Dungeons & Dragons Fan Theory Solves Honor Among Thieves’ Biggest Mystery

Summary:

• Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is a 2023 fantasy heist film based on the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D).
• In the D&D rules, a valid playable character must belong to a class, referring to the character’s profession which defines their in-game skills and capabilities.
• In the film, protagonist Edgin ostensibly has the Bard class but doesn’t use any of the characteristic abilities associated with the profession, leaving fans confused.
• A fan theory suggests that Edgin belongs to a different D&D class altogether, with him being a Rogue, which solves the inconsistency.

Role-playing game fans had a field day with last year’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, a comedy caper film adapted from Wizards of the Coast’s world-famous tabletop board game.

The movie really understood what the game was about and carried over the whole D&D experience to the screen, from strange-sounding location names and authentic character depictions to, well, dungeons and dragons.

The film is styled as an emulation of a Dungeons & Dragons game session and takes place in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting from the original’s multiverse.

It is ostensibly a picaresque movie, with the main characters trying to pull a heist on a sleazy lord in the film’s fantasy universe, and there are some quality laughs for good comedic measure, but the heart of the film’s storytelling is in following the source closely.

That said, the film is not quite consistent when getting into the specifics.

For one, the protagonist, the charismatic con artist Edgin Darvis, played by Chris Pine, introduces himself as a poet capable of combat and magic, or, to use the original term, a Bard, which in the source material means a profession with specific skills and abilities.

However, never once in the movie is Edgin actually seen using any of the signature abilities or magical spells that an average D&D Bard has, even though, unlike the film’s characters with actual magic powers, the tiefling druid Doric and the half-elf sorcerer Simon, he is not equipped with any gear or devices which prevent him from using these talents. What gives?

Now, before you call foul on the filmmakers for defiling the lore, we ask you to hold your hippogriffs (yes, they are a thing in D&D too, not just in the Harry Potter universe). A fan theory has been floating around on social media which explains the situation in a sensible way.

This fan take holds that the character introduction of Edgin should be taken at face value, because, in calling himself a bard, he actually means the common implications of the term. That is, being a musician, and Edgin does sing in the movie. This means he is actually using the term in a figurative sense.

Another point is that, within the D&D canon, a class is defined by their competencies and expertise, and by that measure Edgin is actually a representative of another class in the tabletop game – a Rogue. Edgin’s prowess with stealthy and crafty maneuvers and his smooth-talking personality do really place him in the rogue ballpark.

“So what is Edgin? He is a charismatic Rogue with musical talents,” writes Redditor GrahamCoxon.

We couldn’t have said it better. Then again, there are other parts in the film that beg some questions, like the whole party being subtly revealed to literally lack intelligence at one point in the movie. How did they ever make it to the ending with the IQ quotient being at an all-time low?

On a second thought, we’ll take the liberty of handwaving on this matter, like any good dungeon master would.