San Diego Comic-Con – so many great panels, so many events, all under such a limited timeframe. Deciding which ones to attend was a tough job, especially when faced with competing sessions. Only a mix of adrenalin and caffeine kept me going for the five days I was there.

I find that words can’t really describe the Con phenomenon; it’s one of those things you must undergo on your own to grasp the full experience. Since not everyone is able to attend, I wanted to share with you the moments that stayed with me most – the highs and the lows, to be specific.

1. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (A)

The very last Twilight panel was meant to honor and bid farewell to a successful franchise run. Instead, Summit Entertainment and Comic-Con faced the tough scenario of addressing the accidental death of fan Gisela Gagliardi.

Stephenie Meyer and the cast of the movie franchise inspired by her Twilight book series.

The tragedy was handled in the best way possible: with concern and dignity. First, a Comic-Con representative addressed the crowd praising the dedication of fans, while at the same time offering a reminder about the importance of fans enjoying a safe Comic-Con. Next, Eric Moro, Director of Programming and Entertainment at Wikia and the panel’s moderator, issued a statement honoring Gagliardi that resulted in a long applause – a form of catharsis for the audience and a way to pay their respects. This was an important moment; the fan’s death had been a dark cloud hanging over the 2012 Comic-Con but especially for this highly anticipated panel. From there, Moro moved the panel forward at an appropriate pace without the appearance of rushing through or brushing aside the unfortunate incident. Overall, I felt it was a sincere, sad, but fitting, tribute to the deceased fan.

By the time Moro introduced the three leading Twilight actors, you had the sense that as a collective, the fans in Hall H embraced the moment of introspection and respect for Gagliardi while, at the same time, being ready to welcome the film’s cast. From a public relations standpoint, the sequence of events could be considered a textbook example on how to handle such an untimely event. Let’s just hope this is the last occurrence of this sort, and at similar upcoming events the fans’ focus is on safety first.

2. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (B)

How awesome it was to see first time Comic-Con attendee MacKenzie Foy, who plays Edward and Bella’s daughter Renesmee, among the 28 Twilight cast members on stage. What an adorable kid! I’m glad the fans offered her a warm welcome. The size and devotion of the Twilight fandom never ceases to amaze me and I was pleased to see the series’ cast extensively show their gratitude to their following. Then, although I know Stephenie Meyer’s sneak peak at The Host was an attempt to convert her Twilight fans into fans of her most recent book series, the clip sparked my interest in the film. Saoirse Ronan looks pretty solid as Melanie Stryder.

The cast of The Walking Dead including Comic-Con virgin David Morrissey.

3. The Walking Dead

The fans’ enthusiasm for the show, mixed with the cast’s outgoing personalities, made this a very fun panel to attend.

“My character is built on caffeine and tension,” Andrew Lincoln (who plays Rick Grimes) announced in his very cool British accent. What is there not to love about that? I also learned sweating rednecks have a strong appeal to some folks—a fact Norman Reedus was just made aware of. Reedus plays the show’s favorite hillbilly, Daryl Dixon. Don’t judge please.

Director Guillermo del Toro set the crowd on fire with his sense of humor and showing how passionate he is for his upcoming film Pacific Rim.

My favorite moment had to be when Andrea’s (Laurie Holden) groping of Shane (Jon Bernthal) from last season was brought up. I’m always partial to assertive and empowered female characters and I applauded really hard when hearing Holden’s response: “You should see what we did, it got cut.” One can only wonder!

4. Warner Brothers and the Legendary Pictures Panel: Pacific Rim, Man of Steel and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

When the curtains in Hall H started moving, revealing additional screens, the room went crazy with excitement. Most fans had considered this session to be the marquee panel of the day, but seeing two additional main stage screens meant business: the studios came ready to rock the house and they did!

Zack Snyder and Henry Cavill dealt with an emotional audience during the Man of Steel panel.

Guillermo del Toro’s mastery of the art of engaging a crowd continues to impress me and when the trailer for his film, Pacific Rim, ended, Hall H sounded as if everyone’s favorite team had won the Super Bowl. I’m unsure if most people registered he announced the project would undergo a year-long radio silence post-Con, but the audience kept on reacting at the massive scale of the robots, and focusing on del Toro’s statement that the film had monsters up the wazoo.

