Bionicle Sideblog of youareshauni. You can&#x27;t stop me.

thinking about Them (knps inika) again

Nuju approves of everything Kopaka's doing but is constantly having to reassure Kualus, who's torn between wanting his kid to be prepared for whatever he has to deal with as a Toa vs. not being at all okay with his kid being a Toa in the first place.

Nuju has developed a knack for predicting exactly when his brother is about to spectacularly plant his foot in his own mouth when talking to Matoro, even if it is out of reasonable parental concern. Usually, catching Kualus's attention and making the sign for "helicopter" at him makes him stop and reconsider. Usually.

its funny too because Nuju had such a hands-off "if he needs help he will ask" mentorship style with Kopaka, and had to get gently pushed out of that by Whenua. so he looks at how much effort Kopaka is putting into helping Matoro through what he knows can be a volatile and scary time while still being a teenager and thinks, somewhat guiltily, how much better at this than him Kopaka is. meanwhile Kopaka is like "if I don't do this Exactly Right and do a better job of it than Tahu then I am a Failure"

Kualus as the overprotective helicopter dad and half the reason Matoro is Like That is so good. for once it's not 100% Nuju's fault. Kualus really does just want his son to be safe and okay, originally because he knew what kind of life he himself led and now because he knows what kind of life is in store for Matoro. also with the benefit of hindsight Kualus knows that he himself was way too young to become a Toa and he was at least a year older than Matoro is now.

Nuju, meanwhile, is very good at giving people their space and has frequently had to remind his extroverted younger brother to do so for pretty much their whole lives. Matoro needs his independence, but that doesn't mean he's in total solitude—it just means he's seeking more comfort and community outside the home. Kualus is struggling with that on top of everything else. he's always felt Matoro has been trying to grow up too fast in the same way Nuju was when they were kids. Nuju has to remind him that he turned out alright in the end.

Kualus: I just don't want him to feel like he won't be accepted at home for being gay. he doesn't think I'm homophobic, does he?

Nuju: (folds his arms and waits)

Kualus: .....oh! right, Azuni is nonbinary!

Nuju: I'M GAY.

Some more "fun" stuff

Kualus feels like his own childhood ended way too abruptly when he became a Toa, and he was dealing with the Visorak just a few years later (and he was both the youngest on his team and the one with the highest personal stakes in the matter because of Nuju), and, while he doesn't regret his choice of profession, being a vet is one of the most stressful and emotionally fraught careers there is. He's tried so hard to give Matoro a more peaceful start in life, and now he feels like he failed.

As far as Matoro is concerned, none of the adults in his life (with the possible exception of Azuni) have a leg to stand on if they tell him he's keeping too many secrets or failing to communicate. Especially not his dad, who didn't even tell his own spouse he was a Toa, what the hell, Dad?

Matoro is also technically mad at Takua about this, but in practice it is weirdly hard to stay mad at Takua.

The one (1) time Matoro did decide to stop keeping a secret, it nearly destroyed his parents' marriage (or, it looked that way to Matoro at least). Okay, yes, some good things also happened as a result of his honesty, but his teenage angst is selectively ignoring that.

Matoro accidentally eavesdropped on his parents' private conversation with his astral projection at least once while he was still getting the hang of his powers... He didn't mean to... but... he can't un-hear the argument they had... and he can't tell anyone about that, either...

There is nobody, NOBODY who seems to understand Matoro about how awful his dad is. Takua's going "Hey, look on the bright side, it's nice that you have a dad, right?" and Ahkmou's like "well at least he's not a borderline fascist" and Ren won't let him vent about it because they're trying to make amends and present a united front to Matoro. And there's no point even trying Uncle Nuju, he'd just end up defending his brother (and he and Whenua are still kind of on the shitlist as well for their part in keeping secrets).

Maybe he ends up venting to Kopaka. (Poor Kopaka can't relate at all but manages to just listen and nod his way through the conversation and that seems to work for Matoro.) Alternatively, maybe he just gives up trying to talk about it at all...

Matoro is also mad at Ahkmou because he straight up lied to him. he told him that all the powers were gone now and successfully convinced him not to ask Takua about it again and he knew the whole fucking time that Matoro's uncles were Turaga. he didn't know about Kualus but he knew the other two. Takua also knew but they didn't lie about their powers being gone to Matoro's face so they get more of a pass.

Kualus spends a really long time trying to make amends to Matoro and Azuni. he's definitely more successful with Azuni and they do eventually reconcile, though they still hold him at arm's length for a bit. still, Kualus is doing pretty much everything he can to make it up to Matoro, which unfortunately looks like more hovering from Matoro's perspective.

