warning: probably NSFW because it's Kotaku and they drop f-bombs like it's going out of style. The article itself is actually clean, but there are comments and the main pic they use is somewhat disturbing.

Shock horror awe, BIONICLE isn't the only line with a convoluted and alienating past. The article makes a lot of good points about how the collective experience of a franchise can actually be corrosive to itself, and that sometimes the crazy things the people in charge do aren't necessarily bad all the time.

Probably the most relevant passage:

Two things are key here: those inverted commas around the word 'happen', which speak galactic volumes about the make-believe politics of managing a fictional universe, and the phrase "official history". This is what all the fuss is about - that stamp of authenticity, a privileging of truth, and a seemingly arbitrary confirmation of legitimacy. "That fake thing you like? That is the real fake thing. We pronounce it."

 

The reason this is such a compelling thing, despite the surface madness of it, is that love sends us crazy. When we love a world, we want to exist and revel in it. We want it to be true. And that truth is disrupted by inconsistency and contradiction. We need that integrity - our belief requires it. Canon is about neatness, and appreciation, and the urge to know and absorb everything about something you love. It's about ownership and protectiveness. And it can also be unexpectedly damaging.