Should the Toa's Gender Be Changed? (More female team members?) [Worldbuilding] [Pitch]

[BioStef]

@Payinku

I bring up my point, females can relate to male characters like males can relate to female characters, changing the gender ratio doesn’t make bionicle any less a ‘boys toy’.

If males have no trouble relating to female characters and vice versa then there would be no problem with a more balanced cast, right?

@Payinku

It’s designed for kids who like action themes, which is predominantly male, like how friends and elves are designed for kids who like interpersonal conflicts, which is predominantly female, both of these examples have both action and interpersonal conflicts, however the focus is different, the gender ratios of these lines reflect the target audience, and I see nothing wrong with that.

I think assuming that “girls like this type of toy” and “boys like this type of toy” is dangerous and harmful. You’re correct in saying the audience of friends and elves is mainly female, but that is mainly due to society reinforcing gender roles. Same goes for Bionicle and it’s audience. It can’t hurt to try and stop this from happening.

If we add more female characters to Bionicle, then girls will be more likely to give it a go because it doesn’t seem like a “boys only club”. Perhaps the main audience will still be male, but it’s good to have more diversity in our fandom and the casual consumer base.

@Payinku

Girls will not suddenly gain interest in the tribal robots fighting to the death because there’s an extra chick, I’m sorry, that’s not how interests work.

Again, it’s not a good idea to lump a whole group together and say “you won’t like this”. Maybe not every girl will like Bionicle, but some doubtless will enjoy it. And we can help make the brand feel more welcoming to those girls by adding more female Toa.

But let’s say no girls are interested in Bionicle, I’d still argue that it’s a good idea to have more female Toa, especially in the main team. It shows boys that girls can kick butt just as much as they can. Bionicle already did this to an extent (great characters like Helryx, Gali, Lariska etc.), but it’s a good idea to take it even further.

@Payinku

You see I don’t find the replacement of characters because they’re the wrong gender to be particularly progressive.

No one’s saying anything about “the wrong gender”. There is no strictly correct gender for a character.

@Payinku

Right, so we’ll make gali male and then there’s no token female.

You seem to miss the point. Gali is a good start, but more female characters are a good idea. If we remove her we would make things worse. We would be taking a step backwards.

[Payinku]

@BioStef

If males have no trouble relating to female characters and vice versa then there would be no problem with a more balanced cast, right?

And thus there’s no reason to change the ratio, right?

@BioStef

I think assuming that “girls like this type of toy” and “boys like this type of toy” is dangerous and harmful.

I’m not assuming anything, I’m going by facts and figures, accepting reality isn’t dangerous or harmful.

@BioStef

but that is mainly due to society reinforcing gender roles.

So you’re going to ignore brain differences then? The reason men and women generally have different interests.

@BioStef

If we add more female characters to Bionicle, then girls will be more likely to give it a go because it doesn’t seem like a “boys only club”.

I’m sorry, that’s not how this works, the gender ratio of the characters is not why most girls are not interested in bionicle.

@BioStef

Again, it’s not a good idea to lump a whole group together and say “you won’t like this”. Maybe not every girl will like Bionicle, but some doubtless will enjoy it.

I’m not lumping all girls together, I specifically said the preferences were predominantly gendered, not wholly gendered, of course there are exceptions to the rule, human psychology is a complex thing, there are already girls who like bionicle, they’re on this site, they’re part of ttv, those are the girls who are the exception to the rule, the ones who like action themes,
The girls who aren’t interested in the line are not suddenly going to be interested because of another female character, it’s not the gender of the characters that they’re not interested in.

@BioStef

But let’s say no girls are interested in Bionicle, I’d still argue that it’s a good idea to have more female Toa, especially in the main team. It shows boys that girls can kick butt just as much as they can.

One female toa gets this point across just as well as 5, the point is girls are capable of fighting.

@BioStef

it’s a good idea to take it even further.

How far do we have to go for you to be satisfied? I’m curious.

@BioStef

No one’s saying anything about “the wrong gender”. There is no strictly correct gender for a character.

