Here is an interesting question - What is cosplay about? For most people it is about having fun, and that is undoubtedly true. All people that love wearing or making costumes do it mainly because it's fun. However, after the popularization of cosplay through mass media, cosplay has become more widespread than ever. There are even people who do cosplays as a full time job, and large cosplay competitions are more present than ever. So as a consequence to this, people have begun doing cosplay as main source of income and to win at said competitions. These competitions often require cosplayers to respect certain rules when creating their costumes, and planning their performances to best portray the character and bring it to life. In a time when original and genderbend cosplays are very popular, I believe that cosplay accuracy is something that a cosplayer should strive for. Now, that absolutely does not mean that people can't just have fun with whatever character and version of it they want, on the contrary. However I believe that becoming the character and making sure that you do him (or her) justice in regards to visual representation and even body language and mannerism is something that is very hard to do. I have always picked cosplay characters that mean something to me personally. Whether they be noble heroes, terrible villains or even precarious anti-heroes, I always found a little bit of myself in them. I realized that this often meant the difference between great cosplays and average ones. And being a cosplayer, I believe I have a wonderful opportunity to realize my fantasies and truly inhabit the skin of my favorite character. I have also made certain to create the costumes so that they match the references closely, with all the glorious details
that make the whole character. So whatever you do, weather it be character accurate costumes for large competitions or just-for-fun costumes for goofing around on Cons, do it with heart and always strive to become
better. This way, you'll enjoy this hobby for a long time to come.