#yeah vakama's my favorite character what of it?

[bionicle-ramblings]

Little kid me: I like Vakama. I don't know why, but I do. He's my favorite

High-school me: Yeah, Vakama's my favorite. I relate to how he feels about himself. He's not whiny, he's just seeing what everyone else is doing and is upset he's not getting it like they did. Call him whiny again, and you'll catch these hands

Present me: Vakama’s a character with so much depth and his anxiety and insecurities are a part of him, but don't define him. He is a leader, but it's a role he has to grow into, both in that he needs to accept himself as a leader and then learn how to lead effectively without pushing his team around. He once lived a very content life, and that changed when he became a Toa, though he still makes the Mask of Time, because it's something that calms him. He doubts himself, but he still steps up and he's determined to do what's right, being as duty-bound as he is, though later his goal to protect the Matoran also blends with the guilt and grief of Lhikan's death. He hward that he'd made his idol and possible friend proud and he soon puts immeasurable pressure on himself, much to the point that he becomes reckless and lashes out at his own teammates. His lowest point is during the Hordika arc, where he gets himself and his team mutated and nearly killed and the hopelessness of the situation is so much that when he and the other Toa learn they weren't even MEANT to be Toa, it ultimately breaks Vakama, not in a breakdown kind of way, but a way that essentially leaves him.and the others in more unrest than ever. And with the hordika venom and the events making them all hosgile towards each other, Vakama does need to walk away and clear his head and contemplates trying to save the Matoran on his own before he realizes he can't. He's pushed over the edge when he's captured by Roodaka and is told he can save the Matoran without the other Toa Metru if he becomes the leader of the Visorak. He hears what he wants to hear and is given the resources to achieve his goal, but he loses sight of the values he's had ingrained in him for his entire life, much to the point that he almost kills his friend, though he is pulled out of it and he returns and the Toa's leader, being stronger than ever in the end, as seen in Time Trap when he holds the Vahi(and all of reality) hostage to keep everyone safe. He goes through a journey that many couldn't even imagine and in the end he is a leader that many people look up to. Is he perfect? No, of course not. Some of his decisions could have been better. Is he a bad person? No, not when he learned from what he did and is better for it. Vakama is an insanely well written, complex character that people, myself included, more or less find something new to learn about/from him like how to be a leader or how your insecurities or anxiety don't stop you from being the strongest you have to or need to be when the time comes for it to happen

[kanohivolitakk]

 Thinking about this image and how much I feel this when it comes to Bionicle and my creation and consumption of transformative content in this fandom, especially when it comes as someone who prefers the more secondary heroic characters, the villains and the few neutral characters the series has over the main heroes (who I do like, just don’t have as big brainrot for).

OK let me explain.

So, lately I been thinking a lot about Greg’s writing style as well as how he engaged with the fandom. And one thing I have in particular paid attention to is the following: Bionicle is the type of story where plot is it’s driving force (alongside its worldbuilding) and Greg is the type of writer who writes characters in the service of the plot, rather than plot in service of the characters.

Now, I don’t think this writing style is inherently bad, and it works for Bionicle since as said, Bionicle is a plot-driven series where the big appealis uncovering the world and numerous webs of conflict and drama and discord. I’m not also saying that Bionicle doesn’t have compelling characters or that some of those characters don’t have emotionally compelling arcs. Bionicle is an action-figure focused toyline so of course the characters have to be fun/interesting/likeable and there are many characters whose arcs people have either enjoyed, liked their writing or resonated with such as Takua or Vakama for instance. I’m also not saying Greg is incapable of writing emotional moments either (I mean, everyone in this fandom cried when Matoro died soo.)

What I am trying to say is the following: 1) Bionicle is an action-fantasy-science fiction-war drama aimed at kids which main focus is telling a complex story in a complex universe. Despite that the characters are (relatively) simple in the grand scheme of things. 2) Greg has said at least on a few occasions he uses characters as tools in story, and uses characters whenever they need to appear in the story. For Greg a lot of the time it feels he uses characters for what they can do in the story rather than who they are. 3)Greg often said that he thinks about details only if “they’re important to the story”. This is true to characters and their emotional struggles as well. 4) The fans love to overthink and speculate stuff that Greg probably never thought of because it wasn’t important for him. 5) A lot of the time Bionicle characters (especially the non main hero ones) only have their emotional struggles implied or skirted from.

Because of Gregs writing style and the way he is more interested in exploring the world/plot rather than the characters emotional struggles, it feels that the characters sometimes feel..undercooked. That they aren’t allowed to go through their emotional struggles in a way that feels natural. Heck, at times the emotional struggles feel accidental rather than intentional on Greg’s front (see one of the reasons Nidhiki is my favorite character is because his characterization just has that “deep rooted self-haterd/haterd towards everything else issues” yet when asked about this Greg just went very “idk I guess he’s dead so doesn’t matter”).

And just, this is a thing I like about the Bionicle fandom because like, we can add emotional struggles and stuff there where it was implied. Fandoms in general (transformative fandom in particular) tends to often focus on characters above any other aspect of storytelling, and as such, we can analyze, headcanon and breathe life into characters in a canon that was more focused on plot and world like Bionicle. It does help that unlike a lot of plot/world-focused series (which tend to have rather shallow and generic casts), the characters in Bionicle actually do have a lot of potential to be explored and dissected, no matter how clearly you can see them not being the focus of the story. So just interesting characters who don’t get as much of emotional caharsis/focus as they deserve equals desire of wanting to write meta/headcanons/fic where those characters issues are addressed and touched on. Because unlike Greg, I (and other ppl in the fandom as well9 do care about stuff like this.

Of course there are exceptions (see Vakama for instance). In addition, not every character needs to have emotional struggles: one thing I really like about Lhikan for instance is that he was able to keep hisidealism despite everything that happened to him.

But yeah. This is just my few cnets as a very vocal villain liker who also likes emotional catharsis. Idk how ppl who like main toa teams feel about this so I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject and whether or not me liking villains/secondary characters colors my view on this subject. Again keep in mind that the writer of this meta had their favorite character basically been characterized as “just a selfish bastard” according to Greg despite the text arguably suggesting otherwise so I am biased a f.