Hello there!
Our second day at Dragon Con began with us sleeping in a bit after a late night. The first thing Riley and Bethany did was to go see the famous Dragon Con parade! With hundreds of cosplayers from a wide variety of genres, franchises, and a mix of both, the parade was definitely a must see for anyone interested in seeing costumes or cosplaying. There was a big Star Wars presence in the parade from the 501st Legion, the Rebel Legion, and the Mandalorian Mercs. There were also a number of Battlestar Galactica costumes, Final Fantasy, Game of Thrones, The Lord of the Rings, Anime, and various other video game, TV show, and movie characters.
After the parade, Aaron and Teresa put the finishing touches on their plans for a panel they hosted later, while Bethany and Riley attended the “Tolkien Guests” panel. This panel had stars Billy Boyd (Pippin), Craig Parker (Haldir), Jed Brophy (Nori), and Adam Brown (Ori). The panel was quite a lively one, and the chemistry between the stars was apparent. It was more of a Q&A than a strict panel format, and the audience members were able to ask many interesting questions.
Afterwards we ran into some Tolkien costumers!
Bethany and Riley then went to the Podracing for Younglings event! Parents took their seriously adorable younglings to decorate a cardboard box into a podracer, after which they proceeded to a full on podrace! The kids had an absolute blast, with many serious and concentrated expressions as they put the podracers together, and smiles once they raced.
Riley and Bethany then headed to the Sword and Laser LIVE podcast with Tom Merritt, Veronica Belmont, and, Naomi Novik. They talk about the creative writing process as well as giving up a “safe career” vs a creative career. Naomi discussed the value of pursuing the creative process to improve all areas of life.
Then we ran into a thirsty Gandalf.
Riley and Bethany were then panelists on the “Episode VII” panel! It was a lot of fun to be on. Bryan Young of Big Shiny Robot moderated the panel, which also had Brian and Nanci from Tosche Station, Amy Ratcliffe from Geek With Curves, and Brian from the Boba Fett Fan Club. We discussed a little news, and then spent the majority of the panel in a Q&A with the audience talking about rumors, news, and possibilities in the new films.
Later that day, Aaron and Teresa moderated the “A New Trope” authors panel, with Star Wars authors discussing tropes in storytelling. With Christie Golden and Timothy Zahn on it, the discussion was informative and funny, ranging from favorite tropes to least favorite, and everything in between. There was also discussion of the differences between tropes and cliches, and the difference in tropes in film vs writing.
Bethany, Riley, Teresa, and Aaron then went to dinner, celebrating Riley’s birthday!!
After dinner, all four of us went to the “Five Truthes and a Lie: My Own Private Kessel Run” panel. In this panel the audience had to guess which panelist was telling a lie. All of them told interesting, entertaining, and outrageous stories, and all were true except one. With Hugh Howey, Sam Huntington, Grant Imahara, Meaghan Rath, and Garrett Wang, this panel got hilarious almost immediately.
Bethany and Teresa ran into a Sabine cosplayer!
After that Riley and Bethany attended the “Night Attack Live” panel with Brian Brushwood, Justin Robert Young, and many special guests. Veronica Belmont was there and even did her ice bucket challenge live! Riley then got a Night Attack T-shirt.
After Night Attack, Riley and Bethany joined Aaron and Teresa for the “Last Party on Alderaan” Star Wars dance party! With an talented DJ, awesome music, and a room full of enthusiastically dancing Star Wars fans in every kind of Star Wars costume, I can see why this party is one of the more famous ones at Dragon Con.
If you haven’t been, make sure you try out Dragon Con sometime!
I attended the Rebels and Episode VII panel. You might remember me, I was dressed up as Kakashi from Naruto (ninja with crazy silver spiked hair) in the Rebels panel on Friday and I was in the Rogue Leader shirt and asked a question about spin-off movies in the EpVII panel on Saturday. I even bumped into Riley on the floor Sunday and sadly forgot his name and was like “Hey! It’s the Star Wars panel guy!”
I thought everbody in both panels did an excellent job. Considering we didn’t have much solid info to go on in either panel I still felt they were really fun and stayed till the end. It was great getting to know some more people in the community. Looking forward to having this site on my blog roll now and showing you guys some support. Hopefully we will see each other next year which will be just a few months away from the new movie!
Thanks man!
I loved both panels! It was a pleasure to meet you on the floor! If you’re interested, we’ll be doing a podcast recap soon on the Star Wars Report podcast at http://starwarsreport.com/category/swr-podcast/