Kupo Con: Pom2, London, 15th & 16th September 2023
Where do I even begin! What a weekend!
Long story under the cut, because I need to tell you everything 😆
Starting off on Friday the 15th, we drove down to our hotel in Watford, which allowed us to get a train into London for Pre-Reg, which was available for Patreons of KupoCon, to get our tickets.
A lot of people were there and I probably knew half of them, or more, from the Discord Server but I was too nervous and shy to go over and say hello. Until I saw the only one I’d met previously, I went over and said hello! She then introduced me to one of the other people there, the cosplayer who won the “People’s Choice” Cosplay award last Kupo and who has been incredibly supportive of me every time I’ve shared progress on Discord and our meeting went like this… (using initials for privacy ☺️)
L: “Hey R this is P, from the discord!”
R: “Are you Blossom!?”
P: “Yes!”
R gives me a big hug
I spent a while talking with him and I think we became fast friends, I felt like I’d known him for ages! (Technically kind of had, because we’ve been talking in the discord) and I was really nervous but he was so lovely and made it so easy to talk to him!
Then, because of train times, we had to leave, but I’d met several of the other cosplayers (mainly Clives… no joke! I met 3 all at the same time!) and I was absolutely buzzing for the main event!
Saturday the 16th, the main event! Me and my mum got to the venue just as the doors opened, within 10mins I was in an elevator with a Noctis cosplayer, who jokingly asked if they’d survive this elevator ride! 😆 I then had a Sephiroth comment on my cosplay as I walked past
I met up with R because I knew how excited he was to see my cosplay, we had another hug (as much as we both could manage anyway; I was in a tight black coat and he was in full Clive cosplay) and he went off to support his friend who was dressed as FFXs Ifrit!
While waiting for the Opening Ceremony to start, I got given my first Masquerade Token! I was beside myself with excitement! I couldn’t believe it!
The Opening Ceremony was so fun! I met a friend who I’ve known online since December, which was amazing!
And then the Cosplay Parade happened! John Bentley (Barret FFVIIR) and Liam Mulvey (Libertus FFXV Kingsglaive) were presenting it, they were both so enthusiastic about it! I was really nervous because I was stepping up onto a stage in front of a lot of people, but I did it, and Liam’s reaction was priceless!
Then we went on our way, wandering the stalls and doing quests. Every time I passed R and his group, he checked in with me, to make sure I was ok and having a good time, which I really appreciated as it was my first Kupo and Cosplay.
Then I joined the queue to meet Liam… I said hello and gave him a print of a commission I’d had done earlier in the year and then he signed my own copy of the print… and then he gave me a Masquerade Token and I was lost for words! Because I didn’t realise the guests would also have tokens!
Riding that high, I decided to join the queue to meet John. And WOW! That man is amazing! He’s so lovely and excited and genuinely loves the community! Once he’d signed my print we went to get a picture, and he complimented me on my cosplay, when I said it was my first one, he was amazed! So he told his wife (who was holding my phone to take the picture for me) to video a message, which is of him saying how awesome my cosplay was, then he gave me another Token! I couldn’t believe it! I excitedly told R what had happened and he said how amazing that was too!
By the end of the day and the start of the Closing Ceremony I had been given 9 Tokens! I had been saying in the Discord Server that 1 or 2 would be amazing! But I got 9!!!
I stayed with R for the Closing Ceremony, chatting and laughing, someone he knew from a past event complimented me on my cosplay, which R instantly agreed with, he was so supportive of everything and I will always be grateful for that
Both the “People’s Choice” and “Staff Choice” award was won by a cosplayer who made, and was operating, Hell House from FFVII which was a much deserved win.
It was at the end of the Closing Ceremony that I got a selfie with Ben, I’d spoke to him briefly earlier, after his panel, saying that I was hoping to get into the queue to meet him properly, to which he replied “Ok, Ardyn!”
But looking at the line to meet him I knew I would miss the opportunity, so as he returned to finish off the signings that were waiting for him I asked if I could grab a selfie, and he said yes, as he ran off to his table he said how good my cosplay was too.
