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Unraveling the Media Maze of Bionicle (2001 - 2010)


fishers64

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Not bad, I expected it to get much messier by 2007 when the story serials came into play. Overall it looks pretty organized and simple. Very nice aesthetically too. 

 

Though a few things bother me - 

 

-How is Comic #25 concurrent with Time Trap's epilogue?

-Comic #1 If a Universe Ends actually takes place during 3 different time frames. I know it's confusing and will create clutter, but 2003 already jumps around and looks pretty messy so I don't know why you chose to ignore cutting it up for 2006

-Just the length of some of the boxes aren't very good indicators of their placement within the storyline. For example, in 2001 the lines cut off before MNOG because most other media end before that does. But that kind of consistency is not seen in say 2008, where BL#9 and #10 are shown as the same length when BL#10 really starts around halfway through BL#9.

-The lack of the Crossing bugs me. Also, while other short stories like Birth of a Dark Hunter don't really fit anywhere, they would fit in a MU history section like Brothers in Arms I'd say

-I think it's important to include Brothers in Arms within the 2008 storyline because the latter half runs concurrently with Destiny War

-Also, might have been nice to include the Young Reader books as well 

 

Other than that, pretty cool! Definitely helps diminish the clutter. :P

 

-NotS

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What about the kiddy books like Journey of Takanuva and Book of Certavus?

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What about the kiddy books like Journey of Takanuva and Book of Certavus?

Journey of Takanuva was actually the first Bionicle-related book I ever read. :P I guess that fits in somewhere during 2007-8?

 

 

 

Thanks for creating this, Fishers, it should be put on Biosector01, because it is very helpful. :) I'd love to see a complete timeline that stretches from 2001-2011 and is a digital mile long. :P

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And the nitpicks come rolling in. :P

-How is Comic #25 concurrent with Time Trap's epilogue?

Time Trap actually has two epilogues, one that tells the origin of the Rahaga, and the epilogue epilogue that tells of Makuta befriending a certain errant Po-Matoran. Comic #25 and the end #27 tell of the Rahaga's orgin, which is why I listed it as concurrent.
 

-Comic #1 If a Universe Ends actually takes place during 3 different time frames. I know it's confusing and will create clutter, but 2003 already jumps around and looks pretty messy so I don't know why you chose to ignore cutting it up for 2006

:???: I think that would fall under what I said about not noticing every bump in chronology below though. It doesn't make a difference in how the story fits together. 
 
Cutting up the books in 2003 is important because the chronology is confusing there if you don't read carefully. Makuta's Revenge has a break in it near the end where the Toa Nuva set off to collect the Kanohi Nuva, then the story "cuts" to the Bohrok-Kal's defeat. Tales of the Masks tells of how they got the masks, in that interlude. If you didn't know that, you'd be confused because the Bohrok-Kal were defeated in the last book and the Bohrok-Kal are still alive in this book? Waaat? And while the Turaga tales telling portion ends with an obvious MoL reference, it could be confusing. It's important to the fit. The 2006 comic shift you mentioned isn't told somewhere else, and it confuses few people. See what I mean?


-Just the length of some of the boxes aren't very good indicators of their placement within the storyline. For example, in 2001 the lines cut off before MNOG because most other media end before that does. But that kind of consistency is not seen in say 2008, where BL#9 and #10 are shown as the same length when BL#10 really starts around halfway through BL#9.

To be fair, I had problems with spacing. I developed this out in PowerPoint and all of the information for each year had to fit on the slides, so that's why I had the 2004-05 image and the 2008 Alt universe one. (Also if you shrink a textbox too much it turned into gibberish, and I wanted this to be readable. 

Also, Swamp of Secrets begins (after Taka's shadow drain) with Tahu rocketing down toward the swamp, which is literally twenty minutes after Shadows in the Sky starts. You could kludge it a little to the right, but given that Taka's shadow leeching is implied to be slightly before that, I prefer to leave it where it is.

Swamp of Secrets is actually Bionicle's most chronologically inconsistent work, because interludes in there tell of stuff that happened before 2004 and Legacy of Evil, but that's a vision Taka is experiencing in real time in the present as well. The idea is to keep things simple though - for example I could have included the prologues and epilogues of all the Adventures books on the end of 2003 as an intermission, mentioned that the beginning of City of the Lost included a flashback to the Barraki's past, etc. But the focus here is not on strict chronological accuracy, but rather on knowing how the media of Bionicle fit together to form a coherent (or incoherent, as some would argue) narrative.
 
