If you’ve been following me over on my blog, The Duck of Indeed, you’ll know that I recently completed my cosplay for Rosalina from Super Mario Galaxy. I can’t really say what I like about her character exactly; I guess she just always intrigued me because she just seems like this wise and mysterious person. That, and I liked her look, so I knew I just had to cosplay as her someday. My mind also met with a little bit of a quandary. My previous cosplays were villains Kefka Palazzo and Lord Ghirahim from Final Fantasy VI and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, respectively. Considering they are so different from Rosalina and their clothing stands out far more than Rosie’s simple blue dress, I was really curious to see how she would be received by fellow comicon-goers.
The long-awaited day finally arrived, and I got up early, as I like to get ready and get out while the day is still young and the crowds have yet to congregate. I was a bit too early, in fact, and this resulted in a rather…interesting experience. You see, I had been dieting rather hardcore for this comicon, and I was starving. Seeing as I had arrived at the convention center an hour before the comicon even began, I walked to the nearby hotel for a snack at this little bagel place to kill time and to soothe my raging tummy.
Now, it should come as no surprise that walking into a building garbed in a bright, blue dress and a crown made of foam, not to mention a long, blonde wig…when every other person there is not associated with the comicon in any way, shape, or form, equals a strange and rather mixed reception. This is a pretty small comicon, and though this hotel was very close by, within about two blocks, the people there were clearly in the area on business or vacation. In fact, the streets were so empty, it would have been impossible for anyone to tell such an event was even taking place had they not known to begin with.
Reception from members of the male side of the human race was good. I have never had so many guys smile at me before. The heightened opinions of blondes may indeed be as true as everyone says, as my natural hair color has never been received nearly as positively as my pale blonde wig. The women, on the other hand, seemed to have a very different opinion of me. I got a lot of stares and a lot of frowns, and it was as awkward as it was amusing to see what people unfamiliar with comicons and cosplay, in general, think of those like myself.
In short, don’t stray from a comicon in full cosplay-glory and expect to be perceived as sane. You won’t be.
After eating a turkey, cheddar, and onion sandwich, some potato crisps, and some soda for breakfast (I’ve never been a fan of traditional breakfast choices), while a woman walking by on the way to the bathroom slowed down to stare at my Luma plushie in a very obvious fashion, it was time to head to the comicon. As I was entering the main room where all the vendors were, the guy at the door, who was in charge of making sure no one entered without the proper wristband (proof we had bought a ticket), wouldn’t let anyone else enter until I, “the princess”, as he called me, had passed through the doors. It looked as if my costume was off to a good start.
Immediately after entering the main hall, to my right, I saw two more Rosalina’s, a mother and a daughter. We caught sight of the other party pretty fast and promptly took each other’s pictures. After that, I got to walking around and checking out the sights. At this time, the place wasn’t very crowded, but I did get compliments and requests for pictures from time to time. As for the products on sale, knitted things seemed to be in, as you could find knitted versions of all kinds of characters, from Harry Potter, to Jack Skellington, to Crow and Tom Servo from MST3K (if you know what that stands for and who those characters are, I applaud you). There were also lots and lots of prints, a good collection of plushies, and a number of figurines. I typically get figurines when I’m at comicons, but there were none of characters I recognized. But, there were a lot of FNAF products, including plushies of Freddy, Bonnie, and Foxy (not sure why there’s no Chica) and some pretty cool prints of the characters, as well, ranging from scary to cute and cuddly. (By the way, I found it funny that someone was dressed like Kuzco from The Emperor’s New Groove. The human version, not the llama. I have never seen someone cosplay as a character from that movie before. I doubt I ever will again.)
The first thing I bought was a set of four prints, one of each of the main FNAF characters. They were really neat and looked great together, and I simply had to get all of them. After that, I got the Freddy plush to join the Foxy plush I already had at home. Finding this was too much to carry, I returned it all to my car. By this time, I had already seen everything there was to see, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave so early. I returned to the comicon, planning to walk around just a little more, and I’m so glad I did. First off, I decided to be naughty and buy a few more things, another FNAF print, this time one that included all four of the characters from the first game (see my featured image above), and I got my parents the knitted Tom Servo, as they, too, are big fans of MST3K.
What made things even better was the fact that the comicon was now getting fairly crowded. I started having a lot more people asking for my photo, to the point that I couldn’t get very far without having another picture taken. One girl about my age wanted to have a picture taken with me, and at one point, I was approached by Batman, who asked if his daughter could have a picture taken with me, as well. One person also asked to get a short video clip of me for their Youtube channel. I didn’t do much more than pose, as I had never been asked for a video clip before, but it was pretty cool.
It ended up being a pretty great day, and I was so pleased that my costume got so much attention. Like I mentioned earlier, Kefka and Ghirahim really stand out. I mean, both of them have very striking appearances that are difficult to miss. Rosalina simply wears a blue dress, so I had my doubts she would get as many photos, simply because her look isn’t so obvious. I was also at a fairly small comicon. Nevertheless, people seemed to really enjoy my costume (I have a feeling that many people, especially small children, thought I was a Disney princess rather than a character from the Super Mario Brothers series, but hey, that’s fine by me). I’m not typically the kind of person that stands out and enjoys basking in the attention of others, but I do really love going to the comicon and feeling like a celebrity for the day.
(On a side note, I also wonder what it is about Ghirahim and Rosalina that people want to have their picture taken with me, but no one asked to be in a photo with me when I cosplayed as Kefka. I mean, that makes sense because Kefka’s a psycho, but I think Ghirahim is about as intimidating. What, then, do Ghirahim and Rosalina have in common? That remains a mystery.)
It really does make one feel rather famous when absolute strangers are excited and asking to take your photo, and it was really hard leaving. The comicon is like another world. People are excited and friendly, and you kind of feel like one big community, especially in a smaller comicon such as this. When I returned to the real world, however, I was in for such a shock as I was reminded of what everyday life is like. People are concerned with their own lives. They are busy and unfriendly to strangers.
Never do you notice this so severely as when you’ve just come from a place where you feel welcome. Despite not knowing another soul there, at a comicon, you know you belong because everyone shares similar interests and the same passion, whether it be for gaming or movies or comics. It’s a great community of people, and my experience at the hotel really illustrated this. There, people looked at me with barely hidden confusion or even disapproval. At the comicon, however, no one thinks twice when they see someone in an outrageous costume. Rather, they all flock to these people with admiration, cameras at the ready.
Sometimes I feel like I live for the comicon. All the hard work I go through to make these costumes, and the pain (word of advice, they weren’t joking when they called it “hot glue”), is all made worth it when I see how much people enjoy my costume. This year, I was really starting to feel tired of cosplaying, but now I feel reenergized. I just can’t wait ‘til next time! And if you want, come check out my blog this Friday for my photo tour!
Duckalina
