I Warn You, The Song Is Catchy
I saw this video on Wil Wheaton’s site, and even though I wasn’t familiar with The Guild, (other than seeing Felicia Day mention it on Twitter) I watched it.
The song is incredibly catchy and the video is cute, and I also noticed that one of the actors in it is a fat chick. And I understand what an “avatar” is, but that’s as far as I got. What to make of it? Why is she always drinking things? Is this fat positive or fatist or what? Are some people the reality and some other people the avatars? And who is this actress?
Because we live in the future, that very same day, my friend Shannon Twittered about The Guild! So I decided to satisfy my curiosity the lazy way: sending her an e-mail. And here is Shannon’s excellent explanation!
She’s one of the main characters in the show and a member of “The Guild.” (Are you familiar with World of Warcraft at all?) That character has a bunch of kids, who she ignores in favor of playing online all day, and she does seem to like her cocktails. I’d say it’s more “Valley of the Dolls” than “stereotypical fat chick” and she has a hot husband who hasn’t divorced her yet despite the fact that she ignores her entire family in favor of the computer all day.
They’re all more or less stereotypes of different kinds of WoW addicts (and honestly, the show could as easily be about a message board, or any other online community, if people use it to substitute for real life). Each of them is kind of maladjusted and not terribly likeable in their own way, and the main event that sparks the series is how it all goes crazy once they actually meet in real life.
Each episode is 4-6 minutes, so it shouldn’t be too hard to catch up. I don’t play WoW, but I still found it funny.
And…
There are a couple of instances (when the Guild decides to meet up at a nearby restaurant) where she mentions ordering pancakes, but I didn’t get the impression it was a “fat chicks love to eat pancakes” sort of thing. Just that she has no life beyond this game and loves to get out of the house.
She is really portrayed as a terrible mother (at one point she leaves the kids in the car, and she also allows them to be babysat by a guild member who keeps them in a dog crate), but again, I think that would be the same if she were a thin character.
The actress’s name is Robin Thorsen (and she is so cute), and you can watch The Guild here! If you’ve seen it, let us know what you think in the comments. And if you’re Robin Thorsen, call me!
Posted by mo pie
Email us
Hey, is the fat lady an avatar that one would want to date? Is that the idea? Cause, HELL YEAH!! Catchy tune, cute idea, smoking makeup on the chick in blue! All the things that get a thumbs up from me!!!
Oh, um, I should have read the rest of the damn article before I said anything.
Sorry, lots of Southern Comfort and cola flowing around here as we are moving from Perth, Aus back to the US tomorrow and have been packing and cleaning all day. Sorry. Delete if you want.
I’ve been watching “The Guild” pretty much since the beginning. And the longer it’s gone on the more I like Claire (the fat chick.) The breakdown is pretty much dead on, she’s a party girl who never grew out of it.
And she sounds awesome, by the looks of her resume: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2828524/resume
She can do accents, she rollerblades, cycles and plays basketball!
In the end of the last season, she ends up making out at a party with the ‘hot stunt guy’ that the main character was trying to date at one point.
The show has plenty of problems — gender role wise particularly — but they way they treat Clara is surprisingly non-stereotyped. As mentioned above she’s more the ‘sorority sister who never stopped partying’ than the ‘sad fat chick’. They mention her going to a pole dancing class, that she’s limber, doing headstands on a coffee table, etc etc.
I almost posted about this. I love the Guild, but it did annoy me a little that at no point does she get up and do a Secksy Dance. (But then, she DOES like to drink a lot.)
Fat chick is definitely hot. Would have liked to see some dancing from her too, but it seems like from the other comments that she’s in her lush character.
And the guy in the red and blue outfit? Rawr.
There are multiple times in the first season (I haven’t watched the others) where she references how hot her chest is, and she takes stripper lessons. I feel like she is very fat-postitive about herself.
I saw that video and bought the single off Amazon. I love it!
I used to play WoW…but then I had my daughter and she was/is very needy (I couldn’t put her down for a second when she was little and snuglis didn’t help at all like it did with my son…no only did i not get any gaming done, I didn’t get ANYTHING done! LOL) and I can’t put the kinda time into playing anymore so I canceled my account…though now that she is older I may activate my account again soon.
But suffice it to say I could relate to the show a little (DH could too) and while I never neglected my children that way I do know of some gamers that are like those on the show. It is freaky really.
I don’t think she is supposed to be the stereotypical fat chick…especially since most people don’t even believe women game at all. I think she is more the round mother goddess look that they may be going for…but not sure.
