Bionicle Crash Course

[nescover]

I stopped following Bionicle several years ago. Around the time the Toa Nuva discovered Metru Nui (so, the end of 2003) I stopped following the story and buying the sets. Now that Bionicle is coming back, I'm interested in catching up on all the lore I've been missing out on.

 

Can anyone give me a crash course on the main plot events starting from 2004?

[The 1st Shadow]

I would advise checking BS01, particularly the Saga Guides. Hope this helps!

[Pohatu: Uniter of Stone]

We should totally get the actual CrashCourse bros to do a Crash Course on Bionicle history. I can see it know... 

[Toa Chuck]

2004:

Turaga reveal they were once toa in metru-nui. Vakama retells the story of how they stopped Makuta, and brought some of the matoran to the island of mata-nui.

2005:

Vakama tells how they returned to metru-nui, got mutated by evil skull visorak spiders, and ultimately rescued all the matoran.

2006:

The Toa Nuva go to Voya-Nui to find the mask of life in order to stop Mata-Nui from dieing, however, they get defeated by an evil gang of yo-yo Piraka. Jaller, Hahli, Kongu, Matoro, Hewkii, and Nuparu go to Voya-nui to save the toa nuva, and become Toa Ignika. They recover the mask of life, but the mask decides to be difficult, and goes into the ocean.

2007:

The Toa Ignika get turned into amphibious toa mahri, and they go to once again recover the mask of life, which ended up in the claws of some evil creeps mutant warlords. Matoro then uses the mask to sacrifice himself to save mata-nui's life.

2008:

The toa nuva gain flying armor, and go to Karda-nui to face off against the brotherhood of bats and bugs Makuta. Takanuva and the toa of life show up, and ultimately the toa nuva awaken mata-nui.

Plot twist: Mata-Nui is a giant robot!

Secondary plot twist: Makuta took over the giant robot.

Third plot twist: red star zombie maker Mata-Nui's spirit is put in the mask of life and is ejected from the robot.

2009:

Scene change! Mata-Nui lands on the planet of bara-magna, befriends the locals, defeats the mighty tumor Tuma, and aquires a smaller giant robot.

2010:

Makuta lands on bara magna, and fights mata-nui. Meanwhile, tahu gets turned back into a toa mata, he puts on the golden armor, and it destroys all the rahkshi, allowing mata nui to moon defeat makuta.

2011:

Biomechanical dinosaurs! Turns out Velika, a minor secondary character from 2006 is a great being. Also, Kopaka and Pohatu are trapped in space with a bunch of zombies. This year was canceled due to Greg being busy.

[fishers64]

I would recommend actually reading it, but if you really want the short version, here we go: 
 
2004: The Turaga (wise old guys from 2003) tell the story of the time when they were Toa. They got transformed from Matoran into Toa by another Toa (Lhikan). Their first task is to deal with a giant plant that was menacing their home, a city called Metru Nui. Then they go below the city and tangle with Krahka (a Rahi), and then they present the objects they used to defeat the plant to the leader of their city, Dume, and...
 

Dume turns out to be Makuta in disguise, and he reveals that, thanks to him, Mata Nui has fallen asleep. The Matoran get put in spheres and the city is badly damaged. Vakama (the leader of the Metru Toa and Turaga later) fights Makuta using the Mask of Time. And a disk launcher. And a rock. Lhikan dies. The Metru put Makuta in a protocage.

 
And then they go on a boat trip to Mata Nui island, and go back to Metru Nui. 
 
2005: Vakama and Co. (in Vakama's tales of the past, continued) get captured by the Visorak, mutating spiders. They get transformed into Toa Hordika, half-beast, half-Toa. The chief controller of the Visorak, Roodaka wants to free the imprisoned Makuta. The Toa need Keetongu to heal them and turn them back into the Toa they were in 2004 (Toa Metru). 
 

Vakama turns evil due to being half-beast, betrays his entire team to Roodaka. He's saved by Matau, but not before the Rahaga (Toa Hordika's assistants) decipher the ancient prophecy and find Keetongu. Roodaka frees Makuta, but not before putting Vakama in charge of the Visorak, so the Visorak stop attacking the Toa.

