BSG Vid: Dolled-up in Straps (Baltar/HeadSix)

[beccatoria]

I'm not entirely sure whether this one counts as a 'shipper vid... o_O

Title: Dolled-up in Straps
Video: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Audio: All dolled-up in straps // The National
Summary: Gaius Baltar is a love letter to no one. (Baltar/HeadSix, Sixes)
Editor's Notes: As usual, my thanks to my beta cyborganize.

Direct download available here. RightClickSaveAs. 50 megs approx.

Password: vidses

Watch on Vimeo

Cross-posted to galactica_vids and vidding

Other vids available here

(In case you were wondering, yes, this does mark the beginning of my vidding obsession with The National; expect another vid and a vidlet hopefully before 4.5 starts. You know; it'll be nice to have my life back, BSG. :/ Maybe one day I'll even learn to vid things that aren't you...)

Comments

[millari.livejournal.com]

Heh, thanks. Yeah, that for me is Stockholm Syndrome moment numero uno in the Head!Six/Gaius dynamic. Number Two is the one where she makes him say that he loves her while under torture. Number Three is the imaginary baby in the Opera House, and number Four....

It just goes on and on, doesn't it? And I didn't even get to the one in Season 2 where she more or less pets him encouragingly while he compares watching the Galacticans to watching fish swimming desperately, almost pointlessly upstream.

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

Ignoring the rest of your very smart talk about this vid to dwell on technical stuff: Namely, I'm bookmarking that custom site because you know I was like "Damn Obi-Wan, how you do that glowy thing?" and to say that I have Vista and I don't think it's as problematic as people make it out to be. Granted I just got my version not long ago, so maybe they worked out the kinks, but as far as WMM goes...let's see I just finished my 7th vid and after #3 I've had (knocks on wood) no issues with crashing or pixellation or anything! I think it's down to a new codec package I downloaded at that time, but not sure. Also possibly I got smarter about the way I was pulling in episodes/clips.

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

Really nice Becka. Such wonderful editing and the fades are amazing in this. I wish I was a little more into Baltar/Caprica so I could go deeper but I'm really not (although I am liking him again in S4), so I'll just say this was lovely and well done.

I have to say too that the show has given so many truly beautiful shots of this duo, it must be really nice to have such pleasing aesthetic shots to work with. (Love my Kara, but the scenes she's in aren't quite as artistic.)

[daybreak777.livejournal.com]

If you don't mind my asking, how do you pull the eps in differently?

I'm still avoiding dealing with codecs. But it's getting annoying. I'm not even vidding but codecs are posing a problem with just watching some avis now.

:-( Now Windows Media Player wants to hate me! I just want to watch vids! DIVX player works. But still it's all weird to me.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. Me and the show are going to have LOTS of Words if Baltar's religion is shown to be right or I'm really supposed be believe he redeemed himself. Like you, I kind of love that he created -

AN ENTIRELY NEW RELIGION to justify his own actions and existence and to avoid taking any responsibility for ANYTHING, EVER

- but if that religion turns out to be true, there is no justice and I will weep.

I can't really explain why I didn't lose it with Baltar around the election like I did with the confession. Because you're right; and even at the time, I hated that he did it. I think partly it's the context surrounding those events. On the one side we have Gina where (before she got to Cloud 9 at least) he was at his most compassionate on a human level. I still think she's the only other person he's ever looked at and wanted to save just because she was hurting. Even if he couldn't tell that he was killing her, not having sex with her, in the season two finale. And on the other side we have Baltar during the Occupation. Where he was at his most broadly ethical. I mean, again, it was miniscule in comparison. But I actually don't think that Baltar made any reprehensible decisions as President under the Occupation. I really don't think he made the wrong decision to surrender, or even to sign those death warrants. Because if he didn't sign them, they'd shoot him and get a new puppet preside who would sign them within the hour and at least this way, everyone can concentrate on still hating him. Sure he didn't understand he was doing it so that all the sins stayed on one target but still...no other alternative was better given his options.

