Cool Tumblr Bro

[chloedykstra]

The Guide For Surviving Heroes of Cosplay Filming

I was going through some old stuff and found a document I wrote up between seasons of Heroes of Cosplay- a guide for the n00bz cast members. At the time, I’d asked the cast to keep it secret keep it safe because I didn’t wanna get in trouble, but it’s been minute since the show and I think it’s okay? Thought you lovely humans might find it interesting. So here it is in all its glory:

[celebrity-quote-art]

https://twitter.com/skydart/status/501809212885057536

[chloedykstra]

I feel tickled that this is the legacy I will leave behind once I've shuffled off my mortal coil.

[jessicamerizan]

I wrote something with rationalizations, justifications, and defenses against misinformation but deleted it, because I realized it doesn’t really matter. What does is how I feel: my perspective has changed after this week on the world of cosplay. I will keep doing “make believe” costumes and...

[chloedykstra]

This is heartbreaking. And I fully concur. 

Thanks to the people who have been so wonderful and supportive.

[chloedykstra]

APRIL FOOLS.

In case you didn't know- my last post about a real life Zelda transformation was 100% fake.

While it'd be fun to look like her for a day or two, I don't know if I'd enjoy looking like her for the rest of my life.

To those who body/face mod- rock on witcha bad selves. I don't have the courage to brave those risks. Tattoos and piercings are where I get off the mod train. :D

Hope you all had a safe and rad April Fools'. If you read this, YOU MADE IT! Even if you're reading this in your post-it-note-laden chair, covered in maple syrup, thinking your girlfriend is pregnant with someone else's baby (she's not), YOU'RE ALIVE. Now go eat a fucking celebratory donut because donuts are delicious.

[chloedykstra]

AN EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT THING

This week I've avoided cameras- the reason? Well, let's start from the beginning.

For years, I've admired the wonderful Princess Zelda, and since I started cosplaying, I've always wanted to create an extremely accurate version of her. For a few years, I've been building up my skills as a cosplayer and I've finally decided to take the next step.

It's no secret that many cosplayers get plastic surgeries- nose jobs, breast implants, fat removal, etc. to achieve the look they want. When accuracy in a costume is important to you, sometimes you have to make sacrifices.

So I went forward with my dream cosmetic surgery. When these bandages come off finally, (hopefully) I will finally look like my favorite, kick-ass-take-no-prisoners princess. A role model that surpasses the requirements set by Disney Princesses who just want to be pretty, wealthy, and in love- Princess Zelda.

A photo of me currently during the healing process. Eyes still swollen, nose hurts A LOT, and I can't frown, but I'm already noticing a huge difference. If I don't get the results I want, however, I'll keep working at it until I'm satisfied. 

I threw together a terribly rough photoshop of what my doctor and I have planned out (nose borrowed from Valeria Lukyanova- this will be slightly bigger IRL, obviously). In total, he performed 8 different procedures- including jaw surgery, major eyebrow lift, and pointed ears- and I'm healing up pretty good. I'm excited to finally feel like myself.

Thanks for your support guys, and remember- COSPLAY IS FOR FUN! :D

[chloedykstra]

Put down your Kombucha and go home, Lululemon.

[A quick summary of what's happening can be found here.]

Alright, Lululemon. I didn't want to get involved but this is the least heartfelt apology I've ever seen.

I was 5'9 and 113 pounds (yes I've gained some weight since and feel immensely better), and your stupid pants started unraveling on me after being worn twice- AND the pants are a size bigger than my typical size. When I brought them back to return them, your store refused to take them back. I didn't push it (I hate those battles), and I just walked away with a pair of pants I never wore again for fear my vagina would free itself in Pop Physique.

Look, Chip Wilson (if that is your real name), it's one thing to not carry certain sizes. It's one thing to have poor quality pants. It's also a thing to charge whatever the hell you want. Whatever.

But put it all together, and then say your clothes falling apart is your CUSTOMER'S fault because of their SIZE? This is atrocious and you should feel bad. Not because you're losing money, but because you ARE BEING A HUGE BUTTHOLE.

Was already planning to avoid Lululemon, but now I'm 100% positive I won't be purchasing from there again.

