LewaLew

Hmm. So far only one blatantly negative post. Perhaps BZPower is less closed-minded than I thought it had become since the BIONICLE Stars. This story matches up with many of our predictions. A reboot that retains familiar characters and settings, but simplified for new fans. I wish it well.

I always thought it was because it made for a more diverse set of characters. They already had three leaders of very different mindsets in Jaller, Hewkii, and Kongu, and even then, Kongu purposefully allowed the leadership role to fall on Jaller and Hewkii while he carried on the Air Toa's tradition of being the lighthearted one. Nuparu probably presented more versatility as a character since he was an inventor rather than a fighter. Plus, LEGO seemed to avoid purple as much as possible back then. Not that it really would have stopped them, since Nuparu's orange disappeared when he became a toa.

Yeah, something tells me that ain't gonna work. If that were to happen, best case scenario is that the old guard ditches this place because BIONICLE is dead to them, leaving this place to those who do like it. Worst case scenario is that we have the second round of the BIONICLE vs. Hero Factory: BIONICLE Sr. vs. Jr. or just have some discussion about the pros and cons of the new series like how we've been having generally solid discussion about the old line. (like, yeah some people will prefer the old line in some respects, but like, with how much smaller the community has become i don't think there'd be that level of animosity again unless we got a super-influx of new members who are super-super passionate about the old line and decry everything in the new line with disrespectful rhetoric, but we have mods and staff to deal with that if it were to happen). no reason why old fans and new fans can't chat about it together and act within the rules, even if they prolly won't see eye to eye on every subject. I was under the assumption that he was discussing what happens if a BIONICLE reboot proves heavily disappointing to the majority of the old fans. I highly doubt that if someone doesn't enjoy it that they will stay. The scenario you suggested is what I would hope for, but I don't think that the old guard will stay if they don't like the potential changes to BIONICLE. After all, why talk about something you don't enjoy? (unless you're complaining constantly, which would result in that worst-case scenario)

Yeah, something tells me that ain't gonna work. If that were to happen, best case scenario is that the old guard ditches this place because BIONICLE is dead to them, leaving this place to those who do like it. Worst case scenario is that we have the second round of the BIONICLE vs. Hero Factory: BIONICLE Sr. vs. Jr.

I don't think an anti-genwunner force is really assembling. We're mainly expressing concern that we may experience what other fandoms have experienced. We already did experience something like that to an extent when HF came out. I myself don't defend HF's story anymore. Of course, the main reason I ever defended it was because when I was doing so, HF wasn't even released yet. The best way to prevent an anti-genwunner backlash is for potential genwunners to think without nostalgia goggles. The main reason there was backlash against those who don't like HF was mainly because of that initial group who didn't even give HF a chance. By the time HF actually came out and we were able to judge it for ourselves, the stubborn "let's storm Denmark" crowd that we had satirized so often had become the stereotype. That may be avoided in this case, since unlike HF, a BIONICLE return would probably be faced with the opposite of what HF received. In other words, whereas HF had to overcome the hurdle of angry BIONICLE fans, BIONICLE would likely face undiluted premature praise. Once the honeymoon ends, however, there is still a risk of genwunners longing for the old days. The question is, "How many and how fervent will these supposed genwunners be?"

GregF had trouble remembering even the stuff he came up with on his own. I doubt that whoever is involved on the story team if it comes back will be able to do so either. They'll likely need to find some way to make it easy to follow for the story team as well, which would probably result in either much of the past story being scrapped or made irrelevant to the new story. TFOLs are heavily in the minority of LEGO fans. BZPower is an anomaly in that we are mostly TFOLs. TFOLs aren't a large enough market to sustain a theme, which is one of the reasons BIONICLE was cancelled in the first place, It's simply not good business for LEGO to make a theme aimed towards teens. We used to have one of those. In fact, we had an entire forum called the BIONICLE Reference Center, and an entire division of staff to maintain it, of which I was part. However, due to many reasons, the BRC and the Reference Team was shut down. The BS01 Wiki serves as a very effective source of BIONICLE history, and it always outshone BZP's BRC, in my opinion.

Actually, there have been discussions of BIONICLE's gender problems since the very beginning. You don't have a 5:1 male-female ratio and not notice until fifteen years later. BIONICLE has always had problems with gender, mainly because the target audience has always been young boys.

Another concern is whether the existing community will react well to any changes made to BIONICLE. Suppose it's a hard reboot or a reboot a la Disney's Star Wars where only the movies (or in this case, comics are more likely) count? While I still believe that most of what I dubbed "hero haters" back in the day only despised Hero Factory because it succeeded BIONICLE as LEGO's main constraction line, there were many who simply hated the kid-oriented story and characters. If BIONICLE comes back, I suspect that there will be far more of that in the new story, and will people react well to that? I'm concerned about whether we'll have more of our own version of genwunners than we expect right now.

This is one of the last things I wanted to see. That Orde argument was one of the bad memories of being on BZPower. Anyhow, I don't think Orde would be important if BIONICLE restarts. He was a very minor character in the big picture, and I figure that most of the story serials and previous BIONICLE story will be either unimportant or retconned as part of a mass reboot. Sort of like how the Star Wars EU is non-canon now.

