#greg farshtey

[bioniclechicken]

Some panels

[notblazedenough]

It’s not graffiti, it’s art!

[kanohivolitakk]

Bionicle is a really funny fandom considering the guy who the half of the fandom views as end all be all arbiter of canon is also the guy whose takes of "his own" characters are the epitome of "HE WOULDN'T SAY THAT"

[annies-scrapbook]

"romance isn't canon"

my brother in mata nui, you wrote the canonical romance

[sepublic]

To me, Greg Farshtey is the George Lucas of Bionicle. In addition to even looking similar, they’re both creators and writers for an elaborate franchise that were beloved by fans for it. But they can also be mixed bags, really high highs, but the low lows… So as they make especially questionable writing decisions later into their tenure, they become more criticized by fans who are older and better at critical thinking now, who take notice of a couple IRL biases too! And this leads to a whole wave of people practically hating them as they set up other contributors on a pedestal, or at least consider that this writer better works with an outline, minimal supervision, and feedback. The writer’s status is half-reviled and half-loved.

But eventually we get to see how bad we could’ve had or do get it, without the guy; And we mature past our edgy, rebellious teen phase and come to appreciate our writer again, albeit with a better understanding. Yeah he has his flaws but as a whole he’s really good and compelling and still has a solid head on his shoulders. And maybe some of those botched ideas aren’t so bad, or could work with a bit more tweaking; They’re worth exploring and not just dismissing wholesale, you know? At the very least he was holding back a loooot of BS, and ultimately we’ve taken his eccentricities for granted. He’s a flawed but genuine writer and that’s more compelling in the end.

[herora-nuva]

Who wrote the Bionicle books? (in-universe)

When talking about the Bionicle books with fans, Greg Farshtey (the real world author) would sometimes take a page from J.R.R. Tolkien and say that the stories were actually texts from the Bionicle universe that he "translated" into English. Which got me thinking, if these were stories that were written in the Bionicle universe, who wrote them?

And I thought the cutest answer would be, it was the Chroniclers who wrote them! And the more I thought about it, the more I realized this theory works surprisingly well! There were 3 main Chroniclers (Takua, Hahli, and Kopeke) corresponding to the 3 series of Bionicle books (Chronicles, Adventures, and Legends)

Takua was Cathy Hapka, and the primary author of the Chronicles series, relating the adventures of the Toa Mata to the island of Mata Nui. In some cases it was implied that he was either there in background of the events, or simply heard of them from the Toa themselves during his many conversations with them. The exception was Tales of the Masks, written by Greg Farshtey Hahli. The Tales are included in the Chronicles as they take place during that time, though as they are the story of how the Turaga decided to reveal Metru Nui just before the Kohlii Tournament, they were only revealed and published after Takua ascended to the ranks of Toa, and are the first events she recorded. Mask of Light was also written by Takanuva as a final chronicle relating his own journey to find the Seventh Toa. It is often grouped with the Chronicles, though as he was no longer officially the Chronicler, it is sometimes considered separately.

Next is the Adventures, written by Hahli, translated by Greg Farshtey. You can really see the distinct writing styles between Hahli and Takua emerge here. She recorded the Adventures as she was canonically there for almost all of the Turaga's council sessions where they told the Toa Nuva.

The Legends series was written by Kopeke, who became Chronicler after it was discovered Hahli had also been transformed into a Toa. Kopeke learned of many of the events that took place second hand from Hahli, who canonically told him of the events in the Pit, and probably told him of the adventures on Voya Nui. Having been given his stories from the previous Chronicler, Kopeke's writing style is noted fro being highly similar Hahli's both written by Greg Farshtey. Kopeke also later learned of the events in Karda Nui when the Toa Nuva returned home. Much of these Legends had to be written in secret during the Reign of Shadows, as a hope to keep the stories of the Toa heroes alive during the dark times.

But then of course there are the Bara Magna books, and I believe these were recorded by Berix, who took on the role of Chronicler in Mata Nui's band of Glatorian in their adventures. After the Reformation, he worked closely with Kopeke to recount the events of the Battle of Bara Magna, leading to his style being heavily influenced by Kopeke's and Hahli's Farshtey styles.

