The Canonization of the LEGO Island Saga: What This Means and More

 By: Andrew Bermudez

(Mustache Maniacs Film Co. Headquarters; September 3, 2020)

    Today, we're taking a break from our typical news to take a look at a recent canon change made back on June 29, 2020. Let's take a look at all of the details and what this means for the future canonization of other LEGO themes.

The LEGO Island Saga is Canonical Story Material!

    Back on June 29, 2020, the same day that Johnny Thunder and the Trail of Botnik entered the official canon, we confirmed that all of the LEGO Island video games, along with some of their supplementary material, was also being canonized. This is mainly because LEGO Island characters will be appearing in Legends of the Universe, but also gives us more options for fleshing out the cinematic universe. However, because there are technicalities that would make the LEGO Island video games contradict the existing canon, it wasn't easy to just declare the games to be canonical. So, here's what this means.

What of the Saga was Canonized?

    To give you the short answer, most of it, or rather, the elements that most people remember. In other words, the following pieces of LEGO Island media were included in the canonization.

• LEGO Island
• LEGO Island 2: The Brickster's Revenge
• Island Xtreme Stunts
• House on Haunted Hill
• The Stolen Painting
• The Crystal Brick
• Brickster the Space Pirate
• Minifigure Handbook: LEGO Island

This encompasses a vast majority of the pieces of media from the saga, but it doesn't cover everything. Below is everything from the series that is not canonical and why that is.

• LEGO Island User Manual: The included comic directly contradicts the pre-established logic of the cinematic universe. Instead, a variation that follows the existing logic has been confirmed to be canonical.
• Pepper's Skateboarding Challenge: Some of the background information in this game contradicts Pippin Reed Thunder's pre-established character story. The events of the game are also extremely superfluous to justify canonizing.
• Xtreme Scavenger Hunt: No one cares about Pepper skate-boarding down a pier, dodging a henchman, and picking up a television set. Besides, this game was never archived anywhere, meaning that canonizing a game that no one can play anymore is pointless.
• LEGO Island 3: This fan game was meant to continue the adventures of Pepper Roni, but it was never completed, meaning that it's already impossible to canonize. However, it also contains some inherent contradictions to the pre-established universe, such as placing LEGO themes that clearly take place in the past in the present day.

What About the Ret-Cons?

With that said, canonizing these games wasn't a walk in the park. They already contain many significant details that contradict the existing universe, the main reason why it took this long to have them canonized in the first place (Legends of the Universe, which contained LEGO Island characters since its inception, was first written in 2013). Therefore, as time went on, the existing logic was used to explain away any small inconsistencies in the games to make them work. Here are all of the ret-cons that took place to canonize the games.

