You could give them multiple arms, completely different physical forms, entirely different colour schemes - and explain it all away with Pit Mutagen. Again, nobody would vote for it and it would go nowhere, so this is a bit of a moot point, but it’s the same as Marendar being blue - there’s no rules to say that Pridak wasn’t lime green with six arms and no teeth before being mutated.
In all seriousness, this kind of contest would be establishing every detail about a significant character we know next to nothing about - aside from his personality. And again, Greg can just as easily say ‘No’ to anything he doesn’t like, so I don’t see the cause for such concern here. Anything radically different to what Greg already had in mind isn’t going to be canonized, even if the community votes it as being the best.[quote=“Racie02, post:378, topic:51213”]
Lariska is another good example: we know her colors, and that she has a robotic arm, and uses daggers, but she is also a complete unknown species.
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There’s been a Lariska moc with completely alien details and feel compared to the rest of Bionicle. There’s been a Lariska moc which has a giant eyeball for her head. How come Lariska, seeing as what people can do to alter the character, is fine for the process, and Marendar isn’t? Because we have a couple things to work off of?
I should point out that Marendar, at the end of the story, hadn’t even done anything remotely noteworthy aside from being mentioned. Any dramatic canonization for the character would be completely irrelevant in terms of modifying the story as nothing would be impacted by him being blue and wielding a mace that any other character could accomplish. Pridak being formerly blue and wielding a mace would have way more lasting effects on current canon because Pridak existed in written material for longer, has a dramatic impact on the MU as a whole, and is the definition of an entire theoretical species. Marendar affects none of these and out of the characters that could have contests probably does the least lasting damage to the story as a whole.
My point being? It’s ridiculous to say that canonizing what Marendar looks like is way too far, and defining what an entire MU species looked like isn’t.[quote=“Willess12, post:379, topic:51213”]
With Marendar, though, we have the vaguest idea of what he is: tall, humanoid, Toa-killer. A moc contest for him becomes less about “who can make the best Marendar Moc” and more “Who can make the coolest moc in general”.
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I disagree and here’s why.
People already have a preconception of what Marendar is supposed to look like, which varies from person to person - as there’s no definitive version in existence - and that will influence their decision as to what they choose. Excellent building talent is necessary, definitely, but more importantly than that you have to be capable of building a model that fits enough of your voter’s preconceptions while also taking a stab at what Greg was thinking of when he made the character. As Keksalot said:[quote=“SirKeksalot, post:363, topic:51213”]
Without any popular image to skew people’s expectations, the voters will be forced to pick whatever they legitimately think fits best.
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So it’s not about building the coolest moc that vaguely fits the necessary description. It’s about building what you think is the best Marendar, what the world thinks is the best Marendar, and most importantly what Greg thinks is the best Marendar.
And to that end, I say hoorah. This is a challenge more worthy of a canonization contest.