#109 - a story about huntokar
Text
OH SHIT I JUST REALIZED THAT CECIL'S WHOLE BACKSTORY IS BECAUSE OF WHAT HUNTOKAR SAID
"Whose life lies directly on the fault lines of this broken reality"
She broke reality around Night Vale, and Cecil is clearly an important part of Night Vale so his entire life got fragmented. Thats why he was alive and broadcasting before the radio was invented. That's why he died in ep33, ep106, and ep171. Mirrors must be a particularly weak part of the border between realities (which would also explain why Nazr saw himself and Francis in his mirror in ASoLaH) and something about the breaking of reality is deadly to Cecil
#maybe everyone else knew that already#but I JUST FIGURED IT OUT#wtnv#welcome to night vale#cecil palmer#cecil gershwin palmer#not tma#caps cw#a story about huntokar#huntokar#wtnv 109#wtnv 106#filings#wtnv 171#go to the mirror?#wtnv 33#cassette
308 notes
·
View notes
Text
at it again with some huntokar
making podcast cover art is fun :)
#welcome to night vale#podcast#queer podcasts#cecilos#cecil gershwin palmer#wtnv carlos#wtnv cecil#carlos the scientist#huntokar#a story about huntokar#ok but huntokars va >>>#ep. 109#wtnv#wtnv fandom#wtnv fanart#wtnv podcast#huntokar fanart#spot the dark planet#fanart#procreate#procreate art#!! red !!
144 notes
·
View notes
Text
*slaps huntokar* this baby can fit so much lore dump
(but seriously the woman from italy and the distant prince and the dragons and the mighty glow cloud (all hail) are gods??? )
#im losing my shit#REALITY IS CONVERGING IN ON ITSELF#Plot Is Happening#and it scares me#wtnv#wtnv 109#a story about huntokar#welcome to night vale
36 notes
·
View notes
Text
I just listened to episodes 109 and 110 of Nightvale, and I don’t know what exactly is different, but I’m really enjoying this show this time around.
A story about Huntokar laying out everything, explaining different things that kept coming up in the series, the fact that the world ended decades before, the parallel timelines, the origins of the distant prince, the woman from italy, the faceless old woman, all of that.
I don’t know why I didn’t attach to it before, but this time around I was just fascinated hearing all of it, how Huntokar tried to reach out and save the town she loved, but ultimately failed and doomed all other worlds.
How there were various Cecils she tried to speak to, some who heard her, some who didn’t, some who failed, some who tried their hardest. That section might have been one of my favorites from the episode.
And her talking about a great dark planet lit by no sun, I remember a while back seeing people freak out about that, so it’s something I’m keeping my eye on.
And then how it’s mentioned that the soft meat crowns and the bloodstone circles, it was all made because they felt the love she felt for them and tried to return it, until they’ve reached where they are now, where they don’t remember why they do all of these things.
I just really loved the episode. I’ll talk about episode 110 in another post.
6 notes
·
View notes
Text
EVERY EPISODE SO FAR THAT DOESNT END WITH “GOODNIGHT, NIGHT VALE. GOODNIGHT”
SO I finished the list today! This list includes any variation of the phrase, episodes where he just doesn’t say it although present, and episode where he doesn’t say it because he’s not present. I decided to mark colour code them as a result!
• variation, • no goodnight, • no Cecil
Before I start:
I did not include extra episodes like snippets from the lives shows and such.
For the quotes here I only took the final phrase. So anything that breaks the usual scheme like a lack of “stay tuned next” or any lengthy monologue about anything relating to the goodnight phrase, I didn’t quote
I’m thinking about making a video compilation later on but for now I DONT have the space to dowload all these episodes so this will do for now!
If I missed any, lmk!
———————————————————————————
• 1 — Pilot
Good night, listeners. Good night.
• 2 — Glow Cloud
Good night, listeners. Good night.
• 3 — Station Management
Good night, Night Vale. And goodbye.
• 4 — PTA Meeting
Good night, listeners. Good night.
• 5 — The Shape in Grove Park
Good night, listeners. Good night.
• 6 — The Drawbridge
Buenas noches, Night Vale. Good night.
• 7 — History Week
And, from this moment in history, the one that’s happening right now, good night.
• 8 — The lights in Radon Canyon
It is a good night, listeners. Good night.
