Bedrock1

So fan fiction is an actual work of fiction, headcanon is just an interpretation. If I write a story where Kopaka is female and post it in the Epics forum, that would be fanfiction. If I just decide that, from now on, when I read Bionicle books I'll envision Kopaka as female, mentally switch out 'he' for 'she' every time it's used in reference to Kopaka, then that's headcanon. So I don't see the big problem with referring to this sort of thing as headcanon, because until one writes an actual work of fiction about their interpretations, that's what it is. I disagree. SOME people do it for glory, but a lot of us are genuinely interested in knowing the things we have been canonizing (which, by the way, are not nearly as absurd as your post declares.) That's kinda what we've been trying to do by having polls for everything. Granted, they've not been perfect, but we're working on it. We've got a guideline topic and everything. From TV tropes. I never discussed what "Headcanon" actually means in my last post, but it's pretty much synonymous with fanon, as TV tropes states above (urban dictionary also agrees but who in their right mind is going to use Urban dictionary as a source?) and I believe TV tropes to be more relevant, as Wiktionary expresses the absolute definition of a word while TV tropes' interpretation is based on usage. The only places I have heard "Headcanon" being used are in the Dark Souls community and on BZP (not even on other bionicle sites). In Dark Souls, the player is given practically no information on the story and so must figure it out themselves. Therefore, the line between canon and personal ideas is very blurred, and the term "fanon" perfectly fits what lies in the middle, although most players use the word "headcanon" instead, as the words are practically synonymous. So we have two phrases here: Fanon/headcanonFan fictionThe important part of your above definition of "headcanon" has been underlined and bolded above. Fanon/headcanon is essentially "filling in the blanks" of a universe, while fan fiction is writing your own story, using the existing universe as a groundwork. And as I said above, Fanon is grounded in the reality of the universe, it plays by the universe's rules, while fan fiction does whatever it wants. Returning to Dark Souls (an amazing game which I highly reccomend) it would be fanon to say the boss "pinwheel" is three people fused together, because while the game itself does not explicitly say so, the game implies it so heavily it might as well just confirm it. But the game doesn't confirm it, so it's not canon, it's fanon. Now, say if you were to say the name of the land you're adventuring in is not "Lordran", but, i don't know, "Mata nui", you are NOT basing this decision on ANYTHING aleady canon, you're just making a decision because you feel like it. Calling Lordran Mata nui is neither an integral element of the game nor is it any sort of interpretation, you're just changing things because you want to. It's fan fiction, because while you're not doing anything original, the land is still based off Lordran, but as you're making a point of, it's not the same. Now, back to bionicle . It's actually difficult for me to think of, well, anything fanon in G1 because EVERYTHING was canonised, but in G2 you have LOADS of fan theories about the plot and the like, but it's fanon at this stage that the vahi is going to be involved, as Lego has done everything but told us that the vahi is in G2. However, if you go through a novel replacing every "him" for Kopaka with a "her", that's fan fiction, because if you actually rewrote the novel, replacing every "him" with a "her" you've changed the gender of a main character for no reasons related to the official canon. That's fanfiction. That editied novel, even if it only exists in your mind, is a fanfiction where Kopaka's a chick. Have you ever read those "ask Greg" threads? Half the questions are "What's a fioku?""What were Gali's weapons called?""What was the big robot called?"All stuff that just wastes Greg's time, while the other half is: "I made an exploding lance, can you canonise it for me?""Lesovikk's team were the toa Cordiak, weren't they Greg? Say yes Greg, they were the toa Cordiak!"I do understand that some people are still genuinely curious about the four undefined items left in G1, and I saw and commented on your poll a while back, but here's my main thing, why? As I said earlier, I was going to phrase that last paragraph differently, but I realised that there is NO fanon remaining of G1 bionicle because EVERYTHING was either confirmed or denied. This killed bionicle, and you had people complaining since 2005 that they wanted the good ol' mystery of 2001 back and we were learning too much. Guess how they felt in 2009! The #1 reason I like Dark Souls is that the lore feels deep and mysterious because of how little you know, while bionicle is just boring and is getting even more boring by the day because absolutely everything is being canonised. First we had Lesovikk, a dark, mysterious tortured character with a past shrouded by time, then we found out he had a team, then we found out the exact number of people in his team, their missions, their elements, genders, team name, kanohi, weapons, soon it's going to be their favorite colours. Today, at least, I can build a toa of Ice and say he was from Lhikan's team. Two years from now Greg's going to have to write a serial for every single character explaining their backstories in great detail because people just aren't stopping. I could partially agree with you if it was only reasonable, well-thought out important details about G1 that were being discussed, but it's not. People will just take until there;s nothing left, until G1 bionicle is just a sad, sad void of unoriginality and on-the-spot fixes: "Uhh...four toa of ice?" People demanded too much out of G1 Bionicle and that killed the sets. Please don't kill the story. I'm fine with fan theories, but please don't try to get them canonised.

