Rebecca Blog Comic Con: Day Two

You guys, today was so great! I started the morning by showing off my children’s books to Savannah and her visiting sister; her sister gave me cash to buy her one of the If You Give a Hobbit a Ring because she knew her husband would love it. Yesterday I bought a time turner for Kira; I am becoming a Comic Con dealer.

 So the first thing I did was search out the Hobbit book because responsibility to others trumps waiting in life for James and Oliver Phelps, although I couldn't wait to do that. I had such an issue finding the booth again; the Artist Alley booths were organized by color, which, in my opinion, is the worst way to organize anything. If you haven't been to a convention I cannot convey to you how much your senses are overloaded, and trying to remember you saw one booth among the myriads is nigh unto impossible. The search for burgundy (where the artist was listed in the guide) was never successful, but I eventually found it, at a teal covered table. SMH. 

Next on my agenda: meeting  James and Oliver Phelps. Even from the back of the line their smiles are blinding. Too handsome for this world. At the table next to us was Anthony Daniels, the voice of C3PO. Fox13 news was there filming him meeting this awesome remote control life size R2D2 which moved and beeped and basically could be in the movie. It was cool to watch Anthony interact with the fans and use the voice on the robot. "R2, you stop that!" The man controlling R2 sent the droid lover to this little girl in the Anthony Daniels line dressed as Rocket Raccoon (her dad was Starlord; this was a parent-child costume I saw several times) and the robot put out its arms for a hug. Adorable. 

Anthony Daniels is the one in black.

Although I wanted the autographs of both twins, I couldn’t justify paying for two autographs when I knew that I’d still get to meet both of them even if only one was signing. The volunteer at the table assigned me James as I didn't much care. When I was next in the line, that is to say, right up by the twins but not having them focused on me yet, they were talking to the people in front of me about how it was a huge ego boost. Oliver said: “I should’ve just dropped the mic after saying SLC and the crowd roaring back.” Then he said that he did that once and the crowd booed and he was like, “no no no I was kidding.” Then it was my turn and these gorgeous British twins are in front of me and I’m like YES. James said, “I’m James.” It took me a second to respond because I was like, “I know who you are.” I finally said my name and then the volunteer said that this one was for only James to sign. I said, “I’m poor” because I didn’t want Oliver to think that I didn’t love him too. James said, “You chose the better one” and it was like a vocal wink and ahh so roguish. I said thank you for coming to Salt Lake and Oliver said, “We’re having a good time.” Then he asked if I was enjoying myself and I said, “Yes, definitely.” James was signing the photo and I said, “I don’t have anything really cool to say, I’m just like ahhh” and Oliver laughed. Oliver asked if I was here “for the whole weekEND” (I love the British inflection of things) and I said yes and then it was time to go and I thanked them both and shook their hands and ahhhhhhh so hot so great so British. My hands were shaking as I walked away and I had trouble getting the photo into the plastic, a smile plastered to my face. James wrote “To Rebecca, Great to meet you, All the best, James Phelps.” I LOVE IT.

After that I wandered around the booths, took pictures of the pirate ship, and many amazing cosplayers.I caught a glimpse of Hannah and Hilly Hindi from The Hillywood Show. ("Harry Potter Friday" is one of my favorite videos, and their parody of Hunger Games is my jam. My favorite cosplayers spotted today were a duo: the first was a mix of the dude from Arrow and Luigi and the second was the Flash plus Mario. Honorable mention to the guys dressed in drag to be the soldiers from Mulan. Creative costumes are my favorite. 

Today was my panel day. The first was Sean Astin. They played the video clip of Samwise talking about the good left in the world, and how they need to fight for it and I legit started tearing up. It was happy tears: I love Comic Con so much and I love Sam and I'm just glad to be alive. Sam and Rudy are basically the same person: the best of us all. Sean was cool. It turns out he’s very Christian, which I'm all about. He gave some rambling answers but I had fun. 

The next panel was Sebastian Stan. Confession: I haven’t seen Winter Soldier (I know, I know, it's disgraceful. One of these days....) but hey, I will stick around for hot men any day of the week. He was very charming and sassy and seemed chill. He struggled not to give us spoilers about Civil War. He grew up in Romania and didn’t read comic books because “I was a communist.” One girl asked a question in what I assume was Romanian and he answered in the same language and bilingual people are cool. He was very cool, but I don’t remember a lot of specific stuff that he said.  

The person I was most excited to see at panel today was Felicia Day. She has been my absolute favorite ever since she came to FanX in January. She’s so gorgeous and awkward and hilarious and I LOVE HER. I was thrilled that she came back, and she says she usually doesn’t but we are her favorite con so AWWW YIS. I couldn’t get enough of her-- she kept talking about this show called Poledark and the title character is this hot dude. She talked about him brooding and being like, “Look at my chest hair.” When asked about shipping she said “I ship me and Poledark.” When asked about crossovers she’d like to see she said, “There’s this great crossover with Poledark and me….” She said she likes wacky out there stuff like putting Joey from Friends in Game of Thrones or Big Bird in Days of Our Lives. You guys, she is so funny. Her phone went off during the panel and she checked it. “It says I’m doing a panel soon. I should probably get to that.” She was asked her opinion about a certain comic character and she said, “I have mixed feelings. Are you crushing? I would not make out with him.” Asked about meeting Jensen and Jared she said that Jared could deadlift her with one finger and her impression was, “You are strong and large.” All her characters keep dying ("I'm the Sean Bean of women.") so she tells herself that it is because the writers remove the characters that they think the audience cares about. “When one door closes, another opens. I hope one day I open a door that doesn’t include death.” Basically she was perfect and I have such a woman crush, it is out of control. I HAVE to meet her tomorrow since I missed out meeting her the last time she was here. One of many favorite quote: "The worst is when your friends are having a party and post about it on instagram, and you heart it, but really you're crying." Felicia Day is me.

Today I kept being overwhelmed by emotion because loving things makes life beautiful and I love being surrounded by people who “embrace their weird.” Yesterday the hashtag SLCC15 was the number one on both Twitter and Instagram IN THE WORLD. Aww yis. I love that the celebrities genuinely seem to love the experience of Salt Lake. I love conventions. I love the camaraderie and the bazaar of merchandise and cosplayers and everyone. It’s so great. Anyway. I squeal a lot when talking about meeting James and Oliver and how adorable and British they were and how cute Sean Astin was and Felicia Day's perfection in general and I AM SO GLAD THAT SALT LAKE HAS A COMIC CON.