Meme reminder and Serenity-related link
The Great Vidding Truth Meme is still going strong! (And will be open indefinitely, so those of you going to Escapade, you can still comment next week. :) ) Vidders, feel free to put down your names. Everyone (vidders and vid-watchers alike), come on over and comment anonymously. I am tickled by how resoundingly calm it's been so far; I personally have received some excellent concrit that I'm looking forward to exploring further. As long as we keep the rudeness out of it, these vidders are signing up to purposefully open themselves to concrit, so don't be afraid.
There is a recap up of Serenity over at Television Without Pity. Jacob - one of my favorite recappers - is the one who did it, and it's not that he gives the movie a tongue bath, it's that he's thoughtful and intelligent in his critique and his love, and he found things I had missed. It's not just a good recap, it's an excellent read. Here's an example:
Mal, stricken, steps aside to let Simon investigate her. Outside, Jayne submits that if she "goes woolly again, we're gonna have to put a bullet to her." Split-screen Mal and River, both speaking the line: "It's crossed my mind." There's a significance to the Watcher/Slayer relationship here that brings the Gollum stuff back in, which is basically that she serves as an anima projection that carries the shadow. I promise that I won't bring up the Jung stuff after this, but it's another angle on the central conflict of the movie, which is that the violence of Mal's anger at the shackles of the Alliance is expressed wildly through the outward violence she implies, the "meddling" that she, and her brother Reavers, embody. Like Giles, he exists at cross-purposes to the prosperous governing body, the wizards, who only want to send her out like Ariel, lion of God, to do their bidding -- but he doesn't agree with that either. So what do you do with a tool you're bound to protect, if you can't use it the way you're supposed to? From the First Slayer on, it's the girl -- the super-powered girl -- that carries the demon, so that the Watcher doesn't have to. But if she becomes a danger to the society she exists to create/patrol, where does that leave the Watcher? He can't kill her -- she's part of his soul. She's the psyche, the butterfly. This is a story about how they're inextricably bound, and about how Mal has to protect her, without controlling her. To hold the butterfly in his hand without crushing it. Not because he hates the Alliance, but because he loves her. If he can make that work, he'll know salvation, but if he ever figures out that balance within himself, he will know grace.
Seriously. If you enjoyed the movie, go read the recap, even if you never read TWoP. This is totally worth it.
There is a recap up of Serenity over at Television Without Pity. Jacob - one of my favorite recappers - is the one who did it, and it's not that he gives the movie a tongue bath, it's that he's thoughtful and intelligent in his critique and his love, and he found things I had missed. It's not just a good recap, it's an excellent read. Here's an example:
Mal, stricken, steps aside to let Simon investigate her. Outside, Jayne submits that if she "goes woolly again, we're gonna have to put a bullet to her." Split-screen Mal and River, both speaking the line: "It's crossed my mind." There's a significance to the Watcher/Slayer relationship here that brings the Gollum stuff back in, which is basically that she serves as an anima projection that carries the shadow. I promise that I won't bring up the Jung stuff after this, but it's another angle on the central conflict of the movie, which is that the violence of Mal's anger at the shackles of the Alliance is expressed wildly through the outward violence she implies, the "meddling" that she, and her brother Reavers, embody. Like Giles, he exists at cross-purposes to the prosperous governing body, the wizards, who only want to send her out like Ariel, lion of God, to do their bidding -- but he doesn't agree with that either. So what do you do with a tool you're bound to protect, if you can't use it the way you're supposed to? From the First Slayer on, it's the girl -- the super-powered girl -- that carries the demon, so that the Watcher doesn't have to. But if she becomes a danger to the society she exists to create/patrol, where does that leave the Watcher? He can't kill her -- she's part of his soul. She's the psyche, the butterfly. This is a story about how they're inextricably bound, and about how Mal has to protect her, without controlling her. To hold the butterfly in his hand without crushing it. Not because he hates the Alliance, but because he loves her. If he can make that work, he'll know salvation, but if he ever figures out that balance within himself, he will know grace.
Seriously. If you enjoyed the movie, go read the recap, even if you never read TWoP. This is totally worth it.