Anyone remember darkmedia?

[Master Inika]

darkmedia was/is? a YouTube channel that made, among other things, BIONICLE music videos in the mid-late 2000s. They were some of the first BIONICLE fan videos (and some of the first YouTube videos at all) that I ever watched. They are extremely nostalgic to me, and I fear these videos have become lost media.

darkmedia's videos were titled simply, usually just "bionicle [name of character]" and featured clips, almost exclusively from the Miramax trilogy, over a song. These videos were my first exposure to some of my favorite bands. Even now, rewatching the Miramax trilogy, I almost expect to hear the songs they picked at certain scenes. I watched them over and over and there was probably once a time I could have recreated them entirely by memory.

These are the darkmedia videos I knew existed (the categorization is my own system; I cannot say when/in what order they were released):

 

Toa Nuva

bionicle tahu [song: "Papercut" by Linkin Park]

bionicle gali [song: "Only Hope" by Mandy Moore]

bionicle pohatu [song: "Headstrong" by Trapt]

bionicle kopaka [song: "Numb" by Linkin Park]

bionicle lewa [song: remix of "His World" by Zebrahead]

bionicle onua [song: "Someday" by Nickelback]

 

I keep a list of particularly nostalgic YouTube videos, including original publication dates. "bionicle pohatu" is part of the list, so I can say with certainty it was released on July 30, 2007. I only included "bionicle pohatu" just because it happened to be my favorite. Believe me, I now wish I wrote down the dates of them all. I feel like all the videos I mention in this topic were published at around the same time. None felt "newer" or "older" than the rest. I began watching YouTube videos around 2007, and I feel like I was familiar with all of darkmedia's BIONICLE videos by 2008.

 

"bionicle lewa" is especially noteworthy. It featured a remix of "His World" by Zebrahead that I have never been able to relocate. In this version, the vocals were suppressed to the point they were basically inaudible. You could hear him singing in the background, but no specific words. The remix felt more techno than the original song. The video also featured a shot at the very beginning of Lewa I think that was from BIONICLE: The Game, which is the only shot from a darkmedia video I can recall not from the Miramax trilogy.

 

Toa Metru

bionicle vakama [song: "Here I Am" by Bryan Adams]

bionicle nokama [song: "End of the World (Laugh & Peace MIX)" by Ayumi Hamasaki]

bionicle onewa [song: "You Can't Take Me" by Bryan Adams]

bionicle nuju [song: "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Green Day]

bionicle matau* [song: "American Idiot" by Green Day]

bionicle whenua* [song: unknown]

 

*along with my nostalgic YouTube videos list, I keep a separate diary-like list of YouTube videos that I have watched. "bionicle matau" and "bionicle whenua" were not on it just because I happened to not care for them as much, so perhaps they were capitalized. I do remember they existed, Matau's song was "American Idiot," and Whenua had a song in his video that I did not care for and do not remember what it is.

 

Miscellaneous

bionicle gali and kopaka [song: unknown]

bionicle if everyone cared [song: "If Everyone Cared" by Nickelback]

Bionicle Jaller and Hahli [song: "Feel Fine" by Tune Up!]

Bionicle Nidhiki [song: unknown]

bionicle rakshi [song: unknown]

Bionicle Tahu and Gali [song: unknown]

bionicle toa lhikan [song: "Move Along" by The All-American Rejects]

 

I distinctly remember that "bionicle if everyone cared" was the only video he made based around a song and not a BIONICLE character. At least some clips it featured were from the scene in Mask of Light where Gali, Kopaka and Lewa cure the poisoned Tahu. Tahu's line "I am alive, and in your debt" was included and edited in over the song, another unique feature of that video. darkmedia's catalogue otherwise did not feature any audio editing that I remember.

 

All of these videos were in my personal list. The capitalization differences and misspelled "rakshi" are original to how they were published (I think).

 

Conjectural videos

This section is for BIONICLE YouTube videos I remember and can no longer locate, but who I cannot say for sure were from darkmedia or not.

 

I remember two distinct music videos focused on Vakama Hordika. One was to "Animal I Have Become" by Three Days Grace and the other was to "Away From Me" by Evanescence. Maybe one was darkmedia and one was someone else.

