Benedict Cumberbatch Might Be the Best Actor Ever

I'm sitting on my couch, watching the last hour or so of Desolation of Smaug.  I love this silly movie; I probably rent it from the library or borrow it off friends once every two months or so.  In particular, I love the conversation between Bilbo and Smaug, deep under the Lonely Mountain just before Smaug breaks free and heads for Lake Town.  Even when the rest of the movie(s) didn't live up to my expectations, this conversation is eerie and dark and spine-tingling every time -- exactly as I pictured it years before when I first read The Hobbit.

It is surprisingly hard to find a good picture of this conversation online -- lots of fan art and old animation

Their conversation is just starting to heat up -- Smaug has started his "My claws are daggers" speech, that deep rumbling bass voice stirring into anger -- when Bishop's friend joins me.

"Did you know," he says, "that Benedict Cumberbatch did motion capture stuff for Smaug?"
I'm a little surprised at this. "Like Gollum?"
"Yeah! But... he's a dragon. So why did they need the motion capture?"  We debate this for a while, finally settling on the fact that a) Benedict Cumberbatch tends to move his face a lot, and b) so does Smaug. Particularly his dragon-eyebrows.  That's got to be the reason for it.

Of course, my next stop is the Internet, where I quickly discover that not only did Cumberbatch do this, he apparently spent roughly 3 or 4 days doing the motion capture, complete with dialogue and rolling around on the floor.  Observe:

There are websites out there devoted to all the gifs from this event!

This is seriously the best thing I've discovered on the Internet in a long time. 

 The interviews I read and watched all convey the same idea: Cumberbatch really wanted to get into character, and the CGI masters who created Smaug wanted some rough ideas for realistic movement.  Put them together and you get not only Smaug, but also the most amazing and hilarious images of a man truly devoted to his craft.

Some of the pictures, like this one, are decidedly psychotic -- and that, to me, gives Smaug's variation in emotions so much depth.  He's already a well-written character, thanks to Peter Jackson staying fairly close to Tolkien's original creation, and being voiced by someone as talented and involved and really okay with putting himself out there as Cumberbatch truly brings the character to life.  I mean, I'm a little scared of him as I watch some of those scenes, and I think that's exactly what Tolkien was going for.

It's obviously not a perfect match -- one of the CGI guys talks about how the differences in physiology between dragons and humans make using motion capture a little irrelevant. But it doesn't change just how cool this is -- and how much more real it makes Smaug feel.

As always, I am looking forward to whatever Benedict Cumberbatch does next. And to The Battle of Five Armies (trailer here), of course.

As if I really needed another reason to love him...

Edward Elric: A Fangirl's Dilemma

I first developed a crush on Edward Elric when I was about 16.

Back then, when Ed and I were approximately the same age, his being animated was no boundary to our love.  I read the manga religiously, watched the anime on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim as often as I could, and kept my Fullmetal Alchemist calendar hung up long after the year changed over.  The series contained so many interesting, well-developed characters that I pretty much developed a new crush every time I opened the manga up -- for a long time, far longer than I want to admit, I even slept on a Roy Mustang pillowcase.

sleeping with Roy all night long... ;)

As I started college, FMA gradually slipped out of my life.  One week I was reading the manga, the next I couldn't locate the latest issue in my tiny college town, and soon I'd forgotten all about it.

Until a month ago, when I picked up Attack on Titan.  Instantly, with the addition of anime to my 'recently watched' list, Netflix flooded me with options, and Fullmetal Alchemist caught my eye -- this time though, it was FMA: Brotherhood, a re-make of the original anime that followed the manga exactly.  It sure didn't take long for me to get hooked again.

You'll have to look up the plot basics if you aren't familiar with it.  It's too complicated to explain quickly.  

What I quickly realized is that now that I'm an adult -- complete with job, mortgage, and husband -- having a serious fan-girl crush on Edward Elric is .... almost gross.  I mean, he's 15, maybe 17 by the end of the show! I'm almost 26! Ed might still be drawn as damn sexy, with his chiseled physique and earnest smile, but now he's a child compared to my adult.  I am so not cool with this; if I was Winry, as I remember picturing myself back during Round 1 of this obsession, I'd be in some serious trouble.

It doesn't help that he still has the "hair boner," that little piece of bang that just won't fall down with the rest of his hair.  That little blonde spike was totally adorable when I was 16, back when boners were still a hilarious and un-encountered concept.  Now that I've grown up and learned how adult and fun boners can be, I still find the hair cute, but now it had a side of "inappropriate shudder" accompanying it.

