#bionic

Kirill Udodov

3d Art Director at Gunzilla Games

artstation

I recently found a series on YouTube that I have fallen in love with called Bionicle Revised, a fan made retelling of the Bionicle story with the pure focus on telling the story without the need of Marketing, so they change parts of the story generally for the better, but one thing I feel they missed out on was the Bohrok Kal arc. The Bohrok Kal could be considered filler villains who ultimately don't matter in the grander scheme of the story who were just a copy of the Bohrok cause they sold really well and they needed something to keep people's attention between the Bohrok arch and The Mask of Light. In Practice the Bohrok Kal actually had some really good parts to their story. The Kal were the first villains that the Toa fought who were individuals instead of a hoard, and made the conflict feel personal. It also included the introduction of the Mask of Time into the story, and a personal moment of growth on Tahu's part where he gets called out for almost throwing his life away pointlessly trying to just tough his way through a wall of Burning Plasma and realizes he can't go through life being reckless and unafraid to die. So I thought if the main problem was that they are Bohrok again...what if they weren't Bohrok?

Part of what makes the Kal so fun is just how much they antagonize the Toa. The reason the Kal are there in the first place is because the Toa sealed the Bahrag Queens in a Crystalized Protodermis Seal, but the Toa didn't know that the Bahrag and Bohrok swarms play a vital role in the process of reviving Mata Nui. What if instead of being Bohrok themselves, the Kal were covert field agents of the secret Order of Mata Nui doing the dirty work behind the scenes all for the sake of Mata Nui. Then they overhear that the Toa sealed the Bahrag actively interfering with a vital process of Mata Nui's revival and collectively decide to go against protocol to free the Bahrag, but also they have a personal grudge with these Toa specifically.

The main Toa Team were sealed away for thousands of years only to be released in Mata Nui's greatest time of need to be the Elite Emergency Revival Team, however so far they have not been doing a very good job at that. Over the thousands of years they were stuck in stasis pods, their bodies have gotten weaker, they lost their memories, and the pods malfunctioned so when they were meant to be deployed they actually were left adrift at see for about a thousand years unable to do anything. Then after arriving it's understandable that they were lost and confused, but to the Kal it looks like they are just bumbling idiots who are making things worse and now getting in the way. Meanwhile the Kal in this telling have been active in the universe the entire time doing the thankless jobs that needed to be done, all for the sake of Mata Nui and have grown jealous of to their perspective the undeserved praise of Toa, and then had enough when they stop the Bohrok swarm, so they decide to go up and make themselves known, and try to replace the Toa, but like the originals they are also arrogant and get done in by their own lust for power driving them to forgo their duty for selfish gain.