Random Fandom Rants

Fandom Rants 2 The Cosplays

If you can't get the right colour of hair, or jacket, or something-DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT! As long as people can tell who you are, it's FINE!
Admitedly, if you have the right colours, it does help, but as long as you are recognisable, it doesn't matter.
If you can't find a shirt the right blue, just get a blue shirt. It doesn't matter if it's suppost to be 'aquamarine' and you get 'deep ocean'.
The same thing happened to us when we were looking for cosplay material. It was winter when we started looking for FACE cosplays, so of course, we couldn't find a green miniskirt for America in the dead of winter. The only white skirt I could find was part of a business suit, and cost $60. I was not going to buy that. A-it was $60 for the skirt, along with a suit jacket that I would never use. B-it had a really weird pattern on it, so it was basically useless. C-it was the wrong length anyway.
However, if you just have a red jacket with a Rooster Teeth shirt and say "I'm Sarge from RvB!" I give everyone permission to kick your idiotic ass.

Cardboard cut-outs, plain t-shirts, paper props. Some people can't afford it, or don't have access to everything they need. That is why we improvise. If you need a massive weapon and can't afford the metal flagpole, no one would blame you if you got a wooden staff and a cardboard cut-out of the blade. If you need a specific type of armour, and you aren't a blacksmith (which, to be honest, is kind of a fading trade now-a-days), a couple of pieces of cardboard sticking out from your shoulders would do it. Need a Prussian flag, but they are nowhere to be found? Grab a stick and two printouts of the flag and stick them together. (Ha. Stick them on the stick... Sorry.)
If you can't find it, you can't find it, simple as that.
And besides, most cons would not let you cart around an actual metal weapon with you. You will probably have to keep it in their storage room, and thus lose the aesthetic of you with your weapon whenever someone asks for your photo and you haven't got your weapon.

Remember, a lot of people are young when they become fans of something. When they are young, they kinda have to scape off Mum and Dad. It's not their fault if they don't have $400 to make or buy the perfect cosplay. Again, they are young. They haven't got a job. Therefore they haven't got money to "waste on clothes you're only going to wear once."
"Well, Mum, I'm actually going to wear this as normal clothes."
"Uh-huh. Sure you are. But it's still no."
That was a conversation I had with my mother when I was 16, and wanted to make an Ed Elric cosplay for my school's Book Week. In the end, she only made the coat and I just wore black clothes.
But she was right. To this day, I could count on 1 hand how many times I have worn the coat. And two of those times was Book Week and that year's AVCon.

And as for making your cosplay (Making it yourself when you haven't got a sewing mother around, that is)-If you don't sew, you're fucked!
There ain't no way in hell sticky tape and safety pins are EVER gonna be a proper substitute for stitches.
I know this. I used sticky tape for 3 years before I realised this.

You get hate from someone because you cosplayed as the movie character, not the book character. (I'll admit to this one. Percy Jackson cosplayers in particular. Annabeth is fucking blonde!)

When Annabeth cosplayers (or other camper cosplayers like Clarise or the Stolls) have their camp necklaces with five beads. Five! 4 for Percy's years, then one for HoO.
No! They have been there for far longer than Percy! Annabeth needs 5 more beads than Percy because she had been there longer! And don't forget the personal add-ons everyone does. Annabeth has her father's ring and Percy's coral on her necklace. Percy put his probation tablet on his in TLH.
And some people don't even check the books for reference as to if they got a bead that year! Titan's Curse happened between summers, that means there was no bead for that quest. The entire HoO books are in one year. That means only 1 bead for the whole series (Usually the orange and purple bead for the two camps).
So people who have 15 beads on their necklaces (Annabeth's 5, Percy's 5, 5 HoO) are wrong, and totally stand out as people who can't be bothered to check their facts.