Nor does it help that my students are actually OLDER than Edward.  I teach seniors in high school -- they're usually about 17 or 18 years old -- and let me tell you, there is nothing attractive about any of them.  They're teenagers for god's sake -- they're smelly and immature and generally out of control (the girls too!).  This is not a winning age group.  But Ed, in his animated and dear-god-you're-young youth, is totally enticing.

I get it: he's animated.  They can draw him to be whatever they want -- most of the time he looks and acts like he's in his early 20s, anyway, with his ripped up arms and agile combat abilities.   Frankly, I wish they'd written him in his 20s because then I wouldn't feel so dirty for having a crush on him.

I can try to transfer my love to Roy, a more age-appropriate choice even if he's a little too intense for me.  With his being a much more subtly motivated character, he's hard to piece together and truly appreciate, so it's hard to feel connected to him.  Ed might be young and angry, but his motives are pure and his actions always geared toward good -- and deep down, I don't want to give him up.  He is an easy character to love, age difference or not, and I'll stand by him to the end.

The REAL Movie Event of the Summer

The smell punched me as soon as I walked into the theatre.  I had already been hesitant about this experience, and now I was grossed out too. Perfect.

I loved Dragon Ball Z as a kid, but the movie sounded less than compelling, especially as an adult.  I gave in when Bishop's friends begged us, more out of nostalgia than anything else.

Tickets sold out several hours in advance; luckily we'd purchased ours that afternoon, or we really would have been screwed.  Eau du Basement Dweller washed over me as we tried to find our seats in a surprisingly crowded theatre, our friends waving frantically for us.  They -- and all the other guys around us -- radiated excitement, like this was the best movie to hit theatres since Desolation of Smaug last Christmas.

Still skeptical, I sat and began people watching.  The first thing I noticed? This theatre contained, no joke, 98% men.  I think I saw maybe 5-7 girls in the whole place, including me.  The second thing was that we were surrounded by some truly out-of-date people: the group sitting behind me was having a Trigun argument (the anime was released in 1998) and when one of those Snickers commercials aired, I heard several "I am Jack's aggressive appetite" jokes, a 1999 Fight Club vintage I was surprised to find still irritating.  The third thing I noticed, before the lights dimmed, was the stranger sitting next to me; he was waiting for the movie to start by playing on his phone, complete with Goku (the DBZ main character) background.  We are talking high-level Nerd Achievements here.

Here's the poster. You now know more about this movie than I did when I agreed to see it. 

When the lights dimmed, everyone instantly hushed.  There were no trailers -- maybe when a theatre is showing a relic from the 90s, they can't use their standard previews? I'm not sure.  It got as far as that 'digital picture brought to you by whoever' ad (that one that always looks way prettier than the actual movie) before even the projector couldn't handle it and revolted; the movie stopped, the sound died, the lights came up, and the theatre went nuts.

About 3 minutes later, a blue PlayStation3-esque loading screen appeared, to shouts of "They're using the torrent file!" and plenty of laughter.  We were back on track.

The opening few minutes of any truly nerdy movie are filled with inside jokes that only those who faithfully followed the origin material gets; this remained true of the Dragon Ball Z movie. As soon as Goku and King Kai show up in the opening scene, complete with video game-style sound effects, the theatre went nuts.  Again. Since it'd been an appropriate number of years since I'd seen this show, I had no idea what was going on.  As the dialogue went on, it became clear that there some things I just wasn't going to get; Goku would say something and everyone would laugh, including Bishop, and I just had no idea what was going on.  That's actually unusual for me -- I have a great memory for quoting movies and TV shows, and I really did love this show.  Apparently too much has happened since my last viewing and I'd lost all the really important information.

There is an actual plot to this movie.  Lord Beerus, a god who looks strikingly like a large, angry, purple cat, has heard of something called a Super Saiyan God, and he's seeking out the remaining Saiyans in order to meet one.  In doing so, he crashes Vegeta's wife Bulma's birthday party, where he ends up enjoying time with his minion/trainer, Whis, Vegeta and family, Gohan, and the rest of the Dragon Ball Z gang.  Goku crashes later, having had a disagreement with Beerus before.  Eventually, Beerus gets pissed and demands a fight with the Super Saiyan God, so they have to figure out a way to find one so he can meet him and thus leave the party/Earth alone.

This can be summed up more accurately here:

At the party, Beerus wants to try pudding but Buu won't share. 

His totally sane reaction to Buu's selfishness. 

