Vidukon Premiere: Starkville (Xena)

[frayadjacent]

Title: Starkville
Song: "Starkville" by the Indigo Girls
Source: Xena: Warrior Princess
Characters: Gabrielle, Xena (Gabrielle character study)
Content notes: Bright flashes. Institutional and relationship violence (as depicted on the show). Spoilers throughout the series.
Summary: "I chose the way of friendship"
Captions are available on the youtube and vimeo streams. They are also included in the downloadable zip file. If you don't want captions, just delete the .srt file.

As always, please feel free to contact me if you want more specific information about warnings/content notes.

Remastered for 720p (ish -- it's still 4:3) in 2020. 

Download | Vimeo | Youtube

 

Watch on YouTube

If you were here in Starkville
the townie boys would love the way you stare
If you were here in Starkville, the local girls
they wouldn't have a prayer
I spent a reckless night inside the wonder
of your everlasting charm
now I'm haunted by geography
and the flora and the fauna of your heart

At the dawning of some road worn day
I called you on a whim just to say-
The morning birds are singing
but I could not do them justice
so I hung up and fell back to sleep

I'm in love with my mobility
but sometimes this life can be a drag
like when I noticed your nobility
and how my leaving only held you back
I remember one occasion when you were drinking
and you asked me to the coast
but I was hell bent on agony back then
so I missed the boat

At the dawning of some road worn day
I called you a whim just to say
My regrets become distractions
but I can not do them justice
then I hung up and fell back to sleep

When I was down in Starkville
I was hiding out inside some Comfort Inn
from a local gang of troubadors
when the homecoming queen -she come riding in
I slipped out of my room into the rain
and I went running for my health
I watched the headlights turn to moonlight and finally
 I was running by myself

Now it's the dawning of some road worn day
I call you a whim just to say
The morning birds are singing

Comments

[frayadjacent]

Thank you!! I'm so happy that the water/fire stuff came through clearly!

The montage about Xena's charm? Oh, that's poignant, given where this vid goes: Gabrielle seeing the laughter instead of the sword.

YES. When I was clipping for this, I was struck by how, at the beginning of the series, Gab was not a pacifist at all. She wanted to go on adventures and become just like Xena! Then she realized "shit -- this is not as awesome as I thought." And yet by the end of the show, she does become a lot like Xena. And I think she loses some of herself in the process, even as she gains so much as well. And it's a choice she makes, in the end, with her eyes open, because she knows that if she wants to live her life with Xena, she's going to have to become someone she doesn't entirely want to be.

Ugh, my feelings.

I especially love how you drew out the ongoing theme of blood-innocence: the virginity that matters in this show is whether or not you're taken a life

Eeeee, I was thinking specifically of you, and some of our converstations about Xena a while back, when I worked on those parts. So glad it worked for you!! :D :D

[sanguinity]

Well, I am pleased, to hear that I was part of the thought-process for this!

I've been feeling some hankering to go back to the beginning and remind myself of who Gabrielle was back then; she changed so much over the course of the show. And yes, those were eyes-wide-open choices that she made, but from among a slate of non-ideal choices. She can make those choices, and feel no "I should have chosen otherwise regret," but still grieve the outcome of those choices. It really is a marvelous Gabrielle vid.

[frayadjacent]

She can make those choices, and feel no "I should have chosen otherwise regret," but still grieve the outcome of those choices.

EXACTLY. Gah I feel you have summed up a good chunk of my vid so well.

If you do rewatch some episodes, I'd be very interested to know what you think.