Generally, I find that it's really difficult to be absent from real life for several months and then revive myself for about a week. I've done that twice since leaving BZP, however. BZPower is pretty much the only place of the two where teens and adults can have in-depth discussions about BIONICLE, though. Closest I can get to it is a conversation with my little brother, and he'd much rather talk about Super Smash Bros.

I'm more concerned about the way those things are discussed rather than what is discussed. For instance, suppose gender-exclusive tribes are still around and the male tribes still vastly outnumber female tribes. A talk about why that is can only be expected, and so long as people keep discussion on an amiable and easy-to-understand level for kids, that can turn out to be a very good topic. The issue we've had in the past discussing gender stereotypes in Toa Orde's backstory might have been a little too heavy, but the main problem is undoubtedly how angry several members got at other members during that time. I remember several members displaying anger towards Greg Farshtey over the issue, though I don't remember if COPPA had been around yet to keep him from personally interacting with BZPower yet. The most important thing I think is for the community to go out of its way to be more welcoming to new members and to provide an atmosphere where kids can talk about BIONICLE without being confused, alienated, or repelled by the established community. At the same time, BZPower ought to remain a haven for the old guard just as it always has. BZPower has gone on for almost half a decade now with an almost exclusively AFOL/TFOL member base, which results in a much different atmosphere than we once had before the Dataclysm. One thing I am certain of is that the blog's anger cycle has got to end. I don't know if it has done so already, since I haven't been around, but that's something that the community just needs to learn to let go. I would hate to see kids visit BZPower for the first time and see its members engaged in regular periods of hatred towards one another about things that both sides could just decide not to discuss and thus avoid sparking the cycle again. I hope that in the time I've been gone, that the problem has been solved.

It pretty much has to be Teridax and Krika. The most evil and the least evil.

I'm working under the presumption that you use "Continuation" to mean "picking up where it left off", and "reboot" to mean restarting in a fashion in which the previous story is no longer necessary to know. Under those conditions, I vote Reboot. I've forgotten more about BIONICLE than many other fans ever knew, and I don't plan on following BIONICLE even if it does restart. Therefore, I'd rather have a story that takes the same world and style of BIONICLE and perhaps a few familiar characters just for a tip of the hat to the past generation of fans while creating an entirely new plot that is more kid-friendly and easy to understand from year to year.

I'm concerned for how the community will react to whatever changes may be made to the theme, provided the rumors of BIONICLE's return are true. I think most of BZP has softened to the idea of change since Hero Factory first showed up, but in those later years, I also noticed that much of my interaction on BZP was in arguments, though not always about Hero Factory. I think a lot of the BZP members had grown to be more set in their opinions and more hostile towards those who saw things differently. Both sides of an argument were able to make good, valid points about the subject, but there seemed to be an underlying hostility nonetheless. There were also a lot of real-world, controversial issues that people began to apply to BIONICLE, Hero Factory, and Ninjago which bordered on political discussion without quite reaching that point. Discussion like that, while technically within the bounds of the rules, did not encourage friendly discussion; and even though I was not a participant in some of the cases of which I am thinking, I found those instances to be very negative experiences. I think, in order for the BZPower community to grow, "adult" issues like these will have to be avoided by older members for the sake of maintaining a welcoming atmosphere. Most kids will either not care or will be put off by discussions like those, and I think the old guard will need to be more prudent about which discussions will be beneficial to a community in which adults, teenagers, and kids all interact. After all, as a kid, I would not have understood why people were complaining about sexism in Toa Orde's backstory or perceived disrespect to Japanese culture in Ninjago and I definitely would have been confused over why the blogs went through cycles of hatred and passive aggression from both sides of several real-world issues. I've been gone for a while, only popping in for a lurk now and then, but from what I saw during one of my visits earlier this year (when that Ninjago cultural issue I mentioned was going on), this is still a problem for the BZP community. I still don't plan on returning even if the rumors are true--and I believe they are--but from my experience, this problem will have to be solved to provide a friendly place of discussion for kids. If this restart is to be successful, LEGO needs kids to get into BIONICLE like we all once did, and if it succeeds, BZP will need to become more kid-friendly while still being a home for older fans, just like LEGO would do with our favorite theme. Also, hi. I decided to post because of reasons. I'm only making another quick visit, though, mainly because of the rumors.

Ah yes, I forgot about Graalok. Unfortunately, that just shows that it's not a Nuva-exclusive ability, which doesn't help the discussion at hand. I believe that Vakama's inability to hold the absorbed energy is a sign of his inexperience. Either that, or he absorbed so much heat that it exceeded his own reserves. (Perhaps a Nuva in the same situation could hold all that energy?)

Again, Pohatu's time-delay ability was already known to be a Nuva-exclusive ability, but it doesn't show the scale of a Toa Nuva's power, which is what seems to be so elusive. I find the mention of Gali's healing Tahu interesting. It was the only example of something like that happening, though, so we don't know if it was a Nuva-exclusive ability or not.

