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[mister-julius]

I know it’s been over two damn years since I said I was going to do youtube stuff and have gone pretty damn silent until now

I was gonna try to come back ‘n’ brush it off but I feel I owe an explanation to those who cheered me on

Keep reading

[mister-julius]

So about that inactivity

Keep reading

[misterjulius]

A Thank You

It’s high time I make this sappy post about Bionicle.

Things have been rough for me for far too long. The family fought a lot, I didn’t have friends at school, six year old me got bullied constantly and I couldn’t help but get depressed. Year after year things kept getting worse, the depression rooting itself deeper and deeper into my head.

But there was always Bionicle.

In the late 90s and early 2000s, money was extremely tight in the family. We were constantly straddling the line between the lower and middle class. We had the necessities for a fairly comfortable life, but not much spending money. Lego was always a toy I wanted to get into, and it was something my mother always wanted to get for me. Problem was, the sets we could afford generally weren’t all that good, and the sets that looked amazing were far too expensive.

In 2001, though, my mother brought me to ToysRUs and showed me this wall of Bionicle sets, and she just said “Pick one”. It was such a fantastic moment! This entire wall of awesome looking Lego robot dudes, and I could have any one I want?! We’ve never had that opportunity before, it was amazing. Took me far too long to finally decide on one to take home with me.

That one blue canister set quickly spiralled into a huge collection. The next year I discovered the comics thanks to a free Lego Club subscription voucher that we mailed in, and I got hooked on the story. The year after, I got the first chapter book, and I just needed more. I followed the story religiously ever since.

I never really did get friends. The family never did stop fighting. The depression just kept getting worse, by the time I was 10 years old I was having sucidal thoughts what seemed like every other minute.

But there was always Bionicle.

Those canister sets were just so cool to kid me. I couldn’t accept any other substitute, and since we could always afford to get one or two every couple of months I didn’t have to. Every set to look forward to had an equally unique story to go with it. That story captured my imagination like no other, I couldn’t get enough.

There was always Bionicle to look forward to. New sets, new stories, new games, new creations to make. Every thought of ending it all was pushed back by the joy this line brought me, and the anticipation for what comes next was always a reason to get out of bed the next day.

Despite the family fighting, despite going to a different school every year hoping to finally make friends only to wind up feeling alone and unloved, despite bad counselors insulting me to my face, despite a bloodthirsty school district wanting to ruin my future, despite locking myself up in a one bedroom apartment for ten straight years

There was always Bionicle. That one ray of sunshine, that one source of joy, was always there.

Thirteen years later, things are starting to look up. I’ve made significant strides in breaking free from this crippling anxiety and depression, I’m finally making my first steps into adult life.

I still feel alone, I’m still lost and scared, but I’ve finally found some semblance of a direction to move in. Had my life gone the same, but that one joy been absent, I wouldn’t be here to say that.

I want anybody and everybody that worked on anything related to Bionicle to read this, and for them to hear from the bottom of my heart

Thank you.

From the people that worked on one quick piece of marketing, to the well-known folks with a hand in everything

to the executives that greenlit and oversaw the project, to the people that just made an offhand suggestion to a set designer one time

everybody inbetween, everybody higher and lower, no matter the size and scope of their contribution

every single one of you

Thank you.

[mister-julius]

Years of frustration with this site condensed into one long rant

Keep reading

[misterjulius]

I haven't used tumblr. before, but I wanted to say: thank you. Which honestly feels so impossibly small in comparison to the truth. And the truth is, your "Galidor" post meant more to me than I could EVER possibly convey. People often believe that the world is black & white, but to me, the canvas is grey. Black & White are just colors to add. To me, the whole point is to find people that just want to help you paint a brighter world. And your words made mine that much brighter. -- Matthew Ewald

I’m going to assume that you really are Matthew Ewald. Because, let’s be honest, there’s always the chance that it’s someone pretending to be you to get a chuckle out of fooling me. With the way this is worded, though, I really doubt it.

