Happy Friday everybody! Can you believe this warm weather we’re having? Yesterday morning, I walked to the metro seeing my breath in the cold air, and I walked home in spring. I wish we could have crisp autumnal days but I’ll just take what I can get, I guess! Don’t forget Daylight Saving ends Sunday so get ready to fall back and get that hour back!
I hope you all had a fun Halloween! Halloween in the middle of the week always throws off the week a bit. At work, we all dressed up in costumes, and it was a fun and silly atmosphere in the office, but it was a Tuesday and there was work to be done. It felt weird to go back to work the next day… and the next day… and the next day…
Last year, my team at work did a group effort by showing up in adult onesies. This year, we split into 3 sub-teams, so we set out with the ambitious goal of having a large team-wide group costume with more specific sub-team costumes. (My original suggestion was we do a team-wide Harry Potter theme, with each sub-team choosing a different Hogwarts house or all being Death Eaters or Hogwarts professors, etc.)
Here’s the result:
Group Star Wars costume!
And for each sub-team, we split by trilogy! I claimed the sequel trilogy for my team, despite only one movie from that trilogy having been released. (Also, yes, one of my teammates trolled us by dressing as Spock from Star Trek. Classic troll.) (And on the far right is an Angry Birds Vader. The troll force is strong with this team.)
I originally had different plans for Halloween, and compared to my crazy lofty 3-costume goals from last year, I was very derailed and very off-schedule this year. My Rey costume, while seemingly easy enough to make, was just a costume-in-a-bag option that was pretty inexpensive but turned out, in my opinion, better than I thought! (Minus the belt+bag thing that was just… drawn on? In the future, I’ll be replacing that first.)
“I think I can handle myself.”
It was a bit of a relief to just get a cheap big store costume from a bag, and people still thought I put a lot of time and effort into putting together my look! (Which I still did as my arms were so sore from attempting to get my hair to stay in Rey’s dumb triple hair loops with my hair being about twice as long as hers…)
Fun story: We went to dinner in costume on Tuesday night and found out the restaurant was actually hosting a costume contest about half an hour after we arrived. The manager stopped by to ask if we’d like to participate as one of the few parties in costume, but when the time came, we were – I believe – the only people who agreed to participate. So we won by default! I didn’t even have to get up and be judged by a restaurant full of strangers or stop watching the world series.
Did you dress up for Halloween? If so, what did you wear? What were your favorite costumes you saw this year? I think I’m a sucker for a good meme costume, despite how poorly they age, because they just transport me back, you know? I also love crossover pun costumes. (E.g. “Dumbledora the Explorer” or “Edgar Allen Poe Dameron”, those are my FAVORITES)
Also, do you get trick-or-treaters? I’ve seen the number of kids at my house take a sharp decline to zero over the past few years. I heard that parents now take kids to shopping malls and centers for trick-or-treating now, but when did that become a thing? And why do stores still sell candy to us civilians then?
Two years ago, we observed Halloween on a Friday, which gave me the idea to don Harry Potter house colors every day leading up to Halloween. I had so much fun doing so that last year, I did Hogwarts Spirit Week, where I wore business casual versions of my house colors during the workweek before Halloween.
This year, I changed things up slightly due to 2 factors:
I received some amazing socks for my birthday. (I actually also received a few Harry Potter house socks, but not for all 4 houses. It seems very likely that I’ll go get those socks and revisit some Hogwarts house spirit in the near future.)
My cousin handed me down some great blazers after Christmas. I used to really want to be the girl with cool blazers, and when my cousin gave me some colored blazers, the wheels in my head started furiously grinding away. I had enough blazers to do a blazers-only edition of Hogwarts Spirit Week, but with my new socks, I decided to take this frequently-used color palette and do something different.
And thus, Sailor Senshi Week was born!
Sailor Moon
The order I went with this year wasn’t ROYGBIV (although I was darn tempted) but the order that we are introduced to the scouts in the anime. (Also, I only did Inner Senshi because 5 days of the work week and I’ve actually never made it far enough into the anime to have met the Outer Senshi!) So of course, we begin with the titular meatball-head, Usagi.
