At last... Night Vale. Major thanks to David of Midnight Marinara, Canary T Robot of The Artist Tree, and Abysmii for their contributions to this endeavor. And thanks to everyone who was patient while I took entirely too long to make this (and way too long to finish Cabin Fever Dreams). Whether you send me 100 requests to cover Night Vale or didn't know about it until this video, I love you. Thanks for being so supportive of Night Mind and making my life better than it's ever been.
I literally bounced up and down in my chair in excitement for a few seconds when I saw the notification for this video! Love you and your work Nick! Your fans will always be patient for you because we know what we get is going to be awesome!
Night Mind Dont fret about this taking a while to come out. As long as your satified with the hard work you put into your finished videos its fantastic!
I think the main thing that people miss about Night Vale is that, first and foremost, it's an absurdist COMEDY podcast. It's not horror. They can turn up the creeps, but only because you can't touch absurdism without occasionally delving into the horror of living in a random, uncaring universe.
This is brilliant. I'm a *huge* fan of Night Vale. Love it, read the book, seen it live. I'm definitely a stan for the show. But your criticisms are not wrong, at all. That's why I love the book, and can't wait for the next one. It gives a context to the podcast that's really needed. I will grant that Night Vale would be very hard to binge. When I started listening, there were only 4 episodes, so I only had that many to binge to catch up. I imagine that bingeing episodes today would make you rage-quit pretty quickly, if for no other reason than how predictable it can be. But listening to it once a week, including the breaks, works quite nicely. This might actually be the single most balanced review of the show I've ever been exposed to. Usually it's either "OMG THIS IS AMAZING!!!!" or "jeez this whole thing is shit". But you managed to strike the middle ground, here, being honest and bringing depth. This is why, Nick, I'm a huge fan of yours. Honestly, you did not have to do this review, and I genuinely don't understand why you got so many requests to analyze this thing that even I, a stan, can admit isn't that deep. That said... Thank you for doing it. This was really good, and is yet more proof why you are, in my humble opinion, the best reviewer on RUclips.
I started listening to wtnv very recently and honestly it was very easy to binge *120 episodes*. I found the social commentary and the humor very easy to grasp and it does have a very amusing narrative, so...
I binged it twice (150 episodes) and survied it. Conclusion: binging isn't a thing everyone should do but i was perfectly fine doing it. I somehow do like the flaws and the formula of this show for what it is, so it didn't wore out for me but became a good fitting shoe as in the first Day Brain segment stated. I did my work and chores and it was just like listening to a real podcast in a real town and if I went out i would bump into angels and hooded figures - very immersive to me.
I binged it, because I'm a delivery person so I would play it while driving. It was actually excellent! I had such a good time and the regularity was welcome because I didn't have to focus overly hard.
I can't begin to understand how so many people compare you to Nightvale. Like, i've only listened to a little of it, but you don't do anything close to Nightvale. You review and analyze things. Nightvale is just about the town. The only connection is voice I guess. It's just kinda weird to draw a connection where there is none. It's like if an object is blue, and people say "wow, this is just like the sky".
Viceroy It's similar to people comparing Star Wars to Star Trek. They're two completely different series but because they both have the word Star in the title and both take place in space everyone compares them. Similarly Night Mind is compared to Night Vale because they both have the word Night in the name and both have faceless voices as the hosts.
I love this, the extreme criticism and the extreme praise literally blending in the middle to produce a nuanced opinion about a podcast that's very flawed which does have merit and heart. The way you presented this was so stylish and well put together, I've loved your videos for a while now and I can't wait to see what you do next, no matter what it is.
A great way to show both sides while creatively tying it into a formula familiar to listeners of the podcast. This analysis truly has something for everyone; those who hate NightVale blindly, those who love it with deaf ears, and those who are somewhere in the middle. A very satisfying ending.
i used to listen to night vale early on before losing interest. this video is the perfect explanation of both why i liked it when i did, and why i stopped being able to listen to it at all. i can tell this was a huge relief to finally get off your chest, and like all your other videos, it's well made and plays with the story and format of the original thing you're analyzing. keep staying awesome, nick.
the reason your mail barrell gets so much junk mail is because it so closely resembles a trash can. everyone on your street it throwing their junk mail trash into it. unaware of the water boarding by way of mail they are subjecting you to.
I used to have the same issue with my mail barrell too. to fix the problem, I put a wasp's nest inside it along with a sub-woofer constantly agitating the nest. this keeps them in a perpetual state of aggravation. Now I don't get any junk mail anymore, or regular mail either for that matter. Accidental benefit, is that I no longer have to worry about having friends or anyone dropping by unnexpectedly... or expectedly at all. It's made me the happiest hermit on the block...
As a long time WTNV fan this was great to hear! Amazing the level of commitment to the format of the show going on here, and I appreciate the critisisms. Mostly I enjoy the podcast as a funny mood piece every now and then with characters I care about and messages i find relevant, but oh boy the repeditive writing style is like a single service twitter account: less about binge style consumption and more like something to check in on every now and then to avoid it feeling stale. Every time one of your videos pops up in my notifications I know I'm in for a treat, great job!
he has actually mentioned it somewhere, i don't know where but the only thing i was able to find on it was on the wiki... another cat-based friendo, just can't currently remember his name tho. whoop.
Holy shit I didn't expect giggles and angry demonic tones from him. Both were adorable in their own ways. So much emotion in this video. I definitely like him even more now lmao
Welp, that sure opened my eyes. Thank you so much for highlighting a lot of flaws that I certainly overlooked from a writing standpoint. Personally, I was about ready to give up on Night Vale in Year 3 when Carlos' character became so paper thin that one could throw some water on him and he'd melt like the Wicked Witch of the West. I only stuck it out and made it to the much more satisfying Year 4 because I wanted to see exactly how Cecil would handle the year, and whether Cecil's character could be developed. (And I also stuck around for Earl Harand and every scrap of information he hinted at knowing.) I'm glad you read the novel though and finally understood what Joseph Fink was going for when he created this podcast. The metaphors in this show go so deep that most people don't bother with trying to understand so they turn their attention to arguing about Cecil headcannons instead. I hope to get the new book as well, (It Devours) because it's supposedly about the Smiling God as well as Carlos, so I hope there will be some kind of character development for him too. I also just discovered your channel through this video and I must say you are phenomenal. I also think that this video is the 3rd piece of quality Night Vale content that I've ever come across on youtube. (The others are the Bloody Shirt CMV and the Desert Bluffs version of Story About You.) Thank you so much for this video, and for all of your other videos as well. I'm currently binge watching all of your videos, and have no regrets.
I do agree that we don’t know much about Carlos, but I think a dead giveaway that we aren’t supposed to is that we don’t even know his real last name. Here’s what we do know: His first name is Carlos, he’s a scientist and this shapes his views on the world; he strives to understand everything from a scientific point of view. He is married to an eccentric radio host named Cecil Palmer, this is also the only last name we have for Carlos. He’s allergic to cats. He allegedly worked at a college. He’s fairly selfless, he cares deeply about things, he’s analytical, and pretty dense when it comes to affection. What we don’t know: We do not know his real last name. We are unaware of his motives or how he reacts to conflict. We don’t know his views, we don’t know what he’s a scientist of, or where he came from, and other minor details. These flaws are mostly because of the way the story is told and how it’s less about developing characters and more about providing something entertaining that you can analyze or not (and because of Station Management).
To be honest, I've grown to dislike Carlos because of the way he was written. He came off as having some of the worst flaws, in my eyes. Science Schmience mister Carlos! Somebody needs to kick your ass and teach you how to behave!
