#started my second relisten of taz balance | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

engineering-poodles · 5 months

Text

My Traditional Post-Campaign TAZ Relisten Is Going Great

I'm on episode 69 of Balance, and just got to the moment with Merle and Mavis saying "I love you" and the way Clint pauses and drops subtly out of character voice to say it, so you know he's actually saying it to Griffin as his dad, and there's all this unspoken feeling of "you boys are The Most Important Thing to me and I have never and will never ever take even a single second of your existence for granted" and that's always where the water works start for me.

These four guys, y'all. I find it so healing to hear the obvious love they have for each other. Like, I had pretty decent parents, who loved us so much, and always did the best they knew how to do for us. But I'm 46, and they've both passed away in the last 10 years. Both of my brothers succumbed to alcoholism and died stupidly and very young. It's just me now. Sometimes I feel like an astronaut who's gone Flying Dutchman - flung adrift from my ship in the open emptiness of space, with no way to return or be found. It's not entirely true, I have aunts and uncles and cousins who love me and are always happy to hear from me. I have my best friend who's been my roommate for so long that we're basically in a platonic marriage. I'm not entirely without tethers. But the people that raised me are just gone.

So these men who once lost one of their most vital tethers, who work every day to maintain their tethers to each other, who built more tethers to more people they could love, and just pour this unfathomably deep well of love they have into strengthening all those tethers, and then go and (rather unintentionally, I think, it's just not something they're capable of or willing to hide) share a little of how strong they've made their net of connections to each other through storytelling and laughter and the way they conduct themselves in this capitalist hell-scape we're all fighting through...it's good for me. I feel lucky to have found them through some cool fanart I saw on Twitter once, in the before times like 8 years ago.

Sorry to get all maudlin on you all. Just feelin' some feels.

#the adventure zone #taz balance #mcelboys #tw alcohol #tw death #tw sappy and emotional about a dnd podcast #not to get all religious #but God bless the McElroys

13 notes · View notes

moreclaypigeons · 2 years

Text

I cannot WAIT for whatever comes after ethersea because this will be my first time as a TAZ listener being fully caught up on all the arcs and invested in them-

Like I was listening to the beginning of graduation as the second half was airing, and that was my first TAZ experience, but I kept jumping around and didn't really know where to start or how to keep up so I didn't really get the full experience.

And with ethersea it was similar cause I had finished grad by that point but needed to listen to balance and amnesty still. I ended up relistening to grad after those since I didn't really remember anything.

Long story short, I'm currently relistening to ethersea in the hopes that I can comprehend it all in time for the finale. But with all the arcs listened to and understood...😏 Whatever is next for the adventure zone is MINE baby!! Expect fan art and posts from day one

#taz

13 notes · View notes

elfgays · 2 years

Text

Ok taz confession I need to relisten to Balance bc the first and so far only time I listened to it I had Merle and Magnus confused until literally like the end of the second arc. I am not proud of this but in my defense I have brain problems and they both start with M

#taz balance #my face blindness rolled over into fiction I was like ok I get the funny elf with the weird voice but these other two are just like dudes #I'm reformed ok. I love them I would never confuse them now but. Listen. I was in very busy college and I had a sick family member and I #was getting like 3 hours of sleep a week like not joking so the fact that I realized I was even listening to a podcast is impressive

4 notes · View notes

actuallyrandomperson · 4 years

Text

ahhh I’m getting in a relistening to TAZ balance mood and I Can’t I have So Many Things I have to Study year 12 is Stressful also I’m behind on Every Single Podcast I Listen To Including TAZ

There was a min where I was like ‘hold up maybe I’m just in a Listening To the McElroys playing dnd mood?’ and tried to listen to TAZ grad because I love it and wanna catch up eventually even tho I’m only on ep 11 (my brain stopped vibing w it and podcasts in general so much when shit started going down w covid) but n o I got two (2) seconds in and my brain was like No this is Wrong where are my Children