Sailor Mercury
Next up, Sailor Mercury, the most popular character in Japan because she is kind and gentle and crazy smart. Ami was the kind of girl I wished I could be but struggled a lot to be because I wasn’t as kind or hardworking!
Sailor Mars
After getting to be Sailor Mars for Halloween last year and at AwesomeCon, my love for Rei has only grown. (I’m trying to get more interpretations of Sailor Mars in the works for the future, so we’ll see how ambitious of a cosplayer I’ll end up being!) I always saw so much of myself in this fiery scout, not just because she was the only Inner Senshi with long dark hair.
Sailor Jupiter
If I saw a lot of myself in Mars and wished I could be more like Mercury growing up, Jupiter is the girl that I find myself admiring a lot more as an adult. She maneuvers being the most masculine and the most feminine member of the team seemingly with ease and doesn’t apologize for either side. I remember really struggling to figure out how girly or tomboyish was “appropriate” or that I was “supposed” to be, so seeing Makoto be domestic af while lifting men above her head is really inspiring now.
Sailor Venus
Unfortunately, I don’t have much of a connection with Minako, as the blonde idol who we are introduced to last and is famous as Sailor V already. But I grew to like her as an important member of the team, and as a fellow aspiring star who is seeing through my childhood aspirations.
Also, my cousin gave me so many blazers, I had just one more look to share yesterday:
Sailor Chibi Moon
No socks for this one but here’s a closer look at my convertible Luna purse. (I can wear it as a crossbody as an as backpack.) I’m glad I didn’t attempt to do the little bun-tails at work, they are a bit disastrous and definitely a look.
Wish me luck with my very-recognizable hair for Halloween at work today! I wonder if I’ll get as many weird looks on the metro as I did last year…
Are you wearing any costumes for the Halloween season this year? I know I saw a lot of folks out this past weekend, but it was actually the first time I didn’t really do anything Halloween weekend. I attended a birthday party Friday night, but I went no where in costume over the weekend, it was a little sad. (I made up for it by scaring myself silly watching Stranger Things season 2.)
If you were to wear a full [work] week of themed outfits from one franchise, what would it be? Harry Potter and Sailor Moon were a lot of fun to do, and I’m sure I could easily do something Disney-related, but it’s a really fun creative challenge to do, especially since I set the rules myself! For example, doing the blazers this year was a fun added challenge. (I also challenged myself to do skirts the whole week in the spirit of the senshis school and scout uniforms, even though it got chilly last week and I started really wanting to wear pants.)
If you’ve been following along with my AwesomeCon recaps (days 1, 2, and 3), or reading this blog for a little bit, you’ll know that I really relished my first convention cosplay experience. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for such a long time.
It was truly an experience and I wanted to detail and document what it was like to finally get to cosplay at a convention after years of hyping it up for myself.
Prepping the Costume
Let me just throw this out here now so there is no confusion later: I don’t sew. Outside of mending clothing when the need arises, I don’t currently possess the skills necessary create clothing out of fabric.
I’m also not particularly crafty. DIY is usually not my forte, and I still marvel at people who own a ~hot glue gun~, as that seems to be a hallmark crafty-type thing to have.
What does all that mean? I bought everything. One day, I’d like to be able to make my own accessories, at least, or DIY things so that they are more accurate to the character I am portraying, but at this beginning stage of my cosplaying, I buy everything I can afford. Here’s what that included:
Because my hair is red right now, I did spend time touching up the color with Overtone colored conditioner and then… attempting to curl my hair the morning of Day 1. Lemme tell ya, one of the reasons I started exercising this year is because of how sore my arms feel after curling my hair with my super cheap-o curling iron I got at at TJ Maxx a while ago.
On all 3 days, I did makeup before leaving for the convention. I don’t wear makeup on a daily basis, so this is always a bit of a struggle before a special event. I was trying out a BB cushion for the first time, and that was actually really nice to use (although I may look for an oil-free formula next time), but the real problem was my eye makeup.
