Bionicle 2015 Discussion

[GK733]

Well, at least Ekimu sounds better now (of what I can understand because that guy speaking over doing a commentary is absolutely horrible).

[Hawkeye616]

The youtube account that posted the episodes got terminated, I did manage to take some nice screenshots specially the one in refference to G1

[Toa-Nuva]

I'm also very surprised how anybody could think that this would be the final episode... Why would they end the episodes in the middle of a fight?

Saved.

Also, transcript i've done. Tried making it as accurate as possible though the dual voice over is difficult so sorry if there are any errors.

Episode 16

Narrator; "Thousands of years have passed since Ekimu knocked the mask off the face of his brother Makuta. All this time the Mask Maker lay trapped, waiting for six heroes to unite the power of the elements and wake him from his sleep. It lasted eternity. It was their destiny.

Ekimu; "Brave Toa, you are... you are late"

Kopaka; "If you called an army of real warriors like me, this would have taken no time"

Ekimu; "You're power comes from your mask, true power comes from Unity, a duty we face. We must hurry. Evil has destroyed so much."

Onua; "Actually that was..."

Lewa; "So Ekimu, its out duty? what is happening?"

Ekimu; "It started just before you arrived"

Gali; "Who done what"

Ekimu; They call him Skull Grinder. An evil minion under Makuta's control. The Mask Of Creation... my mask... he's on his way to destroy it. If he succeeds all is lost"

Pohatu; "Where would he go to destroy a mask?"

Ekimu; "There is only one place, the mask forge"

Episdoe 17

Narrator; "The six heroes had travelled far into the ancient city, defeating many enemies. By the power of their elements they had brought the Mask Maker back to life. But they have yet to face the true evil of Makuta and his powerful servants. Only by retrieving the Mask Of Creation would the Toa stand a chance against his power, the fate of Okoto was about to be decided."

Ekimu; "He has started my furnace"

Kopaka; "Let me cool things down"

Tahu; "Hey, fire is my element"

Ekimu; "Have you learnt nothing? Skull Basher will defeat you one by one"

Tahu; "Lets give him a _____ to meet" (Not sure of this line)

Ekimu; "What are you doing? We will defeat you and get the mask long before it melts"

Makuta (Possesing Skull Grinder); "I will have plenty of time once i have destroyed you"

Ekimu; "Makuta?"

Lewa; "What is the plan?"

Ekimu; "Keep him occupied"

Gali; "Is that it?"

Ekimu; "Just keep on fighting as long as you can"

TO BE CONTINUED

Will do thoughts in a bit.

I've edited your transcript, based on what I'm hearing and on the actual quotes from the book:

Episode 16

Narrator: "Thousands of years have passed since Ekimu knocked the mask off the face of his brother Makuta. All this time the Mask Maker lay trapped, waiting for six heroes to unite the power of the elements and wake him from his sleep. It was their duty. It was their destiny.

Ekimu: "Brave Toa, you are ... you are late!"

Kopaka: "If you called an army of real warriors like me, this would have taken no time."

Ekimu: "Your power comes not from numbers. Your power comes from unity. But duty awaits. We must hurry. Evil has destroyed so much."

Onua: "Actually, some if it is..."

Lewa: "So, Ekimu. You spoke of duty. What is happening?"

Ekimu: "He took it just before you arrived."

Gali: "Who took what?"

Ekimu: "They call him Skull Grinder. He is under my brother Makuta's control. The Mask of Creation. My mask. He is on his way to destroy it. If he succeeds, all is lost"

Pohatu: "Where would he go to destroy a mask?"

Ekimu: "There is only one place. My forge."

Episode 17

Narrator: "The six heroes had travelled far into the ancient city, defeating many enemies. By the power of their elements they had brought the Mask Maker back to life. But they have yet to face the true evil of Makuta and his powerful servants. Only by retrieving the Mask Of Creation would the Toa stand a chance against his power. The fate of Okoto was about to be decided."

Ekimu: "He has started my furnace!"

Kopaka: "Let me cool things down."

