It has been... at least two years since a Comic Con. I went to Dutch Comic Con in Utrecht and hoo boy what a delight. Apologies in advance.
Colin O’Donoghue. He was there, and this time for real. Last Dutch Comic Con I was absolutely destroyed emotionally because he had to cancel days in advance. Every time since he said he would come again, but the pandemic stopped the event from happening. I honestly could not believe my eyes when I finally saw his presence. I think the day before I was in tears because I was just so happy he landed, nothing could go wrong, right? Right!!!!!! Alright...
God bless I still fit in my Ladybug outfit! I gained some corona kilos...
I barely slept. I kept waking up, kept having bad dreams about what could go wrong as I often do, so I was absolutely exhausted. I left early. My schedule... be ready for a photo with Colin at 13:00 and be at the Q&A at 14:30. Alright; get going from 10:15 to 13:00 then! I started the day by exploring where the main stage was and where the photos were taken; I even got informed for the Meet & Greet I’d have the next day. I wanted to be prepared. Luckily the photo and Meet & Greet I paid for two years ago, so I did not feel the pain in my wallet (umm but wait until I mention day 2 rofl, I caved).
For most of the day I was alone, so I could not take photos with other cosplay, but I loved seeing so many cosplay of Genshin Impact! It was actually one of the few fandoms I could recognize. I was surprised by the lack of Once Upon A Time cosplays considering Colin’s presence (though on day 2 there were a little more). During the day I did gain a massive headache and ended up nauseous, I couldn’t really eat or drink - not even water. In fact, I wondered if it was the water that made me nauseous. I barely had anything to eat or drink that day. I wonder if it was the stress/nerves/anxiety; I am pretty stressed out in general at the moment due to personal life stuff, but obviously meeting your favourite actor adds to that, because I kept thinking of all the things that could go wrong.
Either way, I did take a photo with one cosplay and it was of course my Genshin Impact favourite character, Kazuha! The cosplayer did not notice I was trying to get a photo with them as I softly yelled their character name hahaha, apparently people usually take photos with their friends? They were convinced their outfits were more amazing and that makes me sad. In the end, this Kazuha was the only person I took a photo with! So you’re amazing, whoever you are.
I chose this pic, cuz the Aether in the background made me laugh. Also shit I forgot to wear my Hook necklace-
One of the Chat Noir cosplays actually walked towards me to give me a rose and I thought that was so cute. ;w; I told them I saw a child cosplaying Ladybug that morning, sadly they never saw them. I bet the kid would’ve loved that.
I was awkwardly holding it until I officially declared it dead. I thought it was really cute though! Thank you very much Chat Noir. It genuinely made my day - uhh - besides meeting my favourite actor that is.
I wanna share my day 1 loot before I get into the whole Colin thing though, because once I start I won’t be able to contain myself.
The photos don’t really do it justice, but the Frodo figurine looks fucking SICK! It is so amazing. I was hesitant between a statue or figurine, but I had exactly 70 euros left and the figurine was 65 euros. It was meant to be. The statues were obviously more expensive.
The Kazuha charm I bought within five minutes of arriving, ahaha. I got a Kazuha charm and two Kazuha buttons. I really like Kazuha you guys. I also found charms of Ladybug and Chat Noir which I obviously had to buy.
OH YEAH, SUPER EPIC STUFF INCOMING BY THE WAY.
During the cosplay contest which I ended up watching, someone actually proposed to their partner! I actually saw a proposal in real life! Sappy little me obviously cried. Basically... the cosplayer got pulled on stage as surprise and the hosts said “we want you to dance to this” and it was that song that goes ‘hey I wanna marry you’ except their partner suddenly came out singing it. Gosh I’m such a hopeless romantic sometimes, I kept wiping tears from behind my Ladybug mask. It was great, they did not see it coming at all, you could see their surprise. It was great. I can’t believe I got to witness that... at Comic Con, no less.
One of the cosplay contest judges was dressed as Gorou and they could dance good and I was just 👀 you look nice.
Alright... are you ready for me embarrassing myself? Because I am about to... look at this awfully embarrassing photo of me with Colin!
