#wtnv thoughts

[aleocalledaries]

So was anyone gonna tell me that the two most formative pieces of media of my childhood came out on the same day or was I just supposed to figure that out by myself

(Happy 10 years to both!)

#gravity falls #welcome to night vale #ten years #gravity falls 10 years #gravity falls anniversary #wtnv #wtnv thoughts #wtnv cecil #welcome to nightvale 10 years #welcome to nightvale anniversary #welcome to nightvale #night vale #dipper pines #mabel pines #grunkle ford #grunkle stan #gravity falls soos #wtnv carlos #1k notes #2k notes

[eonian-nightmare]

Okay, I'm definetly on board with the theory that Carlos is a completely normal scientist, and the weird science we hear in nightvale is just Cecil's brain trying to comprehend what his husband does for work.

WHY YOU ASK,

Because I to, started to sound a bit like Cecil when I tried to explain my partners new science job to my parents.

HE SAID SOMETHING ABOUT THE WEATHER AND POLUTION, - CLIMATE MAYBE AND ALL I HEARD WAS HES USING THE MAGIC OF SCIENCE TO PUNISH COMPANIES THAT ARE BULLYING MOTHER NATURE. AND WHATEVER VIALS OR NUMBERS HE USES TO DO THAT SOUNDS BADASS

#science major #english major #autistic adult #wtnv #welcome to night vale #carlos the scientist #cecil palmer #wtnv carlos #cecil wtnv #welcome to nightvale #relationship #wtnv thoughts

[arthurtaylorlester]

i think with the events of the recent episode, it’s important to recognise that was dr.Lubelle is doing is not explaining things.

that’s not why sarah sultan died, because when joseph and kareem went to her to try and figure out a way back to the ‘’real’’ world, she shrugged their experiences off as delusions. she didn’t actually explain WHY there are doubles for everyone (probably reality-converging timeline shenanigans), she made them think they had gotten an answer, when we know for a FACT that joseph fink is not from night vale, we heard him get trapped.

And then she went off to try and find dana to dig up the grave of her (not?)double, so she could make up some half-baked explanation about it and gaslight literally everyone, including us the listeners, about the events that we literally heard go down.

She isn’t explaining shit because she doesn’t understand wHY night vale is like this, she just wants everything to fit her version of reality. so basically I’m saying dr lubelle killed sarah sultan in some other fucked up way

#wtnv #wtnv whiplash #wtnv spoilers #Cecil Palmer #dr lubelle #the university of what it is #even the name sounds like it's trying to say that things are always a certain way #welcome to nightvale #welcome to night vale #cecil wtnv #dana cardinal #sarah sultan #rip sarah sultan #joseph fink #kareem nazari #wtnv theory #wtnv thoughts

[midnightfox450]

It's WTNV's 10th birthday you KNOW I am going to write something sappy. Strap in, this is going to be long.

Welcome to Night Vale being a full decade old feels kind of unreal to me, as I've only been listening for three or four of those years. I was very young in 2012, so I can't accurately gauge the mainstream perception of queerness at the time, but I can't imagine it was very good. So when I first heard Cecil matter-of-factly state his love for a man he had just met in the PILOT, I was surprised and intrigued. I honestly remember the moment quite clearly, that's how impactful "I fell in love instantly" was.

And WTNV is not a teen, coming-of-age, "falling in love with your best friend and having to come out to your parents" type of queer story. The main leads were already grown adults. It was love at first sight. They never had to ask each other if they liked men, and it was never an issue. Just unadulterated (albeit often interrupted by supernatural goings on) will-they-wont-they fluff.

Cecilos has gone through some ups and downs. Both of their lives have been threatened too many times to count, they got an apartment (not a condo) together, they were separated for a year, they got married, they had a kid, they killed a giant worm god, they were briefly in a 50 First Dates situation, etc etc. But throughout the entirety of the podcast, from the very first episode down to the most recent, the theme always comes back to their love for one another. It has been frequently shown that the last thing Cecil thinks about, when nearing death or a similarly distressing plight, is Carlos. And when Carlos continuously saves the town from impending disaster, he does it so he can continue coming home to Cecil.

