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Early & Unused Story Concepts in Bionicle--Version 2


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A little while back, I released a document that went over story ideas for the first three years of Bionicle that were dropped, retconned or went unused as the theme developed, particularly those of story bible writer Alastair Swinnerton. I greatly appreciate all the feedback and comments that were made after the first release (including that BZP news feature!), which have inspired me to work with @Peri and @Mister N to uncover even more info and develop some theories about the plot elements and concepts discussed in the original doc. I've also expanded and rewritten existing sections for clarity and completeness. So without further ado, here is Version 2 of Original Bionicle Ideas:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NvpUPA8aOulNvSMq4kpX82bDbugJ2mbOL6cVfMXPNoc/edit?usp=sharing

The original iteration of the document is still up for posterity's sake. I don't anticipate doing another update of this magnitude, so all future revisions and updates will be made to Version 2.

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>he took me to his village of water

Wait...Maku was originally a guy? So that means elemental genderlocking wasn't always a thing. I wonder when and why this was introduced?

Rule #1: Always listen to Kek.

Rule #2: If you break rule #1, kindly don't.

Rule #3: EVERYBODY TYPE IN THE CHAT "AVAK IS A STUPID TRIGGER"

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So, Mata Nui and Makuta weren't about good vs. evil, and the Turaga of Mata Nui would've fused into their Turaga Nui? The first part, I kind of understand because Makuta did trick the Toa to awaken Mata Nui, so he can claim Mata Nui's gigantic body. The second part, well, the Turaga should've been that. 

Maku being a male? It's like G2 where people aren't robots with the gender-locking idea. It would have been interesting.

Edited by Lenny7092

I like Lego, Bionicle, and Hero Factory!:)

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22 minutes ago, Sir Keksalot said:

>he took me to his village of water

Wait...Maku was originally a guy? So that means elemental genderlocking wasn't always a thing. I wonder when and why this was introduced?

IIRC, originally all characters in Bionicle were supposed to be male, but at the last second someone complained and so they switched the genders of all the Ga characters in an attempt to fix the gender ratio. 

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8 minutes ago, JAG18 said:

IIRC, originally all characters in Bionicle were supposed to be male, but at the last second someone complained and so they switched the genders of all the Ga characters in an attempt to fix the gender ratio. 

Yeah, "fix." Now I gotta wonder WHY they were going to make every character except Gali a dude.

Rule #1: Always listen to Kek.

Rule #2: If you break rule #1, kindly don't.

Rule #3: EVERYBODY TYPE IN THE CHAT "AVAK IS A STUPID TRIGGER"

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11 hours ago, Sir Keksalot said:

Now I gotta wonder WHY they were going to make every character except Gali a dude.

Because male is seen as the default when it comes to robots (e.g. The (original) Terminator, R2-D2 & C3P0, etc) and this attitude hadn't changed writ large by the early 2000s. 

Edited by Mukaukau Nuva
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1 hour ago, Mukaukau Nuva said:

Because male is seen as the default when it comes to robots (e.g. The (original) Terminator, R2-D2 & C3P0, etc) and this attitude hadn't changed writ large by the early 2000s. 

So then we have the question of why the frickafrak Gali broke this rule. What made her so special?

Rule #1: Always listen to Kek.

Rule #2: If you break rule #1, kindly don't.

Rule #3: EVERYBODY TYPE IN THE CHAT "AVAK IS A STUPID TRIGGER"

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6 hours ago, Sir Keksalot said:

So then we have the question of why the frickafrak Gali broke this rule. What made her so special?

Well, she is one of main characters, so she, like the Toa Mata, are more relatable and different than the Matoran. Many Matoran have a lot of similarities. It’s sort of like SpongeBob SquarePants for how minor characters look kind of alike while the main characters are more relatable and different. I believe that’s a short way of telling a story if you ask me.

I like Lego, Bionicle, and Hero Factory!:)

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9 hours ago, Sir Keksalot said:

So then we have the question of why the frickafrak Gali broke this rule. What made her so special?

Well, it's a question of tropes. Either the writer follows the trope (most likely because they haven't an awareness that it even exists) or they don't (either because they're deliberately trying to avoid the trope or happen to stumble outside of it). 

If someone on the team became aware there was a certain... gender... missing, then trying to make the story more inclusive (albeit in a small way) makes sense. Personally, I like to think they decided to make the blue toys female as an even greater subversion of the trope; by 2001 blue was the quintessential colour for boy's toys. 

Bionicle fumbles handling gender a lot, but I'll stand with it here. 

 

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15 hours ago, Night Terror said:

That was an interesting read, thanks for sharing all this hard work! :)

Thanks for taking the time to read it! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

2 hours ago, SPIRIT said:

Fascinating read.  20 years later and I'm still learning stuff.  People inside the Mata Nui robot?  Kaita switching names?  The reason they stopped calling it "biodermis"?  Just wild.

