Last week's Defiance Season 2 Episode 7 inspired viewers like me to think about the many reasons why humans cosplay or role-play on Halloween and/or elsewhere. Viceroy Berto Mercado donned an "alien" Castithan costume remarking that "it's in our nature to want to be other than we are, it's what makes humanity great... Never be ashamed of trying to be better than who you are and cherish the moments you get to spend in a place like this. You can be anything you want here". While Christie McCawley, a human whom is married to a Castithan named Alak Tarr, took an almost Masquerade Ball approach when asked if she recognized Viceroy Mercado with "No, isn't that the point of coming to these things?". In /r/AskReddit, I got a few responses like "It's fun to engage in fiction because our reality is so horrible and dull" and "Same reason people paint themselves up forr sportsball games. Its fun.". http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/2cg9c4/why_do_humans_cosplayroleplay_something_alien/ So in addition to having fun, showing your support at an event like sports or San Diego Comic-Con, being someone else that we admire or reinventing our identity even if for a moment, here are some reasons that I thought of particularly as an MMORPG player where "Role-Playing" is an essential part of the game: to create and enact a story for their character where speaking as oneself means to be "out of character", to learn by mimicing, to amuse/entertain others by acting, and maybe to make our fantasies real. Were any of your reasons mentioned? Do you have any to add?
