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Journey to One Episodes 3 and 4 Discussion


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Well the second half of JtO is out now so we may as well have a dedicated topic for it.

 

 

Personally, I found them to not be too different from the first half, not terrible, but not particularly great. Largely mediocre, felt somewhat rushed. The last episode was sort of interesting, but that ending...well. It certainly gives credence to the idea that Bionicle is ending sooner than expected.

 

 

Anyway, discuss away.

 

(remember to try to use spoiler tags at least for a little while)

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I liked them, although I can't say they were great. But it was nice to see

Gali have a more prominent role on the story

.

 

I honestly didn't see the ending coming, and it seems to imply

that the story is over. Unless they jump to another crisis and bring back the Toa

 

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I liked the reference to the Toa of Light and the "spirit stars", and I believe I did see a villager-sized being walking behind Makuta in that one scene.  The small nods really made it more endearing.

 

And then there's "the Shadow Realm".  "Zone of Darkness" would've made more sense, but this way we get a hilarious Yu-Gi-Oh! reference so I'd say it's a win-win.

 

When Gali was making her way into the temple inside the Shadow Realm, wasn't there a carving similar to the one at the end of the 2015 animations?  A set of empty blocks with images pointing to them?  Does anyone have a clear image of that?

 

 

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Oh boy oh boy I expected nothing and I'm still disappointed.

 

 

How can something be both rushed and really slow-moving at the same time? I don't know, but they certainly did it somehow, and it was intensely irritating. The voice acting and animation is still mediocre at best, the story is barely there, and just about every question the fans had is either not answered or answered incredibly vaguely. I did like a couple of the shout-outs, but this whole series of episodes honestly just annoyed me.

"Whether that is right or not...I also...as a Rider...have a wish that I want to fulfill."

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So... yeah. I didn't particularly like it. But I do admire how cohesive it was for a really rushed ending.

 

Episode 3 was nothing to write home about. I really wish they had written the story to build up the endgame better. It had some pretty cool action scenes against the Beasts but the overall pacing was hampered by instances of absent or repeated animations and terrible dialogue all around. No real explanation for Ekimu's new form either.

 

 

The introduction to the broken Mask of Ultimate MacGuffin's felt rushed and had little to no real weight to the story. The way it is treated makes it lack a lot of the tension that it should have set up earlier. I really liked Ekimu's bird Agil but the explanation of it being a creature of light and being able to show others memories felt way too convenient. This was probably a theme they planned to explore fully in year three, so its a real shame it was dropped on us abruptly like this. Maybe I'm just salty that I'll never be able to get the set officially in Canada. The Toa of Light reference was much appreciated.

 

 

Episode 4 is the meat of this season, and I have to say that I liked a lot of the ideas present but the execution was (as expected) lackluster. First off, I really like how Lewa, Pohatu and Onua (to an extent) got some character moments in previous episodes, and Gali really shone in this episode as well. With the focus on Tahu and a bit more on Kopaka in 2015, it feels only fair to share the spotlight. Plus, some of the action scenes were really good. Pohatu's mega rock form was super cool and I appreciated the animation in the all Toa vs Umarak fight. Plus, the dialogue was a bit better with some excellent witty remarks from Lewa.

 

But that's probably all I have to say that's good.

 

 

Again, convenient writing strikes back with the "shadow realm" (Yu-Gi-Oh!) portal inhibiting elemental powers due to the lack of light nonsense. When was that ever established? When did they ever state that light was the combined forces of the elements and shadow was the absence of it? I know I am getting nitpicky here and I understand that a lot of these reveals were dropped nonchalantly because of the discontinuation of the theme. But couldn't they have foreshadowed (no pun intended) that in, I don't know, the previous episode at least? Instead of wasting the whole time fighting the Elemental Beasts?

 

The whole final battle was just bad. Ekimu gives Umarak all the power he needs, but oh its okay because he knows it was supposed to happen. Why can't Ekimu just say the prophecy? It feels like a lot of the problems the Toa faced in 2016 could have been alleviated if he had just told them beforehand. His words were pretty much "just because its prophesied doesn't mean it HAS to happen" but if he just keeps secrets to himself and lets prophecy run its course, its obvious nothing is going to change. Illogical decision from a poorly written mentor character. That being said, not all of Ekimu's scenes were bad. I think that flashback sequence of Makuta and Ekimu in the great city was extremely well done. I know we've seen it twice before but I think this was hands-down the best depiction of it.

