Vague meta on post-BSG-finale production and general rambling.

[beccatoria]

You guys, it's been like a week since I posted here. That's crazy. But really nothing has happened. I didn't get that cool job I wanted so blah. But at least I have a part-time typing job in the meantime that I don't hate and in this economy I'm lucky to have that.

Also I am SO TIRED and already tried going to bed once, but it didn't work. So instead I'm here. LUCKY YOU.

As to my title, well...

I was mostly just wondering if you guys agreed with me. It...seems to me that in the wake of the finale, fan-production has really slowed down. After the initial flood of post-finale realistic-on-earth fic and stuff I mean. Which is to be expected; canon is closed and all. But...my limited previous experience about ends of fandoms is that there's a longer "OMG NOW WE CAN PLAY EVERYWHERE!" buzz.

I admit that I don't really read much fic so like...I'm not in the best position to judge. It's not like I really pay attention to the_wireless or anything. So...probably I'm crazy. But I do pay slightly more attention to vids.

And I've noticed:

1) vid production was down in general from what it was during seasons two and three that's been true all season and I think probably during season 4 too. It think, sad as it may be to admit it, our fandom just shrunk.

2) the vids that have been published are nowhere near as finale- or whole-journey-centric as I was expecting. Again, this is potentially just my bias and the fact I'm no longer quite as "I'LL WATCH EVERYTHING!" as I once was. And there have been a few, like, Laura vids for instance that are about her whole storyline and I just don't have the heart to watch them. So it's possible again, my sample is biased. But honestly, the couple of times I've geared myself up to watch a vid with spoilers through the finale, the vids themselves seem to be...often very Battlestar-Redactica-compatible. I mean, they aren't. Because often you get the epic shots of people in fields on Earth at an End Point, or Ships Sailing At The Sun. Or Adama Addressing Everyone in the Hangar Deck. But...I find the vids surprisingly consistant in the storylines they choose to not show or not address. It's perhaps less surprising that they don't wallow in the events of Deadlock or Tyrol's murderous Eight Killing Spree. But I have been surprised that inclusion of Daybreak is so limited. Sometimes the included element is Kara jumping the ship. Or maybe it's the five on the catwalk. But...the shots are almost always so...

It's probably my bias but it's almost like the vids are, as a favour to me, performing their own miniature Battlestar Redactica treatment. "Sure, we're ending with the people on Earth because that's a lovely endpoint image, but let's not really spend any time on HOW they get there. They just do and it probably wasn't as lame as it was on the show." Or, "Sure, Kara jumps them SOMEWHERE but let's cut away before we really get into where." Or, "Yeah so the shot of the ships in front of the sun is pretty, but they could totally just be flying past it."

I guess I'm just kind of surprised (and relieved) that even if it's just my bias, I really feel that there's an odd lack of vids that are interested in just generally retelling the story of 4.5 and are oddly self-regulating in just...not mentioning the crap bits? Unlike post Revelations or Crossroads or LDYB when EVERY VID EVER would just be ALL ABOUT the story arc that got them there? Rather than just the final image and a kind of moratorium on spending too much time on what came before?

/craziness.

Anyway, is that just me?

Comments

[frolicndetour.livejournal.com]

That's very interesting. I don't watch enough videos to really say, but from my small corner I was just thinking that I haven't seen any vids that offer a comprehensive take on Kara's story the way there have been for all the other seasons. It's too bad from my perspective, because that's one of the only aspects of 4.5 that I'm currently interested in coming to terms with. ;) I would also like to see more vids like "Loved Her to Ribbons," which take apart the Fail. (Like, I would love to commission an angry feminist take on Tyrol and All His Women, speaking of angry killing sprees. Because, seriously.)

So I haven't seen much, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. I also haven't watched certain vids that I could tell were going to make me too sad, so I'm similarly biased.

I don't want the fandom to die yet. :(

[emmiere.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you've seen this Kara vid, but it's almost completely season 4 through the finale and very destiny driven. More than a little sad because it's very isolating.

[frolicndetour.livejournal.com]

NO, I was actually thinking as I was typing that I had still not watched that one. I'll definitely give it a try. (Even though I'd also like to see one that focuses more on her connections to people and how they developed/resolved. Even Billmo, possibly. ;p)

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

I love that vid - although as I say above, I kind of include it in my list of vids that Use-The-Finale-But-Not-Really. Because the vidder doesn't ever let Kara get to Earth. The only stuff of her in the finale we see is her plotting the jump, devoid of context and a very confused, almost creepy shot of her as they jump into Earth a planet. And the decision to then cut away from that and instead show her burning her own corpse on Earth seems like a strong statement about the strongest parts of her story, what they were, and the coherency of it? I mean basically the vid does not acknowledge the POOF or any of the "God just did it" mytharc end that...really pertains to character's story arc as much as it pertains to anything? Which is interesting?