• 9 — “PYRAMID”
Speaking of the nighttime, I truly hope you have a good one, Night Vale. Goodnight.
• 10 — Feral Dogs
Get your sleep, Night Vale. And don’t forget to dream. Good Night.
• 14 — The Man in the Tan Jacket
Good night, Night Vale. Be alert, and write down everything you cannot comprehend. Until next time.
• 15 — Street Cleaning Day
Good night. Good night. Good night.
• 19B — The sandstorm
Kevin: Until next time, Desert Bluffs, Until next time.
• 46 — Parade day
And until next time, Good Night, Night Va- Hey. Hey. No. What are you-
• 47 — Company Picnic
Kevin: And, as always, until next time, Greater Desert Bluffs Metropolitan Area. Until next time.
• 49A — Old Oak Doors (Part A)
Listeners, there is someone knocking on my station door, which must mean…Carlos? Carlos, is that you? Come in, and welcome home, my sweet Car…
• 53 — The September Monologues
Well, that's it for the September Monologues. We've said so much. What more is there to say?
• 65 — Voicemails
Kevin: Until next time, Cecil. Until next time.
• 67 — [Best Of?]
Leonard Burton: And as always "See ya, Night Vale. See ya."
• 70A — Taking Off
Kevin: Until next time, new Desert Bluffs, until next time. Oh. Oh no. This is so sad. No. I don’t like this. I am sad. No. No.
• 85 — The April Monologues
And so we reach the end of the April Monologues. There is much that could be said. I will say none of it.
• 86 — Standing and Breathing
Good night, Night Vale. (Maybe lock those windows too.) Good night.
• 87 — The Trial of Hiram McDaniels
Good night. I guess.
• 88 — Things Fall Apart
Hello? [very faint breathing] Hello? [very faint breathing] Who is this? [distant dog bark]
• 89 — Who’s a good boy? (Part 1)
“I want nothing, Cecil. Nothing at all. And I will have it.” Huff huff huff. Huff huff Huff.
• 94 — All Right
All right Night Vale. Good night.
• 98 — Flight
Good night.
• 100 — Toast
Good night, Night Vale, and every person who can hear my voice. Good night.
• 101 — Guidelines for Retrieval
Happy purging, Night Vale. And goodnight.
• 104 — The Hierarchy of Angels
Good night, Night Vale. Josie was beautiful. And angels are real. Good night.
• 109 — A Story About Huntokar
Huntokar: Good night, my Night Vale. Good night.
• 111 — Summer 2017, Night Vale, USA
Good night, listeners. Good night.
• 113 — Niecelet
Any second now. Any second. Any... second.
• 120 — All Smiles’ Eve
Lauren: Good night, Kevin. And good night, Desert Bluffs Too.
Kevin: Good night.
• 128 — A Matter of Blood (Part 2)
Oh god, it’s here.
• 133 — Are You Sure?
Is this the first time you’ve heard me say this? Are you sure? Welcome to Night Vale.
• 135 — The Mudstone Abyss (Part 1)
Kevin: Until next time, Desert Bluffs, Until next time.
• 136 — The Mudstone Abyss (Part 2)
Charles: Kevin. I. Handlebar cereal, okay? Handlebar cereal.
VM: End of message.
• 137 — The Mudstone Abyss (Part 3)
Kevin: Until next time, Desert Bluffs, Until next time.
• 148 — The Broadcaster
Leonard Burton: And until tomorrow, "See ya, Night Vale. See ya."
• 156 — The Trouble with Time
Listeners. I must go. I must talk to my husband. We can be together forever, don’t you see? A new world awaits us in the future. I must talk to Carlos. I must.
• 157 — The Promise of Time
Kasper: Believe in a smiling god, buddy. Believe in a smiling god.
• 164 — The Faceless Old Woman (Live)
FOW: And I will be seeing you very, very… soon.
• 171 — Go To The Mirror?
Won’t you have a good night, Night Vale? Won’t you have a good night?
• 175 — The October Monologues
And as the leaves are done, so are the October Monologues. All that can be said has been said. And all that can be said will be said again.
• 177 — Bloody Laws, Bloody Claws: The Murder of Frank Chen
That about does it for me, Night Vale. That about does it for me.
• 195 — Silas the Thief (Part 1)
Silas: And my name is Silas. Not Khoshekh. Okay? Okay.