I’m glad that you found my post, and I’m very happy to know that my words have had a positive impact on you!I’ve been meaning to make an instagram account to try and chat with you directly, but I’d always either forget or wuss out.

I’d love to be able to make it to BrickFair and meet you in person, but unfortunately that’s not a trip that I can afford. I hope you have a fantastic time at BrickFair, though!

I wish you the absolute best in life, dude.

[misterjulius]

I KNEW YOU WERE LEGIT! Thanks for erasing any shred of doubt!

I hope life is treating you well, dude

[misterjulius]

I haven't used tumblr. before, but I wanted to say: thank you. Which honestly feels so impossibly small in comparison to the truth. And the truth is, your "Galidor" post meant more to me than I could EVER possibly convey. People often believe that the world is black & white, but to me, the canvas is grey. Black & White are just colors to add. To me, the whole point is to find people that just want to help you paint a brighter world. And your words made mine that much brighter. -- Matthew Ewald

I’m going to assume that you really are Matthew Ewald. Because, let’s be honest, there’s always the chance that it’s someone pretending to be you to get a chuckle out of fooling me. With the way this is worded, though, I really doubt it.

I’m glad that you found my post, and I’m very happy to know that my words have had a positive impact on you!I’ve been meaning to make an instagram account to try and chat with you directly, but I’d always either forget or wuss out.

I’d love to be able to make it to BrickFair and meet you in person, but unfortunately that’s not a trip that I can afford. I hope you have a fantastic time at BrickFair, though!

I wish you the absolute best in life, dude.

[misterjulius]

Julius, what the heck is with you and Galidor?

I figured I should answer a question nobody has come forward to ask me personally, but I’m sure has been on some people’s minds.

Now, this is gonna be more of a ramble-y post because this has been sitting in my drafts for three fricken months so if you could be a bit patient with that I would greatly appreciate it.

Well, to start, no it’s not ironic. I do unironically enjoy Galidor. This ain’t a meme. Sorry to disappoint those of ya’ that may have been hoping for that.

Something that I have been saying for years is, “Galidor is a good product. Just not a good Lego product.” I always thought the constructable action figure idea was great and even though it was done better through the likes of Bionicle and Hero Factory, I thought that what Galidor brought to the table was a worthwhile product in the toy market.

I also like to know as much as I can about things that I enjoy, and I like to share that information with people. When I’d see people joke about “Galidor G2 when” a few years back, I would hop in with what I thought to be the truth based on what I knew.

“Oh, that’s because Galidor isn’t a Lego IP! They’re tie-in toys for the show!”

Then I bought a copy of Brick by Brick by David C. Robertson three years ago, and, well, it had a particular passage on Galidor that I made a post about

Despite the joke, I was infuriated. This book had been out for over a year at that point, and yet any other source of information, regardless of the source’s reliability, would tell you something what was 100% incorrect. Not only that, but I had been spreading false information about something that I had enjoyed, that only lead to furthering negative feelings towards a company whose products I enjoy!

This kickstarted an obsession. I started spending unhealthy amounts of time scouring the internet for every single little tidbit of information about the line. Interviews, press releases, behind the scenes photos, forum posts, everything I could find that had something that was even slightly relevant I memorized and saved to an external hard drive just to be sure. I didn’t want blatantly false information to be rooted in history as the truth.

The interviews that I found with Matthew Ewald, the actor for Nick Bluetooth on the show, were particularly interesting to me. This man was, and still is, in love with Galidor. It was the type of show made him want to be an actor in the first place, it was never “just a dumb kids show” to him. I was shocked to learn just how dedicated he was to Galidor and all the projects he’s a part of.

Caring more about doing the project justice, supporting his family, and inspiring the viewers than he did about the money. That inspired me, and when I went to show these interviews with other people, always the first response was to... laugh?

People skimmed through, people laughed, people said “That’s so sad!! XD” in response to seeing a passionate man go on about how inspiring others was more important to him than the money. All because it was Galidor instead of Bionicle or Ninjago. I don’t think that’s right.

