Coplay - A question

[Viridian]

Apart from the costume, the appeal is in how close the cosplayer can accurately portray the character - speech, body language, mannerisms, poses, and so on. Again, this is the line between dressing up as a character and being the character. The problem with cosplaying as an original character is that it doesn't have recognisable traits - though much effort can be put into creating a cosplay outfit that is as detailed as an established character. The "performance" aspect is more to do with being in-character than a style of play.

I'm not sure what requests Fred is getting, but asking the question to people with a more serious interest in cosplaying may show a different understanding. There are people who have fantasies or fetishes involving particular characters that they want to see in quicksand (and there are plenty of delicious characters that would be just right), but it's not necessarily the "campy" acting that is appealing. It's the authenticity that the person in the costume is the character and, by extension, the scene being shot is a plausible in-universe scene.

The literary equivalent that you may be more familiar with is fanfiction. I've addressed this in my thread in the Stories forum: fanfiction is popular because it allows writers to play with characters in ways that the original source material do not, but really good fanfiction makes authentic use of the characters with dialogue and events that suit the source material.

In the film production side, this is very challenging because not only do you need to have a detailed costume, you also need an actor who looks the part and can play the part. It's not enough to give someone a tank top, shorts and pistols and chalk them up as "Lara Croft". They should look fit, be able to do action poses believably, and react to things the way Lara Croft (the character) would. Lara would not look at a pit of quicksand, walk into it and flail around for five minutes while calling for help. Lara is a woman of action and would immediately come up with an escape plan, because she is an experienced tomb raider.

Interestingly, preserving the authenticity of the character and source material are tips that fanfiction and fan-art creators should follow.