[destroyer of worlds]

Originally Posted by kiss the wind (View Post) I think the intimate vibe is what fans are really craving, though, which this convention has pulled out in spades, imo.

I think so too.

If this convention is a success, I feel like it'll very likely happen next year too. that you can go, Amelia.

[a little chaos]

Can we just discuss the fact that April experienced a Becho sandwich this weekend.

I have feelings about this.

[April7739]

I’d rather discuss the Beliza sandwich I experienced.

We will have plenty to discuss when I post my full write-up.

They already announced they’re doing it again next year. But I don’t know if we’ll ever quite recapture this energy. Plus, the Beliza panel was . . . come on, that was a big ****ing deal. (And easily my favorite panel.)

[girl under the floor]

I'm just watching / listening to the Beliza panel now

[April7739]

I rewatched it tonight and downloaded it. I’ve sat in at quite a few panels now, and that one was by far the best. They’re both so funny.

[Karma Police]

No news if he heard back about the project he mentioned during his panel?

[April7739]

No.

[destroyer of worlds]

Maybe, he got it but needs to keep it under wraps for now?

[April7739]

He said he would tell us on Monday if he got it.

[destroyer of worlds]

Oh.

[April7739]

My Conaggedon Experience

Starring: Bob Morley

Co-Starring: Eliza Taylor, Zach McGowan, Rhiannon Fish, Tasya Teles

Before the Con:

So we left early, hopped on the plane, and flew to Boston. I didn’t have that same nervous feeling I did with the last con, but I still was preparing myself for a Bob Morley cancellation. I was really trying not to get my hopes up. As I was walking around the hotel, I saw certain rooms reserved for Conaggedon, and everything still featured Bob’s face. Then they put the banner up in the lobby, and that had his face on it, too. Still trying not to get ahead of myself, though. Then, at one point, I sat down, checked some Twitter account (either his or Conaggedon’s), and saw this tweet. (And seriously, Bob, “Boston I am now inside you!!” What’s with the innuendo? I can’t handle that! )

Well, after seeing that tweet, I sprang to my feet, ran back upstairs, and alerted my friend to the good news. We knew in that moment that we would finally get to meet Bob. But I don’t think we had any idea of the fun that the weekend had in store for us.

Fully allowing myself to be pumped up, I went and purchased a Blake hat. They had hats for all of them on sale: Griff ones for Clarke, though I’m not sure why they didn’t just tack the –in onto it to complete her last name. Blake ones for Bellamy, obviously, and Roan ones, Echo, and Ontari. I’m pretty sure I was the first person to purchase one, and it wasn’t cheap. And I don’t even typically wear hats. But I do love this hat, and I wore it a lot this weekend. It took a while (it wasn’t the most punctual con ever, but who freakin’ cares?), but I finally got all my VIP materials. So many tickets for so many things, a free shirt, and a purple Bob Morley VIP lanyard that I would end up wearing all week.

I ended up running into Jaclyn and Marcella (the Youtube reactors of the drowninginfandomfeels channel) as I went up to wait for admission into the VIP party. This was something I wanted to make sure I did this weekend, to meet them, too. It was very fun, and I mentioned how I have a friend who called them during their live chat and talked to them about college, Bellarke, and Game of Thrones. And they remembered you, Amelia, and they told you to call in again because they thought it was fun and you were so nice. (Side note: Jaclyn and Marcella didn’t have VIP passes but somehow got themselves into the party, I think as “press,” so that’s pretty awesome.)


VIP Party:

Oh, brace yourself, because I’m pretty sure some people would say this was their favorite part of the con. It might even be mine because it’s where I first met Bob.

We waited around for about two hours getting to know each other first. I met some people and hit it off right away. (I’m such a little social butterfly at these things, I swear.) At one point, the DJ played “Knocking on Heaven’s Door,” which gave a lot of us the feels. The friends that I made while waiting for this VIP party were the group I would continue to pal around with for the rest of the convention.

So then . . . it happens. “Radioactive” begins to play, and in comes the cast. I think Zach came in first, then Bob? I really don’t remember. All I recall is that, when I saw Bob, I had a momentary spaz attack and may have punched my friend in the back. I just could not believe that I was really laying eyes on the man. I mean, I’ve been trying to meet him since the summer of 2016, and up until that point, it hadn’t happened.

But it happened. The cast started mingling right away, and I had this little momentary sense of nervousness, but I knew I was going to have to get up in there and introduce myself. So I did. He hugged me right away (and let me confirm right now that it is ABSOLUTELY true that Bob Morley gives the best hugs in the entire world), and he said hi, and he probably noticed that my friend and I both had VIP pass lanyards. See, Bob definitely knew what he wanted to do with this con. He wanted to really get to interact with the fans, and he especially wanted to know his VIPs. We ended up talking to him about where we were from and how we’d tried to meet him twice before but now was the only time it was actually happening! He laughed and touched my Blake cap and commented on it. I told him I was a teacher, and he asked where I was from. You can actually see video of all of this on the Conaggedon twitter. At some point after this, I ended up getting separated but then finding him and getting his attention in the crowd again. Memory’s a bit hazy here, but I think he asked me about what subjects I teach.

