#daggerspider

[kanohivolitakk]

I find it very funny how one of the things Bionicle is notorious for is how Greg  basically cockblocked romance by saying romantic relationships don't exist in canon, yet in spite of that he made Nidhiki and Lariska have the dynamic they did in canon.

Like with other “if romance is not canon then explain this” dynamics in the series like Hewikii/Macku, Jaller/Hahli, Nokama/Vakama, or Mataus onesided crush on Nokama I can give Greg a bit more benefit of the doubt because most of the ship-teasing was in material that wasn’t in the books or comics (which Greg wrote) but rather in stuff like the movies or MNOG. And its very open that the writers of those were more open for romantic dynamic with the characters or at least hints of that sort, especially with the movies since they were released during a time it was almost a mandate for kids movies to have a romantic subplot, whether that fit to said movie or not. Greg didn’t really contribute to any of these dynamics, beyond possibly adding a bit more fuel into Matau being horny as fuck towards Nokama pile, tho I’m not sure if the snippets in the books where Matau flirted with Nokama were from the books that Greg wrote completely by himself or if they were in the movie adaptions.

Theres also the fact that most of these material was made before Greg announced that he yeeted romance from the canon, which is something I feel a lot of people tend to forget with this early material when debating over the canonicity of romance in the series.

But like. The dynamic between Nidhiki and Lariska is pretty much something Greg had full creative control over and created after he established that romantic love wasn’t a thing in the series. So  as such it really is worth to put into question that if romance isn’t canon according to Greg then why in the name of Mata Nui do Nidhiki and Lariska have sexual tension going on in their interactions?

Like I guess you could read their interactions as nothing but purely platonic but so much of the interactions between Nidhiki and Lariska comes across as borderline flirting for me. There’s just something deeply loaded in the way the two banter back and forth, the way they retort the other with playfully teasing comments. The way their interaction is like a dance or a tennis match, where each participant bounces off the other in a way that feels more and more loaded with each comment. Like an endless back and forth of pushs and pulls, swings and counterattacks. It’s very sparks fly type of dynamic you know? Especially since they really feel like a take of that whole “antagonists/enemies who flirt while they fight against each other” trope to the point I can’t help but wonder if Greg purposefully wrote them like that at least subconciously.

Once again, you can read their dynamic as platonic if you want to but at the same time: Greg if love isn't canon then why did you write Nidhiki and Lariska like that? Like theres nothing wrong with friendly banter but I feel we are past that and into flirting territory and sexual tension here.

[xenon-noble]

Point: Lariska is described as Toa-sized, so my Lariska should not be almost twice as tall as my version of Nidhiki

Counterpoint:

[kanohivolitakk]

Also the sad boy is a giant spider monster

iykyk

tbh

[magicalgirlmascot]

In my "moving my ancient fics from ff.net to ao3" efforts, I've been forced to confront some Creative Choices that I made back in the day, with Metru Uni this time in particular. Why did I make Sidorak like that. Why did I make Dume like that. Why did I make Kiina Nokama's roommate when Vhisola was RIGHT THERE and would have been the OBVIOUS CHOICE for a fun(?) character arc about growing up and becoming a different person than you were in high school. Why did I make Ehrye like that. Etc.

[sepublic]

I love how you have Nidhiki and Lariska which is this almost romantic and sexy aesthetic between two skilled badasses… But then Birth of a Dark Hunter has to accommodate Krekka, whom Nidhiki is more widely known to be partnered with, and Krekka sorta just clumsily crashes into the narrative while knocking over the tone. So you’ve got Nidhiki anticipating his emotional connection and bond with Lariska and then all of a sudden he’s dragged into the indignity of this Saturday Morning Cartoon Villain dingus.

Pictured: Krekka coming in to crash the DaggerSpider dynamic with his own contributions. I wonder if Nidhiki ever had a nightmare like this.

