Cosplay Awesomeness: Take 1

When I was very young, my mother threw me a birthday party. We invited all my friends and classmates. We decorated the basement with streamers and balloons, and there were colorful party hats, cups and plates for juice and cake. I looked adorable in my little suit and tie.

Then the blizzard hit, and no one came.

No one.

I sat there as the minutes past the appointed time slipped by, knowing in my head that it was the weather, but in my heart, feeling so unloved and unwanted that I wished the Earth would open up and swallow me.

My mom pulled it out in the end, getting neighbors to come over and provide a semblance of a party, people to sing and share cake, etc., but that dawning sense of horror stayed with me. I have thrown many many parties since, and to this day, I still have a minor panic attack just beforehand, convinced that no one will come.

I feel that way about the contests on this blog, too. Feel like I will be left sitting in my suit, tie, and party hat, realizing that no one loves me.

And then you people amaze me. Again and again.

The first entry in the Cosplay Contest arrived today, 14 images from Birte the Flying Dragon in Germany bringing joy to my inbox. I haven’t blogged about this yet, but Birte and her mother got up at 3am to drive from Germany to Epinal, France, so Birte could attend my noon panel and show me the beautiful music she composed (some unfinished samples here), inspired by The Desert Spear. She gave me sheet music and played the compositions on her laptop for me and we sat and talked for an hour. Then she and her mother turned around and drove all the way home.

It was amazing. Birte is 19 and incredibly talented. She draws, plays and writes music, and acts. A true Renaissance woman.  She is also beautiful, as you will see:

Hello Peat,

I thought I’d try out for the awesome competition myself.

My three favourite characters are Leesha, Rojer and Renna (in that order!). You wrote in your blog yourself, that we could choose up to 3 characters, but did NOT limit the number of photos! So beware: You’ll get 14 of them from me!

The only problem with the pictures: I neither have red, nor black nor brown hair. My hair is blond (not as Rojer; I’m wearing a wig for that one). Just imagine my hair the colour it needs to be to fit the character 😉

Ok. Now:

All the pictures are labled, so you can roughly tell what it shows.

All the Renna pictures were taken in the forest at midsummer night and it was almost pitch black, so some of them might not be very sharp. They all show Renna fighting demons in the forest; the scene described in Desert Spear, with Arlen watching her:

The Rojer pictures show him with his beloved violin; the way I love him, showing different emotions as he makes his mezmerising music.

The Leesha pictures show her at different ages. One, when she is still 13, on her way to help Bruna, with the whole village talking about her “sin”. The second one shows an older version of her, though still young, gathering herbs. The plant she’s holding in her hands is St. John’s wort. It is used to cure depressions (very important with demons rising from the ground every night!).

There are also “picture-medleys”. They show all the characters at night for one: Most important, I found were their emotions, showing how well they cope with the threat: Rojer plays his music, standing up to the night, though you can clearly see that he is afraid; Leesha stands upright, facing the night, but still she is a bit worried and very alert; Renna is crouching like a cat about to attack, waiting for the right moment, with nothing but the lust of revenge in her eyes.

The Leesha-medley shows different sides of her: The angry little beautiful girl, the beautiful woman, the herb gatherer, getting a fright, standing above everything.

The medley with Rojer and Leesha show their relationship: Rojer being the jogleur he is, still longing to be with Leesha, hiding his feelings behind a jolly mask, and Leesha, regarding him as something similar to a little brother, worried because she knows how he feels about her, still happy to have him around.

OK. I hope what I wrote is not to crambled to understand. I tried to keep it all as short as possible… guess that didn’t work…

Still. I hope you like the pictures. It took me three days to get it all right and it wasn’t an easy choice which ones were the best!

Birte

PVB Contest Rule Note: When I said the limit was three characters, I meant three standing in the same picture all at once. Feel free to enter as many times in as many costumes as you please!

Posted on June 24, 2011 at 12:31 am by PeatB
Filed under Contests, Cosplay, Craft, Desert Spear, Fan Art, Fans, Germany, Warded Art, Warded Man
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