Randomosity on Fridays: Comic Con Edition

It's been a week since Comic Con, and both the Sister and I have major SDCC hangover. Part of it is the continued sleep deprivation, but also it was just so fun. It was amazing to be around so many people with common interests and to have so much going on around us. Our days (and nights) were always packed with things to do or at least sights to see.

In any case, I think it's kind of impossible to write out everything that went down and pictures are more fun anyway. So here's a longer, day-by-day recap of our very first Comic Con experience. This will probably be Part 1 of 3? Hope you'll check back for more next week!

WEDNESDAY

We drove down to San Diego, settled in at the studio we rented, and went to pick up our badges...which turned out to be at a hotel that required more freeway driving. I discovered I hate San Diego area freeways. Lots of traffic ensued; the Sister started calling BS on everything, leading her to believe the theme of the weekend would be "This is BULLSH*T." (Clearly, this was NOT the case.)

Jelly!Prongs and AT-AT came with us!

We came prepared with lots of snacks & vitamins!

My jewelry for this pre-Day 1 was Alice in Wonderland-themed.

THURSDAY/ Day 1

After an early night (we knew to get as much sleep as we could before Friday night/Saturday), we headed to the convention center! Main goals of the day were to get into the Divergent/ Ender's Game panel in the infamous Hall H in the afternoon and the Hannibal panel at night. Anything else would be a bonus!

Erudite temporary tattoos!

The Hall H line was freakishly short, so we ditched it after we saw how truly huge the hall is to come back later. We managed to hit the Exhibit Hall, particularly the Summit booth to get Divergent & Ender's Game swag. On a side note, the Exhibit Hall is nuts. It is HUGE and crowded and has very elaborate booths!

There was some "THIS IS BS" complaints (mostly due to confusing/inefficient booth management and crowding), but then it was all good because we discovered how to get into their "T-Shirt Bar" - where basically you can choose a design (either Ender's Game armies or Divergent factions) and put it on a shirt.

The Lionsgate booth next door was giving away Mockingjay pins for Catching Fire, but luckily we weren't there to witness that giveaway. I say lucky because we heard it was basically a free-for-all...not unlike the actual Hunger Games...

At this point, we headed back into Hall H and watched panels for The Europa Report (a pseudo-documentary sci-fi movie really based in science - like NASA scientists were their consultants) and Entertainment Weekly's Visionaries panel, which consisted of the directors Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity, Harry Potter 3), Marc Webb (The Amazing Spiderman, 500 Days of Summer), and Edgar Wright (The World's End, Shaun of the Dead).

I loved the Visionaries panel. It's always wonderful to hear great storytellers talk about their craft. Bonus points for just having great chemistry, being fanboys of each other's work, and for behind-the-scenes stories about their upcoming movies.


Then it was DIVERGENT time. Not gonna lie, we were mostly excited to see Theo James and he was indeed lovely to behold. It was also super cool to hear first from Veronica Roth that Allegiant would be from both Tris AND Four's POVs! Oh and seeing actual footage from the movie was cool too. Have to say, I'm pretty excited. :)

Our stars: Theo James (Four) & Shailene Woodley (Tris)

Maggie Q looking flawless and adorable. She plays Tori.

Next up, ENDER'S GAME. Other than the very talented young stars (Asa Buttefield and Hailee Steinfeld), we were obviously stoked to see HARRISON FORD in the flesh. He was hilariously grumpy...

...especially when people started asking him Han Solo & Indiana Jones questions. Example: what would Han Solo and Indiana Jones say to each other if they met? Answer: Hello. How are you?

He (jokingly?) said he is never coming back to Comic Con.

In all our excitement, we almost waited for the final DEXTER panel, but we remembered the HANNIBAL panel was at 6:45p in a room on the other side of the convention center. So we hauled our butts over there & got in the giant line, thinking we were probably not going to get in. You might not know but HANNIBAL, the TV show run by Bryan Fuller (who ran one of my all time favorite TV shows, Pushing Daisies), has a small-ish but really dedicated fanbase; we're cutely called "fannibals."

But as the precursor to our SDCC Weekend of Awesome, we were very lucky & made it in. We were literally among the last 20 people they let in. It was one of the best panels we attended. The panelists clearly love making the show and are aware of how much the fans love it. Plus, the fans who asked questions had GREAT questions - about character arcs and story and symbolism.

We even got our first piece of exclusive panel swag from Hannibal, and the panel was nice enough to stay afterwards to take some pictures & sign things. I mean, during the panel Bryan Fuller asked a girl cosplaying as "the stag" for a picture after and Hugh Dancy jumped in for that photo too. Just so much fandom love! (And anyway, you know how nice they are because I got a pic the next day...but I'm getting ahead of myself.)

After picking up our swag from the Fulfillment Room (which was even further away), we headed back towards the Gaslamp district. We didn't know when the offsite Ender's Game Experience closed, but we were delighted to see it still open with a short line (since it was 8-something at night). So we went. IT WAS SO COOL.

They basically built a bunker that contains 8 set pieces from the film, props and costumes. On top of that, you get to be green-screened into the Battle Room (as you saw in Wednesday's post) and you get to have your pic taken for an International Fleet ID card. The swag was cool too- pins, stickers, and dog tags.

In the tiny, child-sized launch shuttle chairs.

Welcome to Battle School.

Actual Battle School desks.

Oh shizz, the enemy gate is down!

The giant stars of the null-gravity Battle Room. (Can you find the Sister?)

The view from space is quite lovely.

Our fellow ladygeek Nicole was staying at a hotel nearby, so we met up with her after the experience. And she gave us the scoop on the SHERLOCK panel that we missed. Oh Season 3, you cannot come soon enough!

Since this post is getting long, I'm going to have a post specifically for swag and outfits. There is just SO MUCH!

Expect more SDCC recap posts to come. I still can't believe I was there! Have a great weekend!!

Related post: What's Up Wednesday w/ SDCC pics!

P.S. If you're interested in seeing that Nerd HQ panel with Tom Hiddleston that the Sister and I attended, it is posted on youtube (along with the other great Nerd HQ panels) at The Nerd Machine's official youtube page.

Here are the highlights to get you curious. He does a spot-on impression of Zachary Levi in this, but if you watch the full thing, there are MORE impressions!