Everything Wrong With Bionicle

[WhereFMF]

A tribute to YouTube's CinemaSins. This is just Part 1; if there's a positive response I'll start listing the sins for each saga.

------------------------------------------------------

 

1. The story is so long I’m only counting the main storyline, and no backstory.

General

2. BIONICLE takes place in a universe populated by beings with muscle tissue and a digestive system, but with metal armour for skin and often superpowers (most of which are based on the classical elements). These beings wear masks that grant them further powers, if they are of a species capable of using them. Excuse me, what?

3. The story lasted for ten years.

4. Nobody told me the name is short for Biological Chronicles until it was over.

5. There are literally 103,000 years of backstory. Granted, most of those years aren’t actually described in full, and the main storyline takes place over the course of approximately one year. But still. 103000 years!

6. Too. Many. Freaking. Characters. Like, 100-200 of them. And they all have detailed personalities and backstories. Some of them didn’t get their own sets. Some of them were never depicted in media!

7. I’m 70% sure the driving idea behind BIONICLE was “Hey! We should create a story where the heroes transform into new forms, so we can manufacture more LEGO sets and get more money off them!”

8. The names in the universe were based off Maori words in the beginning. After the Maori nation complained, they switched to Latin. The Vatican has made no objections to this.

9. BIONICLE is sexist. There are five tribes consisting entirely of males and one consisting entirely of females. And that tribe is the water tribe, implying that women must be soft and calm like water. Even if every single female character is a strong one, gender doesn’t have to exist in this universe, since there is no reproduction.

[Azani]

Is this supposed to be funny? No offense to you or whoever put these together, but most of these are based on incorrect assumptions or mistaken logic. I might be taking this the wrong way, and I'm sorry if I am, but I'm not familiar with "cinema sins", and thus I'm not really sure how I should take this.

Edited April 11, 2014 by Artakha's Nephew

[WhereFMF]

It's meant to be humorous. You're welcome to post refutations of my sins if you notice them. But at this rate, there won't be a part 2.

[Azani]

It's meant to be humorous. You're welcome to post refutations of my sins if you notice them. But at this rate, there won't be a part 2.

I see; sorry, I'm completely new to CinemaSins and their videos. I checked out their youtube page a minute ago, and they look quite interesting. I just realized, however, that this might belong in Bionicle Discussion rather than S&T; you might want to consider moving the topic. I didn't mean to discourage you from producing more of these; I get it's charm now, and I'm sure that at least a few other people will too.

Edited April 11, 2014 by Artakha's Nephew

[Kakaru]

Is this supposed to be funny? No offense to you or whoever put these together, but most of these are based on incorrect assumptions or mistaken logic. I might be taking this the wrong way, and I'm sorry if I am, but I'm not familiar with "cinema sins", and thus I'm not really sure how I should take this.

This is definitely meant to be a satire of cinema sins. Any actual flaws Bionicle had have been dissected and strewn over the site for years now so trying to create a genuine, comprehensive list would be not only exhaustive but also really dull to read, hence this list. OH MY GOD THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I'VE BEEN NINJA'D IN YEARS WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME I'M GETTING SLOW AND OLD

 

In addition, 1) it's absurd that many official sets have little to no representation in the supplementary media, tv spots, comics, and web serials, and conversely many of the animals in the canon have no sets. Where's my ice bat?

and 2) often times Bionicle models are shown in CGI trailers and flash animations doing utterly impossible things with their joints, and sometimes shown with pieces that don't exist. Why don't the Toa Metru have joints at the shoulder? Why cant I get the nose on a Mahi goat to look right?

 

(also, WhereFMF, I wouldn't worry about the lack of reception. S&T is pretty quiet these days, particularly around midnight.)

Edited April 11, 2014 by Kakaru

[Crunchyn]

But if this was a tribute to the CinemaSins type of videos, I think it would be more true to the CinemaSins vids to nitpick the actual story than the details/how the universe works because the way the videos usually go, he shows a clip and then he nitpicks on it.

 

i.e.

"In the time before time..."

Right, because time definitely exists before the existence of time....WHAT?

 

 

Gonna be honest though, I actually read most of those as if the Nostalgia Critic was saying them.

