M y joints are currently very lime green.

Ok this Makuta profile is going to be a bit different than the past ones, there's only one today, but for good reason

I didn't just want to fill up the Brotherhood's ranks with random oc ideas, so I searched around for some tertiary stuff that I could incorporate. There wasn't that much that was workable, but I found a few things. Obviously one of the places I looked was g2, because if Transformers can take characters invented in later incarnations and reincorporate them back into their g1, why can't Bionicle do the same?

Unfortunately Bionicle g2's storytelling and short lifespan means there's not much to work with, but I made do, and now let's look at the story of Makuta Kulta.

Kulta was for certain one of the more middling members of the Brotherhood, certainly not at the bottom of the barrel like Spiriah, but there was no chance he'd ever be in Miserix or later Teridax's personal circle. Kulta knew this fact and absolutely hated it, and thusly sought ways to greatly increase his own power. Eventually, he seemed to have found it.

Okoto was a rather remote island in the Matoran Universe, mountainous with a healthy diversity of biomes and a steady population of Matoran. Okoto did have one particularly interesting feature, either due to some technical glitch in the GSR's mechanics or deliberately designed so by the Great Beings in service of some esoteric experiment, the island was supercharged with elemental energy, from the landscape, to the rahi, and even the inhabitants. It was this feature that caught Kulta's eye when he learned of it. An island positively overflowing with energy? Well he just had to see that.

Since the island was quite remote, Kulta was able to set up shop and begun looking into this phenomenon without much fuss. The results spoke for themselves and Kulta became far stronger than he'd been before. He then began to crave even more power and came up with various ways to try and achieve it. This included using his Tryna in conjunction with this energy boost to create an army of undead warriors, hiring out the Dark Hunter Umarak to hunt and capture some of the island's more elementally-supercharged rahi so he could study them and apply their particular manners of power absorption to himself, and even coming up with the concept of a "Mask of Ultimate Power", a Kanohi that could wield multiple elemental powers at once. Kulta, however, was not a skilled mask maker, and had to forcefully conscript the Okoto Matoran Ekimu, a skilled mask maker and unbeknownst to all and even themselves an Av-Matoran that the OOMN had mind wiped and spirited away, to make it.

Worried that some Matoran might get away and tell the greater universe about what he was doing, Kulta created dangerous rahi to terrorize the population and keep them from leaving. He wasn't very good at naming them though, content with just calling them skull spiders and "beasts". The Matoran got fed up with this and, unable to call upon Toa to help them, sent their strongest and most skilled to try and stop Kulta. Narmoto, Korgot, Vizuna, Nilkuu, Kivoda, and Izotor accepted the task and went underway. While on their journey though, they came across a fissure of elemental energy that struck and supercharged them, transforming the Matoran protectors into a Toa team, the Toa Okoto.

The Toa Okoto fought off the skull spiders and their "lord", tussled with the Umarak and freed his captives, came to blows with the elemental beasts, and destroyed Kulta's undead army, allowing those restless souls to finally sleep. However, when they finally made it to Kulta's inner sanctum, they were too late. The Mask of Ultimate Power had been finished and Kulta had put it on, granting him even greater power and transforming his body into a massive titanic form. Joined by Ekimu, the Toa engaged in a fierce battle with Kulta, who beat them down with ease. Just when it looked like all hope was lost however, Kulta seized up. As it turns out, a mask with that many different elemental energies running through it isn't exactly stable. The mask shattered, and the resulting energy blast knocked the Toa and Ekimu back, and caused Kulta to explode, setting his Antidermis on fire and killing him. The Toa were victorious, Umarak fled back to the Shadowed One, and any straggling threats were defeated, ushering Okoto into a new golden age.

When word eventually got out of what happened on Okoto, the Brotherhood, as this was long before their deception was known to the larger universe, denied all knowledge of what Kulta had done and disavowed him, claiming the Makuta had been a renegade. The lie was quite easy to sell, as it was partly true, Kulta had kept all of his going ons a secret to the rest of the Brotherhood. In private, Teridax was quite glad Kulta had gotten himself killed, as when he thought over things like a vast undead army and a "Mask of Ultimate Power", only one word came to mind: Treason

Made my gf's oc, Tunna, into reality! My first ever moc that I adjusted from the rebuilt ma.toran designs

Protagonists from various indie FPSes I've been playing recently (as Bionicles and similar).

Top to bottom:

Empty Fuck from Cruelty Squad (basically a reattempt at this post; this one technically counts as Game Art as well, since the pose is based on the game's Steam banner and loading screen)

V1 ULTRAKILL (yes I know I got the Knuckleblaster's position wrong)

DUSKDude (pose and overall concept are based on the only official art of him)

Metro-Nui Reunion

Well, another post for Bionicle day, i will show my Toa Metru, hope ya like it:

First, all of the Matau's, and well, we all know how he reacted to his Hordika form. Worry not Matau, you still got yourself in this trying times, to hopefully he ges his moral up:

The second of the reunions i'm gonna make, now with all of the Nokamas. They are hearing the knowledge of their younger part, that, even if they knew what she's gonna say, is still interesting for them:

The third one is with Nuju, that some of them hate how the Turaga one talks in Rahi language, others are interested on it:

The fourth one is withOnewa using his mask power to try to impress himself (technically), maybe he did it too hard with his Hordika version, that everyone is panicking:

The fifth one, now with Vakama. It seems that the whole Vakama gang is up, and it seems that someone still doesn't know how to use their powers:

Finally, the last of the reunions of the Toa Metru, this time with another of the nerds of the team, Whenua, he's talking about funky lil' Rahis in the Mata Nui island, while the others listen of those creatures he saw:

Hope ya like it

✨Custom air Toa !✨

6/6, that’s the last one ! And the biggest one, too-

Closeups under the cut !

