Thanks very much to those of you who’ve been enjoying, sharing, and starring in the photos that my wife and I took at GenCon 2012 last weekend here in Indianapolis. Rest assured the city always gets a kick out of your presence, and I’m not just referring to tourist dollars. (Seriously, everyone left and took all the pizzazz with them. Bring back our pizzazz! WE NEED IT.)

Please enjoy this last hurrah of cosplay fun and outright fashion victories. Newcomers may refer back to entry #1 and episode 2 for your “Previously On: GenCon 2012 Photos” recap. All previous disclaimers regarding quality and old-people ignorance apply as before.

Local variety band il Troubadore aren’t always representing for Trek in their live performances, but you have not experienced “American Pie” until you have heard it in the original Klingon.

Steampunk Wonder Woman.

The first Harley Quinn we ran across. She had the Arleen Sorkin voice down, too. In fact, I’m wondering whether or not this was the same Harley we saw at Wizard World Chicago the weekend before.

Billing himself as Gumshoe the Orc Shaman, I’m fairly certain this was the guy’s own World of Warcraft character, not necessarily a cousin of Shrek.

JAWA! Somewhere in my house is my old collection of a few dozen Jawa action figures, plush toys, and vehicles. In my old apartment, I used to have a Jawa diorama atop my entertainment center. I may need to add one of these new organic models to my collection.

The Red Skull plots to overthrow the GenCon staff, institute an evil new order, and burn all copies of any WWII strategy game that allows the Allies to defeat the Axis.

Two more Harleys, a Riddler, a Robin, and an Ivy. At the rate that Harley costumes of all versions are catching on, their ranks will threaten to outnumber the convention Ghostbusters and Doctors Who before too long. On the other end of the spectrum, plain white Jedi knights and Trek crewmen have definitely been on a downswing in 2012.

The emcee introduced Gandalf here as “the Jägermeister Wizard”. Either I missed out on a YouTube meme, or I stopped reading The Book of Lost Tales, Part One a few tales too soon. Maybe you just had to be there, and you had to be drunk.

The remaining photos would, in a crueler world, exist only as unpublished outtakes. The issue wasn’t costume quality in any of these cases. If your costume looked like the product of ten hasty minutes with cardboard and a couple of markers (or more likely, if your “costume” was just a character T-shirt and matching ballcap), I probably wouldn’t have pointed my camera at you in the first place. In a few cases it was camera issues on our end. In most cases, we were daunted and stymied by the task of taking photos of moving targets from Row 10 in a darkened ballroom without permission to use flash.

I’ve decided I have the unmitigated gall to shrink these down for flaw minimization purposes and share them anyway, because I was impressed by the diversity of works and characters that were represented from all walks of life and hobbydom. An amazing amount of effort and craft were put into many of these, and I’d love to be directed toward better shots of many of them. Also, in a few cases, I’d greatly appreciate it if someone could educate me on character names.

Left: The emcee’s intro reached my ears as “Delarosa from ‘Homestar’.” I’m 105% certain I misheard. Looks great, but my attempts to ID her ended in multiple dead ends.
Right: General Baggy, mascot for Battle Foam, company specializing in storage for game miniatures.

Left: I thought these were Heartless or Nobodies from Kingdom Hearts. My son says I’m wrong.
Right: My failed notes say, “Kath of the Shadows, ‘Song of Ice and Fire'”. Most likely wrong. Haven’t read any of the series. Looks cool anyway.

Left: Battletech Clansmen. They got into a fight onstage and stopped paying attention to us. Presumably part of the act.
Right: Master Chief and…we don’t have an XBox, so I don’t know his buddy. Assistant Master Chief? Major-Chief? Apprentice Chief? Just plain Chief? Or does he get mad when you call him Chief?

Left: Aayla Secura. I didn’t say there were no Jedi around.
Right: Not sure, but if we apply crossover math, green top plus tiny hat equals Steampunk Poison Ivy. Am I close?

Left: Beauty and the Beast, personal interpretation. Remember, Walt Disney didn’t write the story and doesn’t own it. CG ballroom gowns are not mandatory.
Right: Professor Oak, Nurse Joy, and Chansey perform a pretty amusing Pokemon skit.

Left: My notes say “Stalkers, Guards of the Pits”. My eyes say stilts are always a neat trick, and I predict within two years, plague masks will be the new steampunk goggles.
Right: Bellatrix LeStrange. On her way back to her seat, she shrieked from the camera-hating darkness, “I KILLED SIRIUS!” Spot-on.

Left: My takeaway was “dragon poetess”, due to her open-mic poem recital.
Right: Battle Armor Haldir from Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers was another of the costume contest’s special-recognition winners. Mild coincidence on our end: Craig Parker was at Wizard World Chicago last weekend, except as part of a trio signing for fans of his TV series Legend of the Seeker. I felt sheepish having him autograph our copy of The Two Towers while ignoring his costars, so we ended up bypassing their shared booth.

Left: I’m pretty sure these were from Soul Calibur. If I’m wrong, they’re from Dragon Age. In a barely related note, “Caliber Dragon” would be a great name for a comic book.
Right: This one made it into my notes as “Dragon Age old lady”. I distinctly recall she referred to herself as an “old lady” in third-person, so I can’t be too far off.

Left: An original Darth with co-opted elements of Vader and Maul. Plus a mace.
Right: Musical guest Dan the Bard entertains us troops outside the Exhibit Hall before opening on Saturday.

Left: I wrote down “Triangle Head”, but this is actually Pyramid Head from the Silent Hill series. I was one dimension off.
Right: Alex Mercer from Prototype.

Left: Wizard paparazzo.
Right: Wizard paparazzo’s target: Wil Wheaton and his newest acquisition, the coveted Netrunner. Wheaton’s version of the moment was tweeted seconds later. (This isn’t a costume pic, but I couldn’t resist.)

To be concluded!

[In our final chapter: GenCon objets d’art and other less-sought-after sights.]