I went over to Liam and John to thank them once again for the Tokens they gave me, and how much they meant to me, they both responded with similar things; that it was deserved!
Feeling the lump in my throat from the emotions those compliments caused, I went over and said goodbye to R, knowing I’d likely not see him again face to face until February for the Birmingham KupoCon, I managed to keep it together until I got back to my mum, I started crying shortly after!
Please! If anyone has read this far who is a Final Fantasy fan I couldn’t recommend Kupo more! It was amazing! I’ve never felt so welcomed and included at a convention before and everyone I met was lovely and supportive
Next stop for me is Birmingham in February, until then… “Walk Tall, My Friends”
God, this is going to be hard to narrow down. Actually, you know what? Someone else asked this too. So for THIS list, I will do only primals, and then answer the other person with un-primals!
It'll probably still be tricky.
In fact, I will do an honorable mention: Shinryu, entirely because that trial has one of my favorite random game memories attached to him. I started during the Stormblood era, and finished 4.0 mere days before Shadowbringers started its head start period. So when I zoned in, I told people I was new, etc. I was assured there was no need to worry, people would carry me through it no problem, as this trial was OLD HAT by now.
So naturally, we immediately wiped when everyone was swept off the platform to their deaths by the first water spout, because no one remembered it was a thing that happens. <3
ANYWAY TOP FIVE PRIMALS GO
#5: Ravana: I love his Phase 1 music so much. Phase 2 is also good, but I wasn't expecting Phase 1 to be a waltz, and the surprise of it made me appreciate it extra. I also enjoy seeing who forgot he has a knockback, and who forgot to make sure they're standing in front of a wall. (And sometimes, that person is me.)
#4: Ramuh: I like that he's mostly a chill primal who just wants to keep his little worshipers safe. His trial isn't my favorite, but I love his vibes. And I do love how his Eden fight can still be a gigantic clusterfuck. (I love the normal content that can still fuck people up, I can't help it.)
#3: Titan: He cares about his little kobold dudes and I appreciate that a lot. And like Ramuh, I really love his Eden fight. I love the question it raised in me immediately: just how many concussions has Dusk had?
#2: Susano: I love how he gets summoned, I love that all he wants to do is have a fight, I love how happy he is the entire time, and I'm a nice tank who always lets the other tank catch the sword, because I am a giver.
#1: Ifrit: Okay, look, I know. I know he is objectively lame. I love his Eden fight, but he's so sad they needed to combine him with Garuda to keep things exciting. His theme is kind of dull and not even unique to him, and no one is happy to see him. I get him roughly 90% of the time I queue for leveling roulette.
And that has turned to love.
Plus in an attempt to take a picture of him where he looks cool, I got a picture of Dusk I super love. Thanks, Ifrit! You're the best!
(Queue the use of the Summoner job. Namely, Ifrit was briefly summoned to obliterate the locusts…and that was very effective. It also busted the tablet in the process (with Gilgamesh deciding that if they key was called an “artifact”, which it obviously wasn’t, then the tablet isn’t legitimate given it seemed like the key was intentionally imbedded into a specially made thing now), so time to go! Course, the mutants were more aggressive now, but Whank was enjoying this more)
*As they proceeded to fight their way through the mutant filled town, Heartless "and" Nobodies began appearing...It seems as the more keys they collect, the more aggressive they become*
Gilgamesh, after noticing the big red one: Wait a minute, is that one meant to be me?? *It had swung its halberd at Gilgamesh and had sent him flying into one of the buildings*...Definitely hits like me...Ow...
Ooof, it’s hard to keep track of this without benefit of a queue.
“I’ve a question for the Council,” Asura drawled. “Have we yet fought Imbued? As Elements are such a concern at this point.”
They all went silent. “My people saw no Imbued when we were attacked,” Lilith confirmed.
“Neither did mine. Please excuse me, something has been found in Merlin’s Caves.” Mab was barely out of her chair when someone cut communication from Tintagel’s side.
“Ifrit, you have faced two armies of these creatures. What about you?”
