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I apologize for posting the second half several days late, but just in case anyone was still curious about my Comic Con experience…

After the New Moon Panel, I did my best to overcome my sleep deprivation and check out the exhibit hall. As a Comic Con sort of person, I love checking out all kinds of geeky stuff, so I felt like I shouldn’t just use my Thursday pass for New Moon (even though that’s why I bought it, haha). So I walked around for a little while checking out the booths. Of course, I had to make a stop at the Summit booth. Unlike last year, their booth was HUGE, and you could tell they know what their next big movie will be. There were widescreen TVs playing the New Moon trailer nonstop, and they had beautiful displays with some of the new promotional images.

They also had the spinning wheel from last year, where you could win merchandise from several of their upcoming movies. (You could tell everyone in line was trying for the New Moon merchandise.) They had some New Moon buttons and trading cards for prizes. But the coolest thing was that they were actually giving away the full-size New Moon movie posters while I was there. You didn’t even having to spin the wheel for them! My mom won the Twilight poster for me last year, but she had to spin the wheel and get lucky, so I thought that was pretty cool. I was also really happy to get the poster, because I was hoping to be able to replace the Twilight one (which has on my bedroom door for a year) with the one for New Moon.

After that, I had two tickets to the special screening of Twilight at the Gaslamp Stadium (a local movie theater), so my mom offered to come with me to check it out. It was about 4:40 at this point, and wow, this event was just as crazy as the panel! There were thousands of girls already in line waiting to get in. (Apparently, lots of people also camped out for this event, so I think it’s safe to say there were probably more than ten thousand Twilight fans in San Diego yesterday.) The line stretched for blocks, and it ended up taking us three hours to get inside the theater. The event was really well-organized, though, and it was pretty amazing, because just about the whole cast showed up to greet the fans! (And when I say the whole cast, I really mean it, as you’ll see.)

There was a huge crowd of girls who weren’t even in the line standing across the street from the theater entrance. They were there just to scream when the stars arrived at the theater! I wasn’t able to see them arrive because I was in line, but I have a feeling the fan reaction must have been pretty amazing, just like it had been all day. When we got finally inside the theater, there were lots of displays for lots of Twilight-related merchandise, like the new Barbie dolls. They also handed out samples of the Twilight heart message candy to everyone who came in, as well as that new lip gloss called Lip Venom. There were dozens of those cardboard stand-ups from Twilight around the theater; it almost seemed like Edward and Bella and James had somehow cloned themselves, haha.

Unfortunately, when I got inside our 250-person theater, I had to sit at the very back. So when the stars came in, I actually couldn’t see them very well, and sadly enough, my camera doesn’t have a great zoom function. So the funny thing was, I’m not 100% sure which actors came into my theater! But there were TONS of them. I do know that these people were there for sure: Kellan Lutz (Emmett), Nikki Reed (Rosalie), Elizabeth Reaser (Esme), Peter Facinelli (Carlisle), Ashley Greene (Alice), Billy Burke (Charlie), Rachelle Lefevre (Victoria), Michael Welch (Mike) and Jamie Campbell Bower (Caius). I was especially surprised that they had actors from New Moon, when it hasn’t even come out yet! (The girls were swooning over Jamie’s accent, haha. I think Twilight fangirls have a special love for British accents.)

I think Christian Serratos and Justin Chon were also there, but I couldn’t see them well enough to be sure. I also think Noot Seear (Heidi) and two of the new members of the wolf pack were there, and possibly the one girl I couldn’t identify was Tinsel Korey? But I would check other blogs to see if other people know for sure. (And they probably have photos where you can actually see them, haha.)

I don’t think I saw Jackson Rathbone (Jasper), so if I’m right, he was the only member of the Cullen family who wasn’t in my theater. Rob and Kristen and Taylor also weren’t there, but I believe they appeared in some of the other theaters. (Apparently, it was kind of random who showed up where.) Still, there were so many actors there, including almost all of the Cullen family, that I couldn’t possibly be disappointed! (Plus, I love me some Cullen family. So, there’s that, haha.)

Anyway, the actors were nice enough to answer some questions for about fifteen minutes or so, which was pretty generous given that they had already been doing this for three hours. This one younger girl asked Kellan if he liked her shirt (I think she was wearing one of those Bear Hug shirts, but I couldn’t see because she was sitting toward the front), and he said he loved it and walked over and gave her the biggest hug! It was so utterly adorable that everyone started saying “Awww!”

I’ve noticed Kellan, Ashley, and Peter in particular are always amazingly nice to the fans. They really make a point of being friendly and signing autographs and showing appreciation for fan support, which is something that most actors don’t do. (Although I think all the Twilight actors do this on at least some level, which is pretty amazing, really!)

