User blog:BobTheDoctor27/June 2013 Update

Greetings my loyal blog-reading-chums. Welcome to the latest in my long line of monthly blog updates. :D



New Chapters

 * Over Your Shoulder (Chapter 1)
 * Over Your Shoulder (Chapter 4)
 * Over Your Shoulder (Chapter 5)
 * Over Your Shoulder (Chapter 6)
 * Over Your Shoulder (Chapter 7)
 * Falling in the Black (Chapter 12)

My June
It's now one month into the longest summer holiday that I've ever had... XD

This past month has been a relatively good one in many respects. :P The production and planning of both Zero Hour and Judgment Day are running ahead smoothly. :P I'm really getting into the script of Zero Hour and, I'm pleased to announce that the first half of J-Day has been planned out in almost as much detail as Frozen Calling. :D

However, I'm having a considerable amount of difficulty balancing my summer job with learning to drive, which doesn't leave me with as much time to enjoy my summer as I would have liked. :/

Additionally, I took my girlfriend to the beach a few days ago and brought my camera in case we decided to take any pictures. :P We had a great time until a flock of seagulls mugged us and we had to leave. I bundled the beach-towel up into my rucksack and, unfortunately, it now has sand in the Telescopic Lenses. DX While I still have access to my parents' camera, I no longer have my own camera and adding photos has become somewhat more difficult. :/

But I won't let any of that get in the way of another awesome blog post. :D

Over Your Shoulder
During the Fractures Universe Revamp's first phase I removed Over Your Shoulder from the wiki in order to perform a re-write. This month I finished most of that rewrite and actually finished the story serial. I still need to re-write Chapters 2-3 but, for the most part, everything I want from the story is there and I'm immensely proud of my depiction of Gribrak in the final chapter. :P

The re-write was also sparked off by my dislike of my Toa Jollun creation. As Jollun was a key character in the story, I wanted to give him a revamp. When I began work, however, I ended up delving deep into the character and re-creating him as a universal constant figure of Matoran legend. :P

I eluded to this in Over Your Shoulder, but I want to treat Jollun as a more mythical character. Basically, he was created by Mata Nui in the early days of the Matoran Universe, to defeat the corrupt Makuta Karabak. Ever since then, he disappeared then re-appeared somewhere in the Southern Island Chains, defending Matoran and foiling the Brotherhood of Makuta and Dark Hunters' plans for domination.

However, in the Deserts of Death Universe, Mata Nui foresaw Karabak's return and knew that he would have need of Jollun once again. Using his mystical Mata Nui Powers, Mata Nui turned Jollun into an Av-Matoran and placed him in Karda-Nui around 95,000 years ago.

In the Fractures Universe, however, Karabak didn't rebel so Jollun was never called upon to take him down after his initial rebellion. There-go, Toa Jollun kept popping up in legends as a defender of Matoran in the Southern Island Chains. That was, of course, until the final day of the Destiny War, where Jollun appeared on Metru-Nui and led a team of Toa down beneath the Coliseum into the core Processor and gave his life to deadlock the Matoran Universe and trap the Makuta outside on the surface of Bara Magna, thus ending the war.

Fractures Jollun is dead. Dimensionally-displaced Deserts of Death Jollun is recovering from the coma he was put into during Over Your Shoulder.

But he'll be up in time for Judgment Day, and he'll be rocking his brand new build. :D

Currently, my Toa Jollun revamp is still in its WIP form, but I will reveal that he has a white/gold original form and a green/yellow disguise similar to Tollubo's. Which one he sticks to, however, will be down to a future poll once both forms have been revealed. :P

Falling in the Black
In other news a new chapter of Falling in the Black has been released, detailing the obstacles that the three different groups have encountered. Seeing as the whole point of these Monthly Update Blogs is to encourage people to read my story (seriously, it must be impossible to understand any of this if you're not a regular reader XD), I will just blurt out spoilers for new chapters and whatnot. :P

In Chapter 12 of Falling in the Black there are three main events:

