#aragrey

“It’s Forever Now” Acrylics on Canvas | 24 x 36″ See more of my art...

I'm seriously debating either wearing a regular wedding dress (Obviously a Pnina, nothing less for me!)

or

If you don't want to read about cosplay, then skip this post. If you do want to read about more proof that high school never ends, then carry on reading. So I've been cosplaying for about five years now, which is exactly 1/4 of my life. I remember my first cosplay very clearly, and I remember most of it was a closet cosplay and the only part that wasn't was a vest that I asked my mom to sew for me. But I did my own makeup and hair styling, and was really proud of the character I'd become. At this point, I didn't know anything about the cosplay world and my mindset at the con was "Hi I'm Marissa and I came here to wear this costume and buy stuff in the dealer's room and look at everyone else's pretty costumes and eat ramen I made in the coffee pot." I like to call that my ignorant phase, because I had absolutely no idea about anyone or anything in the cosplay world other than that I made a costume to fit in. It took me a long time to understand what a masquerade or walk-on was, who the big names were, why people do meet-ups/photoshoots, and the fact that people poured their souls into one weekend. I also didn't know anyone other than two close friends who I spent everyday with. I didn't really know any cosplayers or network with any con people, so it took me a long time to understand what happens to cosplay when the community gets ugly.

I kind of wish I could go back to that point in my cosplay career (Well, not really a career, but you know what I mean), because I've seen just so many nasty things and situations and people in the last, hmmmm, year or so. How have things changed? Well for one, my friends and I formed a cosplay group, Titanesque Cosplay. We began competing and getting serious about our quality and pure passion for this hobby. Along the way, I've made friends and lost friends for various reasons. As individuals in our group, we've all been pitted against dramatic people and situations, and hey, that's life. But the problem with cosplay is the community, and hopefully it can also be the solution.

What does that mean? Well, I had a falling out with someone. That someone, X, went on to tell Y about why I'm a terrible person and to not talk to me or A or B. Y ends up getting in a back and forth war with B that extends to A and then to me and then nothing gets resolved. Meanwhile, Y is buddy buddy with F who is friends with G who is  good friends with me, but F and I don't play well and because of that, F's friends H, I, J, K end up hating me by proxy, and then hating the group, but J wants to be friends, but that might upset the rest of the alphabet and then... you see where this goes? Everyone knows everyone and hears things from everyone. People talk, and they like to talk about more bad things than good.

I've got enemies and I have friends. I have friends that are friends with my enemies. Enemies is such a harsh word, but I use it to mean "someone who would slit my throat if they could". And I've definitely said a few things I shouldn't have and should have instead kept those thoughts to myself. It's all dirty gossip. Back during my ignorant phase, I didn't know about the gossip and was happy. But now that I've found myself in and out of drama and situations, I'm seeing a bigger scope of the cosplay community and I'm starting to understand the people in this hobby and their individual motives.

For example, the Heroes of Cosplay show. More seasoned cosplayers are using this as fuel for their love, hate, passion, and sorrow about what the show will do for the community. Meanwhile, there's so many others who couldn't give a rat's ass because they're just in it to have fun. And hey, maybe they haven't even heard of the show. It's easy to be ignorant.

So what I'm getting at in this post is that as the competition and bar for costume quality get increasingly higher, and there definitely is a correlation, people in this community get increasingly more crazy and drama and war grows thicker. But you know what? We all have victories and defeats. We all have costumes that break right before we walk on stage. We all work hard and channel all the time and resources we have into making a beautiful finished product that we can be proud of. Why can't we stop making this a huge bitchfest pageant pissing contest? My name is Marissa (Ara Grey) and I'm here to make costumes and have fun with my friends because we're all going to die someday and I don't personally feel like wasting my years dealing with Cosplay High School. Everyone needs to stop being so damn catty.

I'm gettin' real tired of your cosplay drama, Master Wayne.