I need to practice doing eye makeup. Winged eyeliner? It never matches! And on day 3, I actually ran out of eyeliner in the middle of trying to line my second eye so… I just ditched the eyeliner altogether. This was a huge bummer because the eyeliner is fairly key to helping me achieve the anime eye look…) Speaking of anime eyes, I don’t really know how to apply false lashes, and yet there I was… wearing them to the best of my ability?
Because of the false lashes, I wasn’t able to wear my glasses during days 2 and 3 of the convention; the lashes would push up against my lenses and look ridiculous. There was a lot of squinting and asking Ben to scan crowds and read signs for me.
I had small things happening with my Sailor Mars costume, like the gloves starting to get dirty because I touch things often but they were white fabric. At one point, I realized I was causing pilling on the costume because of how often my bag was rubbing against the fabric, so for day 3, I had to shave off those pills. It was a good thing I had a Tide pen with me because I did have a few small stains on the costume and had to spend a fair bit of time addressing them ASAP.
AND YES THE WIG PANIC WAS SO REAL. I was so traumatized by the whole experience, I don’t know how I’m going to ever attempt to wear a wig again.
The Pain
Cosplaying Sailor Mars was… a little bit painful, I’ll be really honest. Here were the major pain points:
The heels – Even though my heels are designed to be comfortable, I don’t know how many shoes in general are comfortable after 12 hours on your feet. My feet were KILLING me by the end of day 2 and 3, and I was frequently found taking my shoes off to rest my feet for a bit. On day 3, I became very fond of taking my shoes off in the Exhibit Hall to rest my feet on the cold floor. Ahhh… sweet relief. My feet continued hurting at work the next day because they just had suffered so much and were not done suffering yet.
The earrings – My limited experience with clip-on earrings is that they will hurt your earlobes at some point, either immediately when you clip them on in the wrong place or hours later. My ears ached incredibly by day 3 and they actually hurt for DAYS after the convention ended. Those little clips clamping onto one spot on my skin for hours and hours on end did not make my earlobes happy.
The tiara – You may be familiar with this struggle if you’ve worn a hard headband, but the tiara was DIGGING into my temples and it was extremely painful. I frequently was moving the tiara up so that my temples could get a break from being crushed. It was especially tricky when I was wearing the tiara with the wig, but I could’ve sworn that at one point, my head was visibly dented from where the tiara had me in a vice grip.
Despite the pain from my costume components, cosplaying was one of the best experiences of my life. All the pain and effort and time was worth it every time someone recognized my character and lit up or asked me for a photo. Call me vain but I really loved taking photos with people who were fans of my character or my costume. And if none of that was worth it, meeting that young girl and her dad on Father’s Day easily made everything worth it. I will cherish that specific memory for the rest of my life, and it will guide my future cosplay and convention experiences going forward.
Weird Things That Happened
One thing I wasn’t expecting at all was how many people would recognize that I was a Scout but not what planet? In fact, I think I heard almost every single planet name guessed over the course of the weekend, even Outer Senshi names, which really surprised me.
A man came up to me at one point with his phone as he was livestreaming to his audience on Instagram or Facebook. He looked at his phone and as I waved to his viewers, he said, “Oh, no one is giving you any likes!” and walked away. I am very sorry to him and his social media following that my 3 seconds of face time was not like-worthy.
A guy was looking at me with a big smile on his face. “Do you want a photo?” I asked. He nodded and got his camera out, so I handed the fries and chicken tenders I was holding to Ben. The dude’s smile dropped and he said, “Oh, I thought you were eating fish fingers.” I was dressed as Ariel, so I guess he thought it would make for a good photo. Sorry, bro.
As I was leaving the convention center, a man asked me what my cosplay page was. I laughed because it was my first time! In hindsight, I should’ve just pointed him to this blog, since I’ll be sure to document any other cosplay here.
On day 3, I got stopped for photos multiple times as I was trying to catch my Lyft home. Even as I was stepping into the car, someone asked me for a photo. I felt like a freaking celebrity getting mobbed by paparazzi!
