This is a Cold War

[purplefringe]

Much paranoia and even more technological failure later (and really kind of slightly late now S2 has just started, but oh well) - a Sleepy Hollow vid! Mostly finished just last week, this only contains clips from S1.

Cold War
edited by purplefringe
fandom: Sleepy Hollow
characters: Jenny (& Abbie)
music: Cold War by Janelle Monáe
summary: Do you know what you're fighting for?
notes: Spoilers for all of S1
warnings: Some fast, stuttery cuts, some depictions of violence

HUGE thanks to usuallyhats and beccatoria for wonderfully insightful and articulate beta-ing via email! <3 <3 <3 And also, as always, to such_heights who watched this particular vid on her holiday, and then numerous times since :-)

download: 54MB @ mediafire

"" (Watch on YouTube)

pointless ramblings:
I loved Jenny whilst watching the show over the last few weeks. I loved her complexity, her personal cocktail of brittleness and anger and unexpected humour. I loved her even more in the context of her relationship with Abbie, which is one of the most beautiful, intense depictions of a pair of sisters that I've ever seen. They gave me so many Feelings, omg. (sidenote: someone should vid the pair of them alongside Buffy and Dawn, and maybe Anna and Elsa, and other amazing sisters who fight and hug and save each other and prevent the apocalypse. Please.) BUT. Jenny was never my favourite! Abbie and Ichabod have my heart and soul, and I thought if I were to vid any relationship in the show, it would be theirs. Maybe I will in the future…I do have a seriously cracky Ichabod vid brewing.

Anyway, the realisation that Cold War needed to be a Jenny vid hit me very suddenly in the middle of the night, about two hours after watching the S1 finale, and about twelve hours after declaring dramatically to such_heights that I *really wanted* to make a vid but COULD NOT BE BOTHERED TO MAKE ANY CLIPS UGHHHH so might have to work on one of the dormant projects pre-clipped and half-finished on my hard drive.

Ha. Hahahahaha. NOPE. Vid Farr set in suddenly, and, er, this happened. I have Thoughts about what I set out to vid (surprise surprise), about Jenny's arc and about my interpretation of the song lyrics...but have learned from extensive email correspondence with my lovely betas that actually other people can explain the jumbled mess inside my head waaaaay more coherently than I can, so I should just leave you all to it.


Lyrics

So you think I'm alone?
But being alone's the only way to be
When you step outside
You spend life fighting for your sanity

This is a cold war
You better know what you're fighting for
This is a cold war
Do you know what you're fighting for?

If you want to be free
Below the ground is the only place to be
'Cause in this life
You spend time running from depravity

This is a cold war
Do you know what you're fighting for?
This is a cold war
You better know what you're fighting for
This is a cold war
You better know what you're fighting for
This is a cold war
Do you know what you're fighting for?

Bring wings to the weak and bring grace to the strong
May all evil stumble as it flies in the world
All the tribes comes and the mighty will crumble
We must brave this night and have faith in love

I'm trying to find my peace
I was made to believe there's something wrong with me
And it hurts my heart
Lord have mercy, ain't it plain to see?

That this is a cold war
Do you know what you're fighting for?
This is a cold war
You better know what you're fighting for

This is a cold, cold war
You better know what you're fighting for

Do you know? It's a cold...
Do you?
Do you?

It's a cold ...
You better know what you're fighting for
bye bye bye bye, don't you cry when I say goodbye...
bye bye bye bye, don't you cry when I say goodbye...)

Comments

[beccatoria]

::insert sound of like five minutes continuous shrieking::

Dude, so great, so gorgeous. Captures so many of her complexities so well. The section we were talking about via email is one of my favourite parts now. Just, mega achievement unlocked with this. It's awesome.

[purplefringe]

:-D :-D :-D

Your beta-ing was SO HELPFUL and SO AMAZING. Thank you again!

Jennyyyyyyyyyy.

[veleda_k]

I'm so glad to see this! This is one of my favorite songs and Jenny is my favorite SH character. Thank you!

[purplefringe]

Aw, thank you! I'm very happy you now have a vid for your favourite character to one of your favourite songs! I'm glad you liked.

[sally_maria]

Jenny is such a great character, and it's lovely to see this perceptive take on her. Thank you for sharing. :-)

[purplefringe]

Thank you! She is really a wonderful, nuanced character, and I can't wait to see how she develops this season.

[raven]

Ah, perfect song choice and this is a wonderful vid. I love how it showcases how tough Jenny is, how powerful, despite the world that would make her sit down and shut up - and using Janelle Monae really underscores that, it really brings race front and centre, where it ought to be. (It's a cold war - yes.)

[purplefringe]

Jennyyyyyyyy <3333 Gosh, she's just so amazing. I think there's very few characters (particularly ladies) who get to be so tough/powerful/badass AND so vivdly emotional at the same time? AND with such a prominent sense of humour. Lots of characters have some combination of those traits, but rarely so balanced. She reminds me a lot of Faith, in some ways. She's fighting so many cold wars, on so many different fronts, the song was just immediately obvious.

