Myths and Legacy is proud to unveil our revamped Litestone section — and our definitive reading experience for the BIONICLE serials! Relive the full drama of the originals, in a new, reader-friendly format! We are also thrilled to debut our long-awaited next chapter in Light on the Dunes, written by JSLBrowning!
If you hang around the BIONICLE fandom long enough, you’ll find there are few words we love to throw around more than “serials.”
There’s a lot to talk about when they come up. As the storytelling medium that bore the brunt of the periphery storytelling and worldbuilding in BIONICLE’s latter half, the serials were an outlet for unfettered creativity and exploration from Greg Farshtey. Love them or hate them, by the end of the story’s run, the serials were by far the preeminent medium of this long-running multimedia franchise.
But few discussions about the serials fail to include lengthy criticisms, either of their conventions (such as their tendency to veer away from climactic fights in favor of introducing random characters, their penchant for crossing over more than a bowl of spaghetti, or the fact the last two remain incomplete) or their content (such as the new characters they introduced, the locations they explored, or their overuse of Vezon). For the latter of these, there is little we can do — what’s set in stone is set in stone. However, the former are not so concretely determined.
This past month, coinciding with the release of the final chapters of Reign of Shadows: The Untold Stories, the Myths and Legacy team has reviewed the most glaring structural issues of the serials and thoroughly revised them, overhauling the Litestone Studios section of the site to host them. All the perks of the originals have been preserved — narrative chronology, similar word counts, et cetera. No changes have been made to the content itself (with one exception — three paragraphs have been added at the end of the chapter where Tobduk kills Tridax, showing more of Vezon’s thought process that unleashes the dimensional portals that our other heroes encounter).
On top of preserving the best attributes of the originals, we have rearranged much of the narrative itself (insofar as chronology and timelines permit) to be more understandable and easy to follow, integrated the 2009/2010 Reign of Shadows stories into a single reading experience, rebuilt the 2008 serials to be coherent stories on their own (while also reducing the quantity of relevant optional bonus chapters for each), and reevaluated timeline arrangement to be more consistent across the board (so one section won’t have a time skip forward while a parallel section remains in place — most of these wrinkles have been ironed out).
** As a note, all references to “serials” and “serial stories” for the purposes of this news post will generally exclude the Bara Magna serials (EotS, RotGB) and standalone MU entries (TMC, Takanuva’s adventures).
Further details can be found below, while the revised serial reading experience can be found here.
2008
It may seem a strange thing to dedicate such a significant part of this site to republishing serials that have been mostly or entirely published elsewhere. However, the stories you will find below are presented somewhat differently than you are used to. This is because they have been extensively reorganized. Sections have been shifted around extensively or even moved from one story serial to another. This has been done for a few reasons.
Firstly, for chronology. Although Destiny War showed each character in turns, unfortunately, there would be time skips in one subplot while simultaneous narratives didn’t jump forward at all. The result is that many of the subplots are presented out of order.
Secondly, for narrative. Often when so many subplots are balanced over three stories, it can be easy to lose track of what was happening in one subplot when we last saw it three chapters ago or in another serial. Rearranging them so that all the narratives occur in closer proximity (even if not in the same chapter) helps with the juggling act.
Thirdly, for the serials themselves. Although having narratives cross over is fun, and the serials are inextricable, it can be difficult to enjoy the narrative of one on its own when one must keep up with the other two to get the full context. Now with the revised presentation, reading bonus chapters is beneficial but ultimately unnecessary. Notably, the amount of bonus chapters one has to read is significantly reduced. Notes can be found to these in each serial.
Finally, some interesting thematic significance has emerged as new sections are fitted together. For example, TSO and Pridak make powerful discoveries at the same time, and the similar run-ins by Helryx/Keetongu and Brutaka/Axonn with antidermis and energized protodermis also occur in the same timeframe. Taken apart, they seem incidental, but taken together, they provide intriguing parallels. This is now demonstrated in the revised structure.
As with the original serials, an effort has been made to keep the word count relatively even across each chapter. Whether you wish to read one serial independent of the rest, one serial with bonus supplements, or all the serials together, I believe you will find it to be a seamless experience.
Full path through restructured 2008 serials (29 total chapters):
- BIA chapters 1-4
- DW chapter 1, 2
- DID chapters 1, 2
- DW chapters 3, 4, 5
- DID chapters 3, 4
- BIA chapter 5
- DW chapter 6
- BIA chapters 6, 7
- DID chapters 5, 6, 7
- DW chapter 7, 8
- DID chapters 8
- BIA chapters 8-10
- DW chapter 9
- DID chapter 9, 10
Some interesting additional points of trivia:
- The four-armed OoMN agent now only appears in Dwellers in Darkness. Those reading Destiny War need no longer track his introduction in DID.
- All Siege of Metru Nui material is contained within Dwellers in Darkness.
