~kh

Congratulations! You've discovered the internet.

So...you revive our topic to complain about something completely out of control?Thanks.We'll be putting up all subsequent episodes on the channel linked to in ReBrick, since we can't edit the front page here anymore once it's closed and we will not be remaking this topic. Check out all future episodes of TTV up on our video channel. It's been a great run, BZP.

Yeah, the plan was to have another round of voting, but no one bothered to make a blog post for it and time was running short so I decided to just reuse my old template and go from there. The way it stood, either someone had to take immediate charge or nothing was going to happen.That being said, there is a Skype conversation where we do some more priority organization. If you have Skype and want to join, just add me (Kahinuva is the username) and say you're there for the calendar. I'll add you to the conversation.Those of you who don't, PM me. I've received several PMs which I will be replying to later today.

Plan is to do it again this year. Please PM me if you're interested. The usual invites will also be making their way around for those who are still here.

If I'm not mistaken, Mata Nui granted everyone this ability to communicate after the battle was over. There really is no set time for him to do it elsewhere, since by the time the robot touches down on Bara Magna, he's already in a robot of his own. I also don't believe he would be able to send this ability to them from Bara Magna. First, the outershell seems to serve as a sort of boundary against the Mask, as evidenced by the Mask turning back from its silver to near black state back to gold once it was outside of the robot. Additionally, if he could manipulate them from outside, why not just evolve them into more powerful forms, or at least give as many people as he could enhanced abilities? You'd think that would be of more importance than mere communication, as powerful as the latter could be.In terms of the Agori just happening to understand the Matoran, I also think that's mostly unlikely. I've always thought that the Matoran communicated in a more electronic beeps and whistle kind of way. Even if they didn't, the barrier would be less like a different dialect and more like, well, people with little to no programming experience looking at a bunch of complicated code. Even though the code is based on the English language, it is still complicated with its own measures and people not skilled in that language can find it impossible to understand.

Okay, so, I was looking through the story Journey's End and came across this passage. Its right before the battle starts, while Tahu is still Tahu Nuva and he and Takanuva are just coming out of the Mata Nui robot: Okay, so, two characters meet, nearly fight, snappy banter and then into battle. Its a normal type of passage from a BIONICLE book. Why, then, is this always critical "Kahi" character claiming there to be some sort of discrepancy?Well, it was hard to miss at first. I missed it the first time, actually, because it's really kind of simple.They're talking.The Agori and Matoran languages are different. As we know, at the end of the battle, after Teridax had been defeated, Mata Nui used the Mask of Life to enable the Matoran and Agori to communicate. In fact, there was a little deal about Lewa not being able to talk with the Agori due to him not being there when Mata Nui did that and was sort of floating in space.But here Tahu and Takanuva are, talking to Gresh like nobody's business, before Mata Nui does anything of the sort. The Mask of Life hasn't come onto the scene yet, as his first interaction with Tahu was to turn him back into Tahu Mata. They talk to each other literally the moment they are able to see each other, so there's no time for anything to happen.How is this possible? Why can they do this? Is this more bad plot planning?Discuss.

Okay, so I've just been back on after who knows how long of a hiatus because hey people are coming back and God knows this forum needs it.Nice to see the updates, Cal. I was going to respond to your PM, but I figured that with all of the updates you've made lately, I might as well just comment on the stuff you've done and continue on from there where others could perhaps build on it.First off, I'm glad you're sticking with the chibi style. That is a fundamental base of this series and it's why I loved viewing this. I also loved the presentation of your panels, how they seemed to be taped to a posterboard.As far as text goes, I actually really liked the old text, especially with the sort of half-faded square word bubbles. Very nice retro feel. Change is also good, though, and I think you would benefit from experimenting with each one. Out of all of the ones you've given, definitely a veto on the pixel fonts in 1 and 4. They don't fit the style and kind of distract you from everything else going on. The text and the content need to flow with each other.2, 3 and 5 I'm all in favor of. I honestly can't say which one I like better. They all fit the artwork and compliment it well. What it really does come down to is what kind of impression you want to make with the viewer. Never underestimate the effect typography has on how the reader views your comic. You have a lot more freedom with this since your style is more distinct than most other series, but the effect will vary as to each one.2 has a sort of old-school feel to it, what with the typewriter feel and all, as well as (and this is only me personally) seems to carry a bit of a sarcastic overtone. 3 is more retro than old-school, which fits in fantastically with the art style (single tone color, saturated pallet), but also appears more loud and bombastic, like everyone is shouting or overstating what they're saying. 5 has nice, varied and wavy lines that echo the handdrawn graphics and compliments them the most, but it also makes things look a little scratchy in nature and may or may not end up being harder to read than the others.Each of those makes the series appear different, and its up to you to figure out what its supposed to be and what you want the reader to think alongside it.The painted backgrounds are extraordinarily well done, and they're something I wish I could do myself. Granted, the rest of the series has, up to now, has had a very dirty, grunge feel (which was punctuated by the contrastingly clean artwork, graphics and text), so I'm not sure how the painted will go alongside the rest of your backgrounds. Unless, of course, you're completely redoing all of them, but that would also arguably change the entire look of the series. I've loved the contrast between the art and the backgrounds before, so while I'm interested to see what will come of it, I'm also kind of hoping for the original look to continue.That's pretty much all I have to say at this point. It's nice to see you back. People coming back usually inspires me to make some sort of revival, so you might be seeing more of me around, depending on how long you stick around. Like I said, this forum needs it. T!lted was one of the best series I've read on here and I'm more than looking forward to its return. Hit me up if you need anything. I'll be around.Ciao.Oh, and you can get rid of all your PGSes as long as they're not me.

