Category Archives: Cosplay

Characters I Want to Cosplay As

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As 2023 comes to a close, I am looking ahead to 2024. There are a few trips that I want to plan, goals I want to accomplish, and new conventions that I want to attend. I had this post pre-written for a while, as I wanted to start a few cosplays for next year. I wanted to come up with a list of characters I want to cosplay as. I split this up into various categories, so I could keep this organized.

Image is a photo of me dressed as Kylo Ren. I have a red scar on my face. I'm holding a lightsaber next to R2D2
Photo taken by someone at the convention on my phone.

Gaming

Liliana Vess – Magic: The Gathering

Image is a Magic the Gathering card. It says at the top "Liliana, Death's Majesty" It shows a woman in a purple dress, she has a black fan nearby her. It seems like there are servants nearby her. It says below the art "Planeswalker - Liliana".
Photo taken by me.

In Magic: The Gathering, there are certain characters known as Planeswalkers. Planeswalkers are creatures that can walk between planes or walk in between worlds. Liliana is the necromancer, meaning her abilities often involve raising the dead or a player’s graveyard. I like Liliana’s look. She has this purple lace dress, a gold headband that holds her hair back, and purple arm bands that help summon her undead powers. I love her whole aesthetic.

Meren of Clan Nel Toth – Magic: The Gathering

Image is of a Magic the Gathering card. It says at the top Meren of Clan Nel Toth. It shows a woman with a glowing black skull and her hand on black dragon. It says below the image, Legendary Creature - Human Shaman.
Photo taken by me.

Meren is based on a Legendary Creature card in Magic: The Gathering. Meren, similar to Liliana, has abilities that revolve around a player’s graveyard. Meren is a card that has a special place in my heart because Meren was one of the first Commander decks that I played when I was starting to get back into the game. I think what would be cool about cosplaying as her is that there are a lot of different ways to complete the cosplay. I like being able to have my own spin on a cosplay, and I think with Meren, there would be a lot of different ways to put the cosplay together.

Keyleth – Critical Role

When I first watched Critical Role, I felt myself drawn to Keyleth. She’s awkward, wants to do the right thing, and at times doesn’t make the best decisions. I’d highly recommend looking up “Keyleth Goldfish” as it’s one of the most hilarious moments in Critical Role. It’s funny, I have an orange wig in my closet that I haven’t figured out what to do with, and Keyleth is a character where I could put the wig to good use.

Imogen Temult – Critical Role

Imogen is a sorcerer in the third campaign of Critical Role. I’m playing a sorcerer in my Dungeons & Dragons game right now, and it might be my all-time favorite class that I have ever played. I like her look with her purple hair contrasted with the pale blue dress.

Comics

Scarlet Witch

Image is a comic book cover of Scarlet Witch The Last Door. It shows Scarlet Witch with both her hands pointing at red circles which represent her powers.
Photo taken by me.

Scarlet Witch was the first character I thought of when I decided to put this list together. I love her. I’m reading the current Scarlet Witch comic run right now, and I am really enjoying it. I think the Scarlet Witch look I love the most is Elizabeth Olsen’s look in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Another look I like is Scarlet Witch in Avengers: Endgame when she flies down to fight Thanos in the final battle. Similar to what I said about Meren, there would be a variety of different ways to cosplay as her.

Kraven

Since playing Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, I’m obsessed with Kraven’s look. The shark tooth necklace, the skull on the shoulder, and the fur vest. I think it would be neat to take that look and make it my own. I could see finding a brown body suit, brown khakis, brown combat boots, adding the shark tooth necklace, the fur vest, etc. I think this would be fun to do. I’m not sure if anyone would recognize it as Kraven, but I think it would be a blast to do it.

Doctor Aphra – Star Wars

Doctor Aphra would be one of the easier characters to cosplay as. It would feel more like taking my regular clothing and adding a few things to it. Sometimes it’s nice to have an easier cosplay in between the cosplays that are a bit more complicated to put together. I could see Doctor Aphra being an easier, casual cosplay.

Film / TV

Padme

Padme (besides Scarlet Witch) is the second character I thought of when I put this list together. As a fan of the prequels, I loved Padme. I think my favorite Padme look is from Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones when she’s in the arena on Geonosis. It’s a classic look. The white crop top that’s torn in the back, the white pants, and her blaster on her hip. Another nice thing about cosplaying as Padme is that I wouldn’t have to wear a wig, which would be a nice break.