In these interviews and other bits of information I found that while Galidor was a financial failure in terms of toy sales, it wasn’t a complete and utter failure. The show was a success. As in, the ratings were good, kids quickly became dedicated fans that followed it closely, and fan forums were made. There was a BZPower equivalent for the Galidor show. A one-stop shop for Galidor news and fan discussion. But this all just wasn’t enough to make up for the massive amounts of money spent on the franchise.

The toys being released alongside Bionicle’s peak in popularity pretty much single handedly killed any chance of Galidor being a financial success, and since the line was around for so short of a time people quickly moved on and forgot. You won’t find the fan forum, it’s long gone. You’ll see people occasionally pop up with memories of that one thing they thought was a fever dream but was actually real.

Despite being a huge financial failure, this line still took ahold of many kids’ creativity and inspired them. It makes me wonder.

Why should sales figures decide whether or not that’s a good thing? Why should sales figures decide whether or not the memory of kids having harmless fun is a positive or negative thing?

Whether you’re looking at the show or the toys from the most critical point of view, I guarantee you that you will find things that are objectively worse in every way that were huge successes that many people and even you might remember fondly. If those can be remembered fondly, why not things that failed?

I like to keep in touch with my inner child. I know what I liked as a kid and why I liked the things I did, and when I experience something that kid-me would just absolutely adore it brings out a wonderful feeling of childish joy. The Galidor show brought me that when I first watched through it a few years back, and the toys bring me that whenever I make something with them.

And you know what? I don’t even like Galidor that much.

I enjoy it, I’ve gone to great lengths to preserving every little detail about it that I can, but it’s not something that I totally absolutely love with every ounce of my being.

To me, the biggest failures are just as important, if not moreso, than the biggest successes. Not to hold it up on a pedestal of “the worstest things ever and nothing ever like it should ever be done ever”, but to look at where things went wrong and ask “What can we do better?”, “Would that marketing idea work better for something else?”, “If we changed the core product to something else, would it have done better?”

Imagine if the mere idea of Lego TV shows were forever written off as something that should never be done solely because of Galidor. Or maybe if all sci-fi lines that aren’t Lego Star Wars were forever canned. I believe that kind of thinking just doesn’t lead to the kind of progress that every company needs.

I want someone, somewhere, to be able to look at this financial failure and turn it into a success that inspires kids everywhere. Outside of the business realm, which I admittedly know very little about, I just think that there are legitimately good things about Galidor.

I don’t want to change people’s opinions from “Galidor is the worst” to “Galidor is the best”, I just want to share a different perspective and the joy I find in it. I want people to remember them having harmless fun with toys and shows as a child and feel nostalgia regardless of sales statistics.

I want to show you the things that I think are good about it, I want to share with you that childish joy that it brings out in me, and if you read through this post, looked at some things that I’ve shared, and think “That’s nice, Julius, but I still think it’s all hot garbage” then I appreciate you taking the time to listen at the very least.

Just know that these feelings aren’t exclusive to Galidor. This is just my first major step into a larger fascination with the many bits of kids media that have come ‘n’ gone.

[misterjulius]

With all the criticisms about Bionicle G2 and the salt/disappointment over it getting cut early, I just want to take a moment to appreciate some people that worked on its story material.

First up, the people who made the 2015 flash animations.

Now let’s be real, they weren’t all that great. BUT, they were set up for failure with a bare-bones at best story bible and an impossibly short deadline.

But despite that, they made a series of animations that, at the very least, was able to have all of the Toa interact with each other and give them some character. They put in the effort to make the best of what they were given to work with, and I think that deserves some appreciation even if the end product didn’t turn out as great as we all wanted it to be.

Secondly, Ryder Windham.

Given just as bare of a story bible as the people behind the flash animations, he insisted that there needed to be more to this setting and its characters than what was given. His first book was, more or less, just a transcription of the first few flash animations that gave the Protectors names, but his next books and graphic novels did more.

