YMMV / Dragonbored

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Is Jimbroth a heroic, noble soul who finds the good in everyday life and normal existence, and therefore truly deserves the "treasures" Carl ignored and took for granted? Or is he a backstabber who betrayed the man who gave him purpose and stole his life with minimal effort?
  • Is Carl an entirely loathesome person, who is lazy, ignorant of his girlfriend, friends and job, and therefore deserves his final fate? Or was he so disillusioned with his nagging girlfriend, his job where he was treated like dirt, "friends" who only seem to care about his work or show up at his apartment and drink and eat his food without his permission, and everything else that he felt the game was the only place he could find solace? Word of Rob says they were intending the former, but see Death of the Author
    • On a similar point, if Carl is an unsympathetic jerkass, did he really deserve to be trapped in the game at the end, or was that taking an otherwise karmatic punishment a bit too far?
• Anvilicious: As Critic so helpfully explains.
  Critic: So you see kids, Carl ends up not getting what he wants because he was a jerk to everybody. Oh, I'm sorry, I just thought I'd point that out in case you didn't catch the subtle message they were trying to put in there was. That Carl didn't get what he wanted because he was a jerk to everybody. Did you get that? Did you get the message that Carl didn't get what he wanted because he was a jerk to everybody? Good, because it was a quiet, not so in your face message that I'm afraid some of you might have missed, that Carl didn't get what he wanted because he was a jerk to everybody.
• Cliché Storm:
  • Dragonbored is not the most subversive thing ever. Rachel plays a nagging girlfriend who reads self-help books, wants her boyfriend to propose and swoons over the Values Dissonance guy, Malcolm is the uptight but dorky black best friend, Carl's the deadbeat manchild you see in so many Hollywood summer movies while Doug plays the Fish out of Water who takes over the Straight Man's life and is far better at it, and so on and so on.
  • It was so predictable (considering that even at their worst, Doug/Rob's writing can get pretty out there) that it was mocked by Critic on the DVD review.
  Critic: Y'know, can the trailers for the plots we've heard a million times be reduced to a single letter category? It'd just make the cliches go faster. [announcer voice] He was a... b (stuck in the mud jerk), but he didn't... a (know his life was about to change), but suddenly um... c (strange out of this world occurrence happened), and now they... c again (have to find some way to get along). Insert fish out of water understandings here.
• Designated Hero: Jimbroth is said to have "lived" Carl's life, even though Carl's girlfriend seemingly fell for him less than a minute after he introduced him to her, and received his job by physically attacking Carl's boss, who then hired him on the spot (Jimbroth wasn't even seeking a job at this point, and did not intend for this to happen). His "inspirational speech" was nothing more than the writing on the back of the game box. Basically, he got everything Carl had within a few minutes with no effort or even intention whatsoever. His refusal to help Carl at the end didn't seem very heroic either; in fact, he may have done it (along with "lending" the game to Taylin) purposely because 1. he felt Carl deserved his fate, and 2. he decided if Carl came back, it would jeopardize Jimbroth's new life.
• Designated Villain: Carl must have been a decent person at one point to have Jessica for a girlfriend and to have been hired in the first place. Once he gets addicted to the game, only Jessica seems worried that it's affecting him as a person and tries to help him; his friend, co-workers and especially his boss show no interest in trying to help him. Eventually, Jimbroth comes and everyone instantly turns away from Carl even further to hand Jimbroth respect, and eventually an upper level management position, all of which could have pushed Carl further into the game out of frustration.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: For Jimbroth; he has Carl's life now, but it's debatable how good that life is since we see him getting henpecked by Jessica over the phone. He also complains that LeBron is "riding his ass", meaning the initial approval LeBron gave to Jimbroth may be wearing off, and he's now treating him similarly as he treated Carl. Then again, this was the evening of an important cocktail party for Jessica so it might have been an exception to their normal every day life and relationship, and he's clearly doing well in his job.
• Misaimed Fandom: Carl was a deadbeat manchild who dodged responsibility by gaming, and victim-blamed his girlfriend for his friends getting her drunk and vulnerable. Most people got this and hated accordingly, but some members of the fandom seem to feel sorry for him. Rob, Film Brain, Y Ruler Of Time and ChaosD1 have all expressed "reactions" to this. Doug as Critic also mocked them in his review, saying if you're an obsessed gamer you'll see Karl as a martyr.
• Narm: Rachel is a great actress, but her leaving scene is way overdone. Mocked by Critic after she says “you're playing me in real life”, as he dubs soap opera music over it.
• The Scrappy: Carl was made to be hated, but a lot of fans hate him so much it drags down the rest of Dragonbored.
• Squick: From the bloopers, Carl talks to Doug about all the crap he's found in Rob's controller. And it really does look like crap, as he says “a crack addict wouldn't snort this”.

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