PATRON QUESTIONS THREAD: Claymation Horror/Takena

while i was recording i realized this was something i'd have a hard time coming to a conclusion on while speaking without a script so i decided to just give writing a response directly a go, hopefully that still suffices, hahaha: i think im at a point where i dont find im seeking to see myself represented as much as i think i used to, and im not a hundred percent sure why that is or where that stopped. perhaps its because my life is particularly mundane in a way i find very satisfying in and of itself, maybe its because i spend so much time inside my own head by virtue of writing, editing, recording, etc my own writing, conversations, and more freeform thoughts, maybe i just have my go-to's for when i want to feel represented in certain regards. its hard to say, but it's been freeing in the sense that it seldom bothers me when i engage with something that represents me poorly. if anything, im far more disappointed when media represents other groups poorly, because that's the zone where it's not my place to say "ah well, i can reassemble this in my head to something more satisfying". i've joked with other lesbians that we get just as much out of weird gay tension/subtext between two women than we do works that are fully canonically explicitly gay, and i think part of that is relevant to what you said here, that it's ultimately all media that goes the step further to canonize its gay romance instantly bears the burden of the "representation" lens. i think the thing that's easy to miss in the heat of the moment with discussion about queer media is that often times a work has queer characters because they lock into the theme in some other way. not even that they're accessorized by the narrative or whatever, but because there are things about the queer experience that aren't and shouldn't be exclusively applicable or relatable to the people it's depicting. that's not to say there aren't times where i'm frustrated by the way a work handles its queer characters, or what it stumbles into saying. for example, vlad love was frustrating to me because i felt it squandered a romantic dynamic between its lead females, and even though its worst crime in my eyes was being boring and bad in other ways, i still felt like i had been denied something i wanted to see in lesbian romance. not because it would have better represented me, but because i think it would be fun, interesting, and exciting. i think there are so many different angles something like this can be taken from that a hundred different people will have a hundred different answers, but hopefully my input is at least valuable as it pertains to me. thanks for writing! that gave me a lot to chew on.

hazel

hope i'm in time to ask this! did you ever make any claymation or lego animations when you were younger? i remember messing around a lot with lego studios and I so wish i could go back and see those weird little movies i made now. thanks for the great video!!

Hi Hazel!!!! If you could produce your own short film claymation series what do you think it’d be about? If you were made out of clay what kind of impossible or cartoonish thing would you want to do? Keep up the good work!!!! (・∀・)

bacchusdiem

So, not really related to the topic, I hope this is fine, something I struggle with as a fellow queer media critic writer person is coming up with something to say about queer media that isn't just about how gay the thing is or how good the representation is, which is made a bit harder by how many queer narratives seems to bear the pressure of needing to Be Representation and thus are often about queerness more than they're about, well, other things. Though it may perhaps be more because I feel the need to address the issue of good representation more often than I’d like, just cause of how the online queer community and my audience tends to be generally. either way, I find myself often not really covering a lot of explicitly queer stories in my own writing, despite being queer myself and wanting to, because while I enjoy a lot of those stories, I often don’t really have a lot to say about them besides “yea I’m gay and this is also gay and I like it.” Do you think the critical conversation about queer media is somewhat overshadowed by the collective interest in representation to the detriment of discussing other themes or ideas that may be present or could be present in those stories, and is this something that you ever feel also poses difficulty for you as a writer? If any of that makes sense. also, good job on the video, you brought me back as a patron again, curse you lol :)

joyce-stick

which caroline are we talkin here

hazel

This video kind of touched on the experience of being a child and seeing a scary, unfamiliar youtube video. What were some odd childhood youtube videos you remember fondly?

Juan

Can we get some pictures of Wander? I love his little face. ₍⸍⸌̣ʷ̣̫⸍̣⸌₎

I’m actually feeling a bit of inspiration from this video, especially the Courage clip you used; what’re some of favorite examples of mixed media usage in storytelling?

If you had to choosr one, Cronenberg or Carpenter?

Doozy_Uzi

Hi Hazel! Just want to say I love your videos and music very much :+) You obviously love anime and manga, do you ever read many western comics (or even comics from places that aren't japan, manhwa etc)? Same goes for animation, do you have any favorites from countries that ain't Japan?

Stephen Favell

Are there any type of pleasant or even cute claymations you recommend?

OJ

Thoughts on Caroline?

Chadwick2051

What’s your go-to Taco Bell order?

bathestyles

Have you seen many of the Wallace and Gromit films or any other early to 2000s Aardman works, and what were your thoughts? Being from the UK that stuff was a big part of my childhood, despite also being scared of Wallace at some point.

Scarlett

Not really a question, but we checked out Jennifer's Body on your recommendation. Thought it was going to be Whedon-y trash for the first two scenes, but it turned out to be a lesbian banger, Ty x

boetology

Do you think we'd ever see a resurgence in claymation media? Whether it's due to nostalgia or newfound interest in the art, sorta like the 2d pixel art based games revival. Also amazing video as always!!!!! :D

Frankenval

Have you read any of Inio Asano's works? Goodnight Punpun, Solanin, etc. If so, any thoughts on them? They're super well written and while most of his works aren't scary, they are often creepy, sometimes existentially if nothing else.

Codfish Cartographer

Any artistic aspirations beyond YouTube?

Ali Motamed

Besides Takena's stuff, what other media helped get you into the grimier side of horror?

Serah Elliott

At what point in writing/recording the script did you find out about the NFT stuff and how disappointing did it feel?

Tera_It_Up

Why did that poor chocobo have to die for our sins?

Have you seen any of the ENA videos by Joel G? They look like something you would vibe with

Arpaigeio

What are some non-horror media artifacts that you remember from early YouTube? Any that never got popular?

What stop-motion animated film/short that genuinely scared you the most due to its story or atmosphere? There was a time Mother's Basement/Geoff Thew posted a video essay about why there are few horror anime/animation due to the medium's limitation (or something like that). Do you think these stop-motion animated horrors would disprove that? (Oh, and check out the works of Robert Morgan - who did Bobby Yeah and D is for Deloused, which is a segment in ABCs of Death 2).

Jay Whang

I wanted to know if you had any opinion on 3d animation set to look like claymation. Also if you knew about HYLICS it’s a claymation RPG maker game it super cool just wanted to check if you’ve heard of it 👀👉👈

Goji✦Dragon

hiya hazel! you mentioned an episode of courage the cowardly dog mentioned as a good example of stop motion horror, but i would like to know your opinion of it as a horror media in general? thank you so much, i’m a new fan and patron and find your opinions very interesting and refreshing!

cheesecakewitch