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tl;dr I have a huge crush on an elf wizard with a silly name
So, as a general rule, I am very bad at consuming audio-only media. For a while the only podcast I'd ever listened to was Welcome to Night Vale, and this mostly worked because I treated it like Twilight Zone NPR: good radio to have on in the background while also cleaning/cooking/etc. Basically, if there isn't a visual component, my brain doesn't process the info very effectively, I miss entire sentences, it's just not a great way for me to take in a story.
Last July, while I was recovering from top surgery and really didn't want to do anything but lie around with my eyes closed, Amiel had me start listening to The Adventure Zone. (Listening to the McElroys do anything while recovering from major surgery isn't necessarily something I recommend, btw, as laughing helplessly while wounded is kind of painful. Worth it!) TAZ really had everything stacked against it, both because it's a podcast and because I'm literally in three semi-regular D&D campaigns and frankly who has time to listen to other people play D&D. But I had the time, so I listened to the first couple arcs and was mildly charmed and entertained. Then I lost steam, as I do on podcasts, but I idly picked up the graphic novel of the first arc, and ... dang, y'all, it had been written when the show was much further along, and it was good. The characters felt like solid characters rather than the series of silly decisions one makes when first feeling out a campaign; there was a moment near the end when it really landed an emotional beat and I realized that this was how the story could feel; it was in a medium I can actually give my full attention to, so I did, and I loved it. "Well, fuck it, now I want to know what happens next," I said, "so back to the podcast, I guess."
Anyway, it took me fully eight months, but I've listened to all of The Adventure Zone's Balance arc now! (I absolutely need to listen to the finale again, because even while fully 1000% invested, I still caught myself going "ooh someone just said a cool one-liner, where are we and what is happening" because my brain is so fucking terrible at audio-only processing.) I really really really loved it, and now I appear to be [a] watching every playlist of animatics on YouTube, fully recommend inhaling tea laughing at the animated Jenkins bowtie and voice joke; [b] frantically listening to all the live shows because I need to have every possible bit of Balance canon before I can write some fic (is it about Taako's found family? you betcha; is it called Cake Or Death, IT IS NOW); [c] willing to yell about it with anyone, come to me in the comments, give me your recs or your feelings, I know I am years late to the party but it still seems like a great party.
Last July, while I was recovering from top surgery and really didn't want to do anything but lie around with my eyes closed, Amiel had me start listening to The Adventure Zone. (Listening to the McElroys do anything while recovering from major surgery isn't necessarily something I recommend, btw, as laughing helplessly while wounded is kind of painful. Worth it!) TAZ really had everything stacked against it, both because it's a podcast and because I'm literally in three semi-regular D&D campaigns and frankly who has time to listen to other people play D&D. But I had the time, so I listened to the first couple arcs and was mildly charmed and entertained. Then I lost steam, as I do on podcasts, but I idly picked up the graphic novel of the first arc, and ... dang, y'all, it had been written when the show was much further along, and it was good. The characters felt like solid characters rather than the series of silly decisions one makes when first feeling out a campaign; there was a moment near the end when it really landed an emotional beat and I realized that this was how the story could feel; it was in a medium I can actually give my full attention to, so I did, and I loved it. "Well, fuck it, now I want to know what happens next," I said, "so back to the podcast, I guess."
Anyway, it took me fully eight months, but I've listened to all of The Adventure Zone's Balance arc now! (I absolutely need to listen to the finale again, because even while fully 1000% invested, I still caught myself going "ooh someone just said a cool one-liner, where are we and what is happening" because my brain is so fucking terrible at audio-only processing.) I really really really loved it, and now I appear to be [a] watching every playlist of animatics on YouTube, fully recommend inhaling tea laughing at the animated Jenkins bowtie and voice joke; [b] frantically listening to all the live shows because I need to have every possible bit of Balance canon before I can write some fic (is it about Taako's found family? you betcha; is it called Cake Or Death, IT IS NOW); [c] willing to yell about it with anyone, come to me in the comments, give me your recs or your feelings, I know I am years late to the party but it still seems like a great party.
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(of course, my other problem is that I'm actually really bad at following visual storytelling too so graphic novels are a lot of work for me. They work better for me than audio! But still not ideal. SIGH.)
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I'm sorry to ramble at you, but I went back through my TAZ tag on tumblr and found this quote and now I am going to have emotions in your comments about it, because this was one of my absolute favorite things about TAZ, one of the ways in which it's a genuinely beautiful piece of storytelling:
Our capacity for love increases with each person we cross paths with throughout our lives, and with each moment we spend with those people. But, too often we neglect that part of ourselves in favor of others. And by the time we realize just how important it is, we find ourselves with fewer folks around to practice with. But the seven of you have something that nobody else ever had: time. All the time in the world. Time enough to grow indescribably close. Time enough to learn how to care for each other, how to allow yourselves to be cared for. And in the case of Barry and Lup, time enough to fall deeply and truly in love.
I think it's such a beautiful, open-hearted take on this premise of seven people being stuck traveling effectively forever through universes to frame it not as a hell, or a nightmare to be escaped, or some corrupting thing, but instead to frame it as this: time to love each other more. To reach the point of the inevitability of love, because if these people grew to know each other so well, grew willing to care and be cared for, then of course the only possibility is love. That is just the loveliest and most hopeful thing to me. Uuugghh I'm getting teary eyed just thinking about it ;__________;
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I'm still surprised how much I loved the Tres Horny Boys by the end. The doofuses charging around committing murder whom we met at the beginning of the show grew and changed so much, and that growth and change was so magnificently incorporated into their story. It's beautiful, and the voidfish duet from the ending, along with the whole notion of "story and song," still makes me cry.
Also I treasure both Lucretia and Lup as characters so, so much.