 

I thought it was interesting how Gali's soul was trapped in the shadow realm and the corrupted great city was so cool to see. And I love Makuta's design and mannerisms. Its a shame he never emerged as the final villain he was supposed to be. I think Gali's revelation that the Toa aren't just connected to the elements but are actually the elements themselves is really cool thematically and adds some drama to the final solution, but its so abrupt and so underplayed that any kind of emotional tone that could have spawned from this instantly vanishes. I think its a great plot point that should have weight, but its done so matter-of-factly here. They butchered the idea of destiny. Ekimu even says they can choose their own destiny but they end up going by the prophecy anyway so its all pointless. Gali didn't learn destiny, she just got it handed to her on a silver plate. Unity, Duty, and Destiny are still a theme but Destiny isn't explored well enough. Again, I understand why and its a bummer that everything turned out the way it did.

 

The Toa becoming spirit stars was a great reference and so was the elder telling the villagers about the "Legend of Bionicle". Fantastic call-back. Though I don't get why the narrator changed from Narmoto to Izotor in this last episode. Wouldn't it have been a better full circle ending if it incorporated the same characters seen in the intro?

 

It's funny. I actually had a bad dream not too long ago in which the 2016 story ended with the Toa sacrificing themselves to stop Makuta, and that's exactly what happened. Maybe it wasn't a nightmare but a premonition of all the disappointment that came out of today.

 

 

I didn't hate the series. Heck, I enjoyed it. These episodes weren't good but I'm really grateful that it at least concluded. I'd like to get this series on DVD someday, if it ever happens. I mean, how else are we ever going to watch this again if Netflix stops streaming it?

 

-NotS

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Still had a lot of pacing issues- lots of time spent standing around being given exposition by Ekimu, when there were much more dynamic ways to get that across, and there was an overall lack of buildup and suspense for the dramatic moments. The final episode picked it up a lot plot wise compared to previous ones, but it still had a few of those issues. 

 

We barely saw anything of the Toa's relationships with each other developing. There's that very vague message about working together, but we don't get the sense that they've really formed a deep friendship or know each other particularly well. Nobody got particularly worked up over Gali's apparent death, for example, (Contrast to back in G1 when Gali was wracked with grief that she might lose Tahu to the poison, or how Kopaka got so distressed when he thought Pohatu died that he completely forgot he could use the Akaku to check on him). The character writing was at its strongest during those few decent bits of banter that made it feel like the old Bionicle ( Onua's "We still love you," Pohatu's "I wasn't mad enough", etc). If we'd had a longer series with more focus on those things, their final sacrifice would have been a lot more emotional, especially in light of the fact that they would probably lose their memories and their bonds all over again if they ever did come back.

 

I was actually thinking during the week that a Steven Universe-style 11-minute episode format might have suited Bionicle quite well, since  we'd get more opportunities to have stories focusing on one or two main characters at a time. Six main characters is a little too much to focus on at a time, and someone inevitably gets the short end of the stick (Kopaka and Onua suffered the most, I think.)

 

It was a decent ending given the constraints, and has a nice symbolic quality in light of possible future reboots, but I just feel like so much more could have been done with these ideas.

 

Ah, well. Better luck next time. Hey, in five years' time it'll be the 20th anniversary of Bionicle. They'd be silly not to give it another go then.

 

 

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I died inside at the "so you are the Toa of light" scene. It felt like a blatant "screw you" to long-time fans. The rest of the episodes didn't fare to well. The action was boring and awkward, the writing wasn't very good, the voice acting seems to have gotten worse, and the pacing is slow as Karzahni; not to mention how some things either didn't make sense or just weren't explained, like how Ekimu suddenly became Dr. Manhattan and the apparent presence of other elements on the island (at the very least, light). Why wasn't there a Toa of light if the other elements got a Toa? Are there really only 6 (well, 7) elements?

 

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Umarak's voice actor was horrendous, some of the Toa's lines were very cringe worthy, but there was a couple pretty cool moment's Pohatu's brief curb-stomp-battle and his "I wasn't mad enough" line was the best part of the whole Netflix series. And finally seeing what the Mask of ultimate power looked liked was nice.

 

The entire Netflix show for me can be summed up In one word:

 

Meh.

 

I didn't enjoy it, but neither did I hate it. 

 

 

 

Toa Han

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Sad just sad. I was hoping for something that would exceed the first two yet it they were both worse than the first half. Pohatu is still the best character.

 

I also found that there was to many new unanswered/unexplained stuff.

 

Overall. Disappointing.

 

Onvermel

"I believe in certainties. The strength of my limbs, the power of my mask, the sharp edges of my blades — that is what I build my plans around. Trickery, deception, complex strategies, they are for the weak! If you want power, and another has it, you get it not by outwitting him — you get it by stepping over his corpse." Makuta Icarax

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