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Round 2

Propaganda Under The Cut

Senshi:

Carries the fanservice so the girls can be safe. You ge boobs. You get taint. Old man panty shots (respectfully). Also, an amazing cook, everything he makes turns out incredible even when people are disgusted by the ingredients they end up loving it. Lives in harmony with the environment his home is in, making sure to always mantain balance. Truly the man of all time.

Beard

hot dwarf + good cook + everyone loves him

Taako:

cool-ass wizard

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ned chicane is sooo character. he's a skilled burglar but he's broke, he's a sensationalist and a cryptozoologist, he's a pathological liar who's just as persuasive when he's telling the truth as not, he refuses to harm a fellow human being, he runs a terrible and weirdly popular late-night TV show, he constantly tries to protect a town that does not return the favor, he is canonically in possession of george clooney's oscar, he's a self-declared coward who will always put himself in harm's way if it means protecting his friends, he has multiple fake IDs and passports and no one knows his legal name, he's the smartest dumbass you've ever met, he takes a bullet for dani as penance because hurting aubrey was his greatest regret even before they knew each other and he can't hurt her again, he can't let anyone get hurt again, he will not let someone else die because of him. he will not.

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i love taz balance it makes the grooves and folds of my brain tingly

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thinking abt lucretia and taakos dynamic again

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how is it that all of lucretia’s one liners in moonlighting always the funniest fucking shit 

“oh you’re so deep in the test, you are knee-deep in test town”

“i particularly liked when you ripped the arms off that poor helpless robot” 

“here’s the problem: they just run right off the goddamn thing”

“goddammit we love domes around here”

“yes, it’s that we very quickly cut your hand off and get the bracer off, but then we attach the hand back and it’s like, not a big deal”

“are there any non terrible questions”

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im sorry they referenced WHAT on the latest episode of tazvdracula?????

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and she seethed in that black curtained place (gif / eye strain warning!)

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no one tells you this but you don't forget the first time you hear it. you don't forget that when someone leaves your life, those exits are not made equal. we can't forget that some are beautiful, and poetic, and satisfying, and that others are abrupt and unfair. above all you can never forget that most are just unremarkable, unintentional, and clumsy. and even above that, no one tells you that that string of words uttered by griffin mcelroy will live in your heart forever and will always color the way that you view goodbyes or goodnights or see-you-laters. but i will tell you that you'll be better for it. as much as it hurts, it heals.

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i don't think taako's voice is really all that high most of the time. it's higher than justin's normal voice a little, but idk, the defining quality of it isn't its pitch to me, there's something else that i don't really have the words for. but anyway i do notice that his voice gets lower and less exaggerated when he's being serious. which is interesting bc it sort of implies that the usual "taako voice" is something he puts on.

i don't really think of taako as a habitual performer. his charisma modifier is a -1, he's not this ultra smooth charming actor, and although he does tend to hide behind humor and is slow to build connections, he's also very frank with what he's about and what he wants. he goes on an entire tirade about wanting to talk about his feelings (he's multidimensional!), he never acts embarrassed or hesitant about big moments of vulnerability and caring for others (arms outstretched, "i'm not going fucking anywhere," admitting a deep fear to kravitz on their first date, spilling his tragic backstory to angus, not to mention several serious moments with lup) (and not all of these can be chalked up to "forgotten connections," either. he does have a foundation of growth with magnus and merle, even forgotten, and his conversations with lup are of course all with memories intact, but he does not have that with kravitz and angus). he's just slow to reveal all of his hidden depths, because of (understandable) trust issues. but all in all he's not nearly as closed off as i think fandom tends to portray him (which is not to say he's open, either), nor is he someone who wears a lot of masks and obscures himself. i don't think he hides his "true self."

sizzle it up was successful because of his intelligence, not his charisma. he's a natural teacher who's knowledgeable and passionate, and that was what made the show great, not his personality or performance (though i don't think those were bad. just not the primary appeal of the show. the only fan we see is ren, and she loved sizzle it up because it inspired her and taught her to cook, not because she thought taako was awesome or whatever). bc that's the thing, he's not a performer, but he is extremely adaptable. so when he's set up with a stagecoach and a show lined up, sure, he'll have a TV persona, he'll learn to be charming, he'll learn to be showy, when he's on stage. when he gets famous, he learns to like being famous, but i don't think it was really a dream of his before then. or at least not in the way people think of it. i don't think he ever wanted to be a celebrity as much as a celebrity chef or celebrity wizard. he doesn't care if people think he's pretty. he doesn't want people to adore him (before the voidfish, anyway. afterwards is a different story. there's a void where love used to be that he's desperate to fill, and adoration almost feels like it works). really what he wants is for people to appreciate his skill and intelligence and depth (and he's also very afraid of actually displaying those things. he's multidimensional).