With some help, Goku goes from this 

to *fabulous* (check out that pink hair and those delts)

 so he can stop Beerus from destroying the Earth. Over a pudding cup. 

I swear that's the plot.  A few minutes of obligatory bad Japanese pop music during the fight scene, and the movie is over.  Bulma even invites Beerus back to her birthday part next year and Whis gets a sushi to-go box to take back to his and Beerus's training planet/tree thing.  (Spoiler Alert: Beerus is ultimately defeated by wasabi -- he eats a whole chunk of it in one bite and his head just explodes.)

It surprised me, but I actually had a lot of fun. The movie was really funny -- Trunks finds Mai, who now looks like a little kid (a throwback to the show? not sure) and wants her to be his girlfriend, and Emperor Pilaf keeps trying to steal things and getting caught, but no one's concerned because he also looks like a little kid.  Goten and Trunks run around together, and Piccolo looks on with his usual cool detachment while Vegeta gets super pissed at nothing and keeps blowing up at Beerus or Bulma.

The dialogue and animation are pretty much still kid-level, just like the anime, so going in with no expectations helps :) And anytime anything even remotely subtle happens, everyone immediately shouts about it for the next five minutes -- an old anime tradition.  Watching with someone you can make fun of it with helps too.

Somehow, I doubt I'll be purchasing this gem, but for a night, it was fun to re-live being a kid with Dragon Ball Z.

More Like "Attack on My Free Time"

I start back to school next week, so naturally I decided to start a time-consuming TV show in the meantime.
Everyone from friends to students to random strangers at cons has been telling me I needed to see Attack on Titan for months now.  I was hesitant: skinless giants? semi-medieval human society? subtitles??

But now that I've finally started watching it, I can already tell it earned all those recommendations.

That skinless giant I mentioned.  I was under the impression that all the Titans were as big as this one and just as skinless, but it turns out that isn't quite the case! 

The basics are these: in an alternate human history, giant humanoid monsters called Titans have essentially destroyed/eaten most of humanity.  They range in size from 60+ meters tall to a mere 3-4 meters tall, and very little is known about their origins or physiology other than that they are extremely hard to kill.  They don't seem to need to eat, judging from their lack of interest in eating wildlife, and the reason behind their eating humans is described as "pure bloodlust" at one point.  Most of them are male, and they lack any semblance of junk (think a giant, hungry Ken doll).

At the start of the show, humanity has been clustered behind a series of 50 meter high walls for 100 years, and where, exactly, those 100 years are in human history isn't quite clear. They have guns and cannons, but only primitive ones.  They travel via horse and carriage, but have 3D Maneuvering Devices (how the military moves to fight and kill Titans) that are gas-powered.  No one seems to have any idea what's outside those walls either, other than Titans.

During those 100 years, the Titans don't seem to have eaten anyone (or anything, as far as humans can tell). Many humans have never even seen a Titan and thus question the heavy military presence in the cities.  But of course, that military is immediately necessary in the first episode, as the Colossal Titan appears over the walls of the city and the attack begins.  Other than the Colossal, most of the Titans seem to have skin but are just as largely invulnerable, hungry, and terrifying to humans.

The show starts focused on three friends: Eren, his adopted sister Mikasa, and their wimpy buddy Armin. Eren seems to be the leader; he's loud and angst-y but very, very motivated to kill the Titans, thus driving a lot of the show.  Mikasa, who was adopted by Eren's family after hers was murdered, is an understated badass; she works to protect Eren at all costs and doesn't tout her own abilities, but as soon as they start military training, it's obvious that she's the most deadly of anyone on the show.  Armin started as a common bullying victim, but his character evolves a lot as time passes and training takes over; he ends up basically a tactical genius, which is pretty cool.

After they escape the Titan attack, they join the military and the pace of the show really picks up.  More characters get added, more complications arise, and the abilities of the writer really show as each character has depth and emotion to him or her.

There is a brief period of peace wherein everyone relaxes a bit and Eren, Mikasa, Armin, and the others can focus on their training.  Then the Titans appear again, and all hell breaks loose.

Mikasa, being a badass as only she can

I admit, it's a weird concept for a show, but hey, that's anime.  There are some obvious anime-only issues that go along with it -- the wiggly eyes that anime characters get to indicate strong emotion stand out a lot, especially if you're like me and haven't watched anime in a few years.  And the dialogue, which is all in Japanese and apparently 100% shouted, has a sometimes wacky, stilted English translation that makes it clear the show was translated in a hurry, as opposed to written to convey the same ideas/emotions but in a more natural way.  In one early episode, Eren kicks a guard and Armin jumps in to defend him, saying literally, "I am sorry he kicked you, one of the adults. He is hungry and thus irritable."  Obviously a translation and not real writing --which is okay! It's not an English show in writing or origin, so whatever.  Actually, as it goes on, the translation tries to make the English more fluid and natural by throwing in a bunch of "ain't"s and "gonna"s, thus adding a humorous redneck element.

