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Dralcax

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Year 11

About Dralcax

  • Birthday 11/22/1998

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  1. I think the biggest issue with G1 wasn't any year in particular, it was the clear lack of planning that went into the story that eventually grew into a convoluted mess. Really, the Mata Nui robot twist was the only thing they had planned, so the rest they were just making it up as they went along, and it shows. New ideas just kept getting thrown in, and while they were good ideas, they all gradually built up and started getting in the way. Imagine you're a kid in 2005 or so, you get your first Lego magazine, you see a Bionicle comic, and suddenly whoa who are these robots what are they what are they doing what's with all the spiders. Chances are, you'd get a bit confused. It wasn't too bad, at least in my area the Scholastic book fair made all the books up to that point easily accessible and I got all caught up. However, that's still a lot of reading, and kids who aren't avid readers or dedicated fans probably won't have that much patience. But then the serials came. Oh god, the serials. So many out-of-control plot threads that went every which way and never really got properly resolved. While they did expand the world, the problem is that they grew beyond just being self-contained side stories set in the universe and got more and more complex and intertwining over time. Essentially, you had two Bionicle stories. The main conflict, with the colorful Toa battling the villains of the year. The one all the sets and comics showed, the ones the kids acted out with their own toys and inserted their own MOCs into. Then there was the deeper plot behind the scenes, the one with Dark Hunters vs Brotherhood of Makuta vs Order of Mata Nui, the one that turned into an impenetrable mass of canon built up over years. I remember seeing Vultraz and Mazeka in stores and wondering "who the are these guys". This complexity wasn't necessarily cohesive, either. Rather than developing the existing conflicts further, it introduced new conflicts underlying the bigger plot that maybe had some kind of relevance to the main plot but who knows if any of that even mattered. One serial I don't remember the name of had a random assortment of old villains going on some kind of quest and I guarantee you must kids would be lost if they just stumbled upon it on the website. Then the grand finale of 2008 came, and hey, that was actually brilliant, it blew my mind as a kid. I was hyped for the next year being about the characters fighting Teridax from the inside... Nope, that's just yet more serials. Instead have a soft reboot. Old fans were left confused and missing the established Matoran Universe and forced to learn the new rules and lore of Bara Magna and new fans were left even more confused when the old lore started leaking in. The serials had well and truly jumped the shark by this point, with a bazillion completely random subplots, both with the history of Spherus Magna and the current happenings in the MU. Then the line ended and some very forced attempts were made to integrate the Stars into the story (Tahu's randomly a Mata again! Golden armor from absolutely nowhere!) After that the serials got well and truly out of hand (what is even happening anymore) before dying off with no resolution. Honestly, what I think Bionicle needed was a more unified story. An animated TV show would have fixed a great deal of its problems and Lego really should have given it one. Yeah, it was their first venture into something so story-heavy, so not making such a huge investment would make sense, but it really would have prevented the continuity lockout that Bionicle suffered. It would have provided one unified and easily accessible medium for kids to jump in and follow the story. One issue that plagued Bionicle was that its story was split up over several mediums. Novels, comics, movies, web serials, flash games... None of these media really give you the complete story. The novels are the most comprehensive, but, as a text-only medium, it can't sell toys or attract new fans, only entertain the fans that already own the sets. Also, depictions of the characters vary from medium to medium. A cartoon, however, would be a fantastic way for kids to get the whole story and understand what's going on from simply tuning in every Saturday morning. Also, the large staff of writers would have allowed for reviewing and constructive criticism to take place instead of just letting Greg do everything by himself, trimming down the plot and reinforcing it. With a more coherent and accessible story in that form, I feel Bionicle could have taken off like Transformers did, but in the end, the meat of it was too convoluted and obscure, especially after several years of lore building up.