Matoro might wind up venting to an increasingly out of his depth Kopaka. he only sort of knows how to handle something like this. he does manage to point out that he hasn't told his grandmother about being a Toa for the same reasons that Kualus didn't tell Matoro or Azuni, because he wanted to protect them from the dangers of that world. it seems to be fairly common among Toa who have relationships with non-Toa. Kualus said the same thing but it hits different coming from someone Matoro actually looks up to.

#bionicle #bionicle au #knps au #toa inika #matoro

Poor Matoro. Takanuva and Ahkmou don't understand the point he's making. The way they talk about fathers, they put the burden on him to justify himself about being angry with his. Of course, Ahkmou's father is a piece of shit, he's not denying it. That's also not the point, being that decent parents can make mistakes that hurt their children.

tags by crystaltoa

This is interesting with the Turaga imo because we know a decent amount of their backgrounds.

It's a mix of having no close circle they'd trust the information with because of abusive families, wounds from being othered (disability, race, gender, etc.), fear of being further othered because of their new powers, feeling like burdens on others, and not wanting to endanger the few connections outside of being toa they had.

They also grew up in or lived through the 80ies, 90ies, and 00ies! And the non-toa they decided to trust - Kualus* - turned out to be a toa actually! It's no excuse that they haven't questioned this praxis with the changes over time, but it makes sense. (*Which I believe makes Nuju even more of a hypocrite in the present, if I remember correctly that he was not happy with his little brother being a toa, and this being the way he found out.)

I imagine that the turaga might experience some jealousy and regret over the Inika proving that it's possible, while wondering if they really had anybody back then they could've entrusted the truth with. But those are their issues to work through.

I still think a story where the Turaga experience an emotional breakdown would be neat. They have it confirmed that Metru Nui was built on the idea on most if not all matoran being disposable, confirming it with their own research, and realising this wasn't necessary for effectiveness and efficience, but to control the populace.

Afterwards? They go 'fuck it' and have a belated rebellious phase.

[Being Toa Metru and Toa Hordika doesn't count. I think it was @crystaltoa who pointed out that they still believed in the system of Metru Nui, only questioning single aspects.

It just happened that they acted incredibly chaotic due to external circumstances - including to survive against dangerous odds -, their opponent was Makuta who had secretly taken control over the city, and they made their chaos his (and, to be honest, everybody else's) problem.]

#bionicle #toa metru #vakama #onewa

Yeah, the thing that the classic model of character alignment ignores is how a character is treated by the society and the rules of the setting that they live in. The Toa Metru were functionally chaotic good (doing good by breaking laws and acting against "the system"), because they were declared enemies of the state, even though most of them had probably thought the system had been working just fine up until that point.

Vakama in particular seemed to romanticise Metru Nui, calling it a paradise in his introduction to LoMN. My headcanon is that Onewa was the one who missed it the least, and therefore the most conflicted about bringing the Matoran back there.

But I'm guessing all of them had a moment (or several) of going "Oh... Oh no... We can't go back to doing things like that."

whiteheartlight

Musing a little about Lhikan choosing the Toa Metru and considering the Great Disk Matoran not just because of their capacity to be heroic, kind, or good (which Lhikan is able to see in them even when others don't, probably my favorite characteristic of his and really one of his most noble and loving traits), but also because these Matoran were harder to get along with and care for and see the good in... and he wanted unity for them and a chance to prove themselves. Lhikan picking the Toa Metru and considering the Great Disk Matoran not despite their flaws but partially because of them - because he cared about these Matoran and did not want them to be lonely and knew they could do better.

Like Whenua isolating himself about losing Mavrah and Lhikan just seeing this and knowing in his heart Whenua needed friendship and would let himself be forgotten if something didn't change. or Lhikan watching Ehrye trying to prove himself and knowing he wouldn't make it as a scholar and would only keeping driving himself towards something he couldn't reach, but maybe as a Toa he could find some peace with himself and feel equal to his siblings (personally I like to think about Ehrye instead finding himself in the wilderness in Mata Nui and loving things like exploring and fishing, but that's a tangent). Lhikan knowing Ahkmou needed some kind of change or help and really that he had so much capacity to be clever and to learn to be selfless, but also knowing about things Onewa went through that led him to being so sour and shut-off, and wondering if either of them would find themselves as Toa. or how Matau is so wild and reckless and can be brutal when he wants to be, but Lhikan's like that one teacher who sees the ADHD kid and knows that all he needs is somewhere to channel that. knowing that Nokama loves her life but needs a new challenge too, that she's reached the top of her field and she'll be bored one day. him totally believing in all of them and their potential and their hearts. just Lhikan seeing Matoran who could not only be great Toa, but could be better people and happier as Toa because maybe that was their destiny all along, and that's what he's trying to figure out and trust in.

