Bleed to Love Her

Vid
Title:	Dante's Prayer
Creator:	Killa and T. Jonesy
Date:	2001??
Format:	Best Destiny Songtape #6
Length:
Music:	"Bleed to Love Her" by Fleetwood Mac
Genre:
Fandom:	Star Trek
Footage:
URL:
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A classic Star Trek: TOS vid by Killa and T. Jonesy to the song "Bleed to Love Her" by Fleetwood Mac. It was one of the first songvids they edited together.

Summary: Kirk discovers what's really important.

The vid was selected to appear in the 2004 Vividcon show Literalism vs. Metaphor and appeared on the WOAD Society songtape collections.

Vidder's Notes

From the WOAD Society songtape:

"T. Jonesy: This song made me want to run out and buy a video editing setup. The minute that I heard it, I thought it was the perfect song for TWOK. Some day I think I would like to recut this, but overall it was a pretty good first video for me.

Killa: I think T. Jonesy first played this song for me some time around 1996. This was entirely her vision, and her first vid. Wowza. My contribution was largely cheer leading, and technical assistance."

Reactions and Reviews

This song was written for Jim Kirk, pure and simple. The “her” is of course the Enterprise. Kirk loves his ship with a passion that knows no bounds. Music and scenes are faultlessly combined. “Once again she calls to me” and “She takes my breath away” for example are paired with scenes of Kirk examining the ship from ST I and II. “Somebody’s got to sacrifice/If this whole thing’s gonna turn out right” follows Spock from the bridge to engineering as he gives his life for his ship and his crewmates.

Finally Kirk understands the price he must pay for what he loves; he must “bleed to love her.”

The vid is done with professional quality, each image clear and distinct and timed perfectly to match the music.

A work of art.

"My Desert Island Vid, my favourite vid in any fandom. (And when I show it to people they tend to shrug and go, "Eh.") But if this is your thing, if these themes are your themes, maybe you'll like this one as much as I do. (When I see it mentioned by anyone, I always think, "There is someone with fine, fine taste!")

The first half showcases Kirk's love for his ship: he loves her, he'd bleed to love her. But then Khan enters the picture, and the music changes, and it becomes clear that he's going to have to.

I can't imagine any events that could fit the song better than the story that's told in this vid. It's the perfect story, told to the perfect song, in a visually stunning, perfectly timed way. This vid gives me chills, gets me rocking from side to side in the chair and clapping my hands if I watch it on the computer and on my feet if I watch it on the television. Kirk's face at the beginning, as he gazes at the Enterprise. The Enterprise moving across space. Spock doing what he had to do. Kirk's face at the end, as he contemplates the price he's just paid. I understand that this was these extremely accomplished vidders' first collaboration and I don't see how they could ever improve on this perfection!"

"Oh, that's a beautiful description of Bleed to Love Her. The one by them that slays me is The Man's Too Strong (or whatever they called it) - I get all misty when I watch it - the way just the sight of them young and energetic and together and believing they're right becomes a tragedy compared to the later years, and the way Spock's whole life is devotion to Kirk. As you say, it's a matter of which themes push your buttons the most."

" And, OMG, "Bleed to Love Her."

See, this is where I confess - until I started watched ST vids, I had never seen any ST. (I have now seen an episode - what we might term the Ultimate Slash Episode - and part of another one, which from what I could tell was mostly about whales. Oh, and part of the one with tribbles.) I didn't know who Kirk was and all I knew about Spock was that he had pointy ears and that people used to call me that when I was younger. (And that did not precisely make me like him, since it certainly was not meant as a compliment.) BB had to narrate everything that happened in the first ST vids I watched - I mean, I didn't know what was happening in the one scene where (um, is it safe to spoil this show now?) Spock, shall we say, does a Daniel Jackson, and understanding that scene is kind of key to many vids, including this one.

But even with all those handicaps, I love Killa's ST vids. And I love "Bleed to Love Her." It's gorgeous, and you're right - it tells the story so well. And rewatching it now, I really get this vid, get the sacrifices Kirk makes, get the emotion of it all.

(And I have to say - out of all the vids I've ever watched, I've only ever seen what I could interpret as sincere emotion in Kirk's body when he's dealing with the Enterprise or when he's dealing with Spock. I love that Killa and Jonesy showcase and juxtapose those so perfectly in this vid.) "