The fact that she picked a Trinity Blood cosplay of all things is the most baffling because genuinely there aren't that many cosplays of the series let alone ones of such a high craftsmanship quality. People in a small fandom are gonna make the connection faster than a larger fandom would so you think she'd want to fly under the radar if wanting to cheat so blatantly!
According to someone else she’s been doing this with other bought cosplays for over 10 years. She likely just got too comfortable with her cheating and thought she was uncatchable since it worked for so long. Truly despicable if you ask me. Glad this is out in the consphere. Not to get pitchforks out but the people who do work hard deserve to compete against other honest hardworking competitors. Not lose to a habitual cheating clout chaser. Hopefully this public shaming will be enough to keep her and others from trying it again any time soon.
I think it's because now this fandom is small, yes, but 15 years ago it was HUGE amongst cosplayers and I think this person thought that she can find beautiful and intricate cosplay for cheap because a lot of them still exist somewhere in someone's dusty attic.
I guess she assumed the original creator was unknown enough to the american cosplay community, because of the distance and language barrier. And to be fair: It did work several times and only by chance did someone notice because of a social media post by a third party.
I feel bad for Lina, she talks on her page how not a day passes by that she wouldn't regret selling this costume, that she only sold (for about half what it cost to produce) because of the desperation and uncertainty about the political events in russia. And her hard work was used to lie and cheat, like rubbing the salt into the wound
You know what makes me mad about this whole situation.....the fact that she glued rhinestones onto the chest and arm plates. Like that right there......that was a sin against the world.
Probably just an attempt to make it less recognizable. Honestly just accentuates that the breastplate is too narrow for her frame, and doesn't look made for her
@@Erideah That breastplate being undersized was so obvious a total layman like myself noticed it immediately. I'm honestly surprised it wasn't mentioned in the video.
Eh, it'd be better than forging actual armor and then being told someone's cloth rags that they didn't have to pound into shape from hot metal, beats you... Due to craftsmanship. That is why I will never compete in anything like that again, unless it's hema... And considering my family all have the tism' strength, so it's always in my favor. The judges do good in a cosplay sence, but if you made real armor, the fact you'd be the only guy there who can wouldn't do anything
If you can't guess I'm a modern blacksmith, and my work is both fashionable and... It'll protect you, and it can be priced over a thousand dollars easily even if I make the mail from soda can tabs. And even if they were soda can tabs, all you guys ever have to do is sow... If I get the heat or timing wrong, if I strike the metal wrong... Boom all that work gone. And I'd lose because a judge doesn't understand the cidea if craftsmanship
As someone who buys their cosplays from artisans and tailors, why would you ever enter a contest? Even if I made the prop or styled the wig, whatever...most of the stuff, I bought. I used money (which is fine!) not skill. That's okay, but cosplay contests aren't about who has the most money so you can cheat. This is so wild to me.
Because contests should be about how much you EMBODY the character, not if you have a ton of money to spend in fabric and no job so you can spend months doing nothing but sewing.
@@LynnHermioneyou're looking for actors, these contests are based on how WELL MADE the cosplay is. there are defo contests that just grade you on how much you embody your character. also, it isn't about how much money you used, it's about how good and believable you can make wings or how well you sewn together your pants
Note to self - when designing cosplay for-sale, ALWAYS include creative embellishments that will serve as a unique fingerprint that can identify the work as my own.
And take some photos that include you as you work on different parts. Alternatively, don't post pictures of everything or share details of the entire process, so that some key information is withheld.
It's like a copyright trap! 😁 e.g. You're making a dictionary, or an encyclopedia, or a map, and you put in a fictitious entry (e.g. a nonexistent town or street, if it's a map), so that if someone plagiarizes your work, you'll know they didn't make it themselves because they have the same fake entry. You can apply this principle to so many things!
You want an easy way to fingerprint your work without ruining your work at hand? Sew your signature onto pieces that can't easily be replaced. If someone tries to play it off as their own, easily point out the spot that has your signature. Not very easy to get away with then.
While I haven’t made any cosplays thus far, this tells me that the copious amounts of beadwork I’m going to use to compensate for not owning a 3d printer will be very useful
FOR REAL!!! I think people seriously underestimate the amount of time it takes to make a cosplay, especially an EXTREMELY DETAILED one. 3 months sounds absolutely crazy.
Maybe it could be done in 3 months since she is a full time cosplayer. She could see if you could work 8+ hours a day you could get it done. But you have to have a pretty detailed plan to attack it at the beginning. For me it would be two years as I’m a vet so I work 12+ hours a day and every other weekend is emergency on call so I might get around 4-7 hours of crafting time a week (and that’s if I’m not burnt out at the end of the day!)
Yeah, I know nothing about sewing and nothing about cosplay (this popped up on my recommended), but even I looked at the screen like “only three months?”
Yup....and I judged her at Salt Lake. I had to spend a little while defending myself and the contest organizers for it. It makes me angry that a practiced cheater put my reputation in question. When I say that there wasn't anything that raised a red flag, there wasn't. I flipped her hems, got into the back, asked the questions. She knew exactly what she was doing.
Might have something to do with where she is. If she was here in the US where there are tons of contests and a huge community she would be a legend. No idea what the scene is like in Russia
@@godrickstockwell1505 Russian here (sorry for my bad English). There was a lot of contests in like 2015-2019. Big contest (StarCon, Igromir and others), local contests in different cities. Festivals. Probably not as much as in USA. But then COVID happened and almost all of the creators became bankrupt. And then war happened. And now anime, manga and all of western media is something that our propaganda machine says doesn't fit our traditions (I mean, dudes, what the fuck? You literally started a war. Is murdering fit our traditions very well?). So, there's probably few contests left now. And probably only in big cities. Maybe I'm wrong. But that's maybe why Lyna (Lina?) is a small creator.
A lot of cosplayers outside of the "main regions" are not super famous despite being incredible creators. There's lots of highly talented cosplayers in Eastern Europe, South America, Southern Asia, etc. Idk how large the cosplay community is where she lives or how many conventions they have.
@@claraf.6833 i live in Russia, there’s not a lot of cosplay conventions. Yeah, we have conventions but they are a mix of anime, games, cosplay and other fandom stuff.
I'm the Black Panther, one of the judges in the Anime NYC Cosplay Masquerade. I can assure you, she did not mention that she bought this cosplay and altered it. One thing we found suspicious was when she took off her hat, and it was stuffed with newspaper. We actually saw the backplate and nearly chose someone else because of the unfinished back. The one thing I have a problem with, is the fact that I brought this up to AnimeNYC before it went viral and proposed that we chose a new winner, but they never got back to me despite my efforts.
I judged at SLCC and the back did NOT look that unfinished when I was back there. I was very interested in how the back foam pieces were engineered so that's where I put myself. Having a lace up back when you have back pieces like that is not uncommon. I know I didn't see bare skin back there. Also, it's not uncommon for cosplayers to adjust costumes from prejudging to stage movements, based on time between judging and the show, for comfort. By that time you might have been in a hot uncomfortable cosplay for hours.
@GoingApeCostume While that is true, usually, if there are any differences between prejudging and stage, the competitor is usually the first to point that out because anything that would look unfinished could and would be used against them. As you know, Craftsmanship is mostly judged by what the judges can see first hand in the prejudging. It is where all the detail and finishing can be examined closely. The AnimeNYC situation, we had plenty of people who couldn't show us the full look because of performance reasons, comfort, disabilities etc and that was taken into account by us. However, AnimeNYC Cosplay Masquerade is extremely timely and organized compared to other cons, they tell you the exact time you'll be prejudged and tell you to have everything stage ready so the judges can do their job as fair as possible. I competed in, won best intermediate craftsmanship and then judged the following year. I can assure you that part is consistent. Competitors know they must come to prejudging stage ready and time they need to be in order to prepare. In this person's case, they didn't provide any disclaimer and hopped on stage with the same look. That is what we found a bit odd.
@@GoingApeCostumeMy ultimate point is this. I don't care about what happened during the time she cheated, how she cheated, etc, anymore. What I care about is that someone who did the work and deserved that prize got cheated and should be given prizes and credits in the cheater's place. I've been cheated before (Twitchcon 2022) and I refuse to let anyone else experience what I have under my watch. My problem is AnimeNYC lack of action in this matter. Hopefully I'll be able to talk to them this year before it is too late but ultimately this should have been done as soon as I brought it to their attention and offered. I'm in an active group chat with the other previous judges and we all agreed and were down to pick another winner. AnimeNYC needs to right this wrong.
When you said 'the people don't understand' I truly felt that. Last year I was talking with a cosplayer who was in front of me in the catwalk line and I told them that I was preparing for an upcoming coscompo. They said 'I would love to compete one day but then I would have to commission someone to make it for me but that feels a bit unfair'. They were dead serious and I just replied with 'umm yeah that's not allowed'. Edit: just want to clarify that I’m from the Netherlands Aka a small country. We do not have a lot of coscompos and these are also not split into master or novice. There aren’t a lot of prices or con opportunities to compete. Maybe it’s different in other countries but here they do not allow you to model someone elses work
You should have seen the shit show that erupted in my local community when our large con re-vamped the cosplay contest to exclude purchased costumes, if you wore a commissioned piece the maker HAD to be present and in the judging room to be counted. People had to be told "We are judging your SKILL not your WALLET SIZE"
@@shingshongshamalama This but unironically, there definitely are people who would prefer to model than make. A lot of the spectators would rather see models than self-modeling. The cosplay community is kind of a joke sometimes because in other parts of the fashion industry, self-modeling is unheard of.
@@rebeccaabram2312 you still need a sizable wallet to make cosplays. materials and equipment aren't exactly free or cheap, most people can't afford to have that much free time either or the luxury of having the extra space to store all that stuff.
9:54 im the Glamrock Bonnie that competed with her at FanX- it’s absolutely disgusting to hear she BOUGHT.. AND SAID SHE DID IT HERSELF- she stole that win from someone who actually deserved it. VILE. I hope she somehow gets her awards revoked. Thank you so much for making this video and calling her out😭🙏🙏🙏the cosplay community does not claim her🧍♂️🤚 Hearing her written script for the contest saying she did all of that is disgusting.
It would truly be poetic justice for her awards/cash prizes to be revoked and given to the ACTUAL creator as she (original artist) not only deserves it but also could desperately utilize the funds to help with her survival in/escape from Russia. Heartbreaking and sickening for such a thief to take advantage of someone in such a vulnerable state. She is truly evil. I hope this will encourage a new set of R&Rs for revocation of cash prizes/awards (in addition to providing public apologies to the victims and the community as a whole!) (Great job on your cosplay, btw!! Brings me joy to see such passion and talent in this community)
This scandal is wild but also I just have to respect the original costume designer for making that. You aren't kidding about the "what the fuck is he even wearing" step, as a regular artist having to figure that out on that design makes me sick already. Shame that intense amount of work got used in a malicious manner
This. One of the first cosplays I ever made was a Satsuki Override Junketsu from Kill La Kill, and THAT was a challenge for me at the time. But this Seth is mindboggling
I’m 54 years old and do not mean any disrespect, but I had no idea about Cosplay and assumed people just ordered costumes made in China. I happened across your video, and I was mesmerized. I really appreciate the way you did not assume your audience were cosplay experts and thoroughly enjoyed your video and learned a lot. A lot of great artists out there. Thank you!
I'm right there with ya! I have no idea about Cosplay but this young womans excitement and style made me watch this from start to finish. Excellent job!
ditto, 23 years old. i knew that people made them, but id never been to a con of any sort or been in those crowds, so the huge amount of info and amazing piece spotlights, i have far more appreciation
Good luck! Hoping you finished it by now, this random internet stranger is proud of you whether you did or not, I know that takes so much time. I know absolutely nothing about any of this stuff, everyone's creativity, skills, and dedication is admirable to me.
@@imbored9156 Awww thank you! It really means a lot, it does! I DID IT ON TIME and it turned out amazing. It’s a birthday gift and it was an incredible surprise. I made one for myself 4 years ago and promised myself to never do one again, because it takes so much time and must be made by hand mostly. Now, for a very special person who always wanted one, I did it again. My fingers are so f***ed up and wrecked, I got tendinitis and literally bamboo-tortured two of my fingers, but it was worth it. Thank you internet stranger. ❤️
The fit was a dead giveaway for me, if YOU made a cosplay, why not make it to fit yourself? I’m a much larger person and when I make my cosplays I measure my patterns to myself and test fit EVERYTHING..
@@ArchAangels she was careful with how she moved, incredibly so, no showwy movements as if a sudden jerk of her arm could send the whole display crashing down.. it wasnt like the poise of an act, it was literally the cosplay being too tight
@@cephalonaural6854 yeah, that as well. Also, on some videos it is clear that there is this horisontal tension in the fabric, that the fabric is digging into her sides. It looks uncomfortable.
Juries that actually judged the cheater stated she did have progress books from ripping the seams apart and then resewing them and that sufficed for a progress book, this is what makes this case bonkers
@@whickwhacksmacker in other costumes where she commissioned them (and didn't buy second hand) she used the makers progress photos to make her build books. Sometimes the cheaters are clever!
Very Ex-“Friend” of hers here. I’m so glad this video was made. She’s even worse than this, if you can believe that. There’s so much behind the scenes.
@@dkfsamuraishe has been competing in bought Cosplays for over 10 years. There is so much proof out there of this. Whenever she would lose at cons, she’d throw a tantrum about it, either publicly or in dms. She runs a cosplay photography business, claimed to have camera issues at katsu 2023, cancelled on a ton of people and didn’t refund a lot of people. She’s not a good person.
@@rubberd0512 thank you for adding more info! I could tell this wasn’t the first time she did this because of her audacity, I can imagine she had gotten away with it multiple times before
Same here, I won't use the word "ugly" but they do look out of place and completely unnecessary. I'm guessing she added them because A she thought blinging it up a bit will make it look "better," or B, deep inside she was somewhat feeling guilty and wanted to add a tiiiiiny bit of a personal touch.
It's what I used to call the "Ol razzle dazzle" attempt. Look! It's shiny! You cannot possibly tell I must have sewn this with a blindfold and finished it with hot glue! Or that you've definitely seen this costume before somewhere. It *twinkles* Like GtfO here with that. I started as a theatrical seamstress before working up and I respect a good well hidden cheat for a garment...but hot glue or theft ain't it!
@@khromatickarma You got it in one!! I was a theater tech back in the day and I love a solid surly character song. Everyone is back on "They both reached for the gun" and sleeping on "Razzle dazzle!"
I can confirm that she got 2nd in advance at ANYC as I was the one to place over her. She claimed to have fully made both costumes when we chatted in the green room, even during that time something was odd. Seeing the stuff come up about her Seth I was the one who found the original creator for her Necromancer as a fellow Sakizo cosplayer, let her know and had pointed it out. She with her full chest talked as if she fully made each from scratch. When she only got 2nd you could tell she was upset to not get BiS. Back to the green room post contest she didn't seem to want to talk to anyone.
Man im so sorry this shit sucks. As a 23 year old JUST NOW getting into the cosplay world i had no idea bad shit like this happened, like why do ppl take away the fun?? Your look was amazing😅❤
She knew full well what she was doing. She has done this multiple times with at least two cosplays. She probably has done it even more that no one ever noticed. She blocked the original creator. That alone screams she did this all on purpose. She should be blacklisted from any major cosplay competitions going forward.
Surely some punishments will occur right? I am not really familiar with cosplay scene and rules, but cheating can't be tolerated. Then why would others work hard at all..
To me the "I didn't know the creator was blocked" really clinches it. Like...how? Blocking people on social media isn't automatic. There's no way you couldn't know you had blocked the person you had previously bought something from.