Then after that, it started to get crazy in the best way possible. Zach was really the ringleader here. They’d told us beforehand that this was downtime for the cast and that we were not to ask for any photos right now. But Zach was basically like, “Screw that, they’ve paid a lot for this,” and headed over to this Conaggedon backdrop and started taking free pictures with people. He got Bob over there, too, and all of a sudden, everybody was just getting these free selfies with the guys. The organizers didn’t try to stop it. They rolled with it and had us form a line to get our pics. I got up in there and got one, of course. Of course.

Somehow during this, Bob found out I don’t have a smart phone, and he teased me, “Does your phone flip?” I said, “No, it slides, Bob. I’m on a teacher salary.” (I have to say, my humor was really on-point this weekend.)

Since everyone was wanting their free selfies with the guys, I went ahead and made some rounds to the girls. I started with Rhiannon, who, oh my god, is absolutely so adorable! So petite and cute. And you can tell she’s sweet just by the way she carries herself. She may not have been the biggest name at the convention, and hell, she played my least favorite character. But I remember hearing how sweet the actress was, so I wanted to go talk to her. It wasn’t a long conversation, but she asked who I had a VIP for, and I told her Bob. She said that, even though she barely ever got to even be in the same room with him during a scene, she’d gotten to know him and really likes him and thinks he is just the sweetest guy.

Tasya was mingling and hard to miss on account of her being tall like a model and in such amazing shape. Her clothes were also very flashy and beautiful. I didn’t really get to interact with her at all that night.

Even though I’ve already met Eliza twice . . . it’s still Eliza Taylor, come on! So I manage to make my way into the group around her and told her I’d met her last year in Sacramento. I reminded her that I’d asked her to write #Bellexa on an autograph for my friend Becks. And her eyes got wide, and she gasped, “Oh, yeah! That was new.” She then asked whose VIP I had, and when she saw it was Bob, she jokingly yelled, “What the ****?” But when I explained that he’d cancelled on my cons twice already, she agreed that it was time for him now.

At this point, the free selfies with Zach and Bob turned into free selfies with Zach and Tasya and Bob. I got up in there with my friend, but Zach started taking a video instead of pictures, so we were up there forever, and we weren’t complaining. Bob was practically holding me up, so . . . yeah, no complaints there. I sent many of you the video link to it, but you can also find it on the Conaggedon Twitter if I forgot to send you the link. At the end of that, Bob said to me, “We'll figure it out. By the end of the weekend, we'll figure it out.” And this smile . . . I swear to God, this smile of his should be illegal.

At some point, I was able to dance a bit with Zach, who has a lot of rhythm. I can’t really remember what we talked about, because it was so loud, but I think he may have been boasting about how he’s a better dancer than Bob. Then Eliza started a conga line, and of course everyone wanted to get in that conga line. The other cast members did, too. There were a ton of other miscellaneous things happening after this. Bob revealed to Jaclyn and Marcella that he had seen their videos, which I think truly shocked them. (Apparently Eliza has, too.) Somehow, at some point, I ended up with Bob again, and he admitted that he was sweaty and his hair was gross, and somehow, I ended up getting to RUN MY FINGERS THROUGH HIS HAIR?!?!?!? Like I’ve always talked about doing when it’s longer like this? Well, it happened. And I don’t know what sweat or grossness he was talking about, because it felt just fine to me.

I did want to make sure I told him how much his support of mental health awareness has meant to me, just in case I didn’t get a chance later in the convention. (Little did I know how much interaction I would have with him.) He talked about anxiety, depression, high stress levels, and even high blood pressure. When he first started attaching his name to this cause, his agent or whoever asked him if he was sure he wanted to take on mental health as his cause. And he said, “That right there is why I’m doing it. Because we have to remove the stigma.” I thanked him for it immensely and told him how he’s really inspired me to try to remove the stigma from anxiety in my own life.

Somewhere during this conversation, we shifted gears, and he said he feels confident about season six. He also said he couldn’t do a dance off with Zach because he’d injured his ankle in a movie. He said it was a surfing role, but little did we know, he was pulling our leg. One of my friends thinks she heard him admitting later that he’d injured it at that wedding he recently attended. Bob told me he was good at dancing badly, but I told him I didn’t believe him.

Whenever Bob and Eliza stood anywhere near each other at this party, you just saw the cell phones whipping out to snap pictures. It was so cool to see them interact together and see how at ease and comfortable they are with each other, even though a lot of people in there were in total fangirl mode over that. And it was so sweet of them to start doing free selfies with people as they were walking out the door. I wasn’t lucky enough to get one of these, because they had to cut it off or we would have been there forever. (And also because the organizers knew they were likely to get a lot of money off that dual photo op on Sunday.)

