#wtnv matryoshka

[cronchy-dumbass]

i am completely normal about wtnv

[squeeneyart]

[Image description: Digital greyscale sketches of Cecil Gershwin Palmer and Steve Carlsberg. Cecil is a tall, thin light-skinned man with a ponytail coming from the sides of his head with the top bald wearing octogonal glasses, a fuzzy croptop vest and matching disconnected sleeves with a triangle cut out in the middle of his chest and short shorts. Steve is a shorter, chubbier light-skinned man with thinning dark hair and a small dangling star earring, wearing a white button-up and black tie in the first image and a white shirt and dark jacket in the second.

First image: Cecil is smiling with an arm around Steve's shoulder. Steve stares directly at the audience with a "looks at the camera like he's on the office" smile.

Cecil: Oh, Steve and I have always gotten along!

Second image: Left, Steve covers his face, crying, while Cecil looks down at him in concern while holding a piece of paper. Top right, Cecil hugs Steve with closed eyes. Bottom right, same pose but Cecil has exaggerrated teary eyes.

End ID]

brothers-in-law of all time

thinking about how the current gag with them is that cecil acts like he was never a Huge Bitch to steve

[thousand-winters]

"It’s like my brother-in-law saying mean things all the time. I tried to ignore the mean bits. I just put my head down and kept moving. The main thing was to keep moving, not to bog down in tears and fights and emotions. Just move forward, because facing it would mean pain. But then a few weeks ago, I looked him in the eye and said stop. He looked shocked. I inhaled, and just as I did, he did too. And in a synchronous moment of breath, I started crying. I wasn't weeping in sadness, just crying from the intimacy of truly seeing someone and having them see me. We were vulnerable and raw, and I said "It hurts me when you joke. If you don't like me, just tell me why, and we can work through it."" - Steve Carlsberg, Matryoshka

[watchandread02]

“Now 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. Angels are real. Our town is a deeply weird place. We know and acknowledge that it is a weird place, there are dotted lines and arrows in the sky.”

-from Welcome to Night Vale (Ep.110 “Matryoshka”)

[crustaceousfaggot]

Sometimes I think about Miniature Underground City Cecil from The Missing Sky. And then I experience feelings.

He just sounds so... Defeated. And not defeated in the way that we occasionally hear from Our Cecil in times of hardship, which is usually devastated and just a little bit baffled. It's just... A quiet resignation. The voice of a man attempting to be the voice of a community, to keep that community together in what little ways he can, all while he and everyone around him knows that there is no hope whatsoever. They are all certain that they are doomed to just keep living alone in the dark, until they sputter out like a dying candle. And you can hear that so clearly in the way he speaks.

And then there's the way he reacts to seeing Carlos. In the Patreon director's notes for the episode, Fink likens the way he speaks about Carlos to "the way an Israelite prophet might murmur about a sign delivered from heaven." It's awe, it's fear, it's the love he never knew he never had.

Anyways, anybody wanna take a guess at what part I've reached in my re-listen?

[brave-symphonia]

Coming off of my recent post about Huntokar, I also want to say how much I loved the next episode, Matryoshka.

Like, how Steve mentions how they all just ignore things, they ignore the angels, just like he ignores the mean things Cecil says to him, they ignore so much because it is easier.

And how he comes out and tells Cecil to stop, tells him it bothers him when he says mean things, even if it’s a joke, which actually allows them to talk about what issues there are, the source of all Cecil’s disdain towards Steve.

The fact that the reason that Cecil hated Steve wasn’t due to him not trusting their government or believing in conspiracy theories or seeing the arrows in the sky, but that it was due to something very personal. How he felt that Steve doing what he could for Cecil’s sister, his wife, took away a duty from Cecil.

Because it helped Cecil, it took away the stress of that entire situation, he didn’t need to worry anymore, but he also felt like he needed to do that, and Steve took that away from him.

And repairing their relationship, no longer just ignoring the comments he makes, it’s the start of things, the start of fixing things, of acknowledging the angels as people that exist and saving the town.

