Darla Vid: Too Hot for Drumstep

[quinara]

I love Darla and I love AtS S2 - though sometimes I fear not for the reasons that were intended. (Anyone who has the (mis?)fortune to watch Redefinition with me can attest to the hysterics I descend into when watching Angel chat about how he 'isn't ready' and do his silly little pull ups...) There are, however, certain things that irk me - the end of The Trial for one, when Darla might as well be playing Angel's wank fantasy of a saved maiden. That's not the story I see at all!

And so I mixed it up a bit.

Too Hot for Drumstep.

Warnings for quick flashing images and pushing Angel's 15 rating quite hard - sex, violence and combinations of the two; issues of suicide.

"I thought, if I could save you, I'd somehow save myself."

Fuck that.

[AtS + Wondawulf (vs. Ella Fitzgerald) 'Too Hot for Drumstep']
[Hi-Def Stream and download link - see it shinier!]

Wondawulf, BTW, is a DJ/producer from Budapest, who is fab - check him out on Soundcloud!

Comments

[quinara]

But later it becomes clear that, while they're both tiny blondes, Buffy uses honourable, hale male tools to achieve her goals (violence and strategy and cleverness), Darla uses female tools like lying, looking sexy/innocent and, egads, guns.

Oh, yes, you're very right about this. I always take the talk about Buffy's power being routed in masculinity with a pinch of salt, because I wonder what the line is between things proving 'masculinity' and just 'having power' (/the confidence to express power) - and I've never quite worked it out. But when she's set against Darla, then the masculine/feminine divide definitely comes out, because they're technically physical equals.

actually, her no-makeup-overlarge-sweatshirt manipulation of Lindsey really delighted me

Me too! That scene of her in Redefinition, I think, when she's hiding out at Lindsey's apartment looking all fey and weak and white, only to roll her eyes at the cosseting and paw through Lindsey's files? I love that scene.

[laeria]

I always take the talk about Buffy's power being routed in masculinity with a pinch of salt, ... [b]ut when she's set against Darla, then the masculine/feminine divide definitely comes out, because they're technically physical equals.

Oh, I'm so relieved you got that. I generally dislike assertations that Buffy's storyline is male, because there's nothing 'innately male' about getting to make quips, having broody love interests and sacrificing oneself to save the world a lot. The main reason, I think, that more men than women seem to get that kind of story is tradition.

Now, it's also tradition to cast women as temtpresses, backstabbers, bringers of corruption (which is Darla's basic job description on BtVS), but it also reflects a widespread social paranoia. Most women get accused of being manipulative at some point, I think. So her story IS more 'innately female', in a sense, and it's she's the very person women are told they must abhor while simultaneously being prompted to try to become. (You know, "good girls never use sex for anything" vs "7 Ways to Get Your Hubby to Do What You Want".)

And I love AtS forever for making Darla a sympathetic (though still evil) character rather than a caricature of maligned feminity created just so Buffy could fight it. (And ultimately not beat, interestingly. I still think that killing Darla was one of the creepiest things Angel ever did, circumstances nonwithstanding. Not wrong or out-of-character necessarily, just chilling, and probably somewhat messed up on a thematical level.)