Creations Going Awry - Poetic Justice?

[fishers64]

It seems that the creations of Bionicle consistently tended to backfire on their creators. From the Vahki, whose intended purpose of keeping order and dealing with Rahi turned dangerously awry, to Mata Nui's Makuta going terribly wrong, to the various Great Being creations not working as planned and getting out of control. This is strongly counter to Lego's message, which is an encouragement of creativity and innovation. Lego's creation (Bionicle) turned awry, and no longer served their purpose at hand, so, in the true vein of all things Bionicle, they went and tried to shut it down.Thoughts? Objections?

Edited February 29, 2012 by fishers64

[bonesiii]

Lol. You're probably onto something. Psychology can do that. :PBut really, Bionicle lasted ten really great years. They owed us nothing anyways, so I'm grateful for every year of it.

[Aanchir]

I prefer to think of BIONICLE as something that "went horribly right". It was a brilliant, ambitious idea from the start, and even if it turned out to be unsustainable, it did as well as it really could have done at creating an always-expanding and immersive story universe, where old plot threads came together years later.But regarding creations going awry within the BIONICLE storyline, I think the one most unified lesson that can be drawn from that is that after you create something you can no longer govern what destiny has in mind for it. It's almost a warning against playing God, although unlike in many series like Jurassic Park it's not necessarily predicting that things will go wrong when you dabble in creation, only that they might go differently than you, the creator, intended.The Matoran are a prime example: they were never meant to have culture, but they naturally developed it as an extension of their designated roles, and instead of getting in the way of their programmed duties it instead gave greater meaning to those duties, as they labored happily in service of their Great Spirit and, eventually, helped him to accomplish his destined mission. Even Makuta Teridax's rebellion ended up helping towards that goal, as Mata Nui eventually recognized that he could not reunite Spherus Magna on his own.An extension of this message that applies to the characters on a more individual level is that destiny has a plan for you no matter what your origins, and that by following your own values you move in the direction of your destiny.

[bonesiii]

Makes sense, Aanchir, and I would apply that, to continue the vein of analogy, to saying that once LEGO created Bionicle, it became far more than they could have expected, took on a life of its own, similar to the Matoran, in the minds of the vast fanbase.

[Harvali]

I prefer to think of BIONICLE as something that "went horribly right". It was a brilliant, ambitious idea from the start, and even if it turned out to be unsustainable, it did as well as it really could have done at creating an always-expanding and immersive story universe, where old plot threads came together years later.But regarding creations going awry within the BIONICLE storyline, I think the one most unified lesson that can be drawn from that is that after you create something you can no longer govern what destiny has in mind for it. It's almost a warning against playing God, although unlike in many series like Jurassic Park it's not necessarily predicting that things will go wrong when you dabble in creation, only that they might go differently than you, the creator, intended.The Matoran are a prime example: they were never meant to have culture, but they naturally developed it as an extension of their designated roles, and instead of getting in the way of their programmed duties it instead gave greater meaning to those duties, as they labored happily in service of their Great Spirit and, eventually, helped him to accomplish his destined mission. Even Makuta Teridax's rebellion ended up helping towards that goal, as Mata Nui eventually recognized that he could not reunite Spherus Magna on his own.An extension of this message that applies to the characters on a more individual level is that destiny has a plan for you no matter what your origins, and that by following your own values you move in the direction of your destiny.

Right. The Matoran are indeed a great example of a creation going horribly right. A specific example of a creation going wrong is that Vakama's visions are said to be an AI glitch. But without them the Toa Metru couldn't have stopped the Morbuzahk, and if Vakama had bothered to analyze the other visions more, the Matoran might not have lost their memories. If Vakama had possessed a less glitched mind, things could have gotten much worse.As another example of good effects of creations growing beyond their programing, look at the Kingdom. They not only have a near utopian society, but they are preparing to explore space with technology developed independent of the Great Beings. They have no war, hatred has died down, (except towards Matoro, though he redeemed himself in the public's eyes) even though Mata-Nui is dead. If they had just been machines they might have just "shut themselves off," since their mission couldn't succeed. Instead they became stronger. Edited February 29, 2012 by Tanma