My usual method of ‘listen to one of the live shows to get it out of ur system’ has instead evolved into me listening to All of the live shows and instead made the urge stronger despite delaying it a few days

If I was capable of consuming media at a normal rate I wouldn’t be concerned but it’s All Or Nothing with me and I c a n n o t afford a hyperfixation thats easy to get away with fueling at school distracting me because I Can And Will listen to podcasts while doing ‘work on my laptop’

#angus mcdonald #is my s o n #i l o v e him #taz balance #taz #the adventure zone #taako #merle #magnus #hyperfixation #procrastination #podcast #podcasts #the mcelroys #the mcelroy family #mcelroy

13 notes · View notes

sasspotato · 4 years

Text

Might be a hot take but like upon my relistening to TAZ: Balance, I still am left with an unpopular opinion about the Madame Director, Lucretia, herself. Stunning revelations are one way to put it, but nonetheless incredible. I enjoyed the character but I absolutely despise what she’s done. I feel like she still doesn’t really get it even after they defeat The Hunger.

Don’t get me wrong, Griffin masterfully weaves this absolutely stunning tale of heartbreak, family, and bonds throughout all of Balance. The character of Lucretia is so well developed, I can understand why she did what she did. But I can’t forgive her. I don’t see how Barry or Taako could either.

The crew voted against her idea but she went against everyone’s will, erasing their minds. She was salty they didn’t choose her plan. She saw what they had done to the world by making the relics and she decided to do what she wanted to do. Break the bonds. Even though she’d been told by the effing science officer that the world and it’s people would not survive that.

The crew decided. They voted! They even told her that if it didn’t work, they’d try her idea next. Unsatisfied, but not willing to go against her family of 100 long years, Lucretia goes along with the plan. Makes a relic.

I’m not sure when she started planning to take over and decide for “everyone’s own good” but she wrote the second account of the adventures they’d been on. Lucretia had decided she would be the saviour at all costs. She decided that she knew best. It was incredibly selfish of her - so selfish I don’t even have words for it. What she did to her supposed family was horrific.

She left Lup no chance at being discovered if no one remembered her. She took away Taako’s memory of his beloved sister. Davenport’s treatment was even more ghoulish. And she hunted for Barry. She vilified him and tried to chase him down, knowing that he would try to fix things. She planned to lock him away just like she did Pringles.

It seems almost as if she is a petulant child not getting their way against their parent. And she comes away with, in my opinion, not having learnt the lesson.

That cycle where she was alone and had to run for a year from the judges and the hostile world most definitely changed her. She learnt that running away was the way to survive while ether others were just beginning to learn to stay and fight.

My problem is when she decided everyone’s fate by feeding the journal to the baby voidfish. Personally, that’s why I do not like her. I cannot get over how badly she fucked up and decided she would be the one to fix it. You can’t always do things on your own and she learnt from that cycle alone, that maybe, yes she could do it alone. She needed her family’s guidance. I am convinced that after enough time, they would have gathered the relics themselves to make a final stand against The Hunger. She forced them to do it unprepared and fractured. They had to repair the bonds forged over 100 long years and learn to trust each other again before the fight all because she took it away from them. If they had lost that battle, it would have been her fault.

I don’t have any sympathy for Lucretia or how guilty she feels and I maintain that Barry would never trust her or even look at her the same way again. Taako might be convinced to ignore his trust issues, but I believe the issues are still there. What she did was too catastrophic and too much of a breach in trust for them to get over it.

Still, such a great story and I was thrilled to be taken on such an emotional ride, it’s just everywhere I see people loving Lucretia and I just can’t overlook all the bad shit

#long post #taz balance #taz balance spoilers #lucretia #barry bluejeans #taz taako #madame director #its just my opinion #i still enjoyed it #i still like lucretia #but i think what she did was the literal pits

37 notes · View notes

utilitycaster · 4 years

Note

do you have any tips for getting into CritRole? I got into live plays mostly thru Taz and have been enjoying D20 as well, but CR seems to be more serious from the little I've watched? Humor was one of those things that really helped me settle into Taz and D20. The long episodes also make it seem daunting.