I love Night Vale, but when it comes down to it, it's cozy and gentle. Horror sweetened with several heaping spoonfuls of sugar to kill any bite, and that, as well as the matter of fact nature of Carlos and Cecil's relationship, is why Tumblr kids love it; they have a deep, abiding desire for a certainty that dragons can be easily beaten. Nick Nocturne, I'm probably going to regret asking this, but have you tried reviewing Alice Isn't Dead or Within The Wires? I find that a lot of Night Vale fans have no taste for those, because those podcasts are a fair bit darker than Night Vale.
I love Within The Wires. I didn't continue Alice Isn't Dead Though, cause it had me confused on what is going on. Maybe I'll try it again later once I catch up to Within the Wires
The actual mystery: I thought YOU were Cecil. But turns out you're Nick. Then who's the guy on NyxFears? Isn't he the guy from BaptismOnFire? And who's the skeleon on NyxFears? Can it be... YOU? Mindblown.
That little giggle Nick had at the beginning made me blush. Like damn, I never expected to blush to the sound of a giggle by a strange 4 eyed cat creature that has a morbid fascination with creepy, disturbing shit on the internet that *makes and uploads* videos on said creepy shit onto a video platform. Never in my life did I imagine this.
I'm pretty much on exactly the same page as where you were at the end. I think night vale shines when it shirks the formula and gets out of its comfort zone, or when it brings an entirely new angle on something it had previously established, as with the genuinely affecting and horrifying subversion of the previously pointless quirkiness of the tiny city behind lane 5 in the last episode. It's a deeply flawed series that could stand to be condensed to a degree, but it does have merit and when it's good it's really very good.
I think this is a fun format for the video, I think it's really cool when you mimic the style of media you are reviewing ^^ Also I agree with the criticism that the format can get too repetitive for binging but it's very nice as once every two week adventure into a familiar landscape. The rest of the night vale presents podcasts are amazing because they had time to craft a clear plot arcs ahead of time and fix a lot of the problems from Nightvale.
nick this is honestly breathtaking. the sheer amount of time and effort you put into your videos is astounding to me but the way you wrote this just. i cannot put into words how intriguing this is. youre a huge inspiration to me and if i ever manage to get to my dream place of being able to make my own film or tv series please know that i will be looking through your videos as a source of guidance and inspiration. thank you for this.
Nick, *of course* the person everyone compares you to is the creator of one of the few projects you don't like. HAHA. Update: TIL: watch the whole video *before* commenting.
Dude i literally thought for like,, two years that he was either the creator of or was involved with Night Vale and I’m so shocked that he has nothing to do with it oh my god
+Night Mind I feel like a lot of people aren't getting the point, so I'm giving what I responded with someone else to. Correct me if I'm wrong, Nick, but I feel like this is what's supposed to come out of this. The point of the video is to tell a story. The first half, what could be said as "bitching and moaning" (though the more I think on the ideas presented the more I see what he means) is Nick's gut reaction. He's so god damn *tired* of literally endless comments for him to watch Night Vale, how he sounds like Cecil Palmer. I've been around since the second season analysis of Marble Hornets. He's not joking about it being from the get go- his entire career on this channel has been plagued by Night Vale, ENDLESS NIGHT VALE. So he goes critical, stripping it down to the large problems. But the second half of this video is meant to be the reprieve. He's taken time, paused, breathed, and considered the whole and new information. The second part is him winding down to the unheeded truth of what he, a man who critically analyzes story for a living now, sees from this podcast. The whole thing is *scripted*. It's meant to be his bitching and moaning and all ruffled feathers because that's how he's writing his story, his own train of thought. You don't have to agree or like him, but at least understand that his harshness is because it's an element of story telling.
God bless you for getting that far. I just thought he was kicking and screaming so I stopped listening until a couple months later when I realized this was still here and thought to myself "Oh why did I stop listening to that? OH RIGHT, because Nick did his usual gimmick of building up whatever he's analyzing by tearing apart something he deems as intellectually inferior, except what he considers inferior is the subject of his analysis... this is fun! and I want to listen to a grown man bitch why?!!??!?!!?" Thanks for summarizing this. Most of the comments here are basically: "YA YOU'RE RIGHT NIGHTMIND- I'LL LIKE WHATEVER YOU TELL ME TO LIKE BASICALLY LOLOLOLOZ" Now for the game of "Is this month's edition of NIghtmind going to be REAL content or *winkbitchnudge* content?"
Alfonso Alonso He is a critic, so expect that when something is reccomended that he truly doesn't enjoy that he will explain why. He has looked at both sides dispite bias and still didn't enjoy it. If you truly dislike people having an opinion then why watch?
Yeah, I almost stopped listening, but seeing some comments from Night Vale fans saying they liked the vid, made me continue. I loved it, and thought it was brilliant. He was showing his first reaction at the first half, his negative opinions showed in an extreme way, and then showed his current reaction and opinion after he breathed and properly learned of what Night Vale is about. And he did it in a story telling way.
It's funny. Just before 8 minutes, Night Mind says "It might be an evil overlord, but it cares more about your children's education than those teachers do, I tell you what." which reflects the statements near the end of him understanding what the meaning behind Welcome To Night Vale is and its comparison to the government and other institutions.
Yo -- I just moved to Alabama, switched over the radio and BOOM. But yeah -- nothing like Day Brain. Also Day Brain gets the point he is trying to make with the Desert Bluffs style its trying to invoke.
As a die-hard NightVale fan i just want to say how much i appreciate this review. You were absolutely correct in all of your criticisms and you gave it the benefit of the doubt anyway and pushed through to the artistic center of the work giving full credit to everything that you found merit with while not pulling any punches on what you disprove of. This kind of thing is very important and you are a shining example of how this should be done.
I like Nightvale. I used to be into the story way more, but i got out of it about a couple years ago. Now i mostly listen to it on wifi-less roadtrips as background noise, mostly because Cecil's voice is nice.
I kinda agree about how many of the characters have the same tone as Cecil (specifically Tamika and the Faceless Old Woman) but um... Hiram McDaniels???? One dude playing a 5-Headed dragon w great individuality??? None of his heads follow the "Cecil" tone.Michelle Nguyen, who owns Dark Owl Records and featured heavily in the "Monologues" episodes, has a very different tone from the rest of the cast. In addittion, many characters who only get much of a voice in the live episodes (and episode 100) are very individualistic as well, such as John Peters. Im a huge WTNV fan but you made so many good points that Ive thought about before. it was also so cleverly presented, awesome!
Nick, while your speech patterns kinda remind me of Cecil, it wasn't enough for me to go 'Night Vale! OMG!'. Hell, I stopped listening to Night Vale about the time Cecil and Carlos got together. The thing I wanted to happen happened, and then I got bored. That make sense? Still, it's always fun and interesting to listen to you talk about things after you've researched and pried apart everything about a subject. It's been worth the wait. One thing, though: I never want to hear you say the word Bazinga again. You are too good for that word.
God when ever I hear you get "angry" i find it so hilarious. You go from calm and collected to the wrong side of angry fast hahaha its really good, especially with your persona! Very fun listening to your voice and explanations!
