Voltaire Rousseau

It seems odd to me that people are paying $40 for a blog (or a subscription) when one can go to wordpress.com or blogspot.com and get a blog with more features for free. Perhaps this is an antiquated system in need of overhaul?

I find it interesting to note that the admin of this website is producing a Twitch stream for the apparent enjoyment of only one person? Perhaps there are others who are not so vocal in their enjoyment. In any event, I must pass on my congratulations to @Black Six. That’s some dedication, man. Also to @Chronicler06 for staying with him every week. Wow.

I am sure that it was indeed excellent and worthy of continuing. Perhaps the organic world of Spherus Magna would lend itself more to poetic genres.

While this proposition would be not entirely out of the question, I personally cannot begin composition of a Bionicle epic poem without evoking comedy. For example, the quintessential beginning... Gathered friends, listen again to our legend of the Bionicle... Jaller: AGAIN! We did G1 already and it lasted for ten long years, and then G2 happened, and now we are telling the legend of the Bionicle again! In the time before time... Nuju: Time cannot begin, because time defines beginning and ending! Chirp Chirp whistle SQUEAK! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- My apologies, for I have digressed. I am a much more skilled comics writer than poetry composer, as this brief example illustrates. To begin a Bionicle epic poem, one would need to find a new entry point than the traditional beginning. In addition, one would have to evade the proliferation of scientific fact and lore that pervaded the later years. Said lore provides more opportunities to render Vakama's speech absurd, which I will not bore you with here. Poetry is the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" from those who have "thought long and deeply", to quote William Wordsworth from the Preface to Lyrical Ballads. Bionicle has a cold, robotic core that feels slightly off in comparison to the Odyssey - the elemental robot part of it (and by extension, the toy part of it) limits the depth of emotion and meaning it can naturally convey without resorting to absurdity. My comparison to poetry was merely on the level of pop culture and marketing, as opposed to composition. Comics have been produced for Bionicle in the past, and they would be easy to compose again. Poetry would present more obstacles. These obstacles would not be prohibitive to a skilled writer, however. If anyone wishes to overtake the task, I wish them the very best of fortune in their endeavor.

An excellent beginning. However, I would encourage you to add color as this develops so that it is easier to see, unless this particular computer program does not allow it.

Comics are a relatively niche audience these days, and aside from the 2000s micro revival with Homestuck and xkcd (and anime/manga) are largely products of an antiquated and bygone era. They are more the purview of academia than pop culture at this point. A Bionicle comic line would have about at much success at this point as publishing the entire story as a series of epic poems.

Just because Google favors one website over another for one search term does not mean the sites are competing. My counterargument to this is that BZPower reports news that TTV does not report, and vice versa. Recently BZP just posted two articles about new Jurassic World sets and about a Lego Xbox sale. Meanwhile, TTV just posted a video about how Bionicle: Quest for Mata Nui is a StarCraft mod and you would need to download Starcraft II to play. It would seem that BZP is not looking to be famous for reporting Bionicle news, but rather for reporting general Lego news. The latter would seem to be a hopeless competition where search engine optimization is concerned - I just typed in the titles for the Jurassic World article and the Xbox article and Google pulled up a bunch of sites that have nothing to do with BZPower. BZP is more like "here is Bionicle fans' perspective on other Lego themes" instead of "let's advance the cause of Bionicle" like TTV is. I think BZP thinks that Bionicle isn't a big enough subject to talk about on its own - there's kind of an attitude there that TTV proves wrong. It's kinda like the site is doing what Lego wants, it's trying to answer "how do we get Bionicle fans to like other Lego themes, how do we convert them?" or something like that, whereas TTV is like "Bionicle, only Bionicle, always and forever." I mean, it's the choice of B6 what news he wants to report - it's his website, after all - but it's clear from all of the general Lego stuff he does that this site is very different from TTV. And then it's up to each fan to decide what they want.

