History YMMV / WelcomeToNightVale

* ComeForTheXStayForTheY: Come for the creepy weirdness and dark humor, stay for Cecil and Carlos's {{Adorkable}} blossoming romance.
** Or, if you're a YaoiFangirl or HoYay shipper, it could be the other way around.
** Come because you heard Creator/MaraWilson, [[Series/{{Fringe}} Jasika Nicole]], or [[WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers James Urbaniak]] guest-starred on an episode, stay for one or both of the aforementioned reasons.

** [[spoiler: Kevin and The Smiling God]] haven't done anything evil for three seasons. We've been through three [[BigBad Big Bads]] while they've remained background noise.

** [[spoiler: Kevin and The Smiling God]] haven't done anything evil for three seasons. We've been through three [[BigBad|s]] while they've remained background noise.

** Invoked to a degree. Jackie has been a teenager for a long time. Time is weird in Night Vale. No one said her slang needed to be accurate so much as it provokes the idea of teenage slang. [[FridgeBrillance This is notably averted with Josh, who has been a teenager for a normal timespan, and speaks more realistically]].

** Is the Man in the Tan Jacket [[spoiler: a {{Jerkass}} villain who callously upended three lives in a bid to force them to clean up someone else's mess, or is he a DesignatedVillain driven to extreme methods by the fact that no one could remember his desperate pleas for help?]]
** Is Diane [[spoiler: justified for chewing out the Man in the Tan Jacket, or is she an unbearably selfish DesignatedHero who doesn't hesitate to engage in some uncalled-for victim blaming when she's inconvenienced? Are her insults the product of fear and righteous anger, or was the line "Maybe if you had been a better mayor, none of this would have happened" a borderline MoralEventHorizon?]]

* DesignatedHero: [[spoiler: Jackie and especially Diane come across this way in the climax, where instead of listening to the Man in the Tan Jacket's {{Woobie}}-worthy backstory with sympathy, they instead call him an asshole for luring them to King City against their will. Granted, they had to go through a ''lot'' of difficulty to get there, but still. His town is falling apart at the seams and no one remembers he exists, leaving him with no other options. That should engender at least a ''little'' sympathy, not insults and blatant victim blaming.]]
* DesignatedVillain: [[spoiler: The Man in the Tan Jacket comes across as this. He's portrayed and treated as a selfish {{Jerkass}} with no qualms against upending lives in a quest to put his own back together, but he only seems to do this because he's out of options. His attempts to explain who he is and what he's doing in Night Vale are always forgotten, his attempts to get Troy to leave were futile, and not even his own town remembers he exists. Compounding the problem is the fact that some listeners and readers believed the podcast portrayed him in a more heroic light, so when he's revealed as a villain, they didn't quite believe it.]]

** Invoked to a degree. Jackie has been a teenager for a long time. Time is weird in Night Vale. No one said her slang needed to be accurate so much as it provokes the idea of teenage slang.

* SeasonalRot: Fans are starting to complain about the current (fourth) season (examples [[http://theoriesofnightvale.tumblr.com/post/132737778578/why-night-vale-is-not-as-appealing-as-it-used-to here]], [[http://videntefernandez.tumblr.com/image/131260731363 here]], and [[http://meveret.tumblr.com/post/128541059443/it-does-feel-like-the-wtnv-fandom-is-slipping here]]), due to lack of a coherent plot so far and Episode 76, which was seen as a blatant ad for the book.

* SeasonalRot: Fans are starting to complain about the current (fourth) season (examples [[http://theoriesofnightvale.tumblr.com/post/132737778578/why-night-vale-is-not-as-appealing-as-it-used-to here]],[[http://videntefernandez.tumblr.com/image/131260731363 here]], and [[http://meveret.tumblr.com/post/128541059443/it-does-feel-like-the-wtnv-fandom-is-slipping here]]), due to lack of a coherent plot so far and Episode 76, which was seen as a blatant ad for the book.

