So yeah, I actually have a further rebuttal to the reasons it apparently sucks so much to be a cosplayer on Halloween.
To address the second point, well, not everyone at a convention will recognize your costume, either. By the logic of that, everyone should all just cosplay characters "everyone" knows and recognizes on sight (and no "gijinka"- that is, humanized- versions of characters like Pokemon or (My Little) Ponies since not everyone will recognize your costume as such) to every costume-suggested (for lack of a better term) event ever. Not only is there the lack of variety that would bring, there's also the fact that there are no guarantees anything will be recognized. Really, being so concerned with recognizably is no fun; not at cons, not at Halloween, not ever.
As for the third point, concern over the costume that so much time and money went into might get something spilled on it thanks to drunks, well, like people don't get drunk at cons. Also, alcohol or alcohol, like cons are the cleanest places. There's a risk of your costume getting ruined from the moment you put it on, so unless one plans to somehow keep the thing hermetically sealed while they're wearing it...
For point five, re-read my previous entry. if you construed it as gloating on my part, did you miss where I said I actually hadn't cared all that much about winning? Though, apparently, that so many competitive cosplay events at cons seem to be regularly won by "crowd favorites" seem to be lost on a lot of people, too. Neither winning nor being recognized should rule one's cosplay life. Basically, it seems to me that the poster of that list, intentionally or unintentionally, is just projecting some common causes of convention drama onto the one day anyone can wear a costume and not be deemed a weirdo.
Okay, enough about that list. If it goes viral at this time of year again, I will reply with a link to this post. Though, sort of related to the list: it would appear the poster's problem with Halloween pretty much boils down to an apparent annoyance with mass-produced costumes. On that note, for anyone who's found a mass produced costume they actually admittedly like but are too afraid of "ruining" their "reputation", well, Halloween's the perfect opportunity to do so. Hey, perhaps wearing a costume from Party City/Spirit Halloween/Target might be a welcome break from those more elaborate costumes. And yes, it is possible for a seasoned cosplayer to still be interested in a pre-packaged costume. Case in point: in 2010 Shadow and I were in Hot Topic during Halloween season and she loved the "Tea Party Hostess" (read: "sexy" Mad Hatter) costume they were selling that year. The only problem was that it didn't come in her size (or my size for that matter). Also, she and another friend have the official licensed Kirk and Spock costumes from the "Abrams-verse" (though some adjustments were made)- if for no other reason than those already have that print the new Starfleet uniforms have (and why my corresponding generic female medic costume is actually made out of two of the Spock costumes). Oh yeah, and there's this one "sexy" Daisy Duck costume I wouldn't mind wearing- if it were in my size and didn't have "who's crazy for Daisy" written on the skirt, that is. Right, and the fact that I used the cheap "Halloween costume" Hogwarts robe for a while before finally "upgrading" to the Alivan's one for my various Gryffindor student costumes. Of course, that's not to say any of us like all the mass-produced costumes out there (the "Wanda the Wizard" costume, especially the way some vendors actually refer to it as a Hermione costume, still bugs me, for example), but we're not gonna just write them off just because their mass-produced.
Now, here's why it only sucks to be a cosplayer on Halloween if you let it: as Shadow reminded me, it's the only day we cosplayers can go out in public in costume and not be looked at funny. And we plan to do just that. As for which costume I plan to wear, well, be on the lookout for a teenage girl thief with blond hair wearing a bright green suit (school uniform?) with a yellow heart pendant, last spotted at DragonCon in Atlanta and before that Otakon in Baltimore. Yes, that's probably the most obscure costume I own (that's actually an existing character/design), but that didn't stop me before, now did it?
Source:
http://maryryanbogard.livejournal.com/18844.html
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