CAN YOU TELL I WAS NERVOUS??? I am just standing there like “o_o” ahaha. Gee golly what an event. I took my mask off since I did not want to be masked on my photo with him. When I tried to look earlier if he was really here, he did not sit at the signing table yet, but in the queue I got to talk to the woman who definitely had seen him at the signing table already. I had a really good talk with her (only met really cool fans), she was a woman with a husband and kids, so we joked about certain things like her keeping the photo under her pillow, how her husband would be mad, and I joked she could totally bring the photo to the stand that turns photos into pillows to place on her couch. It was all good fun and teasing haha. I let her go before me also so I could observe.
And gosh did I observe. You only start seeing him when there’s like... four people before you? So you look at what kind of photos they are taking. Everyone posed very regular, hence why me too, and I noticed there was a ‘no touching’ policy. Naturally I immediately got very nervous, still wondering if this was real, and the closer I got, the redder I probably got too??? I shuffled closer and kept distance because of the no touching, and the camera was like “get closer!” and I was just screaming on the inside. I did not know what was allowed and what wasn’t and afterwards I realized that as soon as I stepped towards him, I barely looked at him. I couldn’t, I was too nervous, and then I felt bad I never properly looked at him up close. I just... gosh. But it was okay, I knew I had a Meet & Greet the next day.
Gosh I even got so embarrassed because the camera man was like, “do a funny dance :D” and I just go “o_o no I can’t dance” hahahaha.
A little later was his Q&A and gosh I wish I had better memory. The interviewer on this first day was awful by the way, I am sorry to say this. He put Colin in a very embarrassing position (and I feel like he has a hard time saying no when there is a spotlight on him?) so he kinda did things of which I had a feeling he wasn’t into. Also feels bad everyone keeps asking him to sing (because of the musical episode). I already knew he wasn’t a fan of that. Either way, this interviewer was... just embarrassing and I hated that he indeed kinda treated Colin like some snack for the ladies. Yeah, he’s handsome, but for the love of god, that’s not all that is to him. I really hated that attitude. I bet a lot of woman actresses have to deal with this as well if they happen to be sexy, except if it were a woman, people would immediately deem certain comments more inappropriate. Does not help he snuck many Dutch sentences in here, so Colin even has no idea. I don’t know, I was really experiencing some form of secondhand embarrassment. Grrr!
But we did find out some fun info. For example, that Josh Dallas, Colin O’Donoghue and Michael Raymond-James (if I am correct) were really competitive about making people laugh in the Neverland season. Apparently Josh Dallas had a fart machine, I just find it hilarious, because when I think of Josh Dallas, I do NOT think of fart humour. Amazing. Sadly I really don’t remember a lot though, I wish I wrote them down.
I ended up this day being really nauseous, had a killer headache due to lack of hydration (and probably the bad rest), but I did get some pasta down for dinner. I was with my good friend at that point (we met after the Q&A, the idea of starting the day together and having to time all the Colin-events while also being with a friend gave me too much stress as well, so we found a good midway).
Came home, rested my feet, and went to bed as early as I could get my dailies done in video games haha! Also because our clocks changed THIS very weekend to summer time, yikes!
I felt so much better! After I tried to eat/drink I did feel a little nausea coming up, but that disappeared after the Meet & Greet. Maybe it was the stress/anxiety after all? It was far from as bad as the day before though. I did decide I wanted to have a more chill and warmer outfit, so I went for my ‘scuffed Ellie’ (because I don’t look like Ellie at all). I also finally got my first cup of coffee that weekend. I did not have any on Saturday. So fucking good.
As I said, I look nothing like her, I just happen to have her hoodie and put in a ponytail. Just a casual cappuccino. It felt sooo good to finally have coffee. I feel like I needed it the day before. I did arrive an hour later, realizing the clock change and hey: I did not need to be on-time as much. Q&A was at 14:30 (because obviously I want to see Colin as much as I can; this is my one opportunity), and the Meet & Greet at 15:30.
I did an extra round in the artist alley and ended up buying even more merchandise... I still had some cash left so why not (I say this now... wait until you hear more...).