Edited April 11, 2014 by CrunchbiteNuva

[bonesiii]

I just realized, however, that this might belong in Bionicle Discussion rather than S&T; you might want to consider moving the topic.

This didn't occur to me from reading the post. I had to re-read it since seeing you say this to try to figure out why you said it (for the record, it's best to give reasons for statements like this ). Generally we would do that for both set and story focus; I see a small mention of sets but nothing more than what we normally have in S&T. If you meant the satire nature of the topic, I guess I'm not really sure; we don't normally get them here, but it did make an effort to stay focused on the storyline, so for now I'll say it's best here, but higher-ups may disagree, and I'm really tired at the moment so yeah. (Also, it would be best to use the report button for things like this. He could not actually move the topic himself; that's for staff.)

 

On-topic: Well, I'm glad you clarified this was satire, but I would advise an edit into the first post, as not everybody will know the satirical nature of what you linked to already and people can't be expected to click such links before reading the topic. But this isn't an official warning or anything. I did think the sexism part was a little across the line and assumed you were serious, might wanna reconsider that one even as satire... or at least putting the disclaimer right there. Glad I read replies before starting to type a reply.

 

(Actually some of these are valid criticisms, like the huge cast lol. )

 

If there's any chance you're slightly serious about any of this say so and we could clear up a few misconceptions.

[Pomegranate]

Yeah, some of these didn't sound like satire until you explained it, but #8 did make me smile

[fasggbfrfesv]

I thought it was quite funny.

[ALVIS]

This is BZP S&T, where humor doesn't exist. You'd be better off trying Bionicle Discussion, they're a little more relaxed over there.

[JAG18]

Oh man, I love Cinemasins and I've sometimes thoughts of making a Bionicle version myself. So, congrats on beating me to the punch.

 

Anyway, some of these are pretty funny and I might be interested in reading more from you.

[Sybre]

You provide some strong points there. I might have a look at CinemaSins or anything else you posted.

[Katuko]

CinemaSins tends to take the story premise as "OK", but then give a few smacks if the story strays from its premise. In BIONICLE, having half-organic robots with magic/tech powers does break with reality, but since it is part of the premise of the entire story it does not count as a fault. However, if we (for example) see someone use laser vision in one scene and then later they fail to use it at all when they are tied up and about to be killed, that would be a fault, because it breaks our expectations of their established abilities.

 

Some of the things you list are valid complaints (such as the large amount of characters with hanging plot threads, and the gender issue; which we've discussed a lot on this forum), but they are not really the kind of things I would list for CinemaSins unless it can be tied directly to a specific event in the plot that is being dissected. Looking over an entire comic or movie and ten recounting the events that make you pause and think "eh?" would probably be the best and most entertaining once you put a funny spin on it.

[Hexann]

But if this was a tribuGonna be honest though, I actually read most of those as if the Nostalgia Critic was saying them.

Another Nostalgia Critic fan! Didn't think I'd ever see him mentioned here.

[Master Inika]

Here's something that always kind of bugged me:

 

In a world of cyborgs who have developed safe, fast transport chutes, airships capable of achieving flight with special disks, autonomous police robots, and living organism by mixing fancy water with bacteria, all in a 40,000,000-foot-tall robot that can fly and camouflage itself, there it only one piece of paper and almost no wheels.

[ALVIS]

That was one of the rules from the start, actually: no paper, no wheels. I'd say the ban did a pretty great job of making BIONICLE weird and unlike anything we knew. It's actually difficult for me to imagine Toa using paper at all.

[Quisoves Potoo]

That was one of the rules from the start, actually: no paper, no wheels. I'd say the ban did a pretty great job of making BIONICLE weird and unlike anything we knew. It's actually difficult for me to imagine Toa using paper at all.

After all, why waste perfectly good stone?

[fishers64]

*applauds* (I'm going to reply/nitpick in green; I'm evaluating it as a CinemaSins tribute/parody/whatever.)

