Subject: Warning: Whinging about Bionicle. Again.
Author:
Posted on: 2012-07-25 17:29:00 UTC
'Scuse me, let me finish packing this crate with these individually wrapped bars of something about right to hold in the palm of your hand...
... Okay, done. -stands on it-
I am so utterly sick of stories where Matoran Universe inhabitants date and marry and have babies like humans do without even a cursory note that the author is disregarding that particular piece of canon. I am so utterly sick of this assumption that of course they need to kiss and date and marry and have sex and court like humans do when that disregards a fundamental difference which is that they don't.
They're asexual -- not agender, much as I am liable to grumble about how that doesn't make sense except as something the Great Beings couldn't imagine their creations not having -- and don't even have the bits for sex, just the mental construct of female/male and slightly different bodies with their different elements (hello Ga-Matoran, how ya doing with those useless lumps on your chests?). They're still entirely capable of forging deep and abiding friendships, especially without the whole issue wherein a hetero- or bisexual male and a hetero- or bisexual female form a deep and abiding friendship and the world and his wife expects them to hop into bed together.
Co-opting the words "brother" and "sister" for what Toa call their teammates, I feel, sums this sort of relationship up neatly. It's entirely platonic, it's entirely non-erotic, and the participants will go through hell and high water for each other and rib their siblings about it the whole way, and they chose their family on top. They love each other, and I really wish English didn't have sex all tangled up in that word because in canon Bionicle they don't and it's kind of beautiful. They make sure those they love are safe and happy and healthy and will lay down their lives to do it (See: Jaller that one time to save Takua, Matoro for freaking EVERYBODY) and they don't need the whole sex thing tangled up in their love. Physical closeness? Hell yeah, hugging is all up in this joint, cuddling for comfort after or before a big battle eff yes, just don't get your sexual-being baggage into their asexual-being love.
... Okay, and Greg Farshtey didn't want to answer questions about the sex lives of plastic toys. That too. I just took the whole thing and ran with it, though I'm poking at the idea of romantic as opposed to erotic love and seeing if it's disentanglable from the whole 'kissing' thing because I think it's applicable to my questionably-canon-compliant headcanon AKA that meandering rant. And I really, really find this sort of thing, this difference in mentality, interesting, and I want to see what I think makes sense...
Still got one more, related to the above: Oi! Enough with the unmarked giving of human forms for the sole reason of teh sexhay. I'm annoyed about the proliferation of these period because there's often no real reason beyond the author seemingly unable to properly imagine not being human, but if they're marked I can avoid them or in the case of Metru Uni love them, though that one's A, marked, and B, not for teh sexhay anyway and it's actually more like humans getting these weird powers and masks and stuff, it's awesome. And also horrendously AU even beyond that but the timeline changes are the funnest.
A-hm, where was I? Oh yes. It's not that hard to write these guys as the bodies they are in canon, really! Really! Just get your minds out of the gutter for two darn sexonds* and you'll see they don't even need to be human because canon did just fine, and anyway you can always turn to the natives of Spherus Magna if you really wanna, they've got the equipment... or mark your dang AUs at least so I can avoid them just off the summary, ff.net's summary limit is 384 character now instead of 255, you have space! At the very least put it in an initial author's note.
*Typo. But I'm keeping it, because, despite what that rant extolling asexuality might lead people to believe, I'm as horny a teenager as the majority of sixteen-year-olds. I just... don't think giving that particular trait to these characters adds anything, and that they have so many more ways to show love that won't even need to go over G unless you're the kind of person who thinks guys cuddling needs an R rating and then screw you Takua/Jaller cuddlebuddies for life! No, no, Nixie/Takua/Jaller/Hahli OT4 cuddlepairing! And add Macku and Hewkii to Hahli's end of the couch in that order, and get Hafu in there! Maybe get Pohatu to give Kopaka and Tahu a hug wherein they're stuck next to each other, see how much the pair grumbles! CUDDLES FOR EVERYONE
HUGS FOR THE HUG THRONE CUDDLES FOR THE CUDDLE GOD ahem I'll be going now -steps down off soapbox-