1. What is Takanuva's destiny Av-Matoran ability? It was confirmed that Av-Matoran retain their abilities when they become Toa, so I was curious as to what it is.2. Can the Red Star still teleport the dead MU Inhabitants to it now that the MU is effectively destroyed, and if not (out of range or something), how was it able to reach the Matoran in canisters in Voya Nui to turn them into the Toa Inika?That second one is kind of a hotly debated topic for my group: one side says that the Red Star needed the MU to find where to teleport, the other (my side) says that the Star can reach outside of the MU and that the Inika on Voya Nui were proof of that. This'll be interesting to hear from.

I agree. Stories should be realistic, not go out of their way to add flaws just for the sake of doing so. However, I know of a way to do it realistically. Well, yes, but I think just showing Mata Nui learning would still fall under "being realistic". I'm not saying that what happened isn't possible or realistic, but that the story of him actually learning with the inhabitants of Bara Magna is as well. I also think that it's just more interesting and offers for better protagonist vs. protagonist material, rather than have the main protagonist learn his main lesson off-screen and not even mention it after the fact.There is that point of Mata Nui and how younger kids would view him. That may or may not have influenced that decision.What mostly got to me was that I never would have found that out otherwise. That just wasn't shown anywhere in 2009. The fact that they not only had a great idea for 2009 that would have made that story year all the more interesting but just didn't use it...that's what surprised me.

Let's say I bomb a test. Say, a math test. The next week, I come back in, look over the test, and rework the problems on it. I learn that whatever concept that I didn't fully understand matters now, and ace the next one.Or let's say I'm in an army attacking a fortress. I'm the commander of the army, but I don't really care about the people under me that much. When the battle comes, they all desert me and I get run over and am forced to flee. A year goes by, and I recruit new members to my army, and I go out of my way to care for them. I've learned from my mistake, and I win the next battle.Mata Nui didn't care about his inside inhabitants (the mistake). He got busted by Makuta (like me flunking the test or losing the battle). Shooting through space, he has some time to reflect and realize that the people inside of him do matter, because the mistake of not paying attention to his insides caused him to be shooting through space toward what could be a collision with a star or something.Now it is possible that he could not learn from that mistake, and I agree it would be an interesting story to tell, but it is evident from the story that he did learn from it. Why wouldn't he? Just because he was the ruler of a universe didn't make him infallible or deserving of any respect. He just got booted from the universe, proof that he was fallible and well, not too high on the intelligence scale. I can just picture him thinking to himself "I seriously should care about the little people next time!". Why? Because one of the little people got him. And his response to that injustice? Resolve a Matoran civil war by locking combatants in cells with angry Rahi? Take over a city and erase the memories of its inhabitants? Terrorize inhabitants of said city with beasts and other machines, etc? I could go on. There's a better way to handle lack of recognition and the top guy's inattention. Yes, what Mata Nui did was wrong. But that doesn't justify Teridax's actions, anymore than my mother locking me out of the house justifies me stealing from her jewelry box the next day.I think you misunderstood what I was trying to say. I'm not saying that Makuta was a good guy all along, or that Mata Nui couldn't have realized the importance of the Matoran on the way down. I'm just stating that putting those things into the forefront makes them interesting. Makuta's actions were not justifiable, not in the slightest. But developing him more would make his character more interesting. Same with Mata Nui. Making him more of superiority-complex riddled individual and actually having him learn to care about others is much more effective than just mentioning it on the way down.In the case of Mata Nui, it makes them imperfect people with flaws and reasons and emotions and lessons they need to learn. In the case of Makuta, it gives us something more than just a world-conquering maniac, an actual three-dimensional character, if you will. The whole "jealousy" thing has been mentioned since the beginning of BIONICLE, but there's so much more you could go into examining, even with just cobbling different facts from the story arcs at large. True, having a Freudian Excuse can have varying results depending on the writer, but given what we have it could be used to a great effect, albeit, like I said before, with a small tinkering of the origin.

