Thursday, September 5, 2013

Cosplay at Dragon Con 2013

The awesome cosplay is one of the big appeals of Dragon Con, at least for me. I don't know the actual statistics, but it's one of the cons with the highest ratio of cosplayers to non-cosplayers.

This year I didn't go to the parade or any costume contests (my schedule just didn't work out that way), so I only grabbed pictures of people I saw walking around the con. But as usual the quality of costumes at Dragon Con was fantastic. So here are some highlights.


Stormtroopers are a fixture at Dragon Con thanks to the 501st legion. And every year I like to take a picture of my first stormtrooper sighting. This year my first sighting happened to be three stormtroopers who had an R2 unit with them. Apparently they did find the driod they were looking for.


The impact of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time can be seen by the fact that people still cosplay it. Link cosplays from every Zelda game are always popular, but Sheik--who is specific only to Ocarina of Time--makes a strong showing every year. I think the popularity of this costume relates not only to the awesome twist in the end that Sheik was Zelda, but Sheik is kick-butt and female fans of the game want an awesome female character they can cosplay as. Sheik is that character. 

There was one really awesome Portal themed Link and Sheik pair that I, alas, failed to take a picture of. But it was awesome. I love how creative cosplayers are and how they can mash up two totally different things into one awesome thing.


I always love a good Star Trek cosplay, even if I don't think technically Andorians would have been a part of Starfleet in the era the uniform clearly comes from. But she pulled off a fantastic Andorian and looked good in that red dress. I couldn't help but take a picture!



I really love the show Merlin, so when I saw a kid cosplaying as Merlin I had to take a picture. Then it turned out his boyfriend was there as well cosplaying as Arthur! This was a timely cosplay considering the show just ended and I think they managed to capture the aesthetic of the two characters.

And then finally my favorite cosplay of the weekend....

The Abhorsen.

In six years of going to Dragon Con this is only the second Abhorsen costume I've ever seen. (I think the last time I saw one was my first year at Dragon Con, in fact.) This cosplay was spot on. I could easily tell who she was supposed to be. Though she doesn't have the hair to be specifically Sabriel or Lirael, she's obviously an Abhorsen. And the great thing about the Abhorsen is there have been lots of them! So she didn't need to change her hair to be a specific one.

Her bandolier with her necromancer bells was fantastic, and I have no idea how she drew on (stamped on? painted on?) all the keys on the blue fabric, but it was perfect. 

Sadly, she said I was the only person to recognize her that day, which made me sad, because the Abhorsen trilogy is a fantastic set of books that you should all go read right now.

So those were my favorite cosplays from around the con! Did you guys see anything interesting? If so send me links! Either here or on twitter @Brown_Ajah.

Random note: Apparently blogger is convinced "cosplay" is spelled incorrectly. Silly blogger. Cosplay is totally a word.

2 comments:

  1. i have a question and a comment (it's a quemment!):
    (Q) Would you please list the titles and author of the Abhorsen books? I feel compelled to educate myself.

    (C) She might have found the fabric pre-designed (or designed it herself!) on Spoonflower. If you like to make your own clothes/cosplay, or just plain like fabric, it's an awesome time suck.

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    Replies
    1. Amy! The Abhorsen Trilogy books are:
      --Sabriel by Garth Nix
      --Lirael by Garth Nix
      --Abhorsen by Garth Nix

      The first one came out in the mid-90s and the other two while we were in high school. You can usually find copies of them in the YA section at any bookstore (though alas, they've changed the covers of them in recent years, and I don't like the new covers as much as the old covers). They're amazing and practically one of the only YA books I actually read as a teen. I recently re-read them (coincidentally, Sabriel was the book I took with me to read on the plane on the way to DragonCon), so I'm probably going to write up a couple of blogposts on them. But you should totally read them! They're awesome!(Considering I list Sabriel as one of my top 5 genre books it's not surprising I think they're awesome, lol http://bittersweetfountain.blogspot.com/2013/04/favorite-genre-books.html)

      And she could have done it on spoonflower. I'll have to check it out, because if they have an Abhorsen surcoat fabric for sale, I need it.

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