Birthday Vid Rec: Boy With a Coin [TSCC]

[beccatoria]

OMGS YOU GUYS. So, today I turn 28, and feel REALLY, REALLY OLD because I have now been an adult for a decade, but frankly the best part of today was the presents and this vid that chaila43 made me in TOTAL SECRECY (for real, I feel very naive now but somehow I did not suspect), ranks right up there with the Green Lantern and Flash sneakers I got.

So -

Boy With a Coin by chaila43

This vid is gorgeous. It's about Ellison and his kids - Savannah and John Henry. His robot son and the girl with the robot mother. His confusion and adaptation and search for guidance and direction. Anyone who knows me and my thoughts on this show knows that I love James Ellison, but usually my expression of this is directed towards how hot like burning he is when he circles Sarah in literal and metaphorical ways. But he's also hella interesting on his own terms and I've always really respected the show for giving him space to have his own storyline independent of Sarah and the Connors, though of course, related and influenced via the web of cause and effect that permeates the show.

A lot of criticism got thrown his way throughout the show's run for not siding more decisively with Sarah or not realising Weaver was a robot, but I always had a different reaction - a real love and appreciation for his calm, quiet, impassive determination to make his own choices, and to make good ones. I'm not saying he always succeeded in that, but I do believe that when he failed it was only because of information he didn't have, not a flaw in his reasoning.

I think that's part of why I love the narrative this vid deals in - Ellison as caretaker, as guide, as someone fully aware of his own responsibilities to these others, and seeking guidance, in turn, from God about the best course of action.

Religious iconography mixes with killer robots. Chess mingles with rubber duckies. Education mingles with war.

The song is insistent and enduring and strange. The visuals are beautiful, the editing is skillfully simple in the way it catches movements and moments and shuffles them together like a series of considerations - like a prayer for guidance.

Really, guys, it's really good, go check it out.

Comments

[chaila.livejournal.com]

BLESS YOU, this is awesome. I have shivers of glee.

Basically everything you say! It's pretty obvious that Sarah is my girl and I have massive affection for Sarah/Ellison, but I do really find Ellison deeply fascinating in his own right, and in many ways, the most complex character of them all. His story and perspective (along with, obviously, Weaver, and, in a different way, Jesse) really widens the lens of the show and makes all the questions more complex in really fascinating ways. I'm so happy the narrative of him as both guide and one seeking guidance is in the vid! I absolutely adore how much he wants to do the right thing, and make the right decision, but just can't KNOW what that is or whether he's really doing it, but still just moves forward in the way he thinks is best anyway. But those things are kind of hard to convey visually. (I also don't understand the criticism of him, because I think half the point is that he (and everyone else) can only make decisions based on the information they have and the possibilities they can even imagine. But whatever!)

shuffles them together like a series of considerations

THANK YOU FOR ARTICULATING THAT. Omg. I struggled so hard to articulate to pellucid what I was trying to do, and how I was trying to keep it as an *Ellison* vid despite sections devoted to Savannah and John Henry. I was more or less able to, I think, but never in a way that seemed to accurately describe the method, even to me. But yes, THIS. Whew. I feel better. :D

Mostly though, yaaaay, so glad you like it and HAPPY BIRTHDAY! :D

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

YES, BASICALLY I FLAIL AT ELLISON. AND EVERYTHING YOU SAID. Cus he does just add so much to the show in ways I think are easy to miss at first, but without him, there's so much we'd never see or get to think about.

I'm also SUPER GLAD that the sentence about the series of considerations makes sense because when I was typing it, I shit you not, my thought was, "I am not sure anyone else will understand what the hell I mean by that; is it even grammatically coherent? But it is EXACTLY WHAT I MEAN!"

Also I think it really DOES work as an Ellison vid via John Henry and Savannah. I appreciate the fears inherent in vidding around someone or about someone via something else, because, as you know, it's something I do too sometimes and then worry about, but I definitely never doubted this was about him.

I WANT TO YELL SOMETHING EXCITING BACK AT YOU BUT IT'S NOT YOUR BIRTHDAY.

HAPPY UNBIRTHDAY!