What was "mentioned off-handedly or implied" that could make Teridax (and Mata Nui) a more three-dimensional character than you saw?The big thing that stood out was that Journey's End explicitly mentions that Mata Nui didn't really care about the MU inhabitants at all until he went to Bara Magna. That in and of itself changes everything. It changes perspective on everything we've thought of since we first heard the name Mata Nui. It can even change Makuta's motivation itself. And it could especially change 2009.I realized the reason why I disliked the end of 2009 so much. It wasn't just that a lot of the characters there were kind of bland. It was the Mata Nui character. He was so perfect. He taught them all everything. He didn't need to learn anything except how to fight. He taught everyone else how to be heroes and gave them elemental powers to boot.But he just a couple minutes ago didn't care about his inhabitants and he got booted out of his giant robot body. Where's the character development in that? Why was he so eager to help people and get back to everyone as soon as he landed? Why did he start caring about everyone automatically? He had lived his entire life as the most powerful being in existence, with workers going day and night with the only purpose of serving him. He should have been that when he landed. A stranded hero with a god complex that has to learn to help and care about people instead of himself. He has to learn everyone is just as important as he is. That would have made 2009 a lot more interesting, as well as the Mata Nui character much more interesting.And Teridax...don't even get me started with Teridax. This entire revelation could change everything about the way we viewed him. He spends his entire life working to protect these people who ignore him and instead worship Mata Nui, who doesn't even care about them in the slightest. AND he was supposed to be the second robot to reform Spherus Magna, but then the Great Beings just left. In fact, if you just tweak his origin, you could easily reform the brother-like structure they had in 2001 and...You know, I think I might just go off and write some fan-fiction about this. I think I'm on to something here. This could work.

Well, I sat down and reread a lot of the saga guides from BS01, as well as several of the Story Serials and Journey's End. What really interested me was that there was a ton of stuff just mentioned off-handily or implied that could have made Teridax a real, three dimensional character. But none of it was really brought out or shown in story. Instead, we got a Saturday-morning world/universe conquering villain. And it didn't help that there was also the same kind of stuff implied to make Mata Nui an actual, interesting character in 2009 and heighten his character development and interactions with the Bara Magnans. But instead we got the pure embodiment of Mr. Goody Two-Shoes, ready to help and to please and to win the day as soon as he got ejected from his robot body.

OOC: I was going to make Allison part of the SOIB, but after reading the article I realized that they were made to be a blend of both superhuman and human field agents. SCD is intended as a purely human precautionary division, I would guess possibly being a subdivision of Homeland Security. A lot of people view the division as being a metaphobic act by the government, however.I could rewrite Allison as being part of the SOIB, though that would change the original dynamic I had in mind for the character. Alternatively, I could have SCU be a possible branch of Interpol (or perhaps just an privately owned international based team in general, since I'm not quite sure about Interpol procedures and jurisdiction), and have her team work on a more international basis (which would distinguish it from the US stationed SOIB).Actually, that latter option could be worked in quite well. A privately sponsored team would free me up from sticking to police/federal agent procedures all of the time. I'll edit her bio with that, if that's okay.Again, is there a limit or something with how many NPCs I can sort of create here?

[Omega Prime|Kyle Hanaka][Glass Tower Hotel, New York City, New York]Kyle picked himself off from the floor. He held his fist to his mouth and emitted a short hollow cough before fully standing up."Yeah," he replied. "I think I am, at least."He looked around the scorched room, the smell of burnt wood and plaster only outweighed by what he could only assume was the result of the explosion. "Where'd she go?"OOC: If I remember right, I'm allowed two characters, right?Real Name: Allison BlanchardAlias: PandoraAppearance: Late twenties/early thirties, well built, medium height. White overcoat, white hat. Thin, square glasses, black tint. Medium-long blonde hair in a ponytail.Power: No officially recognized metahuman abilities (extreme skill with accuracy, but no metagene/enhancements found). Martial arts and firearms training. Former freerunning in younger years Tactical genius. Eidetic memory. Glasses contain computer readout (HUD system).Allegiance: United States Special Crimes Unit (SCU), decidedly new branch of government. Originally the New York Special Crimes Division (NYSCD), but recently received government funding for a more wider reach.Area: Edwardsville, Wyoming (born), New York City (current base of operations)Bio: Alison is the head of the United States Special Crimes Unit, a former division of the NYPD that dealt specifically with metahuman activity. She was specifically trained in order to take down metahuman criminals in place of superhuman intervention. She's not entirely ungrateful at superhuman work, but tends to view most of them as sort of time bombs that could go off at any second. She thinks that the "regular" humans should be more prepared, and that the metagene would, for the safety of all, be best "put back into the box", hence the nickname "Pandora". Keeps a running database of metahumans she runs across via her team's own private intranet (graciously provided by Uncle Sam).I don't suppose I could create an NPC team for her, perhaps?

