So, Book 3. Gonna take a while to get all this out.

Le-Isle was pretty much done by Chapter 49. I was planning for Nidovikk to leave for Ta-Isle to pay an extended visit to Takama. I also considered saying he would stop to see his children along the way, since earlier I had mentioned that he was a father and I wanted to make at least a small callback. I don’t think it was ever 100% decided exactly what Riken is…I’m also not sure if we were going to decide. He could very easily be left a mystery, I think. I would also hope to bring him back later in the Book, even briefly. Leanga would resume his Air-Lord duties, fighting Orb Battles against Ren (Trynahk) and Genakex (Gurren Lagann + Sky Wolf, “Chimera Gurren Lagann”). After that, we would move on to Ga-Isle.

I wanted to start with a scene with Tahace on the Lost Continent, probably running into the Original Air-Lord (Atmovia) and Water-Lord (Meradma), who may or may not be in a relationship. I was pretty intent on continuing these Original Element-Lord cameos. Ga-Isle was set to introduce Kain and the Shock Trooper Division, along with Kain’s method of punishment: keeping failed operatives locked in a dungeon until enough were there for a gladiatorial battle to the death, with the sole survivor being allowed to return to active duty. I also wanted to establish that the underwater fortress from the first two Books was originally built by the Shadow Consortium, perhaps as a training facility of some sorts. We were also set to introduce Cyren, a strange boy in possession of Language Supreme. Obviously, he would join the group. Kain wanted an operative to flat-out destroy Ga-Isle—tentatively I was thinking either Omega Shenron or CFW Judge—and, of course, Cell, Buu, and Frieza would be involved. However, Tahra would not be present for this scenario. It will be revealed that Takama has fallen ill again, so Water-Lord Cindy gives Tahra an Olmak Pearl so that she can warp back to Ta-Isle and see her father. Ga-Isle was also going to host the next part of the 4-Part Suite plotline, with Valxan fighting Club Strong (who had been disguised as head of the Ga-Isle Ghekula’s security). This seems like a good point to address this: when a Suite Boss fails and Gambler hands them the gun, I never have a plan for who lives or dies. I roll a die; if it lands on a 1, they die. Anything else, they live. For the record, Spade was killed, and anyone who would’ve survived would have made a comeback in the fourth battle at the Draco-Isle Ghekula. More on that later.

Flora-Isle was next, and it was originally planned to be a turning point. The mysterious Hutanik was going to make another small appearance, as he always does on islands where a new King Bohrok is introduced. I had an idea that Flora-Isle would be segregated between a capital city filled with “modern” Bioni-Lords, and several villages of an ancient tribe of native people who rejected the idea of moving forward. Jungle-Lord Vastazon was going to be descended from both of these peoples, and he was given this position so that he could be a diplomat between them. He is aware of this. And he hates it. As Tahra was supposed to prompt me to address sexism in the Bioni-Lords world, Vastazon was my attempt to think about racism/tokenism in the Bioni-Lords world and how he might deal with that. The ancient tribe, the Florin, would hold some sort of secret (not sure what), but when Vastazon tries to ask them about it they say that they are forbidden to speak by what they call “the Kabuzeshar”. As Vastazon puts it, a “zeshar” is a very specific type of leader generally used by the Florin during times of war. A zeshar is typically violent, ambitious, and not entirely trustworthy, but if the Florin think that is who they need, they will accept the consequences and name a zeshar. The relationship is not entirely without trust—the Florin will be entirely loyal to the zeshar, and all but the most wicked of zeshar will show the same fierce loyalty to the Florin. It’s not an entirely pleasant relationship, but it is extremely stable. It turns out that “Kabuzeshar” is the Florin name for Exo-Lehvak Kal Assassin, who draws his Assassin Va from the finest warriors of the Florin tribe. Assassin will usually stay put during the war, since his devotion to the title of Kabuzeshar compels him to protect the Florin above all else. I wanted to make Assassin seem redeemable—maybe not friendly, but good enough that he could believably join the “good guys” at some point in the future. I don’t think I’d properly worked out what the Consortium was going to be up to on this island. Once they were dealt with and all the Ultima-Orbs were won, however, the climax of the arc would involve Genakex fighting Assassin and the Legendary Spirit One-Winged Angel showing up and attacking Tahra and Zane. They’d be able to repel him (probably in an awesome way), but terribly injured, prompting our trip to Healer-Isle.