Tahu: "Hey! Fire is my element!"

Ekimu: "Have you learnt nothing?! Skull Basher will defeat you one by one!"

Tahu: "Lets give him a taste of unity."

Ekimu: "Too late. We will defeat you and get the mask long before it melts."

Skull Grinder: "I will have plenty of time, once I have destroyed you."

Ekimu: "Not good."

Lewa: "What's the plan?"

Ekimu: "Keep him occupied."

Gali: "Is that it?"

Ekimu: "Just keep on fighting as long as you can."

I should emphasize that there is no reason to believe that this is Makuta talking (instead of Skull Grinder himself), and there's nothing like that hinted in the book either. Also, Ekimu doesn't call him "Makuta" either, he actually says simply "Not good" – because Kulta just put on the Mask of Creation, which is obviously ... not good. :P

Of course, another possibility is that, like the winter finale, the summer finale is extended and this one just got cut off. I wasn't paying too close attention to the timestamps the first time around, but looking at it now, the "episode 16" is 90 seconds, usual, but the "episode 17" was 110 seconds. The previous finale was 130 seconds (with the credits taking up about 40), while the credits spliced in here are about 45 seconds. So there's an obvious time discrepancy, which I would guess is the missing content.

Both episodes are the same length. Episode 16 is from 11:45 to 13:31, and episode 17 is from 13:31 to 15:17, so they are both 106 seconds. However, while I was trying (and failed) to edit the audio and make the English voice more audible, I noticed that the whole video is actually slowed down for some reason. You need to speed the video up by 16.7% in order to return everything to normal speed. Therefore, both episodes are actually the usual 90 seconds.

Edited September 17, 2015 by Toa-Nuva

[Vinyl Scratch]

Sooomeone explain why do people think that's the ending of the animations?

First batch of animations ended with LoSS defeated, the Toa venture on the City of the Mask Makers, and a Skull Warrior hand shows up from the underground as a cliffhanger and a teaser. Villain shows up, gets defeated, Heroes continue on, teaser.

Compare that to

Kulta wears the MoC, the Toa stand by, Ekimu asks for a distraction while he does some shenanigans.

And it ends right there.

Villain shows up, looks mean, Heroes look mean at the Villain while Mr MacGuffin does something.

Where's the closure?

I just can't find the logic to it.

[Clone 01354 Productions]

It makes no sense why people think it would end right there. The cliffhanger for 2016 is going to be:

showing the Toa with new masks in the animations.

And that's a proper cliffhanger; it finishes the 2015 story, and teases the 2016 sets.

Why would they leave off on a cliffhanger for almost four months, just to give us the 90-second conclusion to 2015 in January?

(spoiler alert: They wouldn't, because it makes absolutely no sense.)

[Takanuinuva]

Well I went and bought the villain pack on bricklink. I didn't pay to much for it and also managed to grab two more black bohrok teeth from the seller as well. Now to just wait for it to arrive.

[Logan McOwen]

I did manage to take some nice screenshots specially the one in refference to G1

Go on...~

[Scarilian]

It makes no sense why people think it would end right there. The cliffhanger for 2016 is going to be:

showing the Toa with new masks in the animations.

And that's a proper cliffhanger; it finishes the 2015 story, and teases the 2016 sets.

What you describe here is a teaser not a cliffhanger. A cliffhanger leaves the story unresolved and unfinished. If it finishes the 2015 storyline and just shows the Toa with new masks, thats just a teaser, it isnt implying a continuation of the story or leaving the story feeling unresolved.

Why would they leave off on a cliffhanger for almost four months, just to give us the 90-second conclusion to 2015 in January?

(spoiler alert: They wouldn't, because it makes absolutely no sense.)

As mentioned, according to your definition of a cliffhanger, the 2015 winter wave ended on a cliffhanger that wasnt continued for over four months and you expect the summer wave to end on what you believe is a cliffhanger and have a four month break for the resolution anyway. You said it makes absolutely no sense, but you just stated that as the option you expect to happen regardless of whether episode 17 is the last for this year or not.

