Featured Story Spotlight: Light in the Dark
At long last, after six long years, a journey is at an end. Invader joined the wiki in November 2013 and only a few months afterward, in February 2014, he began work on the story Pushing Back the Dark. The story, at its conception, was intended as a rewrite of the 2006-7 story arcs, the first of a trilogy of stories retelling the Bionicle G1 storyline. By December of 2014, a few months after the announcement that Bionicle would be making a return, Invader switched gears, rebranding the trilogy as a retelling of the G2 storyline. Each entry of the trilogy would cover each story year. The first entry would be followed up with Lost in the Dark and Light in the Dark.
Invader began his release of Pushing Back the Dark, or the recount of the 2015 storyline in September 2015 to July 2016. Drawing its basis from the Online Animations, the tale was an epic retelling of the storyline, building upon what we had seen through them and elevating them in what was described in its spotlight as being “truly a testament of the unexplored potential of G2 and boundless dedication of its fans.” Invader followed this story with Lost in the Dark, a retelling of the 2016 storyline, publishing from November to December of 2017. Now taking his cues from the Journey to One animated series, Invader similarly reimagined everything we had seen before, and taking a few episodes of a truncated series and bringing them to new levels. It was praised in its spotlight for “expanding upon events seen in the television show whilst simultaneously enriching the wider Okotan backdrop with Invader’s own additions.”
Now, in the grand finale, Invader spins the storyline in an altogether original direction. Having left Lost in the Dark as the open-ended cliffhanger it should have been, Invader imagines the G2 storyline as it was meant to be come 2017--before the abrupt, unanticipated cancellation of the series (which ironically happened as Pushing Back the Dark was finishing its release). Basing much of his contents and inspiration on the Art of Lego Bionicle artbook released soon after, Invader knits these loose threads together in a story that is wondrously evocative of G2, encapsulating and expanding upon the themes that the original story had established. Light in the Dark sports some remarkably strong moments as well as boasting a remarkable creation myth. As Invader closes the pages on Okoto’s epic, there are more than a few surprises in store, and he delivers on the loose threads he has established in his prior entries.
The sheer commitment that it took to get through this, much less after six long years, is incredible, and it stands as one of Invader’s most remarkable achievements during his tenure here. Few have taken such deep-dives into the G2 lore (there unfortunately isn’t much there, and the fact Invader could extract so much from it is a testament to his skill), and while there is a handful of notable forays into the realm of G2 (my own was completely inspired by Invader’s work in the world). However, Invader has cut an undisputed title for himself as the foremost author in the field.
On a personal note, Invader’s been publishing content for this trilogy as long as I’ve been a member of this wiki. Crazy to see that he’s finished.
I could go on (part of me wants to see how long I could make this--seems appropriate since this took fifth place on the Long Pages knocking mine down a peg :/) but suffice to say, this story--this trilogy--is well worthy of this spotlight and thoroughly deserves its place in the annals of CBW’s featured stories.
Vote for the next Featured Story here!