 

There were also two distinct Nuju Hordika videos. One featured "The Tension and the Terror" by Straylight Run and the other was "Points of Authority" by Linkin Park. I believe the Straylight Run video had a comment from someone saying it was a good video, but the song selection was ill-fitting to Nuju.

 

I also recall a video for Roodaka and one for Sidorak, possibly both darkmedia, possibly one of them was, possibly neither were. Roodaka's song was "Naughty Girl" by Beyoncé and Sidorak's was "Rave Techno" by DJ Mangoo.

 

More on darkmedia

Their channel had a logo consisting of a black background with two horses drawn in purple, facing each other (or maybe facing away from each other?) like a heraldic symbol. The horse graphics were quite nice, but looked like they had been pasted into MS Paint, slightly pixelized. There might have been purple text between or below them. It was his channel thumbnail I believe as well as being featured at the start of each video.

The videos had credits listing the song title and artist, except (I think?) Nokama's. I remember wanting to know that song for ages but not being able to because I did not understand the Japanese words, so I did not know what to look up. I thankfully Shazamed it while it was still up. Otherwise, I might have never been able to hear it again. In the credits to Lewa's video, the song was listed as something like "his world remix," which led me (at age 11) to believe that was the title of the song (as in, "his remix of the world") and I was unaware there was an original version for some time.

darkmedia also had I think multiple videos on the TV show Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! I do not think I watched them, but I knew the thumbnails from his channel page.

There still exists a darkmedia YouTube channel from 2006, but its thumbnail is a photo of a pair of cats and it only contains two cat videos. I do not know if this is the same darkmedia only with a new thumbnail and privating all his old videos, or the darkmedia I remember changed his channel's name or deleted it.

I suppose I just put all this info down just for posterity's sake, in case anyone else shares my nostalgia for this specific obscure BIONICLE YouTuber. His videos were still up as late as 2022. It's hard to believe this content was once there for me to watch whenever I want, now I might never see it again.

 

EDIT: I just remember another one. This one's title was something like, "bionicle matau and vakama" and featured Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together," including clips of Matau and Vakama from LoMN and WoS, starting with them meeting in the Great Temple as Matoran and ending with their confrontation in the Coliseum.

I also want to mention this video, Bionicle wars revenge of the sith (March 9, 2009 by fireballgta2), which I just looked up today and am so thankful is still up. I remember a BIONICLE/Star Wars Episode III crossover video, and while I'm pretty sure it's this one, there are small differences between this one and how I remember it that make me think there might have been another version by darkmedia or someone else that is now lost:

1) I have no memory of the text on top of the entire video

2) I have no memory of the stop-motion portions; I thought it was entirely Miramax clips

3) I remember it as having been part of a series of BIONICLE/SW crossovers, with audio from the SW prequel trailers and visuals from the Miramax trilogy. I am pretty sure there was an AotC version and possibly a TPM one as well. Additionally, this video has this description: "Turaga Lhikan and Dume magically turn into Norik and Sidorak. Onewa also gets recast as C3P0. Other than that it's the same as the other trailer." This makes me think maybe this user did have more videos that he has since deleted. Additionally, Onewa as 3PO, with that specific clip, is something I clearly remember. At the same time, 2009 feels too late; I feel like this is closer to a 2007 memory.

Edited March 28, 2025 by Master Inika

[Bambi]

I've never heard of darkmedia until now. Only mention I could find was a guy on Reddit who said darkmedia was his favorite Bionicle content creator. I also found a playlist claiming to have "every piece of Bionicle content." Good luck.

Edited March 25, 2025 by Bambi

[Master Inika]

1 hour ago, Bambi said:

I've never heard of darkmedia until now. Only mention I could find was a guy on Reddit who said darkmedia was his favorite Bionicle content creator. I also found a playlist claiming to have "every piece of Bionicle content." Good luck.

Lol. That guy on Reddit is also me.

It’s weird to revisit nostalgic YouTube and see which ones were hugely popular phenomenons and which ones even today have only a few thousand views. For some reason I always thought of darkmedia as “the” BIONICLE AMV guy, but it seems like no one except me ever knew who he was.

[Inspirations2Creations]

Oh man, that was a trip down memory lane. I remember watching a bunch of his videos when I first got into bionicle around 2012. I’d usually have them playing in the background while I built Mocs too. The Toa Metru were definitely my favorite ones. Those videos were very nostalgic to me as well. Really sad that all of them might just be gone.