WTNV's biggest problem is its own success/length. It starts off as a fun take on the 'town where everything's fucked up' conceit, then just progressively bogs down as it goes on and on. It was clearly never initially imagined that it would go on anywhere near as long as it has. The early stuff put me in mind of the weird BBC radio comedies I used to enjoy when I was a teen ('The Boosh', 'At Home With the Snails', 'On the Town With the League of Gentlemen' and so on) but a defining feature of all of those is brevity; each is only 6-8 episodes. All the things Night Vale has tried to do to freshen up its formula (ongoing plot arcs, recurring voiced characters apart from Cecil and so on) have been unsuccesful to varying degrees, I think. I can understand why those involved have run with it; you don't kill the goose that lays the golden egg. But it's a shame. Condensed down into perhaps two 12-episode seasons WTNV would be a very different beast indeed.
Moving on to the thing about the thin-ness of the characters, this is the big problem with introducing voiced characters apart from Cecil; WTNV was much more succesful when it played off the idea of Cecil as an unreliable narrator. Carlos as narrated to us by Cecil can be funny, especially because of the not always flattering things it says about Cecil's character, such as his shallowness (he swoons over Carlos's appearance, but has only the vaguest idea about his work as a 'scientist' who 'studies science'). If we experience Night Vale only through Cecil's perceptions of it, that's fine; the problem is that the characters continue to be presented in the way Cecil sees them despite being independently able to speak to us. It would have been interesting for the characters to take on a life of their own that subverts Cecil's view of them, but this doesn't really happen except to an extent with Steve Carlsberg. As Nick points out, the way the characters are written and voiced definitely doesn't help with this at all.
I completely agree. By the time I got to season 3 there already were multiple points where it felt like the series could have ended and still be successful. There's still a lot of charm and merit to it, but every now and then they just do something so unnecessary that it feels like Fink and Cranor are purposefully delaying the good stuff as a way to stay relevant. I know it's not like that, but it certainly feels that way.
Idle Toil I blame tumblr, though congratulate the creators on their certainly unexpected success. I remember when they were promoting their first ep or first few on the something awful forums, thinking it was pretty cool, then a bit later it was ALLLLL over my dash on tumblr when I was still active there.
I haven't personally watched WTNV myself, and I'm hesitant to do it because of the length. I mean, compiled into a big playlist, it is around 45 hours, in total, and it only gets longer. I think at some point it's just too long to get into, and at some point you begin to wonder if there will ever be some kind of resolution with how long it is.
Jerry The Predator not really. He’s pointing out his distaste, however a lot of his critics were overblown or wrong. “You need to write characters that you care about”. That’s not really how writing works and it’s something you can point out about any work. You need to write characters the public will understand. Motivations, abilities and arc. Everyone in Nightvale Is an overblown exaggeration. Not saying Nightvale is a marvel of writing, far from it. However, all the complains were exaggeration at most.
Actually if you yourself don't care about your characters, how can you expect to connect with them. Only when you yourself have connected with your characters can you actually get across their pain and emotions how you see the reacting. I do alot of writing, and the first rule is to put yourself in their shoes, you are them, but they are not you. Plus many writers state their own pain for having to kill off character because of the work they put into them.
You kinda contradicted yourself in the second line of your argument: Empathy is not caring. Empathy is understanding. You need, as a writer, to understand why your characters are doing what they do, it has to makes sense from their perspective. It doesn't have to be something you, or anyone, would root for, but something that, when putting yourself in their shoes, could see as the obvious thing to do. The character doesn't even have to be doing something rational, so long as his state of mind is irrational enough that it makes sense for them to do something irrational. (Nightvale writing is nowhere near as good as GRRM's, but I'm gonna use this example to explain my point further). No one likes Geoffrey Baratheon. He was one of the most hideous characters I've ever read in a book. But I completely understand how he would grow up to be the way he was. Not only that, he made sense in a lot of things. His approach, if cruel and direct, was pragmatic when it came to big decisions. He was adamant to kill Daenerys when everyone thought of her as a problem far away and came up with the idea of centralizing the armies of the seven kingdoms into one army under direct command of the king, an idea that makes absolute sense for the kingdom's perspective and serves to prevent any other uprisings. He is not a likeable character, nor one you can root for, but you think of his as a character of that world, that has actions pertinent to said world and adds to. That's what you want in your characters. Not likability or relatability, but a person of their own.
Then wouldn't it also make sense to have character your yourself can feel a connection to? You stated that you don't really need to care about your character just that the public needs to connect to them. My idea is that if you can't connect your characters, are they really your characters? Everyone else loves them, but do you yourself love them? Do you feel that they are just the right amount of what you saw in them. From both stand points, when creating a villain, you don't create a villain because you want the average asshole. You create a villain you yourself can see motive in his character, that you'd hope others see in him also, you've worked hard on him. You don't root for him to win, but you make a character that is not forgotten. My stance in a nutshell is if you don't connect to your characters, then how can you audience connect to them. It does not matter if they are likable or not in the sense of their character, it matters if you took the damn time to flesh them out that you feel proud you made the character as REAL and as BELIEVABLE as you can. If you bend to the will of what the public likes about them, you find you're changing for their benefit, not for the story you took the time to make. You shouldn't make a story for just the public or to get famous off of, you need to make a story you feel happy that you took the time to make, characters included. That they are real people, but just figment of your imagination. Sorry if I read your post wrong or something, it's late here and I swear I'm seeing double of everything, then again it could also be the darn Christmas music my mom keep blaring behind me that's keeping me from thinking properly.
"like a meme that came from Tumblr" the only reason I'm watching this (besides that it's Night Mind of course) is because of an Internet Historian vid on DashCon, on which the Key Event of the Failed Con was supposed to be a live reading of Night Vale. In my mind, Night Vale literally IS just a meme from Tumblr. Mind Blown.
Well, now that this is done, what is the next thing we can bug you about... Nope, did that... And that... And nobody wants to hear that... Wait, I've got it. HEY NIGHT MIND, CAN YOU DO "NIGHT MIND: EXPLAINED"?
wow i just realized that night vale and lovecraft have some similar problems. lovecraft also tends to skip out on character development, preferring to focus on concepts. lovecraft also tends to be quite structured-- mysterious thing is happening for about 30 pages, a lot of exposition, and then suddenly the big bad thing happens, isn't very deeply described, and always occurs at the end. again, the climax in many lovecraft stories isn't super well described. maybe night vale took more inspiration from lovecraft than they should have!
I didn't know about this until your cabin fever rant. I tried listening to Night Vale, but it got stale fast trying to marathon it. Nick comparing you to that is like comparing apples(nv), to something way better/different than apples.... I'm happy for any Night Mind episode though, so thanks for this! When i'm bored and can't find anything to watch I come to your channel. It's to bad we missed out on the episodes that were supposed to be part of this series. Being said... looking forward to whatever comes next. Thank you Nick! Thank you Night Mind!
ihatepopculture Yeah I just started listening to it a few days ago. I only listen to one or two episodes a day in an effort to stop it from getting stale. It probably will as that is the fate of most comedy series, the more you watch the more you understand the humour and the more you understand the humour the more predictable it is.
Autonomous Anonymous it was just... Just not what i came here for, the video was awesome don't get me wrong, but like you said, it was just so unnatural.
When I was introduced to Nightvale I was told to imagine it as a spin on the whole lake Woebegone thing, where it was a small remote community where every conspiracy theory and urban legend was true. The idea of something like that was intriguing and that was sort of the mindset I went into it with and overall enjoyed it. There was definitely some oddness in it and I won't disagree that it has some real continuity issues but I have a certain amount of amusement in it with how banal it made the strange. There is something funny to me about someone getting more worked up over a hometown rival than a strange monstrosity in town, if nothing else because that has a weird tinge of truth from small town life. But I also appreciate you talking about this and while I like it I get that a lot of people don't and I can understand why.
