Alyska

Bionicle has a rich and complex lore that can sometimes be a bit difficult to keep up with. Very few of us got to know every single detail of this sprawling mythology, and there are bound to be interesting little tidbits that went unnoticed by many fans. So, here's a topic for sharing your favourite bits of Bionicle trivia. Here's two of mine. 1. The Rahi known as the Mata Nui Cow was originally going to be called the "Mukau." This name was unfortunately rejected for being "too silly." 2. The sparkly translucent Kanohi Avokhii that came with the original Takanuva actually represents what the mask looks like when used. Takanuva canonically sparkles into battle like the pretty pretty princess he is. What juicy bits of useless information do you know about Bionicle?

Greg did a blog post that said that the red star story would shed some light on Jaller's revival, sooo... it's possible that Takutanuva was just accessing the teleport system in ways not normally utilized. In fact, is it necessarily teleportation? At least, the "going up" part? What if the system only sends the information of the deceased being's body up to the red star, and the actual corpse stays put? Like, MU beings have a black box equivalent that can transmit information so the original can be recreated. It would help to explain why nobody questioned the disappearing bodies...

The boxor thing is more complicated by the fact that the Matoran didn't technically die- they just became a non-living entity. The process was theoretically reversible using the Ignika, but it would only work if the Bohrok was whole. I think the Vahki headcanon may be slightly off as "Legacy of Evil" implies that the Vahki were created before Teridax took Dume's place, but there would still have to be testing of some sort going on.

The premise had an element of mystery to it- what are these robots doing on an island? Wait, are they even robots? Where did the Toa come from? How powerful is Makuta? And you sorta knew at the back of your mind that these things had been fleshed out and thought about beneath the surface, even though you weren't given all the answers right away (the recent Windham interview indicates that the answer to such questions nowadays is "lol idk we'll make something up to fill that gap later") Great characters- the Toa of course, but the Matoran, too. They were people you wanted to hang out with and get to know better in MNOG, and you became really invested in saving the island. The setting- both Mata and Metru Nui were really well fleshed out and believable environments in spite of their impossibility. It was a world you wanted to spend time in, and the lore and culture really helped "sell" this world. Transmedia storytelling- great use of multiple media to get kids engaged, Bionicle.com was groundbreaking for its time with the amount of free content and worldbuilding. Kinda lost it in the later years with old content being taken down and the new stuff being comparatively limited, but it certainly set off on the right foot. Makuta Teridax being everything you could want in a scary villain. And he borrows tropes from so many others before him, but he's very much a unique creation in his own right, and his presence is felt even when he doesn't act directly. He's not your average Saturday morning "Curses! You fools foiled me again! I shall have my revenge- next time!" cartoon villain. His goals are mysterious, though frequently hinted at, and his actions often come as a genuine shock to the reader, particularly the MU takeover. Intelligent storytelling, and not dumbed down for kids. The original treated its audience with respect, and was rewarded with an engaged fanbase. Kids like to be challenged a little. They don't always want it simple and easy. The devotion of Greg and everyone else on the story team. It's clear that they loved what they were creating, and it showed. If you don't love your own creations, it's not likely that anybody else will. When creators are having fun, the audience usually is too.

I wonder how much Takutanuva actually knew about what he was doing when he revived Jaller. Because if Teridax knew there was a way to bring dead beings back to life... I mean, not that he particularly would want to, but- it still seems like a whopping great big thing for him to know of and never use in any way, y'know?

Disney princess edition! Kopaka with Elsa (duh) - Kopelsa (" You can't marry someone you just met. Also, love isn't canon.") Takanuva with Rapunzel- Takanzel ("I have a magic mask that sparkles when I sing!") Lewa with Merida- Meriwa ("If you had the chance to quick-change your destiny... would ya?") And the new princess, Moana, kind of reminds me of Macku, so... Moacku! (She likes flowers and canoeing and having adventures with her giant beefy superpowered friend.)

