#/next is probably gonna be taz petal to the metal

[jaderavenarts]

I've finally managed to get myself into the habit of going to bed a little early to read comics and it feels so good to be reading them again!! Feeding my creative brain!!

[unsoupable-draws]

Listen, these two fucking destroyed me, now they’re a tree and I’m sobbing.

[thrash-rocket]

My thoughts on Petal To The Metal

I'll also be including the first moon interlude in this post and will probably work the rest of the preludes in before the next part of the campaign that follows.

It's great they all decided to essentially cosplay at the moon carnival especially Magnus just dressed in Takko's clothes

Amazed by Magnus' decision to fry a unicorn horn and dick emphatically stating he has full intentions of eating both after warning not to get the two mixed up

Another attempt at drawing the secret of tacos from the dm is failed

Unfortunate that Clint is banned by Griffin from making dick jokes although that doesn't seem to stop him

And we come to one of my favorite scenes where Takko does not grasp the gachapon while Magnus and Merle fuck about with their new gear in the background

FANTASY COSTCO WHERE ALL YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE

I'm sure I'd they still had the full set Griffin would have made the silverware much less expensive but I appreciate the bit

Now I haven't made it to the MBMBAM episode with him but I am absolutely tickled by GARFIELD THE DEALS WARLOCK

Magnus got himself a lil pet a smol little fish friend! Bless Lord Steven Q Esquire III

Good dad move by Clint trying to buy the fish from Travis after his initial disappointment

Glad to see the director finally catch on a bit to the gang and get a bit fed up with all the goofing around

Avi is a good dude just a straight up good guy

Those racing carts are gonna have something to do with later events they're gonna have to pull some fast & furious shit later aren't they because after all the mission seems straight forward but it's clear by now nothing here is straight forward

Liking the repeating joke about Clint's zune that persists through the show

The boys are so very skilled at in the art of the exact opposite of subtly

Magnus gets to work at trying to get in the bank while while Merle, and what I can't even say is the most ridiculously named character since we have Barry fucking Bluejeans, have a gruff voice off

Clint again tries to cast some shit he just does not have

The scene with Merle seducing the vines is fantastic simply because of how uncomfortable it makes every one else on the call also nice touch by Griffin adding the butt slap from the vines

Ok but who the fuck are the figures Takko sees when he's in the ethereal plane when he uses blink

I side with Travis on the cutting the tree in half argument

Clint works in classic MBMBAM are you Ira Ray bit

Loved the conversation between Trent and Merle

"I'm in the ethereal plane this is like Netflix to me."

Good bit about the secret 4th McElroy brother Clint has apparently been saving since episode 2

Oh how far Takko has come from stealing everyone's shit to not wanting to steal from the bank

Side note an animated version of this scene is the first Taz related thing I ever saw

Scuttle Buddy No!

Cute to see how protective Travis is of Steven

Rope trick seems like a pretty dope spell and transmutation seems like a pretty good school of magic overall

Clint fucks up and Griffin is done handing out retcons to joke/stupid actions

Do the eyes they saw in the moon have anything to do with the figures Takko saw using blink

Like the visual of Takko messing up while climbing Magnus pulling his pants down and leaving him there just hanging dong in the elevator shaft

Nice me undies plug mid episode they are a fantastic product

FLOOR TWENTY BLAZE IT

Classic trope of the heros playing dumb when the protagonist asks them what they're doing

Travis makes a bold move deciding to make all his moves non-lethal

The boys get absolutely wrecked by That's so Raven

That Elfis bit got me good I was not expecting such a good Elvis impression form whoever did that

And as we reach the end of the third chapter we enter the area where I started these posts and go in blind from here on out minus small bits and pieces

Loving this in character space jam and mighty duck talk

Glad more than Justin are finally leaning into their character voices

Omg Hurley and Sloane are dating aren't they

Kind of expected Hurley to be part of the bureau

ZONE OF TRUTH

Good work leaving your grocery list/see you later note to bane

Starting to think this is gonna end up more mad max than fast & furious

"we're out of the zone of truth right... Everything is gonna be fine."

Merel's approach to converting the hammerheads is vaguely threatening

Magnus' approach is very forward

That chain LinkedIn joke is getting some good mileage

Good cliffhanger with a somewhat odd lead up what with the guard taking takko disguised as lil Jerry to the toilet and such

Justin gives up trying to bullshit his way into guessing the guard's name and pulls off a hilarious suprise attack

And the very quickly prove my theory they are incapable of not killing

I need to see the dress up montage from them getting the hammerhead jackets

Magnus' vehicle proficiency finally comes into play again

HUG BEAR NO!!! What have they done to my boy!

