Real quick, my reactions to the news about Bionicle:

1) I think this is probably a good time to end Bionicle. It didn't surprise me, and the rumors were flying long enough that I'm not disappointed. We will have had ten years of awesome sets and story. The sets have gotten so advanced there was little to no room left for improvement. The story has reached -- or is reaching -- the possibility for the perfect climactic ending.

2) I might be a bit selfish in my reaction to this, though. I've spent about half of my time in those ten years doing stuff related to Bionicle, and I always planned to move on to some degree eventually. Don't misunderstand, I'm not quitting or anything, at least not yet (), but I will welcome what will probably be a lesser workload. (Although I expect it will take quite a while till that workload actually lessens lol.)

3) However, the story is not ending? I never expected that, and not sure what to make of it. How will it be financially supported, how much story will it be, etc. are questions that come to mind. I'm not getting my hopes up at all in terms of what to expect for that, but the basic idea is awesome and very good news.

4) Paracosmos news: This is perfect for the Paracosmos, because I had been planning to end Paracosmos story sometime around 2009 storyline anyways. Now I'll simply move the Paracosmos storyline end to coincide with the Bionicle story end. (Plotwise; I expect to continue writing Paracosmos epics for years in real time.)

5) The Legend Reborn. Finally got to watch it yesterday. Loved it. And DUDE. Mata Nui is Worf, and Raanu is Quark! Never saw that coming... Now everytime I look at the spikes on the Ignika's forehead I'll see a Klingon.

I expected the cheesy voice acting due to ample warning by BZPers, so I didn't mind it much. Frankly, only a few voices were cheesy. Michael Dorn did pretty much a perfect job as Mata Nui's voice. And Kiina wasn't anywhere near as annoying as people claimed. Berix was the real annoying one, heh.

Snaky is awesome. (I'm not giving spoilers here, late though I be. ) All the settings were glorious. The storyline was great too, as was expected.

And it sets up for a really awesome other movie. I have no idea if a final movie is planned, but I hope so. It would make for the perfect climax times two -- wonderful plot on a grand scale, plus in movie format. And if it's marketed as the climax, I'd think it would sell well. Here's hoping.

6) Expanded Multiverse. Some people are wondering/speculating on what effect the end of Bionicle (setwise at least) will have on the Multiverse. For the most part it's probably true that it won't be affected, since it's 1) not canon, and 2) in a separate universe.

I honestly don't know what effect it will have, and Swert and I haven't had time to discuss it yet. It may decline to some degree if BZP's member base becomes less active eventually. We'll just have to play it by ear.

The length of the Cipher Chronicles might be shortened from our original plans, although truth be told we were already considering doing that anyways before we knew of this, just for plot reasons. The Multiverse itself is planned to continue (assuming Team Cipher saves it from the Olmak Effect ) regardless, but the Cipher Chronicles WILL have an ending at some point.

As far as contests, no promises, but right now I'm thinking there should continue to be EM contests for as long as there is an active fanbase on BZPower.

Regardless, I'd say we timed the start of the Cipher Chronicles and the main EM contests really well despite not knowing this was coming.