  2. Dralcax

    Legends

    what where am i im back here apparently no idea why its been so long whatever i wrote a thing The Great Spirit Mountains. Weathered chunks of stone, thousands of miles high, jutted out from the planet’s surface. If one stood atop the tallest mountain, a curiously face-shaped mountain known as Mount Mata, and peered down at the vast mountain range around them, then if one squinted they could perhaps barely make out a pair of humanoid forms lying broken around them. Some claimed that these were legendary titans, though those people tended to be rather unhinged to begin with. The layout of the mountains was certainly strange, but certainly not as strange as the idea of beings almost 9 million bio tall. It was at the base of this hostile yet mystical mountain range that a young white-and-red-armored Matoran called Kura found a small hut so familiar to him. “Master, I’m back!” he called out, shivering as he entered, taking refuge from the cold. “Welcome.” The old Matoran with pale tan armor smiled, taking a boiling pot off the stove for a moment. His mechanical joints creaked as he joined Kura by the table, pouring some warm tea for the both of them. “Master, are you sure you don’t want to come live in the city?” Kura asked. “I mean, at your age, being out here alone...” “I’m fine.” he reassured him. “There’s just something about this place. Perhaps this is where our ancestors came from, way back when Matoran and Agori were physically different species. Besides, it’s peaceful here, at least. There’s no war.” “Yeah...” Kura stared at the wall. Three strange masks hung on it, each one dull, grey, and broken. The first was a strange shape, almost like an inverted T, that only covered the lower half of the face and little else. Even then, the cheeks of the mask were, by design, full of holes. The other one was a more traditional shape, though its oddity lay in that the face was adorned with a design resembling a humanoid figure standing tall and proud as it stretched out its arms. The final was a quite ornate shape, covered in impossibly intricate designs from what seemed to be all sorts of alien cultures, its pointed eye slits staring back at him with a menacing yet wise glare. “I guess it’s nice here. Everywhere else is so chaotic...” The old Matoran nodded, sipping his tea. “Tell me, have I told you the legend of the six Toa? Tahu, Gali, Lewa, Kopaka, Pohatu, and Onua?” “Everyone knows that story.” Kura replied. “They appeared on an island called Okoto to fight an evil called Makuta, right?” “That’s one version of the tale.” he answered. “I suppose it’s a nice little story, possibly inspired by the other one.” “There’s another one?” “Indeed.” the old Matoran answered with a mysterious smile. “A quite similar one, actually, but at the same time, quite different and much longer. It’s hard to say which one is correct, though. Believe one, believe both, or believe neither, the choice is yours.” “I’m ready.” Kura sat back. “So, what’s this legend?” The old Matoran reached under the table and produced two ancient stones. A pale smooth stone, a simple face carved into it with a round mouth and three lines on each cheek, and a wicked, jagged black stone, the vague shape of an evil face visible in it. “In the time before time, the Great Spirit Mata Nui descended from the heavens, carrying beings called the Matoran, to an island paradise, or so they were told...” Hours later... “Hold on, that’s it?” Kura wondered. “But what happens next? Who killed Tren Krom? Who’s that mystery Great Being? What happened with Marendar? What about Mavrah? And...” “That’s all that’s known, I’m afraid.” The old Matoran shook his head. “There’s evidence that the Great Being was named Velika, but any further events have been lost to time.” Kura sighed. “Well, at least it was still a good story while it lasted. I can’t say I liked everything about it, but it was interesting in its own way. One thing bothers me, though. The story mentioned heroes called Toa and Glatorian. If it’s true, then where are they now?” “Well, the Glatorian just went extinct.” he answered. “Or rather, they were all killed. The Toa, however... While there aren’t any left, I wouldn’t call them dead.” The old Matoran smiled, getting up with a bit of effort and rummaging through a nearby chest. “After all, you know where they come from now, don’t you?” He produced one more artifact, placing it in Kura’s hands. “T-this...” It was a silvery mask with a powerful-looking design, still emitting a faint light even after billions of years. “Oh, it’s merely a collectible now.” the old Matoran told him. “But ages ago, it had a name. A name you’ve now heard. Heroes aren’t simply built. They’re found in the hearts of the destined. Even Toa that simply fall from the sky have trials to complete before they can call themselves heroes. Kura, the age of heroes is long past. Destiny’s authority is long gone. Even then, this world still needs saving.” “Then what is my role?” “Destiny can no longer order you around. That is something you must find for yourself.” The next day, Kura stood atop a cliff, overlooking the desert. Explosions rang through the air as the two armies fired on each other, yelling and screaming as they fought. The Matoran and Agori, despite their species having long since converged, never did seem to maintain peace between each other for more than a hundred years or so. “This world really does need a hero...” he muttered to himself. “A Toa.” And with that, he pulled out the mask his master had given him. It was glowing brighter now, shining with a light brighter than a thousand suns. Its silver color was gone, replaced with a brilliant gold. Taking a deep breath, he put on the mask. He saw something. A vision. A diminutive Matoran with red armor and a blue mask. A tall, strong Toa clad in white and gold. An even larger and stronger version of that same Toa, his armor now partially dark and corrupted. That Toa again, now shrunken down and purified back to his original Toa form, though his armor’s gold had been replaced with silver. All of those figures now turned towards him, speaking with the same voice. “You don’t have to be a Toa to be a hero.” The mask clattered to the ground as Kura fell to his knees. “Then what do I do?” he softly whispered, listening to the sounds of the battle below. Finally, he clenched his fist, standing up once more. This age didn’t need a hero to be a warrior. It needed a hero to bring peace. So instead of donning the mask, he held it up high, letting its light shine brighter than ever and cast its rays over the battlefield. The mask had a name once, long ago. The Avohkii. The Mask of Light. And its power was... As the light of the Avohkii shone onto the wounded soldiers, their rage dissipated, anger and prejudice giving way to inner light. Slowly but surely, the sounds of war began to die down, eventually stopping entirely as everyone laid down their weapons and stared up at the light. In that moment, they were neither Matoran nor Agori. They were the same. Sure, they had disagreements, but those could be resolved with peace and understanding. The war was over. Far away, from atop the peak of Mount Mata, the old Matoran watched the light shine with a smile. In his hands was one of the masks from his wall, the one with the figure on the face. “You were right after all.” he remarked, almost as if speaking to the mask.
