The Biggest Controversy In Cosplay History – A Heroes of Cosplay Deep Dive
This cosplay reality show fostered
cheating In real Cosplay Contests decimated the reputations of its cast. Push that cast to physical exhaustion
and hospital visits and infuriated cosplayers I know not everybody understands cosplay or its contests,
but I’m going to make sure you do, because I have painfully analyzed
each episode to point out the misrepresentations,
poorly aged ideologies, and immeasurable amount of cringe of the very first cosplay
TV show. SyFy’s Heroes of Cosplay. but it was still a big enough subculture
that major TV networks were starting to think about cosplay reality
show ideas like the Real Housewives, but cosplay or Big Brother
cosplay were being bounced around. They were looking for the cat
fighting reality TV gold. That was the height of media at the time,
but the cosplayers weren’t having that Yaya Han who would eventually become the pseudo
host for Heroes of Cosplay, wrote in her book, one day soon,
a cosplay show would be made and there would be no telling
how good or bad it would be. I wanted to be part of the show that did
get greenlit, so that I could have some influence on how cosplay would be shown to the world,
and for better or worse, she was. She goes on to say that Heroes of Cosplay
was bounced around from multiple production companies
and changed concepts several times. At some point,
the show was just going to be about Yaya At some point, they wanted them
to all live in a house together. They asked her to give them
the names of her frenemies, and as time went on, other cosplayers
got on board to push for a concept that would show the world
what cosplay really is. And after a lot of back and forth arguing, guilt tripping, manipulation,
and a phone call in the middle of the night,
it ultimately got picked up by 51 minds and Syfy and would start shooting in 2012. Yaya would be the host with eight other
cosplayers signed on to the cast, and thanks to those people, it wouldn’t be Real Housewives
and it wouldn’t be Bad Cosplayers Club. But production was going to fight
for reality TV gold, and they decided that the most interesting thing about cosplay was its competitions. Each episode would focus on
one con that all or some of the cast would be attending, but
prior to the competition part of the show, there would be scenes of the cast members
making that cosplay. So now the show
not only has the problem of introducing cosplay,
but also cosplay contests because instead of inventing their own
insular competition format akin to like Ink Master or,
I don’t know, Project Runway, they decided that they would send the cast
to real regular cosplay competitions
happening at Real Cons, where real cosplayers
with no association to production would also be competing. We’ll talk about the problems
that that caused later. For now, here is an entire recap and roast of every episode of Heroes of Cosplay,
but I want everyone to remember that the cast had no say
in how they were presented or edited. Do not go harass any of the cosplayers
involved in this show, because I’m sure most of them are mortified
that they were even part of it. Episode one has the immediately difficult
task of not only explaining what the show is about,
but also what cosplay is in general, as this would have been
what a lot of people’s first introduction to the hobby was
and this is what they were told. Welcome to the artistic,
sexy and cutthroat world of cosplay. So cosplay can be sexy, but just like not
all rectangles or squares, children, cosplay
and children are not squares anyway. They establish what cosplay is. People dressing up as characters
from media establish that there are famous cosplayers
and then present cosplay competitions. Hyping them up is compelling
because you can win money and fans winning a competition can lead
to unlimited business opportunities. The competitors are ruthless,
but it all comes down to the moment of truth
when the cosplayers take the stage. Those who survive can call themselves the heroes of cosplay. That’s the intro to cosplay. We are ruthless, cutthroat,
sexy people interested in money and fame. Now we get to the cast introductions. And first up is Victoria. She’s been cosplaying for 14 years
and she says there’s different types of cosplayers. Some people do it for fun. She doesn’t do it for fun. She does it to be accurate. The competition for this episode is Wizard
World Portland’s contest,
and she’s trying to make a Lulu cosplay. A week before the con,
she backs up this incredibly reasonable and realistic decision by saying
that Yaya can put together a cosplay in three days. Which leads us to Yaya’s introduction,
who is introduced as the Queen of cosplay,
and she remains our sovereign to this day. She’s a cosplayer
with a wealth of experience, talent, and passion for this community,
and she was also on this show. But she plays a different role
to the other cast members in that. Yaya is actually retired from competing,
so she’s going to be a judge at all the competitions and kind of acts
as a host alongside the narrator for the entire show. Yaya at this time is paying her mortgage
through cosplay by selling merchandise like prints and her iconic,
patented and copyrighted cat ears. I have one,
those things had a whole legal battle. Then there’s the first hint of how crazy
the schedule for this show was, because she
then says that she’s going on a six week convention tour,
which is not normal by any means. Next, we meet a team of cosplayers,
one of whom you may have heard of Holly Conrad and Jessica Marizan They make money by running a industries is our costume fabrication
shop, cosplay community and new media entertainment company. They will be entering the competition
and cosplays of their D&D characters. They are returning to competing,
but oh no. Competitions
have strained their friendship before. Holly had like a attack every time
she’s like, no, why don’t we win? I have to overanalyze this. I’m going to get all crazy in jars now. Yeah, these two’s
dynamic gave the show a lot to work with, even in their intro, because they get into
an argument at a makeup shop and Holly says they’re too uncomfortable
to show any cleavage, and Jessica insists that sex sells You’re in a competition about costumes,
not cleavage it’s not the cleavage competition. I just want to say sex sells. What! That’s all I’m saying. We are barely into the show, and
I can already tell how obviously forced most of what everyone says is like,
please listen to this and tell me this isn’t the third time these people said these lines
after they were fed them by producers. You realize that Wizard World
Portland is less than two weeks away. Are we getting too ambitious with us?
We’re always ambitious. We can literally make anything
and do anything. You’ve said it yourself. Yes. We just promise me
and I can have a freak out. I can promise nothing. We’re not at the problematic stuff,
but I promise you it’s coming. But please keep in mind that some of this could have been fed by producers
to try and make the show work. Next up is productions
least favorite cast member The only man, Jesse. Jesse has a regular job, and from what
I remember, he was everybody’s favorite. He’s been doing cosplay for five years,
but he’s never competed, and he’s entering a cosplay that he’s already been working
on, which is way more normal. A power armor build from fallout. That’s all we give Jesse, though, because
production hates his lack of breasts. Because now we meet Becky. She’s doing Merida from brave, and her
whole thing is being the character. She calls herself
the method actor of cosplay because she likes to have an accent
and do what they do. So she goes to archery. And this is weird behavior that
I don’t want to encourage people to do. Because while it’s cool
if you want to learn how to pose like an archer, acting like Deadpool is not funny anymore
and I need people to stop doing it. That’s the cast for this episode. There will be more introductions later,
but for now we get drama. So there’s this scene with Becky
at the gym where she talks about how she needs to lose weight
for Merida it’s been a real, real struggle
to try and stay thin enough. For girls It’s so tough because all the best
characters are drawn with such, you know skimpy outfits.
and the internet is unforgiving. It’s like, oh my gosh, it’s the fat version of this,
or she needs to do sit ups And this whole conversation
just makes me sad. The show paints this as the standard for
cosplay, and I’ll get back to that later. For now, Victoria is trying to do a bunch
of embroidery in a week, which is like, Holy crap, because I thought
she was talking about hand embroidering it, which in a competition
hand embroidery is more impressive, but they are doing it by machine,
so it’s not impossible to do in a week. But it’s not as impressive. And in general, a cosplay like Lulu is
just not something you can make in a week. Holy and Jessica need to do a face cast
to make Jessica’s horns, because Kamui cosplays horn pattern
didn’t exist yet and like it is more impressive to do them this way,
but they end up just buying horns instead. Yaya is making a last minute cosplay,
and we are introduced to Worbla, the incredibly expensive thermoplastic that ushered
in the cosplay armor boom of the 20 tens. Though it was quickly
replaced by its cheaper cousin Eva Foam. And trust me, my explanation of that
is way better than what the show said. Becky. Is Sharpie dyeing a wig, which is the worst way to dye a wig
because you have to go through the entire thing
and it will leak on your face. RitDye did exist back then. I don’t know what the hell Becky is doing. We get to see Jessie
try to sit in his car in his cosplay, but that’s all we get of him. We find out that the judges
for the upcoming competition are the late Jason,
David Frank, Jesse Snyder, and Yaya. Some of the cast is worried about Yaya
being a judge, presumably because she’s the only one
that knows how to sew. Before the competition, we get a look
at the con and a little more drama. Yaya says she has to appear
like she deserves to be a judge when she’s judging with an actor,
they do some fake voiceover like Yaya is getting this grand
introduction. Ladies and gentleman. Welcome to the floor, Yaya. Hi. There’s lots of fake camera flashes. This fake celebrity stuff to me
is like the biggest cringe of the show. Like, Yaya is a big name
in the cosplay world, and people do come up to her and ask for pictures
like no one is announcing when somebody famous
just walked into the convention hall. Victoria didn’t finish in time and has to have her embroidery pieces
overnight shipped to her, and she receives it
with only a few hours left because she went out
drinking the night prior. Then we get these weird green screen
presentations of the cosplays with these hyper fake shots of everybody
walking down the stairs
that were clearly roped off by production. But not one for Jessie. But now it’s time for the competition. You would think that at this point
the show would have explained how cosplay competitions work,
but the show explains very little. So here is my very quick
animated explanation. This is Karen. She’s worked on her cosplay for six months and wants to enter it
into a craftsman contest. A contest where the winners are determined
by how well-made that cosplay is. She either replies for the contest online
or in person at the con, and when she signs up,
she gets a time slot for prejudging, which is where she’ll go into a small room with the judges where they look at her
cosplay up close. The judges are fellow cosplayers
with enough experience and competitions, sewing and armor making that they are
well equipped to determine how well-made that cosplay was
and are able to sniff out any cut corners. They flip the hems of her dress
to see how it’s finished. They take a close look at her
wig and determine how well styled it is. Somebody shakes her prop to make sure it’s not falling apart,
and they ask Karen a bunch of questions. She spits out three minutes of word vomit
about how she made that cosplay before she’s ushered out of the room. With Karen gone, the judges
compare her cosplay to everything else they’ve seen that day
and before the stage show ever happens, they are 90% sure of where she ranks
in the competition. Hours later, Karen takes the stage,
strikes a couple poses for the audience, and then waits with everyone else
for the awards to be announced. Karen doesn’t win anything
because she hot glued her hem, but she had fun and next time
maybe she’ll actually sew it. The thing I want everyone on board with
is that cosplay contests are often determined long before the stage show. What matters
is the time spent making the thing well, and the decisions are made in Pre-judging. When the judges
look at the cosplay up close. But what I just described
is how cosplay contests work now in 2024. In 2013,
while cosplayer judges were on the rise, it was still very common to have judges that were industry guests like actors, because that was a common practice
since the inception of cosplay contests. So you’re going to see a lot of that
in this show, but what you’re not going to see
is anything else I describe, because Syfy paints
a very different picture. The show makes no effort to point out
that two out of the three judges have zero idea how cosplay works, though
they briefly have Yaya say a few things
about what they are looking for are showmanship,
craftsmanship, and difficulty. Prejudging isn’t mentioned at all,
but I do not know if at this time
that this contest had prejudging. But then my question would be
why would you contract this contest to be part of the show if it didn’t? And remember,
this isn’t an insular contest. This was a real costume
contest open to the public. And there are a bunch of people
not in the cast who also entered this. They also do this really weird thing
where they have the contestants talk on the stage and answer questions, and this is something I’ve only seen it
bad costume contests. They give Becky the mic
and she continues to role play at Everyone Jesse spins is gon
and Yaya is impressed. Holly and Jessica go up in the mic, says
tiefling wrong the tiefling and last up is the engineer
and not Victoria. Because she didn’t finish in time for the
awards, Becky gets an honorable mention. Second
and third place are not in the cast. Holly and Jessica get best team
and first place is commercial break. of why some things won and others didn’t,
but it did teach us that being thin
and doing a character voice is important. Victoria doesn’t know how to work on
a realistic timeline, that Holly and Jessica have a toxic friendship,
and that Jesse is irrelevant. So what did cosplayers
think of the very first cosplay TV show? They hated it. They thought it was a gross misrepresentation of cosplay as a whole,
but especially cosplay contests. They were absolutely disgusted
by the conversation on bodies, disappointed that the show only focused
on contests and not having fun part, and were generally disappointed
that the show seemed to be catering to a general audience
and didn’t have them in mind. People were excited
for this show to come out. Some people saw it as a way to legitimize
this hobby to their family members who didn’t understand it,
and when they showed it to those family members, they showed them
cut throat, sexy money, fame, please. I understand that a niche subject
like cosplay has to be approached really carefully when it’s being made
for a large platform like TV, but there are plenty of shows
that can bring an unfamiliar audience into the world of its subject, while
still actually accurately representing it. A good example of that is Drag Race,
but unlike Drag Race, where an actual drag queen is
an exclusive producer, Heroes of Cosplay had no RuPaul,
the cast members and heroes of cosplay. Despite their best efforts to explain
our community, were not the producers, directors, or editors of the project
and the people that had that power in their hands
dropped the ball. It was clear that producers were favoring
the drama, but that was just episode one. It was about to get so much worse. The con for episode
two is Emerald City Comic-Con, and this episode contains the single most
controversial moment of the entire show, and it starts with a few more cast
introductions, with the first being Chloe. She was the host of a cosplay show
for a YouTube channel. Her dad invented the lightsaber
and this isn’t mentioned in the show, but she was also an extra in Spider-Man
and Spider-Man two. She hasn’t competed before,
but will be entering at Emerald City and wants to compete because she hosts a cosplay show
and says she needs street cred. And she’s making Lydia Deetz
from Beetlejuice and a sandworm prop to go with it, which she’s going to make out
of some kind of unexplained foam. We don’t find out what the foam is
or how she’s going to do it, but she does buy the biggest can
of barge cement that I have ever seen, and she ends up getting some help from