He tried to:

give the Protectors actual character and purpose beyond showing the Toa where to get their masks

set up the skull spiders as an actual threat by showing them doing more than just lining up to be mowed down by the Toa

make the villagers feel like more like a part of the world by giving them a history and showing them struggling against the current threats to their home

all-around attempted to better flesh out Okoto as a setting

add the mystery to it that Bionicle fans cried for

set up multiple potential plot-threads for new locations and adventures

Ryder Windham attempted to give the G2 story and characters more substance than what the line’s story team was willing to. I know that some people don’t enjoy what he wrote for G2, but he very clearly put in a significant effort despite the chances of it being outright ignored by the marketing and story teams. I greatly appreciate that.

[misterjulius]

One of the things that will never cease to confuse me is the packaging design for the Kek Powerizer.

There are two variants of the box, and this is what I assume to be the first iteration. At first glance you’d think that they would stack neatly if you just had every other box facing backwards, but the skinny side compartment is wider than the main compartment so there would still be some wasted shelf space if you were to do that.

The information on the front of the skinnier compartment is repeated in greater detail on the back, and on either side said information is displayed in three different languages.

And you know what’s in that other compartment?

The usual fold-out poster/instruction “comic”, and a small user manual in a thin cardboard sleeve. There’s no extra cardboard walls or padding or anything like that to prevent these from rattling around, either.

All of which could’ve just been tossed in the main compartment without any issues. And to further prove that point, here’s a picture of the other box design I found on the ‘net:

Much more standard! No large amounts of pointlessly empty space! Which only makes me wonder

What, exactly, were the packaging designers thinking at the time? This two-compartment tetris box is just so weird to me on so many levels. I would love to actually know what all they had in mind at the time, and whether or not there was anyone else thinking “What the heck is up with this, Lego?”

[misterjulius]

The Boy Who Believed He Was a Lego Character

Years ago some 12 year old kid was so obsessed with Lego’s Bionicle line, he was led to believe that he was actually one of the characters. In fact, he was so sure of this that he got interviewed for a book about “Indigo Children”.

No, this isn’t some odd fanfiction, that boy was me.

Oh man where do I even begin.

Back when I was a kid, I was taken to a wide variety of churches to find a place of spirituality where we’d fit in and feel comfortable with ourselves. After a while we decided to forego churches entirely and turned to the New-Age crowd.

We found one particular store in our area and stuck with it for the longest time. They had tarot cards, fragrant oils, incense, books on everything metaphysical, and a whole lotta crystals. Those crystals were the main reason why I liked going to the stores for so long.

While we went there, I ended up getting taught all sorts of interesting stuff. Everything from basic tarot card readings, to becoming a beginner Reiki healer, to what my “past lives” supposedly were. Oh boy, that’s where things get silly.

I’m not going to get into the details of that, let’s just skip straight to that book I mentioned! Enter 2007. The concept of “Indigo Kids” grew to include Crystal Kids and Star Kids, and the whole Mayan 2012 Apocalypse hype/panic was just coming down from its peak.

I was asked if I would like to be interviewed for a book to be written by Meg Blackburn Losey, Conversations With the Children of Now. Naturally, excited kid-me said yes. I was alone with the owner of the metaphysical shop and a video camera. She asked me questions, gave answers that I thought were the truth, and I got published in it along with a handful of other kids!

Look at that dorky little kid! My little introduction here is pretty short compared to a lot of the others in this book.

And as for those past lives, well... I’ll let the first few things I say in this book do all the talking.

I don’t know whether the editor knew I was talking about Bionicle and edited some of the names to avoid legal trouble, or if the writer just changed some things to look a little cooler, or maybe a bit of both, but here it is. Montanui is supposed to be Mata Nui, Voyganui is supposed to be Voya Nui, and Toah isn’t supposed to have an ‘h’ at the end.

Needless to say I had a very active imagination, which was further enabled by several “past life regression” sessions.