but most of the time, when he's not literally performing for an audience, i just don't think he's putting on a show, desperate for people to like him and think he's charming. he'll do what he needs to do, say what he needs to say, be who he needs to be in any given circumstance, with strangers and antagonists, but he also drops the act when it's not necessary. or at least his performance is subtler. he performs stupidity, he performs nonchalance, he makes efforts to be funny (because he is always funny, but that's something you have to work for and always be thinking about, even when the humor is dry), he carefully does just enough to be useful, but not enough to raise expectations. he's very aware of how other people view him, but he's also perfectly okay with people thinking negatively about him—as long as they're the negative traits he wants people to see. but, he only does all those things in the beginning of the show; after a little while with magnus and merle, after a little while with the bob, he drops the act. so i guess that's the difference to me. he's adaptable out of necessity, it doesn't bleed into his entire life. i don't even really think i'd qualify it as a performance. it's more of an invisibility. he's not performing charisma to get people to like him, he's trying to lay low. but then when he actually wants people to like him, he's himself, fairly unapologetically. with the people who matter, lup, magnus and merle, kravitz, the other bob members, the other ipre crew, he's pretty comfortable with himself.

one last interesting point is that while he doesn’t seem to hesitate when it comes to actions, he does shy away from verbal displays of affection, trust, vulnerability. and the best two scenes to show that play out almost exactly the same: lup’s best day ever dinner, and dropping his disguise self with kravitz. in each, taako does something meaningful for both npcs, who then verbalize their affection for him, which taako immediately deflects with a joke.

taako drops his disguise spell for kravitz, totally honest with him, (although… i don’t tend to think the beauty sacrifice was as meaningful to taako as fandom tends to portray, i think most of his vanity is an exaggeration he intentionally cultivates, but still, it’s a vulnerable moment, he clearly cares what kravitz thinks), and kravitz tells him he loves him. to which taako replies with a joke. he does not return the words.

taako doesn’t hesitate to construct the best day ever for lup, never even questions why she’d ask. he puts it all together, cooks for her, shows her he knows her, he loves her—and then when she bears her heart to him, tells him he is her heart, all he says is, “i know,” and pulls out a bottle of vodka. of course lup knows he loves her, the whole day was an elaborate demonstration of it, but he doesn’t say anything. to be fair, it’s not exactly a typical interaction between them, taako is textually scared shitless, lup did just tell him she’s going to turn herself into an undead abomination, so he’s not exactly at his best here. but anyway.

i don’t really have anything to add to this observation, it’s just very consistent and interesting to me. taako is fairly comfortable with grand gestures, but sidesteps around words. which ties in perfectly with his identity as a chef, to me. cooking is an action, work, intention, cooking for people is an act of love, an act of connection, an act of caring, and taako’s character doesn’t fit the bill for that—except, he kinda really does.

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daydreaming abt the taz balance animated series (🙏) again and im. rlly intrigued to see how they incorporate griffin as a dm. bcoz his dm presence is so important to how the story is told yknow??? but i feel like if they just include Animated Griffin McElroy it would be a little weird/take viewers out of the world sort of. i dunno ive spun some concepts around in my head abt it but im not sure which would best translate to the medium

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taz balancei love you. they could never make me hate you taz balance

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"there's something about the dying that feels familiar" fucking unbelievably metal thing to be told. you die and you could swear you've been here before. the last thing you feel before your breath leaves your body is intense deja vu. you've never died before but somehow you know how this goes. you have an uncanny feeling being dead is a temporary gig for you, but you have no idea what gives you that impression. and then you're alive again. and you remember dying. and all you remember is that there was something about it that felt familiar.

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You remember L̶̢͇̩̤̳̩͖̲͚͚̳͚͕͉̗͋̓ͅư̵͓͖̥̥̦͇͍̬̪̑́͐̏̂̐̎̾̐́̑̋̽̇͆̃̾̈́͌̈́̀̉͛͑̓̌͐́̊͂͒̈́̈́͘̚͠p̸̥̳͈͚̊̈́̋̀̄͐̓͆̇͑̿͊͌̍̕̕͝͠͝͠͝, of course. How could you forget L̶̢͇̩̤̳̩͖̲͚͚̳͚͕͉̗͋̓ͅư̵͓͖̥̥̦͇͍̬̪̑́͐̏̂̐̎̾̐́̑̋̽̇͆̃̾̈́͌̈́̀̉͛͑̓̌͐́̊͂͒̈́̈́͘̚͠p̸̥̳͈͚̊̈́̋̀̄͐̓͆̇͑̿͊͌̍̕̕͝͠͝͠͝?

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girl STOP this yr is 10 yrs of taz and 7 yrs since story and song………………girllllllllll

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Far worse, in my opinion, than the famous “he wouldn’t fucking say that” is “he WOULD fucking say that, as part of his facade, but you seem to think he would mean it genuinely”

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wait what's today?? it's lup day?

It’s 4/13, one year ago today the first episode of Stolen Century was dropped, where Griffin confirmed Lup as Taako’s identical trans twin sister.Also I think some people under house arrest celebrate something today IDK it doesn’t sound as cool.-Mod Jean

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broke: homestuck

woke: neil banging out the tunes

bespoke: lup adventure zone balance transgender REAL!