#So we needed two Makutas

[toaarcan]

One of my recurrent "G3" adjacent thoughts is making such a reboot basically Breath of the Wild but for Bionicle.

It's an unknown amount of time since the heyday of the revived Spherus Magna, Toa are functionally extinct, the events of the old canon are just legends and myths told around the campfire, and few people even believe or remember that the heroes were real.

And part of that vibe is that the major antagonist is eventually revealed to be Makuta in a Calamity Ganon-esque state, an echo or ghost of his power that grows and grows over time, until it becomes exactly what Teridax presented himself as during 2001: An eldritch force of destruction, an embodiment of the void.

Teridax died in 2010, but his power lives on, clinging to life the way he always did before, but devolving and decaying as it destroys itself.

Not to drag a Bionicle hot take out of the blue on y'all but maybe Makuta should have stayed an eldritch yet natural force of entropy and darkness instead of Satanic Archetype #663.

[thereadingaddic7]

It's a bit of a funny and sad mix, how much of a Lohrak around Dume's neck the Vahki are. Certainly Dume is meant to be flawed as a Turaga, a somewhat suspicious character and cranky old man who think Matoran these days need to learn to respect their elders, but ultimately he's a good guy who'd give his life for the cause while spitting in the face of whatever killed him (see him telling Vezok, Avak and Reidak to go do something anatomically improbable when they try to extort him with a Kanohi Dragon). And given how important Metru Nui is, and how dangerous the outside world was, yeah Metru Nui does need some sort of standing army/police force to ensure that shit like the Barraki rebellion or the Matoran Civil War doesn't threaten to kill Mata Nui and doom the MU to drift endlessly through space, but holy shit the Vahki are so insanely bad at it, it's hard to think he'd sign off on it.

As an army they're pretty okay, they're very mobile with two modes of walking and one flight mode, their equipment is also extremely good offensively (mind control, seeing through your targets eyes, you hurt yourself in your confusion, etc), as well as a Kanoka disc launcher for more direct combat, and they're smart enough to think tactically, all without risking any Matoran/Toa/Turaga in combat (and that's without getting into the elite versions). But for Police work... well, they're okay for a Police State where you don't have to give a shit about what your citizenry thinks, their borderline psychotic nature means they're very effective at terrorizing a population into compliance even before bringing in the Brain Hacking they can do, and they are supposed to be the Police for Makuta!Dume's Police State...

They just also happened to be the Police for Regular!Dume's (Police(?)) State, which is a really bad look for someone who's supposed to be Not Actually A Villain. Based on what we see of them, the Kralhi that preceded the Vahki were probably much better at police duties (given that after being driven out of the city by Matoran who tried to "shut them down" they were totally willing to aid and protect Mavrah without issue they clearly don't share the Vahki's abusive nature) without having to take a number of Matoran away from work to do the police work instead (and thus potentially imperil Mata Nui and the MU as a whole by having them not do the necessary work in his brain). If the issue with them was that they left Matoran too weak to do their job after being policed, then maybe all the Kralhi needed was an equipment overhaul rather than being completely scrapped?

I don't know, Dume is meant to be Flawed but Good, but historically he's just made such a baffling decision with the Metru Nui's police forces, spurred on largely I think by Out-Of-Universe needs than because it made sense in-universe, he kind of ended up accidentally being the BIONICLE equivalent of Sentinel Prime, but because it mostly happened off screen it's easy enough for the story to sweep that under the rug. A lore hungry fandom on the other hand is not so easy to shake and I'm left trying to come up with a reason why he'd agree to the Vahki beyond the incredibly unsatisfying "he doesn't really care about the Matoran" or "he didn't think it through" and variants thereof answers.

[redstarforge]

"The fillers and the filers will have a field day with this one..." "Always so negative. It's like you can't enjoy the fun inherent in the process!" The Makuta rolled his eyes as the wet snapping and hissing of procetyline torches filled the laboratory. "You really do delight in creating these... monstrosities, don't you, Chirox."

"Dear colleague, you've just got to open your mind to the..." Drops of acid became a flowing sizzle in the background of the conversation as the great scorpion stood in its enclosure for the first time, "... possibilities in our work."

Welcome, one and all, to the grand debut of the Doronai Nui 0.12! As we march ever closer to completion, we have full crystal slates of changes and updates for you, up to and including the addition of yet more masks, a clarification of a lot of rules in our Quick Start Guide, and bringing elemental abilities into more parity with the rest of the combat design of the system. You can also crack into an even larger and better organized Supertypes and Archetypes index, including two new Supertypes for the roleplayer and for the masters of Powers among you. But, the piece de resistance is the addition of the long-awaited Mutations Index, a 39 page primer on the critical powers needed to create living things in the Matoran Universe.

Download version 0.12.0 of the Doronai Nui here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/16cew7PFHDShfoo__t_ZpDhNTmIaEerzD/view?usp=sharing

DN 0.12.0 changelog: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Rvbcu8UqXgGjs52uCvWUVUUnmRUEtgah/view?usp=sharing

(Yes, this post is a week behind all the others. Woops! -Petrus)

[risingshards]

Something I really like in Rebuild the Galaxy (the fun new lil Lego Star Wars miniseries) is how it echoes (probably not intentionally) Templar Games' Bionicle Mata Nui Online Game in the theme of building vs. destroying, taking an aspect of Lego play and putting it into the story.

In MNOG, Gordon Klimes from Templar described how they made Makuta the embodiment of destruction:

“'The void' above Makuta is indeed a swirling mass of lego pieces, though it's not supposed to be representative of his true form. Makuta is chaos and nihilism, Mata Nui is order and creativity.”

“For me Makuta represents the destructive aspect of playing with Lego. You would build something and then destroy it in order to build something new. Makuta is a maelstrom of swirling pieces, he represents the pile on the floor that all lego creations come from and will eventually return to.”

“Good and evil just wasn’t good enough any more. It didn’t make any sense any more. But this was okay, because from the beginning, that’s not what it was about. The Makuta wasn’t evil, and his brother, Mata Nui, wasn’t good.”

“We knew that while building was fun, it was just as much fun to destroy. They were two sides of the same coin, and neither were wrong: it was all part of the play, part of learning, part of having fun. Not good or evil: Creation and Destruction, equal powers in the universe, natural and necessary. Both good. Both bad. Both neither. It’s true, we’d painted Destruction a bit negatively - using words like “Infected” Mask, or “Monsters,” but we’d needed the conflict.”

“So the Makuta, for all its darkness and danger, was not evil after all, and he says as much at the end. The final act was the confrontation, not between Good and Evil, which was meaningless, but between Creation and Destruction, where everything comes from nothing, and goes back to it, eventually. This was the struggle between the Toa and the Rahi, and Mata Nui and Makuta, and a LEGO fan and her kid brother, building and smashing happily, in equal measure. Our world had gone a bit mad, but to us, this helped make some sense of it. We wanted to share what small comfort it brought.”

