JMSOG's Strange Blog

Or!

 

Or.

 

We could just let sleeping dogs lie, and not have to explore, determine, and canonize EVERY SINGLE DETAIL EVER about Bionicle G1

...Due to an error on my part, I left "unknown" as an option out of the above synopsis.

 

Realistically, once gen2 truly gets up and rolling, I can see Greg likely completely shutting down canonization. This is the last hurrah we're going to get, and I'm all for it. Although i do understand people's reluctance.

 

EDIT: updated the post.

Honestly, if it weren't for the canonization contests over the years, I probably wouldn't explore other people's ideas, artwork or the specific concepts in general.

 

The plan sounds like it could actually be some fun and a cool lookback on G1 before we move to the reboot.

 

Honestly, I don't see why so many people are fussing over something like this.

Honestly, if it weren't for the canonization contests over the years, I probably wouldn't explore other people's ideas, artwork or the specific concepts in general.

 

The plan sounds like it could actually be some fun and a cool lookback on G1 before we move to the reboot.

 

Honestly, I don't see why so many people are fussing over something like this.

Because currently, any one of the unknown Toa Mangai could have the Kakama, and the rest are all blank slates as far as masks and weapons are concerned. That is a GOOD THING—it means that fans who want to depict the Toa Mangai have total freedom to come up with their own creative depictions of the characters. The trend of trying to fill in all the blank spaces in the old Bionicle stifles creativity and as such is total anathema to the "spirit of Lego" (or even the spirit of the Bionicle story, which thrived on mysteries and unknowns). And for what? Ultimately, the old Bionicle storyline is no better for defining every irrelevant unknown. All it does is ensure that other fan interpretations are NOT canon—it's no surprise that this exclusionary tactic is further fragmenting the fans of the old storyline.

 

Myself, I've felt that the old story has been a closed book since it ended, and as such I've ignored any further developments and been far happier for it. As such, I'm not willing to fight for the lost cause of trying to prevent further canonizations. Now that Bionicle is returning under new leadership I have a new story to follow, and I'll do everything I can as a fan to try and ensure that that story doesn't make the same mistakes the original Bionicle theme did, such as continuing to add cruft to the story even after it's concluded, or making a single, easily swayed person the sole arbiter of canon.

The main argument I've seen against canonization is conflict with headcannon. The thing is, headcannon, by definition, can directly conflict with established canon and be fine. There's nothing stopping me, right now, from believing that, for example, Matau was corrupted in 2005 instead of Vakama.

 

That being said, I don't like spontaneous canonization, and that's the other argument i've seen. As long as it's gone through a good approval process and enough open debate has happened, I can't see the issue with canonization.

 

EDIT: although, if in polls people elect to leave some things unknown, I will respect that.

Can we seriously just... not?

 

And yes, headcanon can conflict with canon. But there are writers and artists who like to work with what is canon so their stories can theoretically take place in the actual canon of the series and, with something like the Mangai, there's a lot of room for person and artistic freedom to write and create them however the writer wants to imagine them. Knowing all these details about them does us absolutely nothing, it's trivia tier information at best, but it is taking away the ability to theorize and imagine them in various ways across various mediums.

 

And if you think people don't post on stories or artwork or MOC's or in RPG's with "corrections" you'd be sorely mistaken.

Wait... are the toa mangai seriously that popular? Personally I never payed them much mind, and before hearing about a canonization plan, I never even thought about them since before Bionicle was cancelled.

 

Something like this could get more people thinking, more people creating and more people writing. I don't see something like that to be anti-lego at all.

But it ultimately won't. If you present the idea and talk about the Mangai, sure -- that's totally fine and stokes creativity and imagination (who were they? what did they look like? what masks? powers? weapons?) as discussion like that introduces various possibilities and actively has the participants in the discussion thinking and imagining them.

 

When you have a poll, or checklist, with "okay so they can only have 1 of each feature from each category" there's no imagination there. There's no creativity. Toa Mangai of the Green wields a mace and wears an Akaku, that means in creative media you can't have the Toa of the Green wielding a whip and wearing a Ruru, unless you want the people who canonized the previous incarnation to come to your work and go "eh, it's not accurate so that lessens how good the work is."

 

And it ultimately weakens any other fans' theories or opinions or concepts. It's basically saying "Well, I like THIS version the best, so Greg, can it be the real canon version?"

 

There's no merit to the act of canonization when it's essentially being done for that reason. It's all just fans, who are just the same as any other fan, demanding and wanting their headcanons to be actual and real canon, which is a disservice to fans who were imagining these ambiguous characters as they wanted to imagine them in the context of the canonical world.

Kitania, I will give you that a lack of discussion is the major issue with the polls thus far. That was an error i was intending to repair with this proposed plan. Also, I can think of several cases where mocs, short stories, and art were met with acclaim, but directly violated cannon.

 

I think that, as long as enough time for community discussion is given, the information on the mangai will represent what a majority want. If it ends up making no sense, then Greg will be the ultimate veto and it will stop there.

 

If you think the above plan could be structured better to allow for better and more open discussion, I would love to know (I could not figure out a way to word that that does not sound sarcastic, but i assure you, i mean it earnestly).

No, you can still mix things up and have them match with canon. Toa can wear more than one mask, and while they may favor a specific weapon, it's certainly not unheard of for them to have their weapon change. Kongu had a disk until he upgraded to a bow, until he downgraded to dual cordaks.

 

Heck, I want an upcoming epic of mine to be considered potentially canon and one of my characters is a female toa of the green. There are tons of ways to let creativity shine in the canon, and saying it's only one character, one appearance no matter how much time passes is totally not canon in the world of Bionicle.

 

Obligatory bad pun.

All I can say at this point is, if people don't want it, vote as such. People gonna be doing what people gonna be doing.