I mean, really, Lhikan doesn't pick any of the Matoran who are implied to be more stereotypical picks for Toa like captains of the guard or popular Matoran in leadership roles (well maybe Nokama qualifies as that, but most beings wouldn't have seen the fighting side to her, I think). I mean, what was stopping Lhikan from picking Jaller, you know? I'm sure even on Metru Nui, a Matoran like that was an obvious choice for a Toa. But Lhikan wasn't looking for the most clear-cut Matoran in the city. I think there was really something more instinctual that pulled at his heart personally. Because to him these Matoran were the heart of the Metru Nui and that's what he loved.

I don't think it's too far to say that Lhikan was willing to take risks in the Matoran he chose, even risks that they would choose darkness over light, because, well, Vakama got pretty damn close for a minute there. I've never believed that Lhikan wasn't aware of how flawed the Great Disk Matoran were or the Toa Metru themselves when he was considering them. I think he was the kind of Toa who really cared about them all and saw the good in them anyway, despite everything. Because he's basically the greatest ever and this is what the Metru will try to emulate as Turaga one day. Lhikan appreciation post

#bionicle #lhikan #metru nui #great disk matoran #toa metru

Afterwards? They go 'fuck it' and have a belated rebellious phase.

[Being Toa Metru and Toa Hordika doesn't count. I think it was @crystaltoa who pointed out that they still believed in the system of Metru Nui, only questioning single aspects.

#bionicle #turaga metru #turaga #toa metru / turaga #toa metru #metru nui

mossworth

Guys, queers. Specifically my fellow queers.

I work at a library. We do this thing where, every so often, we weed the collection. It hurts to see books go, but it's necessary to make sure there's room in the library for new materials.

I have seen so much support for the library in text, and I've seen folks pass around those beautiful "queer your library" flyers. Keep doing that. That's great. Nothing wrong with that. But you HAVE to turn your words into action. We MUST remember to actually go to our local organizations and libraries and actually, with our own fucking hands, interact with these materials we want to see more of.

My branch is medium-sized for a library, maybe a little small. We don't have as many materials as I'd like, but we have fundamentals. Tell me why, even with all the verbal support I've gotten from my local community for the library as a resource for our LGBT+ community, every single trans biography and a good chunk of our vaguely queer theory books were on the list. This isn't a scheme to take the books off the shelves, it isn't another bigoted American governmental push. The only thing we look at when we weed is how long it's been since the last time the item was checked out.

Three years.

No one in my community interacted in any meaningful way with the few books on trans life and history we physically had on the shelves for three fucking years.

I promise you the materials you want and need are there, but this isn't a horde. This isn't a static safety net. You have to use them. You MUST use them or, in the future, maybe in three years, they *won't* be there anymore.

This isn't a vague post, there's no one person I'm hinting at or calling out. I'm not even talking directly to anyone who's directly in my line of sight. I just want everyone to hear this. Big library, small library, whatever. Doesn't matter. Please, we cannot be losing our shelf visibility like this.

alanfromrochester

I work in a different library and can confirm, it's a decision based on popularity not censorship

we're big enough to have lots of shelf space but still have the problem on a different scale. We do have a back storage room rather than completely getting rid of some things, but having to ask for that might be a barrier for sensitive subject matter and prevent people from casually stumbling across something of interest

paintedpigeon1

Yep. Different library worker here, we weeded adult non-fiction recently bc it's most rarely used and we needed to clear a bookshelf of space, and there were a decent number of queer books on the list. Thankfully not all of them, but some (we had a lot lol). Our criteria is also no borrows in 3yrs. I can't borrow the whole list by myself. I do try to get these books in, and the local authority are happy to buy them, but we need space for new books every so often and we can't keep everything forever! If you want them, you have to use them!