Front/back views

As you might notice, it is tall. And it has more than four limbs, which would not be a problem if it was the only one. But. It appears that all my green mocs end up with too much limbs, and I can’t fathom why. Really, another prototype standing on my desk also has for and so does the green hero factory one…You get the idea.

Anyway, the colour scheme for this one is dark green and silver, with some translucent bright green accents. Using only bright green would have brought too much contrast with the others Toas (notably the dark red one), but I had these cool pieces to use and no one else to put them onto. And since these are experimental…

The two supplementary limbs are intended as movement claws, given that we usually see air Toas moving in jungles (Lewa mostly, that is). The silver pieces at the front and back ends are respectively Kopaka’s skis and Pohatu’s foot pieces (shoes ?). The largest bits are made out of technic pieces directly, to give some simple angles.

Bust views

I find this silver/green chest piece really cool, it’s a shame I don’t have much of them. The two bright pieces on either sides are Vahki head pieces, and since their only connectors are on their relative tops (side of the piece in their actual orientation), you may remark that they are connected to nothing. I’m having the arm socket go through them, and the rest of the body’s shape avoid too many movements. While nice, this also limits the movement range of the arms, but it works well enough (these are not really made to play, anyway~). The two bright pieces with spikes are from a Ehlek. Wish I could have managed to put that one back together, but it instead served a higher purpose.

The Kanohi is Hordika Matau’s, with transparent Bohrok eyes underneath (it share this technic with my previous white Toa). The back piece is coming from a Piraka, but it’s actually a broken piece. I have quite a bunch of these, where the mask and flexible parts have broken off, so I make the most of it (like you might see in the future on another MOC). I’m using technic angle (type 3, to be precise) to keep the shape of the middle ones, but the others are free.

Finally, a (dismantled) leg view.

Finally, the leg segment !

The Toa was too big for proper leg showcase, my lights created terrible contrasts (shelf not deep enough…), so here is a stand alone leg instead.

Once again I have integrated the Metru chest piece to the leg, but as a foot this time. It offers a good stability and looks nice.

The next part doesn’t have much interesting bits, except that I’m using technic tubes to hold the additional piece, making this technic less illegal that my usual works (keyword : less; there is still a whole lot of stress on these poor pieces).

The top part is…somewhat more complicated. The frame is of technic pieces (like the additional limbs), which keeps together an immobile socket joint which keeps the double socket and two Bohrok feet (one for decoration, one connected to the hip socket). The double socket is used both to connect the two halves of the leg and to hold the small arm piece which is here only for decoration.

And that’s it for this series ! I’m hoping to bring them to next month’s exhibition, along with some Bionicle MOCs I haven’t showcased here because…shelf…Given the sheer size of my big project (posted here next week in theory), I’m gonna have to improvise something quickly, and profite of it to get some pictures of my other big ones while I’m at it. Eh, I’ll figure it out (and if I don’t, I’ll just delete that statement later :}

Thanks for reading, have a good day !

Thank You, TheShadowedOne1

I’m not aware how many of you guys in the Bionicle Tumblr knew this person let alone watched his content, but yesterday it was informed to the greater Bionicle community that Nathan Paisie, known better online under his pseudonym TheShadowedOne1, an aspiring film-maker, stop-motion creator, hobbyist youtuber and decently notable member in the Bionicle community, passed away in the last november at the age of 28 to (at the time of this writing) unknown causes. In the Bionicle community, TheShadowedOne1 (which is how I will mostly be refering him as for the rest of this post) was notable for his series of Bionicle stop-motions, compliations of the Bionicle movies and for being one of the first notable content creators in the Bionicle Youtube community (also known as Biotube) who greatly helped to shape the landscape of the Youtube part of the fandom.

TheShadowedOne1 was one of the first big stop-motion content creators in the Bionicle community. He started to make videos in 2008 at the age of 13. During this time he made notable (although very rudimentary) videos such as “Phantoka” or “the Makuta”. Over the time he’d make some relatively notable stop-motion series, including the SALVATION series and the more comedic “Takadox and Pridak” series, both of which gained traction in the community and made him even bigger name in it than he was before.  While a lot of his eariler works were a bit rudimentary, they were still enjoyable, decently impressive (especially for an at the time younger audience), and more importantly influental as one of the first big Bionicle stop-motion channels that inspired many other fans on creating their own stories and short-films. TheShadowedOne1s passion towards storytelling, making movies and Bionicle was always clearly in front, and it’d only become brighter as he matured and became more skilled.

As he grew older, TheShadowedOne1s skillsets would slowly improve and passion towards film-making only grew. As years went by, his stop-motion projects would become better crafted and more ambitious over time, each being more impressive than the last. TheShadowedOnes1 passion for filmmaking would lead him to eventually even film-making at college, as his big life-long dream was to create movies professionally. All skills he cultivated both from education and working on personal projects would lead in him making some really impressive stopmotion shortfilms including  Bionicle: The Protodermis Mine,Takanuva Meets The Shadowed One or Voporak. These stop motions were technically rather impressive, with some of them using surprisingly indepth practical effects and tricks to make them work. In particular Voporak used some really impressive wire-work in it’s action scenes, something TheShadowedOne1 actually made a making of video on. In addition to his technical skills, TheShadowedOne1 was also pretty skilled at voice-acting and humor, both skills he’d utilize well in in his “Ask x” series where viewers could send question for a Bionicle character and he’d answer in character. The “Ask x”  videos would mix light stop motion with humorous writing and TheShadowedOne1 giving each character a fitting performance. In particular his performances the the characters Vezon and Zaktann (both of whom he had voiced numerous times) were not only great, but fit to the characters to a T.