Also being handed a leash, that was definitely very weird.
This is @shawnathemaid and he was so nice! Even though I was so confused as to why I was being handed a leash!
I had such an incredible time, and I absolutely cannot wait to cosplay at a convention again. I’ll be wearing Mars out again eventually, but I am already thinking about my next costume. Of course, Halloween is a ripe opportunity to bust out a costume, too!
Who should I cosplay as next?? I don’t want to spoil my Halloween costume, but it is a character from a popular TV show and that’s all I can say right now!
Last time on AwesomeCon 2017, I cosplayed as Sailor Mars and got to experience my first celebrity Main Stage event after losing several battles with my wig.
My original plan for the last day of AwesomeCon was to see the Stan Lee Q&A in the morning. But with queuing for a seat starting sooooo early, we decided to go easy on ourselves and leave just a little bit later.
I debated for a while about what costume I’d wear on day 3, but ultimately I decided to rewear Sailor Mars because people responded so well to it and expressed how happy they were to see my character. Somehow, no one else was dressed as Sailor Mars, even though I think I saw most other scouts in person or on social media, and I would have interactions later in the day that reaffirmed I made the right choice here.
Our first stop of the day was The Guild Reunion. This year marked the 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY of maybe the first web series I ever watched, The Guild. I absolutely loved watching those 6 seasons, so seeing the entire cast in reuniting in person was one of the highlights of my con experience. Again, a lot of questions were still directed towards Felicia Day (tellin’ you, queen of the nerds) but all of the actors were really great. (Really sad that Amy Okuda didn’t make it though…) If you haven’t seen The Guild before, I highly recommend it AND the amazing bonus videos that accompany it. (Those music videos are A+++.) It also made me happy to see Codex costumes at AwesomeCon (see Day 2). I probably wouldn’t have seen them at a con where Felicia Day wasn’t a guest, so I really lucked out with that.
L to R: Jeff Lewis, Robin Thorsen, Sandeep Parikh, Vincent Caso, Felicia Day
After that panel, we skedaddled back over to the Main Stage to catch the Catherine Tate Q&A. I loved Donna Noble on Doctor Who and Catherine Tate is such a fantastic comedian. I somehow forgot about all the clips of The Catherine Tate Show, her sketch comedy show, that I watched on Youtube until someone asked what one of her most famous characters, Lauren Cooper, would think about AwesomeCon. She was so lovely and kind and funny, and I hope that she takes a fan’s advice to ask her agent about putting a Christmas special of hers on Netflix because I’m sure it’s great.
Terrible photo of Catherine Tate up on stage
Although there were still other celebrity Q&As left to see, we were only a little bit interested in them and a lot more interested in spending the last hours of the convention at the Exhibit Hall. We had been hedging on a few purchases the past 2 days, but Ben finally walked away with a really beautiful Skyrim map and I was able to pick up a really cool gift for my dad. (Day 3 was on Father’s Day, so the gift was to make up for missing it and for his upcoming birthday as well!)
These amazing Spice Girls were blasting “Wannabe” and were basically perfection
I had a lot of strange interactions with people on Sunday. There was the guy who came up to me while streaming to Instagram/Facebook Live and informed me that while I was on camera, no one gave me any likes, before walking away to find someone more like-worthy, I guess? A woman really loved my costume and told me I looked just like Sailor Mars and “You could be her twin!”, which is similar to her first statement but different in a way that left me feeling a little perplexed. A woman asked me for a photo and then handed me a leash to which this man was attached:
This is @shawnathemaid and he was so nice! Even though I was so confused as to why I was being handed a leash!
