BSG Vid: About Today (Bill Adama and his family)

[beccatoria]

Title: About Today
Video: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Audio: About Today - The National
Spoilers: Through 4x11 Sometimes a Great Notion.
Summary: "Nobody's going anywhere." Except they are, and they do, and Bill Adama either doesn't or won't understand how to make it stop. (Kara, Lee, Laura, Saul.)
Editor's Notes: With thanks to chaila43 and grrl_unscripted for the beta and the wonderful pro- and anti-Adama perspectives.

I don't usually do this; usually I want the vid to stand alone, and if it can't, that's my failing. In this instance, since everyone and their dog and their mum knows that I strongly dislike Bill Adama and his stupid face, and now I'm suddenly popping up with a vid about him, I ought to do some amount of explanation.

This vid did not change my opinion of him one bit. But I'm not actually setting out to change your opinion of him one bit either.

If this vid rails against anything, it's not against the people who like Adama, it's against the image of a flawless, heroic Adama, that I too often feel the show and perhaps some sections of fandom, succumb to.

To say that this is "just the facts, ma'am," would be arrogant in the extreme. I don't presume to be unobjective in this. But what I am at least trying to do here is take a step back from my own anger toward him, and present him in the most unbiased way I can.

I see this man, inflexible, passive, watching as all the people he loves get hurt again and again and again, unwilling or unable to really understand why or how to help - I see him and I want to smack him in the mouth.

Some of you may see him and feel sympathy. Some might see him and feel indifference. And that's okay. I'm trying, with this vid, to make a statement about who I think he is, not how I think people should feel about him.

At least, I hope. And I hope you enjoy the video too.

Direct download available here. RightClickSaveAs. 50 megs approx.

Password: vidses

Watch on Vimeo

Cross-posted to galactica_vids and vidding

Other vids available here.

Comments

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I completely understand why this was not a good vid for you to beta. I'm still not entirely certain it was even a good vid for me to make, but I am inordinately pleased that you took the time to watch it because really, I know that under most circumstances you'd run screaming from this type of vid and it means a lot to me that you did. And also, obviously, that you think the intention behind the vid succeeds.

I think I wanted to vid Bill for completeness and also because I have such strong feelings about him, it wouldn't be right leave him as a void in my vid catalogue. But at the same time, it would in some ways be too easy to just make a vid that rails against what a terrible person he is. I think for many it would be too dismissable? Maybe that's the real reason I needed to do this. If I can make a serious, and ostensibly unbiased vid that supports the fact that he's a giant emo douchebag, I feel I've accomplished something more important than essentially another rant about how he's a terrible father?

/self-important vidder ramblings.

I'm also unreasonably pleased that you like the coda. I was very taken with it at first - the way the images unravel with the song, but later I began to panic it went by too quickly.

Thank you again for such thoughtful feedback.