Holly and Jessica for the things head. The next introduction is Monica Lee, who’s been going to Dragon Con
since she was 12 years old and is doing a steampunk poison
Ivy cosplay, and I had to google it, but that is fanart of poison
Ivy by the pretty famous fan artist. No flutter,
but there is no artist credit in the show. And in fact, every time someone does a fanart cosplay,
the artists are never credited. They also establish that Monica
is best friends with Jessica Nigri, who I don’t think I have to introduce
because she is and was one of the most famous cosplayers in the entire world. Oh, but her prestige and fame
will not be recognized on this show because Nigri, for
some reason, is not on the cast. Monica introduces Jessica as her schtick
is that she kind of likes the cosplay sexy characters
and put her body out there. The camera then zooms in on her boobs. I didn’t do that. That’s what it does. Then there’s this drama with Monica’s mom,
who doesn’t want her daughter doing sexy cosplay. It’s cute, but you’re not going to have your boobs
hanging out like that, are you? Yes. I’m gonna put my boobs everywhere. Please tell me you’re wearing underwear
under here. Stop nagging me. Monica also apparently had a summer job
working for Yaya, making those cat ears, and they establish that Yaya is her mentor
and Yaya steps in on the Mama Monica drama. And oh boy, I’m a little worried
that Monica will be seduced by Jessica’s sexy cosplay style
and forget about the importance of craftsmanship that I’ve instilled on. So YouTube’s content
ID system really hated this clip, so I’m just going to read you verbatim
what Yaya says here. I think Jessica and I,
we approach cosplay from different angles. You know, for me
it’s all about the craftsmanship, really paying a lot of attention
to detail. The content that Jessica Nigri puts out really displays
cosplay in the wrong light, and I don’t really want my little Monica
to go down that path. She doesn’t ever produce
anything that showcases anything beyond sex appeal, and I think it’s okay
to show sex appeal in cosplay. I do it myself,
but you’ve got to have a balance. I really wish Monica would maybe follow me
in my footsteps more than just going to have fun
with Jessica. As time goes on in your cosplay career,
that it’s definitely tempting
to just go for the easy, cheap road. You have to promise me that you’re
not going to sell yourself short. We will unpack all of that later. For now, we made another cast member,
Rikki, also known as riddle, also known as the judge
that was horrified by Joe getting shooed off stage at DreamHack
last year. At the time of the show,
she’d been cosplaying for ten years and wants to work in costumes
for TV and movies, and hopes that competing will get her there. She’ll be doing a hell Girl cosplay,
and she’s doing a super complicated process for the prop for her
Hellboy hand, from what I can tell. But the show doesn’t explain this at all. She’s doing sculpting and mold making,
meaning that she hand sculpted that thing, made a mold of it,
and then cast it in a specific kind of resin
that would stick to the sides. This is a super complex, very expensive process of prop making that is
used by like, movie professionals. She’s doing top tier work here,
and the show doesn’t point it out at all. Next we rejoin Jessie,
who is doing steampunk for the camera. He’s doing a Steam trooper
that’s a steampunk stormtrooper, and the only other scene we get of him in this episode is him using a vacuum former
when the power goes out. But that’s all for poor Jessie. It’s time to go back to Victoria, who,
if you didn’t notice yet, Victoria doesn’t really make her own costumes
or her boyfriend Jinyo does. For Emerald City, they want to do
an original design based on the movie Tron Legacy, which is a movie
everyone liked and remembers. And yeah, he basically makes
the entire cosplay for her. But it’s time for Emerald City Comic-Con. Yaya confronts Victoria about not showing
up last episode, and Yaya points out that when Victoria met Jinyo,
her quality shot through the roof. Jessica shows up
and we hear literally nothing from her. But Monica does say that
Yaya has beef with her for getting likes for being sexy, but that leads us to the most
controversial moment of the entire show. Most of the cast,
not including Jesse, goes out for drinks. And then this happens. Ok, Cosplay pet peves? people allways say like well i’m really biig err What can I do?
It’s like you’re a big, muscular dude. go be Superman. Yeah, I think that anybody should be
whatever they want to be. Whatever. But the thing is, the 300 pound person cosplays Superman who put themselves out there,
and then it gets on the net. How is that gonna help them? I guess But do you think that because of that,
that they shouldn’t dress up as a lot of people can’t handle,
you know, that critism Chloe, she’s very much still a newbie
and she’s really, like, a little bit naive. As a cosplay,
you need to have the responsibility to know what you look like. You have to really look at yourself
in a mirror and know that if you know
my boobs are out, I’m gonna get sh__ty comments I don’t know who made up these rules. There’s like some grand cosplay Lord
who’s like, you shall not cosplay something
if you are overweight. That’s ridiculous. Cosplay is about having fun and
being who you are and who you want to be. Swallow that hard for now. We’ll talk about it in just a second,
but I want you to keep one thing in mind who exactly said the Superman thing? Jesse is finishing his costume in the
hotel room, but nobody cares about him. It’s time for the contest. Which means it’s time for those weird
spinning green screen shots again. Jesse even gets his helmet
going on his head. Wow. The judges this time are two people
who are not cosplayers. And Yaya. they talk to them on
stage again, which is still weird. Chloe
yells a triple Beetlejuice on the stage, and for some reason
the show edits the audio to play this clip twice,
when she clearly only said it once. Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. There’s both of those clips
playing at the same time. Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. It’s the same audio clip. Victoria does make it to the stage
this time, and shows off the dress that Jinyo made for her,
and Yaya asks her directly on the stage
how much of the cosplay she made herself. She apparently only made the over skirt. Monica goes up and we get another
Nigri shot, but not a word from her. The other judge says that she didn’t see her acting like poison ivy
and gets booed by the crowd. Some of those boos are probably fake,
but it’s really weird. Monica is traumatized
and Nigri comforts her. Jesse gets a laugh out of the grumpy judge
and a kiss from his partner, and it’s time for the awards. Third place is not in the cast,
second place isn’t in the cast either,
and neither is first. No one in the cast wins. Wow. Y’all sure did set these people up
for success. Didn’t you want a compelling show? While I’m giving a lot of grace
to the cast people around this time, we’re not. A lot of people were placing the blame
squarely on the faces of the cosplayers who were part of it. And obviously I really hate what production did here,
but it cannot be denied that the cast did some controversial things
that got them their own round of backlash. This is the part about fat shaming. So this moment and Becky’s insecurity
moment in the gym would go on to be the most controversial moments
that came out of the show. I agree with Chloe. Anyone should cosplay whatever they want
and you should not care about what other people think of your cosplay
with Becky, it’s obvious that this is something
that she felt insecure about, and that’s an issue for her
and her therapist or her doctor. My problem
is that the show decided to paint this as the standard for cosplay,
and not a personal struggle that Becky deals with. The dinner
conversation, though this rightfully caused quite a stir, but
maybe not for the reason you might think. Here’s
what each person said in that segment, and you might think, wow,
people were probably really mad at Rikki. But actually it seems like
people were way more angry with Yaya. In Yaya’s book, she says that this scene decimated her within minutes
by Twitter and Facebook blew up. Seemingly
endless comments appeared on my feed. They all condemned me as a fat
shaming bitch. I got emails, tweets, and direct messages
that told me what a horrible person I was. My follower count dropped. Several people said that they threw away
my signed merchandise. In short, I got canceled. But notice how what Yaya said about
Chloe is in a confessional, and how Yaya doesn’t mention largeness
in the know what you look like statement, she mentions boobs. This is what Yaya said
she was actually talking about. I was shocked to watch a scene
where a comment I made was edited to sound as if I was telling plus size
cosplayers to be aware of how they looked, when actually I was talking about myself,
sharing how I take a moment to get into the right mind before walking
into a crowded con hole in a costume. Making disparaging comments about plus sized cosplayers
is something I would never, ever do. We were still under contract, so I couldn’t openly talk about
what happened behind the scenes. I made a statement on my Facebook page
that reiterated my belief that all people, of all sizes
and skin tones could and should cosplay. However, despite doing so,
the incident was brought up in professional settings
and in my personal life. Again and again. So I kind of thought people were mad at Yaya for calling Chloe naive
because she disagreed with Riddle and for saying cosplayers
have to be able to look in the mirror and know what they look like. But ignoring the statements
from her book entirely and just looking at what she said at the dinner table,
she never said anything about fat people. She said boobs, but I could totally see
how people were mad at her with the way it was edited. But what I was shocked to find out
after I looked through lots of old Facebook posts, was that people thought
that Yaya was the one to make the Superman comment
when that was said by Rikki. Rikki, for her part,
did make a Facebook post on August 21st after the episode, saying
Yaya has received a lot of flack for a comment that was mine
on Heroes of Cosplay tonight. I’ve only watched the episode once
and I will rewatch it in the morning, but I know what I say
when this topic is brought up. Quote. Anyone can cosplay,
but if you’re 300 pounds and cosplaying a Superman, be prepared
for awful comments on the internet or any time you put yourself out there. I hate the idea of someone
getting discouraged from cosplay because of crappy comments online. If you think it won’t affect you,
go for it. My comments aren’t meant to discourage
a new cosplayer. It’s meant to inform a new cosplayer. There are negative sides to cosplay. Sadly, one of them is
and always will be internet comments. My statement is meant as a warning,
not as a judgment. If you see someone bashing Yaya about
my comment, please inform them correctly. People in her comments were responding with fat people know this
and don’t need your warning. What’s super weird though is that
these comments were all very understanding and were mostly just trying to inform her
of how she was wrong and how she caused harm. But over on Yaya’s Facebook,
they were attributing The Superman comment to her
because this was 2013 and if you didn’t have a DVR,
you couldn’t go back and watch it again to know for sure who said it
Riddle had a bad opinion, and sure, her perspective is shaped
on her experiences with comments online. Her opinion boils down to don’t
expose yourself to a disgusting culture, but that ultimately leaves
the blame on the larger body instead of the actual problem
the people online. I also highly doubt she still holds that
opinion after all of this time, and after she had all of these people
tell her directly why it made them upset. What’s more important
in my analysis of productions Bulls__t is that if production
gave a single F— about the people in larger bodies
watching, they would have cut that out. Production knows
that this was the first intro to cosplay that some people would have, and they wanted fat people to know
that they weren’t welcome. You get to decide how you feel about that,
but no matter what bad opinion somebody’s had, ten years ago, that’s
no excuse to go harass now and especially now, when negative engagement
is a good thing for most people. If you do not like what anybody said on
this show, just block them. The meanest thing you can do to someone who has a social media
following is ignore them. So block them, okay? Don’t go bug Anybody. I’ll call your mom
or comment below. So the engagement goes. To me 🙂 Now for episode three, where Rikki does
another thing that might piss you off con for this
episode is Megacon and starts with Chloe returning a giant piece of Eva foam
to Holly and Jessica, who have decided to compete
against each other for the first time. Holly is doing Laliari from Galaxy
Quest and Jessica is doing Tank Girl. Neither of these are very complicated
costumes, but Holly is making an alien prop to go with hers
to make it more competition worthy, and she’s making it out of furry
foam and balloon latex, while Jessica makes snide remarks
about other people that have cosplayed as Tank Girl and how she’s not like them
because she’s going to be the first person ever to wear a bald cap
because no one else has done it. No one has ever worn a bald cap before. Becky is doing
one of the girls from Wreck-It Ralph and after being told by Victoria
that the winner at Emerald City was a big armor build, she decides
that taffeta isn’t enough on her own and that she’s going to make a car
which she doesn’t know how to do, so she’s going to need help from her assigned
sidekick, her roommate Lance. He thinks this is nuts,
but he’s making the car for her anyway, which completely negates the addition
of the car because she didn’t make it. I think he’s making it out of insulation
foam. They don’t tell us what it is,
but I love to see the PPE. Rikki is making this Betty Paige
as The Rocketeer cosplay and says,
I hear lighting up wins you awards is it lights up. Is this where people’s obsession
with lighting up came from? Was it this show? Rikki is doing complicated
molding and casting for this again. And the light she ends up putting it in
is some kind of emergency light, and the show acts like this is the most
impressive thing about the costume. She sculpted, molded,
and cast that rocket pack and the helmet. She made a beautifully tailored
leather jacket. I mean, she probably knows that the light
is just some extra pizzazz, but production really
wants to focus on the stuff that most people understand,
instead of actually getting everybody on board with how impressive
all the other stuff she did is. I’d even take them
just mentioning the material names so that people could go Google
and find the smooth on YouTube channel. And man, I wish they would have given
any kind of nod to that leather jacket we don’t see her make it, but that doesn’t
mean she didn’t make it right. At the con, Becky’s box is busted
and there’s pieces of the car missing, and they both have
a little bit of a breakdown about it. Then they have Rikki explain that sometimes cosplayers
bring more than one cosplay to a con. You have your competition costume
that you compete in, and your walkaround costume
that you wear to the con. I’m not making fun of her here I’m making fun of the fact that production
even thought they needed to explain that. Basically, production
thinks you’re stupid. Oh, and when she’s getting dressed,
she’s rehearsing what she’s going to tell the judges, which is cute, because this is
how most of us prepare for prejudging. But prejudging
is still never been mentioned. So she’s practicing
what she’s going to tell them on stage. I guess the main problem
I have with the talking on stage stuff is like it’s a contest
about how well-made a thing is. We should not also be judging
people’s public speaking abilities. Jessica needs help getting her bald cap
on, and she insults herself because she’s mad because she thinks
Holly’s costume is better. I’m sorry that I’m not you
and oh my God, don’t start. This is so ridiculous. The stupid green screen reveal shots
happen again with the fake flashes backstage. The cast is filling out forms for the judges, where they write
about what they did to make the costume. And Rikki wrote a lot
because she did a lot. And Holly takes this as a jab. But then we get to the stage
and they do the weird talking thing again. Becky’s car doesn’t make it to the stage. The judges are impressed by Holly’s furry foam and sprayed balloon latex
alien Jessica. Make sure the judges know that she’s definitely the first person ever
to wear a bald cap. Ever, and riddle stumbles through her
words on the stage for a second. And the first time I saw this, I didn’t.