Another awesome idea, dude! I would imagine them arguing and fighting each other without having a reason not to. Ah, but you have to remember that while Kopaka and Tahu would want to fight each other, Ruby and Sapphire definitely would not. So our possible options are 1) Cognitive dissonance causes instant destabilization of both fusions, 2) One of them punches the other, then starts crying and apologising profusely, 3) Kotagarnet, a very powerful but unstable fusion (any fusion involving Tahu and Kopaka won't stay together very long) 4) Confused and angry makeout session. *Gets kicked out of the fandom forever*

I also wanna fuse Tahu with Ruby, fuse Kopaka with Sapphire, then put TaRu and Kopapphire in the same room and watch what happens.

I mention these two in all of these topics but... Steven Universe and Takua. Stekua would be the cutest hyperactive dork of a fusion. Lapis/Hahli (Lazahli) would be an immensely powerful, four-winged water-woman who does not listen to red-and-orange military types who think they're in charge of her (The less said about Jaspler, the better.) Wait... what if the fusions started making fusions... oh my great spirit.... Akamai and Sugilite would be the worst thing ever...

I take it you didn't like The LEGO Movie, then? But I agree that that would be kind of a downer in this context. Then again, given the original idea of the Toa as personified medication or antibodies to treat Mata Nui's "illness," I wouldn't mind seeing an AU fic with an unwell human Mata Nui inventing these characters to help him understand his struggle and recovery. You could probably do some interesting stuff with that. Maybe an Inside Out-esque concept where he imagines hearing the characters talking things over in his head to help guide him though daily decisions.

Greg has been known to lie about big story secrets when he has to avoid dropping a major spoiler (or very carefully tell a very misleading non-lie in some cases) Given how he was forbidden to reveal any info about the GBs, I'd put my money on the story team at least considering the possibility of human GBs at some stage. Word of Greg is great for clarifying minor plot details, but his ability to reliably confirm or deny major plot elements through fan questions is basically zilch.

Also, Gali and Lapis Lazuli are totally gonna team up... ...after they've finished the most epic arm wrestling match in Gem and Toa history, that is.

AU where Makuta Teridax (disguised as Dume) got frustrated with Nuparu's constant hesitations and stalling when he was designing the Vahki (he'd have a crisis of morality every time one of his prototypes for the mind-control tech malfunctioned, leaving the test subjects... uh, let's not get into that). So Teridax decides to help the process along by removing that pesky obstacle: Nuparu's conscience. He drops a shadow leech on the engineer, and waits. It proves to be a fatal mistake for the unfortunate Makuta.Two months later, Teridax is dead, and Nuparu has taken over the universe himself. Don't mess with an engineer.

I think the last few points are possibly grasping at straws... blaming the death of other characters on the fact that female characters happened to be present is a bit of a stretch. In all those instances above, there were male characters present too. Every on-screen death in Bionicle has had a male character present. Heck, 99% of the time something bad happens in Bionicle, there's a male character present. Maybe the males are bad luck. ...Sounds silly, doesn't it? I generally agree with Lyichir's and Lalonde's reasoning above, in that the number of female characters being present on those teams is more to do with Greg wanting to write more women but not being able to do so for the set-based characters, and non-set characters are fairly expendable by nature. But I do think it's worth discussing how certain female characters are handled, particularly when their only purpose in the story is being dead for the sake of somebody else's characterisation. There's a trend in fiction known as "fridging" -killing off a female character to give a male character something to angst about, or possibly a motivation for revenge. Classic example: Gwen Stacy for Spider Man. Traditionally, this character is a love interest of some sort, but can also be a mother, daughter, sister, friend etc. Some of the posthumously-introduced female characters seem to have been created solely for this purpose. Sahmad's lover, for example, was otherwise so narratively insignificant she didn't even get given a name. Nikila was basically this for Lesovikk- she was the sort of character that almost certainly would have been made a Dead Love Interest had this not been Bionicle. She even had shades the typical bubbly "Manic pixie dream girl" personality (though I prefer to imagine her more like a female Pohatu). I like to think that we might have seen more of her in the Red Star storyline given that Lesovikk appeared in it, but that's a moot point by now. Granted, those aren't the only times a character has died to make somebody else angsty in Bionicle- Lhikan served this purpose for Vakama, but the difference is that Lhikan's narrative purpose was not just limited to dying, and we see quite a few glimpses of Lhikan's own past throughout the series, whereas the above two only existed as satellites for their now-grieving companions.

