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

[laeria]

Oh, Darla. Brilliant music choice, brilliant narration. I don't get Darla, except in pieces, but I love the statements I think you made about her self-image: that it's a consciously-build deeply cynical tool that works (not like Spike and Dru's hearty hipsterness, nor Angel's clueless clinging to being Broody) which has little to do with expressing herself except in the sense that she's drawn to beauty and understands its power and makes herself beautiful so she could be more powerful. So, you pegged that. Also, the hilariously horrible tendency of men to use her as a tugging-rope, a mirror, trophy, whatever - something she's mildly irked by, I think - but I'm not sure. How do you think she relates to the fact?

So. I really love that this shows the pragmatic self-building side of her but also the temporically-dislocated (damn, your music choice rocks) "who even am I?" side. Probably more sides, but these are the ones I could grasp. Definitely an awesome vid I'll be revisiting as I make my way through Angel S3.

[quinara]

Thank you! :D I'm not sure I entirely get Darla either, but I do love her and I think you've got a lot of her as well! You've totally made me see more in my vid than I saw before, so thank you thank you thank you, and absolute definite yes to the idea of her understanding the power of beauty. I think Darla is a rather archetypical sex-worker character (and a great foil for Buffy, if only in the olden days for a very small number of episodes), because she knows and is willing to take control of the way she can manipulate people's thoughts through her appearance. Especially as a human, that's the way she knows how to live and, to be fair to the men around her, she's willing to play into their white knight fantasies as much as she becomes subject to them. With Lindsey I think that's pretty much how she sees it - she certainly doesn't care enough about him to think beyond how she can make his infatuation work in her favour and keep her safe. With Angel, though, I think there's also the problem that, as a vampire, Darla gained an extra source of power to actually back up her manipulation of the patriarchal system - which in turn actually allowed her to feel confident about her position of power and be herself a lot more. Angelus, I think, is the one person who's got as close to the 'real' Darla as possible - which is why she feels it as such a betrayal when Angel rejects that. And that's really sad (I think). :(

Cheers again! :D

[laeria]

I found Darla as a foil to Buffy on BtVS interesting but also mildly annoying. At the very beginning of the first ep, Darla's used to make the statement that "this is not the show where tiny blondes are helpless", which is awesome. 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. And of course Darla's the villain and of course her death is used to prove that Angel is a Good Guy After All.

But, on Angel, there's no more clear hero/villain division, thank god, and, like you said, we're shown a glimpse of the real Darla. And of Angelus, who ~got~ her, treated her like the sadist she is rather than the damsel she looks like - and Angel just doesn't, just sees her as a prop, like all men do (not to sex, but to salvation, but I doubt it matters to her) and it is very sad. Especially since, because he does know her, she can't just treat him like she did Lindsey (and actually, her no-makeup-overlarge-sweatshirt manipulation of Lindsey really delighted me).

Ekh, this was all over the place. All I meant was: yep, Darla rocks, and I hope you'll be exploring her some more.

[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.)