Rebuild the Galaxy uses something similar, having Jedi Builders against Sith Destroyers feeling like it takes the act of playing with Lego part of the story, which is really fun. And if something's gonna be effectively a toy commercial, I'd rather it be fun and light about it. The people working on it definitely have a lot of love for Lego, and it showed throughout the miniseries.

[user-without-a-cool-acronym]

So about Ras' master and shatterspin. From what I've seen, the two most common theories on who this being is, are the source dragon of motion or of strength. Personally motion seems more plausible to me, simply from a storytelling perspective and the fact that we are getting it as a set this summer. However, there is the fact that both shatterspin and Ras' teachings are all about strength, which would suggest that source dragon. So my theory is, that Shatterspin does actually come from the associated source dragon of strength, however the mysterious master is Motion. We know that the source dragon's are basically gods, so we should think about them as such: in many mythologies in real life, the gods are not always on the same side, sometimes even switching allegiances over a very long time. So maybe during the time that the dragon masters fought the five, strength was allied with the latter, powering their shatterspin and providing some kind of guidance, while motion was on the side of the dragons and helped with their rising dragon technique. The five were defeated and since all source dragon's are needed for the world to function, strength was not banished or something like that and once again taken up into the ranks of the other source dragons. I don't know what would cause a switch in allegiance, maybe strength saw the error of their ways, maybe motion realised that whatever strength was planning might actually be possible and planned a plan of their own, like it was the case with makuta teridax and the league of six kingdoms in Bionicle. I don't know, it just feels like we as a fandom should do more with the fact that the source dragon's are literal gods and not necessarily held to the morals of humanity.

[cantor-of-stelt]

The Steltian held his right arm out to brace against the wall, the impact jolting the spiked protodermis coursing through his body. He held his other hand up to his temple in a vain attempt to quell the pounding in his head as he shuffled towards the door to the inn. When he reached it and stumbled through, he was caught by another, somewhat more steady patron. The two smiled and exchanged pleasantries before separating once more. Oh, how the Steltian longed for the warm embrace of bed and blanket; sweet release from the storm hammering his skull. The stairs in his path were a daunting adversary, even when sober, but he was no stranger to hard fights after hard nights. Slowly but surely, he climbed his way up, step by eye-twisting step. Now, was it the third door on the left, or was it the fourth? Maybe it was on the right? The Steltian resolved to just keep shambling until he remembered. It didn't take long at all before he found the door to his room, identifying it by a particularly ragged gash that ran near the door handle. He turned that handle, nearly running into the door before it had opened, and slowly made his way into the room. He felt around for the lightstone near the basin, which was shielded by an overturned cup. He found it by nearly knocking it from its perch, but saved both it and the cup from falling. He looked into the mirror above the basin and froze. He was far from superstitious, and certainly wasn't religious, but what he saw in the mirror was as good as Karzahni to him. He whipped around, nearly sending himself to the floor. He locked eyes with a being from his long-buried memories, her armor gleaming black and violet in the lightstone's glow, golden light shining from beneath her chestplate and mask, a terrifyingly large bladed disk held loosely in her right hand, her left lightly gripping the back of the chair she sat in. "It's been a long time," she said, her voice dripping with malice. "Close the door and take a seat. We've got a lot to catch up on."

A few hours later... Traven let out a heavy sigh as he pressed a knuckle to his forehead. "You're absolutely certain he was telling the truth?" Cantor nodded. "Positive. Doubt he could've thought straight enough to try lying. I could smell the booze on him before he even made it through the door." Traven stood up, stretching as he did. Cantor doubted he'd slept at all last night. The Toa of Iron turned to her. "If he had no information on Nastrond, we have no reason to stay on Stelt. If you have anything else you need to take care of here, please do so quickly; I fear we are overstaying our welcome." Cantor nodded. Their peace treaty with the Steltians wasn't a long-term deal, and with the utter lack of leads on Makuta Nastrond, they were sure to be ousted when word reached the warlords. She moved closer to Traven and put a hand on his shoulder. "I won't be gone long, brother. Try to get some sleep, while I'm out." A flicker of protest crossed Traven's face, but it passed quickly. He smiled at Cantor. "No promises," he said. He pulled Cantor into a brief embrace, and the Toa of Gravity left the hut, turning towards the center of the island for one last tour of the Great Arena.

[toaarcan]

I've talked about the Bionicle-flavoured D&D game I was a part of a few times on here, but I kinda want to go over our take on Makuta.

Makuta was, of course, the ultimate villain of the story, and while we didn't finish the game for a host of reasons, we know how it would've gone down had we completed things, and so I can ramble about everything rather than merely speculating.

Makuta and Teridax were separate characters. This was an idea I've seen a couple of times, but here it happened organically. My first PC was Ahkmou (shocker), a Warforged Stone Sorcerer, and as such I gave him a backstory featuring an antagonist based on 01-03 Makuta. One of my friends' first PC was Miserix, a Dragonborn Moon Druid, and as such, he had a backstory featuring an antagonist based on 05-10 Makuta.

These two characters couldn't be the same (well I suppose we could've finagled it so they were, but we didn't), so I avoided naming mine until we landed on the solution that Ahkmou's old nemesis was Makuta, and Miserix's old nemesis was Teridax.

Makuta and Teridax's initial appearances, respectively.

Teridax ended up being a charismatic and manipulative High Elf with a Wizard/Sorcerer multiclass that sought ultimate power and knowledge, while Makuta was the ancient and terrible Fiendish God of Magic, Power, and Destruction that had ravaged the world in the Great Cataclysm, all that stuff.

They also took inspiration from G2 a bit because this was just after G2 died and we weren't wholly ignoring everything from it yet.

But something happened with that.

See, Teridax was the (apparent) BBEG of the game, and therefore he didn't appear all that much. He would show up every now and then (and most of his appearances were very memorable and tense), but Makuta was different.

Makuta was a PC.

Ahkmou had a passenger. Formerly a servant of Makuta during the Cataclysm, he had turned against his former master and helped the previous generation of heroes stop him. However, when Makuta was shattered into six shards, the smallest and weakest of the bunch buried itself in Ahkmou's core and laid there, dormant, for decades afterwards.

Then, during our first adventure, Ahkmou came close to death, and in a moment of panic and weakness, reached out to the Shard for the power needed to survive, and he got it.

Makuta's power rippled out of Ahkmou's body in an enormous shock wave that ripped up the floor of the room we were in and killed the antagonists we were fighting. Ahkmou began to levitate a few inches off of the ground, his formerly blue eyes burning golden, and started to speak with two voices, the second much deeper and much smoother than his own rather high-pitched and scratchy one (I typically give Ahkmou the voice of Prime Starscream, for reference). The armour on his left hand began to turn black and red, and shortly after leaving the dungeon, he fell into a comatose state.