@@RapTilianssince you can’t force someone to not cosplay the only thing you can do is at competitions if you see her trying to compete you tell them all about this since all cons are not run by one entity and all self run
@@thelonleyUchiha1 You cannot be allowed to add some shiny rocks with glue to a piece/outfit that had like 10 different techniques done on and with that level of detail, and go yea this in mine i did all of this.. Even more so if there is monetary reward or trophies to be won. However many cosplay cons there are, they should be notified by people who visit and participants on this, in my opinion.
The other dead giveaway is how they move while wearing it. One stands tall and proud of her work, leisurely displaying every time-consuming stitch with slow and deliberate sweeping gestures. The other scurries out haphazardly to do a quick and nervous shame-filled spin with zero enthusiasm.
Some people have anxiety or stage fright and some are naturally dramatic and love limelight. Stop moralizing body language unless you are willing to admit being a bunch of things that end in -ism and -phobia
@@xilj4002 I agree that we shouldn't use this situation to automatically assume all other contestants with stage fright are cheaters, especially when they're still newbies, but I'm curious what words ending in -ism and -phobia you think the OP should admit to?
@@xilj4002 Idk, when looking at body language, you may be able to see one person's baseline body language with how they've behaved on stage or in videos previously. She is a veteran cosplay competitor after all. But I think that it's more possible that her movements are constricted by her ill-fitting and tight costume.
@@Djinnk042 Veterans can still have a bad anxiety day and struggle with stage fright. Or a chronic pain flareup. They can get bad news or diarrhea 20 minutes before the show. They can have surgeries when costume is halfway done, they can steroid treatments and the costume can be constricting because of the sudden weight gain. A veteran can be autistic and have a bad sensory day. And about a million other things I know body language analysis is very popular these days, but it's just a pseudoscience herding people towards phrenology and stuff like that
Not just entering it in a single contest, but SEVERAL is so heinous. I feel so bad for all the cosplayers whose spots she wrongfully took, and all the prizes she stole. She is a wicked person and I hope she is permanently banned from cosplay contests after this.
This is a wild story but I did learn something positive. I really love sewing but I can’t wear elaborate costumes because I have an autoimmune condition that makes my skin hurt and spontaneously bleed with friction so anything other than the baggiest t-shirt is torture. To find out I could have a model wear the costume instead and still enter it is amazing information. I had given up on ever entering a cosplay contest after being diagnosed so I’m really excited that I could enjoy making clothes again.
I read a long post written by someone who was teaching writing skills at a community college. According to her one of her students submitted an assignment that was fanfiction with the serial numbers shaved off. She knew because it was HER story and she recognized all the cringe grammar mistakes
@@godrickstockwell1505 well, to be fair, if the student had known it was her fanfiction, it would have been an unbelievably funny troll, well worth failing a class. I once started a graded essay in college with a fake quote that I attributed to my professor, just to see whether or not he remembered what he said, and what he didn't. I aced that exam, so he probably didn't notice. :D
@@Gravewhisper the person posting had a pretty good sense of humor about the whole thing. She joked that she'd have to retire and find a different school if she confronted the person since the story included a massively cringe sex scene
Youre not far off. An actor who used to have a female partner for a straight couple tandem was caught using openai to write an apology. His name is daniel padilla and you can find him more by looking up the drama he had with kathryn bernardo
Stealing the ENTIRE buildbook off social media is just another added level of evil in my opinion and the biggest sign that she does not deserve the benefit of the doubt. She 1000% knew what she was doing with each decision.
What a wild story lol. Not only is it extremely disrespectful to the creator of the cosplay, but it's also disrespectful to all the other competitors who put their time, money, energy, and probably mental well-being into their costumes and lost to myra, who added a couple things and called it a day. I'd feel cheated out of an award if I were in their positions. Ty for bringing awareness to this, hopefully myra learns her lesson and this discourages others from cheating too!
This happens a lot in cons here in Brazil, not the part of having an specific original creator, but of people buying Aliexpress cosplays that are very expensive, and simply winning over the others that created their own costume. And I know that your acting in stage is also very important, but it's still very sad and kinda disrespectful for the others who gave their blood creating their own costume
@@lgnroseta309 do you have categories? Cons I've been to (in Poland) usually have best craftmanship, best acting and overall awards. With a bought costume you could only win in best acting/scene. It's wild that they don't always do it in places that allow bought costumes...
@@dualitysDownfall its the same camera as far as im aware. I dont know how he cleans it, probalby water and soap does the job. He is doing these as memes/wordplays, like RAW means unedited, raw footage in photgraphy, but it also means raw like food. He also put salt in it, to make it 'grainy'. He does a lot of these, but they are mostly photography inside jokes, thats why it can look odd to people.
I thought you were going to talk about how off chest armor looks on someone who's several sizes bigger, I didn't think the back could possibly be that bad ON STAGE 😹
Hi Sarah ❤️ The photographer you mention in this video is a personal friend. He was horrified when the news about Maya came out and his name got attached to it- it’s part of the reason why he changed his content. I have a lot of sympathy for him because he was painted as a bad guy when it was Maya who lied to his face (she did that to a lot of people). I know the egg thing is goofy, but please be kind.
He could just delete that and issue an explanation. It's not his fault that he was misled. His creativity shouldn't be destroyed just because of other people's deception. Photographers in convention get less time to get to know each cosplayer.
I SAW HER AT ANIMENYC OMG I don't remember exactly who won in the contest but I remember seeing the cosplay beforehand on the con floor with a friend, we both were stunned (as we're both still relatively new cosplayers) and went up to compliment her and she kinda brushed us off? Like she didn't seem to really care about the compliment which at the time I thought it was because she must've been getting so many compliments on it (because the cosplay is absolutely stunning in person and I saw many people going up to her) but now it makes so much more sense...damn...
yep, can confirm - I was in the contest where she won 2nd place and know that several people in the greenroom tried to compliment her and got very rude or nonexistent responses.
I also competed with her! My group was chatting with the other competitors next to us while we were in line backstage but she didn't seem to talk much. Most cosplayers love to talk about their costume so I thought she was just nervous or focused on the competition, but in hindsight it all makes sense. Really sucks because this is such a special community for a lot of us and we spend hundreds of hours working on a single cosplay.
I think I saw her at a con once too! My girlfriend and I tried to compliment her and the same damn thing happened!! We thought it was weird and a little sad, but we moved on quickly.
@@marchofcubesIdk I’ve had a few situations where I tried to compliment a cosplay, AT A CONVENTION, where they are IN COSPLAY, and got eyes rolled at me, sighed at, brushed off, made to think I am annoying the cosplayer. I no longer go up to strangers at cones or compliment strangers at cons. I am sad at this new generation of “I don’t owe anyone basic kindness or basic respect unless they do something grand to deserve it first” behavior. I’m autistic and the older I get the harder it is to socialize so stuff like conventions was a safe space. But it’s been overrun with attitude issues that I simply don’t know how to navigate lol. Oh well. I miss when people dressed up or performed and expected to get attention and weren’t rude about it.
Well, hi so I'm from Costa Rica, on march 2024 we had a small cosplay contest, and something similar happened (bear with me) 👀 there's been one Strawberry Miku cosplayer that had been competing for months with that costume, but it was a commissioned work, from someone else, but all the techniques were taken from Sarah's videos and TEMPLATES, everyone knew they didn't make it themselves, and still they went to compete and placed SECOND PLACE, they lied at the judges using all the explanation from the videos 💀 but a couple of days later the organization found out and they disqualified them. Happy ending:D
Could you like, DM me about this on Discord or instagram? 👀 cause thats wild. If you aren't in my community discord there is a link in the description.
This is EXACTLY what have happened to me with cosplayer from Germany who bought my old Power Armor costume from Fallout. She won at least two competitions untill someone let me know about the situation and Ive called her out online. She stole my progress pics, claimed to have cancer and then removed her socials to make new ones. It was a wild ride 💀When we sell our costumes overseas ( I live in Poland), we never can know what happens with them later. Thanks for this video, it is really informative to people who are not in our community 👏
Im so sorry that had to happen to you! I really wish people who make and sell cosplays are allowed to know what happens to them. As an artist I like knowing what people do with my work all the time!
OMG I REMEMBER!!, I knew this person and when you called her out, she posted that basically she's a mental wreck now and whatever. Everything except taking fucking accountability. SHE NEVER DID THAT. This was so cringe
Something that I've seen cosplayers do lately before selling their handcrafted cosplay is to embroider their own branding/tag inside their costume, I'm not sure if that could help decrease the chances of cheating in competitions tho
@@Hyperguyver2 I'm not surprised. The Rebel Legion and 501st Legion can be wicked strict, I'm a member of the 501st and getting approved, joining and starting to troop was met with a multitude of roadblocks. On the upside, costume violations will probably get the costume(s) in question forcibly "retired" and she might be discharged... which bans her from re-entering.
I saw her at the Salt Lake FanX! I went up to her after the show and she complained that the show was rigged and that the judges were scammers and they played favorites in the judging. I thought it was so odd she said that because I've been going to the SLC FanX ever since it started and they've always been so open about why and how they judge.
I was one of the judges. I wrote an oath as a judge and put it on my socials recently because of crap like this. She had worse terms for the judging at NYCC.
I didn't know about this scandal, but I DID recognize the costume! I don't think I ever followed the original creator, but I love Trinity Blood and remember seeing photos of the creator in her cosplay and showing it to a friend who also is a Trinity Blood fan. And I saw a post of the liar in the costume, too, more recently. A different friend sent it to me and said she thought it was a rip-off of Lina's design "but with funky sparkles, for some reason", neither of us knowing that it was in fact the same costume.
No joke: your VERY AGGRESSIVE REMINDER actually caused me to double-check. Turns out my voter registration was suspended but I was able to get it straightened out. Thanks!
Yeah, I live in Ohio and they keep throwing out registrations just before elections. Check your registration. Bring a physical id and vote! (They also instituted phone id, but you can’t use it to vote).
Hi, I am local to Myratheon, I've heard about and known about rumors of her cheating for years, like I'm basically one degree of separation from her, I have mutuals with her on fb but we've never been friends, and have had friends compete against her. One of my friends personally she has been very rude to, and another that even when she was called out she was afraid to name her publicly because her and I guess some her friends are very rude and kind of scary. She apparently would throw tantrums over not winning contests when she didn't place. I like that you ended this with "if you see her competing in a contest, show them this video", while I don't think she will be brave enough to continue anymore I wouldn't be surprised with how long this was known behind the scenes, it seems even when people could tell, it was hard to find valid reason to disqualify her sometimes. Can confirm she's gotten best in show at CTcon twice actually. Not only a cheater, but also hearing she's a generally rude person, I feel vindicated that her lies are exposed and I respect you for making this and putting the effort to connect all the dots as to why it's so bad.
How was 3 months for that whole costume not be a red flag? Theres no way that start ( patterning ) to finish, it was only 3 months.... Not unless she has no job and is only working on that cosplay daily. I dont sew, but I can't imagine that timeline working for anyone with a day job...
i literally spent 3 months working on a smaller single part to a cosplay, and i've been sewing other projects for over 5 years and there ain't no way she could've done it 3 month unless she has little rats in her house sewing for her, or she's on 10 pounds of crack and sewing nonstop
It was just post Covid. I competed against her at FanX Salt Lake (got 2nd place masters) and I made my cosplay in about 2 months. I didn’t have a job at the time so it was possible for me to do that. I’m sure the judges thought the same of her claim.
I made a plush with a very basic pattern hand-made and it took me 2 months to finish it, and as it was a school project, I was basically doing nothing but work on it 😂 no way that huge thing would take only 3 months to do
When cons allow "modeling contestants" on stage, the model and the commissioner are fully aware that they are not here for the prize. That being said, For Myra, a cosplay veteran, to cheat like this goes to show she does not care about cosplay as a craft and hobby, she likes the fame and recognition it comes with. And I'm sorry? 3 months to build that? That alone is the biggest fucking lie I have ever heard of! Edit: It's also been revealed in several twitter threads that Myra LIED about the costume commissions! She never made a single one! She would buy the costumes on sites like Etsy and Secret Angel, and then pass it off as her own for 3 times the price of what SHE paid! Not only that, but she's also a scammer when it comes to cosplay photography! She has scammed and ghosted numerous clients and when she DOES reply, its with some excuse further delaying the "editing process"
I'm over here working on a cosplay I've been working on for almost a year, so when I heard "three months" I was like PFFFFFFFFF. Maybe if that was the ONLY thing you were doing, as a full time job, could you do that in 3 months.
Trinity Blood is literally my all time favorite anime. I have re-watched it MULTIPLE times. I actually remember a couple years ago when I came across Lina's cosplay of Seth. I was freaking BLOWN AWAY because the amount of detail that went into that cosplay was absolutely incredible. It is completely disgusting that someone bought her cosplay that she spent MONTHS making into an incredible replica that look even better than the anime to pass it off as their own and then claim "Oh WeLl I DiD mEnTiOn ThAt I dIdNt CoMpLeTeLy MaKe ThIs MySeLf". The fact she blocked Lina literally tells us all we need to know. She knew EXACTLY what she was doing.
I'm a clueless member of the public who assumed cosplay contest was just most impressive or most accurate costume. Thanks for including the basics about contests it is fascinating. I was already previously impressed by cosplay but I now realise better the amount work involved and I'm even more impressed by everyone doing this sort of thing. I'll definitely watch more videos
I’m a 60f and I’ve always wondered about cosplay. Your video popped up on my feed this morning. I am impressed with the skills it takes to make these costumes. Thank you for teaching me about this. It’s sad that people can’t even compete honestly. I’ve been sewing since I was 9. You are right. It’s nowhere near impossible to make a garment fit that is to small. Props to all the cosplayers out there!
Myra told me once that she hot glued the appliques on Seth when she found out I'm a journeyman cosplayer in competitions. And thet should have been the biggest red flag to me. I got so much personal details about her as i witnessed this entire scandal in real time.
How much you wanna bet that those rhinestones she added were just pre-made strings/strips of rhinestones? And she probably just ran a line of glue and pressed the strips down.
As a Trinity Blood fan and cosplayer, this infuriates me even more than it would if it was another series portrayed. Thores Shibamoto's illustrations are the ULTIMATE GOAL for so many cosplayers! His illustrations are so extremely detailed that you have to do tons of cross-referencing to figure out what to include and what might not fit/work on the costume. You have to take creative liberties with them because no two illustrations are the same. Thus these costumes WILL be unique and recognizable. Add on the fact the series is from 2006 and isn't a very popular one in the states, there's far and few between high-level cosplays. We WILL recognize them. Edit: Seth has multiple names. Seth Nightlord, Seth Nightroad, and Agusta Varadica. This specific design technically falls under the last name, but we all call her Seth.
There was a huge Scandal recently in Mexico with a cosplayer called Candy Camille, she was caught cheating also by using a commissioned cosplay and passing it off as her own and entering multiple contests, she would also photoshop her face onto other cosplayers professional photos, she was invited to a con (La Mole) and they canceled her appearance after she was exposed 😅
Shit and here I am fully knowing all Yaya Hans dirt while she enjoys....a career? (hey gurrrl remember me from all the parties you treated me like dog shit at because I was "just" a promo gal? I know you don't) Including how much of her early work that propelled her to fame...isn't hers (I bet her live journal is still up too) and how everyone missed that Heroes of Cosplay episode where she was fat shaming as fuck. Rich... coming from a gal who went up cup sizes like I dropped letter grades when my folks split. I wonder why she never features her fire fairy or Sharon Apple costumes...oh waiiiiit.
Back in 2018 or so, I purchased a dress for a Peggy Schuyler cosplay off a cosplayer I loved. The dress fit me nicely and only cost $100 because the maker never really intended on selling or competing with it, so the inside of the dress wasn’t super clean and it wasn’t very stage accurate in all. I never took credit, competed with it, or misled people about the origin in any way. It’s really not hard. Like people asked me if I made it and I said no, here’s who made it. No excuses.