Oh, and by the way, ladies: my thighs touch. Ain't NOTHING wrong with that, and don't let anyone tell you different.

EDIT: Here are some cuter/cheaper alternatives to Lululemon:

American Eagle Performance (Their crop pants and shorts are amazing)

Athleta

Underarmor

Lucy

PrAna (yoga)

Zobha (yoga)

[chloedykstra]

Ugh.

I am struggling to not respond to the 8th Doctor's post. STRUGGLING. It's tough, because it's one of the most incendiary, troll-y posts I've seen about this whole thang.

Just want you all to be aware I've read it. I also want you guys to read it so you understand the kind of thinking we are up against. Impossible to reason with, self-centered, self-pitying, entitled, and angry.

I won't respond to her points, not just because it's feeding the fire, (which I've fed enough). Hopefully the post speaks for itself.

BUT SERIOUSLY, HOW COULD YOU GET MAD ABOUT CAMERAS FOLLOWING US TO OUR POST-CONTEST CONFRONTATION AFTER STARTING ALL THAT CRAP ON CAMERA AND HOW IS "BEING HUMAN" AN EXCUSE FOR BEING OUTRIGHT JERKFACEY AND HOW IS IT FAIR THAT COSPLAYERS WITH MORE EXPERIENCE SHOULD BE EXCLUDED FROM A COSTUME CONTEST JUST BECAUSE YOU SAID SO AND WAIT NO NO DON'T TAKE MY COMPUTER AWAY PLEASE I'LL STOP I'M SORRY PLEASE

[chloedykstra]

Final Response RE: Kansas City Debacle

This is the last thing I'm going to post regarding this whole drama llama. And this is one more post than I promised my boyfriend I would write, but I feel pretty bad some cosplayers got swindled out of a normal, quiet cosplay contest.

These FemmeDoc girls don't deserve to be hated/called names. AT ALL. They certainly shouldn't be put on a pedestal for standing up to the "professional" cosplayers, but they definitely do not deserve some of the shit I'm seeing around the nets. Knock it off.

There were two contests- one run by the con, and one produced by Syfy. The FemmeDocs were in the one produced by Syfy.

There are no rules stating that more experienced cosplayers couldn't compete. There were no tiers, but I rarely see tiered competitions at smaller cons. There was also a group of Avengers in full on crazy-ass robotic suits that blasted music- should they be barred from competing as well?

Money wasn't a thing. YOU GUYS are making money a thing. Holly was simply saying she'd put her own time/money/blood/sweat into the costume, that Syfy hadn't paid for it. Judging someone for how much money they put into their costume, though, now that's a dick move. Works both ways, guys.

I'm not saying all of the girls of the FemmeDocs group were in the wrong. We'd only been dealing with a few of them. One of them posted here and she seems quite sweet.

But I do have to respond to a few things in that:

The argument wasn't scripted.

The "sorting out" ended in Hillary whispering to Jessica to "drop it" under her breath while faking a smile and hugs.

The "out-of-towner" bit was simply a replacement for the term "Syfy plant" because they can't reference the show. To be honest, "out-of-towner" seems a bit less harsh.

Syfy's presence at the convention was primarily at the contests (one of which Syfy had PUT ON) and perhaps at the panel where Jinyo proposed to Victoria. Not really much else.

I know we were all tired, and we were all cranky. Of course I'll take that into account. I'm sorry our show descended upon your convention like a ravenous Kaiju, truly, I know no one asked for that. And I know at this point, a good portion of Tumblr probably thinks I'm a dick. But I just had to respond, because Holly and Jessica and Becky have suffered enough internet trollery bullshit after working their asses off, and I love them, and I want to protect them from the bad things. And these aren't new issues for the community (assumptions, overly critical thinking, uncalled for judgement, harsh and catty comments, exclusion, etc). I worry about newcomers- ones with less access to resources or ones who are considered "privileged" or ones who have big boobies or ones who have big butts or ones who have eating disorders or ones who have purple hair or ones who prefer dogs to cats or ones who secretly enjoyed 50 Shades Of Gray not for the writing but for the experience.