[coldgoldlazarus]

I don't ship daggerspider romantically but I do really like their friendship

And like, even though Nidhiki's mask is a Volitak power-wise, the Hagah prove that mask shapes and powers don't always line up. And of course, thanks to knowing the Norik and Iruini sets were originally going to be Dume and Nidhiki as Toa, the connection between the Kualsi and Nidhiki's mutated form's head shape is a known thing.

I'm just saying, there's a reason I decided to include a Kualsi in my Lariska MOC, outside of it being Metru green.

[xenon-noble]

bold words coming from the CEO of daggerspider

Remember when ship names were just like ~ ☆ sprite cranberry ☆~ and you just had to figure out what the fuck that meant for yourself

[xenon-noble]

Y’all like daggerspider right?

🗡️🕸️

hang on

What’s this down here

All alone...

[magicalgirlmascot]

Anyway it's time for more of my Ancient Human!Bonkles Bullshit because I can't leave well enough alone. Featuring the bad guys this time.

OKAY SO AN EXPLANATION IS IN ORDER HERE I THINK. Or maybe not maybe we're all willing to accept Twinkidax at face value but I'm gonna go ahead and say maybe we're not. I just. Man I wanted Makuta to be a cool grimdark edgelord so bad for some reason. Thankfully I came to my senses before we ever saw him in human form in the fic proper (which we never actually did lmao) and redesigned him. It's still not good but at least he's not. That.

Anyway he had a few different forms, the big shadow gas creature being the one that we saw most. Human!Makuta would have shown up at some point, probably, but I never got past the Morbuzakh arc so we never got to see him. As for the book uh. My brilliant idea was for Teridax to disguise himself as a book to get close to Dume and possess him. I don't know why that was my best idea.

YES I KNOW HIS NAME IS SPELLED WRONG he was not the only character who I couldn't remember where the H went. Nidhiki was Lhikan's roommate, only remaining teammate, and worstie (although it was 2011 so that wasn't a term that was used). His whole betrayal and joining the Hunters happened later in this fic, so the Toa Metru got to actually bear witness to that whole can of worms. Lhikan was still the only one who gave up his powers to give the Metru theirs, though, it was a whole thing, Nidhiki was kinda bitter about it. Anyway he had four arms instead of four legs because I couldn't draw more than two legs. I think the idea was that he was stuck partway between his Toa and regular forms and that's why he has heterochromia, too. Fun fact, his surname being Cane was supposed to be from "hurricane," but was also a reference to "raising Cain"/Cain and Abel, which I stole directly from Skulduggery Pleasant lmao

Not sure why this is the direction I went for Krekka but okay. He was barely in the fic I have nothing to say about him sorry

I think I had a crush on Lariska I'm not gonna lie. I remember making this outfit using a tool you could use to make Gaia Online outfits lmao. Also I apparently hella shipped DaggerSpider. I was right actually they were fuckin

GOD WHY DID I DO SIDORAK LIKE THISSSSSSS. He was Onewa's roommate and a big weenie. Your Local Emo Dental Hygiene Student Who's Also Obsessed With Bugs And Becomes King Of The Spiders By Accident Or Possibly Birthright I Don't Fucking Remember. Man he should've been this big lumberjack looking motherfucker.

Once again my inability to come up with Outfits hampers my character design. Also she needs bigger boobs. And bigger muscles. She barely appeared in the fic though so like

Alright I think that's it for villains.

[sepublic]

As one more point to Mimic’s hilarity as a character, he’s also the only Dark Hunter who’s had experience being a regular civilian in a relationship; Mimic is probably the only Dark Hunter qualified to give relationship advice. So for all you DaggerSpider shippers (and those who ship Devastator and Johmak), keep that in mind.

[tiftaf-the-world-jumper]

@kanohivolitakk

[kanohivolitakk]

Ok let me explain why I reacted as I did in my last post, which was indeed regarding the scrapped Toa Inika concepts essentially vindicating why I'm one of the few people who believe love not being canon is a good thing.

