Alyska

Yeah, SM lifespans are absurd. Tren Krom, Artahka and Helryx would be barely teenagers in Glatorian years. Very few people would want kids there if it meant 10 000 years of dirty nappies. Makes me wonder if they have some sort of communal child-rearing thing going on- if two or three Agori families happen to have young children, perhaps they'll have one family look after all three kids for a few years, then pass them onto the next household to let the parents have their own life for a bit- though they probably still visit the kids regularly. Maybe there's a bit of financial compensation involved. Maybe that's why Gresh, despite being quite young, never mentioned his own parents- it's not that they're unimportant or dead, it's just that they're not the only two most important people in his life. (Though there is my other sorta-headcanon that one or both of them was on Bota Magna).

...I kinda wish the details of Agori society had been fleshed out a little more. We really didn't see much on their culture at all.

I wanted to see Nikila appear on the Red Star (and then have her reunite with Lesovikk- it would be fascinating to see that friendship trying to rekindle after they'd both changed so much)

Also, Kazi's reaction to finding out about Velika would have been the highlight of that serial, though there might have been a bit too much profanity for it to be publishable, heh. More Kazi and the rest of the VNRT in general actually. It'd be funny and/or a bit heartbreaking if one of them was the one to finally stop Velika.

And Greg writing a serial focused entirely on the Chronicler's company would have been great. I don't know that he quite had a handle on writing Kapura, but I liked the little glimpses we had of Macku's offscreen adventures, particularly during Teridax's reign. 

On a side note, that Disney movie looks kind of interesting. Assuming they don't completely mess everything up in it like nearly everything else they touch.

I can't help thinking of the main character as "Disney Princess Macku." Then again, I'm the sort of person who thinks of Elsa as Disney Princess Kopaka, so it's possible that I'm weird. I do hope it's a bit more sensitive towards the Polynesian cultures it's based on than Bionicle was, though.

Planned three years, huh? Hadn't heard that before. That actually gives me some hope that they could open G3 with a feature film, if that's their plan.

I suppose I should have clarified I was referring to a theatrical release, rather than direct-to-DVD.

So, it seems like every toyline gets its own movie these days. Lego has already done phenomenally well with The Lego Movie, which is spawning a sequel, a Batman spin-off, as well as a Ninjago film, which may or may not take place in the same universe. So, Lego is obviously getting more confident in branching out into feature films of their most successful properties. There was talk of a Hero Factory film a couple of years ago, but it never went ahead- presumably, we would not have got our Bionicle reboot if it had.

Now, a Bionicle film would obviously be quite different to the other Lego movies, so the success of the others may not be quite enough to convince the studios that Bionicle could work as a film. We know that there's a lot of follow-the-leader and knock-on effects in Hollywood. What I'm wondering is whether the success of any recent or upcoming films/properties might be the tipping point that leads to a Bionicle film being greenlit.

The thing that got me thinking this is, of all things, an upcoming Disney Princess movie. No, no, hear me out! The film Moana is based on Polynesian mythologies, and is set to involve the heroine going on some sort of epic quest to fulfil an ancient destiny, with what looks like elemental-powered creatures and monsters along the way. The images they've released so far have amazing looking island environments that make me really wistful about how a Bionicle film could look. If it does well at the box office, I can totally see some execs going "Hey, Lego's got this thing that's like that but with robot superheroes..."

Thoughts? What do you think would make movie studios consider a Bionicle feature film?

Lewa seems to have some air connection still, though this hasn't been explored much yet, and Pohatu can sorta-fly (probably not very high) by creating dust devils, so I guess Air control can just be a secondary power for some Toa, like how Gali had healing powers or Vakama had visions in G1.

Great job! It's a nice composition of the two masks, and the colour effects are lovely.

Aw, but if Hahli and Jaller reset, then Hewkii probably did too, and Macku may or may not have done so as well... (sniff)

Okay, but imagine if they just had a super-close platonic relationship that could become romantic, but they literally had no concept of what a romantic relationship was. Imagine someone trying to explain it to one of them.

Hewkii: And so you're only supposed to have this relationship with one special person?

