Why Are Gen 2 Villains Skull Based?

[Dorkpool]

The title is basically my question. Why do most, if not all, of the Gen 2 villains have "skull" in their name? Is there any particular reason, or did they use up all the good names in Gen 1?

[Irrie]

Each wave needs a theme, right? '07 was aquatic-based, '05 had spiders, early '08 had bats, and late '08 had insects. 

Skeletons are just this wave's theme. 

[The 1st Shadow]

Basically what Irrie said. We'll get a new theme next year. "Undead" is a fairly simple and easy-to-explain sort of enemy for the new kids.

[fishers64]

It worked in Ninjago, why not do it again?

[Lyichir]

Skeletons are spooky and obviously evil. Makes sense for a wave of villains.

[Ballom Nom Nom]

Skeletons are spooky and obviously evil. Makes sense for a wave of villains.

Or rather, skeleton characters are obviously evil. Otherwise that sounds like a setup for some philosophical commentary about how everyone has evil inside of them.

 

~B~

Edited August 3, 2015 by Ballom

[Ghidora131]

Well, I know I do, but...

 

 

Basically LEGO said "kids like skeletons, kids like bad guys, bravo, new wave."

[Aanchir]

The title is basically my question. Why do most, if not all, of the Gen 2 villains have "skull" in their name? Is there any particular reason, or did they use up all the good names in Gen 1?

As far as names are concerned, no, G1 didn't use up all the good names. In fact, there are a lot of great names it didn't even touch, like "Skull Basher" or "Skull Grinder", which are easily better than gibberish like "Gadunka" or "Vahki Zadakh".

 

Joking aside, the LEGO Group evidently just decided they wanted to name the sets things that actually mean something to the people buying them. That's what they do for most of their other themes, and given that the LEGO Group is stronger than ever, that strategy seems to be an effective one. For that matter, it's a strategy that's long been employed by non-LEGO toy lines like Transformers, My Little Pony, G. I. Joe, and Hot Wheels.

 

As for the repetitive use of the word "Skull", it's to tie the villains together as one cohesive faction using their defining motif: bones and skulls. It's no more repetitive than G1 Bionicle's beloved suffixes like "Va", "-Kal", "-rahk", "-akh", and "-rak", but unlike all those examples, it actually tells non-fans something meaningful about the characters.

[fishers64]

 

Skeletons are spooky and obviously evil. Makes sense for a wave of villains.

Or rather, skeleton characters are obviously evil. Otherwise that sounds like a setup for some philosophical commentary about how everyone has evil inside of them.

 

~B~

 

Stop tempting me to write a story about a bunch of skull characters that are good guys! 

 

And that could happen, so not sure how that is a valid reason? Unless it's a trend, in which case Ninjago already bucked it when the Skullkins helped the ninja against the snakes. Spanish Haloween celebrations honor skeletons, and in America we find them on Haloween candy. 

 

Personally, I think there's an in-story reason, probably having to do with biological reproduction and characters dying, bodies being buried, etc. The ancient city is probably alive and revives the dead as guards. 

[Irrie]

 

 

Skeletons are spooky and obviously evil. Makes sense for a wave of villains.

Or rather, skeleton characters are obviously evil. Otherwise that sounds like a setup for some philosophical commentary about how everyone has evil inside of them.

 

~B~

 

Stop tempting me to write a story about a bunch of skull characters that are good guys! 

 

And that could happen, so not sure how that is a valid reason? Unless it's a trend, in which case Ninjago already bucked it when the Skullkins helped the ninja against the snakes. Spanish Haloween celebrations honor skeletons, and in America we find them on Haloween candy. 

 

Personally, I think there's an in-story reason, probably having to do with biological reproduction and characters dying, bodies being buried, etc. The ancient city is probably alive and revives the dead as guards. 

 

Why would the city need guarding if people lived in it for so long before the accident that drove them out? 

[fishers64]

 

 

Personally, I think there's an in-story reason, probably having to do with biological reproduction and characters dying, bodies being buried, etc. The ancient city is probably alive and revives the dead as guards. 

 

Why would the city need guarding if people lived in it for so long before the accident that drove them out? 

 

There wasn't two comatose Mask Makers and possibly three valuable masks in there, one with a mind of its own. Plus the people who lived in the city would have guarded the city before. Now nobody is there and it feels the need to turn to the dead to protect itself. 

[Iruini Nuva]

 

 

Personally, I think there's an in-story reason, probably having to do with biological reproduction and characters dying, bodies being buried, etc. The ancient city is probably alive and revives the dead as guards.