(incidentally, the whole list was 35 pages long, which... please borrow the books you want people)

qbdatabase

I didn't have time to comment the first time I reblogged, but I can add now:

I'm also a librarian and queer books are almost always cut first when we have to weed for space or prioritize new releases over old items because no one reads them

I will say, when I worked at a large downtown location, we had a "browsing card" that we would check out items we found taken off the shelf and left on a table, as an example of a book that had clearly been read, just not checked out by anyone

it's possible queer books do actually get a bit of unfair treatment in this regard because people may be nervous or outright scared to check them out onto an account with their name on it. so they get browsed at a much higher rate, but if a library doesn't have a specific system in place (or need for it) to count browsed items, then it looks like they aren't being used and they get weeded

for other librarians, a browsing card is a great idea if you have enough staff for the extra work / enough items left out to justify it

for patrons, check out queer books even if you don't read them! you're not lying or committing any type of fraud. you're keeping books on the shelf long enough for pride season when people are interested in checking them out again and for people scared to use their own accounts or who don't have library cards

for anyone nervous about using their library card, libraries do not keep search histories of what you check out!! this means even if the government does come back with a warrant, *wet farting noise* too bad! it doesn't exist!

so please check out queer books!

vtothefun

I have to wonder how often they aren't checked out because those in an exploratory period may not feel safe enough for them to go home with them, too. Kids, for example, or folks who have ended up in a het marriage that... Doesn't feel like it's quite right (or may be physically abusive).

mossworth

This is most definitely one of the causes of this. That's why it's so important for folks who *can* to *do*.

It feels like such a small thing, but all movements are made up of small things! We have this mindset that in order to get everything done, everyone must be doing their (or *the*) absolute best at all times. But not everyone can do the same things, to the same degree, with the same amount of productivity or success. Not everyone can; sometimes, they're the ones that need help. Sometimes people just need help.

This post is very much so intended for the people who can. I've seen a lot of replies from folks who say they don't have to (or don't think about) checking out or requesting queer books from the library specifically because they *can* buy them, can pirate them, or already have them in their house or on their computers or phones. But in instances like that, keeping these books in circulation is less for you and more for the people who can't. The folks who come to the library, who don't have access to internet--or even electricity--at home and would never--have never--been able to interact with this "ubiquitous queer community" we have here online who has made so many of these. materials so avaliable to the rest of us.

And... if I can be a little frank. Sometimes the hyperaccessibility of these materials online (through pirating, cheap e-book copies, etc) gives people a false sense of security. It implies that these things are an infinate resource, good for "When I get around to it".

And often, you won't. There's so much to read and so much to do. So much to download and so much to sit down and stare at for hours. That kind of mental scope puts books in people's hands (or phones), but never in their heads.

But the moment your favorite document archival site gets knocked offline for breaching copyright or your go-to mega corporate audiobook distributor decides it doesn't want "those" materials anymore, what's left? What did you download? What information did you internalize? Did you ever get around to it? If you did, great, but what good does that do for the person who didn't? Are you going to be the one to redistribute that information? Are you going to communicate it in the place of the author whose words are no longer publically accesible or, mostly avaliable, but only behind hefty paywalls and financial gatekeeping? How would someone else get a hold of it? How could they, if they wanted?

vtothefun

This is excellent info.

What are some good books to check out for those who can?

mossworth

Gosh... there's so many options. I wouldn't know where to start without knowing who I'm talking to and what they're looking for. What I can recommend is for folks to check out creators like @makingqueerhistory who have spent just a ridiculously beautiful amount of time collecting queer history and book lists! You'll find something in seconds reading their page.

Personal pitch: I liked the books Tar Hollow Trans and Gay Poems for Red States. Both great.

makingqueerhistory

I'm glad I was tagged in this because it means I can cosign (and also add a little nugget of info).

I live in a province that is currently trying to ban queer books from libraries, and as a library patron, this is terrifying. 95% of the books I read are from the library and a lot of them are way out of my budget to buy personally.

Making Queer History would not exist without the school library I skipped class in to write articles. It would not exist without my friends with library cards for their universities sharing them and getting me access to rare texts. I would not be able to read as much as I do without Libby and Hoopla. If I have ever given you a book recommendation, know that I likely got it from the library first.

I cannot overstate the importance of protecting libraries and checking out queer books. And I want to say thank you to everyone above for being as passionate as I am about queer books in libraries.