People make fan canon (or fanon) to fill in gaps and plot holes in a story. Because of it's nature, fanon is often canonised, as it sometimes makes more sense than whatever the author had thought of themself. Fan fiction, however, is when people write their own stories set in a universe they don't own. Fan fiction is, by nature, contradictory to the source materiel and is next to never canonised. The problem arises when there is fan-written pieces that blur the lines between fanon and fanfiction. Nova Orbis is fan fiction, the serials are canon but what of Greg's more trivial pursuits? Is Velika being a GB canon? If the shadowed one's true name were to be revealed now, would it be considered canon, even when G1 is long over? This gives rise to a backdoor. Everyone here likes bionicle and most people here, if given the chance, would like to see their mark on it. People write their own stories because they think this is good and they want others to read, praise and accept it as fact. But few of us have actually been hired by lego and so our only path to us forcing other people to read our OCs is to get Greg to canonise them. People aren't really that desperate to know what the third toa of ice in Lhikan's team's second toa tool's auxiliary effect was, or what the exact diameter of the shadowed one's left bicep is, people just look for vulnerable areas in the lore that they can claim for their own, so they can yell out in their sig: "LOOK AT ME I GAVE TOA HERPFAXXON A KANOHI HAU LOOK AT ME I AM YOUR GOD" Problems arise from this mentality. People stop referring to their fan fiction as fan fiction, but start calling it their "Headcanon". People begin pestering Greg about trivial details and he gets frustrated. So people, please. You are NOT "headcanoning" Kopaka or Tamaru to be a woman, you are fan fictioning it. You were NOT "headcanoning" Lesovikk's team to be the "Toa Cordiak", you were fan fictioning it. And STOP pestering Greg to canonise your Axxon X Gali relationship, or your Mask of Fart noises, or your theory that Mata Nui is actually Makuta. Your fan fiction is NOT constructive, it does NOT fit the universe and, most importantly, bionicle is NOT your universe. It's not even Greg's, it's Lego's. Stop acting like the whole of creation is your private sandbox, you have to share.

Uhh, Ignika! It's so powerful it doesn't even need someone to wear it, it can wear itself. It can grant the power to kill with a touch or to give life to anything it likes. The only problem is that it's sentient and it also has mata nui in there now, so it's a bit cramped. I can just imagine some poor toa trying to wear it. Hey toa, you should probably just talk it out with that scorpion. Not the right time Mata nui! Why is he doing this? He's trying to find some maze or something. So he can hide in it and wait for some hero to retrieve him when he is needed? No, because there's some guys who ended the world inside and he wants to talk to them. Why doesn't he just make a guardian to find the maze for him? You're not letting him because he beat you at kohlii earlier. He cheated! Guys NOW IS NOT THE TIME. What did he say? Great, now I'm dead again. *sigh* Respawn in 3...2...1

I think the protectors/villagers look 50/50 or maybe 60/40, to the mechanical side, my #1 reason for this is that armour piece with the pistons on it. A mostly organic being would have no need for external pistons and that head also looks very mechanical. They probably are more like insects or makuta, a hard (in this case, metal) exoskeleton protecting the gooey bits inside. The toa however, have a lot more piston bits and have that chestpiece with many very mechanical items present, such as cooling vents. Most fan theories about the whole "timeless heroes" deal is that these are the same toa from Gen1, just transported to a different time to help out, "time trap" style. They look quite different to their Gen1 counterparts though, especially Potato and Onua, so it's not unreasonable to assume that their biology might also have changed. Also, lewa is now of the green and air, so go figure.

This thread is ********. Nobody can even ****. All ******* is being ******* and ****** ********** is rampant. I wish ***** *** would **** ********* ********** ***********. I really **** like *** *** this site ****** ** ** **** ***** ******* *******. I don't think this mask is the mask of ultimate power because ** **** ***** *** ***** *** *** ****** **** *** *** ***** ***** ** ***** **** ** **. Leaked information removed. -B6 (joking)

Personally I think it's going to turn out that Makuta woke up a long time ago and forged an army of sentient kanohi in order to find the MoUP. We're presumably getting Ekimu in a summer set, so he could possibly "kill" the masks and fuse them to the toas' current ones. Either that or we get makuta (as the only name we have is "mask maker") and he does plot things instead (or not, because this is the spiritual successor to the makuta of stalling). And then Onua digs out of the ground and saves him (her). Yeah, we've danced this Charleston a few times before. Whut. I'm reasonably certain Lewa's a dude.

