Subject:
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The Great Eagle of Mata Nui and why we are trying to care
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.technic.bionicle
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Date:
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Sat, 16 Feb 2002 20:29:57 GMT
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Viewed:
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1055 times
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Before I get started, here is a link to my Bionicle creations,
including the newest, The Great Eagle of Mata Nui
http://personalpages.tds.net/~elijah/
Mata Nui is huge in my 4 year old son's world mythology. We have a
constantly changing and evolving story going on about the Tohunga, Turaga
and Toa. Yesterday we took a walk in the woods and he described the various
patches of grass/mud/snow/water as the tracks of the Toa; Mud was where Onua
and Gali walked for a bit, Lewa joined them, then Kopaka showed up and
walked alone.
He has had a series of favorite characters, some from the lego-made story,
some from his. Onua, Gali, Lewa were all favorites in turns, as were his
created characters "Telekinesis" "The Archeologist", "Sarcasm" (I have NO
idea where that one came from...though he does know what the word means),
"The Warlock". Currently Maku is the big favorite and I have heard a hundred
justifications for her "sneaking away from the village" behavior, which he
sees as unimpeachable given her obvious abilities.
I think all this is has been wonderful fodder for imagination and story
telling and so to this point I have encouraged the Bionicle story with him.
On the other hand the Rahi, both as story components and as purchases have
largely been a bust. As a 4 year old who has been around animals a lot, he
accepted that the Rahi were mean "when infected" but quickly rejected that
the Nui Rama were mean as they really need their masks on to look right. As
the only thing Rahi do is fight, and neither he nor I think fighting is
entertainment in itself, the Rahi toys have mostly sat around unplayed with
(mind you I have studied and taught martial arts for 25 years, I am not
worried by violence, I just think that it is terribly boring as a story
element).
Worst of all have been the Manas, a purchase I only agreed to after I found
that once he tires of them I will be able to control them from the RCX.
Someday they will be assimilated into the technic pieces I use for robotics,
until then they sit around, singularly un-playworthy either in function or
backstory. I finally modified one so that he could move the arms by hand
which made it at least possible to interact with.
However, the one-dimensional nature of the Rahi was easily eclipsed by the
depth and content in the Mata Nui story.
Now however, the tide has turned, the rich mythology of Mata Nui which held
so much potential is now devolving into Starship Troopers (the book, not the
movie). The good guys in exoskeletons fight generally mindless bugs which
travel in swarms. We are asked to find interest in an arms race, Bohroks
destroy the land and Toa respond by getting bigger and arming themselves
with rocket launchers. More destruction, more violence. Yawn. I am very
disappointed and so is my son.
He immediately declared that the Bohroks were /not/ mean and we struggled to
find a plausible alternative story. We are currently trying out that there
is a huge asteroid moving towards Mata Nui and the Bohroks are skilled at
destroying them before they hit the ground. All the Bohroks will need to
work together as the current asteroid are only precursors to the big one.
It's okay sort of a "Dragon Riders of Pern" thing, but not as compelling as
it might be.
We will continue our own, relatively peaceful, back story-rich Mata Nui
story here. The Great Eagle of Mata Nui now carries Tohunga on adventures,
but there is no question that our experience has been soured by the violence
and destruction pablum that Lego settled into with the coming of the
Bohroks. Less damage would have been done to the story had they simply
ignored it.
We bought Bohroks, and will buy Bohrok Va, but I will draw the line at
firepower increasing exoskeletons (besides, I had already made him
exoskeletons for Tohunga, who clearly need them more than Toa :o)
It's just sad.
Elijah
P.S. I don't have pics, but you can build a great
Makuta/Tohunga/tentacle-thingy with the Alpha Team squid (4796) x2, Onepu,
and some spare parts.
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