Wrinkledlion X

It's just about the furthest thing from a canon source, but I remember there was a contest in 2001 to create your own Toa, and there were a bunch of drawings submitted by kids on the main page of BIONICLE.com. Each was accompanied by a little description of that kid's Toa.It's weird that I remember this at all, but one of them described their character as "the only left-handed Toa," so I'm just gonna assume that there's only one left-handed Toa—or possibly life form—in the entire Matoran Universe. It seems like the logical thing to do.

Ugh, this subject.I'm not going to argue too much on the actual story points, but I will point out a few details regarding the size of Mata Nui (both the island and the robot). Let's take a look:That's a rough approximation, but I can't do much better right now, as I don't have a head-on shot that shows his legs. What we can gather from this, however, is that the robot is roughly eight times the size of his own head. (It may be less than that, as we seem to be looking up at him.)We've known for a long time that the island of Mata Nui is exactly 357 kio long (303.91 miles), so we can calculate the robot's height as roughly 2,431 miles tall (303.91 x 8). That's a great deal smaller than 40 million feet, which is his official size—that's 7,575 miles tall, which would stretch high above even the exosphere of our atmosphere (6,213 miles). Even at the comparatively modest height that I've calculated for him, he still towers over the International Space Station, which is only about 200 miles up. It's difficult to tell what angle we're looking at him from in this picture, but it's clear that we're pretty far below him. It's safe to say that his head should be far, far beyond the ozone layer, or any blue part of the sky; he is firmly in the black up there.This is assuming an earthlike atmosphere, of course. If it's a far larger atmosphere, we'd have to assume a tremendously massive planet, but that doesn't fit with what we've seen over the years. We've seen objects fall at normal rates, and plenty of other everyday evidence that suggests a world much like our own.The simplest solution to this issue is just to accept that it makes no sense. I find that if you imagine everything as fantasy rather than scifi, you can just accept Mata Nui as "really big" and not worry about the details of it. In fact, I kinda wish other planets had never been brought into BIONICLE, because then we could just assume the world was flat, and this stuff would be a moot issue.

It's simply a much safer website than Google Video ever was, and I can't fathom why it isn't allowed when Google Video is.

The videos on it might be safe, but have you ever read the comments on the videos? Half of them are completely inappropriate.That being said, it will most likely be allowed if/when the advertising policy is updated.

I'll admit that's a valid point, but I still think it's worth allowing. We need to stay as relevant as we can considering that we're a site dedicated to an extinct toyline.

I'm still fond of using "an cool dude" as an insult, but I agree that its time is past. We ought to relax censorship. And although I know this will go unaddressed, I'm in favor of allowing access to a Certain Video Site (CVS). Google Video was allowed for the longest time, but that's no longer an active service, because Google actually runs CVS now. Not to mention that Google Video was totally unregulated, allowing pornography and anything else unsavory onto its servers. Barring the fact that CVS doesn't even allow pornography, they also have the ability to flag videos that are potentially inappropriate. It's simply a much safer website than Google Video ever was, and I can't fathom why it isn't allowed when Google Video is.

Mata Nui, because it's so well developed, and because it has that whole Polynesian feel. I'm also a big fan of the Skakdi's island, the name of which escapes me at the moment. It seems to have elements of Mata Nui as well as Metru Nui, except that it's all decrepit and war-torn.

On the subject of Greg's writing abilities...I would say that he's a very uneven writer, but not a bad one. When he's writing in an elevated style, he's fantastic. The main problem with Greg is that he can be self-limiting; he'll write in jokes and one-liners where they don't belong, and it comes across as lacking in confidence. (Think the embarrassing Wizard of Oz references in "Brothers in Arms.".) When he treats the story with appropriate dignity and really gives it room to breathe, however, he can produce some great stuff.His 2001-2003 comics kept a straight face, and allowed you to take them seriously. Same thing with the first half of the 2006 novels, before they degenerated into monotonous action sequences; those Karzhani and Voya Nui scenes were wonderful, and contributed to some of the best worldbuilding since 2001. Parts of the 2008 books were very good as well—Krika had some great character moments, and I was a big fan of the ending. Makuta's appearance in the stars was as dramatic a moment as anything from 2001, and in a sense it re-deified him. He was suddenly Nothing and Everything—a god of destruction not seen since the MNOLG.Greg's biggest problem is that he'd always let too many mundanities seep into the story. The worst example I can think of is the way he handled the big reveal of Mata Nui's true form. Watching Mata Nui awaken in that CGI animation was awe-inspiring: what WE saw was a towering god, his head reaching into the clouds, rising from an endless sea. His body contains the entire universe that we've explored for years. All-encompassing.But what did Greg call him? A giant robot.Well, jeez, I guess. Technically speaking, yeah, sure he's a giant robot. But isn't he a bit more than that? I mean, he's alive, he's full of living things—is he really any more of a robot than, say, Tahu? What a shockingly boring way to talk about something so grand! Now, for contrast, let's look at a quote from Makuta's Guide to the Universe. Narrated by Makuta himself, Greg adopts an elevated style:

Anyway, I think it's unfair to say that Greg is a bad writer. He's produced so much that I sincerely love, and beyond that he's also a great, hardworking guy. His main flaw is that he often chickens out and fails to live up to his potential.

I was never particularly interested in Roboriders or Throwbots, so when I first saw the ads for the Toa, I passed right over them to see what System sets there were. But one day, I noticed a picture of Tahu lavasurfing on the back of my LEGO catalogue, and I read the description. It told of how he was sent from the Heavens to defend the village of fire, and it described Vakama as an elder full of wisdom. There was no mention of them being robots or any of the things I had come to expect from previous Technic figure lines. This was something different—fantastic and magical. I ordered it, and managed to get Tahu and Vakama before the rest of the Toa were in stores.What really sealed the deal for me was the disc that came in Tahu's canister. It opened up this whole mythological world for me, full of Polynesian mysticism, elemental spirits, and the religious dualism of Mata Nui vs. The Makuta. I was just fascinated, more by the aesthetic of the story than the toys themselves. The crumbling ruins of Kini-Nui wreathed in vines, the stones used to tell the creation myth of the Tohunga, and soon after that, the mysterious telescope and sundial of the MNOLG. Though I've put BIONICLE behind me now, I still have a lot to thank it for. It still influences me in a lot of ways, mythologically, architecturally, and aesthetically. oh, and the toys were cool and you could make them fight each other

Gadunka Tohunga Marunga Badunga

The juxtaposition of the fairy winged pony and the Morbuzakh tendril is pretty sweet.

My post was saying that it's okay for anyone to watch it if they enjoy it, but there you go, I guess.

Just double some new ones over themselves. They give an added snap to the functions, for a bonus.

Just look at your banner: Sparkly butterfly wings on a fashion-designer unicorn named Rarity. That's pretty over-the-top girly. Not that that's a complaint—the in-your-face girliness is the biggest part of the show's charm. MLP sticks out from most programming aimed at young girls because it can tell a story with conflict, well-defined characters, and a sense of humor. It's clear that love went into the creation of this show, whereas most cartoons aimed at that demographic are miserable and soulless.

I'd say it definitely is super-girly, but that's okay because it's not terrible.Anyway, I realize I'm late to the party on this, but:

I didn't even know we still had hippies.

Sure, like those people who say red ink can't be used to mark incorrect test answers because "it'll make kids feel bad". Or the ones who demand things like not updating the scoreboard in a blowout because "the losing kids will get embarrassed". It sickens me.

That's awful and all, but I'm pretty sure it's the exact opposite of the "let everyone do what they want" mentality.Also, to Alyska: Alice's and Cinderella's movies are both from the Fifties, and Belle is from the Nineties. By no means are they early Disney heroines.

Ennio Morricone also did some great work in For a Few Dollars More. Look up "Sixty Seconds to What?" and "The Vice of Killing." Fantastic tracks. And though I've never seen the movie itself, I love his theme for The Big Gundown. I had it as my ringtone for a while.

One thing that has always bugged me was the way the Toa Nuva were handled upon their transformation. Recalling for a moment that this was 2002, all we had heard about the Toa up to that point told us that they were "spirits of the elements", incredible beings with inherent abilities tied to nature and the forces of the planet. There was a definite, though ambiguous, quality of reverence about it. Then, out of nowhere, they get a tacky "upgrade" and suddenly their powers are tied to some "cube" that randomly spawned at the same time. What? I still don't know how that even made sense, and it just killed the mystique about the Toa, because when the cube was stolen they lost their powers and everything that gave them character and history. (Plus, isn't it embarrassing being the only Toa who can't use their powers without an outside source?)

