Merlin vid: Red Football

[sophinisba]

Title: Red Football
Music: "Red Football" by Sinéad O'Connor
Fandom/source: Merlin
Starring: Gwen, Morgana + ensemble
Length: 2:48
Contains: n/a
Summary: I'm not no red football to be kicked around the garden.
Notes: omg here is my first Merlin vid! I had this idea almost three years ago, and this past month I was finally able to make it. Season 5, you hurt me real bad, but you also gave me some marvelous footage.
As you may know, I have a lot of feelings about the ladies of Merlin. Some of those feelings are ANGER!
Spoilers up to 5x08, not the series finale.
Thanks to thingswithwings for technical help and to flammablehat for responding to the million drafts I sent her and making sure I didn't give up.

Links
Tumblr | YouTube
Download vid at MediaFire, .avi, 53.8 MB
Download subtitles at MediaFire, .srt, 1.8 KB

(If you want to see subtitles, download both these files and save them with the same file name in the same folder, and your player will combine them with magic!)

Red Football by Sinéad O'Connor

I'm not no red football
To be kicked around the garden
No, no
I'm a red Christmas-tree ball
And I'm fragile

I'm not no animal
Though I am to you
I'm not no crocodile
Like the one in Dublin Zoo

Who lived in a cage the length and breadth of his body
With a window which people would look through
And throw coins on his back to taunt him
Though he couldn't move
Even if he wanted to

I'm not no animal in the zoo
I'm not no whipping boy for you
You may not treat me like you do
I'm not no animal in the zoo

My skin is not a football for you
My head is not a football for you
My body's not a football for you
My womb is not a football for you
My heart is not a football for you

I'm not no animal in the zoo
This animal will jump up and eat you
I'm not no animal in the zoo
And I've every intention
Of leaping up and getting you

Comments

[thingswithwings]

Oh, wow, this is gorgeous, and angry-making, and sad. I love the way you recut the show to prioritize these narrative, and the AU world you put together here, especially at the end - how I wish that were the way the show ended! Really well done. I love the shot of the dragon at the end.

[chaila]

I've not seen this show, except for a few eps a long time ago, but I loved this anyway. Your cuts and choices created such a perfect emotional progression, from the angry and sad at the beginning, which made me sigh, to the fighting back at the end, which made me cheer. I especially love how the lady becomes an actual animal, like they're using all the things that dudes feared to be like, yes, all of that is true, and we are more dangerous than you even thought? I would totally watch the show you put together here! Which also of course serves as satisfying meta rage.

[baranduin]

Oh wow, this is really good. I liked especially the shift in scene content when the song moved to the lalala part!

ETA: loved the dragon!

[caisin]

I was thinking earlier this year that this would be a PERFECT song for Gwen. So so happy that someone else had the same thought!

[sophinisba]

Thanks! I used to hate the "la la la" part of the song and dreaded fitting images to that part of it, but I ended up having all kinds of extra footage because this show loves its evil women so much. :D

[sophinisba]

Aw that's awesome! Yeah, flammablehat and I were talking last night about how no one can communicate "You may not treat me like you do" like Gwen with her amazing faaaace.

[netgirl_y2k]

THIS IS HORRID. WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?

By which I mean that this is wonderful, and has just given me a massive feelings attack. I'd never heard this song before, and, gosh, what a perfect song for the Merlin ladies. NOT OVER IT. NEVER GETTING OVER IT. And the clips that you've matched to the lyrics just... GUH.

Really, properly excellent and clever and meta-ish and angry making in the good way.

[sophinisba]

Thank you! For myself I wanted the show to end with EVERYBODY hugging, but since that wasn't in the cards I was glad that at least all the evil ladies looked so good while being evil.

Also this is the second fanwork I've made this year (the other was my big remix fic) where I made Aithusa (bb dragon) part of the ladies' team just because I wanted to. :D

[isis]

I've never seen the show, but you tell a compelling story - and YAY the women get back at them in the end! (At least in your vid...)

[shopfront]

This is awesome, I love the end and also wish the actual show had gone this way!

[mfirefly10]

This is FABULOUS! And also rage-inducing but you fixed it with the ending so it's all good :)

Ugh, this show and it's incredibly horrid way of treating the women :(

[wordsplurge]

Great video, although it should have included the other wronged women in the series. This show is just so bad, right up to the end,it was a woman of course who was the spy and all. I hope they have a spin off about the women.

[settiai]

Oh, wow. This was absolutely amazing.

[swatkat]

Oh, this is lovely! <3 Great song choice - I've never heard it before, but it's so perfect. And LOVED your use of Aithusa in the narrative.

[themadlurker]

Omg you posted! And it is so good (and sad and angry-making, and all the feelings at the same time). Going to watch again, and again.

[sophinisba]

WE ARE NEVER GOING TO GET OVER THIS BUDDY. Thank you for this and the rec. <3 <3

[sophinisba]

Yeah, one of the things that's made me super sad as I've become more aware of this stuff in recent years is to see the same patterns repeating in so many of the shows and movies I watch. So it's not like you need to have seen a lot of Merlin to recognize, oh yeah, it's a show that treats women like objects and like problems, not like people. Freya, the girl who turns into the cat monster, has always been one of my favorites. Her story was handled horribly in the episode itself but people have been able to do great things with her in fanworks, with all her kindness and rage. Thank you so much for checking this out and for your thoughtful comment. <3

[sophinisba]

Thank you! The women do a lot of revenge in the show too, though you're not supposed to side with them and I left out the parts where they murder civilians and such. La la la.

[promethia_tenk]

Only just watched Merlin this year and almost certainly wouldn't have made it through if I'd tried to watch it as it aired. Still very much needed this vid, though. Thank you <3

[sophinisba]

Thank you!!

[sophinisba]

Thanks! It has been a hard ride for us fans of the ladies but I still love my show more than anything. I don't know what I will do without it.

[sophinisba]

Aw yeah, I had so many other clips and had been planning to work lots of other angry ladies into the last minute of the song but in the end I just had to stick with Gwen and Morgana because THEIR FACES. <3 <3

[sophinisba]

Thank you! I worked hard on it and somewhat neglected my girlfriend over the holidays in order to finish by the end of the year. :O

[sophinisba]

Thank you! You know, I'd been sitting around with this idea of a vid about the Merlin ladies being treated as objects to a song that talks about a crocodile in a cage for years and then suddenly I had footage of Morgana and Aithusa in a pit. And I was angry angry and sad but also like, whoa okay time to get to work.

[sophinisba]

Thank you for cheering me on back in the day and when I started up with the project again last month! <3 <3