Our Stupendous Stoats reached their epilogue, and with the Blue Forest safe and well-represented in the Olympic Games, we’ve picked out our favorite moment and repeated bits from this season of Dimension 20. Let us know if we missed your favorite in the comments!

10) “Earth”

Everybody loves a callback. Fans speculated we’d be getting this one even before the first episode aired, but the intensity in that single word right before the table fell into rolling laughter owed itself entirely to Aabria Iyengar’s incredible prowess as a game master.

For those not in the know, this is the third element to kickstart a campaign. Brennan started it on the Critical Role stage during EXU Calamity when he opened with fire, and when Matt Mercer took the reins as dungeon master for The Ravening War, he continued the trend by offering the opposing force of water. Whether we’ll get air and from whom, we can only guess.

9) Eternal Grandma

Aabria Iyengar created a masterclass in the overlap of science fiction and Eldritch horrors, weaving it together with a family drama, yet the most reactive terror came from Erika Ishii.

Funnily, even though Ava’s possibly elongated life terrifies her daughters, especially Tula, when she actually comes back from the dead, the reality of eternal grandma comes with change rather than the permanent curmudgeon that was likely imagined.

8) Down to Smash

When Brennan designed his widowed stoat, what are the odds he expected Erika’s Ava to sniff out every single male stoat and do her best to set our favorite undead mother up?

Whether he expected it or not, Brennan embraced every piece of Tula which Rashawn and Erika threw at him from flatulence to a slut era revisited for a 2.0 in the epilogue, but while Tula’s history slowly unfolded, including the emotional upheaval of her death and the obligation which she later realized was hope that brought her back, the table feasted upon one moment above all others:

Tula’s interest deleted an entire family and backstory as Aabria Iyengar, our always adaptable game master, rolled into the joke, spinning a tension that absolutely saved the group down the line.

7) Viola and Thorn Vale – “That’s My Wife!”

Ever supportive of one another, Viola and Thorn Vale understand each other, and more than that, they understand themselves. These are two stoats who love each other. Rashawn and Jasper painted a pair of Ride or Die partners who never let a moment pass to encourage their spouse. This teamwork led the Lukura, but it was Thorn Vale’s forced proximity to Viola’s family that gave the duo a chance to shine even brighter in their interludes with Teedles and Olliver.

From calling out across the dust and devastation to Thorn Vale cheering as Viola put their greatest enemy down, this lovely couple never stopped. If stoats had marriage goals, they would be it.

6) Lukas

From the first time he pledges himself to Jaysohn to his brush with death, Lukas was the NPC that nobody saw coming. This stuffy-nosed boy could barely breathe, but his sweet albeit dramatic disposition won the party over even before he gave his first bit of bardic inspiration.

It didn’t hurt that Aabria showed true commitment to his voice and, as a result, to his mint addiction.

5) Meatwolf

Twice in Burrow’s End, Tula reached for mercy when faced with violence, recognizing fear and torment where others only saw rage or ignored the personhood entirely in the case of the bear in whom the mutated chipmunks nested. Showing mercy to the wolf which had nearly killed her daughter, Tula freed Meatwolf, finding a loyal companion despite his monstrous visage.

While our best boy didn’t show up in the final fight, his very existence underlined the atrocities of the First Stoats and the dangers that Reactor Charlie. While we only got Dr. Steel’s reaction to him, I would’ve loved to see what happened when the stoats introduced Meatwolf’s level of mutation to the world.

4) Two Chaotic Rascals (Jaysohn and Lila)

Siobhan Thompson threw herself into the utter insanity and enthusiasm of childhood. She put her body on the line, completely embodying Jaysohn from her first seen to the very end as she took him to the Olympics. Similarly, Izzy Roland’s immediate instinct to punch her stoat brother in the nuts to keep him from doing something cool set the tone for Lila’s outspoken and assertive personality.

Throughout the series, these two bounced between being each other’s greatest allies and worst enemies as siblings often do. These two are voracious. When they find a mystery, the two are relentless and creative. Whether they snip back and forth or build each other up, Lila and Jaysohn are two mother-loving madhouses.

3) Sisterly Support (Tula and Viola)

From the very first episode, Rashawn and Brennan fell perfectly into sync. Their character were two powerful paladins, and both had extremely clear convictions. As Viola said toward the end, her pregnancy made her understand her sister and the world in a way that she hadn’t before, allowing them to grow closer.

Throughout the series, the two sisters often looked to each other, backing one another without question whenever their mother dug her heels in. Viola’s tears upon hearing how her sister died, and Tula’s fierceness whenever anyone put her sister in danger raised the bar on adult sibling dynamics.

2) Shadow Puppets

There was a real chance this could’ve simply said the Dimension 20 Art Department, so with the incredible range of adorable minis to horrifying gore of Phoebe’s contorted human puppet and the bear battle field, we struggled to pick just one, but puppets took the crown.

The rod puppets, which have a paper doll edge that is stylistically similar to the Good Omens intro, opened every Burrow’s End episode. Jacob Surovsky (puppeteer/designer) and Jackz Boone (projection illustrator) killed it. Several times, their visuals highlighted foundational stories, and they were absolutely magic in close ups and when displayed across the Dimension 20 dome.

1) Erika’s Sweet Rewards

Erika Ishii never fails to put 110% into whatever character she plays. As the matriarch of our Stupendous Stoats and a bastion of generational trauma, Ava refuses to change, staunchly fighting against learning in any form. While she changes in the end (somewhat thanks to her death and resurrection), the aged stoat spends the bulk of the series as an overbearing parent, but where she holds high expectations of her daughters and runs her son-in-law through the wringer, Ava always shows her softness to her grandchildren, and the symbol of this more than anything else is the candy kept upon her to reward those who please her.

Her candy reward system wasn’t just for her grandchildren. Receiving a candy became a sign of Ava’s approval. Erika carried Ava’s habit throughout the game, gifting even the game master herself and sealing this as the best bit from Burrow’s End.

Are there any moments we missed? Any quotes or bits that should’ve been included? Share them in the comments below or join the conversation on Boss Rush Network’s Discord and Facebook.

Featured Image: Dimension 20

The Boss Rush Podcast: The Flagship Podcast of Boss Rush Media and the Boss Rush Network

The Boss Rush Podcast – The Boss Rush Podcast is the flagship podcast of Boss Rush Media and the Boss Rush Network. Each week, Corey, Stephanie, LeRon, and their friends from around the internet come together with other creators, developers, and industry veterans to talk about games they’ve been playing, discuss video game and entertainment based topics, and answer questions solicited on social media and the community Discord. 

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