Fuck em up Travis get em for what they did to our boy

Justin remembers they're not supposed to kill again

Griffin almost let's them play it off

Poor Klarg at least he has a fantasy motorcycle now

Griffin is trying real hard to make sure we know these are not cars

Good monologue by Takko about not always being a joke

I am loving everything about this death race battle royal

Merle straight up clobbers his own face to get rid of the octopus on it

What the fuck I was not expecting that ass pull of a move bt takko to save Merle

Nearly died at Garyl's voice and all his lines

Uh oh takko is not all good

YES MY BOY SAVES THE DAY HUG BEAR is 1200% best bear

Bet you can't figure who my favorite side character is

Oh looks like we get some awesome background music now can't wait to hear more as the show goes on

Oh boy I can't wait to see what that button does

Oh man I completely forgot about the wand of switcharoo

Things aren't looking good for Sloane

And with one line takko subverts his monologue from earlier

Shit is getting real quick like we took a hard left turn from goofy racing fun battle

Okay Clint enough with the zone of truth

The Umbra staff is getting really OP now

Oh no Hurley what are you doing oh no oh no

And I'm crying and tearing up again writing this

And we're back to goofs I'm OK

Oh fuck goofs are canceled they done killed Captain Captain Bane

I got chills when the Red Robe spoke

I assume the Red Robe has some sort of charm or such on Bane.

[arofili]

1, 3, 10, 13, 15, 18, 19, 27, 28, 30? only if u want tho

river OF COURSE i want to, thank youuuu

links are all bolded so you can find them easily and go READ ALL THE AMAZING FICS LINKED! (including mine!)

1. favorite fic you wrote this year

Not to toot my own horn so much, but...I really like all the fics I wrote this year!! I'm gonna split it into two categories :)

For longer fics: Maybe it's because that's where my head is right now, but "Roads Go On" takes the cake here! This fic is just so fun, and I see connections to it everywhere on tumblr, which is delightful.

For oneshots: Oof, this is hard, considering oneshots are the main thing I write... In the end I'm tied between two of them, and neither are Tolkien! I'm very proud of my Barricade Day 2018 fic, "A Witch's Gift" - I pretty much only write one Les Mis fic a year, even though Les Mis means a lot to me, and I think I achieved what I was going for and more with this fic. Also, I just love Musichetta!

The other one is frankly a surprise to me because I almost forgot I wrote it this year: "meant to be", a TAZ hurloane fic. That one didn't get a ton of response but I've had that concept in my head literally ever since I first listened to Petals to the Metal, and I'm really happy with how it turned out!

3. favorite line/scene you wrote this year

do you know how hard this is to answer?? do you know how little I remember from january 2018?? a whole fucking year ago??

okay, this is 100% cheating, cuz I didn't go back and reread any of my other fics to find That Perfect Line, but I'm just proud of my poetry in "The Lay of Maedhros", another fic that y'all slept on. my dudes, I wrote in Tolkien's Very Own Poetic Style for this!! my favorite scene from this fic is Sauron's conversation with Maedhros.

(Oh, I am also pretty damn pleased with the philosomancy blabbering that goes on in "Gravity" between Gandalf and Fili!)

10. shortest wip of the year

Okay, this fic started out as a oneshot but I couldn't keep it down... I swear i'm working on the final chapter, ok?? I am??

It's "Wedding Blues" my qp!Domadry fic for @buffintruda's birthday that was... uh... 6 months ago.... oops. It's 9.6k, which isn't nothing! But it's shorter than the other two WIPs I've got going, which are both in the 20k range.

13. favorite writing song/artist/album of this year

i legit just listen to my spotify saved albums on repeat all year long with no particular soundtrack for writing... That being said, I've got a "Study Tunes" playlist on spotify that I use (on shuffle) for studying and sometimes writing! it's almost entirely instrumental with a focus on piano, and that really helps me get into The Zone while working!

15. something you learned this year

i swear i'm going to write a longer post on this later, but COMMENTING IS CREATING. this is something i've always believed, but i've been fleshing out the concept in my head and i believe it even more now.

Comments DIRECTLY influence the creation of more fic, and not only that, they are an integral part of the fic itself! Every time you or I leave a comment on a fic, you are creating fandom!

