I’ve thought about how I’d run an “anything-goes” mask poll before. First, a “nomination round”, where anyone can nominate any canonical mask power (within reason, of course) (including hypothetical masks mentioned on BS01’s Other Kanohi page). Each person gets one nomination and each mask can be nominated once. Then, there’s either a tournament-style bracket vote, or, if there’s a lot of nominations, there’s a big poll with all nominations and those with more than one vote can move onto a bracket vote.
2 Likes
If we were to ever do something like this, I agree with doing a nomination round, but it wouldn’t be to nominate the powers we already explicitly know about. Those should be included automatically. In my mind, the nomination round would be to introduce entirely new power ideas.
Maybe there would be a second nomination round like how you suggested, where we can whittle it down to the ideas that even have a chance without trying to fit them into any kind of bracket, but there should definitely also be a “new ideas nomination” before that point.
3 Likes
I’m not sure I would like the addition of entirely new powers. I suggested a “nomination round” because we have a lot of mask powers, and it would “dilute” votes, so-to-speak, if we put them all on a bracket for characters like Zaria or Orde, who already have some widely-accepted fanon masks.
3 Likes
I leave for three hours and suddenly we’re talking about Kanohi
3 Likes
You wanna argue about barbs some more? I think we all needed a break
7 Likes
Gonna throw this out there…what if an UNOFFICIAL, NON-BINDING, RUN COMPLETELY SEPARATE FROM THE MAIN CONTEST mask power poll was held? Of course, including “unknown mask power” and “mask we hypothetically know about, but have never seen as options”.
Like I said, it would absolutely not be binding and affect nothing. If you held this poll for, say, Orde, the results would dictate nothing about Orde’s mask.
But the MOCists would see the results, and see where the community stands on what mask power they want Orde to have, or what kind of personality they want reflected in the design…and maybe they could voluntarily choose to design accordingly.
We could also hold unofficial, off-to-the-side, non-binding polls for contentious back-and-forths in this main topic. Might allow for an actual measurement of where the community actually stands on issues, as opposed to just seeing who is most persistant/loud.
Just an idea.
8 Likes
Seems like a lot of extra red tape, effort, and headache to determine answers to questions that barely exist, and even so, are for a contest that may not even happen for more than a year.
Can we wait for the Tuyet contest to get an official start date before we start hashing out how to do the contests after Tuyet?
1 Like
I’m about 95% certain that if we held such a poll for Orde’s mask, the Sanok would win. Zaria, I’m less sure on; the mask of Adaptation is popular, but not quite so unanimous.
That said, there is some merit to this idea. I remember at least one person commenting that entering the Hagah art contest was basically a gamble on which armor color distribution people wanted, so a poll like that would have been helpful in that instance.
Don’t tell anyone I told you this, but I have it on good authority that the Tuyet contest will start sometime before January 1st, 2025.
7 Likes
I just went back and watched this video for real (I didn’t watch it before because… I didn’t need convincing).
The guy really provides very clearly (and with jello substitute) how a backward-facing barb just doesn’t do what Greg wants the barbs to do, so the only direction the barbs can face is the direction that most people would’ve assumed anyway.
1 Like
Then you didn’t understand the video.
As stated in the video, the wound plugs around a backwards facing barb and yanks the flesh on the way back out, causing extra damage and making a mess.
He says “you won’t be able to pull that out of yourself easily without an immense amount of pain”
Because a person doesn’t want to put themselves through pain.
Now if someone else stabbed you who wanted to hurt you and even had superhuman strength it wouldn’t be an issue, and it would be effective at yanking flesh and additional structures on the way out
1 Like
question: why does this matter
Like actually, why are we arguing about this? People were angry when TTV was mandating specific things like this in the previous contest, and unlike those, this does not matter. The functionality of barbs on the sword does not matter. So many Bionicle weapons have blades or pistons or anything that would not function irl, and it’s ok because it is not real life. Mandating the way the barbs face would not only hinder creativity in some cases, but spark backlash that is very, very unnecessary.
12 Likes
Because the Greg quote specifically says deal more damage when being pulled out.
The contests have gotten flack for having ‘less integrity’ because of inaccuracies from previously given descriptions. We shouldn’t seek to be less accurate because we don’t want to put in the extra effort or because we want to get away with something
5 Likes
I feel like you misunderstood me (something that context should’ve been able to clarify considering we’ve been on the same side of this whole thing?).
By “backward-facing barb,” I am referring to what is called in the video a crescent arrowhead – the barb is “backward” and cannot do what a normal arrowhead/barb is designed to do.
3 Likes
My apologies. You’re right, I misinterpreted you. People have being sayin things ery which way and has me confused at times 
4 Likes
To add to what Takutanuva said:
I totally agree that the contests, in general, should not mandate very small details of characters and should not hinder creativity. I wrote a post earlier in this thread that attempted to demonstrate some examples of what I don’t think the Tuyet contest should mandate. Throwing in extra details that weren’t previously known to canon (like TYQ Toa’s tools, even though I recognize TTV didn’t mean to do that) is an example of something I don’t think we should be doing either.
However, the barbed broadsword was given a description by Greg, and the description makes clear how the sword is designed. Therefore it’s in the interest of accuracy to make the canon visual art for the sword as close to the canon description as possible.
4 Likes
Why nobody considers the option that Greg didn’t call the sword a broadsword, because it would be similar to an actual broadsword in any way, but because he imagined it to be just a large maybe even two handed sword with barbs?
3 Likes
I think the general consensus is that Bionicle weapons don’t follow historical nomenclature to a tee, and therefore, pretty much any sword will do
2 Likes
Like Atobe_Brick said, it really doesn’t even matter what kind of sword is used. Honestly, whether it even needs to look like a sword is questionable, looking at the:
- Fire Greatswords
- Proto Pitons (real piton depicted here – same function, different shape)
- Air Katana
- Air Saber
- Laser Drill
- Laser Harpoon
- Sonic Vibration Sword (it’s… a tube)
- Seismic Pickaxe (the jackhammer end is fine… the pickaxe end…)
- Ice Peg (real ice axe for climbing as Thok’s is; the resemblance is barely passing)
- Longswords (Bitil’s)
- Exploding Boomerangs (barely passing)
- Laser Lance (in no world is Umbra’s tool a lance)
- Ice Axe (Metus, not Strakk)
The broadsword shouldn’t be required to fit the aspects of a broadsword, but the barbs should definitely look like barbs. The other adjectives in weapon names have been accurate to their weapons, usually in fulfilling a function or aesthetic – like “Laser Lance” or “Exploding Boomerangs” or “Fire Sword.”
Edit: Took out the Laser Axe because it looks more like an axe than I made it out to be. The harpoon and drill are staying.
2 Likes
Doesn’t seem particularly practical …
1 Like