The Bios: Should Mattel have created a NEW story from SCRATCH?

[MegaGearMax]

Assuming that fans think merging the eras is a bad idea, instead of trying to cater to all the different storylines and eras and merge mini-comic, Filmation and MYP lore into one big canon, should Mattel have decided to chuck all those stories away and created everything from the ground up from scratch?

If they did this, then they would definitely throw out everything you know about these characters and started raw and fresh, with no conflicting storylines and no more expectations. No more shoehorning. Everything you know does not apply to this new canon. This is a new story. Period.

Would fans have preferred this approach? Would this make the bios even worse? Would having no expectations or competition from other eras make the bios even better?

[urbanmyth]

No! Skipping bios/stories on the cardbacks altogether would be preferred to a totally new story. All that really needed to have been changed was for the bios to be better written and maybe delivered in a more logical order.

Personally, my He-Fandom won't survive a TOTAL reboot.

[grenadaspice]

I enjoy the bios and I find them whimsical. I think even for people who hate the bios, it's still a guilty pleasure, kind of like the proverbial car crash. Why go online and read them if you think you're going to set yourself up to be upset and then just sling the writers through the mud because their vision might be drastically different then yours. Sure, their are elements that I still don't understand, like the need to split the Power Sword in 2 halves so no one can use it, even though King Grayskull's essence when into the sword so that only his ancestors can tap into the power, & maybe elements of Zodac & his "neutrality", but other then that, I like see how they decide to tie up these canons together. And I do like the majority of the real names. (Long Live Hec-Tor the Ruthless)

[DO4M]

They should've started a brand new canon but keeping some of the most well known parts of previous canons. If one canon clashes with the other they should either disregard one part of the canon or find a way to throw a nod to it.
Like He-Man for example.
Magic Sword, "By the Power of Grayskull! I HAVE THE POWER" would still be there, but I would've added a nod to the mini comics saying something like:
"Many believe that He-Man is a brave warrior who left his village to fight evil using Weapons blessed by the Goddess. Those who know of Adam's secret have helped spread this 'Legend of the He-Man' in order to protect Adam's Secret."

But they needed to have a real writer to make the whole story long before they started cranking out the bios.

[SAMURAI36]

They should've started a brand new canon but keeping some of the most well known parts of previous canons. If one canon clashes with the other they should either disregard one part of the canon or find a way to throw a nod to it.
Like He-Man for example.
Magic Sword, "By the Power of Grayskull! I HAVE THE POWER" would still be there, but I would've added a nod to the mini comics saying something like:
"Many believe that He-Man is a brave warrior who left his village to fight evil using Weapons blessed by the Goddess. Those who know of Adam's secret have helped spread this 'Legend of the He-Man' in order to protect Adam's Secret."

Isn't that what they've tried to do the whole time? And it hasn't quite been working out thus far...

But they needed to have a real writer to make the whole story long before they started cranking out the bios.

Now this, I agree with. Most other toy franchises sought to hire on comic book writers for their lines: GI JOE = Larry Hama. TF's = Simon Furman. Star Wars = George Lucas (well, he's not a comic writer, but you get the point). Now mind you, not that I like everything from those writers (especially GI JOE and TF's); those "continuities" seem to be a total mess right now, especially in the comics.

Not to be a dead horse, but for MOTU, they had Val and Emiliano, but they opted to get rid of them, in favor of..... What, some writers for a local high school paper?

[Croaker]

I think a brand-new story would have been much more poorly recieved than even the current bios have been.

Id imagine it would have been a disaster.

[80's Enthusiast]

If they had thrown out the old cannon(s) there would have been mass rioting. You think we hear *****ing and moaning now? Scott and the Mattel team would be facing the death penalty from the fans if they's tried to "start over".

I happen to LOVE the bios but I think urbanmyth is right, they'd have been better off just skipping the bios alltogether.

[Agostinho]

They kind of tried that once. It was called "New Adventures." It was the hotness.

[80's Enthusiast]

They kind of tried that once. It was called "New Adventures." It was the hotness.

Quoted for Troof.

/Thread.........

[Predabot]

No. Wouldn't really fit, now would it? These are the classic versions of the characters, so an all-new story would probably be the least fitting.

If it was an all-new thing, like 200x or something like Transformers: Animated, then an all-new story would have been preferrable. But it's not, it's our old fav's, finally back for good.

I say, then you should go with classic story-elements. Of course, one could have opinions on how the story should be made up, but the classic elements should be there.

[DO4M]

Isn't that what they've tried to do the whole time? And it hasn't quite been working out thus far...