• 196 — Silas the Thief (Part 2)
And one I have to consider. Am I Khoshekh? I don’t know if I’m ready to admit that just yet.
• 199 — Guidelines for Retrieval
Happy hoarding, Night Vale. Goodnight.
• 200 — Susan Willman Comes Clean
Susan Willman: So let me begin. This is a story about Huntokar, said a voice on the radio. A voice you had never heard before, though she has been speaking to you your whole life.
• 203 — The Kareem Nazari Show
Kareem: Again, really sorry. Uh, so… Take care. I guess.
• 216 — The Ball Is Where The Win Is
Steve: You have already made me so proud
• 221 — The Glow Cloud, Explained
All Hail, Night Vale. All Hail.
• 227 — A Word With Dr. Jones
Lubelle: Show over, Night Vale. Show over.
• 230 — Carlos, Explained
Good night, my Night Vale restored. Good night.
• 237 — Frown Night
Kevin: Until next time, Desert Bluffs Too, Until next time.
• 239 — Sister Cities: Vermillion Falls
Frank Luna: Good evening, Vermillion Falls. Good evening.
• 240 — He Is Holding a Knife
He is holding a knife. He takes the knife, and sets it against the microphone cord. And with one smooth and easy motion, he cuts the co-
232 notes
·
View notes
Text
thinking about this tonight
(from wtnv 109: “a story about huntokar”)
#the idea of forgiveness has been on my mind and i remembered this#not sure where i’m landing but this is just an interesting perspective#once again wtnv is impacting my life beyond being a source of entertainment#and i think about the line ‘intentions never matter’ all the time#hmm hmm hmm#wtnv#welcome to night vale
567 notes
·
View notes
Text
"I am a storyteller. The story may do you no good. But a story is never for the listener. It is always for the one who tells. Good night, my Nightvale. Good night."
- Welcome to Nightvale, Episode 109: A story about Huntokar
57 notes
·
View notes
Text
Just saw someone say Sans deserves to win because Cecil doesn’t have several hundred fanmade multiversal shenanigans.
You fool. Cecil doesn’t need fanmade multiversal shenanigans. He has canon ones.
It was a simple idea. I would have to remove Night Vale from this ending world. I didn’t know if it would work; I had never seen any god try this. but I only had minutes, and I knew that I must save my only town. I was naïve, but lovingly so. You should not forgive me just because I had love in my heart. Intension never matter.
Night Vale would stand alone, disconnected from all of the rest of the universe, but safe. Or, that was what I thought. No action is without consequence. I am the Destroyer.
What happened next was a horrible cracking noise. A noise like I had never heard before, like no one had ever heard before, because this particular thing had never been broken, not in the history of all possible histories. When I tried to lift Night Vale out of the world it belonged in, I shattered reality. And I did not shatter reality just in my Night Vale, but in all Night Vales. All Night Vales that were or could be, every possible Night Vale in every possible universe broke simultaneously and fell into each other.
There was a Night Vale exactly like my Night Vale, but in which on a single day, a single citizen wore a green shirt instead of a yellow shirt. There was a Night Vale that had grown into a great metropolis: skyscrapers and crowds and little bars where people sat and talked about the great things they would write when they stopped going out to litte bars so much.
There was a Night Vale that never was, in a world where humans never came to be. There was a Night Vale in which Old Woman Josie would never die, and there was a Night Vale in which she had never lived.
There was a Night Vale in a world that had flooded, and this town floated on the water and thrived, its light spreading iridescent over the waves like an oil slick.
There was a Night Vale in which there was no Huntokar, and this town should have been safe from me, but then all of the other Night Vales fell into it, and it too was destroyed by my action.
Every Night Vale then, every Night Vale now, every Night Vale past and present, every town with every possible person making every possible important and unimportant choice, all of them, a fractal of Night Vale, an endless iteration of Cecil and citizens, and in my moment of foolish hope, in my belief that I could save anything… I reached out my clumsy hand and destroyed them all.
-Episode 109, A Story About Huntokar (Thank you @cecilspeaks for the lovely transcripts)
162 notes
·
View notes
Note
so if Cecil is also a God and he's the God of Nightvale, what about Huntokar? Are they friends?