When I saw the video in my reccomendations I felt super happy. Being a fan both of Night Mind and Nightvale (sort of, I'm really behind on the episodes), I didn't know what to expect from this review, since I know that Nightvale isn't in any point of its life a horror show, and I understand how pissed off Nick could be by the amount of people who don't understand that being weird or edgy is not the same as being creepy. I gotta say, even if I like WTNV I do love using it as a device to fall asleep when I'm insomniac. Cecil's smooth and monotone way of speaking is a fairly decent way to calm down and get lost in words. Tbh I prefer the weather sections, I always put up a weather-only playlist when I wanna get creative juices going. The video didn't disappoint, as always. Thanks, Nick, for bringing us something you shouldn't even consider reviewing. You're a good kitty, more than you should be.
I think Dana might be the most developed character besides Cecil. mostly because her relationship to Cecil actually has complications at points in the story
Nick, you are extremely scary, but something about you makes me trust you. On the other hand, David, you are extremely happy but you unsettle me. Kinsa makes me think you're the guy with human remains in the employee fridge and an axe in your desk drawer.
![House of Leaves: Explored - Labyrinth in Letters [II]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/hqlgmL76vG0/mqdefault.jpg)
At last... Night Vale.
Major thanks to David of Midnight Marinara, Canary T Robot of The Artist Tree, and Abysmii for their contributions to this endeavor. And thanks to everyone who was patient while I took entirely too long to make this (and way too long to finish Cabin Fever Dreams).
Whether you send me 100 requests to cover Night Vale or didn't know about it until this video, I love you. Thanks for being so supportive of Night Mind and making my life better than it's ever been.
Night Mind we all love you too Nick!
Every time you upload I have like a mini heart attack cause your content is fantastic
I literally bounced up and down in my chair in excitement for a few seconds when I saw the notification for this video! Love you and your work Nick! Your fans will always be patient for you because we know what we get is going to be awesome!
Night Mind Dont fret about this taking a while to come out. As long as your satified with the hard work you put into your finished videos its fantastic!
Night Mind I'm excited to draw the Day Brain demon dog host
David: I love my audience! They're all so nice.
Nick: ....all my fucking fans ask for is Nightvale
To think that Night Mind would say the word "Bazinga"
Bamboozled Again I want it as my ringtone
Zooboo!
botswana
Rhodesia
Lone Wanderer Lesotho
I think the main thing that people miss about Night Vale is that, first and foremost, it's an absurdist COMEDY podcast. It's not horror. They can turn up the creeps, but only because you can't touch absurdism without occasionally delving into the horror of living in a random, uncaring universe.
Or, to be more specific, it's a cartoon in audio format.
That’s your best defense as to why it’s not poorly written pandering garbage? It’s a radio cartoon? Fuck off.
But it's not very funny, because it's so repetitive.
the book tho?
@@LazyMaybe It's only repetitive if you binge the whole thing, which isn't really the intended way to enjoy most podcasts.
Wow, I love your style. Reminds me of a night Vale, if you've heard of it?
I have this feeling that he may have heard of it.
Bernardo Barouk No, not at all, there’s NO way that this is sarcasm 😜😜
I'm the artist featured at 1:16:17! God, I'm just overjoyed that my submission got added :D
Congrats. :3
congratulations!
Nice work man. 8)
grats! it feels good to be noticed
Oh shit,
Dog man's real,
DOG MAN'S REAL,
*DOG MAN'S REAL!*
Nick needs to analyze nightmind
Zeppelin That actually wouldn't be bad at all.
A little self-reflection never hurts. :P
Zeppelin that would be so meta if it stayed objective
Zeppelin to meta for my tastes. But, wouldn't argue.
how about day brain analyzing nightmind?
DAY BRAIN
FIGHTER OF THE NIGHT MIND
CHAMPION OF THE SUN
WafflesMgee you're a master of karate
and friendship for everyone
HE'S A MASTER OF BAD WRITING
AND DUMB QUIRKS
FOR EVERYONE
PRAISE THE SUN!
Amelia Bee The real WDCAMYE TB NBGAT IMNS begins here.
Wake loose
"That's cute!"
"It's supposed to be creepy"
lmao perfect.
Me:
My 5 Year Old:
every day lol
This is brilliant. I'm a *huge* fan of Night Vale. Love it, read the book, seen it live. I'm definitely a stan for the show.
But your criticisms are not wrong, at all. That's why I love the book, and can't wait for the next one. It gives a context to the podcast that's really needed.
I will grant that Night Vale would be very hard to binge. When I started listening, there were only 4 episodes, so I only had that many to binge to catch up. I imagine that bingeing episodes today would make you rage-quit pretty quickly, if for no other reason than how predictable it can be. But listening to it once a week, including the breaks, works quite nicely.
This might actually be the single most balanced review of the show I've ever been exposed to. Usually it's either "OMG THIS IS AMAZING!!!!" or "jeez this whole thing is shit". But you managed to strike the middle ground, here, being honest and bringing depth. This is why, Nick, I'm a huge fan of yours.
Honestly, you did not have to do this review, and I genuinely don't understand why you got so many requests to analyze this thing that even I, a stan, can admit isn't that deep. That said...
Thank you for doing it. This was really good, and is yet more proof why you are, in my humble opinion, the best reviewer on RUclips.
I started listening to wtnv very recently and honestly it was very easy to binge *120 episodes*. I found the social commentary and the humor very easy to grasp and it does have a very amusing narrative, so...
Also I just realized this comment is ten months old, so I'm sorry if you get a notification for this
I binged it twice (150 episodes) and survied it.
Conclusion: binging isn't a thing everyone should do but i was perfectly fine doing it. I somehow do like the flaws and the formula of this show for what it is, so it didn't wore out for me but became a good fitting shoe as in the first Day Brain segment stated. I did my work and chores and it was just like listening to a real podcast in a real town and if I went out i would bump into angels and hooded figures - very immersive to me.
I binged it, because I'm a delivery person so I would play it while driving. It was actually excellent! I had such a good time and the regularity was welcome because I didn't have to focus overly hard.
wait
Live?
Book?
O3O PARDON ME WHILE I FREAK OUT A BIT
nick its like 4am what the fuck
6:35 PM Preferably Est
How dare you assume things about me. Of course I remember Gotye
Who the heck is goat?
Grappling Hook Jones Fuck yeah! I love Goyte!
Willow The Wisp The Greatest of All Time, of course.
Grappling Hook Jones i only remembered that the band name sounded like goatse
Grappling Hook Jones Lol me too
I can't begin to understand how so many people compare you to Nightvale. Like, i've only listened to a little of it, but you don't do anything close to Nightvale. You review and analyze things. Nightvale is just about the town. The only connection is voice I guess. It's just kinda weird to draw a connection where there is none. It's like if an object is blue, and people say "wow, this is just like the sky".
Viceroy It's similar to people comparing Star Wars to Star Trek. They're two completely different series but because they both have the word Star in the title and both take place in space everyone compares them. Similarly Night Mind is compared to Night Vale because they both have the word Night in the name and both have faceless voices as the hosts.
So glad almost nobody throws Stargate into the mix, else I'd have to slap a bitch...
The previous points. Also, both hosts are very articulate and have a wide vocabulary.
