Favourite character or Look-alike?

[Felix]

So let's say you knew what series you wanted to cosplay from and had it narrowed down to two characters. One you could pull off PERFECTLY, but the other is your favourite character. Which would you pick?

I always have the problem with being too short for the characters I really want to cosplay. Normally I wouldn't care but it's a group cosplay and I don't want to look out of place and silly. I'm hoping that hearing what other people think about this will help me make up my mind. c:

[CLAP_attack]

Doing your favorite character is always a thrill.

I mean , im kinda short for mine but I enjoy soo xD

[Cassiopeia]

I'd rather see someone cosplay who they'd look best as, but cosplay is all about having fun. Do whichever you'd enjoy more.

[Wuntvor]

I would go with look-alike.  If you look like the character then you will get a lot more attention than if you try to look like the popular character, but don't quite succeed.  Also if it is your favorite character from the series, chances are good that it is someone else's as well.  For example you like the anime Bleach and your favorite character is Ichigo, but you are a dead ringer for Chad.  Go with Chad.  Not many people can pull him off well because he is tall and muscular.  Lots of other people will be cosplaying as Ichigo, and chances are good they will look better than Chad wearing a red wig and trying to look shorter. 

I don't know what two characters you are referring to, but I think you can understand what I am trying to say.
I cosplay characters who  have a beard and a long nose (vertically not horizontally) and who look like me.  That's why I cosplay as Hohenheim from FMA and Lt. Cmdr. Kalanin from FMP.   

[soundninja12]

I have finished way too many characters just to figure out that I looked nothing like them >.e
It's a horrible moment of realization.
So I would go with look-alike
BUT, IF YOU CAN, DO BOTH

[Felix]

I know I could pull off both characters. It's the relation to the rest of my group I was worried about - the main issue here is height. (I don't think I'd have to worry about a lot of other people cosplaying the same character - it's not something like Bleach that's overdone.)

I decided to make both and go as the look-alike with the group. They're similar costumes so I can use the same patterns and fabrics. C8

Though I would say that going as the look-alike will not always mean you're cosplaying the less popular character. Sure, if you look like Chad... but then, you see way too many Rukias out there and she's probably closer in appearance to the cosplayers than other characters they might choose.

[oslapedo]

Uhhh, it's nice to say, "go with whoever you look like", but I think that in general it's best to go with your favorite character, and then if you look like them it's a happy bonus. Some characters have got some crazy proportions and are impossible to perfectly emuluate, so try your hardest being as accurate as you can to a character you're fond of. ~

Oh, and if it's a height issue you guyys could experiment with angles when taking photographs and maybe wear platform shoes or something. For our Gurren Lagann group, Shay's slightly taller than me, but in the show Yoko is taller than Nia so I'll have to find some good platform base boots, or something like that to compensate.

Good luck! =)