#and a bit of the Metru Nui noir mystery at home

[coldgoldlazarus]

Think I have the loose beginnings of a proper Bionicle G3 concept.

Similar vibes as my "Mata Nui Prime" idea, (which was sort of an expanded version of the early years, same island but more villages and some G2 characters) but hewing less closely to G1's established lore overall while trying to be a coalescense of all the different arcs' vibes, rather than just retreading 01-03 specifically.

The Toa Mata play a more indirect role as figures of myth, revered but not believed to be real, while Jaller, Hahli, etc. are the main protagonist team, just recently made Toa, after some threat emerges that the [Protectors] and Turaga aren't powerful enough to deal with.

They must work to defend their island home from the many threats in the surrounding archipelogo, deal with fallout from the complex politics of other island-states and factions, and get to the bottom of a brewing mystery at home as part of a greater overall arc.

Eventually, they learn the original Toa in the legends may actually be real, and undertake a quest to find and reawaken them, and work together with them to save the day.

[coldgoldlazarus]

I think I've talked before about this, but I have kind of a weird relationship with the Metru-Nui arc. Because like, there's lots of stuff about that era (The Toa Mangaia, the Dark Hunters, the Brotherhood, all the EU deeplore nonsense) that I just do not care about at all, that a lot of the fandom tends to fixate on for some reason. On some level, even just the aesthetic departure from the early years' tropical vibes to more of a like, traditional science-fiction futuristic urban style, I'm in theory not really a fan of? Plus the the shift from mythology to a more superhero-adjacent framing of Toa as a concept.

But at the same time I also really love the characters and the main story of those two years, and I think taken as a complete but isolated package, it's Bionicle's peak of storytelling and Greg's writing, even if it doesn't have the same scope as the Ignition Trilogy or the iconicness and level of immersion as the Mata Nui years.

And like, a big part of it is Vakama's personal growth, of course, but IMO that's only the most obvious area where it succeeds. The whole thing is a remarkably complete and internally consistent package even with the movies and their novelizations making for something of a disjointed presentation in some spots. But like, the story being told has a very consistent mood and atmosphere, and a lot of the story beats and character development is shaped by a key driving thematic thrust.

Tone-wise, it is a noir detective story first and foremost, and an action adventure with magic robots as a bonus to that. The first book's title establishes this pretty plainly, and most of the novels are driven by a mystery of some sort. What happened to the Matoran, and who is the traitor? Where is the Morbuzakh coming from, and why? What's hidden in the deep tunnels? What is the 'heart of Metru Nui' and what is Dume's plan? Where are we going now? Where did these mutated Rahi come from? What happened to the city while we were gone? Were we not meant to be Toa all along? How can we save Vakama? What happened to the timeline?

These are admittedly a bit of a reach in some spots, and there were definitely some weaker installments in among there, (*coughMazeOfShadowscough*) but regardless, the general idea holds true. Even though the movies very much depict Metru Nui in that alien sci-fi style, whenever I read the books, I usually just wind up picturing an old-timey 1910s big city straight out of a black-and-white Noir film, with those more futuristic elements lightly sprinkled in on top. And of course, as many have pointed out, Vakama's arc, particularly in 2005, is very noir.

But that's still like, mainly an aesthetic, a vibe, but that doesn't really say much about what it's about. And I definitely think it's about something.

First of all, I think it's helped in part by being a prequel to the original years, so the overall aim of the story and where it's going is already locked in, and everything else is inherently built around that. We have to explain why and how Metru-Nui fell and the Matoran ended up exiled to Mata Nui in the first place. Simple idea.

And even though 2005 wasn't originally part of the plan, I think it adds to it, because it creates this one-two punch of tragedy and aftermath. 2004 is all about the dawning realization of how corrupt and oppressive the city truly is, and that the goal isn't to stop it's fall, but just to save the people who called it home. Even if it aided Makuta's plan, one could argue that Metru-Nui needed to fall, and there's a lot of evidence to suggest that it was a totalitarian nightmare well before he began posing as Dume, and he was simply taking advantage of and intensifying the pre-existing issues.

(There's also a supporting point to this idea alluded to in The Darkness Below and Voyage Of Fear regarding Rahi, that I don't quite know how to properly phrase but that will probably get its own text wall when I do.)

But then in 2005 they have to return afterwards and see the aftermath, the ruins, and have it rubbed in their faces that despite everything that was fundamentally wrong with Metru-Nui before, it was still their home, the only home they knew, and they have lost that now, and there was nothing they could have done about it. They had lives and homes and a place in life, and that's all gone now.

(And we as the audience know that they will go on to build something far, far better and happier in Mata-Nui, but they don't know that.)

Everything from Krahka's arc in The Darkness Below and Challenge Of The Hordika, to the in-depth look at Le-Metru's fate in Web Of The Visorak, to the displaced Tahtorak, to Vakama getting to re-experience the glory and oppression of the pre-fall city in Time Trap only to have it ripped away again and revealed as the illusion it is... I could list examples all day, but nearly every element in those books ties in, one way or another, to the overarching theme of loss and exile that defines those two years.

It's somewhat ironic, then, (and portentous of later developments) that the framing device in those books is about the islanders preparing to return to Metru Nui, when everything in that story is exploring how you can never go home again.