Hi anon,

You know, unless it’s something with a nonlinear structure like Discworld or something I’ll admit I’m always a little confused by questions of “how do I get into this thing” because like...you go to YouTube and you click ‘play’ and do so for between like, 90-odd and 200-odd episodes depending on whether you watch both campaigns or just one. And having written out my long and rambly response and said this like 5 times I want to say it here at the intro: there are a large number of reasons why I specifically am a bad person to ask, probably the greatest of which is I don’t know you or your life and I’m a firm believer that you shouldn’t make any decisions based on what an internet stranger tells you.

With all that said: I’m guessing the answer you’re actually looking for is the answer to one or more of these questions:

“compared to TAZ and Dimension 20, is Critical Role significantly more serious?”

“is using the podcast a reasonable alternative to watching”

“Do I need to have seen Campaign 1 to watch Campaign 2”

“is it really the 4 hour episode length that’s the issue here?”

Feel free to ask me again with a more specific query if I don’t hit on the answer you’re looking for and also I still seem like a resource that would be helpful to you.

Answering the easier questions first: the podcast is a great option and I caught up on Campaign 1 primarily via podcast (I started watching with the start of the second campaign so I’ve watched all of that, though I’ve relistened to a few episodes as podcasts on long drives).

You don’t need to see campaign 1 to see campaign 2; there are some things where campaign 1 knowledge is helpful but none where it’s necessary (and if you don’t intend to watch campaign 1, it’s easy to read the wiki or critrolestats to fill in the gaps) . I like both campaigns but starting with C2 might be an easier investment (not really in terms of length as it’s almost up there by now, but it’s a little smoother to start since they’re used to the format and it begins at the beginning instead of midway through a campaign).

Now: is it serious or funny?

Other than early TAZ Balance when they were mostly goofing around, I don’t think TAZ is explicitly comedy any more so than Critical Role is explicitly serious. I’d put much of Critical Role at the same general position on the funny to serious scale as TAZ Amnesty, and the average Critical Role episode is in my opinion funnier and less dark than The Suffering Game arc of TAZ Balance. In fact last night’s episode of Critical Role had some elements that reminded me of The Suffering Game in it and I was like “oh this is fucking dark”.

While we’re at it, while Dimension 20 is explicitly comedic, The Unsleeping City went fairly dark towards the endgame, and Fantasy High, especially the current livestreamed campagin, has gotten fairly tragicomic at times as well. It’s hard to maintain a long-running campaign that doesn’t have real emotional stakes, even if you’re also trying to be funny, and if someone somehow managed that I wouldn’t want to watch it. Similarly if you’re a group of real friends playing a long-running campaign it’s hard to never have any jokes. I think Critical Role is perhaps less silly at times, but it’s capable of being very funny as well as very serious.

Finally, on episode length: yeah they sure are long episodes. There’s no real getting around that, unless you want to skip around in which case I, a compulsive completist am the wrong person to ask.

You can watch episodes in halves (or quarters, it’s your life). The episode break is a reasonable place to take a real-life break, and that’s how I watch the current campaign - I watch to the break or almost to the break on Thursday night, and then from my stopping point to the end on Friday.

Finally, I should also note that the length of individual episodes only becomes relevant when you’re trying to keep up with weekly episodes. I’m currently very slowly working through Rusty Quill Gaming. Their episodes are just under an hour, but there are still almost 150 of them. I mean, CR also has a huge number of episodes so this comparison isn’t very helpful, but my point is total runtime is the actual daunting thing, not the length of an individual episode. I don’t want to diminish how intimidating it can be - I didn’t start until the second campaign began precisely for this reason - but no advice I would give will shorten that runtime.

