Happy birthday Queen

Wow we all queued this post for Nov 12th huh

now that we’ve gotten to see a lot more of davenport it’s really funny to think that he’s just… like that. like how he acted on the pirate ship? that’s how he was for the whole stolen century. it explains. so much

it also explains why lucretia was like that as the director. this is who she was taking leadership cues from

we trending my dudes

Y'ALL WE'RE AT #2 NOW!!!

NUMBER ONE BABYYYYY

[ID: Digital drawings of Captain "The Admiral" Anara. She is a human woman with brown skin and a curvy build. Her waist-length, sea green locs are decorated in jewels, seaweed and seashells. She is wearing a bright red admiral's Jacket, over a brown corset, a ripped, light blue blouse and black trousers. She has a decorative green scarf and big brown belt around her waist. She has a lot of earrings and is strapped with scabbards. The left drawing shows her posed with one had on her hip and weilding a scimitar with the other. The right drawing is a portait of her giving a smirk. End ID]

only here roughly 20 minutes but already one of the coolest npcs

actually so sad no one even mentioned blups

TOO BUSY FUCKIN’

GRIFFINS DELIGHT AT MAGNUS LOSING THE FLAMING RAGING POISONING SWORD OF DOOM VERSUS GRIFFIN'S DEVASTATION AT LOSING HIS STEEL DRUM. DUALITY OF MAN

the death of a beloved fan favourite iconic weapon

versus one steel drum (that he buys in bulk anyways)

Incoming but not Obligatory Plea to the Village from Your Local Court Jester™

With the buzz of TAZ Imbalance coming just around the corner, please remember that fans and creators operate from two very different degrees of separation from an original work. I'm saying this knowing that there will be folks arguing, “the boys are playing the characters wrong >:0” and “how could they possibly forget this integral part of canon?” While those can't be helped, they can be acknowledged before the ball really gets rolling.

Fans have the freedom to devote time and energy to explore AUs and talk meta with other fans. They can fill plot holes and gaps because they have the power of God and Anime community on their side. To the point where it’s easy to forget that fanon accepted things are not canon. Or forget that your specific flavor of character and story exploration have been tailored to your own tastes.

Creators on the other hand, are not wed to one story. The McElroy’s have juggled four main campaigns, multiple mini-arcs, live shows, and other franchises since 2015 and beyond. They don’t always have the luxury to refine or explore their own meta. I remember reading an interview about when they were working on the first Balance graphic novel; they hadn’t considered the main storyline from Lucretia’s perspective until it came up in the scriptwriting process. Lucretia! One of the cruxes on which the plot hinged!

That was over a year after the main story had concluded. And yes, they are more atuned to their fandom than most creators can afford to be. But with years of gap time, they are different people today, who will play their characters differently. And that’s cool and okay! Just don’t into Imbalance expecting it to go one way, only to be outraged when it goes another.

One option for mitigating this issue could be for fan and creator to relisten to Balance beforehand. But that’s the least-likely option. (There is a statical error in the average podcast listener experience. Podcast listener Herbgerblin, who has listened to every podcast at least ten times, is an outlier and should not be counted.) The other option is to let this be something familiar, but not too familiar (HAH. I’m so sleepy I wrote this at 2:00am) and enjoy the ride. Last option is to not listen at all and live in your bliss. ✨✨✨

But consider: Aabria girlbossing her way to being queen of the modern podcast realm and getting everything she deserves :0

and they keep not letting go 🌂🌙✨ got super nostalgic for taz: balance after reading the crystal kingdom gn, and had to revisit these two for the first time in a few years :’) i love them so much!!

ID: A gif some digitally drawn frames of Sir Fitzroy Maplecourt. He is a half elven man with short hair, wearing glasses, and a fine tunic with a cape. His hands are stretched forward while a powerful ball of lightening flashes in his hands. His eye glow and also give off a spark of lightening. He looks tensed and focused, his cape billowing from the radiant energy. End ID]

I’d been thinking about this concept since the grad finale but I didn’t know how to draw it. So I just. let the idea chill in my brain until I could get close as I could to the desired affect. If I get more time to practice I would like to circle back around to this and clean it up.

hold on i just thought of something really funny

call this one “taako is (not currently) in slash fiction” 

like in kate beaton’s javert comic. do you get it. do you g

Yes

(TAZ Crystal Kingdom Graphic Novel stuff ahead so if you don’t want to see that yet keep scrolling)

I would like to talk about this page in particular

(Please ignore my finger, I’m not pointing at anything, I’m just keeping the page open at the right angle so I don’t have a glare.)

Here we see the Goddess of Death, popularly known as The Raven Queen but renamed for the graphic novel. She is presented to us in something like a picture frame, which is adorned with skulls. Appropriate.

But there’s other frames on the page! Who are they for?

In the top left corner, we see this frame is adorned with leaves. If each frame is for a different god or goddess, it seems easy to assume this one is for Pan.

To the right of Our Beloved Death Goddess is another frame. The contents of this one is mostly hidden from view by another panel, but the frame is adorned with hour glasses. What little we can see inside the frame looks at first like it could be a snake…or perhaps a very long scarf? This frame is almost certainly for Istus.

But the last one…

On the far right side of the page, we see the corner of a forth frame that features…party hats.

This frame is for none other than Reggie Fitzpatrick, God of Parties.

I wanted to draw attention to this because I’ve always loved the tiny details Carey Pietsch includes in the graphic novels, but this one especially proves that she knows her shit when it comes to TAZ. Also because I absolutely lost my mind laughing when I figured it out.