Wow that sounds like Iâm about to summarize some sort of discourse but I promise Iâm not. I guess Iâll say that I really like this show and I will keep listening even if my worst fears come to pass, so keep that in mind!
For reference, I started listening near the end of Amnesty.
Iâve noticed, with the past few arcs- really since Ethersea- the narratives have just⊠not been fulfilling their promises, so to speak. Theyâve been placing a lot of guns that donât go off. What I mean by that is, the characters are great. Excellent, really. Lady Godwin? HELL YES. Emerich Dreadway? Fuck yeah! And so on! And the settings and premises have been epic- the goofiness and also horrifying nature of Engrave, the mad and thrilling world of Steeplechase- these things are COOL AS FUCK.
and then the actual narratives keep flopping?
And honestly, I notice it most in the endings, because you can really tell when an ending doesnât land. You feel the sense of disappointment. But with vs. Dracula, for example, I could kinda see leading up to it that the ending couldnât really BE anything special, because they lowkey didnât set themselves up for it.
They spent the campaign fucking around in Engrave, finding clues and solving problems and not really experiencing any particularly meaningful character arcs or growth or, idk, forming relationships? So there wasnât much to pay off, Iâm not gonna lie!
Of course it doesnât feel quite as dissatisfying when youâre in the thick of it, because theyâre funny and the stuff is cool and- oh hey! Lady Godwinâs been turned into a werehorse against her will?? thatâs got some real potential for a LOT of allegories and exploration of some fun character development! And then itâs kinda played as a joke. And then they do that again and again.
And they actually said that that was a move they made intentionally, in the TTAZZ. Iâm not quoting them perfectly here, this is from memory, but I do remember them mentioning that they wanted lighthearted comedy without the burden of real life story stuff. And I get that, honestly, but⊠itâs not the choice I wouldâve made. I do think you can keep a lighthearted tone while also, idk, forming relationships and wholesomely engaging with some amount of emotion. And sometimes going way too deep is funny as a tone shift!
But I digress. One thing thatâs also popped out to me is the almost complete lack of any kind of romantic storyline or even references. This becomes obvious if youâre in a fandom because everyone is always dying to ship SOMEONE, and you can tell when people are really getting desperate. I donât blame them for not wanting to roleplay romance with their family, and I do think stories lacking romance are COOL and SHOULD BE ENCOURAGED!
However if you canât find ANYBODY to ship together⊠that may mean you just donât have character bonds. The growing popularity of the PC polycule is interesting to me; I wonder if itâs partially because
a) none of the pcs have significant relationships outside of their party and
b) even within the party, there doesnât seem to be much chemistry between any given pair of charactersâŠ? I hope Iâm making my point well here- the PCs all seem equally close and have more or less the same relationship to all of their compatriots with little distinction, meaning, essentially, no shipping fodder that doesnât involve just all of âem.
Either way, it makes me wonder if I can blame the âGraduation has too many NPCs!â critique. They really stopped giving the parties tag-along main NPCs after graduation, with the exception of maybe.. Urchin? Kodira? Shlabethany? Poppy? and even they get relatively little âscreenâ time. Steeplechase has great NPCs, I love them to death, but none of the PCs seem to ever have one on one conversations with NPCs or each other that do not explicitly focus on the plot. And I think thatâs part of why the characters feel so underdeveloped despite having spent a lot of time with them- because in this character-driven genre, we get very little insight into their feelings or motivations or even their rudimentary backstories.
I started watching Fantasy High recently and it made me realize a couple things about TAZ.
1) Recently, TAZ has sooo few core NPCs, and itâs weird that the characters arenât doing more one-on-one purely character based scenes. And that makes it really tough to develop them.
2) TAZ is- and I should have realized this before- one of many good dnd podcasts. Theyâre probably looking for a niche they can master.
And it sounds like theyâre trying to get back to that old âHere there be Gerblins!â energy. Theyâve referenced it so many times in recent TTAZZes- they wanted to be job-focused, allowing story stuff to happen organically, so they tried a more open world vibe with Ethersea. They wanted to be less afraid to kill stuff, so they tried playing criminals (and were still afraid to kill stuff). They wanted to be silly and light on character, as they tackled with taz vs dracula. Now theyâre trying to bring in the silly cartoon vibe with Abnimals. I think theyâre trying to make that family-friendly, funny and goofy show their niche. Something other actual plays canât be better at them at.
And honestly it kinda makes me sad, that they keep trying to go back to Balance while ignoring everything they learned during it. Because I loved Dust. Because I loved Amnesty. Because I loved Ethersea. I loved these past arcs! But they keep doing their brilliant characters dirty for some reason!!! And i donât know why!!!!
You know that meme about people who ask questions in movies and then the person responds âHave you ever been to a movie before? You watch them and the information is revealed.â There have been so many times in TAZ recently where information has Not been revealed and if they keep doing it the audience will stop bothering to suspend their disbelief, because the trust just isnât there.
What is Montroseâs deal? What on earth was Carmine Dentonâs whole thing? Tell me more about Zooxâs feelings, about Devoâs past, about Amberâs future. Show me how Lady Godwin feels about the body horror that is her life- like, seriously! WHY DID WE HAVE TO COMPLETELY DISMISS THE OPPORTUNITY TO DISCUSS GENERATIONAL TRAUMA IN MUTTâS LIFE FOR A JOKE??
Do you remember in Steeplechase where the boys were getting medical attention or something- i donât remember, but they were all in one room and only talking about The Plot. And Poppy literally banged on the door (speaking for both Justin and me, tbh) and was like âdoes anyone want to share any feeeeelings??â and they were like NOPE! and they moved on!!
like. cmon. you canât just put a character like montrose out there and then leave them severely underdeveloped to the point that what would be interesting in proper context, with audience insight, becomes confusing and chaotic.
I just wish they would take their stories as seriously as we do.
It feels to me like they donât believe in themselves, and it makes me sad. Maybe they didnât get the response they wanted from Ethersea and so theyâve been trying to pivot, hoping to recapture whatever it was that earned them a loyal audience.
Again, I love them. Theyâre so funny and Iâll keep listening until the day they stop making this show, and when it happens Iâll cry.
But i KNOW they have more in them. Remember the âweâll grow gillsâ monologue from Justin in the Prologues? Remember Travisâs SOLID acting with Devo? Or his awesome choice to give Lyndon/Beef a clearly delineated work/irl identity? His excellent narration and prose? Remember when Montrose described being lonely?! Remember all those moments where Shit Got Real and you cared??? The nanofather said some dope shit! dracula and victor and sweater dracula had such a wild dynamic! Clintâs acting in Dust 2- I canât remember the characters name right now- was ASTOUNDING, I genuinely didnât know he had that in him and it blew me away!
Iâm not referencing Balance on purpose, both because the fandom is way to hung up on it and because I want to prove that you donât even have to look at Balance, or even Post-Balance arcs, to see this kind of good cool stuff!
GAAAAAAAGHHHH!!! I want them to have fun. But also. Weâre starving out here.
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