hey, guys. as someone who helps run panels, as an avid night vale fan, and as someone who was actually asked via tumblr about the idea of running a night vale panel, i'd like to put in my two cents about why maybe...a night vale panel isn't such a good idea? not without permission from the creators, at least.
night vale is poignant in its loose degrees of interpretation. the creators have done their best to maintain ambiguity in things such as setting, character appearances, personalities, and the like. having an ask panel with people cosplaying physical interpretations of characters who have no canon appearances strikes me as a little disrespectful to the series!
it's totally fine to cosplay the characters. that's radical. i cosplay cecil, myself! but something just reeeeeally strikes me as not kosher to have an official panel using cosplayers projecting their headcanons onto the characters they're cosplaying. the only way i could imagine that being circumvented would be to have a BUNCH of different cecils, and a BUNCH of different kevins, and a BUNCH of different old woman josies and angels and carlos and yeah that will get way too messy way too fast. there's also the issue of completely differing personality/history headcanons, given that there's little to no set canon for things such as cecil's childhood, carlos's life outside of night vale, kevin/desert bluffs, etc. there isn't much canon information to do an ask panel ABOUT.
secondly, the creators are REALLY good about getting back to the fandom about stuff like this! when asked about selling merch, they replied promptly that, no, they would not like us selling merch of their characters. when i sent an email myself asking if it was ok to hand out free night vale stickers at shows/cons/etc, they replied back saying, yes, that's totally fine! so i think it would be very respectful of you to email joseph or jeffery and ask them if they are ok with you guys running an ask panel. for all they've done for us with this series, it's the least you can do!
anyway, yeah. i only post this because i had someone ask me on tumblr about running a night vale panel, and i gave them much the same answer that i'm posting here. obviously i can't stop you! but i hope i've given you some food for thought, at least. please be mindful that ask panels are fun and doing one for a fandom you like can be really exciting, but there's a loooot of consequences that i really think you ought to consider.
night vale is poignant in its loose degrees of interpretation. the creators have done their best to maintain ambiguity in things such as setting, character appearances, personalities, and the like. having an ask panel with people cosplaying physical interpretations of characters who have no canon appearances strikes me as a little disrespectful to the series!
it's totally fine to cosplay the characters. that's radical. i cosplay cecil, myself! but something just reeeeeally strikes me as not kosher to have an official panel using cosplayers projecting their headcanons onto the characters they're cosplaying. the only way i could imagine that being circumvented would be to have a BUNCH of different cecils, and a BUNCH of different kevins, and a BUNCH of different old woman josies and angels and carlos and yeah that will get way too messy way too fast. there's also the issue of completely differing personality/history headcanons, given that there's little to no set canon for things such as cecil's childhood, carlos's life outside of night vale, kevin/desert bluffs, etc. there isn't much canon information to do an ask panel ABOUT.
secondly, the creators are REALLY good about getting back to the fandom about stuff like this! when asked about selling merch, they replied promptly that, no, they would not like us selling merch of their characters. when i sent an email myself asking if it was ok to hand out free night vale stickers at shows/cons/etc, they replied back saying, yes, that's totally fine! so i think it would be very respectful of you to email joseph or jeffery and ask them if they are ok with you guys running an ask panel. for all they've done for us with this series, it's the least you can do!
anyway, yeah. i only post this because i had someone ask me on tumblr about running a night vale panel, and i gave them much the same answer that i'm posting here. obviously i can't stop you! but i hope i've given you some food for thought, at least. please be mindful that ask panels are fun and doing one for a fandom you like can be really exciting, but there's a loooot of consequences that i really think you ought to consider.