gotham Archives | Adventures in Atlanta

Posted by Liz and John Attaway, 9/14/22

Every year, DragonCon takes on a life of its own. This year was no different with fun new trends like The Loyal Order of the Ribbon, cults going strong, or massive groups like the T-Rex Horde. That’s all on top of the fantastic cosplay, Mardi Gras atmosphere, star-studded panels, meet and greets with celebrities, and nighttime parties and live performances!

The Loyal Order of the Ribbon

A fascination for some, a necessity for others, the Loyal order of the Ribbon has taken the badge ribbon trend to a whole new level. Found in the DragonCon app, meet ups to swap ribbons happens daily, where you can find your new favorite. We found that there are a few reasons that people create ribbons like the love of a show, fandom, or favorite quotes, books, or simply to share information on a brand! At DragonCon you can grow your badge ribbons as long as you want or just wear your favorites. We saw several people roll theirs up because they would hit the floor or stand on the second floor of the Hilton and drop the ribbons into the lobby. Yes, they’re that long! Our favorite ribbons were the classic Marriott Carpet and 24601 from Les Mis. We even made a ribbon for our Instagram page so people could watch our Danny goes to DragonCon stories. What ribbon would you want if you could have anything?

T-Rex Horde

Speaking of Danny, another trend in the DragonCon universe is the blow-up T-Rex horde. There has to be at least 100 or more people that gather almost every night to go through each hotel as a T-Rex Horde! T-Rexes from the Marriott Carpetasaur, Darth Vader, Velociraptors, Unicorns all joined in on the fun. The best part is John and I both have blow-up outfits and this year we featured on our stories, Danny, a dinosaur that goes to DragonCon for the first time. He went to a panel (and the actors waved at him), the parade, met his Idol, the Marriott Carpetasaur, got a bucket of rum, went to Trader Vics, got his first Monks Mead, and so many other firsts. Then, on Sunday, we did the T-Rex running and it was a blast. You get to see the joy on people’s faces to watch a parade of T-Rexes and they take photos and videos of the entire thing!

The Cult of Jon

Don’t be fooled, the Cult of Jon is going strong since 2019. Started out as a humble FedEx cut-out, DragonCon fans adorned him with stickers and put candles around him to transform him into a cult-like leader everyone could enjoy. It is all in good fun, as this year, the Scofflaw Beer folks stationed their own cut outs around and people too out google eyes on them and stickers, some even blasted them as “false prophets.” It’s pretty entertaining to watch. What will be the next cult?

Eddie Munson

The “new Deadpool” was Eddie Munson, the loveable Hellfire Club leader from Stranger Things latest season. There were men, women and mash-ups of Eddie all over the place and they even had a huge photo meet up. There HAD to be 30,000 of them! Our favorite Eddies were the two that had a guitar and amps and we watched them have a “Master of Puppets” guitar off. It was funny. What will be the next most popular costume?

Panels

We went to two panels, Gotham with Ben McKenzie and then a Walking Dead Panel with several actors including Chandler Riggs. The highlights from Gotham included learning that Ben (Gordon) didn’t even have to audition as he was approached by the show runner, how him and Monica Baccarin (Leslie) met on the set and eventually got married, and how he never wanted to wear the Gordon mustache! Then, the highlights from The Walking Dead panel were learning how much Riggs (Carl) loved growing up on the set of the Walking Dead and how it shaped him, listening to fun blooper moments, hearing which death was the hardest, and how Katelyn (Enid) loves potatoes. You always find something fun in these panels. I will never forget the Smallville one last year where they sang their theme song.

Cosplay You have to check out our photo journal of all our favorite cosplays, bots, costumes, and moments!

Panels, Wallops, A Mai Tai, A Wonder Woman T-Rex, Random Celebrity Sightings, and Parking Lot Karaoke!

Wheeeew, We were busy!