Unfortunately, I can't think of any source that states the size of Karzahni. The Phantoka and Mistika are Toa Nuva, just with special adaptive armor from Artahka. I wouldn't be surprised if that concept of limited power didn't come up until 2004. Nonetheless, it was explained away by a lack of experience. The Toa Mata had been trained by Hydraxon, so that wasn't a concern for them.

So I suppose that proves only that we have no idea how much damage Gali dealt at all, let alone how great a Toa Nuva's full capacity is.

EDIT: From the looks of the map (http://biosector01.com/wiki/images/1/1b/Matoran_Universe.png), Karzahni is the same size as Metru Nui, if it is not smaller than the City of Legends. That comic should have shone some light, but unfortunately, it doesn't really. We've seen ordinary Toa create cyclones, tidal waves, and freeze cages of fire. (Or similar things) Now, while those acts likely drained the energy of those Toa far more than they would have drained the Toa Nuva, we have no in-story example demonstrating that. It's all just stated; never shown. The main portion of the story that seems like it should have demonstrated their power is 2008. Since they were fighting Makuta, they had very little reason to hold back, because Makuta can take it. Yet, they rarely did anything that seemed remarkably out of the ordinary. The closest instance I can think of is when Gorast disrupted Pohatu's power. It was something akin to a slow Nova Blast, yet it didn't deplete Pohatu's energy. Besides, all these are examples of stamina, which is harder to put an estimate on than raw power. As I mentioned before, Helryx has done comparable things even though she is an ordinary Toa. In contrast, the Toa Metru were quite weak, since their inexperience caused them to exhaust their powers quickly. The Toa Nuva have never been shown to exhaust their power at anytime. Not as the Toa Mata, and not as the Toa Nuva. We have very little knowledge about their elemental stamina. In my own imagination, I've always liked to assume that the Toa Nuva have a level of power that can actually give a Makuta a challenge. For instance, I've always presumed that an ordinary Toa of Water can probably flood a Wahi without using a Nova Blast, while Gali Nuva could sink an island if she cared to do so. However, there's no evidence for this. It's just my imagined estimate.

Usually, it's been attributed to the fact that they were unfamiliar with Skakdi at that point, and particularly unfamiliar with the Piraka. The Piraka also seem to be a little above the average Skakdi in terms of skill, since they were all former Dark Hunters.

I remember back during my first birthday while on staff, many people were surprised to find out I was only 16 (or was it 17?). I believe I was the youngest staff member at that time. Either that, or Zeddy had me by a few months. IRL, the most I've been mistaken for is a year older. Most of the people here at college presume that I'm a sophomore.

Well, it's been fun having this little return to activity this week, but I'll be heading back to inactivity starting Sunday. I'm likely to drop in again later on, and I'll still be here tomorrow, but, y'know, I got college to work on, and I believe I'll leave BZPower in the past. Unless BIONICLE ever starts back up again, and then maybe I'll come back for the reunion party.

I'm not doubting that they have greater power, nor am I forgetting that they can use special tactics like the one Pohatu used. My question is how much more powerful are they? Gali Nuva's Nova Blast is not a good example, in my opinion, mainly because we have never seen a comparison to it. Jaller's theoretical blast was already handicapped by the water as well, so it's hard to put a good estimate on it, and every other Nova Blast has been treated essentially as a nuke anyway, thus making it hard to determine the full extent of a standard issue Nova Blast. We don't even know if Gali's Nova Blast could have destroyed more than what it did, due to Karzahni being an island. Perhaps Gali's blast would have destroyed more if it had taken place on one of the continents instead of on an island. And Sumiki has a point, but hey, a lack of consistency never stopped BZPower from discussing anything.

Exactly how powerful are the Toa Nuva? We've always known that, somehow, the Toa Nuva are significantly more powerful than the average Toa. Sometimes it has been demonstrated through special abilities that only a Toa Nuva can do, but they were always supposed to have more raw amounts of power available to them as well. This trait, however, has not often been illustrated. It's not helped by the great power levels Toa are already shown to possess. Jaller's barely constrained Nova Blast was underwater, and thus was assuredly going to be weaker than the usual Nova Blast for a Toa of Fire, yet the Barraki and Toa Mahri alike acknowledged that even that would have devastated everything around it. Helryx also demonstrated extremely powerful abilities, though that fact was implied to be because of her exceptional skill in making the most of her powers. (The inverse is demonstrated by the Toa Metru, whose inexperience caused them to exhaust their powers quite quickly) So far, we have not seen a Toa Nuva do something that clearly establishes a greater level of power than these examples. Perhaps it's just my memory. My once-encyclopedic knowledge of BIONICLE has diminished over the last four years, and I cannot expect myself to remember everything. Do any of you recall an occurrence that truly illustrates the scale of the Toa Nuva's power versus that of ordinary Toa?

There was really almost nothing I liked about it, outside of the animation. The characters annoyed me. The plot annoyed me. The script annoyed me. And worst of all, it bored me. I suppose I can always give it a second chance, though.