Alyska

I'm often to blame for cracky attempts to connect SU with Bionicle, and I did once consider writing a Ruby-Tahu/ Sapphire-Kopaka bodyswap comedy, but I'm innocent this time...

While we're at it, they can point out Lapis is similar to Hahli (winged water woman, strong-willed and free-spirited, does not take kindly to being held prisoner, frequently goes against the wishes of the red and orange military type who's supposed to be in charge of her).

Gem corruption is similar to Hordika venom, in that it warps the victim's mind and body into a beastlike state that, once complete, is extremely difficult or nigh-impossible to cure.

The Gem species as a whole is similar to the Matoran in that they are synthetic lifeforms with very long lifespans, no form of biological reproduction and no cultural concept of romance. Specific varieties are created in order to fulfil particular roles in society, and all of these beings are created to serve a higher power. They travel through space in vehicles that resemble robotic bodies or body parts.

... I could do more, but I should probably stop now.

And Gem fusions resembling Kaita fusions? Is there dancing involved in Kaita formation? Headcanon accepted.

 

 

Pronuciation: Some Toa have somewhat different accents, I suppose to distinguish them somehow, but some times is wierd. I swear I hear Pohatu and Onua say "Hit the liver [you know, the vital organ an skeleton would not have])

I think that was supposed to be "hit the lever". Still, lever is pronounced really weird. 

 

Pretty sure that's just the British pronunciation...and I'm pretty sure the voice actor is British, after all. Personally I like the fact that the toa all speak differently...would you really prefer it if their voices were all identical? That just seems silly.

 

I'm Australian and I say it as "Lee-va", just like in the vid. What amuses me is that with the revised pronunciation of "Lewa", folks in Denmark and a few other places that say "w" as /v/ would pronounce Lewa's name as "Leeva" as well.

So Onua would be saying "I hit the Lewa!"...

...which could potentially be a bit confusing...

Considering all the ways Lewa has been pronounced over the years... I recall in one of the set reveal videos, the designers from Denmark called him "Layva". So if their "w" sounds like a /v/, that means they now call him "Leeva"... which is exactly the same as how the narrator for the web series  pronounces the word "lever"...

So a Dane watching the English language web series would be very confused by this exchange:

Lewa: What... happened?

Onua: I hit the Lewa!

Lewa: Without breaking anything?

I want to see more G1 characters return in some form for G2. More characterisation of the villagers would be nice too. 

Long term- I want Lego to one day release a big beautiful coffee table book called "The Art of Bionicle" with loads of concept art, and early character designs,  and some info about the process of building the setting and story over the years - think along the lines of the ones they put out for the Pixar films. The amount of work they put in- it deserves better than to be scattered in fragments around the internet.

I want the current generation to last around five or so years, with a new continuity popping up every few years after that ala Transformers. Ultimately, I'd like to see a feature film that has strong ties to the original, made by people who actually respect the lore and mythology involved... but that's a bit of a way off, I think.

Lego's marketing for Bionicle has been a bit shoddy over the last year, but yeah, this is ridiculous!

And it's on Netflix too, meaning it's not something that just happens to be on TV when the kids are watching. They have to actively seek it out, and so need to know it exists.

This is weird.

Onua's conversation with Korgot in the first book makes it pretty clear that the lineage is literally father to son under normal circumstances. Korgot doesn't seem particularly old herself given that Onua refers to talking with her "elders"- presumably referring to older members of the Earth villages. It's also implies that these elders might not approve of having a female protector, since they talked about the father-son thing without even bothering to mention that their current protector was a woman, leaving poor Onua very confused.

It kind of reminds me of how female pharoahs would have to wear beards and were referred to in male terms. Maybe it's not quite that extreme, but the fact that the elders seemed to either be ignoring Korgot entirely or simply ignoring her gender suggests that Korgot's taking the role of protector must have rocked the boat a bit.