Gelu: At any given time, yeah.

Hewkii: Why just the one?

Gelu: It's just easier that way. Less complicated. Jealousy gets in the way otherwise.

Hewkii: Wouldn't people get more jealous, though? Like, if Jaller got married to Takanuva, I think Hahli would be jealous.

Gelu: I'm not sure that Jaller and Takanuva would... well, you never know, they might, but it's not as simple as being best friends with someone. It's a special connection, someone you couldn't bear to live without-

Hewkii: Oh, like me and my friend Macku! 

Gelu: ...Isn't she a completely different species to you?

Hewkii: Nah, most of us Toa start out life as Matoran, but then at some point we just ... get bigger and gain awesome powers and stuff, you know? Same species, just different size and capabilities and stuff.

Gelu: Wait, wait... so you're an adult... and Macku's a... a child? Hewkii, you can't-

Hewkii: No, we're about the same age... I think. Well, I dunno, I guess children are kinda like Matoran, only they're not as smart, they don't do any work, they cry all the time and they smell funny. So, basically, not that much like Matoran at all- hey, where are you going?

Macku and Hewkii being a thing on Spherus Magna would be amazing and SO awkward.

But Hewki and Macku now have a big height difference... unless he becomes a Turaga and that's just plain out wrong. (Or she could become a Toa, but that wouldn't be nearly as funny...). If were going to start shipping Turaga here, then we might as well start viewing Nokama and Matau as that cute old couple in Up... (or maybe Nokama ends up with Vakama, but Matau was the only one making an effort at it, I figure in this is odd fanon world they would end up together)

 

Maybe Matoran will adopt Agori kids... Or if they ever return to a Metru-Nui level tech, the Matoran might invent a way to manufacture more Matoran so Matoran couples could adopt? 

 

Agori and Glatorian kids probably take forever to grow, though. Remember Gresh is barely an adult, and he's older than everything in the MU. Though coincidentally, I had a stupid fanfic idea today about Lewa finding a lost baby Agori while wandering through Bota Magna and, after establishing that the organic squidgy thing isn't going to jump onto his face and take over his mind, deciding to help it. All the while knowing literally nothing about Agori or babies, and having to fight off giant laser dinosaurs at the same time. Ah, if only I could write treespeak at all. (Somebody steal this, please.)

Matau is the most romantically frustrated character in all of Bionicle (well, maybe next to Vhisola- that Nokama's such a heartbreaker). I think he'd try something, Nokama would turn him down by feigning complete obliviousness, he'd sulk for a little bit and then eventually just amuse himself by learning rude Agori jokes and becoming like everybody's naughty old uncle at parties.

.

I can see that happening. Look at what happened with Kiina and Mata Nui. She undoubtedly had feelings for him. But when she tried to express it in Journey's End, he was just kinda like, "Okay, sure. Whatever." The guy was completely clueless.

Interestingly, Greg hinted that Mata Nui actually was possibly capable of romantic feelings, which is a whole other can of worms. It implies that Mata Nui might have been somebody else before he was a giant robot, or that the Great Beings deliberately gave their giant robot the potential to fall in love. Maybe they were hoping that the two giant robots would just elope off to the other side of the galaxy together once they'd fixed the planet so that they wouldn't hang around and make a nuisance of themselves.

Okay, so it's been firmly established that beings in the Matoran Universe had no concept of romance. Greg Farshtey's reasoning for this was that the concept of romance emerged in our world as an extension of our reproductive needs and desires. With no biological reproduction, there was no reason for the MU to have this construct.

So, if we take the view that romance is indeed a social construct- and one that was present on Spherus Magna- what happens when beings from the Matoran Universe are introduced to this foreign cultural concept? I can imagine reactions varying from "These Romans Agori are crazy!" to "What a lovely expression of Unity!" to "Help! Help! There's two Glatorian over there trying to kill each other by sucking out each other's brains through the mouth!" to "This is the worst place to be wearing a Mask of Telepathy!". Some might even try to adopt the concept themselves, but they'd probably still be very confused and might get a few things wrong.