Nightsister – Star Wars

I have been adding images to my Cosplay board on Pinterest. I found the coolest Nightsister cosplay that I pinned to my board. The one concern I have with cosplaying as a Nightsister is working with body paint. The nice thing with cosplay becoming more popular is that there are tutorials everywhere! I’m also in a local Minnesota cosplay group, so I think I could find some resources there.

There are so many characters and so little time. Knowing me, I will probably end up cosplaying something that’s not even on this list, but I’d love to start challenging myself to cosplay as these characters that I have listed. I can’t wait to attend my next convention in 2024.

How I Cosplayed Kylo Ren

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As Halloween approached, I was running out of time to put together a costume. As I was scrolling through Pinterest, I found a Kylo Ren cosplayer. I liked the way that her cosplay turned out and how she made the character her own. I pinned it to my cosplay board and used that as inspiration to put together my own take on the character. I’m proud of myself as I really liked how the costume came together, and I wanted to share how it all came to be.

Image is a selfie of a woman. She has a painted red scar on her face. She's wearing red lips as she looks at the camera.
Selfie taken by me.

Once I decided to put together a Kylo cosplay, I went to Amazon. While I don’t love the idea of supporting Amazon, it’s so convenient to order everything in one spot. I bought a black body suit, a black faux leather belt, a black drapey skirt, a red light sword (due to copyright), and a Kylo Ren mask. The black body suit was okay. It looked the way that I wanted it to, but the fit was a little odd. It’s not something that I would wear outside of wearing it as Kylo. The faux leather belt was top-notch, and I could see it lasting for a long time. The black drapey skirt added to the look, though the slits on the skirt are high. There isn’t a way that I can wear the skirt on its own without leggings underneath. The “light sword” I bought was a happy surprise. I figured it would be cheaply made, but it was actually decent. The Kylo Ren mask wasn’t a hard helmet like I had originally thought. Instead, it was a floppy mask. It wasn’t the end of the world; it just wasn’t what I was anticipating.

One thing that’s important with Kylo is the scar on his face. I was mulling this over for a long time. I’m not a makeup expert, so I rely on makeup tutorials to help me out. I ended up putting my own spin on how I wanted the scar to be. In Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Kylo’s scar is there, but it’s faded. I wanted the scar to look fresh, like Kylo just got hit with the lightsaber before putting on the Halloween costume.

Image is a picture of me holding a red light saber as Kylo. I'm dressed in all black. R2D2 is right next to me.
Photo taken on my phone by another person at Twin Cities Con.

To accomplish this, I used: red lip liner, black eyeliner, brown eye shadow, and Vaseline. The red lip liner helped lay out the foundation of the scar. I ran the scar from my eyebrow, all the way down to my neck. The black eyeliner added a charred look. The brown eye shadow was how I tried to blend everything together, so it would appear more blended with my natural skin tone. Finally, the Vaseline was something I used to help give off that shiny coating. I got a lot of compliments on it, but whether that means the makeup was good or not is to be determined.

As I look back on the photos, I’m thrilled with how everything turned out. I think it was an accurate Kylo Ren cosplay, yet I was able to put my spin on the character. I think that’s what makes costuming and cosplay so fun for me. There’s a baseline of what the character looks like, but everyone can interpret that in their own way. I’m looking forward to cosplaying as Kylo Ren in the future, as this is one of my favorite cosplays that I have done.

Cosplay – What’s Next?

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One thing that I’m thrilled about is how I have gotten back into cosplay. Cosplay was something I put on the back burner for several years, which is sad because I genuinely enjoy it. This year, I have been more strategic in the cosplays that I have put together and in planning out conventions in the future. I wanted to share a little bit of what’s next as far as conventions, cosplays, and geek events in the future.

Image is a woman posing in a red dress, blonde wig, and red lips

Regarding conventions, the next convention that’s coming up is Minnesota Con. Minnesota Con is a new convention happening on June 2nd through the 4th at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Since this is a new convention, it will be interesting to see how everything pans out. The same weekend as Minnesota Con is Des Moines Con. I would love to go to both conventions on the same weekend, but realistically, I’m not sure if that will work out. One of the best ways I find out about local conventions is through the Twin Cities Geek Convention Guide. I have it bookmarked in my bookmarks bar, and I reference it quite often to figure out which event is coming up next.

As far as cosplay, I have been mulling over what cosplay would be fitting to do next. Part of me was drawn to a gender-bent Peacemaker cosplay since Freddie Stroma is appearing at Minnesota Con this year. I still think cosplaying as a Splicer from BioShock would be fun. I haven’t definitively come up with the next cosplay yet. With that being said, with Minnesota Con coming up in June, I want to have an idea narrowed down within the next week or two to ensure that I have everything I need in time for the convention.

