Wall of History annotations: 2001-2003

http://wallofhistory.com/

2001

Proposed interactive order:
- MNOG Beach
- Comic #1 – “The Coming of the Toa”
- Comic #2 – “Deep into Darkness”
- Comic #3 – “Triumph of the Toa”
- "Challenge of the Rahi"
- All other MNOG updates

Proposed prose order:
- Tale of the Toa: The Legend of Mata Nui
- Tale of the Toa: chapters 1-6 (Toa spotlights)
- Comic #1 – “The Coming of the Toa” (ends on same cliffhanger as Kopaka's chapter)
- Tale of the Toa: "The Meeting" (follows from said cliffhanger)
- Tale of the Toa: "What Lies Beneath" (Tahu underground)
- Comic #2 – “Deep into Darkness”
- Tale of the Toa: "Cool as Ice" (Kopaka and Lewa meet before second Toa meeting; Kopaka has Kaita vision)
- Comic #3 – “Triumph of the Toa” (Onua saves Lewa and tells him about second meeting)
- "Challenge of the Rahi"
- Tale of the Toa: remaining chapters (aftermath of meeting etc)

The version of "Quest for the Masks" present on Wall of History is built around "Tale of the Toa", and uses the official walkthrough for the Mata Nui Online Game. Unfortunately, the walkthrough was written long after MNOG's release, and makes a few decisions which mean that it does not accurately reflect Templar's original intent (as it unfolded at the time).

See, in the walkthrough, Takua first goes to Ga-Koro - this is because, in the final version of the game, Maku's boat is on the shore from the start. At the time, however, the game was released to the world chapter-by-chapter, and the boat was added in a later update. Originally, the player would explore the beach, and find the telescope. In the next update, they would go to Ta-Koro, where they would first meet Kapura, then Jala, then Vakama, obtaining a backpack and learning much about Mata Nui. The lava-board was also added in a later update.

By moving Ga-Koro first, much of the game's dialogue becomes quite nonsensical. Even within the context of the Ta-Koro walkthrough itself, Takua meets Kapura only after entering the village - "I decide it is best not to mention that I have just spoken with Vakama"!

In a prose-only version of the story, aside from deliberately rewriting the walkthrough - which, to be honest, I'd maybe recommend - there's not a lot to be done about this. However, in my proposed "multimedia" version of the story, I'm pretty sure there's a way of forcing the player to complete the game in a certain order.

Now, the only other story sources to worry about in this version of the story are the four comics. We know that comics #2-3 must take place before the Ga-Koro update of the game, as they feature Gali's first encounter with a Rahi. "Challenge of the Rahi" must come after those comics, and it features many Matoran who become indisposed later in MNOG.

The question then becomes whether to place the four comics before or after the Ta-Koro update. An elegant solution presents itself: the first comic ends on a cliffhanger where it's not supposed to be apparent to the reader whether Tahu and the rest are allies! If the Ta-Koro update is placed before the comics, this reads particularly strangely. Placing it afterwards also allows "Challenge of the Rahi" to introduce Jala.

(Note that "Challenge of the Rahi" provides an elegant explanation for why Maku was away from Ga-Koro when it was attacked.)

One final point of interest for 2001 is your inclusion of extracts from the synopsis. I see that, since the last time I checked the website, you've removed a few of these - honestly, my recommendation would be to cut them entirely. Yes, they include some very minor scenes that aren't in the other stuff - but equally they were written long after the fact and were never really intended for the public. No point confusing matters!

(I know the last one is intended as a bridge into 2002, but I'd argue that MNOG's stinger is more than enough.)