The idea came about from thinking about the Gems from Steven Universe. Like Matoran, the Gems come from an alien race that does not reproduce biologically. As such, they don't appear to have a sexuality in the conventional sense, and gems that live on their home planet seemingly have no cultural concept of romantic love (though they do obviously have emotions and are capable of caring about others). However, after living on Earth and discovering human cultures, some gems formed strong relationships with each other, or even with humans, that they define as romantic. The idea of that happening in Bionicle seems unlikely, but at the same time, it doesn't seem to violate the established "rules" either.

So, what do you think? Personally, I'd think the misunderstandings and confusion would be the most common reaction, but it's a fun concept to think about either way.

Don't know about sets, but for now, there's this...

Video of all Doctors in Lego Dimensions.

Kind love how Six is banging on about tact and finesse before immediately toppling off the edge. Though there was a missed opportunity for Eleven to do a "Geronimo!"

Ah, my apologies- I misread that after seeing a lot of people write her off for feeling that way. 

Last I heard she had attempted suicide, but survived and is recovering. I hope the situation didn't escalate. I think the show creators know about it.

It's difficult to explain how these things can happen, but I think a basic equation of human nature + adolescence + Internet connection + anonymity + little to no moderation + popular fandom + delusional sense of justice/righteousness + blind rage + desire for power over others... that  would probably cover most of it.

Not to say that all adolescents behave that way when anonymous on the web- many are absolutely lovely, but, let's just say I dread to think what things I might have said and done had I been on Tumblr at 14. Puberty does seem to cause a drop in empathy for some people. Not that it excuses the disgusting harassment, but a lot of young people have no idea how to behave online, and no concept of real life consequences for themselves or others. They know that the worst that's likely to happen to them is being banned from the site, which rarely happens on Tumblr anyway, because the justice systems in most countries are hopelessly inadequate at dealing with online crime. Death threats and serious harassment are so pervasive, it's virtually impossible to tackle it all.

When any fandom gets big enough, the probability that some seriously nasty people will get involved goes up dramatically. Not all of the harassers were just dumb kids, and I suspect not even all of them were in the fandom- certain groups on certain imageboards love attacking fandoms, and will either attack a tumblr tag, or will single out a prominent figure in the fandom. This is probably getting into the territory of genuine sociopaths who want to cause pain or even death, and do so in a way that they will never suffer any real-life consequences for. Others simply want a person they dislike to feel bad about something they've done, not realising what a serious effect words can have. And, of course, there's infinite shades of middle ground, because people are complicated. Some people are just consumed by hatred for no good reason.

Please don't label the victim as "overly sensitive." If you're in a position of perfect mental stability, then it can seem like you'd never feel that way yourself, and maybe can't understand people who would. In an ideal world, words would never hurt anyone. But many people are not in a good mental space, and you can never tell what might push someone over the edge. Depression already makes people feel guilty for having it. There's no need to reinforce that sentiment by writing off their feelings as simply over-reacting. What she tried to do to herself was awful and sad, but people in that position require empathy from others, not to be shamed for it. Shame prevents many people from getting the help that they need.

Anyway, I hope nothing like this happens again, and that the systems that allowed it to happen get a major overhaul in the near future. It's also nice to see a really caring and supportive side of the fandom come out in response to this. It doesn't make the bad things go away, but it does remind one that occasionally good things happen on the Internet too. Faith in humanity slightly replenished.

Fair enough. It can kinda suck to see a character get killed, whether it's good writing or not.

Changing the subject completely... who's excited about this?

I started doing a sketch of what a Garnet/Gali fusion would look like and now I'm laughing so hard because Garnet's afro + Gali's bell-bottoms results in the most disco-looking fusion ever.

Well, at least Steven would like it, since she's a giant robot woman. 

...Might  have to draw that up properly once semester's over...

Could be worse than that. Some villain could keep a bunch of Matoran slaves, force them to wear this mask, harvest their energy for centuries, and then put the masks on his more-powerful servants for an army of warriors that didn't stop when you killed them, without having to drain the warriors themselves much.

