Full bionicle story sources

[Vraiment]

I'm extremely overwhelmed.

 

I want to catch up with Bionicle, mostly the books and web serials I didn't read back then (Kindle makes reading so beautiful). But the more I research the more info I find and the more confused I get: movies are semi-canon? there are fan-fics made canon?

 

So, is there a full ordered list of all the bionicle media (books, comics, movies, games, web serials, podcasts, fanfics, etc) that is semi-canon, almost-canon or full-canon?

[John Smith]

I don't know if such a list exists. Here are some quick guidelines:

-Books are canon, except for the ones by C.A. Hapka (the first three Chronicles books), which are semi-canon. Tales of the Toa in particular features many discrepancies with the canon, such as the treatment of the Shadow Toa, as well as most of the battle at the end.

-Comics are canon.

-Movies are mostly canon (the events happened mostly as portrayed, with a few exceptions such as any reference to romance or the population of Metru Nui being way too big).

-Most games aren't canon. The exceptions are the MNOLGs (which seem to be mostly canon) and Quest for the Toa (the 2001 GBA game, which is at least semi-canon). I believe the Maze of Shadows game is also semi-canon, since it's based on the book.

-Web serials/podcasts are canon.

-Here are the canon fan-written stories:

http://biosector01.com/wiki/index.php/Saga_Guides/The_Dweller_Report_by_SPIRIT

http://biosector01.com/wiki/index.php/Saga_Guides/Decadence_by_Dorek

http://biosector01.com/wiki/index.php/Saga_Guides/No_One_Gets_Left_Behind_by_Shadow-Nui

http://biosector01.com/wiki/index.php/Saga_Guides/Protection_by_InnerRayg

http://biosector01.com/wiki/index.php/Saga_Guides/Tentacles_by_Turakii_%28Number%29_1_Lavasurfer

http://biosector01.com/wiki/index.php/Saga_Guides/Hope_by_Lady_Kopaka

 

Hope this helps!

Edited September 14, 2014 by John Smith

[Cambion]

the only official Bionicle media that is semi-canon are the movies and games. everything else, including all fan created stories/characters/etc, is 100% canon. for better or for worse. the novelizations of the movies are, however, canon.

 

if you want a full chronological list of Bionicle media (that's chronological in the in-universe sense), look here. if you want it done by publication date, i'm afraid i can't help you. i do recommend reading them all in order of publication, though, so if you're willing to put the effort into figuring out that order, definitely go with that.

Edited September 14, 2014 by Arc

[Vraiment]

Wow, interesting! I only own the first two books of Bionicle Chronicles and I see now those are the ones not written by Greg Farshtey. Also I kind of remember reading that the MNOG wasn't canon.

[John Smith]

Oddly, MNOG has gotten "more canon" as the years have gone by. GregF's initial position was that it wasn't canon, but he seemed to accept more and more things from it as time went on, like Pewku being a taxi crab and the mental link between Takua and Gali. I think a lot of people accept the whole thing as canon, whether it officially is or not.

[Cambion]

Oddly, MNOG has gotten "more canon" as the years have gone by. GregF's initial position was that it wasn't canon, but he seemed to accept more and more things from it as time went on, like Pewku being a taxi crab and the mental link between Takua and Gali. I think a lot of people accept the whole thing as canon, whether it officially is or not.

that's true; thus 'semi-canon'. although i'm definitely of the group who accept it as full canon, heh.

[John Smith]

 

Oddly, MNOG has gotten "more canon" as the years have gone by. GregF's initial position was that it wasn't canon, but he seemed to accept more and more things from it as time went on, like Pewku being a taxi crab and the mental link between Takua and Gali. I think a lot of people accept the whole thing as canon, whether it officially is or not.

that's true; thus 'semi-canon'. although i'm definitely of the group who accept it as full canon, heh.

 

I'm pretty sure being part of that group is a requirement for joining BZP.

[Sir Kohran]

Oddly, MNOG has gotten "more canon" as the years have gone by. GregF's initial position was that it wasn't canon, but he seemed to accept more and more things from it as time went on, like Pewku being a taxi crab and the mental link between Takua and Gali. I think a lot of people accept the whole thing as canon, whether it officially is or not.

 

He probably thought it'd be forgotten as we moved further away from 2001, but that didn't happen and instead the game's presence and reputation have remained strong, so he's had to accept it into the canon.

[John Smith]

 

Oddly, MNOG has gotten "more canon" as the years have gone by. GregF's initial position was that it wasn't canon, but he seemed to accept more and more things from it as time went on, like Pewku being a taxi crab and the mental link between Takua and Gali. I think a lot of people accept the whole thing as canon, whether it officially is or not.

 

He probably thought it'd be forgotten as we moved further away from 2001, but that didn't happen and instead the game's presence and reputation have remained strong, so he's had to accept it into the canon.

 

 

That sounds like a reasonable explanation. Also makes me appreciate how much input he lets the fans have.

[fishers64]

Most of John Smith's guidelines are correct. Also, all Greg Answers are canon unless overriden by an official story source, and canonacity issues are usually resolved by him. 

