Vid rec: The Ballad of Wesley Crusher
Oh wow, it's been nearly 3 years since I last posted. And the last post I made was a vid rec too.
Maybe a quick re-introduction is in order: Hi, I'm Shadowscast. I used to be in fandom. Then I had a kid.
(It's not just the kid; it's the kid and the job and the two and a half hours of daily commuting, along with the fact that at age 36 I really can't function anymore on less than eight hours of sleep.)
Anyway, I've gone from being actively fannish to being rather more passively fannish. I go on the occasional fic-reading binge in one fandom or another, mostly after getting caught up on some show several months (or years) after everybody else. I've made a real-life friend who's fannish, and she's really into vids, so I watch vids sometimes with her.
And tonight I decided to browse the most recent Festivids entries, and I found this one that really spoke to me, and I decided: hey, why not make a post?
The vid in question is The Ballad of Wesley Crusher, and it's by Jetpack Monkey.
Here's the comment I made at the post:
Oh man, this vid gave me feelings.
So let me just say, I was 13 in 1990, and nerdy and unpopular and lonely, and I loved Wesley Crusher. I fantasized about living on the Enterprise and being his friend and having adventures together. I didn't know about fandom yet, so I didn't know that Wesley was generally hated-I found out years later, and was surprised and saddened but at least by then I was old enough and had grown into myself enough that I didn't take it as (much of) a personal blow.
And now I'm 36, and I have perspective, and I understand about stories, and I understand why people hated Wesley.
This vid makes my heart ache for him, and for my 13-year-old self. The sweaters, oh lord the sweaters.
And I am so grateful for the story you tell here, of his arc, of how Starfleet really wasn't the right place for him at all, and how the ending, his strange departure from the show (which I had no idea how to parse at all, when it aired) can be read as a coming-of-age story, an escape from a life which is unsuitable to one which is a much better fit. (And I bet there are an awful lot of us in fandom who can identify with that.)
So, thanks for much for sharing this vid! I'm going to go watch it again now.
Comments at Dreamwidth:
Maybe a quick re-introduction is in order: Hi, I'm Shadowscast. I used to be in fandom. Then I had a kid.
(It's not just the kid; it's the kid and the job and the two and a half hours of daily commuting, along with the fact that at age 36 I really can't function anymore on less than eight hours of sleep.)
Anyway, I've gone from being actively fannish to being rather more passively fannish. I go on the occasional fic-reading binge in one fandom or another, mostly after getting caught up on some show several months (or years) after everybody else. I've made a real-life friend who's fannish, and she's really into vids, so I watch vids sometimes with her.
And tonight I decided to browse the most recent Festivids entries, and I found this one that really spoke to me, and I decided: hey, why not make a post?
The vid in question is The Ballad of Wesley Crusher, and it's by Jetpack Monkey.
Here's the comment I made at the post:
Oh man, this vid gave me feelings.
So let me just say, I was 13 in 1990, and nerdy and unpopular and lonely, and I loved Wesley Crusher. I fantasized about living on the Enterprise and being his friend and having adventures together. I didn't know about fandom yet, so I didn't know that Wesley was generally hated-I found out years later, and was surprised and saddened but at least by then I was old enough and had grown into myself enough that I didn't take it as (much of) a personal blow.
And now I'm 36, and I have perspective, and I understand about stories, and I understand why people hated Wesley.
This vid makes my heart ache for him, and for my 13-year-old self. The sweaters, oh lord the sweaters.
And I am so grateful for the story you tell here, of his arc, of how Starfleet really wasn't the right place for him at all, and how the ending, his strange departure from the show (which I had no idea how to parse at all, when it aired) can be read as a coming-of-age story, an escape from a life which is unsuitable to one which is a much better fit. (And I bet there are an awful lot of us in fandom who can identify with that.)
So, thanks for much for sharing this vid! I'm going to go watch it again now.
Comments at Dreamwidth: