writerfromtheshore
Under the Umbrella
A fanfic writer with a grand vision. Freelance magazines and blog sites when the inspiration for stories doesn't hit. I kinda forget to post a lot here, so my main writing is at www.withinkandoar.wordpress.com
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The Everyman Problem
So, I've had a kernel of a Bionicle post rattling around in my for a couple weeks that I haven't quite been able to articulate, but I think I might have the angle to explain it now.
I'm an "old Bionicle fan": by which I mean, I'm old enough to have got into Bionicle in the "Mata Nui" era (2001-2003). A glance at the notes on my big [unfinished, looking abandoned] alt-canon fanfic shows that I'm old enough to have disliked the change of the Toa from Mata to Nuva... in 2002.
So, which that as background, remember that I'm old enough to remember a time when it wasn't known at all that Matoran, Toa, and Turaga were all the same "species."
Thinking back on it, I don't think I initially "noticed" the revelation that no only were the Turaga were former Toa, but the Toa (Metru) were Matoran before that--Takanuva too, but he was something of a special case. In 2004, I was really just absorbing that Vakama, Onewa, etc. were former Toa--that "Toa" might mean something other than "single demi-urgic hero of each element." I got there eventually, as far as acceptance goes, but it part of my age-related fade out of the Bionicle fandom.
2006, on the other hand, emphasized the other part that I'd ignored more during the LoMN/WoS era: that Toa came from Matoran. I still don't love this, but until last night I couldn't really lay a finger on how to express why.
I thought it might just be my habitual stick-in-the-muditude: you changed Jaller from Captain of the Guard! You changed Matoro from Nuju's stoic interpreter to a worry-ridden saviour.
I also thought it might just be the genre shift: it's all fantasy, of course, but it's a different thing from the island mythology-vibe of Mata Nui to the Lost City of Atlantis vibe of Metru Nui (and then the vibes beyond). I like the Toa more as unique elemental avatars than evolved Matoran, but that's not really it either.
Last night, though, I watched later era Marvel movie--it doesn't matter which one, because they all have this problem--and as the credits were rolling, I realised that the reason I don't really like the MCU is much the same as this "problem" I had with Bionicle: if just about anyone can be a superhero, you lose the "ordinary" members of the story.
Putting it another way, I realised I prefer "chosen one" stories to "X-men" stories. This is probably the Tolkien fan to some extent: you can have a world full of magic and heroes and super-powers, but if it also has "ordinary" folk, their specific importance in the story is that they ARE ordinary: Gandalf and Aragorn are heroes and amazing, yes, but Frodo never "levels up"--he is a greater person at the end of the story than the beginning, but it is the growth of an ordinary person.
Because superheroes are so common in the MCU (or DCU, etc), it's hard to have ordinary people be front and center--and harder still for them to stay ordinary people. And something like that is my problem with where Bionicle went that I don't think ever fully resolved for me: part of the wonder of Mata Nui, the whole storytelling point of MNOG is that the Matoran contribute to the victory too: they have no mask powers, no elemental powers, but they are there to help the heroes and do their part and its essential.
This already starts changing with MoL, it changes more with LoMN, and by the time we get to the Voya Nui arc, we've gone "Full MCU": everyone in the story can be a Toa.
I think, if the Inika had been "four or five" new characters and only one "already-known" Matoran, I'd have been much happier. But when you take the most prominent Matoran from every tribe and make them all Toa... who's left? The headcanons that the Chronicler's company become Toa too both satisfy and don't work for me for this reason. They satisfy me if they leave the Inika as Matoran, because I think that was a better way to go; they annoy me if they're BOTH Toa now, because that exacerbates what I think is the "problem" here.
It's not really a problem, objectively, but it is my subjective sticking point. And it's the reason that even though I might keep most of this lore, despite the grumbling, I'm willing to jettison completely and utterly the idea that "only some Matoran are destined to become Toa." Destiny is always a hard thing to make work in the story, but the Doylist result is that Matoran now come in two categories: Special Protagonist and Ordinary: and the Ordinary is now completely swept off the stage and I really don't want that: I want the story to include a real focus on some powerless, ordinary individuals.
So I'd rather it be that ANYONE can turn into a Toa: they don't, maybe, because the circumstances lead there, but every Matoran has that potential. Because if anyone COULD be a hero, then at least when they do become a hero, it's more ordinary.
But I'd still rather that none of them could--but I'm not sure that is a concept you could return to without retconning Gen-1 so far that you end up with Gen-2. And I don't think I want THAT either.
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While not physically dependent on Kanohi the way Matoran are, Makuta give them equal cultural weight. A Makuta's mask is their identifier. It is difficult to identify who's who if you are all natural shapechagers and illusionists, so it is customary to avoid altering one's mask too drastically in the company of other Makuta. The Hagah tradition to honor past heroes by wearing masks shaped like theirs is derived from this philosophy.
Masks are never swapped or gifted, with a single historical exception. Icarax inherited the Mask of Shadows, and gave his mask of Scavenging to a lowly Matoran as a show of power. Icarax was too foolish to realize Teridax had just done the same to him.
Masks are also emblems of a Makuta's character, their beliefs and philosophies distilled into a single object. Teridax's coup changed the Makuta from scientists and shepherds to occult chessmasters, but can be thought as a shift from the Mask of Mutation to the Mask of Shadows. Would the Makuta have become isolationist hermit-kings had Krika taken control? Accelerationists and disruptors had Gorast?
