Lessons Learned

Fashion Week really hammered home the point that, not only has Cecil forgotten the lessons he was trying to teach others during the fight with Strexcorp, he's internalized some of the lessons Strexcorp was trying to teach.

It's only when I went back to the transcripts that I realized just how close he's getting to Kevin's mindset. How closely he's paraphrasing things Kevin has said, questions Kevin has asked.

(I'm not sure if this is a hint that the Smiling God is still present in the otherworld desert, or just a depiction of how major depression can mind-whammy you as badly as any external brainwashing force.)



The Cecil from Fashion Week is drawn extra-disheveled. He's wearing the clothes he slept in, after all -- and he's too deeply depressed to care whether the Sphere ingests him! -- which means he's probably too depressed for good hygiene.

...and you know, that also explains why he's not considering the drawbacks of the otherworld desert and its residents. He doesn't care. He doesn't have the will to put any time or effort into self-preservation. He is apathetic to the point of being passively suicidal.

This is the mental state in which he's making major, life-changing decisions.




Cecil, honey, you're not okay. More than that, you're not-okay in ways that are not going to be magically fixed by moving.






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Transcript

Kevin (Renovations): I rarely feel anything. I rarely feel anything at all.
Cecil (Fashion Week): I rarely feel anymore.

Kevin (Old Oak Doors): It's hard to get work done when there's all this fighting! And for what? For hooded figures? For forbidden dog parks? For a Glow Cloud?
Cecil (OOD): This is our town! It is terrible, but it is ours, and we are fighting for it!
Kevin (OOD): I used to feel that way about Desert Bluffs. But then we met the Smiling God!

Cecil (Fashion Week): Is Night Vale worth it? Is Night Vale good? Is it a good town?

Cecil (Parade Day): We could have done something, Night Vale, but we...chose not to. We all chose to stand down, and hope change would be won for us, and not by us!

By someone else, we believed. A hero, we believed. But belief is only step one. Action is step two! Fighting for what you believe is step two! Unity is step two!

We did not take step two today, Night Vale! We have failed Tamika. But worse, we have failed ourselves.

Cecil (Fashion Week): I've been upset since February that I'm being used to save Dana, that Night Vale is so hostile to outsiders, that I don't always feel good about this town.

But I haven't chosen to do anything about it except complain on the air...and hope the situation will be changed for me, not by me.

And for some reason, that hasn't worked! So I've decided that my next step is, not to fight for change at all, but to move to another dimension.

The otherworld will be better for me, right? The problem is nothing to do with me failing myself, it's all about Night Vale failing me, and going to a new place will make me happy again...right?