Regular costume vs AU costume

Most of /cgl/ freaks out every time someone makes a costume that isn't a 1:1 copy of a character. I've seen multiple people have meltdowns on here because someone made a crossover they didn't like. Which is odd considering the rest of the community is usually happy to see creativity in cosplay, since there's tons of people doing canon versions of characters but few people doing AU versions.

You'd be better off asking this question elsewhere.

>>9534637
OP here. I am asking this question elsewhere, but I wanted a variety of opinions, so I posted here as well.

You do realize that your OP photo isn't an AU costume, thats one of the outfits of Duela Dent.

>>9534663
>Pic not related.

It says pic not related at the very top.

>>9534663
yes, we all know the $100% true story of the big bad meanie misogynist gatekeepers that got btfo with this cosplay on tumblr

>>9534663
>Pic not related.
>what is reading comprehension

>>9534668
Why the fuck would you use a commonly confused real, non-AU character and not expect people to think you're trolling? Delete the thread, it's doomed

>>9534676
Because, for a bit, there was a common misconception that this was an AU causing some people to be upset and naturally voice their opinions. I thought it would be a perfect image.

Back on topic: AUs where somebody put a lot of thought into the design and are well constructed are fine if boring.

AUs that are an excuse to closet cosplay or do slutty basic bitch shit like Lingerie!AU are cancer.

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Agreeing with >>9534697
It has to actually be well thought out, and put together well, otherwise it'll look cheap or look like you didn't try at all.

Pic related simple and hilarious concept, but it definitely looks like time was put into it, making it all that more great.

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>>9534704
And one more not really an AU but people should do more stuff like this too.

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Stupid unless it's a joke cosplay and the joke is good.

The vast majority of AU cosplays are:
- Lazier than doing a canon outfit (ex. Humanstuck), or
- Sluttier than doing a canon outfit (ex. bikini armor Princess Jasmine), or
- Both lazier and sluttier (ex. any lingerie or swimsuit "AU").

For the small majority of AU cosplays that are equally difficult as a canon outfit and aren't modified to show off tits, I don't have any negative feelings about it, but it does confuse me. Like "historically accurate Disney princesses" or "armored Care Bears." I can appreciate that work and talent went into it... it just seems like a waste of time that could have been spent making an actual costume.

>>9534721
>it just seems like a waste of time that could have been spent making an actual costume
They are actual costumes though. Just because you don't like them doesn't negate the fact that they're wearable costumes.

>>9534704
That is really interesting.

>>9534613
Can I ask where you're going to submit your paper (if anywhere) and how you're going to make an anonymous image board look like a legit source? There's technically no one you can attribute your data to, wouldn't that hurt the legitimacy of it?

>>9535047
I have a personal publication I'm working on. It's called The Blanket Fort. It's a new project I'm working on where I can talk about the politics of geek culture.

I'm not going to attribute any data from 4chan. Oh no. Just get a general idea of how some people feel about the subject. This post is just to get some ideas about how some people feel. I'm finding my evidence elsewhere.

I posted this same question to reddit and my personal facebook and I also will talk to some individual cosplayers.

>>9535049
Didn't mean to be redundant. I'm tired.

>>9534721

If you've made the default costume for a character and want to cosplay that character again but still work on something new, "historical" such and such or "fancy ball gown" such and such can be a good compromise. Some people are just really into specific characters.

I think how I feel about the costume it depends on a few things. Mostly, does the AU make sense in the context of the characters? Is this an AU where things could feasibly have happened to produce these results, or is it ridiculously out of character?

There was (maybe is, I haven't been paying attention) a big trend for Sailor Moon Punk groups a while back, and I really couldn't get it. At all. Because the while everyone was saying it was rebellious and feminist and so on, all I could see was people being super try-hard. The one character that was confused for a delinquent on a regular basis struggled against that stereotype, and was a domestic goddess. It would be stupidly out of character for her to embrace the idea of covering herself in tattoos and torn denim to beat down the patriarchy. Yeeeeeeeeeew! Or something. It really irked me.

Similarly, I find armoured anything costumes to be stupid if the characters aren't actually engaged in combat in their worlds. Armoured Disney Princesses, for example, do not make sense unless we're talking about Merida. Armoured Sailor Senshi I'd give a pass if the costumes were executed well, and somehow tied into the original art. Armour based on Pokemon could also be neat, if we looked at it from a Monster Hunter perspective (meaning, armour made from Pokemon, as opposed to armour-wearing Pokemon).

As far as AU for games that have skins, I feel like they get a pass just in general on the "would ___ do this" because game-makers give no shits about that kind of thing. So Overwatch AU designs, SMITE AU designs, etc. etc. etc. don't bother me as much as something that has a single-line continuity of canon.

>>9535049
Fuck you and your trashy click bait blog

>>9534721
I can't find the pic but a personal favorite that also baffled me was a mandalorian armor Snow White (aka Boba Fett from Star Wars)

The craftsmanship was top notch too, from what I remember.

More generally, I agree with the points made here. I like AUs that are topically relevant or logical to the source material. Example: Star Guardian Sivir from League of Legends, or a well executed formal ball Disney princess.