Overall, this was a pretty action-packed chapter. Caliga's appearance was my favorite to write and, as I'd written her entire section around a year ago, I was glad to finally send it off. :P
 * Turas, Kyros and Goll stumbled upon the Fractures Universe Counterpart of Vican fused to the cave wall. Many years ago, Toa Salu was sent on a mission to test the security of the Chamber of Life after rumor of a passageway from the Bohrok Nest to the Ignika's chamber surfaced on Daxia. He brought Vican and Turas with him as his local aides. However, Vican revealed that he planned on stealing the Ignika and, thus, Salu fused him to the cave wall and walked off with Turas.
 * Turas admits that he is in fact a Fe-Matoran who was incorrectly recolored by Karzahni and never wanted to correct the mistake.
 * Kyros literally stabs Goll in the back with his spear and mortally wounds him. He then pulls of his Kanohi to reveal that he is being controlled by a Krana and that he is doing the Brotherhood's bidding.
 * After a brief struggle, Turas overpowers the Ko-Matoran and removes his Krana.
 * Because Vican has been bored with nothing to watch in 15,000 years, he gives the three questers information about the formation of a Matoran Kaita when some nearby Visorak attack them.
 * The three Matoran settle their differences and form "Cathaka."
 * Krennato and Toa Santis continue their swim when they are ambushed by a mysterious underwater warrior.
 * Their attacker swiftly identifies herself as Toa Caliga, a former Vo-Matoran who once coveted the Ignika and attempted to steal it. She was, however, defeated by Umbra and forced to pay for her unruly attempt on the Kanohi by being transformed into a Toa of Lightning and placed in the marine cave as one of the mask's guardians.
 * Of course, it soon becomes obvious that Caliga has been given a fancy pair of Voltage Gauntlets, which allow her to focus her Elemental Lightning powers through the water without electrocuting everything.
 * Shocked into paralysis, the Air Bladder is zapped off of Santis' face and Krennato's slips from her grip.
 * Caliga watches the two travelers squirm and asks which whether or not a Toa of Fire can have a larger lung capacity than a Ga-Matoran.
 * Torlo, Sarnii, Iolan and Connla continue their quest and find the cave walls changing texture.
 * Torlo theorizes that he is intrinsically linked to Sarnii in some manner of fate.
 * The group is ambushed by Bohrok Lehvak and Iolan becomes indifferent from the group.
 * Bohrok X rolls forward and halts the Matoran in their tracks, proclaiming that they are trespassing in the Bohrok Hive and that they will be obliterated.

Plus many people were pleased to see the return of a Kaita to some form of BIONICLE fiction. :P I'd initially planned on having the Toa Metru form a Kaita in early drafts of Whispers in the Dark. The "Cathaka" creation is a popular one on my New MOCs Blog and has gained a majority vote on the poll as the highlight of the entire MOC blog. :D

Bohrok X, however, has sparked off some controversy over his Dalek-like appearance. While some individuals don't have a problem with the design and see Bohrok and Daleks as similar-enough fictional figures to fit the purposes of my story, others have taken extreme prejudice towards the build and character. Thus, to compensate, Bohrok X will be getting a revamp at some point. :P

As Bohrok are meant to be insectoid I will resolve the Dalek-like appearance's controversy by making the creation a more alien, locus-like drone. Plus I'll throw in some blue accents to hark back to the Bohrok Queens that Bohrok X is supposedly built off of. :P

Vendetta
As I write this blog post I'm also making the finishing touches on Vendetta. :D I wrote the whole story in late 2011 as a gap-filler serial to go between Frozen Calling/Falling in the Black and Judgment Day and is yet to be published as of the time of this blog.

I have, however, released a list of rumors and potential story notes already and am open - as always - to questions over characterisation and what my purpose is behind each story serial. :P

Vendetta not only bridges the gap between the stories in the Fractures Universe, but also takes the first decisive step towards restoring Tollubo's image. In Over Your Shoulder the character was broken, demoralized and humiliated. In Frozen Calling he showed signs of improvement but still made a poor tactical decision that nearly destroyed the Coliseum. Now, in Vendetta, Tollubo will finally get it right again and do something truly heroic. :P

Zero Hour
While the first three acts of Zero Hour enter their final stages of writing and the finale begins to take form, I'm pleased to reveal the first official cast-list of confirmed characters:


 * Toa Jekkai
 * Toa Merra
 * Toa Salu
 * Salaak
 * Turaga Autolycus
 * Turaga Haru
 * Sonitous
 * Carnac
 * Ninian
 * Kapla
 * Alika
 * Sarnii
 * Lugat
 * Pofia
 * Outo
 * Vancha
 * The last remaining Makuta in the Fractures Universe
 * Toa Leontes
 * "Bonecrusher"
 * Oltab
 * Vorkin
 * Ramonda

As you can see, Artaudo has been dropped from the cast and Ninian has gotten a foothold in the story. :D This makes a lot more sense as I was just going to kill Artaudo off and I can now expand Ninian's history further.

Informal comments and personal notes on each individual creation can be found here.