It’s funny because this post is titled “Cosplay – What’s Next,” and I don’t even answer the question of which cosplay I plan on completing next. I’m sure other cosplayers must feel this way, where it’s so easy to be indecisive. There are so many cosplays I want to do and so little time to do them all. I will say that even though I’m not exactly sure what I will cosplay as next, I’m looking forward to the future, as there are many conventions I will be attending coming up.

Harley Quinn Suicide Squad Cosplay – Status Update

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February is a pretty quiet month in my life. It’s still pretty chilly in Minnesota, so I find myself cuddled indoors. Since I have more free time, I tend to devote more time to my hobbies. I wrote about trying to get back into cosplay, so I figured I’d share an update on where I’m at. I’m currently working on Harley Quinn and having everything put together.

Image is a red dress hanging on a wall. The dress is red and has a lot of volume towards the bottom.

The first essential part of Harley Quinn in The Suicide Squad is the red dress. I ordered the red dress from Amazon from a company called Rubie’s. Rubie’s is a costume shop that sells on Amazon, whether it’s a Halloween costume or costumes that can be used for cosplay. I have ordered many of Rubie’s costumes, and they are usually pretty decent. I ordered a medium in the Harley Quinn red dress, and it fits me perfectly! It’s a little loose-fitting, but I figured I could wear something underneath to help take up any extra space. The only thing I noticed when I tried on the dress is that the white layer underneath sometimes shows. I’m thinking I could buy a red tutu to wear underneath the dress to give the dress more volume.

Image of a blond wig with two braids down the back. One braid is black and the other is red

Besides the dress, the wig is another Harley Quinn essential. I bought this wig also from Amazon. The wig is comfortable to wear, but the two blonde parts of the wig are a little awkward. I might have to style the wig right before I wear it. Another thought I had was to tuck the ends of the blonde wig into the braid to make it more natural. The wig itself, I think, was worth the purchase as it seems like a good quality wig for the price. The only other thing that I have left to do is figure out the makeup. Harley Quinn’s makeup shouldn’t be too challenging, but I’m also not very makeup-savvy. I’m going to watch a few makeup tutorials to get some ideas for Harley’s look.

I’m excited to put everything together! It’s been fun making cosplay more of a priority instead of a last-minute project.

Planning Out Future Cosplays

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If there’s one thing I’m looking forward to with attending conventions this year, it’s planning a new cosplay. It’s been a while since I spent months preparing a new cosplay for a con. I usually figure something out last minute, and it looks okay, but I’d rather have something ready to go. I have two big cons that I’m attending in March: Planet Comic Con and C2E2. This gives me about four full weeks to get everything ordered and ready. I wanted to share how I get inspiration for cosplay and the steps I take to have the cosplay ready.

Image is a picture of me cosplaying Harley Quinn from Suicide Squad. I have blue and red eye shadow smeared with a black heart drawn in eye liner near my eye. I'm wearing a jacket plus the t-shirt "Daddy's Little Monster"

The first thing that I like to do is go to Pinterest. I have a cosplay board where I will pin cosplays I like or that I want to complete someday. I have recently gone through my board and deleted any pins of cosplays that I’m not interested in. This is to help consolidate what types of cosplays I want to complete and when. Once I did this, I started searching different fandoms or characters to get an idea of what could be done versus what might be too complicated. I don’t cosplay professionally; it’s more of a hobby, so I’m not interested in doing any sewing for a cosplay. Once I get a few ideas, I have to figure out how to purchase or put together the look.

I’m not sure why I didn’t do this earlier, but I created an Amazon wishlist titled “Cosplay”. This is where I have been saving clothes, wigs, jewelry, or anything else I need to cosplay a character. I created this wishlist a few days ago, and it keeps me organized. With cosplay materials, it can take weeks to ship on Amazon, so if I can have the items saved to order ahead of time, that would be ideal. I have two cosplays saved in my Amazon wishlist, and I plan to order some of those items this week.

This leads me to the two cosplays I’m leaning towards. The first is Harley Quinn from The Suicide Squad, specifically the red dress with the combat boots. Harley Quinn is one of my favorite characters to cosplay as because she has so many different styles throughout her appearances in video games, comics, and movies. The red dress is a mood, and it fits Harley’s personality. The second cosplay I’m thinking about is a splicer from BioShock. Splicers are enemies with wrenches or a fishhook that attack you throughout the game.

