arms outstretched
3-2-1 let's jam
I’ve never been the kind of person who can consume in moderation. I’m not great at pacing myself when I have a pan of brownies, and I’m definitely not great at pacing myself when I get sucked into a piece of media. The past two weeks, I’ve found myself ricocheting from one hyperfixation to the next, which is for sure the healthiest way I could be comporting myself, and as a result I am short on sleep and long on exhaustion.
So this will likely be super coherent, is what I’m saying.
(a portrait of the newsletterist)
Notable Breakfast
Dog Thing
This baby’s got a busted knee :((
Mixed Media
First up on the hyperfixation list: I listened to the entirety of The Adventure Zone podcast in nine days. Each episode is about an hour long, some are longer, and there are 69 episodes. Basically, what I did was....insane. I do not recommend it. But TAZ is very, very good, and just gets better the further into it you get, so once I established my momentum I really had no choice but to ride the train til the wheels fell off and I was a broken, emotional mess of a person.
(portrait of the newsletterist as proof she was totally not lying in that earlier portrait of the newsletterist)
So: The Adventure Zone is a podcast in which 3 brothers and their dad play Dungeons & Dragons. It’s starts off very fun and light-hearted, but a couple of arcs in it suddenly becomes clear that the dungeon master has a much larger story he’s building. It becomes so large, in fact, that the penultimate arc isn’t even them playing D&D, they’re playing a game that the DM invented specifically to drive that section of narrative. Which isn’t to say that it doesn’t stay very fun! It definitely does. But it also turns into a big story with a ton of emotional depth and I’m sorry, but you will cry listening to it. It’s just science.
And the cast gets big. Which is especially remarkable in that every single character in the above illustration (by hawberries) aside from the top 3, are played by the DM. The production values also go up as it goes–more and more music is integrated into the show, sometimes as playing a major role in the narrative itself.
It was a fascinating way to experience a story, because (aside from the little bit that isn’t), it never stops being D&D. The boys are still rolling for initiative, right up to the end. But it’s also a huge, beautiful story, about exploration, and family, and romance, and darkness and light. A player almost dies after failing a roll on an arts and craft check but also there’s a Mad Max Fury Road-esque action sequence that’s so exciting I was shouting. TAZ is a creature of extremes, and I highly recommend it.
This story (they’re calling it Balance) is finished, but there will be more of the podcast! So if listening to a family play tabletop games is your bag, there’s lots more TAZ ahead.
I watched all of Akatsuki No Yona, or Yona of the Dawn, a historical fantasy about a princess who witnesses her father’s murder and then goes on a quest to recruit the descendants of the four dragons who helped found her country. It’s got a bit of an Inuyasha vibe to it, in terms of the questing and some of the silliness, but is at times much darker than Inuyasha ever was. I really enjoyed it, however, and have joined the throng eagerly awaiting season 2.
As soon as I finished watching Yona, I immediately started reading it. And, in the space of about 4 days, finished it. The anime is a close adaptation, although the order of the action is sometimes shuffled. But I love it for a lot of reasons, one of which is the slowest of slow burn romances.
I guess I’ll continue to put podcasts here! I received a recomendation for Join the Party as a follow-up to The Adventure Zone (thanks, reccer!), and it looks great but I think I need a break from D&D for the moment. I’ve started listening to Campaign, which is another actual play podcast, only for a Star Wars RPG. Loving it so far! As for music, I’ve been loving the new LCD Soundsystem album, American Dream, as well as listening a lot to the very good TAZ soundtrack.
I watched Atlantis: the Lost Empire, which is genuinely one of my favourite Disney movies and I wish it got more love. It’s a visual feast.
Anxiety Pyjamas
(I love hoodies on pjs, they’re so wholly unnecessary)
Fics I Shouted About
Guardians of Destiny by shions_heart // Haikyuu!!, Kenma/Kuroo, superhero au. This is actually specifically a My Hero Academia AU, but you don’t need to know anything about MHA except that they call superpowers “quirks.” It’s very very cute.
Perfectionism by Mysecretfanmoments // Haikyuu!!, Daichi/Suga. I actually ended up rereading all of Mysecretfanmoments’ HQ!! fics this week, but I don’t think I’ve recced this one in the past. Daichi asks for Suga’s help learning how to kiss, in a totally platonic way, of course. A classic blunder.
say you’re gonna break my fall by aknightley // Voltron, Keith/Lance, post-s3. This is a really lovely follow-up to season three, specifically focusing on the role Lance played essentially as Keith’s second-in-command.
Lastly
There are people out there in the world now who have seen the forthcoming Guillermo del Toro film The Shape of Water, and I hate them, each and ever one of them. I’m nearly as excited about it as I am about Star Wars. This interview with del Toro about it is wonderful.
bless him.
PBTeen has a new line of Harry Potter stuff, and it’s pretty great. I’m not saying I need two pillows with the Hufflepuff crest on them, just that I could have them. If I wanted.
anyway, that’s all from me!
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