Judgment Day
Finally, while little has been revealed about Judgment Day over the past month, I can now announce that Ninian will definitely make a re-appearance and that a new wave of Toa will be introduced. I'm currently open to suggestion on the individual members of this team, but they will not go by the title of "Toa Metru," rather "The Warbound." :D

( * That's your cue to comment... :D  * )

Tollubo Rewrite
Inevitably, my storyline rewrite has arrived at the point where I'm beginning to consider rewriting large aspects of Tollubo's history. Currently, it goes something like this:
 * Tollubo is sent to Krennato-Nui (a one-off fictional location that I'm ashamed of -_-) during the Time Slip. He arrives in the middle of a war between the Matoran and Makuta Blazrox's army.
 * Blazrox personally attacks Tollubo and cuts off both his hands (In the Fractures Universe it seems that Blazrox only cut off one hand, however). The Av-Matoran then escapes with Reysa and the pair journey to Mahri-Nui.
 * They land in Karzahni, where Tollubo is "fixed" and given huge "Airship hands" and a Kanohi Elda in the shape of an Avohkii.
 * Tollubo is sent to Voya-Nui but escapes the Southern Continent and joins the Brotherhood of Makuta. Around this point he also befriends Toa Thode.
 * Tollubo flees the Brotherhood after learning a portion of Teridax's Grand Plan and joins the Order of Mata Nui.
 * When the Toa Nuva are killed in the Deserts of Death Universe, Tollubo tags along with the Order of Mata Nui's Toa Noma and plays an instrumental role in the restoration of order to the Universe Core and even kills several of the invading Makuta.
 * The Matoran Universe is destroyed by the remaining Makuta, who try to tamper with the Core Processor and end up destroying the entire thing. Tollubo and the other Av-Matoran are teleported to Bara Magna by Brutaka. During the process, he is reverted to his original form.
 * Tollubo meets Betak and she creates the Order of Tollubo in his honor.
 * Tollubo settles down with Betak and, after a series of battles, leads the Glatorian to victory against Makuta Rotam's forces.
 * Falls down to Tethys with his allies and accidentally awakens Makuta Karabak. Subsequently, Tollubo becomes a Toa to defeat him.
 * Tollubo travels to the Fractures Universe.

As you can tell, there are several plotholes and inaccuracies. How does using an Olmak to teleport to Bara Magna make him return to his original form and repair his hands?

Thus, because I'm so unhappy with all the bad decisions and stupid things that I did with the Deserts of Death Universe, I'm only considering anything up to Shadow Heart to be semi-canon. :P I'm thinking of deleting all previous stories before then and providing an alternate version that will only be told on the individual articles of the creations.

What do you think of this proposal? Yes. Deserts of Death was a convoluted, overly-complex and poorly-written era of your story. I'd be open to a revision of it. Yes. I haven't read them anyway and I think you could easily start your storyline from Tethys onwards. No. That's a large proportion of your story that you'd be putting to waste. No. I actually read all those Deserts of Death Universe stories and, though some are incomplete and undeveloped, you're being too harsh.

What I'm planning involves getting rid of Krennato-Nui all together and replacing it with a canon location, like the Northern Continent. Ideally, I would like to connect him to some Matoran inhabitants of the region but there are other factors in play.

Wouldn't it be cool if he'd known Ninian for centuries before Glonor met her in Frozen Calling.

New MOCs #3
Last week saw the released of my long-since anticipated third New MOCs blog, in which I revealed the majority of the characters from Zero Hour. I didn't want to include all the characters as there are in fact some surprise cameos and, if you check out the Zero Hour page, you'll see that I've hinted at possible appearances of big characters like Ramonda, Vormahk and Kopaka.

Discussion Topics
This is a new section that I'm wanting to introduce to my blog posts. :P In recent months, readers have picked up on different points of my storyline and had some extremely engaging conversations about them, which I am eternally grateful for. :P So, I thought it would be a good idea to add a section where I suggest topics that would both help me map out future storylines and provide good debate material for anyone interested in dropping comments. :D


 * Theories for the next generation of Toa Metru coming in Judgment Day. Any particular Matoran creations that you want to become a Toa?
 * Ninian's Kanohi.
 * There will be at least one unknown Matoran character who will be joining the team of Toa in Judgment Day. This can be any character of any canon element with any canon Kanohi. Does anyone have a preferred Element/Kanohi that they would like to see? :P (i.e. A Kaukau on a Toa of Fire, a Garai on a Toa of Air, a Kadin on a Toa of Earth... Oh, wait, that's already been done...)
 * Honestly, who is your least favorite character in my story and what have they done to incur your contempt? :P

Those are just some suggestions but feel free to start any on-topic discussions (So long as they're in accordance with the site rules and such). I'm usually happy to respond to suggestions and theories and, as some of you know by now, I'm really bad at keeping spoilers. XD