Poe | he/they Escape the Night fanblog | #1 Savant Apologist | The Vanguard of JoeyPat the long way is the only way home, my Post-Season 3 Savant/Detective series on Archive of Our Own
Rating: Gen, no ships, comedy, could be considered crack I guess
Summary: Stephanie Patrick has made a lot of adjustments and sacrifices ever since her husband came back from Everlock and has come out of the other side a stronger person. But six years later, Matthew and Nikita finally achieve the impossible and bring Joey Graceffa back from Pandora’s Box…along with something else. What do you do when your husband accidentally releases the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?
You hire them for Youtube of course.
Basically a fusion of Game Theory lore and ETN, featuring Stephanie, Jason, Tom, Lee, Santi, Amy, Mirror Matt, Ash, and a ton of other Theorist cameos and easter eggs. Its the new channel hosts as the Four Horsemen; this will NOT make sense if you don’t follow the Theorist channels.
I keep finding these in my inbox and always forgetting to do them, so I’ll do this one. But I’ll put it under a read more because I’m kind and benevolent.
Last Song: On YouTube (music for writing), Slow Down by Chase Atlantic. On Spotify (daily listening), More Than Anything from Hazbin Hotel.
Favorite Color: Gray.
Currently Watching: Hazbin Hotel, for the umpteenth time. And Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, because Orlando Bloom. And Keira Knightley, for that matter. They’re both gender envy for me.
Spicy/Savory/Sweet: Spicy.
Relationship Status: Single and emphatically not interested in changing that.
Current Obsession: If you guessed Hazbin Hotel, you get a cookie. Helluva Boss can be thrown in there as well. I specifically want to break Lucifer Morningstar over my knee and watch him cry.
I was tagged by my good friend @sushiburritonoms (and of a sort, @lazarus-harp) to share the last line of my most recent WIP! Considering my actual most recent WIP is for a different fandom, I’ll go back to my most recent ETN WIP:
I hope it’s quick, Joey thinks. And I hope that I don’t have to see the light leave your eyes.
Yes, it’s about Joey; is anyone really surprised? Anyways, I don’t really have anyone to tag, since Sushi and Alina have both already done it — so consider this an open invitation to do it if you see this!
escape the nightetnescape the night s3etn s3etn season 3escape the night s4etn s4the savantthe detectivejoey graceffamatpatship content▶ gifscanary in a coal minethe crane wives
escape the nightetnetn s3escape the night s3etn season 3escape the night season 3
I was chatting with @sushiburritonoms about the wingfic era of fandom, and realized that it seems to be dreadfully absent in ETN. So, whether you use this for wingfic purposes or just for fun, here’s the birds that I associate with (all but one of) the ETN S3 characters, including helpers.
Qualifications: I’ve been a birdwatcher since my first year of high school. I’m assigning these based purely on vibes with some occasional help from superficial appearance and/or role taken. Reference and inspiration are taken from the Audubon website. This is American-centric, as those are the birds that I’m most familiar with; a few have ranges down into Mexico or up into Canada but it’s certainly a “Birds of North America” list and not really inclusive of the myriad of species seen in other countries.
Matthew - Domestic Canary (note that this is not a wild bird species like the rest of this list, but is instead a popular domesticated form of a bird that resides in islands off the coasts of Spain, Portugal, and Africa; Matthew’s wild species, to me, would be a Mourning Dove.)
escape the nightetnetn s3escape the night season 3the carnival mastermonthly challenge▶ gifs
Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the Devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for somebody to conquer. — 1 Peter 5:8
Done for @slasherbat’s Monthly Challenge entry; I got The Carnival Master as my character and decided to pair him with this biblical literature quote. I wanted to do a full set, but time got away from me, so this had to do!
escape the nightetnetn s3escape the night season 3etn season 3escape the night metaetn metamy meta
Does anyone else ever think about how fucked up it is that the setup of Escape the Night has us talking about who “deserved” it?
You see it in the fandom, and in the show itself, too — where there’s discussions about who “pulled their weight” or who did the most for the team, with the implication that those who didn’t deserve…what? A horrible, lonely death? To never see their families and loved ones again?
“I’m going to vote for [X], because they didn’t pull their weight,” is literally saying that someone being foolish, oblivious, and/or lazy is a mistake that should be punished by death.
Or the fandom, as they say that, “[X] wasn’t doing very well, so they deserved to be put into that challenge.”
