So we aren’t even four months into the new Bionicle. In terms of media, all we have are nine short animated episodes, one of which hasn’t even been translated into English yet. We hardly know anything about the new characters, the new location, or the new plot.
And yes, despite this utter lack of information, I’m going to make the case here that the new Bionicle has already guaranteed itself to have a miserable story. So steer clear, eternally optimistic 12 year olds and wannabe lawyers who can’t keep their cars running; this topic is going to explain why your main subject of reporting is going to be completely unenjoyable for the duration of its existence.
Let’s start off with what was (in my opinion) the best part of Bionicle in 2001, and arguably the biggest failure of Bionicle in 2015: The world building. One of the very first thing 2001 Bionicle focused on was world building; Lego made it such a priority that a game dedicated to literally nothing but exploring the island was released in January; before the sets were even released in North America. Along with that, Lego devoted much of the early Bionicle website and promotional material to depicting the various villages and locales of Mata Nui. A partnership was formed with McDonalds to release villagers as Happy Meal toys, giving more insight into what the actual world of Bionicle was like. Even the initial villains, who are often dismissed as merely placeholder baddies until the Bohrok could show up, served to help build up the world as well, by introducing us to the wildlife of the region. Most of all, 2001 Bionicle was very much a story that made use of the entirety of its locale; the heroes, villagers, animals, environments, and lore was all used extensively, and was used from the get go.
Now compare that to 2015 Bionicle. While some people may say that 3 months is too quickly to judge a story, I’d argue that the 3 months thing is exactly what condemns Bionicle already. Bionicle only spent 3 months actually setting up the island of Okoto. Within that three months, we were never introduced to any of the villages, only introduced to one Protector, never met any villagers, and the only kind of wildlife we met are a group of spiders who are almost assuredly going to be removed from the plotline forever after the end of this year. We know nothing of the customs, habits, or lifestyle of these villagers. Moreover, the Toa have already left their respective areas and arrived at the Ancient City, and if (as seems to be suggested) the rest of the year ends up being a battle between the Toa and the various Skull beings within the Ancient City, we’re not going to be getting back to the villages any time soon.
So Lego spent a grand total of 3 months (6 out of 9 short episodes) actually establishing the island at all. Most of that is minimal, and it’s extremely unlikely that we’re going to be getting back to a position where we could possibly be world building for a while. And this is quite honestly my biggest issue with the new Bionicle; it has completely undermined itself. By the time we could possibly get back to world building, it will likely be at least a full year into the new storyline’s lifetime, and by that point it’s arguably far too late to begin establishing a location. In the same way that you can’t stick a “hook” for a story in halfway through the book, you can’t start developing a location a full year after you introduce it to us. By that point everyone whose interest you would have caught due to the well done world building is no longer interested and has passed on.
I don’t want this to be a complaint of “It’s different and therefore RUINED,” because different is good and what truly began to undermine old Bionicle was it’s inability to move away from the standard Piraka “rargh I have no friends” villain archetype. The problem, is, though, that Bionicle’s one true strength in the medium of narrative was its world building. Mata Nui was excellent because it was thoughtfully built up and mysterious while not being a total enigma. Metru Nui was engaging for much the same reason. The only time Bionicle has really managed to have a strong storyline without the use of extensive world building was 2006, and that worked in large part due to atmosphere and a sense of tension that ramped up the stakes wonderfully. Perhaps more importantly, though, Bionicle has never been particularly engaging due to its characters. Want proof? How about that time Lego tried to make a movie where half of the screen time was focused on Vakama going through a rebellious teenage phase? Yeah, exactly
And that’s what strikes me as most worrying; new Bionicle seems to have taken all of the focus that was on world building (i.e. what Lego has shown it can do well) and moved it to trying to develop its characters (i.e. what Lego has never done well and never will do well because it is a company that produces toys). So much of what has been done in the way of fleshing out Bionicle so far has been attempts to develop the characters. Instead of getting a few episodes establishing the various villagers and the residents within, we get a couple of episodes depicting the Toa meeting as a group, fighting about who gets to be leader, and then fighting a giant spider in the most cliched “you can do it if you work together” way possible. Even the bios on Lego’s front page are far more detailed than they were before, giving us utterly bizarre facts about the Toa that no one would ever have possibly cared to know (Gali telling bad jokes, for instance). I’ve already penned in the new Bionicle storyline as utterly terrible because it’s shown a complete lack of awareness for what made it interesting the first place; and instead taken all of its resources and moved them to doing what Lego has never, ever been able to do well.
TL;DR version: New Bionicle is going to be terrible because it’s ignoring world building (what arguably made Bionicle great to begin with) and instead focusing on trying to develop a few characters, which is something Lego has always been average at best at, and is usually much worse.
-MT