#ehks asks

matoro (how could i not have mister "doomed and saved the matoran universe at once" himself at #1)

lewa (he gets into so much trouble all the time. rest in peace, dude. being stuck in tren krom sucks)

lariska (my "deeper cut" character, given she had no official appearance during the time bionicle was ongoing. but still.)

so like, Officially she's not.

but her arc in xenoblade 2 is the single most trans thing i can think of in a game that isn't LITERALLY about a trans person.

xb2 spoilers i guess but i don't respect xb2 as a whole to censor it beyond this but. with the bathhouse scene, i didn't realize it was about her core crystal. i thought it was her actually being trans and going "please don't out me until i'm comfortable with that" but no it wasn't that.

she still ended up being closeted and hiding who she "really was" and it's extremely telling how she went from wearing a big baggy set of clothes that totally cover her (such as, idk, a dysphoria hoodie!) to something far more revealing (which i have issues with that but that's just a general xb2 "why did saito have to make all the main female blades in the party Like That" critique) like...a fair amount of trans people also tend to do. also the whole "This is who I really am!" bit, too, feels trans as hell like someone coming out as trans to people.

one can argue that nia being forced to become a flesh eater in and of itself strengthens that - forced to go through something that left her body permanently altered against her wishes. kinda like what puberty does!

also her core is blue and pink and light reflecting off it can make it white which i don't think was intentional trans flag imagery (given all flesh eaters have that and the pink is more meant to be red, as seen by jin) but also it's a very funny coincidence.

so that's why i think of nia as a great trans character even if, by all accounts, she's cis. but god, you couldn't make a more trans-coded character without just making them trans.

yeah it's that.

okay so i actually do have a specific headcanon wrt elemental genders and that is every single element actually has its own gender and the "he/she" split is just translating that gender to the vaguely closest binary term. ta matoran are ta gender. ga matoran are ga gender. etc. other species do have male/female or rough equivalents though, it's just matoran/toa/turaga that don't.

almost every member of the toa mata is ace/aro. not because they were grown in tubes i just don't think most of them care about sex or romance. the only exception is i think pohatu is gay. idk why i just have that vibe now.