SDCC 2012: aka, that time Teen Wolf ruined my life.
This is going to be a picture-less recap because I haven't had a chance to sort through them all (from my phone and my camera) and upload them to facebook. Mostly, I need to get the words out while I can still remember everything (and while I am still awake).
And if anything makes less sense than usual, I am blaming my current case of Con-Crud.
After a night of no sleep and packing, I got in a taxi at the absurd hour of 4:45am and went to the airport. A very sleepy plane ride later, I was in San Francisco (aahhh my city, I will return to you some day) and being slightly annoyed at my 2 hour wait before the final part of my flight.
So I finally landed in San Diego and after a really long wait for my bag, I got into a taxi... and fell in love with the city on the 10 minute drive to the hotel, oops. There is just water and it was so beautiful and I want to go back. We stayed in the Westin about half a mile from the convention center, so I dropped my shit off and wandered down the street to pick up my badge. Met up with Eli in the line to get in for preview night, where she had befriended some con-veterans who gave us a few tips for the weekend.
Then... they opened the door for preview night and *_______* it was like magic. I mean, going into the convention center itself, with all the banners and signs, felt a bit like coming home, but this was just amazing. The exhibit hall is HUGE. We're talking like.... you have to walk for MILES if you weave through all the rows. We were on a mission though. We went right to the BBC booth (with a slight detour when the Iron Man 3 display stopped me in my tracks) and I spent.... the most money on merch, actually. So... I have a TARDIS lunchbox now? Also Dalek socks. We then spent a while hitting as many of the big media booths as possible to get the FREE. It was all posters and bags and pins and little papers. The exhibit hall wasn't actually open for too long, so we met up with Sarah when she arrived to go get dinner. We ended up at my favorite off-site place, the Tin Fish restaurant. It was decorated for Grimm all weekend with a little forest area and banners and fake greenery. It also had delicious fish & chips and fries. So the day ended with food and then we went back to the hotel to plan the next 4 days! Also, I got my picture taken with a ninja turtle and lego!hulk.
So we woke up at 7am to get ready and get in line to get into the exhibit hall... which didn't open until 9am each day of the con. (worth it though). This day will always be the day that Teen Wolf ruined my life, but so many OTHER things happened too!
First we had to hit the exhibit hall to try and get the poster tubes from the Fox booth. Then, once we had those, I waited in like for a really long time with Sarah to get an Ender's Game IF logo tshirt from the Summit booth (omg so much free). Side note, I want more Ender's Game logo shirts in all the colors. Once we were loaded up with free things, we went to get in line for the room where the Teen Wolf panel was happening. Well, at the time I mostly wanted to get into the zombie book authors panel that was right before.. but I was going to stay for the wolfs anyway.
We got in during the Dragonriders of Berk series - which is going to be on Cartoon Network and follows the movie directly. I.... thought it was adorable and kinda want to watch it. Also, they gave us pins! Directly after that panel, I slipped out to give the codeword for the Gail Carriger ~seekrit swag~ giveaway. It turned out to be a free, SIGNED advance copy of the first book in the Finishing School series. (whaaaaaaat omg) Then I slipped back in for the zombie panel. It was a lot of fun, even though I hadn't really read any of the authors on the panel besides Mira Grant. I will say one thing that is kinda unfortunate. M Brooks (author of world war z) had some interesting things to say about WHY people like zombies as a monster, but it was all canceled out by some seriously douchetastic things he said after. So I am torn. But the panel was great and I'm glad I went.
Ok... so, then Teen Wolf happened. And I feel like I need to preface this by saying that before that moment, I had not seen a single episode of the show. I know people who love it and I had always said I never would pick it up. They opened the panel by showing us the newest episode (the one that was shown this past Monday) and I FELL IN LOVE. I feel like I need to attribute part of that love to the atmosphere in the room while we watched. There is nothing quite like watching something for the first time in a room full of people who love what is happening. STILES, okay. I cannot. So the show ended and they introduced the actors... and of course, they are all just adorable in person and also the biggest trolls. Also the internet exploded after the panel and at this point I feel like I just need to dedicate the rest of my life to this show.
...anyway. once I was done crying over my feelings, we went off to the Elementary panel. They had Lucy Liu and Jonny Lee Miller there and they showed us the whole first episode. I... was really torn after seeing the episode, actually. First, Lucy was really great in her role. She had clearly established how she was going to play it, and I think it did work. I was not as convinced by JLM. His portrayal of Sherlock seemed a bit manic and all over the place? Kinda like it hadn't totally settled. There were also moments where it felt a lot like he was doing a parody of BBC Sherlock - although part of that was due to the writing. The moments of "wait I feel like I have seen this before and I liked it better then" really threw me out of the story. Speaking of the story, I thought it was kinda weak. Like, they tried to build up this mystery, but the solution reveal was clumsy.
I wish I could remember more of the Q&A afterwards. I don't think they let people ask questions. The moderator asked about the BBC comparison and whether he got any tips from Bene. JLM said something about his "other friend" was in the movie version (.....does JLM know RDJ? or was he talking about Jude?) and that they talked a lot about it. Both JLM and Lucy said that they wanted to focus more on the friendship and relationship between Sherlock and Joan because that is the core of all the original stories. I appreciate that. It was also mentioned that they wanted to write their own mysteries and not adapt the Sherlock stories - although they also would like to get Moriarty in there too. I will probs watch the first couple eps. Also, JLM is kinda like a puppy in real life.
After that panel, we wandered away from the con again for food. I think that was the night we went to the Grimm forest too. So we found some chinese food place (that actually had pretty terrible service given that we got there pretty early for dinner). Then we all crashed because Friday was the FIREFLY REUNION PANEL AHHHHHH.