Once the party was over, we were all pretty much floored by the amount of interaction we’d just gotten. We couldn’t believe that we still had two more full days of this convention ahead of us!


Breakfast:

The next morning was the VIP breakfast, which a lot of people, including myself, were really stoked about. Every cast member had their own designated room, a “green room,” even though there was nothing green in any of them. This room served not only as a location for the breakfast, but also for a place for that cast member’s VIPs to be able to go sit and chill out and interact with each other, and we were told that the cast member could pop in during the day. Bob and Eliza had the biggest tables in their rooms, obviously. I know Bob’s breakfast was full, so I assume hers was, too. I’m not sure about Tasya’s and Rhiannon’s, but I am confused by the fact that there were only three people in Zach’s. And there were way more than three people who had Zach VIPs. I think some people slept in, which . . . is crazy to me, but whatever.

Um, there was no way I could eat in front of Bob, so I just had orange juice. And I think I finished it all before he got there.

And when he did get there . . . oh, Bob. This was so cool. He sat down at the head of the table (which was right beside me, because I’d asked and found out ahead of time that he’d be at the head of the table), and he said Zach had been his wake-up call this morning. He then said the way he wanted to do this was to know all his VIPs by the end of this, so he wanted to go around and do introductions. He needed paper and a pen (and coffee, so someone went and got him three different kinds), and in his all caps handwriting just like you see in the 4x03 list scene, he sat there and went around the table, jotting down everyone’s name and a little nickname or clue as to who they were. You can see this list here, and I do believe some of these suggestions, like Amanda’s and Shawna’s, were mine, and he actually took them. He would end up keeping his cheat sheet with him the entire weekend. It was adorable.

And everyone, at this point, knows what my nickname ended up being. I couldn't actually bring the thing, but I did show him a picture of it.

This is where things get fuzzy, because this was amazing one on one time with the guy, but I can’t possibly remember everything we talked about. I know that I asked him if it was true that he’d auditioned for Finn, and he told me no, it wasn’t. He said he’d showed up to audition for Bellamy, and there were no other Bellamys there. There were plenty of potential Clarkes, Finns, and Octavias, but nobody wanted to audition for Bellamy. He thought about telling the Octavias that Bellamy was Australian so that they’d go in there and attempt Australian accents, but he decided not to. They did end up asking him to read for Finn, but since he wasn’t interested in that character, he said no. Ultimately, he told us that he likes playing the “******* with a heart.” He doesn’t like playing the obvious good guy. This somehow segued into conversation about Road Train, which, if you know me . .. I always just think about the first scene of that film. I saw my chance to bring up Lost in the White City, which I’d been wanting to do, so I took it, and we talked about his character in that film. Not sure how many other people there had seen the movie, but hey, he was looking at and talking to me a lot, so I didn’t really care.

He went on to talk a little bit about books, and he ended up reiterating that he feels confident about a sixth season. He geeked out over Star Wars and Harry Potter for a while, and I mentioned Dominion and he said, “Yeah, I’ve gotta play that with Aaron Ginsburg soon.” And someone asked him which superhero he would love to play, and he said he thinks The Hulk could use some work right now. Nothing against the actor who plays him, he assured us, but it just needs something to make it come alive again. Or something along those lines. I’m not a superhero movie type of girl, so I may have been a little bit distracted by his freckles at that point.

Towards the end, he talked about getting the shaft on his birthday every year because it’s so close to Christmas. He said the other cast members get cakes and he doesn’t. And everyone in the room who had a birthday near Christmas sympathized tremendously. Then he let us know that he’d decided November 24 was Bellamy’s birthday, because that’s his brother’s birthday, and he bases a lot of Bellamy off his brother.

So, mark it down in the birthday thread or something. November 24. That’s what we’re going with.

It was at this breakfast that Bob started calling us his “purple people,” which I believe he has no morphed into “purple hearts,” due to the color of our VIP lanyards and the hats that some of us purchased.


Opening Panel:

I won’t go too in-depth on the panels, as I know many of them have been filmed. It seemed that Conaggedon did full versions of the Opening Panel, Bob’s panel, and the Beliza panel, but I’m not quite sure on that. Well, with any panel I attend, I make sure to ask at least one question. So if you watch any videos, you'll see me go back to the mic.

The video they showed at the start of the panel was cool because it was set to ”I’m Shipping Up to Boston”. And, you know, that’s where we were. Then the cast was introduced, and I believe there is video of that somewhere out there . . . but let me just say that the scream for Bob was pretty high-pitched. (Are we surprised? No, we’re not.)

Anyway, again, I won’t say too much here, but someone had asked me on some other thread if Bob did slip a little “EJ” in there for Eliza, and yes, he did. Eliza had Bowie with her, and Bowie is adorable but was a little yippy on this particular morning. He listens to his Mama, though, and calms down when she holds him.

