In regards to the Greg situation, I believe it’s the right decision to leave him be as much as possible when it comes to minutia like the Hagah masks, or other similar things. If for nothing else, both the story itself and his answers were written the way they were for a reason, and to try and worm out more than a few nonexistent loopholes or exceptions does a disservice to both the story as a whole and to Greg himself. If there were alternatives to anything presented within the story itself, Greg would have (and more than likely already has) addressed them at the time, when they were not only fresh on his mind, but there was a whole story team to bounce ideas off of. It is what it is.
(And on a personal note, I am very much in favor of the ruling in regards to the Inika and Mahri’s Kanohi. I’ve not made it a secret that I’m against 3D pieces for a host of reasons, but in this particular case, it makes sense to use the existing design for, say, the Volitak seeing as it, of course, already exists. The ruling prioritizes actual pieces, and there is nothing wrong with that.)
As for the decisions on the Hagah rules, I can’t weigh in too much since I was never heavily involved in those conversations (and it’s been well past a month anyways, so I can’t recall most of the talking points anywho). All I’ll say is that I’m glad the allow/disallow Kanohi-altering was approved, and while I’m disappointed the “enter all 4 at once” method lost out, I understand the reasons why it did. In either scenario, I look forward to the contests beginning soon!
Also, a question for the contests going forward: during and after Artakha’s contest there was the debacle about whether you the hosts were obligated to inform the contestants whether there was a problem with their entry. At the time two scenarios were presented: either more judges/hosts would be added on in order to make sure no entry got left behind, or simply that an entry that did not follow the rules would be disqualified, end of story. Seeing as how most recent discussions of the contests revolved around the Hagah and how to run their contest specifically, I don’t believe this topic ever came up on the forums. My question is, was this addressed at all behind the scenes, and if so, what, if any, decision was reached?
Shame about the fan designs for masks, but I think it does make a modicum of sense for the contest’s sake, but it doesn’t make sense as a hard line within the universe with the continued existence of Krakua and the Power Pack Rua. Therefore, we must decanonize those immediately.
Our current perspective is that we are not obligated to inform entrants that their entries have issues that need correcting. Entrants are obligated to follow the rules of the contest. The reason we did that was as a courtesy.
My understanding is that we will have additional aid in vetting entries and informing people that things are not following the rules. Again, it’s a courtesy. We have to vet everything eventually, it’s just a matter of trying to get as many entries in as possible so everyone has a shot.
The asymmetrical Suletu design could be rationalised as depicting literally a head with the outer layer peeled away, which seems pretty apt for a mask of telepathy. Works for me.
(That implies that the Great Beings had scaly-lizard-head creatures in mind…)
Glad to see movement, glad to see Greg’s time respected.
The mask could be designed by a Matoran, though, in which case you have to wonder if they thought that Toa were secretly piloted by tiny geckos pulling levers in their heads.
I’m confused as to why we can’t have alternative versions of existing Kanohi. I get that Greg’s word is that organic Calixes, Sanoks, etc. just look like the inorganic ones, but we know that there can be different regional/stylistic variants of the same Kanohi, i.e. Lhikan. For the Hagah, yeah, I suppose you run into some hoops to jump through if you want them to have regional/styled variant masks because their masks will be forged into someone else’s mask shapes, but what about Orde or Chiara? If they have a unique variant of a mask, it’s their own mask.
I wasn’t planning to vote for hagah mocs with 3D printed inika masks but I’m not a fan of the precedent set for future characters. I get most of the other rules though.
any fan-made “inorganic” Inika masks or custom altered Mahri masks (which we’re about to get to) created by the 3D modeling community would NOT be up for canonization
“Obligated” might’ve been poor wording on my part, but nonetheless I’m glad to have this established, and that you guys will hopefully have extra help in these contests. It’s a thankless job, so once again I’d like to say thank you for all the time and headache you put into theses contests. It’s truly appreciated, whether it feels like it or not.
Genuinely asking: why is that? What does a normal Calix do “wrong” that a 3D Calix “fixes?”
I mean, no? We already know 1 mask can take many different shapes. Lhikan, and Tahu stars both have haus that are different from the original mold but are both considered valid and canon. I don’t see why it would be any different for inika and mahri masks.
For starters, connection point is a good one. The rubber inika masks don’t ordinarily fit on heads other that the ones designed for them (and although I’m sure techniques exist for fitting them around other heads, it still wouldn’t be a legitimate connection point). Additionally, they’re pretty big by the standards of most toa bodies, and they’re also terribly ugly, especially compared to how other kanohi are designed.
I’m not saying the designs have to be drastically different, if greg says the inorganic ones look more or less like the organic ones then so be it, but not having the option to size them down or clean up the fleshy face-like features that make them differ heavily from other kanohi feels very unnecessary. Especially given the existence of Lhikan’s hau, as others have already pointed out.
For the record though, I’m totally fine with the rule being about the mahri masks, as they don’t suffer from any of these same issues.
For Nidhiki, the restriction on the Mahri masks makes sense, because we effectively know his is standard shape - however there’s just that point - this boils down what their standard shape is, but when it comes to other characters, like Chiara or Varian, they could still wear masks of non-standard shapes, like Lhikan, for all that we know.
I’d argue that Calix (along with Iden) is one of the more pleasing-looking Inika masks. And since Varian is going to have an artwork anyway I wouldn’t worry about the mask looking weird/too big/ugly/out of place on her, since that can be altered in the drawing.
Plastic versions of the Inika masks with closed mouths and axles do seem like an option that should be allowed. I don’t think the designs themselves are that bad.
I do admit that I was wrong on Nidhiki’s Volitak in my discussion with Eljay yesterday and I think this also is a good quote for people like me who’d believe the contrary, it’s also a direct answer for the future Nidhiki contest: Official Greg Discussion | Page 205 (thegreatarchives.com)
Credit goes to Tikoro in the r/Bionicle discord for providing me with the link.
Finally unrelated question: What is there left to decide before going forward with the contest?