#Turaga Nui

[legend-as-old-as-time]

Inspired by an excellent psychological horror game, I've been thinking of the aspects of fusion in terms of exploring identity in different ways. Part 1/?

(Warning for psychological and physical horror imagery.)

An artificial toa nui forced together from severely injured toa. The idea was that the fusion would heal and replace missing body parts, and make the toa nui still powerful while easier to control, because the toa were not whole. The process has left the fusion still injured, however, because the toa are not wholly synchronized and are terrified at having been transformed and changed like this. The more upset they are, the less stable the fusion is. They cannot unfuse without risk of dying and / or brain death.

Or take that Dark Hunter who used to be two toa, forced to stay fused.

Are there any elements that cannot combine in one body?

What does it feel like to wield more than one own's element at the same time? To sense it around them?

You are bigger. Or is it you? This is your body, but it's also not, because it's not you. It's also you. There are others. You are bigger than before. You have more limbs. Somehow you know how to use them even though this particular you didn't exist before, and the others only had two arms and two legs each.

You have fused and something of your body - bodies? - seems to have been lost. Where is it?

They unfuse. Everybody or some or only one's body has taken on traits of the others. Does it scare them? Does it confuse them? Does it delight them? Does it hurt them?

They unfuse. They lost part of their body. Maybe from an injury. Maybe from nothing at all.

They unfuse. Things have added. More eyes. Their right elbow split, leading into two lower arms with hands.

They unfuse. They hear and feel and see and smell and taste double. Triple.

They unfuse. They cannot forget the sensations of discovering a whole other element they suddenly understood, only to have forgotten that understanding again. They've lost senses.

Who are you, when you don't have your own body anymore?

Who are you, when your body has been changed?

Who are you, when your body has merged with others?

Who are you, when others have left such marks on your body just by fusing with you?

Who are you, when your body can just morph and stretch and dissolve and reform like that?

Who are you, after you unfuse? Or if you never unfuse?

Are you your body?

[rahiwatching]

Ravenous - Additional Dark Hunter Entry, Dictated by the Shadowed One

On occasion, Toa have fallen from grace and joined the ranks of my Hunters. Sometimes, even a lowly Matoran has proven their worth and become an asset to the organisation, but never before has a Turaga ever come under my employ. Until Ravenous that is. But then again, Ravenous is no mere Turaga.

Energised Protodermis is a coveted substance for the Brotherhood of Makuta, and one that I have endeavoured to keep out of their claws whenever possible in my thousand year long war against them. So when word of the discovery of a new pool reached my chamber, I dispatched my closest Hunter in the field to secure it. Unfortunately, a group of 6 Turaga had also discovered the pool, and objected to my claim upon it.

Knowing their pitiful abilities were no match for my operative, they fused their bodies and minds to form a Turaga Nui, and in the ensuing battle both Turaga Nui and Dark Hunter fell into the pool. The Dark Hunter was destroyed by the Protodermis, but that was not the destiny of the Turaga Nui, who emerged from the pool to find their fusion had become permanent.

The delusional creature actually rejoiced at this, seeing it as a reward from the Great Spirit for their unity, and believing that this new power meant that their shared dream of returning to a life of heroism could now be fulfilled. But, they forgot that Mata Nui sleeps, and in a such a restless sleep as his, a dream can quickly become a nightmare.

Fusions, by their very nature, take a great deal of energy to maintain. It is why they are usually so short lived. This new fusion was about to find out that breaking this norm has its consequences.

Half way to the nearest settlement, the Turaga Nui became hungry.

When it reached the village, that hunger had turned… Ravenous.

By the time a second party of Dark Hunters had been dispatched to investigate the first’s disappearance, they found a village littered with the dead, every Matoran killed and drained dry of their life energies. In the centre of the carnage they found the Turaga Nui, its hunger temporarily satisfied but its mind driven mad with guilt over what it had done. Like so many others before it, the being now known as Ravenous could never return to the life it once knew, and so found its place amongst my Hunters.

Powers:

Ravenous has limited control over the elements of Plasma, Ice, Earth, Iron, Lightning and Psionics, but makes up for their reduced power with the wide range of possibilities that 6 separate elements provide.

When kept well fed, their combined millennia of battle experience makes them a formidable foe to my enemies, and their ability to utilise the powers of the noble Calix, Huna, Kakama, Sanok, Akaku and Kiril separately or in combination makes them an incredibly adaptable operative.

But if starved, Ravenous becomes an unstoppable beast, tearing through enemy ranks and devouring felled opponents with a savagery that even makes some of their fellow Hunters take pause.

Status:

I tend to place Ravenous on missions that keep them engaged with the forces of the Brotherhood rather than against Toa or Matoran, lest what is left of their moral code intervene with a mission that in their former life they may have found unsavoury.

I have just dispatched them to an island south of Odina to prevent the Brotherhood from establishing a foothold there. Finding their force of Rahkshi destroyed and the Kraata within reduced to withered husks should give the Makuta pause for thought in our next engagement…

[legend-as-old-as-time]

Onewa's not embarrassed but he's regularly caught of guard when after, he realizes he initiated affectionate contact without any pretense. Or how nice it feels to be more affectionate in general. He does get flustered now and then, however, as well as overwhelmed to know that the others care that much about him and he cares that much back. It's more the vulnerability that gets him.

Vakama's embarrassed and soaks every bit more of affection up.