 
After that, Vakama fights Makuta again.
 
2006: Mata Nui's not just asleep, he's dying - Toa have to go to Voya Nui to find the Mask of Life to save him. Unfortunately, powerful villains like the Piraka and Brutaka are guarding it.
 

The Toa Nuva go, and they fail against the Piraka. Jaller and a bunch of other known Matoran go to Voya Nui, transform into Toa, and beat the Piraka. They get the Mask, but it has a mind of its own and decides to go for a deep sea swim. The Nuva are rescued (twice).

 
2007: The Toa Inika chase the  Mask of Life underwater. They transform into water-breathing Toa Mahri. Lots more villains want The Mask of Life under there.
 
Then they chase a runaway island to save Mata Nui's life.
 
2008:

The Toa Nuva return to fight Makuta to awaken Mata Nui. They do so...and Makuta takes over Mata Nui forever. Also Mata Nui is a giant robot.

 
2009: This whole other planet with powerless beings called Agori and Glatorian and Skrall (Skrall are bad).
 

And Mata Nui shows up, finds out that this is the planet where he was from, and takes down a Skrall leader for battle practice.

 
2010: Giant Robot Fight.
 

Good guys win! Also planet they were fighting on gets restored after the big natural disaster that the robots were created to restore in the first place. Mata Nui decides to go dormant in the Mask of Life and leave all the characters to their new life on the reformed planet.

 
THE END.  

[Zeb]

2004:

Turaga reveal they were once toa in metru-nui. Vakama retells the story of how they stopped Makuta, and brought some of the matoran to the island of mata-nui.

2005:

Vakama tells how they returned to metru-nui, got mutated by evil skull visorak spiders, and ultimately rescued all the matoran.

2006:

The Toa Nuva go to Voya-Nui to find the mask of life in order to stop Mata-Nui from dieing, however, they get defeated by an evil gang of yo-yo Piraka. Jaller, Hahli, Kongu, Matoro, Hewkii, and Nuparu go to Voya-nui to save the toa nuva, and become Toa Ignika. They recover the mask of life, but the mask decides to be difficult, and goes into the ocean.

2007:

The Toa Ignika get turned into amphibious toa mahri, and they go to once again recover the mask of life, which ended up in the claws of some evil creeps mutant warlords. Matoro then uses the mask to sacrifice himself to save mata-nui's life.

2008:

The toa nuva gain flying armor, and go to Karda-nui to face off against the brotherhood of bats and bugs Makuta. Takanuva and the toa of life show up, and ultimately the toa nuva awaken mata-nui.

Plot twist: Mata-Nui is a giant robot!

Secondary plot twist: Makuta took over the giant robot.

Third plot twist: red star zombie maker Mata-Nui's spirit is put in the mask of life and is ejected from the robot.

2009:

Scene change! Mata-Nui lands on the planet of bara-magna, befriends the locals, defeats the mighty tumor Tuma, and aquires a smaller giant robot.

2010:

Makuta lands on bara magna, and fights mata-nui. Meanwhile, tahu gets turned back into a toa mata, he puts on the golden armor, and it destroys all the rahkshi, allowing mata nui to moon defeat makuta.

2011:

Biomechanical dinosaurs! Turns out Velika, a minor secondary character from 2006 is a great being. Also, Kopaka and Pohatu are trapped in space with a bunch of zombies. This year was canceled due to Greg being busy.

It's the Toa Inika, not Ignika. Ignika is the name of the Mask of Light Life. Also, it might be helpful to note that the Toa of Life is "Toa" Ignika, which is the Mask of Light which built a body for itself. Also, it's too bad Bionicle had to end early. Biomechanical dinosaurs would have been...

 

MASSIVE.  

 

EDIT: I made the "Life/Light" mistake.  

Edited November 11, 2014 by SuperGeniusCreator

[Nidhiki of the Shadows]

It's the Toa Inika, not Ignika. Ignika is the name of the Mask of Light. Also, it might be helpful to note that the Toa of Life is "Toa" Ignika, which is the Mask of Light which built a body for itself. Also, it's too bad Bionicle had to end early. Biomechanical dinosaurs would have been...