But while all of his later work was quite impressive, it was little more but practice for his passion project and what he most likely planned to becoming his Magnum Opus in the Bionicle stop-motion community: that being an adaptation of Time Trapped. Most likely inspired by to at least some extent by Noah Productions two stop-motion adaptations of the first two Ignition arcs as well as other similar ventures by other creators, TheShadowedOne1 really wanted to make an adaptation to the fanfavorite Bionicle novel that would give this beloved piece of Bionicle mythos the respect it deserved. In 2017, TheShadowedOne1 would release a “trailer” for the project that showcased the final battle of the story, which did earn decent traction among the stop-motion parts of the community. This trailer wasn’t meant to show clips that were meant to end in the final product, but instead act as a pitch or proof of concept, with the film being worked on from scratch. The adaptation would be something that TheShadowedOne1 worked on and off, with at least once starting the project from the very beginning, as he wanted it to be the best it could possibly be and the ultimate culmination of his filmmaking skills. TheShadowedOne1s biggest and most ambitious project was something he was sadly never able to complete, and there’s a good chance he never got to start properly on it, as he was rather busy with school, his personal life and working on other projects, including the finale for his SALVATION series, and said many times he wanted to be done with both his studies and SALVATION before he would start Time Trapped, as he wanted to commit to the project as much as he could and have as little distractions as possible beyond obligations in his work and personal life.

Besides his stop-motions TheShadowedOne1 did make quite a lot of other content on his youtube channel as well. In fact, from 2018 or so onward, most of his later videos being other content as he worked on his larger projects in background. His most notable videos in the Bionicle community weren’t his stop-motions, but rather compilations of the first three Bionicle movies, with a video that the complied first three Bionicle Movies in chronological order into one long film being his most viewed Bionicle video. He’d also make compilations, such as compliations of character themes, compliations showcasing every time a character was on screen in the movies or even sillier compliations like “Every time the characters say Takuas name” or “every time the characters say the word mask”. TheShadowedOne1 also made countdowns and was dabbling into other scripted content as he started “Olisi Other Paths” series where he’d present what would have happened if certain events would’ve gone differently in the Bionicle story. He also made videos where he built different characters, a few MOC showcases and even quite a few shitposts or other shorter sillyness. TheShadowedOne1s deep passion in movies and filmmaking showed in him making small videos or shitposts of his favorite movies, most notably the Jurassic Park films, which were heavily formative to him. He even posted his two student films to his channel: the Dastards, a tribute to the cowboy westerns of the past, and Teach, a film adapting the life of the notorious pirate Edward Teach.

In addition to his creative contributions and general output in his channel TheShadowedOne1 was also rather notable for being one of the biggest, most notable and most vocal fans of the Dark Hunters, as well as fan of Bionicle villains in general. In particular, he was a big fan of The Shadowed One (go figure), as he was his favorite character in the entire series and practically his online avatar. Later on he somewhat started to separate himself from the character, even starting to use his own face on camera for update videos and such, but even then he never completely divorced from the character and had him as part of his online persona and identity in the Bionicle community. TheShadowedOne1 often talked about his fondness for the character in his videos and had the character to play pivotal roles in his stop-motion stories like the aforementioned Takadox and Pridak or Takanuva meets The Shadowed One. He tended to interact with fancontent or participated in discussion involving the character both on his own channel as well as other places in the community he ventured to such as content creators he liked or forums he used. In addition, TheShadowedOne1 voiced the character both in his own stop motion films and in numerous other fan projects, including Ignition 2.

I’m rather shocked and deeply saddened by the news. For me, TheShadowedOne1 was easily one of my favorite Bionicle Youtubers, as well as one of my favorite content creators in the community at large. I watched a lot of Bionicle stop-motions growing up, and while I’m not sure if TheShadowedOnes videos belonged to these videos I watched as a kid, he probably inspired a lot of the channels I did watch. Eventually I discovered his channel, and ended up enjoying his content, though it faded away from my memory for some time. While it’s possible I had found his channel a year or two before, I remember rediscovering him at latest in 2017/2018, thanks to his Time Trapped trailer. I was very impressed with not only the trailer itself but the mere idea of someone wanting to adapt one of my favorite Bionicle stories into an animated movie. Ever since seeing that trailer, I continued to visit his channel from time to time, to see if he had done anything cool or funny recently, or if he had made any progress with Time Trapped. Sometimes I watched his channel more, other times less, but it was still a channel I’d revisit from time to time, and interact with at least once per year from 2017/2018 onwards.

As a longtime fan of his, I deeply loved TheShadowedOne1 channel. His passion towards filmmaking, storytelling and Bionicle showed in almost everything he did. It was present in his stop motions, it was present in his countdowns, his casual talk videos and even his shitposts. Even if his first videos weren’t the most technically impressive and even if a lot of his later stuff were compliations or shitposts, they were still enjoyable, and fun to watch. It was a channel that felt like a safe rock for me, something I could always go back to whenever I was in mood to watch some good Bionicle content or even watch a shitpost or two to wind down my time.

