Lukas Exemplar

Great Bones Very good and elaborate reply. Though I want to make something clear. As you suspected, I didn't mean the thing about crucial literally. I should have worded it differently actually... that was a mistake And when I say revisit, I don't mean rehash or revamp, but it would be interesting to go back to see how people were, perhaps, before it all happened, or at least get some more characterization out of them in the future, on their adventures in the new world of Spherus Magna. But as I said in some edits above, I am also talking about the seemingly big decline in the overall community. I am literally scared by that... :/ Oh, and by the way, I don't think Greg is subpar, which was also one of my points. We don't know if we've seen the best he can do yet. It would be very interesting to see him do something with BIONICLE again in my opinion. I think you agree in some way.

 

But I still feel that Greg should take into consideration that a lot of us are more mature. I am not saying that it should be Lord of the Rings, but I think he should keep it in mind Though I'm not asking for a Nolanverse-ish BIONICLE movie hahaha.

 

But now, tell me, don't you, at all, feel the same, in any way, about the decline and smaller interest in the overall fandom? Have you noticed it too? And do you also think that we should try and keep it alive? After all, it's very nice to have people to talk to who share the same interests. It's one of the things that made BZP very interesting before all the downtimes, I think. There were a lot more storyline theory-talk going on.

 

EDIT: Custom Bionicle did address this issue at some point, and so did someone with a blog named I Hate Everything, or something along those lines. The guy who wrote that post sounded a little... negative, though. But the fact still stands that there is, or seems to be, a decline. Or perhaps the fandom is getting reborn? Or reawakened? I certainly hope so. And I think we should try and help it along then

I can't. Only Premier members can have blogs. And it won't let me pruchase it for some reason.

 

And sorry about the typo, I'll edit it now.

 

Also, I don't really see why it's more of a personal thing than a fact. The fact is that the fanbase have stayed more quiet than ever, and that we should do something to bring it back. I've met many people who share the same belief actually. The franchise and fanbase are certainly not dead. Greg's even been answering some questions. But it is not the same as it was before. Which is not bad, for as you can see in the post I talk about maturity and its relevance to these kind of things, and especially in our case.

 

EDIT: Let me quote some things that Greg has said before,

"Keep in mind that if Star Trek fans had, as a group, said, 'No point in talking about this anymore, it's never going to come back,' it never WOULD have come back."-- Greg Farshtey"Once Star Trek ended - pfft! - the network didn't care about it anymore, nobody cared about it anymore and it was the fans that kept it alive until finally someone turned around and said "You know what? There's a whole mess of people out there who like this. Let's do something with it again. It was a lot of years - a lot of years went by - before that happened. But if the fans shrug their shoulders and are like "Pfft! I don't care about this anymore and I'll just forget about it," then everybody else is going to forget about it, too. So the only people who - the Lego company can't do it - the only people who can keep the flame alive is the fans ... It's something only fans can do."-- Greg Farshtey

 

It's funny how these quotes are so similar to the ones I always use when people talk about BIONICLE's end haha I always use Star Trek as an example. Cool coincidence huh?

 

EDIT: Just to make it clear, I am also talking about the seemingly enormous decline in the overall fandom and community. It seems like it's dying and going away, though I believe it is not. And it's not just this community. There are less and less content being made. And of course, again, I am not encouraging the belief of BIONICLE coming back as a LEGO line, though only the future may show us if that's going to happen, but it seems like a lot of old fans, along with some very respected die hard ones, are even encouraging others to give up on BIONICLE and "let it go" or "die." I think that is very problematic. I thought that there were still a relatively large fanbase left, but I'm not sure if that is true. But as it stands now, I believe there must be done something. Perhaps some kind of advertisement sorta thing whose main purpose would be to encourage people to return to BZPower and other fansites, encourage the "practise" of the fandom. Doing things so that we don't actually forget about it.

Please read this first. Some people have already misunderstood this post, and I have a feeling that many other people will misunderstand this post and its message. I want to make it clear, at first, that I am not thinking, or talking, about a comeback for the toyline, if that is what you're talking about My main goal of this post is to talk of my belief that the fanbase, even more than Greg, should do something to keep the fanbase itself alive. I am kinda scared that the decline that we're seeing right now will at last put an end to the whole thing you see. Also, I have to add that I am not the best writer, and sometimes I state things that are not necessarily right. Someone have already misunderstood me because I'm somewhat bad at wording things sometimes.

 

DISCLAIMER: I don't have anything against Greg Farshtey, I acknowledge the fact that he is a busy person with a lot of different commitments, some rather pressing such as being Chief Editor of the LEGO Magazine. I also enjoy some of his writings, so this is not meant to take him down, merely to provoke thoughts. And hopefully some action.