Makuta had single-handedly ended our part of the adventure (we split the party, oops) with his morning stretch. And he didn't go away.

When Ahkmou awakened, he'd changed a bit. He'd become spikier and meaner, and the subsequent adventure saw the last of his idealism die, when he managed to prevent a conflict with a big redemption speech, only for the BBEG to kill off most of the people he'd saved with a killswitch. After that, Ahkmou became much more aggressive, his biting sarcasm got much crueler, and he began strongly advocating for solving all of our problems with murder.

Originally, Ahkmou had been snarky, but well-meaning, and somewhat cowardly. He secretly held a great admiration for those that saved the world from the apocalypse he helped cause, and used the story of his redemption at the hands of Takanuva to try and inspire others to be better.

But now, there was another voice in his head, encouraging him to take the darker path.

As this was my character, I was the one playing the Makuta presence, and though he was based on 01-03 Makuta... I have a preference for the later characterisation, and so I quickly began to play him more as a thinking, scheming being.

Things got worse in the next adventure. During his coma, I had instead played Aisling, a ruthless and cynical death-worshipper who the party had inadvertently stomped on all the trigger buttons of during their first adventure together. Aisling had returned for vengeance, and the party went to try and stop her. Ahkmou stayed behind, though, because the place the fight would be happening was the resting place of another of Makuta's Shards, the Shard of Fire.

See, Ahkmou dreaded being in close contact with the other Shards. To his knowledge, the Shard of Stone was weak and directionless. It was a lump of power, more power than he could normally wield, but nonetheless it wasn't even sentient. If he were to be in close proximity to one of the bigger, smarter Shards, however, he feared they would merge, and overwhelm him, reviving Makuta in his body. As such, he didn't go to the Charred Forest to confront Aisling.

OOC, this was largely an excuse for me to not have a character on both sides of the conflict.

This ended up being a bad idea. In the battles that followed, Aisling effortlessly exploited the weaknesses of her former allies, soundly beat them at almost every turn, and killed Miserix when he attempted to challenge her alone.

Ahkmou was left feeling terribly guilty, that he could've prevented Miserix's death and helped turn the tide if he were present. At the same time, he largely found himself agreeing with Aisling's motivations, if not her methods, given his own ruthlessness. Even still, he liked and respected Miserix. And the icing on the Cognitive Dissonance Cake was that Aisling had been killed by another villain, revived by her girlfriend, excommunicated from her cult, and essentially forced onto the redemption path. She was still here, still rubbing shoulders with everyone else, and still in the "But I did nothing wrong" phase of the redemption process.

This complex mix of feelings left Ahkmou largely absent for the following few adventures, with Aisling and my third character, Gavla, being my mains in that time.

Worse still, it was during the confrontation with Ash that Teridax revealed himself, and claimed the Shard of Fire, which was all around very bad news.

Two adventures later, we had another run-in with Teridax wherein he also revealed ownership of the Shard of Earth, and this confirmed Ahkmou's worst fears. Someone, somewhere out there, was trying to reunite the pieces of Makuta for some unseen purpose.

Takanuva had done his best to suppress all knowledge of the Shard of Stone. Across the whole world, the only people that knew of it were him, his trusted inner circle, Helryx and her representatives in the guild we were working for, and Ahkmou and his comrades specifically. As far as anyone else knew, there were only five Shards. That his one's element was so similar to Earth only helped them hide it more.

But if Makuta were reunited and revived, he would know he was incomplete, and he would know where to look to find the last piece. No mortal soul would be able to contain and control even half of Makuta's essence, let alone the majority of it, so the odds that Teridax would survive completing his mission were low.

In that moment, Ahkmou should've thanked the party for their support, and left to make the journey to Solspire, the home of the Order of Light and Takanuva specifically. He should've joined forces with his oldest ally, and had his own Shard suppressed or removed.

But he didn't. In part because this was a D&D game and I wanted him to stay with the party, but mostly because Ahkmou was wrong about the Shard.

It wasn't non-sentient. It was, in fact, not just sentient, but sapient. It had grown smarter and stronger ever since he awakened it, with more and more of his body starting to mutate as it reached its corruptive essence further and further into him, and it was already starting to influence his decisions.

Makuta did not want to be suppressed, and he definitely didn't want his host to be purified, so he instead pushed Ahkmou to a different course of action: Breaking the party away from their previous allegiances and going on a personal quest to find and destroy the rest of the Shards before Teridax could get them. If he only had two, maybe that would be a problem they could stop.

Makuta also implanted the idea in Ahkmou's head that only the Shards could find and destroy each other. Therefore, Ahkmou would need to keep him alive and around in order to achieve his goal.

After all, if Ahkmou is going near the other Shards, then Makuta has a chance to reunite with the rest of himself.

The first we found was the Shard of Water, in a sunken city in an acidic sea. Ahkmou still had enough control to refuse to join the mission below the waves, but nonetheless supplied the others with a specific plan: They should go down there, recover the Shard of Water, and bring it to the surface, so he could destroy it.

In reality, Makuta was just trying to get it brought to him so he could absorb it.

But then, things went differently to his expectations. The fight for the Shard of Water was grueling, having to confront a genocidal fish-man who wanted it for himself, a gang of pirates, and in intensely creepy Wight named Gorast who had been one of Makuta's original followers.

(Gorast got a model despite her relative non-prominence because I like making nasty-ass zombie-looking creachers in HeroForge)

In the battle that followed, the party had managed to trick Gorast into taking the Shard of Water into herself, and then Nurghal, the party's main Paladin, had been able to bait her into sticking around to try and drain his light and morality with her powers instead of immediately teleporting away, long enough for him to smite her and kill both Gorast and the Shard of Water.

Because Nurghal Ironhide is just that cool.

Ahkmou's theories about what could kill a Shard proved to be wrong. In any normal situation, this should've been cause for jubilation. Ahkmou could safely purge his own Shard and they could continue the quest without Makuta growing stronger.

But Makuta wasn't happy. In fact, Makuta was fucking steamed. A part of himself had just been killed, perhaps permanently, and he would never be whole again. He was so close, only a few hundred metres from reclaiming part of his lost power, and now it may be gone forever.

So instead, he accentuated the negative. During the drop, Gavla almost died, and Ahkmou has caught feelings for Gavla that he doesn't know how to process, and that gave Makuta a wedge.

Rather than congratulatory and relieved, Ahkmou got snippy with Nurghal, saying his plan was far too risky and could've allowed Gorast to escape with her prize. They almost lost, someone he can't lose almost died, and next time, he's going with them to prevent that.

Over the course of the next few missions, Makuta's influence ramped up, as Ahkmou tapped more and more into the Shards in an effort to survive an attack by the Gravesworn and a hellish jaunt through the Underdark, bargaining more and more of his soul away to protect himself and his comrades.

By the time they reach their next breather spot, he's laser focused on the Shards, and he starts getting aggressive and threatening anyone and anything that would impede his progress toward that goal, even other members of the party.

