I love how Rouxls Kaard has the “self-assured dumbass bad at making puzzles” of Papyrus, the flamboyance of Mettaton, but the award for most similarities goes to noted high-strung, equally flamboyant dumbass who also stank at making puzzles Magic Brian, from TAZ, an unrelated intellectual property.
Magnus and Barry wake up at the crack of dawn just to jump into freezing cold water, and Taako, Lup, and Merle are just like “They must be going crazy or something. There’s no way that someone would willingly jump into icey water for fun-” and then Lucretia goes barreling past the three, yelling, “I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU ASSHOLES JUMPED IN WITHOUT ME.” And the three go run to Davenport to say that all the humans they’re stuck with are certifiably insane.
Taako: Magnus put a damn shirt on.
Magnus: It’s not even that cold out.
Taako: It’s literally snowing.
Lup: Oh, babe, don’t eat that. It’s a super acidic fruit, it’ll dissolve your flesh.
One thing I really appreciate in The Adventure Zone is how Justin chooses to play Taako’s reaction to Barry and Lup’s relationship. So often, if you have sibling characters who are really close, especially twins, one of them getting a significant other is this huge source of Angst and Drama for the other one. And to an extent, it is understandable – if you’ve been the most important person in your sibling’s life for all this time and suddenly there’s someone else that they love, yeah, I can understand that there’s potential for jealousy there. It goes all the way back to Artemis and Apollo, who are basically the root of most of my Twin Character emotions and have been since I was about 6. It shows up in Critical Role, too, with Vex getting really jealous and petty about Vax’s feelings for Keyleth. And it’s not really gendered – Apollo is the jealous one in their story. Taako could so easily have gone the petty-and-jealous route. And I wouldn’t have blamed them if he had, because Taako is a petty and jealous person! It wouldn’t have been out of character at all, if Taako had resented Barry for taking Lup’s attention away from him. But instead, we get this really beautiful conversation where he encourages Barry and is just really supportive and kind. And there’s a bit where he’s like, “This isn’t a surprise to me,” like, of course you’re in love with Lup, Lup’s the best, she’s just the best person, everyone should love her, and of course she should have a happy and fulfilling romantic relationship, this isn’t even a question. It just makes for a much healthier, happier dynamic and it’s such a nice change.
I finished the Taako drawing, so now the set of these are complete! I wanted to illustrate some of my favorite quotes from the podcast, since they’ve continued to stick with me since I finished it :’)
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