First off, I am not even sure if Greg can read this, being banned and everything But here I go! He could just read it when he return I guess. If he does return Also, I hope that I have worded everything well enough in the post, and most of it doesn't come out as too much forced. You know, as something that I have tried to sound too sophisticated and such... whatever, let's carry on with:

AN OPEN LETTER TO GREG FARSHTEY

(AND THE FANBASE)

I still can't believe that LEGO ending BIONICLE would result in the state that the BIONICLE storyline, and the franchise itself, is in at the moment. Sorry, but it's sort of heart-wrenching for me. And please don't feel offended at that statement before you have read my whole post, for it may reveal that, in this case, it has another meaning than you might think. Let me stalk out by saying a few things about the ending, and about Teridax: I do not feel that his death was as "disgraceful" as others have expressed, though to be honest it was rather anticlimactic, but that is not the point of this post at all. However, I will have to use Teridax as an example a few times throughout the thing, because he is a menacing, mysterious and somewhat interesting individual, even if what we don't know, or the little we do know about him, or the fact that he's such an intelligent mastermind of a character that we may never understand, with his complex mind that was like a labyrinth, all twists and turns and places that have seen no light in centuries that would boggle our feeble minds with the amount of planning... for even setbacks, while still being able to hold his secrets and what he feels and thinks a close secret, is what makes him interesting. And BIONICLE is good at mysteries and secrets. Because that Mr. Farshtey have confirmed that it is not possible for Teridax to return, though we've seen it happen before, and that is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is the fact that even though we've known him, and seen him throughout the whole story, we know almost nothing about him. I just don't get why it seems LEGO and Greg has been so against giving many characters enough screen-time, for as we know, there do exist children's fantasy, and science fiction, that has done a better job at it. To be honest, I agree the Matoran Universe were overflowing with boring cliché archetypes and stereotypes, though there were exceptions, and it was actually not always the personalities that made a character interesting in the story, but let's look at some brief examples of rather archetypical/stereotypical ones anyway: Tahu being the hot-tempered warrior, Gali being the motherly person, Takua being adventurous and somewhat immature. Though there was still something charming about these individuals, and maybe it was because we've been with them ourselves throughout the whole story. But I do think that is not quite enough. And I hope that Greg will this read this open letter I made, so that he will realize, if he hasn't already, that going going back to revisit characters and give them an even more memorable arc and lifetime's story, is somewhat crucial. We, or at least I, yearns to know more about these people more, besides simply hearing where they have been and how they saved a universe, because during these events, we were never told a lot about who they were as actual individuals. What we have gotten now may not be enough, it seems, and it also seems like BIONICLE is being forgotten more and more every day. The franchise and the story is in need for a comeback. I do agree that with a kind of storyline that BIONICLE uses, some mysteries should not be revealed, and likewise not too much about the individuals that we meet in them, because knowing too much can ruin the whole, or part, of the picture in some ways.

A lot of people have expressed their belief that Mr. Farshtey is a "subpar" writer based on what we have seen. It is not known if this is due to being controlled by others, such as LEGO, though many agree that he has given the fanbase worse (not bad) material when he was given more control himself, which I don't feel like I would be able to judge. I don't know if he is that good or bad, because we haven't seen any real/actual (and I know that "real" or "actual" is not relative concepts in this case) works from him, or it might be that we simply don't know and might not have seen his best possible effort yet. It might come. He is a good plotter I think, and I think a lot of people agrees with this statement. Or should I say idea-maker? Many of the functions that he has constructed for the Matoran Universe, some ideas of which have been developed alongside the help from higher-ranking BZPower members from what I understand, have helped to make everything make much more sense. And a lot of them are just plain cool. Or maybe I should interesting, intriguing, and mysterious in the sense that they always spawn another question. The Matoran Universe is for me like the Earth is for scientists. I always want to know more about it. I even dream of visiting the place, or perhaps living there, but I know I would miss Earth and the fantastical stories that the artists of our own world is so good at creating haha, so I'd just be here at the sideline, observing, instead. I got a little side-tracked there, sorry about that… When Mr. Farshtey writes it can sometimes come out looking like many of the characters are the same people. Quite often actually. Maybe that IS a side-effect of being controlled by a company like LEGO.. I don't know. Some people call him subpar and says that the limited time-frame that he has for each story, and the amount of characters he has to write about in each story, as well as the fact that most of the franchises he writes for are aimed at 7-year olds and not some literature critics, is not a justification for writing stories that are good and actually rather character-ridden, while other defend him and uses those circumstances to support their counter-arguments. I don't know if that was actually the reason that we didn't get as much character depth, but at the same time I am inclined to agree that we need the depth of these individual characters characters. This was also meant to be one of my points with this post. This all brings me to something that I have always wanted to tell the man himself, and that is a suggestion. I suggest Mr. Farshtey should remind himself that with the discontinuation of the BIONICLE toyline, most of the fanbase is more mature at this point. Not as many fans are joining in, since it is harder to find out about the series and franchise without the usual advertisements everywhere. And if Mr. Farshtey is reading this open letter, he should take this into consideration when he may decide to continue with the BIONICLE storyline for the fanbase that are still here, and we all know that it is not dead. A big part of it is merely asleep, sort of like Makuta Teridax put Mata Nui to sleep

