LEGO Friends 2018: Girls on a Mission, worthy reboot or not?

[Dorayaki]

Well, I see the storyline Friends is not really as much discussed as Ninjago or other TV series in the FOL community. But to better understand the 2018 reboot, for those who are interested in Friends sets but don't really follow the storyline. I think this would help those to know why such changes in the sets this year.

Like Ninjago, Friends' storyline is mainly based on the TV cartoon series. The past series since 2012 consist of twenty-three full-length 3D TV cartoon episodes and 2D mini webisodes in official Youtube channel. As for the current 2018 series, each episode of 3D TV cartoon is half length (10 minutes approximately) and are available in Youtube channel.

 

First LEGO reboot
If my memories don't go wrong, the LEGO Friends 2018 reboot is supposed to the very first "reboot" that happens in the LEGO storyline history. Not counting cases like BIONICLES or Belville, which mainly keep the trademarks but the entire story and characters are changed in the next story era, not that the same group of characters play a different story canon. The Ninjago Movie is abit similiar, but it doesn't interrupt the main storyline of TV series.

Is it really a reboot?
For those who haven't payed attention to the 2018 reboot, we can safely assume that the 2018 reboot is likely not releveant with the 2012 canon. They are similiar in such points: the story still locates in Heartlake City, and the protagonists are still the five main Friends: Olivia, Mia, Andrea, Emma and Stephanie, the main traits and interests of the girls are still the same. Oh, Zobo is still in the reboot as well.
As for the rest, well then, nothing else is the same. Lets' see what that exactly happens here:

 

Who from the original era are gone?

Livi

I'm sure most FOLs would know her, she is the most memorable character aside from Friends since she is given an entire themed sets based on her spotlights. 
Unfortunately current signs don't show her existence in the new reboot, which I think is a dismay to those who loved Livi and bought her themed sets. I also don't disagree with her disapperance, as the story can simply tell that she is going on a worldwide tour, which is not really relevant with the reboot. I'm especially dissapointed with TLC for that they don't try to make Livi a real icon idol of the LEGO universe since there's no really other character to represent that role (if not the pop star Gwen from Minifigures line).

Tanya and Mayor Butaire

For those who paid some time to watch the past cartoon or webisode series, you must know the two. Because they are relevant with most of the LEGO Friends stories, as villains.
Tanya is the hugest rival to Stephanie in almost all kinds of situations: from sport games, baking competition, band auditions to school votings. She is a key factor to most of the storyline how the main Friends trying to compete with her to win a thing.
As for Mayor Butaire the father of Tanya, he was actually a sudden insertion to the storyline after the original Mayor Oliver in the beginning. He is the counterpart to Dr. Alva in the 2018 reboot, with evil and illegal plans that is not allowed in Heartlake City.
Both two, or only especially Tanya, have been controversial beings in the Friends franchises for being such memorable stories but never show up in the physical sets. It is unkown if LEGO Friends had some kind of policy during that time that doesn't allow villains or rivals to appear in play sets.

Olivia's family

Including Anna the doctor mother, Peter the journalist father, Sophie the vet aunt, Uncle Henry and the little cousin Ola in the finale. Sophie plays abit more roles in the stories that relate to animals and Mia, her assistant in the clinic. 
Olivia's family all made physical appearances in the original LEGO Friends sets. So far they've not showed up in new series yet.

Minor "Friends"

These include both phsyical sets characters such as Matthew, Kate, Nate and some non-physical ones like Jacob and Fiona. Not surprisingly these characters are so far not seen in the new canon.
While not just the characters are gone in the reboot, more precisely, the concept of "minor friends" is gone too. In the original series, it is hinted that Friends do casually pay time to play and hang out with other friends in the physical sets, while in the reboot it is scarcely mentioned so far.

 

Who do we meet in the new era?

The Shadow Group

Consisted of burger restaurant owner Dottie, server Dean, and spray artist Ethan. They collect information and source to protect Heartlake City in the shadow before the main Friends. Now they also assist the main Friends in their activities to save Hearlake City.
It worthes mentioning that three of them all make physical appearances in the sets in the first year. Aside from family memebers, this is the first time for LEGO Friends to introduce "supportive characters" in physical sets.

Vicky

A well-known karting racer and Friends' rival in the Go-karting chapter and other sport games.
Unlike Tanya from last era, she is also the first sporty rival to be introduced in the physical sets of LEGO Friends.

Dr. Alva w her bad minions

Alva is the major villainess of this reboot. A smart scientist who wants to become the new mayor to take donw Heartlake with her hi-tech inventions.
Although her traits seem to be similiar with Mayor Butaire from last era, the new reboot gives more chances to focus on her conflcit with main Friends as a villain. Unfortunately she and her minions Joey and Ricky are not yet confirmed to be in physcial sets.

Jeremy

So this is the bad news to Livi fans: he is the idol character in the new era that gives advice to Andrea's idol career while the friends help him back. Still he has not yet made physical appearances at this point.

Family

Currently the show introduces severals: Mia's brother Daniel, Olivia's mother, a mounted police officer, Andrea's vet mother and little sister Liz. Also for those who remember Sophie the vet, probably this means Andrea's mother is replacing Sophie's role as well. So far only Daniel is seen in physical sets
It worthes mentioning that the LEGO City Police system has not yet introduced a mounted police officer, while LEGO Friends sets not yet introduced any police member as well. It would be a great game changer if Olivia's mother makes her physical sets in the future.

