The idea of Jesus meeting someone incognito and just punning his way through the conversation with reference and inside jokes about himself is the Jesus I would worship.
There's a story about Jesus post resurrection walking along a road and meets a couple who are talking about him and everything that's happened. They do not recognize him at all. He talks to them a bunch, and they don't realize until when he leaves that it's him. I like to think Jesus punning his way through that conversation is how it went
There's a song by Colin Raye, What if Jesus Comes Back Like That, talking about Jesus being reincarnated as different types like a hobo living under a bridge and the city wanting to get rid of that 'trash', or a kid born to a mother of drug abuse and having their addiction, and finally a baby born in a manger. The chorus being basically would we let them in or shut them out. A lot similar to the idea of Joan Osbourne's 'What if God was One Of Us', with God just being a normal Joe riding the bus. Kind of a fun thought idea to consider.
I always think about the alternate reality where Emily hit a nat 20 on that first insight and Brennan just has to be like “you are talking to Jesus fucking Christ”
The fact that Brennan’s Jesus Christ greets people in December with “happy holidays” instead of “merry Christmas” is such a cool detail. The big J.C. is just a really cool dude who doesn’t want to push anyone to celebrate his birthday.
I also like the fact that He asks what her spouses name was instead of what her husband's name was, implying he's inclusive and doesn't have a heteronormative view of relationships or marriage.
@@yitzakIrJust a weird thing about youtube, it's apparently convinced this post isn't in English (I mean aside from the one word). If I tell it to translate your post it becomes They celebrate Hanukkah.
Honestly love the idea that Jesus spends the holidays doing his old day job and giving people what they need at that moment, whether it’s a gentle rebuke, a warm jacket, or a listening ear.
Broke whose knees? At that point, her character had no idea who did it or if the person was even accessible and/or reachable. She literally couldn't break his knees until she turned around and approached him... which means time for the rest to go into motion anyway.
I love this scene so much, never fails to make me tear up. Even as an atheist, because even if I think Jesus was just a dude, this truly is the kind of behavior he modeled. Wish more Christians remembered that.
Yeah. I'm catholic and we don't have a lot of interpretations of the guy, most movies and such show this holier-than-thou bullshit that is so so tiring. Just give me Jesus making jokes, being a good friend and having a beer. Please
Yeah bud, definitely. I’m not a Christian anymore (I say Jesus and I go to different schools now) but JC can hang. I’m not fulfilled by following him, but I am a fan.
Siobhan is crazy smart, remember the Latin translation? I bet that took even Brennan a while to work out and check, and it takes Siobhan all of 5 seconds to not only translate it butconvert it to modern language from Latin idiom as well.
It's a small, subtle line, but I do appreciate the fact that Brennan describes J.C. as being middle-eastern instead of the more common images of him as a white dude.
Don't wanna "um actually" things too much because I love depictions of Jesus as being from different cultures because I think it helps people relate more if they see someone being "like them", but middle easterners up until about the 7th century CE looked a lot more like how we'd ID someone as looking Greek today, the "Levantine" ethnicity, which was gradually overtaken by people of Arab ethnicity in that region several centuries after Jesus' time. They wouldn't have been blond-haired and blue-eyed, or even roman, by any stretch, but people in the Levant back then were about as "white" as your average Greek or Albanian nowadays (not that "whiteness" is a real thing anyways).
I don't remember if this moment is addressed later in the season, but I always hold close to my heart the theory that he checks on her because he knows Dale xD
@Call-Me-I which god? There are so many. How can you just narrow it down to a singular masculine and assume that it means that specific deity? When Dale would be who she would care more about receiving love from? I mean, if we are basing it on our Earth and _that_ JC... well then this "God" seems to ve cool with Nephelim, which is very not true about most of our Earth's interpretation of that deity. Cuz I mean... Dale and her... and thats strictly forbidd... cuz of the risk of Nephel... I mean how many mortals have and had been corrupted by the touch angels... or the gods... All I'm saying, is She _received_ a lot of love; from her late husband with angel wings
@Call-Me-I you added emphasis on "him" and MADE it a deity in your interpretation. You didn't offer a textual interpretation because it wasn't text. A textual interpretation is that "him" = Dale; if you look at the closed captions it _IS NOT_ capitalized. What hang ups about gendered deities. The deities can choose their own gender. Many swap genders and swap sexes AND swap species. What hangups? You capitalized Him and made the singular capitalized "God." Which is the standard for the abrahamic deity. And you sound like a redditor with your "bye" ending.
