stalkerbunny (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stalkerbunny) wrote2013-08-01 05:14 pm
stalkerbunny) wrote2013-08-01 05:14 pm
Entry tags:
I'll just make that Ropecon post now
Like I said, there are no pictures of people (except me, at home in my costume) because I went alone and was too shy to ask anyone. But I'll post some links to pictures I found online even so close to the event.
I worked for eight hours (four hour shift on two days) in the large cloakroom, which was pretty easy work for the most part and gave me free entrance. And I could talk to people, which was also cool.
Friday:
Left some clothes for sale at the stall for it, saw a panel on four modern interpretations of Sherlock Holmes (Granada, Guy Richie films, BBC and Elementary). Had some thoughts but didn't manage to speak up between topics and there was no time left over in the end. Mainly... why are even FANS of the Guy Richie verse so apologetic about it? And, I'm not sure if it was intentional or what but... the BBC panelist kind of made it seem like the series' queer baiting is supposed to be a positive thing or it would be *bad* if there was outright queerness in the main's relationship. It's also possible I was overly critical of them because Sherlock is... super problematic. Audience member who said something about how even the writers seem to ship them also made me want to headpalm. I mean, that's cool for them but could they not write in such homophobic/racist/sexist etc. ways? TBH at this point I have a hard time seeing John and Sherlock's friendship in BBC canon as healthy let alone anything else. (Yet I still read fic occasionally. I am weak). But that's another long story.
Also caught a rather large spoiler for Elementary (since I've started watching season 1 but it was back in Sweden so I've been unable to continue). Whoa. Not sure what to think about this but... it might make their writing choices re. Irene Adler slightly less annoying. Not entirely decided on that though. But let's not get me started on Irene Adler and the recent three interpretations... (already did that rant the other morning at my sister I'D).
Returning to the panel, it was generally pretty cool. And thought provoking though sadly there was no time left for discussion. Jeremy Brett's life make me cry on the inside a little. Also apparently Edward Hardwicke looked after Brett irl when his health deteriorated and they were generally close friends. All my wibbles. I was surprised to find out that Holmes quit cocaine due to negative media attention or something, since I always thought it was a deliberate end to a side-plot arc... good work, I suppose? :'D
And Elementary is just. So cool. >3< Not perfect, of course, but mmm sweet representation. And men and women being friends. Just friends. No romance. Wheee. Keep it up. >_>-->
Moving on, after that I barely had time to eat a little before heading to a table top game. It concerned an aristocratic French family on the brink of financial ruin due to a gambling head of household, set about ten year pre-revolution. No thrice throwing, so I think it would be called jeep-form? Anyway, the setting was pretty ok and the GM did their best but... but somehow the game kind of dragged. Possibly we were all a bit tired by the late hour or something. Also I was not impressed by the selection and descriptions of female characters (had the choice of religious old-maid, virtuous maid or irresolute wife...), and also have some bad memories of playing female character at con-games with a mostly male group so in the end I just picked a male character to be safe. And later listening to a fellow player creepering on the NPC maid I was glad of it.
Thanks for calling your awkward attempt at "romance" (read: sex) a quest. Because quests have... objectives. =_= Also kind of wished GM's playing of female NPC's had had them do something else besides giggle and blush occasionally. But oh well. Enjoyed playing the single character who actually had money and some business sense, even if he also loved his wife with a borderline patronizing fondness. I like to think he was smart enough to get them out of the revolution alive and well too, perhaps apart from the (annoying) brother in law. That guy's only hope would have been rescued by the Scarlet Pimpernel, as the player said.
Saturday:
Thought of going to some earlier panels, but in the end I slept late instead. Had a cloakroom shift from 17-21, so I arrived some time before that and walked around con. Shift was quiet, as most of them apparently were. Had some trouble due to my number blindness, but luckily no one was in a great hurry. Was only a bit embarrassed to bring the wrong bag once when I'd had the tag in hand... I'D For the first two hours it was so quiet I and the other two on shift played Red November with a few other people just hanging around.
Someone came by and showed his homemade lightsaber.
Talking about home made nerdy gadgets, the Finnish Ghost Busters group was at the con again, and one of their ghost catching thingies was at the con-history exhibition. It has lights and sound too.
After shift I managed to get into a two hour tabletop game set in a P.G.Wodehouse setting, where one got points for either having fun ideas and/or failing amusingly. Fun times. :D Character's high point was coming second in the costume portion of a dancing competition. I mean, the first prize went to her friend, but she'd given her style advice, and also her Mortal Enemy (who dared to wear a similar dress) was third so that's a win.