You’re arguing for more females(and subsequently less males), therefore to this argument male is the wrong gender for a certain percentage of characters to have.

@BioStef

You seem to miss the point.

Actually I was just being satirical.

@BioStef

If we remove her we would make things worse. We would be taking a step backwards.

Hypothetical question: what if we swapped the genders of the whole team?

[JonBlueFire]

I do not wish to resurrect what I believe is a settled quarrel, but I do wish to state this, nonetheless.

@IllustriousVar You have said that this is your project, the TTV’s project, which is ultimately decided by you all, in the end, with inspiration taken from the fans.

The only instances you were swayed was either by actual fact, or the talent of great artists.

Actual fact occurred when a community member reminded you all that ‘Pohatu’ meant ‘Stone’ in Maori; therefore, as you’ve stated, changing the original six elements while keeping the same characters was a pointless discussion.

Visual instances are everywhere on this topic, and it would make sense that you would follow it closely, as @Jon stated that you all are visual people.
But why, I may ask, do you only discuss the good artists and writers? There have been a number of interesting concepts and ideas that were put out there in Brickonicle’s earliest stages, that were, ultimately, completely ignored.
A good example would be @Matanui606 's ideas topic that was criticized by @Eljay recently; it failed to produce any discussion, however, as those were outdated ideas, that did not agree with the present canon.
But at least Eljay, one of the original TTV cast and a respected BIonicle fan, took the time to convey his thoughts on other’s concepts, right?
Wrong.
If you guys are going to take ideas from the community, then make sure you read through every post, every topic, every single idea relating to it, no matter the skill level of the poster, because if you don’t, then you are just failing to live up to the task you put on the community:

An example would be when @Mesonak stated that he anticipated actual art of the island. Well, we’ve already had at least a couple of topics physically illustrating the island, one of them being my one. Now, they might not be as good as @Oomatu’s creations, but they should at least be respected in the fact that they exist.

Another point I wish to convey in this message is that your reasoning for the whole of this hypothetical G3 is to take on the toil of the Lego group when they re-made Bionicle G2.
Well, this is definitely not the way to go about it.
Lego has never, at least to my knowledge, issued a theme where they originally took the feedback from fans. Bionicle G2 was dumbed down to market more towards younger kids, the only point of “feedback,” but from G1’s sales, not the fans.
If you truly wish to go through the process of creating a theme, then create it yourself.
Lego employees no nothing of how the community will react to their ideas, or how the line will do in terms of sales, until the sets either get leaked, or are officially released by the company.
The only possible feedback they receive is when they select children to play with the sets and test them out. But this is from a toy standpoint, not a story one.
Having information from poles conducted on a largely Bionicle based fanbase (most likely 2001-2003 fans) will, of course, skew the data in favor of the original line. With the cast (mostly) ignoring the poles in their final decisions, as it is your remake after all, one may come to the conclusion that having poles are a waste of time; essentially they say the G1 worked, so do it again. Since you are the end-all be-all, it really makes no sense to put up such a survey without it actually being accurate.

Here’s my suggestion on how Brickonicle should have been done:
Just do it, yourselves.

Seriously. All the poles to is anger and divide people into viewing their own ideas as being superior (or inferior) and it doesn’t even matter cause you have the final say. Which doesn’t matter either, as this won’t actually be a story set in motion, but rather ideas floating in the air.
If you had just debated this amongst the cast, collecting the story and set ideas together, in secret, the anger, joy, and mutual feelings towards the hypothetical G3 would never have been aroused.
The remade theme should have been presented with an animation done by @Xeros610 with music by @Cazapar (as both are now TTV employees) as a surprise idea. Additional story arcs and character development would have been discussed on the podcast, with critiques being made by the audience after the “theme” was out (as Lego goes through this feedback regularly with their themes). Now you can’t do this for 4 years as Lego does, but it would have been made more realistic to the company’s toils.
Plus, you all have said that you guys are visual people; well, so is the audience! Nobody can judge a theme based on concepts. But with a surprise presentation, it’s easier to understand and find appeal to the work.

