What Makes A Great Cosplay?

The summer is approaching which means it will soon be convention season! Time to go out and celebrate the things you love/”geek out to” with other people who feel the same way.

When I go to such events, I love being that person who goes all out. The person that you either roll your eyes at or take a picture with. For me it makes the event feel a little more awesome. Even when I was little I would go to civil war reenactments and dress up in that era’s attire. Bonnet and everything. I had a blast!

Even last year when I went to my first board game convention, GenCon, I dressed up. I went as a genderbent Argent Adept and classic Unity. Both are from the card game Sentinels of the Multiverse. (Unfortunately, I never got a great photo of them, so I can not present them to you guys.) It was great seeing other people dress up as characters they love.

Which got me thinking, what makes a great cosplay?

You have to love the character you want to cosplay. This has to be a character that you connect with. You must feel a passion towards that character, game, movie, whichever. They made you cry, laugh, maybe even get mad. That is a character worth cosplaying. I feel like this love kinda gets shown off when you arrive into a convention cosplaying as them. The cosplay also acts like a sign announcing to people your love for that character, which means it is even easier to connect with people who love the character too.

You also must be patient. Either save up money for a cosplay designer to make an outfit for you or do it yourself. If you decide to make it on your own, do research. Look up tutorials and bloggers who have already had experience in the field, and learn from their mistakes.

Lastly, and most importantly, if you are doing a cosplay/dressing up, be in it to win it. I saw cosplayers walking around last year who looked miserable until they were in front of a camera. Then they immediately went from being a miserable convention goer to an energetic lump of fun! When making a cosplay, make sure it’s comfortable for you. Not only that, but be sure that you’re in it for the fun of it, not the fame of getting your picture taken.

Now, this is not science or fact here. Just my opinion on the matter. With that being said, I am excited to try my hand at some more challenging characters to cosplay. All, of course, are from the lovely game Sentinels of the Multiverse. (I really love this card game…) Here are a couple of the characters I want to try: Golem Unity, Prime Wardens Fanatic, and Pinion. All are from mini-expansions or promo cards for the game, but I think if I can pull them off I will have a lot of fun this GenCon! So hopefully I will have a few Work-in-Progress post of me making them to help anyone who is wanting a similar character to cosplay can learn a few tricks!