 

Also, it's the details in MNOG that aren't canon. Like there was more than a few Matoran in each village, and the Onu-Matoran don't have electronic tablets. The events (like Lewa's rescue, Ga-Matoran entrapment, etc) are canon. 

 

Lastly, I wouldn't worry too much about canonaicity concerns the first time you read the comics, books, and/or watch the movies and play the MNOG. The point of Bionicle is that it's supposed to be fun. If you get too caught up in detailed "this is not canon...whyyyy?" microanalysis, you've really missed the point. That's not to say that canonacity concerns are wrong if you happen to enjoy analyzing things like we do here, but if analysis is taking away from your enjoyment of the story, you're doing it the wrong way. 

[Boidoh]

Unless people, *cough*me*cough*, find things that are canon and only canon as fun...

[Nidhiki of the Shadows]

Yeah, BS01 is a good source for determining what is canon, semi-canon, or not. 

 

In my stance though, unless it is something obviously non-canon (like Bionicle Heroes and Free the Band) it's usually safe to digest, because only some minor details differ. For example, Tale of the Toa is semi-canon cause the Shadow Toa battle was retconned to end in a different way, yet most of it does not conflict with other materials. This kind of inconsistency is so small and insignificant that it shouldn't really turn you off from reading the book (and it's a pretty good novel too). 

 

But yeah, if it's Greg Farshtey, that you can trust is canon. xD

 

-NotS

[CollinC]

I don't know if such a list exists. Here are some quick guidelines:

-Books are canon, except for the ones by C.A. Hapka (the first three Chronicles books), which are semi-canon. Tales of the Toa in particular features many discrepancies with the canon, such as the treatment of the Shadow Toa, as well as most of the battle at the end.

-Comics are canon.

-Movies are mostly canon (the events happened mostly as portrayed, with a few exceptions such as any reference to romance or the population of Metru Nui being way too big).

-Most games aren't canon. The exceptions are the MNOLGs (which seem to be mostly canon) and Quest for the Toa (the 2001 GBA game, which is at least semi-canon). I believe the Maze of Shadows game is also semi-canon, since it's based on the book.

-Web serials/podcasts are canon.

-Here are the canon fan-written stories:

http://biosector01.com/wiki/index.php/Saga_Guides/The_Dweller_Report_by_SPIRIT

http://biosector01.com/wiki/index.php/Saga_Guides/Decadence_by_Dorek

http://biosector01.com/wiki/index.php/Saga_Guides/No_One_Gets_Left_Behind_by_Shadow-Nui

http://biosector01.com/wiki/index.php/Saga_Guides/Protection_by_InnerRayg

http://biosector01.com/wiki/index.php/Saga_Guides/Tentacles_by_Turakii_%28Number%29_1_Lavasurfer

http://biosector01.com/wiki/index.php/Saga_Guides/Hope_by_Lady_Kopaka

 

Hope this helps!

Wait...

 

So Greg said some fanfics were canon? I never knew that. I never really got deep into the storyline until Glatorian era, and then it's end made me too sad to read a lot of stuff. Time to learn some more..

[John Smith]

 

I don't know if such a list exists. Here are some quick guidelines:

-Books are canon, except for the ones by C.A. Hapka (the first three Chronicles books), which are semi-canon. Tales of the Toa in particular features many discrepancies with the canon, such as the treatment of the Shadow Toa, as well as most of the battle at the end.

-Comics are canon.

-Movies are mostly canon (the events happened mostly as portrayed, with a few exceptions such as any reference to romance or the population of Metru Nui being way too big).

-Most games aren't canon. The exceptions are the MNOLGs (which seem to be mostly canon) and Quest for the Toa (the 2001 GBA game, which is at least semi-canon). I believe the Maze of Shadows game is also semi-canon, since it's based on the book.

-Web serials/podcasts are canon.

-Here are the canon fan-written stories:

http://biosector01.com/wiki/index.php/Saga_Guides/The_Dweller_Report_by_SPIRIT

http://biosector01.com/wiki/index.php/Saga_Guides/Decadence_by_Dorek

http://biosector01.com/wiki/index.php/Saga_Guides/No_One_Gets_Left_Behind_by_Shadow-Nui

http://biosector01.com/wiki/index.php/Saga_Guides/Protection_by_InnerRayg

http://biosector01.com/wiki/index.php/Saga_Guides/Tentacles_by_Turakii_%28Number%29_1_Lavasurfer

http://biosector01.com/wiki/index.php/Saga_Guides/Hope_by_Lady_Kopaka

 

Hope this helps!

Wait...

 

So Greg said some fanfics were canon? I never knew that. I never really got deep into the storyline until Glatorian era, and then it's end made me too sad to read a lot of stuff. Time to learn some more..

 

 

They were all contest winners--he didn't just declare random fanfics canon.

[Toa Smoke Monster]

There are also the six winning entries from the One Thousand Years Untold 2 contest from awhile ago that are also considered canon. Here is the link to the topic that has the links to these stories that are posted here on BZP.