Kaleidoscope Tekulo

4/5

Hmm... Actually, The Toa Code brings up a good point if she was the one to create it. And I like to think she's like that from her past experiences as a toa. She's seen a lot in her days.... You know, I kind of wonder what things would be like if the gender roles were totally reversed? Like have water, psionics and lightning be male while all other elements are female? Think it would be a huge shift in dynamic (well, due to evidence, probably, but it's still an interesting question)?

Oh, right... Helryx was the first toa... Hmm... There goes the "male being default" theory... =/ Then again, there are multiple Great Beings, so it's not just one person being sexist here... In fact, we don't know that all of them are.If the first toa they made was female, why make the rest male? What exactly is the difference? Hmm... I think things just went to a whole new level of confusing. XDNot that I disagree with biomechanical beings having gender, I just think this was very poorly conceived and executed on LEGO's part... Don't worry, I think my childhood will recover. XP

Hmm... you know, I re-checked the rules and didn't see anything about it, but it's only one entry per member, right? I just have some ideas for other stories (of which I'm not even going to finish by the deadline anyway. XD), but I was just curious.

I see where you're coming from with the backstory, and I can see why you like it that way. You don't want to over-develop an area of a story that isn't the main focus of the theme. It kinda leads to writing yourself in circles in my experience. I did like the fact that this was a heart-to-heart between a matoran and a toa, although I didn't get a whole lot of impact from Arkapi's speech, I'm sorry to say. =/It's probably just not my cup of tea, or I'm missing something. It's definitely not a bad story (one of the better ones I've read, actually). I think exploring the le-matoran demographic would have been a good idea. I was a little disappointed that he wasn't using tree-speak, but for a serious entry I understand why you would have avoided that (I avoided it for the serious parts in my entry, myself. XP). And I understand that. Whenever I look at my entry I'm always amazed at how many errors I missed. XD

I've always called them Li-matoran (so original, I know. XD).Though, I've never really thought of any other prefixes...

I love ponies as much as the next air toa, but I don't think I'll change my name... I mean, after so many years on BZP, I finally got it just the way I like it, even if everyone always spells it "Tekula" on a regular basis... I shant succumb to such fabulousness!Anyway, just rewatched "Suited for Success." Rarity is totally best pony and is tied with Fluttershy for that episode. O.oHmm... I could give points to RainbowDash for coining the 20% cooler line... but I shant succumb to such rainbow-ness! D=

My brother was more into Rock Raiders than I was... Though the game was quite awesome. I loved playing as the miners themselves and just doing stuff... I should see if I can dig up that game somewhere, it was fun! ^^Oh, gosh, I remember taking the rock monster and have him have a crush on my female minifig, like a Donkey Kong and Pauline type of story (when I was a kid of course... I totally do not do similar things with my lego sets in this day and age). XD Good times, good times...

Pursuit - Caught from Phoenix Wright. Just two seconds ago it was Hura-Mafa Flow, though. XD

Nice story. Very chilling and mysterious (especially at the end).I was very confused when Vitram was accused of being the murderer, not to mention the murders being mysterious enough as it is. The two matoran per Metru seemed to have some pattern or method to madness... but that didn't explain the pile of kanohi in Ryaric's home. The only explanation that I came up with was he was to be framed or that Vitram was on someone's trail/doing his own private investigation and he really could explain the full situation if he were allowed to live.I wonder if that really was the murderer on Stelt or if it was the Dark Hunter playing a mind game after tracking down Ryaric? Or perhaps he just recognized him or had a hunch... Any ending sounds good to me, and I actually like how this was left open. ^^Good luck in the contest!

Well, I just called it a glitch because I know so little about it. Though, their creations were probably AI from the start, I'd assume.Also, I disagree that water would be a bad element to house a male psyche. Men aren't always hot-headed and aggressive or daredevils or distant and alone or strong speed demons... Matoro and Onua are pretty fine examples of that, I think. Apply their male character traits to the element of water. i think it would indeed fit.Dude, a hippie male toa... Totally interested in that type of character. XD Though, I don't picture The Green to be all that peaceful or eco-friendly. I imagine them to be just as ferocious as wildlife, and with little knowledge of civilized mannerisms (or little patience for such things).