 

MASSIVE.  

 

Funny that you correct him on a mistake when you have made one yourself.

 

Honestly, the main story isn't super complex and what fisher64 and Toa Chuck provided for you are pretty good as far as summarizing the remaining years you missed. If you want to delve deeper, I reiterate what others have stated: BS01 is your friend.

 

-NotS

Edited November 11, 2014 by Nidhiki of the Shadows

[Pomegranate]

The Toa Nuva, Turaga, and Matoran all take a boat trip to Metru Nui. The Turaga tell stories of when they were Toa in Metru Nui. The city's Turaga was Makuta in disguise, and they sealed him away and carried some of the Matoran he kidnapped up to the island of Mata Nui. During this time Toa Vakama made the Mask of Time that Tahu used against the Bohrok-Kal, which was what Makuta was after to attain ultimate power. There were evil Dark Hunters, basically super thugs for hire. When they came back, evil spiders had taken over everything, mutated the Toa, and wrecked everything. With the help of Rahaga, even older mutated Toa, they succeeded in defeating the spiders' leaders and rescuing the Matoran, but not before Makuta was released from his prison. The Toa got turned back to normal, and finished carrying all the Matoran to safety in airships while Vakama had this crazy adventure with Makuta, the Mask of Time, and the leader of the Dark Hunters, where Vakama keeps the Mask of Time and bargains for a year of peace from Makuta. It was then that he was made privy to the existence of the Order of Mata Nui, another faction fighting for good in the universe. On the island above, the Toa Metru use all their power to awaken the Matoran, who were weakened and lost their memories in their prisons, and the Toa transformed into Turaga.

The Turaga finish their story, they all arrive on Metru Nui, and start to rebuild, but soon are told that Mata Nui is dying. They are sent off to Voya Nui, another island in the endless ocean, where it is said the Mask of Life is, and they need it to save his life before he dies. Takanuva tries to follow, but is told to stay behind, but he aids the escape of six Matoran (Jaller and Co). They take a long route and end up in basically the Bionicle underworld, where Matoran in need of repair go to end up being very poorly repaired and not sent back, and after some horrific and wacky stuff make it to Voya Nui, where their transport capsules are struck by lightining from the red star, transforming them into Toa who have lightning lacing their elemental powers and bodies, and organic masks that respond to their thoughts. They're just in time, too, because a little earlier ex-Dark Hunters, an evil group of horrid, hideous, sly, brutish, super-powered thugs called Piraka arrived looking to claim the Mask of Life and its amazing power, and masqueraded as Toa to enslave the local population to make them do the hard work for them, with what only one of them knows to be the gaseous, sentient essence of Makuta, who survived the Mask of Light incident. The Toa Nuva beat them to a pulp, but unfortunately, the Piraka love pulp, and basically bounce back easily and completely destroy the Nuva, stalking them down and taking their weapons, masks, and armor and basically throwing them in their dungeon. The new Toa, called the Inika now, pormptly kick their butts and free the Toa Nuva, who are sent by the Order of Mata Nui to prepare the universe for Mata Nui's awakening I think. There's also a few other key figures on Voya Nui doing stuff but it's not absolutely critical to know right now. Eventually th Inika and Piraka battle it out underground, and the Mask of Life slips through their fingers and flies out of there and plunges right into the ocean.

The Toa Inika follow and are transformed into the Toa Mahri, I believe by the mutagenic waters of The Pit, where a massive prison collapsed, releasing dangerous criminals and a very ticked off guard who got reincarnated. Meanwhile, Makuta took control of another guard from The Pit, who was just a robotic shell. The evil warlords, called the Barraki, duke it out with the Toa Mahri, and also the Mask of Life makes itself some guardians and theres this giant underwater city of Matoran living in a bubble. It's cool. Stuff happens, the Cord keeping Voya Nui on the surface breaks, and Toa Matoro has the Mask of Life. The island of Voya Nui starts sinking pretty fast back to the hole in the bottom of the sea from which it first rocketed up, and Matoro tried to outrace it, to get into the Heart of the World, Karda Nui, the universe's core... and Mata Nui dies. They were too late. The universe goes cold. Matoro makes it into the universe core just in time, and falling down a giant, just really GIANT waterfall, and sacrifices is life to power the mask, which revives Mata Nui. There's a flash of light, the Toa are teleported back to Metru Nui, and a whole bunch of Makuta, who turn out to be a whole species and brotherhood, the only ones left in the universe more or less, are in the Core and are blinded.

