"ohwunners"
Entry posted by believe victims
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I've noticed, especially on tumblr, a lot of people attempting to push the term "ohwunners" as a term for people who irrationally dislike the new Bionicle. Its origins are obvious; it comes from the term "genwunner" used in the Transformers and Pokemon fandoms, only with "ohwun" used to allude to Bionicle's first year.
To me, that seems like a misnomer. People who loved 2001 above all other years actually seem to be the most vocal supporters of the new Bionicle. In fact, if anyone has shown the most irrational dislike for the line, it's the people who preferred the later years. This seems counterintuitive to what most fandoms experience, but it's pretty easy to see why to me.
The reason is what it turned out to be (which, as I've said before, is pretty much the only way it was going to be). Fans of 2001-03 who grew more critical as time wore on had been begging for Bionicle to return to the feel of Mata Nui, the atmosphere and the mythical nature. They were most of the people disappointed in the 2008 Toa Nuva not resembling their former forms, and most of the people disappointed in how complex and hard sci-fi the story was getting. It's easy to see why they would welcome a reboot that returns to the mythical, brightly-colored island, with Toa that mostly bear resemblance to their previous incarnations, with open arms. (Obviously, there are those who aren't pleased with how the new Toa look, and some irrationally hate that they aren't just the Mata repackaged, but I don't think those are the majority of those angered by the new line.)
Meanwhile, fans of the later years were those most likely to root for a continuation, to pick up the mangled cable of storyline Bionicle left off, to make sets for all the characters who were never meant to have sets, to finish serials a majority of the people buying the toys weren't even reading. They were the ones most likely to be up in arms about rebooting the story, and returning to a simpler premise, and only including the six Toa Mata from the original story, and simplifying things for easier accessibility to the target audience. Someone who preferred, or even just came in at, the later years of Bionicle are more likely to interpret the new story as mind-numbingly simple compared to the previous one, even though it's no simpler than the original Legend of Mata Nui. Simply put, they had the most to "lose" in a reboot.
Obviously, it's not black and white in any way. People have legitimate criticisms of the new line, and people don't fall into these archetypes cleanly by any means; there are people who could be described as "ohwunners" and those who preferred the later years who welcome the new story. However, when it comes to the largest population of irrational hatred, labelling them "ohwunners" seems disingenuous, because '01 is likely not to be the year they prefer, or even the year they started at. Chances are, they preferred the story in its final stages.
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