#wtnv 224

[eclipse-song]

This was not my home now,

but it was my home once.

When was it my home?

I didn’t remember.

ummm Cecil needs a hug I think

[ID: Digital fanart Night Vale  224: Liminal Spaces. The foreground shows a close view of an unsmiling man whose eyes are cut off. In the background, an irregular doorway holds Cecil’s twisted silhouette. The majority of the palette is dim greens, with the hallway behind Cecil bright yellow. Cecil is holding a mic, and magenta energy comes from him and his third eye. End ID] (thank you @princess-of-purple-prose for the ID)

[lostwords-found]

So ep 224 of wtnv got me thinking about--well, lots of things, but one of the them was something I hadn't considered until now, which was parallels between University of What It Is and Cecil. Specifically, between how the UoWII is treating Night Vale, and how Cecil is treating his own past, or his own nature, or--himself, on some level.

At first glimpse they look like opposites. The UoWII wants to "explain everything" about this weird town. Cecil isn't interested in explanations for any of the shit that haunts him; he just wants it to Go Away. Cover the mirror, trash the cassette, forget you were ever in the redwood forest, get Rid Of That Mural We Do Not Like It, and great! Everything's fine here. He's gotten a lot of mileage out of "everything's fine here."

But this forcible shutting out of knowledge he doesn't want seems increasingly to be failing him, and more and more we're hearing him turn desperately towards rationalization, however weak. "Oh, that must have been the director's cut of Cat Ballou." "Honestly I don't really believe in tarot, and I don't think this guy's all there, anyway." "This video won't stop--it must be something I'm doing, I'm so bad at technology." When he's pushed to look past that, as we saw in the latest episode, he slams back into outright denial: Nope, he doesn't want to, he's not going to, he refuses. Cecil's all about spinning a narrative--(narrative is everything, right?)--and when the world starts contradicting the narrative he's spun about his own life, then it's the world that's wrong and needs to change.

And isn't this basically what the University of What It Is is trying to do to Night Vale? They say they want to explain it all, but what they're actually doing is trying to force Night Vale into a form that fits their narrative about how the world works. They're not interested in understanding--or even seeing--the weirdness of Night Vale as it actually is to the people who live there; they just want that weirdness to Go Away and stop messing up their nice neat narrative. The entire town calls them murderers for it? Then the entire town's delusional and needs to change. Certainly the UoWII isn't going to take a second look at any of their own conclusions, that would be ridiculous.

So I have to wonder: Is it coincidence that just when Cecil seems to be losing his control over the narrative of his own existence, the UoWII has swooped in to try to gain control over the narrative of Night Vale's existence? And will it be possible for Night Vale to stop the UoWII from denying and rationalizing away the pieces of the town it doesn't want to know, as long as Cecil carries on trying to do the same thing to himself?

[agnes-come-back-challenge]

bruh is cecil about to meet michael from TMA

[igordumbra]

Now that we know a bit more about Cecil's Dad, Mom and his childhood with Abby, does it explain something about 171 Go to the mirror?

It is one of the best episodes and yet it's never alluded to again even though in like 16 episodes it will make 100 episodes since it released.

We have Cecil's mother leaving him while he's a teenager and telling him about something that he buried so deep in his mind.

The thing in the mirror which can also be the snake with human face screaming with countless teeth and expressionless eyes, and also sounds like a baby's cry.

The whole smashing the mirror and dimension hopping while the other one died screaming, and then the book with no known language in the drawer.

What the fuck does it all mean? Sure, you could chalk it up as Cecil being dissociating, he even says so, but narraively it doesn't make sense when we already have other instances of Cecil seeing things in mirror and dying screaming, or his mom covering mirrors.

I thought maybe the snake would be his dad trying to make him remember something, but Dad's imagery is completely different from snakes. In Murals though we have mention of a winged snake in a smiling cloud, which is probably a depiction of the Smiling God, but it also fits with the smiling serpent with human face, kinda.

Couple that with Cecil's everpresent hate for desert bluffs and also the It Sticks With You cassete where it's said four times that Cecil enters a tree that feels warm like the sun, and hears a incessant drone, like steam or a chainsaw, before seeing a cold light envelope him which he hates on sight and yet is familiar. And you might begin tracing a connection to The Smiling God.

I don't think it being the smiling god would be very interesting, but alas, with everything that's been provided until now, it's involvement does seem plausible.

I only hope it doesn't take too long, as most of the storylines do, to really show up. That's my biggest beef with wtnv to be fair

[faultyvessel]

“Oh Carlos, how wonderful! You’ve been absolved! You can finally experience true happiness…”

@perfect-cecilos , this one is for you.

Your post gave me such brainrot that I needed Carlos absolved, Kevin dissolved, AKA “what we could have had if Finknor weren’t cowards,” (AAKA: my Carlos harassment conquest continues). Also pulling influence from @like-the-2ides Kevin as well.

A little note on the drawing. I wasn’t exactly sure how to convey explaining something away, but I settled on this fading rainbow gradient. I wanted it to look like one of those halos of light that appear briefly in the corner of your eye before being blinked away. A slight distortion that dissolves away into a dream you aren’t sure was ever there, like everything that the U of what it is touches.

Carlos can be free of that incredible weight. He just has to deal with the emptiness now.