Anyway, I'm going to get off Tumblr now and try to enjoy my birthday trip. No more responding, Chloe. NO MORE. STAHP.

[chloedykstra]

IN RESPONSE TO THIS POST: http://wow-lawbringer.blogspot.com/2013/09/my-life-as-villain-of-cosplay.html

What if I told you those judgmental Doctor Who cosplayers were plants? That Syfy told them they needed to cause drama with some of the cast so it would be a more interesting…

[nashscribblings]

Um, no.

Take a lesson, kids: this is how NOT to respond to something said about you on the internet, true or false, right or wrong.

Going on the defensive means you have something to defend.  Lack of rebuttal, ploys for sympathy, saying, “I was gonna let it go, but I just can’t” … all the while, missing the original point (which in this case included some very pointed criticism of the entire debacle, none of which is addressed here).

I think what killed it dead was when one of the so called “victims” proclaimed that Stephen Moffat would be ashamed these Doctor Who girls only went to “one convention a year.”  How many of you can barely make it to one convention a year?  How many of you work shit jobs day in, day out, for shit pay, dreaming of that one tiny weekend where you and your friends can enjoy time together in your chosen fandom?  

The entitlement of the asshole in question … you *dare* make people feel ashamed that they can’t afford to globetrot constantly to go to conventions?  No fan should do that to another.  No one who is *truly* part of a community should ever feel the need to make someone hurt because they like so many people are just fighting to get by from paycheck to paycheck.  The fact they took the time and effort to make it to even one convention in the face of all that tells me just who exactly should be ashamed here.

Should be, but isn’t.  You didn’t dig this hole, Chloe, but you sure are determined to see how close to China you can get …

[chloedykstra]

I'm sorry, it wasn't clear enough- Jessica was typing quickly. She was saying Moffat would be ashamed of those girls being judgmental and catty towards our group. Not about the amount of cons they attend. I'm not sure if that changes your feelings about the situation, but hopefully that clears it up.

I'm not defending myself, but defending my friends. This is an issue I feel strongly about. Exclusion is never okay.

[chloedykstra]

IN RESPONSE TO THIS POST: http://wow-lawbringer.blogspot.com/2013/09/my-life-as-villain-of-cosplay.html

What if I told you those judgmental Doctor Who cosplayers were plants? That Syfy told them they needed to cause drama with some of the cast so it would be a more interesting competition?

That's not true, but you'd believe me, wouldn't you? Because guess what, you want to demonize a dumb reality show. It's A REALITY SHOW. Not only that, but it's a show that somehow manages to showcase both the negative AND positive sides of cosplay. None of that shit was scripted; Jessica and Riki were both sick out of their minds, Becky DID go to the hospital (in fact, you can see the producer in one of the shots). But also, Jesse and I won fair and square and had a blast doing it. Holly and Jessica did teach me how to work with foam. Monika and I bonded over all the exhaustion and misery and video games.

Look, guys. I would never stand by Syfy if they did something atrocious. I signed a contract, but that's not signing away my soul.

Syfy didn't tell the Doctor Who girls they needed to cause drama. It happened all by itself because of three things:

People don't like things like TV shows invading their small community (understandable).

People don't like when the odds are stacked against them in a way that feels unfair (though the cast entirely made their own costumes and paid for almost everything). Either way, they won something.

Cosplayers tend to tear down their own kind when they feel threatened. All people do. Especially the cosplay community, though, as I've noticed A LOT on Tumblr during the airing of this show.

Originally I wasn't going to write up a post, but this has been building and building and I can't stand it anymore. I was mad when it happened, and I'm mad now.

The way it started was that someone from the audience identified my friends as "Syfy plants". I'll let Jessica tell the story through a post she wrote up on our secret cast Facebook group. She didn't intend for this to be seen by anyone, in fact, she wanted to let it go. But I'm not comfortable with this kind of bullshit. It's takes A LOT to make me this upset, but these girls were cruel.

"The stuff 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 (?) asked them why they would cheer or something really Disney Princess and then that girl got all aggro and said that line that you can read her lips, 'You're not even from Kansas City' and all the other things that she pointed out in her message. Holly mentioned that we spent [a buttload of money] shipping things here and that we worked really hard blah blah and they said they only go to one convention every 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 this about not having fun and all that, then 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.