Interesting story. I'm a bit confused as to what happened to Puone and Arkapi's home, however. It was attacked, and from what I gather, Puone fled with what few matoran she could (I assume the rest of her toa team is dead?).Though, I'm not entirely sure why Arkapi's confession of feeling responsible had such an effect on Puone. Maybe if he had gone a little more in-depth to the friends he lost, or how he thought he could have done something to help, I might understand a bit better. After all, Arkapi would have been running through the events over and over in his head, I'd imagine, so I'm sure he has some regrets, even if they aren't directly related to how he could have made a difference.I had a feeling Puone was a toa of lightning, and I was a little happy to see that confirmed.This was a nice piece to read while playing melancholy music (and my music player switched to a more up-beat song at the end when she uses her elemental power. XD).Good luck in the contest! ^^

Hmm... good points. It would most likely depend on what the robot is created for. Rosie, for example, is made to be a caretaker/maid. Seeing as there are children in the house, a motherly psyche seemed to suit her just fine. Of course, then you get into the meat and potatoes of how much you want the robot to interact, what issues a regular person may feel (like stress) and how that may be reduced. Of course, this is if gender is needed. If I build a sentient robot to, say, build a lego set or cook a meal, then gender really doesn't have much to do about the task. Now, when the robot is wielding elemental powers that have a danger to them? It might be best to consider different psyches (also the psyches would in turn relate to the element and how powerful it is). Orde's backstory would probably be the best look into what the Great Beings were thinking on this front, and they likely asked similar questions themselves when programming toa (as they created matoran first, probably to test these personalities out without risk of being burned to a crisp or suffocated, etc). That and matoran were made to work on building the robot body of Mata Nui. Based on what Orde's story implies, the "male" psyche was just a default program, and the "female" psyche was developed to counter out some of the flaws of the first (as Orde kinda screwed his mission up a bit). That would mean the males and females of Bionicle are different by personality traits (and probably subtle ones at that, depending on the element). I'm not sure if Psionics were the first females or not, but they had other elements to test this new psyche out with, and I'd assume they changed the base of it for each respective element (or that's what I would do anyway).Also keep in mind the glitch. The MU residents were never meant to be sentient; they were intended to be tools. The AI was an accident as far as we know, so whatever caused it probably had an effect on the psyche as well. It's an interesting thought...And don't worry; I understand completely where you're coming from with the gender differences that society pushes. I cannot tell you how many "men are dumb" jokes I've heard (and I can take a joke, but I can't take it if the teller is being serious... =/) as well as jokes about women... I have never yet heard a joke about humans in general... (Okay, that sounds like a fun joke book. XD). But anyway, I hate seeing people get so caught up in little details like gender or color or which TV show/movie is/isn't good and get so engrossed in the argument that they forget to take two steps back and see how childish they really are about it. Amazing what wars are started on these days. O.o

Axonn's mask reminds me of the chest piece for Toa Metru combined with Toa Nuva shoulder armor.But, yes, I've noticed other similarities in pieces as well, though some of them were mentioned previously.

Trivia: I once asked Greg what the story reasoning might be to have genders in the Matoran Universe (I noted that I understood why both genders existed outside of it). His response was that the Great Beings likely modeled their creations off of something that had these genders present (aka the Glatorian and Agori). You create what you know.So, say I build a robot with sentience. Why not give it a gender? It would make the robot a bit more familiar and I could relate with it more (especially if I'm giving the robot a personality). Also, Bionicle is not the first franchise to give robots a gender. Rosie from the Jetsons pretty much proves that point. Also, Wall-E and Eve to name a recent story (Robot love... They say it's the most honest love there is! XP).So, I don't really see much argument on gender with robots. Especially seeing as they're technically biomechanical, and not true robots made only of metal and wiring (Edit: Peachy, you ninja, you... XD). I think gender in Bionicle was a good thing. I don't think I would have related to Lewa or Tahu as much as a child if I knew they were just robots. It takes away a personal element and I probably would have been thinking "They're not really a person... They're just a pile of bolts and screws." Which I probably would disagree with now as I've followed their characters, but gender just seems like something that separates an actual person from a robot tool. =/ I'd prefer if Lewa had his own conscious (as he is awesome). Think about it from a child's perspective; it really does make a difference in the tone of the story (not to say I would have preferred one gender over another... Lewa could have been a girl and I'd have been perfectly fine with it as a kid).Also, I'm pretty sure there's a difference between gender and the actual physical difference between a man and woman. I believe gender is technically how the two tend to act separately of the other on a general scale. It's probably more of a Psychology aspect than a Biology aspect.

-noms on burger-I love this game. The characters are great, the mysteries themselves are brilliant and I love the premise: uncovering a crime from the beginning and piecing it together with little facts. Though, it can be kinda difficult at times. Anyone else have to save, present a ton of evidence at random intervals and reset? Because I've done that before. XDTurnabout Big Top is one of my favorite cases, as is the case where we meet Pearl for the first time. And then there's Trials and Tribulations which just ends everything greatly... and then Apollo Justice happened... -.- It's not that the game was bad, it just wasn't anywhere near as good as the first three, Phoenix lost his badge around one year after the end of the last game, Maya, Pearl and Iris all drop off the face of the earth and spiritual powers that result in talking to the deceased (which was awesome) is replaced by... magic and... perception (which I guess isn't too bad a concept, but... I prefer the spirit medium stuff).