My favorite interaction, by far, was with a girl who was about 10 years old? She was with her dad and timidly approached me to ask for a photo. I’ll admit that I actually really love when people ask for my photo, even more when children do, because I basically go into Disney park princess mode and momentarily stop feeling the pain of my heels and my clip-on earrings to be look and be happy with a stranger. This girl looked so in awe because Sailor Mars was her favorite Sailor Scout! She told me that my costume looked great and I looked pretty in it, so I’m here feeling very good about myself as we take some photos together. Her dad then came up to me and thanked me himself because he knew how much his daughter loved Sailor Mars and said that they had been looking around the entire weekend for Sailor Mars, so they were very happy to have finally found me. With that, any regrets I had about rewearing Mars (and her heels) (and her earrings) completely vanished. I was SO happy to have been able to make this girl happy, and I’m only sorry I didn’t remember to say Happy Father’s Day to this great dad who knew what his daughter loved and was there supporting her to love those things.
This is a different woman but I loved meeting everyone and only wish I got to see more of the photos we took together!
Day 3 cosplay did not disappoint.
Found Sailor Jupiter!Awesome T’challa and Bucky BarnesSuper cool KorraProvincial BellePost-escape ElizabethEmma Frost and WolverineRaven and Beast BoyWhen Deadpool asks “Do you wanna do heart hands or something?”, it’s hard to contain your excitement!!!THIS AVENGERS FAMILY GAVE ME SO MUCH LIFE THEY ARE EVERYTHING I WANT TO BE RIGHT DOWN TO THE PASSED OUT BABY HULK AND THE SASSY THORI am not 100% sure who this is, is it Slade?
We were able to meet up with my coworker Joe again and I was able to convince him that he needed a throw pillow. (I didn’t realize how well I could anticipate what Joe wanted and how much influence I had over him until I realized that I was able to persuade him to attend AwesomeCon to see David Hayter in the first place… and then to buy this pillow.) I was also able to meet up with my Instagram friend, Eric, who is a co-creator of the #strideby hashtag and took this fun Boomerang of me:
Before we knew it, the Exhibit Hall was closing and the con had come to an end. As I walked out of the convention center, I still was getting photos with folks, with one person even asking me for my cosplay page. I laughed because this was literally my first time cosplaying someplace! (In retrospect, I probably should’ve just given him my social media for this blog right here.) People were still trying to ask me for photos as I walked to meet my ride home, and I closed the car door just in total amazement at how AwesomeCon exceeded my expectations.
With that, I wrap up my AwesomeCon recaps. If you’ll recall, I was in a bit of a funk since… May? While I don’t know if it’s over, AwesomeCon was definitely a high point during that prolonged low. I was so happy during those 3 days, even through the wig panic and the hanger and the strange dudes and the foot pain. I am also so grateful to Ben, who had a great time himself but definitely placed my desires above his own the entire weekend. (After all, he watched so many celebrity Q&As for people he didn’t have a clue about at all! We only recently watched The Guild because he was drawn in enough by the actors to be interested in watching.) (It’s good, go watch.)
What are your favorite cosplays from Day 3 that I managed to snap?
What convention should I attend next?? I wish I could go to NovaCon, because it’s another local con that has some cool guests, actually, but I have a conflict that weekend. I was considering trying to go to New York Comic Con but Saturday passes are already sold out, and I don’t know if I can handle a con of that size so soon after my very first one. I am currently thinking about some of the anime conventions (namely Otakon, which is coming up soon) but I am so out of the anime scene that I’m not sure I’ll be hip enough to understand the panels and stuff!
Let me know about conventions that you love and think I should attend! I was so in love with the entire experience that I am already considering traveling just to go. This could get dangerous…
Last time on AwesomeCon 2017, I cosplayed as Blue Dress Ariel and spent a lot of time walking the Exhibit Hall, enjoying my first-ever convention experience.
Saturday was a really incredible, dare I saw awesome, day.
I was breaking out Sailor Mars again, fulfilling my costume dreams AND my convention cosplay dreams, and I was pretty dang psyched about it! Because this was my first convention and I’ve had red hair for all of 2017 (and have natural brown hair vs. the black-violet hair that Sailor Mars has), I decided I’d attempt what I failed over Halloween:
I would wear a wig.
Spoiler alert: I left the convention center not wearing my wig.