As a cosplayer, I've seen some WILD stuff in this community. I still remember the Blerd-con debacle. There usually aren't even cash prizes. People will just do anything for clout.
@@damearstor2120 In 2021, there was controversy surrounding the winner of the cosplay competition at blerdcon, allegations were made that her dress was store bought. Apparently some of the alleged unfairness was exacerbated by the fact that the winner was a white person at a convention aimed to showcase black nerd culture - but that doesn't mean people were upset specifically about that, only that if she did actually cheat, it was a real low blow to do it at blerdcon out of all places.
ALSO some people who saw the winning cosplay up close say the supposed high quality is not noticeable at all, raising further questions about why she won. There's youtube videos about it
I felt bad for the original Blerdcon cosplay contest winner. No one should be harassed or sent death threats over a cosplay contest. People need to get a grip and get a life.
Well, the thing is Sarah believe it or not this isn't the first time she's cheated. She's been cheating since 2019 with bought costumes and even sold one of her "Winning" cosplays to a friend of mine who got harassed for just wearing it. It was awful. Also, at ANYC I know the winner of the master's category and I was told by the winner that Maya also had very poor sportsmanship too. She complained that she didn't get first place and I was shocked that after the mimic incident at NYCC a month before that she even did that.
I think people who create costumes (and sell) should try to include a small and hidden tab or signature within the clothes. A hidden sowed up section that once you undo it, the proof is there or something like that?
I'm a seth nightroad cosplayer myself, and my cosplay took me literally a year and a half to build to the point it was actually wearable to a con, and i still feel it's not finished. the hat alone took me like what? 7 months to figure out? and worst part, is that Seth does not have like a ''fixed'' reference or like a 3D/360 view of her garments, so no matter what, you gotta take a bunch of references and basically build your own version. took me 7 months to make THE HAT ONLY. and she created that masterpiece in 3 months? i'm deceased.
I honestly feel like it was kind of an insult to Lina that she claims it took 3 months because that kind of tells me that she thought all the work that went into that very detailed cosplay WOULD TAKE ONLY 3 MONTHS!?
This is fucking wild. I'm a cosplayer who has bought and commissioned so many costumes over the years. I have various issues that mean making a cosplay is very difficult and not always worth the inevitable breakdown and flare up. I _always_ make it clear it's not my work. I'm literally known as the "thanks, I didn't make it" person at my local cons. I refuse to take any amount of credit for any work that is not mine. Part of the fun of commissioning work is being able to support small businesses and share a love of a fandom or garmentry. It's amazing to see people light up when they learn that their technical skills doesn't limit them from their dream cosplay. If you really, really need a big fucking pat on the back because you're so attention starved, _interact with your local cosplayers._ Walk the con floor and go to meet ups. Don't steal people's work!!!!
This is why i don't enter cosplay contest either, since most of my cosplays are bought pieces or commissioned items and im always adamant on letting people know. Good example here (on this video), this cosplayer i met at Fanimecon had a set of Lucifer wings from the same person i bought from Etsy; when i came up to them and told them "oh i love your wings i have the same set" they kind of didnt respond and ignored me. I thought maybe they couldnt hear me well since it was a large meetup. Later i found this video of her getting interviewed ua-cam.com/video/Irw_XCGwebI/v-deo.html Claiming they made them. If you lookup the comment i posted on the video, i put the etsy sellers name, if you look up reviews of that shops Lucifer wings, they posted a photo of themselves alongside with a review.
I remember when the biggest scandal in cosplay was a Sailor Moon cosplayer who wore lovely costumes, entered into allot of contests then it was discovered she couldn't sew a single stitch, she was infamous on Fandom Wank back in the day. But this is another level, I can't get my head around how the fit didn't tip off somebody that something wasn't right about the costume
Didn't she start saying that no one else could cosplay Serenity because she was so good at it? I remember the picture of her with her staff pointing down saying this was her moon kingdom or something. The wank never ends 😂
Lord, was that the cosplayer who considered herself THE Sailor Moon and that the hairstyle was iirc based on -her- hair, and that she didn't wear any extensions? Those were wild times.
Honestly, the BIGGEST red flag about all this is how she claimed to make this in 3 months. I'm sorry, even if you have enough money to NOT work for 3 months straight and spent 24 hours every day to work on this to the caliber of detail, THAT. IS. IM. POS. SI. BLE!!!!!!! For her to flat out lie like this AND get away with it multiple times is CRAZY to me! And it genuinely makes me question how LONG she's been doing this
Maybe it was just the parts she added/adjusted that took 3 months. That I can believe. the rhinestones and tights and back plate to cover where the gap in the back was. But there's some tea in another comment from some people who say they are former friends of Myra's that say she's been entering contests in bought costumes for over 10 years.
@@Vincent_Beers That's really hard to believe though. There are so many factors that take up your build time. Work, school, sleep, etc. And its like Sarah said, making custom patterns is both hard and time consuming. That alone can take hours, if not, DAYS to make a rough draft, make the mock up, fit, repeat until you get what you're looking for. Then there's material research and sometimes those materials are not readily available for you to get with a quick trip to the store. THAT can take at least a week. There are so many factors that really show that unless you're home all the time and not sleeping and taking care of yourself, making something this elaborate in a quarter of a year is very much improbable
@@Vincent_Beers I dunno if you're a cosplayer or not, but from-scratch costumes can range in hundreds of hours, but something like that is CLEARLY not made in 3 months. Maybe with help, sure; but getting help and finishing in 3 months is definitely NOT 70% made by the competitor wearing it
FYI, Sandbagging DOES NOT mean someone is pretending to “be bad on purpose, because you don’t respect your competition.” Sandbagging is pretending to be at a lower skill level in order to be placed at a lower skill bracket. Therefore, the sandbagger can crush their competition, and easily win the championship. In BJJ, they call it smurfin. Which is when a purple/brown/black belt pretends to be a blue belt, so they can easily dismantle their opponents and win the championship prize.
Oh god... It reminds me of a story that happened to me in the early days of my cosplay adventure in 2016, with my best friend from high school. I can understand so much how Linalia must have felt even though for me it wasn't a contest, but "just" a high-school fashion show. I organized a cosplay parade for my high school at an inauguration party, presenting my 6 handmade cosplays. They weren't necessarily perfect, but oh god I was super proud!!! Plus all the students and teachers were going to be there and see my work - around 1,000 people, I think?? This ""friend"" absolutely wanted to take part too, but there could only be one parade a year. So I agreed to let her present some of her cosplays in my show. (it was a minority compared to what I was going to present) At the time, everything went well and I was so proud!! 🥰But a few days later, the school newspaper comes out. It was a free monthly newspaper distributed to every student in every class, created by a student collective. I was surprised by the first page, it was about my cosplay parade.. well no, my friend's cosplay parade. She had organized an interview with this student collective, without telling me about it, and telling them everything had been done by her. A multi-page interview recounting her career as a cosplayer and all the beautiful outfits she made, with no mention of my name anywhere!! There was even a photo of ME in MY cosplay on one of the pages with a note that it was HER creation.. I was so sad, disappointed and angry all at the same time. I made a scandal with the students who hadn't done any in-depth research before publishing the paper, but it was too late. The whole school had already read about it and everyone thought I was just a model in this fashion show, nothing more. Of course, I ended my friendship with her instantly. I wanted to tell you this story because I discovered a few years ago when I came across her Facebook page just out of curiosity that she was involved in "cosplay theft" with 2 cosmakers 😅 Like Myratheon, she bought ready-made cosplays from cosplayers, blocked them, and posted all the photos saying they were handmade by her and participated contests... twice. It caused a huge scandal, and she was confronted. She tried to explain by saying that she had indeed bought those cosplays but had reworked them and added lots of details (reminds me of someone in your video...lol) People never change 😮💨
@@gracehaven5459 Omg thank you I'm touched that you read everything 😭 Now I'm better because I'm 26, but at the time it hurt me so much as a teenager 🥲 I have very bitter memories of this parade
I had similar experiences but just with group projects in general. I'd do all the work but I was quiet and shy so the other people would take the credit. Along with some other things that happened in my childhood I had some pretty severe trust issues for a long time lol. But I now am a bit more outspoken and don't let my work go un noticed, keeps that sort of stuff from happening.
@@gerald216 Oh I'm sad to read that you've been in many similar situations... People take advantage of other people's kindness. But as you say now it made us stronger 💪 I hope you're feeling better now!
You didn't hear this from me, but cheating in cosplay contests isn't uncommon at all ((: There's a thing where cosplayers will team up to create for parts costumes for each other, and rotate between who gets to compete. Example: Person A competes one year. Person A is good at wigs. They get help from B who's good at sewing, C who's great with props, and D who does LED work. Together they make a pretty costume and let's A take all the credit. - Then repeat next year, but lets B compete instead. As someone that works behind the scenes, this happens a lot. It's just hard as all Hell to prove //: Some people actually think this is what happened at NärCon this year, so um
This is what happened with winner of one Gamescon and Twitchcon, Two Moons Workshop Mientowa's costume was done by ten people in her workshop and they have receipts, it surfaced earlier in Polish community
That's crazy but an absolutely master-plan on how to cheat. It's like they put more effort into the plan to cheat rather than the actual cosplay, fr some Light Yagami shit.
As the owner of four sewing machines, including a serger (Which is a pain to thread), Serged edges wouldn't be a sign that I cheated, just that I spent several hours cursing over the machine and fiddling with the thread tension. XD
Those aren't serged edges she was showing, and serged edges wouldn't be considered a sign of possible cheating anyway bc an over locker/serger is fairly common to own. The stitch shown was a coverstitch, which requires a very specific and extremely expensive machine that you can basically only get commercially and makes no sense to own unless you are running a sweatshop.
@@MVB627ISAWESOMEI hope whoever follows or knows it’s still her calls her out or makes other people aware. It is so scummy and sad she gets away with doing what she does
Not trying to question you, I'm genuinely curious. What else can be judged in a cosplay competition than the craftsmanship? Presentation? Something like how creatively you do your bit?
@@saddlerrye6725 those were things where either just the stage presence was judged in a catwalk (for the very beginners who wanted to just try being on a stage) or where the judging was 100% skit/performance so there was no need for selfmade costume. That's quite common for regular cosplay comps in Germany :) though we do have higher stakes comps that involve costume judging of course ^^
@@saddlerrye6725 my country has 2 different cosplay contests too, one specifically for craftmanship, and one for performance / skits, where you can use bought costumes because the judges look only at your skit. This system has advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that the people without crafting skills can at least enter the performance cathegory if they love to perform. The disadvantage is, the most cosplayers in my country have experience either in one or the other cathegory, so it's more difficult for us to compete in a different country where judges look at both (and that the performance cathegory often turns into a random tiktok dance contest for young people in cosplay...). :')
@@saddlerrye6725 I have seen at least one con that has multiple categories in which costumes could be judged on craftsmanship, cosplayers could compete in skits, and cosplayers could just go up on the stage and show off their costume without being judged.
I'm sorry but even looking at the cheater without the original to compare to, you can tell the cosplay didn't fit and is very tight around the torso. Even the breast plate doesn't look like it was moulded to her shape and looked odd. I'm not a professional but I watch a lot of "the great british sewing bee" to know if a garment is snug fitting or bursting at the seams.
As a huge Trinity Blood fan from Russia who follows this channel for quite a long time and who is familiar with Lina's cosplay, I would say that each TB cosplay is kind of personal - not only because of complicity, different versions (manga/anime/Thores illustrations) combined and some artistic liberties, but because of TREMENDOUS AMOUNT of work and love, so you, even being just a usual cosplay and fandom enjoyer, can see the differences. One of my friends spent total of 5 YEARS of successes and mistakes to make the ideal type of Esther Blanchett white nun dress for herself, "3 months" of work in the con description sound hardly believable for me as the concept. Extremely disappointed that such things happen, and my big thanks for Sarah for this video, you're the best
I judged this cosplayer at Salt Lake FanX. We awarded her a Judge's Choice best needlework award. All three judges are/were highly skilled, one I have judged with a couple times before and will judge with again this coming Saturday. It fit her well, and the back did not look sloppy to me. I spent a lot of time there looking at the engineering. She had a build book. She answered our questions. She had less WIP photos in her online entry than others for a master's level competitor, and I did score her accordingly for it. That really stood out for me. We did not base her needlework prize on just embroidery. I believe she did a little bit of altering on some parts because she knew about some of the engineering. When I saw she was competing in NY, I sent a head's up to a judge. They were already on to her. I also remember wondering about the distance she travelled to compete but then, the best in show prize was upped to 5K to attract a more national level competitor.
This experience, and a couple others, had me put up a couple vids on my socials about competing fairly in a cosplay contest, and my oath as a cosplay contest judge. I judge because I am skilled at what I do and I love cosplay. My first inclination is not to screen any entrant for cheating. I judged in early July and that was not on my radar at all.
It looks like she was likely taking the costumes apart to make some of the WIP pics. So that might explain how she was able to answer the questions so well. Plus, she was probably taking from the original descriptions from the original creators.
@@mythgreatbritain5634 I will NOT approach every contest I judge looking for cheaters. It's exhausting and demoralizing. If it comes up, we deal with it, but I will not look at first with suspicion. 99% of contestants compete fair and I'm going to treat them with dignity, period. Cheating absolutely happens, poor sportsmanship happens more. It fuels cosplay social media. I'm not going to add to that. Have you ever made a cosplay? Competed? Competed well enough to be asked to judge major contests? No? I have. I will put my integrity up to review EVERY SINGLE TIME I judge. I have no fear of that.
Im surprised nobody mentioned how her other cosplay fit (the one at 15:03). im not making fun of her size or anything, as we have similar body types, but having similar body types give me the confidence to say the corset should not be pooling like that at the top. you compare the fit of the corset top thing and see how it should fit vs how it shouldnt fit.
As a former Russian cosplayer I can guarantee you that this case is faaaaaaar from being an outlier. Lots of Russian cosplayers used to sell their costumes abroad. And if we go back to mid 2010s, when our cosplay scene was not yet mostly on twitter and instagram, there was almost 0 chance of anyone catching cheaters.
Finally, *someone* brought this whole mess up 😭 I've seen people buying Russian cosplays and art pieces and passing them off as theirs so often, all because of the language barrier and how underground the Russian cosplay and artist community used to be, speaking from experience. So this Myra cheating situation isn't surprising in the slightest lmao
@@pickled_pearunderground? Literally you won most of contests for east Europe and nowadays we use Russian cosplay skits as example of best??? It's NOT the language barrier, if a cosplayer don't want to be cheated she/he can sell it in East Europe where she checked sych background because.. most of us KNOW Russian? But they CHOOSE to sell it on HIGHER price to countries where noone made a research and know Russian cosplay scene. It's their decision, you can choose between higher price or have 100% safe from being cheated so just choose what is more important to you - money or safety
Absolutely disgusting. I feel so bad for Lina. All that hard work, unappreciated. I'm glad the cheater got caught. I can't believe they thought this would be OK.
So an interesting thing that I recently have encountered was that I'm attending the ANYC Masquerade this year and they now have a rule that you need to bring SWATCHES of your fabric or pieces of your foam work or pattern to prove that this is your own work. It was so crazy to me how this was a rule but now that I hear she won an award during ANYC this makes a lot more sense lolololol
Didn't hear it mentioned in the video, but in one of the screenshots shown it says she sold the cosplay for 50000 RUB which amounts to less than 550 USD with current exchange rate
For a cosplay that detailed I might be wrong here but it feels like that thing should be in the thousands of dollars of costs especially with how much money it probably took to make
What’s really insane to me is the paltriness I see in this story. I’m probably (most definitely) looking to much into it, but the fact that she bought the costume from another country, a cosplay whose creator documented every single, little step, then presented to a convention with little to no modification and a build book that’s probably just a piled up of what Lina said on her twitter/ has messaged her during the sale (If you think about it, as a costumer you’re allowed to ask how may question you want, so I don’t think it’s impossible, given the subject, that she just asked Lina tons of information about details and techniques) and then LIED about blocking the real creator is truly sneaky. This is what premeditation sound to me.
