Is Bionicle a good Story?

[thewimpykid]

Reading over the topic, it seems like there’s a fine line between telling a good story and doing good worldbuilding. For instance, a series like The Lord Of The Rings is all about the world-building. J. R. R. Tolkien had a story to tell, but most of his books were about crafting a world for his characters to play around in. On the flip side, Star Wars (the original trilogy, at least) had its focus be the story first and foremost. Sure, there were all these random background characters that would later go on to have thousand-word Wookiepedia articles, but Luke Skywalker was the front and center of Episode IV, V, and VI. The comments about Star Wars being about world-building are somewhat misguided. We have the main Skywalker Saga, and all nine of its movies (with the possible exception of the prequels) being largely based in storytelling. All the additional “world-building” is done by the add-on TV series, such as The Clone Wars and The Mandalorian, and supplementary novels and comics.

However, there are other series that do both. Look at Harry Potter. The first few books in the series told the story of a boy who learned he was a wizard and started going to a special school. That story lasted all throughout the series, but Goblet Of Fire was around the time when it doubled down on the world-building. We started to learn a lot more about Voldemort, and Dumbledore, and Snape, and the Black family, and all of their backstories.

I think it’s safe to say Bionicle falls into this category. Its first three years (the Mata Nui saga) were simply telling the story of an evil force trying to take over an island, and a group of heroes arriving to try and save its inhabitants. 2004 and 2005 had a somewhat similar story, but here, it started to flesh out a bigger universe. 2006-2008 continued the story, but oh boy, was there worldbuilding! Literally the entire premise of the Legacy Of Evil book was the Piraka having a flashback to their earlier days, and this was where Greg started writing the serials. The Toa Iniki/Mahri and Toa Nuva fighting to reawaken Mata Nui was still the main focus, but there was a lot of lore being built up on the side.

@Dag

Greg even said he could write stories for years if he wanted to.

Which he would’ve…if Bionicle didn’t get cancelled.

@LegoDavid

If you try to show any casual fan of fiction or pop culture Bionicle, I find it that most people are instantly turned away by the very concept of it

To quote myself…

@thewimpykid

If you went up to a random guy on the street who was in high school or college and asked him what Bionicle was, he’d probably say “Uh…isn’t that that Lego robot figure thing?” And an elementary school kid…forget it! He’d just give you a quizzical look and walk away.

@LegoDavid

I think we can all agree that the way the story was told wasn’t very good. Having the story be fragmented in so many books, comics and web serials was a horrible idea, and I still have no idea how most people who actually grew up with it even managed to keep track of it. Granted, nowdays it is a lot easier to read it all in one place thanks to sites like BS01, but during its original run? How was an average kid (the target audience) even supposed to read all that stuff from so many different places?

Well here’s the thing:

The reason Lego did that was to make Bionicle more accessible. They made Bionicle content for a variety of mediums. There were the toys themselves, the comics, the video games, the books, and the movies. If you’re a book fan, then there’s something to appeal to you. If you’re a gamer, then there’s something for you though most of the games were noncanon

That said, from a storytelling perspective, it doesn’t make sense to tell different parts of the stories on different mediums. Going back to one of my earlier examples, one of the biggest criticisms about the Star Wars prequel and sequel trilogies is that there were significant gaps in the characters’ development. Like, we’re told that Anakin and Obi-Wan have a deep relationship, but for the majority of Episode II and III, both of them are off doing their own thing. And Episode VII didn’t do much to explain how the Imperial remnants were organized into the First Order. Sure, there was The Clone Wars that built up Anakin’s character development, and it’s been said that The Mandalorian will show the rise of the First Order, but a movie series should make sense on its own without depending on outside sources.

TLDR: If Bionicle had told its story on just one medium-preferably the books-then maybe it would’ve gone down better.

@TheJerminator

Lego putting set design over story

But there were some minor story elements that took precedence over the sets; like, for instance, Nuparu Mahri having an Aqua Blaster Blade, or how many swords Jaller Inika had.

@Ghid

The basic premise, the level of writing quality, the flow of story and character personality… All relatively standard for a kid’s book. Defeat the bad guy, save the world, etc. and etc. and etc.

That’s what it was like at first, but then later years (particularly 2008) had the bad guy coming out on top. That’s a definite sign of the story maturing.

@Ghid

in its third it had a direct-to-VHS film.

…which, unfortunately, hasn’t aged as well as it could’ve.

@Barafu

However, as an adult, that has a genuine interest in writing,

Fun fact: I’m an aspiring writer myself, and in some ways, Bionicle has had an influence on my writing.

@Krelikan

Personally, I would’ve loved to see more stuff like MNOG one and two. Through these games, we got to see the world moving face to face, learning the lore directly from those who were living it. I want more of this, learning the story as a historian would in real life. Visiting locations, talking to locals, and seeing it for yourself.

Can you imagine if there was an actual, mainstream RPG like the MNOG? I think, if it were successful, then Bionicle wouldn’t be quite so obscure in the modern day.