So, I Went to Dutch Comic Con
Last Saturday I went to Dutch Comic Con in Utrecht, The Netherlands for the first time, and honestly? I did not like it, like at all.
For starters, there was so much background noise during the Q&A’s, that it was often difficult for the special guests and the audience to understand what was being asked or said.
I went to the spring edition of FACTS in Ghent, Belgium earlier this year, where the Q&A’s were held in a seperate room, so there was little to no background noise. Although they did move the Q&A sessions to a different location during their fall edition, they were still being held in a seperate hall, I can’t say whether or not there was some background noise there, since I decided not to attend the fall edition of FACTS, so I could attend DCC instead.
Secondly, I found the set up of the dealer hall extremely messy, I’m pretty sure I completely missed multiple stands and walked by others more than once. I came across a stand that sold butterbeer when I arrived in the morning, before going home, I wanted to buy some, and I had to walk around for over an hour to find it again.
I went to DCC to meet Lana Parrilla, an actress I had loved from the minute I had started watching Once Upon a Time a little over five years ago. Whenever I felt terrible or another terrible thing happened in my life, I’d read some fanfiction, watch some of her interviews, or look at some pictures. I strongly believe that I wouldn’t be here today if it hadn’t been for her. So this was something I had been waiting for since forever.
I tried to tell her, after the photographer took our photo, how much she has helped me in the past 5 years. It didn’t come out the way I wanted it to, and that didn’t make me feel any better about this whole experience, either. Me not being able to look back on this experience has everything to do with my gender dysphoria, which got worse than usual during the weekend, and the picture that I got with Lana made me feel even worse. And of course being exhausted, also played a huge role. I got up at four am, and had to travel for four hours.
At FACTS, I had photobooths with both Joe Keery and Cobie Smulders, and every time I look back on that experience, my heart fills with joy. When I got home, I couldn’t wait to put them up on the wall in my bedroom.
But now, I get sad whenever I think back to getting my picture with her taken, I don’t have the same feeling I had with Joe or Cobie, not even close. Don’t get me wrong, I love Lana, always have, always will. I'll forever be grateful for how much of an inspiration she has been to me in the past five years.
I’ve seen a lot of people who had great experiences at DCC, and I honestly hope they can look back on this and feel like I how I felt about going to FACTS earlier this year. But after DCC, I went home feeling unsatisfied, sad, and very tired. I don’t think I’ll be coming back anytime soon.
