Those memories that you had in the Chalice of your lonely childhood, of you just out on the road, just fighting for survival; there was something there that you couldnât quite perceive.
Some... some static. It was Lup!
It was your sister, out there with you on the road...
Outcast but never alone."
â Griffin McElroy, Ep. 59 of The Adventure Zone: Balance.
I want to say something about the whole "Taako losing his beauty" discourse and I hope this makes sense because I don't know exactly how to say it.
A lot of people were disappointed that Taako didn't have to sacrifice his beauty in Wonderland, and I get it. It's a big moment in the the Taakitz reunion and character growth for Takko, etc etc. But here's the thing. And I want you to really think about this.
If you were Carey, how would you have drawn that? What features would you have changed or removed or added to indicate to the reader that Taako is no longer beautiful?
Because whatever your answer is, you're basically saying that that trait is inherently not beautiful. And people who have that trait are not beautiful.
So if you would add, say, dark circles under his eyes, you're saying that people with dark circles aren't beautiful. Scars on his face? People with scars aren't beautiful. Smaller eyes, maybe? Wrinkles? Acne? Shorter hair? Asymmetrical features? The stand you're taking is that those features negate someone's beauty.
And yeah, I get it. It would be about Taako's insecurities. Its not that those things are inherently unattractive, it's that Taako worries about them being unattractive. But it would still suck to be reading a book you've been looking forward to and see them call out something you yourself are insecure about as an indication of "losing beauty."
And that's not the McElroys brand. At all. They very deliberately didn't describe Taako's appearance when this happened, just the emotional impact it had. You can't really convey that the same way in graphic novel form. How could they have done it in a way that wouldn't make any of their readers feel shitty?
I think it's ultimately for the best that it was left out. The emotional impact of that singular moment wasn't worth the possible side effect of them inadvertently calling some of their fans ugly.
[Image description: digital art of Lup from The Adventure Zone. Lup is kneeling, smiling and holding the Umbra Staff as flames dance around her. She's a slender elf, with brown skin, and curly blond hair in a ponytail. Her red robe drapes across the ground behind her. With it, she wears a red dress shirt with high waisted shorts, and red boots. End ID.]
This was a pretty quick drawing so I was able to get a timelapse that isnât too compressed (though it does flash a bit), if anyoneâs interested in checking that out under the cut! Featuring me fussing with the gold trims for like 1/3 of it lol.
[Description: Timelapse Video of the described Lucretia art]
i have a few concerns w the taz gn especially for the final books
taz balance spoilers but specifically suffering game gn + stolen century/story and song
so
this book had some. major pacing issues in regards to wonderland itself. aka the Main Content of the arc
they got rid of so much content that meant a lot to the story and the characters and it ended up feeling . fairly Empty in some ways. like i was constantly wishing for more
but this leads into my concern:
what the fuck is going to happen to stolen century.
bc if they had made suffering game just a little bigger to fit more of the wonderland stuff in it i think it wouldve been so much better.
but they Didnt
and . stolen century is a major arc that has so much important stuff in it
and story and song i feel like has enough content for its own book!!
i dont understand why theyre being combined
youre taking space away from both of them to exist as their full and true selves!
i knew going into suffering game that there would be stuff missing, especially since i predicted that reunion tour would be included in it!!
but i just. i dont think you can do that with stolen century.
you have to have that time and dedication for all of the characters to grow and learn to be close, especially with the context that they all remember Everything now, and that their relationships will be exceedingly complicated now, especially with lucretia!!
like, taako and lucretia specifically.
it just frustrates me because i feel like these final arcs that really hammer home the themes of the series and the characters is just. gonna fall short.
i dont think that either arc is going to get the true adequate time they each need to fully portray our finale
half of this isnt coherent and im just rambling mostly to myself but i just. i am so anxious for how this is gonna play out. this isnt even including my worries about the things theyve changed and how thatll impact the finale [johann.]
one of the lines in balance that always gets me isnât even a character line. itâs not some badass or heartbreaking moment between characters or anything.
itâs griffinâs âhow could you forget about lup?â
because he says it with this sort of incredulous laugh. and at first itâs like âoh yeah, haha, how could you?â because itâs lup. sheâs your other half. your twin sister, your best friend, the other part of your soul. you know yourself through her. of course you wouldnât forget her!
but you already have. and slowly, the dread sets in, because you have, and now youâre remembering, and thereâs a kind of rage that comes with it.
She is unshaken, because this isn't the first storm that she has lived through. And so she does what she's done countless times before. She thinks of her friends and she prays for sunrise.
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