Nowadays, when people are asked to do something or go somewhere, the most common response involves who, what, when, where, and why. I have seen these phrases on the internet recently. mostly revolving around C2E2. The reason for this is the C2E2 website can only give you so much information. But today, I am taking on this challenge by answering these questions by running you through my most recent experiences.
This was when I was fifteen years old (2 years ago) – All I was told was that Stephen Amell, Grant Gustin, and a couple of other TV show actors would be there as well. Of course I told my friend that I was coming with him. So, me and my friend and his dad set off for C2E2. I had brought one hundred dollars in total; fifty for my ticket in and another fifty for anything I wanted to get while I was there. After driving an hour and half, we had finally arrived to… the parking garage. After that we had to walk through three different buildings!!! But after looking death straight in the eyes, I had finally arrived at C2E2!
That was short-lived as we were stopped at a checkpoint where they separated people with costumes and people without costumes. With my dark red Flash costume, I was headed to the costume line while my friend and his dad went into the non-costume line. While getting closer and closer I find out that this is a security checkpoint and the reason for separating people was for people who didn’t have costumes as it took them a while to make sure people in costumes had no weapons. So after being patted down for weapons I rejoined my group and headed to buy my ticket. After walking a little ways, a little kid in a Flash costume and his parents stopped me to take a picture with the little guy. I will never forget this as that kid still warms my heart to this day.
After the picture, we had finally reached the ticket booth where I gave them my twenty dollars and in exchange got a plastic square that said C2E2 and a complementary lanyard for which to wear it. We went into a HUGE room where there were mini-shops galore. They had everything from comic books to never before seen posters to unique shirts and much, much more! It was then that I realized that I had just entered heaven for a measly fifty dollars!!! I remember walking up to the first store and seeing my favorite villain of all time (Vibe) facing off against the Flash in action figure format! But I then looked at the price tag… FORTY dollars!!! I realized that I had not brought enough money for this trip. But in hindsight, it was a limited action figure set so it was marked fairly, but PLEASE bring a good amount of money because this place has something for everyone! After exploring a bit I figured out that not everything was marked that high. For example, I ended up getting two Flash posters, an Arrow poster, and a Pokemon poster. I ended up getting all of this for a measly forty dollars.
After looking around some more and talking to some people (who were very nice), we decided to check out the other sections of C2E2. We ended up stumbling upon a huge room with at least a 100-foot roof. But to my surprise, we found a room full of people taking pictures with people in costumes. My dad’s friend pointed out a sign for food right by the escalator. While making our way there, we ran into multiple people with costumes and without costumes that wanted to take a picture with me.
After we got through the crowd, we went up the escalator and headed towards food. Now at this point, you would think that nothing we could find would really surprise us. Well when we got to the top, we found a huge room filled with games from the very first system all the way to games that hadn’t even been released! (I honestly don’t think I can stress enough on how huge these rooms are) But because of how big the room is, it took us at least five minutes to find a restaurant. And when I say restaurant, I really mean the stuff you would find at like a high school football game, overpriced, limited and fast. But as there were no other options in sight, and it took us a solid twenty minutes to get here, we were just happy with what we had. When we got in line, there was only one table left so my friend went to go reserve it. The restaurant was selling burgers for four dollars and cheeseburgers for five. They also sold a plain hot dog for three dollars. I decided to get a cheeseburger and a water bottle (which was a dollar). Right when I was about to pay for it, my dad’s friend pulled out his wallet and said he’s got it. Let me tell you, that was relief as I would have only had four dollars left. We then headed to a circular round table and sat down on some metal chairs, which felt amazing as we had been on our feet all day. While we were eating, I saw STEPHEN AMELL walk past us!!! Of course I got up to try to get a quick picture with him but by the time I caught up he was already in his booth and I was stopped by security. I then asked the security guards if I could go take a quick picture with him? They then said, “Yeah that would be SIXTY dollars,” and pointed to a sign. I then asked,”If there would be another time to meet him for free.” They responded by saying, “That he already did his panel and won’t be doing another one.”
So let me take a quick break to explain something…
If you want to meet someone for free…CHECK THE PANEL TIMES!!!
With a ray of emotions, I headed back to the table to tell my story to my friend and his dad. Because of this experience, we looked at the panel times. We found one that they had – one with the writers of Young Justice. So we decided to go to that panel. But we had some time to spare so we ended up playing some of the new games that were up to release soon. We then headed through the sea of people where I took more pictures with people. We then got to the panel right on time. Most of the panel they covered the history of DC and they touched on some of their work. Then they let you meet them, take pictures and ask questions. So after taking a few pictures, I wanted to ask him a couple of questions. I asked, “When you killed off Kid Flash in season two of Young Justice, did you have the intention of bringing him back?” I then followed up with, “If so, would it be where he was stuck in the speed force?” He then chuckled and answered yes to both questions. Little did we know that two years later they would get the go ahead for season three of Young Justice! But after the panel, everything was shutting down so we decided that it was time to go home.
I hope through reading this article that you won’t be so experienced as I was. I also hope that for people that couldn’t decide if they should go or not will give them the courage to decide to go! As I will always remember this day and you will too!