Why would the city need guarding if people lived in it for so long before the accident that drove them out?

 

There wasn't two comatose Mask Makers and possibly three valuable masks in there, one with a mind of its own. Plus the people who lived in the city would have guarded the city before. Now nobody is there and it feels the need to turn to the dead to protect itself.

 

Wait, is it canon that the city is somewhat sentient? I like the idea, just wasn't sure if that's conjecture or if it's actually been explicitly said somewhere.

[fishers64]

 

 

 

Personally, I think there's an in-story reason, probably having to do with biological reproduction and characters dying, bodies being buried, etc. The ancient city is probably alive and revives the dead as guards.

Why would the city need guarding if people lived in it for so long before the accident that drove them out?

 

There wasn't two comatose Mask Makers and possibly three valuable masks in there, one with a mind of its own. Plus the people who lived in the city would have guarded the city before. Now nobody is there and it feels the need to turn to the dead to protect itself.

 

Wait, is it canon that the city is somewhat sentient? I like the idea, just wasn't sure if that's conjecture or if it's actually been explicitly said somewhere.

 

Conjecture, based on the "frozen in time" and "revive" comments on the Ancient City Page on Bionicle.com.

[MrSciFiGuy]

Undead = bad guys. Bad guys = Villains. Villains = Conflict 

[Rahkshi Lalonde]

as far as i can tell "skull" was just used as a nice short term for skeleton, and a good unifying title.

 

also it makes some of the names (skull basher, skull grinder, skull slicer) sound extra terrifying if you think of "skull" as not referring to them being skeletons...

[Xeo]

As to why everyone of the villains has skull in its name, I think it is for simplicity. If you notice, only the Toa, Ekimu, and Makuta have names. Just now the protectors are getting names in the chapter book, and Skull Grinder's name was revealed to be Kulta. But overall, you have the protector of fire, or Skull Warrior. I personally think it is so LEGO can save the names for the characters that matter, and not flood their reboot with names of everything like they did last time. (I personally loved all the names and whatnot from last gen, but that's my opinion).

As to why they're all skull based, I think it is just this year's theme. Much like others have pointed out. Why they chose skulls is anyone's guess. But with the Mask of Creation it would be a good way to show off its power used in the wrong hands.

[Tuuli]

Because Bionicle has been brought back from the dead! Muahahahahahahahah!

[Ghidora131]

Because Bionicle has been brought back from the dead! Muahahahahahahahah!

 

Question answered, topic closed(not really).

[believe victims]

and in America we find them on Haloween candy.

 

Yes, because American Halloween celebrates "evil" things. Skeletons are a traditionally "evil" thing, like witches, magic, black cats, ghosts, etc. Regardless of whether or not it's an international symbol, or if a few pieces of media have subverted it, skeletons as evil is an old and pervasive trope. As such, it makes as much sense for the first wave of G2 to be skeletal villains as it made sense for the villains of 2005 to be spiders, or the villains of the first wave of 2008 to be bat-based.

[Lyichir]

 

and in America we find them on Haloween candy.

 

Yes, because American Halloween celebrates "evil" things. Skeletons are a traditionally "evil" thing, like witches, magic, black cats, ghosts, etc. Regardless of whether or not it's an international symbol, or if a few pieces of media have subverted it, skeletons as evil is an old and pervasive trope. As such, it makes as much sense for the first wave of G2 to be skeletal villains as it made sense for the villains of 2005 to be spiders, or the villains of the first wave of 2008 to be bat-based.

 

To add to this, skeletons are traditionally considered "evil" because they are scary, and they scare us because they are one of the most explicit manifestations of death, fear of death being one of the most primal and universal fears there is. Fear of dead things is almost instinctual—in nature, when you see something dead, it often indicates that the thing that killed them (be it predators, disease, famine, or any other factor) may still be a present threat to the living. The UN-dead—things like living skeletons and zombies—inspire fear due to that existing fear of death combined with a fear of the unknown. We know that skeletons are dead things, so seeing a representation of them moving as if alive, it defies our understanding.

[Danska: Shadow Master]

Well it makes a change from animals, which is what most of Gen 1's villains were themed around. They even managed to give the '08 Makuta animal themes!

 

Of course we still have Skull Spiders (and their Lord and master), and Skull Scorpio, but they're also undead which is completely different, right?

 

I'm wondering if skeletons/undead things might become a recurring theme in Gen 2, like animal-inspired villains were, or whether they'll mix it up more.