Go on...~

Which images you all want?

Edited September 17, 2015 by Scarilian

[Hawkeye616]

Go on...~

Edited September 17, 2015 by Hawkeye616

[Scarilian]

Go on...~

Which images you all want?

Too slow... guess you get them all ;) :P

http://imgur.com/a/5P5Om

(Should be almost every new image in animations 16/17)

Edited September 17, 2015 by Scarilian

[Cheatster9000x]

Everyone's talking about the animations, and I'm here wondering why the Mask of Control lacks some form of circle anywhere on the design, like every other 2015 mask we've seen.

[Tahu]

I'm pretty sure the 18. Episode will be realesed at the NYCC as a contination.

[Shakar]

Can I say that I really like the Mask of Control? It's suitable for a villain, but it's not in-your-face villainous like the Skull masks or the Makuta or Shadow Matoran Kanohi. It doesn't even feature stuff like demonic horns, teeth or spikes or fangs or anything- the curved and decorated ram horns can be perfectly seen as a symbol of power rather than outright evil (think an Egyptian God). It looks like it could belong to a regal looking villain or a somewhat menacing hero/antihero, like the Olmak did.

Dare to say I like it more than any Kraaahkan version. I do hope the Mask of Ultimate Power follows this same style, despite its "OMINOUS BLACK AND CRIMSON ENERGY FLAMES".

Edited September 17, 2015 by Shakar

[AyliffeMakit]

Seeing as there's quite a bit of discussion regarding whether there are any more animations coming or not, here's my opinion on the subject:

There will probably be at least one more regular webisode, showing what I'd guess would be Skull Baddie doing that thing where he breaks all of the toa's masks, right before Ekimu becoming un-old, smashing the mask of mcguffin off Mr Skull-Bloke's face. Then I'm guessing that an epilogue of sorts would be shown at NYCC, with the toa waking up with new shiny masks and Ekimu explaining what the toa must do next, leading straight into next year's story. I'd guess that TLG would reveal at least the 2016 toa sets at NYCC too, so that they don't have to worry about the animation spoiling what the sets would look like and so forth.

So yeah, that's my theory. I haven't read the book yet so some parts may clash with that, but it shouldn't make too much difference I'd guess. Any thoughts on this?

[Fulcrumfan91]

What you describe here is a teaser not a cliffhanger. A cliffhanger leaves the story unresolved and unfinished. If it finishes the 2015 storyline and just shows the Toa with new masks, thats just a teaser, it isnt implying a continuation of the story or leaving the story feeling unresolved.

[/i]

As mentioned, according to your definition of a cliffhanger, the 2015 winter wave ended on a cliffhanger that wasnt continued for over four months and you expect the summer wave to end on what you believe is a cliffhanger and have a four month break for the resolution anyway. You said it makes absolutely no sense, but you just stated that as the option you expect to happen regardless of whether episode 17 is the last for this year or not.

And this is why I'm sure episode 17 is the last one for this wave.

[Logan McOwen]

Speaking of Ekimu, and for fear of repeating what has already been stated...

Those of you who are quite observant may have noticed something a bit off about Ekimu's in-game model in BIONICLE: Mask of Creation. For those who haven't, take a look at his shoulders and arms. Ekimu has the same build as Narmoto, the Protector of Fire! The model uses 5M hinge bones and a 5M shell in trans light blue, which are versions of those parts which we do not have IRL. But, we can still build a close approximation - which I have done!

EDIT: The updated game also features a full map of the City of the Mask Makers!

Edited September 17, 2015 by LewiMOC

[mysteriouspi]

EDIT: The updated game also features a full map of the City of the Mask Makers!

Fantastic. It's the little things like this that tell me the line is in good hands.

On another note, I'm wondering if we will see the city restored at some point in the story, either after defeating Skull Grinder or some point in the future. Would be interesting to see the villagers live there again.