@Aderia: Thanks! I wanted this story to be on the short side as I really tend to ramble a lot when talking. Ironically, though, my writing tends to be of a short nature, though I'm not sure why.Macku has always been an all-time favorite character in my book, although I can't really remember why... She just has this je ne sais quoi that makes her interesting. But I'm always fond of matoran characters and the chronicler's company, and I've had this idea for a while. ^^I'm glad you liked it! =D

I liked this one more than I thought I would initially. It's a pretty good read, though I did have some issues with it. Mainly the flow in the beginning, though most of it was due to grammar. Like that line. I think you w ere mashing two ideas together. I pictured the sentence to be: "The thing was, Vihar didn't mind Pride shadowing him. In fact, he actually kind of liked it." This too, it looks like you used "beside him" one too many times.Those types of things did bug me a bit, but I make those mistakes all the time. XD In fact, in my entry's rough draft, I wrote "Macku turned her head to her left to look at her companion on her right." I am so happy I caught that before I posted it. ^^; It just takes a little closer attention when editing, and don't worry, my entry isn't flawless either. >< There's nothing that I find wrong with this line, I just loved it so much I thought I'd point it out. ^^ You took something we all knew so well; about a matoran turning into a toa, and brought it to a new level. Not only that, but we got to delve a bit deeper into Vihar's character. We learned that he was a matoran before he was a toa, and that actually could bring his psyche into a new light. I love what you did there. ^^ Now, this line I dislike the most in this story. I pieced together how Iru died right when Vihar concluded that he should have never listened to Pride in the first place, right after Iru requested he manage a team of toa. You really built up the death of Iru a lot, and I don't blame you seeing as it was something huge for Vihar, but I was really expecting Vihar to stab Anger and Lust and then after they laughed, they merely disappear to show Iru's face. Now, that wouldn't work with what you had in mind for death, I understand, so I probably would have kept Vihar out of the loop as to why they were laughing. Having Anger and Lust greet death happily, then remark that they had done their job and built up a little mystery and confuse Vihar as to why they were laughing instead of having them spell it out for him.Of course that's my style of things... But I just felt it wasn't executed as well as it could have been... =/Now, when you re-used the opening segment... I skipped over it after I skimmed and concluded it was the exact same prologue. It didn't bring too much more to light after reading what Vihar went through for me... I'd suggest doing those bits in a reprise (like songs in musicals. They don't re-use the exact same song when bringing back an idea, they alter it slightly to fit with what new story development has come to light. Like in Tangled, for example (don't know if you've seen that movie) with the song "Mother Knows Best" or "When Will My Life Begin". When Will My Life Begin starts out with Rapunzel looking out the window and hoping to leave. The song returns when she leaves her home for the first time, and instead of being a melancholy tune, it's about her experiencing her freedom for the first time. The same tune, but with new lyrics that bring things full circle. That's what I'd like to see more of instead of reusing the exact same text, if any of that makes sense).Now, on a lighter note; the ending. I absolutely loved the ending of this. You really made it dark and it made quite an impression! I had been focused more on how Vihar killed his leader, and didn't think far past the aftermath. But you really executed that perfectly especially with bringing Death in as a character earlier in the story. Really beautiful job there. ^^Overall, this was a good read. I liked the personification of Envy, Pride and Fear, and I liked the logic behind Vihar going mad by setting foot on Karzahni (I was confused why he was so crazy to begin with, so I thought that was really clever). It really shows how easily someone so noble can lose themselves to simple human emotions (it reminds me of Shakespeare's MacBeth, only the protagonist managed to realize his own faults and ended up taking his own life instead of the world around him executing him. After all, Vihar could have easily escaped his cell or played the role of an obedient prisoner. He chose his own death). This got me thinking, and I really like that. (Sorry if I can be overly-critical. The more and more I like a story or think it has potential, the more and more I analyze it. O.o)Best of luck in the contest! ^^