I didn’t think anything of it. But the stumble is in response
to this question. So you made the jacket? Yeah. All right, come on. Remember the family motto. don’t f___ up I made the jacket and it’s all lined
and it’s done with leather. Oh, no. No. Oh, nononono i made the jacket, it’s all lined
and it’s done with leather. Ma’am, for the awards,
Jessica gets third in Tank Girl. Riddle gets second, and somebody not from
the cast wins in a big armor piece. I also want to dig into a little bit of something
I saw that was kind of weird with Riddle’s making segment, so as I said,
I don’t think she made that jacket. It seems like it was commissioned,
but what I thought was really weird was that they have two scenes
with this rocket pack right in one. Chris comes in and there’s some drama
about a bad placement on the mold and in that one,
the rocket pack is unpainted. The second scene is the one I talked about with the light, and in that one
the rocket pack is fully painted. But both Rikki
and Chris are wearing the same clothes. I think they just pulled out
like a failed cast of the rocket pack to make some fake drama for the camera,
and that just goes to prove how fake this show was. But what’s important is that we can assume
that these are on the same day. On top of that, riddle also seems to be sewing and ironing something
while this is going on. She never says what, but there’s pattern pieces on the table
that look like they are for the jacket. But she says in the scene with the light
that she’s leaving for the con tomorrow. So I end up finding this flare for emergency light, and it doesn’t
fit up into the rocket pack. And I’m like. Because I’m like,
pretty much leaving the next day. And you absolutely cannot make a jacket
like that in a single day. Plus, this was shot in 2013, and the first instance of riddle wearing this cosplay was in 2011. But the pattern even being there
threw me off even more because her having the pattern
means that maybe she did make it herself. And I searched hard for in-progress photos
on both her socials and the socials of the commissioner,
and I found absolutely none from either of them. Rikki has plenty of the helmet
and the rocket pack being made, so I know she made those,
and those alone are super impressive, but I never found a single progress
photo of the jacket. And over the years, riddle has posted this
cosplay many, many times. But she has been inconsistent
about crediting who made the cosplay. Most posts just credit herself. But there are a few posts where she does
credit the commissioner, but does not specify what he did
for the cosplay. Her having the pattern threw
in a wrench for me, but it is possible that the jacket was a collaboration
between them. But the biggest thing is on stage,
she said. I made the jacket and it is not inherently
cheating to go into a costume contest with a piece that you yourself
didn’t make or had help making. As long as you were honest about that. Someone else had a hand in this cosplay
and was not credited. Maybe she did credit him on stage
and they just didn’t show it. But from what they showed,
she lied on stage, thereby cheating in a costume contest
that she did place in. But I can also understand
how much pressure she was under. Rikki competed in this because it’s
a really impressive and beautiful cosplay, and she wanted to show it off on TV,
and I really don’t think she would have even competed in it
if it wasn’t for the TV show. At this point, you might be wondering who even made this show,
because it’s pretty clear by now that they had very minimal knowledge
of not just cosplay, but it seems like they barely did any research
on the people that they had in the cast. Like, don’t you think a reality show
would revel in exposing someone for straight up lying on stage? Shockingly, they were not cosplayers. They were a bunch of reality TV people. The show was produced by 51 Minds Entertainment, whose head
and the head of Heroes of Cosplay was Mark Cronin, who went on to be the creator
of an actually successful show, Below Deck, which is also known for
sneaky audio dubbing edits. I was able to find an article
that painted a pretty clear picture of why he had so much interest
in our community. Money and sex. If you assume the world of cosplay
is filled with social misfits, confused about their priorities in life,
you’re in for a surprise. These people are very good at what they do and turn their skills
into a highly successful business. Most of these folks
started in cosplay for a goof or a lark. Now they have massive fan followings,
merchandise lines, product endorsements. The stakes are huge, especially
when it comes to costume contests. The article goes on to point out that eight of the nine cosplayers
featured in the show are female Mark’s Thoughts on that were male characters
tend to be simpler. Lots of body armor
and weaponry and spandex and capes. You’re usually nowhere near
as interesting and intricate or sexy and cool
as the costumes worn by women. And let’s face it, female
sexuality is a big part of comic book art and a big element in the con world,
the producer himself said outright that he cast the show
based on wanting to feature hot women, and then made a show that actively shamed
those women for being hot. I have no way to know if this is true,
but from my own experience, I can say that the cosplay community has more women
and queer people in it than it does men. So I could understand why the cast of
a cosplay show would be primarily female. But when the reason is titties,
that pisses me off. You sought out to make money off
of our community on the breasts of those within it,
and you chose to laser focus on the very few costume contests
that give out money, essentially boiling our community down
to mammary glands and cash. Though he does acknowledge
in the interview that it can be a pricey undertaking. You might win $500 in a costume
contest for an outfit that cost you 2000 to make, but you’re stepping
into the shoes of greatness. Yeah. No, dude, nobody’s competing for money. We do it because it’s one of the few ways
that we as cosplayers can have our work critiqued by our peers. Critique is an integral part of any art form, but
unless you’re in an educational setting, it’s pretty hard to get feedback
from experienced artists on your work. but cosplay contests are how we do that. They are how we motivate ourselves
to outdo ourselves. It’s not about money or fans for us,
it’s about the experience, the backstage camaraderie,
the on stage adrenaline. But no, they cherry picked costume
contests that give out monetary prizes when most do not because they wanted stakes that normies could understand. Anyway, this is where I literally shouted
oh no, because the next episode’s con is Anime
Matsuri. It’s an infamous con. Okay, this episode starts by explaining
that this is the first anime convention of this series,
and that anime conventions only have skit contests, and that craftsmanship is valued more here
than it is at the comic conventions. Maybe because they don’t get actors
to be the judges. Also, not all anime
conventions only do skit contests. What we’ve seen so far in the contests
are actually called walk ons. Is just walking on the stage,
posing for like 10s and then leaving. Skits can be a couple minutes
long and are just any kind of performance. Yaya is doing a calendar shoot in this episode
and is putting on a bunch of cosplays, and her Jessica Rabbit corset is uncomfortable to the point
that she has to cut the laces. I have questions, was this production
forced anti corset propaganda? Victoria and Monica are doing
Fushigi Yugi cosplays, and Victoria gets a job with con
and has to be gone for a week. While Jinyo makes her cosplay for her. Monica has an interview with Blizzard. Why did you change the way MMOs are you stupid company I hate you so much and they do this
totally real interview with the camera crew that’s totally
not a paid spot for Blizzard. Advertisement
Monica picks out fabric with Jinyo and not Victoria, and later
Victoria complains about Jinyo’s work. Holly and Jessica’s
project for Anime Matsuri is famous. Internet cats. In the cats, the Musical art style because Japanese cats are huge. If the anime people don’t know what it is,
it’s just going to be a disaster. And please
remember that this was shot in 2013. At the con,
we finally get a mention of Pre-judging, Yaya negates the statement
from the beginning of the episode that said that anime conventions
require skits, explaining correctly
that there are both skits and walk ons. Victoria and Monica still aren’t finished with their costumes, to the point
that the con is in full swing. While Victoria is having the unfortunate
experience of threading a serger. Becky is not competing,
but she’s there as a guest and is judging the Marvel Costume contest,
and Monica makes a comment
about her being unqualified. I was shocked to find that Becky
was judging the costume contest because she doesn’t really have many credentials
as far as craftsmanship is going. Becky comes up to see Monica and Victoria
and asks if Monica would want to work with her at planet Comic-Con,
and she tells her to her face that her craftsmanship
isn’t good enough for her. It’s kind of like you’re the last person
I would think to group with. Craftsmanship
is like the number one thing. And I’ve seen your craftsmanship stuff
before and I wouldn’t really even want that. I don’t think my craftsmanship
so horrible. Her partner Victoria,
then hot glues her horns together. Just in time for prejudging. Hollie and Jessica are painting their body
suits while getting dressed, but these are honestly really cute. I kind of really like these cosplays. Like unironically.
I think these are really cute. Yaya does prejudging in full ass cosplay,
which I know she doesn’t normally do, and the other judges are finally qualified
and experienced cosplayers. We’ve got the God Save the Queen fashions,
an incredibly talented pillar of the community. Someone who production just got
the subtitle of World Cosplay Summit. Maybe they went to World of Cosplay
Summit, I don’t know and a prop maker, but woohoo! Holly and Jessica get some flak
for not actually making their body suit. But there’s this weird edit where they put
in Yayas voice and play her saying, I wish they made their body suit to
have her say it while they’re in the room. And I know this is cut from later
because the clip they play over it is reused,
and they literally play the actual audio on the second play of the clip
and inspecting them. I wish they had made their body suit
painted. Yes. Did you have a loom
for the knitting process? So like you painted that
and she painted this. Plus, I’m pretty sure
this is the beginning of the sentence. Here’s those two edited together. I wish they had made their bodies. That’s a big part of the costume
that they didn’t make. So more stupid, weird editing,
but at least we got to see Pre-judging. Victoria is freaking out that God Save
the Queen is flipping all of Monica’s hems,
and when she walks over to her, Victoria’s
headpiece falls apart Oh no! Yaya asks her why she hot glued it to her face. Why did you choose hot
glue for the method to attach those? But the stage show starts
and Matt Mercer was on the show, so there’s a whole subplot
about Holly and Jessica, with Jessica being allergic to wool and not wanting
to make the wigs out of wool, but they do it anyway. And at the contest, it makes Jessica
so sick that she froze up. Don’t do that. Monica and Victoria do their skit,
and it’s a fun little flowy sleeve dance. And then they make up this stupid edit where it seems like Holly
and Jessica won’t go up on stage. But they do. And this skit is like,
I get what they were referencing and maybe it’s better in person,
but the edit does them no favors. It makes them look like
this was the weirdest idea ever, and Yaya doesn’t get it at all. But then they get off stage and Jessica
sits on the floor and gets into a fight with the security guard
because she refuses to get up, even though it seems like she’s
sitting in front of the elevator. But they go back to their hotel room
instead of staying for the awards because Jessica is so sick
and the awards are third place is not in the cast, second place not in the cast,
first place also not in the cast. It’s almost like artificially
making people go to this many competitions in this little time is unrealistic
and leads to nobody winning anything. What a great show! So with this being the first anime
convention of the series, I think it’s time that I brought you into a weird
dichotomy within the cosplay community, but never leaves my mind
and that’s the strange distinction between the comic book people
and the anime video game. People like these are two separate
communities, but this guy Mark, and how he themed this show
really exemplifies this phenomenon in that there are people out there
that think that because comic book movies and superhero movies are so mainstream
them that they must be like every cosplayers favorite thing, that
they must be the biggest thing in cosplay. And don’t get me wrong,
they are a big part. But especially in the competition scene,
you actually rarely see comic book cosplays. Why? Well, one of the biggest factors in people
winning a costume contest is the variety of techniques
used in that cosplay and the complexity of it
at competition level. Complex and complicated video game
character designs like monster Hunter armor sets are incredibly popular, and Spider-Man is rarely seen. And isn’t it
kind of messed up to have a cosplay show? The first cosplay show, and not
give any props to Japan or Japanese media? Like mentioning anime in the intro
and going to a couple of anime conventions doesn’t cut it. When cosplay would not be what it was
then or now without Japan. While cosplay did originate in the West
from the Sci-Fi community, mostly the Trekkies and
what those people were doing is cosplay. They didn’t use the term cosplay
for what they were doing, because cosplay was coined in 1984
by Nobuyuki Takahashi after he visited a Scifi convention
in the United States, returned to Japan and wrote an article
about what he saw and called it cosplay. He borrowed
two words from English costume and play, which is why in Japanese
cosplay spilled in katakana. Cosplay soon erupted in Japan
and just like Lolita fashion, made its way back to the west in its new form
under its new name, where it blossomed even further. And yes, I know that in 2013, anime
was nowhere near as mainstream as it is today, and that the biggest thing
in the world was Marvel movies. And it’s fine. And it makes sense that they would want
to cater to a Western market. And I’m not saying
that it should have been Japanese themed. That would have been weird to ignore
and not educate people on where cosplay came from
and how it came to be. When you have many women and a man
right there who could tell you all of this information
about how integral Japanese culture is to what cosplay is
and was in 2013 is just sleazy. You are sleazy. Mark and his sleaze
even leaked onto innocent bystanders. Next up is the two part season finale,
where the problems with filming a TV show in real competitions
really came to a head. Episode five and six are a two parter
on planet Comic-Con, and these two episodes would also end up
having some of the most controversial moments. Episode five starts off with the narrator
explaining that planet Comic-Con will have two costume contests,
an individual contest with walk ons,
and a group contest requiring skit. We start with Holly and Jessica, and Holly is now the second person ever
to wear a bald cap. They meet up with Becky because,
unlike Monica, they will work with her, but they have some trouble
finding something they actually all like, with Becky revealing that she is
a Disney adult and only a Disney, but they compromise on a dream Works
property with How to Train Your Dragon. Becky will also be doing
the individual contests, and for that she’s doing BioShock because of course
that’s her favorite video game and she makes her roommate
figure stuff out because she wants an air cannon
to shoot roses. And later they have a dragon making party
that features two whole Game Grumps. Jesse is finally back, and
he’s going to do Assassin’s Creed four. And like, I know people like Black Flag,
but I don’t know how anybody could have been hype about this game
when three was so awful. Jesse is working with Elk Leather
for this cosplay and literally takes it to the ocean to weather it,
but that’s enough of him. The big drama for this episode is
that Yaya has decided to compete
and come out of competition retirement. By decided,
I mean he was forced to by production. According to a reliable source,
the show would not have happened at all if Yaya had not agreed to compete
in this one contest, but she’s going to be in the group
contest, and she’s doing a skit with Monica and Riddle,
and they are doing American McGee’s Alice. And this is the birth of his incredible
Queen of hearts cosplay. Monica will be the Cheshire
Cat and riddle will be a quick change. Normal Alice to gross meat to thing that
she is sculpting and molding and casting. She is casting a dress. What the amount of money
that that would cost. Like we can even hear Chris ask. You know,
this is probably like another $200 here. This kind of casting
is so incredibly expensive. But later
we get to watch the Atlanta ladies practice their skit and Monica calls Yaya
a pageant mom. Chloe is doing the individual contest
and has a very cool hello Kitty sewing machine
and doesn’t seem to know how to thread it, but she’s doing Gage from Borderlands
the video game, not the movie they just made. Victoria is doing a comic book hero
out of comic books and is making Jinyo make it out of literal paper,
but he’s doing some cool stuff and it’s time for the con. Jinyo is not finished
with Victoria’s costume, and they will have to work on it all night
to finish it. And surprise, surprise, the paper skirt is ripping
and Victoria is not happy about it. Meanwhile,
Becky hasn’t seen the air canister prop that her roommate made for her,
and Becky isn’t happy about it. Two rose petals and it’s time for the individual contest. The skit contest will be next episode,
so we are informed that two contestants from this one, one male and one female,
will be presented with championship belts. And I know this is 2012,
but this isn’t sports. We don’t need gendered awards before
Jesse goes up. His cosplay pops apart
right there on the stairs, but he makes it on stage and the judges
are impressed with his handmade cosplay. And his partner is excited.
