I’d honestly be for that, but TTV’s stance is that they don’t want their pitch to turn into mere “fanfiction”. It’s better to work with preexisting (but altered) characters than deal with new ones at the moment. But it makes sense for what the whole Brickonicle project is designed to do - demonstrate the difficulties, high points, and low points of developing a Lego theme while also articulating what we would do differently to make things better than, unique from, and more successful than G1 and G2.
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At that point, why not just go and make a new IP? Because you already have to change the story somewhat to give the reboot purpose; with new characters, you’re at the point where you might as well just create a spiritual successor instead of a reboot.
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I don’t think that the preexisting characters should be tampered with. They’re a tried and true method to a working system, and any alteration, subtraction, or reworking of this system could be potentially fatal.
So leave them as they are. If you want new characters in the future, or perhaps new branches of the story as in G1, then go that route instead of ruining the Bionicle system that nobody would be completely happy with except the one who altered it.
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I think that both characters would work well as females, but I think Tahu would work better than Lewa as a female character. If sexism exists in g3 it could create a new dynamic with the fact that Tahu is the leader of the team. If not I still think Tahu would be a good gender switch candidate.
Note: I am not suggesting this for shipping reasons, honestly I think the original six toa should not be romantic even though love is canon in g3. Second, I am also not suggesting this to fulfill any agenda, I legitimately think the switch would work. Third, I brought up the possibility of sexism in g3 because the best children’s shows ans stories present real world issues in understandable ways, that being said I truly do not care is sexism is never mentioned, I just brought it up as a possibility to be considered, g3 society could easily be an idyllic one. And to reiterate one last time, I only mention the possibility of Tahu’s gender being switched because I think no matter the context it would be very interesting and could keep the character fresh. Sorry if this seemed rant like.
Hmmmm…
I’ll choose ‘left.’
I wouldn’t really want them to be changed, mostly because I feel attached to the characters. If I had to pick one, though, I’d go with Pohatu. I think it would be an interesting choice, as Lego has never really done those colors for females.
And let’s be honest, I wouldn’t want Eljay wearing the mask of a female Lewa
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To be blunt, ttv, do this, you will get far less resistance to the changes you’re suggesting if you had set out for a spiritual successor, in fact I personally wouldn’t have argued against pretty much anything.
C’mon man,
kopaka’s clearly the kuudere, tahu’s the tsundere.
Gosh.
Anyway, I reiterate my point, there’s nothing wrong with the current gender ratio of the toa, having a male majority is not a bad thing, anymore than a female majority is a bad thing, there is no problem.
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I don’t think that any genders should be changed, maybe just introduce another female character, like Voriki.
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I second that. I think the characters are one of the strongest and most recognizable parts of Bionicle, and removing the core Six would, I guess, make it not Bionicle.
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Why would we not want resistance? The differing opinions is whats helping us form and shape this project.
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And I’d like to add to this that, for the love of humanity, introducing new characters or switching up some major plot elements does not change what a theme is as a whole, nor does it necessarily alter what made the theme popular in the first place.
It’s pretty obvious that what made BIONICLE so popular for people back in its day was 1) the fascinating, immersive world and 2) the cool sci-fi concepts introduced through the characters and their struggles. A case could be made for round, dynamic characters, but I’m not sure I could agree. Whatever your opinion, it’s obvious that the G3 pitch is not eliminating any of these. It’s aiming to have a world as fascinating and immersive as the original, if not more so. It’s keeping the whole technoorganic vibe and putting new twists on it. And whether we get a new cast or not, there’s no doubt that the characters will be portrayed with more personality and relatability than before.
All this to say that whatever direction TTV takes with the characters, it’s laughable to think people believe that this alone will make it “not BIONICLE.” BIONICLE was popular primarily due to the world it introduced us to, and while the characters play a huge part in that world, changing their names, appearances, or even how they act will not change BIONICLE itself.
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I feel that a toa of air could be female
Between Lewa and Pohatu, I’d probably change Lewa. The traditionally wilder, more careless personality of the Toa of Air would make a female Toa of Air contrast better from the usually more measured, even-keeled Gali. Going off of their G1 personalities, I think Pohatu and Gali would just be too similar if they were both female.