2002

Proposed interactive order:
- Comic #4 – “The Bohrok Awake”
- Recent Updates – “Victory Party Cancelled!”
- pack-in comic – “Bohrok”
- Recent Updates – “Tahnok Surround Po-Koro, Matoran Lost in Fray”
- Recent Updates – “Turaga Shares Knowledge of Bohrok”
- Recent Updates – “Hafu Saved in Daring Rescue”
- Comic #5 – “To Trap a Tahnok” (leads directly on from "Hafu Saved")
- Recent Updates – “New Invention Saves Onu-Koro”
- Recent Updates – “Island Wildlife on the Move” (maybe move after #6 instead?)
- Comic #6 – “Into the Nest”
- Recent Updates – “Le-Koro Liberated!”
- McDonald’s comic #1 – “Legends, Part 1: Tale of the Toa”
- McDonald’s comic #2 – “Legends, Part 2: The Secret of the Swarm”
- McDonald’s comic #3 – “Legends, Part 3: Into the Nest”
- Recent Updates – “Last-Moment Save!”
- Comic #7 – “What Lurks Below”
- Recent Updates – “Disaster in Ga-Koro!”
- Comic #8 – “The End of the Toa?”
- pack-in comic – “Toa Nuva”
- Recent Updates – “After the Storm”
- Comic #9 – “Divided We Fall”

Proposed prose order:
- Beware the Bohrok TBD
- Comic #4 – “The Bohrok Awake”
- pack-in comic – “Bohrok”
- Comic #5 – “To Trap a Tahnok”
- Comic #6 – “Into the Nest”
- McDonald’s comic #1 – “Legends, Part 1: Tale of the Toa”
- McDonald’s comic #2 – “Legends, Part 2: The Secret of the Swarm”
- McDonald’s comic #3 – “Legends, Part 3: Into the Nest”
- Comic #7 – “What Lurks Below”
- Comic #8 – “The End of the Toa?”
- pack-in comic – “Toa Nuva”
- Comic #9 – “Divided We Fall”

Once again, I'll mostly be ignoring "Beware the Bohrok", which - while built around Greg's original comics for that year - doesn't mesh with the original Wall of History animations/reports. It's two parallel stories.

Comic #4, in which we see the Bohrok's attack on Ta-Koro, must come before "Victory Party Cancelled!", which reports on that attack. The pack-in comic for the Bohrok was written by Greg and fits into the continuity, even though basically nothing happens in it, and fits pretty well after that update. The updates "Tahnok Surround Po-Koro, Matoran Lost in Fray" and "Hafu Saved in Daring Rescue" form a two-parter set between comics #4 and #5; the "Turaga Shares Knowledge of Bohrok" update was released between these two but is pretty continuity-light, and while it reads better if placed later on I figure it's best to stick to publication order.

"New Invention Saves Onu-Koro" introduces the Boxor which is then used in Comic #6. "Island Wildlife on the Move" can go basically anywhere - either before or after #6 is fine. Meanwhile, "Le-Koro Liberated!" is clearly just elaborating on events alluded to in Comic #6, and should be read afterwards.

The three McDonalds comic books for 2002 are omitted from your site, despite technically being part of the story. Though they keep the Nuva a secret, they do kinda spoil stuff, as they're written in this weird flashforward-y prophecy-like way. The "present day" of these comics seems to be after the Toa decided to enter the nest (in comic #6) but before they actually do so (in comic #7), and Nokama's framing sequence acts as a lead-in for the Ga-Koro animations.

We placed "Disaster in Ga-Koro!" between comics #7 and #8 purely for pacing reasons, as it takes place concurrently to those issues. Jala notes that it would seem weird to jump from comic #7's big cliffhanger to the relatively-sedate opening of "Last-Moment Save!", but that moving "Disaster in Ga-Koro!" any earlier would separate it far too much from "After the Storm", which must come after comic #8.

There's another oddity in the form of the Toa Nuva's pack-in comic, which basically just recaps their creation. Once again, you'd include it in a "comprehensive" reading order because it is technically canon (we put it immediately after comic #8 but I can't exactly remember why), but I'd omit it from a "recommended" reading order.