And I geniunely enjoyed his content a lot, no matter what type they were: I loved Takadox and Pridak for its humor and surprisingly bittersweet ending, I found his stopmotions such as Protodermis Mine or Voporak technically impressive works of the medium and was waiting excitedly for the Time Trapped adaptation, no matter when it’d come. I found his countdowns to be informative, I found his compliations to be useful in revisting moments of the movies and I thought the videos he built the models and talked about characters were really interesting to listen to. I liked the concept he had for Olisi Other Worlds, found the “Ask [x]” series to be hilarious and entrataining, and even enjoyed watching his shitposts from time to time. Whether it was his storytelling, his craft, his humor or his opinions, TheShadowedOne1s content is something I deeply adored, and enjoyed. Helped that the man behind the channel seemed to be a pretty decent and cool dude based on the glimpses I saw in his videos and other online presence.

But not only did I love TheShadowedOne1 for his passion and content, there was another reason I loved him as well: his passion towards the Dark Hunters and The Shadowed One. Every fandom has those fans that get associated with a particular character to the point they become the representative of that character, and that their love becomes part of that characters legacy, just as much as it becomes their legacy. And TheShadowedOne1 was the The Shadowed One fan. Whenever I thought of the channel, I thought of his love for the leader of Dark Hunters. And whenever I thought of The Shadowed One I thought of the channel and person behind it. The character and the content creator were so intermingled in my brain I associated them with each other extremely strongly.

But not only was TheShadowedOne1 the The Shadowed One fan, he was more or less the voice for The Shadowed One in Bionicle fan projects. While yes, I did enjoy his voice acting for other character, they weren’t the only takes of those characters I enjoyed. His voice as The Shadowed One was not only his definite performance by a long shot but also the definite version of the character in my eyes and ears. The deep sinister voice he did for The Shadowed One fit the character perfectly, and his acting was really solid as well. In fact, I loved TheShadowedOnes1 voice for the character so much that I actually suggested to the Mangai Projects director Max that he should try to get TheShadowedOne1 to voice the character into the series. Max did like my suggestion, but I’m not sure if anything concrete came out of it.

And just. That passion, that love TheShadowedOne1 had towards The Shadowed One just has been very influental for me. I loved how passionate he was of his favorite characters in his main fandom, and I feel it inspired me to be passionate towards the characters and stories I love and hold dearly. While I’m a naturally passionate person and want to lovemail my faves as much as possible, given how the internet sometimes feels outright hostile to geniune passion and love, it’s nice to see other people who dedicate their online presence to a specific character, and show how much that character means to them in everything they do online. Seeing the passion he had inspired me to keep going and share my passion towards the characters and stories that mean a lot to me, even if the rest of the world seemed like it was against me in doing so.

It saddens me that all that is gone.That the person who I looked up to and whose content I adored is gone. In spite of never knowing TheShadowedOne1 personally, instead only looking at his creations at far, loosing him still stings. Loosing someone who affected me deeply feels like loosing a part of myself, no matter if the relationship was only onesided parasocial admiration. And that’s how it feels. Knowing that one of my favorite content creators in this fandom and a huge inspiration for me is dead feels so absurd, so unreal and so agonizing.

I’m saddened that we will never see SALVATION 6 or Time Trapped released. I’m saddened that we won’t see any more shitposts or countdown videos. I’m saddened that we won’t get more Olisi Other Worlds beyond it’s first episode. I’m saddened that we won’t hear TheShadowedOne1 voice TSO in fanprojects such as the Mangai Project or Bionicle Illiad. There’s a possibility we could hear him voice the character one last time in Bionicle Ignition:Battle for Power as he was cast to reprise his role, but even then that isn’t guaranteed.

But I’m not just sad of loosing TheShadowedOne1, the content creator and figure in the Bionicle community. I’m sad of loosing Nathan, the person behind the online persona, in spite of never knowing him. I’m saddened that someone as young, talented and passionate as him died before he was able to fulfill his dreams. I’m saddened someone who wanted to leave a mark on the form of entertaiment he loved was never able to get into the industry. I’m saddened a promising young filmmaker wasn’t able to create the next classic that would be loved by generations to come, just as he loved the movies that inspired him. I’m saddened he wasn’t able to continue his enjoying his hobbies and passions.  I’m saddened that his friends, family and loved ones who lost a person they cared a lot about. I’m saddened about all the opportunitnies and possibilities in his future that were robbed off him because his life was cut short. I’m saddened that he wasn’t able to life a long and fulfilling life.

Life is fleeting thing. While life may feel long, in reality it is just a little drop in the ocean, that will be snuffed out before we even realize. When we live in moment day to day lives we forget that humans aren’t immortal. We forget that eventually people will die, and that eventually the journey we call ‘‘life’‘ will reach it’s destination. But we also forget that people die young. We often think of death as something that happens to old people, while forgetting that death can happen to anyone. The Grim Reaper doesn’t choose his harvest based on age, but instead can come to anyone even during the moments they last expect it. Death can be merciless, it can be random, it can be unpredictable. So cherish your life and cherish the life of those who matter to you, and show how much you appreciate them before its too late. Live to your fullest and like every day was your last, because you never know when it will be the end.

And to Nathan.Thank you for everything you did in this community. Whether you knew it or not, you were one of the most important building blocks in making the Bionicle fandom what it is today, especially on the Youtube side. You influenced many people in ways you probably couldn’t imagine.. You helped fostering a community, and was present there as one of it’s most important and prominent pillars. Whether you realize or not probably helped people find friendships and communities, You will be dearly missed by me and the many other members in this community who enjoyed and were inspired both by your work and you as a person.

Thank you and rest in peace.

         I can’t believe it’s actually ending.

         Three years the show has been airing. But it’s technically been a part of my life for five. I remember when The Owl House was first announced back in February 2018, and something about that magical poster and synopsis caught my eye. Something told me to look forward to this one, that it’d be special… And I had no idea.

