birdiethebibliophile:

If I had to choose, my favorite thing about TAZ is the overwhelming… subtlety of Griffin’s storytelling. Even the saddest, most heartbreaking moments are small, told in few words, deliberate but delicate. The segment about Lup and Barry’s love story is less than five minutes, but it’s the sweetest, most genuine love story I’ve ever heard. The part about Lup’s disappearance is one short paragraph. John’s goodbye is three sentences. Carey’s grief over Magnus is a single line.

Griffin doesn’t feel the need to overwhelm us with explanation and visceral pain. He knows how to use just a few words to get to the heart of the matter. He knows that the deepest, truest feelings aren’t those that happen in billion-dollar blockbusters with explicit and overwhelming death (*coughinfinitywarcough*). He knows that they happen in places words can’t quite reach. He paints the most touching moments with the most deft, subtle touch that I’ve seen in years.

The others know that, too. Justin conveyed the heartbreak of Taako losing Lup with a single word (“Who?”). Travis said that Magnus and Julia were married under a gazebo Magnus built himself, and we knew by that what she meant to him. Clint had Merle throw his arms around his child, and we could immediately see how he’s changed and how much he loves Mookie.

Sure, we have huge, powerful moments, like the bonds, or the defeat of the Hunger, any number of things, but where TAZ goes above and beyond the average story is the small, subtle moments where you can say, yes. This is true.

That’s what makes it amazing.