I’m excited to start putting more of my energy into cosplay! It makes me look forward to future conventions because I will have a new cosplay ready to go.

Jessica Jones at Twin Cities Con

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I finally made it to my first convention of the year! I try to make it to a few conventions every year, but I quickly realized that my schedule was packed. I had Twin Cities Con on my radar for this year, and I was happy to have been able to attend on Friday. I tabled at the Twin Cities Geek booth, which is the online magazine I write for. Twin Cities Con was one of the most organized conventions I have ever been to, especially since this is only the second year for the convention.

Image is a photo of me standing in front of a booth. To my right is a big banner that says Twin Cities Geek. The poster is a magenta, purple, and black poster. The banner reads: Twin Cities Geek www.TwinCitiesGeek.com Minnesota's Geek Culture Magazine by MN Geeks, For MN Geeks. Geek News Coverage of local events & topics important to you. Community Calendar Find out what's going on! FREE event submissions! Below the banner, there's a table with lollipops, and various cards and items with the Twin Cities Geek logo on them. I'm wearing a black mask and I'm wearing a black faux leather jacket, white t-shirt, and jeans.

Before Twin Cities Con, several bigger conventions tried to move into the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. However, these conventions were focused on profit and drove away the local community. Each convention never stayed longer than two years. With Twin Cities Con, there was more partnership with the community. One of the runners of Twin Cities Con talked to the local cosplay community to get a gauge for what weekends Twin Cities Con would work for everyone. With Twin Cities Con happening every November, it doesn’t run into some of the local conventions in the summer. There was a lot of thought put into this convention.

Image is a selfie of me. My lips are together and I'm holding my left hand up in a fist. I'm wearing a black glove.

As far as cosplay, I always wait till the last minute. I went through all of my previous Halloween costumes and ended up settling on a Jessica Jones cosplay. I already had the leather jacket, the light jeans, and the combat boots. All I needed were the black gloves and the white t-shirt, which I found at Target the night before. It was such a quick cosplay, and I did get recognized, which is always fun. I wish I had thought more about what I wanted to cosplay as. I have an orange wig sitting in my closet that I haven’t been able to wear yet.

Twin Cities Con was a blast to attend. I’m excited to see this convention grow. Minneapolis and Saint Paul need a bigger convention similar to C2E2 in Chicago, and I think Twin Cities Con can get there.

Pirate Spotted at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival

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The last time I went to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival was in 2019 or pre-pandemic. I was planning to attend in 2021, but wedding plans quickly booked my weekends. I wanted to make it a priority to attend this year. I’m so glad I was able to go.

Normally, we always drive to Ren Fest, but this year we decided to take the bus. There’s a bus that will do drop-offs at the entrance. It’s well known that Ren Fest has extremely long wait times to get into the fairgrounds. By long, I mean you could easily be waiting 2+ hours to park a car. Once I found out the bus was an option, I kick myself as to why I didn’t do this years ago. It was so slick. There were times that the bus had to wait, but once we got closer, there was a bus line created, so we could bypass a lot of the car lines. I think it took 20-30 minutes to get there versus hours waiting in a car.

In previous years, we tried to go towards the middle of September as it’s supposed to be cooler. However, the weekend we went, it was 80 degrees! It was nice not being cold, but it messed with the tradition. I used to always order soup in a bread bowl, but it was too hot. I opted for potato skins, chicken fajita, and a chicken wrap for dinner. I did stick with the apple cider float, which I still love. It’s the perfect fall beverage.

Image is a photo of me sitting on a bench. I'm wearing all red and dressed like a pirate. I have tall black boots, a wide red hat and a red pirate jacket. Next to me is a skeleton. Above the bench is a sign for Lavigne Leather.

This year, I decided to wear a full costume! I decided to go with a pirate look. I rented my costume from Royal Fashions Costume Emporium, which I have been doing since 2018, except I would always rent for a convention and not for Ren Fest. Renting a costume is great because it’s cheap and I don’t have to store it anywhere. It was a little bit hot, so I ended up not wearing my red pirate jacket as I really didn’t want to overheat. Wearing a costume for the Ren Fest is so fun, and I plan on doing this every year going forward.

We spent six full hours at Ren Fest, which included seeing two live shows, shopping, and walking around. I missed going to Ren Fest, so I’m happy that I was able to go this year.

Image is a selfie of me wearing a red pirate hat and I'm wearing a black long sleeve blouse shirt.

