Dear T.A.Z. (The
Adventure Zone)
I
was already good friends with your cousin My Brother, My Brother, and Me when
we were introduced, and you seemed like a fun detour from my usual podcast
listening. I like nerdy things and consider myself fairly open minded. Heck, I even
played D&D once a long time ago, but never really had the means nor drive
to pursue what could have otherwise been an interesting pastime. But that
didn’t matter to you. No, you took me by the hand and brought me into your
world of magic, Gergblins, twenty-sided dice, and Bug Bears.
From episode one I was hooked. You never made me feel stupid
for not knowing every intricacy or strategy relating to dungeons and dragons,
mostly because it was fairly evident that none of the show hosts had any idea
what they were doing either. You lured me in with the same humor and wit for
which MBMBaM had already become one of my favorite listening materials when at
work. Not only did you provide a sort of beginner’s guide to D&D, you also grew
as a story with each passing episode. Then there’s the laughs.
Your
character designs are incredible. Take for example, Magic Brian, that’s not a
name one would ever see in a thick Tolkien tome, or some lighter Lewis
literature. Seriously, you not only had the nerve to name a character Magic
Brian, but also gave him a ridiculously unplaceable Eurotrash accent. An accent
that, spoiler alert, would be his final undoing because no matter how great his
disguise is, he still sounds like a rejected villain from the Die-Hard
franchise. Yippi-ki-yay indeed, Adventure Zone. Come to think of it, I wonder
if it was more than coincidence that Magic Brian fell to his death, much like
another well-known German terrorist…
The family element is your strongest feature. Three
brothers and their father, joined via skype from different parts of the country,
make each other laugh over this ridiculous journey you’ve created for your
listening audience. They trade on a lifetime of give and take that they’ve
built up and your story benefits from it. I know I don’t say this nearly enough
T.A.Z, but I love you. You bring laughter and imagination to both the earliest
and latest hours spent keeping the lights on at Chick Fil A. Thank you for all
the mind-blowing moments of a ridiculous fantasy story that seems to have been
custom written just for my sensibilities and personal enjoyment.
Indebtedly yours,
Stephen
P.S.
Not only did you have a
three-episode long death race derby more extreme than all of the Mad Max movies
combined, you had the sheer nerve to also introduce a rainbow-mulleted,
quasi-real ethereal binicorn (unicorn with two horns) named Garyl and had him
be the coolest part of the entire story arc! Your show is bananas and I love
you for it.
