flying low #10: speedache

There once was a time many years ago where one could barely move around the .org without nearly impaling oneself on an Advent Children video; it was a daily thing, or nearly so, that a new AC video would be released and immediately forgotten about, if anyone watched it at all. In my early days of AMV viewing, Advent Children was probably one of the first sources I recall getting really, really sick of, and I’ve found that that feeling really hasn’t changed going on 10 years later.

That may explain this video’s lasting charisma to me, as it’s not a very Advent Children-y Advent Children video, on top of the fact that I was never much a fan of the source material. Where most videos which use this source are incredibly fast-paced, action-oriented videos (and make no mistake, there are several examples which do that right), Speedache is not one of them, opting instead for a more introspective mood with a more protracted narrative. It’s saturated in feelings of regret, melancholy, and wistfulness, things that are all but completely absent in 99% of the other AC videos out there. To be fair to others, the movie was never really about those things — it wasn’t about much other than stupidly over-the-top fight scenes and CG madness, which thankfully this video tends to eschew — and so in making this video Imrallion did have to take some creative liberties and forge his own path, but it worked in his favor, especially considering that he had quite a backdrop of AC videos against which his could be contrasted.

But it’s not really fair (or fun) to just consider this video’s place within the pantheon of other AC videos, and if that were the only reason to call this video a success I’d hardly spend time posting about it twice (as I’ve already extolled this video’s virtues once, many years ago, on a now-defunct recommendations blog I used to maintain). I do feel that this video can hold its own in the greater context of AMVs as a whole. It’s a low-key video, for sure, but it’s one that rewards repeated viewings, and focused ones — it has a certain je ne sais quoi that prevents it from ever getting stale, and seems to have more going on beneath the surface than is immediately apparent. And while no, this isn’t a quick-fix drama/action/fun/whatever video that will sate you immediately, if you give it time it will creep into your brain and make itself at home in the corners of your subconscious, like all the good videos do.

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