In all seriousness though, I got to add that the characters are still memorable as they are now, for one thing the setting that they live and breathe on are very, very memorable, and it is a widely known and acknowledged fact, that often in fantasy and science fiction stories, the settings themselves become characters in a sense, with all the explicit detail to the architecture(s), cultural differences, symbolism associated with them etc.. But there have to be a balance in a way, and an author have to be able to always keep everything up-to-date and maintained, or else characters can, and everything else in a story for that matter, can lose their own relevance in some sense, and their uniqueness as well. This unfortunate kind of outcome is strongly connected to both the maturity of a current fanbase and times. Also, he, and all of us, have to remember that BIONICLE is a franchise, and franchises have to be maintained to not be forgotten, and built upon in some way. Fleshing everything out and maintaining every possible aspect of the story is necessary. Look at the fanbase of Star Trek as an example, and believe me when I say it is a very good example. With the Star Trek fanbase, they decided to never let their fandom go and die, even when there wasn't much going on with the actual franchise. Not many stories being told, not a single film being made, or even TV series. Because they believed in their fanbase and franchise, and because of the word of mouth, it was possible to bring it back to life, with the 2009 theatrical live-action feature film simply titled Star Trek. Furthermore, and this is just some extra trivia, did you know that the 2009 Star Trek brought more interest to the franchise than any series or movie had done before it? That's what statistics show. This is not meant to sound like a hint at what we could do to bring back BIONICLE as a towline though, it is merely making a point. The point is that both sides have to make an effort to keep something like this up to standards, or better yet higher than the common standard. I think that we were on the right track not long ago, after all those unfortunate downtimes of the website. Before that we were engaging much more often in storyline theories and conceptions, writing much more fanon and fan fiction, and helping to keep alive all of it in general. Build upon it.

This post is starting to get rather long now, but I have one last thing to say about maturity: A more mature audience might not be nearly as satisfied with the works that he has created anymore, but will want more character development and perhaps complexity, but not to a point where it is convolutiveness. Though that may differ. I like complexity and convolutiveness (is that even a word?) actually. Anyway, I got a little side-tracked with that comment, so let me get straight what I mean about a more mature story, franchise, fanbase, community (and keep that in mind as well. A fanbase is essentially a community. And communities need care to survive) etc.: Something that is not as simple as what we've got before while still carrying that certain BIONICLE charm, the mystery, the atmosphere... I don't know if that is what we need, but I feel like we need to do something, or at least more than is being done now. So, Greg Farshtey, and the rest of the fanbase, I hope that you have gained something from my "little" post that you may be able to use. Or at least find interesting.Stay creative,Best,- Lukas

EDIT: I asked some fellow BIONICLE fans that haven't lost hope. One of them said that perhaps Greg haven't done much with the story because he doesn't know if there's still an audience. Do you believe that?

EDIT: Maybe I'm going to be adding some more stuff to this letter as the discussion goes on, though I don't have to, but I feel like these few things fit it very well. As you can see not far below, I've stumbled upon some Greg quotes that look strangely familiar,

"Keep in mind that if Star Trek fans had, as a group, said, 'No point in talking about this anymore, it's never going to come back,' it never WOULD have come back."

-- Greg Farshtey

"Once Star Trek ended - pfft! - the network didn't care about it anymore, nobody cared about it anymore and it was the fans that kept it alive until finally someone turned around and said "You know what? There's a whole mess of people out there who like this. Let's do something with it again. It was a lot of years - a lot of years went by - before that happened. But if the fans shrug their shoulders and are like "Pfft! I don't care about this anymore and I'll just forget about it," then everybody else is going to forget about it, too. So the only people who - the Lego company can't do it - the only people who can keep the flame alive is the fans ... It's something only fans can do."-- Greg Farshtey

DISCLAIMER: I don't have anything against Greg Farshtey, I acknowledge the fact that he is a busy person with a lot of different commitments, some rather pressing such as being Chief Editor of the LEGO Magazine. I also enjoy some of his writings, so this is not meant to take him down, merely to provoke thoughts. And hopefully some action.

I guess this has been answered then. If no one else has any inputs I'd say the thread could be closed

Oh well, I would have liked to suggest Artakha or the Mask of Creation. Then we would've finally gotten some canon depictions. The reason for this is not only that I love this character so much, but also that I believe some very important things and characters and their appearance should not be made through MOCing, which even have limitations on what can be done especially when it come to unseen, important, major/big characters, and people like Artakha haven't been seen illustated canonically yet.

