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kevin--of-desert-bluffs · 8 days ago

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Thank you for your compliment and reblogging this because it made me realise the link to the updated version is as the top is broken! It should be working now though :) but you'll have to go back to the original post to access it because Tumblr is dumb that way lol

What the heck happened to Kevin?

EDIT: newer version with updated info here!

-straps you in against your will- (it's long and I'm not sorry lol)

tl;dr: Kevin isn't an purely evil antagonist (at least not the entire way through the show). He did found the religion surrounding a Smiling God but no longer controls the version of it in NV. He did not found Strex. Strex did use the religion to control people and Kevin had some importance because of his standing. Kevin lies to us and himself but his tone and other things betray the truth. Charles might be good for him actually because of this??? More Kevin please.

WTNV is a great podcast because it highlights a truth about stories that people forget: protagonist just means 'the person whose point of view the story is in' and not 'the good guy'. Nor does having a protagonist who is good necessitate a continuous and obvious antagonist.

When Kevin is our protagonist we get the same unreliability we get with Cecil, but Kevin's brainwashing is overt and obvious whilst Cecil's is a subtle result of his upbringing in a conservative place like NV.

So just who is Kevin of Desert Bluffs? What are his ties to Strex? Ep.73 gives us the context we were terribly lacking during the Strex Arc.

Ep.73 - Past Kevin: “Strexcorp? That faux-friendly big business corporate monster? Don’t talk to me about them. Strexcorp is the worst. […] I actually tried to stop them from buying it! I tried very hard. I put my own body, this fragile thing, in between the Strex representatives and the entrance to the building but they forced their way past me using ethically brutal methods that left me forever physically changed."

Future Kevin: "Oh, what StrexCorp and their Smiling God did to my wonderful little town. What they did to me. I’m not myself anymore. I’m a smile, and a twitch of the wrist. It has been years, Cecil. I’ve drifted away from myself. Sometimes I am one me, and then again I am the other. What they did to the sentient heat trapped temporarily in my body."

In this episode, a Kevin before Strex has any power in my opinion doesn't have any reason to lie to Cecil about his involvement in Strex, unreliable narrator or no. He also emotes differently in the further-past, having a genuine flare of annoyance at the mention of Strex. He simply does not talk like this at all later on when Strex is in power. Something changed. And if he were lying about hating Strex to stay on Cecil's good side, why mention this? -

Ep. 73 Past Kevin: [...]You know they’ve been trying to buy the radio station? Can you imagine how awful that would be? They’d probably try to take me off the air, and replace me with someone else. Or, worse, try to change my personality completely. Oh! I would never let that happen[...]"

That is...basically what seems to have happened to him. In his 'present' form (which is really more of a recent past version of himself) during this episode when Cecil talks about Night Vale and Strex, Kevin happily talks about Strex despite Cecil again clearly not being happy about it. He shows no need to side with Cecil's opinion here because he's under Strex himself now.

As an aside, Kevin also states he's never heard of NV in the further-past whilst his recent-past self during that episode and his first appearances in the Strex Arc do know what NV is but has never been there. This is either an oversight by writers or a different Kevin or he just genuinely hadn't heard of NV then.

In the future, he once more speaks of how awful Strex was when they hurt his town and once more, in my opinion, has no reason to deny his involvement especially when he's been isolated for years and is clearly depressed and miserable and has nothing to lose.

Also, with dubious-canon, there is this from a patreon listener questions session:

Kevin: “So I smile over and over until the version of me in the mirror stops smiling along and starts looking scared and exhausted and then sits on the edge of the tub, muttering about the life he used to have before Strex got a hold of him.”

Which could be like, a literal alternate Kevin he can see through a mirror or just Kevin pretending it's just a mirror version of himself whilst it's actually him feeling negative emotions/effects of trauma he doesn't want to admit having.