Yeah, but the "Writers" tend to choose the worst parts and overcomplicate them... Splitting the swords and the sword of protection: What we got is a Huge mess. (Split, merge, clone, split, merge while hiring idiots to hide the halves every 20 years or so.)
Easier Solution: The Sword of Protection is one of the 2 halves but with He-Ro's Stone of Protection. (to stabilize the sword or something like that. It would also explain the whole "Power vs Honor" thing and show that He-Man's Power is aligned more towards KG while She-Ra's Power is closer to HE-Ro's than KG's)

Now this, I agree with. Most other toy franchises sought to hire on comic book writers for their lines: GI JOE = Larry Hama. TF's = Simon Furman. Star Wars = George Lucas (well, he's not a comic writer, but you get the point). Now mind you, not that I like everything from those writers (especially GI JOE and TF's); those "continuities" seem to be a total mess right now, especially in the comics.

Not to be a dead horse, but for MOTU, they had Val and Emiliano, but they opted to get rid of them, in favor of..... What, some writers for a local high school paper?

Well, Mattel's mysterious ways at work are too complicated for mere fans to understand...

[SAMURAI36]

But to answer MGM's Q:

Assuming that fans think merging the eras is a bad idea, instead of trying to cater to all the different storylines and eras and merge mini-comic, Filmation and MYP lore into one big canon, should Mattel have decided to chuck all those stories away and created everything from the ground up from scratch?

If they did this, then they would definitely throw out everything you know about these characters and started raw and fresh, with no conflicting storylines and no more expectations. No more shoehorning. Everything you know does not apply to this new canon. This is a new story. Period.

Would fans have preferred this approach? Would this make the bios even worse? Would having no expectations or competition from other eras make the bios even better?

For me personally, I'm just following the advice that Mattel gave us a while back: MOTU canon can be whatever you want it to be. And so that's what I'm doing.

I think that no matter what road they take, there are those of us (like me), that aren't gonna be happy with all the results. Besides, they've kinda tried this already, with other previous attempts. That's how we got 200X, which I personally love.

All of us are partial to one canon over another(s), and that's not gonna stop being the case any time soon. Thus, most of us are gonna take the canon they love, and just build from that. That's what I'm doing. For me, it's 200X, with some added aspects.

Speaking on GI JOE again, I remember when GI JOE was first reintroduced in the early 2000's, people were divided on which canon they liked best: the 80's cartoon or the Marvel Comic. I was a fan of the toon, and I totally hated the comic. However, I realized that I was in the minority, since I loved Serpentor and Cobra-La, and most fans hated both. However, I enjoyed the Devil's Due comic, even though it had aspects of both canons, leaning more towards the Marvel comic side.

This seems similar to me, to MOTU... I'm a hard core 200X'er, which seems to be more and more in the minority these days. Which is okay for me.

[Captain Atkin]

For the most part, I have been very happy with the bios. Only a few of the "real names" have missed the mark for me (like Beastman's name).

[urbanmyth]

I'd wager that the vast majority of the complaints about the bios are because they are poorly edited and poorly roles out, both contributing to confussion (would we really be angry about Catra's age and Adora being a step-child if there was enough in the text to fully explain how these happened and why they work in the story? I don't think so.)

[heavy-eternium]

I like the bios but there are some things that I don't like (some real names, concepts cocktail) but overall I love them.
there are some very interesting and revealing.

this is my top 5 .there are some very interesting and revealing ...and my favorite real name (for scareglow)

[Agostinho]

Wun-Dar is seriously one of the best names ever!

[Skeletortilla]

I don't really think it would make a difference one way or the other. No matter WHAT Mattel comes up with, some will like it, some won't.

We've all been told that these bios aren't set in stone, and that our own canons are just as valid, allowing us to ignore the "official" bios completely.

Unfortunately, some folks can't seem to do that.

[DO4M]

I don't really think it would make a difference one way or the other. No matter WHAT Mattel comes up with, some will like it, some won't.

We've all been told that these bios aren't set in stone, and that our own canons are just as valid, allowing us to ignore the "official" bios completely.

Unfortunately, some folks can't seem to do that.

If the Official canon is disposable why do they bother with it?

[Eternian Poet]

Not from scratch - there's a lot of good material.

The material isn't the problem - even the generic stuff, because MOTU has always put a nice twist on this genre.

What Mattel needs to do, it put out a few extra thousand for a good writer! S/he won't please everyone & will leave some stuff out, but it'd be better than the current hodge-podge.

[Eternian Knight]

I don't think they should start from scratch but I do think they
use 200X themes way too much.