At first I felt real good about the whole thing. Hell, after the book got released, I was asked by another kid to autograph his copy! That was neat. But as time went on I kept looking back at my copy with more and more disdain. First with thoughts of “Why can’t I just be normal,” then with thoughts of “That stuff was complete bullshit”

Now it’s April 3rd, 2017. My 22nd birthday, 10 years after the interview. I don’t feel too negatively towards the whole thing. Aside from obvious embarrassment from stupid kid me, I don’t regret anything.

Those delusions of once being a great biomechanical warrior, among other things, got carried away, but the belief of being a part of something more grand helped carry me through the worst times in my life, which would hit just a year after the interview.

But in retrospect, the whole thing is very very silly, and I hope y’all get a sensible chuckle out of silly kid Scott.

[misterjulius]

Let me also ask your good question: what got you into Tron?

When I was a kid, I went to this shitty daycare center. It had a few arcade games; R-Type, Ms PacMan, Galaga, some vertical scrolling WWII airplane shoot-em-up, a vertical scrolling tank shooter, and Tron. All were set to free play. R-Type and Tron were my favorites. I used to spend a lot of time sitting next to the Tron machine, staring at that art and trying to figure out what the things were and what they meant.

A few years later, I was with my mother at Half-Price Books, looking at their DVD section. I saw a strangely thicker DVD case that said “Tron” on it. I didn’t really bother reading much of what was on the back. I saw “A masterpiece of breakthrough CGI ingenuity,” and thought “Wow, that game must be a lot older than I thought,” and just assumed that it was a documentary about the game and its history.

Boy howdy was 13 year-old me wrong

Five minutes into the movie and it was really clear that I was way off on what I thought this was going to be, and I had no idea what to expect.

I watched it, I loved it. I watched all the supplemental material, listened to the commentary, and I’ve been hooked on all things Tron since then.

[tron]

The thing I hate that MET gala is Tron, Advil is Tron, Zayn is Tron, Eurovision is Tron, literally everything is Tron, the whole live popculture is so heavily influenced by the Tron universe that every week there is a new clip or event celebrating it, only Disney would not care I just hope one of these days a forgotten contract comes around and these fuckers lose the rights of Tron and the whole thing goes to somebody that cares about it.

[shes-an-iso]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Isn’t it crazy? I don’t get it. I don’t get why it has to be this frustrating. I don’t get why everyone is inspired by it but Disney isn’t doing anything to really move forward with it–why they don’t seem to see that people will eat up the aesthetic and love it artistically. 

[flynn-science]

Tron has had a huge pop culture influence, just very subtly. Anything glowy is automatically reminiscent of and acknowledged as reminiscent of Tron. Tron Lines. CGI in movies. DOZENS of references across media. Fucking DAFT PUNK was inspired by Tron!

Tron has had a bigger pop culture influence than Avatar could ever hope to, but guess which one is getting 4 sequels?

[shes-an-iso]

#SALTY FLYNN IS COMING OUT TONIGHT #DO NOT MENTION UPRISING TO ME RIGHT NOW

I THINK WE’RE ALL FEELING PRETTY SALTY RIGHT NOW

[misterjulius]

Alright, I gotta add my pile of salt thoughts to this.

Tron has been a pretty big, yet subtle, influence in a lot of things. It’s been a big influence in the film industry due to its usage of CGI, and its aesthetic been ingrained into pop culture to the point where anything neon immediately gets people to shout “TRON!”, but it doesn’t stop there either.

The Tron film has had a pretty big influence on the science-fiction genre as a whole. Be it movies, novels, comics, or whatever else, you will find something influenced by Tron or, at the very least, something that was influenced by something that was influenced by Tron. 

On top of that, it’s been a big influence in the computer industry. Many people who went to see Tron in theaters back in the day left that theater thinking “Hot damn, computers are fucking awesome!” and that spark of interest in computers has lead to many people get into game development, software design, and computer engineering. Which is pretty fucking huge! Not only have computers become so widespread that we all carry a small computer in our pockets all day every day, but the video game industry has grown to be a massive part of western culture, and Tron inspired people to be a part of those industries and help them grow.

