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Bionicle 2016 Story Discussion & Rumors

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Right, but that much he's shared openly. His mannerisms and subtle ways of holding information back made me think that there's something greater at play. More specifically, when he talks about destroying the Mask of Control, it sounds incongruous; he's willing to do exactly what Makuta literally just tried to do to him. I didn't expect that from the so-called "Wise Master". I'm probably imagining most of it, but it's the impression I got from the delivery of the lines. #ekimubigbad2018

The voice-acting and writing turned me off, so I only watched snippets of it, but darn it, now you're making me want to go back to it! =P

Seeing as Ekimu seems to be the hero set for this summer, I doubt he'll turn out to be evil (or an evil duplicate,) but it wouldn't exactly contradict the Legend. All we know about Ekimu, prior to his slumber, is that he made better masks than Makuta, and didn't want his brother wielding the Mask of Ultimate Power. He wants to stop Makuta, but that's hardly evidence of his moral rectitude. It's not like fighting against Hitler made Stalin a saint.

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I doubt we'll find out Ekimu was evil all along. That's partly wishful thinking, because I really don't like twists like that, ones that take a likeable character and make you feel bad or deceived for liking them. Case-in-point: Velika. Once a wise and charmingly cryptic storyteller, revealing him to be a secret great being wouldn't have had to be a bad decision... except that Greg also went ahead and made him a sociopathic serial murderer. :hmpf_bad:

That's not to say I can't see Ekimu becoming an enemy or a threat. People can do bad or risky things for what they believe to be good reasons, particularly when they believe there to be a greater threat out there. It's not impossible to imagine Ekimu trying to gain power to "protect" Okoto from Makuta, until his own power puts Okoto at risk. But I don't see it being an imminent risk at the moment. More of a long term thing.

Edited by Aanchir

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Uhm, glad to see I wasn't the only one that felt the Velika reveal contradicted his previous characterization. However, I still think it was the only relatively interesting thing the post-cancelation story had to offer in spite of its randomness and lack of any kind build-up.

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Gotta say I'm really impressed by JtO! The animation is wonderfully stylised and theres a nice chunk of action involving all the toa, and some decent character arcs, esp Pohatu and Ketar.

Not perfect though, as nice as the action was, it did feel just a smidge rushed, and the voice acting's good but the modulation is just a bit much.

Something interesting to note IMO is the depiction of the PoU, which is depicted more like an add-on for CCBS shells. Not sure if the shaping would be possible but it's an interesting idea.

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Finally got around to watching TJTO.

Gotta say, I was pretty impressed. I had fairly low expectations, though, so maybe that helped.

The art style alone made it worth watching. Some of the backgrounds were wonderful, especially that one shot of the Water region before Gali dives in the water and the Jungle region temple. They just made the place look so big and awe-inspiring. I loved it, and it brought me back to the days of the beautiful MNOG scenery (MNOG artwork still outranks, though). Also loved how the walls and floor of the maze glowed green when the characters were near. That was a neat little detail.

Voice work was passable. Can't complain with the actors, but the acting was a bit jarring at times. Some lines could have had better delivery, but it wasn't anything terrible. Even Umarak's higher-than-expected pitched voice worked fairly well.

Characterization was pretty good too. Not much development, but they clearly had distinct personalities. They nailed Lewa's high energy, and I loved Pohatu's stubbornness to Unite (nice continuity there too, with his hate for the Skull Scorpios). And it was nice to see that little aspect become a plot point in the end and not just there because. Onua was also pretty fun. Love how he just decides to run through the cave walls and later knocks over an entire tree.

Other things: Umarak was great. Especially his powers. That fight with Lewa was great with him teleporting here and there and his ability to just spawn Shadow Traps. Nice to see the Traps had some sentience as well. They definitely displayed some fear, and the Water Trap knocking the other one off the cliff made me chuckle.

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I saw Journey to One yesterday and I feel very satisfied! I had expected much worse and this is roughly what I wanted.

Plot - I hadn't read any story material for this year so all I knew was that the Toa had to find their creatures and unite with them. I found the shadow traps to be very neat and I can definitely appreciate them more now. It wasn't what I thought it'd be and certainly not as basic as I expected.