Love y'all <3

whiteheartlight

I know that making the Vahi (and not making and losing and retrieving it and all this stuff) is pretty central to Vakama's character development, but in general I'm not sure the story ever really impresses on the reader how much of a big deal this is outside of Vakama's character. This Matoran-recently-turned-Toa just created the Mask of Time. The Mask of Time?! That is almost as big of a deal as the Mask of Life - a mask that takes multiple story arcs, multiple enemies and heroes, and multiple sacrifices to get to. And Vakama just forges the Mask of Time???? Just forges it??? Tahu wears it to fight Bohrok?? Mind boggling on a world development scale. The tabs that the Order of Mata Nui must have on Vakama are wild. Even if he never became a Toa, if Vakama was a Matoran who "just" made the Vahi and that was all he ever did, that would still make him one of the most influential beings alive in the whole of the Matoran Universe, and certainly one of the greatest crafters. If he had done that a millenia or two ago, he would have been sent to Artakha just for crafting it. The cosmic scale of the Vahi is unreal and unrealized in canon. maybe that's what Time Trap was trying to accomplish but geez, Vakama

@monthnem => Made me think of the Recursive AU

#bionicle #vakama #vahi

whiteheartlight

Mata Nui being asked questions about his world by his friends but he's been so checked out from his own people for so long that he's honestly pretty foggy on the details. Do they have kings on his planet? Mhhhh hmmm well. Queens he thinks. On at least one continent. How many kinds of Toa are there?? At least six! And then a few more. Do they have doors??? Please do not ask him that. It feels very complicated. And don't even mention the concept of romance to him. He's been sort of comatose and a little distracted even before that ok

#bionicle #bionicle headcanon #mata nui the character

He's also not sure if he's thinking of the Toa Nuva or the Toa Metru with 'there's at least six'. The passage of time got foggy during his coma.

zaptap

btw if you ever want to read bionicle it's never been easier: wallofhistory.com

all of the books, comics, online serials, some animations, and a point-and-click flash game*, all put conveniently in the correct reading order so you just have to keep clicking next

*theyre working on converting mata nui online game to html5, split into chapters, so far only the first 2 are available. without it wall of history will instead use the official "walkthrough" which just reads as a first person pov story. alternatively you can download the game from the bionicle media project to play the rest in flash

#bionicle

toacody

Onua Nuva - Toa of Earth

Making his enemies quake in fear!

Source

Creator: Ezreel

#bionicle #bionicle moc #onua #toa nuva

mfmara-art

#bionicle #bionicle fanart

ariartaccount

Toa Lewa

#bionicle #bionicle fanart #lewa #toa mata

randomwriteronline

could estrogen and lesbianism save Jaller

yes

probably not but i still think he should have some. as a treat

Voting ended onMar 19

#polls #bionicle #jaller

randomwriteronline

Your concept post about interpreting some Bionicle characters through the lense of Roman religion is still on my mind. Since yesterday, I've been thinking about the Toa Metru / Turaga and Mata Nui. A few more hours of studying the topic and I have so many questions.

Mata Nui. The only time he ever interfered personally in the GSR, as far as we know, he choose the Toa Metru and made sure that they were made toa. By that frame, the Toa Metru could be considered religiosus.

I found snags that make this concept interesting. The Ignika is supposedly a representation of one of Mata Nui's aspects. It claimed Matoro. Even if that knowledge was kept to a small circle, other people outside the two of them knew of this.

Only two people have ever known that Mata Nui choose the Toa Metru. Thr first died after he shared that knowledge with the second.

Does this fit into religiosus? In the examples I've found, a tree struck by lightning is claimed by Jupiter, and people buried in a private graveyard (as in, it's intentionally a graveyard) are claimed by the underworld / death gods. I got the impression that religiosus has likely a public aspect = able to be recognized by others.

This isn't given with the Toa Metru. Does the godly claim need to be recognized by others? Does the god have to want others to recognize it as such?

Apropos: What would 'to claim' even mean between Mata Nui and the Toa Metru? At least in Metru Nui, the residents believed he never directly interacted and interfered with Destiny. Not even an idea for this concept existed or that interfering with them would be a taboo.

funcking devours this like a rabid wolf SHAUNI YOUR MIND

I didn't even think of the metru being religiosus even though they. CANONICALLY and LITERALLY and EXPLICITLY got chosen. by the one god they fuckin have. I May Be Stupid

you do raise a fair point... when it comes to sacer and sanctus they are very "social" concepts, in the sense that they are rooted in the public perception of a person or thing, as well as arbitrary and highly specific or situational. like for the sanctuary of Diana on lake Nemi, the new priest became sacred enough for this role only after meeting a bunch of requirements - being a slave, running away, tearing a sacred branch from a sacred tree (again, arbitrary af bc theres NO indication which fuckin tree this is), and killing the old priest with it