Grandpa Vakama? Yes please. It'd be nice to see him take a break from his stern, grumpy elder persona to go and spoil his grandkids. (*Imagines Vakama sitting patiently with a rowdy toddler on his lap, trying to tell the the boy the stories of heroes past, often having to stop to prise his favourite storytelling stones out of the kid's mouth and dissuade curious little fingers from yanking his eyebrows*)

Yeah, we still have no idea about whether Okotans are primarily organic beings with armour and tech enhancements, or whether they're robots who can somehow reproduce. And the term "biomechanical" can refer to hybrids of organics and tech, or it can mean purely mechanical lifeforms (synthezoids), so that's pretty ambiguous as well.

I can understand not wanting to lead the Matoran, but he just went through this whole arc of learning about friendship and caring for other people and being there for your friends and then it's just like "Welp, Nap time now. See you probably never!" 

I like the idea of Mata Nui being more active than he lets on. Maybe he sometimes creates a Matoran or Agori body for himself and goes out to see how things are going. I'd like to think he'd at least let Kiina, Ackar and Gresh know it was him. Perhaps he occasionally uses his powers to help those in need, or bestows "gifts" upon certain beings. That could be quite fun, especially if his attempts at helping don't always go to plan...

...Why is this whole book not about Pohatu rescuing puppies? This is the sort of content the Bionicle canon needs more of.

The Kakama thing is basically canon, at least for the Kakama Nuva. Pohatu uses it to cut his way out of his restraints in the 2008 storyline.

I'm just picturing her writing bad fanfic littered with spelling mistakes, overly technical dialogue, and horrible misunderstandings of human biology. With diagrams, flowcharts, footnotes and academic referencing included.

Log Date was definitely my favourite episode of the series so far.

i always wondered if a toa surrounded an object with their element, could they manipulate it? what if fire toa could levitate burning rocks, or water toa create rushing currents full of stone shards.(that last one is a pretty bad analogy...) but it seems like it would be feasible for some. maybe not as much for fire toa since their element is plasmatic.

 

I always headcanoned that this was what Lewa was doing when he apparently controls the jungle vines to grab the ash bear in Mask of Light.

Considering all the underground chambers and tunnels around, Onua could plausibly sink someone a few storeys down without really hurting them, but it makes for a pretty anticlimactic "battle" sequence.

Wasn't it established that he could theoretically use all of the Av-Matoran powers, which does include (near?) light-speed? But I dunno about moving organs separately from the rest of the body. Even if you could get them out and in again instantly, they might not necessarily be in the right place when you put them back.

Question: Can Taka use these powers on his own, or does he need to be touching another Toa, like the other Av-Matoran do? (*Pictures Takanuva dragging Jaller around by the hand everywhere*)

I think he should be able to to turn invisible given that it's just bending light, but Greg thought that being invisible and shooting lasers was OP. (I don't think it would be all that bad if he couldn't do both at the same time- even Hahli can probably do something similar to that combination with the Faxon)

He has a lot of unused powers, like being able to "turn night into day" (presumably means illuminate a large area of sky, rather than affect a planet's rotation)- though I can't really think of a practical use for that other than playing a really hardcore version of "Night-time, Daytime".

Also, his mask powers- they include being able to produce feelings of peace and trust in other beings. It would have been fascinating to see this in action, complete with obvious moral dilemmas and exploring the limits of it.

You know what's kinda scary? The dark Takanuvas. Because they can presumably still use the light powers of the Avokhii, right? So, they could change their armour colour back to white and gold and walk around looking exactly like normal Takanuva. If someone starts to get suspicious, they can use the mask to get their trust back by force. And any tests along the lines of "Say something only Takanuva would know" would fail because most of them know pretty much everything our Takanuva does.

Side note: You know the sparkly translucent mask that came with the 2003 Takanuva set? According to BS01, that's meant to represent what the mask looks like when used. Takanuva sparkles like a pretty magical princess when he uses his mask- why was this not featured in the story? Why do the books not describe Takanuva majestically twinkling into battle? Such wasted potential...

A topic for ideas about things that Toa (or other powered beings) might be theoretically able to do using their powers that haven't been done in the canon. This might be a creative way to use a single power, or a combination of multiple powers being used together.

For example, the Kanohi Garai doesn't allow the user to directly affect their own gravity, but Hewkii could possibly find a workaround for flying.