Incorporating Wigs into Cosplay

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I started cosplaying in 2013 when I attended my first convention. My friend and I thrifted overalls for a Mario & Luigi cosplay. My interest in cosplay developed since then as I have cosplayed Wonder Woman, Harley Quinn, the Punisher, and a variety of other characters. I set two personal rules for cosplay. The first rule I had was to wear comfortable shoes. I have no problems wearing heels for a nice dinner where I know I won’t have to walk too far. At a convention, I know I’ll be walking everywhere, so I will not wear uncomfortable shoes and be miserable the entire time I’m there. The second rule was to never wear wigs. I figured wigs were itchy, and I didn’t want to be uncomfortable. Recently, I started wearing wigs for certain events, and I realized I was wrong. I wasn’t itchy, and I loved how wearing a wig elevated my cosplay. I wanted to talk about my experience with wigs.

Image is a photo of me smiling at the camera. I look like I'm at work. I'm dressed as Alice from Alice in Wonderland. I have a blonde wig, the blue and white dress and a black bow headband.

My first experience wearing a wig was for a friend’s birthday party. She was hosting a color party where each person was assigned a color and had to wear that entire color. I told my friend to give me the color no one wanted because I wanted a challenge. The color I was assigned was orange. I ended up finding a short orange bob wig on Amazon and paired that with orange tights, an orange crop top, and orange shorts. Included in my wig were various wig caps to ensure that my hair was put up and out of the way. The wig I bought fits my head perfectly. Unfortunately, I ended up throwing the wig out because I think someone spilled a drink on it. It smelled like booze and sweat, and it was clear some of the hair fell out through the night.

Image is a photo of me wearing a long blond wig. I'm wearing a sky blue dress lined with gold and a gold lacey cardigan.

Besides the orange wig, I ended up renting Halloween costumes this year since I didn’t have time to plan out my costumes. I used Royal Fashions Costume Emporium to portray both Alice in Wonderland and Daenerys. Both costumes utilized the same blonde wig. Similar to my orange wig experience, I loved this wig. I felt sassier portraying Daenerys, and part of the reason the look came together was because of the wig. The more I incorporated wigs into my cosplay or costuming, the more I became a part of that character. I slowly started to realize how wrong I was about wigs.

For my future cosplays, I plan to incorporate wigs in the future. I have a long orange wig hanging near my closet that I still have to use. I want to make a Keyleth cosplay from Critical Role or use it for a future Starfire cosplay. I’m excited to start incorporating wigs into my cosplays!

How Cosplay Improved The Relationship With My Body

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Image is a photo of a Bane cosplayer and a Harley Quinn cosplayer in a hallway of a hotel. Bane has his full mask on from The Dark Knight Rises and Harley is sticking her tongue out at the camera.

I was telling a couple of coworkers about Gen Con. One coworker made a comment asking, why do you cosplay? She doesn’t know enough about cosplay to know why someone would want to dress up as a fictional character and parade around a convention hall. It’s a legitimate question especially because she had never heard of the term cosplay before. I thought about my answer and this made me want to devote a whole post as to not only why I cosplay, but how it improved my self esteem.

When I was in middle school, I was increasingly aware of how much I hated my body. When I say hate I meant I truly despised the way I looked in the mirror. I didn’t feel confident when I would wear shorts or a swimsuit. I didn’t know if I would ever come to appreciate my body the way it is.

When I graduated from high school, my confidence started to blossom, but I had a long way to go to address how I felt about my body. When I went to my first CONvergence back in 2013 was when I cosplayed for the first time. Me and a friend cosplayed as Mario & Luigi. It was a simple cosplay I purchased from Ragstock. However, once I put it on, I felt cute and could walk around and do what I pleased. I received some warmhearted compliments on my cosplay. Once CONvergence was over, I knew I wanted to do more with cosplay and challenge myself to take on other characters.

Image is a photo of me as Gwen Stacy and Miles Morales. We both are doing the classic spider-man pose with our hands.

The more I cosplayed, the more my confident I became. There were cosplays that were more revealing than others. What empowered me though was the control I had to show what I wanted on my terms. It was my body and I could conceal or reveal it if I chose to. This conscious choice I made is what has allowed me to fall in love with myself and the way I am. Additionally, cosplay exposed me to other body types and seeing other people rocking what they have, creates this open and accepting environment. 

I owe a lot to cosplay and how it’s changed my way of thinking. Every time I know I’m attending a convention, my head starts spinning as to potential cosplay options. Once I settle on an idea, I’m determined to pull it off. My relationship with my body is one I will always have to work on and be aware of, but I’m at a much better place mentally and all it took was to dress up as Harley Quinn.