The Toa Nuva are given Adaptive Armor and teleported to Karda Nui, where they team up with Matoran of light in stalactite cities to fight off the various Makuta, while half the team is down below in the swamps of Karda Nui fighting off the other half of the Makuta. The Mask of Life wants to be a hero like Matoro and makes itself a body and sorta teams up with the Toa Nuva (Phantoka/Mistika) and they collect the keys to the Codrex, this giant metal sphere in the center of the swamp. There the Mask of Life and the Toa Nuva finally awaken Mata Nui! They get in cool flying vehicles and get outta there right as massive energy storms that power the universe erupt, killing all the baddies left inside, and they return to Metru Nui victorious.

Or, so it seems. There's a chill, the stars rearrange into the shape of the Mask of Shadows. During that last adventure, Makuta took Mata Nui's place as controller of the universe, so when they woke Mata Nui... they really woke Makuta. What? Well it turns out all of Bionicle was taking place inside a 40 million foot tall robot, with the island of Mata Nui just camouflage that covered its face after it crash landed during the events of the Toa Metru story. So, Makuta basically is in control of this robot, the whole Matoran Universe. He places Mata Nui's spirit in the Mask of Life and shoots them into space, and proceeds to torment his inhabitants and wreak havoc and fight off resistances inside him. 

Meanwhile, Mata Nui crash lands on Bara Magna, a desert planet full of warrior tribes who hold gladiator battles to decide how resources are used. It's pretty bleak. Also they're a different species, they're 85% organic as opposed to the people in the Matoran Universe generally being 85% mechanical. And they don't have elemental powers.The Mask of Life forms Mata Nui a body but the Great Spirit stays in control. He does stuff and makes friends and unites the tribes against the baddy tribe, and they start to rebuild... by dragging their homes together. What? Turns out their homes are built around ginormous body parts of a ginormous robot that blew up and got scattered across the landscape. Apparently, long ago, there was one planet, Spherus Magna. Energized Protodermis was discovered and caused wars. The Great Beings knew their planet was doomed, so they built a giant robot to study space so it could one day return to reform the planet, but it blew up, so they built a second, better robot. That robot is what we know as the Matoran Universe, and the events of 2001 start like 100,000 years later, and 1,000 years after Makuta inadvertently crashes the whole robot into a moon of endless water-- a moon formed when Spherus Magna blew up and reformed as 3 separate celestial bodies. Mata Nui's spirit inhabits the smaller giant robot when Makuta flies over to beat him up after discovering he's alive, and the two planet-sized robots fight it out on the even bigger planet's surface, while the tiny regular sized people al fight at their feet in an epic battle, and in the end Mata Nui slams Makuta's head into an incoming moon and he's dead. He's dead so hard. He collapses, and the good guys win. Mata Nui returns to the Mask of Life, gives a cool speech, and uses all his power to restore life to the planet and make Spherus magna whole and alive and beautiful again (the two moons rejoined the main planet at the end of the battle, I believe). The inhabitants of the Matoran Universe all leave the wrecked robot before the artificial gravity and life support completely fails, and they and the natives of Spherus Magna all thank the Great Spirit, and presumably unite to rebuild and enjoy their new world.

The End.