1. Make a big hang-glider out of solid rock.

2. Use Garai to make it light enough to fly, use elemental powers to change direction and altitude.

3. Wheeeee!

What else could you use various powers for?

Or getting blasted into space via Levitation power. Or suffocating because your shield blocked off the air around you. Or being driven to madness from being able to see the workings of the internal organs of everyone within a hundred mile radius, even with your eyes closed (ala what happened to G1 Gali on Voya Nui) Or having your lungs collapse and your cells rupturing from excess oxygen when all you wanted to do was breathe underwater...

...it's possible that I have a little too much fun thinking about these things...

 

i think if a villager wears a mask the mask become corrupt like with the skeleton guys and starts making them become more and more evil

Welcome back.

 

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I like the fwoom theory, but elementally aligned. The Mask of Fire makes them go *fwoosh*, but the Mask of Ice freezes them from the inside, and the Mask of Stone petrifies them.

 

In that case, it's almost a good thing they don't have an Air element- that would easily be the most violent death, though jungle could be pretty nasty too...

The tone and style of the Bionicle storyline underwent many changes during its ten-year run. As such, there have been a few retcons and retools along the way, and not all of the old story material is considered canon.

Which parts of the early Bionicle storyline make you look back and go "ummm no, that's not how that works"?

It may be characterization that seems off, terminology no longer in use, powers or artifacts being used in a different way to how they're supposed to work, or things that are just flat out wrong in terms of what we currently know to be canon. Some of it's awkward, a lot of it's funny, and plenty is just outright weird.

The most glaring example for me is all the "Mata Nui awakens this day" in Mask of Light... um, nope, sorry, not for another five years, guys... Was that even a retcon, or did the filmmakers really just not know that Mata Nui wasn't meant to wake up yet? 

There's a bit of this in the Hapka books, like the fact that the Toa put new masks on top of their old ones, but suvas are never mentioned so you get the impression that the Toa are just walking around with these giant dorky stacks of masks on their faces. Also, Tsundere!Kopaka being a jealous baby whenever Gali pays attention to Tahu. It's hilarious.

What were the weirdest things about early Bionicle for you?

What are you glad they got rid of? 

Is there any of it that you think should have been kept in? (*cough* Macku/Hewkii *cough*)

Discuss...

This is gonna sound weird, but after hearing Lupita Nyong'o as Maz in TFA, I kind of want her as Gali. Her voice conveys depth and wisdom without sounding elderly, and she can bring the sass for Gali's snarkier moments.

I just want to hear her say the line "Tahu, stop acting like you are Mata Nui's gift to everyone."

Well, what do you want her to do? Say "Oh, look, we got high rankings. That's because you're all jerks and you should be ashamed of yourselves."

She's clearly not oblivious, and she's made some gentle but clear comments telling people to be kind to others.

No creator should be made to feel responsible for cleaning up after the corrupt side of a fandom. She is not obligated to do or say anything, and if I were in her position I'd be feeling devastated, overwhelmed and completely out of my depth.

There is nastiness in this fandom. As I said before, this is a big problem with Tumblr communities in general- the Sherlock fandom has had people sending death threats to creators and actors, and it's something that needs a massive overhaul.  But there is also plenty of kindness and compassion, and even when bad things happen, there are people contributing to the fandom in ways that support those affected without lashing out with hatred.

The ugly side of the fandom can't be ignored, but I don't like your implication that Sugar and the team should not be allowed to enjoy or celebrate  their successes  because of it.

Re: Gemdudes. I find the idea fascinating, because Gems technically don't identify as either gender, they just have a feminine appearance and use "she" etc pronouns. So a Gem deciding to adopt a male gender identity probably wouldn't sit well with other gems, not just cause of a pseudo-transphobic attitude, but because they're replacing part of their identity as a Gem with something that seems excessively human. I suppose there's also a possible middle ground, with a Gem manifesting as a big, burly, bearded form with a gruff voice but is still referred to as "she" by other Gems and doesn't mind.

And Amethyst has obviously explored her curiosity about being/presenting as male, given her "Purple Puma" form, but it's probably not something she identifies as all the time. 

