MovieChat Forums > Dungeons & Dragons (1983) Discussion > This series was different for me

This series was different for me

posted 12 years ago by beforemath
7 replies | jump to latest

I loved this series as a child, but I misunderstood a line from the introduction. When Dungeon Master said, "I am Dungeon Master, your guide in the realm of... DUNGEONS & DRAGONS," I heard "I am Dungeon Master, you died in the realm of... DUNGEONS & DRAGONS." This made the series quite a bit different for me than it apparently was for most people.

I watched the series as a kid thinking that the kids were killed on the roller coaster ride and were (mistakenly?) sentenced to hell. Dungeon Master (god) took mercy on the kids, and equipped the children with (holy) weapons, sending them on a quest of redemption to travel back to the world of the living. Venger (the devil), of course, took offense to the kids' quest and the holy weapons in his realm and tried to defeat him (performing his duty as ruler of hell to keep the souls of the dead in place).

The kids would interact with the souls of the damned throughout their journey, some long-dead (I swear there were Greeks in some episodes) and some more recently dead (medieval or even from WWII). Come to think of it, there were a lot of episodes about the kids interacting with the damned in their own personal hells.

It didn't help that a lot of cartoons tended to tiptoe around the concept of death, so you really had to decipher whether the creaters meant "death" or "traveled to a different realm/dimension/whatever."

Anyway... I know the answer to these questions, but I'll ask them anyway:

What do you guys think? Weird and scary stuff for a 5-7 year old? Anyone else make this mistake? Anyone think this is really what they intended and I just ended up seeing through the imagery to the meaning?

[–] Old_Painty_Cans_Ned 12 years ago

I remember after the show ended there was a rumor that there had been a last episode in which it was revealed that the kids had died on the roller coaster and had gone to hell. The Devil in the guise of Dungeon Master tormented the children by sending them on an endless quest with the false hope that they might someday find their way back home. This was in the days before Youtube and before everything went to DVD within a month of being canceled so at the time there was no way to confirm or debunk this rumor. I knew kids who claimed to have seen this final episode, but they were never forthcoming with any details of the episode of exactly how this revelation was made.

[–] omega2064 10 years ago

The rumour they were in hell was one of many such rumours someone was spreading. There is the exact same rumour for Gilligans Island.

That they had all died and were in hell and Gilligan was the devil.

Sound familliar?

This gag was old before some of you were born.

[–] Old_Painty_Cans_Ned 12 years ago

Oh and just a couple of questions:

What did you think Uni was exactly? Why would there be a unicorn in Hell?

And what of Tiamat? Why would Hell contain a five headed dragon that The Devil, himself feared?

I don't think you saw through any imagery. I think the writers intended the show to be exactly what it seemed, a story of 5 children who got on a roller coster and were transported to an alternate dimension. Interestingly, however, in the original role playing game Dungeons and Dragons you could travel to the planes of Hell and you could even go to Earth.

[–] beforemath 12 years ago

I didn't really think much about the unicorn (or, at least, not that I remember), but there being things that The Devil was afraid of in Hell made it seem like a pretty scary place to me as a kid.

[–] warlok1 11 years ago

from what I've read the whole "the kids died and are in hell being tormented by Dungeonmaster" plot was an idea Christian Fundamentalist groups floated around as their way of expressing their hatred of the show. If you examine the story closely, its a thinly veiled inverse of the end of C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia...(At the end of "The Last Battle", Aslan reveals to Peter, Lucy, etc that the train they were travelling on before their latest trip to Narnia crashed and they 'died' in 'our' world but would live on in Narnia)

As such, I always thought that claim by a buncha Christian Fundamentalists was bull.

E Gary Gygax revealed there were plans for the kids to get home and a year later they'd be 'called back' (minus Bobby and uni, whom in our world turned into a pony) to help again in a series of Adventures..but the series was cancelled before then.

If anything we should appreciate the series for the gem it was for an early 80's show.

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] silentxero 8 years ago

I loved this show and always felt that it was similar to the original Land of the Lost (1974) which I still love to this day.