Hello again!

This is a placeholder chapter open to anyone who wants to brainstorm ideas for an ending to the BIONICLE story. If you're reading this, then you're probably interested in contributing some way. That puts any readers in an awkward position: half-reader, half-contributor. I mean that we can bounce ideas, and I'm going to list some of my initial thoughts below, but I'm not going to give all my ideas just yet, because I still want there to be some amount of enjoyable surprise.

As a small disclaimer, don't expect this to go quickly. This December of 2020, I've officially spent six years (started in December of 2014) compiling the project of canon material. I had most of it ready to go onto Fanfiction at a steady pace. For the ending, I just have a bunch of cool ideas and bullet points. (It's so complicated and interconnected I look like an archetypical conspiracy theorist, with a bunch of messy notes and arrows and stuff...) So, know that the dedication is there, and the resolve is certain. But I don't have a timeline for delivery. I have no idea how long it will take me to translate ideas into stories. It will likely be on the order of years, realistically. But if you stick with it, my intention is to reward everyone with a long, complex ending. Without further delay, some details are below.

How long am I thinking?

I would really like to have enough material to write two more complete Phases at minimum, but my more optimistic and aspirational side thinks that four is possible. (That includes finishing Phase 09, so there would be 12 in total.) The Phases measure about 160k words in length, so there's a lot of material to get to. I think two to four more Phases is a reachable goal.

What do I have right now?

Right now, I have a lot of main, umbrella story arcs. I have high-level ideas without the small conflicts and interactions to really carry and support the plot. I have already picked the next four Phase names (the first of which is Phase 09: Divinity). I have ideas for new societal government and civilization; a couple of story plots to help support the overarching conflict and story year narratives; some philosophical questions and story lines to enter; I have spent a lot of time around Velika's motivations, plans, and executions. When you break down the main story, two Phases were devoted to the island of Mata Nui, two to Metru Nui, three to the Race for the Mask of Life / the "Ignition" series, and then ending with the Bara Magna arc. I think it's ambitious, but possible to frame the final four phases around a similar arc of the Great Beings (slightly longer than the Ignition arc as a whole). If not, then two is definitely the minimum.

I talked to someone else about this, and they heavily requested a mission where Jaller and Takanuva get to work together as Toa and best friends since we haven't seen that yet. My response: "Way ahead of you." ;) I already have a good-sized story arc planned around them. That's a bigger idea I have.

An example of a smaller idea would be that I really would enjoy writing a fight scene between Hydraxon and Lariska, I just don't know what the surrounding context will be yet.

What's my strategy?

When I first started compiling material, I began to realize the implicit "market restrictions" on the storyline. I mean that the story came as a second priority to selling the toys/sets. I used to think this was disadvantageous to the story, as it constricted what the authors might want to do. They would have to introduce new characters to sell, or move the story in a different direction that LEGO thought was marketable. While there may be some truth to this, I actually plan on keeping that pattern and using it to my advantage.

I plan to keep the same marketing pattern as if new sets were coming out. The number of sets per year ranged in the 20's, with a low of 22 in 2002, and a high of 29 in 2008. The average was about 24 or 25, though. They often had six small sets, one set wave of six canister sets, a second set wave of six more later in the year, and several box/titan/warrior sets throughout the year. By introducing about this many characters per phase, the pacing of the story will feel similar to the original and also help push me with new ideas and in new directions. Rather than feeling constricted, I'm using this as a guideline. The number will obviously be flexible, since it's just a guideline and there were plenty of BIONICLE characters that never received an actual set, but it's a good starting place to motivate the story.

Also, some of these "new characters" can be revamps of old ones. We saw this when the Toa were revamped into the Nuva in 2002, and again into the Phantoka and Mistika in 2008. For an example in the ending, I was thinking about having a set wave of six "new characters" on the Red Star. Three would be deceased characters of sound mind (Lhikan, Mavrah, and one other) and three of zombie-fied conditions (a disfigured Botar, the original Hydraxon and one other). I would do something like that for each year / story wave, just to help guide my thoughts and (again) keep the pacing the original story had.

Now...I need your help!

I'd really like to get reader input for two reasons:

1) I want to write something people like. I would say I know BIONICLE well, but I don't want to risk writing a bad ending when I can get reader input.

2) It'll be even better with the more diversity of thought I can put in this. You all will have ideas I never thought of, and there are enough holes in my current plan that stitching them in shouldn't be hard (so long as I think it fits the vibe and timeline).

So, if you have ideas you want to discuss/offer, leave a review on this chapter. Or, if you want to actually have a discussion (or if you want your suggestion to be private just between you and me) then please feel welcome to start a PM conversation with me and we can have a longer discussion. If you'd title the conversation something along the lines of "BIONCILE ending" or something close to that, I'd appreciate it.

Again, I've been working on this project for six years. Compiling the canon material was the first half. I'm really excited to begin this second half and see what happens. I'm not sure when I'll get to writing (embarrassingly, I still have one more canon source to integrate into Phase 08...it's canon timeline placement is problematic), but I look forward to any input.

Thank you!


12/10/2020 Update: I've seen the two reviews currently posted suggesting some interactions between the Av-Matoran (namely Tanma and Solek) and Takanuva, since they were friends, but never had any storyline resolution. Unforuntaely, because the reviewer is a guest, I can't reply with a private message to compliment or expound on the suggestion, but the idea is sound enough!

That's a good point. That little "Easter egg" of the Av-Matoran in Karda Nui knowing Takua was never really given closure, so I'll add it to my list of scenes. I'm not sure if it will be a little scene that just gives that closure, or something larger. I'm thinking that I might use it as a beginning scene for another story that will use Takanuva and some extra characters. It might even go well with my story about Takanuva and Jaller.

Thanks, guest, for the recommendation!