Week In Review: Heroes of Cosplay

Written by:  Shae

This weeks episode brought us to Seattle Washington for Emerald City Comic Con! It also brought a few new faces. Riki, Monika and Chloe join Victoria, Jesse and Yaya on their trek down the yellow brick road. Once again, Yaya has been asked to judge a costume contest, where the winner gets an undisclosed cash prize! 

New comers Riki, Monika and Chloe each work on their respective costumes for various reasons. Riki want's to display her desire to be a prop designer. Monika want's to take her complying to a more, sexy level (which her mother and Yaya both disagree with). And Chloe want's to compete for the first time as since she has a show on the Nerdist about cosplay.  Meanwhile, Victoria works to redeem herself from her last con fail of not showing or finishing her costume for the contest. Jesse is increasingly more frustrated with his lack of winning anything for his costumes. All while Yaya works on a new costume and a quest to keep little Monika from going full 'dark side' with her sexy cosplays.

Before the con even starts, there is, you guessed it, drama. Monika's mom makes a call to Yaya about her daughters up coming costume. As it turns out, Monika used to be Yaya's intern! Who knew cosplayer's had interns? Seriously…it's an actual thing.  Also, bit hypocritical of Yaya considering a lot of her cosplays' are on the 'sexy side'. Veronica's boyfriend makes her costume, Chloe has to find people to help with her costume prop, Riki meets with her prop/costuming mentor for advise on what to do and Jesse spends the whole time moping about not winning a prize from his last costume contest.

But wait! There's MORE drama! Everyone has the chance to meet up in Seattle before the con begins to just 'hang out'. When the topic of conversation comes up about complying and body types. The group sides with the 'if you don't have the body type, don't cosplay' philosophy. While Chloe (my personal favorite) disagrees entirely. The argument ensues, but Chloe sticks her ground (you go girl!).

By the end of it, none of the cosplayers featured on the show win in the contest. Despite how utterly awesome some of the costumes were. The lack of winning his second contest in a row has Jesse seriously contemplating his work and purpose. Riki is let down but determined. Monika is outright angry of her costume and performance critiques. Victoria is let down. Chloe, on the other hand, is stoked about her performance. Despite not placing, competing has fueled her excitement. Pushing towards her next cosplay. Go Chloe!

My thoughts on the whole thing? Chloe summed it up best by saying "I'm not that kind of cosplayer" when referring to the die hard dedication everyone else had. Cosplay is something fun to do. But this new, cut throat, side, is pretty entertaining to watch.

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