They are the anchor that defines the rest of the town. Night Vale is their home, because they are the embodiments of Night Vale, and they are each other's homes. And the rest of Night Vale accepts this. They tune in every night with at least partial hope to hear more about their lives. They all attended their wedding. Carlos was once considered, by both the citizens and whatever powers that may be, to be an outsider. But his love and loyalty to Cecil granted him acceptance. Queer love is shown to be powerful enough to keep an entire town afloat. Queerness is what gets you accepted into, dare I say Welcomed, to Night Vale.

Fink and Cranor have said they didn't originally intend for Carlos and Cecil to have a serious love story. But even so, Cecil was still a gay main character voiced by a gay man - narrating gay attraction from his own perspective - three years before gay marriage was legalized. It was a pretty huge step for indie queer representation, and I don't think its unfair to say it has fundamentally shaped fictional podcasting as a medium. A lot of your faves wouldn't be half the show they are without it.

When I went to the Haunting of Night Vale liveshow a while ago, the opener by Kate Jones and the weathers by Mal Blum both felt like they expected queerness from the audience. Like it was this unspoken theme throughout the entirety of the night. It felt strange and comforting, to be enjoying something where queerness was implicit but inherent. And isn't that what Night Vale is: strange and comforting? Isn't that what queerness should be?

Now, WTNV, especially early WTNV, is far from perfect. I have a lot of criticisms about the show and its fandom I'll save for another time. But at the end of the day, Welcome to Night Vale is a show about a small, culturally-isolated southern american desert town, where the strange is normal and the normal is strange. I don't think it could be lost on anyone how the supernatural is a metaphor for queerness, in both the archaic and modern definition of the word. WTNV is an inherently queer show. And the idea that queerness can thrive in what would otherwise be thought of as a typically conservative town, not in spite of its setting, but BECAUSE of it? That is an incredibly hopeful and much needed perspective. It was needed in 2012, and it is still just as relevant in 2022.

Godspeed, Night Vale. May the sun continue to be hot, may the moon continue to be beautiful, and may the mysterious lights continue to pass overhead as we all pretend to sleep.

#wtnv #welcome to night vale #carlos the scientist #cecil palmer #wtnv 10th anniversary #wtnv tenth anniversary #wtnv thoughts #wtnv meta #wtnv cecil #wtnv carlos #cecilos #night vale

[bulkhummus]

wtnv 171– Go To the Mirror

wtnv 171– Go to the Mirror

Wtnv 75– The Narrow Space

Wtnv 209– The Black Coat

Wtnv 108 — Cal

(spanish translates to ‘Here, there, everywhere [in the world], there is nothing.’)

wtnv 110 — Matroyshka

wtnv 110– Matroyshka

I’ve been collecting bits of transcripts that are all saying the same things, or referencing one another. Just for fun. I want to write a more formal think about all of it, but for now I’m posting this as a marker.  Cecil being caught in between realities is one of my favorite things about the show, as well as them touching on a great big war that ended everything in the 80′s, and how Cal was a victim of that fallout, etc etc. Night Vale itself is a Matroyshka, and its like Cecil is stuck in the narrow spaces between each different version.

I might write more on it later, but the thing I’m thinking about the most is how Carlos came to Night Vale, since the town seems to call to people (the whole story that cecil does a corrections corner on in 209, as well as other instances of peole arriving in town) . I don’t think it was a coincidence that Kareem’s plot was mentioned in conjunction with the reminder of Carlos coming to town and this mysterious organization. I also don’t think it was a coincidence that it was placed in an episode about old versions of yourself dying due to choices you made or didn’t make.  aaaaaa you know? feel free to talk to me about it its occupying the biggest part of my brain rn 

(ive also been thinking about Huntokar being Cecil’s mom and Cal being the Distant Prince but thats a different post and stuff I’ve talked about before haha)

#wtnv #welcome to night vale #wtnv spoilers #wtnv thoughts

[moved-to-piersgender]

There was a fair bit of speculation that this latest arc in WTNV would turn out to be the series finale and that ended up not being the case.