After that game I decided it was too late to travel home and back, so I hung around the staff room, where the mood was... interesting at past 1am on the second day of con. Noodles were out and there were kazoos. Yet no one was lynched. That was the strangest part.
Eventually I went into the night with another girl who was facing a surprise stay overnight, and we miraculously found a free matress at the staff housing. Which was awesome, until someone began to play industrial metal and having an con-after party in their car below the window. I managed to resist the urge to scream or go bite them just barely, but hated the whole con until it stopped sometime around 5am. Then I maybe slept a tiny bit, enough to feel mostly alive at my 9-13 shift at the cloakroom. Where we were briefly busy-ish at the beginning and then it was quiet and we talked. I even got to talk briefly about Classic Who. Which was nice. I kind of didn't want to leave at the end of shift, but needed to fetch my unsold clothes from the second hand stall before a panel at 14.
Only two items out of ten had been sold, but that was something too. Also the program, "Girls Playing Boys - Crossplay in table and liveroleplays" was if possible even better than I expected. Nothing much was new, but it was still refreshing after all the rampant masculinity I've encountered at certain other meetings with roleplaying culture. Not all, but some. There was some unclarity about just why ultrafeminine characters can be problematic (iow when that's the ONLY sort of template available and/or portrayed as negative), which I would have commented if I'd had the chance, but again there was too little time for comments. Still, there was a lot of intelligent commentary on gender and sexuality in roleplaying in a rather short time. Not ignoring trans issues either.
Also bought a con-shirt before leaving, for the first time, because it had a really pretty illustration
This is the staff version, the other one had a female figure. (artist's tumblr post with both
After that there were some hours of con left, but nothing that I was really interested in, and when I called family to see if they could fetch me at some point they turned out to be on the way from elsewhere and could get me on the way. So that was this year's con. Depending on whether I find work in Sweden next summer, might not be here then and... who knows after. Glad I went, anyway.
Incidentally, some of the best costumes I saw were from a Hobbit group, which were so great it was actually a bit unreal. Also my first sight of two of them was when I heard a muted "king of the forest...!" from a passer by, and turned to see Thranduil and Thorin casually spooning in the park. And lo, suddenly I shipped it (no really, I even went looking for fic I'D). Some pictures I found online because I was too shy to ask for some. >//>
I worked for eight hours (four hour shift on two days) in the large cloakroom, which was pretty easy work for the most part and gave me free entrance. And I could talk to people, which was also cool.
Friday:
Left some clothes for sale at the stall for it, saw a panel on four modern interpretations of Sherlock Holmes (Granada, Guy Richie films, BBC and Elementary). Had some thoughts but didn't manage to speak up between topics and there was no time left over in the end. Mainly... why are even FANS of the Guy Richie verse so apologetic about it? And, I'm not sure if it was intentional or what but... the BBC panelist kind of made it seem like the series' queer baiting is supposed to be a positive thing or it would be *bad* if there was outright queerness in the main's relationship. It's also possible I was overly critical of them because Sherlock is... super problematic. Audience member who said something about how even the writers seem to ship them also made me want to headpalm. I mean, that's cool for them but could they not write in such homophobic/racist/sexist etc. ways? TBH at this point I have a hard time seeing John and Sherlock's friendship in BBC canon as healthy let alone anything else. (Yet I still read fic occasionally. I am weak). But that's another long story.
Also caught a rather large spoiler for Elementary (since I've started watching season 1 but it was back in Sweden so I've been unable to continue). Whoa. Not sure what to think about this but... it might make their writing choices re. Irene Adler slightly less annoying. Not entirely decided on that though. But let's not get me started on Irene Adler and the recent three interpretations... (already did that rant the other morning at my sister I'D).