Quick answer: yeah I think they would be friends and hang out and talk about weird night vale stuff together while watching over everyone. :)
Long (Lore?) Answer: I'm not like,, concretely sure where he would fit in to Night Vale canon right now (mostly I have just been rotating him in my mind because I like the design)
But currently the thought I am having about him is that in ep. 109 (a story about huntokar) when huntokar talks about the different cecils that she attempted to communicate to to keep the night vales from collapsing onto each other, God!Cecil was a Cecil who listened /and/ understood what she was trying to say. This would culminate in sort of a 'passing of the torch' situation where Cecil becomes the next god of nightvale via partial transfer of power. I think Huntokar would still stay a god there, but would get to take a break from consistently trying to keep night vale from collapsing, kind of like her being a watcher while Cecil is more a protector.
Also for his universe, I place this event before when Carlos comes to night vale just for funsies and because I think the dynamic between him and cecil would be interesting
+I think this cecil would also be aware of how extremely weird night vale is compared to Everywhere Else, but he loves his town very much anyways.
16 notes
·
View notes
Text
Night Vale and the Power of Stories
So I’ve been losing my mind about this latest arc. Full hyperfixation. Studying for finals? Calling my parents? Enjoying other hobbies? Eating?? Who’s she, never heard of her. There is only the “#wtnv spoilers” tag.
Anyways, inspired primarily by this post, this post, and this post, I have been thinking about Night Vale as a place of stories.
Night Vale is a deeply weird place. It is a place where all the crazy conspiracies and contradictions and creepy crawlies can coexist (try saying that 5 times fast), and it is built on stories.
We know from “109: A Story About Huntokar” that Huntokar singlehandedly saved the town from nuclear destruction in 1983. This in and of itself is beautiful, tragic, terrifying and wonderful (I could write a whole essay on the lasting effects of the Cold War on the American psyche and how that’s impacted our media, but that’s not what this post is about). But what Huntokar says in describing this moment is fascinating: “ The people of Night Vale huddled, waiting for the end to their story.” The use of the word “story” here is so poignant and poetic. This was her town, a narrative she had lovingly followed since its inception, with an ever rotating cast of characters, finally seeming as though it would come to an end. And yet she managed to continue their story. The people of Night Vale, of every alternate universe Night Vale, are kept alive because Huntokar wanted to keep the narrative going. It is a town kept alive-- inverted and shattered and bizarre, but alive-- because someone saw the tale coming to an end and wasn’t satisfied with that. Night Vale is a place of stories.
And Cecil. Cecil Gershwin-Palmer is such a wonderful enigma. He’s a deeply troubled man, he’s the town’s beloved radio host, he is the voice of Night Vale. As the town’s only (?) regular source of news, he carries incredible weight in shaping the public’s perception of reality. It is his radio show that keeps the people informed through all of these earth-shattering events-- it is Cecil who, for as goofy and cringefail (thank you @bigcommunist for that phrase) as he can be, has been responsible for keeping his citizens safe. In “227: A Word With Dr. Jones,” Dr. Janet Lubelle notes that one of his traits is “town leadership.” When Cecil speaks, things happen. He rallies the people, against Strexcorp or the Beagle Puppy or Steve Carlsberg and his dry, dry scones. Hell, he says “weather” and everyone stops, or sometimes (Like in “204: Audition”) it literally saves his life. @lostboywriting raises a fascinating theory about Cecil having inadvertently brought the Faceless Old Woman into existence through his repression of his complicated relationship with his mother-- and while this contradicts with the backstory presented in "The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives Inside Your Home," who’s to say that both origins can’t be true, with how splintered and fractured Night Vale’s existence (and especially relation to time) is? Perhaps Cecil, as the Voice Of Night Vale, is capable of changing the world more than he knows.
Either way, this is why Dr. Lubelle’s Explaining of the town has so much of a tangible effect on it-- because she’s coming in and using something “empirical” to change the narrative. That is why she’s so threatening-- because how do you argue with the facts? How do you argue with science? She is using logic to insist that her reality is right, that these stories and poetics used to keep the town alive are meaningless. That it would be better for them to not exist than to exist outside her narrative. She said it herself-- she cannot imagine that anyone thinks differently to herself about anything, and she is all to happy to provide any who disagrees with an Explanation. No matter the cost.