A tribute to YouTube's CinemaSins. This is just Part 1; if there's a positive response I'll start listing the sins for each saga.
------------------------------------------------------


1. The story is so long I’m only counting the main storyline, and no backstory. Lol.
General
2. BIONICLE takes place in a universe populated by beings with muscle tissue and a digestive system, but with metal armour for skin and often superpowers (most of which are based on the classical elements). These beings wear masks that grant them further powers, if they are of a species capable of using them. Excuse me, what?
I'm confused. What?
3. The story lasted for ten years. *applauds* Although CS might say something like "how can you expect anyone to follow a story for that long? Seriously?"
4. Nobody told me the name is short for Biological Chronicles until it was over. Me too.
5. There are literally 103,000 years of backstory. Granted, most of those years aren’t actually described in full, and the main storyline takes place over the course of approximately one year. But still. 103000 years! Again, CS might go into why that is, as opposed to just mentioning that.
6. Too. Many. Freaking. Characters. Like, 100-200 of them. And they all have detailed personalities and backstories. Some of them didn’t get their own sets. Some of them were never depicted in media! CS: "How are we supposed to follow this thing if we don't even know who the characters are?" *cue video montage of all the characters shooting past while silly music plays*
7. I’m 70% sure the driving idea behind BIONICLE was “Hey! We should create a story where the heroes transform into new forms, so we can manufacture more LEGO sets and get more money off them!” ( )
8. The names in the universe were based off Maori words in the beginning. After the Maori nation complained, they switched to Latin. The Vatican has made no objections to this. Lol.
9. BIONICLE is sexist. There are five tribes consisting entirely of males and one consisting entirely of females. And that tribe is the water tribe, implying that women must be soft and calm like water. Even if every single female character is a strong one, gender doesn’t have to exist in this universe, since there is no reproduction. They would say that, yeah. CS is hardly the cleanest of sources.

You forgot the ending!

Total sins: 9

Sentence: 103,000 year journey (in space!)

This is BZP S&T, where humor doesn't exist. You'd be better off trying Bionicle Discussion, they're a little more relaxed over there.

No, we just have our own sense of humor that you wouldn't know anything about.

Edited April 11, 2014 by fishers64

[Mr. Lightning Bolt]

A tribute to YouTube's CinemaSins. This is just Part 1; if there's a positive response I'll start listing the sins for each saga.

------------------------------------------------------

 

 

1. The story is so long I’m only counting the main storyline, and no backstory. Didn't you mention backstory below? Pretty sure noone complains about their favourite stuff being too long.

General

2. BIONICLE takes place in a universe populated by beings with muscle tissue and a digestive system, but with metal armour for skin and often superpowers (most of which are based on the classical elements). These beings wear masks that grant them further powers, if they are of a species capable of using them. Excuse me, what? I dont see how this is a sin. It's a quirk and it's the basis of the story. "Look guys, there are 'biological robots' in my story and Lego is making sets of the characters!" This isn't a sin. This is AMAZING.

3. The story lasted for ten years. This might be a sin if 10 years was what we called the amount of time the series "Firefly" was on air. And no, I'm not a fan of Firefly.

4. Nobody told me the name is short for Biological Chronicles until it was over. I learned this in 2001. Literally. I looked everywhere I could back in the day.

5. There are literally 103,000 years of backstory. Granted, most of those years aren’t actually described in full, and the main storyline takes place over the course of approximately one year. But still. 103000 years! The choice of numbers was the only sin I see. They could've shortened it. So you got a half a sin.

6. Too. Many. Freaking. Characters. Like, 100-200 of them. And they all have detailed personalities and backstories. Some of them didn’t get their own sets. Some of them were never depicted in media! I actually agree with you here. I WANTED TO SEE A FULL SET OF HAGAH AND LHIKANS TEAM!

7. I’m 70% sure the driving idea behind BIONICLE was “Hey! We should create a story where the heroes transform into new forms, so we can manufacture more LEGO sets and get more money off them!” Duh. This is what we call "business". For further reading, see Transformers, G.I. Joe, and EVERY OTHER TOY DRIVEN STORYLINE.

8. The names in the universe were based off Maori words in the beginning. After the Maori nation complained, they switched to Latin. The Vatican has made no objections to this. That's because they don't own Latin. Latin's a "dead" language. They use it in ritual and stuff, but they don't own it, and we haven't used any terms referring to highly respected persons/professions for things that might be a little insulting. Re: Tohunga means priest. Plus, did Greg or anyone use "Vicar" or anything to mean "oh, lol this is an evil guy or this is a mere villager"?

