do you think that the bionicle characters (from the g1 lore) themselves are progressive? if so or if no, please name a few examples and explain, if you have the time.
That’s a tricky one. It’s certainly possible to be progressive in some areas and not in others. It’s also worth noting that Lego was not overly trying to be progressive, given that it’s not all that necessary for selling toys to eight year olds, but there are a few interesting things to talk about here.
The big one to talk about is gender. Like many, I feel that having the rule of only one woman per team and that her element had to be Water really limited the types of character that could be used. There’s room for diversity within an element, and Greg certainly made an effort to avoid having female characters fall into the “calm and gentle” role all the time. But having just one character on a team to represent an entire gender often means writers are afraid to give them serious flaws or shortcomings that will allow them to grow as characters. Gali has had some development as she’s now less of a strict lawful good and is more pragmatic in her problem solving, but it’s not a lot compared to how much Tahu and Kopaka grew and changed over the series (she also stopped hating Tahu, but that was more the result of Tahu changing than Gali). But I do like how Gali’s gentle and compassionate approach doesn’t undermine her strength as a Toa, and Bionicle avoids demonising traditionally feminine qualities in both male and female characters.Â
In a franchise for boys, the male characters are typically hyper-macho and solve problems by fighting, which is pretty standard in Bionicle, but there are moments that subvert this, particularly in Matoro’s arc, where the trait that allows him to save the universe is not courage or strength, but compassion and love, which is something pretty rare in boys’ media. The franchise is also unafraid to show male characters as emotionally vulnerable, which is really useful for young boys to see.
(I will also never stop pointing out that Takanuva canonically sparkles and has friendship powers, which would also be quite subversive… had it actually showed up in the story, that is…)
Another interesting topic to look at in terms of “progressiveness” is neurodiversity (fair warning- this bit goes heavily into fanon/headcanon territory). Vakama fairly obviously had depression, and it was portrayed mostly realistically (aside from the bit where he went evil). The way he feels about his visions can also be seen as subtext about neurodiversity and the stigma attached to it. Pohatu and Kopaka are both implied to have anxiety in the early years (particularly in Greg’s unpublished version of the Shadow Toa encounter, though there’s subtext in the Hapka books too- Pohatu has generalised anxiety and feelings of self-loathing, while Kopaka struggles with social anxiety).
I also continue to believe that Hapka wrote Lewa as autistic-coded (he shows repetitive behaviours like hand flapping and singing the same sentence over and over that could be stimming, suffers from a sensory overload meltdown at one point, and the narration explicitly states that he has trouble reading others and often ends up offending people by accident). Interpretations of Lewa having ADHD are also quite common. Whether it was intentional or not, it’s important for kids to find characters that they can relate parts of their identity to, and I think Bionicle did quite well on this front.
I suppose while I’m here I might as well discuss sexuality, not that there’s a lot to say. All canon romantic relationships (including the retconned ones) were straight, which was pretty standard in children’s media at the time. You could make the case that Bionicle had lots of asexual representation… but as an asexual myself, I feel that having characters be asexual Because They’re Robots And Not Humans isn’t exactly good representation, so I prefer not to think of them using that label. If someone is asexual in real life, it’s generally not because they’re a robot (and I don’t particularly like it when people imply I’m less than human because I don’t feel certain things). To be fair, it was never intended to be good asexual representation and was just a retcon so Greg didn’t have to write mushy stuff. But in future gens, given that G2 had canon romantic relationships, I think it’s reasonable to expect a wider range of relationship types and sexualities among the characters.
So, it’s very much a mixed bag. Bionicle is a product of its time, and including lots of female characters or LGBT+ representation in a toy-based line for young boys wasn’t the done thing, but there are some things that were remarkably progressive, particularly its portrayal of masculinity, mental health issues, and neurodiversity. With the way children’s media is going, however, I think Lego has some catching up to do in other areas. G2 was obviously a low-effort, low-risk endeavour, but it would be interesting to see them invest more in G3 and open themselves up to new possibilities for the characters.
