TAZ:Balance
Nov. 20th, 2017 09:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
schneefinkI've been listening to TAZ:Balance again, both just because it's great and because I want to see what I missed and what things look like in hindsight, and also because I'm two and a half chapters into writing a WIP that I really like so far (but I told myself that I can't continue until I have at least a first draft of my Yuletide fic. Bears.)
I only half listened to the Crystal Kingdom arc, then I got impatient and read the transcripts again, but I'll probably go back and listen to it again. Still, in the meantime, notes.
Btw the first time I listened to the Crystal Kingdom I was in the middle of reading The Change book series (that I forgot to post about) with its singing crystal trees, that fit together really well.
Ep 29: Barry sent them IPRE patches for Candlenights! Aww.
Huh, this is where "nightmare scenario" comes from, I forgot ^^ A lot more innocuous than it could be.
Also they all insisted on suits in different shades of red I'm.
Ep 30: So crystal golem!Kravitz had 71 HP. …I don't know enough about 5e to know how much that is. Does Kravitz do that often? Just hop through a rift in light ball form and then use whatever is there?
Ep 31: I forgot about Taako cheering on tiny!Merle and tiny!Magnus trying to kill a cockroach in a small-scale model of Neverwinter while looming over them like Godzilla. Awesome.
Ep 33: Not sure how I feel about the hug bears. Can they opt out?
Ep 34: The first time I listened to Merle losing his arm I went "holy SHIT", now it's mostly funny how Kravitz tricked him.
Ep 35: Wow, Barry actually stopped time for, what, over a minute here? He's powerful. (Though apparently Lucretia could listen in?, so I'm not sure what exactly he did.) And he found out that Taako (probably) found Lup's corpse, no wonder he (literally) exploded… He knows Lup is a lich, and if her body is dead, shouldn't she be around somewhere?
Ep 36: Kravitz! Losing a fight against three dudes who were mostly paralyzed at the start of the battle. Not his day.
Ep 37: Wait, Taako has a short sword? The fuck? xD Also claims to be a vegetarian, all kinds of interesting trivia.
Hero time, fuck yeah!
Ep 38: Taako only died 8 times in the 100 years, not bad. Magnus 19 times, Merle 57. Over half of the worlds, he died! Parley.
REALLY not Kravitz' day.
(doesn't Banishment only last for a minute or so? Ah well *handwave*)
Ep 39: How did I forget that Kravitz is a gambler? ^^
Then I skipped The Eleventh Hour for now, and from The Suffering Game onward I listened again. Now that I like the characters even more, the Suffering Game is a lot more painful.
Ep 51: Lucretia emphasizing that the Red Robes are evil... (she knows it's only Barry, doesn't she. Except if he found Lup…)
Ep 52: 47, the first time I did not get how weird this is. (Taako is still enthusiastic even after the first wheel?) and in the end Taako also argues for Trust because he remembers the other group, interesting.
Ep 53: I forgot about shit like Taako casting Disintegrate from his butt with the Umbra Staff held in front of it *facepalm*
"In Wonderland, there is no healing." Shit. If Taako had died...
Quit ragging on Merle ^^ he just did a ton of damage with fire and wind and even tried to heal you guys.
Ep 54: do not taunt the evil liches that have you trapped, seriously guys *facepalm*
How did Barry get inside and find them? He knew they were going to look for the Bell, and he had months while they were training, if he didn't find it in the decade before, maybe he just hung out there waiting for them? Or, more realistically, set up some kind of signal spell.
Ep 55: Magnus spinning three times in a row... but then Merle and Taako again, even though Taako didn't even decline a sacrifice. And Barry watches it all, and eats some of their suffering...
"Taako's not a good person", yep; at least not in the way that Magnus is, who says pushing "Forsake" goes against every one of his personal beliefs.
Ep 56: Taako turns into a fucking T-Rex with a wizard hat named Dupree. Later that same episode, Edward throws Magnus out of his body and Taako immediately throws his own soul into the Ethereal Plane to get him back. Magic Jar and then Summon Planar Ally, genius. Merle's been great during this arc. Also, if anyone else except for Magnus had gotten Skull and been taken over by Edward, that would have been bad... (also, who still has the bell? Lydia?)