Because all these detours and distractions and sidequests are hindering him. Stopping to help all these... small, insignificant people, well it won't matter if Teridax beats them to the Shards of Air and Ice, and everyone dies because the world is destroyed.

He doesn't realise that his reasons for being so forceful are increasingly just a mask that Makuta is wearing, even as he articulates them when the others call him on his attitude.

He apologises for his pushiness, for not accounting for the needs of others. He doesn't mean it. He's not really in control any longer. He thinks he is, he's got both hands on the wheel, but Makuta tells him where to go, and he goes.

And then, they finally meet Teridax again. Makuta feels the other parts of himself within his opposite number, and it drives him crazy. Two more parts of himself are within his reach, held by another... and he isn't even using them right.

Teridax isn't mutated like Ahkmou is, and that's not a glamour. He has the Shards within him, but they're dormant. If they weren't, he'd be most of the way to full transformation and completely controlled by Makuta.

Ahkmou was unable to stop him, and Makuta overrode him and attacked.

Still, Teridax was too powerful for the party... and that was exactly what Makuta wanted. Even in his rage, he's scheming. Backed into a corner, Ahkmou had little choice but to give himself fully over to the devil within.

Makuta has won. Over the course of the last few months, he's chipped away more and more at Ahkmou's mind and soul until he can finally wrest full control from his host.

He effortlessly defeats Teridax. He easily dupes the others into thinking he's still Ahkmou, and feeds them a plan that requires them to distract an adult Dragon while he peacefully searches for the Shard of Air, the only person accompanying him being the one member of the party that happens to have the worst WIS save and the worst luck, the one person he knows he can escape.

And he very nearly miscalculates. He's so convinced of his superiority and inevitable victory that he forgets that his companion as a Ring of Spell Turning. He assumes he can just drop a Heightened Hold Person and lord his victory over a captive audience of one, and it almost blows up in his face.

But ultimately, it doesn't matter. He claims the Shard of Air and he escapes to begin his plans proper, and now that he has more of himself again, he finally comes to grasp the totality of the Plan, the goal that the other pieces of himself have been steering Teridax and Ahkmou and any other Shardbearers out there towards.

He prepares for open conflict with Teridax, because one of two things will happen. Either he will kill Teridax, and claim Fire and Earth, or Teridax will kill him, and claim Stone and Air. Either way, the result is the same: Four of the six Shards, in control of one body. Then, they are free to find the last of them, the Shard of Ice.

The Shard of Ice rests in the Winterlands, the home of the cult that Aisling hailed from. In fact, it rests within Vasyana, the leader of that cult, and it has been growing stronger and stronger by feeding on the cult's faith for the Raven Queen. For a piece of a god, the leader of a religious organisation is the about the best place it could end up.

And once they have control of the seat of the Gravesworn, they can open the door to the afterlife and reunite with the Shard of Water, becoming whole again, Makuta reborn in totality.

But if, by some twist of fate, the heroes of this world actually manage to kill them and their host? It doesn't matter. Because they know how the afterlife works. They know that they will simply go there, and reunite anyway, and it will be child's play to resurrect himself.

Because he's Makuta. He's been three steps ahead this entire time.

For all the things that got messy with R&R, I think we translated the character of Makuta into the game perfectly.

[downtofragglerock]

Hi , question you think the toa teams are incomplete , if you ask what I mean , it's that as we know the toa teams all have 6 toa , with its known elements like toa mata , toa metru , toa inika , toa hagah , etc , and I say this because I discovered others Matoran , toa , turaga of others elements like Lighting , iron , sounds ( sonics )

Shadows , gravity , acid , plant , light , etc and I mean , you think every toa teams they need these in their teams to be complete ?

Fun fact : toa teams are 6 with one toa of , lighting , iron , sounds ( sonics ) , shadows , gravity , acid , plant , light , with them they would be a team of 14 toa

No, toa teams aren't incomplete

While six does seem to be the default number, multiple cases show this isn't a hard line

The Toa Mangai, Lhikan's team, had 11 members, and four of them were ice toa, two were water toa, and another was a plant toa

The Toa Cordak, canonically the first ever toa team, had 8 members, including a toa of sonics, iron, lightning, and gravity

Jovan, a toa of magnetism, also led a toa team, but how many members it had and which elements they were is unknown

While matoran of light were the first matoran ever created, so far there has only been one toa of light, Takanuva, though post-canon that could potentially change

Toa and Matoran of shadow do not naturally exist, they come into being by the makuta using a shadow leech to transform and corrupt toa and matoran of pre-existing elements

[randomwriteronline]

Hello! This is my main blog! (I'm legend-as-old-as-time.)

So, I've got a favorite. But the other two AUs also fascinate me. I'd love to know what the story is for your G3 of Bionicle? What's the atmosphere like?

BLASTS MY THOUGHTS DIRECTLY INTO YOUR BRAIN TO EXPLAIN THEM FASTER AND POSSIBLY BETTER THAN THROUGH WORDS

as mentioned i have a post in drafts thats meant to be like. a vague skeleton of thoughts and ideas and shit that ive talked about to and with @cantankerouscanuck, mainly introducing the various character groups n the environment slightly, but it does NOT touch on the story much (more the backstory and again only vaguely) so GREAT QUESTION LET ME TELL YOU

thinking of like uhhhh diving this in like. cartoon seasons but old school ones yknow, so LONG ones bc oh boy ADVENTURES

Season 1 starts with that Classic Bionicle Beginning of the toa mata crashlanding on the archipelago of Okoto each on a different island not knowing what the Fuck to do and being welcomed in the villages. like in g2 theyre first tasked with finding some golden relics but instead of being accompanied by the protectors/village elders they go with the local Weird Kids (the chronicler's company) who were the first people they actually met; getting the things lets them reach the island of the mask makers and meet Ekimu (and takua!!!! his apprentice!!!!!!!) and theyre like "so what do we do with these btw" and ekimu looks at the pieces and goes. FUCK

TURNS OUT THOSE RELICS WERE SUPPOSED TO BE GOLDEN MASKS BUT SOME MF JUST BROKE THEM INTO PIECES and wouldnt you fucking believe it it was the Children Of Makuta, the spirit of death and animals and darkness, who live each on one of the islands except spiriah the baby of the family who roams around bothering literally everybody and ofc dont want the toa to reawaken the Great Spirit whom their parent put to sleep, AND SO BEGINS THE FETCH QUEST OF THE OTHER FIVE PIECES OF EACH MASK WHILE FIGHTING OFF THESE FREAKS OF NATURE WHO ARE TRYING TO EAT THEM AND BUILDING CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THEMSELVES & EKIMU & TAKUA N HIS POSSE & THE VILLAGERS AND SLOWLY BECOMING A PROPER TEAM N FAMILY which is why they need to be many episodes. i will fucking recreate almost verbatim the tale of the mask kopaka-pohatu story because its already perfect and you will Fucking See It if i have to Kill For It

closes off with a cliffhanger after getting all the masks: during an ambush by Mutran Gali gets dragged off into the sea between the islands to get crushed by the water pressure but whats this??, the pressure suddenly lifts enough to let her breathe as she loses consciousness while strange silhouettes drive off the child of Makuta and catch her in his stead, sinking deeper...

