TiredSpaceDragon

Happy Bionicle day!

I'm doing the exact same as the last couple of years. Setting up a little "shrine", cooking themed food and watching the 810NICLE day stream

@tiredspacedragon

The largest dam removal in U.S. history. So successful that the salmon that haven’t run freely in the river for literally over a century came back the next year. Not steady progress over a decade as expected, the very next salmon run they came home. No one alive saw salmon in that river outside the hatcheries kept by native’s tribes and the Department of Fish And Wildlife scientists desperately trying to save them. One of the activists who helped bring the suit spoke of their dying grandmother making them promise to bring the fish home, and they didn’t know how that was possible, but they spent decades doing it.

The legal basis for successfully suing the power company who owned the dams was Indigenous treaty rights to eat the fish. Eating the fish was the one thing in a century that succeeded in being a clear and legally binding right that superseded the desires of white capital and industry. I have been going to the public interest environmental law conference off and on for 20 years where a lot of organizing for Undam The Klamath happened. I’ve heard updates about every legal tact they tried as they happened, and they tried everything.

There are healthy, thriving salmon, trout, and lamprey in a rewilding and recovering Klamath River right now as a direct result of Indigenous people eating them. Of their legally binding right to eat them. They sure as fuck care more about those fish than any white vegan ever could. They are salmon people that the Creator sent Salmon to feed, while charging the People with protecting and stewarding them. It’s not possible to learn about salmon and trout in the Pacific Northwest without learning this, and it’s unambiguously racist to dismiss this symbiotic relationship.

The white vegans are trying to get all hunting and fishing banned in Oregon, and that’s quite possibly the single most catastrophic thing that could be done to the animals here because we killed off all the major predators of creatures like deer and without anything hunting them their numbers will explode, eat all the vegetation, destroy the ecosystem, and then die along with everything else in that failing ecosystem. Controlled hunting of deer is vitally necessary for the deer to survive. This is something Native people know, but patronizing racist savior-complex white people refuse to listen to.

I have a whole collection of Oregon’s Public Broadcasting’s documentaries about Klamath River or the larger story of fish and people in the region. If you watch nothing else, watch Klamath Dams Are Coming Out, First Salmon Ceremony, After The Dams, and First Decent (Native made). It could not be clearer that the salmon are being protected and nourished by the people who eat them, and that stewardship is a massive part of their creation myths. But it contradicts political vegan dogma so they don’t listen.

Like he'd still arrive in Vulcanus and make a big scene as usual (maybe with a bit of a rewrite to make Strakk's behaviour make more sense), but instead of immediately heading out on his Grand Quest the next day, he'd actually get pushed into being signed on as Vulcanus' new Second Glatorian, either through being railroaded by Metus and Raanu without really understanding what's going on until it's too late to say no, or willingly accepting it on Ackar's advice. He'd then stay in Vulcanus for some time, training with Ackar and learning how this world works and how to survive it, slowly. Eventually he'd have to fight some real matches, perhaps traveling to the other villages for them. Kiina would most likely be his first opponent to ensure she's introduced early enough to join the main squad, then maybe the other Glatorian Legends characters after her to keep the summer wave in focus. Naturally, Mata Nui would spend a lot of this time getting his ass kicked, but he would steadily improve, maybe even snag a win somewhere in there. Then in between fights he'd talk with the other Glatorian, explore the villages, and pursue leads that could tell him anything about his connection to this world and how he might return to his body and save his people. Eventually the movie plot would kick back in, and there'd be the discovery of a traitor, granting the Glatorian elemental powers, marching on Roxtus, etc. But the road getting there would be longer, and both Mata Nui's growth and role in the conflict would feel much more earned. There would actually be some progression between him barely surviving against a Vorox and Strakk, to beating Tuma one-on-one. And actually having to participate in the culture of the Glatorian and the Agori would give Mata Nui more of a reason to care about their struggles, and a unique perspective on the flaws in the system, leading towards the push to dismantle it and unite the tribes.