There are very few RPG players in the world who are able, let alone willing to do what Emily does there. Brennan's giving her that gag is based in the trust that she is that player. It's also a testament to how unselfish Brennan is with his comedy. Emily is visibly struggling with tears at several points in the dialogue. It's amazing on a few fronts. 1) Her character would very likely be heavily emotional in the moment, and she doesn't back away from that because 2) she's also emotional in the moment, and 3) this is being put out for consumption. Emily doesn't shy away from the emotion and vulnerability, but instead grapples with it while never breaking character. That's hard to do. She lets herself experience the emotions at the same time as Sophia, but also has there wherewithal to drop an absolute diamond of a punchline to the joke that Brennan sets up. Think about that. Again, this is to be broadcast, and Brennan takes the time and effort to create a genuine emotional interaction with an NPC (Non-player Christ?) and *he leaves the punchline empty!* He knows that Em will go with him on the emotional aspect but also absolutely crush the punchline. It's one of the reasons D20 works so well.
Most players try to commit to their characters when they play DnD, but that was ACTING, being in the moment, feeling how your character feels. Amazing stuff.
There's a certain sincerity that seems to come from Brennan depicting Jesus in a roleplaying game. Any less obviously atheist GM would have surely come off as a bit preachy no matter what they did.
Man, I'm so used to seeing Emily being chaotic in the clips I catch but she really is an amazing actress. When she was talking about her character's deceased husband I got a little teary eyed.
Brennan, who as far as I can tell isn't Christian (though very supportive), understanding who Jesus was better than a lot of actual Christians out there. I pray for a day when this idea of Jesus is what's known throughout the world, both by believers and non-believers.
As a Christian, I absolutely love this- also the amount of references in this video are hilarious "I'm so sorry, he doesn't know what he's doing." "We all have a cross to bear." "It's Christmas, miracles can happen". I’m not a super religious Christian, and even tho I don’t really go to church I still love thinking of Jesus and God being these super nice dudes with cool dad energy that have the best jokes to tell on the Dinner table. Also, I love Dimension 20 and I love Brennan's DMing, so these combinations are so cool
As someone who is still Christian, but is going through a lot of religious reconstruction (I've had bad experiences in the church due to being pan, trans and a victim of SA), this portrayal of Jesus is very much the most accurate depiction of what my vision of him looks like, with the unconditional kindness and compassion that makes me want to hold on to my faith in spite of all the shithead christians who claim they know him better despite their raging bigotry and hatred.
If you ever need to talk just find me. It is said we are known by how we treat each other, and brother or sister or somewhere inbetween, you are loved my sibling in Christ.
love jesus, hate the church. the only real way to be a christian honestly if god is real and he’s in our heart then that’s what we should be listening to, not a book written 2000 years ago and published by the most powerful establishment in history
@@xavier84623 Someone making a statement that people are hurting their faith by being cruel.... Is not helped by a random person also mocking their faith. You're being less than half the alley you think you are.
Literally saw this video in my recommended feed and immediately clicked to watch because of how perfect this scene was. Perfect balance of sweet/wild/hilarious, with Emily's absolute best one-liner in all of Dimension 20 as the cherry on top.
I'm like somewhat tearing up at how incredibly sweet this exchange in, and also how uncomfortable I would be at that level of genuine compassion ahahahah
I like that it started out a bit awkward and there were a couple misunderstandings. It made it feel way more realistic. People in real life don't always appreciate or understand strangers just being genuine and kind for no reason. The best part is that even though she was pretty jaded, eventually she accepted him just being kind and was better off for it, getting a real moment of sincerity. Goes to show real Christian values as opposed to the fire and brimstone generally seen in media.
hey i’ve been there. once it was clarified that he was not meant to be a love interest for sofie i finally went “oh, middle eastern, carpenter, cross to bear… i get it”
Wait, I haven't seen unsleeping city, I thought it was eldritch lovecraft stuff. The idea, that that madness and space chaos exists concurrently with Jesus Christ, is kinda hitting me in the lore spot in the best way...
