I think y’all need to calm your yayas… August 20, 2013

Odds are if you’re part of the cosplay community, you’ve probably read my scathing rant about Heroes of Cosplay on Nerd Junkies just kidding, it’s on here now. Your opinions on that piece probably range from “GREAT ARTICLE” to “well, I agree with you here, but disagree here” to “OMG YOU’RE JUST AS BAD AS THE TV SHOW THIS IS WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS”.

Good. Have an opinion. Be vocal about it. No matter what it may be in relation to mine.

Yes, I’m aware that I’m just as catty and dramatic and can be as awful as the show in my written pieces. Ain’t gonna deny that. But that brings up several interesting points. I’m doing this, free of charge, not on national television. I’m not really getting paid to write. I get paid from my day job. We all can agree that the cosplay community can get horribly vicious and awful and dramatic. But if this is so, then why did they have to “create drama” for HoC? There’s enough drama in the community on a weekly basis to do a year’s worth of TV shows. Moreso, there’s that much drama and most of the community isn’t even seeking fame and fortune. We subjugate ourselves to it and participate in a hobby that gets to be so awful for fun.

You’re right, it’s reality TV, what should I have expected. Then again, they signed on for this. They let themselves and agreed to be edited and participate in bad plot lines for “fame and glory”. Would I have done the same? Probably not. My skills are okay at best, and I’d rather be angry, unfamous, and still have my dignity than sell out and be forever remembered as “that cosplayer who bitched and whined and participated in rigged competitions on TV in the hopes she could be famous”.

No matter how much good the cast tries to do after this, they’re fucked. No one’s gonna remember Becky’s charity calendar or any trips any of the cast has made to visit sick kids or anything like that after this show. They will forever be marred as attention seeking sellouts.They will forever be seen by fellow cosplayers as someone who caused even more problems in the community. They will be seen by many staff at the conventions they filmed at as not worth the hassle of dealing with ever again. Do I think this particular show would have been different if different people were on it? No. Because that’s how reality TV works. It makes the best of people look bad, and the worst of people look down right despicable.

This show made it seem like everyone cosplays for the money, glory, and fame. While yes, there are quite a few that do, there are thousands more that don’t. Despite the pettiness, the problems, the drama, many people do it because it’s fun. Because it’s a hobby they love. Because it allows them to escape the dullness of the everyday life and pretend they’re someone, anyone else, if only for a few hours or days. Many don’t care if at the end of the day their facebook page has more fans. They, like I, do it for themselves first and foremost.

I don’t care that the show had drama in it. Drama happens. The cosplay community isn’t sunshine and rainbows 90% of the time. And it never will be. I care that the show had to create fake drama to drive viewership. I don’t care that these people want to be famous. I care that now my friends and family who don’t quite understand my cosplay hobby think everyone’s only doing it for attention and to get famous. I care that this show’s “characters” are what many of us will now be compared to. We all understand it’s not necessarily like that. For all the drama and fights and slander that happens, many of us know that for the most part, the cosplay community isn’t like the show. But people outside of the community don’t. Now this is what they have to base everything off of.

I’d rather people know the cosplay community as being petty for different reasons, but many of us doing it because we want to, or for fun. I don’t want them to believe there isn’t shittalking in the community. Because there is. There’s loads of it. But I want them to see cosplay for what it is. Good, bad, shitty, angry, happy, all of it. Not this fame-seeking, contest-rigging, drama-for-the-sake-of-drama bullshit. I don’t wanna sugarcoat the community. But I don’t want it represented by this either.

So yes, there will be a follow up to my original piece. The things I’ve been told by people who were at the cons they filmed at is worse than I thought. I’ll be highlighting the lies told on the show, talking about the lengths the production team went to for some of the footage, and more. And if you still think that it’s a vendetta piece, so be it. I’m not writing for you. I’m not writing for money. I’m writing for me, and to get you to have some sort of opinion about it.

So to everyone that’s contacted me with praise or hate, everyone who commented on the piece, thank you. For having the balls to call me out if that’s what you feel you need to do. I don’t have to agree with you, you don’t have to agree with me. But I respect the fact that you did what you needed to do. Keep doing that. I’d rather you talk shit to me than about me. I encourage it. If I made you mad, let me know.

To the rest of you, who told your friends, your followers, etc, that I was just as catty and dramatic as the show; that I clearly had some sort of vendetta; that I was just jealous about this, that, or the other; and other such things, instead of contacting me, sending me hate mail, calling me out on the post/twitter/FB/etc: if you think you’re better than me for taking a “holier than thou” stance on this, you’re not. You have proved yourself to be as bad as me: talking behind my back, basing judgement around one article, etc. I know my piece was going to be divisive and more than likely cause drama. If you think you also aren’t perpetuating the drama by saying those things, I’ve got some news for you: we’re the same person.

Talking shit feels good, don’t it?