In fact, I didn’t make it very far at all with my wig. Because my Mars cosplay includes heels and is much more clearly a costume versus my Blue Dress Ariel outfit, Ben had us Lyft into DC rather than take the metro. As we pulled up to the convention center, I could feel the wig start to slip. You see, with the wig being quite long in the back, it was back-heavy, and I didn’t really have it particularly well-secured to my head.
Diana, Princess of the Amazons, and Sailor Mars… wigless…
Even as I was stepping out of the Lyft, people were recognizing me as Sailor Mars and stopping me for photos. Those are probably some of the worst photos of me, as my wig was slipping and I think it was fairly obvious that it was! (Folks were so kind, though, and told me that I looked just like the character. Except I’m pretty sure Rei’s hair was never falling off her head, revealing different-colored hair underneath.) We walked in, went through security, and immediately went to wait in line to see David Tennant talk about space and time travel. While I was realizing that the very friendly young girl in line with me was not the child of the couple next to her and was just standing there by herself talking about Doctor Who to whoever would listen, I came to a terrible realization:
My wig was straight up just falling off my head.
The wig was already making my head hot, but this realization made me break out into a full sweat. People were still trying to compliment my costume when I made the executive decision to take off my wig and go to the bathroom to try to secure it to my head better. (We had a very long line ahead of us so I wasn’t too worried there.) In the bathroom, women and girls were still telling me that Sailor Mars was their favorite or how much they loved watching Sailor Moon, which was so lovely to hear. Regrettably, I was not as cordial in the bathroom as I was outside or even as I usually am in a bathroom because I had bobby pins in my mouth and was furious combing through my wig, still sweating from just how anxious the situation was making me feel. When I finally got my wig back on, I realized my face was starting to get a bit shiny from my makeup trying to contain the stress-sweat.
David Tennant Explores Time and Space was really great, though! I often forget what his natural accent sounds like, and he’s just a very charming man, so the session really energized the completely PACKED Main Stage hall. It was so cool to hear a beloved actor talk to scientists Dr. Grant Tremblay and Dr. Matt Shindell about time travel and what could be possible. David Tennant had some interesting insights on the matter, along with some great stories about acting and being on Doctor Who.
He asked the cameras to zoooooom in on his shoes because they were a very, very ratty pair of trainers. The story behind his strange shoe choice is that he wore his absolute worst shoes to DC under the assumption that he’d be purchasing a new pair of shoes at the airport and be able to finally say goodbye to those terrible shoes. Unfortunately, this did not play out as he expected, and the timing gods deemed that David Tennant would make his public appearance wearing literally his oldest and grossest shoes. He also admitted that he didn’t have a lot of advice for aspiring actors other than:
Don’t be late. Learn your lines. And don’t be an arsehole.
“I already know what your question is going to be.” “Are you my mummy?”The younger brother of “Are you my mummy” was also very cute
This was my first Main Stage event and it wouldn’t be my last, and I was so so excited to be able to see David Tennant in person! With my wig panic mostly subsided and a really great first event down, I was so ready for the rest of this convention! Next up: the Felicia Day Q&A.
Felicia Day & her ASL interpreter
One of the biggest sources of confusion during this con was how Felicia Day was in a small panel room rather than on the Main Stage. (And Wil Wheaton, too!) She is a HUGE figure in nerd culture, so seeing how many people were lined up early and crammed into the room (and turned away as well!) made me really wonder why she wasn’t a Main Stage celebrity guest. Her Q&A was really great (and I heard that even at other panels she was moderating, many fans directed questions to her) because she’s a really eloquent speaker, she is very kind to her fans, and she’s just an all-around awesome lady. Plus she recently had a baby and published a book, so it’s a very exciting time to be Felicia Day… or a Felicia Day fan, I suppose!