Characters - Not much development so far but I do like the character arc with Pohatu and Ketar. I don't really like the changes to Kopaka, I think he should try to be stoic in public but geeky in private. Example: the skiing scene. He hasn't really let it slip much around the other Toa but I think he should act a bit more stoic around them for now and gradually less so as the series goes on, rather than have him be static. I didn't like that Onua was kinda reckless but I took it as him just losing his patience. As long as he acts more like the Onua we know and not MoL Onua for the remainder of the series, I'll be okay with it. As for the creatures, I thought they were handled excellently. I would've liked more focus on Ikir but less focus on Ikir means less focus on Tahu which means more focus on everyone else, which was very welcome (especially Lewa and Gali). Other subtle things I appreciate are Lewa's characterization (kinda reckless but not stupid), Terak's interactions with Onua and Umarak's attitude.

Writing - Kinda awkward at times but ultimately not bad. I only cringed a couple times whereas I expected to cringe for at least half of the runtime of the two episodes.

Voices - I really liked the voices. Umarak's is a bit high pitched and Tahu's is a bit... cringy at times but other than that I liked them. I thought Lewa, Gali, Onua, Pohatu, Narmoto and Ekimu's voices were spot on. There's a couple awkward pauses in dialogue here and there, really not sure what's up with that.

Animation - Beautiful aesthetic combining sorta cel-shaded CG with more 2D environments which I didn't really know if it'd work but it sure did. If there's gonna be more 3DCG anime as time goes on, I hope they do an aesthetic closer to this one than Sidonia no Kishi's.

Atmosphere - I loved the atmosphere, it felt like I was playing MNOG. Not much to say other than I'm glad we focused more on the Jungle and Water regions and I wish we'd seen more of the Earth region.

Action - Definitely the strongest point so far. Very well animated and tight, especially the scene where Umarak pits the Toa against the Umarak-Onua combiner (guessing it's an unreleased combiner, if it is then I love that it had a story purpose!).

Pacing - The pacing was pretty good in my opinion, good balance between action and character interaction and only felt kinda rushed when it came to the Toa meeting the creatures, except for Lewa and Uxar and Pohatu and Ketar.

Overall - Could've been better here and there (mostly in the writing and editing) but definitely could've been much worse. I found it more enjoyable than any other TV series or movie LEGO has put out before, save for The LEGO Movie.

Edited by Toa of Gallifrey

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I saw Journey to One yesterday and I feel very satisfied! I had expected much worse and this is roughly what I wanted.

Plot - I hadn't read any story material for this year so all I knew was that the Toa had to find their creatures and unite with them. I found the shadow traps to be very neat and I can definitely appreciate them more now. It wasn't what I thought it'd be and certainly not as basic as I expected.

Characters - Not much development so far but I do like the character arc with Pohatu and Ketar. I don't really like the changes to Kopaka, I think he should try to be stoic in public but geeky in private. Example: the skiing scene. He hasn't really let it slip much around the other Toa but I think he should act a bit more stoic around them for now and gradually less so as the series goes on, rather than have him be static. I didn't like that Onua was kinda reckless but I took it as him just losing his patience. As long as he acts more like the Onua we know and not MoL Onua for the remainder of the series, I'll be okay with it. As for the creatures, I thought they were handled excellently. I would've liked more focus on Ikir but less focus on Ikir means less focus on Tahu which means more focus on everyone else, which was very welcome (especially Lewa and Gali). Other subtle things I appreciate are Lewa's characterization (kinda reckless but not stupid), Terak's interactions with Onua and Umarak's attitude.

Writing - Kinda awkward at times but ultimately not bad. I only cringed a couple times whereas I expected to cringe for at least half of the runtime of the two episodes.

Voices - I really liked the voices. Umarak's is a bit high pitched and Tahu's is a bit... cringy at times but other than that I liked them. I thought Lewa, Gali, Onua, Pohatu, Narmoto and Ekimu's voices were spot on. There's a couple awkward pauses in dialogue here and there, really not sure what's up with that.

