The reason why the 71 Elite vanity looks like it does
Aloha kākou,
In lieu of all the complaints of how the new 71 Vanity looks, I decided to give you guys a little history and reasoning of why STS choose that design for the vanity.
As many of you know, I live in Hawai'i. Now you may be saying, "haha, thats cool idc," or "aww I'm jelly," but I am also Hawaiian, and this helm is based upon something from my culture (and no, not all people from Hawai'i are Hawaiian. Itʻs not like how someone from California is Californian, there is an actual race, a people of aboriginal descent from Hawai'i who have Hawaiian blood; I am in that category).
The 71 vanity is based upon the Mahiole, or Hawaiian Feather Helmet, and were only worn by the highest ali'i (chiefs). Wearing one showed you were of the highest rank, and could even mean that some people couldn't even look at your shadow lest they wished to be punished by death. Here's what a Mahiole looks like:
Now I realize that it does look similar to Roman styled helms, but keep in mind, Hawai'i is on the other side of the globe from Rome and is isolated in the middle of the Pacific ocean with no western contact until the 1700s, so this design is all Hawaiian. The colors, yellow and green, were chosen because in old Hawai'i, those colors were extremely uncommon in Mahiole, or any feather adornment. There were only a few breeds of birds on the islands that had such colors, and when Hawaiians did capture the birds for their prized feathers, they'd only take one or two feathers rather than taking all of them and potentially killing the bird, meaning that it took literally thousands upon thousands of birds just to make one helmet. Because of this, anyone wearing green or yellow was of extreme importance and royalty and was not to be taken lightly.
A lot of the yellow used in the feather items were taken from this bird, the ʻŌʻō, which is now extinct due to predators and hunting introduced by Haole:
Here are Ali'i wearing feather items which signify their importance:
Anyway, the point of this thread was to get you guys educated on the reasoning behind why STS chose this design for the new 71 vanity. I, for one, like it, its a cool representation of my people, my culture, and my history, all in a game that I love to play. If you have something negative to say about it, be mindful that you're not just bashing on STS, but you're bashing on a culture, MY culture, and that is highly unappreciated.
Mahalo for your time, a hui hou.
-PK
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I think it's cool how they only take 2 feathers from the bird instead of all of them in order to keep the bird alive. That's something I've never heard of and it's very neat.
Originally Posted by FluffNStuff
Thanks.
I never knew that before 
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