It also proves what many of us outside the US recognise. That there's many within it who forget the world exists. I don't mean it as a dig, it's just something we often observe. Yes, she bought the costume overseas so was personally aware in that respect but also believed it was unlikely it would occur to anyone inside to check thinking 'just a Russian girl, no one will know'. For the most part she was right, caught more by accident. My bet is if the costume was US made people would've cottoned on far more quickly.
@@tkpsthis isnt unique to America. Older Japanese game and anime osts were full of plagerized music. No shit people would have caught on faster if the creator was American, she would have had more priximity to the communities the cheater was in.
Wow I am not surprised! Known this person for many years. Full of drama. Spreading nasty lies about other cosplayers. I wouldn't believe one word that comes out of her mouth, especially now she's more malicious now than ever before with in the community. So happy somebody called her out on her BS. Hopefully this doesn't give the 501 a bad name. Thank you for making the cosplay community just a little bit better.
I kinda want legal action taken against her for this. She cheated in a recognized competition and stole somebody else's prizes and blatantly lied about making it which is plagiarism. She did not deserve any of those awards and I'm disgusted by the lack of care to prove her legitimacy by the competition organizers. It may be just for fun, but then you have people like this who ruin it for everybody else.
Hobby's tend to be something that people put hundreds of hours of work and skill in, so I assume when someone tries to cheat to the top it angers people more because of the love and time people pour into their work only for someone who doesn't want to put the work in try and cheat to be called the best
Ive never been into cosplay or known anything about it but this video made me have a new appreciation for it. Its not necessarily my thing but hearing about the time and skill it takes to make these beautiful costumes made me appreciate it. 24:42 it makes sense to me now, you wouldnt be taking months to make your costume unless you love what youre doing.
Yeah a lot of people tend to underestimate how much work has to go into cosplay but when you watch creators who make cosplay you truly get to see how much effort goes into even making the simplest of outfits
The only way I can see people ignoring the fit issue is if she said she gained weight during the making of the costume but even if you gain so much weight in 3 months that you absolutely cannot fit in your costume anymore... wouldn't you want to modify it before competing?
Apart from few medical problems, pregnancy and new meds, no one should gain that much weight in 3 months, not to mention that the sewn part wouldn't even need to be finished in the 1st month. Realistically if someone is adult at a healthy weight, the weigh should be fairly the same with minor differences. 😅
Sadly, lying in cosplay competitions is very commonplace. I was judging when a contestant told me to my face that they made a part of their costume. This piece in question? I had made and helped them create it. Yet they tried to pass it off as their own. It's crazy out there, y'all. This is why amazing qualified judges are critical cause not only will they know their stuff, as Sarah mentioned, but they will also have a solid connection to the community and know about people trying to pull off these stunts. The same can be said about the organizers! I know of some amazing employees for cons who actively go to other conventions (and communicate with other cons) to learn about the competitions and help reduce cheating (sandbagging, etc.).
What blows my mind is the number of people I've had lie to my face when I'm judging at competitions where we don't even have a big prize. Just a certificate and a horse ribbon. But people still cheat. I don't get it.
I never realized how much goes into these costumes, until my Son got into it. My youngest Son is a professional Costume Designer, college Professor in Consumer Sciences (and fashion), and works for a professional theaters Costume department (teaching and overseeing interns). I am retired (very early, I'm not even 50 years old). I now spend my time as a Gemologist, and a Lapidarist (I attempt to turn rocks, crystals, or minerals into gemstones). He makes some amazing costumes. He was designing a costume from a Manga he enjoyed. I noticed the fake gems and fake metal pieces in his design. I looked at it and told him the fake gems and foam fake metal pieces look bad. They made the work he was doing on the costume look bad. He told me "since it wasn't to my standards to hand him the gemstone and metal pieces within a week.i didn't mean to insult his work or offend him. I wanted to makeup for hurting his feelings. I went into my workshop cutting then I set them within the mounts. I handed them to him in a box. He then asked me what about the metal pieces. So I proceeded making the metal pieces. We would sit regularly going over designs he wanted and adjusting or him approving my work. Not only did I spend time bonding with him, it also helped me learn new lapidary, metal working, and jewelry design techniques. This process is why I learned advanced use of oxides or metal dyes. I can now color gold, silver, aluminum, copper or bronzes in a complete rainbow of colors that don't fade. The costume came out amazing. Tons of people asked and wanted to know where he got the jeweled and, metal pieces from. Now I make the corset boning for his projects. I don't think anyone realized it was real gemstones, the gild and silver embroidery was made from gold and silver thread. It was very elaborate, and detailed. The other thing was I got to work with my older son making the weapons for the costume. It costs me under $1,000.00 for the materials I used. We now have something that we work together on, and enjoy. Now almost every weekend my wife is painting on the patio, my oldest is working on the forge, my youngest is sewing or assembling, and I am cutting/mounting gemstones, or making metal pieces for his designs. We go on little family vacations to comic or cosplay conventions/events regularly. Knowing all the work someone can put into these costumes makes the idea of someone taking credit for other peoples creations bother me so much more. This has become a way of us bonding while enjoying working together on these projects. He always informs people the parts each of us contributed to in the costume. I receive many offers to make gems, or other pieces for peoples costumes. I turn them down since it is not something I would want to become a job and not enjoying it nearly as much. We don't enter these cosplay outfits into any events. We don't think it would be right when he is a professional costume designer. My oldest son often makes special effect devices, and weapons/accessories for the costumes. This has become my family's favorite pastime. All because I told him I didn't like the stones he was going to use, and the foam pieces looked fake and generic to me....
To make it even worse, trinity Blood is already such a rare series to find fans of. Hardly ANYBODY cosplays it now, let alone 10-15 years ago, so that should've already been a red flag.
I waited so long for you to mention the FIT. I was like "surely she's gonna mention how it obviously doesn't fit her..." lmao you could even tell from the front that it didn't fit her properly which you would THINK a cosplayer of ten years would know how to fix. Insanity that this woman thought she could get away with doing this (I mean she kinda did at first).
I know, right?? The costume looked very tight on her, and for me I didn't care how it looked on the back, it was the FRONT. That armor piece looked way too small, her neck area looked quite uncomfortable too. When you see the costume on the original creator, she is slimmer and clearly the costume fits her perfectly. Not trying to fat shame the cheater, but it's amazing that she went ahead and used a costume that was clearly way smaller. I'm guessing SOME the judges realized the fit was small but there was the possibility that she gained weight during the creation process and I can see why the judges can't say "Hey, did you gain weight while you were working on this thing?" to her face.😅
was a part of the 501st Legion and is now a COSPLAY CHEATER??? to even join that org don't you have to have a lore accurate costume that you made on your own?? Edit: I thought that you had to fully make your own costume since the couple of members that i've known had fully made their own sets of clone armor and jedi robes so it's cool to now know it's not a requirement so myf for assuming so! Just the reputation of being 501st Legion and doing something like this is still a bit shocking to me to say the least cause ik being honest like someone in the replies said is a pretty big thing in that org. just odd very odd and shady behavior tm
I have made cosplays for clients in the 501st, you don't have to make it yourself but with how strict they are I can totally see why people would rather commission then spend hours doing research on what closures are allowed
Can confirm! The majority of cosplayers in the 501st fall into two types the makers and the members. The former figures out how to make the really specific parts of certain costumes and the members then commission the makers. Everybody gets cool costumes everybody wins. But even they would heavily frown on taking credit for somebody elses work and I don't know of any 501st member who'd enter a contest with a commissioned kit....until NOW that is
As a legion member, basically it just has to be screen accurate and up to standard for the judges. Officially, it doesn’t really matter who makes it as long as it meets standards. I made my entire generic Jedi and I know of ither members who’ve commissioned an entire kit. As long as you’re honest, nobody really looks down on commissions, especially if you’re commissioning another member!!!
Someone from the 501st doing that is... So so unfortunate. I have to say: MOST of the people in the cosplay groups like 501st starwars and 405th halo group are REALLY good craftsmen. It's really sad seeing someone who has so many great resources and help around them stoop to lying.
I'm also a member of the 501st. Where I live, a lot of members get their costumes commissioned, buy and tailor it for a better fit or for the armor costumes, they'll buy those kits. My bf made his own Jawa (which is fairly easy to make), partially made his Kylo Ren, and bought his Imperial Officer uniform and Tusken Raider second hand. All of that is fine, obviously. I also bought my Imperial Officer uniform online. Another person in the comment section said she's under investigation for costume violations in the Rebel Legion. Costume violations are serious offenses in the 501st and Rebel Legion and will lead to getting banned. That includes using parts of another member's costume for approval, photoshopping your approval images so they meet the costume standards, adding or exchanging costume parts and not getting them approved, etc.
I've met and talked to a lot of 501st and have heard a lot of sharing, outsourcing, and reuse of pieces. I think in no way is that wrong or anything. Some people aren't masters at making every piece of their costumes and that's okay! That's a really big, and accepted practice for cosplay groups and I'm here for it. It's just still a shame because usually everyone is very up-front. You never really think someone is going to lie about it. But if someone really wants that contest prize I guess they will 😅
The cosplay is so detailed and extremely gorgeous. Just looking at the characters original design was overwhelming enough. I couldn't imagine having to make it from square 1. So Lina, Here's to you! 🌟
That was entertaining. From reading other comments, evidently it was a broken camera body that couldn't be repaired, and a visual pun about "RAW" format images.
17:00 I know this is off-topic for what is being disgusted in this part of the video, but I just wanted to say that whoever made that aurora dress is so clever for having the pink and blue shot woven fabric.
She HAD to know what she was doing. The 501st and its partner organizations emphasizes SCREEN ACCURATE Star Wars costuming - so much so that members were used as stormtroopers in The Mandolorian. They are tougher than cosplay judges, even.
The fact that she picked a Trinity Blood cosplay of all things is the most baffling because genuinely there aren't that many cosplays of the series let alone ones of such a high craftsmanship quality. People in a small fandom are gonna make the connection faster than a larger fandom would so you think she'd want to fly under the radar if wanting to cheat so blatantly!
According to someone else she’s been doing this with other bought cosplays for over 10 years. She likely just got too comfortable with her cheating and thought she was uncatchable since it worked for so long. Truly despicable if you ask me. Glad this is out in the consphere. Not to get pitchforks out but the people who do work hard deserve to compete against other honest hardworking competitors. Not lose to a habitual cheating clout chaser. Hopefully this public shaming will be enough to keep her and others from trying it again any time soon.
I think it's because now this fandom is small, yes, but 15 years ago it was HUGE amongst cosplayers and I think this person thought that she can find beautiful and intricate cosplay for cheap because a lot of them still exist somewhere in someone's dusty attic.
This!
I knew I recognized the cosplay....
I guess she assumed the original creator was unknown enough to the american cosplay community, because of the distance and language barrier. And to be fair: It did work several times and only by chance did someone notice because of a social media post by a third party.
I feel bad for Lina, she talks on her page how not a day passes by that she wouldn't regret selling this costume, that she only sold (for about half what it cost to produce) because of the desperation and uncertainty about the political events in russia. And her hard work was used to lie and cheat, like rubbing the salt into the wound
That’s horrible
There is no point in waiting for the russians. They got what they wanted.
@@remnantawhat?
@@remnantachill out man
@@remnantai hope you learn that the goverment is different from their people
You know what makes me mad about this whole situation.....the fact that she glued rhinestones onto the chest and arm plates. Like that right there......that was a sin against the world.
I really dislike them. Rindstones feel like a cheap attempt to add unnecessary bling to the cosplay.
i really don't know why you would put rhinestones on an armor piece bc armor isn't supposed to be shiny like that?????
Probably just an attempt to make it less recognizable. Honestly just accentuates that the breastplate is too narrow for her frame, and doesn't look made for her
@@Erideah That breastplate being undersized was so obvious a total layman like myself noticed it immediately. I'm honestly surprised it wasn't mentioned in the video.
And hotgluing rhinestones is what 2 hours work? Compared to the hundreds of hours to make the full cosplay...
Cheating in multiple cosplay contests with a bought cosplay is absolutely wild 😨
this is going in my drama playlist /pos
@@twotruckslyricsnah jit tripinn
Eh, it'd be better than forging actual armor and then being told someone's cloth rags that they didn't have to pound into shape from hot metal, beats you... Due to craftsmanship.
That is why I will never compete in anything like that again, unless it's hema... And considering my family all have the tism' strength, so it's always in my favor. The judges do good in a cosplay sence, but if you made real armor, the fact you'd be the only guy there who can wouldn't do anything
If you can't guess I'm a modern blacksmith, and my work is both fashionable and... It'll protect you, and it can be priced over a thousand dollars easily even if I make the mail from soda can tabs. And even if they were soda can tabs, all you guys ever have to do is sow... If I get the heat or timing wrong, if I strike the metal wrong... Boom all that work gone. And I'd lose because a judge doesn't understand the cidea if craftsmanship
this cheating cosplay situation is crazy 😲
As someone who buys their cosplays from artisans and tailors, why would you ever enter a contest? Even if I made the prop or styled the wig, whatever...most of the stuff, I bought. I used money (which is fine!) not skill. That's okay, but cosplay contests aren't about who has the most money so you can cheat. This is so wild to me.
I like to buy stuff to cosplay ( I'm a butcher more than a surgeon when it comes to sewing) I wouldn't enter a contest.
Because contests should be about how much you EMBODY the character, not if you have a ton of money to spend in fabric and no job so you can spend months doing nothing but sewing.
@@LynnHermione spotted the AI bro
Some cosplay contests out there do allow store-bought, but they make it clear that craftsmanship will be a primary factor.
@@LynnHermioneyou're looking for actors, these contests are based on how WELL MADE the cosplay is. there are defo contests that just grade you on how much you embody your character. also, it isn't about how much money you used, it's about how good and believable you can make wings or how well you sewn together your pants
Note to self - when designing cosplay for-sale, ALWAYS include creative embellishments that will serve as a unique fingerprint that can identify the work as my own.
And take some photos that include you as you work on different parts. Alternatively, don't post pictures of everything or share details of the entire process, so that some key information is withheld.
It's like a copyright trap! 😁 e.g. You're making a dictionary, or an encyclopedia, or a map, and you put in a fictitious entry (e.g. a nonexistent town or street, if it's a map), so that if someone plagiarizes your work, you'll know they didn't make it themselves because they have the same fake entry. You can apply this principle to so many things!
You want an easy way to fingerprint your work without ruining your work at hand? Sew your signature onto pieces that can't easily be replaced. If someone tries to play it off as their own, easily point out the spot that has your signature. Not very easy to get away with then.
While I haven’t made any cosplays thus far, this tells me that the copious amounts of beadwork I’m going to use to compensate for not owning a 3d printer will be very useful
Only 3 months to complete? I bet it took closer to a year to complete by the original creator.
FOR REAL!!! I think people seriously underestimate the amount of time it takes to make a cosplay, especially an EXTREMELY DETAILED one. 3 months sounds absolutely crazy.
Maybe it could be done in 3 months since she is a full time cosplayer. She could see if you could work 8+ hours a day you could get it done. But you have to have a pretty detailed plan to attack it at the beginning. For me it would be two years as I’m a vet so I work 12+ hours a day and every other weekend is emergency on call so I might get around 4-7 hours of crafting time a week (and that’s if I’m not burnt out at the end of the day!)
