>>10540362
I've thought about it before, and I'll still maintain that the ease of access to mass manufactured costumes killed a lot of the creativity of cosplay. Now, literally everyone can get a half assed unironed cosplay from Aliexpress for 30 bux. I think people making cosplays are good though (but that might be become I make my own stuff and am unreasonably proud of it); it takes a lot of effort and attention to detail to make something look good, which I appreciate as a cosplayer. Then, you get people that call themselves a cosplayer, but buy every FOTM character cosplay they want, take pics and upload to a cosplay insta, etc. Kind of passionless.
Also, cosplay photography is a meme and a half. I respect the grind of the photogs and they do some great work, but I feel that the better the photogs, the more questionable the actual cosplay's quality. As in, Photoshop, angle/lighting work, all help crutch up a mediocre cosplay really hard. Like all those photoshop vs. IRL pics that show that anyone with a shitty cosplay, shitty wig, etc can be shooped to look fantastic. But, IRL, they will look terrible on the con floor. Seen some people IRL and compared them to their insta and it's an INSANE difference.