Sir Kohran

Would you enjoy living under an ideology of 'obedience is happiness' and 'thoughts can be dangerous'?

Bionicle will always have a special place in my life. But it's a thing of the past now, not the present or the future, and so it is impossible to like it in the way I once did.

(end quote) I suspect what's at the root of this topic is that what you mention is 2004's portrayal of Metru Nui as a grim and oppressive society, presumably as foreshadowing for the malicious figure who was then ruling them. Problem is, when Metru Nui was resettled no effort was made in the Bionicle media in early 2006 to portray Metru Nui as a now more pleasant place, because the story was concerned with other locations by that point. So the (once intentional) social flaws of Metru Nui were left uncorrected and open to criticism. (end quote) That occurred only after he revealed himself and embarked on the next stage of his plan. Had Makuta continued to keep his posing as Dume a secret, no-one would've taken action against him or even known. So I think it was done almost (if not completely) effortlessly. And what do you mean by killed? Wasn't Makuta just imprisoned for a while then released in Web of Shadows? (end quote) Wasn't this done simply for the Matoran's safety? With Lhikan dead, the Vahki no longer controllable, and the two suns no longer lighting the city, it was surely smarter to start again somewhere else. The Metru also lost their Toa status in the process of reawakening the Matoran, though it seems the decision to move had already been made by then.

For something to be canon, it has to have been officially released. Concept art released on creators' websites and blogs obviously hasn't been.

This was in 2003, and usage of the Maori language (apart from names already featured) had ceased at the start of 2002.

A very good point. A picture (or set in this case) speaks a thousand words. I suspect one of the reasons literature relies on established creatures (elves, aliens, vampires, dragons, etc.) so much is because it is difficult for readers to visualise entirely new beings when there's no imagery to assist them. That was presumably done to justify the release of his Star set.

Agreed, there seems to be a severe lack of discussions lately.

It was cancelled presumably due to the critical and commercial failure of The Game in late 2003. Which is a shame as the animation and fluidity seen in the video are very impressive. The glimpse of dazzling blue sky through the window is particularly teasing. I suppose it must join The Legend of Mata Nui as another great could've-been.Did anyone else notice that the acrobatics (wall bouncing and running, somersaulting with poles) are virtually identical to those in the Prince of Persia games?

This seems to depend (partly) on which media was dominant in which year.2001 was Takua largely due to the MNOLG; had the PC game (in which the Toa would've starred) not been cancelled it might have been different.2002 featured the Toa equally; Takua only actually appeared in the Le-Wahi and Ga-Koro Bohrok animations.2003 was Takua entirely due to the Mask of Light movie.2004-5 was obviously Vakama, no question there.2006-8 is hard to decide, because the activities of the Nuva and Inika overlap.2009-10 is undoubtedly Mata Nui.

You're assuming all controversy about homosexuality is for religious or political reasons. What impact does that have? A willing choice can be made about hairstyle or accent, a willing choice can't be made about height or facial features, but both are aspects/properties of a person. Just as sexuality and views are. The 'Rules & Guidelines' topic makes no exception or allowance for it.

I agree with the examples you give. Problem is, discussing your relationship with someone who happens to be the same gender as you isn't the same as discussing the orientation of that relationship itself (which is apparently allowed, yet discussion of religion and politics themselves are not). So atheists can go all the way and outright discuss literature related to their views? Why then do the rules prohibit Christians and Muslims from even quoting the Bible or the Koran? Doing this draws attention to those political figures and their views that the posting member supports, which is surely in violation of the rule against 'promoting or insulting certain political ideologies'. So by this logic, some discussion of homosexuality (the controversial aspects) actually is off-limits.

Discussion of homosexuality isn't against the rules, in fact, quite the opposite. Those members who are gay or bisexual or what-have-you are allowed to discuss their lives and orientations as much as they wish.Yet members who are socialist or conservative, or Christian or Muslim, are not allowed to discuss their views and beliefs at all?

Firstly, there is no 'fear' of mentioning homosexuality, otherwise there'd be none of these posts bringing it up to begin with.As far as discussion of homosexuality goes, I'm fairly sure it's left off-limits for the same reason discussion of politics or religion is - it simply courts controversy at a level inappropriate for a child-friendly website.