Those are about the only details I can pick on though; it's a really good show, with really (thus far) consistent characters and creative conflicts. It's also absolutely beautiful, and the music rocks, if that helps.

I've heard that the show evolves to include political subterfuge and more mysterious elements as it goes on, which I'm really looking forward to.  It's clear even now, only about 6-7 episodes in, that there is more to the Titan story than what Eren, Mikasa, and the rest of the squad know.  Little hints -- like how surprising the appearances by the Colossal Titan are (considering he's 60m tall, you'd think he'd be easy to spot) -- abound that something dangerous and secret is going on.

I'm not yet far enough in to know what that something secret is, and I don't want to spoil anything if my speculations are correct, so I'm going to leave it at that.

Let the binge-watching commence!

It's on Netflix. Go watch it. Now.

The End of Mass Effect (*Spoilers!*)

I'm about to finish my second play-through of Mass Effect 3, and I really, really don't want to do it.

I've done it before.  Most likely, I'll do it again eventually.  But the ending crushes me every time -- last time, the first time, I ended up sitting in bed, unable to sleep and occasionally crying, over the gut-wrenching agony of the end.  That probably won't happen this time; I'm better prepared, having done it before. Last time I knew what was going to happen though and I still lost it.

The ending is always catastrophic, no matter which end I choose or how my actions play out.
I know, I know, there was a big dispute between fans and Bioware over how the game ended vs. how Bioware said it might end with regards to personal input and all that. Some friends of mine won't even touch ME3, even if they loved ME2, because of that mess. I don't care -- I thought the ending as perfect.  The series has never pretended to be anything other than a tragedy: characters can and sometimes do die in every game. So the end was no surprise, even if that doesn't make it less painful.

The end never gets tough until I reach the Forward Operating Base, after Shepard has taken out the Hades cannon and they're getting ready for the final run to the Beam/Citadel.  All those goodbyes...

Shepard can call each of her (I play as a paragon FemShep, for the record) old squadmates from Mass Effect 2, like Samara and Jack, people she's encountered throughout ME3 but never joined her.  All those calls are short and to the point: no elaboration on events or stories, they're mostly just quick "good luck"s and then it's over.  But seeing some of my favorites -- Samara, for example -- again just for a quick moment brings home that this game is over, the trilogy is over, and who knows what's coming next.

Some of the longer conversations are even worse.  Some, like Tali's or Kaiden's, aren't that bad, even as much as I love Tali, and Liara's offer to blend minds one last time can be rough to watch: I teared up a little at that this time through.  Others, though, brought so much more up to the surface.

I didn't have the From Ashes DLC the first time I played, so I didn't have Javik and didn't know what to expect.  Javik made an interesting contribution to the crew in ME3; as the last Prothean, he can be kind of a douchebag with his focus on victory at any cost, but there's compassion mixed in there for him as well.  They're both warriors, but with a weird dynamic: Javik approaches everything ruthlessly whereas my Shepard has more of a heart. My Shepard and he are always getting into fights over the morality of her choices, and I had to break up more than few fights between him and others. By the end though, they respect each other. When he tells Shepard that she's standing for all people who have faced the Reapers, that all souls are watching her... I was destroyed.  The whole conversation was heartbreaking in its sincerity.  (Those writers/voice actors deserves some serious awards).

And EDI.  oh EDI... I know I'm going to kill her, I do every time because that's my final choice for the Reapers, the choice I think Shepard would really make, given the circumstances and the motives of the game: destruction.  And that kills EDI too, since she's an AI (artificial intelligence). When she talks Shepard for helping her feel alive... my heart breaks.  I miss her, every time, and the prospect of having to explain it all to Joker (assuming I live...)...

In a weird way, I am glad that so many of my favorite characters were already dead.  Mass Effect 3 is a tragedy, an intense, talented one that invests you deeply into the characters even when you know they are doomed, and I got sucked in completely.

Thane's death is expected, though the short prayer he gives for Shepard made me weep.  And Mordin... I don't think I would have been so upset to see Mordin go if he hadn't started singing on the way up to the top of the Shroud.  Legion's death for his people provides an honorable way for Tali to come to terms with the geth, and I appreciated that element of her story.

