All Kneel Before Party King Thranduil

It was a mad rush to complete my costume before the Desolation of Smaug midnight showing, but I did it, and it was totally awesome (and worth two consecutive nights of only four hours of sleep). I know I say this with every successive costume I make, but you guys, this is my favorite costume I've ever made. After all, does it get any better than the Elvenking who knows how to party?

The Elvenking of the Woodland Realm also knows how to Instagram. 

My sister Emily and I have been planning for this DoS cosplay ever since the five second scene in AUJ where we see Thranduil inexplicably riding an elk. Of course, comic artist Gingerhaze's ridiculously hilarious drawings expanding on Thranduil's partying personality definitely helped catch our fancy, too. 

Emily made the Party!Elk head out of cardboard and paper-mache, then wired it up with a battery-powered string of lights. The spray-painted tissue-box-boombox was a last-minute solution to the problem of elks and elves not really carrying purses. It was the perfect size for phones and gloves and keys and such. 

Here elk, lemme help you rehydrate. And yes, there was a random bathing nude lady mural at the theater. 

I'll post more in the upcoming week about how I made my costume, but for now, have some more picspam of my favorite cosplay so far!

A friend commented on my IG photo that "eleven parties are the best." As the party king, Thranduil agrees that yes, eleven parties are better than just one party. 

untz untz untz untz

All aboard the party elk!

On our way to pick up Legolas from school. Gosh, dads are just *so* embarrassing, aren't they?

And of course, we can't forget my usual partner in dressing up, Elaine...we were hobbits for the midnight showing last year; this year we were elves. 

Try to look normal. 

And now look goofy. 

The partying got out of hand. BTW, if you're ever in need of Tolkien-themed rap/hip-hop for your Tolkien-themed partying, check out The Lords of the Rhymes!

Oh, how was the actual movie you ask? Definitely liked it better than AUJ, overall, even though I wasn't a fan of some of the more egregious derivations from the books. But hey, Thranduil in the movie was everything I hoped he would be, so I'm not complaining!

Even though we weren't at an official line party like for last year's Hobbit movie, we still got a chance to meet lots of other equally excited, dressed-up fans, and squee over each others' costumes. We even did an entire-theater singalong of the Misty Mountains song before the movie started. You guys, I love geeks so, so, incredibly much. Irving Berlin might contend that there are no people like show people, but I, for one, think that show people have got nothing on geeks. 

The Elvenking deigns to party with his subjects, who are all apparently into jazz hands. 

Post-movie: all the collected denizens of Middle-Earth, including an actual Smaug! 

A part of me is just glad that all the costuming events for this quarter are done with (Halloween! TDW! DoS! All relatively-involved costumes in the span of a couple months!), but I also can't wait for next year.