Then Chloe and I later 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." 

For the record, I had approached these ladies before the competition because I'm a huge Whovian and loved their cosplays. I complimented them, took pics with them, hung out with them. So since I'd bonded with them, I felt pretty hurt to see them turn on their fellow nerds. Especially my friends, who'd been through fucking HELL trying to get their costumes together in time, and Becky who'd all but lost her vision because she'd fallen asleep with contacts in (thanks to exhaustion).

So to those ladies trying to blame their BS on the show: You can't edit something in that wasn't said, and the show portrayed you just as you were. After the show, I started bawling, because it was devastating to me to see how these girls treated outsiders. To be fair, the severe lack of sleep and recovering from that week's surgery didn't help.

I hope you felt like a hero defending your con- because you did to us what we all fear the most. You singled us out and turned us into outcasts… The opposite of how a convention should feel.

P.S. No one can make you sign a waiver. It was their choice to appear on the show.

[freaksheet]

Bitches are getting shady.

Monika also looks like a poor man’s Sasha Grey 

[chloedykstra]

This is why we can't have nice things, cosplayers. Come on now.

[chloedykstra]

HEY, ANGRY HALF OF TUMBLR.

ARE YOU SO ANGRY ABOUT SYFY'S NEW SHOW HEROES OF COSPLAY?

ARE YOU SO MAD YOU CAN'T NOT TYPE IN ALL CAPS?

DO YOU EVEN PRESS THE CAPS LOCK BUTTON? BECAUSE I JUST HOLD THE SHIFT KEY AND SOMETIMES I WONDER IF I'M DOING THINGS THE HARD WAY.

Look, guys, here's your chance.

At 4pm PST on Tuesday, the 20th of August, I will be doing an AMA on Reddit. Some of my wonderful castmates will be helping me out.

SO COME BE ANGRY TO OUR INTERNET FACES.

Or be nice. We like nice people too.

[chloedykstra]

RE: Heroes of Cosplay

(from the perspective of a cast member)

I would like to take the moment, between airings of the first episode of Heroes of Cosplay, to post this video to TUMBLR- where it belongs the most.

This video applies to you just as much as /r/cosplay and /cgl/.

Heroes of Cosplay is a fun show. It is a reality show. If you go into this with a negative attitude (or a neutral attitude while wanting to hate it), you will hate the show. You may only see the cattiness, but that is NOT the show's focus. Keep in mind, the show had to appeal to a greater audience AS WELL as you talented cosplayers, in order to be a show. Some things had to be reshot, some (MINOR) things had to be staged. I promise you, every documentary has done this too. It's how filmmaking works. If you hold on, and continue to watch, I promise you, you will start to appreciate the show more. Please, keep in mind that everyone on the show is a real person, and it's possible we may see your comments because we are insecure and sometimes search ourselves. OH DON'T PRETEND YOU WOULDN'T. By all means, if you don't like it, criticize the hell out of it. Just please don't be cruel. It just feeds the fires.

If you enjoyed the show, thank you so much for watching and supporting us. :D

During filming, some of us got physically ill from exhaustion, and I ended up in the hospital (Then had to continue filming after just having gone through a surprise surgery. I didn't tell the higher ups, so this didn't end up on the show.). This was a fucking labor of love. So please, think twice before you're all mean and stuff. Pretend you ended up on the show with us, how would you feel?

[ohcarararara]

All three of the Punk Doctors, in one convenient Photoset I guess. Also with Eleven re-worked a tiny bit.

[burtondurand]

[chloedykstra]

burtondurand:

I drew Chloe’s dog, Diego, while I was booth-sitting at NOLA ComicCon. I’m not sure WHY he’s French, exactly. Or why he’s wearing a tux. He doesn’t normally do these things.

[chloedykstra]

So from what I've gleaned so far...

Tumblr is essentially Twitter with a higher character count. I mean, no one's really told me what the fuck goes on here, so can someone please direct me to the introductory class? I understand they're to have Krispy Kreme. I hope the original glazed aren't all taken.

Umm, is this where I put a picture?