And he’s very cute. Victoria goes up without the skirt,
but Lance is still messing with the rose thing. But they go on stage and it works. But this is why people have no glitter,
no rose petal rules. Like you know you’re throwing around trash
for people to pick up, but Lance does get credit for the podium
thing. Chloe goes up on stage with her robot
and acts like a random XD girl to the judges
and the winners are best. Male is not in the cast. Best female is not in the cast. Best male video game is not in the cast. Best female video game is Chloe. Third place is Jesse. Second place is not in the cast. Best in show is also not in the cast. And. But we get a cut in of a
what from Becky on the Best in Show. Jesse gets a cute hug from his partner
and we move on to the second half of planet Comic-Con and the group skits
where the drama gets turned up to 11. Episode six starts with the con
all ready going on, and we get a totally not production arranged
night out scene with the entire cast except for Jesse again, who would have
totally still been at the con. But drama big drama. Holly confronts Monica
about what she said about Becky. I know that
Monica sent a couple things to Becky. You said a few things that kind of struck
a chord with me personally with like telling someone that they’re
not on your level and saying that you are. The last person I would think of
is like, kind of rude, to be honest, when I said the last person, it’s more
because when I think of groups, I think of people where I was,
I wasn’t there at that conversation. So what happens? Are you serious?
You’re really going to call me out in front of Yaya
with something I said to Becky? I didn’t mean to make Becky feel upset,
and I’m sorry that she did. I just I wish that she had come to me
so we can talk it out. Anyway, the day of the contest,
the Dreamworks adults drama is that Becky slept in her contacts, and her pain scale
is at an eight or a nine. So she ends up going to the hospital. They make it a big drama
if she will be back in time or not, but she does and she still has her
eyes and is ready to compete. Team atlanta wasn’t faring any better
though. We do get this one thing about how Yayas
crown attaches with magnets, but everything quickly gets derailed
because riddle is feeling very sick. She only gets worse and ends up vomiting,
and Yaya wants to pull the plug holy sh__ Bryan Holy sh__, but riddle insists on doing it. And I just got to say, if you were doing a contest
and you feel sick, even if you are doing a skit,
just don’t compete. You don’t get extra points
for having a fever and not being in bed like you should be. But both Becky and Riddle still go for it,
and that means it’s time for team Atlanta. Green screen. Strangely, prejudging does get mentioned for this episode,
but not the last episode. And this was the same con,
but the judges are a Kansas City based costume designer,
a comic guy, and a prop maker. So two out of three. But at least
we get to see the Pre-judging. The costume designer refuses
to flip your seams and says, you’re welcome to up my seams
if you’d like. Thats allright we trust you And Yaya is crushed that they won’t get up during Dreamworks adults Pre-judging
Holly has bound their boobs to make them flat because they’re
cosplaying a male character, and oh god, it’s
way too tight and needs to be cut off. I don’t know why my boob tape is hurting I think I did it too tight and the judges
don’t get up for them either. It’s starting to seem
like the people at this con didn’t like the cast
or the crew backstage at the contest. Team Atlanta is still mad about the judges
not flipping their seams, and are bummed because they think that the big props of team Dreamworks
will beat their super detailed work. But team Dreamworks still hasn’t practiced or even come up
with their choreography yet. The contest starts and Team
Atlanta is up first, but before they go on stage,
somebody in the crowd yells. Go home out of towners but the line sounds suspiciously dubbed in. But then Dreamworks adults
gets into a verbal altercation with a large group of Doctor
Who cosplayers. We made these in four days. but we go to tons of conventions
like everyone is here to have a safe place to go
and be themselves and have a good time. Those girls were doing exactly
opposite of that. They just decided to just
completely alienate us. You didn’t even Make your costumes. But that’s really rude of you guys. We work hard.
We really do. And you do too. And this is about having fun. And how dare you make it about
not having fun. Well, I cannot believe you. It’s okay, Becky, it’s okay, it’s okay. Don’t worry. put a Jenny Nicholson
sized pin in that one because we’re moving on to the Team
Atlanta skit, which is really good. It’s well done. There’s prerecorded audio, there’s props,
there’s music. They’re hitting all their cues. But then Yaya’s crown falls off. And her big moment.
And this is why I don’t trust magnets. I think me watching this show in 2014
and seeing Yaya Han’s crown fall off
is the reason why I still to this day do not trust magnets, but they recover
and the skit is still very good. But hey, did you notice how no one else
they show had any stage props? Dreamworks adults are up next and despite
apparently making up their choreo on the spot, which I kind of don’t believe because they also had a prerecorded audio
track for this. So like, they at least kind of knew
what they were going to do, but it’s cute. It’s really good. And the final awards for the season
finale of the first riveting season of Heroes of Cosplay,
the end of this tension building two parter are best craftsmanship
goes to the Doctor Who group that was yelling at team Dreamworks
best individual in a group performance, which is kind of a shady award
to even have, goes to somebody not in the cast from a group of fairies. And for the grand prize, the MC announces
that the judges are between two groups. Will it be both sets of cast members? No, it’s actually Team Atlanta
and the group with that girl that just won that shady award
and the Best in Show winner is ATLANAAAAA And that is season one. Six episodes of Suffering Left. But first, let’s talk about the doctor. Clearly, there was a lot of animosity
between production and the con goers during the filming of that episode,
but this one is the most interesting because one of those Doctor
Who cosplayers spoke out afterwards. There is a blogspot post
from that Fifth Doctor cosplayer, and by the way, I have no way to verify
if any of this is true. This is an old post with a lot of broken
links to grain of salt in this cup of tea, but the post starts with her
talking about how her group had the perfectly normal experience prior
to the con of preparing for like an entire year to put together
their dream group of all 11 doctors, only to find out
that the show would be filming when they went to sign up for the costume
contest at the con, they were required to agree
to be on the show and were only informed of the skit requirement
when they signed up. Apparently, none of the other non cast member participants knew either,
because the skit requirement had only been added a day
before the competition. She goes on to say that the locals felt
miserably outclassed by the heroes, because they were actually told
ahead of time that there were skits and could actually put things together
for it. And the doctor lets us know that
the only competitors that stood a chance was that fairy group,
because they were Ren Faire actors and already knew
how to do a little fairy dance. Another thing that I thought was
so sus was the clearly dubbed audio clip of somebody going
go home out of towners. According to the doctor, somebody actually
yelled, I love all your costumes except the Syfy plants,
causing the crowd to cheer. The Doctor Who group then
cheered with the crowd because there dream of doing all the doctors in one group in
competition was being, quote, overrun by people competing in our con
for no other reason that they needed a place
to film their heroes. Now we get to the part of the altercation
that the show actually showed. Somebody in the cast yells back at them
and the doctor loses her temper. I tried to explain that this was the only chance
most of us get to go to a convention, and since we can only afford to compete
once or so a year, it means a lot to us. I also want to stop here because I want to
give some grace to the cast of the show, because they didn’t get to pick
which cons that production took them to. They probably didn’t know
that no one had told the other competitors that there would be skits, and it wasn’t
their responsibility to do that. They had no control over this, and
they were probably understandably upset that people were villainizeing them over
something that they were contractually obligated
to do for production. Everybody’s mad for valid reasons. The doctor then ends the post with,
I’m sorry I yelled at the heroes. I’m sorry
I gave them any footage for the show. But when you sit down to a game of poker
only to realize that you’re against a couple of card sharks with a stacked
deck, one’s anger at the unfairness is not quenched by the exultation of
beating the card sharks at their own game. I make no apologies for being angry
at heroes of cosplay 51 minds for producing it, Syfy for airing it, and Yaya Han and all her heroes
for being part of something so sleazy. Well, I can’t 100% proof
that none of the other contestants were made aware of the skit requirement
prior to the con. That post did link to a YouTube video
of a recording of most of the costume contest,
and if you watch the other group contestants skits,
no one else has a prerecorded track. Some groups played
pop songs and posed around the stage. Some groups, including the Doctor Who group, did live audio without mikes or music,
which is really weird for skits because most contests
will not let you do live audio at all. And they made these people
shout on the stage, Cherio no it’s Hello rough nut, tough nut, I know that’s you And as the post mentions, the fairies did have a real choreographed
dance to a music track, but as they said,
they were Ren Faire performers and they just did one of those performances
that they usually do with the Ren Fair. (fairy music) plus Chloe ended up responding to this post
in a Tumblr post that I was only able to access
from the way back machine. I assume Chloe was in the audience for this, but she includes some statements
from Jessica who was right there. The way it started was someone from the audience
identified my friends as Syfy plants. She then includes a quote from Jessica who said this
in their Secret Cast Facebook group. The stuff that that girl wrote
when she was summarizing not throwing around
blame was pretty accurate. Someone did shout something out
from the audience. They cheered. I think Becky question mark asked them
why they would cheer or something. Really? Disney princess? And then that girl got all aggro and said that line where you can read her
lips, you’re not even from Kansas City. Holly mentioned that we spent
a buttload of money shipping things here. I cannot believe production
made them pay to ship their own stuff to be on their show, but
and that we worked really hard. They said they only go to one convention
a year. Then I said Steven Moffat would be ashamed
that they were being so catty. Then that’s when Holly said,
how dare they make it about not having fun and all that. That’s
when the mean girl did her hand thing. Then Becky was crying and Holly hugged her
and we gave each other death glares for the rest of the night. Later, Chloe and I had a really forced
heart to heart with them, which ended in a really forced group hug with the hand
girl whispering just drop it in my ear. The doctor then made a second post
where she apologized to Chloe, Becky, Holly and Jessica after the first post
caused what she called a Tumblr war. The thing is, all of this shit,
all of this drama, all of these random people who felt hurt,
all of this could have been avoided if they hadn’t gone
with such a flawed format. Why wouldn’t
you just do a Project Runway rip off? Well, money. It costs money to do that. And with this being the first of its kind,
it was inherently risky. So they kind of had to spend
as little money as possible. While it’s nice that people got to see
real costume contest, this kind of complication was inevitable because they weren’t
making a documentary or a vlog. This wasn’t a format
that was supposed to emulate real life. It was a reality show. And despite the community hating it,
it got a second season. Kind of. So the show does have two seasons,
but season two is called season 1.5 for some reason,
and it’s a little better, honestly. But ultimately it would be
what got the show canceled. They reintroduced cosplay at the start,
and this intro is honestly kind of way better at representing cosplay
and what the show is even about. It’s the artistic,
provocative, and mind blowing world. Oh, they’re perfect of cosplay. We cosplay a character
because it means something to us. Each week. Our cosplayers design and craft the most
fantastic costumes you will ever see. That looks so cool. They gain insight from Hollywood prop makers and push themselves to their physical and creative limits. I’m not even sure what this is anymore. Episode six starts with the cast. We already know Holly, Jessica and Chloe,
who are doing a Pokemon group for the contest at Stan Lee’s Comic-Con,
and Jessica is claiming to be the first person
to do a thing again. No one’s ever done her before, so,
but Chloe wants them to also join her group of burlesque
versions of social media websites. But we won’t see that until the con. Holly explains a pretty good amount
of how they’re piecing together their very large cosplay. There’s an explanation of what
a gajinka is, but they end up priming the foam kind of really dangerously,
because the usual spray primer for Eva foam is plasti
dip, and plasti dip is really toxic, and I think you need a respirator
for that, not just a paper mask. And you definitely shouldn’t keep spraying it on your friend
when your friend is saying it’s getting on my face,
oh, it’s for sure hitting me in the face. I mean, it’s okay. It’s fine. Just keep going. Oh, it’s not hitting you. But this new season has
some new cast members too, with the first being Indra Rojas,
who wants to make costumes for a living, and production has her go see Yaya
so that they can introduce yaya again. But oh God, when she says
she wants to make costumes for living, she means that literally
because Yaya encourages her to go compete so that when she does commissions that she
can say she’s a award winning cosplayer. Making a living off of cosplay
commissions is not a good fun or profitable job for most people. Anyways, she’s doing a Shera
cosplay, old Shera because this is 2014 and this part has Yaya explaining
Worbla again. Jessie is back
and he’s going to do a mega man cosplay, but they do this ridiculous setup
where they have him go to the arcade so he can get inspiration for his cosplay
by having his friends say so. Jessie, if you were looking for a sign
for your next cosplay, this is it. (overdramatic guitar riffs) Got it! They are going to do this
stupid fake inspiration set up for like every episode,
we get to see him use Eva foam for the first time and he’s sadly
using hot glue, which is just unfortunate because there weren’t
a lot of internet videos about this stuff. Actually, no, there were, but everyone was just using hot glue
which can work on Eva foam. But contact cement is much better,
especially for curved objects like this, because you need it to bond on contact. Anyway, that’s all we get of Jessie
because it’s time for kamikaze. But wait for once. The big drama of this episode is Jessie, because when he opens up his Mega man,
it is covered in scratches. So he wears it in the hotel room,
so he tries to make the scratches look purposeful,
all by covering them with metallic paint, which I’ve literally done before, but I usually bring black acrylic
and unfortunately for him, he runs out of his metallic paint
and can’t find anymore and runs around looking for more all around town
until he finds metallic sharpies. But this is literally the most screen time
this man ever gets. The social media burlesque group happens,
and deviant art is uncomfortable, but they have a funny sign. But they make them explain the joke,
so it’s kind of ruined. It looks like we got Reddit, Twitter,
deviant art. Jessica is web MD, but it’s time for the competition
and the green screen things are back. The judges this time are a makeup artist,
Lauren Bergman of Castle Corsetry, Ivy doom Kitty
who is a cosplayer and Annisse Damefatale Annisse Damefatale, is the final judge,
and she’s a huge name in the industry. She’s been doing her own custom stuff
for 20 plus years. Easy. Did she start when she was five? I tried to Google this person. I literally
can’t find anything about them. Who is this and did they start cosplaying