Before the panel started, I was admiring a girl in front of me who had a fantastic costume and a bright true-yellow wig that seemed secure and not trying to leap off of her head. While I was staring at her wig, she turned around and complimented my costume, asking if she could get a photo after the Q&A was over. I said of course but lost her in the hubbub of leaving the small panel room. And I started to feel some slipping…
No time for wig slipping! We needed to eat lunch or we wouldn’t be able to eat for several hours because of certain schedule constraints we had. We headed to one of the food areas where Ben and I waited in line to get food when I felt more and more slipping. I could feel my wig panic seeping back in and as my panic-induced sweat started beading up on my forehead, the wig only slipped more and more. There I was, standing in the middle of several lines of people AGAIN, and I had to do something.
I ripped off my wig in the middle of waiting in line and shoved it into Ben’s backpack.
I didn’t know what else to do! My hair was a COMPLETE mess at this point and a lot of people (and children, I’m so sorry children!) just watched Sailor Mars take off all of her hair in a flustered fit. At least I later had a turn of good luck when I was able to snag a little table for Ben and I to enjoy our sandwiches at, because I really need to just sit and wallow in my shame for a bit.
I was bested by my wig. I would not try it again. I admitted complete defeat.
As I was eating and waiting for Ben to come back with his food, someone came up to me and asked for my photo. Oh no. Ohhhhh nooooo. I said “Sure, of course!” and then proceeded to wipe all the whatever was on my face off, try to make my hair behave, and put my gloves back on for this photo:
Thank you so much to @the_markfuentes for this photo! I’m sorry for how flustered I was when you caught me.
In any case, my wig panic had me very flustered and needing to just sit and recover for a while, but I was ultimately very relieved to have lost my battle with the wig. It meant I didn’t have to worry about it anymore, even if my hair was now less accurate to the character than it was before.
From there, it was off to the Exhibit Hall. Earlier, we were in the wrong line for the Main Stage and had accidentally found ourselves in the Exhibit Hall line. Luckily, we were able to stroll in, although it was SIGNIFICANTLY more crowded than Friday. There was some bumper-to-bumper pedestrian traffic and a lot more cosplayers sitting on the floor trying to catch a moment’s rest.
Finally found a Sailor Moon!This amazing cosplay made me immediately shout out “EMMA FROST” and beg for a photo. He was so gracious and so glamorous, I still think about this one, often.Yates and Holtzmann from the new GhostbustersSuperman facing off with a Dalek (was very scared for this boy)I recognized this amazing cosplay while I was there but I can’t think of where she is from right now – help?Two Doctors, two sonic screwdriversLil Joker flirting with two Harley QuinnsINCREDIBLE Disney Princess-Star Wars crossover group with Jedi and Sith princesses (and a T-Rex in the background)Ninja Pink Ranger from the Power Rangers movie (that I own on VHS)Leelo and Ruby Rhod from Fifth Element, which celebrated its 20th anniversary this year
Before long, it was time for us to get into the only celebrity meet-and-greet-type line we would wait in at all, because I was one of the lucky fans who got tickets to an Edgar Wright autograph session, along with my friend Annie! Even though I had just asked him a question at his Q&A at the Baby Driver screening, I was really excited to be able to meet him up close. He signed another Baby Driver poster for me (the same one I got after the screening) and I was able to thank him again for coming to DC and answering my question on Thursday.
“E. Wright – 2017” Thank you Edgar Wright for this autograph and for this really fun movie!
Unfortunately, we weren’t able to spend much more time in the Exhibit Hall as it was off to see the Jason David Frank Q&A at the Main Stage. Growing up, I was an ENORMOUS Power Rangers fan. As one of many young girls who wanted to be the Pink Ranger, Tommy had a special place in my heart, so I was thrilled to see him in person.
