The Power of Cosplay

I'm just over a week, now, since my first and second ever cosplays. What an experience. And what a difference between the two cosplays.

I blogged a while back about my apprehension leading into my first cosplay and con. (That blog post is titled "On Cons and Cosplay" if you're curious. Also click the stuff in quotes to read that post, if you want.)

In that blog post, I obliquely talked about an obscure choice for a cosplay. As it turned out, I didn't get to do that cosplay.

For those wondering, this is what I was going to cosplay.

I fully intended to go as Catherine Tate's character in this comedy sketch. I had bought the clothes and jewelry, and the wig. Turns out, the wig I bought didn't like to be put into a pony tail of any sort.

It was on to Plan B, which was to cosplay as Amy Pond, since I had the red wig.

This is the final result:

I don't know what face I'm trying to pull in that one. Oh well. (And that's my brother pulling an excellent Wil Wheaton-esque photo bomb.)

You can barely see the hash marks on my arms as I'm cosplaying Amy from "Day of the Moon" and its related episodes. I'm fighting the silence.

Props to the woman cosplaying River Song. Excellent detail work on her cleric army uniform.

This was my second cosplay of the con. I was originally only going to attend the last day but then lucked into a 3-day pass. Through the entire weekend I probably saw at least a dozen others cosplaying this same thing. Sigh for thinking I was thinking outside the box. Oh well.

The day before I was sitting at work and struck on a brilliant idea for a cosplay. So brilliant, in fact, I questioned why I never thought of it before. I called my mom to ask her to check the costume boxes in our holiday storage room to make sure we still had the pieces. She only found half the costume. At which point I realized the rest was hanging in my closet.

So this was the result:

Weeping Angel Statue of Liberty.

Talk about kind of obscure.

But this was honestly the best day of the con for me. When people got it, and got the weeping angel part, it was so fun. The smiles were so fantastic. And what's funny is that this isn't even the most accurate cosplay in the history of cosplay.

I didn't have the hair right at all. No way can my natural hair replicate the statue's hair. Nor did I have any sort of face or body paint. If I were to ever cosplay this again, I'd make the costume over from scratch so it was long enough and do the teeth, wig, and paint job. (This was my Halloween costume when I was about 10. My mom made it for me and I've worn it three or so times since for various purposes.)

I knew, of course, going into the con that there would be some there who wouldn't get it and think "How odd, she's just cosplaying the Statue of Liberty."

Of course, too, it hit a second fandom-- Ghostbusters. (They bring her to life in Ghostbusters II). Which, when I happened upon the Ghostbusters of SLC booth, made for an absolutely brilliant fandom moment.

The smiles this cosplay generated are honestly what has me already plotting my cosplays for next year's con. And I'm trying so hard to think outside the box since my last-minute, what I thought was really obscure, cosplay was a hit and made me happy because it made other people happy. And a bigger hit than my Amy Pond cosplay.

Though it is so liberating to become a character (I can totally see the appeal in acting), the true power of cosplay is making others smile, brightening their day a bit. That is what will have me coming back for more cosplaying.