Returning to the panel, it was generally pretty cool. And thought provoking though sadly there was no time left for discussion. Jeremy Brett's life make me cry on the inside a little. Also apparently Edward Hardwicke looked after Brett irl when his health deteriorated and they were generally close friends. All my wibbles. I was surprised to find out that Holmes quit cocaine due to negative media attention or something, since I always thought it was a deliberate end to a side-plot arc... good work, I suppose? :'D
And Elementary is just. So cool. >3< Not perfect, of course, but mmm sweet representation. And men and women being friends. Just friends. No romance. Wheee. Keep it up. >_>-->
Moving on, after that I barely had time to eat a little before heading to a table top game. It concerned an aristocratic French family on the brink of financial ruin due to a gambling head of household, set about ten year pre-revolution. No thrice throwing, so I think it would be called jeep-form? Anyway, the setting was pretty ok and the GM did their best but... but somehow the game kind of dragged. Possibly we were all a bit tired by the late hour or something. Also I was not impressed by the selection and descriptions of female characters (had the choice of religious old-maid, virtuous maid or irresolute wife...), and also have some bad memories of playing female character at con-games with a mostly male group so in the end I just picked a male character to be safe. And later listening to a fellow player creepering on the NPC maid I was glad of it.
Thanks for calling your awkward attempt at "romance" (read: sex) a quest. Because quests have... objectives. =_= Also kind of wished GM's playing of female NPC's had had them do something else besides giggle and blush occasionally. But oh well. Enjoyed playing the single character who actually had money and some business sense, even if he also loved his wife with a borderline patronizing fondness. I like to think he was smart enough to get them out of the revolution alive and well too, perhaps apart from the (annoying) brother in law. That guy's only hope would have been rescued by the Scarlet Pimpernel, as the player said.
Saturday:
Thought of going to some earlier panels, but in the end I slept late instead. Had a cloakroom shift from 17-21, so I arrived some time before that and walked around con. Shift was quiet, as most of them apparently were. Had some trouble due to my number blindness, but luckily no one was in a great hurry. Was only a bit embarrassed to bring the wrong bag once when I'd had the tag in hand... I'D For the first two hours it was so quiet I and the other two on shift played Red November with a few other people just hanging around.
Someone came by and showed his homemade lightsaber.
Talking about home made nerdy gadgets, the Finnish Ghost Busters group was at the con again, and one of their ghost catching thingies was at the con-history exhibition. It has lights and sound too.
After shift I managed to get into a two hour tabletop game set in a P.G.Wodehouse setting, where one got points for either having fun ideas and/or failing amusingly. Fun times. :D Character's high point was coming second in the costume portion of a dancing competition. I mean, the first prize went to her friend, but she'd given her style advice, and also her Mortal Enemy (who dared to wear a similar dress) was third so that's a win.
After that game I decided it was too late to travel home and back, so I hung around the staff room, where the mood was... interesting at past 1am on the second day of con. Noodles were out and there were kazoos. Yet no one was lynched. That was the strangest part.
Eventually I went into the night with another girl who was facing a surprise stay overnight, and we miraculously found a free matress at the staff housing. Which was awesome, until someone began to play industrial metal and having an con-after party in their car below the window. I managed to resist the urge to scream or go bite them just barely, but hated the whole con until it stopped sometime around 5am. Then I maybe slept a tiny bit, enough to feel mostly alive at my 9-13 shift at the cloakroom. Where we were briefly busy-ish at the beginning and then it was quiet and we talked. I even got to talk briefly about Classic Who. Which was nice. I kind of didn't want to leave at the end of shift, but needed to fetch my unsold clothes from the second hand stall before a panel at 14.
Only two items out of ten had been sold, but that was something too. Also the program, "Girls Playing Boys - Crossplay in table and liveroleplays" was if possible even better than I expected. Nothing much was new, but it was still refreshing after all the rampant masculinity I've encountered at certain other meetings with roleplaying culture. Not all, but some. There was some unclarity about just why ultrafeminine characters can be problematic (iow when that's the ONLY sort of template available and/or portrayed as negative), which I would have commented if I'd had the chance, but again there was too little time for comments. Still, there was a lot of intelligent commentary on gender and sexuality in roleplaying in a rather short time. Not ignoring trans issues either.
Also bought a con-shirt before leaving, for the first time, because it had a really pretty illustration
This is the staff version, the other one had a female figure. (artist's tumblr post with both
After that there were some hours of con left, but nothing that I was really interested in, and when I called family to see if they could fetch me at some point they turned out to be on the way from elsewhere and could get me on the way. So that was this year's con. Depending on whether I find work in Sweden next summer, might not be here then and... who knows after. Glad I went, anyway.
Incidentally, some of the best costumes I saw were from a Hobbit group, which were so great it was actually a bit unreal. Also my first sight of two of them was when I heard a muted "king of the forest...!" from a passer by, and turned to see Thranduil and Thorin casually spooning in the park. And lo, suddenly I shipped it (no really, I even went looking for fic I'D). Some pictures I found online because I was too shy to ask for some. >//>