FINAL FANTASY XI 5th ANNIVERSARY - SE PARTY 2007

[Byrd]

One of the ultimate problems with cosplay is that people see a character and go "Oh, hey, I like that character, I'll dress up like him/her." When they should go "I want to cosplay, so which character looks the most like me in terms of gender, body type, hair, etc?" To which, if the answer is not "None of them," the follow up question should be "Do I have the necessary skills/financial means/friends with skills who owe me in order to perform this without looking like a fool?" If the answer to this question is "Yes," then you might consider cosplay. Otherwise, the answer is always "No, I should not cosplay."

[Septimus]

One of the ultimate problems with cosplay is that people see a character and go "Oh, hey, I like that character, I'll dress up like him/her." When they should go "I want to cosplay, so which character looks the most like me in terms of gender, body type, hair, etc?" To which, if the answer is not "None of them," the follow up question should be "Do I have the necessary skills/financial means/friends with skills who owe me in order to perform this without looking like a fool?" If the answer to this question is "Yes," then you might consider cosplay. Otherwise, the answer is always "No, I should not cosplay."

I think the real question is: "If I, by some miracle, someday have children, which costume will embarrass them most effectively?"

[Kyreth]

I think the real question is: "If I, by some miracle, someday have children, which costume will embarrass them most effectively?"

I vote for Septimus being dragged out into Katsucon and forcibly made to cosplay a Galka in nothing but an JSE subligar.

That'll scar about three generations of cosplayers while they're still nothing but a kleenex catch waiting to happen, possibly forestalling some of the saddest cases from being able to breed. Do it for humanity!

(Although honestly, I can't ever remember seeing anything resembling a good Galka cosplay- and no, I don't mean sexy Septimus. Nothin' but <3, honest.)

Personally, I think of many of the Mithra "cosplayers" I've seen as a horrible collision of catgirl fetish and bad-gamer-beyond-geek colliding in a nightmarish fatty mass that even the Jaws of Life could not save you from if glomped.

The same applies to a lot of NA cosplay. I can understand it's fun to play dress-up. Hell, I'm a renfaire type and I enjoy some of the costumes I see at cons.

FFS, don't go on a contest stage and expect people to appreciate your tinfoil-and-cardboard disaster area. Understand that the people are taking pictures of you to POINT AT AND LAUGH AT with all their friends. You are being mocked, get over your attention whoring, develop a spinal column, and if you're going to cosplay, do it right- or don't act like you did.

That being said, good cosplay is a combination of OMG and awe for me. There's been some great ones I've seen, and I'm not just talking the ones I'd want to rent a hotel room with for a week. Or three.