- Ashley
Top 5 Wednesday: Characters I'd Cosplay

This weekly book meme is brought by Top 5 Wednesday on Goodreads.
Since October 31st falls on a Wednesday this year, we get a special themed Top 5 Wednesday--characters we'd love to cosplay (or at least dress up as for Halloween)!
You may not know this about me, but while I love Halloween, I get filled with no little amount of dread when it comes to planning out costumes. I love them in theory, and I spend a ton of time thinking of awesome ideas and looking up but, when it comes to actually putting it all together, I end up being a last-minute costume kind of girl. And sometimes it turns out pretty good--after a day of frantically driving around the city on the hunt for the exact right thing--and sometimes it turns out to be something ordered with 2-day shipping from Amazon.
The worst was when I was a teacher a few years ago and my school did a themed day the entire week of Halloween. I somehow made it but, y'all, it was rough. And required a lot of outside help because your girl was about to have a meltdown (cue friends with glue guns, sparkly pipe cleaners, and 50-quick-and-easy-60s-costume-ideas).
I've never been to ComicCon or any other con, but I've espied jealously from the comfort of my own phone other folks' elaborate and gorgeous costumes. I don't know if I'll ever make to one, but if I should, I'd love to dress as one of these characters:

Effie Trinket | Source: Pinterest
Can you imagine wearing something so gorgeous and intricate? How did she even make that!

Manon Blackbeak | Source: Pinterest
Manon is one of my favorite characters from the Throne of Glass series, at least when it comes to just general badassery. I think this one would be pretty fun to pull off--black leather, some ass kicking boots, a blood red cape, and a sword? Okay.

Karou | Source: Pinterest
I've been reread the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy recently, and it's as beautiful as I remembered, and Karou is as awesome. It would be so much fun (but also, very burdensome) to be her. (And yes, I've noticed my all-black trend.)

Lagertha | Source: Etsy
Lagertha is about as bad ass as they get. This most recent season of Vikings has me all kinds of confused because no one really ages except the sons, but I'll ignore that for the chance to be one of the fiercest shield maidens ever.

Nina Zenik | Source: Pinterest
Look, Inej is awesome, but Nina is a goddess.
Do you cosplay? Or are you like me, lost in big ideas? Either way, tell me below who you'd liked to dress as!