One of the past Brainstorm podcasts (I forget which) featured our band of misfits talking about their worry about them using their Toa tools as weapons, like Var said in his example in 2006. They said they wanted to go back to the roots and make their “weapons” as tools again for channeling elemental energies instead of hacking their enemies to death. They want to make G3 a balance of child friendly and somewhat mature like Avatar and Korra.
But I look at Ninjago and Chima and NEXO Knights and those are VERY violent, with their excessive use of weapons and trying to hack or shoot people to death. So maybe we can have the Toa disable the Rahi with their elemental powers from a distance and using their tools to channel them. Like Lewa could do that against a Nui-Jaga instead of using her axes to lop of its head. But honestly speaking, if we follow Ninjago and NEXO Knights’s example, we COULD have Lewa take a swing at the Nui-Jaga’s head with her incredibly sharp axes but misses. It won’t be violent because she isn’t ACTUALLY taking off its head, just ATTEMPTING to.
As of typing this I am listening to Brainstorm episode 10 and some of if not all of their ideas are REALLY violent, like assassinations and setting a village on fire and killing the Ihuan king and whatnot, and it kind of contradicts what they said about the weapons vs tools discussion. In that case, then you might as well go full on weapons and loping off a Nui-Jaga’s head, ending its life forever, Mata Nui bless its soul.
But I’m also all in for a really mature Brickonicle show if that’s what they’re going for
P.S. Also just as a running gag, can we stop saying “death” and “dying” and “die” and “kill” and other synonyms and replace them with “sunset” and “sunsetting”? Like instead of assassinating the Ihuan king, try to sunset him. That way we can have all the death and destruction and mindless violence we want without worrying kids and parents!
I’m personally one for the idea that our youth should be respected rather than talked down to, and thus dumbing down death is not necessarily the answer.
Of course, I adore channeling elemental power through tools, but I also really love an excellent, over-the-top fight scene, so…
I think the important distinction here is that the Toa have to be heroes, not just magical paramilitants. If they choose to not shy away from including morbid themes, it gives them leverage to make a point of the Toa not killing their enemies. Hence, the heroes actually prove their moral grounding instead of just being the good guys because they say so.
Now that’s not to say there should be scenes where the Rahkshi brutally slaughter entire villages either. We’re not trying to scar our audience or dissuade media companies from airing the show… I think the Avatar approach is their best bet; the heavy stuff is implied(and discussed), but murders aren’t necessarily shown on screen.
I don’t really see why having violence is even an issue. Shows like Power Rangers are built on violence and are geared towards kids even younger than the group G3 is aimed for.
All they do for violence is add sparks where the weapon or kick hits. They have direct contact with swords, character deaths (on both sides), heck, even a post apocalyptic setting for a season.
If they can do all that, I think a cartoon with what is essentially stylized robots can do it too.
[Edit] - Also, going with the sparks where struck method, you could have Tahu slash the enemy with his sword and have flames appear where the cut would be. Ice could bloom from where Kopaka’s spear stabs the enemy, a slash of Lewa’s axes just blasts the enemy away with a point blank gust, etc. These could let the Toa actually strike with the weapons as weapons, but the effect still follows the elemental style.
I would just like to point out that even though Ninjago, Chima and Nexo Knights have weapons like swords, maces, axes and projectile weapons, they are as effective as being hit by a club. Never has anyone shown to have sufferd severe injuries when hit by these weapons in the tv shows.
I don’t know, they were called tools in the beginning, but they gave both Kopaka and Tahu swords, I don’t think they were trying to be subtle about what they were. Later on, they dropped the idea of calling them tools, with such weapons as broadswords, battle axes and cordak blasters. In any case, even if they were named tools, their intended use was obvious. They completely dropped the idea of calling them tools by 09, the Glatorian carried weapons and that was it. As for violence, I think they should stick to this idea that G1 had, with the more circulated media being less violent than say the web serials or the later legends books. If I’m honest, the most violent scenes are when AU Tuyet is split in half and when Zaktan stabs Tahu, and turns his weapon from the steel-like scissors into the protodites that start to eat Tahu’s tissue. Krika and Icarax’s deaths aren’t far behind.
The less dismemberment and decapitation you preform, the more violence you’d be able to get away with. Think about ‘Bone Heads of Voodoo Island’ versus Bionicle.
As long as it remains fantasy violence (no guns, no people, no blood) you have wiggle room. Remember the Lego Star Wars game was rated ‘E for Everyone,’ despite the plastic figures hacking each other apart with sci-fi weapons.
