you know some sh*t when down. Beautiful storytelling, but it ripped my heart to pieces.
There is a moment in Ruby's turn where you can see Brennan kinda smiles a bit. And I don't mean that in a "look at the evil DM" kind of way, but in a "He looks so proud that his players bought in".
I would consider my life COMPLETE if I get any player to feel that kind of desperation at my table.
The most powerful part about this to me is not the mourning of a character death, but the mourning of sisters. Both Siobhan and Emily have sisters themselves. You can tell they felt it. Ruby says as much, calling Jet the other half of her in later scenes.
And the sister thing makes the Saccharina storyline even MORE heartbreaking because as “too much” as she is for the other characters at first, you know that if Ruby was in the emotional place to embrace her, Saccharina would have loved and protected Ruby INSTANTLY with her entire heart. It’s the big sister effect.
I don’t know if people without a sister get this. I just got a surprise little sister in one of my campaigns and let me tell you, I have yet to have a conversation with that kid, but I would kill or die for her. I’m an older sister in real life, too. And the character I play in that campaign is my favorite character I’ve ever created and I’m so connected to her. And STILL even without ever having a conversation with this little sister of mine, the only way I would not fight my own character’s death or destruction is if in some way it would save her sister. I’d be devastated, but I’d let it happen. In ANY other circumstance I’d be bullying the party to find my Druid mom to cast raise dead or true resurrection 😂
i feel the same way about my brothers, i haven't really had a sister so i imagine that the relationships a little bit different but i know i'd die for any one of them any day of the week
I don’t have a sister, but I have a twin brother. I’m only a minute older, but I’ve always thought it was my job to protect him. I know it got annoying because I tried to be almost a second mother and keep him from doing stupid shit, but we are still best friends despite of that. As a twin, this death broke me. The PCs played this so well that this scene is what comes to mind when I think of D&D and the storytelling possibilities. They are little people made of candy but the grief feels so real.
Coming from a family that was outwardly about togetherness, but inwardly about themselves, and seeing how earnest and caring you all are for your siblings gives me an awful bittersweetness.
Hope everyone doing good and staying safe. If you need to talk to someone or need help, there are people who care. Sending support and hearts. ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
The cast actually crying is what got me
This was a heartbreaking moment. There was a hope the first time I saw it that someone would be able to save her. But it is also Game of Thrones inspired, so it wasn't totally surprising. Just sad.
what makes it even more heartbreaking is... Ruby running probably wasn't the optimal play. Story-wise it makes sense to run for help, but if she had been able to use her turn to go invisible and then go into the Rope Trick with Liam and Jet, the Locket of the Sweetest Heart would have let her grant advantage. So Jet's saves could have been flat, rather than disadvantaged.
But well. This campaign setting was designed to kill characters and break hearts. And so it did T-T
It was a tough call...at 3 hp, if she had stayed, Ciabatta's men might've been able to finish her off hitting at disadvantage...If they'd had even one other party member at the time they'd of stood a chance thanks to the action economy but that was just so brutal.
I honestly don't know if that's true necessarily. Rope trick would have protected them for an hour, but Jet may have still died and the Ceresians would likely have come back to the castle to "follow" them, and might have ambushed a very weak Amethar, or Theo with Caramelinda. Even if none of that happens, Jet is still unconscious and Ruby's still at 3 HP and they have to get all the way to the castle then run all the way to the ship. Obviously this was a massive lose-lose, but I think Ruby running is both in-character for her to do and the best play for everyone's survival.
That being said, I'm still sad that Liam/Ally chose, by complete chance iirc, to attack the one attacker who happened to not be a goon. With the amount of damage he dealt, it's likely he could have killed two of the underlings, letting both Ruby and Jet take much less damage. It just so happened that Liam dealt enough damage to severely wound Ciabatta but not kill him, which also likely would have called off the attack.
I think what truely makes it heartbreaking is that it's Emily (we can say Jet) who told Ruby to run, and that's what convinced her.
I’m not sure the character of Ruby would do that though. She’s very young and foolhardy and this was her biggest reality check. For her to not be able to think straight here and be utterly traumatized, only able to freeze or flee, is extremely realistic to the character. It’s really commendable that Siobhan and Emily did not let their wisdom and experience as players and older adults to influence their characters’ decisions which were going to lead here.
@@math9172 Since the Unconscious condition is mechanical, not literal, I imagine Jet was able to speak those words to her physically as she fell. So the last thing Ruby heard Jet say as she fell to the ground and lost consciousness was, "Run."