“I didn’t face the second one, Ozzy, I simply burned the chamber they were in. But no, there were no Imbued,” Haroun corrected.
“Hard to tell unless one takes a swipe at you, isn’t it?” Asura chuckled.
“Would the First of Firsts have any useful suggestions for the Council in this matter,” Succor rubbed at her temples, “or do you just want to be an ass, you gross old harpy?”
Back with another one piece chapter review, or as I like to say - me attempting to be articulate about my thoughts when I actually want to scream...
anyways
This chapter is called - Sanji vs. Queen
I guess we can know what to expect from it?
First of all, before jumping into the chapter, I honestly didn't even expect Oda to give us more Sanji vs. Queen since we got that in 1032, and then Zoro vs. King in 1033, but this might be that in 1033 Zoro finally gained control over Enma and is now on, what it seems to be, the final stages against King - so it makes sense to give us more Sanji vs. Queen to end it right before the climax. After that Oda can focus on ending the rest of the fights (with the exception of Luffy vs. Kaido of course) and then ending Sanji/Queen and Zoro/King simultaneously right before Luffy's fight (I'm guessing, but it can go whatever way)
I absolutely loved the start of this chapter, with Momonosuke realizing he too can grab onto the flame clouds to try and stop Onigashima from falling into the flower capital -
And now we come back to the fight between Sanji and Queen, and Queen decided let out his 'trump card' - using the techniques from the Vinsmoke brothers. "Judge's sons are the culmination of his scientific work" and because Queen and Judge seem to have this feud over their technology, mastering Judge's sons techniques is technichally matching Judge's scientific work -
Sanji counterattacks by breaking / burning through his arm
"Did you think I'd let you dominate the fight" is what Sanji says to Queen, after his attack. After breaking the raid suit, and calling zoro to ask him to kill him after the war incase something happens, he's decided to live with the added power his body provides - he's not the same man anymore, he's accepted his fate.
Queen brings out one final trump card, the final replica, the technique of the other 'vinsmoke son' -
4. Stealth Black (which just, is him disappearing, the invisibilty)
Using the raid suit would enable Sanji to also use stealth black techniques and disappear but he broke it, and last time he disappeared people seemed to believe that "wHeN hE bRoKe tHe cAN fUmEs fRoM iT GoT iNtO hIm aNd tHaT's hOw hE dIsApPeArs" No, people, he's just moving at a speed so fast he can't be seen - "moving faster than the eye can see"
Couple that with his exoskeleton, and the "armament haki training" that he does, and enhanced strength he can also, besides mimicking stealth black movement and disappearing (if that wasn't enough) withstand "flames much hotter than before"
so if we had Diable Jamble - devil's leg - we now have
Ifrit Jambe
and ifrit, in islamic mythology, is a powerful demon who inhabits the underworld, often associated with the spirits of the dead //basically Sanji is bringing forth the flames from the underworld
and if that wasn't enough, he casually drops nine named attacks in a row, which kind of reminded me of his fight a long while ago, against Kuroobi (the fishman from Arlong Park)
and wow, what an amazing panel. This will look amazing animated.
PS. We also find out (or confirm, for most of us) that Sanji did not hit that woman, it was actually Queen using his disappearing technique. That's why the woman thought Sanji did it, since she couldn't actually see Queen, and Sanji was the only one there...
PPS. Break next week.
PPPS. Does this seem like a final move to you? I could see it, but I'm also not entirely sure.
Azem, unimpressed:…Are you forgetting who I am?*switched to Warrior, and instantly breaks every Barrier with just a single swing of their axe* It’ll take more than this to give me trouble! (Queue brutal curbstomps on every bandit except the clearly hesitant “Rook”. It’s not even fair, even the flames mean nothing to someone who’s dealt with Ifrit’s soul-searing Hellfire.)(Author note: Just do reactions from the other Plantars, Ann, and “Rook” for this insanity and it’ll be all good)
Anne: This is definitely a lot like the anime...Marcy...showed me...
Polly: I think I see one of their bones!...Nice!