@@carolbaker2773 Yea certainly! I think it all depends on the person.
Agreed. There's just so much detail to put everything together and stuff
Yeah, I know nothing about sewing and nothing about cosplay (this popped up on my recommended), but even I looked at the screen like “only three months?”
The fact that cheater thought she could get away with it is genuinely embarrassing 😭😭
She was well practiced. She had done it with several costumes over the span of a decade.
Except... she did.
@@GoingApeCostume The fact that she managed to get away with it SEVERAL times is even worse 😭😭
Yup....and I judged her at Salt Lake. I had to spend a little while defending myself and the contest organizers for it. It makes me angry that a practiced cheater put my reputation in question.
When I say that there wasn't anything that raised a red flag, there wasn't. I flipped her hems, got into the back, asked the questions. She knew exactly what she was doing.
i mean most cheaters think they can get away with it
How the hell is Lina a "small" creator when *_THATS_* her work?
That cosplay is absolutely amazing, Lina should be on the world stage.
Might have something to do with where she is. If she was here in the US where there are tons of contests and a huge community she would be a legend. No idea what the scene is like in Russia
@@godrickstockwell1505 Russian here (sorry for my bad English). There was a lot of contests in like 2015-2019. Big contest (StarCon, Igromir and others), local contests in different cities. Festivals. Probably not as much as in USA. But then COVID happened and almost all of the creators became bankrupt. And then war happened. And now anime, manga and all of western media is something that our propaganda machine says doesn't fit our traditions (I mean, dudes, what the fuck? You literally started a war. Is murdering fit our traditions very well?). So, there's probably few contests left now. And probably only in big cities. Maybe I'm wrong. But that's maybe why Lyna (Lina?) is a small creator.
@@godrickstockwell1505well, most of the cosplayers don’t go to cons, mostly doing online stuff-photos, videos, not live performances:)
A lot of cosplayers outside of the "main regions" are not super famous despite being incredible creators. There's lots of highly talented cosplayers in Eastern Europe, South America, Southern Asia, etc. Idk how large the cosplay community is where she lives or how many conventions they have.
@@claraf.6833 i live in Russia, there’s not a lot of cosplay conventions. Yeah, we have conventions but they are a mix of anime, games, cosplay and other fandom stuff.
I'm the Black Panther, one of the judges in the Anime NYC Cosplay Masquerade. I can assure you, she did not mention that she bought this cosplay and altered it. One thing we found suspicious was when she took off her hat, and it was stuffed with newspaper. We actually saw the backplate and nearly chose someone else because of the unfinished back. The one thing I have a problem with, is the fact that I brought this up to AnimeNYC before it went viral and proposed that we chose a new winner, but they never got back to me despite my efforts.
I judged at SLCC and the back did NOT look that unfinished when I was back there. I was very interested in how the back foam pieces were engineered so that's where I put myself.
Having a lace up back when you have back pieces like that is not uncommon. I know I didn't see bare skin back there.
Also, it's not uncommon for cosplayers to adjust costumes from prejudging to stage movements, based on time between judging and the show, for comfort. By that time you might have been in a hot uncomfortable cosplay for hours.
Thank you for your vigilance, Black Panther. Wakanda forever
@GoingApeCostume While that is true, usually, if there are any differences between prejudging and stage, the competitor is usually the first to point that out because anything that would look unfinished could and would be used against them. As you know, Craftsmanship is mostly judged by what the judges can see first hand in the prejudging. It is where all the detail and finishing can be examined closely. The AnimeNYC situation, we had plenty of people who couldn't show us the full look because of performance reasons, comfort, disabilities etc and that was taken into account by us. However, AnimeNYC Cosplay Masquerade is extremely timely and organized compared to other cons, they tell you the exact time you'll be prejudged and tell you to have everything stage ready so the judges can do their job as fair as possible. I competed in, won best intermediate craftsmanship and then judged the following year. I can assure you that part is consistent. Competitors know they must come to prejudging stage ready and time they need to be in order to prepare. In this person's case, they didn't provide any disclaimer and hopped on stage with the same look. That is what we found a bit odd.
@@GoingApeCostumeMy ultimate point is this. I don't care about what happened during the time she cheated, how she cheated, etc, anymore. What I care about is that someone who did the work and deserved that prize got cheated and should be given prizes and credits in the cheater's place. I've been cheated before (Twitchcon 2022) and I refuse to let anyone else experience what I have under my watch. My problem is AnimeNYC lack of action in this matter. Hopefully I'll be able to talk to them this year before it is too late but ultimately this should have been done as soon as I brought it to their attention and offered. I'm in an active group chat with the other previous judges and we all agreed and were down to pick another winner. AnimeNYC needs to right this wrong.
@@Zer0mervis I remember that 2022 baloney. I competed in 2019.
Nothing SLCFanX can do in this case.
When you said 'the people don't understand' I truly felt that. Last year I was talking with a cosplayer who was in front of me in the catwalk line and I told them that I was preparing for an upcoming coscompo. They said 'I would love to compete one day but then I would have to commission someone to make it for me but that feels a bit unfair'. They were dead serious and I just replied with 'umm yeah that's not allowed'.
Edit: just want to clarify that I’m from the Netherlands Aka a small country. We do not have a lot of coscompos and these are also not split into master or novice. There aren’t a lot of prices or con opportunities to compete. Maybe it’s different in other countries but here they do not allow you to model someone elses work
You should have seen the shit show that erupted in my local community when our large con re-vamped the cosplay contest to exclude purchased costumes, if you wore a commissioned piece the maker HAD to be present and in the judging room to be counted. People had to be told "We are judging your SKILL not your WALLET SIZE"
"So you want to model for someone to enter the contest is what you're saying. That's so kind of you."
@@shingshongshamalama This but unironically, there definitely are people who would prefer to model than make. A lot of the spectators would rather see models than self-modeling. The cosplay community is kind of a joke sometimes because in other parts of the fashion industry, self-modeling is unheard of.
@@KawaiiBabyTragon "other parts of the fashion industry" good thing that cosplay isn't part of the fashion industry.
@@rebeccaabram2312 you still need a sizable wallet to make cosplays. materials and equipment aren't exactly free or cheap, most people can't afford to have that much free time either or the luxury of having the extra space to store all that stuff.
9:54 im the Glamrock Bonnie that competed with her at FanX- it’s absolutely disgusting to hear she BOUGHT.. AND SAID SHE DID IT HERSELF- she stole that win from someone who actually deserved it. VILE. I hope she somehow gets her awards revoked. Thank you so much for making this video and calling her out😭🙏🙏🙏the cosplay community does not claim her🧍♂️🤚
Hearing her written script for the contest saying she did all of that is disgusting.
omg cool!!!!!!!
It would truly be poetic justice for her awards/cash prizes to be revoked and given to the ACTUAL creator as she (original artist) not only deserves it but also could desperately utilize the funds to help with her survival in/escape from Russia.
Heartbreaking and sickening for such a thief to take advantage of someone in such a vulnerable state. She is truly evil.
I hope this will encourage a new set of R&Rs for revocation of cash prizes/awards (in addition to providing public apologies to the victims and the community as a whole!)
(Great job on your cosplay, btw!! Brings me joy to see such passion and talent in this community)
YOUR COSPLAY IS AMAZING !
I was gonna say, that Glamrock Bonnie looked soooo good it's so sad the cheater got the win :( your costume rocked!
@@orimengu you mean, his costume glam-rocked ! ( I do not regret that pun ! )
This scandal is wild but also I just have to respect the original costume designer for making that. You aren't kidding about the "what the fuck is he even wearing" step, as a regular artist having to figure that out on that design makes me sick already. Shame that intense amount of work got used in a malicious manner
This. One of the first cosplays I ever made was a Satsuki Override Junketsu from Kill La Kill, and THAT was a challenge for me at the time. But this Seth is mindboggling
I’m 54 years old and do not mean any disrespect, but I had no idea about Cosplay and assumed people just ordered costumes made in China.
I happened across your video, and I was mesmerized. I really appreciate the way you did not assume your audience were cosplay experts and thoroughly enjoyed your video and learned a lot. A lot of great artists out there.
Thank you!
Some people do buy their cosplays :3 I'm trying to get to a level where I build my own cosplay.
Thank you, as well, for creating an isle of wholesomeness amongst the drama.
I'm right there with ya! I have no idea about Cosplay but this young womans excitement and style made me watch this from start to finish.
Excellent job!
ditto, 23 years old. i knew that people made them, but id never been to a con of any sort or been in those crowds, so the huge amount of info and amazing piece spotlights, i have far more appreciation
@@QuikVidGuythanks for the tip.
Watching this while hand-sewing 100 patches onto a jacket, I got 30 more hours and 20 more patches to go, please pray for my fingers…
Good luck! Hoping you finished it by now, this random internet stranger is proud of you whether you did or not, I know that takes so much time. I know absolutely nothing about any of this stuff, everyone's creativity, skills, and dedication is admirable to me.
@@imbored9156 Awww thank you! It really means a lot, it does! I DID IT ON TIME and it turned out amazing. It’s a birthday gift and it was an incredible surprise. I made one for myself 4 years ago and promised myself to never do one again, because it takes so much time and must be made by hand mostly. Now, for a very special person who always wanted one, I did it again. My fingers are so f***ed up and wrecked, I got tendinitis and literally bamboo-tortured two of my fingers, but it was worth it. Thank you internet stranger. ❤️
Rest in spaghetti, never forgetti. Nah but for real, good luck and take breaks when you can. You got this
Did you finish it in time? Hope your hands are going okay! ❤
hope your fingers and hands have recovered!!! I don't even want to think how many times I would've poked myself doing 100 patches!!
The fit was a dead giveaway for me, if YOU made a cosplay, why not make it to fit yourself? I’m a much larger person and when I make my cosplays I measure my patterns to myself and test fit EVERYTHING..
Really! She looked quite uncomfortable while wearing it, right? The way she walked like she was afraid to even breathe..
@@ArchAangels she was careful with how she moved, incredibly so, no showwy movements as if a sudden jerk of her arm could send the whole display crashing down.. it wasnt like the poise of an act, it was literally the cosplay being too tight
Yeah! This breastplate CLEARLY looks like it was made for someone smaller in size and maybe even shorter in stature. It looks weird on her.
@@this_Kwazicat true, its also not centered correctly, and seems to like.. fold off? like lift off the body, its weird
@@cephalonaural6854 yeah, that as well. Also, on some videos it is clear that there is this horisontal tension in the fabric, that the fabric is digging into her sides. It looks uncomfortable.
THIS IS WHY CONSTRUCTION/TIMELINE BOOKS ARE SO IMPORTANT PEOPLE
Juries that actually judged the cheater stated she did have progress books from ripping the seams apart and then resewing them and that sufficed for a progress book, this is what makes this case bonkers
@@MadamRose_she also could have used all the images the actual creator put online… easy…
@@MadamRose_Dang that's really messed up.
@MadamRose_ at that point why not make it from scratch
@@whickwhacksmacker in other costumes where she commissioned them (and didn't buy second hand) she used the makers progress photos to make her build books. Sometimes the cheaters are clever!
Adding rhinestones to that cosplay should be a war crime
Very Ex-“Friend” of hers here. I’m so glad this video was made. She’s even worse than this, if you can believe that. There’s so much behind the scenes.
I can't believe that at all! I think you will need to intricately explain yourself exactly to make it understandable :p
Girlll give us all the TEAAAA
please spill the tea
@@dkfsamuraishe has been competing in bought Cosplays for over 10 years. There is so much proof out there of this. Whenever she would lose at cons, she’d throw a tantrum about it, either publicly or in dms. She runs a cosplay photography business, claimed to have camera issues at katsu 2023, cancelled on a ton of people and didn’t refund a lot of people. She’s not a good person.
@@rubberd0512 thank you for adding more info! I could tell this wasn’t the first time she did this because of her audacity, I can imagine she had gotten away with it multiple times before
what makes it funnier to me is that i think the rhinestones are UGLY
Same here, I won't use the word "ugly" but they do look out of place and completely unnecessary. I'm guessing she added them because A she thought blinging it up a bit will make it look "better," or B, deep inside she was somewhat feeling guilty and wanted to add a tiiiiiny bit of a personal touch.
It's what I used to call the "Ol razzle dazzle" attempt. Look! It's shiny! You cannot possibly tell I must have sewn this with a blindfold and finished it with hot glue! Or that you've definitely seen this costume before somewhere. It *twinkles*
Like GtfO here with that. I started as a theatrical seamstress before working up and I respect a good well hidden cheat for a garment...but hot glue or theft ain't it!
@@petitmains is that a chicago reference or has musical theatre brainrotted me
@@khromatickarma You got it in one!! I was a theater tech back in the day and I love a solid surly character song. Everyone is back on "They both reached for the gun" and sleeping on "Razzle dazzle!"
The rhinestones she added just made it look cheap…so her “work” made it worse not better.
I can confirm that she got 2nd in advance at ANYC as I was the one to place over her. She claimed to have fully made both costumes when we chatted in the green room, even during that time something was odd. Seeing the stuff come up about her Seth I was the one who found the original creator for her Necromancer as a fellow Sakizo cosplayer, let her know and had pointed it out. She with her full chest talked as if she fully made each from scratch. When she only got 2nd you could tell she was upset to not get BiS. Back to the green room post contest she didn't seem to want to talk to anyone.
yup i remember her crying.....sore loser behavior tbh
Man im so sorry this shit sucks. As a 23 year old JUST NOW getting into the cosplay world i had no idea bad shit like this happened, like why do ppl take away the fun?? Your look was amazing😅❤
She knew full well what she was doing. She has done this multiple times with at least two cosplays. She probably has done it even more that no one ever noticed. She blocked the original creator. That alone screams she did this all on purpose. She should be blacklisted from any major cosplay competitions going forward.
Surely some punishments will occur right? I am not really familiar with cosplay scene and rules, but cheating can't be tolerated. Then why would others work hard at all..
To me the "I didn't know the creator was blocked" really clinches it. Like...how? Blocking people on social media isn't automatic. There's no way you couldn't know you had blocked the person you had previously bought something from.
@@RapTilianssince you can’t force someone to not cosplay the only thing you can do is at competitions if you see her trying to compete you tell them all about this since all cons are not run by one entity and all self run
@@thelonleyUchiha1 You cannot be allowed to add some shiny rocks with glue to a piece/outfit that had like 10 different techniques done on and with that level of detail, and go yea this in mine i did all of this.. Even more so if there is monetary reward or trophies to be won. However many cosplay cons there are, they should be notified by people who visit and participants on this, in my opinion.
@@RapTilians exactly that’s what I said.
The other dead giveaway is how they move while wearing it. One stands tall and proud of her work, leisurely displaying every time-consuming stitch with slow and deliberate sweeping gestures. The other scurries out haphazardly to do a quick and nervous shame-filled spin with zero enthusiasm.
I didn't think about it like that, you're so right actually
Some people have anxiety or stage fright and some are naturally dramatic and love limelight. Stop moralizing body language unless you are willing to admit being a bunch of things that end in -ism and -phobia
@@xilj4002 I agree that we shouldn't use this situation to automatically assume all other contestants with stage fright are cheaters, especially when they're still newbies, but I'm curious what words ending in -ism and -phobia you think the OP should admit to?
@@xilj4002 Idk, when looking at body language, you may be able to see one person's baseline body language with how they've behaved on stage or in videos previously. She is a veteran cosplay competitor after all.
But I think that it's more possible that her movements are constricted by her ill-fitting and tight costume.