S2 starts off by quickly catching up to the rest of the toa who are SHITTING THEIR FUCKING SELVES ABOUT THEIR WATER-BREATHING SISTER APPARENTLY DROWNING BEFORE THEM

tahu and pohatu decide to look for her in a ball of tempered glass while kopaka, onua and lewa hurry back to ekimu to tell him what happened. back to gali, she awakens to a bunch of... toa???? who know her and her brothers???? personally, apparently????? three of them are like super mad at them for leaving them during their time of need??????? what the FUCK are you people talking about. who are u. how are you breathing under water. why is tHERE A WHOLE FUCKING CITY UNDER THE WATER-

ENTER: THE TOA MAHRI. as it slowly turns out inbetween rounds of beating the shit out of sapient polyamorous seafood that keeps trying to nibble the villagers and the air bubble domes for their crops, they were TRAINED by the mata a few hundreds years ago and were fighting off the cataclysm that broke the continent of okoto into islands and sunk the city of Iniri into the sea together with them before they just Fucking Left, Apparently - which ofc they didnt do for no reason but they essentially got shoved back into the stars against their will. this rightfully rattles the shit out of the mata because What Do You Mean We Have Been Here Before. What Do You Mean You Had Records Of Us Being Here Even Earlier Than That. How Many Times Have We Done This. How Many Times Have We Discovered Kinship And Affection And Had That Stripped Away From Us. I Think I'm Going To Throw Up

while theyre handling THAT they also fill in the mahri on whats been going on and the mahri go oh shit, the great spirit is in a coma and the children of makuta are against you??? bro those guys are super powerful theyve got Crabs, you cant fight em alone. but also if we try to leave the sea the water pressure Will Fucking Destroy Us, so they figure out a way to get out of there and back up and jaller is super anxious bc his mom might be there but like... based on what they said... she might be evil... he doesnt wanna fight her... shes the only family he still has...

S3 AND WE GO BACK TO SEE WHAT KOPAKA ONUA AND LEWA ARE DOING, and theyre off searching the more ruined parts of the city of the mask makers on takua's suggestion - these are the parts of the city that werent very lucky during the cataclysm and are now sacred ground prowled by Krika, daughter of Makuta

at last they find a strange underground chamber with six breathing statues, which, of course, freaky; they manage to thaw one and out tumbles a toa (?) who immediately recognizes onua and starts talking to him excitedly (??) saying that its so good to see him in person for the first time (???) and asking him about the continent (????) and being genuinely distraught that they dont know who he is. same reactions from the other five toa that also get thawed out. ok something is Clearly Amiss pls explain

its time for LOMN...... 2!!!!!! where we learn from vakama abt how Lhikan, who previously filled in ekimu's position, finds out theres Some Shit going down with the great spirit and makuta and tries to call the mata, who however get stuck due to the aformentioned Some Shit. as such she picks out six lads in the city of the mask makers and bestows masks upon them to make them become toa, but on their way to handle the current problem they get werebeast'd and Krika goes oh? free kids? free kids for me? and Lhikan goes NO but its too late. they already have joint custody of the metru. and might be blossoming a lesbian romance but unfortunately due to lhikan being lhikan i have to kill her to protect vakama, leaving krika with him AND his little brother jaller who will inherit lhikan's mask. the metru figure out the way to get the mata in this case is to attempt to contact them themselves, which they manage to do by entering a trance that however slowly turns them into statues: in this trance they are able to speak and train the mata, who also promise to free them once the whole situation is handled

CONSIDERING THE CATACLYSM HAPPENED AND THEY GOT SHOT BACK IN THE SKY AND GOT AMNESIA YOU CAN UNDERSTAND THAT PROMISE KIND OF WENT TO SHIT

anyways thats A Lot as you can imagine and the time to process it is Not Much bc the other three mata and the mahri are here and (after a round of MASSIVE HUGS for the metru and mahri reuniting and also the metru and Krika) theyve got a plan to beat the shit out of makuta

problem: the children of makuta have realized this is happening and decided to break out The Crabs to beat the shit out of THEM

mahri, metru and krika (and the chronicler's company much to everybody else's heart attacks) hold them off while the mata manage to fight against makuta after being briefly overwhelmed, uniting their powers to uh. Kill Him. which! IS NOT ACTUALLY GOOD. YOU KNOW. BALANCE AND ALL THAT. makuta is saved in the end by The Great Fucking Spirit who wakes up just in time to stop the mata before they murder his brother

the mata awaken before the Great Spirit and after a moment of "where are we? who are you? why didn't you let us kill makuta?" and getting their answers, they realize OH FUCK ARE YOU GOING TO PUT US IN THE STARS AGAIN? AND GIVE US AMNESIA? FUCK YOU YOURE NOT TAKING OUR FRIENDS AND SIBLINGS FROM US

Great Spirit, lovingly: ok :)

and tahu wakes up to ekimu working at the forge and none of his siblings around and he Shits His Pants, but ekimu quickly reassures him that everythings good and its been like, maybe a day or two since they managed to reawaken the Great Spirit. his siblings woke up before him and are probably down at the beach, and Makuta got driven off, all of his children following suit to take care of him, krika included. the mahri and the metru are catching up on the mata's tales from the chronicler's company. things are fine. they wont be like this forever, ekimu tells tahu, but they dont have to live in fear every second of their lives. rest a while. go see your siblings.

and it ends with the mata having a very sweet nap pile on the beach because they FUCKING deserve it after TWO whole generations ending with them not getting to just fucking sleep after EVERYTHING THEY GO THROUGH EVERY TIME

as you can see i have. Enormous Holes in this and theres things i havent explained and stuff (like how i unfortunately had to sacrifice hewkii x macku due to a Very Big age difference but they are still a power pair, just in this case its like older cousin acting as a mentor to the worlds most bloodthirsty weird little girl) but yes. have this. for now. please keep asking questions i love you

[magicalgirlmascot]

Anyway it's time for more of my Ancient Human!Bonkles Bullshit because I can't leave well enough alone. Featuring the bad guys this time.

OKAY SO AN EXPLANATION IS IN ORDER HERE I THINK. Or maybe not maybe we're all willing to accept Twinkidax at face value but I'm gonna go ahead and say maybe we're not. I just. Man I wanted Makuta to be a cool grimdark edgelord so bad for some reason. Thankfully I came to my senses before we ever saw him in human form in the fic proper (which we never actually did lmao) and redesigned him. It's still not good but at least he's not. That.