18. current number of wips

I try to keep myself to 2 long fics at a time, with oneshots here and there, but right now i'm at 3! "Roads Go On" + "Wedding Blues" i've already mentioned, but there's also my botfa fix-it "Moonlight" (that i will be turning my attention to asap, i promise!! it's only been uh... 5 months since the last update...yikes.)

19. any new fics to start next year

Honestly, I'll be astounded if I conclude "Roads Go On" and "Moonlight" this year. Especially now that I'm in college! So no, I'm not planning on it, except for oneshots (which I'm sure I will write several of).

Although if I can get around to it .... i have had a Legolas-as-Merida Brave AU floating around in my head since FOREVER... maybe I'll bust that out for Arospec Awareness Week...but probably not, oops.

27. favorite fanfic author of the year

@milesofkeeffe is the obvious answer! all your kiliel stuff is so so lovely :) but I also really enjoyed @waitineedaname's taz fics, and of course my homie @buffintruda always knocks it out of the park!

28. longest fic you read this year

it's got to be @milesofkeeffe‘s "Spring After Winter and Sun On the Leaves" coming in at 123k words! of course I've been reading that fic since it began in 2017, so for a fic that i read in its entirety in 2018... that would be this blupjeans fic, "The Last Days of the Legato Conservatory" by goldfishoflove. (warning: it gets nsfw) That one is only 10k words.... can you tell I prefer shorter fics? (Long fics intimidate me! so much time commitment!)

  30. favorite fandom to read fic from this year

probably TAZ! I mean, the past few weeks i've been drowning in Tolkien fic (esp Silm fic) but for the overall year I've got to go with TAZ, this fandom's got so many talented writers! 

ask me about my 2018 fics!

[rogue-rook]

many highlights from The Suffering Game from a first-time TAZ listener

also featuring bits from the Lunar Interlude IV: The Calm Before the Storm

that’s a fucking ominous combination of names, THANKS MCELROYS!!!!

griffin: “kravitz, who’s the bounty hunter for the raven queen, who’s the goddess of the natural passage of life and death” that’s an awesome title, wayyy cooler than just “goddess of death”

kravitz and taako is a good ship, im glad its a thing people ship

the BOB opened a wine and pottery place and i gotta give them credit for being so considerate of their employees and also being on top of the best hipster ass trends…justin named it the Chug and Squeeze. its the rowdy one

kravitz: "how much more dying do you think is gonna happen?" taako: "us dying? or like other regular dying?" kravitz: "any dying at all" taako: "there's gonna be some"

kravitz getting all agitated by the umbra staff and the probable lich inside it is making ME nervous

sweet angus macdonald, boy detective, is easily my favorite non-dead or death related npc

i cannot believe merle has kids

also merle called them the tres horny boys and im like my nickname of grubby grifters is way better and much less likely to horrify young children

sweet ango: “you can swear in front of me, its okay" merle: “oh shit thank god”

aw shit magnus has been having sleepless nights over the shit he doesn’t understand, poor sweet magnus

aw shit he’s gonna confront the voidfish!

a voidfish memory!!!! THERE ARE MULTIPLE VOIDFISH! aw shit there’s some big bad evil out there! AW SHIT THERE’S A BABY VOIDFISH!!

leon the artificer: "oh god, just put it in the machine, please god! im in hell and YOU'RE SATAN!"

garfield the deals wizard: “ah, angling to make a DEALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL” merle: “that was 42 L’s”

garfield: “i know what I want! YOUR SIDEBURNS!!!” everyone: “ohhhhhh”

garfield: “how about a tiny little scraping?” yall WHAT THE HELL DOES GARFIELD WANT WITH HIS HAIR???

OH NO!!! TAAKO IS GETTING THE FUCKING SWORD OFF OF GARFIELD!!!! HE BOUGHT A PERSUASION OBJECT AND THEN AN OBJECT THAT HE CAN USE TO CONVINCE A PERSON TO TRADE THEIR MOST VALUABLE ITEM! AND HE’S GETTING THE GODDAMN SWORD!!! HE METAPHORICALL LAUNCHED HIMSELF THROUGH THE METAPHORICAL HOOPS REQUIRED TO GET THAT FUCKING SWORD WITHOUT PAYING FOR IT!!!!!!! I AM SHOOK!!

griffin: “holy shit that was funny. as soon as I realized what you were doing, i was sent into a panic spiral!”

