Why I Love The Quest

Image: https://www.facebook.com/TheQuestABC

I was vaguely interested in watching The Quest when I first heard about it. My interest in reality shows has waned over the years. I used to love Survivor but it got to be less entertaining as the seasons progressed.

I didn't get a a chance to watch any of The Quest until last week. Our DirectTV was on the fritz which ended up with us canceling it entirely. To fill our entertainment gap, we got Hulu Plus and a new Roku player. I found The Quest on Hulu and watched all of the episodes available in one sitting.

Like many other geeks, I love the idea of normal folks going to a magical kingdom to become heroes. This was why I got hooked quickly to The Quest.

It works a little like Survivor because only one Paladin will make it to the end and a Paladin is cut each episode. They also have to do challenges to determine who will be banished.

But there is a storyline! All the NPC's move through the story and get the Paladins to come along. One challenge involved having to save the Queen from poisoning as an example. The Paladins aren't playing against each other - they want to help everyone to be able to figure out who is the one true hero.

And there is no money prize like so many other reality shows. The 'prize' is you get to fight the big bad at the end. It's the geekiest reality show ever - even geekier than Heroes of Cosplay in my opinion.

The story line, the Paladins (my favorite is Bonnie) and the setting of Everealm has made me fall in love with this show. I can't wait to see what happens next!

Tales of a Fat Cosplayer - Curves and Hotness

 Last year, I wrote a post about how even though I'm overweight I enjoying wearing costumes and cosplaying. It was in response some comments made on Heroes of Cosplay. But I found that I have more to say on the subject.

Ever since Todd was diagnosed with MS, we changed our diet as a family. Todd lost a ton - he actually lost about as much weight as Emily weighs. I lost too but not as much thanks to being a women. But I have been noticing my clothes have been fitting a lot looser.

I have a Kaylee costume that has a light blue Asian jacket. The jacket always fit a bit snug, especially tight in the arms. I went to a Browncoat picnic a couple of weeks ago and I Kaylee-fied myself because we were going to film spots for the Browncoat Ball.

The jacket wasn't tight at all! It fit great! 

We don't have any long mirrors in our house so when I want to get a look of most of me, I have to stand on the toilet. This was a little dangerous when I was pregnant, and one of the reasons there are very few pictures of me during that time.

I was curious though so I got up there and my shape is changing for the better! I still have a pudgy belly, but looking at me front on I'm just all curves, with a killer hourglass shape going on. My thought was, "I'd be hot... if I lived in another time period."

Never in my life have I thought I was hot or gorgeous. I'm short and round, which isn't super attractive in this day and age. But in years past people have wore huge hoop skirts to try and emulate what God gave me. Too bad I live in a time period where thin and tall is in vogue.

But I'll be rocking a costume this weekend at Atlanta's first Wizard World. I may be a fat cosplayer but at least I have some awesome curves to go with the fat.

Final Thoughts on Heroes of Cosplay

One of my
early costumes

I’ve been a cosplayer for about 15 years now, so I was excited to see Heroes of Cosplay. The show was interesting and the costumes were beautiful but the attitudes of some of the cosplayers were crappy. I’ve already ranted about a few things on the show, but I wanted to share my feelings about the show as a whole, especially the finale.

Knowing this was a reality show, I know that it was edited together to make drama. And sadly, some of the elitist / size-ist attitudes shown in the show have basis in real life because I’ve come across it before in my own cosplaying journey. I have no doubt that Monika is at least as half as bitchy in real life as she is on the show because you can’t really edit some of the hateful things she said.

But what bothered me the most is what information that came out after the finale was aired. The following has spoilers if you haven’t seen the last episode. In the group competition, there was a group of femme Doctors from Doctor Who. They were shown getting into a scuffle with the ‘heroes’ from LA after an audience member shouted about how out of towners should go home. It caused quite the issue in the back stage area, with one of the ‘heroes’ in tears.

I felt bad for the ‘heroes’ when I watched the episodes, since they were the cosplayers I liked most on the show. But then the Doctor Who cosplayers story came to light. Apparently, the thing shouted was something along the lines of ‘everyone who isn't a SyFy plant, I love you,” but that was apparently dubbed over with the out of towners line. Also, from the Doctor Who cosplayers have said that the skit in the group contest wasn’t told to them until they got to the con, since it was the first time it had happened at Planet ComicCon. They were shown to be villains, rather unfairly from what I’ve read. You can read one account from one of the Doctor Who cosplayers' on tumblr.

While I did enjoy the show for the most part, I think it gave cosplayers a bad name in some ways. Some of the cosplayers had the right attitude, but some didn’t at all. I honestly hope that it doesn't come back because it will just be about the drama again and not about the fun that cosplaying should be.

Cosplay and Snobs

An example of piss poor cosplay

So I have another Heroes of Cosplay rant. I love the show for the beautiful costumes, but sometimes the attitudes on the show annoy me to no end.

In this week’s episode we see Monika being uber bitchy at every turn. I’m not sure why and I’m not sure if they edited her to be that way, but her attitude really sucked. Especially when she was so mean to Becky who I think has made some wonderful costumes. Cosplay should be about wearing costumes and having fun, but Monika sucked all the fun out.  It was a shame too since Fushigi Yugi is one of my favorite animes.

Now I’m not a very good cosplayer. I buy costumes and I hobble other ones together. I hand sewed my Kaylee layer cake dress and it turned out ok, but it’s falling apart now. I've had people look down at me for even thinking about making the layer cake because it’s complicated. I was told that I shouldn't do it unless I can sew really well and I got a snotty attitude from another layer cake cosplayer when I marched in the Dragon Con parade a few years ago.

Yes, it was kind of crappy, but it turned out better than I thought. And I had fun wearing it, which is the point of cosplay. Now I wouldn't complete in any of the cosplay contests, especially at Dragon Con, because I know my costumes aren’t that great. But I cosplay to run around in a fun costume.

I wore three costumes at Dragon Con this year. Two of them I bought and one I put together. I didn't get a lot of people asking me to take my picture, but a few people did. I can’t imagine not wearing a costume to Dragon Con and I had fun wearing the ones that I did. Unfortunately, there will be those snobby people who look down at other cosplayers because their costumes might not be as great as theirs.

The Tale of a Fat Cosplayer

Me as American McGee's Alice

As a child, I loved Halloween and being in plays in part because of the costumes. I never grew out of wanting to dress up and pretending so it’s a very good thing I’m a geek. But I've also never been skinny at all. As I got older, I got wider for a variety of reasons. I try to exercise as much as I can, but chronic pain issues can get in the way. Despite this, I still cosplay.

I am a fat cosplayer.

My husband and I have been watching Heroes of Cosplay on SyFy. We both like the show because the costumes are beautiful. But it seems like there is a lot of focus put on perfection and less on the fun. In the first episode, it showed one of the cosplayers freaking out because she had gained some weight. In the second episode, a newbie to cosplay competitions said that she thought anyone should cosplay what they wanted. She got looks from the experienced cosplayers like she was crazy. One said that if someone is going to be 300 lbs. and cosplay, they are going to get negative comments.

I've been cosplaying on and off for about 15 years. I've never been skinny but I've never gotten negative comments before. Even if I did, I probably would just ignore it because I love cosplaying. Now I do try to pick costumes that won’t make me look fatter than I am. I never wear skin tight or skin showing costumes because I wouldn't be comfortable and it wouldn't look good.

Cosplaying is fun and that’s why I do it. Even though I’m overweight, I’m going to keep cosplaying. I already have all my costumes planned for Dragon Con and I’ll be walking in the parade again. I'll also be admiring everyone else's costumes - fat or thin.