That’s a real well hidden one then. I suppose it gets more visible with time?
I actually haven’t noticed them either. I need to go back and check that out.
The best way to look for it is context clues. Write down whatever seems off pace or mysterious. This is the best way to find it.
@777stairs
Some dark hints that are easily overlooked are:
•Overempowerment
•Overportrayal of innocence/the youngest character being targeted the soonest. (Lewa, for example)
•A trip in pace, where the story seems to slow down or speed up when referring to a different time or place. (“Maybe whoever made this maze has something to do with us.” “Or we have something to do with them.”)
Just to name a few.
The opposite of this is something called a " Climactic Rebound" where the story slows down on a dark pace to pull in a lot of lighter elements. Most commonly getting the reader to be more attached to a certain character. Then flipping a switch and that specific character getting mortally wounded or even killed. (For example, Han Solo)
1 Like
I think theres a really big issue people always miss when talking about both generations stories’. ONE HAD TEN YEARS AND WE CAN SEE IN HIND SIGHT AND THE OTHER HAS 1 AND A HALF.(sorry had to get that off my chest). What i mean is it looks like sunshine now but did 2001 2002 look any different?
its something that always confused me when people talk about it. We can see the first 2 years as so good from hind sight we can see where each little thing lead to and what they meant, some people say G2 has none of that.
G1’s story has already been told, we can go read all of it and see the full picture, G2’s story is still being told thus theres a lot we don’t know about that will happen later, we’re comparing a finished story to an in progress story. Example, the red star, as far as I can tell it was just a thing there to get the story to progress using prophecy giving the toa more information and thus the reader, I’m pretty sure that they weren’t planning it to be a revival machine for the inhabitants of the MU, thats something that happened later.
What I’m trying to say in a completely unorganized way is that, we can say “G1 has a darker/better story that G2” and to that i say DUH its already told its story, we can see it from start to finish see how each little thing evolves.
I may be totally wrong cause I joined in 08, I don’t have nostalgia to them, I couldn’t see 01 and 02 from your perspective just from hind sight. (sorry if this is messy its basically me just slamming my face into my keyboard like an animal)
You are right about the “Ten Years story vs the one and half new story”.
But let’s begin with the media they used back in 2001, and later in 2002. Something many fans really liked about was the wide range of different storytelling videos and comics. You had a Flash Animation MMO and later Flash Web episodes. You got pretty cool CGI clips showing the six Toas. Sure 2015 and 2016 also got that(+the Netflix series, which was a good surprise compared to the 2015 web episodes). But the stroytelling is more like a disney fairy tale(sorry voice actor, but LEGO should have hired someone else). Interaction is also missing. We got several iOs and Android Bionicle games, but they have no real story. There are not only kids who want action, but also a direct interaction with the story itself.
I can’t speak for the 2004-2010 timeline since G2 has only begun in 2015.
Also, like you, I joined Bionicle later(2004-2005). The Metru Nui story was also nice, but as I realized that there was a story before that one(or later when we consider the story timeline), I immediately tried to understand what happened before 2004. And I was impressed. The 2001-2002-2003 story video, the Bohrok Swarm trailer, the Nuva and Mata clips, the Bohrok flash episodes, the first Bionicle movie, etc…thanks to these media, I was even more interested in Bionicle.
But Nostalgia is also interfering here. I never said that I disliked the G2 story. But the G1 story will always be my favourite one.
I wasn’t saying you didn’t like G2’s story I was being general.
Didn’t mention someone. Just said that to make it more clear since some of my statements are pretty negative concerning G2’s story 
If anything, visual media such as the backbone of G2 has the potential to be darker than a 120-page novel.
To be clear, we didn’t get our first on-screen death until 2003. The number of implied deaths in 2001 alone is enormous. When I first played the MNOG in 2006, I saw the charred forest in Ta-Koro and immediately realized how dangerous life was for the matoran. The disease spread my Akhmou through the Kohli balls, and Makuta’s monologue at the end of the game are also quite chilling.
[quote=“Sharnak, post:5, topic:22239”]However, BIONICLE started to aim at older kids as the years went on.It’s why the sets switched from the bright Mata colors to the darker Metru ones.
[/quote]
I’m pretty sure that the color changes had more to do with Lego consolidating their color palette than any intended change in the tone of the story.
I would make the case that G1 didn’t have great characterization. The Toa Mata were the main characters for four of the theme’s ten years, and they pretty much stayed flat. In G2, it’s still way to early to comment on character development, but we shouldn’t pretend that G1 characters were anything more than stereotypical, cardboard caricatures.
2 Likes
Tecnically, we know Okotans can die, since we had a whole wave of their reconstructed corpses fighting the Toa. Also, Bingzak’s village was destroyed in IoLM, and it’s inhabitants for the most part were either killed or Skull-Spidered.
True facts.
But they had interesting backstories and, to some degree, that stereotypical concept kept the characters enjoyable.
1 Like
Fair enough. I’ll concede, at least on MNOG. Templar Studios did make it clear that Mata Nui was a beautiful but very dangerous place.
They were very unique in that they focused on the Matoran’s perspective, as opposed to the “actual” heroes of the story, which may be the cause of the slightly different tone. The Matoran were clearly terrified of the rahi, but they were little more than goons to the Toa up until the Manas. (And how that fight went down is vastly different in nearly every version, so that too is arguable.)
[quote][quote=“Sharnak, post:5, topic:22239”]However, BIONICLE started to aim at older kids as the years went on.It’s why the sets switched from the bright Mata colors to the darker Metru ones.
[/quote]
I’m pretty sure that the color changes had more to do with Lego consolidating their color palette than any intended change in the tone of the story.
[/quote]
No, it was to appeal to older kids. The logic is that people associate brighter colors on toy for small children and darker colors for older kids. You can see it whenever you walk down the toy isle. It was confirmed in an interview from way back in 2009.
1 Like
What about the dark stories that’re just consistently dark from beginning to end?
3 Likes
I rarely ever see them, so I don’t count it.
All due respect, but just because you rarely see such stories doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
In sizeable quantities no less.
6 Likes