Dragon Con 2015 - Saturday

This is the 2nd post in my series of recaps of Dragon Con. You can click to read the posts for Friday and Sunday.

We got up and going early on Saturday morning since I was going to march in the Disney section of the parade. They had to change the parade route and the staging area because of streetcars that were put in downtown. It took me a bit but I found the staging area which actually worked better than the old one.

There were only a few Disney cosplayers when I got there, but they started coming in. We were near the front so I got to see a lot of cool costumes. The parade got started pretty much on time, and it was the long walk. Even though the parade route was only .1 of a mile longer, it felt much longer.

But the best part of being in the Disney group is watching the kids along the parade route get so excited to see their favorite princesses march by. There was also a great Gaston cosplayer who marched next to me who was really hamming it up for the crowd.

Once the parade was over, I went to find Todd who was in the food court. He had gotten a bunch of autographs with little wait because so many people were at the parade. I was near the front of the parade so it wasn't very crowded outside of the parade yet. We headed over to the Hyatt to go to the Artist Alley.

There, I quickly found Peter David's table and finally got to meet him. He's been one of my favorite authors since I was in high school and I've been meaning to get his autograph for the last couple of Dragon Cons but I never make it over to the artist alley. But it finally happened this year!

Todd and I looked around the Artist Alley a bit and peeked in the Art Show. By this time, it was starting to get crowded. We had decided before we even got to GA that we were only going to stay a short time at the con on Saturday. It just gets too crowded.

So we headed out, and I changed out of my costume once we got to the car. From there, we went to a big mall that isn't far from my Aunt and Uncle's house. We shopped a bit - they have a Disney Store and a LEGO store and then went to the movies. We saw The Man from U.N.C.L.E. which was a fun movie.

We got back fairly early to my aunt and uncle's house and turned in early.

Up Next - Dragon Con Sunday

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.