9. BIONICLE is sexist. There are five tribes consisting entirely of males and one consisting entirely of females. And that tribe is the water tribe, implying that women must be soft and calm like water. Even if every single female character is a strong one, gender doesn’t have to exist in this universe, since there is no reproduction. I do agree with you here. But it's a little necessary to make them unique as one should be able to recognize the female characters. Plus, water isn't always soft and calm. Waves. Turbulent water jets, etc.

So really, 3, maybe four sins in actuality. Done 'cause I am a humorless fool.

Edited April 12, 2014 by Toa_of_Regret

[Crunchyn]

 

But if this was a tribuGonna be honest though, I actually read most of those as if the Nostalgia Critic was saying them.

Another Nostalgia Critic fan! Didn't think I'd ever see him mentioned here.

 

I would LOVE it if Nostalgia Critic could review one of the BIONICLE movies.

[Kopekemaster]

Bonus round: dramatic use of elemental powers.

x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 x6 x7 x8 x9 x10 x100 x1000 x10000 x10000000000000

[Hexann]

 

 

But if this was a tribuGonna be honest though, I actually read most of those as if the Nostalgia Critic was saying them.

Another Nostalgia Critic fan! Didn't think I'd ever see him mentioned here.

 

I would LOVE it if Nostalgia Critic could review one of the BIONICLE movies.

 

I hear he liked The Lego Movie.

[LordofBionicles]

I´m sorry WhereFMF but if this is suppossed to be a CinemaSins Tribute I think you're not analyzing mistakes correctly, in my opinion you should look for those details that don't make much sense once you think about them or things that had no justyfication.

 

Still it is a really nice idea and I hope you can improve as you go on.

[BionicleBordeaux]

There is the Vo-Matoran which are Female,Av-Matoran that can be Male and Female,The Ce-Matoran.

[Dorkpool]

Another sin: Reading. And also, DC Comics (DC put out the BIONICLE comics)

[Spiderus Prime]

Another sin: Reading. And also, DC Comics (DC put out the BIONICLE comics)

 

Nah it any difference like MARVEL did with the Transformers and G.I.Joe runs in the 80's

[WhereFMF]

I'm not going to do a Part II, friends. I might have, but I had a good deal of stuff typed out and then accidentally closed the tab.

[Kopekemaster]

Another sin: Reading. And also, DC Comics (DC put out the BIONICLE comics)

I never really got why that happened. :/

 

 

I'm not going to do a Part II, friends. I might have, but I had a good deal of stuff typed out and then accidentally closed the tab.

I know that feeling all too well. BZP does have an autosave feature that kicks in sometimes, though, so you may want to check that.

[bonesiii]

I'm not going to do a Part II, friends. I might have, but I had a good deal of stuff typed out and then accidentally closed the tab.

Ouch. For this sort of thing, I recommend typing in Notepad or whatever equivalent, then copypasting to BZP for the actual post. (Although then formatting needs tags, etc. but not if you use something like Word.) That way an accidental closure will at least display an "are you sure" message and you can actually save drafts. For future reference.

[Crunchyn]

 

Another sin: Reading. And also, DC Comics (DC put out the BIONICLE comics)

I never really got why that happened. :/

He never gave a clear answer but my bet is that because DC Comics actually stands for "Detective Comics Comics."

Edited April 12, 2014 by CrunchbiteNuva

[WhereFMF]

Well, looks like I have some time on my hands today, so a part 2 is here! Fischers64, the point for #2 is that the premise of Bionicle is bizarre (not the good kind of bizarre called "innovative" and unlike any fantasy seen before.) Please don't create a sentence; I'll be passing my sentence once I finish Journey's End.