... What? ... Seriously? ... You're kidding right?.........I am so disappoint right now if that's true... D=I mean, he could have easily made them mixed (finally a good excuse to do that) or he could have come up with something similar to Orde's backstory. There is absolutely no reason to change something like that, and that would have meant a female element that ISN'T BLUE (teal and cyan are not the same blue that is in every other element... =/)! I mean, seriously, that's just.... that's just annoying, put nicely...Anyway, while I'm digressing, I loved Orde and his backstory. Really, his character, an impossible character that shouldn't exist, is just amazing. Plus it does give us more insight as to why a gender barrier might exist in that universe (I believe it was mentioned earlier about how it was the Great Beings being prejudiced. While this doesn't really make things okay in my book, I still find it interesting and it shows that the very, very annoying and put nicely more annoying rules and guidelines present in Bionicle's MO can be pushed aside. If there's anything I dislike with extreme passion (again being nice) in Bionicle it's that there are just so many rules to things that are just vastly annoying. "Oh, cold energy is totally real. Ice and water are different" They're toa of ice, not toa of a chilly breeze! "Oh, earth and stone are totally different, even though there is no set distinction between the two" ... I know those aren't really Greg's fault, but he could have come up with so many better explanations... Ice is male and water is female... why not have it so only the males of the water element control ice? I mean, it would show that an element is mixed in gender and that gender somehow plays a role in how that element is carried out. Okay, so it's not equal, but the Great Beings were biased on gender, so it could easily fit into the story, I'd think).Also, LEGO seems to cater mainly to its child audience and not the mature, adult audience. I'd love to see them market a bit more to an adult audience somehow, otherwise they're going to just annoy the adult audience like... well, like with everything we're mentioning in this topic.

Well, keep in mind the story should probably have something to do with the sets. Now, it takes more than six characters to make a story, so I don't see why not to add in some more female characters.But also keep in mind that the child may also be interested in the color. Ironically, blue is correlated with boys for kids (pink vs blue. XP). Though, they aren't made to have a female physique, so I think it is highly possible that a child buying the set for the set's sake probably isn't aware or doesn't even care about the gender and could easily use his/her imagination to give the set its own character and gender. I think the only child that would really care is one that also follows the story, be it comics, online serials or books. The question is; how many childhood fans of Bionicle actually follow the story and would that effect marketing if they added in more female characters assuming they don't go for a female physique. Also, how well did Roodaka sell? That would be very interesting and helpful to know in this situation.That's where I would start form a marketing perspective if I were aware of the gender issue the fans had of the product. Then again, I'm not a marketing expert, and marketing people probably have a ton of other factors to consider (what color of sets are/aren't selling, are the heroes or villains doing better, what are our profits, should we increase our prices, etc) so they may not even realize that there are fans like us discussing this. XD There's only so much time in the day, and I'm not too sure their bosses would like them spending a ton of time searching BZP. ^^;And I'll be sure to check that story out. ^^

Actually, that's an excellent point, Peach. Though, I was talking about a female team in the story, not necessarily sets. XPThough, that is what fan-fiction is for... After all, we would have to keep in mind that this is a line targeted at kids (and likely boys to boot). Taking gender out of the equation would be kinda... well, it might be risky. Giving a main character no gender would probably make things more difficult to relate to, especially for a kid. That and it could be confusing, and seeing as these are sentient robots with human-like thoughts and emotion, taking gender out of the equation just might seem to take a level of personality out of them, I'd think... =/A story where the protagonist's gender isn't revealed? I think that's a really cool idea! Especially if gender does exist in the universe that the story is set in. If done the right way, I think it would be a really interesting read, especially if it's a romance story (though, tread lightly with that in my experience. XP).Hmm... depending on the characters, I could see them treating a female to of fire different ways. Though, I think you covered that pretty well, Alyska. ^^

I can say with absolute certainty that Mare-Do-Well is best pony.Liked the new episode, though it was predictable. I enjoyed so much to see RainbowDash just fail and stew in her own muck. >=D

While this would certainly be kind of...uncomfortable, it would also require re-inventors, in other words, physics might get more important again, and maybe appeal to a larger group of people. At least that's what I think...But somehow I think FTL just originated from some measurement errors we'll see(side note: sorry if the way I put things is awkward, I'm really tired and it has been an awful day. ><)From what I've heard there was something that was not accounted for (something to do with satellites and their perception of time due to their use of GPS. You know how the faster you move, the more your perception of time changes? I think it had something to do with that, though I'm not entirely sure...)But, we'll see. It's an interesting study and I'd love to hear what comes up from further research.

Hmm... I'd like to see a toa team with more than one female (i mean, srsly XD).And I like those ideas for the action sequence, Alyska. ^^ If only I knew how to animate... =/And I wouldn't say the male characters were totally boring. Lesovikk, Nidhiki, Lewa, Kongu (insert biased opinion of air elementals here XP) were all really cool characters to me. The female characters were interesting too, and oddly enough, almost all female characters seemed awesome (that's kinda impressive if you think about it).

My favorite branch of science? ... I guess it would be Biology... It's just an interesting study. ^^