And so there you have it! Those are the true authors of the Bionicle books in my headcanon! Let me know what you guys think about this

[jasper-book-stash]

October 2025 Reading Wrap-Up

So, with the disclaimer that I'm currently reading through two very long books that have definitely been taking a while, I did manage to finish 6 books off this month. And set aside quite a few that I couldn't get past the first twenty pages on, but that's neither here nor there. We did hit a total of 1101 pages though!

1/10 - Why Did They Publish This?

None applicable.

2/10 - Trash

None applicable.

3/10 - Meh

None applicable.

4 to 6/10 - Mid-Tier

None applicable.

7 to 8/10 - Good With Caveats

Hero Factory Secret Mission 3: Collision Course | Greg Farshtey [Juvenile] Hero Factory Secret Mission 4: Robot Rampage | Greg Farshtey [Juvenile] Hero Factory Secret Mission 5: Mirror World | Greg Farshtey [Juvenile]

Putting all three of these together because these are the last three books of the Hero Factory Secret Mission series. I am chewing on drywall because they were working from where the cartoon series ended (episode 10, don't talk to me about episode 11) but they didn't close anything and in fact introduced MORE plot points that never finished up. I'm going insane. But on the bright side, Bulk got more of the respect he deserves.

Queer Mythoogy: Epic Legends From Around The World | Guido A Sanchez, James Fenner [Juvenile]

While this book was overall great and very much meant for a juvenile audience (aided by the fact that the author, Guido A Sanchez, is a middle school teacher), my primary complaint is repetition. While there are many myths from various areas, we return to Greek-Roman mythology six times.

While the goddess Athena does appear, she appears in the context of female lovers, leaving this book rather lacking in aromantic or asexual representation. I am not redacting any points for that, however, as I find the overall myths chosen to be written as wonderful examples of gay, lesbian, and bisexual/pansexual love and a multitude of transgender and nonbinary figures featured.

This book is overall quite short at 112 pages, with each myth taking around 5 pages plus a full-page art piece each. Overall, I cannot recommend it enough for the juvenile demographic or someone returning to reading mythology and wanting something lighthearted. While violence and death do feature in several stories, ultimately the figures do reach some form of happily-ever-after.

And that, more than anything else, is important to me.

9/10 - Very Very Good

Destroy All Humans. They Can’t Be Regenerated, volume 5 | Katsura Ise, Takuma Yokota

We love to see a romance subplot that turns into epic card duels. At least all of these idiots are willing to talk about their crushes and the information eventually gets back to who it needs to. Looking forward to the next book!

Llewellyn’s Complete Book Of North American Folk Magic: A Landscape Of Magic, Mystery, And Tradition | Cory Thomas Hutcheson, Brandon Weston, Melissa A Ivanco-Murray, Starr Casas, Stephanie Rose Bird, H Byron Ballard, Benebell Wen, Jake Richards, Alexander Cummins, Lilith Dorsey, Sandra Santiago, Robert L Schreiwer, Via Hedera, Kenya T Coviak, Ixtoii Paloma Cervantes, Robert Phoenix, Eliseo "Cheo" Torres, Morrigane Feu, E F E Lacharity, J Allen Cross, Morgan Daimler, Dee Norman, Aaron Oberon, Mario Del Angel-Guevara

So with the disclaimer that it's cringe that H Byron Ballard is a loud and proud TERF now, I do genuinely recommend this book. Very good disclaimers, in-text citations with matching footnotes, emphasis on safety... And they don't hesitate to address the realities of North American history. I respect that they're not trying to cover various Indigenous American cultures with this book because there's a limitation on pages and space, and the editor and all authors also recognize this even though the title is "complete". Generally, I would recommend this book as an introduction to folk magics in areas and as a way to work through what feels like coming home if you're also in North America and looking for direction for learning about folk magic in or from your area.

Random guess at the target demographic: Pretty much anyone interested in the idea of folk magic in North America but has no idea where to actually start and thus needs a "road map".

10/10 - Unironically Recommend To Everyone

None applicable.

[sparrowsabre7]

@unseeliefaerie accidentally made me do this because they innocently reblogged a funny post about Kopaka from Bionicle and now I have to share this excerpt from the tpb, nay original issue I have which goes hard and features unnecessarily good art from Carlos D'Anda