As with most things cosplay related, it depends on the costume.

AU cosplays made that are funny, make sense, interesting, well-made, or just made because you love dressing up like the character? Totally fine. I have seen some amazing-looking AUs for shows where the characters normally have very simple outfits.

AU cosplays that are made to glean popularity or are lazy , ie "insert generic sexy boob armor of x" or "shirtless y" or "I put a long wig on and now I'm a genderbend of z"? Will get a lot more eye rolls.

Design also heavily plays into it. As much respect as I have for how well made >>9534721 is I would have no clue what it was without being told. We are fast approaching the point where people are scraping the bottom of the barrel for series that have not yet been armor-ed in order to grab the most attention.

>>9535136
He made one post and it's just him introducing himself.

>>9534613
the point of cosplay is to dress up as a character you like to pay homage to their source material

once you start doing "AU costumes" you are no longer dressing as a character but rather dressing in a costume inspired a character

you can do whatever you want, though

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>>9535208
>some amazing-looking AUs for shows where the characters normally have very simple outfits
Semi-related - I'm not familiar with the series (I think it's the volleyball anime?), but the designs and complexity of this AU always seemed pretty neat.

>>9535404
>Gay Volleyball
Haikyuu!!

>>9535132
Or Mulan who canonically wore armor.

>>9534613
i think AU costumes are fine, but i'm not a big fan of things that make the character completely unrecognizable even to people familiar with the source. if you're going to do an AU version, you need to leave something representative of that character (weird example, but think dipper from gravity falls- even if you gave him an alternate design, you could retain his identity with his hat) or have something thematically relevant.

>>9535199
i think the craftmanship is often what separates a good and a bad AU costume, though some are irredeemable nonsense. if you're going to do something silly, it better be fucking funny instead of just dumb or pulled out of your ass.

>>9535404
I don't think this is an AU, I think these designs are official

Au = no longer dressing as the character like another anon said. Also most au cosplays are trash so they require less effort than the real thing or are meant to make an outfit sexier.

>>9535556
No, they were designed by the cosplayers themselves iirc

>>9535497
Well. Yeah. But that's not AU armour. Which was kind of what I meant by using Merida as my example. In the movie, she doesn't go into battle, she doesn't wear armour, but she's trained herself to shoot and ride and fight. So it's feasibly something that could happen in an AU (or even her own story).

Ping/Mulan armour wouldn't be AU, since she actually wore it. Unless we're talking tacky fantasy armour in primary colours, which seems to be the default for armour AU costumes (yuck).

Cosplay: replica of an existing design; original designs/AUs are by definition not cosplay but there's nothing wrong with that

Costume: a thing you wear that might be inspired by or representing a thing you like. Leave people alone and let them have fun.

>>9535556
>>9535845
Yeah, the Haikyuu Quest designs are nothing like these. speaking of which
>why not just cosplay haikyuu quest

>>9536113
>>9535399
You're getting deep into semantics at this point, but if you want to split hairs, cosplay is about representing the character. If you're representing the character well while wearing different clothing, it still counts as "cosplay" IMO.

>>9536116
I've only seen Haikyuuquest designs for the main characters so at a guess they needed more costumes.

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I just don't like ones that make no sense. I understand a lot of people love Disney princesses but stop pretending that any of the early ones kick any remote amount of ass.

As for the historically accurate ones or any fan art cosplay they rarely look nearly as appealing as they do in the art.

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>>9535199
The Mandalorian Snow White cosplayer you're thinking of is probably Amber Arden, by the way.

The way I think of it is that anything goes and is still cosplay as long as the character is recognizable, but personally I only like things if there's one kinda of canon seperation at a time. Like, Steampunk Sailor Moon? Yeah sure, excute it well and that could be really cool. Steampunk genderbend Sailor Moon? Steampunk Armored Sailor Moon? That's just too much going on imo, though if the craftmanship is still good at least I can appreciate it for that.

>>9534613
I don't really care what people want to cosplay as, but I feel like people who do AU characters are looking for more attention than other people, ya know. They seem just a little bit more obnoxious, but not horribly so. You do you.

>>9536478
if that's who they're thinking of then she was part of a group that did various disney character versions for boba fett armor

Everything nowadays is steampunk versions or Star Wars crossovers

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>>9534613
I guess my problem is cosplay is the act of representing a character in their universe by bringing it to life.

AUs don't exist in the context of whatever that character comes from so when I see them I feel like someone is trying to just "standout"
Doesn't help that most the time they are super dark and edgy themed.

The only exception I have are like some people mentioned games with multiple skins for characters, universes were one look is not universal (think like different types of orcs or a player character in an rpg) and lastly looks that exist but are never shown (like how a character would look 10 years before or after a their story)

Even high quality AUs rub me the wrong way if the context doesn't match up to that character.

Also Gender bends are fine as long as you don't use it as an excuse to show skin off because you're still trying to represent the character.

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>>9534613
I couldn't give less of a fuck. If you don't like it just don't give them attention. If they are being attention whores and you can;t get away from it tell them to fuck off. I personally don't like it and wouldn't waste my time or money on OC mary sue level shit, but some people do. And thats okay, they are allowed to enjoy things. Just go enjoy them over there, and leave me out of it.