Jason David Frank aka JDF aka Tommy aka Green Ranger aka White Ranger aka childhood hero to many
Jason David Frank was… not quite what I was expecting him to be. He had so much energy but not in the way that other celebrities that we had seen and would see did. As soon as he walked on stage, he had his phone and was interacting with a Facebook Live audience. Do not let anyone tell you that JDF is not dedicated to his fans, because he is. He frequently mentioned Facebook Live during his Q&A and even had a giveaway for those fans that he prioritized over a giveaway he did for the people asking him questions. But what worried me wasn’t this steadfast love for his fans, but just… attempting to follow his thought pattern. His answers were all over the place and I felt a little concerned for my Green Ranger! I remember in particular that a fan had asked about security at these conventions, because Jason David Frank was actually the target of an assassination attempt at another convention earlier this year. I didn’t know this, but his answer about having security guards that didn’t do anything being the reason that the attempt happened was strange, second only to his proposed solution that security pretend they are doing something and act busy. “Act busy!” he repeated over and over, pantomiming things that security could do to feign security-ness. In any case, I think he is finding some great success with his new gig playing Bloodshot and I wish him the best! As disorienting as his Q&A session was, it was still super cool to see him in person after idolizing him for so much of my childhood.
After debriefing with Annie and Ben to confirm that we were all concerned about the Green Ranger, Annie split off to go to the Wil Wheaton Q&A while we circled back in the line to see the John Barrowman Q&A. I felt guilty dragging Ben to this because he had no clue who John Barrowman was, having never seen a single thing he’s been in, but John Barrowman is something of a legend at these geek conventions and knows how to put on a wonderful show for everyone. He strutted out in heels and a TARDIS onesie (or as someone exclaimed gleefully, a romphim) and was everything any fan could hope for him to be: loud, suggestive, funny, charming, supportive of the 17-year-old girl who covered the depiction of bisexuality in the media…
John Barrowman!Hamming it up for the camera… and the cameraman
He told us a funny story about his in-laws (it involved his husband’s unexpected appearance during a livestream) and reveled in how his ASL interpreter signed the phrase “hung like a donkey”. We learned that it’s tough being recognizable when you have “old man hair” in real life and are accused of looking like someone famous… but way older! He wrapped up the Q&A singing Frank Sinatra for us and I left feeling so giddy and energetic. Even Ben perked up significantly after being very confused by the Jason David Frank session and despite not knowing who John Barrowman was. By the time that panel had ended, we were ready to go back to the Exhibit Hall and maybe, finally, purchase some items that we were contemplating the day before.
Strutting his stuff in a pair of pumpsWith husband, Scott, in his Captain Jack Harkness jacket
Unfortunately, the Exhibit Hall was closed already! It closed a lot earlier on Saturday than it did on Friday, and we were pretty disappointed. We had no choice but to turn back and go to the video game parlor, where Ben completely destroyed some kids at Halo. Lemme tell you something: Ben may not have played Halo in a long time, but that game raised him when he was in middle school. He has clocked more hours as Master Chief than I can even fathom. So despite “going easy” on the tweens with the other controllers… they really didn’t stand a sliver of a chance.
While we were gaming, we regrouped with one of my co-workers, Joe, who I was able to persuade to attend AwesomeCon by telling him that David Hayter was going to be there. As a huge Metal Gear Solid fan, Joe essentially came out just to see David Hayder, who voiced his favorite game and whose voice acting is actually an aspiration of Joe’s! (Later, Ben commented that Joe had an excellent voice before I told him that he did some amateur voiceover work on the side.)
Codex, from The Guild, with Diana, from ThemysciraAwesome Yondu who was REALLY tallSo delighted to find Cortana, especially with Ben being the big Halo fan he isBelle and Star Lord lounging on the stepsThis wee Deadpool was running up and down the steps for a looooong timeIndiana Jones and Mars tried to switch poses
After catching up on our AweseomeCon adventures, we met up with Annie and Connie to grab dinner. It was Joe’s first time having poké AND his first time trying mochi ice cream, and it was very delicious. I imagine that passerbys who saw Sailor Mars in the window eating poké were a little confused, but I had an awesome time with my friends, cosplaying, and seeing these great celebrities. I was only sad to think that there was only one day left of this convention. I didn’t want the fun to ever end.
Who are your favorite cosplays in this batch? I have already professed my love for the glitter-bearded Emma Frost and the awesome group crossover cosplay.
Have you ever been surprised by how a celebrity acted in real life?
Have you ever gotten to see a celebrity and s/he was everything you thought s/he’d be?
Sip of Starrshine 