Depends on whether you mean villain or antagonists; there's been plenty of antiheroes/antivillains in popular media. That being said, Teridax was a very good villain, at least as a functioning Big Bad for the franchise, though I wouldn't say that he was the best one. His motives sort of strayed the more the story went on. At first, he was jealous of Mata Nui (who we assumed was just another being like Teridax at the time), but then decided to launch a plan to take over Mata Nui. That worked, but once he became Mata Nui it was kind of moot because he revealed who he was and no one really worshiped him at all and instead just fought him. And then he decided that he was just going to destroy other worlds and stuff because he could and he was a giant robot. I think, at least. Like I said, it got kind of confusing.There's definitely been better villains in popular media, though. In terms of manipulation and planning, Watchmen's Ozymandias has a good backing, and Doctor Doom's master plan in Secret War led him to basically achieving what Teridax ultimately did. As a comic fan, those are the ones that pop straight into my mind, but [another site] has a ton of examples listed in the Chessmaster and XanatosGambit articles. Teridax does stand pretty well though; he's above many kid's villains today, but I wouldn't necessarily go about saying that he's the best, no.Honestly, I would have loved to see Tuyet be developed more and fleshed out. Its really the fact that she is sort of right that kind of makes her character compelling. Obviously, she's going about it the wrong way, but the fact is that after all is said and done the Toa are really just glorified janitors who have to wait until someone makes a mess before they can clean it up if they stick that close to the Code.

Okay soI don't know about you guys like what you like and what you playBut I love Nintendo exclusives and I've always bought their consoles for their exclusivesI mean its no secret at all that Nintendo has like the widest range of exclusive titles for their consoles and I personally love playing pretty much all of them so I'll be buying it for thatAnd the fact that it can play other console specific games is great too. Granted I don't know if they'll always be able to but still I'll enjoy it while I canBut I have to address like two arguments here:1. PS3 had a lot of power but not a lot of games, ergo power of the console doesn't mean anything. Like I said, Nintendo houses probably the widest range of popular exclusive titles developed in-house so that shouldn't be a problem unless you don't like those games by which yeah buying the WiiU would probably be a bad idea.2. LEGO City is only being developed for the WiiU, therefore I hate it. Welcome to the world of corporate releases bro. Exclusivity has been the driving force behind the Nintendo empire and they've probably put a lot of money into making the game happen. There's plenty of valid reasons to hate the WiiU, but I don't think that an exclusive game on that platform (which literally everybody in the games industry does) is enough. Having it exclusive is kind of the point, that's why the concept even exists in the first place.Anyhow, I'm interested in the WiiU, but like with the 3DS, I'm holding out until something comes out that I know I'll play. For the 3DS it is English localization of Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney, Gyakuten Saiban 5 and possibly the announcement of a Majora's Mask port. For the WiiU, I'll wait until they get their first party titles up and going, specifically the new Zelda and Smash Brothers.

OOC: Yeah, well, mostly. He's sort of searching for sharp objects. After seeing Omega's approach, his goal right now is to just slash at her if she gets out of the field, cutting off her bandages and stuff left and right.

Quick update: back in school, busier than I've ever been before, but I plan on returning back to the comics scene at least by the 31st. I've been working on several projects at the same time that should been making their way onto here at some point.In the meantime, here's the latest development in-universe:Please link to images that are over 500kb!