While everyone else was just trying to make easy money off of “New things are bad here’s story where everything goes wrong because we dared to advance technology”, Tron took the trope of the A.I. gone rogue and destroyed it by showing that all you need is another human creation and a little bit of user intervention to solve those problems, instead of having them spiral out of control to the point where the only solution is destroying the computer.

Steven Lisberger looked at computers, saw the potential for amazing things through them, and wanted to inspire people with that potential.

It’s not just the neon look, it’s not just that ‘80s nostalgia. The optimistic narrative, usage of technology that everyone else shunned, and its ability to inspire people helped drive the film industry, computer industry, and video game industry to where they are today. Its influence isn’t something immediately apparent, and it didn’t single-handedly change those industries on its arrival or anything like that, but its influence is still there and it is not insignificant by any means.

But at the end of the day, no matter what it is, Disney executives have this to say about Tron: “Eh, it doesn’t make us billions of dollars every week from our minimal effort, so it’s not worth bothering with it again. Let’s make Frozen 2 instead.”

Tron has always been a niche product. It will do well, but it will never be able to rake in the billions upon billions that Disney wants. So because of that, the Tron franchise, the creators of Tron media, and its fans will always be fucked over.

Fuck my personal feelings of it not being fair to the consumers; it’s not fair to the people behind the various Tron media.

It’s not fair to the visual effects artists, actors, prop designers, costumers, makeup artists, and everyone else who worked on Legacy.

It’s not fair to the people behind Tron: Uprising, who put their heart and soul into making a one-of-a-kind cartoon with an awesome story.

It’s not fair to Monolith Productions and the heart and soul they poured into Tron 2.0 only for its existence to be ignored by Disney. 

It’s not fair to the writers and artists for Tron: Ghost in the Machine and Tron Betrayal.

It’s not fair to all the designers and programmers behind the Tron: Evolution video games and Tron Run/r.

They don’t deserve to be looked at as failures by the company who always makes sure that their creations can never flourish.

All of these people, who have collectively spent god-knows-how-many-hours creating all of these things, deserve so much better.

[cabbieboy]

Bionicle G2 Content vs. Product

If Bionicle G2 ends next year…(which unfortunately really still seems to be more likely than not), the biggest reason it will fail is because Lego did not properly plan or present Bionicle’s depth, charm, and collectible value nearly as well as they could have. I think most fans can agree that Bionicle has not been a pushed theme for lego during its second lifespan; we can only wonder why more attention wasn’t garnished to the lore-first sets-second approach that made G1 so successful.

One thing that has always concerned me, however, is the price point on Bionicle sets. While I understand plastic isn’t cheap to produce, I think more thought should have gone into the cost of sets. In my experience, it doesn’t seem plausible that younger audiences can afford most of the main characters in the series…$20 was hard enough to spend on a titan when I was younger, yet over HALF of the main line is centered right at this price point. As an adult I can buy the sets I want, but back then, that was not possible. This is the prime evidence that Lego was indeed centered more on products than story for G2; what would result was a less enjoyable presentation of a beloved series that ultimately leaves most fans unsatisfied with a lack of quality content to go along with a successful product. (Seriously though, the sets are really good, and most are well worth the price.)

What are your opinions about G2′s approach to content?

[misterjulius]

I think one of the biggest mistakes Lego has made is a lack of advertisement and store availability of Bionicle’s story-based products. There has been literally no advertisement what so ever for the chapter books or graphic novels, and there still isn’t a listing for them at Lego’s Shop@Home website.

Hell, has anyone seen an ad for Journey to One anywhere? I sure as hell haven’t.

All we have that’s readily available to the average kid and parent is a series of online animations which, while enjoyable to me at least, don’t really bring that powerful narrative that the original run of Bionicle brought.

After reading TTV’s interview with Ryder Windham, it seems like Lego didn’t really put much thought into the beginning year of the Bionicle reboot at all.

