Cosplayer Of The Week: Rhilentless Cosplay

Happy Friday all you Geek Lyfers! I hope you’re ready for another dose of Cosplayer of the Week! This week we have a wonderful cosplayer from the foreign and exotic lands of Britain, Rhilentless Cosplay! Freeplay Frenchie, our writer overseas actually got the chance to meet this cosplayer and said absolutely nothing but stellar things about her so I moved forward and asked for an interview! Sure enough she was incredibly gracious and took the time to answer our questions!

I hope you enjoy our interview with Rhilentless Cosplay!

The Geek Lyfe: Although I have been a fan of yours for quite some time, there may be a few Geek Lyfers who have not seen your work before, would you be alright introducing yourself?

Rhilentless Cosplay: My name’s Rhiannon, but my cosplay alias is Rhilentless Cosplay. My friend came up with the nickname after using my name (Rhi) in a variety of puns, like ‘Oh rhi-lly?’ etc.

TGL: How long have you been into cosplay and what led you down this path?

RC: I’ve always enjoyed dressing up and playing around as different characters, mostly due to my love for performing arts, so when I attended my first con in 2012, I knew instantly that I wanted to throw myself into the hobby. I began with a few wardrobe cosplays, which consists of using your own clothing to create a similar outfit, and then moved onto bought cosplays before finally, in 2014, I made my first cosplay – Juvia Lockser from Fairy Tail.

TGL: What has been your favorite moment?

RC: There’s been so many! But I think the best moment for me was when I was cosplaying W.I.T.C.H with a group of friends, myself as Irma Lair. We were wandering around and all of a sudden we just heard this screech and a group of girls ran over and asked for a picture with us. Turns out they’d been big fans of W.I.T.C.H as children and seeing us cosplay the group made their day. To be honest, it made my day seeing how smiley and happy they were!

TGL: What was the worst day for you in your cosplay career, what happened, and how did you deal with it.

RC: It was around two years ago and I was wearing my Juvia cosplay. I never used to be that confident about my body so I relished wearing that dress because it covered me completely. You can imagine how shocking and humiliating it was for me then, to have two grown men coming over to me and discussing my breast-size and whether it was accurate to the character or not, right in front of me. I had just turned 17 and not only was I disgusted by their behaviour towards me but I was so embarrassed that I wanted the floor to swallow me whole. Luckily my friends came to my defense and gave my offenders a good telling off.

It took some time, but my friends showed me that the best way to bounce back from that was to learn to love my appearance. Now, I’m exceedingly confident in the way I look (some would call me vain) and I can easily brush off any snide remarks or comments that come my way!

TGL: When you aren’t doing this, what do you do in your spare time?

RC: Well, I spend a lot of time drawing, really. I’m an illustration student, so I’ll usually be working on commissions or uni work. Recently however a lot of my time has been focused on my drama group, whether it’s rehearsing for upcoming performances or writing a script. Other than that, you’ll mostly find me roleplaying on Tumblr, playing games or procrastinating my life away.

TGL: What geek medium(Video Games, Comic Books, Novels, Movies, etc.) made the biggest impact on your life and why?

RC: While reading is one of my favourite past times, anime is really what opened the doors for me into the world of artistry. Through anime not only did I meet people who would soon become my dearest friends, but I also grew interested in gaming, comics and animation in general. That interest inspired one of my life goals to become a character designer/concept artist and it’s what has pushed me to go to university to study illustration. I owe a lot to it and it’s why I’ll defend anime to my dying breath.

TGL: The forces of evil have come down upon the world and seek to rule it. You are the only person who can stop them. Which character that you have cosplayed in the past do you take the powers from and why?

RC: Hmm…I guess I would have to choose Nicholas St North from Rise of the Guardians. He can use his magic to bring his ice-creations to life, uses snow globes to teleport him anywhere he desires, flies through the sky is a super cool sledge with flying reindeer and is a skilled swordsman/fighter, due to living as a bandit before becoming Father Christmas. I’d like to see the forces of evil attempt to battle the embodiment of wonder.

TGL: Do you have any projects in the near future we should be excited to see?

RC: Most definitely! I’m excited to see them too! I’ll be branching away from comics and anime this upcoming winter with three gaming ladies; Princess Peach, Tracer and Academy Ahri. I’m working with a lot of amazing artists to get these finished and up to a good standard by October, but like most of my cosplays, I’ll probably continue to work and improve them over the next year or so.

TGL: What advice do you have for any aspiring cosplayers out there?

RC: Don’t compare yourself to other cosplayers. There are so many amazing and talented people in the community and it’ll only hurt your pride if you start comparing yourself to them. What you make and wear is your own. You made that with your own hands and with time you’ll improve your own skills. Don’t ever think of yourself as lesser and instead take inspiration from them.

TGL: What costume would you say is your favorite so far?

RC: Despite the fact that I didn’t make the suit itself, I’ve really enjoyed cosplaying SpiderGwen. There’s so much freedom you can have with her, especially when it comes to posing for photoshoots, although sometimes when more people come along one by one to take pictures, you’re in so much pain you wish you had chosen an easier position! But overall, I’ve had a lot of fun cosplaying Gwen and I have more plans for her in the future!

I want to give a huge shout out to Rhilentless Cosplay for being so wonderful and answering a few of our humble questions! She is so incredible and wonderful in so many ways! 😀 Please follow her page and everything she does because she is super rad!

Cover photo by DemoraFairy Photography

Tauras Taken by Kristofer Dickinson

Belle (Beauty and the Beast) – credit goes to Ben Bryant // Bubbles Studio