In Ireland we don't have Bionicle even listed in shop@home, so this is the first I've heard of Makuta not being in a coma, let alone hoarding masks.

I do understand that people have their own building styles and judging methods and I'm not saying your creation is just plain bad. It's very good actually, it's incredibly impressive and cool, but here's the problem: that's not what the judges said they would be basing the winner on. To quote: While your creation is very cool, it's not very creative, original, unique or creatively built. You've perfected the basic makuta design, but that's what they were claiming not to be looking for. That's precisely why many people, myself included, didn't just try and make the biggest movie-styled makuta we could; because the judges led us to believe that it would be a poor decision, as it only satisfies 1/5 of the categories. Look, I'm not saying you've done anything wrong, the blame lies entirely on the judges. Your creation, while amazing, simply didn't satisfy the desired traits, and that's why I don't think you should have won. If B6 said "Just build the most awesome bionicle you can, and we'll judge it by the rule of cool", I would have been completely okay with you winning. but he didn't, so I'm not. And yes, I do believe it to be suspicious that you're ex-staff. Combined with my above comments that you didn't satisfy the desired traits and the fact that second place was literally paying the site, it makes me feel as if there's a bit of favouritism going on here. Like I said, I'm not blaming you, but like it or not, you're involved in a competition that I don't think was judged fairly. Oh, and thank you for that comment on how you should express your true opinion on something; Too many people on this site think that saying any moc isn't perfect is a cardinal sin. ...What are you implying here?

Who are you quoting exactly?I think you are paraphrasing in an attempt to change the meaning of the line. Gender didn't affect the judgement of any of the entries. Are you kidding me? Should they have banned premier members from entering the contest? At this point you are just looking for excuses to make the judging look unfair. It was made very clear that the only thing being judged is the entries themselves, and not the people submitting them.Edit: I apologize if that sounded flamey, I don't mean to sound aggressive. I just think your post made a lot of unnecessarily negative (and extremely speculative) observations. I was exaggerating B6's post for comedic effect and to emphasise the message I felt he was sending. And, uh, how do you know gender didn't effect it? Are you B6? Because what he said sounded like blatant pandering to women to me. And no, I'm not saying premiers should be banned. But I found it a bit coincidental that first place is ex staff and second place is literally paying the site. And it's okay. I'm a very observant and negative person. Someone seems to have woken up on the wrong side of the [bionicle analogy for bed] this morning. Is the winner big? sure, did that sway the judges? idk, maybe? but the piece use is creative, it's pretty darn hard to make something big out of bionicle pieces and not have it be boxy, gappy, messily colored, or all three. but that thing's got pretty clean color composition, and smooth edges to boot. so *shrugs* i don't see how it's bad that particular entry won? :0 I wake up in the middle of the bed :/It's pretty evident the size swayed the judges, seeing as this isn't the first time it's happened. Like I said, the colours themselves are okay but they're distributed poorly, the limb thickness is uneven and it's horribly proportioned. A potato has clean colour composition and is smooth. Even a really big one. But is a potato imaginative, interesting, and does a potato look good?

Uhh... Who said they couldn't? Seriously? I find it a bit strange that you're commenting on the gender of the winner as if it's a weird thing. I must comment on this competition's similarity to the build-a-makuta 2008 one. The winner was not the best constructed, most imaginative or most aestheticly pleasing, it was the biggest. The only things the judges could comment on was how big it was, the "combination of shapes" and the wings. The WINGS. Those wings are just cookie cutter. They use those technic joints and the standard tattered cape piece. Anyone could make those wings, they just decided not to because it's unimaginative, and creative use of parts was a category being judged. That's why I made my entry small, so I could do stuff like using CCBS shell pieces as the framework for the limbs. The elbows are paper-thin, the torso is too long compared to the legs, the feet are too small, the colours are very badly spread out, those hips are incredulously horrible and that head is just plain ugly. I also see many parts which are unavailable to the public as of now, and I don't like this. The moc as it stands would be impossible to be made by anyone without those pieces, which they flat out cannot get. This means it's not so much about a builder's raw skill, but simply whether or not lego loves them enough to give them an unfair advantage.Yeah... No. I think the winner was chosen not because of, well, anything they SAID they would be choosing the winner on, but simply because of it's size and the fact that it was built by a female ex-member of staff.Don't get me wrong, I don't think I should have won, or anything, but you don't have to be a good chef to tell if your meal is bad. Helsephyr is WAY better in my opinion, but even it suffers from legs being far too short and ugly hands. Note how I didn't check the builder's personal information there and let that influence my decision?We still have to see who came third, but I think the top two choices were very poor. Edit: I'm NOW after checking VB's info, and he's a Premier Member.Methinks this competition not judged 100% fairly.

