Wednesday, July 14, 2010

My Favorite Ever Episode Of 'Axe'

I haven't got much to say here about this episode--and, come to think of it, I didn't have much to say when I was DMing it.

Which is maybe why I like it.

Because you can think up ideas and mechanics and monsters and locations and plots and places all day long but the real point of all that shit is just to give the players something to laugh at each other about.

So if you can do it with just one dumb animal from the Random Wilderness Encounter table, then, yeah, rock, that's some efficient fucking D&D right there.


Click here to see it bigger.

8 comments:

Chris Lowrance said...

So how long have we been in the territory where the videos were airing while the new ones were being filmed? Everyone seems aware of the summer's fresh crop of morons that wriggled out of the dirt when Axe debuted, what with the "gnoll" disclaimer. Or were you guys just predicting the coming storm of stupid?

Zak Sabbath said...

@chris

i think the Sasha episodes went up while we were filming the 2nd batch of Justine ones (the She-Ra) ones.

mordicai said...

I think cataloging the episodes by what the guest star is wearing is the best possible strategy.

thekelvingreen said...

Is it wrong for me to like the "Guh-NOLL" pronunciation? I certainly feel a bit dirty for approving of it.

Rick Marshall said...

In ancient Anglo-Saxon (and even middle English), a lot of those silent letters (knife, knight, maybe gnoll if it were used then) were actually pronounced. Monty Python's French knight taunting the "Silly English Kniggets" is not an entirely awful example (though linguistically ironic).

Hence, you should approve guh-noll all you like. Not that long ago it would have been correct. For those of us infatuated with the illusion of "progress" it would still be wrong now (cause we're better than people used to be, don't ya know, and humble about it too), but for everyone else it's either a once-valid pronunciation, a valid alternative, or - a stretch, but a fun one - it's the only valid pronunciation and everyone else is just saying it wrong because the Norman/French influences on English have made us all lazy, with a tendency to drop consonants left and right the way the French do (which, granted is why French rolls off the tongue so beautifully). English used to be a lot more percussive.

The real reason to say guh-noll of course is that it's more fun. Silly kniggets!

Also, I have to agree with Zak. This was a hilarious episode. I particularly enjoyed KK ignoring the odd noises (growling and screaming perhaps), thus giving the endangered animal a chance to inflict payback on the party.

thekelvingreen said...

Yes, it's a scene which definitely conjures up an image; specifically that of a were-barbarian trying to do some quiet angling, while in the background her team-mates are being mauled by a disgruntled snow panther.

Also, I am now proposing that "guh-NOLL" be the official pronunciation to be used by the entire gameblogging community.

Rob M said...

That was the kind of encounter that -- with the wrong party -- could be a real "pencil snapper." Good thing player morale is reasonably high. And Frankie's (Is that right? I'm horrible with names) appalled reaction to the decision to go after the snow leopard was hilarious.

My group and I used to say "guh-NOLL" when we were younger. Honestly though all the orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, gnolls, bugbears, kobolds ... they seem really redundant to me these days.

Joethelawyer said...

People get hungry and find a dangerous predator...

1:55 Mandy: I advise strongly against this!

2:44 Mandy: Don't fight it it's really dangerous guys!

3:24 KK: I don't want anything to do with this, I'm going fishing.

4:03 Justine: Oh yeah, I'm dead.

Flash back to.....

1:30 Satine: I had 20 rations in my pack.

Whoops!