"Arms Outstretched" is such a great music piece here.
Ep 57: I know it's because of podcast pacing and stuff, but the fact that THB just walked where the Red Robe led for half a day without asking any more questions is just silly. Also why the hell did he not give them explanations before he left his lich form. Yeah he did not want them to remember too much, but he could at least have given Magnus a few more hints…
Ep 58: poor Barry's last ten years were terrible. What did he think would happen if Lucretia found him? That she would lock him away to prevent him from stopping her, maybe. Probably once Lucretia employed Magnus, Merle, and Taako, she had less time to look for him, that's why he could stay in lich form for a year without her finding him. He also says that if he goes lich in BoB HQ "I'm toast," are the automatic defenses lethal? Or was that metaphorical?
So Taako and Merle can't comprehend "Magnus is a Red Robe," but Taako can come up with the idea that there is a second Voidfish? The effects of Fisher's abilities are really inconsistent.
Oh man, if Taako had tried to put on that telepathic headband earlier...
The BoB thought they had all died, uh-oh.
Their assumptions about Magnus waking up in his new body are understandably given what they saw with Barry, they don't know how much of Barry's problems are because of the Voidfish.
"Trust the voices in your head"? Really? That has so much potential to go wrong...
Ep 59: I did not previously sufficiently appreciate the image of a mannequin in bright elven warrior armor climbing upside down in the Voidfish's chamber.
"I am a holy man. So let's kill him!" Merle xD
Taako trusts Angus McDonald entirely? Half an episode after he said that he trusts nothing and nobody? Aww.
Barry only got the ichor of the baby Voidfish, not the adult one, those must be weird holes. So he basically remembers everything of the stolen century, but not their time on this world, including the Relic wars?
THB could see lich!Barry, (or they could hear him and see his Robe) but the Hunger not at all, weird.
Huh, looks like I forgot to take notes for the first few Stolen Century episodes. Ah well.
Ep 63: "are you my friend?" Merle ftw. "Huh. I feel sad. - and he kills you." xD
Ep 64: so it took about fifty years for Lup and Barry to get their shit together... Good thing they had the time. (Has someone written ace!Barry yet, suddenly I really want that.)
Taako assembling his students to find the Light of Creation to save their world, aww. And then when he knows it's futile he lies to them and tells them to have a good time. He cares :)
So the Hunger got all the adult Voidfishes? Uh-oh... (Could be a great dark AU. Even John/Merle.)
Ep 65: Lucretia ;_; (also now I'm wondering, what if they come to a world that has no food? Some they can conjure but not from nothing. Probably Davenport thought about it (after one early cycle where they had to scavenge) and has enough food on the ship for one person for one year.)
66: Relic wars... That must have been so hard for them to watch. Although, oddly enough, probably less for Lucretia than for the others? Because her Relic, if I understand correctly, does the least damage. It's only the shield, right? So maybe people starve inside, but it probably causes way less destruction than the Philosopher's Stone or the Oculus. Maybe that contributes to her dissastisfaction though and her conviction that it's too risky to involve the others on this, because they weren't careful enough when creating their Relics in the first place. Griffin says "The destruction you caused" - how much is she including herself in that? Or maybe the staff has other, more dangerous properties too.
She probably got her Staff back first thing - maybe even before she erased the other's memories? - and that's why she thought it would be so easy. (Btw I wish there was a distinctive word/description for Lucretia erasing the other's memories so it's easier to refer to it.) Did Lucretia figure out a workaround for the Relics wanting to be desired? Could she supress it/focus it only on herself because she was the creator?
The details of what exactly was in Lucretia's journal are important, though it's unclear how exactly the voidfish decide what gets erased (words or memories, how much around the memories etc) so it was always going to be a lottery. She must have planned it for so long. And then it went so wrong with Davenport... (Though, hm, I have to think more about what Davenport was probably like during the ten years. And how he feels about it later. He lost so many of his memories that he lost the ability to speak, but otoh it shouldn't have made him stupid.)
"Who? What if who's gone? Whose face?!" Breaks my heart every time. Clint's impressed laughter in the background, yeah, same.