The first two are Pokémon, the purple being a Noibat that was just too cute to resist, and the white fox is an Alola Vulpix. I love its evolution more, but people prefer to draw Vulpix somehow. its evolution is my absolute favourite Pokémon. The first bottom one is just a cute derpy cat, I love the art style. Gives a storybook-vibe. The last one, the blue guy, is Dorian Storm from Critical Role. I am not up-to-date by the way! No spoilers! I know already one detail regarding Dorian but I know nothing story-wise. I love that his hair shapes a little heart. It’s all in the details.
I’m also quickly going to show the reason I got a fuckin’ kids menu at burger king... they had Miraculous toys... so sad I wasn’t in my Ladybug outfit on day 2 man, hahaha.
It is a double-layered plastic item that I can open and Chat Noir reveals or something. Pretty cool! This was at the very end when I suddenly noticed a friend of mine (who my friends know as “the furry who works as Domino’s delivery guy” hahaha). We had burger king together and they gave me a lift home (they being the friend and their friends lol, they went as a group).
Either way, back to the event haha.
I did not take any photos with cosplay, but this Dead By Daylight cosplay... the fact that the killer actually lifted the survivor, I had to take a photo!
How cool is that??? If you play the game you are guaranteed to know the characters too.
So that morning I was just vibing and stuff, remembered what Colin said yesterday... “maybe I will wear eyeliner tomorrow” or something along those lines... and thought... hmm... I should go and see about maybe getting a second photo since you can buy them on the spot too, I saw that yesterday... and hooooooo boy there went my money. Oh yeah, that happened. I went to the photo booth around 13:15 because I knew the time slots were the same and asked if I could buy tickets still or if it was sold out. They weren’t (RIP wallet 2022), so I went in line. There was a very nice Alucard cosplay behind me, and another character in front of me. They knew each other, so I kinda got involved in their conversation as I was between them.
The unknown character had been talking about that she was looking up poses for photo ops with a ‘no touch’ policy. This made me think “oh shit” and went googling immediately haha, I never thought of that! I ended up finding some really funny photos of other actors at Comic Con, but I still blanked out. I did get some ideas through them, like standing back to back or make heart hands together without actual touch. Ended up with going for neither ahaha! The girl in front of me discussed with Colin, she wanted a pose kinda similar to a prom pic, and as i saw that my brain went ‘I will have what she is having’ ahaha. Screw the other ideas! So when I made my way towards him, making sure to observe him more than the day before (this is also a huge reason why I went for another photo I feel like, I felt so bad I did not dare look at him due to nerves) and basically said “am I allowed the same treatment” and of course he was fine with it. The girl also did not mind I stole the pose, she said it was cute. 😳 I still feel like I look embarrassing, but you can be the judge of that.
Not in this picture: the fact that his hands were basically on my hips...ish. 😳 S-sir there is a no touch policy.
At the end we were waiting for our photo to be printed and gosh I was SHAKING. I even said out loud “I’m not shaking, you are!” looking at how my hand was basically vibrating, and the girl who was in front of me basically took my hand and although I forgot what exactly she said, it was obviously positive. Gosh. Whoever you are, stranger, thanks! As I said before, I only met awesome fans.
The Q&A after that had a really good interviewer! I believe it was done by Brainpower and you could tell he actually looked into Colin and what other things he had done by Once Upon A Time. It was so refreshing and not gonna lie, he looked a lot more comfortable too. I was stood to the side this time, because I knew I had to miss the ending for the Meet & Greet. I was leaning against something and honestly... if anyone paid attention to me, I feel like you could physically see me have heart eyes. I don’t know what it was. Maybe the fact I did not feel nauseous at this point allowed me to feel so... enlightened. I was just enjoying watching them and I got this funny feeling in my stomach. It was a weird feeling. It was so different the day before; maybe because the interviewer disturbed me so much. I just felt good. Maybe I just don’t remember as well what feeling genuinely good feels like and it was just that.
FUN FACT: remember the scene where Hook had to throw a dart in the bullseye of a dartboard with his back turned to it? He actually NAILED IT, but he was so surprised and amazed that they had to cut that take. He got too excited that he actually did it, haha. You can catch it in the bloopers and I indeed remember him weirdly reacting to the camera, I just did not recall what it was about. Either way!