Also, just throwing this out there, (maybe it already has been, I don’t know) but why not make Onua an option? There’s a lot of cultural association between Earth/nature and the female sex in that both are clearly capable of producing life. I mean, it’s not for nothing that the world is sometimes called “Mother Earth,” not “Father Earth.” Might just be a western cultural association, but still… Granted, it would present the problem of Gali and Onua’s rather similar personalities.
As for why to make any more characters than before female, it’s honestly a toss-up. Maybe it’s just me, but when I try to come up with a character’s personality, their gender is pretty far down the list of things that I care to examine. Making more characters female would be nice to drive home the message that girls matter, too, but I doubt any Bionicle story is ever going to play up the gender issue to begin with, and that’s the way I prefer it. Beyond the role in reproduction, which child-focused themes are probably going to tip-toe around regardless, gender seems to me nothing but an arbitrary set of standards and behavior anyways.
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I will say that this is assuming all their personalities are like G1’s.
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Actually, if I remember correctly from my Hawaiian friend, in Hawaii they believe the earth is also feminine, as well as the sea. I dunno much about Polynesian mythology but this idea isn’t entirely western.
Regardless, I honestly don’t see too much of a point in changing it. Could it be kinda cool to see for BIONICLE? Sure. I’d be happy to take a female Lewa or Onua if it’s pulled off right. If it doesn’t work, then honestly, I wouldn’t want it. I just don’t see a point to it unless it overall affects how a character acts and how they fit into the story.
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I doubt that it would affect how the character acts all that much in any case. Bionicle stories in the past have rarely made an issue of gender as, in G1, it was all but meaningless (other than the Toa of Psionics thing that was shoe-horned in late in the story) and G2 never made much out of any of its material. Unless G3 takes a very different approach, a gender change wouldn’t do a lot to any character, but… actually, thinking about it some more, that’s not where I think the benefit of it changing a character’s gender would lie anyways. The possible benefit would lie not in changing the behavior but in changing the perception of the character and the gender.
Sure, when we dig down, gender becomes pretty irrelevant to most Bionicle stories pretty quickly, but in the real world the situation is very different and gender identity, for better or worse, is much more of a thing to a lot of people. Because of this, regardless of how little gender affects a character’s behavior in the Bionicle world, their gender is going to affect how the audience sees them and how much they can identify with them. If we have five male main characters that contrast nicely to each other and only one female character, what does that say about the female character or their gender in general? It reduces the whole gender to a single personality and makes gender the overriding characteristic for the ‘token female.’ I think that making another main character female, while it’s not going to do much to that character, could do a lot to change the perception of the female gender as being this one specific personality, especially if the two female characters have different behaviors and attitudes. It’d add variety that, though perhaps unnecessary from a character behavior perspective, would change the perception of the gender, and I think that’s a positive.
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I’m now picturing an anime girl personification of kopaka, with twintails. Why have you done this?
someone draw this
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Pohatu should not be a girl, cause then Kopaka X Pohatu would become a very common thing.
Bromance>Romance
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Mmm… Good point. I think, to add onto that, you could always add a contrast between Gali and the other female character. Gali has been known to be peaceful and quiet, so maybe the other is more dangerous? I dunno, just throwing out ideas.
So basically the Toa become the power rangers and have two female members.
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If the newly-changed female character is going to be more dangerous, I would conclude that the argument is swung rather in favor of Lewa provided that we’re going to maintain at least the core parts of their G1 personalities. I mean, Lewa’s wild, carefree and fun, while Gali… isn’t. Or at least not all those things, and certainly not to the same measure. There’s two very different female characters right there. I like these ideas…
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As do I, Scorpion. As do I.
Unless, of course, there’s other options, but I don’t think they’d work as well.
Tahu - Tahu’s hot-headedness and arrogance can work for any character, but G2 and partially G1 showed a type of masculinity that is hard to shake off, and I don’t think we should.
Kopaka - Kopaka is cold hearted, which again, can work for any character, but I don’t see any benefit in changing him. Plus, there’s the Kopaka and Pohatu bromance.
Pohatu - Maybe Pohatu could work. Yet, as StudentScissors showed above, the bromance between Pohatu and Kopaka is a famous element of G1, and something I personally liked. I don’t wanna see that going away. It was a good dynamic I wouldn’t like to see changed.
Onua - Change the name to Onya and you’re set. No but really, it could work too. Except, I dunno, a female Onua doesn’t seem too different than Gali. Both are peaceful, loyal, and smart. It would feel like a clone.
I guess Lewa it is then.
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