Red (Merlin vid)

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Vid
Title: Red
Creator: obsessive24
Date: 15 December 2008
Format: digital vid
Length: 3:37 min
Music: Red by Elbow
Genre: angst vid
Fandom: Merlin
Footage: S1
URL: Red (vid post on LJ)
screenshot of streaming version at BAM

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Red is a Merlin vid by obsessive24 that focuses on Arthur and his epic destiny. Characters/Pairing: Arthur character, Arthur/Merlin

Summary: "You burn too bright."

Author's notes:

I like to vid stories whose endings we already know. The "tragedy starting to happen" concept in particular echoes the shivers I got when I saw the episode title "The Beginning of the End". King Arthur is a hero story, but it's also one with a sad ending, and I tend to dwell on endings and have a hard time enjoying the heroic journey if I know it's all going to end badly. When I think about him mortally wounded and taken to Avalon, I can't imagine him recovering and frolicking around ever after; I think of him sinking slowly into the water. How lucky, then, that the show actually gave us that shot.
So we've all considered how not!faithful the show is to the Arthurian legend and then moved on to enjoy the crack. But one thing I do like about this show is how it continues to try to tie it back to the legend. Never mind the liberties taken - at the end of the day we still got Guinevere and Lancelot and Mordred and Excalibur all coming into this story at some point or another. And since I like my legends in context, that was the route I took with this vid.
Except for the slash, of course. One's gotta have the Ball of Burning Gay Love and the happy ending of the Daring Gay Lake Rescue. Hurrah![1]

The vid was posted on youtube by errantheel on December 28, 2008, but was it was removed soon after. millylicious created a banner and a wallpaper[1] for Red and deathisyourart wrote a long and detailed scene by scene and line by line analysis of the vid, illustrated with screencaps.[2]

Red won first place in the Camelot Music Video Awards in the categories Character - Arthur and Drama/Angst.

Recs and Reviews

Vid banner by millylicious

fiercynn says about it: "the Arthurian legend is, after all, a tragedy, and the characters of Merlin are already headed down that path. An absolutely beautiful vid, from song choice to the contrasting and parallel clips and everything."[3]

lorannah recommends it as: "Possibly the most ultimately epic Merlin vid, stunning and the first time I watched it, I felt like somebody had grabbed my heart and squeezed."[4]

giandujakiss: "Somehow, with only 13 episodes' worth of footage, the vidder manages to capture the entire Arthurian legend and lay Arthur's whole life out before him. Absolutely haunting."[5]

References

  1. ^ a b obsessive24. new vid - "Red" - Merlin - Arthur/Merlin, 15 December 2008. (Accessed 07 May 2010)
  2. ^ deathisyourart. You're A Tragedy Starting To Happen, 25 January 2009. (Accessed 07 May 2010); WebCite.
  3. ^ fiercynn. vid recs!, 28 April 2009. (Accessed 07 May 2010)
  4. ^ lorannah. "These are a few of my favourite vids...", 16 May 2009. (Accessed 07 May 2010)
  5. ^ giandujakiss. Monsters from the Vids - Recommendations, 15 December 2008. (Accessed 07 May 2010)