#critical role #critical role spoilers #by implication anyway #Anonymous

13 notes · View notes

waitineedaname · 4 years

Note

You havent posted about taz in a while but can you do lup or taako for the character thingy?? Loves of my life

ahh yeah I haven’t been into taz balance in a while (no problem with it, just kinda shifted into homestuck) but I will do Lup!!!!!

How I feel about this character: she’s so fucking cool!!! one of the most incredible feats of taz balance was Griffin’s ability to introduce a character in the second to last arc and make that character consume my Whole Heart. every now and then I relisten to the speech she gives about the Hunger and I start crying, I love her so much

All the people I ship romantically with this character: BLUPJEANS!!!!! I got so much more invested in her relationship with Barry than I expected, but their romance is so wonderful. they love each other so so much and it makes my little aro heart go “maybe love is real”

My non-romantic OTP for this character: Taako obvs, but also Magnus! he’s her chaotic little brother and they get up to Shenanigans.

My unpopular opinion about this character: oh man I’ve been so disconnected from the taz fandom for so long, I don’t know what’s an unpopular opinion anymore. umm i don’t really ship her with Lucretia! I know that was a popular ship for a while but idk I didn’t really get into it. They were more like sisters to me

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: uhhhhHh just more of her. please. more. I want to see reaper shenanigans!! Also I’m pumped to see her in the graphic novel in *checks watch* four years?

#lup rules!!#taako also rules #I just have more lup thoughts at the ready sdlkfjdsklf #my sibling and I were talking about taz balance recently #abt how we've both kind of moved on to other interests #but no piece of media will ever be as beautifully crafted or hit us as hard as balance did #anonymous #asks

4 notes · View notes

chronicas · 4 years

Text

my uncharted hyperfixation resurfaced and i was talking to my gf about it and anyways since i was relistening to taz balance i made another goddamn crossover au.

started as a joke where i was talking about sam drake and my gf said “big taako energy” and i haven’t been able to get my mind off of it.

so basically:

- magnus would be nathan because himbo with zero impulse control who chugs respecting women juice every day

- elena was a bit harder but i actually decided to have two characters fill her role, lucretia would play a similar role to what elena did in the first game, recording the journey and all that. julia would fill her role in later games. (mainly because her having to go track down her dumb husband after he goes on another treasure hunting quest after he told her he was done with that shit just seemed like a very julia burnsides thing to do)

- spent two seconds thinking about sully before i yelled “MERLE” really loud

- taako as sam obv because he’s the only character in the entire franchise to ever successfully get any treasure (besides chloe and nadine but they didn’t exactly profit off of that)

- then to chloe and nadine, had to choose which pair of lesbians fit best and i decided on hurley and slone. mainly because slone was fucked up and evil at one point and that fits better with nadine’s character arc

i’ll think of more characters when i replay the games eventually but i needed to get this shit out of my head

#shut up kellington #taz #taz balance #uncharted

3 notes · View notes

ghosty-schnibibit · 5 years

Text

one last amnesty liveblog :’)

i’m writing this literal seconds after it came out and i am hyped as all get out, let’s do this!!!!!

IT IS TWO AND A HALF HOURS LONG, NICE

they haven't announced more than that trav is dming and i'm hype for it

dang i wanna listen to those so bad

love ya griffin :')

... i don't remember there being distortion there???

WHY IS THE INTRO BREAKING DOWN

GRIFFIN WHAT THE FUCK I AM INSTANTLY TERRIFIED

... this isn't just old quotes, these are memories we haven't seen before now mixed in. i'm 90% sure that was just a memory from thacker's perspective of mama finally finding thacker possessed by the quell

was that little aubrey getting inspired to be a magician? sweet baby

aww aubrey :'(

and that was duck in class the day after minerva visited him

"wayne newton? that can't be real" pfff

DUCK MEETING AUBREY AWWW

who???