Also I don't think OP's pic is an AU, I think thats Duela Dent.

>>9534670
Honestly I find women to be the most vicious in this community. 'Gamer guyz' are pretty generic and ignorable. Women will utterly destroy each other over cosplay.

>>9539876
It's not an AU and OP knows it ("Pic not related."). However it was probably chosen as easy bait for people who didn't read the first line since it's commonly mistaken for genderbend Joker.

>>9534613
I sorta eye glaze over mashups.

Worst offenders are people who wear a wig and torn up outfit with a bikini. Like they knew they couldn't make something good, so they made it look like trash on purpose and just wore a bikini to distract people from their shit costume.

>>9539887
Lol Gamer Guyz are still the worst people ever when you're actually playing games. So what if girls bitch about cosplay guys have said the most horrible things imaginable to my black friends while playing Overwatch.

>>9539887
>>9539958
fuck off with your gender war bullshit

>>9534637
What is AU ?

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One cosplay I did once when I was plus size (and didn't have a wealth of characters to choose from accurately, so I liked doing AU things) was crossing Link and Zelda together in a cool conceptual look. I even used metalworking to make the Hyrule Warriors crown, but have it be all green and vine-y looking, so that it matched the forest-y style of OoT Link. I also made a giant staff like what Hilda had in LBW, but made the top be the hilt of the Master Sword. And I used a green lace veil/snood to hold my hair instead of the green sock cap.

>pic related, is me

>>9542061
Alternate Universe. A blanket term that covers any "______ but if it was ______" stuff. Like Sailor Moon if they were a biker gang or Bleach it was a space opera etc.

One random one I thought of that I actually want to see is FFXV if it was a more traditional medieval JRPG

All of my shitty AU outfits have been made as jokes. Emo Kylo Ren was a big hit right after TFA came out.

Don't bother telling me to kill myself for making that trash pile, I wanted to punch myself in the face every time I saw myself in a reflective surface.

>>9542070
Post the full costume pls, it sounds neat

>>9544407
It's from two years ago, when I was over 135 lbs heavier than I am now, and the outfit didn't photograph well/I didn't look great in it, sadly. I have one full-body photo, but it doesn't look great. I did get one fairly nice selfie though.

I just worked really hard to lose all this weight and I don't want to have people be distracted from my cool metalworking by making fun of my weight. I can post it, but I'm a little self-conscious about seeing old photos of when I was 270+ lbs.

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>>9544656
>>9544407
Eh, screw it. The pic doesn't do it justice, though. I had really cool puffy pirate-y lace up pants tucked into adventurers boots as well. I really tried to draw elements from both characters and aesthetics. ((The green looked a lot more green IRL.))

Related but not exactly: what do seagulls think of cosplaying from series that don't have Canon appearances (thinking podcasts mostly). You have to rely on fandom fanart interpretations.

>>9549840
Are you trying to cosplay TaZ or something?

>>9549842
My guess is Nightvale

It doesn't really matter as long as the interpretation makes sense and there's something about it that's recognizable.

>>9549840
I do a lot of theater/broadway/takarazuka cosplays and as costumes typically change drastically from production to production, I know this feel.
I always start with any details that it's safe to assume about the costume (ie Veronica Sawyer will have dark hair and wear an 80s schoolgirl outfit, Jean Valjean will have tattered clothes and a beard, Der Tod will be dark, androgynous and gothy). After that, you can layer theme colors to make it more recognizable (Veronica wears blue, Jean Valjean is french so throw in some french flag colors, Der Tod is literally death so layered blacks) and props to make details tie your design together (They play croquet in Heathers so give Veronica a mallet, Valjean could have a loaf of bread, silver candlesticks, or his prison number, and Der Tod could be carrying that famous portrait of Elisabeth that all the show advertising has)

Basically work in enough detail and you'll be good, you don't necessarily have to base it on fanart if you use evidence from your source properly.

>>9545461
>What if Zelda was a girl?
Also, more pics of the staff sword, please?

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>>9539888
Yeah, which is why I said it wasn't AU. I'm not familiar with Duela or that fandom really, but I did see some discord float around about it a while back. It is a good choice BECAUSE of the butthurt surrounding it. It looks like a steampunk slutty joker that came out of a cosplay nightmare only JNig could dream, but it is real.

I believe that people should be able to cosplay as whatever they want, as long as they don't cross certain lines, like an intentionally offensive cosplay, things no one wants to look at or things that are too adult at family friendly events.

That being said, people really need to examine why they are cosplaying before they pick a costume. I personally like cosplaying at conventions because I'm a shy person and it causes people to approach me and start conversations. I pick characters from series that I love and characters I can pull off while avoiding revealing costumes because I want to talk to people about my favorite series, not just get random attention. Trying to do an AU makes the character less recognizable unless they are very iconic which would be an overdone cosplay in the first place.

>Should they be given more attention
No one owes anyone attention. No one deserves "more attention." A well done costume will get attention. Any person who says "X" cosplay should get more attention is salty because no one likes their cosplay.