If someone was dressed like this what would you think?

[backtoschoolagainagain]

This is for an event where you wear costumes.

What would you think they'd come as / were trying to look like?

(Having a slight disagreement with DS!)

Thanks :)

Let's be honest. Even for those familiar with the character, what is it inspired by?

Warhammer 40 000. An Inquisitor/ army officer. Gothic sci-fi. Not objectionable in itself, but the imagery does borrow from Nazi aesthetics.

It’s possible that he may be mistaken for some kind of modern day Nazi if he was goose stepping around the town and upsetting Jewish people but in the context of him being amongst many others also wearing costumes of all sorts of characters at a comic convention it’s highly unlikely that anyone is going to mistake him for one.

A steampunk German/Prussian soldier.

DS has sent this one to me. What do you think?

Less nazi or still a nazi?

Captain Jack from Doctor Who

The key is in the detailing. Unless he's trying to win the main cosplay competition then he can change a few details to make it less problematic, cosplayers do it all the time for costumes that would otherwise be too skimpy/heavy/physically impossible for a human to wear. The face mask is the most important thing, once he has that the character should be recognizable.

I've been going to conventions and cosplay events for years and judged a few contests, we have seen similar costumes that give off SS vibes (M Bison, Axis Powers Hetalia, all manner of Gundam uniforms to name a few) but once they're in the venue with all the other costumes they blend in, people will assume they're playing a character and not trying to evoke a fascist POV. Even if someone does take his picture he'll be surrounded by other people in cosplay, it'll be obvious he was playing a character.

Same scary Nazi vibe from the last pic aswell sorry.

These pictures are literally modeled on German war costumes from WWI and WWII, just slightly steampunked up.

No, he cannot wear either of them.

Not sure but someone not very nice ....it's quite horrible

It's very Nazi. The first one has an Eagle on it that I would associate with the Nazi's. The second one has a very Nazi like helmet on it.

The second picture still has German vibes particularly the helmet shape.
Are there no characters based on other less problematic origins?

(You could have an argument about WWI, but the fact is, people will glance and judge. He doesn't want to go through life saying, "No, no, that picture of me on the internet was from Warhammer, and also if you look closely it's much more akin to a WWI Pickelhaube than a Nazi hat.")

@longerevenings

The second picture still has German vibes particularly the helmet shape. Are there no characters based on other less problematic origins?

Yes there are other armies but he likes this one.

We're having a whatsapp conversation and he's telling me it's not an eagle on the helmet, it's an Aquilla!

(Definition of Aquilla = a type of eagle).

I think it's maybe the steampunk vibe he likes, will have a go at exploring other options with him.

Any steampunk and/or warhammer costume suggestions gratefully received!

Venger from the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon. I had such a crush on him.

I don't think the pictures from cheshirecat99 are much better, particularly the second one that would definitely fail the casual observer test. All those saying it's all in the details that is not what the test is, the test is a casual observer.

The second one is much better no nazi type symbols so definitely an improvement.
It does look like a ordinary German soldier from ww2 but I’m not sure that’s particularly problematic.

Ohhh okay, I knew it was warhammer, I thought your example was more of that type of costume.

Knowing that, I don’t think it’s a bad costume - it will look more like steampunk / general / military / historical mish-mash anyway rather then accurately Nazi.

I think go for it.

It's obviously Warhammer (to your average Comicon attendee), but OTOH the name "Death Korps of Krieg" does give a bit of a hint that it's Nazi inspired.

I reckon that if he goes big on the frogging, the red lining and the mask he'll be OK. The photo cheshirecat99 attached looked fine.

If he's interested in the Imperial Guard, has he looked into the Gaunt's Ghosts side of things?

It's basically Sharpe's Rifles in Spaaaace (I have no clue how they didn't get sued by Cornwell, frankly!) but that means the uniform is much closer to the dark green Napoleonic look rather than the WW2 Russian/German styling of a lot of the models.

Failing that, and given he likes the steampunky vibe - Techpriest. Robes/cogs/mechanicky bits - nice and social media safe.

(Disclaimer - not a player, just married to a reformed one who has now moved onto Infinity, so I may be slightly out of date.)

The second has a more foot soldier vibe (could be both sides) than the first, which has a distinct nazi officer vibe.

At least he'll go with a mask on.

@backtoschoolagainagain, instead of all this to-ing and fro-ing wouldn't it be easier to contact the people running the event, show them what your son is proposing to wear and get their clarification as to whether it passes their tests or not?

It might help if you google "Warhammer 40k cosplay" to get some ideas for how other cosplayers have handled this before. From what I've seen they either stick to mech suits (if this is one of his first cosplays probably not an option) or they up the detailing aspect (big fake muttonchops, scar makeup, weathering the fabric to make it look old and battleworn).

Ask if he'd consider a tech priest costume instead, it skips the facism vibe and looks more like a medieval plague doctor, but has all the fun details of the other costumes.

As much as I, and many other LARPers/cosplayers would love that costume, I can appreciate how many people picked up negative connotations that I never would have seen. Definitely look into another character to use- maybe a different more human one though, the Orks and Nighthaunts would be a lot more difficult to accurately cosplay