Btw, "Taako from TV", if he already is that when he arrives in their new world, is it something from their first world maybe.
67: The countdown. "You fucking took everything from me." Fuck. (and Magnus immediately standing with Taako, yes.)
Going up four levels at once, whoa.
Why didn't they try for the option where the Relics can be pursued but never obtained from the beginning? It seems kind of obvious. Maybe they were careless. Or they thought it wouldn't work as welland Lup only tried it because she thought if it's only one it's okay.
"phantasmal and resplendent" No wonder this scene is the one I saw the most animated versions of. (Speaking of, the animated scenes by fans on YouTube are a lot of fun and some of them are amazing.)
"Don't blow yourself up, babe, I'm sure your beautiful body is gonna get killed by the Hunger soon enough." Lup <3
Does Davenport even know that the voidfishes' memory-suppression will stop if they die?
Ep 68: John calling Merle "old friend"!
If someone had come up with the idea to create the barrier around the Hunger earlier... Lucretia did what she did because she thought it was necessary, and now she realizes it wasn't, fuck.
Lup is quick to forgive, huh. "already forgotten about the whole thing - whoops, bad choice of words" and forehead-touching. I wonder if she really can put it behind her that easily.
"I'm not gonna lose you again, am I?" "Never." ;_;
Magnus gives Carey a BFF necklace :D
Ep 69: Now I know who Troth is! (Justin's character from TAZ:(K)Nights.) And I love the image of her and Magnus hanging out.
Magnus and Merle holding Taako, and "I reach into my fucking bag and grab my Immovable Rod. I'm not going fucking anywhere." Fuck yeah.
"You're going to be amazing." :)
Weird that Angus is going to Lucas' school ^^ (timeline-wise it could make sense if Lucas opens his earlier... Or if Angus thought he already trained with Taako. Though according to canon Angus is already in Lucas' school one year after DoSaS, seems early... whatever.)
All of their endings are good, but Magnus' especially is beautiful.
And something new: I like TAZ:Commitment so far :) Not as much as TAZ:Balance, but that would be really hard with something so short. The change in DM works surprisingly well. I really like Kardala. Episode 3 was my favorite so far: Nadiya is good out here xD Also Remy DDOS'ing Mary, heh.
I only half listened to the Crystal Kingdom arc, then I got impatient and read the transcripts again, but I'll probably go back and listen to it again. Still, in the meantime, notes.
Btw the first time I listened to the Crystal Kingdom I was in the middle of reading The Change book series (that I forgot to post about) with its singing crystal trees, that fit together really well.
Ep 29: Barry sent them IPRE patches for Candlenights! Aww.
Huh, this is where "nightmare scenario" comes from, I forgot ^^ A lot more innocuous than it could be.
Also they all insisted on suits in different shades of red I'm.
Ep 30: So crystal golem!Kravitz had 71 HP. …I don't know enough about 5e to know how much that is. Does Kravitz do that often? Just hop through a rift in light ball form and then use whatever is there?
Ep 31: I forgot about Taako cheering on tiny!Merle and tiny!Magnus trying to kill a cockroach in a small-scale model of Neverwinter while looming over them like Godzilla. Awesome.
Ep 33: Not sure how I feel about the hug bears. Can they opt out?
Ep 34: The first time I listened to Merle losing his arm I went "holy SHIT", now it's mostly funny how Kravitz tricked him.
Ep 35: Wow, Barry actually stopped time for, what, over a minute here? He's powerful. (Though apparently Lucretia could listen in?, so I'm not sure what exactly he did.) And he found out that Taako (probably) found Lup's corpse, no wonder he (literally) exploded… He knows Lup is a lich, and if her body is dead, shouldn't she be around somewhere?
Ep 36: Kravitz! Losing a fight against three dudes who were mostly paralyzed at the start of the battle. Not his day.
Ep 37: Wait, Taako has a short sword? The fuck? xD Also claims to be a vegetarian, all kinds of interesting trivia.
Hero time, fuck yeah!
Ep 38: Taako only died 8 times in the 100 years, not bad. Magnus 19 times, Merle 57. Over half of the worlds, he died! Parley.