And the race thing - yes, definitely. That's not something that is really addressed within the show - because look! There are just two token white dudes in the whole cast, and one is killed in ep 1 to further a black lady's character development! \o/ - but seen from the wider context of all the media we consume, absolutely. Characters like Jenny are fighting a constant cold war for more representation, better characterisation,less fridging, etc. It feels important to use an artist like Janelle Monae to express something like that.

[chaila]

Well I really need to watch The Mills Sisters Show! I haven't even seen most of this show, but this was great anyway. Love the use of this song. The editing was fab--the fading from Jenny to the demon and back! <3

[purplefringe]

YOU DOOOOO! I mean, I'm sure Becca has told you all this already, but it's SO GOOD. And the sisterly relationship is so BEAUTIFUL and HEARTSTRING-TUGGING and I love it.

Ahem, anyway. Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed this even without having seen much of the show. The fadey-demon-editing was the starting point for the whole, thing, so I'm particularly pleased you liked it :-)

[saturnofthemoon]

Downloading, this is gorgeous!

[purplefringe]

Yay, thank you! :-)

[killabeez]

Oh, yes, yes! This made me so happy. I love everything about this show, but it's Jenny who makes me take it seriously.

[purplefringe]

:-) Thank you so much! I'm v glad you liked this - I also love this cracky, awesome, ridiculous show but it's Jenny and Abbie and their relationship that's the heart of it for me. That Crane guy comes second (<333)

[frayadjacent]

Beautiful vid! I loved how you showed Jenny's resolve and toughness, and how difficult her relationship with her sister has been. I love those two and you totally did them justice. I'm so glad this vid exists -- yay vid farr!

The section that shows her connections to other characters -- Macy, Frank, Corbin, Ichabod -- was wonderful too, as was Jenny's internal struggle with the demon. Ugh so many feels now. And I loved how you picked up the pace toward the end, with faster cutting and one badass shot after another.

The end was super interesting -- I sort of expected you to fade out the music before the part that transitions to Tightrope, and the fact that you *didn't*, that you held the hugs over that, works really well. The music is vaguely ominous (that's not quite the word I want but it's the best I can come up with right now). It suggests that everything is not all better, even though Jenny is clearly in a better place than she was when the show started. Tension is still there, the trauma is still there, and of course they still have an apocalypse to avert.

Also, when I was watching the beginning it occurred to me that you could read some meaning into the word "patient" on the back of Jenny's shirt when she's locked up. She's been fighting this fight longer than Abbie and is playing the long game. She's had to be hella patient in fighting her cold war. Anyway I don't know if you intended that but I liked it. :)

[purplefringe]

<333 Yay, thank you so much! I am very pleased you like it, as we seem to be having exactly the same reaction to this beautiful, cracky, totally ridiculous and weirdly Feelingsy show. Oh god I love the relationship between Jenny and Abbie SO MUCH. And having made this vid I now have even MORE Jenny feels than I did when I started...I now get weirdly protective of her whenever she's on screen.

The internal-demon-struggle section was the jumping-off point for the whole thing. I was just really taken with the way that both the viewer and Abbie go through this gradual realisation process about Jenny: when we first hear about her, Ichabod says 'she's fighting demons', and he means internal psychological demons, IN CONTRAST to the actual real-world demons he and Abbie are physically fighting. THEN we discover that she's also been physically fighting demons - or at least, helping others to prepare to fight demons - for all the years she's been helping Corbin with his supernatural research. THEN we find out that she has ALSO literally been fighting a demons (Ancetif, as sent by Molloch) which has been inside her. Thus, her internal psychological demons are *also* actual literal demons.

...does that make sense? It was the line 'I was made to believe there's something wrong with me' that really did it.

you could read some meaning into the word "patient" on the back of Jenny's shirt
OMG that's AWESOME. I have to admit I hadn't even noticed that, even though that's exactly what I was going for - the patience in the long game thing. You are a genius! I actually picked those clips because they (to me) convey a sense of determined independence and rejection of the outside world, and the resulting isolation - I was looking for clips of Jenny hiding her face, turning her back on the various authorities that failed her (and on her own reflection) and gradually building up her own resources. It was intended to contrast with the later clips of her looking those authorities in the eye with a 'fuck you' expression, and then later still with the sequence of her smiling and bonding with Crane et al :-)

As for the ending - yes, that's it exactly. Things are not 'perfect', they are not 'resolved' (and I liked that in the music) but they are getting there and so much progress has been made. Now even if things are ominous and the apocalypse is looming, Jenny has her sister at her side, and that little smile on her face. *feelings*

....that got really long. I actually just meant to say thank you for the lovely comment!

[frayadjacent]

YES, totally agree with you about the audience and Abbie's journey in learning more about Jenny and what she's been up to and been through. Such a great series of reveals.

I love the thing about Jenny turning her back, building her resources! Awesome. <3

[tearful-eye.livejournal.com]

oh my heart.
this is so great!

[purplefringe]

Thank you so much! Jennyyyyy <3