On the flip side I think that the decision to colonise the planet in the first place was treasonous and what he really should have been on trial for (had they evidence) because he knew there were still cylon agents in the Fleet for a fact and didn't tell anyone about them. So he wilfully endangered them all that way.

So again...I don't really have a meaningful response because I thought he was an awful, petulant dangerous child there too. But somehow it seems worse in The Hub. Maybe because even the election was self-aggrandisement but at least he was trying to fight for people's admiration (twistedly). By S4, he's just acting like he already has it. It's what makes that confession so sick; he's stopped actually behaving like a spoiled child throwing a temper tantrum (LOOK AT ME!) and started behaving like a boddhisatva while spouting the most twisted, heartless, thoughtless crap. Maybe I just felt that his selfishness with the election was more honest. Which doesn't make it better but makes it more anger-inducing and less horrific? Bah...I'll stop babbling now.

Finally re: HeadSix. I do understand where you're coming from. I think that I like her in spite of also seeing her as a manifestation of everything repulsive about Baltar as also being a manifestation of contempt for everything repulsive about Baltar. Sure, her goals are sickeningly pro-Baltar but she so often beats him up or treats him like the rotten kid he is. Though I don't think that's so much evidence of Baltar's self-awareness as of Baltar's massive subconscious genius. He's the king of denial, especially about himself, but he's also brilliant; he must know this somewhere.

And the other reason I love her is that I think she's also Baltar's way of subconsciously processing the data he has about the cylon and their goals and ways of thinking. So through her I really felt like we were learning more about the cylon attitude and views and religion and personality. And I still think she represents that even if it's less so now that we have actual cylons to show us this?

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Yay! I hope you enjoy it!

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

XD

Thank you! I'll definitely take GUH! ;)

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm really glad you like it. And don't worry; I know how it is when watching things that you aren't really "into". It's a different sort of appreciation, and thanks again for taking the time to leave me feedback.

And yes, you're right. There are some truly beautiful shots of Gaius and HeadSix in this show and it was fun to work with them.

Re: now, love, where have you been?

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

GUH.

Chalk up another one for the awesomeness of working through my character issues in vids and then making other people articulate them for me!

Basically your entire second paragraph is what I meant by "all the layers Tricia Helfer gives everything." Because yes. I mean, like I said, I kind of view Six's clapping as almost sarcastic, if only because, while she loves him and wants to see him glorious, there's also usually an element of "Dammit Gaius I have to do everything myself."

So like maybe I didn't mean sarcastic so much as smug and superior because look her pet project worked and yeah, like you said how horrifying is it?

Except you said it a millionty times smarter and basically articulated what I was going for when I realised that Six clapping over Gaius having fucked himself over so totally he's gonna bleed to death was totally where the vid needed to end. Cus yeah; to me it's sarcastic. But in the little HeadSix/Gaius paradigm it's the HeadSix grinning as Baltar claims to be the Hand of God or glancing approvingly at Tory as Baltar claims he's perfect.

And *blush* you're too nice. An epic end-of-BSG list of vid recs sounds like a great idea. I may have to steal it. :)

I'm not too nice, I simply acknowledge excellence :p

Also YES STEAL THE IDEA. We totally need to start a reccing meme...

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I'm glad that the HeadSix/CapricaSix connection makes sense to someone other than me, and that you think I managed to capture the Gaius/HeadSix relationship in the vid. Like nicole_anell, I feel like you really capture what was going on in that scene. It's also so beautifully filmed; I was really glad to be able to use so much of it. It's the quintessential, "Love, where have you been?" moment. So desperate and unhealthy.

Thanks again for the feedback!

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

Re: pulling the eps...I meant that I've been more careful about keeping my collection folder pretty clean and excising the "extra" bits of episodes and clips that I really am not using.

Re: now, love, where have you been?

[nicole-anell.livejournal.com]

Here to help! :p Glad that my reading fits what you were going for.

[nicole-anell.livejournal.com]

the imaginary baby in the Opera House
Gah, the way his face lights UP.

He says "I love you" under torture-sex and he *means* it, is what gets me. He means it.

