Spoiler: I am never capable of not hurting myself through worst case scenarios guess who is conviced that this temporal shenanigans stuff was as fake as velveeta cheese? I am halfway convinced Kevin was just messing with Cecil for shits and giggles, and I can't even say why it just... my favorite scary evil bad guy? a brainwashed cinnamon roll? naaaaaAAAAAAHHHHHHHH does not compuuuuuuuuuute
Spoiler: Ramble ramble. Dunno. It seemed a bit strange to me, since I don't think we've heard of actual time travel before. Timey shenanigans, yes, but not travel on one timeline. But I can totally see Kevin being brainwashed. We have gotten hints before that Desert Bluffs used to be very similar to Night Vale until Strex rolled in. It sort of makes it even more tragic for me, that Kevin is just a "there but for the grace of old oak doors and angels and Dana go I" version of Cecil. I do wonder how the Kevin who is in the desert otherworld factors into this. Was the oldest Kevin him after spending a loong time in the desert and getting a bit better? Or is the desert Kevin a diverging timeline somehow? I also feel we haven't gotten a proper resolution for the Strex storyline. Like, yes, the angels did buy it and it has been neutralized in Night Vale for now, but I don't think it's completely gone. And even if it is, the Smiling God is not. (I had a theory where Kevin was the Smiling God and it was all a big messy time loop, but that's just silly.)
Spoiler: reply yes we have, in one of the live shows (I believe it's "the debate"?). And Strex was directly involved in that. I agree! My brain just latched onto the idea that this instance, while maybe technically all being true accounts of how Kevin was and could potentially be in the future, are all current!Kevin playing a trick on Cecil. Yes. And Lauren is also still alive. There is gonna be some huge showdown with strex in teh future and it scares me in the best way :D
Spoiler: glubglub Episode 18 / The Traveler had time travel, or at least someone who claimed to have traveled through time. Also, time does not work in Night Vale - there's a quite large amount of things showing this, which I am too lazy to type up on my touch keyboard but will if prompted, and it's not outright time travel in 73, more like different times overlapping via the radio signal, in a way they, by all means, should not, but this is, well, Night Vale.
I stand corrected. I had forgotten about episode 18 and am not really familiar with the live shows. I would totally like to hear the stuff about time not working, lists and analysis are Very Nice Things in my book. I can wait until you get to a more comfortable keyboard, of course.
I just have to move the tablet from my lap onto the keyboard folder thing it came with ::D I hope this list is complete, but it might not be. Spoiler: Time does not work. Episode 4 / PTA Meeting: The rip in spacetime that let Pterodactyls come through. Episode 13 / A story about you: Have you been in Night Vale since last week, or 10 years? Episode 18 / The Traveler: For completeness sake. A supposed time traveler who changed some critical detail, and cannot return to his own future now. Also, at the end of the episode the birth of his child, even though he had only been in this timeline for a few days (at least one, because Cecil mentions a newspaper entry) Episode 21 / A Memory Of Europe: The wire service has started using time machines, which is why there was a report from next week. Episode 29 / Subway: Whatever the fuck is up with the Subway system, which sort of cropped up over night, and also stretches 4 minutes of weather into eons as described by Cecil. Episode 30 / Dana: Not directly time shenanigans, but perhaps crossed signals between timelines - What Cecil says and what Dana responds to are different. Episode 34 / A beautiful dream in conjunction with Episode 18 / The Traveler: Remember the adult male's detached hand named Megan born at the end of Episode 18, 8 months earlier? She's in school now. Ok, I don't know how quick an adult male's detached hand develops, mentally, and theoretically, the adult body exists, fully developed, but they appear to be separate entities until they're surgically joined. Episode 39 / The Woman From Italy: the stone tablet dated to several thousand years ago, carved by StrexCorp re the two Gutierrez ladies. Episode 40 / The Deft Bowman: Whatever the fuck happened that froze Nulogorsk that perpetually froze it in 1983, and then allowed someone from 1983 to arrive in... 2013? Also the differing newspaper headings. (Also see Episode Episode 41 / WALK in conjunction with Episode 15 / Street Cleaning Day: In Episode 15, John Peters, you know, the farmer? finds an Old Oak Door out in the desert, hears knocking, and chains it shut - while in Episode 41, Dana finds an Old Oak Door, "smells the old Night Vale smell" from it, knocks and knocks, but it's chained shut. This is a bit of a stretch, but given the OODs appear and disappear and reappear, I, for my part, like to think that those two events, 13 months apart theoretically, happened simultaneously. Episode 43 / Visitor: The House That Doesn't Exist in the Desert Creek Housing Development - its inhabitant, Cynthia Cabrera, claims to have lived there for 19 years, while the Housing Development has existed for 3. Episode 44 / Cookies: Dana who projects herself about 7 years into the future. Generally anything to do with the Desert Otherworld, since each and every cellphone appears to be technically frozen in time, aka reception, battery power, and state of repair, resetting itself to that state if damaged, as well as bypassing cellphone contracts. Also, you do not seem to need to eat there. Episode 46 / Parade Day: Scientist Rachelle, who was trapped in the HTDNE for 45 minutes, claims to have been trapped