Winding Down to the Valley of Lights

[an0ther_dreamer]

Fandom: Skyfall (James Bond)
Subject: Sévérine
Title: Winding Down to the Valley of Lights
Warnings/Notes: Trigger Warnings for offscreen underage prostitution, non/dub-con, violence and Character Death. All the warnings, really. Major spoilers for the movie. 8tracks stream and DL available. Made for the round 17 challenge at waywardmixes. The theme was Minor Characters.

The Character
Sévérine is a representative of the villain of Skyfall, Silva. Bond first meets her in Shanghai where she is acting as a distraction for the target of an assassin. She gets the target into position so the assassin can snipe him from the opposite building. The assassin executes his target and falls to his death in the ensuing struggle with Bond before the agent can find out who he's working for. Bond finds a casino chip in the assassin's briefcase which leads him to a casino in Macau where he meets Sévérine properly for the first time and offers to buy her a drink (or two).

Bond attempts to psychoanalyse her and deduces from the tattoo on the inside of her right wrist that when she was young she was taken into one of the Houses of the Macau sex trade ("What were you, twelve? Thirteen?") and was rescued from that life by Silva.

"Perhaps you thought you were in love, but that was a long time ago."

-James Bond

She stayed with Silva first from love, then out of fear. Bond concludes that her three bodyguards are there not only for her protection, but also to prevent her escape. She tells Bond that he doesn't know fear like the kind Silva can cause. Bond says that he can help her, which she doubts. She agrees to bring Bond to Silva when Bond says that he can kill him. Provided that Bond can survive her bodyguards trying to kill him and reach her yacht before it departs within an hour.

She waits for him, wearing only a robe and with an open bottle of champagne until the captain tells her that they are casting off. Disappointed, she goes to take a shower, where Bond surprises her and they have sex. (This scene made me very uncomfortable as a) he surprised her in the shower, which is scary and b) it's unclear whether Sévérine is actually attracted to him or paying him for services rendered with her body.)

When they reach the island the boat's crew captures them and takes them to Silva. After they are separated and Silva villain monologues at Bond for a scene, Bond is taken to where a beaten Sévérine is bound against a collapsed statue. Silva forces a kiss on her as she shakes with fear, before placing a shot glass full of Scotch atop her head. Silva produces a pair of Percussion Cap Pistols and challenges Bond to improve his recent failed marksmanship score by seeing who can shoot the glass off of her head. Bond shoots wide, hitting part of the statue to her left. Silva says, "My turn" and shoots her fatally, before casually turning to Bond and declaring, "I win". Bond sighs and makes a quip about it being "a waste of good Scotch" before disabling all of Silva's henchmen just before the cavalry in the form of MI6 arrives.

"There's nothing superfluous in my life. When a thing is redundant it is-pip!-eliminated."

-Raoul Silva

When they first meet face to face in the casino, Sévérine tells Bond that she doesn't gamble because she's not very lucky. But in the end she gambles with her own life and loses. I think she knew the second she agreed to help Bond that the likely outcome would be Silva discovering her betrayal and deposing of her. But she wanted a way out, to be free of Silva and constant fear one way or the other. At least with this choice she was able to bring a real threat to Silva and his operation through Bond.

TL;DR

Sévérine is the femme fatale representative of the villain. She relies upon James Bond to rescue her and ends up being shot to death.

The Mix

This mix was built around Vienna Teng's Blue Caravan because I always associate it with Sévérine due to the relationships she has with Bond and Silva. She needs them to save her but they ultimately (intentionally or not) let her down. The other songs are a heavy amount of soulful vocals and a few angry rock songs.

My Man by Billie Holiday
He's not much for looks
And no hero out of books
Is my man
Two or three girls has he
That he likes as well as me
But I love him!
I don't know why I should
He isn't good, he isn't true
He beats me too
What can I do?

Off to the Races by Lana Del Ray
My old man is a bad man, but
I can't deny the way he holds my hand
And he grabs me, he has me by my heart
He doesn't mind I have a Las Vegas past
He doesn't mind I have a L.A crass way about me
He loves me with every beat of his cocaine heart

Stockholm Syndrome by Muse
And she'll scream
And she'll shout
And she'll pray
And she had a name
Yeah, she had a name

Volcano by Damien Rice
Don't throw yourself like that
In front of me
I kissed your mouth, your back
Is that all you need?
Don't drag my love around
Volcanoes melt me down

What I am to you is not real
What I am to you, you do not need
What I am to you is not what you mean to me
You give me miles and miles of mountains
And I'll ask for the sea

I’d Love To Kill You by Katie Melua

I'd love to kill you by a stream
Where no one can hear my baby scream
And then I'd run away and be free
The sweetest victory
🎆

I love to watch you in your sleep
'Cause you don't have power over me
And when you're awake I'm undone
Under you spell, in hell

Asking for It by Hole
Was she asking for it?
Was she asking nice?
If she was asking for it,
Did she ask you twice?

Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) by Nancy Sinatra
Bang bang, he shot me down
Bang bang, I hit the ground
Bang bang, that awful sound
Bang bang, my baby shot me down

Blue Caravan by Vienna Teng

Blue, blue caravan

Winding down to the valley of lights

My true love is a man

Who would hold me for ten thousand nights

In the wild, wild wailing of wind

He's a house 'neath a soft yellow moon.

So blue, blue caravan

Won't you carry me down to him soon?

🎆

Oh my blue, blue caravan

The highway is my great wall

For my true love is a man

Who never existed at all

Oh he was a beautiful fiction

I invented to keep out the cold

But now, my blue, blue caravan

I can feel my heart growing old

Oh my blue, blue caravan

I can feel my heart growing old

Winding Down To The Valley of Lights from an0ther_dreamer on 8tracks Radio.

.zip

Screencaps from Movie-Screencaps.com.

Comments

[ohcaptain.livejournal.com]

I really like how you added a cap for each song, it made it easy to follow what part of her story each song went with.

[an0ther-dreamer.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I'm glad you liked it.

[ninety6tears.livejournal.com]

This character was a great choice. Thanks for making this, it looks lovely.

[an0ther-dreamer.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[someplacetobe.livejournal.com]

I look forward to hearing this because she seems fascinating to get to know.

[an0ther-dreamer.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I hope you like it.

[kellica.livejournal.com]

Great mix! I absolutely love it! The songs go perfectly with the storyline.

[an0ther-dreamer.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I'm glad that the songs seem to progress well.

[inabsentialuci.livejournal.com]

This is a really interesting mix! I really like your selection of songs, and I have to say- I have been looking for an opportunity to use "I'd Love To Kill You" in a mix, so I'm glad you did! It's such a strange but awesome song!

[an0ther-dreamer.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! I'm glad you liked the inclusion of "I'd Love To Kill You", I wasn't sure whether I was going to use it for a while.