But alas, Brickonicle was never done in secret (even though, as it has been stated on the podcast, all the projects and new shows by TTV, supposedly, are). And what we have is a divided community split on certain ideas, yet shocked at others, to the point where this isn’t fun anymore.
Well, at least not for us:
The unseen, unheard majority, whose work, if it exists, is not noticed,

So, this was originally planned to be a re-make of Bionicle, yet all we ended up with was a non-canon method of how Lego makes it’s themes for it only has around 30 poeple, at most I’d say, working at any theme at a given time; not 200+, a segregated community some of whose ideas are completely ignored by you, even though you state you look for inspiration, and a maybe 1% complete Bionicle fan-project which is completely formed, managed, and discussed by you and yours .

I’ll conclude with this:
I hope I was not rude nor offensive to the owners or fans of this project. I understand that it was simply a pastime in which select fans could remake a beloved theme in their liking. However, the project was conducted badly, to the point where pretty much none of the community (and even some of the cast) 100% agree to the direction the theme is going. It failed to replicate the design process at Lego (on multiple levels).There are winners and losers in everything, that’s true, but it’s easier to cope and feel for the product of a toil, rather than it’s original components. It had potential, and still, does, but I for one, can say that I am disappointed on how this is and where it’s headed.

tl;dr - Brickonicle was close, but no cigar.

[Kahi]

@JonBlueFire

The only instances you were swayed was either by actual fact, or the talent of great artists.

This is baffling to me because I feel like we say “Someone on the boards” or “Someone in the comments” all of the time.

Off the top of my head, the fact that the Toa’s elements were tied to their region was suggested by a fan. The titles, Toa of the Tundra, was also directly from a comment. Lightning was the highest suggested element to add to the canon and was added. A lot of our understanding of elemental powers was provided by @Scorpion_Strike. Oomatu has inspired many of our current designs.

@JonBlueFire

But why, I may ask, do you only discuss the good artists and writers?

Because they’re good?

@JonBlueFire

If you guys are going to take ideas from the community, then make sure you read through every post, every topic, every single idea relating to it, no matter the skill level of the poster, because if you don’t, then you are just failing to live up to the task you put on the community

We read a bunch of stuff on this forum and in our comments all of the time. We don’t comment on all of it, because we save our comments for the podcast. We also ignore a lot of the bad ideas.

But sure, we don’t read every single post. Did you see the results of the element debate? A lot of it is rehashing the same argument. Same in this topic.

@JonBlueFire

Here’s my suggestion on how Brickonicle should have been done:Just do it, yourselves.

We are? We’re making our own G3 project with added input from the community. There’s been a lot of stuff that’s inspired and changed what we wanted to do. That doesn’t mean that we will incorporate every idea suggested into it. There’s a lot that gets ignored or are pitches that are out of date.

@JonBlueFire

But alas, Brickonicle was never done in secret

We’re, again, not making a new LEGO line. We are making a podcast that has a discussion about hypothetically creating a new LEGO line. So being done in “secret” has no point.

@JonBlueFire

The unseen, unheard majority, whose work, if it exists, is not noticed,

Not everything that’s suggested is good. Sorry.

@JonBlueFire

However, the project was conducted badly

That’s extremely subjective.

I think the project has been an overwhelming success. We’ve reinvigorated podcast discussion and views, we have more Bionicle discussion than ever, we’ve been exposed to a ton of great fan art and content.

Sure, some people don’t like it, but the people that don’t like things are always vocal about it, while the people that are okay with things don’t really ever interact. It’s how the internet works. You think we’ve never gotten negative comments before? We fully expected some people weren’t going to like some of the things we did.

For me, I have an avenue to be creative and have great discussions with my friends every week, to an ever increasing audience, spurred on by fantastic concept art and inspired by some cool ideas I’ve seen from people around the community.

Brickonicle has been nothing short of an absolute success, in terms of what I wanted to do with it. And the rest of the cast can and probably will echo that.