I also like the idea of homeworld gems being unused to saying "he", perhaps some of them seeing it as unnecessary and pedantic, like "Oh, some of these little meatbags think they're so very very special they need a whole other set of pronouns. Isn't that precious?"

Or just referring to all humans as "it". I can see them doing that.

I love how much this show messes around with gender but doesn't make a big deal of it.

Just 5 more days until the new episode!

I'm Sodalited to hear that! The teaser certainly whet my Apatite for next Stevenbomb.

i'll be honest here, Bionicle kidna had a habit of "killing the sorcerer" as it were, by constantly attempting to drain all the mysticisms and majycks from it's lore and replace them with "mutations", "programs", "glitches", and "plans", all sorts of stuff that was put there, by some sort of force (great beings are an example of this, the latest in a line of 'false gods" who each made eachother...)

 

and so we went from "the power of the golden masks!" to "the mask is a magnetic protodermis shape made from [x kanoka] and [x kanoka] when worn, it unlocks a mental link that lets users tap into it's energy well for a period of time, if the mask is removed for too long, the user will sufer a series of side effects, including, but not limited to, nausea, blood loss, flakey skin, etc etc etc"

 

and it's not only no fun and confusing, it's also not even neccesary! why can't gali just be a psychic? like, every other story can seem to get away with "she's the one who's good with emotions!" without going into the exact reasoning why (they may go into the general reasoning, but never to the point that beings with fully functional minds need be "glitched" to have it!)

 

 

Yeah, that's fair enough. The "doing in the wizard" was at least partly planned from the beginning, as part of the gradual reveal of the mystery behind the storyline, but I do generally support keeping some of the fantasy elements intact. 

Truth be told, I mostly just wanted to write something about how pre-Farshtey Gali just has an insane amount of extra powers that nobody ever questions, and the theory sort of sprung up around that. I just find it amusing that the early books have the Toa constantly amazed at every new thing they encounter, and yet nobody bats an eyelid when Gali levitates or mentally fuses with a Matoran. They're just all like "Ah, yes, that would be her womanly wisdom powers activating," rather than "Why is it you never tell us you can do these things you do?!"

But yeah, I'm not labouring under any delusions that Gali was written as "glitched" or that her powers were truly the result of anything other than plot convenience or just what looks cool in a movie. 

 no psionic toa appeared in-canon.

 

Hey hey hey whoa. Criticize my theories all you want, but you can't just waltz in here and start acting like completely canon characters don't exist!

We did have a Toa of Psionics, and said Toa was an amazing, complex and layered character who deserves more respect.

How dare you insult Toa Varian like that? 

What if it's not so much exposure to the opposite, but being away from their own element that causes them grief? I also think that there's a psychological factor in play here, as well as what the Toa is used to and experienced with.

It's established that Lewa dislikes being underground. There's no space to fly, probably not as much fresh air to breathe, he has to walk or crawl everywhere and he might be mildly claustrophobic. He also hates being in water, which is also related to a lack of air.

Gali dislikes the desert because of the lack of moisture- she's okay in a hot, humid jungle, but the dry heat would be hard on her.

Onua probably had some trouble in Karda Nui due to being away from solid ground, and the lack of shade definitely affected his vision. He was more at home down in the swamp, though.

Tahu would dislike being away from a heat source- he could certainly keep himself warm in Ko-Koro, but at the cost of some of his own energy. Water doesn't physically weaken Toa of Fire as far as I can tell, but it would just be harder for them to use their power while submerged (see the Jaller example- Jaller wasn't physically suffering in Mahri Nui, and having his power dampened was just an annoyance for him). Fire guys don't seem to complain about water nearly as much as Air and Stone types.

Kopaka does seem to have a physical weakness to heat- he actually faints from it in one of the Hapka books, but it's possible that resistance could be built up with repeated exposure.

Pohatu and other Stone types have heavy bodies not built for swimming. It's not impossible for them to learn, though, and the psychological aspect of being away from solid rock/ground might be just as much a factor in their water weakness as the physical limitations. 

...that is just the most precious thing ever. I am so getting this book.