         I remember checking Dana’s accounts studiously, impatient for more TOH content ever since that poster. Eventually I stopped, giving up… But then finally, that original teaser trailer, fully instrumental as it gave us clips from what we’d later discover were just the first four episodes! I remember my speculation about Luz going to this world, even had a dream where she was revealed to be the Anti-Christ (not that this was a bad thing in context), that sort of thing. I got hyped to hear Luz’s VA be announced, and went out of my way to find clips of Sarah Nicole-Robles’ voice acting just so I could get an idea of what was to come.

         And the show started off so humbly, so regularly, I didn’t think it’d become so serious! The fact that each episode was a fully twenty-two minutes did bode well for me, but damn. Hearing characters’ voices for the first time. Fully immersing myself.

         And this is it! All speculation will come to a close here, with the final episode. This is the last time we’ll get to watch a new episode, unless that young Raeda spin-off happens, but I’m not getting my hopes up because it’s Disney. These evening hours spent in anxious anticipation for the episode to drop, this is the last time it’ll happen for all of us. The last time I’ll obsessively check Discord to talk about the newest episode, scroll through the Recent tag to see fresh reactions.

         I want to savor it, but there’s also pressure to do this perfectly, as a way to go off. I can’t help perfectly capture how I feel nor a proper retrospective. But in the end, I still want to do it. A part of me doesn’t want it to end, wants it go on forever in infinite hiatus. But another part of me just wants to get the pain and grief over with. My heart is beating hard and it’s been building up in pace since I woke up today.

         I don’t know what to expect, but I gotta say I’ve loved watching it with you guys. Stuff as early as over-analyzing on the snake motifs which eventually DID pay off in String Bean, after that theory that Luz’s palisman would be a snake due to how the title card was designed! The way I compared the Boiling Isles to Mata Nui from Bionicle, even joked about King being the Titan. I remember being there in the early days when there was barely a fandom but still holding out, and boy have we grown since then!

         I was asked for permission to use my posts as credit when speculating on King being THE Titan, though it turns out he was his son. I remember speculating on the Owl mural inside of the Owl House, I’ve made so many friends through TOH. I remember when Adventures in the Elements leaked early and it was a dream episode, ideal and perfect!

         Speculating that there was more to Amity than meets the eye, and being right in the overanalysis! The vindication! Joking about her being a lesbian, seeing a Grom poster but not actually thinking we’d get a Grom episode. And then we did. Thinking we were getting our hopes up with Amity being a lesbian with a crush on Luz, and then the explosion of emotion as our hearts beat, when the note unfurled.

         I remember playing that godforsaken Witch’s Apprentice app just for more content, and then seeing Rebecca Rose analyze the artifacts, with me realizing they provided hints to upcoming episodes! Man, seeing Rebecca go from an early fan who helped start it off, someone I was glad to see provide presence at the beginning, all the way to a full-on crew member! Wonderful.

         Belos was known as Bellows due to a typo in the captions. Speculating on Lilith and Kikimora, who cursed Eda. Being blindsided by the climax of Season 1, and this mysterious Owl-masked figure besides Belos, because I had no clue who this was and who he’d turn out to be, no idea! No idea he and Willow would be a thing, that Belos had a brother he killed and repeatedly cloned in an attempt to get him back!

         This show has broken my heart, revived me, brought life, and so forth. Season 1 was truly wild, and then the year-long hiatus for Season 2, the Reddit AMA and stream… Getting Alador and Odalia’s names early, it was lovely! The S2 intro sneak peek, in progress. Waking up to get an entire trailer! Being caught off-guard with how much the animation improved, even as I had to stay quiet for like two weeks, because the first two episodes of S2 premiered early for special guests!

         Speculation on Philip Wittebane and Belos, the brothers. Seeing Luz figure out glyph combos. Hunter and Flapjack, King and Eda’s stories, as the designs updated. New palismen. The heartbreak of the show being shortened, the anger and rage. The vindication on Creepy Luz just being a scared kid who wants love and means well.

         And then the next hiatus… Season 2B, the end of a proper season as everything came to another climax. We got the truth on Belos, the story coming to a close in anticipation of the Day of Unity. The Season 3 leaks, especially with the titles, and the way they came together to tell us, Thanks For Watching. Like it wasn’t ideal but the audience worked with it, the crew made it work, and the fans stuck through regardless. The crew put themselves out there in this work and we reciprocated and understood.

         Just as Luz wanted and needed so badly. We had S3 and the first look at a special, depressed Luz. The sneak peek. The revelation on just how alike Luz and Camila are. And then the hype towards For the Future… When the Collector really got to shine and show us a new side that completed their character. And finally, after all of the anticipation…

         The episode finished production. The finale is done, just for us to watch. The crew is celebrating, saying their final goodbyes. And my heart and gut are feeling sick, aching with grief. I don’t want it to end, but it’s making me so nervous I need it to, just for the relief and release. And the finale inches ever-closer, the SERIES finale. The end of the end.

         Here’s to The Owl House, you guys. Thanks for everything, thanks for reading my posts, interacting with them, adding onto them; Responding when I responded to your posts! It truly was a magical time and still is for me. I feel like I genuinely learned and discovered a lot about myself through this show and my interactions with fellow fans, and I toast to our final get-together in watching an episode!

        Here’s to Watching and Dreaming! I know that’s what I’ll keep doing once the show ends…! And thank you @danaterrace, for coming up with this wonderful show and continuing to give it to us, despite everything.

BIONICLE Retrospective

2002: The Bohrok Swarms

Part 1.2: To Trap a Tahnok :REMASTERED:

It's a shame I couldn't get this one to go up on a Tahnok Tuesday, but doing that would mean waiting almost an entire week to post this and ehhh... I don't wanna.