@@Djinnk042 Veterans can still have a bad anxiety day and struggle with stage fright. Or a chronic pain flareup. They can get bad news or diarrhea 20 minutes before the show. They can have surgeries when costume is halfway done, they can steroid treatments and the costume can be constricting because of the sudden weight gain. A veteran can be autistic and have a bad sensory day. And about a million other things
I know body language analysis is very popular these days, but it's just a pseudoscience herding people towards phrenology and stuff like that
Not just entering it in a single contest, but SEVERAL is so heinous. I feel so bad for all the cosplayers whose spots she wrongfully took, and all the prizes she stole. She is a wicked person and I hope she is permanently banned from cosplay contests after this.
This is a wild story but I did learn something positive. I really love sewing but I can’t wear elaborate costumes because I have an autoimmune condition that makes my skin hurt and spontaneously bleed with friction so anything other than the baggiest t-shirt is torture. To find out I could have a model wear the costume instead and still enter it is amazing information. I had given up on ever entering a cosplay contest after being diagnosed so I’m really excited that I could enjoy making clothes again.
this is really wholesome :,) as someone else with an autoimmune condition i wish you the best of luck in any future contest endeavors!
So happy you might be able to enjoy your passion again. ❤
im so glad you found this video :)! i hope you continue pursuing your passion. best of wishes!
Your passion shines through!
There are so many creative people you could find and collab with! Find your new bestie out there and share your art!
This is like entering a writing contest with a book someone else wrote.
I read a long post written by someone who was teaching writing skills at a community college. According to her one of her students submitted an assignment that was fanfiction with the serial numbers shaved off. She knew because it was HER story and she recognized all the cringe grammar mistakes
@@godrickstockwell1505 well, to be fair, if the student had known it was her fanfiction, it would have been an unbelievably funny troll, well worth failing a class. I once started a graded essay in college with a fake quote that I attributed to my professor, just to see whether or not he remembered what he said, and what he didn't. I aced that exam, so he probably didn't notice. :D
@@Gravewhisper the person posting had a pretty good sense of humor about the whole thing. She joked that she'd have to retire and find a different school if she confronted the person since the story included a massively cringe sex scene
Youre not far off. An actor who used to have a female partner for a straight couple tandem was caught using openai to write an apology. His name is daniel padilla and you can find him more by looking up the drama he had with kathryn bernardo
Stealing the ENTIRE buildbook off social media is just another added level of evil in my opinion and the biggest sign that she does not deserve the benefit of the doubt. She 1000% knew what she was doing with each decision.
What a wild story lol. Not only is it extremely disrespectful to the creator of the cosplay, but it's also disrespectful to all the other competitors who put their time, money, energy, and probably mental well-being into their costumes and lost to myra, who added a couple things and called it a day. I'd feel cheated out of an award if I were in their positions. Ty for bringing awareness to this, hopefully myra learns her lesson and this discourages others from cheating too!
This happens a lot in cons here in Brazil, not the part of having an specific original creator, but of people buying Aliexpress cosplays that are very expensive, and simply winning over the others that created their own costume. And I know that your acting in stage is also very important, but it's still very sad and kinda disrespectful for the others who gave their blood creating their own costume
@@lgnroseta309 do you have categories? Cons I've been to (in Poland) usually have best craftmanship, best acting and overall awards. With a bought costume you could only win in best acting/scene. It's wild that they don't always do it in places that allow bought costumes...
So that Woman took out her Bedazzler and went to town on this beatiful design, then said, Ive changed it up, now give me prizes. What a shame.
okay but, am I the only stuck at the photographer putting egg yolks in camera bases!?? 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I think we're all trying to forget that XD
all i could think was _those poor cameras_
@@dualitysDownfall i follow the creator, he said in a comment that its his old camera that doesnt work anymore, so no cameras are being harmed haha
@@demonlyc22 wait it's the same camera over and over? is he cleaning it out, how is he doing that?
and also why?
@@dualitysDownfall its the same camera as far as im aware. I dont know how he cleans it, probalby water and soap does the job. He is doing these as memes/wordplays, like RAW means unedited, raw footage in photgraphy, but it also means raw like food. He also put salt in it, to make it 'grainy'. He does a lot of these, but they are mostly photography inside jokes, thats why it can look odd to people.
Drag king here - AB stands for Aurora Borealis for the rainbow effect, that’s why they tend to be more expensive 🖤
And here I am, barely knowing what a rhinestone is XD
Thank you for the fun fact of the day!
Steamed hams?
@@Cavendiishaurora borealis at this time of year at this time of day in this part of the country localized entirely within your kitchen?
@@HECTORCOMEHOMEyes!
“Yes”
I thought you were going to talk about how off chest armor looks on someone who's several sizes bigger, I didn't think the back could possibly be that bad ON STAGE 😹
Hi Sarah ❤️ The photographer you mention in this video is a personal friend. He was horrified when the news about Maya came out and his name got attached to it- it’s part of the reason why he changed his content. I have a lot of sympathy for him because he was painted as a bad guy when it was Maya who lied to his face (she did that to a lot of people). I know the egg thing is goofy, but please be kind.
I think the idea of a whole raw egg in a camera body is a funny idea myself, I do feel for him after all this too
He could just delete that and issue an explanation. It's not his fault that he was misled. His creativity shouldn't be destroyed just because of other people's deception. Photographers in convention get less time to get to know each cosplayer.
Why the eggs though?
that's a shame, I wouldn't blame the photographer for something like this. They just take pics
Bro folded like an omelette.
I SAW HER AT ANIMENYC OMG I don't remember exactly who won in the contest but I remember seeing the cosplay beforehand on the con floor with a friend, we both were stunned (as we're both still relatively new cosplayers) and went up to compliment her and she kinda brushed us off? Like she didn't seem to really care about the compliment which at the time I thought it was because she must've been getting so many compliments on it (because the cosplay is absolutely stunning in person and I saw many people going up to her) but now it makes so much more sense...damn...
yep, can confirm - I was in the contest where she won 2nd place and know that several people in the greenroom tried to compliment her and got very rude or nonexistent responses.
Anime NYC should be ashamed of themselves for giving her an award
I also competed with her! My group was chatting with the other competitors next to us while we were in line backstage but she didn't seem to talk much. Most cosplayers love to talk about their costume so I thought she was just nervous or focused on the competition, but in hindsight it all makes sense. Really sucks because this is such a special community for a lot of us and we spend hundreds of hours working on a single cosplay.
I think I saw her at a con once too! My girlfriend and I tried to compliment her and the same damn thing happened!! We thought it was weird and a little sad, but we moved on quickly.
@@marchofcubesIdk I’ve had a few situations where I tried to compliment a cosplay, AT A CONVENTION, where they are IN COSPLAY, and got eyes rolled at me, sighed at, brushed off, made to think I am annoying the cosplayer. I no longer go up to strangers at cones or compliment strangers at cons. I am sad at this new generation of “I don’t owe anyone basic kindness or basic respect unless they do something grand to deserve it first” behavior. I’m autistic and the older I get the harder it is to socialize so stuff like conventions was a safe space. But it’s been overrun with attitude issues that I simply don’t know how to navigate lol. Oh well.
I miss when people dressed up or performed and expected to get attention and weren’t rude about it.
Such a beautiful costume being destroyed with rhinestones and the real creator not getting credit makes me so sad
Well, hi so I'm from Costa Rica, on march 2024 we had a small cosplay contest, and something similar happened (bear with me) 👀 there's been one Strawberry Miku cosplayer that had been competing for months with that costume, but it was a commissioned work, from someone else, but all the techniques were taken from Sarah's videos and TEMPLATES, everyone knew they didn't make it themselves, and still they went to compete and placed SECOND PLACE, they lied at the judges using all the explanation from the videos 💀 but a couple of days later the organization found out and they disqualified them. Happy ending:D
Could you like, DM me about this on Discord or instagram? 👀 cause thats wild. If you aren't in my community discord there is a link in the description.
That's crazy..but at least they got caught
Holy shit-
viva costa rica
That was not very Pura La Vida of them 😡
This is EXACTLY what have happened to me with cosplayer from Germany who bought my old Power Armor costume from Fallout. She won at least two competitions untill someone let me know about the situation and Ive called her out online. She stole my progress pics, claimed to have cancer and then removed her socials to make new ones. It was a wild ride 💀When we sell our costumes overseas ( I live in Poland), we never can know what happens with them later.
Thanks for this video, it is really informative to people who are not in our community 👏
Im so sorry that had to happen to you! I really wish people who make and sell cosplays are allowed to know what happens to them. As an artist I like knowing what people do with my work all the time!
OMG I REMEMBER!!, I knew this person and when you called her out, she posted that basically she's a mental wreck now and whatever. Everything except taking fucking accountability. SHE NEVER DID THAT. This was so cringe
Something that I've seen cosplayers do lately before selling their handcrafted cosplay is to embroider their own branding/tag inside their costume, I'm not sure if that could help decrease the chances of cheating in competitions tho
Germans stealing from Polish people, tale as old as time.
As a German cosplayer, I am appalled by that. I'm so incredibly sorry they stole from you in that manner.
can’t believe she called it “retooling” when all she did was bedazzle it 😭
Myra is actually under investigation by the Rebel Legion for violations of our costume profiting policies
Holy cow!!!
I'd figured the 501st would take action.
Dang
@@Hyperguyver2 I'm not surprised. The Rebel Legion and 501st Legion can be wicked strict, I'm a member of the 501st and getting approved, joining and starting to troop was met with a multitude of roadblocks.
On the upside, costume violations will probably get the costume(s) in question forcibly "retired" and she might be discharged... which bans her from re-entering.
Bahahahaha ok Batman
I saw her at the Salt Lake FanX! I went up to her after the show and she complained that the show was rigged and that the judges were scammers and they played favorites in the judging. I thought it was so odd she said that because I've been going to the SLC FanX ever since it started and they've always been so open about why and how they judge.
I was one of the judges. I wrote an oath as a judge and put it on my socials recently because of crap like this.
She had worse terms for the judging at NYCC.
People often project their own flaws onto other people, it seems. In this case, the complaint of scammers.
I didn't know about this scandal, but I DID recognize the costume! I don't think I ever followed the original creator, but I love Trinity Blood and remember seeing photos of the creator in her cosplay and showing it to a friend who also is a Trinity Blood fan.
And I saw a post of the liar in the costume, too, more recently. A different friend sent it to me and said she thought it was a rip-off of Lina's design "but with funky sparkles, for some reason", neither of us knowing that it was in fact the same costume.
No joke: your VERY AGGRESSIVE REMINDER actually caused me to double-check. Turns out my voter registration was suspended but I was able to get it straightened out. Thanks!
Yeah, I live in Ohio and they keep throwing out registrations just before elections. Check your registration. Bring a physical id and vote! (They also instituted phone id, but you can’t use it to vote).
Hi, I am local to Myratheon, I've heard about and known about rumors of her cheating for years, like I'm basically one degree of separation from her, I have mutuals with her on fb but we've never been friends, and have had friends compete against her. One of my friends personally she has been very rude to, and another that even when she was called out she was afraid to name her publicly because her and I guess some her friends are very rude and kind of scary. She apparently would throw tantrums over not winning contests when she didn't place. I like that you ended this with "if you see her competing in a contest, show them this video", while I don't think she will be brave enough to continue anymore I wouldn't be surprised with how long this was known behind the scenes, it seems even when people could tell, it was hard to find valid reason to disqualify her sometimes. Can confirm she's gotten best in show at CTcon twice actually. Not only a cheater, but also hearing she's a generally rude person, I feel vindicated that her lies are exposed and I respect you for making this and putting the effort to connect all the dots as to why it's so bad.
Sidenote: THE FABRIC FOR THAT AURORA COSPLAY IS PERFECTION! anyway, back to the tea 🫖☕
How was 3 months for that whole costume not be a red flag? Theres no way that start ( patterning ) to finish, it was only 3 months.... Not unless she has no job and is only working on that cosplay daily. I dont sew, but I can't imagine that timeline working for anyone with a day job...
Yeah, I was about to say! I have only one cosplay anywhere near that level of intricacy and it took me almost 2 YEARS to finish
i literally spent 3 months working on a smaller single part to a cosplay, and i've been sewing other projects for over 5 years and there ain't no way she could've done it 3 month unless she has little rats in her house sewing for her, or she's on 10 pounds of crack and sewing nonstop
In her twitter Lina says that ONLY the HAT (and it was not finished at the time) took her 2 months
It was just post Covid. I competed against her at FanX Salt Lake (got 2nd place masters) and I made my cosplay in about 2 months. I didn’t have a job at the time so it was possible for me to do that. I’m sure the judges thought the same of her claim.
I made a plush with a very basic pattern hand-made and it took me 2 months to finish it, and as it was a school project, I was basically doing nothing but work on it 😂 no way that huge thing would take only 3 months to do
When cons allow "modeling contestants" on stage, the model and the commissioner are fully aware that they are not here for the prize. That being said, For Myra, a cosplay veteran, to cheat like this goes to show she does not care about cosplay as a craft and hobby, she likes the fame and recognition it comes with. And I'm sorry? 3 months to build that? That alone is the biggest fucking lie I have ever heard of!
Edit: It's also been revealed in several twitter threads that Myra LIED about the costume commissions! She never made a single one! She would buy the costumes on sites like Etsy and Secret Angel, and then pass it off as her own for 3 times the price of what SHE paid!
Not only that, but she's also a scammer when it comes to cosplay photography! She has scammed and ghosted numerous clients and when she DOES reply, its with some excuse further delaying the "editing process"
2:44
I'm over here working on a cosplay I've been working on for almost a year, so when I heard "three months" I was like PFFFFFFFFF. Maybe if that was the ONLY thing you were doing, as a full time job, could you do that in 3 months.
Trinity Blood is literally my all time favorite anime. I have re-watched it MULTIPLE times. I actually remember a couple years ago when I came across Lina's cosplay of Seth. I was freaking BLOWN AWAY because the amount of detail that went into that cosplay was absolutely incredible. It is completely disgusting that someone bought her cosplay that she spent MONTHS making into an incredible replica that look even better than the anime to pass it off as their own and then claim "Oh WeLl I DiD mEnTiOn ThAt I dIdNt CoMpLeTeLy MaKe ThIs MySeLf". The fact she blocked Lina literally tells us all we need to know. She knew EXACTLY what she was doing.
I'm a clueless member of the public who assumed cosplay contest was just most impressive or most accurate costume. Thanks for including the basics about contests it is fascinating. I was already previously impressed by cosplay but I now realise better the amount work involved and I'm even more impressed by everyone doing this sort of thing. I'll definitely watch more videos
Didn't she also have the AUDACITY of complaining about not wining the NYCC Crown Championships? 😂
Yeah she and Mimic had hissy fits
I read in another comment that the judges there got informed she would cheat there so she couldn't have won perse
If it had been Lina wearing her unaltered cosplay, she would have likely ranked very high.
I’m a 60f and I’ve always wondered about cosplay. Your video popped up on my feed this morning. I am impressed with the skills it takes to make these costumes. Thank you for teaching me about this. It’s sad that people can’t even compete honestly. I’ve been sewing since I was 9. You are right. It’s nowhere near impossible to make a garment fit that is to small. Props to all the cosplayers out there!
Myra told me once that she hot glued the appliques on Seth when she found out I'm a journeyman cosplayer in competitions. And thet should have been the biggest red flag to me. I got so much personal details about her as i witnessed this entire scandal in real time.
Details
Spill the tea
what's the teaaaa
I like that you showed some behind the scenes of the judging. Because some people don't understand how some less cool stuff in their minds wins
How much you wanna bet that those rhinestones she added were just pre-made strings/strips of rhinestones? And she probably just ran a line of glue and pressed the strips down.