I hate that I can't save during this whole process -- it means I can't go back and re-live Shepard and Garrus's goodbye without playing through the first part of Priority: Earth again (which takes a while).  Their goodbye is one of my favorite moments in the game; I cry every single time. The Shepard-Garrus romance feels so real, so tension-filled and desperate as they fight the end of their worlds.  Garrus is written as a deep, complex character throughout the whole series: Shepard is constantly helping him through moral crises, romanced or not, and each one adds layers to his complicated character.  In that way, he feels real to me.  I've always been drawn to people who have a past, who don't just coast through life without getting deeply, intimately involved in something along the way.  Garrus is like that: he's invested in his life, in his world, and I love that about his character.  Throughout their romance, he and Shepard are trying to find a lighter side, trying to enjoy each other in the face of death and destruction.  Their Citadel date about halfway through ME3 highlights that, especially their shooting contest on the top of the Presidium.
So when they have to say goodbye... I love it, even as I'm crying over how desperate those last few exchanges are, how much they are still trying to stay positive and together.

The last moments of the game.  Shepard looks so pissed, so ready to be over and done with the Reapers, so determined to take them down.  I love it.  

The end of Mass Effect 3 depresses me, and not just because the game's over and I have to say goodbye.  It's just that nothing I do will be ever be on that scale -- no matter what I do with my life, I will never save the galaxy.  I will never be the one to make those kinds of sacrifices.  I can choose to make small ones, if I want to, but the world isn't tailored for me to be Shepard.

I knew this before Mass Effect.  I read a lot, and I play enough games, and so many stories hinge on heroes.  Stories with this kind of scope happen a lot in fiction, and let-downs when they're over happen a lot too.
But something about Mass Effect feels different to me.  Maybe I just love Shepard and her world so much -- maybe I see how my life could be, given that several fundamental things about the world/universe were a little different... I believe I could have her kind of courage and determination, if faced with that situation. If saving the world really did come down to me, I think I could do it.

I love this game.  I don't care what other people think about the ending(s), nor do I waste time analyzing all the tiny flaws that no doubt exist.  That doesn't matter to me.

I will always do all the extra work so Shepard can breathe one last time, in the last moment before the credits role.  I don't want her story to end, in the game or otherwise.

Obviously, no one is forcing me to make that final run.  Only the fate of the galaxy is at stake, after all.  And it's time to take back Earth.

Anthrocon 2014

Just as I thought, Anthrocon turned out to be quite the adventure!

Bishop and I left our house at 8:00 am sharp, eager to be on the road and on vacation.  We’re good road-trippers; we listen to music and get lost and then laugh at our own map incompetence.  To start this drive, we listened to several hours of Jim Gaffigan stand-up, and even after a minor McDonalds-related bathroom break, we were still feeling pretty good.  This lasted approximately 6 hours until we got to Ohio, where construction spanning roughly the width of the entire state slowed us to a crawl. That, compounded by a trumped up speeding ticket from a very disagreeable state trooper, and we were just about dead by the time we rolled into Pittsburgh, almost 6 hours later. 

Thankfully Bone and our friend Kindle were already waiting for us, and life perked back up again after some good food and laughs. 

The next morning, the con began.

Anthrocon leads as one of the largest cons in the country, and it certainly wins as the largest anthropomorphic convention.  Thousands of people attend each day, and it brings millions of dollars into the Pittsburgh economy.  And walking into the convention center on Friday morning, there’s no doubting that fact.  We pre-registered to save time and still spent over an hour in line; the line to enter the Dealer’s Den wrapped around the entire floor of the center and kept growing even people headed through the door. 

Costumes are everywhere: fursuits, anime characters, someone wearing an actual TV on his head, anything I could imagine.  And no one blinked! I love this about Anthrocon, about cons in general, and I barely let Bishop look around the Den before I sprinted back to the hotel room to get suited up and debut Tali’Zorah vas Normandy. 

The finished product! 

Bishop’s costume, as beautiful as it turned out, takes less than 5 minutes to put on. He went as an Imperial Guardsman from Warhammar 40K: Space Marine, and the costume’s simplicity makes it perfect.  It’s mostly armor and a helmet; otherwise, he’s wearing cargo pants and a surplus Army BDU with some boots, and he looks exactly like the Guardsmen in the game. 

