LeKon551

It could be possible that you're misremembering things, and that you could have gone on BZP as a guest. No, I forgot about BZPower after Lego never made Mahri Nui Online Game or Karda Nui Online Game. I'm definitely not misremembering this, Bionicle's one of the most vivid memories I have of my earlier childhood. I came the first time looking for help on VNOG, but went to another forum website instead because it had more help. That was 2006, I only returned recently, and that's because of nostalgia that the franchise ended. EDIT: And I also remember the then-frustrating hassle of making/setting up an account for this website. I was really eager about VNOG because the Inika were my favourite Toa group, I can remember everything distinctly.

Could someone tell me why my join date says 2008? I'm fairly certain that's the year of the Toa Mistika/Phantoka, not the Inika. Was there an error in copying the user database from the old website or something along those lines (because I definitely didn't use BZPower in 2007-13)?

My apologies, I was wondering if/when I would be called out on that.

I always imagine "retro" as 1980s style with funky rainbow colours and disco afros ​ and whatnot. I just imagined combining that with Bionicle. :lol:

(Please remember that all of the below in this post is just my honest opinion.) That reminds me of the exact reason I disliked the old theme. It looked like it tried too hard to impress, and still failed (I think the term is wannabe?). It had too much text everywhere and too much of it underlined. The colours were varying shades of blue which also contributed to this. On the other hand, this new layout is much simpler and hence much more effective. I find the current theme much more appealing, as it goes for a simpler look (but not too simple) that made this look like a website that is very organised. It retains the good parts of the old website and as far as I can see so far, none of the bad elements. Also, the background is grey? I thought it was another shade of blue (and that's another point to the new BZP, they used it more effectively). But this "white-on-gray" is good because it means the background isn't white altogether, which would make the site seem more bland. If you look at other decent website fora, they do the same thing, having the discussion and its posts one colour, over a background of a different colour, which looks professional This is definitely easier on the eyes (mine, at least). Overall, I find the new look to be more "inviting and graphically pleasing", but that's just my opinion.

Wow, a lot of you guys miss the old theme? Is it because that was the theme to grow on you originally when using this site? Maybe my memories of the old site aren't very accurate.