Saving everything all starts with just talking it out, talking through personal issues between two people, and then it just expands from there.

I really liked this episode.

[theoutworlder]

OK. NO. I WAS WRONG.

I thought Episode 110 "Matryoshka" would be the last of the "episodes Era had heard before", not the first of the "wtf wtf OK no if I had listened to this before how could I ever have forgotten" episodes. How am I supposed to deal with this.

I had definitely listened to Episode 109 "A Story About Huntokar" in the past. So unless I hit something in the next couple of episodes that I can't deny having heard before (and I'll make sure to say something if I do), we're heading into new, currently very uncomfortable, territory.

To backtrack a little though, since I forgot to post yesterday, Episode 100 "Toast" , was amazing. Is amazing. So touching. The next few episodes are all pretty tops, ranging from deep story to classic weirdness with clear veins of deeper meaning.

But now I have to stop typing, put the car back in gear, and finish Matryoshka. Wish me luck.

[joskippy]

what was your fav arc and why…. and also how long have you been a fan of wtnv??

CHOOSE MY FAV ARC IS SO HARD UUUUHHHMM.....I think because of how many times I have listened to it and dissected it I have to say door ajar....I think its obvious why that arc is my favorite [ carlos lore ] but I also really like how many it devours nods are in there!!! We get mentions of the it devours scientist crew again and any acknowledgement of that book makes me start shaking.

Removing carlos bias out of the choice though I would then say year 5's entire arc is one of my favorite nightvale plotlines of all time and like...THE BEST nightvale arc/year ever. It perfectly wraps up all the plotlines from year 1 to 4 and it has some of the BEST fucking nightvale episodes ever [ cal, toast, story about huntokar, fucking MATRYOSHKA!!!!]...literally has all the arcs ever in that year

And for how long ive been into nightvale id say its inching towards the three year mark im pretty sure? I started properly listening in march 2021 so i think im about to be into tha show for about 3 years.....which is funny bc its been on my radar since like? Probably 2015 and i almost got into it in 2018 after my taz balance listen but kept putting it off

[cronchy-dumbass]

maybe the real reality fixed is the angel acknowledgement and steve carlsberg reconcilitation we made along the way

[goodoldfashionedvillain]

wtnv ep. 110 (matryoshka) made me cry SO HARD.

I think Year 5 story arc is my fav (along with Year 2 because i was so scared for Cecil when Strex came in town !!! i love anti-capitalism. Year 3 was rad bc of Carlos also)

It was so emotional, and we now know who’s Huntokar !!! I can also say now that there are angels in my garden !!!!!!!

[scalemodelarbysreplica]

now for part 2:

***vote based off which arc contains the majority of your favorite episodes, not based off of how much you liked the arc itself

[watchandread02]

I love that they kinda talked it out like this

“He let me hug him. He even hugged me back, which is rare for Cecil. He stopped saying rude jokes about me, in fact even saying nice things about me.” - Steve

“I have said terrible things about Steve. And he has been nothing but supportive of me, of my sister, of my niece. He is a good father and brother-in-law and a good citizen of Night Vale. He is a patient friend and I love him for that.” - Cecil

“And I love my family. And I love my brother Steve. He was right about, he always has been.” - Cecil

-from Welcome to Night Vale (Ep. 110 “Matryoshka”)

[squeeneypod]

my specific personal opinion on wtnv is that it has good episodes throughout but ep 110 matryoshka is where I mentally end it as an ongoing story (bc i love Steve)

[wtnv-typography]

[theoutworlder]

OK. I love Episode 111 "Summer 2017, Night Vale, USA". It did not feel familiar. (parts of the last 5-10 minutes of "Matryoshka" did.., as did promos for the "All Hail" tour)

I'm starting to think the Summer Hiatus 2017 is the point I lost the thread, which may just come down to sometimes I kinda... Forget things exist. IIRC, I stared a new job during that time and might have just been too burned out to fold WTNV back into my life... Idk. I can't remember. (which I hate)

Looking forward (hesitantly) to the show still ahead.