Deleted D&D
I’m rewatching Community and I write about D&D, so of course I’m going to talk about the s2 episode of the show, “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons”.
That episode has a lot going on in it.
It’s greatest achievement? An accurate and respectful depiction of a depressed character. That’s why the group decides to play D&D - a minor character, who’s a fan of the game, is depressed and maybe even suicidal.
His suffering is subtle yet, once you spot it, it’s undeniable.
The episode shows something I’ve talked about before - that D&D isn’t “just” a game. It’s a powerful social experience. I’m not claiming it cures or treats anything - that would be ridiculous - but tabletop roleplaying games provide deep social connection, escapism, pride and a sense of achievement.
Giving those to someone who lacks them is lifechanging.
The writers weren’t tacky enough to say - or even imply - that playing D&D cheers him up. In fact, he spends most of the game miserable. After winning against the odds, he got something from the game that nothing else in life was giving him.
As if that’s not heavy enough to cover in one episode, it also explores how we can accidentally alienate people close to us. People say that Pierce - the villain of this episode - acts out of character, becoming a deranged and psychotic bully out of nowhere. Not so. His actions make perfect sense for someone who feels ignored, disrespected and excluded.
He’s a nightmare player - hostile, ignorant and metagaming to extreme levels. He does it not because he’s a jerk but because it’s the best way he sees to get some damn respect from his peers.
That episode goes deep into the psychology of games and gamers. It’s worth watching.
… oh, except you can’t. Netflix and Hulu both deleted that episode from their catalogue.
Why?
Well, one of the characters cosplays as a drow - a dark elf. That happens to involve wearing dark face paint.
Okay, okay. I’m not about to say that blackface isn’t a big deal. Again, that would be ridiculous.
But let’s consider the context:
The character was cosplaying a dark elf.
The character in question - Cheng - is insane and pitiable. He’s an anti-role model. If he ate an apple, you’d rework your grocery list. Cheng makes so little sense that he’s an Asian man who can’t remember if he’s Chinese or Korean.
The other characters call him out on it. It’s not accepted, even within the context of the show.
But, nah, it’s an Asian guy wearing black makeup, so you’d better delete it. Let’s make it about race, so it’s racist, so it needs to be censored. Not slapped with a warning label, but expunged from streaming services.
This episode carries powerful messages. It spends more time criticising the ways systemic racism can show up than it spends showing drow cosplay. It spends even more time exploring multiple, serious mental health issues in tactful, respectful and effective ways.
But, nah, fuck that. Ten seconds of this is adjacent to racism, so these streaming services flushed the entire episode.
It’s cowardly and patronising. In D&D lore, the closest thing to a god of censorship is Vecna. Thanks to Stranger Things, you know he’s no hero.
If we keep the high fantasy framing, then this episode is lost and powerful lore - a secret from a mightier age now lost to time. If you happen to find it, you’ll recover magic from an earlier and stronger epoch, before civilisation collapsed and such wisdom was lost to history.
You don’t need to delve into any dungeons to recover this. I was able to find the episode in a few seconds.
On a different topic, did you know YouTube hosts videos on it? And has a decent search feature? Funny, that.
If you disagree with my point here, then you definitely don’t want to buy any of my products. You wouldn’t appreciate a guide to adding life, depth and strategy to your worlds (like Footprints) or a framework for designing non-human psyches that make sense (like Call of the Gods):