It's noted that all of the Toa Nuva lost their elemental powers, not just Lewa. Also Lewa wandered out of the fortress that Velika was going to blow up, so he's probably safe from that. (Although him not getting the language upgrade and getting stuck in a village of primitives is another way of the story slapping him, if you want to view it that way.) Greg not liking treespeak is a known fact, and may or may not have played into his treatment of Le-characters. For example, Greg wanted Matau to betray the group instead of Vakama. Kongu got the Suletu instead of the Mask of Flight (you can argue that it actually helped him in the end, but whatever.) Lewa was in the story the longest, so he could have gotten the shorter end of the stick. In Bionicle in general, though, that case could be made for almost any character (except for Teridax). Tahu and Gali got defeated by three Rahkshi. Tahu had to rely on Lewa for help in the jungle (that was Tales of the Masks, a Greg-written-book, BTW). And Matau was the one to save Vakama (although that was a movie thing, not Greg.) Onua and Pohatu got flattened by the Rahkshi, Onua ran from a Makuta, scared out of his wits... I just wanted to reply to the example I highlighted in your post above. I honestly wouldn't say that was due to Matau being a Le-Toa, but more so due to character development. Greg has said multiple times in the past that Matau would have been a far better choice to defect to the bad side, as he was a far more vain hero, and was quite frustrated with becoming a Hordika. He even showed greater weakness to becoming a Rahi, as duly noted with his making of a nest. Vakama was all about being a Toa, and was rarely ever confident... His character change in 2005 made absolutely no sense, which is why Greg would have preferred Matau. And honestly, I agree with him. Eww. No way should Matau have become the villian. It was vital for both characters development that Vakama was the antagonist and Mataus was the protagonist in WoS. I also think Vakama was way more susceptible because he was so insecure. So Im glad Matau became the hero in the end. The main stretch Greg had to make was having Vakama become so arrogant when they first arrived back after LoMN. I could tell that it was extremely forced. However, at the same time, I understand that if had to be Vakama because the point was that the Toa Hordika wouldn't be able to function without their leader. I think that Greg handled it as best he could. Vakama's arc after their mutation made sense to me. I didn't see Vakama become arrogant in the 2005 storyline. If anything, he became rather self-loathing, blaming himself for Lhikan's death and considering himself unworthy of being a hero. This led him to desert his team. And after he was convinced that he didn't belong with his fellow heroes, he was left very vulnerable to the suggestion that his true place was with the Visorak horde. I think Greg handled things very elegantly. Of course, if the story team had gone with his plan and made Matau betray the rest, I'm sure he could have written it just as well — but I feel that it would not have been quite so impressive a feat as a writer to make a somewhat self-centered and volatile character even more self-centered and volatile. Vakama had to be utterly broken before he could be convinced to switch sides. He had to be convinced that his duty to Metru Nui was a lost cause, and that his destiny as a hero was a convenient lie, and that his unity with his teammates had been built on that lie. In regards to the books and comics, you're right. I was thinking of the film, where he comes off as quite cocky in his first scenes. You know I have been thinking about this a lot recently since my last post. I think the only Toa who could have turned WAS Vakama. I think there was a lot of reading between the lines in the Metru Nui are, esspecially WoS era. Vakama did act cockey yes. But its a very common thing for mor insecure people to act sometimes overly confident to mask their true feeling. Yes, they had defeated Makuta but I still dont think Vakama felt he was ready. I still strongly bveleive that Vakama would have turned eventually even without the Visorak venom. That was only a trigger. I think becuase if his feeling of inadequacy he felt inferior and almost craved to be stronger and better so he acted out in anger and betrayed his brothers(who I think his anger towards them was a reflection of his self hatred). I also think that when he accepted Roodakas offer of Ta-Metru, it wasn't out of a power lust. I think his old Toa self still believed he could make a better place and he still cared about the Matoran greatly(remember, it was the thing that brought him round). As for Matau, I always saw him as a mirror character to Vakama. I think both were as insecure as the other both for similar and entirely different reasons. They got on each others nerves and it seemed like they hated each others guts, but I think they had the strongest bond out of all the Toa. They were best friends, with out a doubt. Not in the same way that Vakama and Nokama were best friends(supportive and caring), but they both learned from each others mistakes and success. I honestly think that if Vakama would haveturned for good, it would have been Matau who would have taken charge of the Metru. He seemed to develop a lot as a Hordika and matured a great deal. I really wish they would have played more upon Matau accepting his responsibility in the movie, although I think one of his last lines where he basically said he would kill Vakama if he needed to, showed this too(yet I think also a darker side to Matau, similar to Vakama). He was willing to kill his best friend to save the Matoran which was his duty. Sorry if it seems like a tangent, but its always how I interpreted the characters. Actually, I watched WoS again yesterday (for nostalgia reasons), and none of the Hordika ever mentioned the thought of killing Vakama. And in my opinion, Matau didn't suddenly mature so much that he would have been good enough to be their next leader. When they met Keetongu, he was quite extremely irritated to find that "We came all this way, just to find out WE DIDN'T HAVE TO COME ALL THIS WAY?!" As a Toa of Air, he's naturally playful and boisterous, although he is vain, which I think is uncommon, if not rare, as well as the fact that he flirts with Nokama at least once in LoMN. I think that Air Toa are generally too childlike to be leaders as they don't seem very serious at the best (or sometimes even the worst) of times, and Matau was peeved only because he was part beast (which ruined his good looks) in WoS. It would still have been a struggle to make him the traitor, because as we all know, the Toa of Air never act maliciously of their own free will. When one of the Toa says something along the lines of "What if Vakama doesn't turn back?" Matau replies "leave that to me". I cant see many other ways of looking at that IMO. And the speech in the last fight was Matau maturing a great deal. If he had dealt with Vakama, I think it would have changed him tremendously. By the end of WoS he would have been ready to lead. All boys can be boisterous, playful and vain at times, and as we grow into men, we keep these traits(some more than others) yet we evolve by our surroundings and responsibilities. Thats what happened to Matau, I just dont think the flim portrayed it quite so well. Which is why I think the Metru Nui era should have been a trilogy, with Vakamas fall at the end of the second film and Matau maturing through all three. When Matau said "leave that to me", I saw it the same way anyone thinking with the mentality of the Three Virtues would see it: that Matau would convince Vakama to turn back or die trying. Heck, he even fell from a tall structure to force Vakama to save him!

Won't last long XD How come?