[IllustriousVar]

I’m sorry you feel that way, but I’ve been having a blast. Seems like a success to me.

[Chronicler]

I think Henrick’s video of how George Lucas looked over Episode III describes what TTV is doing perfectly. In fact, if anything TTV is being incredibly professional about all this.

Actually, this is how most designs for movies, games, and other media is done. Several graphic designers make stuff, and the directors (TTV in this case) look over it, discuss it, and see if it fits their vision. If it doesn’t? Sorry, it’s not going to cut it. They only pick what they like.

You can’t please everyone. If changing the gender of a character is something TTV wants to do now, you guys clearly didn’t present a strong enough argument for them to change their vision otherwise. They wanted an external opinion, heard it, and now they know what they wanna do. Why are you guys criticizing TTV for preforming a natural part of a design process?

Furthermore, there’s still more opportunities for you guys, the community, to form this project with TTV. You’re not always gonna be content with what you get, but I dunno why the stubbornness has to happen. Instead, why not find other good ideas and suggest them? Then not only will you have a hand in the project, you will also have something to be content with.

I doubt a graphic designer who gets his designs turned down argues with the director (he’d lose his job if he did). He just trusts the director and tries something else. This is a professional approach done in comics, movies, video games, and other industries.

So if you really want to be in this project, try and come up with other cool ideas. If you don’t, I don’t see why this debate has to be furthered any longer.

[Jakura_Nuva]

@Chronicler

Furthermore, there’s still more opportunities for you guys, the community, to form this project with TTV. You’re not always gonna be content with what you get, but I dunno why the stubbornness has to happen. Instead, why not find other good ideas and suggest them? Then not only will you have a hand in the project, you will also have something to be content with.

This part really hit home.

Like, I don’t really like that Lewa’s now female; I’m kind of saddened by the fact, honestly. Obviously I’m not the only one (I’m here for you, Eljay). But I’ve decided that, rather than complain about it, I’m going to continue working on my ideas/pitch and doing my best to make what’s been canonized as good as can be.

And there are still things yet to be decided that I have some ideas for. Ideas which I’d like to make known, and hopefully canon after some time. So I’m going to work hard on those, as well, accepting that even if TTV’s G3 doesn’t line up 100% with what I had in mind, that a) there’s still more to come and b) I did my best to argue for what I thought were the best ideas.

In the end, that’s all that matters to me - not that what I want to be canon gets canonized, but that I put in the time and effort to help the project succeed, one way or another.

[Willess12]

@JonBlueFire

Actual fact occurred when a community member reminded you all that ‘Pohatu’ meant ‘Stone’ in Maori;

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. TTV was already being swayed back toward Stone Pohatu by a comment on one of their videos, with no art whatsoever, about the elements being tied to regions rather than being elemental classification. Var even said “now I kinda want Pohatu to be stone.” Then someone said “also, Pohatu means Stone,” and TTV said “Well, that’s it then, Ice and Stone remain.”

~W12~

[Matanui606]

@JonBlueFire

A good example would be @Matanui606 's ideas topic that was criticized by @Eljay recently; it failed to produce any discussion, however, as those were outdated ideas, that did not agree with the present canon.

I just want to start that I’ve actually kept updating my pitch topic regularly, and while it may have been based on some ideas that haven’t been talked about in a while, it doesn’t actually conflict with any of TTV’s Canon. Also Eljay only started responding to it because I brought it up in an argument over on discord.

I would also like to say that while I don’t think that this project is conducted badly, it could definitely be done better. The current format of the podcasts have them focusing on one topic and trying to resolve it in one episode, this format discourages feedback since by the time the podcast is out, the decision has already been made. This has been combated by the creation of polls before the topic is discussed, but since the cast seems to be largely absent from these polls (I will say that you are doing better about this) it is hard to gauge where they stand and what arguments are being presented. I would recommend spitting issues across two episodes to allow community feedback to be given in between, this seemed to work well for the elements discussion as a large amount of discussion was able to be had between the cast and the community. Perhaps introduce a topic for the latter half of an episode then resolve it in the first half of the next one, then spending the latter half introducing a new topic. I will also say that you guys have done a good job (with the exception of the genders debate) of keeping the debate in the public eye, and I do appreciate that, I hope that what happened with the last topic does not become a trend.