REALLY not Kravitz' day.
(doesn't Banishment only last for a minute or so? Ah well *handwave*)
Ep 39: How did I forget that Kravitz is a gambler? ^^
Then I skipped The Eleventh Hour for now, and from The Suffering Game onward I listened again. Now that I like the characters even more, the Suffering Game is a lot more painful.
Ep 51: Lucretia emphasizing that the Red Robes are evil... (she knows it's only Barry, doesn't she. Except if he found Lup…)
Ep 52: 47, the first time I did not get how weird this is. (Taako is still enthusiastic even after the first wheel?) and in the end Taako also argues for Trust because he remembers the other group, interesting.
Ep 53: I forgot about shit like Taako casting Disintegrate from his butt with the Umbra Staff held in front of it *facepalm*
"In Wonderland, there is no healing." Shit. If Taako had died...
Quit ragging on Merle ^^ he just did a ton of damage with fire and wind and even tried to heal you guys.
Ep 54: do not taunt the evil liches that have you trapped, seriously guys *facepalm*
How did Barry get inside and find them? He knew they were going to look for the Bell, and he had months while they were training, if he didn't find it in the decade before, maybe he just hung out there waiting for them? Or, more realistically, set up some kind of signal spell.
Ep 55: Magnus spinning three times in a row... but then Merle and Taako again, even though Taako didn't even decline a sacrifice. And Barry watches it all, and eats some of their suffering...
"Taako's not a good person", yep; at least not in the way that Magnus is, who says pushing "Forsake" goes against every one of his personal beliefs.
Ep 56: Taako turns into a fucking T-Rex with a wizard hat named Dupree. Later that same episode, Edward throws Magnus out of his body and Taako immediately throws his own soul into the Ethereal Plane to get him back. Magic Jar and then Summon Planar Ally, genius. Merle's been great during this arc. Also, if anyone else except for Magnus had gotten Skull and been taken over by Edward, that would have been bad... (also, who still has the bell? Lydia?)
"Arms Outstretched" is such a great music piece here.
Ep 57: I know it's because of podcast pacing and stuff, but the fact that THB just walked where the Red Robe led for half a day without asking any more questions is just silly. Also why the hell did he not give them explanations before he left his lich form. Yeah he did not want them to remember too much, but he could at least have given Magnus a few more hints…
Ep 58: poor Barry's last ten years were terrible. What did he think would happen if Lucretia found him? That she would lock him away to prevent him from stopping her, maybe. Probably once Lucretia employed Magnus, Merle, and Taako, she had less time to look for him, that's why he could stay in lich form for a year without her finding him. He also says that if he goes lich in BoB HQ "I'm toast," are the automatic defenses lethal? Or was that metaphorical?
So Taako and Merle can't comprehend "Magnus is a Red Robe," but Taako can come up with the idea that there is a second Voidfish? The effects of Fisher's abilities are really inconsistent.
Oh man, if Taako had tried to put on that telepathic headband earlier...
The BoB thought they had all died, uh-oh.
Their assumptions about Magnus waking up in his new body are understandably given what they saw with Barry, they don't know how much of Barry's problems are because of the Voidfish.
"Trust the voices in your head"? Really? That has so much potential to go wrong...
Ep 59: I did not previously sufficiently appreciate the image of a mannequin in bright elven warrior armor climbing upside down in the Voidfish's chamber.
"I am a holy man. So let's kill him!" Merle xD
Taako trusts Angus McDonald entirely? Half an episode after he said that he trusts nothing and nobody? Aww.
Barry only got the ichor of the baby Voidfish, not the adult one, those must be weird holes. So he basically remembers everything of the stolen century, but not their time on this world, including the Relic wars?
THB could see lich!Barry, (or they could hear him and see his Robe) but the Hunger not at all, weird.
Huh, looks like I forgot to take notes for the first few Stolen Century episodes. Ah well.
Ep 63: "are you my friend?" Merle ftw. "Huh. I feel sad. - and he kills you." xD
Ep 64: so it took about fifty years for Lup and Barry to get their shit together... Good thing they had the time. (Has someone written ace!Barry yet, suddenly I really want that.)