"this isn't how it happened" what the fuck is going on

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED TO NED DURING THE SHIFTER ARC

... THAT'S NOT REALLY BEACON IS IT

YEP, YEP, YEP, THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED TO NED

it wasn't expecting him to grab beacon

... they're in the alien base aren’t they

this is terrifying holy shit

it's the rest of the pine gaurd

waAaAaynEeEeE

"we've a little bit of the griffin panic settin' in" mood

nice! first of those good good finale rolls this ep

oh thank god it didn't take dani again

WELL THAT'S NOT GREAT

at least sylvaine is okay then

i love beacon so fucking much

"i think we're pretty well fucked" bless duck

thacker is so good and i love him

SOMEONE HELP HER

never mind about those finale rolls holy shit

yeah aubrey's fucked for luck lol

what are you quoting

it is so fucking weird to hear people calling him wayne, and yet it works so well for him

griffin keeps pointedly calling him wayne to get him to react and justin's just not yes-anding him lmao

this is so fucking weird holy shit

aubrey no

bless you for still calling him duck aubrey

GOD DAMN TRAV

OH THAT IS EXTREMELY BAD, OH GOD

THE LATE THACKER ROLLED A FIVE

this is so weird holy shit

jesus i just looked at the timestamp and it's only been thirty minutes

this is more of what ned found with the shifter

NICE!

i love minerva so

it's barry

the sudden music scares an intrigues me

WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK

it's making copies of their loved ones to scare them into not fighting

duck i love you so much

beacon is so horny for destruction and i love him

WAIT REALLY??? shit, we were all terrified for aubrey’s luck and forgot about duck’s completely

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST THEY ARE BEEFING IT

thank you for minmaxing so much trav

HOLY SHIT THACKER WHAT

"oooookay" griffin sounds so excited and i love it

NICE! GO THACKER :DDD

W H A M I E

... why do i have a feeling this is billy

oookay, that makes sense

direct and fair

reconciliation???

oh no, this is bad, this is very bad

PIZZA

"what that being represented" wtf

... they created a great filter. they created a great filter to keep themselves safe and killed off god knows how many worlds. holy fucking shit this makes so much make sense.

yes duck, it it aliens -_-

not the most nuanced of takes there aubrey

i don't know if it's just me but i am having such a hard time mentally picturing this room

griffin loves his domes lmao

WELP, THAT'S NOT GREAT

this music griffin holy shit

bless griffin

oh fuck, very bad, this is very very bad

duck took a fuckin turn here at the end, damn

"FUCK YOU, C'MON" i love you duck holy shit

natural human chitin

oh fuck i forgot they were there holy shit

jesus we have more than an hour left

well that's not great!!!

HOLY FUCK, GO THACKER :DDDDD

i cry, ned ; _ ;

YEAH MAYBE DON'T LET THACKER DIE

nice nice nice

griffin i don't think you needed to specify that it wasn't literal whales

"duck, honey" mama ilu so

YEEEEEAH GO DUCK MY BOY

jesus fucking christ that's horrifying

what are you gonna do here trav

YES BRING BILLY BACK

OH NO, OH NO, OH NO

"you absolute ding dongs" griffin ilu

YEAAAAAH AUBREY

BILLY!!! MY BABY BOY IS BACK :D

god damn clint has been killing these rolls today

"you and your bunch of commodore 64's" thacker i love you

HOLY SHIT BILLY

what in the world did he do?????

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME IS THIS A FINAL FANTASY REFERENCE? DID BILLY FUCKING SUMMON SEPHIROTH???

THE AMNESTY THEME

I AM SO HYPE RIGHT NOW HOLY SHIT

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

HOLY SHIT THE FUCKING TIM CURRY ASS SWORD

...god damn, i need to take a moment to just... whoooo fuckin boy that was so good. that was so incredibly good. as soon as this is over i'm going back and doing an amnesty relisten because so much makes sense now, holy shit

yay billy can talk now :D

my god this is so good

i love how much billy is using y'all, you can tell he spent a lot of time with duck

fair lol

awww billy's gonna save everybody :')

... is anyone else remembering that stern is still in sylvain

i descended to your pairing??? oooh dissented, okay

prove em' wrong

... are we in the end game territory here

whomst clint???