In 227, Cecil remarks that “Science is not good or bad, as language is not good or bad, as religion is not good or bad, because humans are not inherently good or bad.” This sets up a fascinating play between science, language, and religion that I think is perfectly encapsulated by Dr. Lubelle, representing science, Cecil, representing language, and Huntokar, representing religion. Whether she knows it or not, Dr. Lubelle is directly undoing all of the hard work of Huntokar, and attempting to use Cecil as the most powerful tool at her disposal.
And this works in conjunction with my distinction of the What vs. the Why. We can take the incursion point of November 7th, 1983, and view it through both lenses. From Huntokar’s perspective, we get the Why: Night Vale was in danger, and it needed saving, so she saved it. But from Dr Lubelle’s perspective, we just get the What: Night Vale was the target of a nuclear missile. Nuclear missiles are unstoppable by any force known to science. This is a town that should have been empty for 40 years.
I posit a world in which Dr. Lubelle reduces Night Vale to what it “should be:” A town ruined by nuclear destruction. The empirical facts, the anchors that held Night Vale down to reality, the threads that Huntokar broke-- Dr. Lubelle is seeking to tie them back together. And with the Voice of Night Vale on her side, Explained and ready to share the Truth, of course she can make that happen. Perhaps Huntokar takes center stage again to show that science is not the end-all-be-all. Perhaps Carlos steps in to replace Dr. Lubelle as the Scientist in this equation, to provide a good alternative to her callous methods.
Or I could be totally off-base with that prediction. I imagine the bodies being dug up in the sand wastes and the murals of flesh will play a major role in the finale. Maybe she’ll uncover the splintered realities of Night Vale and won’t know how to explain them away. Hell, people keep hyping up a Desert Bluffs return, what with the Sandstorm tapes and the talk of doubles-- Maybe Kevin and Lauren will be the “religion” in the triumvirate, and drive Dr. Lubelle mad with their unrelenting fervor. Who knows? I have my theories, but I’m just excited to see where this all goes.
.
Also from a meta perspective, this is 100% harkening back to all those early-days fan theories that “Night Vale is a normal town and Cecil is just off his rocker” (Thanks @maxgicalgirl for that one!). Welcome To Night Vale is a show that has never been about continuity and tight lore-- it’s about spinning a fun narrative, it’s about the poetry, the music, the aesthetics; it’s about everything that Dr. Lubelle HATES. From a meta perspective, Dr. Lubelle is every theorist who tries to ruin the magic of a story, who nitpicks it endlessly because it doesn’t adhere to how the “real world” functions. She doesn’t care about why story elements are included, she just needs what’s included to adhere to her worldview. And I can’t wait to see her get taken down, no matter how it happens.
Thanks again to @maxgicalgirl, @lostboywriting, @eclipse-song, and everyone who’s been sharing their thoughts about the latest arc on tumblr. I would not be writing this without y’all!!
#im sorry to everyone who says shes hot but shes basically a colonizer#''im new to your community but your culture is backwards and wrong''#''let me fix it with my superior science and reasoning''#shes so evil i hate her /pos#finknor wrote her so well#and janet varney is an incredible VA#i cannot express how much I love this arc so far#i really hope we get more on the 1983 storyline because that is just positively fascinating#a town that should have died long ago#that should have been reduced to ashes#and yet here they are#lubelle would fucking hate that if she found out#also WHATS GONNA HAPPEN TO EVERYONE WHO GETS EXPLAINED???#cause if cecil is getting explained i dont think itll be permanent#but#ough its just so GOOD#also carlos. my man. where are you. when are you gonna show yourself#when will we get to know your tragic backstory cause there is SOMETHING going on there#i swear she was just trying to get to carlos and the rest of the town was an added bonus#wtnv spoilers#wtnv 227#wtnv#welcome to night vale#welcome to night vale spoilers#cecil gershwin palmer#dr janet lubelle#uowii#huntokar
34 notes
·
View notes
Text
[ID: A brief Night Vale web weaving.
Google's definition of the word "liminal," an adjective which means: "occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold."
A line from the transcript of 109- A Story About Huntokar: "Cecil, sweet Cecil. Whose life lies directly on the fault lines of this broken reality."
The Spotify page for 224- Liminal Spaces. The episode description is: "Relax and unwind with a liminal spaces compilation." End ID]
#not even done with the ep.#wtnv#my posts#wtnv spoilers#described#described by me#my web weavings#<- i guess???
42 notes
·
View notes
Text
wait this means that dana beat 2 literal gods in the mayoral race ( is the faceless old woman who secretly lives in your home a god? idk but shes an ancient being) without even campaigning. Queen shit.