Animation - Beautiful aesthetic combining sorta cel-shaded CG with more 2D environments which I didn't really know if it'd work but it sure did. If there's gonna be more 3DCG anime as time goes on, I hope they do an aesthetic closer to this one than Sidonia no Kishi's.

Atmosphere - I loved the atmosphere, it felt like I was playing MNOG. Not much to say other than I'm glad we focused more on the Jungle and Water regions and I wish we'd seen more of the Earth region.

Action - Definitely the strongest point so far. Very well animated and tight, especially the scene where Umarak pits the Toa against the Umarak-Onua combiner (guessing it's an unreleased combiner, if it is then I love that it had a story purpose!).

Pacing - The pacing was pretty good in my opinion, good balance between action and character interaction and only felt kinda rushed when it came to the Toa meeting the creatures, except for Lewa and Uxar and Pohatu and Ketar.

Overall - Could've been better here and there (mostly in the writing and editing) but definitely could've been much worse. I found it more enjoyable than any other TV series or movie LEGO has put out before, save for The LEGO Movie.

Agree with most of your points, except I think Bionicle still has a ways to go to reach the level of Ninjago, which is acceptable given the latter has been around for 5 years and 64 22-minute TV episodes...

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Agree with most of your points, except I think Bionicle still has a ways to go to reach the level of Ninjago, which is acceptable given the latter has been around for 5 years and 64 22-minute TV episodes...

We're in the second year of Gen2. While I personally found the episodes far more enjoyable the second time, character and world development really wouldn't have been an issue this year if they had continued the format the animations had, . The tone has changed, the cheesy "so bad it's good" writing is gone, quite a few characters have changed the worse, and the world feels a lot less like something out of legend. And its most heinous crime of all: nothing for the community to rabidly overspeculate on. Now it just feels like they're trying to follow NINJAGO's format (maybe that's what made me hate it so much at first), when BIONICLE needs to be its own thing. Continuing the minisodes, even with only 10 more episodes maybe (though probably not) with a new MNOG would have been much better IMO.

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Just saw it. What I liked:

- Characterization. Awkward at times, but I liked that they focused on a few characters (Lewa, Pohatu) because it gave them more depth.

- Umarak's "theft" of Ketar was done pretty well, it took me a while after his first attack on the six Toa to realize that Ketar was his plan.

- The story, while simple, was okay. A little rushed at the start, but given that it's aimed at kids, I felt like it wasn't too dumbed down.

- The animation was awesome! I really liked it.

What I didn't like:

- The dialogue. While it wasn't cringeworthy like I had feared, it's still pretty lacklustre. It's as bad, if not worse than the 2015 dialogue.

- As others have said, world building is almost non-existant. The only interesting thing I noticed was that of the statute of a maskless head at the cliff before they head to the labyrinth.

Overall... I don't love it, but I'm glad we have it as it gives kids something to watch. The storyline could have been a lot better - here's hoping we see something better next year.

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Hopping on the "I finally got around to watching JtO weeks after it came out" bandwagon.

Simply put, I loved it. I had low expectations and was blown away by how good it was. It left me feeling satisfied when I was finished, it transitioned mostly smoothly, and it didn't deviate too much from the character archetypes that we were given last year. So, point-by-point:

- The art style grated on me a little at first, with the contrast between the characters and the background, but I grew to enjoy it over time. Gali's scene with the whirlpool looked somewhat subpar, but other than that no scenes stuck out to me as having poorly-designed background.

- Voice acting felt slightly off-point for some of the characters, such as Kopaka, Ekimu, and especially Umarak, but none of the choices were totally bad. While I disagree with giving the millennia-old Umarak such a young voice, it didn't sound too bad when taken in the context of individual scenes.

- Characterization, again, was mostly good. I was glad that Tahu was not given the spotlight--- the prologue narrator actually says that Tahu considers himself a leader, which felt rather gratifying. Kopaka's personality, as others have pointed out, seemed inconsistent. One moment he's the stoic, the next he's acting like a generic trigger-happy, fun-loving hero. His voice didn't help this either. I loved, absolutely loved the way that Lewa and Pohatu were handled. They were hands-down the stars of episodes 1 and 2, respectively, and played those roles very well.