when they were five? Nothing wild happens during the contest,
so they decide to give each person this big, tense lead up before they go out
to try and make it more dramatic. But literally nothing goes wrong and they could not think of any other way
to make this interesting. The judges deliberate and Indra gets compliments on making the character
not look like the cartoon. You hear that production
accuracy isn’t king, and for the awards, best group is not in the cast. Third placed is also not in the cast,
second place not in the cast, and Best in
Show goes to not in the cast. Wow. Another goose egg for the heroes cast. I guess they learned
absolutely nothing after season one. And not to mention that
there have never been any explanations of why cosplays did or didn’t win,
and no mention of the fact that if you don’t win in a cosplay,
you can reenter it. This is what I’m talking about. I have been a competition cosplayer
for a long time, and even when I competed all the time, I still only competed
like once or twice a year. Plus back then I would literally only make
like one cosplay a year and I would compete in it more than once
because I wouldn’t win, so I would just reenter it
in a different contest. Now, if you win something in that cosplay,
it is considered bad form to reenter that cosplay. But if you do not place at all,
most of the time, the judges will encourage you
to reenter it in a different contest. It is so common
that it is absolutely bonkers that this show
never let anyone in the cast do that. Some of these builds could have
and should have been reentered, and I don’t think the show
would have suffered at all, especially with how little air time
the actual construction process got. We could have had scenes of the cast
fixing up that cosplay, talking about why
the cosplay didn’t win in the first place, and how they were going to improve it,
and then you could have multi episode storylines following that cosplay
and getting to see a realistic, accurate portrayal of what a competition
cosplayer goes through with their work. But no money and boobs. Episode eight opens with a mention
that the Ottawa Pop Expo uses the International Cosplayers
Guild rules. The ICG is a nonprofit
dedicated to the promotion and education of costuming, including cosplay
as an art form in all of its aspects, and it has a standardized list of rules
for costume contest. These rules are where I believe
that the novice, journeymen and Masters categories originated, and the rule set is a common
starting point for most contests. Today. Holly and Jessica will be working on a Skeksis cosplay
from the movie dark Crystal, but Jessica will be doing the cosplay alone
because Holly has somewhere to be. We get like two seconds of a shot of Holly
doing some incredible sketches for it, and they get to go meet Brian Henson
and actually see the real Skeksis puppet from the movie. And it’s really cool and sweet. Riki is back this season and she’s doing
ash from league, and she’s carving a bow out of XPS foam so that she can mold
and make it out of resin. But her silicone isn’t curing
because it’s too cold. So she ends up deciding to switch
to doing a persona character last minute. So ash goes back in the deck. That’s a legends of runterra joke Because I don’t play league. Jessie is doing the Mandarin from Iron Man three and he’s casting rings
in real metal. Indra is doing League too, she’s doing an
Ari cosplay that she’s done a ton of. Very impressive hand embroidery for,
and not a ton happens besides that. So it’s time for the con. Indra cuts her Ari wig in the hotel room
on her partner’s head. She apparently hasn’t done a full test
run of this cosplay, though, and her tales that are supposed to stand up are not working,
so she has to drag them on the floor. Jessica gets her costume shipped in boxes
and one of the boxes is missing. Oh no, it’s like stuck in Canadian
customs. Jessie is getting help from Jessica
to put his hair in a topknot, and it’s just adorable. But her package finally arrives,
so she heads out in the costume with very low visibility,
with no one to help her. Just kidding. She’s with a camera crew. The judges
this time are also all cosplayers. Rikki goes up and has a cool magnet trick with her cards,
but it fails on the stage for a second. But she gets it to work though
they absolutely edit it to make it look like it’s way longer
than it actually is. Indra goes up in her Ahri
and they end up cutting to Jessica Nigri in the audience with Monica
from last season. Like literally every time they show
the audience, they cut to them. Jesse has his moment, Jessica has hers,
and no one’s asking stupid questions. In the judges
deliberations, Indra gets a nod for her embroidery and her corset, and overall,
they’re pretty happy with everyone in the cast. This episode Yayas Judges Award goes to
not in the cast. The judge Melting Mirrors
also goes to not in the cast, but it’s a Godoka and nobody in production
caught that. They put up a picture of magical girl
Monica instead. The next judges award is not in the cast,
but the last one goes to Rikki. And then for the major awards, the money
prizes, best embroidery goes to Indra and then they skip
over all the other awards and go straight to Best in Show,
who is of course not in the cast, but at least this episode served to prove
that Simple and Clean can still win. Thanks to Rikki, and someone else
is about to immediately derail that. With the single worst
cosplay of the entire show. Episode nine is about Animate Miami. Holly, Jessica and Chloe are doing
Dragon Age Inquisition cosplays, and they actually did them prior to the game coming out because
they got to work with the developer. So there’s this whole advertisement,
I mean, segment where they go to the offices
and they get to see the character that they have chosen
for Chloe to cosplay. They do a duct tape pattern for the cosplay and even explain
the entire process of how to do it. Then Jessica goes to a friend
to do alterations to her Morrigan cosplay,
but she’s competing in this cosplay. I was under the impression
that Jessica made this cosplay, but in one of the interview segments,
Jessica says as she did these elaborate cartridge plates,
so did you not make this cosplay? Why are you competing in it? Would you normally compete in it
or are you doing it for the ad? She’s just doing it for the show. In between the seasons,
it seems like production realized. It was kind of weird
to only have one male cast member. So this season
they added two more, Carl and Miguel, and they keep doing this stuff
where production has them go to some place to get inspiration for their costume,
because filming someone at home watching anime wouldn’t be exciting. I guess you can’t just tell us
that they love the character, you have to stage them. Getting the idea anyway. Carl is introduced as a young and hungry
cosplayer. He’s competed a lot
and he’s going to be making the mannequin in from Silent Hill in a week. His sidekick for this series
is his sister, who apparently won Best in Show at Acon at some point,
and she brings up a lot of good points about how making something like
this in a week is a bad idea, but he’s making everything out of PVC
pipe, furry foam, and apparently Sintra, though that doesn’t get mentioned
until the end of the episode when Yaya talks about the cosplay. The second new cast member is Miguel. He’s 25, he’s from New York,
and he says he wants to be in cosplay because he wants to be
the center of attention. He’s never competed before, but he’ll be making Black Wargreymon
from Digimon a big old armor bill. He’s never made anything
this ambitious before, but the classic cosplay
material flooring matts has Finally made its TV debut,
but he’s cutting it with scissors and like, oh, don’t do that,
just use a box cutter or an exacto knife. Jeez. But he does explain
how he’s using a heat gun to shape it, and how he’s covering it in
resin, in fiberglass to strengthen it. And there’s some drama about the weather, but there is a mention of how resin
should only be worked with outdoors. So finally,
some education, not enough for the viewer to actually learn how to do things,
but enough that you could Google it. But even though he seems to know
the dangers of resin, he still spray paints inside at an open window. Don’t do that. In the Yaya catch up segment,
we get a Sakizo mention. You remember my, my Sakizo costume. But they do not give you an hour
long video explaining who Sakizo is or why she’s important like I did,
but who cares? It’s time for the con. The new boys have not finished their cosplays
and there’s a totally not staged segment where everybody meets up
and the boys are actually included. Unlike last season. I wonder why Holly makes a comment
about Carl not wearing a shirt, and Jessica replies to that with
I think it’s an anime thing. It is. There’s an apple teeny shout out. Carol orders chocolate milk. Jessica is cosplaying Daria and talks
about the lovely, supportive atmosphere, even just standing in line
with people while competing. And it’s literally the first time
of the entire show that someone actually brings up what most people love
about competing the community around it, something
the show has tried really hard to portray in a really different way, but way less
drama at this big cast meet up. I actually really like this scene, but
it’s time to get ready for the contest. Chocolate Milk Boy needs help becoming
the mannequin, and it’s a whole fiasco because that’s what happens when you only
spend a week on a costume this big. But in his interview, he does say that
he will need his sister’s help. So there’s finally a mention of a handler,
which is also a common thing in cosplay competitions. It’s very common to have a friend alongside you, to be your buddy,
to make sure you can like, eat and drink. Because a lot of times competition cosplays are really big and you just kind
of just need somebody to hold your hand. But honestly,
damn, that cosplay looks miserable. And it wasn’t until Miguel’s
green screen segment that I saw that he straight up did what is considered
not a full no no. But an MMMm in foam smithing and that is that he used the actual texture
of the flooring foam like it doesn’t look bad,
but it’s less work than getting rid of it. Yaya is prejudging in a Sakizo So again,
I know she doesn’t normally do that and that it’s just for the show,
but damn that looks miserable. And the other judges
are actually other cosplayers. The Dragon Age group goes in
and they look great, but Jessica does say
that her dress was made by somebody else and like, I don’t know why
you would even go to prejudging judging and not just be like part of the stage
presentation, but okay, TV show. There’s even a cut in of her confessional
where she says, my friend Jenny made the blouse and both the skirt,
and I’m really worried that’s going to affect our chances
for placing girl. What miguel goes to prejudging and says something about how he didn’t
prime the foam on his feet. Anya calls him out for that to his face
and says the feet are actually expanding foam
and I resined them. And I left it a little bit chalky
because he has reptilian feet, so they’re not smooth Are you sure you didn’t
just run out of time to paint them? And then they build up all this drama
about how long it takes Carl to get to prejudging. And it seems like they’re going
to fake him being super late, but he does finally make it
and he’s kind of falling apart. He can barely walk in the thing. And Yaya says it best. I have no idea
what I’m even looking at though. He talks a whole lot about what the
character is instead of how he made it, which you just shouldn’t do in prejudging
because it’s a waste of time. They want to know how you made it. They don’t care about the character
backstage. The rest of the cast
finally gets to see poor Carl, who is now having to use an office chair
to move around. This looks like Bacon
Miguel goes up and there’s nothing to note. But then the Dragon Age group goes up
and at the end of their walk on, Chloe goes off stage as one of the judges
starts to ask them a question. So it’s kind of an oops. But then Chloe runs back on the stage
and kisses Jessica and then the judges don’t say anything
and it’s just kind of weird. Anyway, Carl goes up and the question is,
will he fall apart on stage? And he doesn’t,
but he drops one of his heads. But he makes a funny joke. Guys, guys, I don’t need a hand. I got lots of them. And it’s time for the awards. None of the judges awards go to the cast. Best group goes to the Dragon age group. And this is where the editing is
just getting intolerable because. So they cut down what the judge says to
now we’re going to go on to the individual awards, and it’s
going to go to Jack for Jak and Daxter. But what’s the name of the award? I know what it is because the award,
right after his best journeyman. So that person just won Best Novice, but
they have never explained the categories, and it doesn’t seem like anyone
in production even understood how these contests work. So this doesn’t surprise me. This journeyman is also not in the cast,
but there’s clearly several other winners that they don’t even show
because there’s a ton of people on stage. But Best in Show goes to a giant Warhammer
40 K who is not in the cast. Miguel is feeling okay. He’s feeling good about what he made,
but Carl is very sad about it and just want some chocolate milk. But who wouldn’t be sad when they
destroyed their back for an entire day? Only to look like bacon? So why would Carl decide to make such
a complicated cosplay in under a week? And why hasn’t he started it yet? Was he forced to do that by production? So my suspicion from the very beginning
was that they required each cosplayer to make a new cosplay for each episode,
and my suspicion was confirmed In Yaya’s book Most cosplayers
take on only 1 or 2 contests a year. However, due to the time restrictions
imposed on the filming, the production team required the cast
to make new cosplays for each convention. With only two weeks of lead time. They also had to enter
multiple conventions back to back to one, top of having to make a stupid number
of cosplays in a stupid time frame. The time frame was also further
controlled by production to account for when filming would take place. I and the other cast members
had to wait to execute certain crucial tasks on our cosplays
until scheduled filming days. Yaya also recently did an interview with the Cosplay Crunch podcast,
where she said this I don’t think they knew
what they were getting into and how long
it would take to make costumes. I was smart in that I sort of prepared
almost like stages. I prepared like kind of
like a cooking show where I would like, have made up
fake parts of the costume already. But I would prepare extra pieces so that
they could record me making those pieces. And this is probably the show’s biggest sin, because let’s be real,
this could have been avoided. Why the hell are you leaving it to
your cast members to figure out how they’re even going
to present stuff to you? They could have just had people
use cosplays that they already had, like 90% done. And then just had them
talk about how they did that. Instead,
they depicted competition cosplayers as people who rushed through projects
in two weeks. They normalized sacrificing your sanity
and health to rush through your project right before the event. And this has had
the biggest repercussions, because people still do this
and they never acknowledged that. The only reason they were rushing through
these things was not because of their own procrastination or their own schedules,
but because of production schedules. They started when it Fit Productions
needs, not theirs. And was the cast happy
with the final product? Here’s what Yaya said in her book. Everyone in the cast vowed to do everything we could to shift the focus of the show away
from manufactured drama in order to reflect the real, diverse
and beautiful world of cosplay. However, once we signed our contracts
with all the fine print and conditions, we found that we had very little influence
on the outcome of the show compared to all the outlandish concepts
and pitches that I received before the show began production. I think the other cast members and I did
our best under the given circumstances. They were given no time to do this stuff, and while some of them managed to pull out
really impressive builds, Carl still ended up in that mannequin,
and I have no qualms calling that a bad cosplay, because to me, it’s
not about how it looks. It’s not about its craftsmanship, even. But a bad cosplay to me is one
that makes a person suffer when they’re wearing it,
and one that falls apart. And you can’t tell me
that chocolate Milk Boy was having fun rolling around on that office chair
while looking like bacon. Episode ten has two new cast members,
though they legitimately only appear in this one episode, with the first being
one of the few people I’d heard of before seeing the show for the first time.