So, the thing about 2002 is that, more than any other year of Bionicle, it is deeply repetitive. There's a lot of material for 2002, comics, mini-comics, web animations, a posthumous book. But a lot of it tends to cover the same events again and again. So when something like To Trap a Tahnok comes along, something that has its own completely unique story to tell, it's a breath of fresh air.

This comic does a lot of things I really like. Mostly little things, to be honest, but I'll start with a bigger one because it's worth mentioning. Because it is an original story unique to this medium, To Trap a Tahnok does not suffer from the same pacing issues as The Bohrok Awake did. It's not slow by any means, but each scene transition; which this issue actually has, already giving it a leg up over the breakneck velocity of its predecessor; happens comfortably, with none of the sequences feeling too cramped or too drawn out, making this issue an engaging but not tiresome read.

What I truly enjoy about this issue though, are the snippets of character work and worldbuilding it provides. I've mentioned in an older post how much I enjoy the mention of time passing at the beginning of this comic, a week since the Bohrok's emergence, to be precise. This little nod to the passage of time is a positive addition for a number of reasons. It establishes how long the Bohrok have been active, of course, which can give readers a good impression of the state the island is likely in, given how much destruction the Bohrok have been shown to be capable of in a short span of time. It also plays into the sandbox formula used in 2001. From this point on, the story is suggested to unfold relatively quickly, but that's a whole week's worth of adventures for young fans (or less young fans, as the case may now be) to dream up and act out with their own toys, pitting the Toa against the Bohrok in their quest for the Krana.

Speaking of Krana, this issue gives us our first look at Krana'd Lewa, and while he doesn't do anything, only briefly appearing at the end, this is another reason why the established time jump is important. We don't know how long Lewa was in that Nui-Rama hive wearing an Infected Kanohi, though his brief moment of clarity and the fact that he'd already finished collecting all his Kanohi by that point would suggest that it hadn't been very long. Here though, we know for certain that Lewa has been wearing this Krana for a week. No wonder it will have a much more lasting effect on him than the Infected Kanohi ever did.

Moving away from that one time mention though, I also want to commend the continued quality of the character work here. The Tahnok themselves are a main draw here, putting their dogged determination and surprising resourcefulness on full display, as well as showing off some of their Krana powers, something that doesn't seem to happen that often, honestly. We also get what is technically the first appearance of the Bahrag, though only their thoughts. They're not much more than generic ominous villains in the shadows at this point, but even this early their speech patterns are established and we get our first mentions of the "before-time" and the "restoration" of Mata Nui, which are also our first hints towards the Bohrok's true mission and its technical nobility. I do wonder how the Bahrag are aware of the island's name being Mata Nui, though. Perhaps "Mata Nui will be as it was in the before-time" actually refers to the robot, meaning Mata Nui, or rather the GSR, will be scoured clean and returned to its original state.

The Toa do quite well for themselves here too. I only noticed when I made the original version of this review, but all of the Toa put in an appearance in this issue. Lewa, naturally, is sidelined, but the rest each have an opportunity to contribute to the plot in some way. Gali and Pohatu are the main focus, an uncommon pair it's nice to get to see working together, while Onua and Kopaka both briefly appear when Pohatu explains their contribution to his plan, showing off more of that delicious teamwork from last time. Kopaka also goes on to show up in Tahu's scene, showing some good character development for both of them. Tahu is continuing his habit of delivering rousing speeches, this time to the Ta-Matoran, and it's not a bad one. "Remember -- your bravery, your wisdom, your spirit, make you as mighty as any Toa!" Wow, sure would be a shame if one year after this comic was published it was retconned that Tahu virtually held no respect for his Matoran at all by this point. Wouldn't it be wild if that happened? *ahem* Anyway, we also get Kopaka calling Tahu "my friend," and that's just delightful.

Back when I last looked at To Trap a Tahnok, I really liked it, a lot more than I expected to. I still do quite enjoy it, though I don't think I'm quite as enthusiastic over it as last time. Which isn't to say that I think it's worse this time around, I think it's more that I went into it this time knowing I liked it, so I wasn't as surprised. Still, I'm impressed by just how much Greg managed to cram into this issue without it feeling bloated or weighed down. It's well done, and the unique story is appreciated.

And that's as far as I got into 2002, so everything from this point on will be new ground! You might think that might mean I'll be slowing down, and I might, but it'll only be to pace myself. I've actually had several more retrospective posts basically done and sitting in my drafts since...January, maybe? ><' So after some minor edits, there's plenty more on the docket for the foreseeable future.

Next up: Into the Nest

Mob poll is over, time to reveal them (in order of least to most votes)

Wow, that was a week! Also I will be bringing up the reference images a couple of times, so if you're curious about what went into these mobs' designs, check here (be warned about potential entomophobia, as there is an image of a semi-realistic but fictional insect in one of them).

#5: Jungle Beetle (10%)

Would you believe this is the first time I've referenced Bionicle in one of my mods?

As can be seen in the reference-images, I was planning on including Pitcher Plant-inspired elements, but honestly I couldn't think of a way of putting them in.

#4: Cetavian (20%)

I kinda retract my statement about this one being "disappointing". I wrote that when the model was untextured, so I didn't know how it would look when done. Speaking of which, I did the texture the day before the poll ended.

You may notice that it's missing the sperm whale-inspired elements implied in the references; that was an unintentional side-effect of me trying to get a sperm whale jaw to fit onto the texture without it looking mouthless, which turned into a blue whale/bowhead kinda thing. I did sample one of the three palette bases from that picture, though (my palette-creation process involves making a ≥2-colour gradient and erasing every other pixel.