Personally, the delivery of the line, “Today, we’re cancelling the apocalypse,” got me all ready to go into battle! I’m a big fan of action films and this movie isn’t like any other robot movie done to date. I predict it will be among the top three blockbusters of 2013.

Martin Freeman, Sir Ian McKellen and Richard Armitage in the much anticipated The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey presentation.

The first glimpse of Henry Cavill in full Superman suit during the Man of Steel trailer left the audience cheering. The suit, and Cavill wearing it, looked fabulous but it was the trailer that was successful in wrapping up the audience with its elaborate storyline and complications of the Superman identity, all in the midst of action scenes. When a fan asked Cavill about the high fan expectations of his Superman characterization, Cavill’s response won my admiration: he said he carries the fans’ expectations in his heart. The reply also made the fan – a grown man – cry. I suggest that friends and family of this particular fan should have paramedics on standby whenever the man goes to see the film.

Fan excitement went to the next level when Peter Jackson started The Hobbit extravaganza. I loved that he took the time to film a video documenting the five days before the film wrapped to share with fans.

The most moving moment was the part of the clip that showed the very last take wrapping the filming for the movie – a proud moment for the cast, indeed. The movie appears to move at the same pace as the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but the level of detail has been elevated in everything: costumes, exteriors…you name it. Seeing Elijah Wood watching the trailer in the press pit and Sir Ian McKellen accepting a gift from a fan from Brazil was a huge bonus.

Michelle Rodriguez and Milla Jojovich talked about Resident Evil: Retribution, the fifth film in the series.

5. Resident Evil: Retribution

Not only was I impressed with Mila Jojovich’s impeccable complexion and friendliness, but I thoroughly enjoyed the film’s preview. It showed Sienna Guillroy, Michelle Rodriguez and Jojovich engaged in a fight scene that not only occurs at breakneck speed but is every fanboy’s dream.

6. Sons of Anarchy (A)

The moment when Ron Perlman and Katey Sagal commented about their amazement at the amount of prep work required of the press to be able to properly cover Comic-Con programming was a golden moment for me. They get my love for taking the time to see things from the press members’ perspective.

“Its mind boggling on how up on TV shows you have to be in order to conduct these interviews. You have to have watched pretty much everything,” Perlman commented to the roundtable reporters. Sagal quickly agreed: “You do, that’s a really good point.”

Thank you! It, indeed, takes a significant amount of effort to prepare for interviews in terms of viewing and research hours. It’s my opinion that Comic-Con is such an anticipated event not only due to the panels and participants, but also because of the ever growing media coverage; they make fans want to attend the event.

To the delight of fans, Kurt Sutter brought along ten of his Sons of Anarchy’s cast members.

7. Sons of Anarchy (B)

Kurt Sutter and FX Networks went all out this year by bringing most of the show’s cast to Con. What a treat for the fans; that deserves a huge thanks.

Regarding the cast, whatever Sutter did to assemble them, it completely paid off. Their dynamics are one of a kind because this is a group of people who have become more than co-workers: they are a close-knit group of friends who hang out with each other all the time. While we’re on the subject, I want to throw in a suggestion for next year. To Kurt and John (Landgraf) – can you also bring Emilio Rivera, Michael Ornstein, Bob Thiele and the Forest Rangers? I know how much the fans, myself included, would enjoy that.

Knowing how much the Comic-Con Organization prides itself on being an event for the fans, I couldn’t wrap up my list without commenting on these two constants, which make the five-day convention so special:

8. Hall H – The Heartbeat of the San Diego Convention Center

About 6,000+ people can be packed into this room and when excited, the crowd roars. If you take a few precious seconds to soak this fact in, you can almost get that vibe of how the crowds in the Roman Coliseum must have sounded when the gladiators did their thing.

One of the most fun aspects of being at Comic-Con: being amazed by the effort the fans put on their costumes!

9. Amazing fan costumes

An explanation isn’t needed for this but fans, armed with ingenuity and creativity, produced what I considered to be wearable art.

10. The Vacationeer’s are a Disaster

I’m a big fan of supporting smaller or indie-like productions and decided my trip to Comic-Con wasn’t going to be an exception to that. I had heard about It’s a Disaster due to the great reviews it received at the LA Film Festival but also from a director/producer buddy of mine. Therefore, I added it to my schedule of panels to check out, and I wasn’t disappointed.

