You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

So, with the end of the year approaching, I thought it HIGH time that I post about my favorite day of 2012, which was August 26th. 

And why, you might ask, was August 26th, 2012, my favorite day of the year?

BECAUSE OF STAR WARS CELEBRATION VI. 

Who doesn't love swagger Yoda?

 This was AMAZING. It was like I had died and gone to the place where good and loyal nerds go after they've lived a faithful life. 

My pictures don't do the scope of this thing justice...it was held at the Orange County Convention Center, took up 3 floors and went on FOREVER. It was just MASSIVE. 

So this being my first major con, I knew, as most people do, to expect a lot of people dressed up in costumes. 

Like, this many. 

And some costumes were better...

...than others.

Okay, but really? The guy had a great sense of humor.

 This one was probably my favorite:

Followed closely by this adorable R2-D2 ballerina costume: 

This was probably the cutest costume I saw: 

Parenting: YOU'RE DOING IT RIGHT. 

(Quick story about cute things! They had a guy there who was visiting from MGM...or "Hollywood Studios," whatever, and they were doing the "Jedi Training Academy." Omg, it was so cute. They let any little kid who wanted to come up and get a jedi robe and toy lightsaber, and then they "taught" them how to fight with it. And then, some guy dressed as Darth Vader came out and dueled with each of the kids! It was SO CUTE and hilarious! Some of the kids were a little nervous, but Vader obviously let them win. Others couldn't open their lightsabers and needed help. And one kid goes up to Darth Vader and just smiles and waves at him. It was ADORABLE. And then at the end, they got a little Jedi certificate. It was probably the cutest thing I've ever seen, and if it wasn't, then it definitely made the Top 10 List.)

Of course, there were hoards of "slave Leias:" 

...an actual "life-sized" wookie here or there...

...and some that were just mind-blowingly creative. 

This guy was awesome, even though he was technically at the wrong convention. 

He kept running around saying, "Make it so!" 

The thing with conventions though, is that no matter WHAT fandom you belong to, there's usually someone there representing it. Geeks just come out of the woodwork for stuff like this. 

My favorite part was all the merch.

Yeah, that's an actual Jar-Jar backpack. And if you thought that was bad...

I am devastated that this exists. 

Every cardboard cutout known to man was available for purchase (we did not bring home Lando). 

 They had these cute Star Wars themed portraits of dogs. I was obviously partial to the Yoda-pug. 

The other thing that I didn't expect was a whole section that was dedicated to tattooing! In person! At the convention! I'm sorry, but if you're marketing Jar-Jar whoopie cushions to these people, do you think maybe they're not in the right mindset to make a very PERMANENT (and geekeriffic) purchase that involves needling Princess Leia's face onto your arm?! I mean, REALLY?? 

One of my favorite parts was the fact there are people (and clubs!) out there dedicated to building actual working R2 units. As R2-D2 is arguably my favorite character ("arguably" being the key word...like I could pick just one!), this thrilled me. 

It also thrilled a lot of 5 year olds, but really, what's the difference?

I was hoping to catch a glimpse of some celebs while I was there, but it was slim pickings. Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) and Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) were there, but it cost well over $100 to get an autograph or picture with them, so...I mean, I wish I could've done that, but $100 is just really steep for a signed piece of paper. I did see the guy who played little Anakin though! 

There were these two guys behind me as I was snapping this highly prohibited photo, and they're like, "Did you see that guy? The Anakin guy? What a whiny little shit. I hate that guy! They should pay US to see him!" I was like, "WOW, HATERS MUCH??" 

In lieu of not getting to hang out with the actual Luke and Leia, we settled for taking pics with this incredible hand-sculpted set that was brought in FROM BELGIUM. 

They had part of the Cantina all set up, complete with glasses of blue milk. 

And they had a life-sized Jabba and his band! My inner 8 year old died a little from the sheer awesomeness of getting to "play" with Max Reebo. 

This was just a car that somebody had pimped out to look like an X-Wing, complete with the R2 in the trunk. 

 Then, because as I mentioned about ALL the nerds coming out to play, we had Avengers stuff, which made me happy. 

Agent Coulson's Captain America cards. 

Thor's hammer, Mjolnir. 

I'm sorry, I literally couldn't help myself. 

 And an IRON MAN R2-D2!!! This is like, two WONDROUS things combined into one small tank of AWESOME. 

Overall, it was SUCH a fun day. I went with my parents (who I hold personally responsible for the geekery that's been my life) and had a blast. We ate lunch with a random slave Leia, ENGAGED Captain Picard, met members of the 501st Legion (who do charity work WHILE dressed up as Storm Troopers! Awesome, no?), played with R2, got pictures taken with Darth Vader, peeked our heads into the speed dating and decided that even I'm not that desperate (there was a guy dressed as a chicken...and another GUY dressed as slave Leia), saw every manner of Star Wars merch imaginable (and some we couldn't imagine)....it was a great (and comical) day. 

 

I bought ONE t-shirt and a lunchbox and got this HUGE bag. I think I'm gonna frame it one day when I get a house of my own, because frankly I don't know what else to do with it. 

Overall, it was an awesome day. And of course, it was loads of fun to geek out and people watch, but what I really left with was a sense of admiration for people who are THAT PASSIONATE about something. They hand make a lot of their wares or costumes, and as I mentioned before, a lot of them make charities out of their enjoyment for Star Wars, which is a really fantastic thing. I was just struck by the level of passion they have for this one thing. And they know it's all for fun--they all went back to their day jobs on Monday, but it was so refreshing to be around people who truly LOVED something this much. 

If you ever get the chance to go to something like this, DO IT! It's loads of fun whether you're into it a lot or just a little. The people are super friendly, the merchandise is AWESOME (and is turning over on Ebay for $500!!), and it's just a fun day out--for people watching and sociology, if nothing else.