Slab-derived aqueous fluid components (Ba, Cl) correlate well with oxygen fugacity, and other well-defined characteristics of silicic magmas in the Taupo Volcanic Zone (TVZ) between a cold-wet-oxidizing magma type [R1: amphibole ± biotite; high Sr, low Zr and FeO*/MgO, depleted middle rare-earth elements (MREE)] and a hot-dry-reducing magma type (R2: orthopyroxene ± clinopyroxene; low Sr, high Zr, and FeO*/MgO, less depleted MREE). Oxygen fugacity was obtained from analysis of Fe–Ti oxides and ranges between −0.04 and +2.1 log units (ΔQFM, where QFM = quartz + fayalite + magnetite buffer) and is positively correlated with the bulk-rock Ba/La ratio, indicating that slab-derived fluid is the oxidizing agent in the rhyolites. Chlorine contents in hornblende also correlate with the bulk-rock Ba/La ratio. Hence, high-fluid flux typically correlates with the R1 and low-fluid flux with R2 rhyolite magma types. A geochemical evolution and distribution can be tracked in time and space throughout the central region of the TVZ from 550 ka to present and has revealed two distinct magmatic cycles that vary in length. The first cycle included widespread R1 type magmatism across the central TVZ beginning ca. 550 ka and was directly associated with previously unreported dome-building and ignimbrite-forming volcanism, and led to a voluminous (>3,000 km³) ignimbrite ‘flare-up’ between ca. 340 and 240 ka. The second cycle began roughly 180 ka, erupting ca. 800 km³ of magma, and continues to the present. The duration, rate, and composition of magma production within these cycles appears to be governed by the flux of fluid released from the subducting slab, while the distribution of magmas may be governed more by extension along the central rift axis. Shorter cycles have also been identified and are unrelated to subduction processes, but occur following large, caldera-forming events.