Im not a D20 listener, but I have avidly listened to NADDPOD for years now. With the little ive seen of brennen up until this point I can only think of this man as a fucking genius DM. So many subtle hints.
An extremely heartwarming and respectful, and I would argue accurate, depiction of Christ. Thank you Brennan. I need to watch this one, whatever it's from.
This comment is going to get kind of personal, but I grew up in a very deeply religious household, my dad was a pastor. And I often feel very alienated from that faith because of my sexuality, or how I except people in my own way. And, when I feel very alone, I come back to this video when I feel cast aside, I come back here. I’m writing this as I’m crying right now I don’t think that I would find comfort in this, in the same way, if I had to go digging through, the unsleeping city part two every time I needed it. Thank you so much you give me a lot of peace.
As someone who is still Christian, but is going through a lot of religious reconstruction (I've had bad experiences in the church due to being pan, trans and a victim of SA), this portrayal of Jesus is very much the most accurate depiction of what my vision of him looks like, with the unconditional kindness and compassion that makes me want to hold on to my faith in spite of all the shithead christians who claim they know him better despite their raging bigotry and hatred. Lots of love.
Jesus was a carpenter as well, nice touches through out - the best kind of payoff - subtle, and on a second viewing, you see all the references come through.
This is my first time seeing this scene cause I skipped season 2, mostly cause seeing all the zoom stuff kinda just sapped my energy. So when I heard him say "we all got our cross to bear" for a second I thought he might have been an angel or something, but it's hecking jesus
You don’t need to believe in Brennan’s Jesus… Brennan’s Jesus believes in you. I know I’ve commented twice but this video makes me feel so warm when I watch it.
The guy that catcalled gave up so easily and the carpenter came on so strong that initially I was sure it was going to turn out to be a wingman/ruse situation... It's neat it turned out the way it did, but the end also threw me because Jesus's probably only had one initial, and it was most similar to Y. "Christ" is technically a title... But I get that adaptation is such that details need to be changed so stories can be accessible to their audience. It's just funny to meditate on the fact that the ethnicity was period-accurate, but the name was not.
It probably didn't stand for Jesus Christ. If I were running it, I'd have it be that Jesus used a pseudonym when registering with the union and the pseudonym had the initials JC as a little private joke.
This is probably my favorite scene from Unsleeping City season 2. I replayed it a dozen times. It’s beautiful, touching, and hilarious. But one of my favorite things about it and I don’t see anyone mentioning is that Siobhan knew what the punchline was before Brennan finished his sentence 7:30
I almost wonder if this wasn't an attempt to bring in another potential love interest for Sofia to push along her character arc of accepting Dale's death and moving on, only for Emily to outright reject that idea forcing Brennen to improvise the Jesus joke and eventual time travel plot to bring Dale back.
i don’t think so, only because of the specific reference to him being middle eastern, and because of the whole “forgive them for they know not what to do” thing, but i also originally thought this was supposed to be a love interest
Also Emily would've role Brennan before hand if that's something she wanted for her character or not. There's also more pre planning in this show than other actual plays because they need to make the maps and minutes beforehand (less so in this season because it was digital but still) so they would run into a situation where Brennan had to pivot a plot points like this unless Brennan knew they had room to rearrange the plan, which they did do in this season when ally rolled a nat 20 to banish null (I think that's what the eldritch being from deep dreaming was called) right before Brennan and the team had a big break so they had time to prep for the change in plans and I doubt Brennan would want to put himself ornthe team through crunch time again like that. So this is almost definitely another one if Brennan's perfectly tailored bits.
This is what Christianity truly is, the warmth and care towards someone you did not even know. Not all of the petty squabbles and holier than thou behaviour. This is the religion I am proud to follow.
Lol, he was a carpenter of Middle Eastern descent from the beginning of the scene. Brennan improvized this character instantly after the catcall reaction.