My costume is a little more complex, and sadly, not nearly as perfect as Bishop’s.  (However, mine took about 75+ hours, where his took about 8, so I’m still claiming mine as better J)

For the first time since I was a little kid, dressing was suddenly a two-person job.  I managed to slither into the jumpsuit, stretching the painted diamonds out as I went, and I could get the shrug over my arms and up onto my shoulders, but from there I was basically helpless. When I attempted to wiggle into my knee-high boots, I toppled backward onto the bed and lay there, defeated.  Bishop laughed himself silly. 

Once we finally managed to get the boots on and zipped (allow 30 minutes), Bishop set about pinning the leg wraps in place while I started Velcro-ing my armor to my torso and arms.  The forearm plating snapped within moments, the foam board I’d been using unable to tolerate actually being put on (of course, it worked perfectly in the comfort of my living room!).  And somewhere along the line, between making the belt and harness back in April to putting the costume fully on in July, I must have lost weight because the belt promptly slipped down my hips and off my butt.  The ‘gun’ in the holster was out – I’d never be able to keep it on. 

Finally I was dressed and ready to go, suited up and helmet in hand (too hot to walk outside with it on), and we set out. 

 The trek through the lobby earned some looks, the soldier and the god-knows-what (me), both wielding weapons that certainly appeared realistic and getting high-fives from the fursuiters.  There was a Pirates-Phillies series in town that weekend, and some of those fans may not be reappearing in Pittsburgh anytime soon – too much weird. 

The walk to the convention center let us get into character. Bishop’s Guardsman is very prejudiced against xenomorphs, that is, aliens, and as a quarian, Tali is obviously an alien.  We spent most of the walk ‘yelling’ at each other over the obvious conflict. Bishop actually got stopped by a Warhammar fan who said, “Be alert! There are xenomorphs everywhere!” And there certainly were. 

The Imperial Guardsman and the Tech Priest, both from Warhammer 40K. She lost her shit when she found Bishop in costume :) 

In my dreams, we walked into Anthrocon and got mobbed with people demanding pictures, people begging us to participate in parades or contests, all sorts of things.  This didn’t quite happen, but we did still get quite a lot of attention -- pictures, hugs, high-fives, salutes, questions, requests for cosplay advice, and my personal favorite, people wanting to commiserate over how their own games of Mass Effect ended.  After an hour or two of hiking around, taking pictures, and sweating profusely (remember Tali is in a head-to-toe suit and this is July – even indoors, it was hot), we headed back to change, declaring our first attempt at cosplay a success.  

Saturday, I went as Lady Bone, our friend Bone’s female alter ego.  This surprisingly easy cosplay – a black dress shirt with a hot pink tie, skinny jeans, and some pink lipstick and I was ready to go – turned out to be a blast.  Bone is a semi-celebrity in the furry community, so I definitely got some waves and looks from people who weren’t quite sure if I was Bone or just pretending.

Bone and Lady Bone

Sunday started with a trip to the auction to place my bids on the art I wanted and oogle the art that I couldn’t afford or was stunned by, especially as I ventured into the “Mature” section of the gallery.  Some of what I found was absolutely amazing – my favorite piece was a painting of a dragon guarding a mountain done all in dark greens and grays and blacks that ended up going for about $700.  Some pieces I just didn’t understand; the most expensive piece at the auction, for a total above $5,000!, was a small blue bird statue, less than a foot square.  And some pieces were just plain freaky, even for someone at a furry convention, like the  fursuit genitalia available for purchase in the “Mature” area, if I had happened to be inclined.

I avoided the freakier stuff, and sadly some of the more expensive dragon paintings, but I did manage to get some pretty amazing stuff.  Pics and artist names below:

These Chucks have dinosaurs drawn on them!! They are so freaking cool, I may never even wear them so I don't ruin the design, just put them on display in my house! 

This gorgeous phoenix drawing went for only $40, and no one even fought me for it.  I couldn't believe it! Especially when a fox in the same style went for over $500! Artist: Makoto

As Bishop and I went to pick up my prizes, we ended up in line behind the guy who bought the dragon piece I’d had my eye on, and we chatted with him for a quite a long time.  He ended up being an Australian on his first trip to the US, as well as a fursuiter with a 7 ft tall blue and red dragon suit, and he regaled us with tales of his experiences with hot dogs, Walmart, and Budweiser, those distinctly American pastimes that he wasn’t quite sure what to do with.  By the end of the line, we had an invitation to a concert DJ’d by this man, who wears his suit while he DJ’s, if we were ever in Australia as well as a number of tricks for keeping that suit smelling fresh, should I ever decide to acquire one. 

The people are, by far, the best part of Anthrocon.

That afternoon, I suited up as Tali again, and for the last time for the weekend.  Bishop threw on his Guardsman costume too, and away we went. 