 

Changes of direction:

Actually, the original series did not really have a main core or idea of story line. It's more about the main girls trying out different activities such as band audition, school news reporting, dog show and baking contest etc. Tanya's role is the stimulus: she is there to ignite Stephanie's desire to win at any cost.
Although the Friends occassionally stopped the evil plans of Mayor Butaire and Mama Jason in the story, they did not prepare to deal with all kinds of crimes in Heartlake in the first place. The 2018 reboot series changes this, all begins with the main Friends find out their abilities can help people, they decide to build a team to solve all problems in Heartlake City and also fight the crimes.

Why the change?

Such as stated, TLC is possibly trying to add a more specific storyline for LEGO Friends to properly build the characters of the main Friends. Other LEGO franchises such as TLM, Ninjago and also Elves which are adventure stories and also have supports from young girls, so it is understandable the TLC wants Friends to follow the trend to become more action-oriented and keep in line with other franchises.

Still, knowing the issue of LEGO Friends franchises has been absent in crossover media, it is still unknown if such changes can help Friends storyline be more publically noticed. 
I would say it'd be strange for Friends to still be ignored even if they're already a group of super agents and spies. They're pretty much as capable of adventures as other LEGO allstars at this point.

 

My personal thoughts

I like the reboot series so far. Most jokes are on point, and I always like to see how Friends take actions and make best of their abilities. Esepcially this is a different view from how LEGO CITY works: you don't have to be police or coast guard to protect your city, you can take the action as long as you are capable..

As for the deleted settings from original canon, I don't see why Livi and the family members has to be cut. Reluntantly Tanya and her father are cut because they cannot fit in the reboot because of Dr. Alva. Still, what matters is whether Dr Alva's evil plans can reflect on the set designs. So far the cartoon scenes have show her inventions such as auto-kart and walking droids. It would be very interesting if the phyiscal sets also introduce a subtheme "what if Heartlake goes hi-tech" rather than just cartoon-exclusive.

I still miss the leisure time and school time part of the past series and in the sets as well. I think the webisode line can still continue to fill that vacancy if the TV series would focus on the adventures part.

Oh and one last thing, the male characters in reboot series look much better than the old ones 

Edited October 16, 2018 by Dorayaki

[Aanchir]

Personally I would say that the Bionicle story changes between 2010 and 2015 would constitute a reboot. While many major elements of the story certainly were changed, the designs and personalities of the core characters were definitely informed by certain aspects of the previous versions of the characters who shared their names, and a lot of the other core elements like mask collecting quests, elemental powers, and tropical island settings with tribal societies were also maintained. In a lot of ways it can be compared with how many superhero TV or movie reboots will change major aspects of the characters' backstories and supporting cast while keeping other core elements like the main characters' powers/designs/motivations more similar.

While the Bionicle reboot certainly made more profound changes than the Friends reboot, I suspect this was largely informed by the Friends reboot launching after the previous sets/storyline with no interruption so needing to maintain a stronger sense of thematic continuity based on the expectations established fans had of the world and characters. By contrast, the Bionicle reboot came after a 4–5 year hiatus and so many of the buyers it was targeting had limited knowledge or exposure to the original sets and story. The stories are also very different in that Friends tends towards episodic, slice-of-life storytelling, whereas Bionicle's original story was very heavily driven by big ongoing mysteries and universe-altering changes in the status quo — it would have been difficult if not impossible to either start over from the beginning without the previous generation spoiling the events to come, or to create follow-up stories that didn't depend as heavily on the daunting surplus of detail and backstory that had already been created.

Weirdly, I have yet to hear much about the supporting media for the Friends reboot here in the United States — whether online or in print advertising materials like the LEGO Life app and magazines.

I suspect that as with many reboots, characters from the previous canon may be reintroduced or re-imagined as needed in the story. The choice not to establish a presence for them in the new story right away may be to keep designers' options open for, say, the next time they want to create a pop star line.

The name Dr. Alva amuses me a bit because this was also the name of the (male) villain in the superhero cartoon series Static Shock, based on characters from Milestone Comics. But of course the naming inspiration makes sense in either case because they are both ethically compromised scientists/inventors (it's safe to assume both are named after real-world inventor Thomas Alva Edison).

[Dorayaki]

19 hours ago, Aanchir said:

Personally I would say that the Bionicle story changes between 2010 and 2015 would constitute a reboot. While many major elements of the story certainly were changed, the designs and personalities of the core characters were definitely informed by certain aspects of the previous versions of the characters who shared their names, and a lot of the other core elements like mask collecting quests, elemental powers, and tropical island settings with tribal societies were also maintained. In a lot of ways it can be compared with how many superhero TV or movie reboots will change major aspects of the characters' backstories and supporting cast while keeping other core elements like the main characters' powers/designs/motivations more similar.

Well, in my personal intepretation, Friends is the first case where same group of characters with similiar traits develop a different story that replaces a previous one, while Ninjago Movie to TV series is a similiar case but the movie canon didn't replace the TV one.

The Bionicles series may not be like that. But I can understand how different eras of Bionicle inherit the same elements and why they cannot reuse any of past character and setting as you say.

Dr. Mallory Erebus Alvah's name seems to express some darkness and mystery? :p

[Dorayaki]

Currently it seems like they announce the end of 2018 episodes for GoaM.series. If the cartoon series would continue in 2019, so far the pattern is that eight episodes consist of a chapter for every half year.

 

*spoiler alert

Personally I quite like how they deal with the go-kart chapter. Interesting and continous plot, Alva's evil plan and Dottie's story also serve good seasonings. Regardless of the canons, I can say it works better than the old cartoon series so far.

But reflecting on the toy promotions, the "automatic kart" obviously plays a very key role in the story. It is very confusing to not have it in any of the current set, which is a miss IMO.

 

Oh well the Heartlake City Pet Centre is totally unheard. Not even sure why Liam the minidoll would return, maybe wait for 2019 storyline?