#3: Crimson Float (20%)

Honestly, we need more VTOL-inspired creature designs.

You can't see it in this image, but there's a little glowing orb inside it, visible through a hole on its underside.

#2: Toadman (23%)

Not that one.

Honestly, if I had the names and/or designs done first, this would probably have won.

Also, I forgot to flip the feet, and only noticed when I was making this post. It's fixed now :)

#1: Handstone/Red Handstone (27%)

Surprise, it's technically 2 mobs! At the last minute, I decided to make a variant with the thumb on the other side.

I've seen people complaining that Red Sandstone is impossible to obtain in its base form, so the two Handstone variants drop their respective Sandstone colours.

Now if you excuse me, I'm going to go to bed, then when I wake up I'll work on implementing these!

Update

@mask-of-prime, here:

I was inspired by another post in the Bionicle tag just now and felt like opening up about my inactivity on this blog for the past 5 years:

Content Warning for adverse internet-related experiences and resulting emotional struggle:

As you may know, sometime in 2018, my hyperfixation from Bionicle completely shifted into a hyperfixation on The Lion King.

Shifting main fandoms has allowed me to start fresh from a dirtied reputation in the Bionicle fandom as a young teenager and has allowed me to start fresh and more mature as a young adult. Joining an art-oriented fandom has even saved me from a steady decline in art.

However, what with the focus on digital art and more focus on things related animated works (what with that being a career goal and all), I've been shifting away from designing MOCs, making Bionicle-related fandom ramblings, particularly of comfort characters, and inevitably, RPing as Jaller, Tehutti, Macku, and my Self-MOC Tiridak.

Not only did focusing on a whole other flavor profile of fandom experience with TLK make it hard to switch back to Bionicle, but so did the poor relationships with other Bionicle fandom members I've caused:

I would portray Jaller extremely out-of-character, I had this uncontrollable need to make him this constant whump character, and I would be very insensitive and inexperienced with subject matter that I would choose to bring myself and RP partners into. Looking back at it now, forcing roleplayers to do what I wanted to do and me making the stories we'd write super weird and self-indulgent is a manipulative tactic comparable to grooming.

But yeah, it's these things that would lead to constant frustration with other roleplayers. This frustration and overall cringe subject matter I wrote or did would result in criticisms from fellow fandom members that I took way too hard, and was an early point in internet-related depression that manifested in anxiety and anger issues that I still face to this day.

There were some people who were genuinely rude about my RPing and it would get things nowhere, but even constructive criticisms would hurt just as much for some reason. I would just always be sensitive to displeasing people and seeing them angry, and I would harbor feelings of disgust with both them and myself. I think it might be Rejection-Sensitive Dysphoria, which makes it really hard to control negative feelings after real or even perceived rejection.

Buy yeah, I just remember never wanting to talk to other Bionicle fans again and developing a huge prejudice assuming everyone in the fandom was blunt and rude all the time. Thing is, years went by, people's attitudes changed, and a new generation of fans with a completely different outlook had changed the flavor profile of the fandom as I still continued to check the tag daily.

In that fandom change, I discovered the Bonkle Word Game. The introduction of the Wordle-based Bionicle game called Bonkle caused me to slowly get back into Bionicle by looking up vocabulary on the BS01 Wiki, and has ultimately allowed me to become duel-fandomed, so now I'm fixated on both Bionicle and TLK. Specifically, I became fixated on working on my OC universe called Terra-Magna, which has completely different worldbuilding from the rest of Bionicle, but still technically considered an alternate universe if we're following Spiderverse possibility logic. So I'm mostly on a kick with OCs rather than favorite canon characters, now.

But anyway, I think what all this means is that if people would really like me to go back to RPing as Jaller, I probably can as I feel better about it now, now that I got all of these messy thoughts out. It's just that I think I'm still not very good at roleplaying and I never really did learn much about it to develop a true passion for it. There's also the decline of Bionicle RP over the last decade, possibly due to how much the internet has changed from a not-so-private escape and the prevalence of cringe culture that I'm sure everyone has an internalized form of to some degree nowadays.

Something about sexy Bionicles™ is really intriguing to me. I wanna know the story, ya know?

Are these made by people who are digging up their childhood toys? Are these people buying specific pieces on eBay to complete their robo babes? Do they make them to exhibit their technical prowess in Bionicles™? Are they just horny?

I want to make sexy Bionicles™ too. I don't know why

-

I made this post while standing in the pharmacy line at Smith's for my medication

First Post and Introductions?

So, this is Tumblr - Honestly, I don't have a clue what I'm doing. But I want to give it a shot. Its important to try new things, if only for flavor. To confess, I've been here before - if only briefly. I previously had an account for all to ten seconds. Never posted anything, so it counts only technically.

LanaMetru - That's what I'm going with at the moment. A little about me:

Adult, mid 20s

Gender.... wish I could figure that out. NB works

Twitter immigrant

Probably on the Ace spectrum somewhere

Tired Mess

Thinking about getting a snack

I was raised in the "never give details about yourself online" generation, so my first instinct is even that small amount is way too much information (its not, but whatever). Some fandoms that I enjoy are:

Bionicle

Good Omens

Star Wars (Its more of a love/hate relationship)

MBMBAM

The Adventure Zone

...really it just depends on the week. I just finished Clone High, and that's been on my brain a bit recently.

Anyway, I hope this isn't too long. I'm not sure on the etiquette of this website. Predominantly, I'm just writing this for me. Its important to start somewhere, and starting is something I'm not great at. If anyone reads this, Hi! and if not, I'll have at LEAST posted something this time.