2001: The Coming of the Toa

 

9. The island of Mata Nui is approximately the length of Oregon. Travel around it in the story does not at all reflect the distances like that
10. The entire population of Ga-Koro fits into a hut. A SINGLE FREAKING HUT. If there are this few Ga-Matoran, why was there a need for a Ga-Metru back on Metru Nui?
11. Almost immediately after we enter the story, we meet six Toa, six Turaga, and a smattering of Matoran. So, about twenty characters. That should be enough to take the story to its end, right? Wrong.
12. Why does Makuta even need to use Rahi to menace the Matoran? He's a pretty powerful dude himself.
13. Vakama's mask, the noble Huna. Every other mask in Bionicle (except those of Onua and Gali Mistika) is the mask of a hero, but that one just looks like a quality mask got cancer and started growing downwards.
14. Like I said, Makuta has 42 different Rahkshi powers. How does he decide to scare the Toa at their meeting? A hailstorm and an earthquake. Against Toa who can control water and earth, among other things.
15. Jaller, Hewkii, Macku, Onepu, Matoro, and Kongu form a Matoran Nui. Why can't the Matoran stay in these forms all the time? Surely they would be more suited to their daily work and/or fighting against the Rahi menace. Later on, the Toa form Toa Kaita, with the same problem.
16. Toa Kaita ought to be called Toa Nui, either that or Matoran Nui should called Matoran Kaita.
17. Makuta's (look, fanboys, I'm going to call him that until we get to 2008 because that's how we all knew him until then) portrayal in the early years of Bionicle, as some kind of abstract shadow spirit ("You cannot destroy me, for I am nothing"), is inconsistent with what's revealed of him later in the story.
18. Seriously, if the Toa Mata took Teridax in a fight, and he actually used all his powers, he would crush them. You know what, this belongs in the General section: no Bionicle character ever fights to their full potential, using all their powers.

[Katuko]

10. The entire population of Ga-Koro fits into a hut. A SINGLE FREAKING HUT. If there are this few Ga-Matoran, why was there a need for a Ga-Metru back on Metru Nui?

Most of the buildings in Metru Nui were automated, AFAIK. Still, the movies show more Matoran than we ever saw in MNOG 1 & 2, and I believe estimates around the time of 2004 said about 1000 Matoran total. That is in Metru Nui, a city far smaller than the island above it.

 

11. Almost immediately after we enter the story, we meet six Toa, six Turaga, and a smattering of Matoran. So, about twenty characters. That should be enough to take the story to its end, right? Wrong.

Tell this to Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, etc. Epics tend to have a great lot of characters, and many of them are just their for flair.

 

13. Vakama's mask, the noble Huna. Every other mask in Bionicle (except those of Onua and Gali Mistika) is the mask of a hero, but that one just looks like a quality mask got cancer and started growing downwards.

Turaga Matau didn't exactly have the prettiest mask, and neither did Kongu. Trinuma's is literally Tahu's new mask design with a few horns stuck onto it. And Karzahni... well, he is Karzahni.

 

14. Like I said, Makuta has 42 different Rahkshi powers. How does he decide to scare the Toa at their meeting? A hailstorm and an earthquake. Against Toa who can control water and earth, among other things.

I would agree with this, actually, because I have brought it up before in regards to Makuta's actions against the Toa Metru and some other foes, but I have to give him a pass for what happened up until the Kraata's introduction. Before that his powers had simply not been fully defined by the story team.

 

16. Toa Kaita ought to be called Toa Nui, either that or Matoran Nui should called Matoran Kaita.

Kaita refers to a merging of three beings, while a Nui is a merging of six. So they are actually consistent with the usage of these terms as defined by the story. Unless you meant purely personal preference?

 

17. Makuta's (look, fanboys, I'm going to call him that until we get to 2008 because that's how we all knew him until then) portrayal in the early years of Bionicle, as some kind of abstract shadow spirit ("You cannot destroy me, for I am nothing"), is inconsistent with what's revealed of him later in the story.

They broke him to pieces at the end of 2003, and could not destroy him. His form survived even with no body. A gaseous being would pretty much be "nothing" to anybody who didn't know better, especially if you tried to fight it in the shadows.

 

18. Seriously, if the Toa Mata took Teridax in a fight, and he actually used all his powers, he would crush them. You know what, this belongs in the General section: no Bionicle character ever fights to their full potential, using all their powers.

Correct, and I agree here. This is more what I think of when I think CinemaSins: Established character abilities being foregone in favor of drama.