griffin: “i wish it hadn’t taken me 40-some episodes to discover the power of the epilogue”

the director: “taako, are you okay?" taako: "yeah, i’m fine! you're not my mom"

oh no the director lost 20 years of her life to a wager in wonderland and im like aw fuck this arc is gonna fuck ME UP

justin: "taako went on a date with death and now that i say this out loud, that sounds soooo cool!"

justin: “its not that taako is embarrassed about his sexuality, its just that he doesn’t think its anybody's goddamn business, especially these fucking clowns!”

magnus: "and you are?" sweet ango: "im angus macdonald, boy detective and your very good friend!" magnus: "um, sounds familiar...nah i tousle his hair and say ‘of course i remember you!’"

merle: "we're just jumping right in?" the director: "would you like to take 20 minutes to buy shorts again?" merle: "they were good shorts"

griffin "well now you have....CAPTIVES? you have now pokemon-ed these two boys!"

im like pretty sure griffin called magnus “madness”

merle: “please be hawkeye!” griffin: “yep, its the guy himself, hawk-guy, uh, no”

damn yall this twisted horror movie wonderland shit popped off magnus’s pinkie and stole merle’s dark vision

“welcome to the monster factory” YOOOO CROSSOVER!!!! MY SECRET WISH FOR THE FINAL PAM TO STEP IN TO THE ADVENTURE ZONE MIGHT ACTUALLY BE REALIZED!!

griffin: “you guys are basically fucking demigods right now. you're basically benicio del toro's character in the marvel movies” i had to google what the fuck griffin meant by that and i have seen almost al the marvel movies so i would easily label that as the Deepest Cut

taako: “do you think that wet ropes are conductive?” magnus: “more so than dry ropes!" [sounds of justin dying of laughter away from the mic"

oh god taako’s finally gone back to the ethereal plane and these glowy-eyed creeps are back!!!!! im so creeped out!!!!!

griffin: “damn, you're the danger squad!!” taako: “well, somebody dropped a washing machine on me and i got squished into a ghost!! so its not foolproof” well now ive got this mental image of taako as like a smushed goomba

griffin: “there’s NO healing in wonderland!” man griffin is getting just a tad TOO into this whole Playing God shit

griffin: “the severed head is just laying there...cuz its a head”

cam the body-less head: “im sorry i can't greet you with a formal hand shake, but i seem to have misplaced my...my everything”

 cam: “what brings you to wonderland?” magnus: “looking for a bell” cam: “must be a pretty good fucking bell”

cam: “what do you know about liches?” magnus: “they get stitches, i think!” justin: “LICHES GET STITCHES! okay” aw shit yall liches are becoming a plot point and the one single spoiler i know about (lup) is getting mE HYPED!!!

justin: “i know what you should give up! your B-I-B-LE!” and then justin fucking SANG AN IMPROVISED SONG ABOUT MERLE’S DUMMBO BIBLE

lydia the evil elf lich bitch: “are you three heroes ready for your ONLY chance at love??” magnus: “uh, pass” i feel like somewhere julia’s just laughing and cheering her grubby hero husband on

justin: "is it, griffin? is it real low? is it almost like some liches of your imagination sucked my hit points away from me?! would that account for the low-ness???” griffin: “that’s like real low” justin: “IT’S LIKE SO CRAZY LOW, HUH?”

travis: “yeah, merle’s a deeply religious person, when he needs something!”

griffin: “taako’s arms shrink into his chest, and his head gets real long, and he grows a tail, and he turns into a tyrannosaurus rex!” travis: “meanwhile magnus is setting mannequins on fire” yall this fight got real real real wild super quick!!!

oh god magnus’s SOUL GOT KNOCKED OUT OF HIS BODY

“I’ll be having my body back, you undead fuck” YOOOOO THAT SHIT WAS SO DOPPPPEEEEEEE

griffin: “i've reached a point where when i hear justin say 'im going to cast' i assume the next words are a thing that's going to break the sequence of the shit that you've written down”

justin: “im going to cast Animate Objects on the mannequins, and I can animate up to ten of them” griffin: “HOLY FUCKING SHIT, WHAT? HOLY JESUS FANTASIA!”