Firstly, before anyone gets assumptions let me clarify something. I don't think having romance existing in Bionicle is inherently a bad idea in and of itself. Those who followed me in le olden days know I do ship characters from this stupid series. Romance existing in the world and characters having romantic relationships is something I don't inherently oppose.

That said

I've always believed that romance wouldn't work as a proper element of the story itself and would've made the series worse for a few factors.

For starters, I feel romance kinda, clashes with Bionicles core essence. Bionicle is fundamentally an action adventure story that focuses on mystery, intrigue and discovery in a fantastical setting, with heavy emphasis on worldbuilding and intrigue. Sure, there are other series with similar styles and goals that have romance. But usually they happen to only have part of those elements than all of them. Bionicle is already packed as is, so as such having romance would've just muddied the pack than made actual worthwhile addition to the story

Secondly...romance in these kinds of stories is rarely done well, unless it is one of the core components. In action and fantasy stories aimed at kids and teens romance is rarely (if ever) done well. Usually it's regulated to onedimensional love-interests, will they won't they plots or compelling characters being ruined by forced romance plots. While there are exceptions, most of the time romance in these stories feels forced rather than organic, and as such more of a detriment to the narrative than a benefit. Given how Bionicle was released during the heyday of mediocre forced romances and how the series already isn't that character centric to begin with, I absolutely believe the series would've stumbled with handling romance.

Thirdly, it's just nice to have a story that doesn't have romance at all and instead focuses on fun adventures and interesting mysteries. As I said, romance could've most likely been felt shoehorned or forced in, and thus its nice for Bionicle to exist as is without any unnecessary elements to drag it down. But in addition it's just...really refreshing and freeing. A lot of stories (especially of the time) feel very amatonormative where romance is expected as a natural part of live and thus exists in everything no matter what. As someone who both was annoyed by romance being everywhere no matter what (and is possibly onarospec on some degree) that kind of..refusal to amatonormativity is just...really nice.

Fourthly, it allows platonic relationships to shine. I feel that often (both in real life, fiction and fandom spaces) romantic relatinships are put bigger emphasis on than platonic relationships, whenplatonic relationships are just as valuable if not moreso. Platonic relationships are undervalued and certain traits are seen as inherently romantic. As such its just...nice to see characters have deep bonds and connections without being forced red string of fate either by the narrative, fandom or both.

And lastly...I just kinda prefer shipping in fandom over canonical relationships. Unless the story is focused on romance, has romantic relationship being important for the larger narrative/themes or there's a relationship that is geniunely compelling and fascinating I just prefer when audience can choose which characters they see being "together" rather than the writer "forcing" a relationship onto them. Like, I love Daggerspider but part of that is because I get to choose the ship myself rather than Greg (or anyone else) forcing me to accept it as canon.

So yeah that's why I always believed romance not being canon was ultimately a good thing and why I am somewhat against the fandoms desire to make it canon. If you want to meet me halfway I'm willing to accept romance as an element of the setting or have romantic relationships be subtext/canonicaal couples. But Bionicle should never be focused on romance because its lack of romance is ultimately for it's benefit I feel.

[kanohivolitakk]

I have two moods when it comes to Bionicle shipping and they’re “I want the mutated traitor spider and the catgirl assassin to hold hands” and “I want the angry strawberry dragon with identity issues and the tiny emotionally stunted childish shrimp moth to hold hands”

[kanohivolitakk]

Its even worse when one of them got canonically vored killed off by the main villain

me: sees two characters with 0% chance at happiness

brain: hoe don't do it

me: otp

brain: oh my god

[kanohivolitakk]

Assuming intimacy resembling our concept of spooning exists in Bionicle, Lariska has "spoon switch" energy, while Nidhiki is absolutely a little spoon no doubts.

Which of course is a problem given that Nidhiki is much bigger/taller than Lariska. So he cannot be cherished and held like he wants :c

[kanohivolitakk]

Honestly Nidhiki and Lariska have the type of energy where they’d kill a dude and then just spend the rest of the day doing cute casual/domestic stuff like nothing happened.