One of the topics briefly touched upon in the most recent TTV Podcast, #215, was Bionicle G1’s canon content released after the G1 story ended, such as the online serials and Greg’s Message Boards topic. The cast basically seemed to all agree that they didn’t much care for Greg’s spontaneous canonizations based on random fan questions. And I don’t just mean small details— they specifically mentioned the two largest story reveals, Velika and the Red Star.
Now, I’ve always thought that the whole “Red Star = revival factory” thing wasn’t the smartest decision from a storywriting perspective. Greg at least left the most important deaths, like Makuta Teridax and Matoro, alone, but confirming that characters like Lhikan and Botar were alive seemed to defeat the point of their deaths in the first place. But it had honestly never even crossed my mind that there were members of the community that completely ignored these massive announcements or pretended like they didn’t happen.
Like— the Velika thing. For me personally, the reveal that Velika was a Great Being was what made me join the Bionicle community in the first place. I happened to look up the BZPower front page (not having been a member of the community before) and saw the recent announcement about the story reveal. It completely rocked my world and reminded me that the story actually existed, that a community and a writer who actually cared about it were still going strong. It encouraged me to join the discussion and create an account on BZP. I didn’t post very often, sure, but I made sure to stay up to date on what happened with the community. I might not even have become excited about Bionicle’s return for G2 if the reveal of Velika hadn’t reignited my interest in the story.
I always knew that there was some amount of controversy over the announcement, but I never imagined that some people chose to write it out of their headcanons entirely. So I’d like to hear the community’s thoughts on this. Am I the black sheep on this issue? I’m very interested in what people think.
No, you are not. I took a lot of time until going back to Bionicle. Thanks Last Airbender. To be honest, the Wiki as well as the BioMedia project helped me a lot to understand the actual storyline. It’s just last year that I found out, that Metru Nui was inside the MU! I never realized that. I really appreciate Greg for having made some other stories after the G1 cancellation, but I prefer making up my own stories.
Now about the Red Star. That didn’t really shake me at all. The “revival factory” is actually destroyed in my story, but that’s just my business
I do like Velika’s integration in the G1 story. Instead of having Makuta always as main villain, you finally have a “rival”, which is even more crazier than Makuta was. His involvement in the murder of powerful beings makes him as dangerous as Makuta, and I like the concept.
I must also thank the TTV forums to be still interested in Bionicle. The community is great, while the forum interface is sometimes pretty buggy and slow.
Anyway, you are not “the only one”(we live in a world with 7 Billion people), I did include Velika and the Red Star(even just in a short time) in my headcanons.
But where I am not satisfied is the “Love is non-canon” thing.
Thanks Greg. Btw, I know that Agori and Glatorian can love, while it is bizarre that advanced machines with a developed AI like Matoran can’t.
I regard it all as canon, and I do like where it went, sure it is really kinda sad to see the massive saga like Bionicle lack real resolution. But I just would fill in the last bit with your imagination, considering that is what LEGO is all about.
I was fine with both the RS and the Velika reveal. The idea of the RS makes absolute sense when you are considering the nature of the GSR–it’s a closed system, therefore recycling deceased beings is infinitely more sensible than expending potentially limited resources to make new ones. It also adds a bit more relevance to the RS, which up until then had little purpose besides making the Toa Inika.
As for Velika, his identity perfectly explained two key aspects of his character–why he speaks in riddles and how he knew that EP would counter Antidermis. Speaking to the latter first, it was never stated in the books how Velika simply knew that EP Zamors would free the enslaved Matoran on Voya Nui–we just assumed that he knew something no one else did. But if he’s a GB, his knowledge makes perfect sense, as he would know the properties of a universe he helped create. As to him speaking in riddles, it gives him a cover to hide his identity and makes him noteworthy at the same time, a great tip to fans.
I do think some of the canonizations were overkill. For instance, there was no real need to come up with the Kanohi Masks for the other Toa Mangai, whom we never saw and will never see outside of fan fiction. All that really did was limit people’s creativity, and it led to some very bitter arguments that could have been avoided if people just let the holes in the canon remain open.
You know what I wanted to know most about the Post-2010 content? Marendar. You know, the robotic hunter that was supposed to kill all Toa and Matoran in case they ever got off the robot.
I am probably the most obsessive BIONICLE fans in the tristate area and until today I had never heard of this. Now all I wanna see is a frantic detailing all of the surviving toa’s horrific deaths.
I made him a villain in my (now dead) G1 continuation.
I personally enjoy everything in the canon, though I understand why some people get upset over the red star. I don’t mind it because everyone who goes there gets mind-wiped, therefore death isn’t no big deal.
It sucked. I’m sorry but I just can’t put it a different way.
The only thing I liked about the post-finale story serials was Marendar. While not a particularly compelling character, he was something we hadn’t seen in Bionicle before. … Sure, one could argue that destructive robots were a cliché at that point of the story, since we already had Vahki, Bohrok and Baterra but none of them targetted Toa specifically. It’s interesting to have a being who sees mostly pure and selfless heroes as potentially dangerous because of the powers they posses.
Everything else, thought, was an utter mess. The new Toa introduced in ‘The Yesterday Quest’ (I think) were one of the most unlikable characters in the whole franchise. Chiara frying a random lizard with her Lightning power just to prove she isn’t gentle and innocent was a testament to all the problems the series had with handling its female characters.
Velika being a Great Being was actually a pretty cool idea. I also had absolutely no problem with him being a villain. What I take issue with was the fact that he ended up being written as another bad-to-the-bone evil genius with no moral ambiguity whatsoever.
But the Red Star Revelation was the worst. I’ve seen many people defending this idea from the in-universe, pragmatic stadpoint but, to be honest (and a bit blunt to boot), I don’t care. I don’t care about the fact that Greg reassures us that some deaths won’t be negated… I don’t care because, apparently, the ‘his death was meaningful so I don’t want to take away from it’ out-of-universe justification used for Matoro doesn’t apply to Lhikan’s sacrifice - a much more pognant moment of the story in my opinion.
First of all, I love the idea of Marendar. I just get the idea of a sentinal from Days of Future Past systematically hunting the toa. As far as Velika goes, I like that concept too. He feels that since he created the matoran, he should rule them. It reminds me of the Worker of Secrets from Infinity Blade. As far as the Red Star, I’m indifferent. The Mask of Life could already raise the dead more than likely.