[Willess12]

So, I’ve thought long and hard about this issue, and I’ve reached a surprising conclusion: both sides are right.

On the one hand, changing the gender of one of the main characters is going to lead to fan backlash.
But it does have some merit, because, honestly, the “token female” is an issue G1 had. Yes, it is a problem, for a really simple reason: it makes things less interesting. Think about this: what if all of the Toa Mata had Lewa’s personality? How boring would that be? That’s an extreme, yes, but by limiting the number of shes in BIONICLE, they limited the number of female personalities they could have, made worse when all the girls except Roodaka, Lariska, and Kiina had basically the same personality. Three may seem like a lot compared to the number of female characters, but BIONICLE had around 200 or so characters from both generations.

So there, there is at east one perfectly good reason to have more female characters. The problem lies in the fact that this is a remake of BIONICLE with characters we all know and love, and changing their gender inherently changes them.

So here’s the conundrum: TTV wants to work with the Toa Mata because they are the “symbols of BIONICLE”. That’s why Kahi has shot down new Toa so many times. Yet, this specific cast of characters has a flaw, one that can’t be fixed without changing who these characters are. At that point, it is as Kahi said “more of a fanfic than a remake”.

Enter TTV’s creative solution: the Toa being Elemental Avatars. You still have the original Toa, but not as characters but rather archetypes. Now, a gender swap makes sense, as does any little change to the personalities: these are supposed to be similar to the G1 Toa, but not alike – no two people are exactly alike.

This raises a new Problem, though: names. If you have all the Toa of Fire be named “Tahu” that will get confusing. With that in mind, do what Avatar did: have a term for the role (Avatar) and then a name for your character (Aanghead/Korra/etc.)

Since many of the Toa’s names mean the elements, I’d say this is the role name. Then, the Toa of Fire is still called “Tahu” sometimes, but his actual name is, say “Vakama” for example. The other Toa will call him Vakama, while the Matoran or whatever the villagers are call him “Tahu Vakama” a title similar to “Toa Tahu” or “Avatar Aang”.

Now, the Toa Mata are still characters, with their personalities and genders unchanged, but our main cast is new characters who are similar to the Toa Mata, but naturally different as well, and have more room for diversity and thus more varied personalities.

~W12~

[JonBlueFire]

@Jon

This is baffling to me because I feel like we say “Someone on the boards” or “Someone in the comments” all of the time.

Off the top of my head, the fact that the Toa’s elements were tied to their region was suggested by a fan. The titles, Toa of the Tundra, was also directly from a comment. Lightning was the highest suggested element to add to the canon and was added. A lot of our understanding of elemental powers was provided by @Scorpion_Strike. Oomatu has inspired many of our current designs.

(Besides lightning already having an impact in the early G1 community through Voriki (which is probably why it got so many votes)).

True all those things listed were inspired by fans… about 5 of 'em. (Out of the 200+ you’ve got). While not all of them mention their ideas, you all still only select a very small amount, and rival the majority of the fans (who are almost all G1 people (another reason the pole is done poorly)) on many decisions.

@Jon

Because they’re good?

That’s true. They are. Does that mean the rest of the art is bad?

@Jon

We don’t comment on all of it, because we save our comments for the podcast.

Oh, can you please tell me, then, when has my artwork been commented on?

@Jon

We also ignore a lot of the bad ideas.

Is this implying my ideas, and others’, are bad? If not, then wow, you don’t even bother to tell him/her that their idea is not what you’re looking for.

@Jon

But sure, we don’t read every single post. Did you see the results of the element debate? A lot of it is rehashing the same argument. Same in this topic.

There was a lot of rehashing in the Podcasts as well. 3-4 episodes focused on whether or not to keep stone and ice, I believe.

