Steampunk Cosplay Spotlight: An Interview with Poppy Appleton, AKA Ahsoka Giya
Introducting Ahsoka Giya
Poppy Appleton portrays a steampunk version of Ahsoka Tano for the Star Wars Steampunk Universe (SWSU) cosplay group. This year at Wild West Steam Fest, I had the pleasure of finally meeting members of the SWSU, including Poppy and her husband Treb.
Poppy has been a nice friend since we met, and it was great getting to ask her questions about her cosplay and her place in the SWSU.
If you're not familiar with the group, the most important thing to know is that they use their cosplay to bring awareness to many important charities and have done a lot of good since forming in April 2015.
Incidentally, several other members of the group have agreed to interviews. Here's tee first!
The Interview
Jonathan Fesmire: Of all the Star Wars characters available, why did you choose Ahsoka Tano to cosplay? Also I know that all Star Wars Steampunk Universe characters have a name that is half Star Wars, half Steampunk. What is the name of your steampunk version?
Poppy Appleton: I chose Ahsoka because she is very popular amongst the young fans. I wanted to play a character that young children easily recognized. Ahsoka is also a strong female figure which I feel is a positive role model for female fans.
Ahsoka Tano sounds very Japanese (which was very appealing to me because my mother grew up in Japan). The Japanese word for gear is giya, so I changed the name to Ahsoka Giya.
JF: In your case, as part of the SWSU, cosplaying means not just dressing up and playing the character, but doing charity work as well. What do you like about these various aspects of what you do?
PA: I love incorporating charity work into cosplay. It makes cosplaying so much more worth wild. I love dressing up for kids and seeing their faces light up when they see you. I really enjoy participating in fundraising events. Doing more than just dressing up, I get to dress up and really do something positive for the community.
JF: When did you get into cosplay?
PA: About five to six years ago. I grew up a con-brat (attending comic book conventions) since I was 10 years old. Introduced Cog Bane to cons while we were dating. We attending together for years after we were married just as spectators when we decided should start cosplaying.
JF: What part of costume creating are you best at Sewing? Prop design? Something else?
PA: Prop design and jewelry making I would say are my specialties. All of the jewelry I wear is of my own design, custom made for each costume. I made my own headpiece, dynamite prop, hat accessories, and any trinkets I think will help tell a story to my costume. I’m working on the sewing part but I have regular fights with my sewing machine. We tend to disagree.
JF: You’re married to the gentleman who cosplays as Cog Bane in real life. Do your characters have an in-universe relationship?
PA: Sure they do! They are constantly trying to kill each other! Ahsoka Tano and Cane Bane, in the Clone Wars animated series, are enemies. We usually don’t play up the fighting each other part in our cosplay but they are from the same universe and Star Wars timeline so it’s not usual for them to be associated with each other.
JF: When did you get into Star Wars? When did you get into Steampunk?
PA: I was into Star Wars as a little kid. The movies came out when my parents were young and they were big fans so it was something that was always around in the household. We did not have a lot of money growing up so we really only had the movies on VHS and a couple of comics my mom bought.
I got into Steampunk when Cog Bane and I started cosplaying several years ago. We had seen steampunk costumes, comics, and books when we attended conventions and the aesthetics really spoke to us. When we decided we wanted to start dressing up for conventions we chose Steampunk because it allowed us to make our own characters.
JF: If you hadn’t been born in this century, when and where would you like to have lived? Would you prefer a romanticized version, or to face gritty, harsh reality?
PA: Wild West in the mid to late 1800s would be so amazing! But I would prefer a romanticized version because the west was harsh and unforgiving. But what a time to be alive!
JF: When it comes to costuming, how hard to do you push yourself?
PA: As hard as I want. I cosplay for fun so I plan out my costumes in advance and take my time working on them, always allowing time for improvement. But that doesn’t mean I won’t put something together last minutes and completely drain myself in the process! It’s all about having fun and I try not to worry about the next costume or changes that need to be made to a current one. I want to enjoy what I do, not let it overwhelm me.
JF: Do you ever get the opportunity to really role play your version of Ahsoka?
PA: I try to get into character for kids because they do not see a cosplayer, they see Ahsoka. I’ve been watching Clone Wars to make sure I can talk to kids about events that happened in the show so they feel more connected to my character.
Poppy Appleton Online
Poppy and the Star Wars Steampunk universe are easy to find online. To check out their publicly shared pictures and learn about their various activities, check out these links.
Poppy Appleton aka Ahsoka Giya: https://www.facebook.com/poppy.appleton.7
The Star Wars Steampunk Universe: https://www.facebook.com/StarWarsSteampunkUniverse/
You can also enjoy interviews with other members of the SWSU right here in The Mostly Steampunk Blog!
Coming Soon
There's always something to look forward to in The Mostly Steampunk Blog and The Mostly Steampunk Podcast. Here are a few things to look forward to.
Gamep Play Videos: Soon, I'm going to start doing game play videos on my YouTube channel. The first game will be ClockWork, a steampunk adventure/puzzle game due for release later in 2016!
More Interviews: As mentioned, I'm interviewing several other members of the SWSU and plan to interview some steampunk makers as well.
Actually, I guess those are the main things! There is more, but that's what I want to reveal now.
If you enjoy these interviews, help me keep the blog and podcast going by becoming a Patron for as little as $1 per month. Check out my Patreon here!