For my question here, I asked for exaggerated Boston accents of memorable lines, and Bob was kind of the only one who ended up doing it, I think, but it was awesome. A man of many voices, I’ll tell you.

On a completely shallow note, I just have to say that Rhiannon and Tasya both looked so stylish today.

Oh, and another thing that was cool is that each cast member was wearing their hat for their character. And each hat was color-coordinated with their VIPs’ lanyard. So like I said, Bob’s color was purple. Eliza had red/maroon, Tasya had grey, Rhiannon had a more orange-ish red, and Zach had black. I just thought it was kind of neat. Little things like that helped give the VIP group its own identity.


First Bob Autograph/Selfie (because yes, there is more than one, duh)

I didn’t know what Bob was going to write, so he surprised me with “My Pumpkin Queen.” Didn’t even have to look at his cheat sheet for that one. But he misspelled it at first and asked, “Is there another P in pumpkin?” I told him yes, and then I said, “It’s okay. I see this all the time as an English teacher. It’s at teachable moment. Proofreading matters.” And he just laughed at that. He also put “We met” on this autograph per my request. Because, you know, we finally met.

I got a selfie, and I look horrible in selfies, and I take horrible selfies, so it’s not great, but hey, my face was near his face, so I’m not complaining.

After that, it was onto professional photo ops, where he had a big stuffed Simba in his hand, because a fan had given that to him earlier, and he liked it. So why not have Simba in the photos, right? That’s just so like Bob, isn’t it? I accidentally kept my glasses on for this one, but since Bob had his glasses on and we both had our Blake hats on, I figured it was a twinning picture after all. After the photo, he hugged me so hard he nearly picked me up off my feet, and he kind of rocked me from side to side as he said, “My pumpkin queen!”

After that, we went back and hung out in his green room. We were talking about how he would need to try to find some time to relax today, and one of my new friends at the con asked, “Wouldn’t it be nice if he came and relaxed in here?” And literally a second later, he pokes his head in, has this big goofy smile on his face, and just goes, “Hi, guys!” and then pops back out like a magical creature of some sort. It was awesome and kind of eerie.


The Guys Panel:

Oh, words could not express how much I was looking forward to this one! I skipped the girls’ panel to eat in the green room with my fellow purple people, just in case Bob came back. It was fun to get to know the others in the group. I did find one multi-shipper there who likes both Bellarke and Clexa, and his two favorite characters are Bellamy and Lexa. So in other words . . . there are other people out there like Becks!

But anyway, the guys’ panel . . . we knew this was going to be hilarious, because it was pretty obvious to everyone that Zach and Bob were on a weekend bro-date here. And it’s easy to see how close they are and how they love hanging out together.

I actually don’t remember a whole lot of the questions asked for this one, and I would love a video link if there is one, because I’d love to watch it again. But I do remember that, when I got up to ask my question, Bob said, “That’s my Pumpkin Queen.” And I kind of grinned back at him and said, “My Pumpkin King.” The moderator asked if I was flirting, and I told her I was going to get all red. Zach said, “Hey, there’s a space open up here on the couch.” I gotta commend myself for playing it cool and saying, “It’s tempting,” rather than just running up there and taking a seat like I wanted to.

The only questions I’m remember right now are the ones that ended up with Zach saying he was looking forward to going home and seeing two little girls and Bob saying, “Hey, I’ve got two dogs,” and the question where Zach gave his EPICALLY funny answer. Who would he rather play? “Clarke, because I’d like to . . . *looks at Bob* You know. Maybe one day.” We erupted into laughter at that one.


Second Bob Autograph:

I, of course, had to go purchase more stuff after using up what was included in my VIP. (I’m not the only one. So many people purchased more while they were there. The cast was just electric and we wanted more stuff with them.) I ended up getting an autograph made out to my school, and it says, “Study hard!” (I’m sure that will work, Bob. They’ll all study from now on, flawlessly and consistently.) But it’s cute because the picture he signed on is that backpack picture from SDCC 2017. I also gave him a gift from a student, which he took a picture with.


Group Photo:

A lot of us hung out in the green room some more, debating what to do with this group photo we’d been given with our VIP. That room was really nice. It was just nice to have a space designated to hang out with like-minded people. Tasya popped in and talked to us a bit. I found out she was moving. And apparently she lives with Lindsey, so maybe she’s moving in with Lindsey right now? I’m not sure. Tasya was really nice. I’m definitely not an Echo fan—you guys know that. But I’m a Tasya fan. Same with Ontari and Rhiannon.

At the group photo, Bob introduced me to Eliza, and she said, "Oh, yeah, I know you." I opted for something fun with my group photo, so I went with “Skaikru vs. Ice Nation,” and I was the third Skaikru member to even things out. I told Bob he had to protect his brave princess and his pumpkin queen, but I think he was distracted by Zach’s trash-talking, which you can actually see taking place in the photo. He was like, “Dude, you don’t wanna mess with an athlete” or something, and Bob started cracking up. All in all, I saw a lot of really fun and wacky group shots. The cast had a good time with them. And Bob even gave one lucky girl a piggy-back ride over to pick up her photo.