What I suspect is going to happen is that the true herald of the podcast's ending will be an arc heavily featuring the Dark Planet Lit By No Sun. It is intrinsically tied to death, inevitability and endings in a way that's bittersweet and almost peaceful, and it's one of the few recurring motifs that's never been played for absurdist humor.

#welcome to night vale #Wtnv #Wtnv thoughts #Wtnv the dark planet #the dark planet #Dark Planet lit By no sun

[omegas-reincarnation]

Nightvale/ Magnus archives crossover art. I love how many people just jumped immediately and independently to the idea of the Elsewhere Jon and Martin end up being Nightvale, it being a Suitably Wierd dimension. But what if Jon is the reason Nightvale is wierd in the first place? What if his actions dragged himself, Martin, the entities, a bunch of other avatars, and also some random humans who'd been touched by the entities and were thus somehow connected to them into what was previously a perfectly empty, normal desert? And the reason no one in Nightvale seems particularly bothered by all the wierdness is because Seriously? You think this is horrifying and bizzare? You should have seen the eyepocalypse! Really Carlos this is quite peaceful in comparison.

(Image ID: Jon stands in front of a stylised range of violent desert mountains, holding a sheaf of papers covered in images of eyes. An abstract representation of the glow cloud hovers above him, with the gigantic eye of the ceaseless watcher in its centre. Jon had a crown of smaller green eyes above his head, and multicoloured eyes hover in the air around him).

#the magnus archives #welcome to nightvale #tma fanart #wtnv fanart #wtnv thoughts

[jupiterslifelessmoons]

Am i the only one who feels like they're preparing to end Welcome to Night Vale? After almost each episode I feel like they're adding more and more things to prepare for an ending. Especially with Joseph Fink stuck in Night Vale storyline and the University of what it is.

Both of these storylines have the possibility to make Night Vale nothing more than fiction in the actual Night Vale world. Also both fit really well together, we see that Joseph is tired of being stuck in Night Vale and wants to go back to the real world so it would make sense if he tried to write/explain Night Vale away just like Dr Lubelle explained Sarah Sultan away.

#also the university of what it is is obviously the next big menace to Night Vale #like it’s probably the season arc #wtnv #welcome to night vale #night vale #night vale presents #joseph fink #jeffrey cranor #the university of what it is #dr lubelle #sarah sultan #theory #wtnv thoughts #theories #ending #my thoughts #jupiterslifelessmoons #🦝

[emeraldties]

Nine years later and the parking lot at the Arby’s will still be one of the most subjectively romantic places in this vast vast universe.

#cecilos #cecil gershwin palmer #cecil palmer #carlos the scientist #carlos wtnv #wtnv tenth anniversary #wtnv thoughts #welcome to nightvale #goodnight nightvale. goodnight. #god I’m so nostalgic rn #all hail the glow cloud

[bannedwheatandwheatbyproducts]

10 years

As you may know, wtnv has recently hit its ten year anniversary.  Now personally, I haven’t been around for 10 years, or 5, or even two. 

In fact, I only started listening to wtnv on April 2nd of 2022, this year.

Im not far in, i don’t have a heart warming story of how it shaped my youth. 

But that’s because it still is. Even though my history with Night Vale is a mere blip in its vast decade (and counting) of influence, it still means so much to me. 

Because no matter how far in, or not, someone is,  Wtnv changes them, however small.

Welcome to Night Vale is still one of the most amazing, bizarre, and representative piece of media I’ve ever come across. 

Although my search has just begun, it will keep that place in my heart with me.

                                                    Forever.