Well, the Stars sets basically confirmed that there is no real scale consistency between sets (as appealing as the idea of a tiny angry Tahu is). I assume Protectors are only slightly shorter than the average human, maybe averaging around 5'2", which is still consistent with some interpretations of dwarves. I used to think G1 Matoran might have been loosely based on certain fantasy races. Onu-Matoran were like dwarves, Ga-Matoran were Naiads (They even had one called Nixie), Le-Matoran were sort of like elves but also had things in common with leshies and lesoviks (heh), etc.

Funny and cool, but Tahu and Ruby are hotheads while Kopaka and Sapphire are calm people, so I wonder how they would get along because of your arrangements. I picture it going kinda like... "Ah. There you are. You are the one who is going to help me. Such is our fates." "I SAID LEAVE ME ALONE." *FWOOM* *Fireball narrowly misses Sapphire* "That was unnecessary." "Turaga! Why is there a creepy flying mutant Ko-Matoran following me around, and how do I make it go away?" Meanwhile... "Why are we going so slowly?! We could have been there by now! " "Listen, Tah- ...Listen, Ruby. We have no idea whether we are even moving in the right direction. You would rather have us travel ten miles down the wrong route than wait five minutes to take a single step towards the right one. " "Better than standing around thinking about stuff and doing nothing at all! What's THAT supposed to achieve?" "...I can't believe I'm arguing with a rock. Where's Pohatu when you need him?"

IIRC, taking up the Star Wars license was a huge dilemma for Lego, simply because it had the word "wars" in the title. Bionicle definitely shaped their choices and policies, but it wasn't the only factor in play.

Steven Universe and Takua. And just for the shenanigans... Sapphire with Tahu. Ruby with Kopaka.

What do you call a Toa of Light that likes Mexican food? Taconuva.

I will definitely complain if Pohatu doesn't sound Australian. I fully admit to that.

Oh man, if that guy plays Kopaka we are gonna get some amazing crossover crack dubs out of that.

Also consider what's actually involved in the production process. As far as I know, there's no handpainted items or hand-sewn fabric articles in any Lego sets- almost everything would be done by machines. You just need people to make sure the machines are working and stocked with the materials they need, and people to take care of transporting goods and materials. While this doesn't automatically mean the workers are being paid adequately, it does mean that their work conditions most likely wouldn't involve intensive labour, crammed, unhygienic environments and exposure to harmful substances like the sweatshops that produce toys for many other companies.

Steven and Takua is my top pick. I just picture Steven teaching Takua to play the ukelele and they just run around pestering everyone with cute songs about giant Toa. Kopaka and Sapphire would probably have an understanding, though the former would be completely baffled by the latter's attraction to Ruby. Ruby and Tahu would probably just end up arguing though. Amethyst and Matau strike me as having a similar sense of humour. She'd probably get along with G1 Pohatu as welll. Then again, Pohatu would probably instantly adore all of the tiny rock people. Pearl and Vhisola would have an understanding as well. They can bond over their inferiority complexes and their tragically unrequited love for powerful women twice their size. Lapis and Hahli, as I said before. Jasper's kind of like a dark version of Jaller (military leader, serious temperament, absolute dedication to their duty, prepared to make huge sacrifices in the name of their cause). I think they'd have a grudging respect for each other, but would definitely not be friends. Peridot would probably get along with Nuparu. They would build many wonderful inventions together, but would occasionally get carried away and need to be reminded that using dead people for parts and power sources is not okay. ...No, this is not something I think about on a regular basis, why do you ask?

Hmm... wonder if they're on BZP? Not really any of our business I suppose. But I need more people to have stupid discussions about SU-Bionicle similarities and crossovers with. Erm... the syntax is a bit... ambiguous there.... Care to elaborate? But seriously, Akamai and Sugilite would either be instant best buds or immediately start trying to murder each other...

Ko-Matoran use astrology and prophecies to predict the future. Kopaka has had the odd prophetic dream. Not as farfetched as you might think...