none of those concepts are inherently masculine, what? (also, bionicle is generic in the sense it's an action theme starring sci-fi characters, which is a gender neutral concept.) Firstly, ANYTHING sounds gender neutral when you phrase it as broadly as that. And bionicle definitely isn't straight-up action sci-fi, the first few years were tribal science fantasy, then it got a bit more sci-fi as it went on, with the glatorian being more post-apocalyptic science fantasy.And I don't know what rock you've been hiding under if you don't think swords, action, giant robots etc. are considered masculine. Films like pacific rim and transformers play on man's love of giant robots ( and you cannot say they weren't marketed towards men), while pretty much any film ever made heavily involving fighting or action has also been marketed towards men, because testosterone causes a more violent thought process, and this causes man's warrior instinct, which these films prey on. While many women do enjoy these things, the majority of gun owners or action film enthusiasts are men, because testosterone. It's a bit of a vicious cycle, as sone women are less likely to watch something exclusively marketed towards men, but that doesn't stop many. And can we pleease stop this conversation? It's a topic as old as mata nui and we aren't even talking about bionicles any more.

Well, bionicle is anything but generic as it doesn't even really fit into any genre. It's also not gender neutral. There's fighting, swords, monsters, giant frikkin robots and mechs. Some of which have lazer eyes. These concepts are all considered masculine by nature, and as such it was marketed towards boys. You can't market towards everyone efficiently, and as it was better suited to boys than girls, they marketed it towards the demographic they thought they could get the most sales out of from the lowest marketing budget. It's economics. It's not so much as a "boys first!" as it is them simply trying to please the target audience. This thread is getting SERIOUSLY derailed. I mean, wow. Even previous attempts to help have failed miserably.

Ireland usually gets similar markup to Britain, so I'm getting a tad annoyed. The US gets the wave for €140 equiv. While GB gets it for €200. And this is presuming they don't chance their arm at a $20:£20 exchange rate, like some other companies try to pull. I am really not looking forward to spending all my birthday money on a single wave of bionicles, as I have other hobbies too, and also want to buy up some of the older sets off ebay. However, not buying every single set is heresy.

We already know not all masks of a power look the same. Arthaka's designs became a standard template for looks, a universal code, but not one that was always followed. Lhikan's hau vs tahu's one was already said, but toa norik's mask of (enlargement?) Was in the shape of a noble kiril, and krakua's suletu was shaped like a hau. For convenience's sake, most masks followed Arthaka's designs so they could be easily recognised, but some custom orders and the like were common.

I really like their broken-down look, the po matoran slum itself is a nice touch. A bit tall and skinny, but I think you managed to capture the aesthetic well.

