Director's Notes – Episode 114

(NOTE: As always, Director's Notes contain spoilers)

Not everyone in Night Vale ages normally. 

Jackie Fierro was 19 years old for many many years. Earl Harlan and Cecil Palmer also experienced some kind of delay in aging during their youths. Time doesn't work in Night Vale. 

But Tamika Flynn seems to be aging in the usual way. She turns 17 this month. Can you believe it? It's been 4 years since she defeated the librarians during the Summer Reading Program. Time flies. (Sometimes. For some people. I mean, not always, I guess.)

Like we've said before, when Joseph and I started Welcome to Night Vale, we didn't have a plan or a plot, just a pilot episode. We determined the show could be and become whatever we wanted, as long as we adhered to a strict continuity. 

Continuity, not canon. Those two things go hand in hand, of course, but canon is about facts and plot points. Continuity is about growth and change. In the case of this 3-episode arc, we wanted to see how a teenager whose celebrity in town has been built on militaristic victories over librarians and StrexCorp. 

She's a 16-year-old who named herself to the City Council, a highly exclusive entity, made up of multiple voices within a single monstrous body. It's fair to say this would require a fearless citizen and an intimidated council to allow this to happen. 

She loves books but also the weapons contained within them (both literally and figuratively).

But Joseph and I were interested in what else Tamika is made of. What happens when she has to lead a town during a crisis? It couldn't be much worse than the current City Council's leadership, right?

- Jeffrey Cranor
September 15, 2017

SIDE NOTES:

* I simply can't let go of Cecil's pronunciation of Michigan. Sorry Michigan.

* I think Americans need to call eggplants "aubergines" and the English need to call rocket "arugula." And everyone needs to call plums "swole grapes."

* Making up sports teams names is one of my favorite things to do in WtNV. The formula is fairly simple: take a two-part animal name and reverse it to make it sound like something scarier/funnier/cooler all together: Spiderwolves, Ant Carpenters, Lizard Monitors, Snake Garters, Horse Quarters, Shark Nurses, Whale Killers, and Fly Dragons.