Dimension 20: Fantasy High Junior Year

Around episode four or five of Dimension 20’s third season of Fantasy High (aptly dubbed Junior Year), I thought to myself giddily, “If they keep this up, this will be their best season ever.” This meaning the intensity (and amount) of character pressure on each of the Bad Kids, the ways in which they were building upon the previous seasons, and (best of all) the narrative foils provided by the season antagonist(s), the Rat Grinders, another adventure group that exactly mirror the Bad Kids. 

This narrative pressure only works because this is the third season spent with these characters, and honestly many of the jokes work best because of that too. The dungeon master, Brennan, frequently brings back old season one or two bits as surprise plot points or comedic callbacks, forcing these DnD players to reckon with their actions and jokes from seasons ago. It takes the tabletop role-playing slightly more in the direction of, say, episodic television, and the payoffs are incredible. The players have also lived with and played as these characters longer than any of the other Dimension 20 seasons, making their improv and comedic timing as natural as can be. It’s one of their funniest seasons and one of their most gripping narratives, even as the heart of it remains endearingly simple: how the hell does one survive junior year of high school?

—Peyton

“Stay in Your Lane”  by Bronson Diamond and Greta Stanley

As a disgraceful Tik Tok user, I occasionally come across really great songs by new and emerging artists on my For You Page. “Stay in Your Lane” is one such song, and it’s so easy to like. It’s incredibly catchy, but it also plays with perspective and gives a bit of a twist on traditional country love songs. The premise of the song is that there is a man who is infatuated and supposedly in love with a woman he just met at a bar, and her version of events, as well as her feelings, differ dramatically from his.

The song begins with a classically masculine perspective: “I’ve been shot and I’ve been stabbed, but I’ve never been so madly in love as I am with you.” He’s expressing strong, visceral feeling, and in a typical romantic ballad, that kind of imagery and emotion might make the recipient swoon. He tells the woman that she must feel the same way too. In the following stanza, the woman joins the conversation, and the two go back and forth about their different experiences of encountering one another. He says, “We were talkin’ . . .” and she interrupts his fond reminiscence saying, “You were talking so loud I could barely hear the band.” He says, “And I was hopin’ . . .” to which she replies, “You were dreamin’ if you thought you were gonna be holdin’ my hand.” The duet continues, with her snarky replies to his hopeless romanticism, and it’s so fun to hear what she’ll say next.

The structure of this song as a duet also creates a fun dynamic, because I think of a duet in music as a kind of uniting force, especially in a romantic duet. Thoughts and feelings are expressed by the two singers, and they might get closer or at least better understand one another. In this song, it is quite the opposite. There is never a moment of understanding between these two, and that disconnect makes it all the more amusing.

—Elise

_{End notes: Fantasy High Junior Year cover courtesy of Dropout.}