This time, we almost really did get mobbed.  Seriously.  Just as we entered the Dealer’s Den, someone stopped us to take a picture.  Then, as we were saying bye (a crucial element of the cosplay routine – gotta be in character!), a guy stopped me to discuss how I was his favorite character from Mass Effect ever and could he please oh please take a picture with me? Of course, and when I looked up again, about ten other people were standing in a semi-circle around Bishop and I, all with either cameras flashing or waving as they had finished taking a picture and wanted acknowledgement before they left.  This went on for several minutes. 

And then repeated itself about ten minutes later.  Sunday was a very popular day. 

It wasn't a perfect costume -- the helmet was a little too large, in my opinion. But it was one of the most awesome experiences of my life! 

When the picture frenzy died down a bit, we just walked around, enjoying the con and relaxing – Tali and the Guardsman, no big deal.  Then a skinny guy with a backpack came up to me and said, “Tali? I need you to come with me.”  Okay, so off I went, Bishop close behind. 

It turned out that this guy had been sent on a mission from two artists stuck at their table: Go find Tali and bring her back for pictures! They both practically lunged out from behind their table to hug me and ask for pictures, which I was happy to pose for.  Both guys were super enthusiastic about finding me, maybe more excited than I’d been for dressing up in the first place, which was totally awesome.  One guy, after we’d chatted for a while and were about to leave, went, “WAIT!” and ran back to his booth, where he produced a ‘doodle’ he’d been working on.  I say ‘doodle’ because the drawing was on a scrap piece of paper; there was nothing remotely doodle-like about the work itself, seen below.

The caption says, "Oh sure it looks delicious, but can my suit handle the mass effect on my hips?" The only artist name I could find on the table later was Mike Gibbons -- I'm not sure if that was the guy who drew this or his buddy at the table, but no matter: Thank you!!

I couldn’t believe it! This was the coolest drawing I’d ever seen, and an original, and he just gave it to me! He said he wanted me to have it, since I was Tali.  Blown away, I said thank you and promptly sprinted back to Bone’s booth to brag to him and Kindle about my adventure.  Bishop thought it was pretty cool too ;)

Eventually, Sunday afternoon wasted away into Sunday night, and Tali had to be packed up for the trip home. Anthrocon 2014 was over.

Bishop and I in the Dealer's Den

The cosplay experience was totally worth it – the hassle, the creation time, the money, and everything else.  I loved being Tali, even if the costume wasn’t perfect.  I loved getting to play as someone else for a little while, and I really loved bringing a character to life.  The look on someone’s face when they see a favorite character is priceless – I know from experience, having discovered cosplayers as Shepard from Mass Effect and Gandalf from LOTR before – and I’d never realized it was so fun.  I can’t wait to do it again!! I even think I’ll bring out Tali again in the future.  Next time, I know what changes I need to finalize to make the costume even better.  And now I can start on cosplay #2! I’m looking forward to the next con. 

Dragon Age Love

I've been absorbed with Bioware's Dragon Age: Origins for the last few weeks, and like any new hobby, I just can't get enough.

The plot may not be the most unique ever -- it's a pretty standard good vs. evil, gather the army to defeat the bad guys type of story -- but the characters elevate its simpler plot to grand heights that I absolutely adore.

No doubt about it: Alistair is my favorite character.

His whole personality hits all my "fall in love with a fictional character" requirements: he's sweet, funny in a dorky, adorable way, and awkward in an endearing, non-Michael-Cera kind of way.  I played as a female human noble Warden, so of course I romanced him (which is perhaps my favorite Bioware feature), and his romance is cute as hell.  He likes to talk to you, and plenty of the conversations feel semi-realistic so it stays fun. I could even come on to him early on, which is hilarious.

Eventually, when I romanced him, Alistair admitted he was a virgin, a character quirk I'm not sure I've seen admitted in a game before.  Sure, there are assumptions one can make -- Morrigan is probably a virgin too, considering her isolated life, and I'm willing to bet that maybe Tali from Mass Effect could be, but I've never heard one of them admit it.  Hell, when I went to romance Garrus in Mass Effect 2, the "come on" line happens right after he tells Shepard about banging some turian chick! Not exactly virgin territory there.  So the Alistair is a virgin element was a unique addition, and one that I found even more endearing.  He's so awkward and cute when he asks to sleep with you! Plus, the speaking options don't write the Warden into a corner -- I could be a virgin or not, and it didn't seem to affect much for him.  There's a hilarious conversations about licking lamposts, wink wink, to walk you through that revelation.