1. LEGO Island
1. Any minor references in the game that refer to the instruction manual are not to be taken literally. For example, when the Infomaniac states at one point, in reference to the Brickster, that "I built him," he's referring to the fact that he tried to shape him into the person that he wanted him to be, rather than literally building him.
2. LEGO Islanders were ret-conned into talking in hyperbola frequently, meaning that time on the island isn't actually measured in zillions. In the canon, the island's town was actually founded in 1974, with most residents moving there in the 1980's. This also helps our accountants, who pointed out that the only people who could count to Eleventy Zillion were people who can't count and Chuck Norris.
3. The aforementioned ret-con also hand waves away any amusing injuries in the game. Instances of someone's head falling off are non-canon, since that would be far less amusing in real life.
4. Some of the smaller characters have been ret-conned into being the same as later characters. For example, Mr. DJ Radio was ret-conned into being the same person as DJ Jackitt.
2. LEGO Island 2: The Brickster's Revenge
1. Addressing the elephant in the room, there is no modern-day Castle Island, and Adventurers' Island is a bit of an anomaly. Instead, the portals that Pepper passes through to get to these islands (place there to compensate for software limitations of the day) are time portals that take him to different time periods (like what happens to Ulysses S. Powell in When Barrels Fly). For Castle Island, Pepper is in 1481 C.E. off of the coast of England, and for Adventurers' Island, Pepper is in 1987 C.E. off of the coast of Africa.
2. The Constructopedia is a book that contains the blueprints to all of the buildings on the island. In the game, the Brickster rips out pages to make their pieces fly up into the sky, to be stored in the Torn World. How this works is that the book's binding is a foundation element, making it intrinsically tied to the fabric of the multiverse. While the DINO ATTACK RPG version of the constructopedia contains a page for the island itself, that is not canon for the cinematic universe, as the island formed naturally.
3. The island changed shape since the first game because of volcanic activity (the island is located off of the coast of South America).
4. Ogel Island has been ret-conned into being a moon base, like that in LEGO City Undercover.
3. Island Xtreme Stunts
1. The LEGO Studios backlot was only a temporary set-up, as the island otherwise has no movie industry.
4. House on Haunted Hill
1. No ret-cons were necessary.
5. The Stolen Painting
1. Knight's Kingdom Island was ret-conned into being a modern-day Renaissance Fair on a nearby island.
2. The dragons on the island are actually animatronics set up to gives tourists a quest to follow in the spirit of the fair.
6. The Crystal Brick
1. No ret-cons were necessary.
7. Brickster the Space Pirate
1. No ret-cons were necessary.
8. Minifigure Handbook: LEGO Island
1. Sky Lane, originally the same character as Luna Rom, was split off into her own character.

What Does This Mean Going Forward?

    As we continue to build up to Legends of the Universe, this does give us the framework needed to create new stories related to LEGO Island. We are still looking at the possibility of a LEGO Island film, for release at an undetermined time, as well as the opportunities that this opens. We are highly aware of the in-development fan game Project: Island (link to their website) and the story-telling options that it will provide us with. We aren't going to rush in and canonize this game, but it could be a springboard for introducing our audiences to LEGO Island before the release of Legends of the Universe.

What About Other LEGO Themes?

    We're going to go out on a limb and just say this: we are now looking down on this practice of straight-out canonizing outside material for the cinematic universe, as outlined in the in-progress story bible. This will probably be the last time that we'll do this, with creating canonical adaptions (like Pharaoh's Quest: The Curse of Amset-Ra) becoming more of the norm, but others may point out another LEGO theme that could be inducted via one of our own films: Ninjago.

    Back in 2016, we released a short film titled Ninjago: Visions of Memories for a Rebrick Ninjago animation contest, which was written to exist within the theme's canon, but also to exist within our own canon. But, now that we're here, this discussion has cropped up again and again. After all, with the characters from the film returning in Legends of the Universe, why not canonize the theme? Because as difficult as it was to ret-con things to make LEGO Island work, canonizing Ninjago, would be, in the words of a LEGO Islander, eleventy zillion times worse. Its internal world-building is (mostly) consistent, but it stands in stark contrast to our own universe. Ret-conning one thing to make it work in our own canon may most likely break the integrity of something within the theme's own, something that's better off not dealt with right now. We do want to create new Ninjago-related content, but we are also looking at how to handle this going forward.

    But generally speaking, we don't plan on canonizing LEGO themes just for their sake. We don't plan on thumb-tacking themes like Monkie Kid, Friends, or Power Miners into the canon, but we are open to adapting themes like those.

And Pioneer Drama Service and Beyond?

    Looking at canonizing or adapting media outside of LEGO's own IP, with the exception of what is already canonical without our involvement (i.e. Unwrapped), we have strictly forbidden their subsequent canonization. Adaptations currently only extend to Pioneer Drama Service plays not based on a pre-existing work (which is why The Prince and the Pauper is non-canon).

Lead-Out

    While some of this material may be for more of the benefit of our in-development story team, we wanted to share what this recent canon change meant, as what it means for 2021 and beyond. In the meantime, this has just been handed to me...Hey! It's my lunch!