The rest was history.
Lou, Emily and Siobhan’s commitment to their roles meant this was inevitable and a part of them probably knew that. What incredible players they are.
"Good job, soldier" AND THAT'S WHEN I BROKE LIKE A TWIG
“If you thought the adventure was gonna die, she definitely fucking wasn’t.”
👏🏻 EMILY 👏🏻 FUCKING 👏🏻 AXFORD
I've watched this so many times and I still can't get over how emotional I get. Kudos to Siobahn particularly, unbelievable acting and play
this scene is so hard to watch. siobhan is visibly devastated the whole time and it hurts
Fun fact, I overheard this in my auncle's car while sick as all hell and I sobbed like a giant baby :D fun times
My sister died suddenly when my parents were away on vacation. I dont know how to deacribe it to someone who hasnt been through it. But seeing this made me remember how helpless and alone i felt waiting for my parents to get back home.
I’m sorry for your loss and that you had to go through that ❤️🩹
I’m so sorry for your loss. I hope you’re doing alright. ❤
This moment ruined me, as a twin I can't imagine what was going through Ruby's mind as she ran
Same. I'm not usually a crier when it comes to media but watching this and thinking about my twin sister and I, I was wrecked.
This was an absolutely tearjerker moment in the campaign. 😭
This is the only time I’ve ever seen rope trick used and it was incredible
This season was full of great “fringe” spellcasting moments. Detect Poison and Knock are also spells nobody ever takes, that got the chance to be completely badass.
when i first saw this i had to stop watching the season for literal months. im gonna try to finish it now cause i wanna know what happens but FUCK. this is so devastating and it was definitely not helpful that i was watching this on the anniversary of my sister’s death and didnt know jet was gonna die
Emilys second character definitely shakes this up. It feels truly like an Act 2 when she shows up.
If you haven't gotten around to it yet, I cannot recommend it enough. While Jet's death is talked about extensively (as you might imagine) as it's obviously super important, it creates some incredible character moments, especially between Ruby and Amethar and Ruby and Emily's new character, Saccharina. The finale could not more perfectly tie up everyone's arcs in very satisfying ways, and is well worth the heartbreak it takes to get there, imo.
If you have already gotten around to finishing it, then ignore me entirely lol
I watched this campaign the week I lost someone very close to me. I watched this scene the day I found that person after a week a coma had passed. This scene was the carthtic cry I needed. I could cry and cry and cry over a fictional character the way I couldn't let myself cry for my friend. I am telling you now D20 is sometimes just the kind of therapy I need.
I think about this literally every day
I love brennans little smirk at 1:47 the satisfaction of hitting a huge story beat and also after trying to kill them the whole season, only go back to being bummed
You know shit‘s sad if even Brennan Lee Mulligan is that close from cracking
this plus the visual of amethar also seeing the light in rubys necklace go out as he’s falling to his death
God bless Brennan Lee Mulligan and the entirety of the D20 cast and crew. You can tell a lot of love and tears went into making this series. Just finished watching this episode for the first time and holy shit did it rip my heart out. FUCK CRULLER!!!
I aspire to DM a game that can have a moment as emotional as this
This is still an amazing and heartbreaking scene every time I watch it.
I was all good until.
“Tell her she did the right thing.”
I’m now a mess.
Man, as a twin myself this hurts me so much.
Me and my boyfriend started bawling when this scene happened... omg it makes my soul hurt right now 😭😭 it's the "works not over", that got to me so bad
this season broke me
I've been watching a handful of Dimension 20 stuff via clips since I don't have Dropout so I'm not attached to these characters but this still had me borderline sobbing on a Sunday afternoon? I think the look on Siobhan's face was what broke me
ireally thought this was gonna be a joke and then i realised what scene this is 😭😭
I have seen so much shit that would make a grown man cry, and I never thought that I would cry the hardest at this event. It is a dream of mine to someday play dungeons and dragons with these people. The raw emotion.