a guest bivouac

i love thacker so freaking much guys, i love him so much

mama :'D

who is this person i am so confused

IT'S THE QUELL

aww thacker :')

this music is destroying me holy fuck

"hi honey!" jesus fuck they're so cute

god this is such pretty imagery

AWWWWW NED I CRY

i love these two girlfriends and their rabbit son

"i love the whimsy" janelle ilu

travis mcelroy you have murdered me

aww little mousies

aubrey my baby ilu so much

duck wtf my child

that hasn't happened yet technically tho? i’m pretty sure it's still 2017 i think in this canon but okay then? i might be wrong tho

i love these two so much

MINERVA MY BABY

wait a god damn minute

DUCK x MINERVA HOLY SHIT, RIP INDRUCK LMAO

oooooh i am suddenly very much not looking forward to going into the tag later, oh boy. this right here is why i make a rule of not getting too invested in non-canon pairings.

minerva is a non-neurotypical mood

... god damn duck this is killing me right now

why are you quoting spiderman minerva

there are only ten minutes left holy shit

i have very limited comic knowledge here guys please help me here boys

justin i'm gonna cry here

oh good, stern made it back to kepler

griffin i weep

indruck may have been sunk but sternclay is sailing strong lol

I CRY GRIFFIN, I CRY

THEY MADE A NEW PORTAL :D

janelle fell off a pudding fruit tree lol

INDRID AND LEO WTF

THIS IS SO HAPPY AND GOOD I CRY

NED :')

I'M SOBBING

and that was it folks! there's the end of taz amnesty! it has been an amazing ride and, unlike balance, one i was actually here for from start to finish in real time. this finale more than lived up to my expectations as far as tying up loose ends and ending on a wonderfully happy note and i cannot wait to see all the art and fic that comes out of it. i love this amazing fandom that’s felt like a home to me these last three years, i can't wait to listen to the next amazing arc the mcelboys conjure up with all of you

see you all again when the ttazz comes out!

#taz #taz amnesty #taz spoilers #the adventure zone #ghosty liveblogs taz #:')

10 notes · View notes

august-anon · 4 years

Note

What fandoms are YOU interested in possibly writing for?

Oh man, I dunno. I’ve written exclusively for Sanders Sides since 2017 except for one random Umbrella Academy fic I did on my other account during my extremely brief hyperfixation that probably won’t return until like, season 2 is out.

I would be interested in attempting Steven Universe!

I am majorly in love with Star Trek (The Original Series is my favorite, and I’m watching chronologically so rn I’m at the end of The Next Generation and the beginning of Deep Space Nine cuz I slowed way down after finishing TOS lol), so I might try that someday, if anyone’s interested in that.

I REALLY love The Adventure Zone, the D&D podcast. I’d probably want a relisten before I tried anything, but I finished all of the Balance story (except liveshows, I’m saving those up for when I need them lol) and I think I’m in the mid-20s episodes with Amnesty? I have not started Graduation yet. I would be interested in delving into that someday?

I will hesitantly say Gravity Falls, but make no promises. Writing familial affection like that is always odd to me because I forget it’s actually real, like people have families that are kind and affectionate to each other lol. This got a little sad lol, but that’s honestly a wild concept to me (like I legit had to pull a “heist” with my little sister earlier to protect the two of us from a mistake her friend made lol, the adrenaline had me shaking for over an hour for a task that took me 30 seconds to complete lol), so I just don’t know if I could capture realistic family fun lol

Like, I like a lot of fandoms, but I’m always hesitant to write for them lol. My biggest loves though are probably Sanders Sides, Star Trek, and TAZ. I have never written for Star Trek or TAZ, but I’ve always thought about it.