Anyway he had a few different forms, the big shadow gas creature being the one that we saw most. Human!Makuta would have shown up at some point, probably, but I never got past the Morbuzakh arc so we never got to see him. As for the book uh. My brilliant idea was for Teridax to disguise himself as a book to get close to Dume and possess him. I don't know why that was my best idea.

YES I KNOW HIS NAME IS SPELLED WRONG he was not the only character who I couldn't remember where the H went. Nidhiki was Lhikan's roommate, only remaining teammate, and worstie (although it was 2011 so that wasn't a term that was used). His whole betrayal and joining the Hunters happened later in this fic, so the Toa Metru got to actually bear witness to that whole can of worms. Lhikan was still the only one who gave up his powers to give the Metru theirs, though, it was a whole thing, Nidhiki was kinda bitter about it. Anyway he had four arms instead of four legs because I couldn't draw more than two legs. I think the idea was that he was stuck partway between his Toa and regular forms and that's why he has heterochromia, too. Fun fact, his surname being Cane was supposed to be from "hurricane," but was also a reference to "raising Cain"/Cain and Abel, which I stole directly from Skulduggery Pleasant lmao

Not sure why this is the direction I went for Krekka but okay. He was barely in the fic I have nothing to say about him sorry

I think I had a crush on Lariska I'm not gonna lie. I remember making this outfit using a tool you could use to make Gaia Online outfits lmao. Also I apparently hella shipped DaggerSpider. I was right actually they were fuckin

GOD WHY DID I DO SIDORAK LIKE THISSSSSSS. He was Onewa's roommate and a big weenie. Your Local Emo Dental Hygiene Student Who's Also Obsessed With Bugs And Becomes King Of The Spiders By Accident Or Possibly Birthright I Don't Fucking Remember. Man he should've been this big lumberjack looking motherfucker.

Once again my inability to come up with Outfits hampers my character design. Also she needs bigger boobs. And bigger muscles. She barely appeared in the fic though so like

Alright I think that's it for villains.

[siren-darkocean]

Part two of Hero Factory Incorrect Quotes from Wattpad of both mine and my friend Wolfie's Ask and Dare Hero Factory book including villains this time

Dark Purge: I'ma kill 'em

Serena: Let's do it

Von Nebula: Guys can you please keep your murder boners in your pants please?

Serena: You can't tell us what to do clown

Dark Purge: WE ARE ERECT WITH RAGE!

****

Siren: WE INSTALLED THE BALLS MOD INTO MINECRAFT!

Makuta: And maybe, they'll be a twist at the end!

Daniel: Oh that just be painful.

Siren, Makuta & Evo: (wheezing in laughter)

****

Surge: (playing Kingdom Hearts 2)

Siren: (recording with her phone, throws a sock on him)

Surge: What-

Siren: WE GOT A TWENTY THREE NINETEEN! TWENTY THREE NINETEEN! GET HIM GET 'EM!

Furno: (tackles Surge with a blanket)

****

Quaddle: [Why were you up late last night?]

Zib & Surge: Us?

Quaddle: [No no, you two are always up late.] (points at Stormer) [You]

****

Serena: (picking a lock)

XPlode: (punches the door open)

Serena: (yelped in surprise as she accidentally punched XPlode where his nose would be)

XPlode: (groaning in pain) I think you broke my nose.

Serena: (sighs while deadpanning as she puts her coat back on) Men are such babies.

****

Siren: I officially identify as a fucking problem.

Siren: (To Stormer and Furno(aka her adopted parents)) Your fucking problem, but a problem nonetheless.

****

Core Hunter: Rapunzel! Rapunzel! Let down your hair!

Serena: (sitting in a tree, flips him off) Fuck you bitch!

****

Serena: (hugging Corroder from behind while purring loudly)

Fire Lord: Do I-

Corroder: (absolutely loving the attention Serena is giving him) Not a fucking word to disrupt her.

****

Siren: (running around with a lit sparkler in hand) SOMEBODY GAVE ME FIRE!

Stormer: (chasing after his adopted daughter) SIREN PUT THAT DOWN!

****

Thunder: (spinning in an office chair repeatedly)

XPlode: Why did we need him on this mission?

Serena: I have zero clue but my mother instincts are not complaining with his accident prone self.

****

K: Everyone's been coming out recently so I figured it's my turn.

Meltdown: Didn't you already come out Nonbinary tho?

K: I'm officially coming out as a problem, your problem mainly so congrats your stuck with me.

Meltdown: K, no-

*********

Dark Purge: Wolfie's Villian Surge

Serena, Siren & K: My OC's

[herora-nuva]

If I could add two points to this frankly inspired meta analysis:

1. One thing I think really adds to Bionicle’s meta narrative, story-about-storiesness is the way the Toa inspire the Matoran to be better, because it ultimately reflects the role heroic stories have in the real world as tales to inspire us to be better. Bionicle was really unusual in its genre of sci-fantasy superhero stories in that it had a surprisingly heavy emphasis on the “normal” unpowered civilian characters.

Heck, the very first arc was presented primarily through the Matoran POV with MNOG, meaning that rather than being “the heroes” we the audience were placed in the position of being the islanders watching the heroes in awe. We and the Matoran were the same.

And that pairs so nicely with a major theme of MNOG that is EXTREMELY consistent throughout Bionicle’s whole run: that the Toa inspire the Matoran to be better. On Mata Nui the Matoran were isolated from each other, and afraid to help each other, but the heroics of the Toa and Takua ultimately brings the island together in a stand against Makuta. Later in the Bohrok arcs in what may be one of Tahu’s best scenes, he’s seen giving an inspiring speech to the Ta-Matoran telling them that this fight isn’t just for Toa, but for all of them to join together. And in the next issue we see those Matoran risk everything trying to hold off the Bohrok while the Toa confront the queens.

All throughout, Bionicle has regular-people heroes who draw inspiration from the Toa, but who the Toa themselves acknowledge may be even more heroic. From the Chronicler’s Company to the Voya Nui Resistance to the Av-Matoran riding on the Toa’s backs. The Toa bring with them the hope the Matoran need to rise up for themselves.

And ultimately this reflects on what stories of heroes are meant to do for us. The heroic tales we tell, from Gilgamesh and Heracles, to Superman and Luke Skywalker, to the Toa of Bionicle, are meant to fill us with hope and belief that we too can accomplish great things in our lives, or that we can have the moral strength to do what is right.

And so that is reflected in how the audience is put in the position of the Matoran, who are inspired to be better by these heroes.

2. And my second point is that I’d actually like to disagree with you slightly on destiny. Namely the idea that is works like a program the characters cannot escape with their free will. Because while destiny is clearly a manifestation of their machine purpose, they are actually choosing to fulfill it out of their own free will, not driven by any programming.