....I am fading pretty quickly here, so I shall do Friday, Saturday and Sunday tomorrow. After sleep.
And if anything makes less sense than usual, I am blaming my current case of Con-Crud.
After a night of no sleep and packing, I got in a taxi at the absurd hour of 4:45am and went to the airport. A very sleepy plane ride later, I was in San Francisco (aahhh my city, I will return to you some day) and being slightly annoyed at my 2 hour wait before the final part of my flight.
So I finally landed in San Diego and after a really long wait for my bag, I got into a taxi... and fell in love with the city on the 10 minute drive to the hotel, oops. There is just water and it was so beautiful and I want to go back. We stayed in the Westin about half a mile from the convention center, so I dropped my shit off and wandered down the street to pick up my badge. Met up with Eli in the line to get in for preview night, where she had befriended some con-veterans who gave us a few tips for the weekend.
Then... they opened the door for preview night and *_______* it was like magic. I mean, going into the convention center itself, with all the banners and signs, felt a bit like coming home, but this was just amazing. The exhibit hall is HUGE. We're talking like.... you have to walk for MILES if you weave through all the rows. We were on a mission though. We went right to the BBC booth (with a slight detour when the Iron Man 3 display stopped me in my tracks) and I spent.... the most money on merch, actually. So... I have a TARDIS lunchbox now? Also Dalek socks. We then spent a while hitting as many of the big media booths as possible to get the FREE. It was all posters and bags and pins and little papers. The exhibit hall wasn't actually open for too long, so we met up with Sarah when she arrived to go get dinner. We ended up at my favorite off-site place, the Tin Fish restaurant. It was decorated for Grimm all weekend with a little forest area and banners and fake greenery. It also had delicious fish & chips and fries. So the day ended with food and then we went back to the hotel to plan the next 4 days! Also, I got my picture taken with a ninja turtle and lego!hulk.
So we woke up at 7am to get ready and get in line to get into the exhibit hall... which didn't open until 9am each day of the con. (worth it though). This day will always be the day that Teen Wolf ruined my life, but so many OTHER things happened too!
First we had to hit the exhibit hall to try and get the poster tubes from the Fox booth. Then, once we had those, I waited in like for a really long time with Sarah to get an Ender's Game IF logo tshirt from the Summit booth (omg so much free). Side note, I want more Ender's Game logo shirts in all the colors. Once we were loaded up with free things, we went to get in line for the room where the Teen Wolf panel was happening. Well, at the time I mostly wanted to get into the zombie book authors panel that was right before.. but I was going to stay for the wolfs anyway.
We got in during the Dragonriders of Berk series - which is going to be on Cartoon Network and follows the movie directly. I.... thought it was adorable and kinda want to watch it. Also, they gave us pins! Directly after that panel, I slipped out to give the codeword for the Gail Carriger ~seekrit swag~ giveaway. It turned out to be a free, SIGNED advance copy of the first book in the Finishing School series. (whaaaaaaat omg) Then I slipped back in for the zombie panel. It was a lot of fun, even though I hadn't really read any of the authors on the panel besides Mira Grant. I will say one thing that is kinda unfortunate. M Brooks (author of world war z) had some interesting things to say about WHY people like zombies as a monster, but it was all canceled out by some seriously douchetastic things he said after. So I am torn. But the panel was great and I'm glad I went.
Ok... so, then Teen Wolf happened. And I feel like I need to preface this by saying that before that moment, I had not seen a single episode of the show. I know people who love it and I had always said I never would pick it up. They opened the panel by showing us the newest episode (the one that was shown this past Monday) and I FELL IN LOVE. I feel like I need to attribute part of that love to the atmosphere in the room while we watched. There is nothing quite like watching something for the first time in a room full of people who love what is happening. STILES, okay. I cannot. So the show ended and they introduced the actors... and of course, they are all just adorable in person and also the biggest trolls. Also the internet exploded after the panel and at this point I feel like I just need to dedicate the rest of my life to this show.
...anyway. once I was done crying over my feelings, we went off to the Elementary panel. They had Lucy Liu and Jonny Lee Miller there and they showed us the whole first episode. I... was really torn after seeing the episode, actually. First, Lucy was really great in her role. She had clearly established how she was going to play it, and I think it did work. I was not as convinced by JLM. His portrayal of Sherlock seemed a bit manic and all over the place? Kinda like it hadn't totally settled. There were also moments where it felt a lot like he was doing a parody of BBC Sherlock - although part of that was due to the writing. The moments of "wait I feel like I have seen this before and I liked it better then" really threw me out of the story. Speaking of the story, I thought it was kinda weak. Like, they tried to build up this mystery, but the solution reveal was clumsy.
I wish I could remember more of the Q&A afterwards. I don't think they let people ask questions. The moderator asked about the BBC comparison and whether he got any tips from Bene. JLM said something about his "other friend" was in the movie version (.....does JLM know RDJ? or was he talking about Jude?) and that they talked a lot about it. Both JLM and Lucy said that they wanted to focus more on the friendship and relationship between Sherlock and Joan because that is the core of all the original stories. I appreciate that. It was also mentioned that they wanted to write their own mysteries and not adapt the Sherlock stories - although they also would like to get Moriarty in there too. I will probs watch the first couple eps. Also, JLM is kinda like a puppy in real life.
After that panel, we wandered away from the con again for food. I think that was the night we went to the Grimm forest too. So we found some chinese food place (that actually had pretty terrible service given that we got there pretty early for dinner). Then we all crashed because Friday was the FIREFLY REUNION PANEL AHHHHHH.
....I am fading pretty quickly here, so I shall do Friday, Saturday and Sunday tomorrow. After sleep.