#ask #phantomtickles #steven universe tickling #the adventure zone tickling #star trek tickling #gravity falls tickling #steven universe #the adventure zone #star trek #gravity falls

5 notes · View notes

apocahipster · 6 years

Text

here’s just some author’s notes for the huge taz fic i finished today

you can read it here if you want

https://archiveofourown.org/works/13468608/chapters/30877473

Author’s notes,, i haven’t proofed these so, apologies ;000

Wow. Huge. This is literally the biggest thing ive ever written to completion. I had the whole fic planned before I uploaded the first chapter, and to accentuate the planning I had a 100+ page document of notes and also had an excel sheet which looked like this:

(the yellow on the left means summer, and blue when it was winter. The second column is day of the year, third important dates. On the right is the events which I highlighted yellow as I wrote them)

and like this

Its also the first fic I decided to upload as I wrote each chapter because I knew it would take about a year to complete. I wanted fan support (which I got and loved <3 ) and I didn’t want to sit on the whole thing and constantly re-write it and end up hating it and never publishing it.

So the way this fic began is I was listening to TAZ balance for the first time and as I different scenes or dialogue occurred I started taking notes on my phone for how they would translate to a high school setting. This whole thing started around the time I was at crystal kingdom and ironically, that’s were im up to in my relisten at the time of publishing the last chapter.

The other, very original, formative idea for the fic was this:

Magnus beats up kids who are homophobic to Taako as a way to cover for the fact that he is also bi // Thinks he’s straight and overly supportive of his gay friends

Similarly, in the original idea, it was going to be Julia who had died, not magnus’ dad. There was a really depressing scene where magnus spent the day with Julia’s parents.

Another formative idea was,

My name is Taako, you know, from Instagram.

And I suppose in the end this was the most impactful because I decided that I personally specialise in writing comedy based things. I wanted this to be a light-hearted fun fic.

In the original fiction, Travis and the other McElroys show regret that Magnus’ story is formed around the death of a woman (Julia). Similarly in sensitivity to the McElroy’s personal background I decided that this was not the right thing to write about. But I also wanted this story to be a magnus emotional journey. By choosing his dad as the character who had died I could keep many things planned such as magnus’ one year gap, Fischer as a therapy fish, Magnus’ aggression etc.

My favourite TAZ character is magnus, if that wasn’t obvious. But ironically, I feel like of all the characters his dialogue is the most OOC. While I tried to keep his thought-logic and actions to Magnus I don’t feel like magnus would say 99% of what my magnus did. Conversely Taako seemed like one of those characters who would be hard to pinpoint but I actually found him easiest to write.

Taako’s magic stone which ultimately ruined the play was introduced as I felt I was focusing too much on Taako’s appearance and not the fact he is incredibly smart and a brilliant wizard.

So I decided to make this fic mostly lighthearted. I wanted to squeeze as many highschool tropes in like the gigantic party, the school play, the football match. The last chapter has a scene in a class for every subject as I felt like I somewhat forgot to write them ever being in class for a large chunk of the middle section. But then again no one really want to read about school do they?

I almost always write my stories to a song, but in this case it was an album. Vance Joy’s Dream Your Life Away, and while I love the music I never want to hear it again for like at least a few months. I would play the whole album every time I sat down to write this thing. It set the summer-time mood for the fic. If you listen to the songs youll probably find places where each song inspired bits of the fic.

The first song Wind’s of Change begins with the like ‘I miss you more than you could know’ which began the driving idea of Magnus dealing with the loss of his father. The song ‘first time’ begins with a line about jumping in the neighbours pool which obviously… inspired magnus jumping into a pool. ‘The best that I can’ inspired Magnus and Mr Waxmen’s interaction. I love the idea of a teenage boy who keeps doing the wrong thing, feeling shame in himself and in his mentor and trying to get better.

The song ‘from afar’ was initially Taako’s song. This whole fic was going to be a Taako / Magnus / Kravitz fic where Taako convinces Magnus to take care of himself and Magnus realises Taako is in love with him and this helps him discover he’s bi and it was super dramatic. There was (an still is) some Magnus / Kravtiz scenes too mostly in the form of flirting.