Meanwhile, compare G2 Bionicle’s first year to Hero Factory’s first year. Hero Factory had more advertisement, and four CGI cartoon episodes that did a great job of introducing the characters and establishing a compelling narrative which was available on the website. Bionicle’s online animations don’t really bring anything to the table, and just seem completely half-thought-out when compared to Hero Factory.

It kinda seems like Lego has just been fumbling and tripping over themselves when it comes to this run of Bionicle. I can only hope that, if Bionicle does get cancelled next year, that Constraction sets don’t get canned along with it, and that Lego isn’t too discouraged from trying again.

I’d like to see this turn into a learning experience that Lego uses to improve the quality of Constraction lines.

[misterjulius]

If you've read Ghost in the Machine (the Tron comic), could you talk about that?

Oh that’s a good one! I’ve got no idea what direction I should go in, so I’m just gonna let my sleep deprived mind go wherever it wants on this topic. If you wanted something a bit more specific, don’t be afraid to send me another ask about it!

I think the best place to start would be to answer the question “What is Tron: Ghost in the Machine?” for those who haven’t read it. The answer to that is pretty simple. It’s a six-issue absolute mindfuck of a comic series and I love it.

One of the biggest problems with it, though, is the fact that you really have to read every issue to fully understand what’s going on. Why is that an issue? Simply because the subject matter makes a lot of people just give up a couple of issues in.

This is where it gets spoiler-laden, so look away if you’re interested in these comics and don’t want to be spoiled.

One of the most absurd responses to it I’ve seen was something along the lines of “It tries too hard to be The Matrix and every character is out of character.” If you’ve read Ghost in the Machine, you’ll know why that’s absurd right off the bat. None of the characters that you see in Ghost in the Machine are actually the same characters from their respective Tron story installments.

Neither Blue, Red, or Green Jet, or any fusion of them, is actually Jet Bradley. The three are fragments of a backup of Jet Bradley. Moreover, every character you see is actually a creation of Blue, Red, or Green Jet, as is literally everything that you see happen in the comic.

I can see why it would be really off-putting to some Tron fans, because this really is used an excuse to have some absolutely morbid things happen. Even if they didn’t really happen in the context of the story, they were still drawn and not everyone is keen on the idea of seeing Alan Bradley shout “MY WIFE IS DEAD!” and get shot in the face.

But what I like most about Ghost in the Machine, and this is what made me love the 1982 film, is that it was really made to provoke thought in the viewer. That may sound pretentious, but it’s pretty much straight-up said in the Afterword of the Graphic Novel.

That being said, it doesn’t do too bad of a job on the surface-level story, either. I’d say it’s really hit-or-miss depending on who reads it, but I really liked what they did with this. I’ve been thinking about the “tries too hard to be The Matrix” comment for a long while now, and I just don’t get it. Maybe it’s because I watched Reloaded and Revelations before watching the original film? I dunno, but it seems like a pretty silly claim to make.

Anyways, I really enjoyed that they tackled the idea of “What if someone made a backup of the data of a digitized user, and what if something went wrong in the compiling of that data?” That’s a really interesting story idea, and the best part is that it can be taken in a multitude of different directions. And you know  what? I’d love to see those different directions. That’s one of the best things about Tron in general; you can take so many of its story premises in so many different directions.

And my mind goes blank after that. Don’t be afraid to bug me if I didn’t touch up on a specific thing you were lookin’ for!

[misterjulius]

Was a canonical reason ever given to explain what caused Vakama's visions?

There was, actually. Way back before BZPower got royally fucked up by CrackJag and all of the old GregF Answers topics were still around. Thankfully, it’s been forgotten and isn’t considered canon anymore.

Back when I was an active lurker on BZPower under the name Toa_Takanuva, I followed the various GregF answers topics almost religiously. I remember someone posting a response they got from Greg about Vakama’s visions, among other things. The explanation at the time was something along the lines of “It was a glitch in his A.I. that just happened to be useful.” Now, memory isn’t always correct, but let’s just assume that it is so I can give you the block of text that I promised, mmkay?

