The Reality of Heroes of Cosplay

Posted on August 22, 2013 by Armand in Home // 4 Comments

**Note: This entry comes from a good friend of mine who wanted to use my blog to voice his opinion also. If you have any questions or comments, please direct them to: ZiggoDent@gmail.com or twitter @ZiggoTheAlien

From the Mind of Ziggo Dent

The SyFy Channel’s newest reality show, Heroes of Cosplay, has gained many mixed reviews from viewers and mostly cosplayers out there. It can arguably be said that it has also divided the cosplay community instead of uniting them.

I’m a cosplayer, as well as a Filmmaker and I do freelance work on various TV Shows. It’s obvious that a lot of cosplayers and costumers are upset with this show but I personally feel like they haven’t taken the time to understand how television productions, in this specific case, how reality shows work.

I don’t like the portrayal of cosplayers as much as the next person but from a production stand point it is pretty spot on, on the basis of those doc-shows you see on A&E, Bravo, MTV, RealTV, and so forth.

Reality shows are meant to make fun of the stereotype. Jersey Shore was made to make fun of the ugly side of Italians, 16 & Pregnant and Teen Mom is made to make fun of teenage parenthood. Hardcore Pawn makes fun of business owners, Kitchen Nightmares makes fun of chefs and men with British accents, and the list goes on.

I feel like everyone was expecting this show to be just like Who Wants To Be A Superhero? but lets break that show down. That program was completely scripted from begging to end. If you do your research 95% of the cast from that series were actors working a gig. Remember Feedback? As much as I love that guy he was in Malcolm in the Middle before his debut on that series. Therefore, if this show was similar to that we would have people complaining that these aren’t real cosplayers and it wouldn’t really be an actual Reality show, at least in the definition of today’s formats.

The point I am trying to make is that you can’t get upset at a show like this because reality shows are meant to show the ugly side of things. Sadly, this really is the ugly side of cosplay. I am pretty sure everyone who has seen this show has thought of at least one cosplay friend we have that needs to be on this show because of the way these people are being portrayed. The portrayal of fame seeking individuals who live and breath this art form as if it’s their way of getting into Hollywood, or so they feel that way. I’m not saying everyone is like this but we all have come across at least one person who is this way.

Now, granted are we not happy with the portrayal of cosplayers? Of course not but I can’t be a hypocrite and bash on this show when i watch other reality shows that portrays the ugly stereotype of others. I love The Real Housewives of New Jersey because I love watching those crazies go at it with each other and if I am watching a reality show where there isn’t a fight then I don’t want to watch it. It’s also safe to assume that that is how everyone feels about reality shows. Whether you enjoy them or not, what lures us to a reality show is the drama and the fighting. Those commercials of Chef Ramsey in Hells Kitchen is what made me keep watching Fox right after House ended because I wanted to see this chef yell at everyone who is trying to cook. You can’t have it both ways and complain about the format of this show when it’s following the key basic structures of a reality show and then enjoy other reality shows that make fun or expose other groups of people

I never met Yaya Han and don’t know how she is personally, but whenever there is a competition reality show the host HAS to be a complete jerk. Look at American Idol, Hell’s Kitchen, and The Bachelor/Bachlorette. They get paid to be douche bags. They have to act however the producers tell them to act. It’s the equivalent of having a villain role in a movie.

Now I’m not saying to enjoy this show or not enjoy it. That is all based on the entertainment opinions of individual people. If you don’t like the portrayal of Cosplayers in this show and you consider yourself as such then use this as a format of how to act. At the same time, we do have to acknowledge that there is a reason we are being stereotyped as such and there are cosplayers out there who are this way. We need to see that extreme in order to know what lines we should and shouldn’t cross when it comes to this art form.

Amber // August 22, 2013 at 1:41 pm //

While we in the know understand how TV is edited to make things more dramatic and escalate tension between people that might not even be there, this show is not helping the cosplay community. I had a non-nerd friend message me just last night to say, “Hey I know what cosplay is now because I saw a show on tv!” I quickly responded that what’s portrayed on HoC is NOT how my friends and I spend our money and time. We do it for fun and quite often for charity (just like Riki who is on HoC). And since Riki is the only one I know personally (I’ve been in the same places as YaYa and Jessica), I know Riki also has a background in acting. When it comes to cosplay, you don’t get any more theatrical as an outlet so there’s no reason to expect people to not have performance arts or creative arts backgrounds (Belle Chere for example works in theatre). Tons of the celeb cosplayers are also fitness trainers so everyone outside the immediate community expects all of us to look like that and THIS is a problem! It’s something like Mardi Gras and Halloween and has been co-opted to be shallow and superficial rather than about the art of the costume and the source material.

And as someone who was filmed for a year for a different comic reality show, I got immediately disgusted when they felt the need to coach me with my dialog (to say NYCC was the best thing ever when I dislike the show) and always referred to me as a “character” not as “me.” It was pitched to me as a documentary and that’s what I signed on for but it turned into a very typical “reality” format episode that wanted people who are already popular to make them more popular. 90% of it was staged. It was supposed to be about costuming and charity and during one of my interviews my personal dating was brought up which I quickly put a stop to. I’m sure if I presented myself more dramatically as the Queer Charitable Formerly Obese Cosplayer then I would’ve been given all the props of the other “cast” members. I didn’t want to be cast. I wanted to be a person in a documentary showing facts.

Reality TV is popular for all the reasons Leroy said. Audiences want to see embarrassing train wrecks. They want to elevate someone as an idol then watch them fall in disgrace. I believe the Green Goblin pointed out that very notion rather well in Raimi’s Spider-Man. Reality TV took off because writers went on strike and the networks needed to air SOMETHING. This is what we got and it’s a snowball of vitriol that we as an audience obviously deserve. Look at what happened the Shark Week — it was god awful this year! Fauxumentaries on stations like The Learning Channel and Discovery.

If you want to see things about how to make costumes then I suggest searching through YouTube for things like Instructables.

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dreddeddeuce // August 22, 2013 at 2:48 pm //

Well made point. I think what a lot of people miss is the fact that television is STILL an influential medium in this day and age. A lot of us forget that many people STILL AND WILL do things because, they saw it on television and if no one tell them differently, then what they saw was ‘real’ or ‘true’.

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Liam (Deadpool, AzA/ECA) // August 22, 2013 at 2:38 pm //

Thanks Ziggo !!!
We Miss you !!
Perhaps, at the end of it, what we Should take away from this show, and any other ‘Reality’ show that one identifies with, is a Determination to never act in the bad manner that we see on the shows.
The show may Not present Us in a positive light, but it Can show Us where We need to Change, for ourselves, for the Better.
Use it as a Reminder to be Better than We Were.