Okay, I just want to get my opinion out because this thread is turning ridonkulous. First things first; I don't believe in "evil". At all. I'm nietzschian in that I believe people simply have different opinions on certain topics, and just because someone's opinion is radically different to mine, or the majority, does not mean it is wrong, bad or "evil". For this reason I do not believe any sort of government is inherently evil. Communism? Capitalism? Patriarchy? Matriarchy? All have their own strengths and weaknesses. Patriarchy probably began when the biggest and strongest warrior had the most influence in their tribe. The position passed from son to son and when everyone forgot might=right it was simply tradition, and you can't break tradition or fear the wrath of the gods! On okoto it was probably: man is strongest warrior: we give him best gear. He passes the training to his son, and when he dies his son takes over. If a protector had no sons he could well have trained his daughter, but she would probably train her son, because tradition. No one is manipulating or oppressing anyone, only the misread teachings of the past keep the system in place. This is why feminism and the like are recent things, now that we're finally getting rid of traditions we're also stripping away the social stigmas attatched to them. Does the system work? Yes. Perfectly? No, but it means it's very easy for the tradition of the protectors to continue. A simple "train your firstborn son to replace you" from your father is easier than a " have a certain number of children within a few years, then train them all equally and test them regularly. Finally, when you reach 40, you choose the most promising to succeed you." "But daddy, what if I die before I'm forty?" "SHUT UP. TRADITION." Also, we haven't considered the fact that we only know anything about the protectors. Maybe men protect and women hunt? Maybe men are soldiers and women are scholars? Maybe, just maybe, it's a typo, as there are millions other on the website? I honestly wouldn't mind myself if we got a few waves of nothing but women, but, as silvercor said , I seriously doubt you all would be complaining if we got four waves of exclusively women, compared to how much controversy a single wave of possibly only men is stirring up. And on the topic of homosexuality and transgenderism in bionicle, please no. Bionicle is being aimed at an even younger audience than platonic G1, and little kids find it difficult to understand homosexuality, never mind transgenderism. Heck, I didn't even fully understand transgenderism until I was fifteen! So while I'm as supportive of the LGBT community as I can be, there's no need to shoehorn that into a kid's franchise. And how in the name of mata nui would a protector get a sex change? But the less said about that, the better. Oh, and to that person who is headcannoning kopaka and lewa to be female; Seriously? There's a line between having a strong political opinion and just being plain weird, and you can't even see the line, you're so far past it. Now, back on topic. Biomechanical beings and live births? What, do they just plop out, pistons and all? That stretches my suspension of disbelief. Interesting concept though. I really hope they don't shoehorn relationships into the toa's dynamic. Because we ALL know, tahu would get gali, end of. Tahu is fiery-blooded, masculine, charismatic, main character and leader. Pohatu is too nice, lewa is too childish, kopaka too cold and onua: BARREL CHESTED CAVE DWELLER DOES NOT HAVE LOT OF CHARISMA" On the topic of onua, I really don't want to see female toas of earth. Roodaka was the only female G1 titan we got, so for a female toa of earth they would probably just slap boobs on onua. WOMANUA HAS ALL THE STRONK!

Uhh, most of the people here are disagreeing with the OP. The ones that are agreeing with it are really just following Poe's law. Not denying that it's a bait thread though. I had a link here to DV complaining about this post on his tumblr, but apparently DV's tumblr is inappropriate. Link with inappropriate language removed. -B6

Lego You sound so reputable.

Your post is already in handy bullet-point format, so I'm going to analyse it similarly. Basically, drawing matoran as non-white would seem stereotyping of tribal cultures, racist to blacks and insensitive to slavery. Just because it would make more sense for matoran to be black, doesn't mean it would be a good idea.

I think the "point" of this build is that it can be done using only parts from omega lewa, gali and kopaka

You're absolutely right, Tufi, nor does it mean that I can't be blunt. I was just saying that if you post a MOC you should be able to accept and recognize criticism instead of just brushing it offThis isn't simple bluntness. You can critique a MOC without attacking the MOC or builder, which you're coming very close to doing. You need to dial it back. Brash word choice doesn't mean attacking. There was no questioning of the MOCer's skill nor any insults being thrown about. It's all perspective here, and yours appears somewhat skewed from what was trying to be said. No offense intended, just saying you may want to approach this from a different angle. 100% agree. The most unbiased and objective opinions can be expressed even using the most inelegant words. If you can only criticize the way the good Doktor presented his argument, then maybe you should rethink your position in this debate.

Abrasiveness is in the eye of the beholder, but by most standards he really isn't being abrasive. At all. He's actually being quite polite about it. If you can't take a bit of criticism and somebody pointing out that your loincloth requires a loincloth of it's own, you probably shouldn't be posting your mocs on the internet. Absolutely nothing wrong whatsoever at ALL? No flaws in the slightest? The absolute epitome of CCBS? Literally the best possible thing that can be made with CCBS? 'Cause that's what perfection means. If I wanted to create an imperfect MOC, the MOC would be imperfect, but I didn't, therefore it isn't. Your argument here is just you saying he's seeing things, and that your will is law, what you think, you make. That's some pretty flawed logic. It's called doing things accidentally, we all do it. People make mistakes, get criticism, improve. It's a learning curve and we're all in it. Don't think yourself "Better" than all the plebeians who didn't get the sets early.

I must agree. The legs look uncomfortably lumpy and awkward and it's appearance is so... masculine it's uncomfortable, especially seeing as it's 1/3 female. I would recommend simply stripping some of the excess armor from the shin and crotch and moving it to the thighs and shoulders.

Guardian of the Ages Main Pic: Link to MOCpages gallery: http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/400124 I have no idea if I'm even in the run to get considered to come third, but you have to be in it to win it! All the three lines of lore are on the page, so I'm not going to repeat them here. Apologies for slightly blurry pics.