After watching this amusing video on the BZPower YouTube channel, I began to muse upon the question about whether or not TTV website and BZPower are in fact in a state of competition. I would think that they are not, simply because BZPower is selling Premier membership - forum perks and blogging privileges - while The Three Virtues is selling a podcast. Therefore, they are selling different products to the same audience - it's like saying that pant manufacturers and shirt manufacturers are competing because they market to the same audience. Also, I would maintain that the two forums, in fact, cater to different audiences. BZPower's forum seems to mirror off the commerce of Premiership on which it is based, which makes it inspire intense loyalty from its community members, and importance on relationships between people. I see a long of topics here that talk about the feelings of the community on certain subjects. It also lends itself to long projects that take months or years of investment, like writing long epics or playing RPG. For the one truly invested in building relationships with other Bionicle fans, BZP is the place to be. But TTV isn't like that. Advertising revenue from the podcast requires a large number of people to make a very small commitment to watching the show (which only costs a few minutes) versus the amount of investment Premiership requires - you have to pay the money and stay around for months or years to use the blog. So the TTV website is more business-like, more about drumming up more content for the show than about inspiring loyalty. TTV caters to the casual fans, those who "remember Bionicle" occasionally and are like "dude, what's up with that now?". It's more future-oriented and ambitious, because the more the Bionicle cause is advanced, the more the TTV podcasts have to talk about. More content = more money. For the rest of us who just want to remember Bionicle and relax, TTV's forums are kinda like a cold wind blasting at 500 miles an hour. That's why I joined here - I wanted a friendlier atmosphere. So from my vantage point, it's like this graph: That's a formal analysis graph. BZP caters to a small group of highly invested fans, whereas TTV caters to the casual low-investment social media user. Also to people who want or need a large quantity of people, like games or Lego Ideas projects. But these two groups, while they may have some overlap, give the Bionicle community different services. The sites could even stand to learn from each other, possibly to understand how to be better at what they are and achieve their goals. However, it is possible that a counterargument could be proposed. Both websites have forums and YouTube channels, so it could be argued that if I'm spending time on one website I'm not spending time on the other (though I would maintain that the channels and forums have different content, so my appetite for Lego Twitch Gaming would never be sated by watching TTV, so different types of attention). It is also possible that you have information that I do not have access to or a different perspective on the matter. What do you think?

For your most recent drawing, I particularly enjoy the details that you have placed into the character's neck muscles. I also think that you have pulled off the female chest well. With due respect to your skill, I also think that the finger tips could use a little more work in the shading so that they match the finger sections closer to the hand. I wish you well in your artistic endeavors.

I may have been able to make out a word or two here or there, enough to establish that the green-text character had malicious intentions that the red-text character was not amused by. For the most part, however, I could not read it. You’re welcome. Character development can be challenging in comics due to the necessity of action to hold attention in the visual medium, but an essential part of retaining audience attention and engagement. I approve the thought and wish you well in continuing.

I suspect that this question can be better answered by considering the financial viability of the community contributors (that is, the Premier members who donate regularly) and the site administrators. As long as @Black Six can pay the site's bills, it will continue. A small number of loyal members who are willing to pay for BZP is more valuable than a large number of fickle followers. This is because of the site's Premier system which encourages either large donations or continued loyalty or both. Because of the site owners' forethought in creating such a stable financial system and attracting a group of loyal community members, BZPower will remain viable for years into the future. This is in contrast to the Three Virtues model which is based near-entirely on ad revenue and attracting large crowds via YouTube, and the MoD model which involves reducing site cost of operation down to the bare minimum. The only danger in this system would be the admins alienating this group of people providing donations, or the admins losing their employment and being unable to support the site due to financial hardship. The latter eventuality is essentially random, and is no more likely to occur than any other forum website in existence, and the former is unlikely due to the admins' reluctance to change anything for fear of said alienation. That is technically another disadvantage of this financial model, but unlikely to impact viability. Indeed, the admins' program of Premier membership will likely ensure that this site will remain viable long after it has become irrelevant.

Fine character work, reflecting the ordinary darknesses of young boys playing together. Unfortunately, I must put in a note that the green text with the orange shadow is very hard to read. Perhaps, by changing the text to a darker shade of green, this may be remedied.

Thank you, fine gentleman. A pleasure to make your acquaintance.

Eh, I was already doing remote work before all this hit, so I have not encountered too many difficulties. Mostly though, it has been the boredom that has proved to be annoying. I needed a diversion from staring at the news and cursing the *ahem* source of all this. Bats. Yes, those wretched bats. So I got back to drawing, which landed me here.

I am new to this website. Greetings to everyone. I hope to imbue this corner of the Internet with some fine Bionicle Artwork and storytelling. Bionicle is a fine source of inspiration to banish my great quantity of boredom that I unfortunately have access to.