[Just A Dot]

No offense to you or whoever put these together, but most of these are based on incorrect assumptions or mistaken logic.

You just completely described CinemaSins perfectly. They aren't meant to be taken too seriously. A good half of their content is perfectly okay things for the movie to get away with.

 

 

 

 

But if this was a tribuGonna be honest though, I actually read most of those as if the Nostalgia Critic was saying them.

Another Nostalgia Critic fan! Didn't think I'd ever see him mentioned here.

 

I would LOVE it if Nostalgia Critic could review one of the BIONICLE movies.

 

I hear he liked The Lego Movie.

 

Dude, we should all start requesting that the Critic review Mask of Light. And follow it up with the rest of them.

 

I was actually thinking about doing a video in the CinemaSins style myself over the summer. Would you have an issue with me doing that now that you've posted this? I'd try to avoid just copying exactly what you've said

[Kopekemaster]

Oh man if the Critic did MoL, LoMN, and WoS, that would be the best thing.

Ever.

 

The videos would be like, half an hour long each, though. XD

[Toa Smoke Monster]

Well, looks like I have some time on my hands today, so a part 2 is here! Fischers64, the point for #2 is that the premise of Bionicle is bizarre (not the good kind of bizarre called "innovative" and unlike any fantasy seen before.) Please don't create a sentence; I'll be passing my sentence once I finish Journey's End.

 

2001: The Coming of the Toa

 

9. The island of Mata Nui is approximately the length of Oregon. Travel around it in the story does not at all reflect the distances like that

10. The entire population of Ga-Koro fits into a hut. A SINGLE FREAKING HUT. If there are this few Ga-Matoran, why was there a need for a Ga-Metru back on Metru Nui?

11. Almost immediately after we enter the story, we meet six Toa, six Turaga, and a smattering of Matoran. So, about twenty characters. That should be enough to take the story to its end, right? Wrong.

12. Why does Makuta even need to use Rahi to menace the Matoran? He's a pretty powerful dude himself.

13. Vakama's mask, the noble Huna. Every other mask in Bionicle (except those of Onua and Gali Mistika) is the mask of a hero, but that one just looks like a quality mask got cancer and started growing downwards.

14. Like I said, Makuta has 42 different Rahkshi powers. How does he decide to scare the Toa at their meeting? A hailstorm and an earthquake. Against Toa who can control water and earth, among other things.

15. Jaller, Hewkii, Macku, Onepu, Matoro, and Kongu form a Matoran Nui. Why can't the Matoran stay in these forms all the time? Surely they would be more suited to their daily work and/or fighting against the Rahi menace. Later on, the Toa form Toa Kaita, with the same problem.

16. Toa Kaita ought to be called Toa Nui, either that or Matoran Nui should called Matoran Kaita.

17. Makuta's (look, fanboys, I'm going to call him that until we get to 2008 because that's how we all knew him until then) portrayal in the early years of Bionicle, as some kind of abstract shadow spirit ("You cannot destroy me, for I am nothing"), is inconsistent with what's revealed of him later in the story.

18. Seriously, if the Toa Mata took Teridax in a fight, and he actually used all his powers, he would crush them. You know what, this belongs in the General section: no Bionicle character ever fights to their full potential, using all their powers.

 

9. I thought the island was bigger.

10. I didn't know that. I would've assumed that there was more of them. Then again, I haven't played the MNOG games. I've always thought that all the tribes on Mata Nui had roughly the same number of Matoran.

11. For any other story, it would be plenty. But not for Bionicle. It needed dozens more!

12. That is a good point. Look at what he did to Takua in MoL, to name an example. Though he probably still needed the infected Rahi because it would been a chore for him to scare the Matoran and keep the Toa from collecting their Kanohi by himself.

13. IMO, Vakama's Noble Mask is one of the better ones. Matau and Nokama's masks, however....

14. To be fair, earthquakes and hailstorms can be scary. Though I agree that Makuta could've have expanded his imagination a little bit here.

15. I can think of two reasons. One, its a strain on them to stay in that form. Or two, they don't like their minds being merged together so they only do it in a time of extreme need. Or maybe its just something introduced to get the story from one point to another and not be brought up again.