With that said, Bionicle is a ##### to chronology in general - it throws chronology into a blender, makes a puzzle, and leaves you to figure out the mess. 

-The lack of the Crossing bugs me. Also, while other short stories like Birth of a Dark Hunter don't really fit anywhere, they would fit in a MU history section like Brothers in Arms I'd say

It goes without saying that I limited the purview of this to the official story sources. If I included every fan story and canonization in here I still wouldn't be done, and it would make very little sense for a format like this.

-I think it's important to include Brothers in Arms within the 2008 storyline because the latter half runs concurrently with Destiny War

Until it goes to an alternate universe. :P Brothers in Arms is a pain. It does share an event with Destiny War, but then again, Mutran Chronicles shares an event with Shadows in the Sky, and it's obviously an historical narrative.
 

-Also, might have been nice to include the Young Reader books as well

What about the kiddy books like Journey of Takanuva and Book of Certavus?

The emphasis is on 1) getting stuff actually relevant to the main story (and is canon) and 2)KEEPING THINGS SIMPLE !!!.
I don't view those as essential to understanding the main story. As far as I know, they are not. Now if you want to argue that they are, I'll hear the case, but you'll have to convince me. J of T would probably go in the alt. universe section for 2008.  
 

Thanks for creating this, Fishers, it should be put on Biosector01, because it is very helpful. :) I'd love to see a complete timeline that stretches from 2001-2011 and is a digital mile long. :P

 

I'm not sure how that would be done or what program you would use for that. If it helps here is the orginal PowerPoint. It's vectors, so someone with Illustrator or something could smooth it out into one huge image if they are so inclined. 

 

One of the things you all didn't point out is that this won't be too good for introducing someone to the main story as it includes a bunch of spoilers. I'm open to ideas to "de-spoilerize" it without making it more confusing. :shrugs:

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Time Trap actually has two epilogues, one that tells the origin of the Rahaga, and the epilogue epilogue that tells of Makuta befriending a certain errant Po-Matoran. Comic #25 and the end #27 tell of the Rahaga's orgin, which is why I listed it as concurrent.

Actually, that is Bionicle Adventures #9 Web of Shadows. The second epilogue to Time Trap is just the inhabitants of Mata Nui finally returning to Metru Nui. 

 

 

 

Cutting up the books in 2003 is important because the chronology is confusing there if you don't read carefully. Makuta's Revenge has a break in it near the end where the Toa Nuva set off to collect the Kanohi Nuva, then the story "cuts" to the Bohrok-Kal's defeat. Tales of the Masks tells of how they got the masks, in that interlude. If you didn't know that, you'd be confused because the Bohrok-Kal were defeated in the last book and the Bohrok-Kal are still alive in this book? Waaat? And while the Turaga tales telling portion ends with an obvious MoL reference, it could be confusing. It's important to the fit. The 2006 comic shift you mentioned isn't told somewhere else, and it confuses few people. See what I mean?

That's a fair point, I can understand the reasoning behind it. 

 

 

 

Also, Swamp of Secrets begins (after Taka's shadow drain) with Tahu rocketing down toward the swamp, which is literally twenty minutes after Shadows in the Sky starts. You could kludge it a little to the right, but given that Taka's shadow leeching is implied to be slightly before that, I prefer to leave it where it is.

 

Swamp of Secrets is actually Bionicle's most chronologically inconsistent work, because interludes in there tell of stuff that happened before 2004 and Legacy of Evil, but that's a vision Taka is experiencing in real time in the present as well. The idea is to keep things simple though - for example I could have included the prologues and epilogues of all the Adventures books on the end of 2003 as an intermission, mentioned that the beginning of City of the Lost included a flashback to the Barraki's past, etc. But the focus here is not on strict chronological accuracy, but rather on knowing how the media of Bionicle fit together to form a coherent (or incoherent, as some would argue) narrative.

 

With that said, Bionicle is a ##### to chronology in general - it throws chronology into a blender, makes a puzzle, and leaves you to figure out the mess. 

 Again, a fair point. This was more of a minor nitpick and I can now understand the justifications behind some of the aesthetic decisions. I just think it would definitely help in regards to messy years like 2005 and 2008.

 

It goes without saying that I limited the purview of this to the official story sources. If I included every fan story and canonization in here I still wouldn't be done, and it would make very little sense for a format like this.

