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kanohivolitakk · 1 year

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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.

#Kirika Talks #Bionicle #TheShadowedOne1

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