Fandom. Nerdom. Fanatics. Whatever you want to call it descended on downtown Atlanta as the first few days of Dragon Con came and went, but thank goodness it’s Friday. Welcome home to Dragon Con 2019! Wednesday is the new Thursday with the welcome home party and even a T-REX dance party in the Hilton. Thursday is quickly becoming the new first must-do night with their fun late night parties like the End Game Neon Party and late night tunes, like The Tomb Tunes. There’s also $6 Mai Tais at Trader Vic’s! Finally, Friday is the first full day full of panels, parties, and more. Let’s check out all the Friday shenanigans in depth!

First, the Wallops. We snaked like a super hero this evening, while hanging out with Hight Road Craft Ice Cream out of Marietta, GA (local!). A little ball of deliciousness has a delicate ice cream center, cookie dough outside, and crispy shell. Our favorite was definitely the sweet cream ice cream and cookie dough, but the almond was also very good. Wait, they ALL were good. What a nice bunch of people to hang out with for a while! You should check out their large wallop and background you can take a picture with! It’s bigger than your head! They are going to be in the pool area of the Hyatt Regency Saturday too until 6 pm (or gone). Get Walloped!

Second, panels. There are so many tidbits, behind the scene jokes, and more that you find out about actors and even shows that you didn’t know that are a complete surprise to everyone. The best things that happen can be surprise guests, show spoilers, story lines that COULD be, and more. Here’s some of the best of the panels:

THIS PORTION OF OUR ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM LUCIFER AND GOTHAM. Like this afternoon, we got to hear from Aimee Garcia and DB Woodside a few interesting things about Lucifer currently airing on Netflix. DB said in the first season that his character Amenadiel was to fall in love with the demon Maze, but she was going to die. He is so distraught that he brings her back to life and that’s how he looses his powers and wings. Interesting. He does lose his wings in season one into season two, but it wasn’t for this reason. Fox was hesitant about this story line and it got scrapped. Then, Aimee, is hoping her character, Ella, turns out to be God (and so did one fan who asked about it). In the comics, Elaine Bella is a character that turns out to be God and with name Ella… could be? Probably not, but it is a fan theory and a rumor around the lot.

As for Gotham that just ended it’s run on Fox, we got to spend some time with a bunch of the main actors like David Mazouz, Sean Pertwee, Robin Lord Taylor, Maggie Geha, and SURPRISE Donald Logue showed up. Right off, Robin Lord Taylor is a blonde(!). So, he had a wonderful story about how Jada Pinkett Smith took him under her wing and really showed him the ropes of acting on a series, almost like her character Fish Mooney mentored Cobblepot, who became Penguin and he was eternally grateful. He also said he really used Danny Devito’s Penguin and his “look” as a roadmap to his character. Beyond that, it was interesting to hear that Fox/the producers didn’t tell the actors what roles they were auditioning for in the beginning. Sean P said if he knew he was auditioning for Alfred he would have done things differently. David M mentioned they said his scene for audition was that his brother has just died and he is having a hard time with it. So interesting to hear this! What struck us is that these actors were all very close. Donald Logue said this was the closest, most family like cast he’s worked with and that means a lot seeing as he had just done Sons of Anarchy, Vikings, and a stint on SVU. They all hugged when he showed up. He wasn’t supposed to be at the panel, so it was a treat for all!

On the way back from dinner, we were walking by the Marriott and we ran into a man standing on the street talking to another cosplayer. He turns around and it’s Mark Sheppard. If you watched the show Supernatural on the CW and the demon, Crowley, rings a bell, you know who we’re talking about! I (Liz) asked for a selfie or photo but he said it was against the rules, so we can’t give you a proof of encounter, unfortunately. But, I did get to waved to his wife Sarah who was on Facetime with him, and he was very nice. We told him we were big Supernatural fans and left it at that. SPOILER We hope he gets to come back for the final season.

Finally, we ran across something cool tonight, a parking lot karaoke party. A bunch of random people, belting their favorite songs, behind a car, and a bunch of people around cheering them on. It was a lot of fun and interesting to watch everything go down.

That’s a wrap for now. More on Saturday and Sunday to come!