HOLY SHIT WHAT?? magnus’s kid memory has a different sky than the one he’s in now, and im like WHATTT???? THATS SOME MORE PUZZLE PIECE SHIT!!!!! MULTI-PLANAR PUZZLE PIECE SHIT!

clint: “i want to change Divine Word into Divine Wood" griffin: "and you pop the most righteous boner”

the fact that the umbrella ATE edward the magical evil elf shit even though taako is unconscious as hell is AWESOME

LYDIA THE EVIL ELF LICH DESTROYED MAGNUS’S BODY!!!! that’s some GARBAGE luck my dude

merle: "i have a spell called Raise Dead" magnus: "he's not dead" justin: "he's only mostly dead!" griffin: "OH MY GOD" justin: “we got monty python, we got princess bridge, this podcast has it all!

griffin: "just have somebody heal you! don't act like you got revived from the power of your cool catchphrase!" justin: “i can’t say a cool catchphrase twenty minutes after we won!” griffin: “okay what are you astrally projecting into the atmosphere???” taako: “LICHES.....GET.....STITCHES!”

jesus, magnus’s great life goal and plan is to be reunited with julia, that’s some tragic heartbreaking shit

rowan: “my day was pretty shit” magnus: “oh, are you a mannequin?” rowan: “oh my god is that MAGNUS??” magnus: “yeah, so, maybe like keep your shit to yourself, unless you’re a fucking mannequin”

justin: “hey, i have a question, among like retrieving our belongings, did magnus, he did get himself a new arm, right, he got his arm back?” travis: “yeah, plugged it back in like G.I. Joe”

“you made something, and you’re terrified of it...[..]..you removed your uniform, and its a bright crimson uniform with an insignia patch...[...]...you decide they’re the ones who are going to be able to keep this cup safe” PUZZLE PIECES!!!! PUZZLE PIECES!!!!! HOLY SHIT YALL!!!

they’ve come back around to the start, where wave echo cave is and the gerblins arc took place, and im so EXCITED!

“sturdy. denim. blue” I CALLED IT AND I WAS SOOOOOOO FUCKING RIGHT AND IM SO HYPED TO BE RIGHT!!!!!I IT WAS BARRY THE WHOLE FUCKING TIME!!!!

this arc felt like a million goddamn years, cuz of all the, ya know, SUFFERING, it actually felt more tedious and exhausting than fucking petals to the metal, but it was pretty good, i liked it. i also feel like the grubby grifters have earned a new nickname: the grubby heroes

[aquatotravelingcircus]

so i dont normally do meta but ive had some thoughts about the suffering game that i wanted to write down so im just gonna dump them here

so to start off, i am no expert in game design, much less d&d, so this is mostly an outsider’s perspective. since i have a certain lack of insider knowledge, i like to think of these arcs as being “balanced” in 2 different ways: mechanically and emotionally. there is probably a lot more nuance to it than i’m able to fully analyze so this will probably come off as sounding generalized in some ways

so far, most if not all arcs in taz have been pretty mechanically balanced from my point of view. even though some of the general rules of d&d end up getting fudged for the sake of the story, the situations and challenges that griffin sets up are reasonably challenging and usually come with some kind of safety net, and the suffering game is no exception. it has its own consistent internal ruleset, and there is an obvious “equivalent exchange” aspect coming into play; the players enter the game with a set amount of resources, and those resources can either be lost or exchanged, but never gained. meanwhile, the fights get increasingly more difficult, but (so far) not so difficult as to be impossible. the game accomplishes what it was designed to do, which is to permanently nerf the players to avoid power creep. plus, the sacrifices create a loose time limit for the players to find an escape route, under threat of dying or simply becoming too underpowered to continue.

emotionally though i’m noticing a couple of problems. ever since petals to the metal there’s been a wide range of emotional tones within each arc. for example pttm starts off with thrill and spectacle (and humor), and ends with excitement and a bittersweet moment w/ hurley and sloane. crystal kingdom establishes tension at the beginning, builds up mystery, and ends with tragedy and drama. the eleventh hour practically has new emotional tones every time the boys start a new loop.

but the suffering game has been sadness, sadness, anguish, sadness, etc. there’s not as much variety in tone, even with the unanswered questions about wonderland and the liches hanging.

and this is more personal speculation than anything, but something tells me that grif was expecting the players to move through this arc a little faster. there aren’t many different options on the wheel, and (iirc) cam the head and the invisible red robe were introduced in the same episode. grif may have been expecting to carry that same level of momentum through the next few eps, but the boys haven’t been doing a whole lot to break the pattern of the game. i was honestly surprised it took taako so long to cast something tangibly useful, and that nobody’s asked about merle’s frayed divine connection yet. so imo it’s not all on any one person that this arc has been this monotonous, but hopefully the next ep will introduce something to shake things up.