Dimension 20 used Jane Austen, D&D to tackle love, class, and equality

Dimension 20’s A Court of Fey & FlowersThe series delivered the love, intrigue, revolution and passion that it promised in its first episodes. The Dungeons & Dragons streaming series, led by Dungeon Master Aabria Iyengar, also managed to deliver all the unexpected twists and turns that actual play is known for, breaking down the formulaic conventions of the Regency genre through mashup and the chaos of randomized dice rolls.

[Ed note: This story contains spoilers for the two-part finale of Dimension 20’s A Court of Fey & Flowers. Episodes 9 and 10 are now available on dropout.tv.]

While Iyengar’s “Pack of Pixies” achieved goals worthy of any D&D party (save the world) and a game of Good SocietyBy putting the two games together at the table, the rules were completely transformed. Transformation is the name of the game with this one — combat rounds where Arcana checks are the focus, not physical attacks; a near-bloodless revolution; and love plots that aren’t exclusively romantic. In a season where the players reaching out their hands to one another has closed every episode, it’s unsurprising that reaching out — making connections of all kinds — is at the heart of what Iyengar calls this “very strange, very lovely story.”

Image by Dimension 20

Iyengar booksends the two last episodes of this series with a Shakespearean Sonnet. This sets the stage for the final decisions between love and duty, community and individual. She deftly brought all these ideas together in the series’ final encounter, where the party fought to keep the last remaining portal from the Fey Realm to the Mortal Realm open. This would prevent the flow of magic to mortals and consolidate the Court of Wonder’s power. It would also permanently separate Lady Chirp Featherfowl (Emily Axford) from her wife and daughter, and make Binx Choppley’s (Surena Marie) first found family of friends (and warlocks) fade away entirely.

K.P. is the final straw. Hob is hurt by K.P. When he staggers toward the rest of the group with a particularly nasty enchanted arrow wound at the start of episode 9, it’s no surprise that the other players at the table are united in healing him — and in a new shared mission. They vow to work together against Apollo and the Portal Plot.

Binx puts it plainly as she tells Hob: “Apollo hurt you, and you’re my family.” Andhera (Omar Najam), who we’ve seen often expressing parallel sentiments to Binx, agrees — and then ups the ante by offering them all a home in the Unseelie Court, explicitly not through marriage or familial relation.

Andhera’s offer isn’t an exchange; it’s an expression that his resources are now theirs. It’s a departure both from the D&D-style power politics and Regency marriage plot. As I’d hoped, A Court of Fey & FlowersContinually includes more themes from the Regency than any other adaptations. Austen read novels from radical authors, who envisioned new egalitarian worlds following the French Revolution. And while Andhera’s offer is generous, it’s Binx’s similar invitation to the Court of Craft that fittingly wins out, focused on “a warm fire” and the chance to be “swept away in stories.” In the end, it’s Andhera whom will be trying to pledge allegiance to his Unseelie Court as well as the Court of Wonder. The series’ final episode shows that something is happening within him. It seems to be holding, though it may not be stable.

Image: Faith Schaffer/Dimension 20

But it’s not as easy as saying that community is the solution to all problems of power. All groups may not be healthy. We’ve seen Delloso de la Rue (Oscar Montoya) take decisive steps to disconnect from the Court of Wonder, even if it meant the end of the Bloom. Their beloved bugbear Captain — now Major — K.P. Hob had a parallel life, trying to please a Court who could understand but not fully appreciate him. Rue has grown close to Hob, while being pushed farther apart by their Courts’ pressures as well as their own misunderstandings. Hob encouraged Rue accept their true form and show it to Hob. Rue, however, is the one who will push Hob to reevaluate his concept of honor.

A disrupted filming schedule meant that the final two episodes had to be shot within four hours, and total run-time was three hours. These constraints make Mulligan and Montoya’s intense scenes amid episode 9’s theatrical hijinks all the more impressive, bringing the pair’s misunderstandings to a tense cliffhanger. By the end of the episode, we’ve seen Hob win over the gentle Seelie Lady that the Goblin Court has affianced him to, and Binx taking charge as Weaver of Fate to tell Rue that Hob has deep feelings for them.

Image by Dimension 20

As they work together to discover more about Prince Apollo (Lou Wilson), Lord Squak and Lady Chirp provide an uplifting, light-hearted, and brightly shining contrast. They are, of course, multitasking: Squak glorying in “The Green Hunter’s” theatrical debut, complete with “actual Jeremy Renner” — and Chirp bets against herself and matchmakes between a pixie straight out of Jersey and a plucky Salt Goblin.

Like an 18th-century playhouse, the real drama is off stage, and in the final episode the pace picks up as the party is drawn by the sense of magical interference — the final Portal just behind the theater. What follows is an example of character-rich combat, drawing meaning from the Tokens and Reputation tags they’ve earned via the Good Society mechanic to lower the D&D-style difficulty of the skill checks needed for this challenge. Fittingly, Squak burns his “mature” Reputation tag for the first success, and Binx is able to hear her lost Court when she burns the Heart she won earlier. It’s a decisive victory for our Pixies, complete with a statistically bonkers double-crit by Hob. Their sole surviving antagonist, Andhera’s sister Suntar, surrenders… for now. After all, Fey’s lives can be long.

But it’s Chirp who gets the final successes to ensure the preservation of the Portal. Iyengar is able to offer Axford a glimpse of Peep as a mortal, as well, thanks to her decisive critical success. In a touch of Austen’s trademark free indirect discourse, which allows the audience into the heads of characters from their perspective, Iyengar tells Axford that PeepLearn more in this moment “that she is yours” and that the most important thing to Peep has been saved — not magic, but “the chance at getting to know you.”

Iyengar takes the scene to our last character vignettes. The Dome glows spring green as we see how love — of all kinds — is magic. They are affirmed by their grandfather as the irrepressible Lords of the Wing. Now they’re planning their next orgy and a coffee date with Jeremy Renner. Andhera expresses gratitude to the stuffy Librarian. Much more-deserved vacation).

Image by Dimension 20

Image by Dimension 20

As Rue leaves the Court of Wonder, they note that Wuvvy’s contract is done — they are no longer bound. Wuvvy corrects Rue gently: She wasn’t bound. She chose — and would do so again. The most loving thing she can do for Rue right now is walk away to leave them to it — to be reunited as friends, peers, and whatever else in the future. And that’s where we leave the most complex relationship of the entire series — and the one that I’ll be thinking about for a long time to come.

As Wuvvy walks away, Hob arrives and tells Rue that he’s realized the duty he’d upheld was merely the path of least resistance. Honour is being true to your convictions. His final oath to Rue is both to renounce his connection to the Goblin Court and declare, “If you are orphaned, then so am I, and you will never know a lonely day again, as long as I draw breath.” (Thus giving this finale its title, “You Will Never Know a Lonely Day Again.”)

Our final image is Binx and Andhera going through the portal hand in hand, as a little brown string ties itself to the pinky of each of our Pack of Pixies — a reminder from the Court of Craft of the bond that still unites them. Because they reached out for one another, the worlds that they saved have changed. Ending, we see the cast reaching out to each other for their last time.

I’ve been thinking a lot these days about Austen’s endings, how they seem tidy until you look up close. Iyengar, on the other hand, does not tie these characters up but instead untie them. While the Pack of Pixies is now on their own adventures, we give them the feeling that they will soon be back together.