#deft bowman

[reflectionsthatflicker]

Possible links to other episodes in "12:37"

This isn’t the first time an anachronistic mode of transport has appeared in town without any clear way of getting there, the same thing happened with the Nullgorschian submarine in “Deft Bowman”. When that happened, the Secret Police arrived to discover if there were any passengers and coerced a volunteer to explore. There were also hints that the vessel had come from the past. Sound familiar?

It also isn’t the first time most of Night Vale felt a nagging urge to all seek out an unknown and possibly dangerous situation. It happened with the walk signals in “WALK”, doing nothing in “Lazy Day”, and chanting at the Old Well in “Well of Night”.

… Aaand it’s not the first time the Secret Police fenced in citizens who went to check out a weird object that appeared, and then forced those citizens to confront something dangerous. It also happened in “Monolith”.

The implication that the train took Cecil back in time is interesting, because it introduces another method of time travel. We already knew that rifts in time could appear spontaneously, that deer can use the impact of cars hitting them for time travel, and that the Museum of Forbidden Technologies has a few time machines. Recently, in “After 3327”, it was implied that Nick Teller is working on building a new time machine.

(The series has pointed out a few times that time travel is legal in Night Vale, and this is a source of civic pride. Possibly this is going to eventually lead into a time travel plot line. (Fingers crossed that someone saves the pre-Strex Kevin we met in “Triptych”.))

[disparitionvale]

40 - The Deft Bowman

3:27, 7:19, 23:41 - Head Down, Hands in Pockets

13:52 - (?)

15:05 - Disguise in whispered hymn

[flintandpyrite]

Aw man so I re-listened to The Deft Bowman today and I’m pretty sure it’s one of the darkest wtnv episodes ever. I mean, like all of them (except maybe A Story About You), it skirts the darkness a little and doesn’t look at it face on, but the Sheriff’s Spokesbeing’s (aw yeah nonbinary characters) second-person description of nothing less than the end of the world by nuclear destruction is entirely chilling. And all the more since it’s not obvious on first listening; if you didn’t know, it could just be more drabble—makes me wonder what else I’ve been missing.

And this is our first real evidence (besides A Memory of Europe and The Traveler more indirectly) for the theory that Night Vale sits at the crossroads of many parallel universes: though our world came maybe the closest ever to nuclear Armageddon during the Able Archer exercise in 1983, no one actually died.

[honorable-dr-w]

A Belated look at "The Deft Bowman"

I'm a bit later on this post than last time. I had to get back into the college groove, and this got lost as I wrote a term paper. But here it is. I am still posting a spoiler break so nobody gets too surprised. 

There are some callbacks. Dana is still "alive", as she is still texting, but she is merely repeating information we heard from the end of her episode. Megan is of course returning. Her character had little influence in the coming arc. I thought she'd fight Strex, but I was wrong. At least she has overcome her disability. 

Strex is very prying this episode. Lauren asks many personal questions and tries to get Cecil to spill the beans about Carlos. I'd be worried if I were him now. Strex is probably out to get him. 

Strex's effect on the tourism industry seems to be devastating, but Madeline LeFleur makes it clear she's doing all the work herself. Her tourism pitch is detrimental, as she has no safe ideas for coming to Night Vale. 

All in all, not an episode that warrants deeper discussion, but a well written story nonetheless. I did like how like in "A Story about You" there are men who are not tall and not short.  New relevance, much? 

Thoughts? See something I missed? Anything to add? Do not hesitate to put it in my ask. I DO READ EVERYTHING IN THERE!!!

[mooncustafer]

Initial thoughts on The Deft Bowman:

We will show you fun in a handful of dust! Heh.

According to Cecil, Night Vale gave up corresponding with Nulogorsk because the town had become stuck in 1983. The spokesbeing’s statement sounds like a description of a nuclear attack, as described in the newpaper headline later.

 The real world actually did come very close to a US/Soviet nuclear war in 1983  -- presumably Nulogorsk exists in a universe in which Stanislav Petrov made the wrong call – they’re stuck in 1983 either because they’re ghosts, or because they had to put the town into some kind of time bubble to save it. Megan must have reached out to them through the payphone, which is relatively old technology, so it may have had an easier time contacting 1983 than Cecil’s phone seems to be having with Dana’s timestream.

[wobbleinthehox]

nononONONONONOFUCKNONOFUCKINGNONONO NO NO

me after listening to 'The Deft Bowman'

[non-binary-laurie-strode]

Well... That didn't bomb as much as the other Zach Parsons episodes. The ending was ehhh but it was okay, I guess... At least the Strex arc advanced a little bit?

And that proverb is great.

[non-binary-laurie-strode]

STREX DON'T YOU FREAKING DARE THREATEN OR GO AFTER CARLOS