Hope that was, uh... crashy enough a course for you. Soooo much more happened so while this looks like I went into all the details, this really is the most coherent way to explain the main events without leaving you lost or confused. If the one or two sentence summaries don't tell you enough, here ya go

Edited November 11, 2014 by Pomegranate

[Prime Axiom]

SPOILER ALERT: Mata Nui is a giant robot. Island of Mata Nui is his face. The entire matoran universe is his body. He was built to unite the planet of Spherus Magna, which has split up into three parts. He crash landed on Aqua Magna (the part of Spherus Magna with all the water) when Makuta put him into a coma. If you are unfamiliar with 2004's storyline, you'll probably need to know that Matoran can transform into Toa, and Toa can transform into Turaga. It's the "matoran life cycle". But only those that are destined to do so will. Oh, and Makuta is a species. The one we know from 2001-2003 is named Teridax, the leader. All this will make explanations easier. 

 

2004 - This is a flashback year. Vakama tells stories about the city of Metru Nui, which is Mata Nui's brain. Lhikan gives six matoran (Vakama, Nokama, Nuju, Onewa, and Whenua) stones that turns them into Toa Metru. Makuta traps all the matoran into spheres, causing Mata Nui to go into a coma. Makuta (disguised as a Turaga named Dume) manipulates Vakama into creating the mask of time from six great disks. Vakama defeats Makuta, and the Toa Metru trap him in a seal. The mask of time is lost in Metru Nui's oceans. They then take some matoran to an island above Metru Nui, which was too damaged to live in (because Mata Nui crash landed into an ocean planet) which we know as Mata Nui. 

 

2005 - Another flashback year, continuing with when 2004 left off. Toa Metru go back to Metru Nui to get the rest of the Matoran (they could only take six spheres in 2004). They find the city overrun by spiders called visorak. They get caught in a web and mutated, becoming Toa Hordika. Basically it crippled them and made them beast like. They find Keetongu which could reverse this mutation. They then fought the leaders of the visorak swarms. The male one gets The female one Roodaka works for Makuta, and tricks the Toa into freeing him from his seal. Keetongu undoes the Toa's mutations in the aftermath of the battle. Vakama retrieves the mask of time, and uses it to threaten Makuta into not attacking the matoran for 1 year. The Toa then sacrifice their Toa power to free the matoran from their pods, turning them into Turaga.   

 

2006 - Toa Nuva finish listening to the Turaga's stories of Metru Nui, and now have re-established civilization on Metru Nui. The Turaga discover that Mata Nui is not only asleep but dying. They send the Toa Nuva into an island on the surface world (outside Mata Nui giant robot, this island is actually part of Mata Nui's organs which broke off when he crash landed) named Voya Nui to find the Mask of Life. They find a group of bandits called the Piraka (species name: Skakdi) and were defeated. Meanwhile, a group of Matoran (Jaller, Hahli, Matoro, Nuparu, Hewkii, and Kongu) set out to help the Toa Nuva. They hide in Toa pods, which were struck by lightning from the red star (Mata Nui's power backpack). This turns them into the Toa Inika. Inika then fight the Piraka, with some degree of success, and enter the tunnels where the mask of life was being held. Mask of Life has a mind of its own, and chooses Matoro to be its herald. But before anyone can use it, the mask of life sent itself into the sea of Aqua Magna.

 

2007 - Mask of Life travels into the sea of Aqua Magna. There are 2 important locations here: The pit, which is a prison for all of the outlaws within the Mata Nui robot. And Mahri Nui, which was a part of Voya Nui that sank. The villains of this year were the Barraki, who are warlords that tried to take over Mata Nui. They have now escaped the pit. Long story short, everyone fought for the mask. Toa discovered they had to destroy both Voya Nui and Mahri Nui to fix the hole in Mata Nui's body, which they did. Not before evacuating all the matoran of course. Unfortunately, Mata Nui dies. However, Matoro then sacrifices himself to revive him with the mask of life.

 

2008 - This one is easy. The leader of the Makuta, Teridax, sent a bunch of Makuta (remember, they are actually a species) into Karda Nui (Mata Nui's heart). Toa Nuva, now equipped with adaptive armour, fight Makuta. Toa win. Mata Nui is revived. Happy ending. PLOT TWIST. It turns out that when Mata Nui died, Teridax (Makuta) snuck into his body and assumed control. So now Makuta is in control of the giant robot (which is Mata Nui's body). He then seals Mata Nui into the mask of life, and ejects it into a far away planet. Then he declares his victory to all the inhabitants of his body. Makuta wins.