17 notes
·
View notes
Text
Wtnv quick rundown - 109 - A story about Huntokar
Read the rest of the rundowns here!
Staring the Tina Parker as Huntokar.
This is a story about Huntokar, said a voice on the radio. A voice you had never heard before, though she has been speaking to you your whole life.
This is the story of and about Huntokar and is told by her. She tells us about how she and other Gods were created, how she came to found Night Vale because she wanted something to love and nurture. She tells us that Night Vale was bombed on November 7th, 1983 and Huntokar couldn't stand to see them all destroyed so she tried to save them.
She tried to save them by pulling NV out of reality completely, so it couldn't be touched. By doing so she shattered reality, all realities, causing many different NV's to all collapsed in on and mesh with each other. The unravelling is now intensified by recent events by the dragons and the meddling of the other Gods breaking the truce they had to not mess with NV.
She has been trying to communicate what happened to NV and especially Cecil (whose life lies in a 'fault line' on the shattered realities) but they never listen, can't understand her, or fail to tell others.
Weather: "Full Metal Black" by The Royal They
Huntokar, The Glow Cloud, The Woman From Italy, the Distant Prince and 'others' were born in the Mudwomb.
First there was 'only one of everything' and then there wasn't. The other Gods slowly became cruel, doing things which hurt the living creatures of the world. Huntokar was determined to be different and eventually became worshipped by the NV settlers.
The Bloodstone Circles and Meat Crowns are actually dedicated to her but NV has forgotten this.
The lines and dots etc in the sky are messages from Huntokar but as we know, only Steve sees and understands them.
There was a NV exactly like ours but one citizen one day wore a different coloured shirt. There was a NV that 'had grown into a great metropolis: skyscrapers and crowds and little bars[...]'. There was a NV that never was in a world where humans never came to be. There was a NV in which Old Woman Josie would never die and there was a NV in which she had never lived.
There was a NV in a world that had flooded, and this town floated on the water. There was a NV in which there was no Huntokar but then all the other NV's fell into it and it too was destroyed.
I am the storyteller. This story may do you no good. But a story is never for the listener. It is always for the one who tells. Good night, my Night Vale. Good night.
Proverb: Less is more. Simplification is the way to happiness. You are not your things. Anyway, thanks for your wallet, byeee!
5 notes
·
View notes
Text
*
*
*
*
*
WTNV 13 ‘A Story About You’ / Better Call Saul 1x06 / WTNV 109 ‘A Story About Huntokar/ Better Call Saul 4x09 / WTNV 13 ‘A Story About You’ / Better Call Saul 6x08 Teaser
#better call Saul#bcs#I am Huntokar - the destroyer#whoever has that tag about BCS being ultimately about consequences this is your fault (affectionate)#bcs spoilers#kinda#many thoughts#just so so many#WTNV
122 notes
·
View notes
Text
i accidentally wrote an essay with citations and everything oops sorry for the long post but
this whole arc with the uowii and janet lubelle has been reminding me of the huntokar/rips in reality story arc (specifically eps 108-111, and ESPECIALLY 110 - Matroyshka). i definitely think there are tons of comparisons that can be drawn between carlos and lubelle, and their stories are certainly connected. but what about steve carlsburg and lubelle?
steve, the only one who (vocally) understands the lines and arrows in the sky. who sees and acknowledges what everyone ignores and denies. who points out, “You believe me. You just can't accept it. Acknowledge it and understand it” (110). who explains that the angels are real, who is the main proponant in helping them obtain their legal existence. who can clearly see and comprehend the messages huntokar left for night vale. who has always known what a strange place night vale is. who is able to resist reeducation, to see through the truths most of night vale accepts without questioning.
in this arc, reality only starts to heal after, with steves help, night vale starts to see itself for what it is: “a deeply weird place” (110). cecil says, “Our reality is badly damaged, and the only thing keeping it together is our acknowledgement, finally, of this strange town that we live in. No more denial. We must see ourselves clearly or risk losing ourselves forever” (110).
there’s this idea introduced that only by looking clearly at what night vale is can night vale be safe, protected from being torn apart over and over.