And, look, I do not legitimately believe that anyone in the fandom or the show would ever be okay with someone dying because they couldn’t figure out a riddle — I’m one of the ones screeching about how your fannish participation is not morality, and what you enjoy in fandom, or say about fictional characters (or fictional personas of real people) is not, in any way, reflective of your actual beliefs. Let me be abundantly clear: it doesn’t matter to me who you think “deserved” to die, because nobody died, and at the end of the day, it’s a fake web series.
…But that doesn’t change that I think Escape the Night is a perfect encapsulation of the way that manipulation works on humans. As they say,
“1. Man is a MORAL animal.
2. You can get human beings to do anything — IF you convince them it is moral.
3. You can convince human beings anything is moral.” — Frank Bidart
In ETN, and especially in Season 3, the guests were convinced that voting people to die was the morally correct option. After all, world annihilation (and their own life) was on the line. Isn’t that worth a little blood on your hands?
But it’s hard to convince your average person that killing other people (or sentencing them to death, I suppose), if those people are otherwise innocent of severe crimes, is moral. So the situation sets it up using two things that are highly prized: merit and fear.
The fear is the easier option to discuss; it’s the same point I made earlier regarding world annihilation and their own lives. (And, of course, it’s easier to control scared people than it is to control people who have their wits about them. Manipulation 101.)
Merit, of course, is the entire point of this post. Many of us, I would hazard a guess, grew up with the American justice system, wherein death is an appropriate punishment for certain things. In ETN, that category is just stretched a little wider. Someone missed a clue? Well, they must be stupid — so they deserve to die.
And yes, I am defining voting someone in as tacitly saying that they deserve to die, because that is the unspoken consequence that could happen to anyone who was voted in.
Anyways, back to merit. Before every death challenge, barring the special ones, like the Witch’s Challenge in S3, there’s literally a discussion where the guests are supposed to defend themselves and prove that they helped. And if the court of public opinion decides you didn’t? Well, off to the chopping block with you, my friend — your performance was unsatisfactory, and therefore you deserve to be beaten to death/buried alive/whatever terrible fate awaits them that episode.
But isn’t that absurd, when you think about it like that? It’s like having a shitty coworker that never responds to emails and takes 45 minute lunches. That’s basically it. That’s what these people are dying for.
Literally everyone on the show is guilty of this, even fan favorites like Matthew, so it’s not like I’m trying to call guests out, or anything. I just think it’s a really fascinating look into the way that humans can be manipulated into being willing to kill other humans.
Maybe someday I’ll write something more in-depth on this.
do you ever think joey looks at mat and sees something more than just a human, than a friend he loves oh so much? does he ever look at the detective and think, with clarity and a resolute confidence, that’s my humanity? that’s his redemption, proof of his heart, his one good deed in a world full of his mistakes? like … joey saved mat knowing mat could still hate him after, knowing he could come back vengeful and jaded and restless with demands for the savant to be killed, again. but it was never about the benefits or the consequences : he saved mat not out of a survival instinct but out of pure love. raw, unbridled love. and there is something quite tender and achy about that.
i.
Do you think Joey saved Matthew so he wouldn’t have to say that he was sorry? Do you think this was his apology? Do you think that an apology — an admittance of guilt — was too much for Joey, and he did the only other thing he could?
Do you think that the resurrection was, in itself, an admittance of guilt?
I pushed you into the cold dark. I will pull you back out.
ii.
Do you think it was a form of repayment? Do you think Joey remembered how scared he was? Do you think he still tasted the knife and the blood and the fear? Do you think he knew that even if it wasn’t his choice, Matthew was forced to pay for his mistakes?
Do you think he regretted that?
You died for my sins. I am willing to die for you.
Huh, interesting find as I sit watching Markiplier letsplays while doing bookbinding projects. In the seventh (and final) episode of At Dead of Night, at around the 4 and a half minute mark, you can see a Society Against Evil symbol painted on the wall of the storeroom. This is interesting because as of now, I have only been able to find that symbol in association with Escape the Night, and nowhere else.
This game was created in 2017, placing it after the first season of ETN, which means that it is entirely possible that the developers of the game used this symbol either without knowing what it meant/where it was from, or they put it in as…a reference? A nod?
I don’t know much about this game, and I find it hard to believe that nobody has noticed this before, so I’m sure I’m not the first to mention it. I just thought it was really curious because I haven’t seen anyone talking about it.
Does anyone else have any more information about this?
Hihi, very normal ADON fan here! The symbol is actually taken from an edition of “Simon’s Necronomicon” by Peter Devenda. It’s from the spellbook portion in particular - which is where the illustrated seals for The Fifty Names of Marduk appear predominantly online. The one on the storeroom wall/in ETN is that of the Third Name: “Marutukku”
Basically it denotes a universal protection symbol. Presumably used in-game as a nod to whatever is possessing Jimmy and his attempts to shirk it. As for ETN, I’m a little less knowledgeable but I presume it’s thematically appropriate.
