Ladon: Lord of Hesperides

Also adding to what I said earlier, there's also the fact that some things didn't really make much sense with the explanations given. That's not an elegant way to phrase it, but let me give a couple of examples. So there's an explanation in Island of Doom of where Avak got his powers--he tells the Toa Nuva he got experimented on by the Brotherhood of Makuta. Except we're told in supplementary material that Avak's always had his powers. So Greg came up with some explanation about how Avak just said that because it made him seem like he had connections and could cut a deal with the Toa if it came to that. Which was unlikely considering the other Piraka were shooting to kill at this point. And then there's Umbra, a light-elemental guardian of the Mask of Life who has a name that translates literally to 'Shadow.' Why? Greg said something like 'So the bad guys think he might not be so incorrigible and get up close/confide in him.' Except again, that doesn't make sense because that's not Umbra's MO--he announces himself and attacks, because he's not a roaming agent, he's just a guardian. I didn't mind much when it happened because in those days I was just so amazed that the author had thought of explanations at all, and that he interacted with the fanbase as much as he did. And still, I don't really blame him, per se, because that he was able to talk around these holes in the writing is still impressive in my book. But all in all, it was a bit obvious that things didn't add up.

I'm going to stop you right there, because this is factually wrong. Years ago, Greg F. made a topic on these boards detailing which elements of the story were planned and which were not, and it revealed that everything from the Ignition arc to Makuta being a species was in fact part of the original story bible. The topic disappeared with the forum archives, obviously, but it did exist, and there's no need to rewrite history in order to justify the (largely correct) viewpoint that the Bionicle story-line was a convoluted mess. But basically this. I think it's clear that once the serials hit, the canon was so big and convoluted and couldn't support itself. I don't know if we can blame that on one person, as such, but it was a fatal error in my opinion.

If only Pohatu could do something about those ROCKS... He...didn't have his elemental powers at the time? This was during the Bohrok-Kal arc... Hey wait. The Bohrok-Kal arc. That was pretty silly. Souped-up Bohrok, and the Nuva symbols having an importance that's never mentioned again. I'll take that as my suggestion.

Well that's cool at least. That sort of idea had crossed my mind, but I didn't quite know how to explain it? I'm glad you incorporated it into your design.

...was he? Because I distinctly remember him saying that he thought characterization was way off the mark from their Story Bible (especially for Pohatu and Lewa). If he had any sort of serious input on the story I thought that wouldn't have been the case.

Holy Mata Nui that's impressive. I do, however, think that there should be something between the muscle and the armor. As it is the gaps in armor leave some pretty noticeable vulnerable gaps that could easily be exploited even by nature. That much muscle uncovered by skin, while looking cool, just feels...too raw. At least for me.

2/5. I saw a post of yours earlier? I mean, I've been off the site for months/years, and I see someone more than once? I feel that's kind of impressive.

Actually I think this was supposed to be the case before the story got really started in 2001? Minus the holy wars, of course. But you can still find it in the character profiles in the 2003 video game, where they refer to the Matoran as worshippers of their respective Toa and that the Turagas "kept the legend" or some such thing. The board game also came with character profiles that gave the Toa different ages, with Tahu being the oldest starting from the beginning of the world, which sounds very godlike to me.

Wait, there's no wheels in the MU? I vaguely remember this. The idea was to make sure we knew that the technology was different than ours. As someone mentioned above, Umbra had skates, and the Toa Inika were baffled by it. I'd have to dig out my copy of Inferno, but they describe it as "gears on his feet" or something. So um, trivia, yeah... -GregF was really fond of "the monster doesn't understand the words, but understands the tone" when a hero was insulting them -The whole 'Never going left' joke was pretty good. -Jaller Ignika was supposed to have two swords in the story? We only know this because it's mentioned in the novel that got cut in 2007, and it's based off the original toy model that got changed. -The Maori Lawsuit, I guess? Has anyone brought that up yet?

I remember when they came out I had issues with the way the Toa Metru looked. The one thing I remembered though was that all their Toa Tools seemed very similar in shape (other than Matau's) when drawn in the comics. The sets kind of grew on me after a while though.

I'm inclined to say it could survive as a brand, though that doesn't necessarily mean it will. Remember all the stuff we had in G1? Movies, comics (that were distributed by DC), novels and a few video games (which admittedly weren't brilliant, but hey, you take what you can get). So yeah, I don't see BIONICLE necessarily becoming as big as Transformers, but it certainly had a presence in enough people's childhoods that I think it could stay as a brand. Whether or not LEGO sees it that way... well, we'll see.

Honestly? Hm... probably the Toa Metru commercial. I suppose it was never the most popular of them, but I really remember the action and the music, and how it just all got me really pumped. And isn't that what commercials are supposed to do?

That looks amazing! I'm always a fan of mash-ups of different pieces of fiction, and this is one that works really well.

Last game I played? Skyrim. I got the game about a year ago, and only just got the two expansions. So I've been having fun with it discovering the stuff everyone else already did three years ago.

Honestly? I don't remember. I may have stumbled on it before, but really what probably happened was that I happened to find it while searching for BIONICLE stuff on the Internet.

Greek mythology. I needed a dragon name, 'Ladon' seemed one that wasn't overused.

Huh. Wish I'd thought of that....

Last film I saw was Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. It was an interesting film, in that the acting was mostly overdone, the pacing was all over the place, and the score was kind of generic. That being said, the costumes were all really good, and it's one of the closest adaptations of the original book that I've seen. So it was entertaining enough.

I'd probably be a lot more miserable, because being able to find BZP was one of the things that kept me going through rough days in high school. It's also where (through Greg) I partially decided that I really wanted to be a writer. So there's that...

I was thinking about that too. Like, do we just point people to the wiki, or do we set up another reference forum like last time?

Toa, I guess? I suppose that's not a species as much as a subspecies of Matoran, but it'd be cool. Matoran by themselves are kind of helpless for the most part... Other than that... Skakdi? I mean, you'd get cool powers and a mean grin so that no one would mess with you.

The Internet Movie Database has a grand total of two cast members listed. So... I don't know. It's pretty weird that it doesn't appear in the credits...

Olmak, definitely. I'd be using it to hop all over the place. I've taken a lot of road trips in my life, so it'd be really handy if I could just skip those by opening a portal and popping through to the other side. Also, you could totally do some epic pranks with those dimensional gates....

Honestly, I never saw it that way. I figured there was just no reason to name all these species who don't have a role in the story. I know it's good world-building to have it all, but I figured there was enough going on that I didn't blame anyone for not bothering. I can understand how it ended up like this, certainly, but I can name every sentient species in my universe, and it takes very little effort to tack a 'ehlekian' or 'manas crab' kind of name onto a one-time model. Look at the Star Wars/Trek universes. Pretty much every species there has a name, no matter how little the creature was used. True, but the way I figure it, Star Wars/Trek has had decades to develop their universes. BIONICLE had less time. I agree though, that I'd really have liked to see more effort put into that aspect of the MU.

My guess? He's actually fast, he just moves slowly in front of everyone else. He only moves quickly when no one's looking/when other Matoran blink so it seems like he's teleporting.