I am just glad it has women in it…like I said, there are so many people out there that thing women don’t game at all, so I didn’t really put a lot of thought into her being heavy.
I’m of many minds about Clara.
As Clara-the-character, she’s a Mage, I think? cloth-wearing damage dealer, anyway. Powerful. Hmm… one of their magical abilities is to produce food and drink to keep the party’s resources topped up.
As Clara-the-player, I think I’ve settled on seeing her as a sort of a Bacchus figure- she’s a party girl. She eats. She drinks. She’s all about appetite for fun. And part of that is her completely unquenchable appetite for the game- to the exclusion of time and attention paid to her family.
Classically, Bacchus would be a fat ~man~ who eats and drinks and surrounds himself with women, and the female side of unrestrained appetite would be there in the form of maenads- scary, man-eating sex-fiends.
That Clare gets to have all these appetites in one person is actually pretty cool. And the appetite itself is never really played up as a negative thing.
The way her appetite for gaming, partying, etc. causes her to neglect her family is an interesting commentary on what happens to the self-centered hedonist when responsibility sort of grows up around them without their noticing.
Now I’m having horrible thoughts.
I mean- Clara’s appetite for drink and sex led a prom-pregnancy, and a marriage. She is oblivious to these natural consequences of her appetite.
She also talks about herself as a sexy woman. Are we supposed to read her as likewise oblivious to the natural consequences of her appetite for food and drink?
Is she confident because she’s fat and awesome? Or because she hasn’t figured out yet that she’s fat?
That whole taking advantage of the slavish devotion to her husband- is that the same men-are-for-using-because-we’re-sexy that Tinkerballa does? Only sadder because she doesn’t know she’s not sexy anymore
I really, really hope not.
I didn’t see this mentioned in the initial post but Clara (the fat girl) is also a bit of an alchy. I was kind of annoyed by the video as well until I re-watched and was reminded that she practically always has an alcoholic drink of some sort in her hand.
I sort of like the Bacchus analogy earlier in the comments- the Clara character basically just does whatever she wants for fun, the classic example of excess; I don’t know if her being fat is why she got cast in the role, or why the role was created like that, but you can tell she basically just wants to have fun – One example being that she actually has a opposite-faction character she will occasionally kill her own guild leader with.
The whole show is definitely taking advantage of the negative gamer stereotypes you find everywhere, and I still don’t know if that’s a good thing but I find the whole show incredibly funny and I’m pretty good at getting offended by things so I’m going to take that as a win.
And since pretty much everyone looks fabulous in the video and they don’t make any effort to try to hide Clara or anything, I think that they aren’t really thinking about her size most of the time.
Adding: I wanna agree with the person who said that Clara grows on you. She’s the kind of character that just gets cooler as time goes on, even as you’re getting horrified over how badly she takes care of her children.
I’m about to fix the link, but you can watch episodes here: http://www.youtube.com/show?p=eYROA5iyqDw&s=1
OMG I just did a post about Felicia Day (the creator of The Guild), what a funny coincidence!
I can see how if you haven’t watched The Guild you could be confused by the film clip, but as everyone else has said, Clara is actually her own character and is not intended to represent the “reality” of the avatar at all.
I also find her character in The Guild to be surprisingly positive (and awesome) – the whole show is satire anyway and I take Clara’s continual eating to be something of a political statement about the fat-girl stereotypes (and their ridiculousness). But maybe that’s just me.
I tend to see Clara and The Guild as fat-neutral: they don’t make many positive statements about fatness, but she’s def. not ridiculed or stereotyped by her weight. She has a hot husband and made out with Hot Stunt Guy, and they haven’t gone in for the ‘Clara thinks she’s all that, but she’s just an out-of-it fat mom’ approach at all. However, I can’t say with conviction that it *won’t* be used, as they haven’t contradicted it, hence the fat-neutral categorization.
I adore the show and the video, and am glad that it’s getting attention outside of the existing group of Guild devotees. It’s really a great bunch of nerd humor (of many stripes), and I can’t say enough good things about it.
I think that The Guild is the kind of show that is made for the people that are in on the joke, more of a love note to WoW and gamers than anything else.
I’m glad to see this music video has taken off so quickly around the blogophere. I just wanted to reiterate that I feel the “fat chick” is one of the least body-focused women of weight I’ve seen in a fiction. Her weight is neither a stereotype for gluttony and low self esteem, nor is it an empowering statement on the sexiness of a curvy lady. She is just a woman who is fat, and her part could be played by any woman of any appearance.
Which I think it awesome and the best kind of empowerment.
Hotness! (That’s really all I have to add.)