It's noted that all of the Toa Nuva lost their elemental powers, not just Lewa. Also Lewa wandered out of the fortress that Velika was going to blow up, so he's probably safe from that. (Although him not getting the language upgrade and getting stuck in a village of primitives is another way of the story slapping him, if you want to view it that way.) Greg not liking treespeak is a known fact, and may or may not have played into his treatment of Le-characters. For example, Greg wanted Matau to betray the group instead of Vakama. Kongu got the Suletu instead of the Mask of Flight (you can argue that it actually helped him in the end, but whatever.) Lewa was in the story the longest, so he could have gotten the shorter end of the stick. In Bionicle in general, though, that case could be made for almost any character (except for Teridax). Tahu and Gali got defeated by three Rahkshi. Tahu had to rely on Lewa for help in the jungle (that was Tales of the Masks, a Greg-written-book, BTW). And Matau was the one to save Vakama (although that was a movie thing, not Greg.) Onua and Pohatu got flattened by the Rahkshi, Onua ran from a Makuta, scared out of his wits... I just wanted to reply to the example I highlighted in your post above. I honestly wouldn't say that was due to Matau being a Le-Toa, but more so due to character development. Greg has said multiple times in the past that Matau would have been a far better choice to defect to the bad side, as he was a far more vain hero, and was quite frustrated with becoming a Hordika. He even showed greater weakness to becoming a Rahi, as duly noted with his making of a nest. Vakama was all about being a Toa, and was rarely ever confident... His character change in 2005 made absolutely no sense, which is why Greg would have preferred Matau. And honestly, I agree with him. Eww. No way should Matau have become the villian. It was vital for both characters development that Vakama was the antagonist and Mataus was the protagonist in WoS. I also think Vakama was way more susceptible because he was so insecure. So Im glad Matau became the hero in the end. The main stretch Greg had to make was having Vakama become so arrogant when they first arrived back after LoMN. I could tell that it was extremely forced. However, at the same time, I understand that if had to be Vakama because the point was that the Toa Hordika wouldn't be able to function without their leader. I think that Greg handled it as best he could. Vakama's arc after their mutation made sense to me. I didn't see Vakama become arrogant in the 2005 storyline. If anything, he became rather self-loathing, blaming himself for Lhikan's death and considering himself unworthy of being a hero. This led him to desert his team. And after he was convinced that he didn't belong with his fellow heroes, he was left very vulnerable to the suggestion that his true place was with the Visorak horde. I think Greg handled things very elegantly. Of course, if the story team had gone with his plan and made Matau betray the rest, I'm sure he could have written it just as well — but I feel that it would not have been quite so impressive a feat as a writer to make a somewhat self-centered and volatile character even more self-centered and volatile. Vakama had to be utterly broken before he could be convinced to switch sides. He had to be convinced that his duty to Metru Nui was a lost cause, and that his destiny as a hero was a convenient lie, and that his unity with his teammates had been built on that lie. In regards to the books and comics, you're right. I was thinking of the film, where he comes off as quite cocky in his first scenes. You know I have been thinking about this a lot recently since my last post. I think the only Toa who could have turned WAS Vakama. I think there was a lot of reading between the lines in the Metru Nui are, esspecially WoS era. Vakama did act cockey yes. But its a very common thing for mor insecure people to act sometimes overly confident to mask their true feeling. Yes, they had defeated Makuta but I still dont think Vakama felt he was ready. I still strongly bveleive that Vakama would have turned eventually even without the Visorak venom. That was only a trigger. I think becuase if his feeling of inadequacy he felt inferior and almost craved to be stronger and better so he acted out in anger and betrayed his brothers(who I think his anger towards them was a reflection of his self hatred). I also think that when he accepted Roodakas offer of Ta-Metru, it wasn't out of a power lust. I think his old Toa self still believed he could make a better place and he still cared about the Matoran greatly(remember, it was the thing that brought him round). As for Matau, I always saw him as a mirror character to Vakama. I think both were as insecure as the other both for similar and entirely different reasons. They got on each others nerves and it seemed like they hated each others guts, but I think they had the strongest bond out of all the Toa. They were best friends, with out a doubt. Not in the same way that Vakama and Nokama were best friends(supportive and caring), but they both learned from each others mistakes and success. I honestly think that if Vakama would haveturned for good, it would have been Matau who would have taken charge of the Metru. He seemed to develop a lot as a Hordika and matured a great deal. I really wish they would have played more upon Matau accepting his responsibility in the movie, although I think one of his last lines where he basically said he would kill Vakama if he needed to, showed this too(yet I think also a darker side to Matau, similar to Vakama). He was willing to kill his best friend to save the Matoran which was his duty. Sorry if it seems like a tangent, but its always how I interpreted the characters. Actually, I watched WoS again yesterday (for nostalgia reasons), and none of the Hordika ever mentioned the thought of killing Vakama. And in my opinion, Matau didn't suddenly mature so much that he would have been good enough to be their next leader. When they met Keetongu, he was quite extremely irritated to find that "We came all this way, just to find out WE DIDN'T HAVE TO COME ALL THIS WAY?!" As a Toa of Air, he's naturally playful and boisterous, although he is vain, which I think is uncommon, if not rare, as well as the fact that he flirts with Nokama at least once in LoMN. I think that Air Toa are generally too childlike to be leaders as they don't seem very serious at the best (or sometimes even the worst) of times, and Matau was peeved only because he was part beast (which ruined his good looks) in WoS. It would still have been a struggle to make him the traitor, because as we all know, the Toa of Air never act maliciously of their own free will.

In 2006, I made an account at the age of 8 for help with the Voya Nui Online Game, but then just dismissed BZPower as another fan site, because it didn't look as professional as it does now. Recently, my interest in Bionicle regrew, and I found that this site's changed a lot. It looks much more professional! The forum discussions seem more serious/important/influential than they used to. I guess that's what happens when Bionicle is reduced to its fanbase. You guys are a beacon in this slowly-darkening fandom. I can say nothing more than the fact that I'm glad to be back, guys! :D