The dinkleberg meme but night mind saying "night vale"
Keatyne this needs to be a thing lol
Caaarlsberg
Canon
I love this, the extreme criticism and the extreme praise literally blending in the middle to produce a nuanced opinion about a podcast that's very flawed which does have merit and heart. The way you presented this was so stylish and well put together, I've loved your videos for a while now and I can't wait to see what you do next, no matter what it is.
hey have you heard of night v-
*tiny cat hands start choking me out*
*same hands spawn a large cat head with four eyes just glaring at you*
I've seen enough he.... *large tentacles grab me and drag me away*
HENTAI TO KNOW WHERE THIS IS GOIIIIiiing!
Hal 9000 y tho
'tiny cat hands'
nick nocturne can catch these fucking hands
nick analyze nightmind next I think you would like the channel , it's kinda like your channel
Dude, like, what if they did a collab video?
That'd be madness.
Dalton Jabs It's like urmaker doing stuff with fearurmaker. Except urmaker hates fearurmaker.
nightception
Dalton Jabs woah where'd you get that idea?
Wait a minute!
What if they were the same person?
Nah, that's impossible.
I never thought I would hear Nick Nocturne say Bazinga.
timestamp?
@Marlin Rando
10:56
"Oh, like a Halloween thing but all the time!"
My god, I hate it when people say that.
A great way to show both sides while creatively tying it into a formula familiar to listeners of the podcast. This analysis truly has something for everyone; those who hate NightVale blindly, those who love it with deaf ears, and those who are somewhere in the middle. A very satisfying ending.
Excuse me Mr. Night Vale, have you heard about Night Mind?
An hour and 18 minute video of Night mind.... you've almost literally made my night.
i used to listen to night vale early on before losing interest. this video is the perfect explanation of both why i liked it when i did, and why i stopped being able to listen to it at all. i can tell this was a huge relief to finally get off your chest, and like all your other videos, it's well made and plays with the story and format of the original thing you're analyzing. keep staying awesome, nick.
I mean, literally all Night Mind and Nightvale have in common is a similar octave and high quality
Holy shit, man. That 5 minute "Mail Barrel bookstore flyer" intro was fantastic.
the reason your mail barrell gets so much junk mail is because it so closely resembles a trash can. everyone on your street it throwing their junk mail trash into it. unaware of the water boarding by way of mail they are subjecting you to.
I used to have the same issue with my mail barrell too. to fix the problem, I put a wasp's nest inside it along with a sub-woofer constantly agitating the nest. this keeps them in a perpetual state of aggravation.
Now I don't get any junk mail anymore, or regular mail either for that matter. Accidental benefit, is that I no longer have to worry about having friends or anyone dropping by unnexpectedly... or expectedly at all.
It's made me the happiest hermit on the block...
As a long time WTNV fan this was great to hear! Amazing the level of commitment to the format of the show going on here, and I appreciate the critisisms.
Mostly I enjoy the podcast as a funny mood piece every now and then with characters I care about and messages i find relevant, but oh boy the repeditive writing style is like a single service twitter account: less about binge style consumption and more like something to check in on every now and then to avoid it feeling stale.
Every time one of your videos pops up in my notifications I know I'm in for a treat, great job!
So who's Nick's boyfriend? The masses need to know if we want to keep up with Night Mind lore
Seiko Shinohara nyxfears is his boyfriend duh
Wait, when does he mention that?
@@maizie3921 ah ha ha no.
he has actually mentioned it somewhere, i don't know where but the only thing i was able to find on it was on the wiki... another cat-based friendo, just can't currently remember his name tho. whoop.
Holy shit I didn't expect giggles and angry demonic tones from him. Both were adorable in their own ways. So much emotion in this video. I definitely like him even more now lmao
Oddly, I get a chill every time Nick laughs..
Also I laughed so hard at "David Diurn"
Welp, that sure opened my eyes. Thank you so much for highlighting a lot of flaws that I certainly overlooked from a writing standpoint. Personally, I was about ready to give up on Night Vale in Year 3 when Carlos' character became so paper thin that one could throw some water on him and he'd melt like the Wicked Witch of the West. I only stuck it out and made it to the much more satisfying Year 4 because I wanted to see exactly how Cecil would handle the year, and whether Cecil's character could be developed. (And I also stuck around for Earl Harand and every scrap of information he hinted at knowing.) I'm glad you read the novel though and finally understood what Joseph Fink was going for when he created this podcast. The metaphors in this show go so deep that most people don't bother with trying to understand so they turn their attention to arguing about Cecil headcannons instead. I hope to get the new book as well, (It Devours) because it's supposedly about the Smiling God as well as Carlos, so I hope there will be some kind of character development for him too.
I also just discovered your channel through this video and I must say you are phenomenal. I also think that this video is the 3rd piece of quality Night Vale content that I've ever come across on youtube. (The others are the Bloody Shirt CMV and the Desert Bluffs version of Story About You.) Thank you so much for this video, and for all of your other videos as well. I'm currently binge watching all of your videos, and have no regrets.
I do agree that we don’t know much about Carlos, but I think a dead giveaway that we aren’t supposed to is that we don’t even know his real last name.
Here’s what we do know:
His first name is Carlos, he’s a scientist and this shapes his views on the world; he strives to understand everything from a scientific point of view. He is married to an eccentric radio host named Cecil Palmer, this is also the only last name we have for Carlos. He’s allergic to cats. He allegedly worked at a college. He’s fairly selfless, he cares deeply about things, he’s analytical, and pretty dense when it comes to affection.
What we don’t know:
We do not know his real last name. We are unaware of his motives or how he reacts to conflict. We don’t know his views, we don’t know what he’s a scientist of, or where he came from, and other minor details. These flaws are mostly because of the way the story is told and how it’s less about developing characters and more about providing something entertaining that you can analyze or not (and because of Station Management).
To be honest, I've grown to dislike Carlos because of the way he was written. He came off as having some of the worst flaws, in my eyes.
Science Schmience mister Carlos! Somebody needs to kick your ass and teach you how to behave!
it may be 4:43am, but thats still a good time to watch a new nightmind video ❤
Nick Nocturne laughing and attempting to make "relatable" jokes is far more unsettling than any ARG.
Who is this NightMind fellow? I watch DayBrain.
this is his big meh video
i read the words "night mind" and "night vale" and i have never clicked a fucking notification so fast in my life
saw the video was posted. "hey guys, I have an emergency, I have to take my lunch right now."
"Night Mind : Peanut Butter is Everywhere" new shirt idea.
Omg please
X'Elias of Rivia. You sir, are a marketing genius
X'Elias of Rivia I would buy that. I would totally buy that.
Injokes oh how they would confuse my family
Can I get a personalised shirt where Peanut butter is replaced with Vegemite?
(A salty spread as dark as pitch that stains everything it touches.)
I love Night Vale, but when it comes down to it, it's cozy and gentle. Horror sweetened with several heaping spoonfuls of sugar to kill any bite, and that, as well as the matter of fact nature of Carlos and Cecil's relationship, is why Tumblr kids love it; they have a deep, abiding desire for a certainty that dragons can be easily beaten. Nick Nocturne, I'm probably going to regret asking this, but have you tried reviewing Alice Isn't Dead or Within The Wires? I find that a lot of Night Vale fans have no taste for those, because those podcasts are a fair bit darker than Night Vale.
Haxpax
HELL YES ALICE IS DEAD!!!!! Dude that game series is amazing and Nick needs to cover it! (sorry for responding like 2 years late whoops)
@@vi0let831 I'm pretty sure they meant Alice Isn't Dead, the podcast.
