Dressing Up

A while back my brother and his roommate had a costume/housewarming party. (They're Eagle VS Shark fans). I had youth group that night, so I stopped by afterwards, and I had no costume. The next day I started pondering about costumes that I might like to wear at some point in the future, if for no other reason than wearing a costume.

Hilary and I have been getting into Dragonball Z. My friends and I watched Dragonball Z regularly when we were in high school. After a while it got old. When most of the episodes include the same fight sequences, lots of explosions, and repetitious sequences of gawking at the enemy saying, "He's so powerful," it's not hard to imagine why. Still, it is very entertaining. The characters are probably the best part of the show. Anyway, Hilary has been getting just as addicted as I have been. We've kept netflix

 movies for at least a month without watching them, because of the addictive nature of the series. Thanks, Roy!

One night before I got my hair cut Hilary found some of my old hair gel, the type that says, 

"Xtreme: will not budge even after swimming, getting hit on the head with a cast iron skillet, and then run over by a semi." I guess she was bored and not ready for bed yet, because it was near 10:00pm. The next thing I know is she is putting it in my hair, making it stand on end. Then she doubles over laughing, saying that I look like Vegeta. Of course, being the dork that I am, I start shouting, "KAKAROOOOOOT!" in front of the mirror.

So, at some point after my brother's costume party, I started toying with the idea of putting together a Vegeta costume just for kicks and giggles. I just need a blue spandex suit, some white gauntlets, some white boots, and perhaps a motocross breastplate. It would probably cost more than $100 to put the outfit together. 

At this point, you might be thinking, "Trey, could you be a bigger nerd?" The answer is yes: yes, most definitely.

Since it would cost so much, I decided to do a search for Vegeta costumes. This was all I found. Then I remembered the word "cosplay." I had seen it around the internet, often on sites selling, or related to, anime merchandise. So I googled it. 

Apparently, Cosplay (short for costume play) is very, very, very big in Japan and also very popular on the West Coast. There are whole conventions for cosplay. What would one do at such a convention? Wear their favorite or latest costume, of course! The two main genres of costume for cosplay are Anime and Video Games. 

Then I hit the motherload, cosplay.com. First, I did a search for vegeta costumes. They were alright. Then I started clicking on other dragonball z-related costumes, and boy were there a lot of them. Then I found their featured cosplay list—oh my! Some people just have too much time on their hands.

Here are some of my favorites that I found. They made me gawk in wonder.

First, Frieza (first form) from season 3 of Dragonball Z:

Second, one of my favorite video game heroes EVER, Samus Aran:

Agent 47 from Hitman, simple, but amazing:

Ninjya, from Metal Gear Solid:

Spike, Cowboy Bebop:

Princess Zelda, from Twilight Princess

Link, of course:

A Forest Spirit, from Princess Mononoke:

And this is just ridiculous (Gigas, FFXII):

Some thoughts:

What is it about our modern society that makes us want to dress up in fantastic costumes and be someone else? It seems to me that we find our own lives dull and boring. We crave adventure and excitement, and we find it by becoming someone else. Becoming, why aren't we happy with the shape our lives are? Why do we retreat to worlds full of adventure and romance? We all do it. It may be through books. It may be through movies or TV. It may be through video games. 

There is something inherently dissatisfying in our day-to-day lives. I believe it is because we are a compartmentalized, materialistic, closed-system culture. We try to remove all the pain of life, which gives us the illusion that we are immortal. We live and work in concrete jungles, which gives us the illusion that life is mechanical. We live far away from famine, war, catastrophe, etc., though we see it every day; while the problems of the world may make us feel uncomfortable and make us wish we could do something, but we don't know how, and honestly, we would rather not try.

Ultimately, the problem is due to sin. We forget that God has created us as the crown of his creation. We forget we are a part of his grand historical story. We forget the conflict and wars of years gone by and that are being waged this very day. We forget that God is orchestrating it all. We forge that he has ordained all things. Therefore, all things happen for a reason. Boredom and dissatisfaction are results of the fall.

There will be no boredom in heaven. There will be no dissatisfaction in heaven. We will be completely and perfectly content. Life in heaven will be exciting and interesting, because God will be in our midst. We will be able to see clearly his work in us and in history. We will realize fully we are a part of it. Now, whether there will be costume parties in heaven, that remains to be seen.