I've been aggressively on the lookout for more early Bionicle facts for the past two years (wow, it's really been awhile) and I still constantly find new stuff. Already I have 10 more things to add to a later document update. It never stops! 

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That was a fantastic read! You've done an excellent job compiling all of this. Side-note: was a bit of a surprise to see a link to one of my Google Drive folders in there! I guess my scans of the Bohrok TCG booklet are still the only ones out there.

One little thing you might want to add:

Quote

Alastair had no involvement in the development of the Metru Nui backstory. As such, the plot point of the Turaga being former Toa themselves was, most likely, a later addition by Bob Thompson.

Greg recently stated that the fact that existing non-Toa characters used to be a Toa team was actually decided before deciding who they were (apparently they were considering having the Toa Metru have been some of the 01-03 Matoran before settling on it having been the Turaga). Just thought that might be worth adding here.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 1/9/2020 at 8:39 AM, TuragaNuva said:

One little thing you might want to add:

It is on my list!

We also have a new juicy bit of info regarding MNOG, courtesy of JuniorMasterModelBuilder. It turns out the dialogue from the earliest version of the game was preserved on Wayback Machine:

Quote

I am Jala, Captain of the Guard, son of Lhii the Surfer, and I stand to Vakama's right when we have the Great Haka dance. It's my job to protect the city against the Rahi. I knew they were getting stronger, but no one in the city believed me... until the beasts overran the Tren Krom redoubt.

For obvious reasons this is quite a significant find. I'll have to dive into the implications of this in a later update.

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13 hours ago, The Shadow Imperator said:

It is on my list!

We also have a new juicy bit of info regarding MNOG, courtesy of JuniorMasterModelBuilder. It turns out the dialogue from the earliest version of the game was preserved on Wayback Machine:

For obvious reasons this is quite a significant find. I'll have to dive into the implications of this in a later update.

>son of Lhii the surfer
>son
Image result for sir pentious son

This implies that not only would love have been canon, but so would reproduction--Matoran could have families. Even if they just built each other manually like in the current canon, parental relationships (and, presumably, spousal ones) were still a thing.

Also, given that the name "Tren Krom" was in the lore even before Bionicle as we know it started in earnest, I have to wonder what it was originally meant to signify. Was it always going to be used for a character, or did that only materialize when Greg realized he was a fish man and decided to pay homage to the Great Old One?

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Rule #1: Always listen to Kek.

Rule #2: If you break rule #1, kindly don't.

Rule #3: EVERYBODY TYPE IN THE CHAT "AVAK IS A STUPID TRIGGER"

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  • 1 year later...
On 1/27/2020 at 10:34 AM, Sir Keksalot said:

>son of Lhii the surfer
>son
Image result for sir pentious son

This implies that not only would love have been canon, but so would reproduction--Matoran could have families. Even if they just built each other manually like in the current canon, parental relationships (and, presumably, spousal ones) were still a thing.

Also, given that the name "Tren Krom" was in the lore even before Bionicle as we know it started in earnest, I have to wonder what it was originally meant to signify. Was it always going to be used for a character, or did that only materialize when Greg realized he was a fish man and decided to pay homage to the Great Old One?

Even if there weren't families, and if some tohunga were built, being brought into the world, there's plenty to imply in MNOG that some tohunga are newer to the world than others. It's even referenced several times that Jala's guardsmen were killed in battle.

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On 4/28/2021 at 10:03 PM, Biosonic100 said:

It's even referenced several times that Jala's guardsmen were killed in battle.

That bothers me to this day: Teridax went out of his way to avoid killing Matoran for a couple different reasons (he knew he needed them for the robot to survive, plus a smart ruler knows that the less people there are to rule over inherently makes you less of a ruler). The infected Rahi, while dangerous and bestial, weren’t free-willed pawns he just happened to be manipulating; they were under his direct mental control via their masks.

Edited by Cheesy Mac n Cheese

My friend went to Po-Wahi and all I got was this lousy rock.

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Blue sea...a Ruki leaps...the sound of water

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On 4/29/2021 at 12:03 PM, Biosonic100 said:

Even if there weren't families, and if some tohunga were built, being brought into the world, there's plenty to imply in MNOG that some tohunga are newer to the world than others. It's even referenced several times that Jala's guardsmen were killed in battle.

Hi @Biosonic100 :) Please remember to check the date of the last post in a topic before you reply. The last post before yours was made in January 2020—over a year ago! This counts as topic revival. 

Please read the BZPower Forum Revival Reference to learn more about topic revival.

If you feel there's still discussion to be had here, feel free to start a new topic.

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