As a Trinity Blood fan and cosplayer, this infuriates me even more than it would if it was another series portrayed. Thores Shibamoto's illustrations are the ULTIMATE GOAL for so many cosplayers! His illustrations are so extremely detailed that you have to do tons of cross-referencing to figure out what to include and what might not fit/work on the costume. You have to take creative liberties with them because no two illustrations are the same. Thus these costumes WILL be unique and recognizable. Add on the fact the series is from 2006 and isn't a very popular one in the states, there's far and few between high-level cosplays. We WILL recognize them.
Edit: Seth has multiple names. Seth Nightlord, Seth Nightroad, and Agusta Varadica. This specific design technically falls under the last name, but we all call her Seth.
There was a huge Scandal recently in Mexico with a cosplayer called Candy Camille, she was caught cheating also by using a commissioned cosplay and passing it off as her own and entering multiple contests, she would also photoshop her face onto other cosplayers professional photos, she was invited to a con (La Mole) and they canceled her appearance after she was exposed 😅
all because she gained weight...
like... why would you photoshop yourself over carry key's body
Shit and here I am fully knowing all Yaya Hans dirt while she enjoys....a career? (hey gurrrl remember me from all the parties you treated me like dog shit at because I was "just" a promo gal? I know you don't) Including how much of her early work that propelled her to fame...isn't hers (I bet her live journal is still up too) and how everyone missed that Heroes of Cosplay episode where she was fat shaming as fuck.
Rich... coming from a gal who went up cup sizes like I dropped letter grades when my folks split. I wonder why she never features her fire fairy or Sharon Apple costumes...oh waiiiiit.
Back in 2018 or so, I purchased a dress for a Peggy Schuyler cosplay off a cosplayer I loved. The dress fit me nicely and only cost $100 because the maker never really intended on selling or competing with it, so the inside of the dress wasn’t super clean and it wasn’t very stage accurate in all. I never took credit, competed with it, or misled people about the origin in any way. It’s really not hard. Like people asked me if I made it and I said no, here’s who made it. No excuses.
hello fellow Hamilton fan !
As a cosplayer, I've seen some WILD stuff in this community. I still remember the Blerd-con debacle. There usually aren't even cash prizes. People will just do anything for clout.
What's this Blerd-con debacle?
@@damearstor2120 In 2021, there was controversy surrounding the winner of the cosplay competition at blerdcon, allegations were made that her dress was store bought. Apparently some of the alleged unfairness was exacerbated by the fact that the winner was a white person at a convention aimed to showcase black nerd culture - but that doesn't mean people were upset specifically about that, only that if she did actually cheat, it was a real low blow to do it at blerdcon out of all places.
ALSO some people who saw the winning cosplay up close say the supposed high quality is not noticeable at all, raising further questions about why she won. There's youtube videos about it
@@solarprogeny6736damn even the cons have a Rachel dolazal
I felt bad for the original Blerdcon cosplay contest winner. No one should be harassed or sent death threats over a cosplay contest. People need to get a grip and get a life.
Well, the thing is Sarah believe it or not this isn't the first time she's cheated. She's been cheating since 2019 with bought costumes and even sold one of her "Winning" cosplays to a friend of mine who got harassed for just wearing it. It was awful. Also, at ANYC I know the winner of the master's category and I was told by the winner that Maya also had very poor sportsmanship too. She complained that she didn't get first place and I was shocked that after the mimic incident at NYCC a month before that she even did that.
I think people who create costumes (and sell) should try to include a small and hidden tab or signature within the clothes. A hidden sowed up section that once you undo it, the proof is there or something like that?
I'm a seth nightroad cosplayer myself, and my cosplay took me literally a year and a half to build to the point it was actually wearable to a con, and i still feel it's not finished.
the hat alone took me like what? 7 months to figure out? and worst part, is that Seth does not have like a ''fixed'' reference or like a 3D/360 view of her garments, so no matter what, you gotta take a bunch of references and basically build your own version.
took me 7 months to make THE HAT ONLY. and she created that masterpiece in 3 months?
i'm deceased.
This! As a fellow Seth Nightroad cosplayer enthusiast, i can't especially believe the 3 month bs.
What a bunch of lies.
I honestly feel like it was kind of an insult to Lina that she claims it took 3 months because that kind of tells me that she thought all the work that went into that very detailed cosplay WOULD TAKE ONLY 3 MONTHS!?
This is fucking wild.
I'm a cosplayer who has bought and commissioned so many costumes over the years. I have various issues that mean making a cosplay is very difficult and not always worth the inevitable breakdown and flare up.
I _always_ make it clear it's not my work. I'm literally known as the "thanks, I didn't make it" person at my local cons. I refuse to take any amount of credit for any work that is not mine. Part of the fun of commissioning work is being able to support small businesses and share a love of a fandom or garmentry. It's amazing to see people light up when they learn that their technical skills doesn't limit them from their dream cosplay.
If you really, really need a big fucking pat on the back because you're so attention starved, _interact with your local cosplayers._ Walk the con floor and go to meet ups. Don't steal people's work!!!!
This is why i don't enter cosplay contest either, since most of my cosplays are bought pieces or commissioned items and im always adamant on letting people know. Good example here (on this video), this cosplayer i met at Fanimecon had a set of Lucifer wings from the same person i bought from Etsy; when i came up to them and told them "oh i love your wings i have the same set" they kind of didnt respond and ignored me. I thought maybe they couldnt hear me well since it was a large meetup. Later i found this video of her getting interviewed ua-cam.com/video/Irw_XCGwebI/v-deo.html Claiming they made them. If you lookup the comment i posted on the video, i put the etsy sellers name, if you look up reviews of that shops Lucifer wings, they posted a photo of themselves alongside with a review.
OMG I remember the original Trinity Blood cosplay from years ago! It was so sick when she first released photos
I remember when the biggest scandal in cosplay was a Sailor Moon cosplayer who wore lovely costumes, entered into allot of contests then it was discovered she couldn't sew a single stitch, she was infamous on Fandom Wank back in the day. But this is another level, I can't get my head around how the fit didn't tip off somebody that something wasn't right about the costume
omg fandom_wank takes me back 😂 VERY far back lmaooo
Didn't she start saying that no one else could cosplay Serenity because she was so good at it? I remember the picture of her with her staff pointing down saying this was her moon kingdom or something. The wank never ends 😂
Lord, was that the cosplayer who considered herself THE Sailor Moon and that the hairstyle was iirc based on -her- hair, and that she didn't wear any extensions? Those were wild times.
FandomWank mentioned 🥂🧙♂️
Was that Usagi Kou or someone else?
@@TheProblem2025 sure sounds like Usagi Kou
Honestly, the BIGGEST red flag about all this is how she claimed to make this in 3 months. I'm sorry, even if you have enough money to NOT work for 3 months straight and spent 24 hours every day to work on this to the caliber of detail, THAT. IS. IM. POS. SI. BLE!!!!!!! For her to flat out lie like this AND get away with it multiple times is CRAZY to me! And it genuinely makes me question how LONG she's been doing this
Maybe it was just the parts she added/adjusted that took 3 months. That I can believe. the rhinestones and tights and back plate to cover where the gap in the back was.
But there's some tea in another comment from some people who say they are former friends of Myra's that say she's been entering contests in bought costumes for over 10 years.
3 months would be more than enough for someone doing it full time. It's a few hundred hours work, not thousands.
@@Vincent_Beers That's really hard to believe though. There are so many factors that take up your build time. Work, school, sleep, etc. And its like Sarah said, making custom patterns is both hard and time consuming. That alone can take hours, if not, DAYS to make a rough draft, make the mock up, fit, repeat until you get what you're looking for. Then there's material research and sometimes those materials are not readily available for you to get with a quick trip to the store. THAT can take at least a week. There are so many factors that really show that unless you're home all the time and not sleeping and taking care of yourself, making something this elaborate in a quarter of a year is very much improbable
@@Vincent_Beers I dunno if you're a cosplayer or not, but from-scratch costumes can range in hundreds of hours, but something like that is CLEARLY not made in 3 months. Maybe with help, sure; but getting help and finishing in 3 months is definitely NOT 70% made by the competitor wearing it
FYI, Sandbagging DOES NOT mean someone is pretending to “be bad on purpose, because you don’t respect your competition.”
Sandbagging is pretending to be at a lower skill level in order to be placed at a lower skill bracket. Therefore, the sandbagger can crush their competition, and easily win the championship.
In BJJ, they call it smurfin. Which is when a purple/brown/black belt pretends to be a blue belt, so they can easily dismantle their opponents and win the championship prize.
Yeah. I used to be a league bowler and there was a lot of sandbagging just so people could get a higher handicap for leagues that use them.
It's called Pot Hunting in the equestrian world.
People who are at higher levels will deliberately enter easier classes on the same horse to win.
In pro wrestling sandbagging is where you don't participate or sell moves so your opponent looks bad.
It's called smurfing in online games too, in regards to player-versus-player combat of any sort.
Oh god... It reminds me of a story that happened to me in the early days of my cosplay adventure in 2016, with my best friend from high school. I can understand so much how Linalia must have felt even though for me it wasn't a contest, but "just" a high-school fashion show.
I organized a cosplay parade for my high school at an inauguration party, presenting my 6 handmade cosplays. They weren't necessarily perfect, but oh god I was super proud!!! Plus all the students and teachers were going to be there and see my work - around 1,000 people, I think??
This ""friend"" absolutely wanted to take part too, but there could only be one parade a year. So I agreed to let her present some of her cosplays in my show. (it was a minority compared to what I was going to present)
At the time, everything went well and I was so proud!! 🥰But a few days later, the school newspaper comes out. It was a free monthly newspaper distributed to every student in every class, created by a student collective. I was surprised by the first page, it was about my cosplay parade.. well no, my friend's cosplay parade. She had organized an interview with this student collective, without telling me about it, and telling them everything had been done by her. A multi-page interview recounting her career as a cosplayer and all the beautiful outfits she made, with no mention of my name anywhere!! There was even a photo of ME in MY cosplay on one of the pages with a note that it was HER creation..
I was so sad, disappointed and angry all at the same time. I made a scandal with the students who hadn't done any in-depth research before publishing the paper, but it was too late. The whole school had already read about it and everyone thought I was just a model in this fashion show, nothing more. Of course, I ended my friendship with her instantly.
I wanted to tell you this story because I discovered a few years ago when I came across her Facebook page just out of curiosity that she was involved in "cosplay theft" with 2 cosmakers 😅 Like Myratheon, she bought ready-made cosplays from cosplayers, blocked them, and posted all the photos saying they were handmade by her and participated contests... twice.
It caused a huge scandal, and she was confronted. She tried to explain by saying that she had indeed bought those cosplays but had reworked them and added lots of details (reminds me of someone in your video...lol)
People never change 😮💨
That is so cruel! 😭 I'm sorry she did that to you! I hope you're doing better now
@@gracehaven5459 Omg thank you I'm touched that you read everything 😭 Now I'm better because I'm 26, but at the time it hurt me so much as a teenager 🥲 I have very bitter memories of this parade
What an absolutely shocking thing to do, you must have been so gutted:( And she's going straight to hell lol!
I had similar experiences but just with group projects in general. I'd do all the work but I was quiet and shy so the other people would take the credit. Along with some other things that happened in my childhood I had some pretty severe trust issues for a long time lol. But I now am a bit more outspoken and don't let my work go un noticed, keeps that sort of stuff from happening.
@@gerald216 Oh I'm sad to read that you've been in many similar situations... People take advantage of other people's kindness. But as you say now it made us stronger 💪 I hope you're feeling better now!
You didn't hear this from me, but cheating in cosplay contests isn't uncommon at all ((:
There's a thing where cosplayers will team up to create for parts costumes for each other, and rotate between who gets to compete.
Example: Person A competes one year.
Person A is good at wigs. They get help from B who's good at sewing, C who's great with props, and D who does LED work.
Together they make a pretty costume and let's A take all the credit.
- Then repeat next year, but lets B compete instead.
As someone that works behind the scenes, this happens a lot. It's just hard as all Hell to prove //:
Some people actually think this is what happened at NärCon this year, so um
This is what happened with winner of one Gamescon and Twitchcon, Two Moons Workshop
Mientowa's costume was done by ten people in her workshop and they have receipts, it surfaced earlier in Polish community
That's crazy but an absolutely master-plan on how to cheat. It's like they put more effort into the plan to cheat rather than the actual cosplay, fr some Light Yagami shit.
Honestly if they could all enter as being the creators of those parts i would see nothing wrong with that. However that isn't what is happening.
Maridah for sure is the pattern Queen. Love her stuff!
@@Forginswagger Yeah maybe there needs to exist a category for teamwork cosplays?? Maybe there does I'm not a cosplayer myself so... XD
As the owner of four sewing machines, including a serger (Which is a pain to thread), Serged edges wouldn't be a sign that I cheated, just that I spent several hours cursing over the machine and fiddling with the thread tension. XD
Those aren't serged edges she was showing, and serged edges wouldn't be considered a sign of possible cheating anyway bc an over locker/serger is fairly common to own. The stitch shown was a coverstitch, which requires a very specific and extremely expensive machine that you can basically only get commercially and makes no sense to own unless you are running a sweatshop.
How much you all want to bet she hurled that amazing cosplay into the garbage when she was deleting her account...
RIP Seth cosplay
Fun fact: she didn’t delete her account, just went private until anime Boston, before which she changed the names of her socials.
@@MVB627ISAWESOMEI hope whoever follows or knows it’s still her calls her out or makes other people aware. It is so scummy and sad she gets away with doing what she does
Why hurling out? Like, put it in a closet, and in half a year resell it as "THE scandal Seth"
I have entered competitions with purchased costumes too... BUT THOSE CONTESTS DIDN'T INCLUDE ANY COSTUME JUDGING!
How audacious can people be?! 😭
Not trying to question you, I'm genuinely curious. What else can be judged in a cosplay competition than the craftsmanship? Presentation? Something like how creatively you do your bit?
@@saddlerrye6725 those were things where either just the stage presence was judged in a catwalk (for the very beginners who wanted to just try being on a stage) or where the judging was 100% skit/performance so there was no need for selfmade costume. That's quite common for regular cosplay comps in Germany :) though we do have higher stakes comps that involve costume judging of course ^^
@@gothichinata4332 Oooh. Thanks for the answer ^-^
@@saddlerrye6725 my country has 2 different cosplay contests too, one specifically for craftmanship, and one for performance / skits, where you can use bought costumes because the judges look only at your skit. This system has advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that the people without crafting skills can at least enter the performance cathegory if they love to perform. The disadvantage is, the most cosplayers in my country have experience either in one or the other cathegory, so it's more difficult for us to compete in a different country where judges look at both (and that the performance cathegory often turns into a random tiktok dance contest for young people in cosplay...). :')
@@saddlerrye6725 I have seen at least one con that has multiple categories in which costumes could be judged on craftsmanship, cosplayers could compete in skits, and cosplayers could just go up on the stage and show off their costume without being judged.
I'm sorry but even looking at the cheater without the original to compare to, you can tell the cosplay didn't fit and is very tight around the torso. Even the breast plate doesn't look like it was moulded to her shape and looked odd. I'm not a professional but I watch a lot of "the great british sewing bee" to know if a garment is snug fitting or bursting at the seams.
As a huge Trinity Blood fan from Russia who follows this channel for quite a long time and who is familiar with Lina's cosplay, I would say that each TB cosplay is kind of personal - not only because of complicity, different versions (manga/anime/Thores illustrations) combined and some artistic liberties, but because of TREMENDOUS AMOUNT of work and love, so you, even being just a usual cosplay and fandom enjoyer, can see the differences.
One of my friends spent total of 5 YEARS of successes and mistakes to make the ideal type of Esther Blanchett white nun dress for herself, "3 months" of work in the con description sound hardly believable for me as the concept.