Second Party:

Unlike the prior night’s VIP party, this party was open to all the guests. All day, we had no idea whether the cast was going to show up or not, so we tried to ask around and find out if they were. Rhiannon showed up really early, and I got to talk to her. I told her I loved her sense of style and that, even though I hated her character, that was a good thing, because that meant she played the part well. She thanked me for that. Seriously, this girl is so sweet. I can’t even describe her accurately. When we couldn’t get a good selfie on anyone’s phone, she said, “Oh, I can get it on mine,” and she did. She said, “Just hit me up and say, ‘Hey, send me my selfie, bitch.’” I didn’t use those exact words, but she did end up getting me my selfie, as promised.

Apparently the rest of the cast was downstairs at this point, having drinks in the restaurant. People were ordering them shots, and Eliza in particular was pretty tipsy. Saint Patrick’s Day and all, and Eliza’s a tiny girl! She came up to the party next, chatted and danced around a bit, started another conga line. I couldn’t really pull her aside in there, so I just danced a lot while she mingled a bit. There was a LOT of dancing at this party, which I loved, because I love to dance.

Bob and Zach showed up next. They said Tasya was there, but I never really saw her. Then, the most amazing thing happened:

I GOT TO DANCE WITH BOB MORLEY!

I don’t even know how it happened. I was just jamming, and then all of a sudden, he was there, right next to me, and while we were dancing around, he said he’d gotten two hours of sleep in the past two nights and was exhausted. I told him he was crazy and needed to rest! But I also told him that he was faking it really well and not acting exhausted. I shouted, “Yay, acting!” and he goes, “Acting, woo!” and then we were all throwing our hands in the air and squealing “Acting!” I can’t remember how it even segued, but eventually he also told us he’d gotten his bear shirt at a thrift store for fifty cents.

Around this time is where the infamous video of Zach backing it up on Bob happens, and somehow it ends with Zach shouting, “I ship Bellarke!” It was awesome. I couldn’t believe I was even seeing it.

So if you’re keeping track, now I’m dancing with Bob Morley and Zach McGowan.

Zach somehow ended up with a flower crown, and when I told him it looked better than his crown on the show, he agreed!

While Zach had our attention, Bob went up to the couch to check on Eliza, who definitely wasn’t doing very well at that point. If you watch the video of that, you’ll see that he’s actually helping her up, and he made sure someone got her out of there. People asked him if she was okay, and he said she was just a little tired or something. I felt bad for Eliza, because she probably wanted to be there more, but she just couldn’t be.

Bob then came and talked to my friend about how everything was a blur because he was really tired, and he talked about his upcoming schedule and how he doesn’t have much of a break. He mentioned Wondercon and the Melbourne con, but she can’t remember if he mentioned Dystopia or the Brazil Con or anything.

He talked to Jaclyn and Marcella for a while. This was all happening at my group’s table, by the way. I don’t know how our table became the table to be, but Bob just gravitated towards that table, I guess.

We ended up asking him for a group VIP photo. We wanted to round up the whole group and take a pic, and he thought it was a great idea, but he said he’d have to leave there early tonight because he was so exhausted. So we said goodbye as he went to get some much-needed rest!

And then there was one. And that one was Zach McGowan. And Zach . . . oh, Zach. Zach is a crazy person.

Zach made it through the whole party, but he was feeling no pain. Apparently he is a huge Biggie Smalls fan, so he rapped out all of “Juicy” at one point, spilled his drink, nearly spilled himself when he fell out of a handstand or cartwheel or something. He was letting girls feel his abs and dance all over him and kissing their cheeks. I didn’t take part in any of this, but I saw it happen, and WOW, it was something. He also did some Irish dancing for us, and guess what? Apparently he went out afterwards. And he still got up and functioned the next day, even though everyone was doubting he’d be able to.


And then, Bellarke/Beliza Day Began . . .

The final morning of the con began with a reassuring Tweet from Bob to his “purple people.” He promised that we would get the group shot, even if we didn’t get it this morning. “Don’t worry, I got you,” he said, and we all thought it was so sweet that, likely shortly after waking up that morning, he tweeted that to us just so we’d know he didn’t forget. Many of us weren’t even necessarily expecting him to remember. But we should have known he would.

I hung out with some fans/friends in his green room that morning, then went and got my last autograph with him. I told him I’d made it through the entire party, but that my hips and my knees were hurting from all the dancing. He said he’d actually gotten some sleep last night but thought about watching Jumanji before he went to bed. He did appear pretty well-rested this morning (unlike poor Eliza, who my friend saw sitting alone in her green room that morning, just really struggling to function. Kudos to her, though; she really pulled it together fast). He signed “my purple people” on my autograph this time, and then I got more selfies with him. I took off my glasses, even though he was like, “No, no.” I just look better without glasses. My friend got to redo a blurry selfie with him for free.