[Whiplash7]

Assuming that fans think merging the eras is a bad idea, instead of trying to cater to all the different storylines and eras and merge mini-comic, Filmation and MYP lore into one big canon, should Mattel have decided to chuck all those stories away and created everything from the ground up from scratch?

If they did this, then they would definitely throw out everything you know about these characters and started raw and fresh, with no conflicting storylines and no more expectations. No more shoehorning. Everything you know does not apply to this new canon. This is a new story. Period.

Would fans have preferred this approach? Would this make the bios even worse? Would having no expectations or competition from other eras make the bios even better?

It would be terrible because people would be up in arms anyway. Plus there's enough differing canons as it is, throwing a new one into the mix would makes things worse, lol.
People just need to get a grip...the bios aren't as important as some make them out to be. If you like this canon, follow it. If you don't, then follow the one you prefer. In the meantime they'll keep merging all the canons for the sake of having one cohesive line for the first time including all eras.
One problem is that some people want everything to be *their way*, to the exclusion of others. There's something for everyone with these figures and bios.

I don't really think it would make a difference one way or the other. No matter WHAT Mattel comes up with, some will like it, some won't.

We've all been told that these bios aren't set in stone, and that our own canons are just as valid, allowing us to ignore the "official" bios completely.

Unfortunately, some folks can't seem to do that.

Well said.

[Eternian Poet]

this is my top 5 .there are some very interesting and revealing ...and my favorite real name (for scareglow)

No offense but... There's still a lot that sucks in these bios.

Take Scareglow - one of the most interesting, because he had virtually no story & they could make stuff up (note that what they made up was based on the 4H own, new idea of the reliquary).

Why (for example) did Skeletor cast "a spell of light" to locate these evil beings? Surely it would be "spell of summons" or something?

Why a "shifty bounter-hunter"? Because they're "cool"? It would make more sense for a mage to be able to break into Greyskull. Bounty-hunters don't attack the most powerful fortress in the universe for free.

This bio could be improved with just a little re-writing & forthought.

But what we see here IMO is budget constraints. The bios were an after thought. The execs said" sure, do it if you don't have to spend any money" So they did.

[Count Marzo]

If they trashed everything and started from scratch, I couldn't even imagine the horror of what would happen on here.

I'd probably end up "retiring" from MOTU fandom.

[Mr. Shokoti]

If the Official canon is disposable why do they bother with it?

Exactly. Some of the toys are even designed with the bios in mind.

A better idea imo would to have made the bios vague so everyone could have decided for themselves what was canon(similar to the vintage cardbacks if you just ignored the mini-comics). I didn't need to know that Skeletor was no longer a demon from another dimension, that Orko was a secret agent, or that Teela was a clone(especially when that whole idea was just a retcon by the mini-comic writers to "fix" Mattel's initially lax view of continuity). Then it could really have been up to one's imagination. With the bios the way they are, ignoring them would be like watching Star Wars but deciding that Darth Vader was a good guy.

[MegaGearMax]

Now this, I agree with. Most other toy franchises sought to hire on comic book writers for their lines: GI JOE = Larry Hama. TF's = Simon Furman. Star Wars = George Lucas (well, he's not a comic writer, but you get the point). Now mind you, not that I like everything from those writers (especially GI JOE and TF's); those "continuities" seem to be a total mess right now, especially in the comics.

Wait...wouldn't Prequel Star Wars = Modern George Lucas equate to this situation? Where the brand's current creators are putting out "bad stuff"?

Not to be a dead horse, but for MOTU, they had Val and Emiliano, but they opted to get rid of them, in favor of..... What, some writers for a local high school paper?

I think the bio writers don't want competition. MOTUC is THEIR baby--their story.

Exactly. Some of the toys are even designed with the bios in mind.

A better idea imo would to have made the bios vague so everyone could have decided for themselves what was canon(similar to the vintage cardbacks if you just ignored the mini-comics). I didn't need to know that Skeletor was no longer a demon from another dimension, that Orko was a secret agent, or that Teela was a clone(especially when that whole idea was just a retcon by the mini-comic writers to "fix" Mattel's initially lax view of continuity). Then it could really have been up to one's imagination. With the bios the way they are, ignoring them would be like watching Star Wars but deciding that Darth Vader was a good guy.

I think that only works for established characters and variants. What would happen if we got "new" characters like Gygor, Oo-Larr, Zodak, The Goddess or Battleground Teela with no explanation as to who they were? There are no mini-comics explaining the whys and wherefores of certain characters.