[aphesium]

NOOOOOOOO i want to watch these so bad now 

 

its likely that i saw the pohatu AMV at some point from 2021-2022 but sadly i can't offer much guidance or info other than maybe i watched one lol 💀

good luck, though. i'd have loved to check this channel out

[Master Inika]

8 hours ago, Inspirations2Creations said:

Oh man, that was a trip down memory lane. I remember watching a bunch of his videos when I first got into bionicle around 2012. I’d usually have them playing in the background while I built Mocs too. The Toa Metru were definitely my favorite ones. Those videos were very nostalgic to me as well. Really sad that all of them might just be gone.

3 hours ago, aphesium said:

NOOOOOOOO i want to watch these so bad now 

 

its likely that i saw the pohatu AMV at some point from 2021-2022 but sadly i can't offer much guidance or info other than maybe i watched one lol 💀

good luck, though. i'd have loved to check this channel out

Glad to finally meet other people who know what I'm talking about. It's weird how I used to watch his videos every day.

[Stomolko]

Oh man, i would kill for any reupload of his/her AMV. This person defined my musical taste. 

[Master Inika]

On 12/16/2025 at 6:08 AM, Stomolko said:

Oh man, i would kill for any reupload of his/her AMV. This person defined my musical taste. 

You have no idea how vindicated I feel finding another person who remembers. Nickelback, Green Day, Linkin Park, all of them I was introduced to via darkmedia.

On 1/5/2026 at 7:54 AM, richardbarryrichard said:

Wow, that sounds super nostalgic! 😮 Do you remember any of the specific songs or clips they used, or is it all a bit of a blur now?

The Toa Metru ones were especially memorable, usually opening up with the scenes of them as a Matoran and transitioning to their transformation into Toa around the first chorus. Nuju's was the one I watched the most, opening with the establishing shot of Ko-Metru. When the singing begins, it cuts to Lhikan flying toward Nuju's telescope.

Toa Lhikan's "Move Along" video opened up with Turaga Lhikan sacrificing himself, then spent most of the song with him as a Toa, creating the impression of his life flashing before his eyes.

Tahu Nuva's video opened up with his introduction in the movie, rescuing Takua and surfing on the lava.

I distinctly remember, in Kopaka's video, the shot of him freezing the Rahkshi in the lake comes at the "I've" of the final chorus' "I've become so numb." It was exceptionally well timed. darkmedia had a real talent for cutting the clips and songs together in a way that felt natural, as if the films and songs were made to go together.

[ChroniclerSatchel]

Oh mannnnn this takes me back - I wasn't familiar with all of these, but a few of them were definitely in my Youtube rotation, especially the lewa one!

Sadly no leads on the videos, but after spending an hour or two clicking through a staggering quantity of Sonic videos I finally managed to track down that His World remix, not to any original source, but at least to some reuploads so I could hear it again (in just as glorious potato quality as I remember, lol) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhj9K6Si4lk

It seems to go by "His World Techno Remix", just like you described it - maybe I could've saved a little time by starting with that 😅

This also prompted me to go look up a couple of my other nostalgic Bionicle AMVs from other creators, at least one of which is still up, so thanks for that nudge!

[Master Inika]

3 hours ago, ChroniclerSatchel said:

Oh mannnnn this takes me back - I wasn't familiar with all of these, but a few of them were definitely in my Youtube rotation, especially the lewa one!

Sadly no leads on the videos, but after spending an hour or two clicking through a staggering quantity of Sonic videos I finally managed to track down that His World remix, not to any original source, but at least to some reuploads so I could hear it again (in just as glorious potato quality as I remember, lol) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhj9K6Si4lk

It seems to go by "His World Techno Remix", just like you described it - maybe I could've saved a little time by starting with that 😅

This also prompted me to go look up a couple of my other nostalgic Bionicle AMVs from other creators, at least one of which is still up, so thanks for that nudge!

I can't thank you enough for tracking this down dude, I don't know how I didn't find it sooner. It really does feel like a better world

This was the oldest attestation of the song I could find (September 30, 2007). He credits a Newgrounds user named Reid Slaughter and gives a link but the date on the link is from 2008, so maybe it was updated and the date changed?

I also realize that darkmedia's Lewa video ended the track a few seconds earlier, with a single final note. The longer version follows that note with a more drawn-out chord.