What if something like a Toa could still use any remaining elemental power they had at the time of death, but lacked the ability to replenish that energy like they could in life? That would be in keeping with the whole "keep going until the life energy runs out" thing.

And as for the "more useful masks" argument, some Toa can access suvas, allowing them to switch out the undeath mask with a more situationally appropriate one when needed. Though that raises the question of whether the mask can store energy from multiple wearers over time, and whether the energy from one being can be transferred to another.

Gonna have to disagree with you on that one. During Clara's first series, I was quite disappointed with her personality- she seemed like such a bland, generic "nice, plucky" girl who existed basically as a walking plot device and sass dispenser. She had all the traits we're supposed to admire in a female character- beautiful, smart, witty, brave, loves books and children, but in spite of Jenna Coleman being a great actress and highly watchable, Clara didn't feel like a real person. Worse still, she'd have these moments where she seemed completely out of character- cracking distasteful jokes after people died, narcissistically proclaiming that her leaf was the most important leaf in human history because it happened to be the one that led to her being born, and the TARDIS hated her for no discernible reason.

Then after Capaldi arrived, Clara is forced into increasingly difficult and emotionally devastating situations, and the image of Little Miss Perfect started to crack and crumble away. She falls apart when circumstances get beyond her control, she becomes an almost-pathological liar, she misleads people in order to manipulate them, she gets carried away by the prospect of adventure to the point where she puts other lives at stake, she forgets about children left in her care, and after Danny's death, she's willing to betray and threaten the Doctor to force him to break the rules just for her. the reason she felt so artificially constructed in her first series is because, in-universe, she was.

All the hints were there- the bad-taste jokes, the need to be in charge, the obsession with stories, etc. Clara hides her flaws under a mask that she works very hard to maintain. She does all the things a good heroine should do, likes all the things a heroine should like, and has a firm idea in her head how everything "should" be. And at first it really does seem like the universe is bending over backwards to fit Clara's ideal version of her story- a mysterious, handsome man shows up out of nowhere and saves her life, she gets magically upgraded with special skills that allow her to save the day with him, she defeats a planet-sized monster using a plot trinket left by her dead mother because of course that would work, she single-handedly takes command of a small military platoon despite no combat training and leads them to victory, and when an enemy splits itself throughout the Doctors timestream, of course she's going to perform a pseudo-heroic sacrifice to save him- that's what any self-respecting heroine should do. The way things were going so far, she had no reason to believe she wouldn't make it out of the timestream unscathed.

Clara is a sly, manipulative control freak and a raging narcissist, an impulsive thrill seeker who puts her own amusement ahead of other people's safety, and at times, has such a severe case of "personal fable syndrome" that she's completely irrational in her perception of reality. And yet she's also a perpetual optimist with genuine intentions to help people and save lives, who loves and cares for the Doctor very much, is fond of children and wants to live a fulfilling life. I think she's easily one of the most complex female characters on television, and I like her a lot now.

As for the death thing- I don't think that a character dying necessarily detracts from their value or complexity. Sometimes we learn a lot about a character by the way that they die, particularly if they have some sense of agency in making the choices that landed them in that position- e.g. Matoro in Bionicle. Sometimes a death practically makes the character. Other times, the character's death is just a fitting end to their story, like with Amy Pond- her character arc was basically her growing from a flighty, directionless girl who lacked the ability to make a commitment or show that she cared for someone, into a grounded and compassionate person who was able to give up the adventure and mystery of travelling with the Doctor so that she could be with the person she loved- her death was just the incidental result of living a long life.

Sometimes a character is killed just for shock value or to make another character more angsty. When that happens, it does kind of feel as though the writers didn't value the character as more than a plot device. A recent instance would be O'Donnell in Under the Lake- she's a textbook example of "fridging"- killing off a female character for no reason other than to create drama for a male character. But it's worth noting that a character being sad/guilty/angry about another's death doesn't mean the death was necessarily a fridge, unless it served no other clear purpose in the story. Death is an inevitable part of life, so not every instance of major character death is just an example of bad writing. There's a lot to be said for the hows and whys.

Knock knock

"Who's there?"

"Half"

"Half Who?"