  3. I never understood what was the point of those fake mouths/lips on Power Ranger masks.
  4. I feel the nonviolence policy ending was simply a matter of time and Bionicle, being heavily story-driven, was a way to experiment with bringing about the end of that policy. IIRC Lego was established as the world was coming out of WWII and it was meant to be a toy that didn't glorify war and violence for the kids like the toy soldiers and stuff kids in the 40s played with. Back then, after two world wars, peaceful toys were attractive for parents and just as fun for kids. That was all well and good for a while, but times changed, the wars became history, the world calmed down a bit, and people wanted actual antagonists and conflicts in their sets so that they could imagine more interesting stories. Nonviolence started to relax a bit. We got Castle and Pirates. Eventually even Space got bad guys. Still, the conflicts were all left up to the kid's imagination.. Then Star Wars came with lightsabers and a strong story and people dying and stuff, Lego Star Wars was a hit, and Lego was like "Huh, we need to cash in on this in a way that we don't have to pay royalties for". And then we got Bionicle. As proven by Star Wars, fans liked having an action-packed story and not just "Here have some faceless guys divided into two groups also they have swords or space guns or whatever do what you want". So they decided to experiment with Bionicle and see what they could get away with. Of course, they were cautious at the start (They're not weapons they're tools!) but got braver and braver as they raked in more $$$. And only the older fans really minded when things got more violent. It was okay to show a fantasy war because it wasn't "too soon" anymore. Nice peaceful nonviolence was old-fashioned and "hippie" now. Dark and edgy sold well, Lego realized "Hey, this isn't so bad", and they started to seriously relax their attitude towards violence because nobody cared about that anymore. As long as it was just toys getting hurt and not humans being graphically murdered, kids can definitely handle it.
  5. I can't speak for everyone, but might as well talk about why I stopped coming here as often. I kinda started falling out of Lego when I entered high school since I suddenly had a ton of homework with half the work ethic, regained an interest in Pokemon before losing it again, started watching anime, got back into Yugioh, rediscovered Transformers, recently took an interest in Gundam... I just plain didn't have time for sitting down and building things like I used to, stopped getting new sets, and eventually lost a lot of my old interest. And thus, I stopped coming to BZPower. It's like... I tried to stay involved, but there wasn't really anything that I hadn't gotten tired of already. The MOC forums were okay, but I stopped really caring enough to leave comments since I wasn't regularly building myself. The library just completely stopped entertaining me, the art forums were the same deal as the MOC forums, and all the other forums were just kind of dried up. G2 got some of them going again, but being story-light as it was, I couldn't really get into it, didn't really have the opportunity to pick up the figures, and by then I was already falling out of Lego in general. I tried breaking into RPing a few times, but it never amounted to much more than my characters running around looking for somebody, anybody, to interact with, completely unable to get involved into the big overarching plot. I guess what drew me into Bionicle was the world. I loved reading the comics with every new Lego Magazine, gaining a love of reading in elementary school through the novels, buying the brand-new sets and always begging my mom for the red one or the black one, but what I loved most of all was putting my own characters into the story. There was this huge deep world out there to explore, whether through canon characters that I just got or MOCs that I built to fight them. In a way, there were two versions of Bionicle for me. The epic tale told through the books and comics I loved so much that we're all familiar with, in which I grew up with the various Toa as my role models, and the one in my own head, with all my own characters playing around in my own world. The Mutant Rahkshi, Makuta Dralcax, Krahk, Enjin, even when Bionicle ended and I could no longer follow the canon, I kept making my own story. Makuta Dralcax in particular, the complete Gary Stu lead of a fanfic I never finished and shared and later my namesake, he was a bit of an imaginary friend during my chuunibyou years. Of course, I eventually had to grow up. I'm not quite sure how it all got away from me. When I was a kid hearing about the AFOL community and the "dark ages" many of them experienced during their teen years, I laughed and said "That'll never happen to me, I'll always love Lego!". Now I seem to be stuck in them. Maybe it was the period of depression, maybe it was moving, maybe it was a lack of time. Maybe