I watched the show in 2014 for the first time,
and that person is Meg Turney. I knew who she was from Source Fed,
but she started cosplaying at 14 with the help of her grandma. And there’s a totally not production
for a segment where Chloe decides to do a group cosplay with Meg
and this other lady, Michelle, who apparently doesn’t
even know how to sew. But they’ll be doing a DC villain
ladies group, and they’re doing a fan art that nobody
gives credit to the artist for. Great job production. We do get to watch Meg
make a felt poodle skirt, and there is an egregious shot of her
holding her tape measure with her foot. But Chloe wants animatronic flowers
for her poison ivy, so she goes to talk to her
dad, the inventor of the lightsaber. And this is where the show gains
a lot of points. Back, because this segment includes the legendary and late Grant Imahara. this part Made me too sad to actually watch it, but I got to give you points for him
even being in the show. Chloe does end up
with the animatronic flowers and the moving is cool,
but they end up breaking up. Chloe has to call Grant Imahara
to fix them, and he offers to fix them. The next morning in riddle segment,
we are introduced to another new cast member, Katie Cosplays,
who I’ve met a couple times and who I know will watch this. Hi Katie, I’m sorry,
but Katie is a former World Cosplay Summit Team USA, which is a big ass
deal in the cosplay community and means that she’s not just a veteran cosplayer,
but a veteran competitor. Katie’s doing wonder Woman and Riddle
will be finishing the ash cosplay, so the bow from a couple episodes ago finally gets demolded and it looks fantastic. They don’t really talk about
how any of that is done, but they focus a whole lot on the lights
she’s putting into it. Of course, Katie is making her shield
out of woman worbla, but they spend way more time talking about the lights
that she’s putting in her lasso, because the show seems to think that lights are the most impressive thing
you can do for a cosplay. At the con, there’s drama about Chloe
not flying out at the same time as the other DC girls
because she’s getting her flowers fixed, but she does make it
and airbrushes herself in the hotel room and fills the hotel room up
with airbrush vapor. And one of the flowers breaks again,
so she runs to ask Reki for glue. That will work,
and I don’t know what she’s using, but it’s probably not safe
to use in a hotel room. But she fixes it. So it’s time
for the greenscreen reveal shot, and I hope that they had a blue screen
for Chloe, but I don’t know if they did because her skin looks really weird. They do look really cute though. Rikki gets in her ash and it looks amazing because you know,
she took more than a week to make it. And Katie’s Wonder Woman looks great. The judges for the contest are Ivy, doom,
Kitty again, Jason, David, Frank again, and Yaya, who tells us that wizard world
has no separate divisions, which again, the show has never explained
the skill divisions. It also has no prejudging. So performance is as important
as craftsmanship. And I have to wonder
if someone like Rikki, who worked that hard on a cosplay
like the ash, would be taking her cosplay to a contest like this
if it wasn’t for the TV show. Anyway. Drama Katie’s batteries for her
lights are dead, but Angel baby Rikki offers to lend Katie her battery pack
after she gets off stage, but then Rikki’s batteries die too,
so she gets the organizers to let her go last so she can charge her
batteries, which is bad for Katie, but the guy in front of her in line had double AA batteries,
and he gives them to her. Look at this wonderful camaraderie
that the show has done nothing to present and has actively tried to make
look cut throat. So Katie goes up with her lights
and you can’t even see them because the stage lights are on,
but they do the stupid talking to the contestants thing again,
and afterward Katie runs to give Rikki her batteries, but Rikki just decides
to go last to let her batteries charge. There’s a miku mention Hatsune Miku is
but Miku never gets shown. The DC girls go up and they let Meg on stage and roller skates,
which just seems like a safety issue. But the flowers do work. Rikki goes up in her. Ash is amazing and again,
I can’t even tell if the lights are on because of the stage lights.
But the judges go deliberate. They talk about the DC girls and they say
I really like the originality of it, but like they didn’t draw
that fan art Rikki gets a nod for doing advanced techniques, but they seem like actually upset
that her batteries died and like, I wouldn’t care if somebody’s battery died
as long as you can, like, show me a video that at some point
it worked. She still wired the thing herself anyway. Awards time
best group goes to not in the cast. Best male villain again. What the f___ not in the cast. Best female hero is Katie. Best in show goes to not in the cast. But then they do honorable mentions which would literally never be presented
after Best in Show. But I wonder why. Well, the first one goes to not in the cast,
but the second goes to the DC girls. And the last honorable mention
goes to Rikki. So yeah, that’s why they put them after. To make you even more angry
about how the cast was treated, my dear friend pins was able to track down
a Tumblr post made by Chloe. She apparently wrote this in between
the filming of season one and 1.5, and it was intended to be a guide
for the upcoming new cast members. And it confirms all of my suspicions
about production and adds so much more to my rage. Welcome to Heroes of Cosplay. Last season was one of the most
challenging experiences of our lives. There was pain, physical exhaustion, many sleepless
nights, hospital visits, and puking. All of these can be avoided if you are
prepared for general tips, she says. You weren’t going to be rushed,
so get an Amazon Prime account, but then says we did have a different crew
last time, but they got mad at us and told us a little lipstick
and blush goes a long way and basically reprimanded us
for our love of sweat pants. Take a risk by all means. A comfy, comfy risk you at cons,
she says you will be getting up at 8 a.m. and being kept out until 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., so get sleep. The story directors are the deciders. They can make you look good
or they can make you look bad. So don’t piss them off. However, you don’t have to say anything
you don’t want to. Even if the story director gets pissed. Stick to your guns
and think before you say anything. The one emotion to avoid is anger and avoid whining at all costs. The last two episodes are a two parter
for Wizard World New Orleans,
and they serve as the series finale. It’s another Comic Con
and another one with two costume contests. Definitely not one costume contest
that they cut into two episode parts. Yaya will be judging
the individual contest, but hosting the skit group contest, so she feels like
she has to do something big. So she’s going to learn how to walk on
stilts for the Banshee Queen. From lineage two
to host a costume contest, Holly and Jessica are once again
working with Chloe. They’ll be doing an original design Peter
Pan Group, inspired by Guillermo del Toro that they are calling Peter Pan’s
Labyrinth, and they’ll be doing a skit. There’s more cool shots of Holly
being the sculpting master that they are,
and there’s some fun math from Chloe. Making Wendy the Wendy cosplay comes out
cute though, but she calls it an Edwardian antique nightgown. But like, is that edwardian? I don’t know, y’all tell me. Carl is back for this episode
and he’s making Haunt and we get to see him
sculpt his haunt pieces out of silicone. Jesse is back for the finale, and he’s going to do Thorin Oakenshield,
the one from The Hobbit movies. Hold your applause. He’s making his metal shirt
thing out of metal. But as metal do be, it’s really heavy,
so he has to do it in resin instead. Miguel is doing the individual contest
and he’s doing Shazam from injustice. But then there’s this scene with Yaya,
Katie, Indra and Rikki. We find out that Rikki and Katie are doing
the group contest as a Soul Calibur group, with Katie
as Sophie and Rikki as Terra. I don’t know about Soul Caliber and I wrote this character’s name
wrong in my, in my script. Anyway, then Indra and Yaya come in and
they’re like, oh, indra should do it too. And Indra is doing Hild,
and the production just makes it seem like this wasn’t already planned,
but I kind of have to assume that it was. But anyway, Indra does join their group. But then Yaya is like,
you know, there’s a skit required, right? And they make it seem like Katy and Rikki
are being really avoidant of the skit. But like Katy has done, World
Cosplay Summit, the biggest skit competition in the world. She knows how to do a skit. Katy’s plan is to do a choreographed
walk on instead of a full skit. All we’ll do
is we’ll do a choreographed walk on, which is essentially
where we just plan out our movements on stage,
make them very theatrical. A choreographed walk on
is a fully realized skit. It’s just a simple one. You can tell a full story
without any recorded dialog or big set pieces,
and this is a perfectly reasonable good idea,
especially with their time limit. But the show paints this as Katy
and Rikki not taking it seriously. I really think that we should have like
at least something just in case. I mean, if we’re going to spend so much time on these costumes
trying to, like, get the best that we can. Yeah, I’m worried that Rikki and Katy
are concerned about the skit. We’re really, really short on time
and I’m kind of rolling with the punches. But the big drama for this group is
that Katy is thinking about dropping out because she can’t work as fast
as the other members of the group. This drama will continue in part two of the episode, because this one
is about the individual contest, which only has the boys in it, so
there’s not a ton of con stuff for drama. So we’re going right to the contest. The judges are Ryan Frye, Ivy doom, Katy again, Jason, David,
Frank again, and Yaya. The boys compete against each other. Nothing crazy happens,
but in the judges deliberations, Yaya remarks that Jesse’s isn’t as flashy,
but then points out that the flashy costume
is just a bunch of purchased pieces, and the winners are the honorable mention
from Ivy doom. Kitty is not in the cast. yaya’s goes to Miguel. Ryan’s goes to. Not in the cast. The Green Rangers
goes to the Green Ranger. Best male hero goes to Jesse. Best male villain goes to the flashy
cosplay and Best in show is not in the cast,
but a good Dalek No one will be exterminated tonight. And that brings us to the final episode
and the group costume contest for this one. We once again have the Atlanta Ladies
versus the LA folks, with Yaya hosting in the Big Stilts cosplay,
which she finished in the hotel room after an all nighter. Actually,
the entire front half of this episode is all of those people
finishing there in the hotel rooms. Yaya will apparently also be doing
some kind of performance before the show, and she does get the cosplay finished
and it looks great. So it’s time for one last green
screen montage. The Atlanta team drama comes back in the
form of Katie being nowhere near finished. The convention is only hours away
and I still have no dress, no sandals, pretty much no costume
like Indra and Riddle or straight up dressed and Katie is not done. So they both go down without Katie
to go sign up for the L.A folks. The subplot is that Holly has chosen
to wear scleral lenses, which are those big blackout
contact lenses that cover your entire eye. Holly’s though are very painful. Why do they have those? If they hurt people, they don’t sell
the expensive ones anymore to the US. I tried, I couldn’t get any. So these aren’t they’re just whatever. But even though the others say
that they don’t have to wear those, Holly insists on wearing the painful contacts
and they get their last green screen shot. One of you historical people
tell me if that’s Edwardian. These cosplays are really cool though,
and I really love Holly’s teeth, but oh boy, the competition has drama
before it even starts. Because as Yaya is about to go up on stage
for her performance in her stilts, the MC announces her. But she’s not ready. And I just cannot believe
that y’all had a cosplayer backstage. Still clearly not ready. And you called her up
without making sure she was ready. Like, y’all know she’s in stilts. Anyway, Yaya has big feelings
about it, understandably. Hello? I’m not ready. Let’s get loud and proud for Yaya Han No no no. cut my music. I swear Oh my God. But they started over and they have her
come up with the help of four people and she like,
almost falls down the stairs. But she’s good. She made it up
and she does a little lip sync Now she’s going to host the entire thing
on stilts. They bring out the other judges,
and there’s only two for this one. It’s Ivy doom
Kitty again and Ryan Frye again. Y’all leaving all this to Ms doom Kitty. Backstage, Katie continues to be the drama by not being downstairs yet,
but Katie does make it in time. So we get the final green screen
ever of the Atlanta girls on stage. Somebody let Yaya sit down,
thank God. And Team LA has a whole ass bed. What Jerk brought a bed to this thing? Team Atlanta is the first of the cast
to take the stage, and they do a great little choreographed
walk on. I think they could have interacted with each other a little more,
but they straight up had no time. So this is great. They are then followed by a Harlem
Shake before it’s LA’s turn to haul their whole ass bed on the stage,
and they have a cool ass shit. It’s all visual storytelling. Nobody talks, and Carl says it best
stupendous on a magnificent scale. Excellent job for the awards. Apparently they only had two awards,
but created an honorable mention. And the honorable mention goes to Atlanta. Best skit goes to not in the cast
and the Best in Show. The final award given on the show
Heroes of Cosplay goes to the L.A team. Chloe takes her first best in show
and she cries and it’s really sweet. Jessica cries too, Holly
says something that gets censored. ???? Yaya explains how well thought out
the skit was and how well it told a story. And there’s one last full cast
meet up through New Orleans. It’s very kumbaya. Everybody cries. Jesse gets told by Yaya
that he’s come so far and I’ll end. It was what riddle said. I actually can’t imagine what my life
would be without cosplay. I’ve got to travel. I’ve met some of the most important people
in my life. It’s been incredible and so much fun. And the show dies
with a toast to cosplay. So you think with TV exposure, the people on this show would go on