So, Healer-Isle…let’s try to start with some good things. I did plan on addressing the matter of The Diseased Ones and their origin, though I wasn’t sure if Kytan was going to create them during this visit or later in the book. The leader of The Diseased Ones we saw in Book 2, Revictor, was going to be involved in this arc, along with his friend Lassus Eigi, a doctor related to Keizah who can use a Blade of Souls made from several members of the Eigi family to amplify Healing Palms into a technique called “Soul Stitching.” Lassus would be the one treating Zane and Tahra’s wounds. And, now…here’s where it gets stupid. The original plan that I outlined when I was 12 was that Tahra was going to die during surgery. I have since realized that killing off one of my best female characters in order to push Kytan into madness is a terrible, terrible, terrible thing to do, and I will be ashamed of the sheer ignorance of this decision until the day I die. So anyway, that would have made Kytan start to lose it, motivated him to hate Lassus which would eventually lead to him creating The Diseased Ones and killing Revictor, Tahra would become the Blade of Souls he uses in Book 1, Zane was going to be suspected of attacking Tahra since there were no witnesses, all that stuff. But that’s stupid. Plan 2 was for Yume to step in and pull Tahra out of the main universe right before she died, causing everyone to believe she was dead while she actually did some work for Yume’s master in several alternate universes. A duplicate of her would be created in the World of the Dead to serve as Kytan’s Blade of Souls, and she would eventually return in Book 4 with a new ability that lets her “incinerate reality” to accomplish impossible feats (tentative name “Dimension Heat”). Then I realized that wasn’t much better. Or, really…any better. Plan 3 was that Tahra would develop her Dimension Heat ability to survive Healer-Isle and stay around for the rest of the book, then get caught in some dimensional weirdness (or The Retcon) at the end which would lead to her working in alternate dimensions, and blame Kytan’s madness on something else (or The Retcon). Sadly, this is the best idea I managed to come up with. It’s pretty bad, and I don’t think it removes enough of the root problem for me to say it’s truly a solution. Really, I can’t think of any great way to fix this short of re-writing the entire saga…should probably move on, though. But I don’t think the saga can be saved in its current form, and this problem right here is one massive reason why. Okay, onwards.

Av-Isle was going to get an arc this time. The Consortium wasn’t going to be involved, obviously, but we would get to see a new King Bohrok: Exo-Nuhvok Kal Prism. Originally, the Prism Va was going to be a psychologist the kids visited to cope with Tahra’s death, but by Plan 3 that was out the window and would need to be edited a bit. Prism was also going to have a way to avoid being tracked (prompting Genakex to ask Titan if his King tracking ability is any good after being duped three times already), probably through splitting the signal in a way similar to splitting light. He was also going to have a philosophical view based on things being split into smaller parts and/or small parts being brought together, continuing off his prism theme; this was sort of alluded to earlier, when it was revealed that Voyager and Prism have worked together in the past. Titan was going to fight Prism, but there wouldn’t be a winner. Hadn’t quite worked out what was going to happen, though…anyway, we’d also have everyone fighting Takon for Light Ultima-Orbs—Phaenyx was going to have some difficulty, leading to his Dakrevusko upgrading into Delryevik. I was also thinking of having Zodiakai show up, choosing Ren as his partner. Maybe that’s what could’ve convinced Prism to back off? Oh, and Hutanik made a small appearance. Again.