You don't even need to know the story or some extra context to cry😭
If only Liam had the Goodberry spell :(
Iirc Brennan didn’t allow anyone but Lapin to have healing
literally just watched this in the episode a few hours ago, i cried then and i am crying now
Currently playing one half of a brother-sister duo and holy crap do I understand this. I have a brother irl, and I'm a theatre kid who loves improv, so I get very emotionally invested in my character and the relationships she has with other characters. My character losing her brother was and is something both she and I struggle with.
this is the episode that peaked my interest of D&D
I cry EVERY time
I’m glad that I watched this before the episode. I’m on episode 5 atm and I’m not even remotely prepared for Lapins death 😓
Is Siobhan really emotional or is she just an amazing actress? I saw this scene and I was myself in tears for a good long time with her, Emily, and even Brennan getting choked up. When Ruby's shadow said goodbye, I could see that was also possibly a very emotionally charged moment where it could have prompted her to really cry. However, in the episode after Jet dies, at the very beginning of the episode before anything even happens she gets immediately into character and starts crying with just as much emotion as she does both the other times I've mentioned.
Now, it is entirely possible that she was already that emotional just from the recap and the memory of what happened, but that one was quick and came out of almost no precursor to speak of. If she's acting... she is REALLY good.
The impression I got from what she said on Adventuring Party was that all of her tears were real.
I remember her saying something about going into work after spending the weekend filming these and feeling a little embarrassed about how upset she still was because if any of her coworkers asked her what’s wrong she’d have to tell them she was sad about something that happened in her D&D game.
@@General_Nothing That's amazing. I want to build a robot whose only purpose is to hug her when she needs one.
something else to mention is that they were filming 2 episodes in a day, with a break in between (they talk about this on adventuring party). The next episode after this one was filmed only a couple hours after, so while Siobhan is probably able to summon up the emotion with the drop of a hat anyways because she's an amazing actor, Jet dying really only happened a couple hours before they started filming the next episode- which (i would assume) makes it easy for Siobhan to get back into character and be just as emotional since it literally just happened
I think it's half and half.
She was genuinely emotional at this moment AND she's an amazing actress, and if you think about it the two are basically equivalent.
In order to play a character, you have to really become them and feel like them, and that's this immersion (her acting skills) that allows her to more easily feel emotions for her character.
watching siobhan kinda break down, even prior to jett dying... it's kinda insane how dnd can affect people
My twin sister is my best friend in the whole world and this fucking destroyed me.
I got a fair amount of spoilers for this campaign but Jet wasn't one of them. Watching this at 2am and watching Siobhan cry broke me.
This shit hit difficult
Makes me sad but honestly Emily with Saccharina ? Worth it 💅🏻💅🏻
Such a beast with this character
Fr they needed Saccharina
Everyone championing emily in this scene doesnt understsnd that Brennan does all the leg work.
"Hand on shoulder, good job soldier you got her home." From the aunt that the characters admired.
Poetry.
I could feel myself getting actually, genuinely upset with brennan while watching this season. Love him to death but how dare he
why am I crying?? I came here with no context?!
I just wish there had been character growth around this. The immaturity that was the whole cause of this death was never embraced by the players as even a potential character avenue to explore
The saddest scene in Dimension 20 period 😢
I knew I'd cry if I watched this but I clicked it anyway
Such a good show
one of my biggest cry’s in all of D20
That “Good job, soldier. You got her home.” Gets me every time.
1:30 I think Zac almost puked
i've been wanting to rewatch some of my favorite d20 shows again recently but this scene singlehandedly keeps me away from rewatching acoc for the longest time
don't get me wrong i love this campaign it's one of my top 3 but the heartache this scene caused me legitimately ruined me when i first watched it, like gasping-for-air sobbing at 2 am type of ruined
even brennan was getting choked up 🥺
All because they wanted to see where their mom got her underwear from
i would love this scene to be animated..
“Good job Soldier. You got her home.”
Fuck me, man. I’m weeping.
I have not watched this show, so why am I crying
Not me coming here to cry
I'm sorry, you were able to pick one scene in particular for the saddest?
I mean it was definitely obviously this one though. Acoc was a tense season and there were a lot of tense and dramatic moments, but I don't think any of them came close to this one in terms of actual tragedy. Lapin was some dude we knew for 6 episodes. Preston was very cute but ultimately also died too early and had too little character depth (SORRY PRESTON LOVE YOU) for it to really stick out to me. Jet's loss stung more than anything because she was so so full of life and she had so many plans, so much love to give and receive, so much to fight for, and she spent the whole time trying to protect Ruby just because she loved her... and to make Ruby have to run away while her other half dies was shattering in a way that nothing else in the season ever really touched.
To be fair I also hated Saccharina so maybe I'm biased against her scenes.