to be pillars of the cosplay community? Well, so we have three camps here. Cosplayers who became more famous
than the show ever was. People who were on the show doing cosplay
that don’t do it anymore, and cosplayers
who got left in the dust. For Victoria, it looks like
she took a long break from cosplay after the show, as her Instagram goes
from cosplay to years of fitness content. But recently, she seems to be doing
cosplay again and her TV experience led her to just under 12,000 Instagram
followers. Holly Conrad, on the other hand,
did end up with a strong following online. They do a lot of D&D content on YouTube,
but they still do cosplay and has found a footing doing content online
and has found a lot of success there. And they’re one of the most talented
artists I’ve ever seen with my eyes. And they went on
to have a pretty great career in art. After the show, Jessica appears
to still do costuming at Halloween, but mostly seems to be doing mom stuff,
being pregnant and running for office. Reki still totally does cosplays. It doesn’t look like she ever stopped,
and she was in fact horrified by Joe
getting shooed off the stage. Chloe doesn’t seem
like she does cosplay at all anymore. She still does some fun outfits,
but she’s become a filmmaker and even wrote and directed a short film
that won some awards. It does look like Becky
still does cosplay though, and she’s done a couple really cool projects
in the last couple of years, but it doesn’t seem like the show
boosted her career in any way. So maybe go give Becky a follow. She’s still going strong
and she almost lost her eyes to this show. It looks like Jessie still totally cosplays, and I think he’s
even still with his very cute partner. He owns a business called Midnight Armor
where he makes all kinds of cool stuff, and he’s even a member or maybe just has
some merch of the she prop community. So he’s even an active member
and supporter of the cosplay community. Jessica Nigri is still going strong despite
not entirely being included on the show. She’s still a talented veteran cosplayer
with one of the most successful careers. Nowadays,
she does everything from streaming to crafting tutorials,
and the two of us together are responsible for like 90% of the handmade Ranni
cosplays on the planet. It looks like Monica
still occasionally does cosplay, but her Instagram
is mostly about her life now. It does look like at some point she did
become a product manager for Blizzard. Carl still totally cosplays
as she’s a full time prop maker now,
and he does some really impressive stuff. Indra is still doing cosplay
and is still very talented, but didn’t really end up with a huge
following after the show. Meg turney while only in one episode was already
kind of big famous at the time, and she remains big famous,
she still does cosplay, she does twitch. She ended up getting married
to Gavin Free. She’s one of the biggest names in cosplay
to be on the show overall, and went on to have one of the most successful
careers, both in cosplay and social media. For Miguel though,
I actually can’t find anything on miguel other than this one article of him
getting a tattoo in quarantine. Like, yeah, there’s an article about that. I was able to find his old DeviantArt,
but I can’t find anything recent, so I don’t even know if he still cosplays
and turns out he might have gotten canceled
for saying something really problematic. So I think he just like,
deleted all of his stuff, but I have no idea what he’s saying. Katie absolutely still does cosplay
and still goes to cons. I don’t think she’s competed in a while
and she does also comment on my video sometime. Sorry. Yaya Han remains the queen of cosplay. She has witnessed
the growth of modern cosplay and is a true pioneer
of what it means to be a cosplayer today. She isn’t just the queen, really,
she is Aegon the Conquerer. She went on to have her own line
of sewing patterns with McCall’s, which she even stated
that they reached out to her because they saw her on the TV show. She got cosplay fabrics put into Joann’s,
and she’s worked with countless brands and even has her own branded
sewing machine that is also a brand of sewing machine
that I am an affiliate for. But just because we are affiliates
of the same company does not mean I will not be critical of her. When you have a moniker like Queen,
people are going to end up divided on you, while on one hand, Yaya has done a lot to legitimize cosplay in the eyes
of the companies that make products that cosplayers use, she set a roadmap
for making cosplay a job. She’s probably one of the best emcees out
there because she’s actually a cosplayer and actually watches the media that this stuff is from,
so she actually knows how to pronounce characters names, which is actually
very rare, but the conversations about bodies in cosplays, sexy cosplays,
and this show even exists, and her having such a big role in it left
a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths. So I wanted to hear what she had to say about some of the things
she said on the show and how she felt. Hi, I’m Yaya Han,
I’ve been cosplaying for 25 years and I’m still the queen of cosplay. Sarah made me say that this show was pitched
as a competition show because it’s the first show about cosplay,
the first show about this very weird, you know,
esoteric hobby has to be focused on competition, otherwise
people won’t understand why you do it. They kept trying to pressure me to compete to fit that guideline,
that that that structure. I said, well, my role is not a competitor and you are filming a real conventions,
and you’re saying that you’re a documentary show like a
it’s like a docu series, oh they pitching it as a docu series?? It’s a docu series. It is a documentary
series, supposedly. Yes. They even flew me out to LA, and I had to go to, like,
the Syfy offices at NBC universal. And I had, like, this room of Hollywood
people surrounding me. And one lady literally looked at me
and said, don’t you want to be a star? It was crazy. That was like my my moment
where I was like, I made a movie, you know,
I kept saying I needed to be a judge because I was already contractually
obligated to go to conventions that spring when we were filming,
and we were actually at a stalemate to the point where for a few days
the production was stalled and they weren’t sure
if it was going to get greenlit or not, because this little Asian girl in Atlanta
would not submit to their whim. And finally, the Mark Cronan,
the producer, he called me and was like, would you be willing to compete
in one episode? I was like, fine,
because I was thinking about like, how many people were already,
like, involved. I didn’t know how to say no
when it was like, oh, I just won. So that was a compromise. And I ended up competing
for the last time ever at Planet Comic Con. Were you supposed to be involved
in the show originally? I was originally supposed
to be a part of the pilot. Yes. I was not a part of it
because when they started to do the filming and stuff,
it started to get really a reality show-y They originally said it was going
to be like a like a face off type thing. Like, this is the point of why people are here
and this is why we’re doing it. And it, it started to go in a direction
that I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to be in that direction with those people that I had grown
so, like, comfortable with. If I don’t get a good vibe on something,
I just I just say no. And I’m like, sorry. I know this could be like a really great
opportunity. I’m not going to do it.
I just don’t want to do this. I don’t want my relationship
with these people to be affected. You know, I was really like,
I don’t want a TV show and I don’t want people to
I don’t want them to craft this narrative of me
and package me up and sell me. It was this push and pull between production
wanting us to do things and us vetoing. And sometimes we won
and sometimes we didn’t. They were definitely feeding us lines
or trying to feed us lines. So it was, well,
let me explain how the confessional works. You go from being out in the world
and being in public to total isolation. So psychologically
that is kind of jarring. And they ask you questions. They’re like, take me back to that moment. How did you feel in that moment? And you have to say, I feel like,
you know, you can’t say, I felt like they also make you wear the same outfit. So like, you have to have one outfit
that is approved, one makeup, one hairstyle. In the first six episodes,
I had that red dress and every convention had to bring that with me
for every confessional. I had to put that back on. And they making you change out of cosplay
to do this? Yes, of course, of course. So you’d be in costume all day,
and then you have to get out of costume change your makeup from
is very crazy schedule in that sense. And and that’s what they also like. They want you to be tired and exhausted,
and sometimes they want you to be hungry when things like were not going well,
sometimes they would offer you a glass of wine. The reason they want you to be consistent
in how you dress is so that they can cut and edit between all the different shoots. You know something you say four weeks from now
could be edited in in the same sentence. I like to say that, you know, to, to to look at reality show editing
and how we were edited is if I were to say the sentence
I don’t like hot dogs with mustard, but then they can just cut it to
I don’t like hot dogs. And when they feed you
lines is when you don’t say what they need to be said, they’re like,
well, this is this is something we need. We need this line. So that we can then go to commercial, like
they keep nagging at you until you do. And the first few episodes, I don’t think
I did very well in the confessionals. I sort of let myself
be more manipulated at the beginning. You kind of want to please the producers
because they’re so nice and, you know, you feel important because you’re like
on the set with all these lights and all these cameras and like,
I think we all felt that with anything that anybody ever does, you,
you’re going to have a knee jerk reaction. You’re going to have that
gut feeling first, then you’re going to have this feeling of,
if I don’t jump on it, when am I ever going
to get this opportunity again? Sit with the feeling of the gut reaction
and really try to self analyze why you’re having that reaction
and what that means to you. At the end of the day,
you’re not going to lie to your self if you are picking up something is funky. There’s no way to know truly if something’s
going to be good or bad for you unless you go through
or don’t go through it. You know,
I think this was one of those situations publicly where I was able to like,
you know, and and it was okay, like, I think I just need to clarify
that in the contract, we signed away our rights to,
you know, any type of representation. It actually there is a clause
where it says that you have no rights over how you will be portrayed,
and that the network and production have final editing rights. And there was also
a non-disclosure agreement that said you couldn’t disparage
the network or production in any way. So for the first six episodes,
it was season one. It had a more aggressive, drama centric,
you know, tone. And then for season 1.5, because it’s not
season two, because. Do you actually know why that is? Of course, they didn’t want to do season
two because they would had to renegotiate the contract
and we could have asked for more money. Not like we were paid
very much to begin with. Can I ask you that? I mean, I’m not under NDA anymore, so we were all paid
$2,400 per episode. Hi. I was literally uploading the video,
and Miss Han just texted me to tell me that
she actually got that number incorrect. She says that they were actually paid
$2,400 per season. That’s $400
an episode, $400 for two weeks of filming. It doesn’t seem like a lot. It’s
not a lot. It’s really not a lot. No, no, it’s the bottom of the barrel.
Yeah. The biggest controversy of the show, or one of the biggest controversies,
is the conversation at the dinner table where somebody makes a comment
about people cosplaying Superman. Why do you think
the backlash landed on you, and how did it feel to be villainized over
a comment somebody else made? Well, it felt like total and it was one of the first times
where I truly felt canceled. I don’t even know if I knew
the term canceled. I remember feeling total despair that, like,
my reputation was completely ruined. It was immediately upsetting. It was like physically I had like
a physical reaction to it, she says. The thing about Superman. Yeah. And then Chloe says, I think anyone should
cosplay whatever they want. And then they cut in a confessional of you saying, I think Chloe’s a little naive because she’s such a newbie,
which could have been about anything. It was definitely not about this. It was certainly about something
else. Hello. These people, they just saw it on TV
and there was like the impression was I was the bad one. So let’s dunk on her. You know, like that’s
that’s the power of reality TV. One of the (producers) I can’t remember I can’t remember that he was
he was one of the cool ones. But he was like I was
when I was talking to him about the show. And I was like,
I don’t want to be a part of this anymore. It’s feeling really weird. He was like, well, like, we were going to kind of paint
you as like the Golden Child and like
you were going to go up against Yaya and it was going to be this whole like,
like you versus her situation. And then I was like, I definitely
don’t want to be a part of that. Then that’s my friend. That’s my buddy. That’s like someone I really look up to. Like, I don’t want to be pit
women against women. I, I’m such a huge for I,
I’m for the girls. I look up to her so much and, she she’s the first person to, like,
do so many of these, like, new things? She’s innovated so much, she like it. Got a whole and fabric line
in like a mainstream store. She’s got, like her sewing machine. She’s. She spearheaded that show to like. Like she, like, jumped in front of it
so she could, like, try to navigate it. You know, like she’s, she’s doing all that
she can. And still time after time after time,
she just gets like it on for it like everyone is. Everyone says goofy like nobody’s
perfect like, but like back in the day, she would put so much time
and effort into the community and then they would just, like,
go after her for it and everything. And I was like, I’m so confused. Like,
what do you guys want? Do you want someone to just like, what? What do you need? Like, what do you want?