Hop Pop: Let's just hope that they're here to save us and not capture us as well.
"Rook", while freaking out: Uh...Uh!...Lady Mera!! What do I do in a situation like this?!...Oh wait...She's not here...She's being held captive by them because of my foolish decisions...
so today in ffxiv i had to do the hard mode versions of ifrit, garuda, and titan. they all went really well! up until titan at least. ifrit and garuda i had really short queue times, and the fights went smoothly, no wipes, didn’t even die myself. titan on the other hand took forever to queue and i died twice. first time i died i got pushed off the edge of the arena like a fool ( :( ), but it wasn’t that bad since the whole party wiped anyway (neither tank was in tank stance lol). we got that sorted and beat him, but i did die at the very end, idr what killed me but it was something dumb i think, i just got hit by a mechanic like a fool :(
anyways. with that done i was able to start the 2.5 quests, and i got to the point where you do the keeper of the lake dungeon and stopped there, bc i didn’t feel like doing ANOTHER instance lol. i’m gonna wrap 2.5 up tomorrow and probably get started on the crystal tower nonsense, which i am. not looking forward to tbh. wish the game didn’t force me to do raid content to progress but it is what it is i guess
Does nobody on Crystal do leveling roulette, or is it just that there are that many more people leveling alt jobs on Aether and spamming roulettes? I know I’m a DPS at this point in the game, but seriously, I rarely have to wait more than 10 minutes to get a DPS queue to pop on Aether these days, and that was before the Twitch fuckboy influx.
... don’t mind me, I just want to get Ifrit out of the way so I can become a goddamned scholar. Sigh.
Accidentally ran Ifrit today with my Marauder (I gotta slow down in menus lol) & straight up forgot to tank stance till someone told me in chat, nobody died at all though so I call it a win! Then I go into Stone Vigil as DPS & hoooh boy this tank was I m p a t i e n t, rounding corners, pulling everything, we wiped twice before even getting to the first boss! No crowd control, constantly going out of sight of the healer, I'm genuinely amazed we beat the boss in only 1 try!
No worries on that first part. There are plenty of times where I’ve accidentally queued for something without realizing because I forgot to unclick it and didn’t notice until queue pops for it.
The second part of that story reminds me when my friends needed to run Dzemael Darkhold for the first time and I ran it healer and we kept wiping because tank kept running ahead and out of my range because he wanted to get out of there as fast as possible and when I asked him to slow down so I could keep up with healing him he just left the party and this was right after the second boss so he really didn’t have much left to slow down on lol (his loss for wasting 20 minutes on a dungeon) -- Some people just really don’t have that patience to slow down a bit, take in the dungeon, enjoy what time you have with a new party, and I don’t understand why.
Some of my WoW friends enjoy informing me when Cataclysm time walking is happening and they end up in Grim Batol. That dungeon was my bane back in the day, the way Cata dungeons were initially highly-tuned after people whined Wrath’s dungeons were “too easy” (since the true dungeon finder was introduced in that expac’s patches and by then everyone was already overgeared...)
I just had so much trouble healing on Forgemaster Throngus (I only healed and tanked in WoW). Compounded by the fact he picked me up every. single. time. as that was part of his various mechanics. The joke got to be if I was in the party, we were going to Grim Batol, and it was because Throngus had a crush on Lirriel. It happened 3 times in a row in a single day once, even with an attempt to requeue for something else, and we called it in disgust.
My roommate even made a silly sketch of Lirriel and her fervent two-headed ettin admirer.
Now, in FFXIV, I am free of Throngus. However.
I cannot seem to use leveling roulette without getting drug into the Bowl of Embers at least once a week, usually more. I see Ifrit so often, y’all. Even my first foray into paladin tanking in Shadowbringers--instantly into the Bowl. My paladin is 61 and we were pre-made, all of us well over the Bowl’s level. But “random.”
My only escape is to queue with @erickgage because then we shall be nearly guaranteed to end up in level 15 Sastasha, as Captain Madison has a Thing for Erick. Or they have some illicit deal going on the side Dark hasn’t caught onto yet, either way.