I got to catch the tail end of the Rhiannon panel. I have to say, this girl is so awesome. She acknowledges that Ontari was seriously flawed and not the most popular character, but she also made some interesting points about her upbringing and why she is the way she is. Ontari might still be my least favorite character, but I really adore Rhiannon.


Bob Panel!

Okay, I was so stoked for this. After watching things like his panel from the Toronto FanExpo and Ottawa and all that, I couldn’t wait to sit there and experience one for myself! I think they live-streamed this one for Facebook, so go check it out if you haven’t already. I said, “Your Pumpkin Queen has nothing prepared,” and then went on to ask him about Australian football since I figured he hadn’t been asked about that before and it’d be something different for him to talk about. Plus, I love American football! He told about how his brother got injured and had to get a metal plate in his face, and then his mom wouldn’t let him (Bob) play anymore. So he said, “Thanks, Mom, for saving my face.” I thought my response was pretty clever when I said, “I’m glad your mom saved your face, too.”

One of my favorite parts was when he talked about Bellamy in season three, as he did what he often does (and what I often do) when he offered up some explanations for Bellamy’s actions but never tried to excuse it. He wasn’t apologetic about it and wasn’t ashamed of the character in any way. Bob really embraces Bellamy’s flaws and shortcomings. I think those are some of the things he actually likes most about him, because, as an actor, he loves getting to play with those complexities.

He was so hilarious and articulate throughout this whole thing, but he was really losing his voice! It kind of kept going in and out this weekend, but he kept going. Bob talks pretty loudly. Oh, speaking of voice . . . one of the best parts was when he said, “On your bed!” in his Bellamy voice (referencing what he says to his dogs).


Last solo photo with Bob:

When I think of this photo op, I just think of his hair being everywhere. He kept saying, “My stupid hair!” or “My hair’s so stupid!” as he messed with it. I think I told him I liked his hair at one point. At one point I also showed him his wild hair in one of my pictures, and he just laughed and shook his head.

I did one simple/cute hug photo, which ended up being one of my favorites. Then I wanted a funny one, but I didn’t know what to do for a pose, and neither did he. Since he’d been so tired last night and I hadn’t gotten much sleep, I suggested we just sleep in the next photo. He was like, “Do you wanna sleep on my shoulder?” so I said, “Of course!” And that was our next photo.

Okay, and then the most amazing thing happened: As I was leaving, he said, “Hey, you’ve really made this whole thing for me.” And my mouth dropped open, and I said, “Really? Are you kidding? You’ve made it for me.” Seriously . . . I get emotional just thinking about this. I nearly started to cry afterward, because I was just so happy and touched. I knew that I was one of the ones who had spent a lot of time with him and stuck out and made an impression, but I was not prepared for him to say that.

After those photo ops, we waited around a bit because we wanted to do our VIP group photo, but we had to go round some people up. He asked us if we were going to his and Eliza’s panel, and we were all like, “Uh, yeah.” Then he said, “Yeah, we haven’t done one together since, uh . . .” And we all blurted out, “2015!” After that, we took our group photo, which, let me reiterate, he did not have to do. And the organizers were super cool. They just let us do it and emailed it to us afterwards without charging us anything for it. They sent a copy home with Bob, too, which he promptly tweeted out (along with his list) after the con ended. He was supposed to have a break after that, but he went straight back to autographs and selfies since not everyone had gotten theirs yet.

Around this time, I went and got a selfie with Eliza. Yes, my weekend was very Bob-heavy, understandably, and I’ve met Eliza twice before. But I really wanted to go do something with her again, and a selfie was the cheapest option. My picture is absolutely horrible, but it has Bowie in it, and he licked my face right before the photo was taken! He’s such a cutie.


Ice Nation Panel:

I sat in on this panel because I wanted to get good seats for the Beliza one and sensed that not many people would leave, but this panel ended up being great, too! I asked about senior superlatives. Which one would their character have? Zach answered for himself, saying that he’d been voted, “Most likely to become a stripper” in high school. (I can see it.) Tasya said that Echo would be “Most likely to take over the world,” and Rhiannon joked that Ontari would be, “Most likely to attempt to take over the world.” The three of them started singing “Ice, Ice Baby” towards the end of this panel, and it was awesome.


BELIZA PANEL! OMG!

Okay, so this was the crown jewel of the convention, and everyone knew it. The organizers, the fans, Bob and Eliza themselves . . . everyone was super hyped up, and there was a buzz in the air. I thought Bob and Eliza might feel nervous or feel some pressure, but they seemed totally at ease the whole time. (This whole panel is up on Youtube and is honestly worth multiple watches because they’re utterly hilarious, high-energy, and so jovial with each other.)