fornseveral hours. Episode 53 / The September Monologues: A good breakfast is the start of a good day, say the tablets we found in that ancient crater last year. Episode 55 / The University Of What It Is: Carlos the Scientist, who has been in Night Vale for a bit more than two years, while Dr. Sylvia Kayali refers to him as having been missing "for decades". Episode 56 / Homecoming: Dead Alumni, Students who have not been born yet... That kinda sounds like time shenanigans. Episode 60 / Water Failure: Cecil does not remember for how long he has been the host of NVCR. Episode 61 / BRINY DEPTHS: Earl Harlan has been 19 for a very long time, and does not remember which year he and Cecil graduated in. Neither does Cecil. Episode 67 / Best Of, in conjunction with Episode 8 / History Week, Episode 21 / A Memory Of Europe, Episode 33 / Cassette, Episode 40 / The Deft Bowman: Which is probably the single most biggest conglomeration of wtf time regarding Night Vale: Cecil the NVCR (!) intern before Night Vale was founded, but having known he'd replace Lennart Burton because the tablets down in City Hall say so, Cecil talking about the invention of radio (!) as an intern, when he had a cassette deck and talked about radio before he started interning at NVCR, the whole Europe thing before trains were invented, Cecil talking about WWII as contemporary event, the destruction of Nulogorsk.... Lennart Burton still being alive even though he died. What's up with that? Also whatever the fuck is up with Lee Marvin. (Funniest thing about this episode: You'd think, naww, Old Woman Josie and Cecil, what a beautiful intergenerational friendship. Just... The other way round than you'd think...) But yeah, all of Episode 67. Regarding Kevin again, in 49B he mentions having struggled against StrexCorp, so grain of truth at least.
no that was because the signal was horrible and Dana didn't understand what Cecil said so she kind of responded to what she thought he said? At least that's how I always understood it. The rest is spot on though, Cecil is the worst kind of temporal paradox ever
Data entry is a job very conducive to listening to podcasts, so I kind of listened to absolutely every one of them. It's pretty great! My main question is if there's ever going to be a like. Explanation for everything. I appreciate how "A Story About You" was answered with "A Story About Them", but I might feel better with a whole explanation for all of the weirdness. Probably not, though. Also: The Dark Planet. I wonder if it's gonna be important as sort of an antithesis to the harsh light of the Smiling God
Spoiler Pretty sure that was the radio station. Kevin making a radio station would indeed be something Cecil would be interested in, I would think. As for Kevin getting better... He still decorates with viscera. Was that a thing with pre Strex Kevin, or a part of the brainwashing?
I definitly think the dark planet lit by no sun HAS to be relevant in relation to the smiling god. In fact I'm theorizing Night Vale itself might be on it in a weird spatial anomally way involving a few pocket dimensions and ripping places out of their timelines and shit Would explain why the smiling god, always shown as bright violent sunlight, has to INVADE night vale via doors frm another world.
Spoiler Actually that brings up a good point. How did the Smiling God invade Desert Bluffs in the first place? Through Strex, probably, but how did Strex get linked to the Smiling God? There were the orange triangles in the desert otherworld. But if Strex is so entertwined with the Smiling God, how did the angels manage to just...buy Strex out? Hm hm hm.
I've heard a theory that the dark planet lit by no sun could be a good refuge from Strex/Smiling God, since if it is lit by no sun they can't get in either. Spoiler: Kevin's decorating I think that was Strex, not his natural inclinations. During the middle part of Episode 73 he says "I did terrible things. I felt so much happier! I tore and bit and growled…I felt so incredibly happy! My skin rent, blood drops on the ceiling, someone’s throat hose in my hand! So deliriously happy!" which gives me the impression he didn't do these things before.
This made me laugh. Why can'T I like this multiple times? Spoiler: 74 Pamela is awesome. The whole episode was hilarious ::D I'm still not over Episode 73. Also, what's yalls favourite weather? (and fave episode?) I can't really decide with the weather, it's about a dozen of them! Episode 53 is my fave.
I really, really liked the weather in 73. Like, to the point that I think I'm literally gonna buy her album?? Wow
resurrecting this thread because episode 100 Spoiler: episode 100 i love everything and everyone and i also want to eat cake someone get me cake ...... also does anyone else have a crush on the sheriff or is this another case of "lone nb tumbleweed spots another nb tumbleweed in the distance" if i ever engage in a marriage ceremony i'm playing this in lieu of any toasts nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnooooooooo this is so cute wtf I HATE HOW CUTE THIS IS UGH
IM DIGGING THIS THREAD UP BECAUSE WHAT Spoiler: Episode 107 On a second thought, and because the parts confusing me also sound different (they sound rerecorded, farther away), I think this comes from the whole false memory business that's going around at the moment. Josie having died years ago and Cecil not having known her well could be time not working right, but human!Erika, the absence of Josie's daughter, Mayor Winchell, Steve Carlsberg's absence and Cecil's relationship to him all speak for it. Ok, now unpausing from 12:19 and continuing to listen ETA: omfg what this is genius but omg
Spoiler: 107 ok but he started giving the actual weather?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? back to listening