@Jon

We are? We’re making our own G3 project with added input from the community.

So you’re not doing it on your own then. You’re doing it with the community (why can’t you just say that, then?)

@Jon

There’s been a lot of stuff that’s inspired and changed what we wanted to do. That doesn’t mean that we will incorporate every idea suggested into it. There’s a lot that gets ignored or are pitches that are out of date.

True.

@Jon

We’re, again, not making a new LEGO line. We are making a podcast that has a discussion about hypothetically creating a new LEGO line. So being done in “secret” has no point.

I realize you’re not making a new Lego line, but neither was Lego when they made Bionicle G2, yet it was still done in secret.
So what I’m hearing is, despite you and other stating on at least two podcasts that you are trying to realize the struggles that Lego went through when making G2, that you are not trying to go through the struggles that Lego did when they made G2?
If not, then please explain.

@Jon

Not everything that’s suggested is good. Sorry.

True.

@Jon

I think the project has been an overwhelming success. We’ve reinvigorated podcast discussion and views, we have more Bionicle discussion than ever, we’ve been exposed to a ton of great fan art and content.

Sure, some people don’t like it, but the people that don’t like things are always vocal about it, while the people that are okay with things don’t really ever interact. It’s how the internet works. You think we’ve never gotten negative comments before? We fully expected some people weren’t going to like some of the things we did.

For me, I have an avenue to be creative and have great discussions with my friends every week, to an ever increasing audience, spurred on by fantastic concept art and inspired by some cool ideas I’ve seen from people around the community.

Brickonicle has been nothing short of an absolute success, in terms of what I wanted to do with it. And the rest of the cast can and probably will echo that.

Then congratulations on your part.
I get to look forward to 3-4 hours of work on a Tahu concept, which I stayed up to 3 in the morning doing just so I could get feedback from the TTV before/during the podcast, get wasted because only Exxtrooper responded. And that was only because I @ ed him. But who cares about my ideas right? Obviously not the 20 or so people who like them.

@IllustriousVar

I’m sorry you feel that way, but I’ve been having a blast. Seems like a success to me.

The only reason, I feel, you are (as well as Mr. Juan) enjoying it is because you two seem to be leading the discussion in terms of ideas and content, with the rest of the cast just agreeing on what you guys suggest.
And don’t get me wrong, they are great ideas worthy of being utilized.
What bugs me is that I don’t even get a “No this won’t work because…”
At least it’s feedback.

@Chronicler

Actually, this is how most designs for movies, games, and other media is done. Several graphic designers make stuff, and the directors (TTV in this case) look over it, discuss it, and see if it fits their vision. If it doesn’t? Sorry, it’s not going to cut it. They only pick what they like.

Yes, but at least the Designers get feedback on why it didn’t make the cut. Here, they either just love it, or ignore it.

@Chronicler

Furthermore, there’s still more opportunities for you guys, the community, to form this project with TTV. You’re not always gonna be content with what you get, but I dunno why the stubbornness has to happen. Instead, why not find other good ideas and suggest them? Then not only will you have a hand in the project, you will also have something to be content with.

I’ve been trying for my last three topics, each showing different concepts, but none have been noticed. I’ll keep trying, but, from what I’ve seen, you either have to be really good at writing or digital art to get noticed (obviously there’s small stuff too, but for the major concepts, this is what I’m seeing).

@21sselliW

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. TTV was already being swayed back toward Stone Pohatu by a comment on one of their videos, with no art whatsoever, about the elements being tied to regions rather than being elemental classification. Var even said “now I kinda want Pohatu to be stone.” Then someone said “also, Pohatu means Stone,” and TTV said “Well, that’s it then, Ice and Stone remain.”

I’m pretty sure at least some of the cast was still split, but don’t quote me on that.

@Matanui606

I just want to start that I’ve actually kept updating my pitch topic regularly, and while it may have been based on some ideas that haven’t been talked about in a while, it doesn’t actually conflict with any of TTV’s Canon. Also Eljay only started responding to it because I brought it up in an argument over on discord.

