G1 meant something.
“Together or apart, with or without powers, we are still the Toa Nuva.” This carries the meaning that a hero is not defined by their power.
“When wisdom and valor fail, all that remains is Faith, and it can overcome all.”
Also in G1, I highly doubt the '08 Makuta looked like demons for no reason, especially since Teridax draws more than a few parallels to Satan. (Minus the three heads, for anyone who’s read Dante.)
What did we get out of G2?
“I can feel the POWEAAAH!”
“I didn’t slip.”
My point here isn’t to say that G2 was dumbed down. It was. But even things which are “dumbed down” can have meaning. Even if it was in the form of Tahu saying, “Lewa what did we learn today?”
And Lewa saying the moral of the story outright.
My point here is that G2 seemed to lack any meaning, whereas G1 had it heaped in layers if you cared to look.
“And what did we learn from this?”
“Never order water from a ghost.”
Actual quote from Ninjago.
Actually, Ninjago has had a few morals in some of the later Graphic Novels, 8, 9, and 10 specifically. BG2 just had the whole “unity” thing over and over. And I guess the whole Pohatu-Ketar thing.
Even the final message at the end. G1 had “BIONICLE’s legacy will continue on.” G2’s ending said “End it, it’s not worth it.”
Destiny got skipped because there was no third year, and duty was only focused on in one of the 2015 animations. 2015’s big thing was unity – with the Toa, though, not ith the creatures.
G1 had
Takanuva
Makuta as both a person and a species
Mata Nui the Island and the being
Legendry Masks of Time, Life, & Creation
Turage and Matoran
Difference Elements than the standard six
G2 Had
Ekimu
Makuta as a Mask Maker turn dark ruler
Okoto
Legendry Masks of Creation, Control, Time, & Ultimate Power
Protectors and Okotian
Just because it lacked depth doesn’t mean it doesn’t have anything, and I wouldn’t say it was ever the intention of the Bionicle team to dumb the story down as much as it was, as evidenced by the massive amounts of work they put into the art, set design, and constant referral to the source material.
You’d be surprised how much depth anything can have if you really take the time to look and analyze.
Personally, I didn’t feel that. The end quotes spoke to me, not just through the nostalgia of hearing “That is the legend of the Bionicle,” but the words of the Protector saying “Whenever we may need them, the Toa are watching over us.”
I feel in a time where Bionicle has been cancelled again and everyone feels let down, this message means so much more than any sort of moral that could have been taught while the line was still going. It’s a reminder that we, the fans, are to never let our heroes and this thing we care about, die out, and that no matter what form Bionicle takes, no matter how it’s handled - on shelves, off shelves, through MOCs, stories, movies, whatever - Bionicle is ours, and the Toa are there, looking over us. Our memories are always with us.
Well, it had the “we keep on fighting as long as we can” lesson from Onua, the “evil comes from too much ambition” lesson from Ekimu, and the “we will defeat evil because we care about Okoto” lesson from Lewa, which might be small, but are still good messages for kids to never give up and put passion in your work, not because you’re expecting something in return, but simply because you’re passionate about it.
There was the ‘Never trust a Snake’ quote from Ninjago. Which doesn’t just apply to snakes, it just happened to apply to actual snakes in that case. There’s also ‘The best way to defeat your enemy is to make them your friend’ ‘Never put off what can be done today for tomorrow’ and so forth.
Yeah, that was weird phrasing in JTO - normally its Unity, Duty, Destiny - but instead they swapped it around. Was it all just so they could do the combining with creatures gimmick?
maybe the Bionicle team did it intentionaly because they knew that G2 would not last so long because of the limitations that the higher ups had placed on the theme, thus we resived the “DUD” acronym, which in a weird way, sums up what G2 was, a dud.
No ‘great being’ the closest we get to a god-like figure is Umarak, a being that is actually the embodiment of shadows and capable of passing between plains of reality; Okoto and the Shadoto (Shadow Okoto)
G2 “we can do it, if we believe”
G1"If we leave our Toa friends to die, we are not worthy of the trust Mata Nui has placed in us. We quick-save them, if we have to tear these Piraka apart to do it."
The biggest ■■■■■ is tone, in G2 everything is sunshine and rainbows even at its darkest, in G1 things got dark, Lewa was willing to KILL to save his friends, in G2 it would be like that “defeat” them but they don’t actually die they just kinda bugger off.
Like what happened to the skull villains? did they just leave? then after the toa leave or if they make an army they could come back, the toa really solved nothing.