[Omega Prime|Kyle Hanaka][Glass Tower Hotel, New York, New York]NononononoNot like this. Please not let it be like this.Paper down the throat. Paper. Not like this. Please.He coughed, violently, trying to eject the paper from his throat. Hraaaaar. His body seemed to take control, an inner force throwing itself from within himself and feeding the paper out. Adrenaline pumped through him as his powers, almost by themselves, forcibly slithered the paper from his mouth back out.Omega was already throwing himself at the paper-wrapped perpetrator, enclosing her in some sort of energy field. He wasn't sure if that would hold her. Didn't matter.Enraged, his fist clenched as the shards from the shattered glass bottles levitated around him. He was sick of this already. This was the second time he had died in the last thirty seconds. He wasn't going to go down now, barely thirty minutes since he even donned his makeshift costume. He had underestimated everything and forgotten what was truly important here. No time for this. The hit and miss tactics, the turn-table waiting rounds, the inane banter. Why couldn't she just shut up?Enough of this. He wasn't going to sit back as the awe-struck fanboy anymore. No more hot-headed charging into battle, no more misplaced sense of justice or heroism. Survival. He wasn't ready to die.Shards. Splinters. Anything. Everything. Paper. Tendrils. Crouching. Shrinking. Shields. Screaming.He was going to get out of this and he was going to get out of this alive. He would tear her to shreds and throw the pieces into the sun. He would rip off her face and shatter her remains into grains. He would do anything to keep alive.Whatever it takes.OOC: Sorry, Half-Dragon, I'm not exactly sure what the sharp object you were talking about was; hopefully that didn't detract from much. @Kumata: Quick note, this should still end in a curb-stomp-battle (at least, where its directly Prime vs Apep), seeing as how it doesn't make much sense for a new power to so easily take out a more trained/powerful individual in terms of direct combat.

[Omega Prime|Kyle Hanaka][Glass Tower Hotel, New York, New York]Well, that was a dismal failure.Chalk it up to experience, at least. Should've opened up with a psionic wave or something.Bandages coursed around his neck, strangling him. Not how he wanted to go. Time was ticking. He needed a way out. He was trying to push out from his neck, which he had admittedly never tried before. Not much luck. Barely enough to take a breath here and there.Something she said. Omega's symbol on his back. Maybe, just maybe, she thought he was his sidekick. Omega Boy or something like that. Same powerset but in a smaller and more vulnerable package. All she had seen was him fly. She wouldn't know he was a psionic.Worth a shot.He wrapped his arm around the bandages that held his neck, like he was trying to wrestle them from her. Then he leaned back, throwing his arms forward so that his back was parallel to the floor. Legs crouched, he kicked them forward, a powerful wave emitting from the motion of the kick and ramming into the mummified terror right in the stomach. The rest of her bandaged tendrils reached forward, but the moment had shocked her just enough to slightly loosen the hold on her makeshift noose. Kyle pushed away from her, but the strips of cloth whipped out and snagged his foot, violently snapping him out of his mental trajectory and sending him crashing to the floor.

[Omega Prime | Kyle Hanaka][Glass Pillar Hotel, New York, New York]Glass windows and wooden tables. So that's how these things were fought.Kyle wasn't ready to admit it, to Omega or to himself, but he had gotten far too lost in the escapade. It shouldn't be possible to lose a living renegade from the Museum of National History, but there was a lot more to the hero thing than he had previously thought.Prime time for an entrance? Primed for action?He had taken to watching the battle. He had fought "normal" humans before. They were easy enough, really. The simplest of pushes threw off their aim, and from there it was just a matter of pushing them into the nearest sharp object. Powers were something he had taken care to avoid, though. Now there wasn't really any avoiding it now.You're about to get primed? Prime time of my life?He would have love to say that he was standing back for tactical analysis, but the truth was this was just awe-inspiring to watch. He'd never been privy to a true battle, not up close, anyways. He'd seen the videos, of course, and he saw Gadgeteer smash a Sharkman through two buildings over him once, but he had never seen an actual battle. It wasn't until the table hit that he remembered why he was even there.Unleash my primal rage? Just in prime to save you?He took a good look at the two, strafing around, trying to find a place where he wouldn't hit Omega straight on. He thought he was far enough so that the King Tut reject didn't see him, but he couldn't be sure. One way to find out.Prime time for a beatdown? Time to prime you for battle?Yeah. The banter really wasn't his thing.Better to say less and hit hard anyway.He charged.OOC: School has been terribly busy, but I have some free time finally so here I am. Sorry for holding you up, Kumata and Half-Dragon.

Oh, blurry jpeg'ed Sonic sprites! Memories, memories...Yes I haven't exactly been uber-active around here but I always check in whenever you make something new. I don't always post, but I check. =PHilarious work like usual.

IC: [Kyle Hanaka | Omega Prime][League of Salvation Headquarters, New York City]Kyle looked around, unsure of what to do, then started off after Omega. His original lead was a bust. There wasn't much else he could do at this point. The both of them went from the hall back into the New York streets. He thrust both hands down as he pushed off, levitating in the air, then looked back."Wait...can you fly? What's your powerset?"OOC: Sorry for the long hiatus. Schools been keeping me extremely busy. Weekend, though.