16. Katuko answered this a couple posts up. No need for me to say anything more.

17. I don't care if its inconsistent. It's still an awesome line of dialogue! (Though honestly, he would probably acting mysterious towards the Toa and Matoran to scare them, since they didn't know a lot about him at the time.)

18. That is true. But remember, Makuta can only use their powers one at a time (not including his Kanohi Mask), so that would give the Toa Mata an advantage.

[bonesiii]

Once again I'm going to reply as if you were serious, in case you are just a little.

 

the point for #2 is that the premise of Bionicle is bizarre (not the good kind of bizarre called "innovative" and unlike any fantasy seen before.)

Unlike anything else, no, but there's a good reason for that; good fiction generally has to be grounded in something we can relate to. That doesn't make it not innovative; it was. Just not totally unique. But many Bionicle fans like yours truly certainly do find it the good kind of bizarre (I reviewed your point #2 here to be sure I knew what you meant, and yeah, those were all things I liked about it!). That's a taste thing. For you, maybe it isn't.

 

9. The island of Mata Nui is approximately the length of Oregon. Travel around it in the story does not at all reflect the distances like that

The story's honestly too vague usually to tell one way or another. They don't usually make it clear how long it took to travel. Sometimes they used Masks of Speed and did seem to imply it was because of great distances, actually. There might be a time or two where it's clear that too little time happens, but I honestly never noticed; none are coming to mind offhand.

 

10. The entire population of Ga-Koro fits into a hut. A SINGLE FREAKING HUT. If there are this few Ga-Matoran, why was there a need for a Ga-Metru back on Metru Nui?

To the first two sentences, you're on the right track here. This happened because MNOG was in production when the plans were to have something like 12 villagers per Koro. The plans changed for later story, up to 1000 island population. (But this is easy to reinterpet -- just pretend the picture is showing a much larger auditorium type building. ~167 Matoran might plausibly fit into one, just like humans often do in that kind of numbers in our buildings.)

 

The reason for the skyscrapers (I'm assuming that's what you're asking; the six Metru simply are regions so if that's all you were asking, the answer would just be, that's where they lived) is that the automated systems inside them are tied into brain operations of the giant robot somehow. Most of it likely was not about keeping Matoran society functioning in a normal "life on an island city" sense.

 

11. Almost immediately after we enter the story, we meet six Toa, six Turaga, and a smattering of Matoran. So, about twenty characters. That should be enough to take the story to its end, right? Wrong.

That's a bit of an exaggeration, but the story DID have a legitimate problem of a huge burden of number of characters. Although there's been story series out there that way outnumber it. But for the length of story involved, it got pretty heavy at times, esp. near the end. You do have to factor, though, that the only options were new characters (thus new sets) each year, or transformations every year. Prior to HF, the feeling was that using transformations continually would get too old, as it wasn't built into the core premise of Bionicle like it is for HF.

 

12. Why does Makuta even need to use Rahi to menace the Matoran? He's a pretty powerful dude himself.

Any question about Makuta (both Teridax and the others who were working toward the Plan) after his getting trapped in the protocage that expects him to go all out with his abilities is going to miss the mark, because they needed to let the good guys think they were having victories here and there and succeed in awakening Mata Nui. Prior to that revelation, there were a number of plausible excuses given to string us along, but from Makuta's POV those were "cover stories" primarily.

 

15. Jaller, Hewkii, Macku, Onepu, Matoro, and Kongu form a Matoran Nui. Why can't the Matoran stay in these forms all the time? Surely they would be more suited to their daily work and/or fighting against the Rahi menace. Later on, the Toa form Toa Kaita, with the same problem.

Resistance is futile.

 

17. Makuta's (look, fanboys, I'm going to call him that until we get to 2008 because that's how we all knew him until then) portrayal in the early years of Bionicle, as some kind of abstract shadow spirit ("You cannot destroy me, for I am nothing"), is inconsistent with what's revealed of him later in the story.