Yeah, the cube was definitely an awkward point in that. Cube aside, however, I think the Nuva transformation was probably the best-handled transformation we ever got. It actually had far-reaching effects, damaging the Toa's unity. Future "upgrades" would just get glossed over—besides new weapons, did the Inika really change at all as Mahri?—but a lot happened with the Nuva. I remember there was a really grave, ominous feeling when they first changed, and lots of fear that they wouldn't be able to handle their new power. I preferred the Mata's appearance, of course, but what you gonna do.

I also found the whole idea behind 2007 rather annoying. Oh dear, we have dropped our mask of life into the sea and now we have to go down there and get it. The story was good, but the fact that they were down there in the first place was just awkward.

I've got the opposite problem. I love the premise, but the execution made the year action-driven to the point of monotony. Anyway, it wasn't really an accident that the mask fell into the sea—it knew what it was doing when it flew down there.

So very off-model

I find it ironic.There are six main ponies (the mane six ) and they're all female.But the blue one is the most masculine.

It's simple.Pinkie Pie = LewaFluttershy = OnuaRainbow Dash = TahuApplejack = PohatuTwilight Sparkle = GaliRarity = Kopaka, I guessIt's no surprise it's so big on here.

I'm SO happy I don't have to deal with iTunes. I run Windows on my home computer, and the Windows version of iTunes is such a ridiculously feeble program that I'm pretty sure it's just designed to pressure people into buying Macs. With Android, it's just an issue of dragging and dropping songs into the phone like a USB drive.

Actually, if you change your iPhone settings in iTunes to "manually manage music" you can drag an drop things onto the little "folder" for the iPod on iTunes. I might actually want a nice Android phone after my friend downloaded a rom emulator. It's awesome! Or I atleast want a jailbroken iPhone, but I have to know if they would know whether you jailbroke it or not after restoring it.

My point is that I have a lot of illegally downloaded music.

If you want to get someone into ponies, I think they have to be pretty open to it from the start. Anyone who decides they're not going to like it beforehand is probably not going to be convinced. Those are my words of caution.

I still love BIONICLE, but the past is the past.

2/5. Hmm.

The 2008 serials got REALLY busy. Also, the final two story-years. 2009 was actually one of my favorites, but it was only meant as a stepping stone that would lead to greater things... When everything abruptly ended in 2010, it turned it into a weird little epilogue, reducing the punch of everything that happened from 2001 to 2008. If they had just ended 2008 with Makuta being defeated, it would have worked so much better as a cohesive story. I actually really liked the twist that they were all inside Mata Nui, and I thought the official animation of his awakening was probably the most awe-inspiring sequence since 2001. I just wish it had been treated with a bit more DIGNITY after the fact. The fact that he was constantly referred to as a "robot" really bugged me, in particular—sure, he's a robot, but he's a living being full of other living beings, and in that sense he's not much more of a robot than any other character! It was a wonderful twist and all, but the way it was described after the initial reveal was so painfully mundane! Here he is, this giant spacefaring god rising out of the sea, with a whole universe of followers inside him, worshiping him blindly, unaware that he surrounds them always—and what do we call him? A robot. Oh, okay. It's okay, guys, he's just a robot.

I just recently bought the LG Thrill, which runs Android, and I gotta say it's a fantastic phone. I haven't explored the market too much yet, so I can't comment on that, but I don't imagine I'll have much use for it anyway—I've never used too many apps beyond the simply practical ones. The 3d camera is a very cool feature to play with, as well, but the main thing for me is the music player. I'm SO happy I don't have to deal with iTunes. I run Windows on my home computer, and the Windows version of iTunes is such a ridiculously feeble program that I'm pretty sure it's just designed to pressure people into buying Macs. With Android, it's just an issue of dragging and dropping songs into the phone like a USB drive. Refreshing. Anyway, did anyone else hear that Steve Jobs was adopted? His biological father was actually a Syrian casino owner and self-made millionaire. It seems to run in the family.

1/5 I don't know you, but I'm sure you're famous in your home country.