"No! Not Hafu! I am Taipu! Why does everyone think I am Hafu, and he is me? We are not even from the same village!"

Knock knock

"Who's there?"

*PUKE*

"Puke who?"

"..."

"Takua! Your stupid crab's been sick on the doormat again! Come back here!"

A group of brightly coloured beings live peacefully inside the head of a much larger being, doing their daily jobs to keep their host's body and mind working properly. But disaster strikes after some of these beings are ejected from from their home and their host begins to shut down, the world inside the brain starting to crumble away. It is a race against time to retrieve the shiny golden objects that can repair the host. One heroic being sacrifices his very existence to help save his world. But even after this crisis is prevented, our heroes face many more challenges ahead...  

It could be legitimately considered offensive if they resorted to crude stereotypes, like certain characters in the second Transformers film. But I actually think that it's important for kids to see heroic and likeable characters with a variety of accents. If all heroes sound posh English or American, and regional accents like, for example, Cockney English are reserved for dim-witted, villainous types, or the only time kids hear a German accent is coming out of a demented cartoon scientist, then they're gonna grow up with either a whole lot of racial, cultural and linguistic prejudices, or worse, they're going to be perpetually ashamed of the way that they themselves talk.

I like Scottish (particularly a lovely gentle variety like Tennant's) for Lewa because of the lilting musicality of the accent- I think it's quite fitting for a Toa of air- it conveys a nice sensitivity, but is also great for delivering humor and sarcasm (and, as pointed out by the Twelfth Doctor, complaints!).

I used to think of RP English for Gali, but after watching SU, I actually think Estelle would do an amazing job as her. I still think of Kopaka as speaking RP, because, I mean, well you just try rereading The Powers That be and try not to hear Benedict Bloomin' Cumberbatch every time he opens his mouth.

And I do approve of Australian Pohatu, even if the accent's a bit rubbish in the webisodes, because I always thought of good ol' G1 Pohatu as basically a biomechanical Hugh Jackman. Even though they changed his personality a lot for the reboot, it's nice to see that headcanon at least partially realised.

David Tennant as Lewa. Seriously.

YAAAAAS. With Scottish accent intact, please.

Haven't told a soul. 

If I was going to consciously choose a thing to get obsessed with in my childhood that I would continue to like well into adulthood, I wouldn't have chosen Bionicle. I was never in the target demographic, I know nobody else in real life my age that likes it, it doesn't seem to have much nostalgia value (yet), children these days who buy the sets seem to care little for the story, and it's looked down on even by other Lego fanatics. G1 was sexist as heck, much of the later media and marketing was poorly executed, the later serials were a mess, and most of the sets after about 2003 lacked the charm and appeal of the originals, at least for me... and yet I loved it. It makes so little sense. 

I've only recently started collecting the books, acquired from second hand bookshops and school fetes. I might start using Abebooks if I get desperate, but it feels like more of an adventure if I have to hunt for them. I camouflage my collection under a mountain of other children's books I have no intention of reading, but are socially acceptable for me to own since I work with kids. They're worth the effort, and I wish I had started sooner. I hope they make a theatrical Bionicle film one day, just to get it into the public consciousness. It'd be nice to be able to have a real-life conversation about Bionicle...

Yeah, Onua probably only manipulates the topsoil to create a pseudo earthquake- no actual tectonic movement. I don't know whether a Toa of Stone would be able to budge a whole tectonic plate- if so, probably not very far or for very long, but he could vibrate rock particles in the soil for similar effect. There's probably at least some overlap between the two elements with things like sedimentary rock- stone composed of compressed dirt and organic matter.

If were looking at actual tectonic movement, we're probably looking for a kaita like Akamai- commanding stone, earth and fire would allow for manipulation of the flow of magma, which would make moving the plate much easier. I don't know if anyone else has directly controlled magma in the story.

I teared up reading an interview with Rebecca Sugar the other day because Steven is based on her adorkable little brother and the crystal gems are based on how he sees her and the love she has for him and for her art just shines out of this show and it's beautiful. The fact that Steven is a real person makes me so happy, too. The Sugar siblings are awesome.