I love Within The Wires. I didn't continue Alice Isn't Dead Though, cause it had me confused on what is going on. Maybe I'll try it again later once I catch up to Within the Wires
Ehem, Im late to the party, but the Magnus Archives is like a darkest version of Night Vale
alice isnt dead slaps hell yeah
The actual mystery: I thought YOU were Cecil. But turns out you're Nick. Then who's the guy on NyxFears? Isn't he the guy from BaptismOnFire? And who's the skeleon on NyxFears? Can it be... YOU?
Mindblown.
The mystery continues to complicate itself
Oh god I don’t need this.
44:19 the weather forecast for today is FUNKY!! ARE YOU READY KIDS!?!? DRINK THE KOOLAID 'CAUSE WE'RE ABOUT TO GO ON AN ADVENTURE!!
"What's in this?"
"I GOT NO CLUE, BUT WE'RE GONNA FIND OUT!"
My blood pressure got dangerously high from all the salt in this video
MultiversalStudios the ocean called....
It wants it's salt back.
MultiversalStudios You try being compared to something you hate everyday and try to not have any anger towards.
Made my fries tastier at least ☕😉
I never really thought Nick and Cecil were similar. I pictured Nick as a Scully like character from the X-files.
louis sisco yeah mee too
louis sisco I'm the trash man. I throw trash
Why is Cecil so mad about being compared to himself?
That little giggle Nick had at the beginning made me blush. Like damn, I never expected to blush to the sound of a giggle by a strange 4 eyed cat creature that has a morbid fascination with creepy, disturbing shit on the internet that *makes and uploads* videos on said creepy shit onto a video platform. Never in my life did I imagine this.
Everyone is a furry for Nick.
@@serafinapasich4131 nick nocturne more like dick cocturne-- oh wait
@@kokichiouma7363 Go back to your Dynamo you lying bastard child
@@serafinapasich4131 I was furry before nick yet felt more comfortable with it afterward.
Morbid Curiosity with horror can lead to morbid attraction to those who cover it. Watch yourself.
The passive agressiveness is off the charts with this one, and I kind of love it, it makes this so much more entertaining. Nick, wonderful job.
Sees new Night Mind video, drops everything to watch it. Sees it's an hour long, literally clap and squeal like the 21 year old man I am.
AuCl2247 Don't worry friend, it's not you. It's our generation
AuCl2247 :)
yea....we are the weirdest generation yet.
AuCl2247 found another homestuck
I'm there with you!
hell yeah
This is the only channel I have notifications too. Best way to start my morning.
Me too
Damn, last time Iwas this early Nick was still sane.
Mystery Mudokon wait he was?
Mystery Mudokon He has never been sane.
Have you ever been early?
time is just a human subjective construct
He was never sane
+spooK_xd Well, I guess not. I stalked his twitter to see if my art made it in.
Ironically this video introduced me to welcome to nightvale and I love it now
Fox of Darkness ditto. It's a fun little distraction to listen to on long drives
Same
I'm pretty much on exactly the same page as where you were at the end. I think night vale shines when it shirks the formula and gets out of its comfort zone, or when it brings an entirely new angle on something it had previously established, as with the genuinely affecting and horrifying subversion of the previously pointless quirkiness of the tiny city behind lane 5 in the last episode. It's a deeply flawed series that could stand to be condensed to a degree, but it does have merit and when it's good it's really very good.
I think this is a fun format for the video, I think it's really cool when you mimic the style of media you are reviewing ^^
Also I agree with the criticism that the format can get too repetitive for binging but it's very nice as once every two week adventure into a familiar landscape. The rest of the night vale presents podcasts are amazing because they had time to craft a clear plot arcs ahead of time and fix a lot of the problems from Nightvale.
nick this is honestly breathtaking. the sheer amount of time and effort you put into your videos is astounding to me but the way you wrote this just. i cannot put into words how intriguing this is. youre a huge inspiration to me and if i ever manage to get to my dream place of being able to make my own film or tv series please know that i will be looking through your videos as a source of guidance and inspiration. thank you for this.
Nicholas Nocturnal This is pure art oh my GOD
SO MANY NEW INSIDE JOKES WITHIN THE NM COMMUNITY
You know what? This Night Vale could be a great radio station on Fallout. I'll give it a try.
That’s actually genious.
Yesss
Nick, *of course* the person everyone compares you to is the creator of one of the few projects you don't like. HAHA. Update: TIL: watch the whole video *before* commenting.
Mmmm titty sprinkles
Dude i literally thought for like,, two years that he was either the creator of or was involved with Night Vale and I’m so shocked that he has nothing to do with it oh my god
Dangeresque Mustachio was i
oh my God day brain is canon
... Day Brain was a thing before this video or something? :00
So is Brain Day a white anthropomorphic dog with no eyes?
TheTrojanToaster I was thinking a color inversion of NM. But a blind dog does fit in a way.
I was thinking a 3-eyed dog, kinda like the stereotypical hippies from cartoons.
I wanna draw this. Night Mind and Day Brain interacting.
Never heard of Night Vale until now. For those of you saying this video is too negative, it still sparks my interest enough to check it out.
+Night Mind I feel like a lot of people aren't getting the point, so I'm giving what I responded with someone else to. Correct me if I'm wrong, Nick, but I feel like this is what's supposed to come out of this. The point of the video is to tell a story. The first half, what could be said as "bitching and moaning" (though the more I think on the ideas presented the more I see what he means) is Nick's gut reaction. He's so god damn *tired* of literally endless comments for him to watch Night Vale, how he sounds like Cecil Palmer. I've been around since the second season analysis of Marble Hornets. He's not joking about it being from the get go- his entire career on this channel has been plagued by Night Vale, ENDLESS NIGHT VALE. So he goes critical, stripping it down to the large problems. But the second half of this video is meant to be the reprieve. He's taken time, paused, breathed, and considered the whole and new information. The second part is him winding down to the unheeded truth of what he, a man who critically analyzes story for a living now, sees from this podcast. The whole thing is *scripted*. It's meant to be his bitching and moaning and all ruffled feathers because that's how he's writing his story, his own train of thought. You don't have to agree or like him, but at least understand that his harshness is because it's an element of story telling.
God bless you for getting that far. I just thought he was kicking and screaming so I stopped listening until a couple months later when I realized this was still here and thought to myself "Oh why did I stop listening to that? OH RIGHT, because Nick did his usual gimmick of building up whatever he's analyzing by tearing apart something he deems as intellectually inferior, except what he considers inferior is the subject of his analysis... this is fun! and I want to listen to a grown man bitch why?!!??!?!!?"
Thanks for summarizing this. Most of the comments here are basically: "YA YOU'RE RIGHT NIGHTMIND- I'LL LIKE WHATEVER YOU TELL ME TO LIKE BASICALLY LOLOLOLOZ"
Now for the game of "Is this month's edition of NIghtmind going to be REAL content or *winkbitchnudge* content?"
Alfonso Alonso He is a critic, so expect that when something is reccomended that he truly doesn't enjoy that he will explain why. He has looked at both sides dispite bias and still didn't enjoy it. If you truly dislike people having an opinion then why watch?
Yeah, I almost stopped listening, but seeing some comments from Night Vale fans saying they liked the vid, made me continue. I loved it, and thought it was brilliant. He was showing his first reaction at the first half, his negative opinions showed in an extreme way, and then showed his current reaction and opinion after he breathed and properly learned of what Night Vale is about. And he did it in a story telling way.
It's funny. Just before 8 minutes, Night Mind says "It might be an evil overlord, but it cares more about your children's education than those teachers do, I tell you what." which reflects the statements near the end of him understanding what the meaning behind Welcome To Night Vale is and its comparison to the government and other institutions.
