BIONICLE Retrospective: The Ignition Trilogy (2006-2008)

Time to go down the rabbit hole that is the Bionicle lore again

Tracklist:
Move Along (Instrumental) by The All-American Rejects,
Somebody Told Me (Instrumental) by The Killers,
Crashed by Chris Daughtry,
Gravity Hurts (Instrumental) by Cryoshell,
Gravity Hurts (classical 2018 version) by Cryoshell ft. the Budapest Art Orchestra,
and Sea Bottom Seque by Tomoya Ohtani from the Sonic Lost World OST.

I do not own or hold claim to any footage or music whatsoever. Certain video clips used are property of Advance animation, Traveller's Tales, Eidos Interactive, DC Comics, Nickelodeon Animation Studios, DR Movie, JM Animation, MOI Animation, Titmouse, and Greg Farshtey. All video and audio footage has been used for the intent of transformative commentary and is permitted by the fair use clause.

[Obi-Wan_Kenobi]

An excellent video! Well edited, clear, concise, and with literary analysis I have never seen applied to Bionicle before! I am so happy this was randomly recommended to me, good job!

[jacoyne]

If only LEGO made movies for the bionicle ignition trilogy

[Vidar]

You forgot to mention that one of the greatest characters in all of Bionicle was created during the ignition trilogy, more specifically 2006. Your probably wondering who is this character? Well it’s none other than Good Guy!

[ltb]

The Ignition Trilogy was always my favorite part of Bionicle. "Bionicle Legends" is actually one of my favorite book series of all time.

[megalodon]

It kind of funny that the Barraki set in motion the entire chain of events that make up the Bionicle story when they gave Teridax the idea to betray Mata Nui and take over the universe, which led to him taking over the Brotherhood and coming up with his plan to become the new Great Spirit.

[xendordawnburst]

Personally, I am a fan of the Inika masks. Sure, I get why they weren't as popular, but I found their designs to be quite fascinating, and the idea of the masks being organic and alive to an extent quite intriguing! Heck, I even thought up my own Toa team concept that would bring this design back. Unfortunately, I'm not seeing any custom Kanohi creators doing commissions for this style of mask.

[thedoomaster]

People think Infinity War's ending is mindblowing, they haven't seen bionicle ignition trilogy's end

[Awakeningspirit]

Another interesting feature of this trilogy was that we had individualized villain teams for almost the first time ever (the Bohrok-Kal in 2003 could also be considered this) that were not robots, vehicles powered by smaller life forms, animals, or representatives of a larger army. While every other story year before had the big bad be a titan character, for the first time the titans were supplemental and the villain teams themselves were complex and the focal point of antagonism. In 2006-2007, the villains posed as much of a threat to one another as the heroes did to them! You had some of the cruelest, dark, psychotic, and sadistic villains bonded together out of necessity, and they wanted to kill each other as much as they did the heroes. The Piraka lead this trend with their dumb brutishness, but then the Barraki leveled the darkness up. Both teams were basically like gangs that would literally crash the universe or hold it hostage for their own gain. Absolute evil.
It was almost a surprise in 2008 to meet a team of villains who actually functioned as a team very well, and they were the first tangible glimpse of the Brotherhood of Makuta we had been hearing about since 2005. This supplemented the return of Teridax himself in 2007, and presented the most powerful villains team ever assembled in Bionicle. Of course, because it was a part of Ignition, the writers couldn't help themselves but to throw some internal treachery into the Makuta team by the end. Icarax and Krika actually rebelled for very good reason, as opposed to rebelling for a stupid or selfish reason like the Piraka and Barraki, and both were killed off by their own team, which in turn was killed off by the one they served, Teridax.
Ignition was the most productively-substantive storyline of Bionicle; its peak. 2009 would arguably be more substantive, but not in a good way. The whole feeling of 2009 was 'the year tacked on that shouldn't have been;' 2008 was The Final Battle. We had a story that might as well have taken place on Earth, with power-less heroes and villains fighting over resources. Not even an action-packed story on Earth like World War II, but more like petty wars during Antiquity. The only upsides of that year were the first ever Mata Nui set as well as the best builds we had ever seen in Bionicle.

[Localdude_Pochita_enjoyer]

*ABOUT DAMN TIME!! THE INIKA AND MARHI WHERE LIKE THE SCIFI HALO VERSIONS OF BONKLE!!*

[skeet]

The years of the best bionicle music for sure. Great video and summary!

[halohair]

2006 definitly my fav year. I liked the edgy and dark pace of change. I was in middle school when 2006 came out and the dark theme kept me attracted to the story as i got older

[ptpanic]

I am so glad you pronounced Inika correctly

[NeilReviews]

Great video! Bionicle is one of the things that got me into reading comics.

[elgatoo]

and they succeeded. Bionicle IS now a legend to behold.

[betterlatethannever]

Creeping in My Soul was a good choice for trailer music

[Toaofvideos]

I like your commentary, though I feel the need to point out that the Ignition saga wasn't really a trilogy... it ended in 2007 with Matoro's sacrifice and 2008 represents its own part of the story. Although I guess they do resemble each other thematically, so there's that.

[wither]

the mari line was the best hands down, both the baraki and toa mari were fantastic!

[daniebosman]

My favorite storyline from the whole Bionicle saga 2006 to 2008 was good year

[olafbaran]

Ignition trilogy arc is Bionicle Peak of Bionicle storyline

[susano]

There are some things in life where you take a look at 'em and you think to yourself, "This thing is too good, how does it exist? How did this happen?" Bionicle is one of those things. As a franchise, it was way too good to just be based around 10" tall collectible plastic toys for children, but it WAS that good. Sometimes a miracle like that just happens. From what I understand, TMNT is kind of the same way.