I find Lewa interesting because according to all his biographical product information he's supposed to be the "reckless, carefree, immature" stereotype, right? The prankster. Yet as with the 2015 animations, he keeps stealing the show in practically all categories. He single-handedly took out the Skull Scorpios last year, and now he's the one who gets to fight Umarak by himself--- and WINS! He played various comic roles last year, from Onua's foil to Captain Obvious, and made all of them work without ruining his character. And now JtO has taken that role and upped it to him oddly being the smart one, able to figure out some of the little puzzles in the labyrinth or relating to the Creatures before any of the other Toa. He just keeps getting better and better, and his Creature, Uxar, was frankly adorable. He stole Kopaka's place in my heart as my favorite Toa during the 2015 animations, and JtO has only further cemented him in that spot.

And Pohatu! Man, he's almost the exact opposite of Lewa in my eyes. After last year's events, he was possibly my least favorite Toa--- and yet JtO took all of the negative aspects of his personality and turned them into realistic character flaws that made me cheer for him by the end of episode 2. I felt so sorry for Ketar, seeing it walking along behind the Toa while all the other Creatures were United. It became apparent very quickly that Umarak was going to target Pohatu and Ketar for their "weak link", and I was constantly praying that they would notice their errors and fix the problem before it was too late. But they didn't. The final scenes, where Umarak Unites with Ketar, grabs the Mask, and then fights with Pohatu, were nothing short of extraordinary, and it was in no small part thanks to the buildup of Pohatu's character as a flawed person who we so desperately wanted to see fixed. By the time the fight had started, I decided I could think of no better ending than for Umarak to force Pohatu to choose between the Mask and Ketar--- and I was not disappointed. Pohatu's character arc was handled amazingly well considering the short time that the writers had to flesh it out, and I give them full applause for it.

- In case it hasn't been made clear, the fight scenes were all very cool, from the initial skirmish with the Skull minions, to Lewa's one-on-one with Umarak, to the Toa's fight with Umarak's spawn. Umarak's powers, though somewhat defying a reasonable suspension of disbelief, are good plot devices that don't feel too contrived, while the scripting made very good use of the Toa's elemental powers and weapons (with the exception of Pohatu consistently referring to his crystal blades despite only having one).

- Atmosphere, pacing? Very well done. It didn't feel too rushed at all. Plenty of time was given to each important event, and each scene carried an appropriate amount of solemnity.

- That last scene where Umarak transforms into the Destroyer? Amazing. Gave me chills. I love the setup for the Summer plotline, and especially the fact that Makuta actually used the word Destroyer.

Overall, I am in love with Journey to One, and I can't wait for the next set of episodes. I feel very good about the future of Bionicle G2's story media.

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0_13637e_e5a371ae_L.jpg

Hey, guys I have some news.

In 2017 Ekimu repairs Golden Mask of Control and splits with his Mask of Creation.

He is trying to find Mask of Absolute Power to become the supreme being and destroy the Island of Okoto (Umarak will help him that year - just look at official pictures) - to find something above. The total destruction can kill all living being and Toa try to stop him.

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Hey, guys I have some news.

In 2017 Ekimu repairs Golden Mask of Control and splits with his Mask of Creation.

He is trying to find Mask of Absolute Power to become the supreme being and destroy the Island of Okoto (Umarak will help him that year - just look at official pictures) - to find something above. The total destruction can kill all living being and Toa try to stop him.

Do you have a source on that, or is it just speculation/fanfiction?

Edited by Lyichir

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0_13637e_e5a371ae_L.jpg

Hey, guys I have some news.

In 2017 Ekimu repairs Golden Mask of Control and splits with his Mask of Creation.

He is trying to find Mask of Absolute Power to become the supreme being and destroy the Island of Okoto (Umarak will help him that year - just look at official pictures) - to find something above. The total destruction can kill all living being and Toa try to stop him.

Woah.....sources?

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Is this from VK?

Just popping up and claiming knowledge of the line's future, sans evidence, only makes you look a troll. Granted, I don't recall you behaving trollishly in the past, but then I didn't think that about MonkeyChud either, so I'm not necessarily the best of judge of these things.