[TheDesuComplex]

Can I say that I really like the Mask of Control? It's suitable for a villain, but it's not in-your-face villainous like the Skull masks or the Makuta or Shadow Matoran Kanohi. It doesn't even feature stuff like demonic horns, teeth or spikes or fangs or anything- the curved and decorated ram horns can be perfectly seen as a symbol of power rather than outright evil (think an Egyptian God). It looks like it could belong to a regal looking villain or a somewhat menacing hero/antihero, like the Olmak did.

Yeah, it works really well and is fitting for the mask meant to go alongside the Mask of Creation AND work with a villain character. I am really excited to have it in-hand, hopefully next year.

As to an earlier post about round parts on the MoCo: said part is where the sprue attaches the the part. I would imagine that there will be one somewhere. My best guess would be on the top of the head.

EDIT: The updated game also features a full map of the City of the Mask Makers!

That is really neat! Thanks for the find.

[TwistLaw]

I must say we're having some damn fine maps in G2, far better than anything we've seen in G1.

[Lyichir]

I must say we're having some damn fine maps in G2, far better than anything we've seen in G1.

I don't know about that. Back in the day, G1 had some amazing maps of locations like Mata Nui, Metru Nui, etcetera. It was only around 2006 (when diverse, multi-biome settings were replaced with dull, one-note locales) that we stopped getting such excellent maps. Of course, in 2009 we also got Makuta's Guide to the Universe, which featured some moderately passable maps (despite not everything being to scale).

[Mandate]

I don't know about that. Back in the day, G1 had some amazing maps of locations like Mata Nui, Metru Nui, etcetera. It was only around 2006 (when diverse, multi-biome settings were replaced with dull, one-note locales) that we stopped getting such excellent maps. Of course, in 2009 we also got Makuta's Guide to the Universe, which featured some moderately passable maps (despite not everything being to scale).

2006 was when multi-biome settings were replaced with one-note locales? Because I'm pretty sure Voya Nui clearly featured ice, desert, jungle/forest and a visibly active volcano. You couldn't even see that the Mangai was active in most, if not all, imagery of Mata Nui from above.

[dviddy]

I mean, "active" volcano refers only to volcanoes in the real world that have erupted once in the last 10,000 years. Mt St Helens in Washington is an active volcano, but as a resident who could see it from my daily commute, you would never know it erupted just a few decades ago.

[Ikaatril]

I wouldn't consider either forms of Metru Nui (city and city with giant spiderwebs) 'diverse' or 'multi-biome' locations, either. As for Voya Nui, weren't most of the locations on Voya Nui pretty much not used at all? Outside of promo vids and VNOG, I don't remember any characters going into any particularly icy or desert areas, or that much jungle... most of it seemed to take place around a bunch of rocks in an unspecified location, and then the last 25% of it took place again with rocks: lava edition!

[Mandate]

I mean, "active" volcano refers only to volcanoes in the real world that have erupted once in the last 10,000 years. Mt St Helens in Washington is an active volcano, but as a resident who could see it from my daily commute, you would never know it erupted just a few decades ago.

Hence why I said visually active. The Mangai is recognizably a volcano from a bird's eye view, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone ever mistook it for a crater.

I wouldn't consider either forms of Metru Nui (city and city with giant spiderwebs) 'diverse' or 'multi-biome' locations, either. As for Voya Nui, weren't most of the locations on Voya Nui pretty much not used at all? Outside of promo vids and VNOG, I don't remember any characters going into any particularly icy or desert areas, or that much jungle... most of it seemed to take place around a bunch of rocks in an unspecified location, and then the last 25% of it took place again with rocks: lava edition!

Pretty fair points. Always bothers me when they make an awesome location or concept and then just leave its potential untapped. Karda Nui's Av-Matoran stalactite villages and arguably Okoto (so far) have or had so much potential that just hasn't been used.

[Tazakk]

Next episode is out: Unity, Duty, Destiny!

What's interesting is that apparently the pedestal by LoSS on the bridge was for the Mask of Creation, not the Golden Mask of Skull Spiders - so Pohatu wondering about the pedestal wasn't a thread intended to lead into the second book, but a bit of foreshadowing for the summer episodes.

Edited September 18, 2015 by Tazakk