 

2009 - It turns out the faraway planet was actually very close. Mask of Life ends up on Bara Magna, the largest fragment of Spherus Magna left. Mask of Life creates body for Mata Nui. Mata Nui explores world. Mata Nui finds conflict. Mata Nui crushes conflict with haxed mask and elemental powers. The citizens of Spherus Magna dont have elemental powers. They are called Agori (little guys), Glatorian (warriors), and Skrall (evil warriors). 

 

2010 - Mata Nui finds prototype giant robot. Mata Nui assumes control. Makuta comes in with his giant robot. Mata Nui fights Makuta. Makuta releases swarms of Rahkshi to fight Toa and allies. Mask of Life creates golden armour for Tahu to use to decimate swarms of Rahkshi. Mata Nui beats Makuta and merges spherus magna back to a whole. Mata Nui rests in the mask of life. Tahu leads the inhabitants of Mata Nui robot to live on the new world. The end. 

 

 Not going to cover serials. 

[nescover]

Wow!

 

Thank you everyone so much for your incredibly informative posts. So many winding plot developments - it makes my brain numb. Also, BS01 is indeed my friend. That wiki didn't exist when I was still invested in the story. It is helpful.

 

Thanks again.

[Zeb]

 

It's the Toa Inika, not Ignika. Ignika is the name of the Mask of Light. Also, it might be helpful to note that the Toa of Life is "Toa" Ignika, which is the Mask of Light which built a body for itself. Also, it's too bad Bionicle had to end early. Biomechanical dinosaurs would have been...

 

MASSIVE.  

 

Funny that you correct him on a mistake when you have made one yourself.

 

Honestly, the main story isn't super complex and what fisher64 and Toa Chuck provided for you are pretty good as far as summarizing the remaining years you missed. If you want to delve deeper, I reiterate what others have stated: BS01 is your friend.

 

-NotS

 

WHAT. I made the classic mistake of switching "Life" out with "Light".    

[Ford]

I would advise checking BS01, particularly the Saga Guides. Hope this helps!

That's what I would say to do...

[Nidhiki of the Shadows]

 

 

It's the Toa Inika, not Ignika. Ignika is the name of the Mask of Light. Also, it might be helpful to note that the Toa of Life is "Toa" Ignika, which is the Mask of Light which built a body for itself. Also, it's too bad Bionicle had to end early. Biomechanical dinosaurs would have been...

 

MASSIVE.  

 

Funny that you correct him on a mistake when you have made one yourself.

 

Honestly, the main story isn't super complex and what fisher64 and Toa Chuck provided for you are pretty good as far as summarizing the remaining years you missed. If you want to delve deeper, I reiterate what others have stated: BS01 is your friend.

 

-NotS

 

WHAT. I made the classic mistake of switching "Life" out with "Light".    

 

That's okay, the best of us do it. (I think the most common mistake is that, or Ignika/Inika)

 

-NotS

[Zeb]

 

 

 

It's the Toa Inika, not Ignika. Ignika is the name of the Mask of Light. Also, it might be helpful to note that the Toa of Life is "Toa" Ignika, which is the Mask of Light which built a body for itself. Also, it's too bad Bionicle had to end early. Biomechanical dinosaurs would have been...

 

MASSIVE.  

 

Funny that you correct him on a mistake when you have made one yourself.

 

Honestly, the main story isn't super complex and what fisher64 and Toa Chuck provided for you are pretty good as far as summarizing the remaining years you missed. If you want to delve deeper, I reiterate what others have stated: BS01 is your friend.

 

-NotS

 

WHAT. I made the classic mistake of switching "Life" out with "Light".    

 

That's okay, the best of us do it. (I think the most common mistake is that, or Ignika/Inika)

 

-NotS

 

LOL yeah. All it takes is a lack of a "g" to turn the "Toa" form of the Mask of Life into an entire team of Toa.

[The Hip Historian Iaredios]

 

There we have it.

[nescover]

Nice - that does help to highlight the insanity of it all.