[emmiere.livejournal.com]

For me, that was the first gut-punch moment in the vid so I really thought it worked. And the roll call of all the Sixes there is a really nice contrast to HeadSix.

What I really came back to say was how well after rewatching (um, maybe a few times...) the separation between Baltar and reality seems to come through. Especially at about the 2:00 mark, with the switch from "my head plays it over, and over" to him literally using HeadSix as his escape. There's that dichotomy throughout the vid, but it really struck me there. So, I think I enjoy this even more now, picking up on some of the moments that I missed earlier.

And I'm definitely going to snag that glowy effect, so I'm glad you posted the link to that.

[0mindthegap0.livejournal.com]

I really loved this. Especially the disclaimer about whether or not you could even call it a shipper vid. : D BSG's never really made me want to ship any of the characters, but it is so much fun to watch the incredibly fucked up relationships like Six/Balter or, say, Leoben and Kara.

Your vid really shows how much Head!Six has been able to shape Gaius for her own purposes. Through him she has an astounding amount of influence in the fleet for someone who isn't even, you know, corporeal. And you just might feel sympathy for Baltar, but he's just so weak and perverse enough to perceive this as love that it's just kind of pathetic and sad.

And yet it's all still so horribly, perversely, romantic. : D

[txlsplash.livejournal.com]

This is amazing! The song is beautiful and fits with Baltar/Six in a way I haven't seen before. I love it!

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Yay! It's always so nice to hear that people enjoyed a vid. Thanks for taking the time to let me know.

I agree with you about BSG not being a shippy show for me. There have been a few characters I've 'shipped I suppose, but those have never been canon ships and they certainly weren't a reason that I would watch, they were just another series of interesting intercharacter relationships that were interesting, like the characters themselves or the plot. Usually I'm a die-hard romantic, so I'm certainly the first to be surprised at expressing sentiments that sound snobbish about shipping (nor do I think it's an invalid reason to enjoy the show), but for me the show just feels...bigger than that somehow?

Also: HEE! I'd totally never thought about how much proxy influence she had even though she doesn't exist! I should have thought of it in those terms, but hadn't. How marvelous! XD

I'm also glad that you kind of get my ambivalence about Baltar. Like you say, his situation is both sympathetic and pathetic. I'm sad for him and disgusted at the same time. :/

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you! And thank you for taking the time to let me know. I'm really pleased you connected with it and that it showed you something new; that's a very high compliment. Thank you!

[frolicndetour.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, this is amazing. You made me feel such sympathy for Baltar - which, now that I've read through some of the comments, maybe wasn't quite what you were going for, which is funny because I'm not much of a Baltar-fan. But I thought this really got at the ways in which he's controlled by his own illusions - self-created though they may be. I can't really single out a favorite part, because it's all so perfectly chilling - oh wait, the very end with the slow clap as he bleeds out would have to be it. :D Brilliant work!

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you! It's been fascainting watching the different responses to this. Certainly a lot of this vid was due to my anger at Baltar in S4.5 but at the same time, there is sympathy for him. That's the irritating genius of the show/character. They made their villain into a guy in a really pathetic and sympathy-inducing situation, played against the fact that...how much sympathy can we have if it's his fault he's in that situation?

And now I'm rambling which is to say, thank you for your feedback. I'm not sure what I make of Baltar these days either which is probably why the vid brings out such mixed responses. ;)

[dualbunny.livejournal.com]

Really really really enjoyed this! :D Everything moved so fluidly through his history with the Sixes, as well as purely on a visual level. I really adored the look of the transitions you used, and they created so many new visual combinations.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Great to hear it worked on a visual as well as a thematic level - I really wanted some of the sections in the vid to look beautiful, like...deceptively smooth and pretty kind of like Six herself, so I'm glad you enjoyed it on that level.

Thanks for taking the time to leave feedback; I really appreciate it!

[lexlemon.livejournal.com]

Great song choice! You've really fit the clips well to the feel of the music. And great timing! Excellent job =)

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

I found this amazing and brilliant and very intense!

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! :D