it was just growing up. MOCing went from an art I dedicated many hours of free time to and just became "Oh, I REALLY don't feel like doing my homework but there are pieces right next to me time to procrastinate". My stories went from Bionicle characters doing silly and cool things to human characters going on adventures and falling in love. I discovered Reddit and found a larger community of mostly adults. I started making a conscious effort to overcome Asperger's and move away from my old cringeworthy self. I seriously reevaluated my identity a couple of times. I ventured out into the world, exploring the different fandoms out there. I've been through a lot of changes, and overall, Lego and Bionicle stopped being fun. The characters I grew up with stopped being relatable and started seeming more kiddy and cliched. Even Teridax, one of the most interesting villains of my childhood whose Plan blew my 10-year-old mind, started to seem kinda meh. I still love this franchise, but now it's more out of nostalgia than anything. As I matured, it just kind of stopped appealing to me. I moved on from making Bionicle fanfics to Pokemon and then Yugioh before outgrowing fanfiction entirely. As such, my old characters just... went away, with nothing but cool-sounding names left behind. I stopped fantasizing about the adventures of Makuta Dralcax curbstomping everybody because I'd rather imagine a heartwarming romance between two people. The major thing is... I made my stories as an escape from reality. Back then, I turned to Bionicle for a world where my characters could fight and win battles as each bit of the canon world became a challenge for my fanfiction to overcome in battle. When real life sucks, just write about an OP Makuta and start kicking butt. Now, though, I'm still writing as a form of escapism, but as I've grown up, it's... not Bionicle. Stories about love, bonds, adventure, inner strength, the meaning of life, the role of humanity, the mysteries of the universe... My creativity just walked away from Bionicle entirely. My characters went from MU beings to humans and my world went from the Bionicle universe to one more suited for humans. As for Lego in general, well... I've done a few things since then, but it lacks the same spark. I love to design things in my head, but that's way different from translating it to brick. One of these days, I want to learn to draw to put these designs into use, not sit around digging for one piece. I really have been thinking of getting back into MOCing, but I can never find the motivation to download LDD and really have a serious go at creating my vision. And even if I did make something, there are other places where it would get more attention than here. As it is, though, I don't even have the time to build official sets. If I have a bit of free time, I usually end up watching anime or playing Yugioh, and don't really feel like doing Lego. Maybe, in a few years when I'm employed and don't have to spend hours over homework I can pick it back up again, but for now there are so many other things I'd rather be doing that I never get around to Lego. As I've grown up, I've taken some pretty big steps away from Bionicle. I've always been the creative type, and thus, most of my contributions to this community have been my various attempts at creating things. I've built MOCs, written fanfics, and enjoyed so many of your similar contributions. But now, I'm just not feeling the Bionicle universe anymore and I don't have time to be a fan of Lego on top of my many other interests. As well, I feel this community has grown apart quite a bit. I'm sure a lot of those out there have stories like mine, and even the most dedicated AFOLs that were around have headed off to bigger communities not based around one theme that used to be special. I still have BZPower set as my homepage, and try to drop in on the forums every once in a while, but it's just a quiet site for things I'm no longer passionate about. I'm glad I could spend so many years as a part of this wonderful community, but I just haven't been that interested for a few years now.
  6. Mata Nui and Primus. Two giant freaking robot gods teaming up to beat Unicron. Awesome.
  7. Serials are dead Bring back Bionicle! Here we go again
  8. Hmmm... without going into posts that got the user banned for spam... Anyone remember that guy who submitted a two-piece MOC (literally just stuck a half-spacer on an axle and called it a worm) to that bug BBCC?
  9. Is that blue heart from anything or is it just a blue heart? Or does it symbolize your inner angst in some way?
  10. I'm not sure if that's a guy or a girl, but nice ears.
  11. That is not a Toa Nuva, that is an Evangelion. It looks cool, but it seems even more out of place for the Toa Nuva. Not that I liked the regular Kanohi Nuva that much. So many of them seemed like they took the original in the wrong direction design-wise and ended up looking kinda odd.
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