And during the podcast, there are hints that something terrible did happen in DB which could have been Strex's takeover and which Kevin (by his tone more than his words) has been negatively affected by. For the life in me I cannot remember the exact episodes to quote it, but I think they're early episodes. The gist is that he mentions an 'incident' that 'some of them never woke up from again' during which Intern Vanessa died.

All of this evidence cannot be ignored. We can say with some certainty that the Kevin we hear the most from started out as a man who was ordinary by whatever ordinary in DB ever was, and was taken in and changed by Strex.

It also can't be ignored that later episodes and It Devours! increase Kevin's involvement in both Strex and the worship of the Smiling God, at least in theory.

But some of it just never sits right with me. In particular, this quote:

Ep. 137: “The mayor and I have been close for a long time. We’ve had our ups and downs, but I think our more difficult times were back when we used to run a company together. We had some typical disagreements over who was in charge. She thought because she was the president of the company, she should have final say on all decisions. Whereas I knew that I was one of the Smiling God’s chosen prophets, and our all-loving devourer would not choose a prophet who made mistakes.”

There's...inconsistency here that I can't ignore. Lauren was promoted from executive to vice-president as of episode 49. She was never promoted to president in our timeline. Also, Kevin only states that he should have more power than her because of his Smiling God connections, not because he was actually important in the company.

But did that hold merit, or did it only hold merit to him? Lauren is not in agreement during these later All Smiles' Eve to Mudstone Abyss episodes. And why not? Just because Strex was using the Joyous Congregation to help control DB (theocracy and capitalism do go hand in hand!) doesn't mean that Kevin had any real power BUT it may have led him into thinking he did. If he really did i.e. was Strex's founder or something and they were really fighting about it, he could easily have demoted or fired her. It wouldn't have been difficult.

Strex does not mind 'disappearing people' when necessary and there's no reason we can see for Kevin to have special affection for Lauren. They have a tumultuous relationship at best. If she had no power over him, he would have always treated her with the same disposability and control he does when he runs Desert Bluffs Too.

It Devours! ch 8: “You see, our prophet Kevin found an old oak door[...]"

We never really get to see how Kevin reacted to being in the desert otherworld after Old Oak Doors. But I theorise the reason he was able to start building so fast was because he had, genuinely, already been there and brought back a religion revolving around a Smiling God with him. (The book is new though, he's been in the desert otherworld ten or more years compared to NV time which is plenty of time to write it and get it sent back).

And what about the religion surrounding a Smiling God?

The nature of the Smiling God and what it is is...difficult. Kevin mentions in All Smiles' Eve and the Mudstone Abyss that the religion has been around since he was a child. He says he's celebrated All Smiles' with his family, and that he's dreamed of creating the MSA since being little. If we're taking this as truth, then if Kevin founded the religion he founded it as a child. Or he's lying. Again.

But also there isn't just one Smiling God. It's always referred to as a Smiling God (in the podcast at least), not the. Dana sees a Smiling God which is just a vast light and it's this which is dangerously trying to get into NV through the Old Oak Doors. But also, Kevin writes about a giant centipede as if it were a Smiling God (the movements of such a creature is also observed by either Dana or Carlos, I forgot I'm sorry ;; ) but only Pastor Munn/Gordon know about Kevin's book on the centipede and believe in that version of a Smiling God.

It was genuinely not known by other congregation members, even those like Darryl who grew up with the religion and members who lived in NV previously. Kevin also once said that a Smiling God has teeth and a tongue, which neither a centipede nor a light have. Congregation members also question whether Huntokar is a Smiling God and softly admit they're not sure what a Smiling God is.

It Devours! shows us a differing interpretation of their religion from the side of Darryl and other 'ordinary' congregation members and those actually running/leading it and deciding what the regular members are and aren't allowed to know. It's clear that it's very much like a cult at that point. But was it always? The Joyous Congregation exists happily without Kevin there to guide it and even after learning the weirder and more negative aspects of it they choose which version they like the best and follow that instead. Could the religion had also started out differently? Different ideals? Different ideas of what a Smiling God was? What did Strex influence in it, if at all? Is the version followed by NV citizens before any DB interference different too?

