A WIP 2025 #13: Apr 10- Apr 16
I was at C2E2 last weekend! So… spoiler for this week… I haven't worked on anything, haha. Instead, I'm going to tell you all about how C2E2 went!
So what happened at C2E2?
Cosplay
Crown
Shopping
Critical Role
First things first, this is my absolute favorite convention to go to. C2E2 stands for Chicago Comics & Entertainment Expo. It is a pop culture convention that happens at the McCormick Place in Chicago Illinois, the largest convention center in North America. This is my 3rd year attending and, once again, I had an amazing time! I get to see so many friends and I always walk away with new friends. Most of what I will write about is in no particular order and will likely overlap with each other. So let's jump in anyway.
Cosplay: This is my favorite thing to do at cons, cosplay is the reason I started to go to conventions and it's the reason I still love them. I focused most of my cosplays around Critical Role this year because the cast were invited as guests. However, I did bring a couple of cosplays from other fandoms as well.
On Friday I kept it comfortable and cozy with a casual Korok look. I packed 2 Korok masks I had made for Colossal Con North (build log coming soon) and styled my outfit around a Korok sweater I had purchased at C2E2 last year. I was not expecting this cosplay to get much attention, but my partner Z and had a blast interacting with all of the other Legend of Zelda cosplayers who were there that day. I was also gifted a LOT of korok seeds.
On Saturday I wore my level 3 Imogen Temult from campaign 3 of Critical Role. I had re-styled the wig, and was very happy with it, so I was excited to wear this cosplay with the new hairdo! Drawing the lightning designs on my arms took a good hour, and I even painted my exposed fingers. However… I realized too late why most people don't paint their fingers as I was buttoning up my WHITE vest. I spent the next hour washing and blow drying the vest. All of the purple came out, which was a success! Unfortunately I completely forgot to put on my yellow neck scarf. Rather than get upset, I chose to pose for most pictures with at least one hand in front of my neck. We later discovered that I had accidentally hung the scarf up on my Vex'ahlia dinner dress cosplay and the yellow blended in with the gold trim, which is why we couldn't find it.
On Sunday I wore my Dinner Dress Vex'ahlia from season one of The Legend of Vox Machina, which is Critical Role's Amazon Prime show. This was my most uncomfortable cosplay of the weekend, which is why I chose Sunday to wear it ( I typically don't stay in cosplay for very long on Sundays). I had also re-styled this wig, adding in a side part, and refreshing the semi-curly waves. My final upgrade was changing out the clasp on the necklace, because the previous one frequently got stuck in my wig. We did a little photo shoot on a staircase with a very large art piece shaped like white tree roots. It was too perfect of a location for this character (she has a connection to a large tree) and I love how the photos turned out!
The view from our hotel room while we watched Crown!
The Crown Championships of Cosplay: Crown is an international cosplay competition that has it's finals at C2E2. It is a craftsmanship focused competition and the level of skill that is showcased every year is breathtaking. Typically, my friends and I watch the competition from our hotel room and then race through the convention center to see all of the cosplays up close. We had a larger watch party than usual and that made it all the more fun! Especially when someone knows a competitor and that competitor takes home a prize! The energy and excitement is unparallelled, and that's absolutely part of the magic of C2E2 for me.
Shopping: This con has the largest vendor hall that I have ever seen. I'm pretty sure it's impossible to see everything even if you skipped out on all of the other things to do at C2E2. We didn't do as much shopping this year, but we did get some pretty fun things! One of the first purchases I made was a print from an artist I buy from every year, Lauren Walsh Art. Lauren has done official art for Critical Role, and also does adorable prints of Wooble the Gelatinous Cube. I plan to frame all of the Wooble prints I have and display them in my house once I find some spare wall space. Next we found Meg's Mashables and we could NOT walk away from the Cork plushie…Corgi/Shark mash-up. It's too perfect, and is currently displayed in my living room. Finally we found an artist we had purchased from in the past who does 3D acrylic shadow box-like art pieces. We have two of the pokemon ones that feature Spring and Winter scenes. We were able to buy the Autumn and Summer pieces and I can't wait to have all 4 seasons on my wall! I wish the artist they partner with did smaller prints, because I would love to make a collage with his other prints around the shadow boxes. Finally, I bought a very nifty device from Hoku props. It's a cordless airbrush compressor kit that I am VERY excited about. I have been anxious about trying out airbrushing because using an air compressor freaks me out a little. This handheld one is much less intimidating to use and is also a lot more user friendly for a beginner like me.
Critical Role: The thing I was most excited about this weekend. The cast of Critical Role has not been to C2E2 since before I started attending. Z and I have watched this D&D actual play for years and we were so excited to get to see them in person. We chose to not do any photo-ops or signatures, but we did go to their panel. We managed to get excellent seats, so we were able to see them on the stage! The other exciting thing about them being guests is that the con scheduled 2 cosplay meet-ups for Critical Role fans. The meet-up on Saturday was HUGE, 320 people showed up to get photos and trinket trade or even just hang out and chat. The smaller Sunday meet-up made it easier to see and chat with folks I recognized from previous meet-ups, and have conversations with people I hadn't met before. These Critical Role meet-ups are another thing I look forward to every year, because of how kind everyone is and how excited we all are to celebrate our love of Critical Role. It's a truly special community of people.
This write-up barely scratches the surface of everything that happened at C2E2 this year, but I think I was able to focus on some of the highlights. Once again, I cannot wait to go back next year. I'm even considering working on my own competition build for it… We'll see if I can get something done to compete in Crown next year!