Try this. http://www.bzpower.com/board/index.php?showtopic=4238&do=findComment&comment=221081 It probably could use some improvements, but better than starting from scratch.

Thank you very much! I guess I'll contact the creator and try and see if I can help put it into a kind of timeline or chronological timeline that is more pleasing to the eyes, or something. I guess it's ok to request a lock of this thread then?

 

EDIT: Hmmm, on further inspection, it seems like he's going, generally, by the release dates. It would be nice with both kinds. One that goes generally by release date, and one that doesn't, but just follow 100% canon chronology. I guess I could ask the maker of the list anyway, to help me create that sort of thing Do anyone else feel like helping though?

My original timeline, on which the BS01 was based, did attempt to do this. You can still find it here, though it only has some of the story in it: http://www.bzpower.com/ref.php?ID=2511 It is not "chapter specific", though. In general this is not needed, because reading the sources will naturally show you what order things happened in, or if they don't it doesn't matter. Note also that I'm currently writing a fan fiction retelling of the entire Bionicle history, and in comments to the file (and when I post it as an epic, those will be posted in the review topic posts for each chapter) clarify what official sources you can go to in order to learn more, including specific chapters where warranted. However, as I get into the main story later it won't be so specific since for the most part I will leave the side details out so there's still something to find out about in the canon sources. But really, I find the BS01 system convenient as-is. Perhaps it could be improved, but it's really not that hard to just look at the colors and then compare them to the key at the bottom of the pages.

I guess I'll just have to develop it on my own *sigh* I have very specific reasons for wanting this, and not only for my own convinience. Bones, would you like to volunteer in helping me design it?

Problem is that most Serials happen at the almost at the same time and the exact time is chapter specific

Please read my post again. I came out with a perfect solution that problem.

Just to make sure, I asked if I could repost this and word it more properly, becausae the original answer I got from the original post, was not really what I was expecting, though Portalfig got it right

Hey there BZP. I have a suggestion for a new kind of timeline. Isn't there some kind of timeline that just simply tell what serials, books, games and movies and comics happened, in chronological order? That would be so helpful! Instead of just timelines that tell us the gist of what happened to the characters and such. I think it's fine that exist, but it would be so much better if the other kind also existed It would be great help to people writing BIONICLE fanfiction. Maybe it could even be used on BS01. I hope so.

And now, to word it more properly. I mean one that is not like the ones on BS01, because those colored grapht things can be very complicated and time-consuming. I think this is something that is needed. Also so people can try and get all books, serials, stories, comics, movies etc. in chronological order. Maybe each thing that takes place the same year could share the same part in this new kind of timeline, or maybe not. It's up to you, but at least I think this is a good idea So if anyone are up for the challenge of making this, go ahead But first I wanted to hear if you guys liked the idea.

Stay creative.

Isn't it kind of pointless to post all these new articles when the hacker made it impossible for us to read it anyway? :/ Or am I the only one who still suffer the "Not Authorized" disease?

 

EDIT: I just used the other link featured in the post on the frontpage, and it worked perfect

Hey there BZP. I have a suggestion for a new kind of timeline. Isn't there some kind of timeline that just simply tell what serials, books, games and movies and comics happened, in chronological order? That would be so helpful! Instead of just timelines that tell us the gist of what happened to the characters and such. I think it's fine that exist, but it would be so much better if the other kind also existed It would be great help to people writing BIONICLE fanfiction. Maybe it could even be used on BS01. I hope so.

 

Stay creative.

I used it all the time before it disappeared due to that hacker. I use it for reference in my BIONICLE fanfictions, to learn stuff that Greg has said, story theories, old BNG stuff, references for BNG movie scripts and so on. It is so helpful and I cannot see my everyday life without. Not that I am geek that sits around the computer all the time and read the stuff there, but almost I'm still immature as well, ZHX!

Congratulations everyone... except one of you. I mean, seriously? That Moustache Tahu honestly did not deserve to get a third place. I have seen a lot of bad art this year, or all my life, but that is hoenstly one of the worst ones. I won't say this without giving any constructive critiscm about it though, since that would be immoral of me, and any others, I think: well, the colors are way too bright and saturated, and usually, Tahu's eyes and backhead-piece are not green. His eyes are meant to red, his backhead-piece likewise, or dark in color if you wish to go with a look that is further away from a set-accurate Tahu. It's overall a little too simple too, and I cannot see how that moustache makes him any sexy and hot...? The black sphere on his chest looks too much like a lump of dark hair... I just don't think it should have landed as a winner. Otherwise, it's a pretty neat drawing still, really.Stay creative,Best,- Lukas