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Do you have a source on that, or is it just speculation/fanfiction?

I'm not so sure. I assumed it might be satire at first, but after reading through his post history (is this ad hominem? Could a Mod delete this if it is?) he's never made huge claims before, and when speculating it's always been very clearly defined as such. His writing here is factual, a statement, rather than speculation. He hasn't leaked anything before, so I'd say take it with a grain of salt. If he's telling the truth, I'll be very surprised if LEGO does this. Gen 2's lore has been very simple and straightforward, and unless Ekimu is corrupted by Makuta/Umarak I can't see him being a villain. If Greg were still on the team, maybe, (not condemning him, but Velika does come to mind) but it will be interesting to see how they handle it if this is true. However... we're in March. We didn't even get pictures this early in 2014, did we?

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In terms of speculation, i'm currently theorising that Ekimu will end up messing up big-time, possibly finding a way to defeat Umarak The Destroyer that would also cause the destruction of the Mask Of Control, throwing the island into chaos and possibly awakening Makuta (In a sort of parallel to how breaking a piece of his confinement in Web Of Shadows released him - destroying the Mask Of Control could do the same)

Hey, guys I have some news.

In 2017 Ekimu repairs Golden Mask of Control and splits with his Mask of Creation.

He is trying to find Mask of Absolute Power to become the supreme being and destroy the Island of Okoto (Umarak will help him that year - just look at official pictures) - to find something above. The total destruction can kill all living being and Toa try to stop him.

I doubt this is accurate;

Yes, Ekimu could betray the Toa and turn evil OR try to become the supreme being OR even do villanous things such as destroying the Mask Of Control (Which could have consequences), it is a possibility. There are hints in JTO that he does plan on destroying the Mask Of Control so its possible he may not be 100% a good guy, given he has the same idea as Makuta in the 2015 storyline (Makuta was trying to destroy the Mask Of Creation that year)

Though if he was going to attempt this, why would'nt he just go after the Mask Of Ultimate Power first? Why reveal his intentions so soon by merging the Mask Of Creation with the Mask Of Control? And where would Makuta fit into all of this?

Just feels like the idea is full of holes...

Edited by Scarilian

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So, according to the TTV's latest podcast, they interviewed Ryder Windham (apologies for any spelling errors) who said that there are no more books for Bionicle on the horizon including graphic novels after the ones already planned. What does everyone think about this?

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So, according to the TTV's latest podcast, they interviewed Ryder Windham (apologies for any spelling errors) who said that there are no more books for Bionicle on the horizon including graphic novels after the ones already planned. What does everyone think about this?

either the doomsayers were right that Bionicle G2 is going to end in 2017 or TLG realized the real story potential is in digital media like games and animation. i hope it is the latter as i felt G1 would have benefitted greatly from an episodic series.

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either the doomsayers were right that Bionicle G2 is going to end in 2017

Does that make TLG the doomsayers? 'Cuz they only planned G2 to be three years anyway. :P

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Does that make TLG the doomsayers? 'Cuz they only planned G2 to be three years anyway. :P

*shrug* 3 years in advance anyway. people kept saying if the line was successful they would expand the story to beyond the initial 3 years,and if it failed they can still have a proper ending.

the doomsayers i was referring to were saying G2 was a failure and so will just go for its 3 year run, with the cancelation of the books and graphic novels being an indicator of lack of interest,if i make sense.

hen again i am personally just making guesses. betting experts like Aanchir know what's going on.

speaking of which does anyone have info on how well JtO went? if it had high ratings i am betting TLG is simply switching medium focus:D making Bionicle a fuller series using the budgets meant for the print media.

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speaking of which does anyone have info on how well JtO went? if it had high ratings i am betting TLG is simply switching medium focus:D making Bionicle a fuller series using the budgets meant for the print media.

As far as I'm concerned, Netflix never releases any information regarding the amount of views of their original shows.

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As far as I'm concerned, Netflix never releases any information regarding the amount of views of their original shows.

i heard of that. so our only way to indicate the success of the new medium is not avalible:(.

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