[darkacademiaarchivist]

night vale residents don't even know what state they're in, it's canon:

They have also asked her to remain in the state, to which she said that she, quote, “has never left the state, doesn’t even know which state we are in, and wouldn’t know how to leave if she wanted to.” End quote. It is definitely very tricky to leave Night Vale, but the good news is: why would you even want to?

Episode 224, Liminal Spaces

[asydicsydney]

Episode prediction time!!

The Cecil daddy issues episode of the first half of Year 12 will be either September 15th or October 15th. Sept. 15th follows the pattern of 1,2,2,1 (Years 9 & 10) 3,4,4,3 (Years 11 & 12) for release of daddy issue episodes (when including Go to the Mirror?)

Oct. 15th is far out, but let me explain. This daddy issues episode has to elevate the saga, something big has to happen. Cecil's dad said in Liminal Spaces "I want you to remember...You have no choice."

Oct. 15th is the 9th anniversary of Homecoming. And the pieces are falling into place, aka Carlos in the DOW. Also this was the premiere of Earl Harlan, and we all want his section back.

Cecil didn't get to talk to his mom that night, but what if he got to talk to his dad? What if he had to talk to his dad? With no one there to walk him through it, like how Carlos told him to unplug the computer?

Home is coming for him, and he cannot escape it.

[nefkyo]

I like how my relationship with Night Vale episodes has gone from amazement, shock and pleasant surprise to "Cecil went to the liminal spaces because of course he would, why wouldn't he, I would've expected him to do that sooner actually" and pleasant surprise.

[arthurtaylorlester]

wtnv liveblog ep. 224 liminal spaces

quod est superius est sicut quod inferius

well yeah cecil night vale could be a liminal space

i cannot with cecil talking about trends skfhkhkg

yes you are very hip cecil :D

dw cecil i love popcorn too wait am i old???

mmmmm night jeans

reminds me of the one bo burnham jeans ad

amusement park you say

cecil is soo good at describing liminal spaces

you know what you ARE right they are juts spooky

OH GOD A MAN??

you can’t remember him huh

it’s his father

HOLY SHIT IT ACTUALLY IS EMPTNESS IN YOUR HEART YOU SAY

noooo dana dont go after D:<

exactly why would you ever want to leave

TRASH THAT PUG !!

michelle and riverdale meditation sounds amazing

did you know i actually can’t boil water nevermind food i could actually use that

wait janice fell asleep?? this is exactly like ‘it doesnt hold up’

oh ok that is very true liminal spaces are very nostalgic and thrive on it

THE MAN AGAIN I KNEW IT

a video?? what’s he typing

wha-

YEAH WELL CECIL I WANT TO SEE HIS FACE

no you haven’t seen enough

cecil baldwin is so good at voice acting, you can hear the fear when he says the video isnt turning off and that he’s bad at using technology

CAPYBARA = DOG TRUTHING

CECIL YOU ARE SO TRUE FOR THAT THE DISHES IN FACT DON’T MATTER

cecil you are in a horror show you will die

WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU’RE NOT IN THE STUDIO

WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU’RE IN 2003

god i love horror shows

WEATHER TIME: SPOILER ALERT IT SLAPS

wait is he in the fucking backrooms

HE IS IN VARIOUS BACKROOM LEVELS

of what now?? malaise??

oh no do we meet cecil’s dad

if he isnt lee marvin i’ll cry

his home? oh no

hhhhh ohhh noo

CAT BALOO?? THE MURALS TOO ?? I WAS RIGHT

cecil bbg please don’t repress bad memories :((

noooo cecil :(( i wish i could help my blorbos ugh

well, i certainly loved this episode, liminal spaces are such interesting concept

goodnight nightvale, gnight :)

[smartheart]

Janice listening to all of that while she was still awake: 👁👄👁

[eclipse-song]

something that really struck me in this episode of Night Vale is how we're used to Cecil making those jokes of "haha leave it to ol' Cecil to screw things up!" which are spoken wryly or with a level of humour that you can laugh along. Because Cecil is incompetent sometimes! He's ignorant and doesn't want to know things! That's our Cecil! But then he started repeating it in 224 so breathlessly as a mantra. It almost felt like self-flagellation as he spoke, close to tears, about how "of course it wouldn't work, because it's me, Cecil" and "I'm just bad at these things so I can't possibly do anything right" and "it must be something I'm doing wrong" as he isn't doing anything at all. It shifted my perception so heavily on those jokes that he makes. He really believes those things.

[paint-water-again]

WHAT are we GETTING PLOT?????????

[agnes-come-back-challenge]

Episode 224, summarized:

Night Jeans

Dana Cardinal is considered a person of interest regarding the murder of Dana Cardinal

"Earl Harlen will be cutting off one of his own pinkies in the Flakeo's demonstration kitchen! Mmmmm... sounds delicious... 😏"

Cecil gets trapped in the backrooms via technical difficulties

[sharkonasock]

"He makes me aware I have forgotten something..." CECIL CECIL PLEASE

[unmechanism]

Cecil backrooms episode, I truly needed this

[heyiappreciateyourshoelaces]

WHAT THE FUCK???? WHERE WAS CECIL TALEN??? WHO WAS THAT GUY??? IS IT MAYBE TJE HOUSE CARLOS FOUND IN THE FIRST EPISODE THAT ‘doesn’t exist but seems like it does’? I HAVE SO MANH QUESTIONS!!!