Only one of Great version each mask has ever been made*, and it is uknown who made them or the Noble versions rewarded to a Makuta's chosen Matoran. One would think that the Makuta's masks were declared immoral for Toa to use after the Brotherhood's betrayal was made public, but this was established in the Toa Code since its creation. A Toa would only ever be in a position to use a Makuta's mask if the Makuta had just died in front of them, most likely by the Toa's own hand.
*There is one exception, debatably two. Chirox and Mutran share the same mask. Some accounts theorize that Mutran initially had a different mask, and changed his mask in order to torment Chirox. Others say that the two always had the same mask, a symbol of their role as left and right hands of a greater whole. The Jultin is a matter of debate. The Jutin was Antroz's mask, but there are conflicting reports of his whereabouts just prior to the destiny war. A Matoran word for failure is 'spiriah', which is not only Makuta in origin, but constructed like a personal name. It is possible 'Spiriah' is in fact the Makuta of Zakaz expunged from history, and that Sipiriah donned an unpowered Jutlin in order to disguise their identity.
Rahi contain 'tags' within their core essence, instantly detectable and innately understandable by Antidermic creatures, but require a veteran archivist's knowledge to even to begin to comprehend for Protodermics. These tags are believed to be signatures by the Makuta who designed that Rahi species, maker's marks imbedded into their fundamental being. A codex of marks and their associated Makuta are on the Makoki stone, allowing for researchers to know precisely which Makuta created which Rahi. Curiously, there are tags within Rahi found nowhere upon the Makoki stone. The history of the Brotherhood begins with the formation of the Makoki stone, which suggests an early "generation zero" of Makuta born prior to the brotherhood. None of these elder Makuta have ever been successfully identified or contacted.
It is common belief that Antidermis was a byproduct of Protodermis synthesization. This is only partially correct. Antidermis was an attempt at artificial energized protodermis. Both substances are mutagenic, both components of a gestalt consciousness, but while energized is damnably finite, new Antidermis can theoretically be created forever.
The earliest design documents for the GSR were found recently. They revealed that the Great Beings initially wanted to build *6* vessels, at least some of which would have been made from Antidermis. Only one vessel was ever created, but the Great Beings reformulated this initial concept into another failsafe for the GSR. This should come as no surprise though. After all, Teridax's plan hinged on the fact that the Makuta are potentially destined to inherit the role of the Mata Nui intelligence.
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on the topic of bionicle mysteries that ended in a letdown:
the mystery of "where did the toa mata come from and why don't they have any memories?" could have reasonably led to the idea that they were at one point matoran since lomn revealed that that's how toa are made
and we could've gotten some really fun backstory for what they were like before becoming toa. but instead they just always were toa. HUGE missed opportunity
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Just thinking about the ironic parallels between the Great Beings creating the element lords and Mata Nui creating the league of six kingdoms.
In both, we have the original rulers who found the actual of leading their people to just be a distraction, so they both created powerful beings to do it for them instead.
Then again in both cases that negligence led to a war of rebellion led by those beings that affected their whole civilizations and nearly caused the downfall of the original rulers themselves.
Mata Nui got such tunnel vision trying to fulfil his mission that he repeated the exact same mistake that led the Great Beings to give him his mission in the first place.
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you noobs and your bionicle AU’s have nothing on 2000’s era bzpower comedies where they just threw the toa nuva into the dumbest, most random situations of all time
#core traumatic memories unlocked#trying to figure out where the story stops and the commentary begins
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Here’s a hot take:
The 2008 avohkii maybe was supposed to be a mutated Great Kanohi Rau. 2008 was originally supposed to have a dark Toa Ahkmou, and it was partially developed before the decision was made to do an enlarged Takanuva. So maybe the mask was created for Ahkmou and then kept for Takanuva.
The 2008 avohkii is the avohkii nuva
Change my mind
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Bionicle teaches us many things
Loyalty, camaraderie, kindness, hope, sacrifice, no simping, and more
But it mainly teaches us you shouldn't shove your freaking WIPs out of your sight into every possible corner you can think of
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People used to comment on web comics.
People used to comment on fanfiction.
People used to comment on fanart.
People used to comment on OCs.
I hate "content" culture.
I hate "consuming content" and scrolling immediately to the next thing.
People used to be excited about the art that other people created.
People used to want to share that excitement with creators.
I hate this future.
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There's 42 flavors of kraata power and every single one is BULLSHIT
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There's 42 flavors of kraata power and every single one is BULLSHIT
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to people who sort their lego parts: you will use a box and rummage through it like a raccoon looking for food in a garbage can like god intended.
(imo doing this makes it way more fun to build mocs.)
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Book Recs for Bionicle fans?
Anyone got any good book recommendations that fans of Bionicle, specifically those here on Tumblr, might enjoy?
Include, if you can, a brief summary and maybe some reasons why you think others in the fandom would like it in your reblog. I’m thinking mostly of novels and graphic novels, but if you have a non-fiction book or something else that we’d like, feel free to include it.
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I like to personally think if they didn’t rush things it could have been Takanuva. First Matoran, been wanting to defeat Makuta since the beginning. And now with the golden armor he has his chance.
I think it was a bit...forced for Tahu to be the only one who was created toc wear the Golden Armor
I would expect the Great Beings to have more redundancy in designs, in case Tahu was killed or unable to fight.
What would be funnier and more realistic is that it they arbitrarily had him as the primary user (since the Great Beings did not expect their creations to be self-aware at first, and it actually made things more complicated for them), and would attune itself to one of the other Toa-Mata listed (or even someone else if they are all gone) if he is deceased but it would take time.
Like say, Tahu dies, and it re-attunes to the next Toa Mata on the list of priority.
If all Toa Mata are dead, probably an emergency reboot and reattune system somewhere on a carved tablet or scroll.
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