There was one minute on stage for photos and videos, and good god, they were adorable. I can’t imagine what that would be like just standing up there together with basically everyone in attendance having their phones focused on you. Then the phones went away and the panel began. I have been to about twelve panels over the course of my con experiences, and let me tell you, this was absolutely the BEST PANEL I have EVER been to. They did so great, and I told them both that afterwards. Their friendship is goals.

Here’s the thing: Bob and Eliza have known each other for twelve years now. That’s longer than anyone else on the show. Eliza was sixteen when she met him. I loved how she said that they promised to always look out for each other, and they always have. Seeing them up there together and throughout the weekend . . . it just made me realize how much I had actually kind of taken their friendship for granted. We don’t always see as much of it because they don’t interact much online and are more private about it, for obvious reasons, but Bob and Eliza are incredibly close, and I really get the sense that he sort of thinks of her like a little sister (much in the same way he thinks of Marie).

There are too many funny moments from this panel to highlight, but it was hilarious how forgetful they both were at certain points during this. They teased each other a lot about all sorts of stuff and just kept everyone laughing. Jo asked my Twitter question about 4x13 (if they knew they were going to be separated or not—answer was no), and Bob and I had a little “Heyyyyy . . .” exchange when I asked about the qualities of each other’s character that they admire. (I’ll tell you, I can’t flirt for **** in real life, but I kind of did alright flirting innocently and respectfully with Bob. Go figure.) My second question was more of a request for them to do impersonations, and that ended up being a GREAT one, because we got that awesome moment where Eliza was saying the “I was born in space” monologue while Bob was pretending to be her, drawing on the floor of her cell. I almost wiped out the camera that was livestreaming this whole thing when I returned to my seat after this one.

They both got the opportunity to talk about their charity work, too, which I thought was amazing. Education and mental health awareness are two things that are very important to me as well, and Eliza in particular got a little emotional talking about it.


Beliza Photo Op!

After the amazing panel, it was time for the photo op. Lines were hanging out the door, in a surprise to no one. Lots of us were indecisive about what we wanted to do, but something Bob revealed at the panel had inspired me. I did one Bellarke hug one at first, then said I wanted to do a Titanic photo since it was my favorite movie and Bob had never seen it. Immediately, Eliza’s face lit up, and she was like, “Oh, the flying part? Yes!” So we did an “I’m flying” group photo with me sandwiched in between the two of them. She said to Bob afterward ,”How have you not seen this?” and he was like, “I’ve seen bits and pieces!” I told him he had to watch.

Well, the photo was blurry, so I just HAD to do it again. They sent me back in, and I was totally fine with that. Afterward, Eliza really wanted to see it. She was like, “Oh, I look so happy! Bob, come look at the Titanic one! I look so happy!”

They were so down for any and all poses here. Jaclyn and Marcella’s proposal pose made the rounds on Twitter, and even though they captioned it with, “He said yes!” he actually was joking around and yelling, “NO! NO!” afterward.


Finishing up photos and autos:

After that, the reality that the con was ending started to sink in. There were surprisingly only a few people who got Zach/Eliza photos (maybe three?) and probably a couple dozen who got Bob/Zach ones. (There was no Bob/Tasya photo time, which I was confused about since that was one of the things that had been on sale.) I ended up loving my Bob/Zach photo. I told them that it seemed like they’d been on a bro-date all weekend, but in the photo I wanted to interrupt their bro-date. Zach had to look upset, and Bob and I needed to look scandalous. So that’s what we got. It’s a fun pic. I would encourage anyone who wants to do a funny pic to just go for it. Or if you’re not sure and you can afford to purchase two, do one normal and one silly.

I want to mention that I had the chance to talk to Jo here, and she was just a delight. I know some Bellarke fans were upset that she was doing the moderating on this final day due to a tweet she made the mistake of liking in the past, but she’s owned up to that mistake, and honestly, in the two cons I’ve met her, I’ve found her to be so kind and awesome. The work she does with CGL is so admirable. She complimented me on all the questions I asked throughout the day. I just really like her a lot and look forward to having some Twitter interaction with her.

Once again, Bob returned to his table to finish up autographs and selfies after that. (He still had a decent-sized line.) We hung around towards the end to get a selfie for my friend’s niece. She’d lost her selfie ticket, so he just did it for free. A few of us in his VIP group who had spent the most time with him talked to him a bit more, thanking him profusely for all that he had done this weekend, and we got more hugs with him. He said he’d tweet out the photo and his list after leaving.

Now APPARENTLY he popped back into his green room after this for fifteen minutes and just chatted, but I missed it. (Note to self: If this happens against next year, which I pray to God it does, exchange numbers with everyone in the VIP group!) I heard that he said how awesome this con had been and advised the four people in there to never go to SDCC because it’s all press and they barely have any chance to interact with the fans. He doesn’t really like it very much.