Other detail I suddenly remember. I remember he did mention a couple times that he did like that about the last season of Once Upon A Time, where his Hook variant had a kid; Colin actually just had a baby daughter around that time, so I guess it kinda connected. Nice! I do love when he just talks about family stuff, because it feels more casual.
I also just remembered that, even though he said on day one that he could do the worm but found it unfit to do here, he just did it on day two! Someone asked if he could show his best dance move and there he went, on the floor. Ah, that reminds me of the Captain Floor jokes, haha!
FUN FACT: remember the scene where Dark One Hook visited Rumplestiltskin in his shop? Robert Carlyle had no idea that Colin was going to imitate Rumplestiltskin at that moment with the arm movements and stuff - when Colin did that, Robert Carlyle just stared at him and said “never do that again” or something along that line. Hilarious that they still used it.
Another not-so-fun-but-still-interesting fact is that during the beanstalk scene on season 2, when Killian has to catch Emma from falling, he actually hit the stunt-woman with his metal hook. Luckily not with the pointy end, but he felt really bad about it. He said he also did most of the stunts himself where he could, but yeh, insurance do be a thing so he didn’t do anything. He also explaind interest in various action-movie roles (James Bond, Batman, Superman, uhh something else I forgot), so I feel like this might be his highest interest at the moment? Who knows. I am a little sad I did not ask if he was interested in ever doing horror again.
So I ended up going to the Meet & Greet area after that. I got to talk with the fans a bit beforehand, we all had this attitude of “well we paid for this two years ago, sooo” and we all had mutual feelings about the time he had to cancel. I remember it hurt extra much because the posters were still hanging. Ugh. No need to feel sad about that anymore though! One girl actually bought all the photo slots. How does a person have that kind of money? Not gonna lie, if I had the money, I might have done the same, ahaha. “Hey Colin... it’s me again...” - can you imagine?
As we went upstairs with the host, I started to physically feel my heartbeat pounding. Dang, was I that nervous for a group event? It was me and six other women. I just had no idea what to expect and I had been thinking so much about what to say; many questions I had on my mind already got answered during the Q&A, some directly and some indirectly. Luckily I did remember some things I wanted to ask, also because I partially wrote it down. Gosh, when he came in he initially peeked around the corner, I was mostly on the side so seeing eyes suddenly pop from behind the curtain - it was a thing. We found out that his pandemic hobby became sourdough baking and he claims to make the best pizza. Obviously I gotta see that before I believe it, hahaha. He has two pizza ovens. He doesn’t need two, but he does anyway. Bet the kids love that. I remember I asked two questions, such as asking him where he’d like to visit (answer: India) and that I just had to ask if he had been to New Zealand (answer: he has). I am truly jealous hahaha. He went there for honeymoon, but I believe he also said he barely had two days to explore? I don’t know, my memory is fuzzy. Might remember in the morning. I also asked him which actor/actresses he would like to work with, but sadly I only remembered Meryl Streep, and I think Leonardo DiCaprio (not too sure though). I am so sorry for my memory! The Meet & Greet had an interesting set-up by the way, basically the seven of us sat on bar stools and across he got to sit in this comfy chair. I wonder how much of the ego he’d put in some of his answers were genuine. It’s very Hook, but I know that Colin isn’t as close to Hook as he would like to be, hehe.
Really trying to grind my memory. So much happened. He told us so much. He was definitely a lot sassier during the Q&A on day one by the way, now that I think of it.
Alright, I can’t think of what else had been said and done. I know I was there, and that it is somewhere in my mind, but that’s it. Besides, I am not here to spill all the beans on Colin anyway (heck, this blogging is mostly for myself so I can read back on fond memories).
After the Meet & Greet I lingered with this Belgian woman. She had an amazing English accent, I would have easily assumed her to be British. Did not even mention Colin’s delightful Irish accent btw, we don’t get to hear that much. I love the way he pronounces the word ‘school’. Apparently I vibe with mothers who are Colin fans?? Because she was absolutely my favourite person to meet during this whole convention. She is apparently even more of a fan of Tom Ellis, so we talked a little about Lucifer. I only know she has kids because I explained to her I have difficulty with eye contact due to my autism and she said her kids have it as well, so that was in a way nice. I love how we could talk about this whole thing, meeting celebrities etc in such a mature way. I guess we’re both too old for fangirling hahaha. We were really just vibing honestly???