Didnt expect Bionicle in the Housamo post. Also in case anyone wondering, Bionicle is a lego franchise that ran from 2001 to 2010 (g1) and 2015 to 2016 (g2), a series of buildable toys that using Lego technic construction system (or at the very least the earlier part in g1) and lego Hero Factory system (for g2) . Its very popular back in 2000 and there are still some fan lingering around and have their own sites for them to discuss and show off their Bionicle creation to each other.

Also yes! Bionicle takes the top priority in anything! Glad MC4 knows that!

Really

Not really much into legos but my younger cousin is obsessed with it

Random small-scale Bionicle AU ideas; feel free to ask what your blorboes (or canon-set OCs, provided you explain what their Thing™ is) are doing in each:

Golf (Turaga-centric AU where they all play golf; side-stuff features the Toa Mahri working at a Crazy/Mini-Golf place.)

Bowling-alley (I think I already posted about this ages ago, but I'm bringing it up again to add some context; it's set in a pseudo-80s world, but everyone's still a biomechanical thing. The Metru and Hagah are the staff, Helryx is the manager, and everybody else are the regular bowlers.)

Age of Sail (technically-a-morality-swap pirate AU; the Makuta are further towards the "lawful" edge of the morality-grid, the (non-evil) Toa are more like Robin Hood figures, and the Dark Hunters and Piraka are more traditional pirates. The Red Star is a ghost-ship crewed by the dead, and Spherus Magna is basically Atlantis.)

Superhero (Human AU offshoot where all the regions are modern-day cities and everyone wears modern clothing; the Toa, Order Of Mata Nui etc. are superheroes, and the various antagonists are supervillains.)

Battle of the Bands (another Human AU offshoot, where the Toa Teams and other factions are bands in a mundane setting, and all the major conflicts are formatted as the eponymous style of contest; the main story is set contemporarily to the respective story-arc's out-of-universe storyline, with relevant musical genres (e.g the Inika are an indie-rock band in 2006, facing off against the Piraka, who are a rap-metal band), and the Metru Nui flashbacks take place in the mid-1980s (with the Toa Metru being a New wave act).)

Reversal (AU where the Magnans live in the GSR and the MU characters live on Bara Magna.)

Broken Mirror (basically just Transformers: Shattered Glass but Bonkle,)

Steam-Age (Bionicle, but in a world where the Magnan society was in the aesthetic and technological equivalent of the mid-to-late 1800s; Bota Magna is a large industrialised city, and Bara Magna is essentially the Wild West. Metus is a literal snake-oil salesman. Some areas of the Matoran Universe has progressed past this a bit, with Metru Nui being Art Deco and having Dieselpunk technology.)

MMORPG (yet another Human-AU spinoff, this time with the characters playing characters resembling their canon selves in a popular MMORPG.)

YA Dystopia ("what if Bionicle was an early-mid 2010s Young-Adult dystopian novel?")

Detective Takua (Takua but as a Poirot-meets-Columbo detective in an early-mid 20th century-flavoured world that coincidentally happens to be shaped like a jumbled-up version of the Matoran Universe; showing up unannounced/coincidentally happening to be at the Big Isolated Mansion™, Large Isolated Boat® or Vaguely-Mediterranean Island©, being very friendly to literally everyone there while also using his... Takua-ness(?) to disarm potential subjects and try to catch them out. Also Kapura is there sometimes.)

hello!!! here's a background post about me

i am an engineer of sorts with skills in technical writing, likes guns, attempting to be a fanfic writer, and a bit too obsessed with robots

this blog is NOT 18+, but i am 19 so expect to see ship art and characters getting mouthy or suggestive, i will not reblog weiners or anything

Tag system

LP's - me

speaks - major posts from me

murders - Murder Drones

kills - Ultrakill

lands - Borderlands

life 2 - Half Life/Valve Software games

bonkle kick - Bionicle

fourms - Transformers

I LOVE YURI - things that include lesbians

i need her to ruin my life - Murder Drones V posting

the cynner - 🙂

hobbies:

New hobbies will be posted at the top of this post as i get them

26-02-2024 - new hobby! Murder Drones, something about these robots gets under my skin in a good way and also theres this photo of some Half Life 2 promo art but Gordon is replaced with N and its hilarious for absolutely no reason

XX-XX-2023 - new hobby! Borderlands, she border my lands til i 3, which is more to say than what Half Life has (13 YEARS)

17-09-2023 - new hobby! bionicles. how the fu-

If you go on ModDB right now for the bionicle heros game, you will find a mod that replaces Kongu's weapon with the SPAS-12 shotgun from Half Life 2. the comment under it is me, yea, hi

SD Gundam was a main one, SDG is better than normal gundam because the suits are actual robots so we get fun robot action

transformers, mainly via parallelism from friends but i watched all the way through rescue bots academy which was fun!

old tech, big blocky beige computers or the frutiger aero of the 00s, i like it all!

cars and car manga like wangan midnight, not only do i read about going fast, i try to go fast on my motorbike! which is currently inoperable. I am now radicalized and just want a fuel efficient motorcycle and a kei truck

yakuza, because ten years in the joint made you a fu

half life, ive been a fan even before HLVRAI and ive finished EVERY game except for Decay

Other accounts

My main account is Gundamned_ on Instagram where ive been procrastinating posting SD Gundam Force clips remaining offline since social medias are horrid for mental health and attention span. you are legitimately more likely to receive a message from me here than there anymore.

I have a DeviantArt under Gundamn-ed which i basically only used to find people who liked SDGF, and i never use now due to DA's AI policies.

my youtube channel will occasionally have a random upload of some old tech stuff that ive been messing with, that also goes under the Gundamned name