Kevin definitely hides things to show everyone (even himself) only the best things. (That's why Charles' has the potential to be really good for him, I get that now lol). But I don't get the vibes of 'mastermind perfectly in control of himself' from the man who was too brutally honest about his hatred of pasta salad and said this:

ep. 73 'recent past' Kevin: "I remember being a real grumpster, just a grouch and a half about everything! [...] But Strex bought out my radio station, and everything changed for the better. [...] Once Strex entered my life and showed me the power of the Smiling God, why, nothing was the same for me ever again! I felt so much happier. I did terrible things. I felt so much happier! I tore and bit and growled…I felt so incredibly happy! My skin rent, blood drops on the ceiling, someone’s throat in my hand! So deliriously happy!"

And he sounds a bit delirious whilst recounting this. Kevin's tone only ever changes when experiencing something genuine and that is not often.

So what do I think? I think that WTNV is written as socio-political commentary and Kevin reflects that. He is made to represent the influences a theocratic-capitalist society has on a person. He is made to be complex, and not just 'simply evil'.

Maybe there are many Kevin's we are hearing from even when we aren't made aware of such (but this feels like a cop out) and thus many Strex's and many religions surrounding a Smiling God.

But most likely:

DB was a mirror or close enough of NV. Kevin and Cecil were very similar pre-Strex. Strex was directly established in DB. Kevin spent some time in the Desert Otherworld and either discovered people there who already worshipped/observed the vast light which is a Smiling God which exists there or founded such a group of people based on others already lost there (evidence is found by Dana of there once being a civilisation doing such worship in the desert otherworld).

He brought that knowledge back with him and despite it being incomplete/not very solid/based mostly on his own interpretations, the religion really took off in DB and either dripped a bit to NV or the NV version is what created the otherworld version when some of them got lost in the dog park and ended up there. Anyway, Kevin becomes pretty important because of this.

Strex adopted that religion, changing it to suit them as they saw fit and even adopting it's triangle symbolism into their company logo, and used it to gain more power over DB and it's citizens so they could take total control (they also canonically invented control collars...).

Strex beat down and brainwashed Kevin but kept him in his job because people already looked to him as a prophet of a Smiling God. It works like this for years, with belief in a Smiling God becoming a mandatory part of the StrexCorp regime and Kevin himself still having some influence over it. He incorrectly believed this gave him power over StrexCorp and it's employees too. He would fight with Lauren about this and she was actually the one in the right hence why she never gets reprimanded, but also why she can't get rid of Kevin without destabilising the control they have.

The Strex Arc for NV happens. Kevin is returned to the desert otherworld and does research on a giant creature he sees there and mistakes(?) it for a different form of a Smiling God. He finds a way to send this book back, and since time works differently in NV (i.e. many years have passed in the desert otherworld but not in NV) the book looks 'old-ish'. Pastor Munn only shared the book with Gordon and they change the religion subtly based on what they gleam from it. This may or may not have been Kevin's intention as it seems more like general notes or even scientific research (gasp!) than any kind of dogma.

Kevin continues to believe and insist on his own version of events, maybe even to help him through his trauma, and eventually gets to live out his fantasy of control by running Desert Bluffs Too. He has a small religious crisis during this time (canon, mentioned during the All Smiles'-Mudstone Abyss arc), likely because neither the vast light nor the centipede he assigned a Smiling God nor any other version he imaged seems to be in the desert otherworld any more. Charles enters the picture and starts to challenge Kevin's perceptions of his own importance, what is correct emotional regulation and what his religion might actually mean. He has all but forgotten Strex at this time, but is unable or unwilling to look back on those times as completely negative especially because his religion (which he very well likely founded) became so linked with the company.

More Kevin please.

#wtnv #kevin of desert bluffs #wtnv kevin

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