Refia

Thornax, because it wasn't oversized, simple, and didn't burn your eyes when looking at it.

I must say that the artwork of the comic is very impressive, I dare say better than most of the Bionicle comics we got. It's set-styled, but at the same time it works away some of the flaws of the sets, such as the hollow weapon arms, and Xplode's helmet is his actual face, which looks great. Story is like an episode of a superhero cartoon, but it works. Good stuff.

I wouldn't mind having to wait long for the serial updates if it meant that the content would be better. But that is not the case. I get that he's a busy man. Then maybe he should just take a break from Bionicle to come back with fresh ideas. Or do it slowly instead of throwing a chapter together and letting Bink put it online. Right now the pacing annoys me because of the content in the serial chapters. You can only keep using cliffhangers as a way to make people come back for so long. Right now whenever I start reading a new chapter I'm thinking "Gee, what sort of life-threatening danger will this chapter end with that our heroes escape from at the beginning of the next?". Less but lengthier chapters with well-thought out content and a coherent plot would work just as fine for me, and I wouldn't mind having to wait longer for those. A clear schedule for updates wouldn't hurt, either, it keeps things neat and orderly. If all we'd get would be another piece of quality like Journey's End was, I'd welcome it, and would vastly prefer it to the current serials.

That's pretty much the whole problem. Before, Greg had to work under a story team with a given story towards a given goal and end of the story. His writing is best when he has to work like that. But now that he's practically been given free hand, it'll go absolutely nowhere. Greg has repeatedly stated that he doesn't plan things ahead, and IMHO, that's nothing to be stated to proudly, as it basically means he has no idea what he's writing, and thus, has no real plot or conclusion in mind. That's poor storytelling right there. Even Marendar and this Gold Skinned fusion are hardly plots, they're more like convenient things that conveniently popped up to give some "justification" to Greg's desire to kill of characters in an unnecesary attempt to make the story "darker" or "more mature". You're also right about the serials' storyline. For me, Federation of Fear, Dark Mirror and The Mutran Chronicles are the best serials Greg wrote. After that, they became a plotless heap that went all over the place, crossed over with other serials and tried to cram in as much fan-pleasing as possible, the end result being average at best and poor at worst. Reign of Shadow was the biggest offender here. Riddle of the Great Beings and Empire of the Skrall were better, but they both dragged on too long, by which I mean there was too much time between updates. EOTS was a 9 short-chapter story dragged out over an entire year. It should have been double so many chapters if it was going to take a year. Greg said he wanted to flesh out the Skrall with it, but by the time it finished, TLR was already out and nobody really cared about the Skrall anymore. Now I'm aware that this sounds like Greg-bashing, and if it does, so be it, but I really don't have much hope for Bionicle 2010 and 2011. I bet you by the time 2011 is done we'll be at "The Yesterday Quest" chapter 8 or 9, and "The Powers That Be" chapter 8 or 9. Maybe even still with Sahmad's Tale, if we're unlucky.

A new serial called "The Powers That Be" is up. http://www.bioniclestory.com/LatestStory/Blog/PowersThatBe1.aspx It's very strange. It's nice to see the Toa nuva (especially Kopaka) again and that the new society is not going very smoothly, but still, all of this kind of feels forced to me. I don't know why, it just does. Then there's the fact that All in all I'm frustrated mostly by the pace of it all. It's past halfway july and so far we've had 2 chapters only of "post-set" Bionicle. If this is how it's going to be, irregular, sporadical updates written with no clear goal in mind (if Greg likes to just make things up as he goes, fine, but to me that seems really stupid and aimless), then I would honestly prefer no more Bionicle at all.

I'm actually a bit annoyed by that male psionics thing. Even if it was intentional. It's the first time the element shows up and already Greg bends the rules with it for some reason. What's wrong with a team of more female Toa than male ones?

I read it, and I must say it was better than I had expected. The new names are cool, except for Orde, because Orde is a word in my motherlanguage Dutch that means order, so whenever I see it I think of it as the dutch word rather than a name. <_< Why were all names in capitals, anyway? The new villain is interesting, and I suppose he won't have much work to do with only 53 Toa alive. =)

I agree with Grevious about the new Sahmad's Tale. It's kind of refreshing to have the story narrated by a being not good but not fully evil either. It was a good chapter, and it makes me wonder how much more there will be.

I read it, and I liked it. But it does end rather omniously.

I was very satisfied by this epilogue. It was written very well, conveyed emotion beautifully, too. While not my favorite book (that honor still goes to "Shadows in the Sky") of Bionicle, Journey's End was good nonetheless. With Bionicle coming so abruptly to an end, this book managed to soften the blow enough with an acceptable amount of detail. Good job, Greg. EDIT: the last MNS is a bit of a let down...

The New Mata Nui Saga image is quite cool, and the text not bad at all. I like it.

It's almost exactly the same as the comic. Not really impressed by this one so much. It still feels rushed. =/

I'm not sure how MNS will end. Tahu has already used the Golden Armor, but Teridax hasn't blasted the moons with Gravity yet... So how will he die? Sahmad's Tale was great as usual. The reforming of Spherus Magna from a villain-point of view is interesting, and the quote of the week goes to Metus: "They were rats! Of course they tasted strange!"

The new chapter was okay, it still felt rushed to me... And the new battle video, well, it was lame, sorry.

I think it was the best chapter up so far. Lots of good things happened.

I just had a discussion with Greg concerning the status of the Ignika and its future, and I must say I am extremely disapointed. It was not as if I expected Greg to change his mind, but no matter how many points I brought up and pointed out things that I don't see as making sense, all I ever got was "It's Mata Nui's will" or "There are no plans for it" or totally besides the point explanations of how Mata Nui didn't oppress the Matoran. So guys, don't even bother to write out your arguments very well and detailed, no matter how valid, in the future, Greg will just ignore it. And now the Bohrok also suddenly don't have AI anymore? How the **** did the Matoran reprogram them then after they were defeated?!

Reign of Shadows 11 is up, and it's... well, lame, IMHO. Three guesses how Miserix and the others get saved? By our favorite (haha) solution-to-all-when-a-quick-fix-is-needed of course. The Shadowed One sideplot is solved terribly ( ), and WTF is up with the Toa Mahri and the Skakdi? Nope, not impressed.

Mata Nui, prepare to bear my hatred for the rest of eternity.

It's nice how Mata Nui doesn't want to harm his people, but in the end basically gave them a second Great Cataclysm. =p But I know he had no choice.

Anyway, Journey's End chapter 3 is up: http://cache.lego.com/upload/contentTempla...8E0D5DEEBFC.pdf It's basically the detailed version of convincing Raanu.

As expected, that comic was rushed so much it ain't even funny, but I have to say I still like it. Good art, despite some very glaring inconcistencies. And eh, But overall, good ending. I actually found a few panels epic, Journey's End could have made for an epic movie indeed.

Doesn't Mata Nui know that when a planet slams in a planet both planets melt to become a fused ball of molten magma, and that there are chances a part of it will be flung into outer space and form (a) moon(s)? It's what scientists say happened to our little earth 4,5 bilion years ago. Still, that image was kinda neat, even if the scale's off. As for JE, I found that it went a bit too fast in this chapter, it came across as rushed, but that's just me. And there wasn't really anything new in it, either. Still, good enough, and by far not as rushed as the JE comics. Speaking of which, aren't we supposed to be seeing the last comic of Bionicle soon?

Sahmad's tale is indeed very good and omnious. Kinda funny how it all takes place while above them Mata Nui and Makuta are duking it out. XD

Yeah, it's really annoying.