9:39
nick pls stop ur scare me
9:49
*STOP*
10:55
*B A Z I N G A*
Comments: Who posts at 6 AM??
Nick: OH BOY 6 AM!
>you and the whole damn desert town are gonna get it
N-Nick, I live in a desert town what are you saying
Listening to Day Brain is like listening to Christian radio out in the country.
You have NOT listened to Christian radio in the country. Trust me...
wittyreviewer Nah, Day Brain is too optimistic and cheerful to be an sjw
Yo -- I just moved to Alabama, switched over the radio and BOOM. But yeah -- nothing like Day Brain. Also Day Brain gets the point he is trying to make with the Desert Bluffs style its trying to invoke.
Basically A Person Jim is great.
As we can see with this video, Nightmind shows us that his salt levels are higher than the ocean.
Nonetheless this video was great, thank NM!!
You didn't watch it.
As a die-hard NightVale fan i just want to say how much i appreciate this review. You were absolutely correct in all of your criticisms and you gave it the benefit of the doubt anyway and pushed through to the artistic center of the work giving full credit to everything that you found merit with while not pulling any punches on what you disprove of. This kind of thing is very important and you are a shining example of how this should be done.
Great send up and well worth the wait. You can see the effort put into mimicking the Night Vale style while still maintaining Night Mind.
10:55
I like Nightvale. I used to be into the story way more, but i got out of it about a couple years ago. Now i mostly listen to it on wifi-less roadtrips as background noise, mostly because Cecil's voice is nice.
I kinda agree about how many of the characters have the same tone as Cecil (specifically Tamika and the Faceless Old Woman) but um... Hiram McDaniels???? One dude playing a 5-Headed dragon w great individuality??? None of his heads follow the "Cecil" tone.Michelle Nguyen, who owns Dark Owl Records and featured heavily in the "Monologues" episodes, has a very different tone from the rest of the cast. In addittion, many characters who only get much of a voice in the live episodes (and episode 100) are very individualistic as well, such as John Peters.
Im a huge WTNV fan but you made so many good points that Ive thought about before. it was also so cleverly presented, awesome!
Nick, while your speech patterns kinda remind me of Cecil, it wasn't enough for me to go 'Night Vale! OMG!'. Hell, I stopped listening to Night Vale about the time Cecil and Carlos got together. The thing I wanted to happen happened, and then I got bored. That make sense?
Still, it's always fun and interesting to listen to you talk about things after you've researched and pried apart everything about a subject. It's been worth the wait.
One thing, though: I never want to hear you say the word Bazinga again. You are too good for that word.
"You have come to my home, and broken my spine."
Nick My Love, its 6 am. Thank you😘
PS, you are the Better book store
A Night Mind episode on my birthday.
Fuck. to. the. yes.
Happy birthday!
I think the response was a better birthday present
just saying
Megami Tem tomorrow is my birthday
I tried submerging myself during the spoilers part, but then I drowned! Now I'm a spirit haunting the water bucket, what do I do?
Death by sandstorm is the only opinion
I'm impressed by you drowning yourself in a bucket. Is it a big bucket, or just a standard little 5 gallon one?
Obviously, you drink to forget.
proto4747
That wasn't a bucket, it was a mail barrel.
Misuse of government issued equipment results in whimsically bizarre deaths.
Fabio Lacap
They may take our writing utensils, but they'll never take our liquor!
This is why I love your stuff. The amount of effort you put in is amazing, and I love how you take multiple different opinions into account.
Nice username.
God when ever I hear you get "angry" i find it so hilarious. You go from calm and collected to the wrong side of angry fast hahaha its really good, especially with your persona! Very fun listening to your voice and explanations!
WTNV's biggest problem is its own success/length. It starts off as a fun take on the 'town where everything's fucked up' conceit, then just progressively bogs down as it goes on and on. It was clearly never initially imagined that it would go on anywhere near as long as it has. The early stuff put me in mind of the weird BBC radio comedies I used to enjoy when I was a teen ('The Boosh', 'At Home With the Snails', 'On the Town With the League of Gentlemen' and so on) but a defining feature of all of those is brevity; each is only 6-8 episodes. All the things Night Vale has tried to do to freshen up its formula (ongoing plot arcs, recurring voiced characters apart from Cecil and so on) have been unsuccesful to varying degrees, I think. I can understand why those involved have run with it; you don't kill the goose that lays the golden egg. But it's a shame. Condensed down into perhaps two 12-episode seasons WTNV would be a very different beast indeed.
Moving on to the thing about the thin-ness of the characters, this is the big problem with introducing voiced characters apart from Cecil; WTNV was much more succesful when it played off the idea of Cecil as an unreliable narrator. Carlos as narrated to us by Cecil can be funny, especially because of the not always flattering things it says about Cecil's character, such as his shallowness (he swoons over Carlos's appearance, but has only the vaguest idea about his work as a 'scientist' who 'studies science'). If we experience Night Vale only through Cecil's perceptions of it, that's fine; the problem is that the characters continue to be presented in the way Cecil sees them despite being independently able to speak to us. It would have been interesting for the characters to take on a life of their own that subverts Cecil's view of them, but this doesn't really happen except to an extent with Steve Carlsberg. As Nick points out, the way the characters are written and voiced definitely doesn't help with this at all.
I completely agree. By the time I got to season 3 there already were multiple points where it felt like the series could have ended and still be successful. There's still a lot of charm and merit to it, but every now and then they just do something so unnecessary that it feels like Fink and Cranor are purposefully delaying the good stuff as a way to stay relevant. I know it's not like that, but it certainly feels that way.
Idle Toil I blame tumblr, though congratulate the creators on their certainly unexpected success. I remember when they were promoting their first ep or first few on the something awful forums, thinking it was pretty cool, then a bit later it was ALLLLL over my dash on tumblr when I was still active there.
The newest arc fixes _some_ of this by tying a lot of loose threads together.
I haven't personally watched WTNV myself, and I'm hesitant to do it because of the length. I mean, compiled into a big playlist, it is around 45 hours, in total, and it only gets longer. I think at some point it's just too long to get into, and at some point you begin to wonder if there will ever be some kind of resolution with how long it is.
OH I GET IT! You turned yourself into a strawman for a nightvale hater and the other personality is a strawman for the other side. This is perfect.
Jerry The Predator it was exaggerated
Jerry The Predator not really. He’s pointing out his distaste, however a lot of his critics were overblown or wrong. “You need to write characters that you care about”. That’s not really how writing works and it’s something you can point out about any work. You need to write characters the public will understand. Motivations, abilities and arc. Everyone in Nightvale Is an overblown exaggeration. Not saying Nightvale is a marvel of writing, far from it. However, all the complains were exaggeration at most.
Actually if you yourself don't care about your characters, how can you expect to connect with them. Only when you yourself have connected with your characters can you actually get across their pain and emotions how you see the reacting.
I do alot of writing, and the first rule is to put yourself in their shoes, you are them, but they are not you.
Plus many writers state their own pain for having to kill off character because of the work they put into them.
You kinda contradicted yourself in the second line of your argument: Empathy is not caring. Empathy is understanding. You need, as a writer, to understand why your characters are doing what they do, it has to makes sense from their perspective. It doesn't have to be something you, or anyone, would root for, but something that, when putting yourself in their shoes, could see as the obvious thing to do.
The character doesn't even have to be doing something rational, so long as his state of mind is irrational enough that it makes sense for them to do something irrational.