religiosus is different because... well, it's sort of obvious when you do see it, no? you can tell if someplace is a cemetery pretty quickly, and a tree struck by lightning will obviously look a certain way. or, uh (thinks of matoro getting disatomized) not. look. at all

but as you said, the metru are in a weird situation because there's really nothing blatant about them that screams Mata Nui Seal Of Ownership aside from their own word of mouth. maybe if some kind of transcript of the original prophecy survived they could use that? or if they got krakua or the hagah on record abt it... but yes, it would seem that this is essentially a private certainty for them and only them

though the lack of Special Touches kind of fits mata nui's whole "no interference" thing too... and i guess the fact that the toa Nuva (special god task force), Mahri (found the mask of life) and Takanuva (The fucken toa of light) answer to the same six random turaga pooped out of metru nui would be enough to make ppl go "ok CLEARLY theres something important abt these guys" and mata nui being involved w them would start sounding pretty plausible

#bionicle #mata nui the character #toa metru #turaga metru

Your thoughts have started my thoughts going again. Love going through your points and thinking on and analyzing them.

randomwriteronline

OH TO BE A SAINT UNABLE TO SAVE THE SACRED

OH TO BE A GOD WITHOUT A SAY ON HIS OWN FATE

i have a lottttttttttttttt to say about this drawing but good lord most of it is roman religion shit nobody else knowssssss

#bionicle #jaller #takanuva #matoro #mata nui #human bionicle #bionicle fanart

I love this so much!!

Ahh, I'm only a few hours in into learning about Roman religion and laws, so i might misunderstand some things. The whole concept compels me so much how you've adapted it to the characters.

Jaller as sanctus, as the protector of Matoro and Takanuva. His physical state is assaulted and hurt, but he's restored, because he's still meant to protect. And his death causes backlash, like how attacking or even just scaling over that protective wall is meant to be punished. (The red reminds of blood. His own, that of his friends that is metaphorically spilled inside the protection he provides.)

Matoro's claimed by the Ignika, an aspect of their god Mata Nui. Matoro is religiosus. The Ignika curses anybody touching it who it hasn't chosen, and it's a divine act to chose him. He's not cursed as he could be as sacer, but being claimed by divinity has such far-reaching consequences that it's a different kind of curse. Divinity when it claims directly goes by their own rules. (Which makes Makuta's actions even more fascinating with that idea in mind. He manipulates him, stalks him, but is that enough to breach the taboo of interfering with the divine as long as Matoro is the one to sacrifice himself, wearing the Ignika, according to the divine? How does Makuta think about it, with his plan to supplant Mata Nui?)

Takua / Takanuva is sacer in both senses, first the one, then the other: Cursed, set apart, rejected because he didn't follow the rules established by his fellow mortals. Later he becomes sacred as the Toa of Light, chosen by himself but by others as well. He is sacer as in a sacrifice by himself to the greater good, shining and beautiful as the Light.

bionicle-ramblings

Don't👏mind👏me👏

Nidhiki: I agreed to PROTECTING the Matoran, not ADOPTING them, Brother

Lhikan: (As he holds Vakama in his arm) No one's adopting anyone, Nidhiki. Don't be silly

#bionicle #nidhiki #lhikan #vakama #funny

Woke up this morning thinking about the fact that the KNPS Metru prequel takes place in 2004 and that Nuju is definitely going to spend half the fic trying to convince Whenua and Lhikan to buy one of those new "smart boards" for the library (because OBVIOUSLY they cant just have one in every classroom that would be far too expensive)

Also Whenua absolutely does not have a DVD player

He was resistant to getting DVDs for the library too until Matau accidentally wiped the VHS collection.

And during the werebeast arc, everyone is stressed about the increasing presence of these newfangled phones with cameras in them, even though the resulting images are super low-res and pixelated. Good luck trying to prove you've seen a real life cryptid with one of them.

Krahka, meanwhile, doesn't really get what the big deal is. So humans have a new way of making their stupid little pictures of stuff, why should she care?

Whenua does eventually get a DVD player when he starts learning ASL and finds he needs a better visual demonstration than the library books he's been getting and they only have DVDs at the library now. Nuju does not find out this happened until well into their marriage

There are several potato cam photos of Krahka that most people think are just an actual cougar sitting kind of weird because of the angle and a few others where the general consensus is "posed fursuit photo." This did however mean the general public thinks the cougar-beast was a woman. Several bad ebooks based on this concept exist. Onewa and Krahka take great delight in reading them to each other.

Also walkies are still the best way to stay in constant contact with other groups/people quickly, 100%. The code names were Matau's idea.