Taako assembling his students to find the Light of Creation to save their world, aww. And then when he knows it's futile he lies to them and tells them to have a good time. He cares :)
So the Hunger got all the adult Voidfishes? Uh-oh... (Could be a great dark AU. Even John/Merle.)
Ep 65: Lucretia ;_; (also now I'm wondering, what if they come to a world that has no food? Some they can conjure but not from nothing. Probably Davenport thought about it (after one early cycle where they had to scavenge) and has enough food on the ship for one person for one year.)
66: Relic wars... That must have been so hard for them to watch. Although, oddly enough, probably less for Lucretia than for the others? Because her Relic, if I understand correctly, does the least damage. It's only the shield, right? So maybe people starve inside, but it probably causes way less destruction than the Philosopher's Stone or the Oculus. Maybe that contributes to her dissastisfaction though and her conviction that it's too risky to involve the others on this, because they weren't careful enough when creating their Relics in the first place. Griffin says "The destruction you caused" - how much is she including herself in that? Or maybe the staff has other, more dangerous properties too.
She probably got her Staff back first thing - maybe even before she erased the other's memories? - and that's why she thought it would be so easy. (Btw I wish there was a distinctive word/description for Lucretia erasing the other's memories so it's easier to refer to it.) Did Lucretia figure out a workaround for the Relics wanting to be desired? Could she supress it/focus it only on herself because she was the creator?
The details of what exactly was in Lucretia's journal are important, though it's unclear how exactly the voidfish decide what gets erased (words or memories, how much around the memories etc) so it was always going to be a lottery. She must have planned it for so long. And then it went so wrong with Davenport... (Though, hm, I have to think more about what Davenport was probably like during the ten years. And how he feels about it later. He lost so many of his memories that he lost the ability to speak, but otoh it shouldn't have made him stupid.)
"Who? What if who's gone? Whose face?!" Breaks my heart every time. Clint's impressed laughter in the background, yeah, same.
Btw, "Taako from TV", if he already is that when he arrives in their new world, is it something from their first world maybe.
67: The countdown. "You fucking took everything from me." Fuck. (and Magnus immediately standing with Taako, yes.)
Going up four levels at once, whoa.
Why didn't they try for the option where the Relics can be pursued but never obtained from the beginning? It seems kind of obvious. Maybe they were careless. Or they thought it wouldn't work as welland Lup only tried it because she thought if it's only one it's okay.
"phantasmal and resplendent" No wonder this scene is the one I saw the most animated versions of. (Speaking of, the animated scenes by fans on YouTube are a lot of fun and some of them are amazing.)
"Don't blow yourself up, babe, I'm sure your beautiful body is gonna get killed by the Hunger soon enough." Lup <3
Does Davenport even know that the voidfishes' memory-suppression will stop if they die?
Ep 68: John calling Merle "old friend"!
If someone had come up with the idea to create the barrier around the Hunger earlier... Lucretia did what she did because she thought it was necessary, and now she realizes it wasn't, fuck.
Lup is quick to forgive, huh. "already forgotten about the whole thing - whoops, bad choice of words" and forehead-touching. I wonder if she really can put it behind her that easily.
"I'm not gonna lose you again, am I?" "Never." ;_;
Magnus gives Carey a BFF necklace :D
Ep 69: Now I know who Troth is! (Justin's character from TAZ:(K)Nights.) And I love the image of her and Magnus hanging out.
Magnus and Merle holding Taako, and "I reach into my fucking bag and grab my Immovable Rod. I'm not going fucking anywhere." Fuck yeah.
"You're going to be amazing." :)
Weird that Angus is going to Lucas' school ^^ (timeline-wise it could make sense if Lucas opens his earlier... Or if Angus thought he already trained with Taako. Though according to canon Angus is already in Lucas' school one year after DoSaS, seems early... whatever.)
All of their endings are good, but Magnus' especially is beautiful.
And something new: I like TAZ:Commitment so far :) Not as much as TAZ:Balance, but that would be really hard with something so short. The change in DM works surprisingly well. I really like Kardala. Episode 3 was my favorite so far: Nadiya is good out here xD Also Remy DDOS'ing Mary, heh.
