Remember the Baterra from the 2009 storyline?  Have you ever asked yourself, "What if they were horror movie villains?"

Quick refresher (long one at BS01), the Baterra were a group of shapeshifting robots created by The Great Beings to end The Core War...by killing anyone holding a weapon because I guess The Great Beings get their morals from "Chappie".  After the war they did a number on the remaining Skrall on Bara Magna and forced them to move south and become the villains of the 2009 storyline.  The Baterra following the Skrall south was a minor plot point of '09.   

I'm wracking my brain to remember what it was like in 2009 (which was somehow 14 years ago) when the Baterra were introduced.  I remember Greg hinting at them in answers saying the Skrall were running from something else, which was honestly good hype.  I can't remember how we found out about their origin and purpose, but I know it was before "Yesterday Quest".  Either way, in late 2009 the robots appeared briefly in the Skrall serial and the next year in the really cool graphic novel "Legends of Bara Magna".  (Side note, does anyone remember the effort the community made to get as many people as possible to preorder that comic because Greg said we might not get anymore if doesn't sell well?  Good times.) 
 
Both of their minor story appearances highlight their potential as horror villains especially the forest ambush in the comic.  Imagining a horror movie with them is pretty easy I mean they're killer robots they can hide in plain sights and can get you before you even know they're there.  Think of the jump scare potential!  And the last thing we learn about them (outside of Greg quotes) is they refused to shut down after the war ended, which also screams horror.  
Obviously the Baterra (or a Baterra-like robot/creature) would fit right into the slasher or monster genre.  Heck, a Baterra hunting people in a city would basically just be "The Terminator".  I'm bringing up that movie because the Baterra have another connection to that franchise. The second Terminator movie featured the T-1000 a robot made of liquid metal, which according to Greg is how the Baterra shapeshift.  

Like many pages for things relevant to Bionicle's last years, the Baterra page is littered with small tidbits from Greg made since Bionicle's end.  The liquid metal info being one, which is nice although something I don't like as much is the Baterra being the inspiration for the Bohrok and also them being the same height as the little rolling guys from 2002.  I know I wasn't the only one who imagined the Baterra as tall and slender to be disappointed to learn that.  

When the story ended the Baterra were on a collusion course with the newly united good guys.  I don't know if Greg would have used the Baterra if he had continued writing the serials, but in all honestly I can't see that going well.  Probably it would have been a minor conflict resolved in a couple of chapters so Greg could focus more on ideas he had more interest in.  The weapons of the Baterra, which slew hundreds of Skrall red shirts would be no match for our heroes' plot armor.  Sure, maybe a couple of minor characters like Trinuma or Vastus would die to build up the tension, but in the end Nuparu or some other tech guy would come up with a clever way to defeat the Baterra and finally put an end to a really cool footnote in the legend of the Bionicle.  

But, I still want see to that horror story.