The sentiment that the characters in Bionicle can’t escape their destiny gets kinda muddied when you realize, almost none of them ever try! Aside from Takua trying to avoid becoming the Toa of Light, all the other heroes actively choose to try for their destiny, and fight tooth and nail to achieve it.

And more importantly, they fight to achieve their destinies for extremely personal reasons, the opposite of their machine purpose. The Toa don’t try to save Mata Nui because they are parts of his machine, they do it because they believe Mata Nui’s return will be good for their people. So ultimately while they are choosing their destiny, it’s for human, not machine reasons. And that willing

This is also largely a function of the fact destiny is for the most part treated as good. They choose their destiny, because that destiny would be a good thing. Even Takua ends up accepting his destiny because its him choosing to do what’s right.

And even though it ends up with the same result of the destiny being fulfilled, their choices shape how their destiny plays out, and what the impacts of that destiny are, to such a degree that those broader impacts are arguably more significant than the destiny. Teridax’s whole genre aware plan purposefully reframed the Toa Nuva’s destiny to give him victory. The Toa Mahri chose to save the Matoran of Mahri and Voya Nui, costing them time that might’ve prevent Mata Nui from fully dying. The Toa Metru’s mistakes when rescuing the Matoran left them in the pods longer than they would’ve been otherwise.

And ultimately their development of free will turned the planet repair job into the creation of a new people, now introduced on a new united world. So even if it can be argued that they don’t have free will in what their destiny is, how they choose to go about doing it changes what that destiny actually means, meaning they do have a large degree of free will in my book.

Anyways, this has been SO thought provoking, I love this shit

Ey so what was your thesis about Bionicle as a meta-narrative/story-about-stories? I´m a huge fan of meta-ficiton/meta-narratives and never thought of the series that way so your take regarding it got me really interested.

So, there’s a bunch of facets to this.

Basically, Bionicle characters know they are in a story. This doesn’t mean that they know they’re fictional characters or that there’s an audience of humans watching, but their universe designates people as heroes, villains, and bystanders/victims. The universe runs on story logic, almost to the same extent as Discworld, though with superhero comics and hero mythologies rather than high fantasy and fairy tales. The “genre savvy” characters are of a more subtle type as well. The heroes go into a situation with an expectation of how it will end, because they have some idea what their destiny is, and heroes are always expected to win, right? But they are still often surprised by the outcome, because the story they were told is only a fraction of a more complex reality.

Let’s start with the first obvious storyteller: Vakama

The backstory, as first told to us by Vakama invokes mythic tropes such as creation stories, Cain and Abel style brotherly betrayals, and heroes who arrive from a distant land. Despite the fact that the characters are clearly some sort of robots or cyborgs, we’re immediately told that their setting runs on the logic of magic and myth. So Vakama and the other Turaga, as the storytellers, give the heroes and the audience an idea of how this world works and how things will turn out. This mythic story also represents the power of stories to persist and carry meaning through time, shaping thought and belief, even after the original facts have been long forgotten.

But then Vakama pulls out the rug from under us with the reveal of Metru Nui. Suddenly the story shifts from fantasy to scifi, from humble villages in harmony with their environment to a futuristic dystopia. This time the heroes are not beloved figures of myth, but vigilantes pitted against a corrupt police state. Again, Vakama is telling the story though, and he holds control over how his audience perceives the events and characters. And yet again, he is leaving something out- the Visorak and Hordika. Initially, he intended to keep that secret. It didn’t fit the story he was trying to tell. He had a perfect character arc laid out for himself in Legends of Metru Nui in his journey from a shy, anxious mask maker into a confident hero and leader. That was all anyone needed to know, right?

The Hordika represent yet another genre shift, this time into noir/horror. The heroes do not act heroically. They do not look heroic. Their character development is often negative. They are implied to be an aberration at even the cosmic level, since the Great Temple, and implicitly Mata Nui himself, rejects them. They find out that their selection as Toa came about thanks to Makuta himself. The story has gone horribly wrong, and the heroes know it. But nevertheless, the Toa resolve their differences, teamwork saves the day yet again, the prophecy is fulfilled For That Is The Way Of The Bionicle.

Vakama has very little to do in the legends arc. Because he’s been established by now as a less than reliable expositor, it is the always truthful Nokama who drops the reveal instead: Mata Nui is dying.

Vakama’s stepping down from his storytelling role allows for the gradual reveal of another storyteller: Makuta Teridax.

Chronologically, Makuta’s first real foray into weaving the narrative around others happened in Time Trap. He constructs his own elaborate narrative around Vakama in order to manipulate his mind and behaviour. But Vakama fails to play his part as the protagonist correctly, causing Teridax’s constructed narrative to fall apart.

By the time we become aware of his role in the ignition arc, Teridax has improved his technique as a puppet master/ storyteller considerably. Almost every conflict the heroes face has been orchestrated by him, pitting minor villain groups against the heroes to give them the victories that their story requires. Teridax seems aware that heroes have to ‘win’ because Destiny demands it, so he lets them, but it’s all in service of his own ultimate victory. Instead of the ‘cross-wired’ and unpredictable Vakama, Teridax targets the dutiful but socially isolated and secretive Matoro, who he basically grooms to be the perfect little sacrifice. Matoro performs his role perfectly, and gives the heroes an apparent bittersweet victory while allowing Teridax to put the final stages of his plan in motion.

[arr-jim-lad]

AYO I FINALLY MET KARZAHNI 👁️👁️

I LOVE his entire deal so far omg bc like.... suddenly we are faced with an entirely new god-like creature, and this creature is... not aware of two VERY MAJOR deities, one of which carries the entire universe within him, and the other who has been terrorizing that universe for 1000 years.

this is unsettling bc like, these gods are not just myths, makuta and mata nui are REAL within the universe. And yet this creature is so far removed from that reality that he has never heard of them, which really puts into perspective of how unnatural and wrong it is for Jaller & CO to even be there to meet him

Put very plainly, Karzanhi essentially seems to be Bionicle Satan, but he's not exactly depicted as entirely evil or malevolent? He's definitely on the darker side, but there's so much curiosity to him, and he's living his reality, trying to fulfill his job, which may or may not have been given to him as opposed to chosen by him

And then there's this part that filled me with so much awe I had to stop reading for the evening lmfao;

full disclaimer that i get like unreasonably emotional about bionicle lore at least three times a week but this new addition to it was like, completely overwhelming to me in how unbelievably cool and unique and interesting it is augh

like....... IF i understand this correctly... Karzahni was supposed to fix 'defective' Matorans, but he didn't exactly do a great job at it, as his 'fixed' Matorans were smaller and weaker. Judging by what he said earlier, this kinda evokes empathy in me because it's either 1) a job he wanted to do, but wasn't very good at, or 2) a job he was told to do, but wasn't properly skilled for.

but then also.. he realized obviously that his rebuilt Matorans are weaker, so he gave them absurdly strong weapons, like, Dalu has what is practically an insanity-inducing eldritch ability.