And then of course, there's the ending. Spoiler Alert! You can marry Alistair if you are indeed a female human noble, which I was and so of course I elected to do this.  Eventually, if I can make it all the way through Dragon Age II, some dialogue crops up where Alistair refers to my PC (player character) as 'the old ball and chain' :). I may not be loving II, but I can't wait to get there.

Alistair looking all suspicious near the end of the game -- I can just hear him saying, "Swooping is... bad." :)

I can't talk about Alistair without talking about Wynne, the 'grandmotherly' mage full of wisdom, an admittedly cliche character type who thankfully breaks the mold.

Wynne fills the necessary magic role in the game better than Morrigan ever could (in my opinion).  She's funny without being bitchy, and she's a fantastic, strong NPC that adds a lot to the party I've been playing.  Seriously, even though she's old, Wynne is a total bad-ass: I even have her take on Loghain at the end of the game, and she always kills him.

She should be the kind of character I can predict, right? She's got lots to say on how to be a strong Grey Warden, and she always wants to help me or Alistair or anyone else in the party. Wynne comes across as grandmotherly, and Alistair's request for her to mend his socks at one point certainly boosts that point.  But somewhere along the line, some programmer/writer with a sense of humor decided that, underneath it all, Wynne was going to be a dirty old woman. And it works, and it's awesome.  Oghren, the dwarf, and Zevran, the elf assassin, hit on Wynne constantly; Zevran, in particular, is fascinated with her 'bosom,' as he puts it.  And while Wynne might turn them down consistently, her banter with them is full of hints at her former less-than-grandmotherly adventures.

Those boobies have seen some things, apparently.  

Plus, since I was in a romance with Alistair, Wynne continuously teases Alistair about being into the Warden. She calls him on watching my character's ass while we're out on a mission, and eventually, when I brought the two of them on enough quests, she 'lectured' him on where babies come from, an exchange that cracks me up every time I hear it. Listen here and be amused! Their mother-son relationship, even when it goes off the rails, adds even more depth, like they really are friends inside the world of the game.

 Wynne's magic leads me to Morrigan, one of the earliest added NPCs and one that I'm not totally sure I love.  She's an out-there character, a Witch of the Wilds who technically should be chased/threatened by the templars (which include Alistair, to a certain degree).

And Sten.  A qunari, a giant race of warriors, stranded in Ferelden and absorbed into the Warden's party as penance for a crime of rage and loss: his character bleeds darkness, mystery, and a cold detachment that takes lots and lots of work to overcome.  For a long time, Sten is silent, standing off to the side of camp in near-silence. Few conversation options exist, and new ones are few and far between as the game goes on.

This is Sten, when the Warden finds him.  He's gigantic and intimidating, all white hair and purple eyes, and only slightly less so once you get him into some armor and a giant sword

Eventually though, the Warden can get Sten to talk, and even more eventually, I got his personal quest.  By the last push of the game (just barely pre-Landsmeet), I had Sten's approval close to 100 points, although the label of his approval is still "neutral" in a funny twist.  (For comparison, Alistair's at 100 points is "love" and Wynne's at about 80 is "friendly.") I really liked Sten and his warrior mentality, dark as his outlook is.

Other than Alistair though, I think I love Shale the best.  He's a golem, which is basically a huge rock-man brought to life with magic, and he is absolutely hilarious.  I only got him by chance -- the copy of DA:O I bought has all the DLC included and he's part of a quest called The Stone Prisoner.  I am so glad I did.  Shale is somewhat effeminate both in voice inflection and word choice, which creates a fun contrast between his intimidating appearance and his personality, and he really enjoys pushing the buttons on the other characters, who never seem to quite know what to do with him.  There's on exchange where Alistair asks Shale about his sleeping patterns, and Shale expresses that he doesn't sleep, he just watches the rest of the party while they sleep, counting breaths because "it helps to overcome the overwhelming urge to crush their faces."  Yet the way he says it doesn't seem that intimidating, more like a casual, almost joking comment.

Ah, Shale. Intimidating to look at, yet terrified of birds.

He's also got this quirk where he just hates birds, obviously from years spent frozen in place and having pigeons crap on him.  Hilarious.

Also: SPOILER, but apparently on Shale's personal quest, the player discovers that, prior to being a golem, Shale was actually a girl. I didn't know this, and since Shale refers to himself as a "him," that's what I'm going with. It doesn't change how much I love the character, regardless.

I love this game so much, and the characters make it. I may just re-start it again the second I finish it.