The energy and chemistry of the actors were evident from the moment the session started and made for an entertaining and hilarious panel. The fact that part of the crew comes from The Vacationeers comedy group (https://www.facebook.com/thevacationeers) may have something to do with it. Given that they’re all up and coming talent, I appreciated how they retrospectively introduced attendees to their earlier work, most of it consisting of viral videos that can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/thevacationeers.

The It’s a Disaster presentation: Todd Berger, Jeff Grace, Kevin Brennan, Blaise Miller, Rachel Boston and Erinn Hayes.

It’s a Disaster is a film about four couples who have gathered for a Sunday brunch and are unaware that the apocalypse is happening right outside their door. The film was directed by Todd Berger, who is part of the cast along with Erinn Hayes, Jeff Grace, Kevin Brennan, Blaise Miller and Rachel Boston. The film, which cost under $2 million to make, also stars America Ferrera and Julia Stiles who, unfortunately, were absent from the panel. I love the fact that their comedy comes from the real world, but it’s mixed with the right amount of exaggerations to hit the sweet spot.

After seeing a sneak peak, I’m eager to watch the film; smartly written comedies are hard to find these days. Miller and Grace told me they’re currently working out the film’s distribution. The cast is worth keeping an eye on as they have some exciting projects lined up. For example, Grace will be seen next in Mothers Day with Christina Ricci, Susan Sarandon and Sharon Stone. Berger is writing Where is Waldo for MGM.

We’ll be on the lookout for the U.S. release of It’s a Disaster.

Those were my top ten highlights. Now, I want to focus on the panel I consider needs the most improvement for next year. This isn’t an easy or fun part to write but I’m sad to report I was underwhelmed with Games of Thrones.

Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin was the moderator of the show’s Hall H panel.

Along with Girls, Game of Thrones is one of my favorite shows on HBO.  Perhaps because I follow news about the show so closely, the panel felt short to me. I hope HBO takes my comments as constructive criticism so they can provide fans with a more wholesome experience next year.

To steal a phrase from a dear friend of mine, this panel gets an honorable “meh” rating from me. Considering the size and caliber of the show’s cast, the panel was a bit light on star power. To be fair, Kit Harington was supposed to be there (as well as in the Silent Hill: Revelations 3D panel) but was unable to attend due to a broken ankle.

The clip introducing the Season 3 cast was nice but I found myself missing the excitement and commotion caused last year by Jason Momoa who showed up almost completely in character, wearing the characteristic Khal Drogo eye liner and all.  Can Games of Thrones please find a way to include another Drogo appearance next season so Jason can be invited to Con again? I’m not picky, though; a flashback could work!

George R.R. Martin has my utmost respect as a writer but he fell short with his moderator duties. Successful Comic-Con moderators maintain a balance between being entertaining and funny while scoring the fans a decent scoop. Unfortunately, Martin focused too much on asking the cast about what happened last season for my liking. He should have pushed harder to extract a greater insight about the direction of Season 3 and how we can expect that to impact the characters. (I realize I can read the books to find out—which I have— and there are some changes along the way, but that’s not exactly the same as hearing it from the cast.) Then, at the end, when a video clip rolled, showing basically only the premiere date, I thought it was a joke at the fans’ expense but I soon realized it wasn’t – talk about minimal payback for the audience.

Three of the fabulous Games of Thrones ladies: Rose Leslie, Michelle Fairley and Emilia Clarke.

For me, the one highlight of the panel was the lovely Emilia Clarke, the only returning panelist from last year. I’m a big fan of her characterization of Daenerys Targaryen, mother of dragons and the Dothraki Khaleesi, who happens to be a brave and resourceful woman in spite of the many challenges thrown at her.  When I watch the show, I’m always rooting for Daenerys, and hearing Clarke talk about her was music to my ears. She thinks vulnerability is one of Daenerys’ strengths.

“It’s noble and real,” Clarke said. “In Season two, she saw herself doubt…it comes up again and again…she needs to be as strong as she can and not show her fear.”

Here’s hoping a stronger Kahleesi emerges when season three of Games of Thrones premieres on March 31, 2013.

In summary, Comic-Con was five fun-filled days in San Diego. Although I was able to attend my top event choices this year, at times I felt I was stretching myself too thin and got stressed out about not possibly getting into Hall H. I’m wondering if Comic-Con could offer me a cloning machine next year so I don’t miss a thing. Hey, last I checked, dreams are still free of charge!

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