Eliza’s Panel:

I missed about the first half of this because I had to return to my hotel room for a minute and then was chatting with the vendor before she packed everything up, but I got in for the last half. I was there for Eliza’s body positivity messages and her reveal that she’d pretty much had a “**** that” attitude when asked to lose weight for the role. It was amazing. Such an awesome moment, and we cheered and applauded it for a good twenty seconds afterwards, I think. I was like, “How do I follow up that kind of question?” when it was my turn. I asked her about which dynamics of Clarke’s she thinks are really underrated. Her first answer was Clarke/Murphy. Then she answered Niylah and Clarke, because even though it’s not love, it’s comfort. I told her I had really liked Clarke and Jasper, and she said she misses Devon.

Then she flashed the crowd her cleavage at the end. For real. This happened. I’m shocked there aren’t gifs of it floating around everywhere. It was really something.


Closing:

Aww, this was so sad. None of us wanted to go and say goodbye to this amazing cast who had come to feel like our friends by this point! They brought everyone out again and we sang happy birthday to Tasya’s mom and recorded it. The cast said a few words, mostly about how they loved this con so much and would come back. The organizers announced that it was going to happen for a second time next April! So stoked, seriously, even though I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to recapture the magic of this first one.

Bob gave a shout-out to his purple people! Which I somehow knew he would, because that was really a goal for him heading into this, to get to know his group. It was cute how Eliza was confused who he was talking about, and he had to tell her we were his VIPs. I also cracked up when Zach said, “Well, I think everyone knows I had a good time.” No kidding, Zach!

At the end, they all linked hands and took a much-deserved bow, and just like that, it was over. They headed off the stage, and the reality set in that Conaggedon was done. We went back to the green room one last time to say goodbye to each other, and we caught the cast as they were leaving. So that meant we got one more hug with all of them as we said goodbye. I know Bob asked, “Where’s Eliza?” as they were leaving.

Well, I don’t know where Eliza was, but I know she was in the hotel later that night looking a little tipsy, because she was walking funny in her heels and couldn’t really make eye contact with me when I said hi. Oh, Eliza.


Overall Thoughts and Observations:

People are not being hyperbolic when they say this was the best convention ever. It really, truly was. The amount of time we got with this cast was unprecedented. I’ve calculated that it was probably about seven hours that I got with Bob (when you take into account the panels). This was well worth every penny I paid for it.

The fact that Eliza, Bob, and Zach helped bring this to fruition makes it even more special. Knowing that this was something they wanted to do for us and with us . . . it’s just so heartwarming and unbelievable, and I’m so proud of them for being such a driving force behind this. I really am proud to be a fan of this cast, because like Jo said at the panels, they’re magic in a bottle. And hey, no wonder all three of them sent out those similar-sounding tweets when this convention first popped up out of nowhere! Bob and Eliza tweeted similar things when they arrived in Boston, too.

The cast was excited to be here from start to finish. You could just tell that they were as pumped as we were. At times, the lack of organization actually helped with this con, because it felt more organic and natural. People weren’t freaking out if something wasn’t exactly on schedule or if all of a sudden the cast started taking these free selfies. It was just all fun, all good.

Jo did a great job moderating all the panels on Sunday, as did Clare Kramer (I believe it was her) on Saturday. Very fan-driven. Lots of time for us to ask our questions.

God, Zach really can drink all the time. It’s incredible.

And I think it’s important to note that this was not a Bellarke Con. Were there a lot of Bellarke fans there? Yes, obviously. I’d say it was a Bellarke-positive con. The majority of the fans were Bellarkers, but if it had been an exclusively Bellarke Con, it would have been called Bellarke Con. This was a con where every fan could get something they wanted out of it. For the record, I saw Clexa fans at the Beliza panel and in line for Beliza photo ops. I met multi-shippers throughout the week. All in all, everyone seemed to get along very well, and it was nice.

And last but not least, just to reiterate . . . Bob Morley is one of the nicest people I have ever met. I am so freaking proud to be such a big fan of his. I really feel like he got to know me and like I got to know him. Who knows if he’ll remember me a year from now or not, but I’ll certainly remember all the incredible things he did for me. This experience was the most amazing thing in my life, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Would I go back again? Definitely. In fact, I’m going to start saving up now, and I hope to meet more people there next year!

[destroyer of worlds]

Thanks for posting it here too, April. It put a smile on my face, what a lovely experience you had.

[kiss the wind]

April, reading your con experience was so nice. It's so cool that they organized this for the fans. I can tell that they really did their best to make it a great experience for every single person, and that Bob in particular really went above and beyond to get one-on-one time with fans and his VIPs in particular.

SARAH!! You changed your UN!! I love it.

[destroyer of worlds]

I agree, Amelia. It was more personalised, it seems, because the cast wanted it that way and the smaller crowds (for this year at least) made that possible too. I'd want to be a purple person too for sure.

Thanks, Amelia! I'm so fickle with UNs and was itching to use this one (in time for the season 5 premiere too).

[April7739]

Glad you guys enjoyed reading about it! I enjoyed getting to tell everything.

Oh, and it happened again! Bob liked a tweet of mine.