lastly, i like that both matoran types are like... convinced that they got the better deal. neither of them is suffering in their form, so Karzanhi was actually like.. not doing a bad job at all? He changed them, but not exactly for the worse, because he gave them the means to protect themselves

i realize i could very likely be completely off the mark bc all i have to go on atm is his introductory chapter and the initial revelation, but to me he reads like an angry and frustrated artist who just couldn't deliver on the job he was supposed to do, and decided to stop showing his 'broken' works to the world, which is why he started keeping the Matorans in his realm

it made me feel things & i needed to get them off my chest 😭

[kanohivolitakk]

Ngl I feel that I’m one of the few who wants Bionicle returning in an official form in some capacity, but is against G1 specifically returning or even getting an official reimagining, as I instead wish for a G3 that takes more a Final Fantasy  like approach where it has elements that make it Bionicle (robots/cybernetic beings in a overtly non scifi setting, colorcoded group of characters associated with elements, a large focus on worldbuilding in particular societal and mythological one, MN standin, Makuta being there in some form etc) without being just “G1 but with a different hat” a lot of fan G3 concepts and even G2 to an extent was. So basically I want what Bara Magna, G2 (to much lesser extent as a good chunk of G2 was just stripped down G1) and that scrapped Bionicle Mythic concept tried to do, but better executed.

Like we need to face the facts: G1 will never get finished at this point, as what was left unfinished was Gregs stories. Greg has moved on to other stuff and seems to be content in leaving Bionicle in the past. Even if Greg wanted  to finish the serials I’m not sure if Lego would allow him to, especially now that he has been laid off. And as such I see an official ontiunation and ending possible. At best I could see Greg giving his blessing to a fancontiunation or handing the wriitng duties to someone else (which is very unlikely since again, Greg got laid off from Lego) but beyond that I don’t see much.

As for a reimagined/reimxed G1. dgmw I’d love a reimagined G1: for as much as I love G1, it’s a very flawed series, so making a remake/reimaging of G1 that would be the best version of G1 as possible would make me very happy. Thing is...I just don’t think my ideal G1 reimaging is possible. I have a very specific set of criterais I want and one of them is for it being aimed to an older audience (mid-late teens to young adults)...something I can’t really see LEGO doing in this day and age. If G1 got an official reimaging I could see it be something much more childish and stripped down. Like maybe not G2 levels of stripped down since G2 flopped once but like..even in best case scenario I feel G1 reimagining would be less “still G1 in core concept, plot and tone being grimdark lite but with more character moments, a well developed complex world and ACTUALLY HAVING A PLAN RATHER THAN THE HEADWRITER PULLING SHIT OUT OF HIS HAT HALF OF THE TIME” and more like Ninjago and Monkie Kid. And I like those two shows but that isn’t just what I want G1 remake to be like in all honesty.

So yeah. While I want Bionicle to return as a story rather than a little thing Lego remembers once in a while, I think it’s best to leave G1 in the past and focusing telling a new story that’s worth the moniker of Bionicle, and just creating a G3. Or maybe even a spiritual successor, whether its by Lego or some other party. I admit I don’t really like spiritual successors that just ape one thing and the ones we have for Bionicle aren’t really that good but I’d love to see more media that’s clearly inspired by Bionicle while also trying to be its own little thing.

[sepublic]

There really should’ve been a moment where Mazeka recognizes the Shadow Takanuvas as the same Toa he left to die in Destral, under the justification of prioritizing his grudge on Vultraz. Likewise, Melding Teridax would call Mazeka out on this revelation, since he seemed critical of Mazeka’s obsession back in Brothers in Arms.

I think it would’ve made those story beats feel a lot more meaningful and less arbitrary if those pre-existing connections were acknowledged, after all; Have Mazeka consider his own morality and mistakes, that moment’s juxtaposition of condemning the Shadow Takanuvas, but also sparing Vezon’s life.

Additionally, I find it interesting that Vultraz told Mazeka that he’s a reminder of the person Vultraz could’ve been... Considering Mazeka is caught between two potential, alternate versions of people from his universe, I think there could’ve been a thematic callback to that quote. Could Vultraz really have been a better person in a different life, or was he just referring to the ‘demeaning’ life of a hard working, law-abiding citizen?

Reversely, could Mazeka have been as awful? Considering the things he’s already done... Seeing how Takanuva isn’t anymore immune to the path of darkness would be jarring; How much worse would Mazeka be with a Shadow Leech? Vultraz never needed one, but could you argue the same for Mazeka? Of course, we know there’s a Melding Mazeka who was a hero, so Melding Teridax could also tell our Mazeka about him.

I think there’s a recurring idea of different possibilities and paths you could’ve taken in life; The person you could’ve been, facing that distorted reflection, and your messy reaction to it. Vultraz straight-up admits to Mazeka he considers him a reflection, so the reverse should naturally apply. And when you have Takanuva and Makuta fighting one another in a photo negative take on events, it makes you wonder what could’ve been, the kind of existential crisis, regret, but also hope that comes with the multiverse.

[legend-as-old-as-time]

mothnem (M): Onxya needs more meat to her than just "weird Rahi making Makuta that LOVES her Octopuses"

legend-as-old-as-time (L): oohhh! What are you thinking about for her? We had ideas for that other Makuta who survived because one of her Hagah took in her soul / mind, so they're co-piloting the toa's body. But I don't think we did much with her or the toa either? And we have Krika in canon, the remorseful but trapping himself in the sunk cost fallacy and thinking he can't stop. Gorast, etc.

That OC Makuta, the toa, and Onxya are friends, and Gorast hurting the two of them triggered Onxya's rage.

M: Yesssss..... her fellow Makuta forgot, she is still a Makuta. Preference for making Rahi and not ruling the universe withstanding.

Onxya: These are the only friends I have! All the others I had to make myself!

(Her Rahi)

L: I don't I'll be able to find more on the other Makuta OC because I think we only talked about her in the DMs. (I think we need a separate post and reblog chain...) Maybe making the two plus the toa foils? Luran (stand-in name for the Makuta) Maybe she wants revenge because her defiance / fleeing got her Toa Hagah killed, of whom only the toa of stone (I think it was) survived? And only because she absorbed Luran's essence, both of them keeping each other alive?

She wasn't necessarily a supporter of Miserix, and was and is still is arrogant, but she agreed that their duty was to help take care of the GSR and NOT trying to rule over it.

Or she could have sided with Teridax only for her personal power, only to realize just what she had gotten into and what he was going to do to any people he felt like hurting and / or killing.

M: Onxya didn't like Teridax and sided with Miserix out of spite because he insulted one of her cute-to-her Rahi whose sole purpose was to be cute.

L: And also because he insulted her integrity and skills at making her niche of rahi. She doesn't care about honor, but she has her pride!

@mothnem

@mothnem

For achiving purposes. Do you want to talk about Onxya and build up her character? And maybe our other OCs.