I do understand the faster pace the story team chose to take for the second half of 2009; with the Skrall having already sacked Atero and effectively declared open war, dragging out the other villages continuing to play at arena matches feels somewhat narratively dissonant. But, I really do feel like the latter half of the year could use the extra time. Time for Mata Nui to struggle with his new situation before everything is resolved in a neat little bow. Time to see the Glatorian system in action before it's gone for good. Could do it like in the Adventures series where all of this is technically going on within the runtime of The Legend Reborn, but it gets glossed over or only acknowledged through montage, so it wouldn't interrupt the story the movie was going for.

They roll up to the tournament and claim the city as their own, challenging all the other tribes to duel them for their right to stay there. Of course the Skrall win, but Tarix, Gresh, and Strakk manage to go all the way to facing Tuma himself before he beats them. Then all the other tribes get chased out and the Skrall establish Atero as a new fort, from which they get even more aggressive in challenging their neighbors for resources now that they're closer to everyone.

On the one hand, I feel like he shouldn't, because him not being there should have huge repercussions for his arc. The guilt of feeling like he should have been there, and how that plays off his feeling that he's getting too old to fight and losing his edge, so maybe he couldn't have done anything even if he was there. All of that would have to become central to his character, which sends him off in a very different direction. One I'm not sure he really needs to go in to fulfill his role.

Like he'd still arrive in Vulcanus and make a big scene as usual (maybe with a bit of a rewrite to make Strakk's behaviour make more sense), but instead of immediately heading out on his Grand Quest the next day, he'd actually get pushed into being signed on as Vulcanus' new Second Glatorian, either through being railroaded by Metus and Raanu without really understanding what's going on until it's too late to say no, or willingly accepting it on Ackar's advice. He'd then stay in Vulcanus for some time, training with Ackar and learning how this world works and how to survive it, slowly. Eventually he'd have to fight some real matches, perhaps traveling to the other villages for them. Kiina would most likely be his first opponent to ensure she's introduced early enough to join the main squad, then maybe the other Glatorian Legends characters after her to keep the summer wave in focus. Naturally, Mata Nui would spend a lot of this time getting his ass kicked, but he would steadily improve, maybe even snag a win somewhere in there. Then in between fights he'd talk with the other Glatorian, explore the villages, and pursue leads that could tell him anything about his connection to this world and how he might return to his body and save his people. Eventually the movie plot would kick back in, and there'd be the discovery of a traitor, granting the Glatorian elemental powers, marching on Roxtus, etc. But the road getting there would be longer, and both Mata Nui's growth and role in the conflict would feel much more earned. There would actually be some progression between him barely surviving against a Vorox and Strakk, to beating Tuma one-on-one. And actually having to participate in the culture of the Glatorian and the Agori would give Mata Nui more of a reason to care about their struggles, and a unique perspective on the flaws in the system, leading towards the push to dismantle it and unite the tribes.

I do understand the faster pace the story team chose to take for the second half of 2009; with the Skrall having already sacked Atero and effectively declared open war, dragging out the other villages continuing to play at arena matches feels somewhat narratively dissonant. But, I really do feel like the latter half of the year could use the extra time. Time for Mata Nui to struggle with his new situation before everything is resolved in a neat little bow. Time to see the Glatorian system in action before it's gone for good. Could do it like in the Adventures series where all of this is technically going on within the runtime of The Legend Reborn, but it gets glossed over or only acknowledged through montage, so it wouldn't interrupt the story the movie was going for.

They roll up to the tournament and claim the city as their own, challenging all the other tribes to duel them for their right to stay there. Of course the Skrall win, but Tarix, Gresh, and Strakk manage to go all the way to facing Tuma himself before he beats them. Then all the other tribes get chased out and the Skrall establish Atero as a new fort, from which they get even more aggressive in challenging their neighbors for resources now that they're closer to everyone.