*** [[spoiler: Old Oak Doors Part B implies that he used to try and resist the smiling god's light when [=StrexCorp=] took over Desert Bluffs and that part of him still screams from the inside, desperately wanting to resist.]]

*** Also about Kevin, in Episode 70A - does he think of Carlos as a [[IJustWantToHaveFriends friend]], is he [[ManipulativeBastard knownigly just using him]], or is he interested in... [[VillainousCrush something more]]?

* JerkassWoobie: The Man in the Tan Jacket. [[spoiler: Had a normal life, a family, and a city he loved, before Troy arrived and brought Nightvale's weirdness with him. He watches as multiple Troys swarm the city, has existence is forgotten by his family and citizens, and when he goes to Nightvale to find help he's either unhelped or forgotten. However, Jackie and Diane don't hesitate to chew him out for disrupting lives and for using a BatmanGambit to lure Josh away to King City for his own purposes.]]

* LGBTFanbase: Is getting quite popular with this group, and justifiably so, as the ''only'' OfficialCouple in the series is gay.

*** Also about Kevin, in Episode 70A - does he think of Carlos as a [[IJustWantToHaveFriends friend]], is he [[ManipulativeBastard knownigly just using him]], or is he interested in... [[VillainousCrush something more]]

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: While most interpretations assume that Cecil is sincere about pretty much everything he says on the radio, some go darker and assume that he's aware on at least some level that things aren't right and the lines he's being fed by Night Vale's overlords are false, but in order to stay alive he can't be seen to openly question them too often. Supporters of this interpretation note that Cecil will continue to talk about recently banned topics like the Dog Park right up until the Police, the Council, or Station Management start breathing down his neck. [[spoiler:He's certainly aware enough not to trust [=StrexCorp=] after they buy out the radio station in "Yellow Helicopters". This is confirmed in episode 36, "Missing": when [=StrexCorp=] shuts down the station, Cecil finishes his broadcast via a pirated signal and states outright that he's normally talking around a lot of censorship.]]

** Is Diane [[spoiler: justified for chewing out the Man in the Tan Jacket, or is she an unbearably selfish DesignatedHero who doesn't hesitate to engage in some uncalled-for victim blaming? Are her insults the product of fear and righteous anger, or was the line "Maybe if you had been a better mayor, none of this would have happened" a borderline MoralEventHorizon?]]

** Steve Carlsburg becomes this in "The September Monologues" where we find out [[spoiler: he and Cecil got along quite well when they first met at Steve and Cecil's sister's wedding. (Cecil even complimenting Steve's scones that he now publicly hates). That is, until Steve reveals to Cecil he knows all about the Vague-But-Menacing-Government-Agency, and other forbidden Night Vale knowledge, at which point Cecil snapped and almost had the wedding called off.]]

** Not before [[spoiler: Jackie is bitten and nearly choked to death]].

** Special mention should go to episode 48's "High Tide Rising". While an excellent piece on its own, its context within the story, [[spoiler: where it herald's Cecil's return and the true chance to fight back against [=StrexCorp=]]], turns it into a fist-pumping forecast of ''awesome'', with an awesomely crunchy Music/NeilYoung [[SincerestFormOfFlattery center]].

** Special mention should go to episode 48's "High Tide Rising". While an excellent piece on its own, its context within the story, [[spoiler: where it herald's Cecil's return and the true chance to fight back against [=StrexCorp=]]], turns it into a fist-pumping forecast of ''awesome''.

** Less bizarre now that it has a sequel, "The April Monolouges," which ties into the current storyline.

** Hiram [=McDaniels=] at the end of episode 88. His reaction to [[spoilers: the guilty verdict of his trial and subsequent death sentence, described in excrutiating detail by the judge]] makes you want to hug the five-headed dragon.

** Hiram McDaniels at the end of episode 88. His reaction to [[spoilers: the guilty verdict of his trial and subsequent death sentence, described in excrutiating detail by the judge]] makes you want to hug the five-headed dragon.