You can take that any number of ways. First, you're assuming this villain wouldn't lie. But it's confirmed he gave a number of lies. Second, he literally was not a "thing" in the sense of a normal physical body; he's an energy spirit holding together a cloud. That cloud is a thing, but isn't necessarily "him." Also, "abstract" was never stated, and not sure what that would even mean really. Or, simply say that he didn't mean it literally. My take has been for years that it was part of his intimidation technique to pretend to be an incarnation of nothing. The only evidence ever offered for it was his words, and villains lie. (And obviously he was never literally nothing, as nothing doesn't speak, attack, etc.) Basically, I think he meant it in all these ways at once, since none of these are actually mutually exclusive.

Edited May 17, 2014 by bonesiii

[believe victims]

There is the Vo-Matoran which are Female,Av-Matoran that can be Male and Female,The Ce-Matoran.

 

just gonna butt in quickly to say that the vo-matoran and ce-matoran never made it into sets or main story during the line's run, and of six Av-Matoran shown, only one was female. for all intents and purposes to someone who only kept up with the main story (though what WAS main story became hard to tell as more and more serials popped up) only the water element and one av matoran were female, at least for heroes. villains were almost exclusively male. (before some joker comes in to list female villains, i said ALMOST.)

[The Doctor U]

There are many things wrong with Bonkles that we tried to fix with our own take on things called Klaanon. Population of Metru Nui is far to small and isn't easily divided by six (because six is a magical number in Bonkles), there are many religions in Matoran Universe and it is far more diverce and much bigger than Greg's maps show. Greg gave us numbers that you can only have 100 makuta with 15/85 female/male ratio and this does seem kinda dumb. Characters live too old, it is hard to make believable story with 100 000 year old characters so we scaled down these years in our own take. Organic/mechanical ratio was wrong too, because Greg used this excuse to take away food and love from their lives. And the whole Red Star is external hard drive-battery-thing was kind of boring, it took away most of the mysteries of the star.

 

Number of Kraata powers was all wrong, but it maybe propaganda made by Makuta.

 

Greg portrayed Karzahni and Artakha all wrong. They are meant to be manifestations of Creation. Karzahni is failure that many creators will have to face and Artakha is succes and glory. My sympathy was most of the time with the Mad-Hatter Karzahni.

[WhereFMF]

Bonesii, "In case you are just a little"? I've set up my browser to censor profanity, but this forum already does that...

 

I'm really rusty with my knowledge of the early years of Bionicle, so trust me, these will start getting way better around 2006. (When I tried to play the MNOG, I got stuck, literally. I was unable to move or do anything.)

 

2002: The Bohrok Swarms

 

19. The story of 2001 starts with Takua getting thrown into the air by an explosion and landing on a Ta-Wahi beach. The story of 2002 starts with...Takua getting thrown into the air by an explosion and landing on a Ta-Wahi beach. I thought the Bionicle story was supposed to be innovative.

20. Kapura is driven insane by the Bohrok's attack on Ta-Koro. Except his personality in the story is already established as eccentric. You can't drive someone crazier, and if you can, it's not temporary. Right? I want a Matoran psychiatrist on this right now.

21. I don't see how the Toa ever had trouble defeating the Bohrok, since they had Golden Kanohi at the time.

22. There is, apparently, only one way in or out of Po-Koro. Whose idea was this? And in a whole village of stonecarvers, surely a new path wouldn't be more than a few months' effort.

23. We meet Nuparu during the Gahlok siege of Onu-Koro. (You know what, I'm going to add this sentence as a sin for sounding incomprehensible to anyone but Bionicle fans. I won't do this again, I promise.)

24. As I was saying, Nuparu. His character development begins and ends with "engineer".

25. The Bohrok want the island of Mata Nui to be like it was "in the before-time". I guess that would be...non-existence? This incarnation of Mata Nui was never barren. But the Bohrok don't aim to destroy the island, just to cleanse it.

26. How convenient that after the deaths of the Bahrag, all the other Bohrok are killed by the formation of the Nuva symbols.

27. How convenient that the Toa were able to defeat the Bahrag!

[ALVIS]

Bonesii, "In case you are just a little"? I've set up my browser to censor profanity, but this forum already does that...

 

What bones was saying was "in case you are just a little [serious]". As in, "I understand this is meant for fun, but I'm gonna debunk some of it just in case you actually have any misconceptions about the story".