While I’m glad yours was noticed, it must be said that you did “force” Eljay to inspect it, in a way. Same as I had to do with Exx and my Tahu drawing.

---

To all those who have had a blast with this project, great! I’m happy for you!

But the fact still stands that many good ideas are either shot down immediately or ignored completely, with, at least of the cast’s part, little to no explanation why.

The only good thing this discussion has done for me was given me ideas to use in my own G3 topic (which was made before all this Brickonicle stuff).

Many have tried, but few have succeeded in getting the TTV to change their viewpoint. (whether that’s because of the cast ignoring the fans or that just the fans can’t provide a good argument, I’m not sure)

And while this may have originally been done to replicate Lego’s work system with G2, it obviously doesn’t, as Lego did not have current community feedback given to them before they released G2.

I say either keep G3 a secret only amoungst the cast members (which, obviously, isn’t happening), or start to mingle and provide feedback to the fans; you might find out stuff that you would have missed otherwise.

And hey, at least through all my efforts at trying to spark some TTV feedback, I can at least say that this post has done so.

[Willess12]

@JonBlueFire

which is probably why it got so many votes

I can’t speak for why everyone voted for lightning, but Voriki wasn’t really a real thing and wasn’t going to be a thing in G3 until after Ice and Stone had been decided to stay. Tahnok-Kal was, though, to be fair, so that might have effected opinion. But I’d imagine it got so many votes because it makes sense as an element.

---

@JonBlueFire

At least it’s feedback.

See, here’s an important thing to keep in mind. TTV the great gods of this community… are also people. I have no real life and I can barely keep up with all the posts here, and TTV has a show, school, jobs, etc.
But it’s not like they just ignore things they don’t like. They just don’t address everyone by name. Many, many people brought up the concept of Pohatu being Lightning, but TTV gave a good reason for rejecting it. They didn’t say “Bioguy, Madeupusername, generic name, bob, etc. all had this idea.” They said “People in the community have posited this idea”, and they discussed it.

@JonBlueFire

at least the Designers get feedback on why it didn’t make the cut

@JonBlueFire

There was a lot of rehashing in the Podcasts as well

Well, yeah, but it’s easy to repeat the ideas of 6-10 people. Not so easy with 200+. And the thing about the designer analogy is that movie production studios hire a select, small group of people to be designers. TTV, on the other hand, has opened it up such that literally anyone can posit ideas.

TTV are still humans, and they do what all people do: they talk about what they like. Let’s say I finish this post, go to my new topics and find a random MOC that I find to be just ‘okay’ I won’t bother to comment. But if the MOC is particularly cool, I’ll leave a comment, and maybe if it’s bad I’ll leave constructive criticism to help out the MOCcist. TTV has roughly an hour to talk about stuff publicly. What are they gonna talk about? Their favorites, of course.

@JonBlueFire

I’ve been trying for my last three topics, each showing different concepts, but none have been noticed. I’ll keep trying, but, from what I’ve seen, you either have to be really good at writing or digital art to get noticed

Look, I feel you. I’d like to contribute to G3, but I suck at art and am mediocre at best as a MOCcist. All I really can do is write, but I usually don’t write a whole book about one element. But, well, all I can do is do what I can. Some people are great artists and can draw up a 5-minute drawing that gets likes from the whole cast in one day. I cannot, and it doesn’t seem you can either. So just do your best at what you can do. Mayhaps you will draw something that Meso or someone will notice and say “hey, that’s a realy good idea.”

~W12~

[Ven]

@JonBlueFire

But the fact still stands that many good ideas are either shot down immediately or ignored completely, with, at least of the cast’s part, little to no explanation why.

The only good thing this discussion has done for me was given me ideas to use in my own G3 topic (which was made before all this Brickonicle stuff).

Many have tried, but few have succeeded in getting the TTV to change their viewpoint. (whether that’s because of the cast ignoring the fans or that just the fans can’t provide a good argument, I’m not sure)

shut up