Stepping outside the bit for a moment, it does make me genuinely sad that so many people don’t know about Cecil or Welcome to Night Vale, and not in a like nostalgia way, in a “dear god all of these queer teens are missing out on a core part of our media history and that’s awful” kind of way.
Like I am not lying, Welcome to Night Vale really was fucking groundbreaking queer representation that was, and still is, widely loved FOR A REASON!! If you legit have never heard of it, please give it a listen!! It’s a stellar, diverse podcast full of heartfelt moments and fantastic humor and good ol’ horror that’s made me cry and laugh and helped me get to sleep when I’ve been having horrible anxiety more times than I can count, and on top of that I will never be able to describe how, in 2012 when all of the big mlm ships on tumblr were us cringey little queer teens desperately praying for something deep down we really thought we’d never get, breathtakingly refreshing it was to listen to the FIRST EPISODE and hear Cecil openly admit to being in love with another man like it was the most normal thing in the entire world. It was everything, it really was.
Yeah, Cecil got sexy-maned all to hell and we can look back on that fondly and critically, but Welcome to Night Vale was to podcasts what Korrasami and the Ruby/Sapphire wedding were to cartoons and the absolutely dismissive tone a lot of people are using when talking about it breaks my heart. This isn’t just about remembering our sexyman roots, it’s about remembering and loving a revolutionary piece of queer media that was REALLY POPULAR like it was on fucking NPR, sold out shows, best selling books, the works!! Welcome to Night Vale changed the landscape of queer media, proved in it’s own corner that stuff with queer people in it COULD sell and find wide audiences! Like this was coming out back when fucking Glee was the standard for gay rep, I’m not kidding, Night Vale was everything.
It was, and is, loved for a reason. Cecil is winning on tumblr FOR A REASON. You deserve to find out why.
(And also just like, most Reigen fans on this website HC Reigen as queer and ship him with Serizawa and so, y’all please, trust me, if you love serirei that then boy do I have a fantastic queer couple for you. You want silly himbo paranormal husband shenanigans? I can give them to you. Pls come with me. You’ll like this, I promise.)
#yes to all this #but also #i see a lot of posts talking about night vale in the past tense#but it’s still here #new episodes still air #and it hasn’t become any less beautiful and important #yes it was groundbreaking for the queer rep back in 2012 #but it’s gotten even better since then #cecil got married and he and his husband have a kid now #i can’t think of a lot of media where a queer couple is raising a kid together #and it’s not the only good thing about this podcast #it’s mostly known for this weird little town where cosmic horror is just a normal monday‚ sure #but it’s so much more than that #it’s beautiful and poetic and incredibly meaningful #it’s kinda sad to see people talk about it like it was just a phase in their teens #wtnv
Stealing @rosenkranz-isnt-dead‘s tags because yes!! I didn’t mean for my post to come across like the podcast is over but it kinda did, so yeah Welcome to Night Vale is still ongoing!! I’ve been meaning to get caught up for a while, but I’ve heard that it’s still just as good and queer as ever, so if you’re thinking about giving it a shot you aren’t just in for something that’s been over for a while, you’re gonna keep getting plenty of new content as well! (And that’s not even mentioning the books and other tie in stuff that’s out there.) WtNV is still ongoing and still has a fandom, so if you’re into humor and horror and gay radio hosts and their science husbands you should give it a shot.
