Tenth Reel: 2012's Weekend of Canadian Geekery (Part 1)
[For the record, we did end up seeing two people cosplaying as Sorcerer Mickey and a human Ariel on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.]
Anyway. Dinner was due, so we went to one of the eating places across the road. It looks like most of the con members went to Boston Pizza, but screw that, we went to Tucker’s Marketplace, which is your typical western buffet. “Grab a plate and go crazy!” says their sign. I hope that doesn’t result in any china-smashing. There were also these weird-looking birds at the front.
It was good, though, for a buffet - there was some shrimp, some pasta, and a lot of meat and mashed potatoes. Dessert was pretty good, too, typical chocolates and ice cream and so on. It wasn’t the most notable meal of the day.
The highlight overall came after that. We had originally intended to go to the How to Train Your Dragon panel, but it was already halfway done by the time we were finished dinner and we figured we should get ready to line up for the next desired panel, since the lines always started 45 minutes before the program. The panel in question… was the brony panel. Surprise surprise, we are all bronies. Also surprise surprise, the line was already fairly long by the time we got there. We ended up chatting with a few of the bronies next to us in the line, discussing Season 3, giving each other brohoofs over who our favourite ponies were, and so on and so forth. We also talked about the irony of having the panel across from ours be 4chan. And at one point during the wait, that same 4chan panel’s door was visited by somebody. Some people also caught him for autographs. I reacted in much the same way as last year when I realised Noah Antwiler had just walked past us: just standing there, staring, trying not to squeal… and meanwhile, my brain was screaming: Ohmygod, that’s Lewis Lovhaug. Linkara is less than five feet away from me!
I am not quite sure why he was at the door to the 4chan panel, maybe because he had a panel or something in there later. But it was still Lewis freaking Lovhaug.
And then he left and I felt like an idiot for reacting like a fangirl.
Soon after that our panel opened and we all filed into the small-ish room. We got pretty good seats, actually, we were in the fourth row or so… well except for Atlas, who happened to get a chair that was right in front of a post. Who thought that was a good idea? Thankfully, the talking was more important than the seeing so he didn’t suffer too much. And the talking was everything ponies; we discussed our favourite episode moments, confession stories, the rise of the brony community, what such a community may mean for the future, theories of what the previews of Season 3 mean, and trying to be a brony in a life full of non-bronies (of the negative kind). We also played a bunch of remixes and other such similar things. Hosting the panel were three cosplayers: a DJ Pon3, an Applejack, and a Pinkie Pie, and they all had a lot of knowledge on the subject matter and had very interesting stories to tell. Overall it was very insightful, inspiring, and ohmygod the brony community is so friendly! I have seen fellow bronies and have talked with some of them (outside of Atlas and Ry) on Plurk, but this was the first time I had ever gotten together with them in the same room and actually talked with them and heard their thoughts and such. They are much like what I have heard about the LGBT community - generous, open-minded, and accepting and loving of everypony, brony or not. It made me very happy to be a part of it. Friendship is magic, after all!
(By the way, about halfway through the panel we had to move into another room where we had to sit on the floor in a haphazard circle. We all loved the closeness and Atlas never did miss the marvellous view he originally had.)
The Brony panel, with our cosplaying hosts. Plus Discord on the left.
It was midnight by the time it was over and we then had to take Atlas back to his abode. But all along the way we were chatting about ponies, music, ponies, and a potential cosplaying plan we have for next year… and ponies. Hopefully Atlas can stay for all three days next time. We said our loving, magical-friendly goodbyes and then the remainder of us returned to the hotel. For once we didn’t feel that sad about leaving our best friend, probably because the fun was only just beginning. We got a little lost on the way due to the decision of taking a different exit off the Don Valley Pkwy, but we got back safely and conked out by 2am. The con had already hit off excellently… and we hadn’t even reached the Awesome yet.
To be continued...
Anyway. Dinner was due, so we went to one of the eating places across the road. It looks like most of the con members went to Boston Pizza, but screw that, we went to Tucker’s Marketplace, which is your typical western buffet. “Grab a plate and go crazy!” says their sign. I hope that doesn’t result in any china-smashing. There were also these weird-looking birds at the front.
It was good, though, for a buffet - there was some shrimp, some pasta, and a lot of meat and mashed potatoes. Dessert was pretty good, too, typical chocolates and ice cream and so on. It wasn’t the most notable meal of the day.
The highlight overall came after that. We had originally intended to go to the How to Train Your Dragon panel, but it was already halfway done by the time we were finished dinner and we figured we should get ready to line up for the next desired panel, since the lines always started 45 minutes before the program. The panel in question… was the brony panel. Surprise surprise, we are all bronies. Also surprise surprise, the line was already fairly long by the time we got there. We ended up chatting with a few of the bronies next to us in the line, discussing Season 3, giving each other brohoofs over who our favourite ponies were, and so on and so forth. We also talked about the irony of having the panel across from ours be 4chan. And at one point during the wait, that same 4chan panel’s door was visited by somebody. Some people also caught him for autographs. I reacted in much the same way as last year when I realised Noah Antwiler had just walked past us: just standing there, staring, trying not to squeal… and meanwhile, my brain was screaming: Ohmygod, that’s Lewis Lovhaug. Linkara is less than five feet away from me!
I am not quite sure why he was at the door to the 4chan panel, maybe because he had a panel or something in there later. But it was still Lewis freaking Lovhaug.
And then he left and I felt like an idiot for reacting like a fangirl.
Soon after that our panel opened and we all filed into the small-ish room. We got pretty good seats, actually, we were in the fourth row or so… well except for Atlas, who happened to get a chair that was right in front of a post. Who thought that was a good idea? Thankfully, the talking was more important than the seeing so he didn’t suffer too much. And the talking was everything ponies; we discussed our favourite episode moments, confession stories, the rise of the brony community, what such a community may mean for the future, theories of what the previews of Season 3 mean, and trying to be a brony in a life full of non-bronies (of the negative kind). We also played a bunch of remixes and other such similar things. Hosting the panel were three cosplayers: a DJ Pon3, an Applejack, and a Pinkie Pie, and they all had a lot of knowledge on the subject matter and had very interesting stories to tell. Overall it was very insightful, inspiring, and ohmygod the brony community is so friendly! I have seen fellow bronies and have talked with some of them (outside of Atlas and Ry) on Plurk, but this was the first time I had ever gotten together with them in the same room and actually talked with them and heard their thoughts and such. They are much like what I have heard about the LGBT community - generous, open-minded, and accepting and loving of everypony, brony or not. It made me very happy to be a part of it. Friendship is magic, after all!
(By the way, about halfway through the panel we had to move into another room where we had to sit on the floor in a haphazard circle. We all loved the closeness and Atlas never did miss the marvellous view he originally had.)
The Brony panel, with our cosplaying hosts. Plus Discord on the left.
It was midnight by the time it was over and we then had to take Atlas back to his abode. But all along the way we were chatting about ponies, music, ponies, and a potential cosplaying plan we have for next year… and ponies. Hopefully Atlas can stay for all three days next time. We said our loving, magical-friendly goodbyes and then the remainder of us returned to the hotel. For once we didn’t feel that sad about leaving our best friend, probably because the fun was only just beginning. We got a little lost on the way due to the decision of taking a different exit off the Don Valley Pkwy, but we got back safely and conked out by 2am. The con had already hit off excellently… and we hadn’t even reached the Awesome yet.
To be continued...