As I stepped away from this being a ship heavy fic this song became Lucretia’s song. Lucretia’s unrequited love to Lup was mostly written from the heart, and I’m so sorry to Lucretia stans, she deserves all the GFs in the world. But I felt this was a very powerful thing to write in a teen story.

Taako’s fear of LDR is also taken from the heart. In a way this whole fic was a serious vent from my high school experience. Similarly as I am now 21, I didn’t feel comfortable nor did I even really conceptualise any NSFW scenes for this fic. It just didn’t seem to have a place. Besides, sex is in almost all other teen movies and books. I also wanted to keep weed out of this one bc I personally hate how drugs are in every teen story.

I actually had a planned acronym for the IPRE, the Insufferable Prick Resistance Ensemble, and a short backstory that Magnus Taako Lup and Merle formed the group in their youth to complain about annoying classmates.

Writing Lydia and Edward was the worst. I don’t know how to write cool and sassy kids. Me at me: don’t make me do it again.

Heres the entirety of my prepared barry notes:

Barry

-Oculus, opens portals?

-Likes pretty girl?!!?!?!

I had a planned thing for how each of their grand relics could play into the fic but it was far too much work.

I was also planning on writing wayyyy more Lucretia and wayyyy less Barry. Bc Lucretia was basically me as a teenager. But I started writing Barry as one of my friends and this helped me just write bundles and bundles of Barry content.

I really didn’t have anything planned for davenport. Even drawing his yearbook I was like whelp idk. The idea of him becoming a sports strategist kicked in right as I was writing the paragraph about killian being the new jock, simply bc the section needed to be longer and frankly, I love how his story turned out.

Part of scrapping the original, edgy tone of julia’s death and taako / magnus romance was wanting to continue the tradition where TAZ is a world separate of racism and homophobia. I scrapped original ideas of magnus being provoked by homophobic remarks and transphobic remarks about lup, wanting this to also be an escapist piece like TAZ is. Therefore coming up with other reasons for magnus to get into fights was hard and also I hate writing fights bc ive never been in a fight in my life.

The first half of this fic I was riding an enthusiasm high and just adding scenes and conversations as I thought of them and listened to the story. By about the end of semester 3 I still cared about the fic but I was basically writing everything I had pre-planned with little innovation.

All in all, this was extremely fun to write, and I think it made me a much, much, much better author. I love anyone who read the whole thing sm.

#my work #hhhhhhh

7 notes · View notes

isaacle97 · 6 years

Text

I’m finishing up with TAZ Balance and I need to vent for a second

I just finished episode 66, and it broke my fucking heart in so many ways.

“Taako, what if she’s just gone?” “Who?”

That was such a beautiful move on Justin’s part, responding like that. He could have waited for Griffin to start indicating the memory effect had taken place, like Clint did in Merle’s conversation with Davenport, but having him lead made it so heart breaking.

“I’ve been living a hundred years with me, and one year with millions of people. I got to the point where I just started focusing on me, because everyone else besides the six of you were dust. Talking dust. So I started worrying just about me cuz what was the fucking point?”

And Taako’s conversation at the party, talking about how everyone is dust and how for a hundred years nobody else has mattered: absolutely heartbreaking and so amazing. It makes so much sense with his character, and almost shapes who he is during the rest of the arc. You could tell Griffin was impressed too, since he ended he conversation there. (The quote might not be exact I found it on reddit)

When someone leaves your life, those exits are not made equal. Some are beautiful and poetic and satisfying. Others are abrupt and unfair. But most are just unremarkable, unintentional, clumsy.

That quote. That damn quote. It just hit so hard. I’ve read it before, but hearing Griffin actually say it in context hurt. It reminded me so much of my father, and I could only think that his death would fall under abrupt and unfair. I think of him every time I listen to TAZ. We never played D&D together, but I wish we had.

I might relisten to episode 66 before I move on to the finale. It’ll be the first episode I’ve listened to twice.

#taz balance #taz balance spoilers #the adventure zone

7 notes · View notes