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Character Development Oversights


aldero

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Do you enjoy Bionicle? Great. Do you enjoy it's storyline and lore? Great. Do you like it's diverse cast of characters with the exception of Toa Matau, Kiina and Berix? Fantastic. Do you think that some of these characters could have been written better and developed more? Splendid! Now we're on the same page.

 

It's no secret that I have a deep affinity for this franchise, even if I've been inactive for a good few months now. Keeping that in mind, I would love it just that little bit more if some of the characters were given more attention and written more tightly. While the vast majority of these characters are well-written, flesh-out and characteristically unique, some are regrettably bland at best, and unlikeable for the wrong reasons at worst.

 

I'm talking about characters such as Turaga Dume, Axonn and Makuta Miserix, just to name a few. Characters like Artahka and Karzahni are supposed to be mysterious and enigmatic, I get that, but characters like those that I just previously mentioned are begging for more development. The main storyline of the franchise is fortunately more focused and intimate as a result of that, but all that these characters need is a serial to flesh them out, similar to how Lesovikk was developed as an emotionally-broken nomad who had retired their Air Sword long ago due to personal guilt that ended up haunting him for the rest of his days. That's some splendid stuff right there. Now, would you mind doing for some more characters?

 

That's where you, the magnificent reader who decided to waste their valuable procrastination time on my insignificant article, come in. I'm sure that I'm not the only person who regrets that Makuta Miserix did not get the focus he deserves... right? I'm also assured of the fact that the vast majority of the other people on this forum have a longer list of characters that they want to see developed.

 

With that said, what characters would you like to see developed more, and how would you go about it?

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with the exception of Toa Matau

oi.

 

 

OT: Someone I actually would be interested to see fleshed out was Umbra. The poor unloved runt of 2006 is actually really cool in my opinion. He's a devout guardian adhering to his task dogmatically, and has the ability to skate at the speed of light. But who was he before becoming the Ignika's guardia? Are there more of his species about, or is he unique? How did he come to serve the Mask of Life? 

 

Also all of the Makuta, pretty much, especially pre-Teridax's coup. They were rooted in the story as the baddies very early on, so I would be interested in seeing what they were like back when they performed their tasks as per the Great Beings' intent. Could it be that they actually had personalities beyond being manic cackling bond villains? (Okay, I know Miserix, Mutran and Chirox were unique, as was Krika, but all the others were pretty much identical).

 

Also, what's with the Toa Mangai who aren't Lhikan and Nidhiki? 

 

:kakama:

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:kakama: Stone rocks :kakama:

Model Designer at The LEGO Group. Former contributor at New Elementary. My MOCs can be found on Flickr and Instagram

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I feel like Teridax was kind of a weak villain after MoL was released. In the film, he said that his motivation was to spare Mata Nui from pain; that he thought he was protecting him. That's a very interesting character. However, he was later reduced to the generic megalomaniac so many works of fiction go with out of laziness. The most interesting villains are the ones with complex motives and/or motives that call into question whether or not they're really that bad. Looking at other Bionicle villains as examples, one of the better antagonists was Krika because he wasn't that bad of a dude. He showed mercy, and even warned Gali that the Toa's actions were about to backfire on them. Tuma could also have been a great villain if his motivation was that he was just doing what he deemed best for his people.

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I feel like Teridax was kind of a weak villain after MoL was released. In the film, he said that his motivation was to spare Mata Nui from pain; that he thought he was protecting him. That's a very interesting character. However, he was later reduced to the generic megalomaniac so many works of fiction go with out of laziness. The most interesting villains are the ones with complex motives and/or motives that call into question whether or not they're really that bad.

 

That is an extremely good point. While I enjoy certain aspects of Teridax's character post-MoL, such as his history with the Brotherhood of Makuta and his backstabbing, strategising mannerisms, I wholeheartedly agree that the potential of a genuinely interesting character was lost.

 

If we're keeping the rest of the story canon, we'd be seeing a Makuta who chooses to overthrow the Brotherhood and usurp Miserix to serve Mata Nui, protecting his 'brother' from his destiny of finding new worlds and collecting information for the Great Beings. Not only that, Teridax would be reverting to his original state of protecting and serving the inhabitants of the Great Spirit Robot, refusing to change in the face of conflict and turmoil. I just only imagine what the final fight between Mata Nui and Teridax would be like with this complicated emotional baggage.

 

That right there is some emotionally charged stuff. The picture of Makuta Teridax as an obsessive and powerful yet loyal and vulnerable character is an incredibly interesting one, even more so if Mata Nui's ultimate destiny and correlation to the Great Beings was developed just a bit more.

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Since the Barraki are some of my favorite characters in BIONICLE lore, I would have liked to see them individually developed a little bit more.  (Takadox is mostly excluded here because I thought he was an interesting character; I've come to appreciate his conflicting loyalties between the Brotherhood of Makuta and the League of Six Kingdoms, as well as his conniving, manipulative nature.  Those are the kinds of bad guys that make me shiver.)  For example, what were each of the Barraki like before they were selected for the League?  Did they always get along before their attempted coup on Mata Nui?  What were some of the personal advantages that they received from being in the League?  Prehistory like that is what I'm after, mainly.

Granted, I've filled in some of these with my own headcanon , but I'd have liked official canon answers to these questions.

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