(Nightvale writing is nowhere near as good as GRRM's, but I'm gonna use this example to explain my point further).
No one likes Geoffrey Baratheon. He was one of the most hideous characters I've ever read in a book. But I completely understand how he would grow up to be the way he was. Not only that, he made sense in a lot of things. His approach, if cruel and direct, was pragmatic when it came to big decisions. He was adamant to kill Daenerys when everyone thought of her as a problem far away and came up with the idea of centralizing the armies of the seven kingdoms into one army under direct command of the king, an idea that makes absolute sense for the kingdom's perspective and serves to prevent any other uprisings.
He is not a likeable character, nor one you can root for, but you think of his as a character of that world, that has actions pertinent to said world and adds to. That's what you want in your characters. Not likability or relatability, but a person of their own.
Then wouldn't it also make sense to have character your yourself can feel a connection to?
You stated that you don't really need to care about your character just that the public needs to connect to them.
My idea is that if you can't connect your characters, are they really your characters? Everyone else loves them, but do you yourself love them? Do you feel that they are just the right amount of what you saw in them.
From both stand points, when creating a villain, you don't create a villain because you want the average asshole. You create a villain you yourself can see motive in his character, that you'd hope others see in him also, you've worked hard on him. You don't root for him to win, but you make a character that is not forgotten.
My stance in a nutshell is if you don't connect to your characters, then how can you audience connect to them. It does not matter if they are likable or not in the sense of their character, it matters if you took the damn time to flesh them out that you feel proud you made the character as REAL and as BELIEVABLE as you can.
If you bend to the will of what the public likes about them, you find you're changing for their benefit, not for the story you took the time to make. You shouldn't make a story for just the public or to get famous off of, you need to make a story you feel happy that you took the time to make, characters included. That they are real people, but just figment of your imagination.
Sorry if I read your post wrong or something, it's late here and I swear I'm seeing double of everything, then again it could also be the darn Christmas music my mom keep blaring behind me that's keeping me from thinking properly.
Nick is such a diamond in the rough... why doesn't he have at least 1000000 subs by now??? DAMN YOU, RUclips ALGORITHMS!!!
Dean C
It's really niche content.
Nick: Cloud-
Me: ALL. HAIL. THE GLOWWW CLOUDDDDDD.
"like a meme that came from Tumblr" the only reason I'm watching this (besides that it's Night Mind of course) is because of an Internet Historian vid on DashCon, on which the Key Event of the Failed Con was supposed to be a live reading of Night Vale. In my mind, Night Vale literally IS just a meme from Tumblr. Mind Blown.
I was toying with the idea of making a "Day Brain" channel as an April fool gag last year.
Well, now that this is done, what is the next thing we can bug you about...
Nope, did that...
And that...
And nobody wants to hear that...
Wait, I've got it.
HEY NIGHT MIND, CAN YOU DO "NIGHT MIND: EXPLAINED"?
That book store analogy was far too similar to my local comic shop vs newbury comics
David did a great job! He does a good Kevin impression and a good job of acting like the opposite of Nick in the video.
wow i just realized that night vale and lovecraft have some similar problems. lovecraft also tends to skip out on character development, preferring to focus on concepts. lovecraft also tends to be quite structured-- mysterious thing is happening for about 30 pages, a lot of exposition, and then suddenly the big bad thing happens, isn't very deeply described, and always occurs at the end. again, the climax in many lovecraft stories isn't super well described. maybe night vale took more inspiration from lovecraft than they should have!
I didn't know about this until your cabin fever rant. I tried listening to Night Vale, but it got stale fast trying to marathon it. Nick comparing you to that is like comparing apples(nv), to something way better/different than apples.... I'm happy for any Night Mind episode though, so thanks for this! When i'm bored and can't find anything to watch I come to your channel. It's to bad we missed out on the episodes that were supposed to be part of this series. Being said... looking forward to whatever comes next.
Thank you Nick! Thank you Night Mind!
ihatepopculture Yeah I just started listening to it a few days ago. I only listen to one or two episodes a day in an effort to stop it from getting stale. It probably will as that is the fate of most comedy series, the more you watch the more you understand the humour and the more you understand the humour the more predictable it is.
I
I had to skip through the day brain part
I just
I couldn't
It was too unnatural
Autonomous Anonymous
As soon as he showed up, I felt the urge to strangle something.
Autonomous Anonymous it was just... Just not what i came here for, the video was awesome don't get me wrong, but like you said, it was just so unnatural.
It scared me more than Nick usually does, tbh.
When I was introduced to Nightvale I was told to imagine it as a spin on the whole lake Woebegone thing, where it was a small remote community where every conspiracy theory and urban legend was true. The idea of something like that was intriguing and that was sort of the mindset I went into it with and overall enjoyed it. There was definitely some oddness in it and I won't disagree that it has some real continuity issues but I have a certain amount of amusement in it with how banal it made the strange. There is something funny to me about someone getting more worked up over a hometown rival than a strange monstrosity in town, if nothing else because that has a weird tinge of truth from small town life. But I also appreciate you talking about this and while I like it I get that a lot of people don't and I can understand why.
I feel like 90% of the people who commented didn't actually listen to the entire video. The first part is *facetious*. He genuinely likes Night Vale.
When I saw the video in my reccomendations I felt super happy. Being a fan both of Night Mind and Nightvale (sort of, I'm really behind on the episodes), I didn't know what to expect from this review, since I know that Nightvale isn't in any point of its life a horror show, and I understand how pissed off Nick could be by the amount of people who don't understand that being weird or edgy is not the same as being creepy.
I gotta say, even if I like WTNV I do love using it as a device to fall asleep when I'm insomniac. Cecil's smooth and monotone way of speaking is a fairly decent way to calm down and get lost in words. Tbh I prefer the weather sections, I always put up a weather-only playlist when I wanna get creative juices going.
The video didn't disappoint, as always. Thanks, Nick, for bringing us something you shouldn't even consider reviewing. You're a good kitty, more than you should be.
I am a simple girl. I see Night Mind, I click.
Also holy crap thank you for this Nick
Nick Nocturne your voice is genuinely beautiful oh my gosh
This Day Brain hijacking reminds me of the microphone hijacking on his "DHMIS" episode.
Danielle Barks except beneficial to the story. Not a "oh fuck no" character lol
I think Dana might be the most developed character besides Cecil. mostly because her relationship to Cecil actually has complications at points in the story
Your impression of Cecil in the opening is _impecable._ Really nailed the energy.
This comment brought to you by Big Rico's. No one does a slice like Big Rico's! No one.
So, if you're a cat is the Day Mind guy a dog?
Maya Zulf with only one eye instead of four?
or eight eyes
or none...
Voidgamer290 And with white fur too... Oh wait now we just have Becquerel (homestuck)
OH MY GOD AND NIGHT MIND IS JASPERS!
Best birthday gift ever 💖
Happy birthday!
Night Mind Thank you so much!! You're a great creator and there's no other way I'd want to start my day ^_^
Happy birthday!
Mitzy Rae Hippo Birdy Two Eunuchs.
happy birthday fellow creature of the night
Nick, you are extremely scary, but something about you makes me trust you. On the other hand, David, you are extremely happy but you unsettle me. Kinsa makes me think you're the guy with human remains in the employee fridge and an axe in your desk drawer.
Omg yes best comment ever
Wow, the weather sure is funking.
Finally! An upload at NIGHT! From where I am, anyway...
Love u Night Mind 🌙
Legit my notif jumpscared me while I was watching. Truly, Nick, you are a master of this art. #noticedbysenpai