After that was Shade-Isle, which I didn’t really have much for. I was thinking this would be where Kytan obtained his Krahka, and that the Shock Trooper Division would send in the Seven Deadly Rahkshi to try to level the surface of the island, but…I don’t know. I might also have had Kytan bond with the Shadow-Lord to set up why the Shadow-Lord decides to work for Kytan as head of the Shade-Gang later. I also wanted to have Abomination find his way to Flora-Isle to fight Assassin at some point, maybe during the Shade-Isle arc, maybe not. That’s pretty much it.

I was thinking we would visit Ce-Isle next. BionicleKeyblade would show up to partner with Phaenyx, and Valxan would be here to reclaim one of his casinos. Before he made it there, however, he runs into Titan and Prism (who had followed Titan here to claim revenge or…something). In order to prevent a massive battle from breaking out, the three of them decide to call a temporary truce and begin to negotiate. A technique I thought of was the “Silver Hive”: when multiple King Bohrok are in the same area, they can generate a silver energy dome. Only the Va Champions are allowed inside the dome, and they cannot leave until they all agree that negotiations are over. Violence is prohibited within the dome, and any attempt to fuse or attack will result in the individual being paralyzed. Once things were worked out and Titan agreed to extend the truce, the Hive would be cancelled, Prism would leave, and Valxan would head to the Ce-Isle Lucky Ghekula. The boss of that Ghekula would turn out to be Dia Iceburn, a reluctant member of the Consortium who does not wish to fight Valxan. Needless to say, they end up fighting anyway, and she ends up facing Gambler’s game. The Psionics-Lord, Cerveau, is an incredibly smart psychologist/sociologist who will regularly use her psychic powers to create a standing illusion that modifies her appearance—it allows her to observe how people treat her differently when using a different combination of physical traits. She was going to have a massive collection of Psionic Spirits, frequently changing up her battle strategy. Included would be Shiki, using her Groove Pawn technique to show off a lot of Spirits quickly; Dream Eater Spirits, which could be used through Groove Pawn or use their Malice Link techniques to power up other Spirits; and Gestalt Warrior, a new Spirit that’s basically Gurren Lagann for Psionic Spirits (it’s on the Index if you want to see it). I also wanted to finally address how Ultima-Orbs were created…hadn’t worked out the details yet, but…I was going to! I also figured I’d have the Consortium making counterfeit Ultima-Orbs, since that would give me an excuse to work out the process.

Mutant-Isle, then. It would still have a fixed location at this point—at the end of the book I planned to have Kytan destroy its base and make it free-floating, with Norscu using Fullmetal’s alchemy to create the ocean current that would carry it going forward. Way back in the day, I had said that Norscu didn’t give Kytan his Rahaga Ultima-Orb because he felt the boy didn’t deserve it, which was the final straw in turning him into the 10^th, but with the introduction of new Elements and islands I’m not sure that would’ve worked out. So yes, Norscu was here, along with Avanda (not sure if they were married at this point) and Vitirus, the Original Stone-Lord. I was seriously considering presenting a romantic relationship between Norscu and Vitirus—the details of this in relation to Norscu’s marriage to Avanda were still being worked out (Norscu may have been bisexual, or married Avanda rather than Vitirus to avoid prejudice, etc). Vitirus may have also had a different skin color, and in battle he was going to use Exo-Gigalith. The Consortium was going to pull a big offensive, as villains always do on Mutant-Isle: it was meant to involve every Division in some way to either conquer or destroy the island. It was primarily a Shock Trooper operation, but they were utilizing the Striking Venom Spirit Carrier designed by the Science Division, the Military Division would be offering support, the Assassination Division would be targeting Norscu (or perhaps Avanda or Vitirus), and the Gambling Division would have infiltrated the island to discover its weak points (I was thinking of using Acid Ace as the Gambling operative, and bringing in Valxan to fight him as an addition to the 4-Part Suite plotline).

Man, this is long. I think I’m going to split it in two—expect the remainder of the Book 3 summary tomorrow or so.