I just watched the first episode today, trying not to binge watching, but I encounter a video where Emily basically destroyed Brennan's campaign and one of the comments was Emily's wearing the same shirt when Jet was killed, and my heart dropped, the way I got bamboozled from a TH-cam comments 😅
“Goodbye Brother” (House Stark theme) would be a PERFECT track to accompany this moment 😢😢😢
...I know what's coming, but why does it hurt EVERY time I watch this?
im shocked they had that locket but never used it (except on king rocks). this would have seemed like the right time to use it.
I haven't seen this in months and I'm just started crying watching this again xD I'm at school!
Brennan's snack plate
Oh fuck me 😭 this is the first time I'm watching this scene, out of context, even though I had seen spoilers before, but I'm still in tears 😭
From a dnd campaign perspective this is moment is very important, and I can't tell whether they decided not to do everything they could on purpose because it tells a better story, but if Ruby had held her action and gone into the rope trick as well as Jet and Liam she could have given Jet advantage on her saving throws with their locket making the death throws a straight roll rather than a roll with disadvantage.
She could have still died but it would've given her a better chance, and it would have given a moment for Ruby to spend with Jet in her final moments giving her the opportunity to say something which could have exacerbated the sombre tone of the story. It would've been interesting to see how that changed the parties interactions with Saccharina as well if Jet had survived. It is a GofT moment though that is the unique appeal of a story like this. It is crazy though everything that happened because if they had rolled worse Jet, Ruby and Amethar could've all died within the same episode.
If Brennan was feeling brutal he could've also had Ruby take 3 opportunity attacks (with disadvantage for invisibility) on her way out the room possibly having Jet and Ruby both in Liam's rope trick making death saves but Jet making them straight and Ruby making them with advantage (with their necklace).
Fuck I need to get Dropout
It’s fuckin worth it tho, like fr
I sobbed, god damn it.
1:05 "Umm, you also fall victim to the poisoned condition..."
...The character just got beat down to ~negative 20HP, pretty sure the poison is redundant. I guess they got rid of the rule where when you hit negative 10 you die.
It's half health I believe with 5e or the a house rule in this game
Basically if the damage done takes them over the edge and reaches their hit point maximum it’s insta death so if a character had 40 hit points and has 6 left and if hit for 47 that would hit them for the last of their health and go over their hit point maximum. That’s how they play this
The false hope of the successful save is the worst.
I'm pretty sure this is just the saddest moment on dimension 20 let alone crown of candy
The saddest moment of Dimension 20 *so far.*
@@General_Nothingstoats. Stoats are gonna frigging destroy a whole lot of people.
Fun fact: all three of those players ambushed by bread now have celiacs
Does anyone recognize the music that plays at 4:32?
Jet would have gotten whats called massive damage and been insta-killed, guess he didn't want to rub salt in that
Watersteel daggers were very much designed to have a “technically you might survive this” energy so it makes sense that they handwaved “massive damage”
Massive Damage is a variant rule, not core mechanics.
In the FUCKING lingerie shop 😭
Man… I would love to watch this campaign but I really don’t want to pay to watch it…
Dude it’s not that expensive
Did Ally's character not have any healing?
They were playing a Ranger I believe.
@@rustyfruitsnacks9475 goodberry, cure wounds, revivify... it's not like the Ranger does not have healing options
@@andreacallegari7137 They were playing a Gloomstalker Ranger with levels in Assassin Rogue I believe. There's story reasons that the character didn't have any healing.
@@andreacallegari7137 Brennan banned healing magic for everyone except fullcasters
@@andreacallegari7137 Also you usually have to like pick the spells and if Ally didn't pick healing they probably didn't do so for a reason. Not everyone optimizes characters like that.
This was Brennan getting really mad at the characters still acting like children lmao.
They KNOW that most of the world is out to kill them. There are assassins everywhere. And when their family is sent a suspicious letter that, in this time, in this setting, was obviously some kind of plot, they STILL go to check it out. They walked right into this because they wanted to live like children in a time where they couldn't.
that isn’t true that he is mad at them. they were kids in the campaign, like teenagers/young adults and that would have been their first reaction is to fuck around. idk where you got that bullshit from but don’t spread lies.
They ARE children. They’re teenagers. In spite of everything, this still makes perfect sense.
They knew it might be dangerous and gravely overestimated their abilities. As intended.
@@emilysmith2965 Oh of course. My comment was to construe that everything within the story itself made sense, it just *also* matched with how the players were playing. Intentionally or otherwise.
This was a big mistake, someone had to die for it.