See why I say “thankfully”? It’s a really anti-climactic answer, and since Bionicle is a fusion of sci-fi and fantasy there’s really no need to give a rational explanation to something like that. Unexplainable mystical magical whatsits is a lot more fun than “it’s a fuckup that happened to help”. Well, at least I think it is. Your mileage may vary.

Pretty much every one of Greg’s answers to little things like that are made up on the spot. Because of that, Greg has a tendency to completely forget the answers that he gives pretty quickly. That’s why I followed the topics religiously. Every now and then someone else would come along and ask the exact same question that someone had asked before, and Greg would say something completely different in response.

Now, since all those topics are gone, what’s considered canon basically boils down to what’s on BS01. Since BS01 doesn’t say it, since there’s no way to prove that answer was ever given [to my knowledge], and since there’s a big chance that GregF has completely forgotten that answer and might think it’s as pointless and uninteresting as I do, it ain’t canon.

[misterjulius]

Man, I’m really short on ideas for this blog.

If y’all wanna read blocks of text about my thoughts on something, go ahead and shoot me an ask and I’ll see if I can’t whip up something for ya’.

[theslashinator-deactivated20130]

expositionfairy replied to your post: just watched two episodes of TRON: Uprising I need…

The first half of the show is sort of…less than quality, but once you hit the Scars twoparter it takes an ENORMOUS QUALITY LEAP.

Good to know. :3

Exactly when does the show take place? I mean, it’s obviously pre-Legacy, but is it post-Betrayal? Post-original TRON? Post-Evolution? (I still need to play that game >.<)

[expositionfairy]

The show takes place several cycles post-Evolution.

[theslashinator-deactivated20130]

And Evolution takes place how far after Betrayal?

[expositionfairy]

Evolution takes place literally the day of Clu’s coup against Flynn and takeover of the Grid, so there’s a bit of overlap with Betrayal.  The main story of Betrayal, final three pages where it shows the coup scene aside, seems to stop a few User weeks short of where Evolution kicks off.  Tracking the timeline and continuity of the various Tron properties is an art, rather than a science :\

[theslashinator-deactivated20130]

Gotcha. Thank you for explaining it for me. <3

Are there any other significant events in the TRON timeline I should know about? Like where TRON 2.0 fits in?

[expositionfairy]

2.0 is actually an AU that isn’t officially considered part of the “canon” timeline.

[theslashinator-deactivated20130]

So the next logical question: What *is* canon, outside of the two movies, Uprising, Evolution, and Betrayal?

[expositionfairy]

That’s it.  That’s  the canon.

Canon arrangement works as follows: Tron, Tron: Betrayal, Tron: Evolution, Tron: Uprising, the Flynn Lives ARG material (meanwhile in the real world…), Tron: Legacy, Tron: The Next Day (a short on the DVD that takes place the day/week after Legacy).

(There’s also the Wii game Battle Grids, which is not terribly plot-heavy but does have a few little tidbits that are meant to tie in with Evolution.)

[misterjulius]

Actually, all the Tron: Evolution games are canon according to Disney.

Disney made a simple movie and game timeline for them, which they showed at their NYCC panel.

Of course, Disney managed to get their own timeline wrong. The PSP version of Tron: Evolution literally opens up with a black screen that shows the year 1985.

So the timeline would be:

Tron -> Tron: Evolution (PSP) -> Tron: Evolution (DS) -> Tron: Evolution (Wii) -> Tron: Evolution (PC/PS3/Xbox 360) -> Tron: Uprising -> Flynn Lives -> Tron: Legacy -> Tron: The Next Day

It’s hard to put all of Tron: Betrayal in just one spot. It starts off before the events of any Tron: Evolution game, and ends during the events of Tron: Evolution for PC/PS3/Xbox 360.

Since Disney got their own timeline wrong, I might go ahead and make my own timeline graph for reference.

EDIT: I made my own timeline! Go check it out.