Well for one itās something we want and for another, itās like all things where a consensus is needed it acts as both a grounding and a springboard for otherās ideas.
Also as a note. Someone brought up that the argument ājust ignore itā for the contests isnāt that great and I donāt disagree with that I donāt feel like the anti-contest people are bringing up much better arguments. It feels like they are just wording the same 3-ish arguments over and over in different ways.
āWhy do we want/need this or thatā
āThis treads on peoples ideasā
āI donāt like them so no one else canā
And all of these arguments at least imo donāt feel all that compelling either and most of them have a fair counterargument.
Also it feels like those who are against the contest keep disregarding and acting like those who do want the contest donāt exist or are weird or insane for wanting such a thing whilst weāve (those in favor of them) have remained fairly civil recently and relatively speaking. I also want to make clear that this isnāt aimed at any one person since some of if not most of the anti-contest people have been quite civil and brought up some good points once you give 'em time to explain and elaborate imo but there are some people and a general undertone of disregarding everything the pro-contest people say. (Is anyone else getting some deja vu from this)
The changes seen in other Bionicle characters appearances are so drastic(This is where Takua comes inā¦) thereās no reason a fan canāt make their own interpretation ācanonā in their mind, even if it has virtually no resemblance to the canon model.
From what Iāve seen, most who are against the contests are afraid of their creative freedom being limited and their head-canons being āstomped onā. Therefore, I argue neither are necessarily true.
It would be nice if everybody could just come to accept every winning entry as canon. But clearly some people canāt do that, which is why Iām promoting āignoringā in the first place.
I donāt even necessarily agree with the idea that appearances of these characters is something that should be viewed of as fluid (outside of cases with explicit reasons), but, like, Stuubhās rightā¦matoran universe characters existed for 100,000 years. Even if it was only 100 years, thatās a lot of time for weird stuff to happen to the way characters look in a universe where weird stuff happens to the way characters look. A canon depiction absolutely does not stop you from still exploring other ways to depict these characters
Also, likeā¦this isnāt the first time weāve discovered how a character looks a long time after they had a story role. Nektann, Karzhanni, Icarax, and Mata Nui himself all come to mind, and thatās just off the top of my head without checking BS01. That doesnāt include official canonization contests from back in the day, like Tobduk. No one complained about the set Karzhanni stomping on their headcannon of him, and if I remember correctly, yet another INCREDIBLE depiction of him was later shown in bionicle world after that point, despite the fact we had a canon set.
The fact that this conversation has happened every two weeks for a decade, but seems to keep coming down on the side of canonization, means just that: people like new parts of the story being added. We like finding out what these characters looked like in canon. Sure, we could have each come up with our own Toa Kualus, but nowā¦there is a SPECIFIC Kualus. One with a parts list, and instructions. Thatās awesome. Thatās cool.
And it absolutely, 100%, does not diminish people making their own versions. Itās lego. Build whatever you want, whenever you want. And people do! People make their own variations on established, released-by-lego canon models all the time. If I go look for Toa Mistika reworks right now, Iād find a LOT. And very few of them will look like Onua, Tahu, and Gali. And theyād not be official canon, and may even contradict canon a bit. And theyād still be awesome.
So, just, likeā¦let people have nice things, yāall. I want canon Toa Nidhiki art. That canon Toa Nidhiki art doesnāt make it illegal to make your own Toa Nidhiki.
Unpopular opinion: I like that Nidhikiās Toa mask looks so different than his mutated face, because it emphasized the grotesque transformation. The Volitak in particular works because the shape is fairly similar to a human head (more so than most Bionicle masks), so it goes well with Toa Nidhikiās humanoid body and contrasts strongly with the insectoid head and body of his mutated form.
I totally understand why people think the Kualsi shape would be better for Nidhiki though. The contrast between his Toa and mutated form is already obvious, so people prefer the resemblance/intentional design.
And Iām hoping that Greg changes his mind and lets Nidhikiās mask be silver, because makes it easier to MOC and silver-and-green would be a much better color scheme than just green. The precedent of normal Toa with a metallic color was already established through Lhikan and through Toa of Psionics. Given this precedent, Gregās reasoning about metallic armor being unique to Hagah or ānon-normalā Toa doesnāt make sense; presumably the uniqueness of the Hagah comes from the material the armor is made of, āforged from precious metals.ā
I disagree with Gregās reasoning but heās been saying Nidhikiās volitak is green consistently. And since we only have Gregās word to go off of, a green volitak it must be.
That said, Iād imagine TTV would allow a silver volitak as a placeholder. Requiring people to paint pieces seems unfair.
Had to look up what you meant by this, and dang, I donāt know how I never noticed that before. They really did her dirty
I 1000% agree. This is also why it annoys the heck out of me when people use those fan-fiction āpre-mutationā Barraki heads to make their pre-mutation Barraki that are supposedly super handsome: theyāre way too similar to their mutated forms, which are supposed to be super ugly!
Pre-mutation? Armored Inika builds, more or less, mostly by way of them standing up straight, no hunches or anything. Faces that donāt look like their mutated faces (which I usually default to bare Mata or Metru heads, but if someone does a face that isnāt those fan-fiction pieces, then I really donāt care).* Thatās how I imagine them, anyways. Unimaginative perhaps, but
*The only exception is Ehlek, which we know from the second Encyclopedia only grew those spines on his back. You could argue those ridges on his head count as spines, in which case Iād default to his prototypeās smooth head.
Well, we know that Ehlek actually looks pretty similar to his mutated form, since his species was somewhat resistant to the mutagen.
Itās also worth noting that Pridak was the only one of the Barraki who took particular pride in his appearance (or at least that was mentioned). When I imagine a āhandsomeā Bionicle character, I tend to think of a more humanoid face than the typical Metru head. Almost like a Bayformer, maybe?
EDIT: Never mind, it does apply to all six:
From Legends 6: City of the Lost:
Those who saw them said they made Toa look like some kind of Rahi that crawled out from under a rock.
So on the topic of Nidhikiās Volitak, I know thereās a rule against cut/modified parts, but perhaps there could be an exception for him.
The official Volitak part has that obnoxious rebreather on the chin. Surely this is one of the aquatic elements of the Nuparuās Volitak. Perhaps for the MOC entry period, modification to that piece alone could be allowed. If that entry wins and itās kept in the winning art entry, someone could simply make a 3D model of the rebreather-less Volitak and itāll be considered a custom part.
This hasnāt been confirmed, and, as such, is pretty shaky ground for such a drastic rule change. Besides, the āNo Cut Partsā rule exists for reasons beyond āyou shouldnāt need to do it anywaysā.
Also, couldnāt someone just make a rebreatherless Volitak model before the contest?
(Side note, I find that the existing part makes more sense on Nidhiki and Chiara if you see the ārebreatherā as a third-party muffler addon, like the scope of an Akaku, rather than an aquatic addition)