#Welcome to Night Vale #wtnv #wtnv thoughts #wtnv 10th anniversary #wtnv ten years #here's my contribution #i love this podcast so much #also i heard about the release date connection with gravity falls #and thats wild to me #because i was knee deep in that show as a child #and i still am #i know the difference between my childhood years and my teen years may seem inconsequential to some of tumblr's older users #but its a big difference to me #so don't laugh at my clearly through the lens of a teenager comments #bread's stuff

[jadedinjuly]

y’all know that welcome to nightvale episode where theres that computer who runs the numbers station on the radio where she just says random numbers continuously in a monotone voice? 

are there any actual podcasts or something like that??? just some mind numbing droning on to play when i need an extra layer of sound?????? not necessarily numbers but just something along those lines ya know?

#Welcome to Night Vale #wtnv #wtnv cecil #wtnv thoughts #podcast #podcasts #numbers #neurodiverse stuff #this might be a mentally ill thing idk

[eonian-nightmare]

Okay, yes the new episode was alot but its making me think about time and space and science again. Like our resident scientist often does. And like.... can we talk about how everything with carlos related back to "time".

Like okay, let's talk seriously, we know that Carlos has had a few interactions with weird timelines

He was apparently missing from the main world for decades.He was in the DOW for 10 years, He didn't age in nightvale for a large portion of the time he was there.

But that's hardly scrapping the bottom of the barrel. Like honestly, has anyone sat back and thought seriously about this, about why everything about carlos comes back to time.

He'll, his first major interaction with us was him trying to pick apart and measure time in a realm he was not used to. He got annoyed when cecil told him to just drop it. It's almost like he wanted to control it.

And that's kind of what he was trying to do in the DOW wasn't it?. Like honestly. Think about the logic behind the science used to measure time there. It's a place where the sun never sets, time literally works different from where he's used to, the place was barren. He would have had to literally do so much testing to even just get a vague concept of time there vs nightvale. And it would've taken so long. It would've been quite scientifically interesting. Maybe even more so than nightvale purely due to this.

We could talk about the fact that one of the only things we've heard about carlos family is that his mother gifted him a clock?

How his first major gift to cecil was a watch that beat nightvale logic and could tell the time.

Can we think about how almost every special rant he has involves time in one way or another?

Can we talk about for some reason carlos' memory is never affected with timeline changes?

Can we talk about how he fixed the issue with telly and the time line, or how simply he said he would keep trying and fighting against time if cecil didn't remember him when he forgot.

Can we mention that 5 years ago carlos was supposed to be 41, but at the same time had somehow reached the level of professor and had tenure, and managed to disappear for decades. Or the fact when he told cecil he'll find his way back to him when stuck in the DOW, he was talking about hours, days, weeks, months as if it's all the same and doesn't matter?

Can we mention how the person carlos loves the most struggles with the concept of time. Has memory blanks, a fear of ageing, gets scared to look in the mirror, doesn't like keeping track of how long has past, has had numerous issues where he's gone through time and been unable to tell how long exactly has passed.

Can we talk about how nightvale was originally destroyed, how it broke time and space and pulled itself apart.

Can we talk about how something happened before carlos arrived here, something he hates talking about, something to do with a massive Phantom ocean. Can we talk about the quote from Dracula "I have crossed oceans of time to find you"...

Anyway.... I think we should talk about time more,

#wtnv #welcome to night vale #carlos dave robles #wtnv carlos #carlos the scientist #time #wtnv thoughts #wtnv spoilers

[arthurtaylorlester]

''i learned a lot of neat things while wearing a blindfold'' - cecil g. palmer, ep. 95

hELLO????

