And if so how?
Yes, I'm working from the assumption that the story was too complicated/complex. If you want to argue that point go ahead, but I wanted to get some opinions and viewpoints on this topic.
Alright, that's what I wanted to ask. Feel free to ignore my stream of consciousness below. I'm just trying to sort this out for myself.
What made the story so complex?
"Bionicle made you work for your story." This is something I heard in a recent(ish) BIONICLE video, but I can't believe I didn't realize it sooner.
I think it's fair to say Bionicle was trying to imitate Star Wars (ironic considering the role SW played in Bionicle's conception). In the late eighties to early nineties no new SW content came out (the so-called "dark time"), but that ended with the Dark Empire comics and Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy. By the mid-nineties, Lucasfilms was organizing the official multimedia project "Shadows of the Empire" and afterwards a lot of people involved were excited to make another one centered around the "New Jedi Order" books. Then the prequels came out and threw a wrench into the plans.
Either way, Bionicle came out right in the middle of this and honestly it did a good job of being its own multimedia project. That right there made the story complicated. True, any long running book series or TV show can produce a lot of lore, but at least it's easy to follow if you're willing to put in the time and effort to read/watch the whole thing. But, if you want the whole Bionicle story you need to jump between several different mediums. Most of it told out of order.
I know you technically just need to read the comics and watch the movies and bam you got the entire story. Add in the books and you're even better off. Then it gets trickier the more you add on. The games? Only certain ones that you need to check BS01 to know which ones are canon or not. Add in the serials and of course Greg quotes and it starts to get complicated. Which brings me to...
Canon Questions:
Aside from having to work to find out what is and isn't canon (usually games) you also have to deal with two sources contradicting each other (how were the shadow Toa defeated?) This isn't unique to Bionicle. So many games and stories told the story of how The Death Star plans were stolen that eventually someone had to come down and say, "They each stole a part of the plans." George R. R. Martin had to deal with questions in the lead up to the show "House of The Dragon" about whether it was a separate canon from the source books it's based on or the "real" version.
But there comes a point when it feels like you'd better off just reading a ton of BS01 articles to learn the entire story, which sounds a little ridiculous (and this is coming from someone who enjoys getting lost on a good wiki). Maybe the answer is just enjoy whatever Bionicle content you want. Play the games, read the books or comics, watch the movies and not really care if you get the entire story.
As someone who followed the story pretty closely from '07-'10 I know it was hard to keep all this straight and I'm sure plenty of people at the time acted like that and just didn't care about this or that Greg quote.
Bionicle's Legacy:
Something I've been dancing around is, should I look at this from the perspective of someone who grew up in the time of Bionicle or someone born later who discovered Bionicle recently and wants to enjoy it now. I know it can be hard to do that for anything that lasts a long time and some things you just had to be there to experience, but I do think Bionicle is a unique challenge.
But then, maybe that's not the point. Arguably pointless revelations like the Av-Matoran Bohrok connection seems pointless let alone every add-on canonization that came later, but I do think there were a lot of people at the time who wanted Greg to define everything so they could rush over to edit BS01. Maybe it's OK Bionicle was so confusing because at the time they were a lot of people who loved it for that. Most stories are lucky to have a huge and devoted fanbase during their run let alone to be able to gain fans years down the road.
My Answer:
Just have fewer extra-material things. Or in other words, Greg could have shown more restraint in canonizing things especially after Bionicle ended. I appreciate Greg spending so much time answering fan questions, but I do think that'd help the problem a bit.
The bonus for this is it doesn't cut any actual Bionicle content. You can enjoy the serials, books, short stories, and more, but at least there aren't a dozen-and-one facts you'd only learn by browsing BS01.
What do you think?