I’ll say in advance that I won’t go into the same depth here that I do in the other topic, but I’ll quickly rebuff your points, Dag.
The books have never been a source of debate. No point in even mentioning them.
Again, I thoroughly dissect this discussion in the other topic (which it seems you haven’t had a chance to review yet, so please take a moment to consider the point i’m trying to make there), but in sum, first review this quote.
First of all, notice the date. This quote was published in 2009, four years after the original quote was published. In 2008, Greg had already responded to a similar question saying “I really don’t remember. The Hagah storyline was three years ago, and I am wrapped up in 2010 right now.”
The history of the Hagah masks is a complicated affair, but it takes several leaps of logic to establish, and if I were Greg, I wouldn’t have remembered the details myself.
Now, notice that the OP only posts the bit about Norik not having a mask in its usual shape. If I were Greg, and was only reminded about the “rule”, and not reminded that Iruini was already an exception to this rule, I’d definitely say that there are no exceptions.
Taking the logic of the quote on its own terms, Iruini physically cannot have a mask that matches its power because he is, in fact, one of the “other Toa Hagah.” But we know that this isn’t true, and that Iruini is an exception. As such, it’s worth determining if there are more clarifications.
To copy and paste what I said in the other topic, I’ll settle with whatever wins the competition. The point of this post is to see if people would be unlimited by this particular constraint and free to post (and vote for) whatever they want, regardless of this talking point. Unless you have a personal vendetta against fan-made Masks of Emulation, I’m not sure why asking Greg for clarification on this is a problem.