Peak Inside My Head: More Angel/Wes and Spike - also vid musings

So I was replying to comments from yesterday's post about Spike and Angel and Wes and I realized that -yet again - I am incredibly long-winded and not that thought out, and that there was still another post in me - specifically about why A/W/S just does not work for me.

Now - let me restate this: This is just for me. This is *why* for me - it does not work. My take on the characters is just that - my own. Actually - it isn't really just my take. I've got a bit of Kita's Angel, sprinkled with Lum's Dominant Wes-Theory that is supplemented by TBQ's development of Wes and topped off by Miss Murchison's theory of Spike. Somewhere in all that is Netweight's comments about how Buffy/Spike/Angel would work.

So everything influences everything else and I am not so much an originator of ideas as I am a synthesizer - I will be reading something one of the lovely ladies mentioned above and I will find myself nodding along and agreeing and then trying to not only fit this new idea into my pre-existing notions, but also to make it work in keeping the Angel-verse a compelling place for me to spend my free mental time. It also gives me reason to vid the show. If I no longer had new thoughts about these guys or no longer found them interesting or had nothing to say about them - well I couldn't vid them. You have to understand or at least feel like you understand a character or a group dynamic or have a story to tell (one of the three and often all of the three) in order to make an effective vid.

Period. That is just all there is to it. At least if you are me. I can watch a vid about nothing more than Character X is hot - but unless you tell me *why* he is hot - besides "LOOK AT HIM NAKED!" then I just won't care and I will be bored on a second viewing. I might be bored on the first viewing unless the nakedness is really good nakedness. That'll usually entertain me for at least three minutes. But after that I want some depth, dammit!

And if you don't understand who it is you are vidding - well then you can't do that. And sometimes it becomes this kind of connection (GOD I AM PRETENTIOUS) to the character that you really cannot explain verbally - at least for a while. This is why I am grateful to have found a medium like vidding - I can *show* you. I can show you *exactly* why I think Angel is the sexiest thing I have ever watched on television and it has a lot less to do with him taking off his shirt and a lot more to do with him getting to the point where he can set Darla and Dru on fire and then just watch without flinching. Yes - he looks good in that scene - very handsome - but the hotness radiating off of him in that moment has very little to do with his physical appearance and everything to do with his mood, mental state and the fact that we know he is just that *close* to losing total control.


That is freaking hot. At least it is to me and while for the longest time I could not explain what it was about him that *got* to me - at least not effectively - I could show it. Thank god.


But all of this is influenced by other people and their takes on the character and so I pick and choose what I like and how I like it and I store it up there in the Angel Section of my brain (which is pretty much the entire frontal lobe up there - I really hope I won't need any information on the Battle of Hastings cause that shit is gone).

I just want to get that out before I *finally* explain my Angel/Wes threesome issues cause I have a hard time expressing myself so that I am not misunderstood sometimes (like I don't really want to smack Xander, but I just want to *smack* him - see the difference?) and also none of what I am about to say it actually my idea - this is a lot of other people's ideas and this is just what I make of it.

And also - it is All About Angel. Just so you know going in. There is love for Wes individually. There is love for Spike individually (although that is mixed with wanting to smack - also, shake). BUT - for me - it is All About Angel. Even when it is about Lex. If the house was burning and I could only save one - I think we know who that would be.

Now if the house was burning and Wes and Spike are unconscious on the floor and I can only save one - well I'd probably have a nervous breakdown.

And I know who I would choose - but that is private and the reason I would choose him would have nothing to do with my feelings about him (be it as a person or a vampire) and everything to do with Angel.

Just like a good little cult member.

::smiles beautifically::

Now I am cutting to talk Threesome:

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Friday Night Drive-In

OMIGOD!! The vid recs this month at crack_van are actually really good vids like "Dante's Prayer" and "Jig of Life!"

I was thinking, earlier this month, that maybe vidding needed to be addressed as a small fandom in and of itself, since I think the valued aesthetic in it as a fandom is totally different than that of a nonvidder (or non-regular vid watcher).

I think - and this is not meant to devalue past recs - just my opinion (and I am an elitist bitch - says so right there on my icon) that a lot of the Friday Drive-In recs in the past have been made by people that are just either not that familiar with vidding as a whole and are just looking for that vid in their fandom that features *something* they like. And I can get that - where clips to music is pretty much what you are looking for and especially those clips you like watching. And that is great.

To me, not necessarily a great vid and for the most part I have been disappointed with the recs. I mean - I know of a ton of great vids out there that everyone should see -especially if you like vids for vids (and now I need to work on a rec's page - hee) and I think the format of crack van would work great for a month of rec's. But hey - 2 really great vids rec'd in a row today. I'm really good with this, too.