We moved on a little bit, because someone asked if Colin did selfies and he said yes. I overheard that they are paid though, so we went to peek how expensive they were. We also saw a MASSIVE line, like... holy shit... but we went for it. Fuck money. Let’s just spend another 50 euros on this guy rofl. We both were hesitant but I was like ‘if you are doing it, then me too’ so we went in line ahaha. To be fair, I do actually like the selfie the most, since it has a different vibe. I felt a little rushed due to anxiety so it did blur a little, and I don’t have the best camera, but... it’s nice.
I suck at taking selfies sooo much hahaha! And my zipper was being funny! I still really like this picture though, and it was near the end of the event. Why the fuck did I not take the photo sideways? Ugh, who cares, I got my super expensive selfie. I remember my thumb awkwardly hovering over the button as for a second I forgot how photos work. I am sure if I saw in-time it was blurry he woulda been like “oh we can try again” or something, but honestly, I’ve had my fill of nerves. If I had it sideways you would have been able to see he had his arm around me hehe. 😳 I just error’d and left my arm hanging because I dunno, there was a no touch policy earlier, what do I do!! Either way, all that matters is that I know. At least without the flash on I look less awkward in my opinion. The size is wrong to make it my wallpaper on the phone though, grrr.
I am also super thankful I managed to hide my psoriasis on my eyebrow; my meds made it act up of course at the worst time possible, close to Comic Con where I have expensive photos to take. Or well... at that time I thought it was one photo. I can’t help myself man. I will probably never see him again! And I haven’t been to a Comic Con in two years!
I also made a silly edit.
Cuz it is what it is. I did that on the train to distract myself from having an annoying drunk man next to me.
When I left I actually felt so incredibly sad. I was sad i was over, instead of happy that it happened. I have mixed feelings. I am glad and I am sad. I did treat myself to a bubble tea before taking off though.
I dunno why it says “Tea Guys Amsterdam” if I visited them in Utrecht, but it is what it is. It was a milk tea with lychee bobas. Very nice.
I wanted to close it off with that. When I receive the photo of our Meet & Greet (group picture) I will add it. Lowkey sad I did not dare ask if he did hugs as he did hug someone during the Q&A. There was a no touch policy for the photos, sooo...
I am really glad I got a lift home instead of waiting on the bus in the cold, was fun talking to that friend again. I just told them about the proposal I saw on day one. I really liked witnessing that.
So yeah, sorry that this post is basically just Colin O’Donoghue, but honestly... that was for me the main thing. Having been mostly alone this time simply meant I could not take photos with cosplays. I still had great fun and I am glad I can leave all those nerves and anxiety behind me, at least the ones that related to meeting him. I can still think of questions I would have liked to ask in hindsight (as you do...) but yeh, too late now. He really made my weekend. It is so surreal to actually see him in real life and future me will thank me for all the photos since I probably have aphantasia, but that is a subject I’d rather talk about in private.
I had a really good weekend, even if I was so nauseous on the first day.
DCC - 2022 - Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug) / scuffed Ellie (The Last of Us)
RCC 2020 - Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug)
WDCC 2019 - Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug) / Mimi (Digimon)
ACC 2019 - no report, little happened
DCC 2019 - Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug) / Mimi (Digimon)
DCC 2018 - Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug)
ACC 2018 - Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug)
DCC 2018 - Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug)
RCC 2018 - Mimi (Digimon)
WDCC 2017 - Mimi (Digimon)
ACC 2017 - Mimi (Digimon)
DCC 2017 - Mimi (Digimon)
RCC 2017 - Mimi (Digimon)
ACC 2016 - Hook (Once Upon A Time)
DCC 2016 - Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug)
DCC 2015 - Sunday - Hobbit (Lord of the Rings)
DCC 2015 - Saturday - Ellie (The Last of Us)