Extremely disappointed that such things happen, and my big thanks for Sarah for this video, you're the best
I judged this cosplayer at Salt Lake FanX. We awarded her a Judge's Choice best needlework award. All three judges are/were highly skilled, one I have judged with a couple times before and will judge with again this coming Saturday.
It fit her well, and the back did not look sloppy to me. I spent a lot of time there looking at the engineering. She had a build book. She answered our questions. She had less WIP photos in her online entry than others for a master's level competitor, and I did score her accordingly for it. That really stood out for me. We did not base her needlework prize on just embroidery. I believe she did a little bit of altering on some parts because she knew about some of the engineering.
When I saw she was competing in NY, I sent a head's up to a judge. They were already on to her. I also remember wondering about the distance she travelled to compete but then, the best in show prize was upped to 5K to attract a more national level competitor.
This experience, and a couple others, had me put up a couple vids on my socials about competing fairly in a cosplay contest, and my oath as a cosplay contest judge. I judge because I am skilled at what I do and I love cosplay. My first inclination is not to screen any entrant for cheating. I judged in early July and that was not on my radar at all.
I forgot to add...Judge's Choice awards came with a $500 cash prize. Same cash prize ast 1st place masters.
It looks like she was likely taking the costumes apart to make some of the WIP pics. So that might explain how she was able to answer the questions so well. Plus, she was probably taking from the original descriptions from the original creators.
@@GoingApeCostume so you are not bothered if they are cheating? Not a very good judge then.
@@mythgreatbritain5634 I will NOT approach every contest I judge looking for cheaters. It's exhausting and demoralizing.
If it comes up, we deal with it, but I will not look at first with suspicion. 99% of contestants compete fair and I'm going to treat them with dignity, period. Cheating absolutely happens, poor sportsmanship happens more. It fuels cosplay social media. I'm not going to add to that.
Have you ever made a cosplay? Competed? Competed well enough to be asked to judge major contests? No?
I have. I will put my integrity up to review EVERY SINGLE TIME I judge. I have no fear of that.
Im surprised nobody mentioned how her other cosplay fit (the one at 15:03). im not making fun of her size or anything, as we have similar body types, but having similar body types give me the confidence to say the corset should not be pooling like that at the top. you compare the fit of the corset top thing and see how it should fit vs how it shouldnt fit.
As a former Russian cosplayer I can guarantee you that this case is faaaaaaar from being an outlier. Lots of Russian cosplayers used to sell their costumes abroad.
And if we go back to mid 2010s, when our cosplay scene was not yet mostly on twitter and instagram, there was almost 0 chance of anyone catching cheaters.
Finally, *someone* brought this whole mess up 😭 I've seen people buying Russian cosplays and art pieces and passing them off as theirs so often, all because of the language barrier and how underground the Russian cosplay and artist community used to be, speaking from experience. So this Myra cheating situation isn't surprising in the slightest lmao
Wait wait... I was in 2010 in cosplay scene and most of Russians therefore attended in cosplay contests in Poland and they are 0 cases of cheating....
@@pickled_pearunderground? Literally you won most of contests for east Europe and nowadays we use Russian cosplay skits as example of best???
It's NOT the language barrier, if a cosplayer don't want to be cheated she/he can sell it in East Europe where she checked sych background because.. most of us KNOW Russian? But they CHOOSE to sell it on HIGHER price to countries where noone made a research and know Russian cosplay scene. It's their decision, you can choose between higher price or have 100% safe from being cheated so just choose what is more important to you - money or safety
Immaculate is an understatement for how intensely amazing Lina's cosplay is. I'm in literal awe of it.
Lame ass comment. She looks fine, and just because she sucks doesn’t mean its okay to body shame them for not being skinny enough for you.
Idk why this showed up in my algorithm. But damn this was entertaining. I know nothing about cosplay but I enjoy this content creators style
Absolutely disgusting. I feel so bad for Lina. All that hard work, unappreciated. I'm glad the cheater got caught. I can't believe they thought this would be OK.
So an interesting thing that I recently have encountered was that I'm attending the ANYC Masquerade this year and they now have a rule that you need to bring SWATCHES of your fabric or pieces of your foam work or pattern to prove that this is your own work. It was so crazy to me how this was a rule but now that I hear she won an award during ANYC this makes a lot more sense lolololol
Didn't hear it mentioned in the video, but in one of the screenshots shown it says she sold the cosplay for 50000 RUB which amounts to less than 550 USD with current exchange rate
Oh god...550 USD that wouldn't even cover materials for that costume, and nothing for labor. The Labor along would be 4-5 figures! Poor Lina!
heartbreaking 😭
For a cosplay that detailed I might be wrong here but it feels like that thing should be in the thousands of dollars of costs especially with how much money it probably took to make
What’s really insane to me is the paltriness I see in this story. I’m probably (most definitely) looking to much into it, but the fact that she bought the costume from another country, a cosplay whose creator documented every single, little step, then presented to a convention with little to no modification and a build book that’s probably just a piled up of what Lina said on her twitter/ has messaged her during the sale (If you think about it, as a costumer you’re allowed to ask how may question you want, so I don’t think it’s impossible, given the subject, that she just asked Lina tons of information about details and techniques) and then LIED about blocking the real creator is truly sneaky. This is what premeditation sound to me.
It also proves what many of us outside the US recognise. That there's many within it who forget the world exists. I don't mean it as a dig, it's just something we often observe. Yes, she bought the costume overseas so was personally aware in that respect but also believed it was unlikely it would occur to anyone inside to check thinking 'just a Russian girl, no one will know'. For the most part she was right, caught more by accident. My bet is if the costume was US made people would've cottoned on far more quickly.
@@tkpsthis isnt unique to America. Older Japanese game and anime osts were full of plagerized music. No shit people would have caught on faster if the creator was American, she would have had more priximity to the communities the cheater was in.
Wow I am not surprised! Known this person for many years. Full of drama. Spreading nasty lies about other cosplayers. I wouldn't believe one word that comes out of her mouth, especially now she's more malicious now than ever before with in the community.
So happy somebody called her out on her BS. Hopefully this doesn't give the 501 a bad name. Thank you for making the cosplay community just a little bit better.
I kinda want legal action taken against her for this. She cheated in a recognized competition and stole somebody else's prizes and blatantly lied about making it which is plagiarism. She did not deserve any of those awards and I'm disgusted by the lack of care to prove her legitimacy by the competition organizers. It may be just for fun, but then you have people like this who ruin it for everybody else.
A comment said one organization is taking legal action.
Why is hobby drama always SO WILD
People are passionate
Hobby's tend to be something that people put hundreds of hours of work and skill in, so I assume when someone tries to cheat to the top it angers people more because of the love and time people pour into their work only for someone who doesn't want to put the work in try and cheat to be called the best
Goofy nerds reeeee energy knows no bounds
Thank you for clarifying that size does NOT matter, I was afraid people would negatively comment on their weight
Ive never been into cosplay or known anything about it but this video made me have a new appreciation for it. Its not necessarily my thing but hearing about the time and skill it takes to make these beautiful costumes made me appreciate it. 24:42 it makes sense to me now, you wouldnt be taking months to make your costume unless you love what youre doing.
Yeah a lot of people tend to underestimate how much work has to go into cosplay but when you watch creators who make cosplay you truly get to see how much effort goes into even making the simplest of outfits
The only way I can see people ignoring the fit issue is if she said she gained weight during the making of the costume but even if you gain so much weight in 3 months that you absolutely cannot fit in your costume anymore... wouldn't you want to modify it before competing?
I am just learning how to make cosplays and getting the fit just right is really hard
@@definitlynotbenlente7671 Yes, but you aren't competing in high level championship. They are.
Apart from few medical problems, pregnancy and new meds, no one should gain that much weight in 3 months, not to mention that the sewn part wouldn't even need to be finished in the 1st month. Realistically if someone is adult at a healthy weight, the weigh should be fairly the same with minor differences. 😅
Sadly, lying in cosplay competitions is very commonplace. I was judging when a contestant told me to my face that they made a part of their costume. This piece in question? I had made and helped them create it. Yet they tried to pass it off as their own. It's crazy out there, y'all. This is why amazing qualified judges are critical cause not only will they know their stuff, as Sarah mentioned, but they will also have a solid connection to the community and know about people trying to pull off these stunts. The same can be said about the organizers! I know of some amazing employees for cons who actively go to other conventions (and communicate with other cons) to learn about the competitions and help reduce cheating (sandbagging, etc.).
What blows my mind is the number of people I've had lie to my face when I'm judging at competitions where we don't even have a big prize. Just a certificate and a horse ribbon. But people still cheat. I don't get it.
I never realized how much goes into these costumes, until my Son got into it. My youngest Son is a professional Costume Designer, college Professor in Consumer Sciences (and fashion), and works for a professional theaters Costume department (teaching and overseeing interns). I am retired (very early, I'm not even 50 years old). I now spend my time as a Gemologist, and a Lapidarist (I attempt to turn rocks, crystals, or minerals into gemstones). He makes some amazing costumes. He was designing a costume from a Manga he enjoyed. I noticed the fake gems and fake metal pieces in his design. I looked at it and told him the fake gems and foam fake metal pieces look bad. They made the work he was doing on the costume look bad. He told me "since it wasn't to my standards to hand him the gemstone and metal pieces within a week.i didn't mean to insult his work or offend him. I wanted to makeup for hurting his feelings. I went into my workshop cutting then I set them within the mounts. I handed them to him in a box. He then asked me what about the metal pieces. So I proceeded making the metal pieces. We would sit regularly going over designs he wanted and adjusting or him approving my work. Not only did I spend time bonding with him, it also helped me learn new lapidary, metal working, and jewelry design techniques. This process is why I learned advanced use of oxides or metal dyes. I can now color gold, silver, aluminum, copper or bronzes in a complete rainbow of colors that don't fade. The costume came out amazing. Tons of people asked and wanted to know where he got the jeweled and, metal pieces from. Now I make the corset boning for his projects. I don't think anyone realized it was real gemstones, the gild and silver embroidery was made from gold and silver thread. It was very elaborate, and detailed. The other thing was I got to work with my older son making the weapons for the costume. It costs me under $1,000.00 for the materials I used. We now have something that we work together on, and enjoy. Now almost every weekend my wife is painting on the patio, my oldest is working on the forge, my youngest is sewing or assembling, and I am cutting/mounting gemstones, or making metal pieces for his designs. We go on little family vacations to comic or cosplay conventions/events regularly. Knowing all the work someone can put into these costumes makes the idea of someone taking credit for other peoples creations bother me so much more. This has become a way of us bonding while enjoying working together on these projects. He always informs people the parts each of us contributed to in the costume. I receive many offers to make gems, or other pieces for peoples costumes. I turn them down since it is not something I would want to become a job and not enjoying it nearly as much. We don't enter these cosplay outfits into any events. We don't think it would be right when he is a professional costume designer. My oldest son often makes special effect devices, and weapons/accessories for the costumes. This has become my family's favorite pastime. All because I told him I didn't like the stones he was going to use, and the foam pieces looked fake and generic to me....
0:10 Took the words right of my mouth
The question that made me click on the video
@@cz2681same
@@cz2681same 😂
To make it even worse, trinity Blood is already such a rare series to find fans of. Hardly ANYBODY cosplays it now, let alone 10-15 years ago, so that should've already been a red flag.
I'm apart of the crowd that says why didn't the Giant Mech win... 😢 They deserve it over the dress
I waited so long for you to mention the FIT. I was like "surely she's gonna mention how it obviously doesn't fit her..." lmao you could even tell from the front that it didn't fit her properly which you would THINK a cosplayer of ten years would know how to fix. Insanity that this woman thought she could get away with doing this (I mean she kinda did at first).
I know, right?? The costume looked very tight on her, and for me I didn't care how it looked on the back, it was the FRONT. That armor piece looked way too small, her neck area looked quite uncomfortable too. When you see the costume on the original creator, she is slimmer and clearly the costume fits her perfectly. Not trying to fat shame the cheater, but it's amazing that she went ahead and used a costume that was clearly way smaller. I'm guessing SOME the judges realized the fit was small but there was the possibility that she gained weight during the creation process and I can see why the judges can't say "Hey, did you gain weight while you were working on this thing?" to her face.😅
was a part of the 501st Legion and is now a COSPLAY CHEATER??? to even join that org don't you have to have a lore accurate costume that you made on your own??
Edit: I thought that you had to fully make your own costume since the couple of members that i've known had fully made their own sets of clone armor and jedi robes so it's cool to now know it's not a requirement so myf for assuming so! Just the reputation of being 501st Legion and doing something like this is still a bit shocking to me to say the least cause ik being honest like someone in the replies said is a pretty big thing in that org. just odd very odd and shady behavior tm
and being a full time cosplayer doing commissions yet wore someone else work during a flipping CONTEST??? i dont know what to say thats so shameful 😭😭
I have made cosplays for clients in the 501st, you don't have to make it yourself but with how strict they are I can totally see why people would rather commission then spend hours doing research on what closures are allowed
Can confirm! The majority of cosplayers in the 501st fall into two types the makers and the members. The former figures out how to make the really specific parts of certain costumes and the members then commission the makers. Everybody gets cool costumes everybody wins. But even they would heavily frown on taking credit for somebody elses work and I don't know of any 501st member who'd enter a contest with a commissioned kit....until NOW that is
@@Pikadumplingyou don’t have to make it.
As a legion member, basically it just has to be screen accurate and up to standard for the judges. Officially, it doesn’t really matter who makes it as long as it meets standards. I made my entire generic Jedi and I know of ither members who’ve commissioned an entire kit. As long as you’re honest, nobody really looks down on commissions, especially if you’re commissioning another member!!!
Someone from the 501st doing that is... So so unfortunate. I have to say: MOST of the people in the cosplay groups like 501st starwars and 405th halo group are REALLY good craftsmen. It's really sad seeing someone who has so many great resources and help around them stoop to lying.
I'm also a member of the 501st. Where I live, a lot of members get their costumes commissioned, buy and tailor it for a better fit or for the armor costumes, they'll buy those kits. My bf made his own Jawa (which is fairly easy to make), partially made his Kylo Ren, and bought his Imperial Officer uniform and Tusken Raider second hand. All of that is fine, obviously. I also bought my Imperial Officer uniform online.
Another person in the comment section said she's under investigation for costume violations in the Rebel Legion.
Costume violations are serious offenses in the 501st and Rebel Legion and will lead to getting banned. That includes using parts of another member's costume for approval, photoshopping your approval images so they meet the costume standards, adding or exchanging costume parts and not getting them approved, etc.
I've met and talked to a lot of 501st and have heard a lot of sharing, outsourcing, and reuse of pieces. I think in no way is that wrong or anything. Some people aren't masters at making every piece of their costumes and that's okay! That's a really big, and accepted practice for cosplay groups and I'm here for it. It's just still a shame because usually everyone is very up-front. You never really think someone is going to lie about it. But if someone really wants that contest prize I guess they will 😅
The cosplay is so detailed and extremely gorgeous. Just looking at the characters original design was overwhelming enough. I couldn't imagine having to make it from square 1. So Lina, Here's to you! 🌟
Love how you casually dropped that bomb about that dude putting eggs in his cameras with no further elaboration. 💀
That was entertaining. From reading other comments, evidently it was a broken camera body that couldn't be repaired, and a visual pun about "RAW" format images.
17:00 I know this is off-topic for what is being disgusted in this part of the video, but I just wanted to say that whoever made that aurora dress is so clever for having the pink and blue shot woven fabric.
She HAD to know what she was doing. The 501st and its partner organizations emphasizes SCREEN ACCURATE Star Wars costuming - so much so that members were used as stormtroopers in The Mandolorian. They are tougher than cosplay judges, even.