@ArrJaySketch
It still leaves the fact that if she’s meant to be staying at Twilight’s castle a nagging “why is Starlight” not involved aspect that for myself is a nagging annoyance but which I’ve seen others rather upset with. They just need to drop a line in show to explain that Starlight isn’t a permanent feature in PV yet for example.
@Evowizard25
One of the things that stands out this season is that most of these stories seem to have been developed before whatever decision was made to bring Starlight on as a Mane 7. Look at Spice up your life which felt like they added that cold open to reintroduce the map, allowing them to pull from any s5 ideas layin around, and starlight had no line in that. Most other stories as been seen by others have a starlight shaped plothole that she should have been involved but noticeably absent. It could be explained that she is on away missions to learn about friendship, or trying to reconcile with equal town, but that throwaway line is sorely needed to at least smooth out the absence if starlight.
Wait a tic. THis episode was about Discord, Spike, and Big Mac playing something like D&D… and Starlight isn’t playing too? I know this is a guy’s episode, but it looks like RD and Pinkie are getting involved. Darn it. She’d make a great wizard.
D&D itself is enjoying a huge renaissance in the last 2 years with the release of the 5th edition of the game, which is a simpler “back to its roots” version that is easy to pick up for beginners but deep enough to satisfy most experienced players. It’s brought back a lot of old hands as well as introduced new players, and other TTRPGs have also experienced increased interest as well. In fact, the current D&D Player’s Handbook has been in the Amazon top 100 books consistently since its release 2 years ago.
D&D has been featured on some national tv shows such as Community and Big Bang Theory. Wizards of the Coast is also heavily focused on community involvement and there are numerous celebrity D&D game podcasts spreading the message. These are some of the biggest:
So to answer your question, I think teenagers are well aware of it, but D&D’s fastest growing demographic currently is probably 20- and 30-somethings, so a whole new generation of their kids will be introduced to the game soon.