2003 (part 1)

Proposed interactive order:
- Recent Updates – “Theft of Fire”
- Recent Updates – “Out of Their Elements”
- Comic #10 – “Powerless!”
- Recent Updates – “Desert Showdown”
- Comic #11 – “A Matter of Time…”
- pack-in comic – “Bohrok-Kal”
- Comic #12 – “Absolute Power”
- Recent Updates – “Defeat of the Bohrok-Kal”
- Recent Updates – “Naming Day”

Proposed prose order:
- Makuta's Revenge TBD
- Comic #10 – “Powerless!”
- Comic #11 – “A Matter of Time…”
- pack-in comic – “Bohrok-Kal”
- Comic #12 – “Absolute Power”

This might be a controversial choice from me, but I personally really like the idea of lumping the Bohrok-Kal in with 2002's storyline. Why? Well, first of all, the Wall of History pretty much continues directly on, as do the comics - it's all told the same way, and it all feels like part of the same narrative. Secondly, it allows MNOGII to act as a proper bridge - de-escalating at the start of the third big arc and covering a longer period of time. I'm sure you and Jalaguy would disagree.

Honestly, I'm really unconvinced by the whole "twelve chapters" thing the site currently has going. The franchise was pretty rigidly divided on a year-by-year basis, and the twelve-chapter format is a result of Bioniclestory.com giving more focus to 2008 content (which was current at the time), rather than being a truly agnostic overview. Just going from chapters 1 to 10 gives a clean mapping and gives a roughly consistent amount of content per chapter.

(Here's a bit of a tangent along those lines - I see that you've pulled chapter titles from Bioniclestory.com: "Quest of the Masks", "The Bohrok Swarms", "The Mask of Light", "Legends of Metru Nui", "Web of Shadows", all make great names for those chapters. The rest, however, are pretty darn poor, because they're just perfunctory choices made at a time when those arcs were still unfolding. A bit of editorialising benefits the "Ignition" trilogy: "Island of Doom" (first 2007 novel), "Sea of Darkness" (official arc name for that year), "Shadows in the Sky" (first 2008 novel). See, the idea here is that you have a land/sea/air trio! How neat is that? Alternatively, "Battle for Power" is the arc name given to 2008. And of course, you have "The Legend Reborn" and "Journey's End" for the final two years, continuing the "name the arcs after the movies" precedent.)

Your placement of stuff for the Bohrok-Kal is correct aside from "Desert Showdown", which summarises the events of comic #10 and should be placed afterwards. The Bohrok-Kal pack-in comic recaps events of the story up until the Kal reach the Nuva cube, which is comic #11's cliffhanger, so we placed it between #11 and #12, but again you'd probably omit it from an actual recommended reading order.

Where did "The Origin of the Bohrok-Kal" come from? I don't recognise it.

2003 (part 2)

Proposed interactive order:
- MNOGII except last update
- The Official Guide to BIONICLE (extracts)
- Comic #13 – “Rise of the Rahkshi!”
- Comic #14 – “At Last -- Takanuva!” (set during movie but released before it, keeping Takanuva's identity a secret)
- pack-in comic – “Rahkshi”
- Mask of Light (film)
- MaskofLight.com – The Legend Continues
- MNOGII last update
- Comic #15 – “Secrets and Shadows”
- Chronicles #4 – Tales of the Masks

Proposed prose order:
- The Official Guide to BIONICLE (extracts)
- Mask of Light (book) TBD
- Comic #13 – “Rise of the Rahkshi!”
- Comic #14 – “At Last -- Takanuva!” (set during movie but released before it, keeping Takanuva's identity a secret)
- pack-in comic – “Rahkshi”
- Comic #15 – “Secrets and Shadows”
- Chronicles #4 – Tales of the Masks

Comics #13-14 are a two-part story which is set during the movie but was released before it. It is obviously written with the intent that it is read before the movie in mind, as it keeps Takanuva's identity a secret and invites the reader to go and watch the movie to find out what happens. If using the prose adaptation of Mask of Light, things are a little easier, as you can place them between chapters (I don't know which exactly). I'd omit these comics from a streamlined reading order.

Tales of the Masks must come after comic #15, which itself comes after Mask of Light, as it spoils the reveal from the end of that comic. Moving it right to the end of the year allows it to act as a capstone/victory lap for the Mata Nui era too, as it flashes back all throughout the events on the island. As far as big-picture placement stuff goes, I feel pretty strongly about this thing in particular.