#cecil stop telling me about your sex life challenge #wtnv #welcome to night vale #wtnv fandom #cecil gershwin palmer #welcome to nightvale #wtnv podcast #wtnv thoughts #wtnv whiplash

[enjoy-purple-skies]

Wtnv 210 - ten years later

I am crying. So so much. I wish i can write coherent thoughts in this website but my Emotions are everywhereeee i can’t even think properly

I started listening in 2015-6 (can’t actually remember) and quickly got so obsessed with this strange town at the other side of the world but because i had no one to share night vale with the same level of fixation, i soon moved on with other media to consume

But wtnv is such an integral part of me. It’s a cornerstone of my personality. You cannot take cecil palmer and carlos and the vague yet menacing govt agency and helicopters and the dog park and khoshekh and dana cardinal and station management and the sheriffs secret police and the lights above the arby’s and huntokar and pamela winchell and tamika flynn and michelle nguyen and the angels all named erika and john peters (ykno, the farmer?) and kevin and desert bluffs and maureen and the man in the tan jacket away from me without destroying me. I love eye imagery. I draw an eye on almost every artwork i do as my signature. And to me, it will always be a real place. it’s my precious haven where i dont need to be serious or taken seriously because that’s just how it works. where every mystery is not always solved and i can learn to make peace with it because time is weird and logic is not logic and that’s all right.

Anyway, brb gonna have an hour-long crying session

#wtnv #welcome to night vale #wtnv podcast #cecil palmer #wtnv thoughts

[bulkhummus]

i do think id very much like a carlos break down— perhaps a frantic voicemail, perhaps a muffled conversation accidentally heard happening on air after an ad ends— and carlos repeating this mantra of something like ‘im sorry im not perfect, i was never perfect, ill never be perfect’

Like OOO okay id LOVE for cecil to be rightfully petty — right— and we all laugh but then the voicemail comes and its carlos and we all think hes gonna be perhaps snippy/passive aggressive back but instead he just has this massive melt down because cecil has never been truly mad at him on broadcast before. And for carlos, he knows that means hes really and truly messed up.

and cecil just, not knowing what to say because ‘perfectly imperfect’ only goes so far and carlos doesn’t have emotional outbursts often so he’s so ill equipped. and hes also like directly facing the consequences off him being a dick to someone On Air which he almost never has to do. like cecil has grown and knows that carlos is a person who has flaws, and he loves the flaws because they make up who carlos is as well, but its hard for me to imagine carlos accepting cecil thinking of him as anything other than perfect when he takes back/negates so much of what he preaches. thats gotta be such a delicate thing to traverse. Not to mention the town idolizing him and placing him in this pedestal as well.

like its so so so delectable that carlos is such a private person about the things that really matter when hes dating the towns most boundary-eroded man. its so delicious that carlos is the ONE PERSON that cecil can’t pry a story out of and broadcast to the town for very fair and justifiable reasons. and the thing is, is carlos KNOWS cecil wants and expects more of him in regards to communication, hes very clear about it. (I do think its as equally difficult to date carlos for cecil as it is for cecil to date carlos) they have yet to meet their happy medium i think?

and now carlos is now being forced to confront his past (UOWII coming to set up shop in night vale) and i just want to see him uproot EVERYTHING. i want cecil Hurt, and carlos panicking and all of that good tasty drama — like sometimes an argument is necessary its healthy and pretending its all okay is NOT which i think cecil has a tendency to do— and ignoring it is Not which i think carlos tends to do and UGH i just think its over due. cecil being Actually Frustrated with Carlos and not just over dishes or spice racks.

#i have some wine in me i wish i wrote this more structured #and neat #but you get my point #ignore it if u want i know its long and rambling #also repetetive im just banging pots and pans until august 1st honestly sorry #wtnv #welcome to night vale #cecilos #wtnv thoughts

[chaotica-forgets-to-draw]

Listening to wtnv ep. 67 and HOW FUCKING OLD IS CECIL?!?

#HE WAS ALREADY AND INTERN IN THE FUCKING 30S?? #bro aged well #also his predecessor having 7 eyes fruther supports the theory of him having one too many eyes #wtnv thoughts #wtnv #welcome to night vale #personal log #wtnv 67 #cecil gershwin palmer