Late on Saturday night, after curse words and sexual themes were fully on the table for the evening, on the lower level of the Hyatt Hanover C-E, fans met to discuss the book series that has taken over the convention this year. You’ve been seeing it everywhere, and even if you don’t realize you’ve seen it…you have. And as much as I’d like to spend the next several paragraphs singing the praises of the series, that is not my job. Alas. However, please allow me to introduce you to our lord and savior Princess Donut, and her manservant Carl, along with the panelists of the “They Will Not Break Me” panel, presented by the Sci-Fi literature track.
The panel opened with a question from the moderator, Judy Black, that I think all of the current fans would love a chance to answer. “What is the moment that you had the, ‘Oh no, this is about to become my entire personality?” For panelist Candy Atkins, it was the moment the cat started to talk. For Crystal Cleveland, and she asks that you do not draw conclusions about this answer, it was when she found out the AI had a foot fetish. Other panelists cited interesting item descriptions that made them laugh or the mere fact that they, themselves, were a cat dad. The final answer came from DC Zev, and it was an interesting one.
“I had not read Dungeon Crawler Carl,” they said. “[Dragon Award cocktail reception] last year, 7:00 pm, The Westin Overlook, [Matt Dinniman] had a line of people, of course. I’d hosted it for several years, and this was the first author that had that kind of line. So I was, like, well, this is somewhat of note. But the guy was really nice, and that stuck with me. He was kind.” And that stuck with them enough that when they found the time just a few months later, they marathoned through all 8 books in approximately a month, so quickly, in fact, that they considered them one book. And it opened the door to checking out more LitRPG, something that hadn’t held much interest for them before then.
That question naturally led to asking the panelists how many people they had indoctrinated, much to the amusement of the crowd. It is a universal experience it would seem; please do not ignore the fact that I have personally now written two articles about DCC for the Dragon and I have a third one on the schedule. While each had at least one, all agreed that they hoped to have many many more.
From there, the discussion did move into more plot related topics and here I will give a spoiler warning, as all eight books were up for discussion. Topics covered favorite moments, with most singing the praises of the moment when Carl kills Loita, or when Donut confronts Bea. The things not only the panelists but the audience were most keen to speculate on were the eventual fates of favorite characters, and many of them seem very grim. People discussed what may or may not happen for Samantha, if she will ever get a body. But the real bone of contention is what will happen to Donut and Carl, the main characters. While everyone generally agreed it is extremely likely Donut will live, not everyone felt good about how. Multiple panelists speculated that she may return to being a normal cat if she is able to leave the dungeon, losing her sentience, either against her will or by choice, and no longer be the woman we’ve come to know and love. Carl had, in the opinions of the entire panel, a much more tragic path ahead of them. The general consensus is that the series is likely to end with the heartbreaking text: This message is from a deceased crawler.
For my part, if I may editorialize briefly, I hope it doesn’t. As horrific and devastating as the series can be, there is a throughline of revolutionary hope in Carl’s story. When we get to the end of the series, I want to believe the man who carried us all this way would give his main character a good ending. Or, at the very least, maybe the joke dog ending…I’d take either.