I do find the prohibition of linking to or mentioning certain sites a bit annoying, and fairly pointless as many of them are established sites that most of the community almost certainly visit or know of already.And if we may gripe about past annoyances too...On the old board, mostly in General Discussion there was an endless series of "what was your first post/avatar/username/set" topics, that would accumulate huge numbers of posts with absolutely no discussion. That was because people would just post their tiny and uninteresting responses without reading or responding to any others, then never look at the topic again. I found this infuriating as it was completely pointless and a waste of space. Thankfully those topics don't seem to have made it over here.

It's very silly to suggest Makuta was "meant to look" how he appeared in the movies, when the movies' purpose was to sell sets... The movie characters and sets have to resemble each other or otherwise how would the former promote the latter?What I'm saying is that it seems strange that Makuta's set is such a jumble of colours when his media portrayal is nothing like that.

THIS. I never understood all the hoopla about colored pins. If you look at pretty much every NASA rover or other vehicle which favors function over form, you'll see all sorts of colors: colored wires, colored springs, etc. This comparison doesn't work because Bionicle characters weren't meant to resemble vehicles. If the colours were meant to be varied and random in the manner you describe, then why bother with colour schemes?Too many colours can be a bad thing, not just with pins and axles, but in general, especially when you know the character isn't really meant to look that way. For instance, Makuta in the movies is shown as almost completely burnt metal, yet the 2003 set features colours from solid black all the way to bright red.

Whilst I do not in any way condone animal abuse, I did find this fairly contrived and over the top.Firstly, why would Toa keep pets? Are you aware of how big and dangerous Muaka are? They loom over Matoran and stand almost head to head with Toa, and are a threat to both. Is this not just a touch ridiculous?I get the point you're trying to make in this story, and I applaud you for tackling a serious issue, but I think it would've been far more believable and effective had it concerned a Matoran mistreating a small and docile Rahi.

First, I think the Nuva left the Kanohi Nuva on Metru Nui, save for the ones they were wearing...and the suva was out of range.Do Toa lose access to collected masks if they are too far away?

It's difficult to imagine whether the story would've been more or less complex had it not revolved around the sets.On the one hand, the story might've been less complex without six new characters being introduced every year and the cast subsequently accumulating. On the other hand, without sets to promote, Farshtey wouldn't have had to focus on whatever characters were sets at the time, therefore he would've written with much more scope, possibly making it all more complex.I couldn't judge either way.

I'm glad I'm not alone in thinking this to be a bit suspect, though for different reasons. Firstly, I don't remember any mention of payment (forgive me if I'm wrong on that as I can't presently open it). So potentially, you could come up with the next Bionicle or Ninjago, then never see a penny for it.Also, if you had a brilliant story or franchise idea of your own, why would you want to give it all away to a company who wouldn't allow you any subsequent control?Lastly, why do Lego suddenly want original story ideas? Are they finally feeling guilty about relying on so many licenses? Or are they just bored of having to pay for them?It seems they effectively want a whole lot of something for absolutely nothing.

Interesting stuff, especially the storyboard of the stones vision. I could practically hear the music from the first MNOLG clip in my head as I looked at it.

You could always try reading the first post, which specifies Bionicle.

But purple is an 'official' colour for Onu-Matoran as it appears in a set, unlike blue.And there's no plausible reason for Onu-Matoran to use blue because its correspondent element, water, is unconnected to earth.

This game belongs to Bionicle's earliest period when Lego didn't seem bothered if things were a bit inconsistent, and before the term 'canon' really meant anything, so asking if something of this period is canon is a slightly flawed question.In the MNOLG Onu-Matoran and Po-Matoran shared tan and black (the latter colour also appeared on a couple of Ta-Matoran), and some Ko-Matoran used dark grey. So the rules on Matoran colours were never completely set in stone. Then again, Onu-Matoran using blue is much more of a stretch than those examples, as water and earth are not at all closely connected. Also, blue was never used as a colour for them again. So if I really had to make a judgement I'd say it's non-canon.On a random side note, the game was developed by Saffire, who were also behind the cancelled Legend of Mata Nui PC game.

The Kal. Completely useless and subsequently the first 'six team' I didn't buy in full.