Like, what do you what do you want? How do you feel about sexy cosplay now
and how did you feel about it then? I have always done sexy cosplay
like I did my first bikini cosplay. I think a year or two after I started,
you know, back when it was definitely very,
very even more controversial. But I am fully supportive of sexy cosplay. I think it’s empowering
and I’m completely all positive on it. And I know it wasn’t always portrayed that way, like
it wasn’t portrayed that way on the show. You obviously haven’t seen the show,
but no, this was one of the most problematic
things that was said on the show. And it was so weird because Yaya said this
about you, could you just establish that you and your friends, oh, dude,
thick as thieves, can’t get rid of me. But this is what she says about you. You have to promise me
that you won’t sell yourself short. What? Sto come out in 2013 and 2014. So this would have happened in 2013. Oh, so it’s such a reflection of the
thought ideals of those days, right? Like because I feel like the, the energy of that
whole mentality has shifted insanely. She read me for filth. Let’s be fair. No. So, okay, what I was told,
because that episode came out, I wasn’t watching it,
but I was hanging out with everyone. We were going to cons. I remember this episode
coming out a convention, a very large convention, messaged me and said, hey,
we are not going to work with Yaya anymore because of what she has said on this show. And I was like,
hang on, hold on, I message. Yaya, because yaya is my friend. I said, hey, I yeah, this is kind of
what’s happening. Is there something you want to do
about that or whatever? And she goes,
oh my God, I can’t say anything. Kim. Like, that’s not what I meant. They edited
what I said to completely different because that’s not what I said, is
what she told me at the time. And to this day, I am very much
if that is the truth and the reality of what happened
and if what she actually said was not that, and they pieced it together
to make it seem like that was the intention of like her words,
that’s eventually just going to be on her. If she’s going to lie about that, I’m
going to believe her and say that that’s what she said. That was what happened to her. So I’ll believe that, because at the end of the day,
the universe has a really good way of, clocking you
if you’re full of it, you know, how did we get to the portrayal
that was on the show? Well, I really mulled this over,
and I have I have two answers for you. They both are. You know, I think it’s two factors that
led to my portrayal on the show, where I seemed more prudish and more judgmental
about people doing sexy cosplay. So the first reason is very simply
that it was towards the beginning of the show
and I was manipulated. They really
they’re just like this storyline. You have to be the mentor figure. You have to be the one that pushes back. You know, it makes no sense
for anybody else on the show to do it. You’re you have to be
the one to be critical of it. And then they asked me a lot
about my opinions about sexy cosplay and back in 2013, you know, like really until 2013
and even further, we were in the era before the MeToo movement
and women in costume. They were harassed. I have been harassed so many times. Our conventions of grabbed,
you know, really like grabbed by my waist and people would like,
you know, touch my butt. I got poked in the boob. I got a guy that literally
just put his face in my crotch, a dragon con,
when I was wearing a bunny suit. And it was like during that time
that the cosplay is not consent movement started because of how many female cosplayers
were being harassed at conventions. But in 2013,
preMeToo the cosplay is not consent movement was still not as prevalent
as it is now, so people weren’t as aware of things
happening to female cosplayers. Now, when I became more and
more well-known in the cosplay community, and when I started going to conventions
as a guest, the harassment stopped because security was watching,
other people were watching. I had a guest badge on. I was an official areas. Same with other big name cosplayers
like Jessica. Jessica
could walk around in a sexy costume, but she would not be harassed because
she would have her entourage with her. Everybody would be watching her
and it would be a huge scandal if you actually if you touched
Jessica inappropriately. Right. My concern was toward the young, unknown
female cosplayers that would see me and Jess, you know, flaunting our stuff
and wearing sexy costumes. And they would maybe feel like, well,
if they can do it, then I can do it too. They look so cool. I want to do it too. But the unknown young cosplayers,
they’re the ones getting harassed. I explained, like my feelings to the production
and I think they just kept pushing it. They were just like, oh, you’re concerned. Well, you’re concerned
for your cast member too, right? And you’re her mentor. But so I do apologize
for how I came across, back then it is like, not how I feel. And I do feel that I got manipulated
and it was a great lesson to really steel myself and work even harder to,
to fight against their manipulation. At the end of the day. Yaya Puts a lot of responsibility on herself
to portray cosplay in a way that she feels
is like the correct way. And I think a lot of times
she will put herself in front of stuff to make sure it goes in
a, in a conducive way, you know, and I think that’s
a lot of pressure to put on herself. And so from that mindset,
if she did say that and that was whatever one I do craft very well,
thank you very much. But also I understand
where she would have been coming from because what a huge responsibility
to put on yourself and to also think of so many people
coming into cosplay, seeing this show for the first time,
trying to figure out what cosplay was. So to me, yaya and i, there are two wolves and Yaya is like back of the day
was like the crafter, like the the the creator
and like the spearhead. And like she would make things for people
like, make products specifically for crafters and everything. And I very much leaned into
heavy the play aspect, because everything
that I’ve been taught about cosplay is that it’s costume play,
and so you play in the costume and you have fun in the costume,
and there’s no way I would ever be upset about it,
because I believe people, I believe people bring the energy to their life
that they deserve. And I think the fact that I kind of came into her life,
you know, and was like wrestling with all of her, like core beliefs
and everything was like a really, like, cheeky way the universe to do that,
if that makes sense. I was not let off the hook
for that comment. I was canceled a second week in a row. For two weeks in a row,
my life was a living hell. People were writing that. They were like throwing my prints
and calendars in the trash, and that they just completely
are disappointed in me, that I’ve completely betrayed them
and that completely betrayed my friends, you know, because they were like,
oh yeah, and Jessica hate each other. And we had to actually, like, have a talk. And then we had to make a video to
to show people that, no, we’re actually still friends,
you know. And I also couldn’t really talk about this
openly because I was under NDA. I could not say they, you know, edited me falsely or they said I couldn’t say
they fed me a line, you know what I mean? Like, because that’s like, all right, now
you’re going to go to court against NBC. What are your thoughts
on, sexy cosplay being referred to as the easy and cheap route? I think it’s elitist because you’re
essentially saying you’re not allowed to dress the way that these characters
have been drawn or something. It’s it’s expensive to cosplay. What if someone only has enough money
to make a breastplate? You know, like there is like sexy cosplay
that is full blown armor, but immediately because you show boobs and midriff
or but you get, you get thrown out. And I think it’s kind of crazy
because like, what are your cosplays? She cosplay sexy stuff. You know, she’s a sexy ass lady. So I think it’s a very it’s a harmful way
to look at sexy cosplay. Maybe that’s just this, like, ever
evolving conversation of women in any space given at any time
and just existing and having a body and, being perceived is, you know, a sin,
you know, like, it’s just it’s
just the story of every everything ever. When it comes to women in a space. I think it hurt the most
because it made me sound like I was judgment
of the cosplay community. And I’ve never been judgmental
of the cosplay community. I love this community,
and I think that me, having stayed even after Heroes of Cosplay
and continuing to be active in the community
for ten years afterwards shows that I am sincere
about wanting the best for cosplay. Yeah, I knew that Heroes of Cosplay
was made for people who had never cosplayed before,
and that it would probably rub people in the community
the wrong way. And there were a lot of people
that blamed me and the other cast members for like,
letting cosplay be portrayed this way. And I’m just like, you have no idea how it would be portrayed
if we weren’t on the show, if they had gotten people
that just wanted to be a TV stars and they played into the storylines
and drama, like, then it really would have been
the Real Housewives of cosplay. My God, I hope that now, with many years
in between, people can understand
the show was truly an introduction and that as an introduction
here is of cosplay did a good job. It introduced
a lot of new people to cosplay, and it especially normalized cosplay to many, many parents and many people
that didn’t understand their kids. And so like I forever
am traumatized by this experience, but I forever feel like I see it
as what it was, is that it did change
the cosplay community for the better. It brought in more and more people,
and it made it more understandable and more normalized for
for the greater public. Like without heroes of cosplay, we probably would not have
all the cosplay materials that we have now because it was through Heroes of Cosplay
that I was able to make a deal with a fabric company
and convince Joann to stock the fabrics. And that led to, you know,
the sewing patterns that led to other companies
starting to sell materials and such. You know, up until like now,
we have a thriving ecosystem. And just like huge market
of available cosplay resources. And that’s literally only possible
when lots and lots of people cosplay. I’m this strong believer in a rising tide
raises all ships, you know, like whatever it is
that one person does that brings a new opportunity is going to be good
for everyone. Heros of cosplay
was a net positive for cosplay. Yeah, I actually think so too. Okay, Good so glad to hear that.
It was very flawed though Mostly the flaws were
how they treated y’all. Yeah, it was people who had no idea
what this was about making a show. And then once they were done with
their contract with Heroes of Cosplay, then they just moved
on, they were able to move on to a totally different topic
and never think about this ever again. He rode away on a yacht. Yep, he did all the cast members and I. We really did our best to portray cosplay,
how we saw it authentically and you know,
and I hope that the positive repercussions can be felt and are visible
and that we just let’s just keep cosplaying and keep having fun with this and keep welcoming
new people into our community. Let’s do that. Let’s have open arms
for everybody who wants to join cosplay. Okay,
do you have anything else you want to add? Cosplay is costume play. We will die soon. Just live your life man. Cosplays fun like we’re literally. We watch anime
and we dress up these characters. Not that serious. Like have fun with it. Have a good time, have a good time. So you might be like,
if this was ten years ago, why are you bringing it up now? You know how when the first video
game movies came out and they were bad and they were weird and they made people
afraid to make them or go watch them? Well, Heroes of cosplay did that to me,
there’s been a few pieces of cosplay legacy media that have come out
over the last couple years, and I’ve straight up
never watched any of them because I’m scared
that they will be as bad as heroes was. There’s one that just came out
that’s called Alter Egos that I hear people really like,
but I haven’t been able to watch it because I just put myself
through this again. What I’m doing here
is I’m trying to heal some wounds, the wounds of a community scorned
by Hollywood, the wounds of those who shouldered the blame, and even the wounds of those
who had a controversial conversation and had it shown to people
without the ability to rewind and double check
who said what the show was a stupid early 2000 reality show
that was trying to be Real Housewives,
and it hurt my community. So I’m trying to put it to death
so it can’t hurt us anymore. If you want to see
some accurate depictions of cosplay contest boy
do I have some videos for you. I’ve got this one. I’ve got that one. This one’s like
the best thing I’ve ever made. Please check them out. Please subscribe
and please watch something else for me because the algorithm likes that. Not that you owe me any favors
after watching my two hour long video, but I did in fact watch Heroes of Cosplay
so you didn’t have to. I’m sorry I had to do that, and I did
keep you entertained for two hours, so maybe subscribe.
Thank you to her, grace. Mrs. Han, for being willing
to relive her trauma with me. I gotta say, I read her entire book for this project
and I actually really recommend it. It’s actually a much better introduction
to cosplay than the show ever could be, and it’s a really great review of the history and with info
that I think all cosplayers should know. And thank you to Jessica
Nigri for, for existing. But the biggest thank you to my newest
big support to your patrons ghost Orion and B is me. Thanks for watching. Bye!
排他的なnordvpn取引を入手してください + 4か月の余分なここで➼https://nordvpn.com/sarahspacemanは、Nordの30日間の返金保証でリスクがありません！出典：Yaya Hanのコスプレの世界第15章http://wow-lawbringer.blogspot.com/2013/09/my-life-as-villain-of-cosplay.html chloe’s dr who Response： https://web.archive.org/web/20160623034904/http://chloedykstra.tumblr.com/post/61607065635/in-response-this-ponse-thloeの「ガイド」Tumblr Post： https://www.tumblr.com/pinssnipgremlintrove/759073219509616640/the-guide-for-surviving-heroes-of-cosplay-filming https://www.hannibal.net/archive/article/the- ultimate-con-job-syfy-trails-the-heroes-of-cosplay/article_f771a430-05c9-5c9e-8e97-eb50689ec49a.html yaya’s cosplay podcast podcast： https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq3oqfilqpu単語のオリジンCosplay http://www.hard.co.jp/cosplay_02.html、またはチャンネルをサポートするためにhttps://www.patreon.com/sarahspaceman merch！ https://www.bonfire.com/store/space-merch-1/質問やコミュニティのためにDiscordに参加してください！ https://discord.gg/4cgbrsur6u音楽：lud and schlattsのいくつかの音楽https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bidlnunyf10ほとんどのトラックはここから来ました：動物交配音楽：https：//www.youtube.com/wut. https://soundcloud.com/trashkiddドラマチックブラス音楽：https：//www.youtube.com/channel/ucoiyowuqx_ga7fq35flemqa流食の礼儀：https：//www.epidemicsound.com/music/peatured/-peatured/-peature 16:43-コスプレイヤーはどう思いましたか？ 18:11-エピソード2 25:44-スーパーマンスキャンダル31:33-エピソード3 36:15-プロダクションは誰ですか？ 42:58-エピソード4 49:04-コスプレは52:08-エピソード5 56:30-エピソード6 1:01:56-ドクター1:09:00-エピソード7 1:14:10-通常の動作1:15:25-エピソード8 1:18:56-エピソード9クロエガイド1:36:48-エピソード11 1:40:59-エピソード12 1:45:25-どこにいるのか1:50:35-現実、コスプレ史上最大の論争 – コスプレのヒーローズディープダイブ
MAG.MOE - The MAG, The MOE.