After all, it doesn’t really help their careers as actors to sign autographs or show up for fans at events like this, even though people might assume that it’s fan support that boosts an actor’s career. It doesn’t hurt it, obviously, but actors are probably better off working to get a place within the industry by meeting influential people and getting publicity through magazine shoots and things like that. After all, people who show up for these events are already fans; most of them are already going to go see their movies regardless.

So I really appreciate it when actors like Kellan and Ashley and Peter do nice things like sign autographs for people who ask, which all three of them did for some lucky fans in my theater. (Peter in particular stayed behind to sign things, and he even came in shaking people’s hands! It’s so fitting that the actor who plays Carlisle is probably the nicest guy I’ve ever seen.)

As far as the questions go, there were a few interesting ones. My favorite was one for Nikki, when someone asked what part she was looking forward to filming in the next two movies. She said, not surprisingly, that she was looking forward to filming Rosalie’s back-story. And she said something about how they’re filming it now! I’m not sure if she just meant they were filming Eclipse already, or if she meant that they were doing this exact scene.

But either way, that’s incredibly exciting, at least for me. Two of the parts that I’m most looking forward to seeing in Eclipse are Rosalie and Jasper’s backstories. (Kellan mentioned that he was looking forward to seeing what Jackson did with the Civil War back-story, and I have to say, he’s not the only one!)

Ashley mentioned that she was looking forward to the epic fight scene at the end, which was also exciting to me, because honestly, that’s the scene I’m the most interested in. (No, I’m probably not a typical Twilight fan, haha. Though during the New Moon panel, someone asked the exact same question, and Taylor said he was most looking forward to filming the sleeping bag scene. And I screamed along with everybody else, because that scene is awesome.)

After that, they said goodbye, and everyone clapped and squealed some more. I didn’t stay for the Twilight screening, unfortunately. I wanted to, but at that point, I had been awake for thirty-nine hours straight and needed a shower and something to eat pretty badly, haha. But I hope everyone who stayed had fun! I would have liked to watch Twilight with so many hardcore fans in the audience.

As I left the theater, fans in the lobby started screaming; apparently, the actors were leaving in a bus at that exact moment. So I’m not sure, but it seems like that was their last appearance for the evening? It was weird, though, because I know there were still hundreds of fans behind us in line, and I’m pretty sure everyone who had a ticket was supposed to be guaranteed an appearance by the actors. Hopefully, nobody had to leave disappointed!

On the way out, we got free autographed New Moon posters (they were smaller than the big movie posters, which was convenient for carrying purposes). Each had one actor’s autograph on it, and which one you got was random. I got one from Elizabeth Reaser, which was cool, because Esme is one half of my favorite Twilight couple and I love the way Elizabeth plays her. And after much sleuthing around the net, I believe my mom got one signed by Jackson Rathbone (so there’s a strong possibility he was at the event earlier in the day). Anyway, it was cool of the actors to sign all those posters for free.

All in all, my epic Twilight adventure in San Diego was amazing, and totally worth all the sleep deprivation and endless waiting. In fact, I really enjoyed seeing such huge crowds of Twilight fans; everywhere we went, people kept asking if we were really there for Twilight, and they seemed shocked at just how many fans are this passionate about it. Some of the Comic Con regulars gave us attitude, particularly in the exhibit hall, which was lame but not really unexpected. Geeks from other fandoms (male ones in particular) seem to have this superiority complex about Twilight, which they perceive as nothing more than a shallow chick flick.

Frankly, I think those people should be looking at it another way: we’re all geeks about different things, so it’s not like they’re any “cooler” than Twilight fans. And if being a geek is cool (which it is), than Twilight fans are pretty darn cool, because as they’ve proven that they’re even more devoted than most Comic Con fans. They camped out earlier and waited longer for the Twilight events than just about any other fans that have ever been at the convention, which is saying something. And as someone who has been a geek in various fandoms, I think that’s awesome. So this is one geek who would never say that Twilight fans are uncool. Personally, I think they’re some of the greatest fans anywhere.

Well, that concludes my overly lengthy account of Twilight at Comic Con! Congrats to anyone who actually read the whole thing. But I figured I may as well be as detailed as possible, just in case anyone out there wanted to know about what a fellow fan’s experience was like. And I hope it was encouraging to anyone out there who’s been wondering if the New Moon movie is going to be any good. From what I can see, it’s not going to be good, it’s going to be amazing. And I can’t wait until all of us finally get to watch it on November 20th!