As far as the âsexismâ goes, Iâd say itâs only really to the extent of âitâs a boyâs toy, so letâs have boy characters because theyâll relate to that betterâ, and then the lore backed this up to the extreme. Is this an old-fashioned idea? Probably, but itâs much the same as girl-oriented toys like my little pony at least, that was the intention having a primarily female cast. I donât think bionicle in particular is to blame, it was just something that became a pattern in how people did gender ratios for toys aimed at specific genders.
Now, the idea that that concept itself is possibly sexist is a whole different debate.
Maybe thatâs why they changed things on Bara Magna. They said that any tribe could have female membersâŚeven if they never released any female characters as sets. (except Kiina)
Is the only reason your saying that genderlocking should exist is because the creators decided it should be that way? I think youâre trying to say that it âmakes senseâ in the world with the backstory and rules that they made up - but I think the big point is that it was dumb to create it this way in the first place
2009 rolls around, âHey guys! Glatorian can be any gender! Female characters can come from any skittles colored tribe!â. And somehow Kiina is STILL the blue one.
One thing to keep in mind is how quickly the MU was build. The GBâs were in a rush to get this thing built, launched, and then get the second robot built, before their planet blew up â and they still ran out of time, and only got one of the robots up and running.
Greg has stated that they didnât make everything in the MU themselves, that they automated much of it, hence why a group of like 20 people were able to make a whole world in a few years. They most likely made a Ga-Matoran, maybe two, then built a machine to make 20,000 more. It made them all female, because that was the template. The only tribe to get multiple templates was the Av-Matoran, since those were the Matoran they made first and the ones they spent the most time on.
We also know it is possible to make male Ga-Matoran, female Ta-Matoran, etc. The Great Beings just never got around to it. They never intended for the Matoran to be sapient anyway, unless they became Toa, so they had more important things to do.
