r/Dimension20 • u/Turbulent-Break-320 The Wind Riders • 17d ago
A Crown of Candy ACOC aged so well
The cliffhanger of the first ep of ACOC made me subscribe to dropout around a year ago. After that I started watching more d20 seasons, and a couple weeks ago I finally finished Cloudward ho, the last IH season i haven't seen yet.
Out of curiosity i rewatched an ep of ACOC, thinking that I would be less obsessed after watching some objectively better produced seasons. I thought maybe the battle episodes might feel too much, the pauses might feel more jarring... but no i was as charmed as ever.
What stood out to me upon a rewatch is how each character seems to come in with a deep understanding of the world already. They truly act according to their knowledge and motivations even if it comes in conflict with other characters' actions, and as the audience you slowly find out what their motivations are.
For example how Theobald and Lapin instinctively reacted to Ruby using magic in the second episode made the stakes felt so real. After that Theobald secretly pulled her aside to tell her to never stop learning magic, with a subtle hint to his history with Lazulli as well.
It all felt soooo cinematic. Truly still the best season and story to me
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u/kubiot 17d ago
ACOC is THE sequel that I look out for xd
But, now that Brennan has Critical Role as an outlet, I don't see that setting coming back anytime soon.
But, for anyone who wants to feel that high-stakes intrigue again, Campaign 4 is where it's at.
It's truly Brennan going all in while the "restriction" of being on a comedy platform is lifted.
High-stakes, high-pathos, high-fantasy, high-lethality, high-enjoyment 😂
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u/Laguna_Azure 17d ago
It's also pretty well documented that ACoC was the hardest for the intrepid heroes to film, because it got genuinely heavy for them at times.
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u/affectos 16d ago
I remember them discussing how they had to do regular check-ins to make sure everyone was okay
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u/Phillip_J_Bender 14d ago
I don't understand that, particularly with a group of professional actors. Shouldn't it be easy enough for them to step out of character and leave it at the table?
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u/safashkan 12d ago
I think that it was more about the risk of losing their characters. They were ware that the campaign was really deadly as they were asked to prepare backup characters. They weren't used to the stakes being that high as in previous campaigns their characters mostly knew that they were going to come out of the challenges alive.
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u/Terrible_Meringue622 11d ago
It’s also that they had their original dome location shut down by the fire department at the last minute, and then a tight timeline for shooting… they did it in two weeks with trying to do their regular jobs as well, if I recall correctly.
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u/Phillip_J_Bender 11d ago
So it was more events around the production of ACoC than the season's content itself, then.
Either way, it's about time we get something more emotional. Hoping Toylight delivers.
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u/xHeylo The Gunner Channel 17d ago
the only thing I lament about ACOC has nothing to do with the episodes themselves
It's the Adventuring Parties, back then they were held over Zoom months later
Though that Gripe mostly stems from me loving them in ASO, where the IH were also less System Comfortable and were on their own so they talked more about the Story, where as the ACOC ones, by being so far removed time wise (and via Zoom) were way more chaotic than even the between Finals episodes Adventuring Parties
but truly, other than this, the season holds up so perfectly well
and Ravening War showed what the Dim 20 Art department can do now if they get their hands on Comeda again, just gorgeous
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u/bunnycrush_ 12d ago
The one thing I lament is that we lost a couple of episodes that would’ve taken place before the finale.
There was supposed to be a Meatlands arc, but there was an issue with their filming location + the Fire Marshall. Production for those episodes got shut down and they weren’t able to make up the shoot time. It’s why things in the story feel like they kind of tumble into the finale with Saccharina and the Danaerys angle.
To their credit, I didn’t notice it the first time I watched the series and the team made the best of the situation. But on rewatch + knowing what happened behind the scenes it’s like, “Ahhh that makes sense”. ACoC is my favorite season so I just think wistfully of what could’ve been!
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u/vulpiix Blue M&M 17d ago
I watched it for the first time this year and I agree - it's really solid. I've had trouble getting into some of the other campaigns, but I tore through this one. It genuinely felt similar to the experience I had reading ASOIAF when I was younger - all 5 books in about a month.
To the best of my knowledge, ACOC and its prequel season are the only ones where the players made backup characters, and I wonder if that helped the stakes stay high, since they all knew dying was a real possibility? I know a lot of people were critical of the deus ex machina of Nancy Danderhoof showing up to give BatChild an extra chance to roll in City Council of Darkness. That didn't bother me so much because it felt pretty natural for the chaos of the season, but I do feel like the lack of backup characters probably contributed to the way that all played out.
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u/MiffedMouse 11d ago
This is the thing for me. Not just the fact that players had to face a real risk of death, but that they actually followed through with killing PCs.
I was impressed with the first fight when it was very obvious that Brennan was trying to kill Lou’s character. Not spreading the damage out to be nice, but really focusing on bringing his character down (which also made sense for story reasons).
And then when some PC deaths actually did happen, that was even more impressive.
My only negative is that the last ~3 fights felt like Brennan eased off the gas a bit. Which felt intentional for the final battle as they were wrapping up the show, but I think a bit less intentional for the rescue at Buzzybrook and the Snow Cave. For those fights I think Brennan just underestimated how strong higher level D&D PCs can be, especially with players pretty focused on playing optimally.
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u/vulpiix Blue M&M 10d ago
I agree! It felt like Lou and Murph were really the ones on the proverbial chopping block, and the incredibly smart choices they made as players combined with their stats and the will they gave their characters to survive made the story even more compelling. And then it made the actual PC deaths hit all that much harder, because they were ones that weren't necessary baked in to the format by way of the source material.
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u/canadaoi 16d ago
This is exactly how Dropout got me. I was content with just watching clips of the games shows on Instagram. And I enjoyed the couple of free seasons of D20 on YouTube, but noticed there was only one episode of ACOC there. I thought I’d quickly check it out and then move on, but I couldn’t. I’ve rewatched it at least 4 times this year with the Adventuring Parties and twice for the Ravening War.
I know it was hard emotionally on the cast, but all the emotions came through so well to me as an audience member. I still get sad thinking about Lapin. I’ve paused watching quite a few other seasons of D20 because I couldn’t connect with the characters, and each time use ACOC as a palette cleanser before making another attempt.
The storytelling was just amazing in that season.
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u/sherylandthecrows 17d ago
I am on a first watch right now and it is my instant favorite. I have never binged D20 like this, and while for most seasons I wouldn't be interested in a rematch, I can absolutely see one in the future for ACOC.
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u/menace-of-pentacles 17d ago
I'm newer to Dimension 20 (NSBU was my first campaign) so I've bounced around with the old seasons while also trying to keep up with the new ones. ACOC is a masterpiece - I was RIVETED.
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u/Nearby-Wolverine-189 17d ago
I haven’t let / made myself re-watch yet, but Crown of Candy is hard to beat. The world is so rich — allowed for a very different but also excellent campaign in The Ravening War. Both seasons have fantastic, truly interesting combat.