It takes from a lot of inspiration from Middle Eastern cultures as well as Lovecraft and Aleister Crowley.
It appears my post has reached the target audience (people who actually know stuff about this game)!
Thank you for the information, and thank you to @sushiburritonoms as well.
A couple years ago, a friend and I searched for this symbol through the Lesser Key of Solomon and related texts. They were unfamiliar with ETN, but they were relatively knowledgeable about occult/mythological symbols, so I thought they might know. However, neither of us found anything. Apparently, we simply weren’t looking in the right place!
markiplierescape the nightetnat dead of nightjoey graceffa
Huh, interesting find as I sit watching Markiplier letsplays while doing bookbinding projects. In the seventh (and final) episode of At Dead of Night, at around the 4 and a half minute mark, you can see a Society Against Evil symbol painted on the wall of the storeroom. This is interesting because as of now, I have only been able to find that symbol in association with Escape the Night, and nowhere else.
This game was created in 2017, placing it after the first season of ETN, which means that it is entirely possible that the developers of the game used this symbol either without knowing what it meant/where it was from, or they put it in as…a reference? A nod?
I don’t know much about this game, and I find it hard to believe that nobody has noticed this before, so I’m sure I’m not the first to mention it. I just thought it was really curious because I haven’t seen anyone talking about it.
Does anyone else have any more information about this?
As expected, the IGG for ETN: The Movie has slowed down. I say “as expected” because that’s how most every fundraiser campaign goes, with a super enthusiastic start and then a long plateau (possibly with very minimal spots of climbing).
The real question is whether or not it will get the pre-deadline push for completion, or whether the plateau will continue and it will just sputter out.
I guess there’s nothing to do but wait and see. I should have graphed this…
I truly, honestly cannot believe, though, that the $3,000 tier got snapped up so fast that Joey added a $4,000 tier.
Who the fuck has that kind of money?
Some interesting developments:
It appears that Joey has dropped down the amount being asked for by $100k. It was previously set at $225k. Additionally, he’s dropped down the “Experience” package — the $4k tier — to $2.5k.
I find it odd that he implied that $225k is the absolute minimum that he could do anything with, but is now asking for only $125k.
I haven’t seen any official announcements about this yet, but then again, I don’t follow Joey/any official ETN accounts very closely, so…
Ding, ding, ding.
About $10k left until the new goal. I certainly feel as though it’s more doable than $225k, especially with almost a month left. We’ll see!
Though, let’s be honest, here… Even if he does gather the necessary funds, that still requires a lot more people than him to be functional adults.
And, at this point in my life, I do not have high hopes in the functionality of many adults.
As expected, the IGG for ETN: The Movie has slowed down. I say “as expected” because that’s how most every fundraiser campaign goes, with a super enthusiastic start and then a long plateau (possibly with very minimal spots of climbing).
The real question is whether or not it will get the pre-deadline push for completion, or whether the plateau will continue and it will just sputter out.
I guess there’s nothing to do but wait and see. I should have graphed this…
I truly, honestly cannot believe, though, that the $3,000 tier got snapped up so fast that Joey added a $4,000 tier.
Who the fuck has that kind of money?
Some interesting developments:
It appears that Joey has dropped down the amount being asked for by $100k. It was previously set at $225k. Additionally, he’s dropped down the “Experience” package — the $4k tier — to $2.5k.
I find it odd that he implied that $225k is the absolute minimum that he could do anything with, but is now asking for only $125k.
I haven’t seen any official announcements about this yet, but then again, I don’t follow Joey/any official ETN accounts very closely, so…
As expected, the IGG for ETN: The Movie has slowed down. I say “as expected” because that’s how most every fundraiser campaign goes, with a super enthusiastic start and then a long plateau (possibly with very minimal spots of climbing).
The real question is whether or not it will get the pre-deadline push for completion, or whether the plateau will continue and it will just sputter out.
I guess there’s nothing to do but wait and see. I should have graphed this…
I truly, honestly cannot believe, though, that the $3,000 tier got snapped up so fast that Joey added a $4,000 tier.
As expected, the IGG for ETN: The Movie has slowed down. I say “as expected” because that’s how most every fundraiser campaign goes, with a super enthusiastic start and then a long plateau (possibly with very minimal spots of climbing).
The real question is whether or not it will get the pre-deadline push for completion, or whether the plateau will continue and it will just sputter out.
I guess there’s nothing to do but wait and see. I should have graphed this…