[emmiere.livejournal.com]

I kind of include it in my list of vids that Use-The-Finale-But-Not-Really.

No, I think it fits perfectly into that category. Unlike you, I didn't draw the connection to arriving Earth as something more sinister, but I'm now kind of fascinated by the possibilities in your interpretation, which I think is fully supported by the vid. But I do think you can also fit this into canon Kara POV, since the strongest non-angelic theme was Earth=Kara's end. So I didn't really view it as separated from the arc of the show, but more that it was focused so exclusively on Kara that actual Earth was an unnecessary addition since it's never for her. It's a much stronger climax and end to her journey with fire rather than disappearing in a field. Regardless, it's only vid I've seen that comes closest to reclaiming Kara's story per prolix_allie's wish.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Well, I think that it came across as creepy to me only because it was so strongly rooted in Kara's POV and as you say, the reading of Earth as Kara's end. I guess I figure any planet that leaves Kara with that look of fear/awe/dread and causes us to literally not see what happens next but instead cut back to her burning her own body must be frakking awesome but probably also a little sinister?

It's interesting that simply by refusing to include that scene on Earth that tries to make us see Kara's end as serene and somehow fulfilled, it puts such a different tone on her storyline. Or perhaps it's not surprising since that was the much more consistant tone before that one end scene?

Basically you're right, this is the only vid I've scene that reclaims Kara's story, and I think it does it fantastically. But it also does it by pointedly deciding not to include the actual endpoint to her story and saying that the penultimate part of it makes a better endpoint?

/random musings.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

I completely second emmiere's recommendation of that Kara vid and I think you'd actually like it mainly because it's...almost entirely Redactica-compatible if you take the whole "and eventually they get to some planet under entirely different circumstances due to a BETTER mytharc" view. Because basically the only stuff we see of her in the finale is the actual moment she jumps the ship and inputs the co-ordinates. Which in itself was kind of cool. And the vidder makes the fantastic decision to show her quiet, terrified, "What the frak have I done," look, then cut to Galactica floating over the moon, then end the vid with Kara burning her own body on NukedEarth (which I still stubbornly insist should have been the only one but whatever!)

So like...there is NOTHING positive about getting to Earth in this vid. It's creepy, eerie, compelling, and the vidder posits that moment of uncertainty as the real end to Kara's story then moves the final narrative beat back to her being stuck burning her own body. It takes it from "OHYAY ANGEL!" and returns it to the far darker, lovecraftian weirdness they kept hinting at for the earlier part of the season. And now I'll stop babbling. But really, it's a very good vid, but not one I consider at odds with my theory above?

I would like more FAIL vids too. I think the problem is finding a way to definitely classify the thing as a FAIL vid. Which is what makes Loved Her to Ribbons so genius; it's clear presentation of that.

I'm also now torn between wanting to find a song that would let me vid FailTyrol as an angry feminist, thinking it couldn't be done because people who liked the storyline would think I was seriously giving it attention as a "dark" and "edgy" storyline and being TERRIFIED of doing it because I'd have to rewatch the EVOL TORY KILLING which I just... That may actually be the grossest thing in the entire finale.

I don't want the fandom to die yet. :(

*clings to you*

LET'S NOT LET IT.

[frolicndetour.livejournal.com]

I would like more FAIL vids too. I think the problem is finding a way to definitely classify the thing as a FAIL vid. Which is what makes Loved Her to Ribbons so genius; it's clear presentation of that.

YES. I think someone should do one with the characters in the show commenting on the show and their own storylines, though I have no idea if that's at all feasible. I just have this vision of Tory puking in reaction to the boys on safari shot. ;) Or the corpse-bride scene. I can't decide!

I'm also now torn between wanting to find a song that would let me vid FailTyrol as an angry feminist, thinking it couldn't be done because people who liked the storyline would think I was seriously giving it attention as a "dark" and "edgy" storyline and being TERRIFIED of doing it because I'd have to rewatch the EVOL TORY KILLING which I just... That may actually be the grossest thing in the entire finale.

I imagine it would be hard to make a Tory-vid that focused on material from 4.5 because none of it was from her POV. I think that one line from Ellen about how she never could be alone was the closest we got to being invited to feel sympathy for her. Meh. I almost think it would be easier to focus the vid more on Tyrol and his agency in the whole Boomer/Chief/Cally/Tory quadrangle of DOOM. Because it kind of kills me that of those four, he's the one character that we're supposed to really feel sympathy for. Even though I can feel some sympathy for him if I try hard enough, but just ... no.

LET'S NOT LET IT.

No ma'am! *resolved*