Disabled Bionicles - Tumblr Posts
I love this thread! I was thinking about disabled Bionicles a few days ago, because I wanted to create a Toa who uses a wheelchair.
Actually, when I first joined the Bionicle fandom a few years ago, I had an oc who couldn't form any memories, so I was happy to see that here! Her name was Nikimaru, and she had to write everything down, because she would forget everything the next day, even her own name sometimes. Maybe I should actually write about her...
These headcanons are very cool, and can be useful. They can add more diversity to the Bionicle world! I love them <3
some disabilities that I think could exist in the Bionicle universe for character and world-building reasons:
under-active cooling systems that lead to fatigue and illness. these beings have to limit their physical activity or they will overheat and could cause serious damage to their other internal systems. some of them may go live in Ko-Matoran districts or other cold areas even if they wouldn't live there traditionally. Matoran with this condition may be more likely to use crabs or small personal vehicles to get around
since I headcanon that most beings are mass-printed or otherwise mass-produced, you can occasionally find someone who was simply printed wrong in some way, a production line error causing a deformity. some of these deformities would have been weeded out by quality control before everyone gained sentience, but not all
memory loss seems to be a built-in feature for many beings in the MU. some beings have this to an even greater degree than others, however, and they might lose their memories very frequently or even lack the ability to form memories
if a Toa is interrupted while in the middle of passing his power on to another Toa and becoming a Turaga, the new Toa can become trapped halfway between Matoran and Toa, sometimes not reaching the typical height or physical power of an average Toa, and possibly having limited control of their elemental powers
the different culture of the MU would create different possible mental illnesses. for instance, some Matoran could become overly-obsessed with the ideals of duty to the point that they almost seem at times to have lost their sentience again and only be capable of work. the existence of physic powers also means that there are a lot of ways in which someone's mind could be damaged by psionic powers like repeated hypnotism, confusion, or memory tampering
not to mention all the different ways mutation could cause disabilities and chronic pain
disabilities related to control over powers: these could be particularly common in Skakdi, who are given unprecedented and experimental powers by Spiriah. many Skakdi are permanently damaged by his experiments and may have extremely faulty control of their abilities
if the glass or plastic that makes up the eyepiece is damaged, that can be replaced, but if the wiring that connects the eyes to the brain is damaged, someone could have blindness or vision loss. the same goes for a lot of parts - maybe an audio receptor can be removed and replaced, but if the internal systems are damaged, it might not be possible to replace or repair those parts. it's similar to humans in that way
there could also be intellectual or cognitive disabilities similar to those of humans
damaged joints that have to be permanently locked or braced so they will not break... looking at you, lime-greens
I also think that there are already disabilities in the text! We know there's a concept of muteness because the Makuta wonder if Vamprah has mutism or if he chooses not to speak, there's the concept of being "cross-wired," and the Rahaga, Zaktan, and Nidhiki's mutations alter their powers and change their physical abilities in ways meant to be debilitating and horrifying. we have references to insanity, broken arms, amnesia, amputees, and more.
feel free to add on!