- The Shadow Toa which feature into Mazeka’s story in 2008 and Reign of Shadows are seen in a brief scene awakening in Dwellers in Darkness–an excerpt that has nothing to do with Dwellers in Darkness and everything to do with Brothers in Arms. This scene has been moved over to the latter serial.
2009/2010
After publishing the revised edition of Nicrophorus’ Reign of Shadows: The Untold Stories, I realized that in many ways, trying to read TUS, RoS, and even Journey’s End simultaneously would lead to a lot of confusion, as story threads pop up in one and then disappear to another. Faced with a similar situation to the 2008 serials, it became necessary to present a definitive reading experience.
Ultimately, much of the same philosophy that went into the above 2008 revisions remain present here. Once again, an effort has been made to keep the word count relatively consistent (although this gets more difficult when the Battle of Bara Magna arrives). Once again, an effort has been made to establish a more deliberate narrative and chronological structure.
Unlike the 2008 stories, however, it is not a matter of “rebraiding” the 2010 stories into three new, narratively consistent story serials. All of these stories are so inextricably linked that it is impossible to find three threads that could sustain their own stories (not that we didn’t try). Instead, what we found was that while all the characters have journeys that continuously unfold over the course of the story, there were often two sets of adventures that could neatly be separated into a first and second half — which can be neatly ascribed to 2009 and 2010 respectively.
A clean dividing point occurs right after the Metru Nui rebellion ends and before the Core Processor subplot kicks off. The only two sections moved across the intermission divide was that the first scene with Turaga was pulled to the second half (where the rest of their scenes are) and the sections pertaining to the creation of the GSB were pulled to the first half (where the other chapters on the Toa Mahri were, including the one where they are deployed to Zakaz in the first place). In moving these, the readers don’t have to track those subplots across the dividing line, just as they don’t have to track the specifics of any others anymore.
It is worth noting that although sections of JE are included in this compendium, the full book is not included. Only the portions relevant to the Reign of Shadows subplots are featured here, and notes are made wherever supplementary JE material can be read for the full experience.
RoS:TUS subplots are generally limited to one part or another, but often characters have two related, successive subplots across parts.
Part One (2009)
- Tahu, Onua, and co travel to Daxia to stomp out Rahkshi source
- Takanuva explores Destral
- Kopaka and Chiara explore the deep south
- The Matoran Resistence is sidelined
- Nektann attacks Metru Nui to drive Mahri out and the Mahri are later brainwashed
- Barraki gather their forces and TSO gathers strength
- Macku and the Matoran resistance combat Ahkmou’s rule
- Axonn and Brutaka break free of Makuta’s trap
- Vezon travels between worlds
Part Two (2010)
- Tahu, Onua, Takanuva, and the Toa forces march south
- Turaga are imprisoned until they break free, save Matoran and arrive on Spherus Magna
- Chiara meets Zaria and Orde during battle
- The Matoran Resistence is still sidelined but Velika does stuff
- Nektann and his forces march south and the Toa Mahri and GSB are led onto Spherus Magna
- Barraki and TSO launch their final strikes
- Helryx, Artakha, Tren Krom, Lewa, Vezon, Axonn, Brutaka, Macku, Hafu, Kapura, and Tuyet all engage in hijinks
- Mazeka and Melding Terry arrive in core universe
Beyond
It is no accident that the same section of the site that hosts the forthcoming Vision of the Great Beings project from Myths and Legacy, Litestone, Wall of History, and Red Star Games is also the one that features this revised experience. Providing more reader-friendly, more accessible editions of these serials is a necessary first step towards what is to come. The repackaged versions can now be read more easily and shown alongside
Already, the first wave of serial-oriented content has hit the site: Nicrophorus’ Reign of Shadows: The Untold Stories, Jeff Douglas’ Mazeka, and Litestone’s Light on the Dunes are the first three in an extensive collection of titles meant to expand on or continue the existing serial stories. A definitive reading experience for the 2007 serials is coming — along with a “lost” 2007 serial that will round out the existing three — and stories set in the story year of 2006 will provide prequels and establish many of the themes and stories that weave through the serials. Finally, continuations of The Powers That Be and The Yesterday Quest, as well as entirely original Spherus Magna stories that continue or conclude threads started in the canon serials, are now in production.
Further down the line, another section will be added to our site that will serve as a roadmap, both for the restructured canon serials and the serial-oriented fan content that will be collected in this section.
We hope you enjoy the restructured serials, and we look forward to debuting more BIONICLE stories in the near future. The first of these will be the long-awaited next chapter of Light on the Dunes, launching this evening. The first chapter in this story debuted months ago at this year’s 8/10 festivities; this second chapter as written by JSLBrowning continues the first one written by Sigma. The third and final chapter is drafted and will release in the coming weeks. The Yesterday Quest and The Powers That Be are also well along in development; however, those stories will not begin release until they are almost entirely finished.
Thanks for sticking with us through 2020 and we’ll see you in the new year!
–The Myths and Legacy Team
The definitive serials:
https://mythsandlegacy.com/read/?id=votgb
Light on the Dunes chapter 2:
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