I would say that the visual distinction between the Toa and Matoran is a quintessential part of Bionicle’s storytelling in any of it’s renditions, and to simply take that away for the excuse of making characters relevant is a big mistake. Besides, a lot of those OC pitches WOULD work as matoran characters, considering you’re planning a whole civil war story-line. while a matoran villain Ahkmou with a band of dessert raider type people wouldn’t work very well against the team of toa, remember, these are only 6 people, and this would be a war on a massive scale on the whole island. Therefor, I feel that matoran villain side-plots would work well, as they could be participants in the civil war.
Thank you for your time, and keep making excellent content.
This is a pretty cool idea. I know I had some ideas for matoran characters, maybe I could use them here…
I don’t think it was ever an outright plot point that the Toa were taller than the Matoran… apart from the shearch for the “tall Matoran” in Legends in Metru Nui.
I agree that there should be a visual distinction between the two species, but there’s way more to conveying hierarchy than just height, such as color and detail. The Matoran designs are probably going to have different prints anyway - Var’s torso design with shorter legs wouldn’t really communicate the difference in power that well, as it would look like another Toa who just so happens to be shorter. Showing power usually involves a little more than “the tall one” and “the short one”.
I agree, and I also have to wonder why the cast is so concerned with people’s OC’s. The canon and story needs to be shaped first to be of some sort of quality, and then people can shape their personal characters around that. I admit one of the appeals of G1 was how easily a fan character could fit into the larger world, but that’s where the difficulty of the world versus the story comes in.
The two are not necessarily at odds with each other but they have a complex relationship in which they determine each other and any choice with either one has an effect on the other. I can see a lot of people wanting their OC’s and personal fantasies to be validated in some way by the canon, but that’s not the concern of the creator. The creator knows they have an audience, and that audience does effect how the story is made, but there’s a difference between creating an ethical/moral idea to convey to a group of people in such a way that it’s more effective and blatant pandering. I mean like, seriously. This isn’t even an actual official Bionicle line.
The idea of needing to make matoran taller/stronger stems partly from the same feeling some people seem to have where they want their personal OC’s to be toa. I can hear the other arguments have that it creates more opportunities for things like the Ahkmou pitch that flesh out the world, but even though that’s a cool concept, how does it really suit the story? And if it does, then a group of matoran like that are an anomaly created with a certain point or statement, such as being a point to remind people of the goodness of the matoran constant. Unless moments like that are really gonna have a humongous and critical spot in the canon, meant to really challenge the toa to their wit’s end, there’s no point in adjusting the canon around them heavily. That’s displacing the relationship between world and story.
Also, if poseability is still the issue, I just do not buy an excuse to not create a new piece for the matoran to have short legs and standard poseability. This is a senario of what the cast would create if they were approached by LEGO (or were LEGO themselves) to create a system Bionicle G3. That doesn’t necessarily mean what they create should be what LEGO WOULD do. Sure, practically it’s unlikely for them to release that piece in a system Bionicle theme, but then again what exactly do we know that LEGO would do? This pitch/excersize is the cast’s idea and creation, and that means they can stretch reason just enough to fulfill their Bionicle fantasy. Life brings compromise, but this is not at all a situation or discourse that demands one.
Nobody can force someone to make their OCs in a way they dont want to, so the TTV arguments against OCs is pointless.
Sad but true…
I agree completely, I just feel that the height difference, added to the different design and printing, makes the visual distinction that is needed.