in “A Story About Huntokar”, huntokar says she thought, “If we only put our heads down, and insisted on living, without looking at or considering the world around us, we could just keep moving, and the main thing was to keep moving. Denial was key. As long as we denied, then nothing was wrong” (109). but as she explains, this denial is the thing that led to the collapse. that led to night vale folding in on itself. denial damned night vale, and acknowledgment of reality saved them.
this doesn’t mean they understand their reality. cecil says, “a big part of recognizing the world for what it is, is recognizing when you have no idea” (111). citizens of night vale are very comfortable with the idea that they don’t need to understand what is happening around them- they just to acknowledge it. they just need to say, “‘Have you ever noticed… that we are being watched by secret agents? That’s not normal. That doesn’t happen in normal places' ... ‘Most towns, I think, aren’t run by literal monsters and heavily armed teenagers’” (110). they can celebrate and confront and deal with the day to day strangeness that is night vale by acknowledging what it is.
carlos has learned that. enough has been said about this, i think, but i did want to point out is an interesting moment from 111 that feels relevant considering recent events:
“Then we fed Khoshekh, the cat floating in one of the bathrooms here at the station. Carlos pointed out, ‘cats don’t float.’ I stared at Khoshekh, having never really thought about that. After a bit, I said, ‘this one does.’ Carlos smiled, petted Khoshekh between the eyes and went back to his work, and I went back to mine" (111)
carlos clearly recognizes that what he is seeing doesn’t make sense- there’s no known scientific explanation for khoshekh floating. he points this out, point blank, in a very similar manner to lubelle. but! he isn’t concerned with an explanation; he’s content to recognize when things are scientifically fascinating.
janet motherfucking lubelle on the other hand?
her approach to night vale is simultaneously the same approach that saved night vale (acknowledgment) and the approach that can tear it apart (denial).
she says, “Our job, as scientists, is to explain why everything is the way it is. There will be nothing left in Night Vale that does not have an exhaustive, perhaps even tedious, explanation” (212). she simply cannot acknowledge that there are mysteries- she can’t fathom the fact that some things are mysterious, that some things might not have an explanation (denial, anyone?). so, she creates one. no matter how far reaching her explanations are (cough cough “dead animals… drawn into the air by dust devils or water spouts or what have you and then dropped back to the earth again” ok sure), she has stated that she will find an explanation. as she says to cecil, “Everything needs an explanation”. and she is determined to explain everything.
steve understands the messages in the sky. he understands, probably more than anyone else, the reality of night vale. why it is the way it is. but he knows that, “Perfection doesn't exist. All we can hope for is better” (110). he knows no one truly believes him, that no one else understands what he does, but he doesn’t care. he cares about making night vale better, about connecting with his community the best he can, about seeing, truly, the beauty in the strange town he lives in.
lubelle doesn’t see beauty in night vale- she only sees lack. lack in explanation, in understanding, in education. she says, “Pretty is as common as dirt and not of any serious scientific interest” (221). she equates poetry to ignorance. she is able to weaponize logic in a very physical way, in a way that, honestly, can’t be explained in and of itself. isn’t irony fun!
philisophical absolutism is the metaphysical view that- (ok no sorry if i get into that this will be even longer than it already is but like………. anyways)
rather than accept the reality around her, lubelle is reaching out and forcing reality to fit her understanding. rather than give herself the opportunity to actually learn something new, to actually pursue knowledge (you know, like a scientist), she creates a reality she can explain. she doesn’t ask questions, she just comes up with answers that she likes.
all this to say- get steve carlsburg out here idk what’s gonna happen but wouldn’t that be fun??
#sorry i just started thinking about this and then didn't stop for the entire day#so here u go! ur welcome xoxo#paused this halfway through bc my mom called me and when i tried to explain she said she thinks i should go back to school HAHA#wtnv spoilers#wtnv
23 notes
·
View notes
Text
“There was a Night Vale in a world that had flooded, and this town floated on the water and thrived, its light spreading iridescent over the waves like an oil slick.”
-A Story About Huntokar, Welcome to Night Vale, episode 109
#I’m just… slooowly gonna add this to an empty pile#of support for Haven Lake#seee it’s *tooootally* canon!#Emory|character#Emory|aesthetic#Emory|headcanon
3 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
dirty-commando
Commando
jackie5656
Imagines and More
partiallystars59
Now is the winter of our discontent
pederzh98-blog
Grey's Anatomy
paladin-of-nerd-fandom65
Welcome to the Fanboy Zone