Technically, The Crossing is an official story source since it was written by Greg F for a book series.

 

Until it goes to an alternate universe.  :P Brothers in Arms is a pain. It does share an event with Destiny War, but then again, Mutran Chronicles shares an event with Shadows in the Sky, and it's obviously an historical narrative.

 

The difference between that is Mutran Chronicles is pretty much following a formula set by books like "Legacy of Evil" while a part of Destiny War actually depends on knowledge of Brothers in Arms for actual continuation and closure. As a result, they go hand-in-hand (especially since Brothers in Arms chapter 5 actually ends saying "please read Destiny War 6 for the continuation") and there are immediate consequences for both stories.

 

The emphasis is on 1) getting stuff actually relevant to the main story (and is canon) and 2)KEEPING THINGS SIMPLE !!!.

I don't view those as essential to understanding the main story. As far as I know, they are not. Now if you want to argue that they are, I'll hear the case, but you'll have to convince me. J of T would probably go in the alt. universe section for 2008.  

 

I agree that they don't really add all too much to the main story, but many happen in between events that may make them difficult to place chronologically (like the two readers featuring Mata Nui) and I think it would benefit those who want to know when these books take place. :)

 

One of the things you all didn't point out is that this won't be too good for introducing someone to the main story as it includes a bunch of spoilers. I'm open to ideas to "de-spoilerize" it without making it more confusing.  :shrugs:

 

Yeah, there could be benefits to that, especially since the "spoiler" information is just a description of events - by keeping it to simply titles of the respective media you'll still get the point across but without outright spoilerifying the main story ahead of time.
 
(on the other hand, I feel this is better as something for fans who have already digested the material and want to redigest it in chronological order - definitely would have helped me when I planned out my rereadings/watchings :P )
 
-NotS

 

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I love how measy it gets 2007 and onward. :P

 

Anyway, this is neat and thank you for making it. If I ever want to reexperience Gen1 I'll have a solid guideline now. :)

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I didn't remember how badly we needed something like this until I saw it :P Keeping up with the story is a real disaster, you basically gotta read everything and then suffer the deja vu when the stories overlap. Good job with this, clearly took a while. I'll leave it to everyone else to nitpick any mistakes  :P

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You're welcome, everyone! :) Glad to hear the people like it and find it of use. 
 
I'm just going to poke my head in here to say that I've listened to all of your nitpicking and am going to post some images (in a new post or this one) with some minor adjustments. It shouldn't be too hard to add the word "first" to the Time Trap epilogue note, for one thing. :P
 
Also I want to try and see if I can fit Brothers in Arms into the 2008 main, or at least add a phrase clarifying that part of it is concurrent with Destiny War. :shrugs: I'm not sure that I will put that in the first post, though, as it may be too cluttered.
 
I'm not sure about the young readers' books. I haven't actually read those. We've had arguments over Journey of Takanuva's placement with the The Kingdom and Dark Mirror in S&T, so at least including that in the right spot could allay some confusion. It would probably appear in blue under the current system of annotating works, however, which could be even more confusing and add additional complications to allay with notes...

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I don't see how they would fit. As far as I know, they don't tell actual story, just world building details. 
 
Any case, there's no room. :P
 
EDIT:
 

The difference between that is Mutran Chronicles is pretty much following a formula set by books like "Legacy of Evil" while a part of Destiny War actually depends on knowledge of Brothers in Arms for actual continuation and closure. As a result, they go hand-in-hand (especially since Brothers in Arms chapter 5 actually ends saying "please read Destiny War 6 for the continuation") and there are immediate consequences for both stories.
 
 
I agree that they don't really add all too much to the main story, but many happen in between events that may make them difficult to place chronologically (like the two readers featuring Mata Nui) and I think it would benefit those who want to know when these books take place. :)

 
 
I thought I'd bring these up (these are not in the first post, but posting here for those who wanted it that way):
 
15928390997_5055b4d885_z.jpg
 
 
16088354306_f918b21ded_z.jpg
 
We've debated the chronology of the dimensions here; I'm just going to stick with how BS01 has them laid out. I've never read Journey of Takanuva, but I understand that there is a case for putting The Kingdom before JoT, but this really isn't the topic to debate that. 
 
And I've fixed 2005's epilogue concern. 

 

As for The Crossing and 2009 stuff I haven't read, I'll get there when I get there. :P

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