Vidding styles & canon inspiration

[frayadjacent]

I'm doing that vidding meme! And am happy to take more requests.

violace asked: Is there a genre or style you wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole?

I don't know that I'd call it a genre or style, but anything with a lot of graphic violence -- or, more accurately, certain specific types of graphic violence. I can't even stand to watch that stuff, much less vid it. I also probably wouldn't do much with explicit sex/porn, but I won't say never. Actually the more I think about it the more it appeals to me as a challenge -- some day.

I suppose there is a style of vid to cheesy love ballads (e.g. Celine Dion) and whatnot that I can't really imagine making because I can't stand the music. I do genuinely appreciate the earnestness of such vids though. And I had to talk myself out of including Power of Two as a candidate vidsong for Xena Vid Series From Hell, so even that boundary is apparently squishy.

thirdblindmouse asked: Is there a section of canon above all others that inspires you just a little bit more?

So, since TBM asked, I'm going to talk about Xena canon here, because it's a shared interest and because that's the fandom where this question is easiest to answer. Because as much as I enjoy the camp and the slash and the fun of Xena, there is basically one thing that has inspired my intense fannishness for the Xena/Gab pairing and for the show overall, and that is Xena and Gabrielle's ongoing debate about How to Fight the Good Fight*.

For me, the two parter "The Debt" from Season 3 and Gabrielle's pacifism arc which is a focus of season 4 (but resonates throughout the series) are the center of this debate. In the early seasons of the show, Gabrielle is generally shown to be -- and believed by the characters to be -- the one with a more developed moral compass.  "The Debt" tears this apart by showing Gabrielle how much more complex the world is, and that a knee-jerk "killing is wrong" position can cause more harm than not. It is forever to my dismay that the S3 Rift Arc focuses so much on Hope and leaves Gabrielle's betrayal of Xena in "The Debt" as background, but I choose to read it differently, and that is an important part of both my XVSFH vids so far ("Become You" and "Starkville").

As Gabrielle spends more time with Xena and her worldview grows more complex, she finds that her love of Xena and her wish to not commit violence are irreconcilable. For a while she tries to practice non-violence while accepting that this is not an option for Xena, and tries to make it work. But it doesn't. It can't. So ultimately she chooses Xena, and I think breaks a little bit of her heart doing so.

I continue to be blown away by this arc, because I so often find the presentation of pacifism on shows to be obnoxious, heavy-handed, or dismissive. Xena takes pacifism seriously, and it also takes the violence of the world the characters live in seriously, and it integrates those themes into the characters' relationship -- it makes it deeply personal. And that is why I love it.

(OK, the other main reason I love Xena/Gab is because those two are always telling each other how much they love each other. That kind of open, honest communication is my relationship catnip, see also my love of Friday Night Lights.)

*This is also like 80% of my love for Angel the Series, and Gunn's character arc in particular, the other 20% being Lorne.

Comments

[beccatoria]

...and now I have Xena feelings and I'm not even intensely fannish about it. But seriously, I don't have anything to add, but I really enjoyed reading that and it rang really true. Xena's a camp romp sometimes. And sometimes it's much more. I will forever be sad that it's not more frequently held up alongside shows like Buffy when we talk about feminist television because people just assumed it was dumb or exploitative when it was neither.

[frayadjacent]

Yeah, it really should be. In some ways I think it is a more feminist show than Buffy -- though it would probably be more accurate to say they are both feminist/not feminist in different ways.

As for being exploitative -- I can't stand the characters' main costumes, but in other ways I think it's fine. I love when they wear different outfits with better armor and whatnot.

[caramarie]

I've never actually watched Xena, but your explanation here makes me think I really need to!

[frayadjacent]

I highly recommend it *if* you are OK with camp and general 90's cheesiness. It's definitely a deal-breaker for some, but not for me. I don't always love camp but on Xena it works well much of the time because Lucy Lawless is so charismatic.

I've been thinking about putting together a Xena must-watch curriculum -- or maybe a few, depending on how much one wants to commit to the show. I'll have to include that in my list of upcoming posts!

[thirdblindmouse]

You should do this!

[frayadjacent]

If I do, I'll definitely be soliciting your opinion! There are quite a few episodes I don't remember well...

[thirdblindmouse]

You know, I always was frustrated with and resented Angel because I saw it as a show that was approaching the same themes as Xena but not as well, and it irked me that it got acclaim for being "mature", because it felt so adolescent and self-indulgent by comparison. But Gunn was the exception. I started with Season 5 (having run out of Buffy), and Gunn's Season 5 arc in which he was almost the only member of Angel Investigations to give the W&H experiment a serious try was the best thing about that season. Going back and watching Season 1-4 cemented him as my favorite character, with the most interesting storyline. If you haven't seen it already, I recommend Sunset Boulevard, by butterfly, a Gunn character study that is hands down my favorite AtS vid, and the sort of vid I want to make someday.

[frayadjacent]

YOUR THOUGHTS ARE MY THOUGHTS. I absolutely love the way Gunn struggles with the question of how to do good in the world, and how he fits in -- or doesn't -- with the mission's he's part of. I think all the characters struggle with that first question to some extent, but I agree that it is pretty self-indulgent a lot of the time. Both because of the ways the characters wallow in their insecurities and selfishness (I'm looking at you Wesley) and the way the show does the "dark/mannish = deep and thoughtful" thing.

I had *not* heard of that vid, and am downloading it now! Thank you!! :D :D :D

[cosmic_llin]

Wow, Xena feelings all over the place now. /o\

[frayadjacent]

Yay Xena feelings!! I'm always trying to load those off share those with my fellow fen.