Nuju's embarrassed and secrety very pleased and happy knowing that the others care that much about him. Which isn't that much of a secret anymore with the other turaga.

Wairuha and Akamai respectively combine from people who are friends with each other, while in love with one of the three people creating the other Kaita. Tien is the only fusion known where all six are involved in some romantic relationship with another person who is also in the fusion, except for Onewa. Somebody curious WILL ask how that feels like.

I feel like one of the romantics--Lewa, Gali, or Pohatu--would be the one to ask. Lewa and Pohatu would ask Onewa, Lewa because he's curious about how Onewa feels specifically as the only one not dating anyone else in the fusion and Pohatu to razz him a little. Gali would ask the office team. Not that she's being nosy! She's just curious! (Lewa snickering behind her back)

I think generally it's kind of weird only in hindsight, post-fusion. When they're Tien, there's just an overwhelming feeling of care, of togetherness. It feels right. Whole. In the aftermath, though, I think all six Turaga are a good bit more affectionate with each other. In whatever form that takes for them. Nuju isn't very physically affectionate except with Whenua, but he's less likely to push away Matau, who is more likely to give him affectionate little side hugs than usual. That sort of thing.

Some Turaga (Vakama, Nuju) are more embarrassed than others (Matau).

[ohlookitsanartist]

"Passing the Torch"

Made in honor of the 20th anniversary of the second BIONICLE movie

[tempelbeast]

This time we have renders of:

Kalama, Vakama and Nuhrii.

Vhisola, Nokama and Kai.

Tehutti, Midak and Whenua.

Makani, Matau and Orkahm.

Ally, Onewa, and Piatra

Mazeka, Nuju and Ehrye. I know Mazeka never was on Mata Nui. The idea is that The Order send him to secretly check on the Metru Nui Matoran on Mata Nui. He was spotted when he got grabbed by Nui-Rama. He kills it, and falls straight into Ko-Koro.

Iruini, Dume and Norik.

Dalu, Jovan and Velika.

Any thoughts?

[2stepadmiral]

After arriving in Metru Nui, the Turaga began to occasionally call each of the Toa ‘brother’ or ‘sister’, partially an acknowledgment of their past lives, partially to acknowledge the success that the Toa Nuva have earned, and largely as camaraderie in the bond that they share as Toa or former Toa.

Tahu outwardly acts like it’s only right that he’d be addressed as such, trying to make others believe that he accepts it in stride, but inwardly, he is humbled by the acknowledgment. The Turaga see through his bluster and appreciate his humility.

Onua is outwardly quite humble and appreciative when it happens, but inwardly, he doesn’t quite see himself as being worthy of being addressed by such wise beings as the Turaga, who he holds in high esteem, so he usually comes off as a little bashful when he responds in kind.

The Turaga started being reluctant to call Gali ‘sister,’ largely because she reacts to the title, by pushing herself a little too hard to prove that she is worthy of the acknowledgment. She once to stayed up all night for two days while repairing an aqueduct in Ga-Metru, and when she could barely keep awake during a meeting with the Turaga, everyone immediately decided that Nokama should not call Gali sister anymore.

Kopaka typically glances at whoever called him this and slightly nods, sort of a polite acknowledgment, but those who know him best, especially Nuju, know that he is actually quite touched by the endearment, and he has to be stoic to keep up appearances. Whenua, having the best hearing, has multiple times heard Kopaka whisper ‘thank you, brother’ in response to Nuju or Vakama.

Takanuva started out being quite flustered when he was called brother by any of the elders, still being unused to being called brother even by the other Toa, but as he grew used to his powers and his responsibilities, he began to accept it in stride. He still won’t return the title, since he still uncomfortable with the idea of calling any of the Turaga by that term, but he is still moved by the respect they show him.

Lewa was delighted when they started calling him brother, But he’s also somewhat amused, often laughing when they call him that. To Lewa, it’s still difficult to imagine these wise old beings as Toa heroes, so he can’t always keep himself from laughing. Even so, he never fails to respectfully return the honorific.

The Toa Mahri have varying degrees of acceptance of the honorific. Jaller is proud to carry the title, and Hahli is eager to prove herself worthy of the honorific (though not as much as Gali). Kongo is a bit smug about it, Nuparu takes it in stride, and Hewkii tends to get sort of ‘aw, shucks’ about it. All of them are somewhat muted in their response, mostly because Nuju was the first to call them brother and sister. They all understand that Nuju calls them that as much as he does in memory of Matoro, and his regret that he never got to see his friend as a Toa and call him ‘brother’ in person. The Mahri learned the bird speak for Brother and Sister, and they always call Nuju brother right back.

And the Turaga universally agreed never to call Pohatu ‘brother’ again shortly after the first few times. After then, he began exclusively referring to the Turaga as brother or sister, always with extreme enthusiasm that the elders often find exasperating and often demanding fist bumps from any Turaga he encounters for days after. Most of them just quietly stopped calling him that, except for Onewa, who continued occasionally calling him brother when he felt he had earned it, but after Pohatu found out that Turaga Dume had been a Toa, the seven had an official meeting where they unanimously voted not to call Pohatu brother anymore. Matau still occasionally calls him that, though, because he personally thinks it’s fucking hilarious when Pohatu tries to fist bump Nuju.

[musurvivalistguide]

So because I'm still working on refreshing my memory on things in the Bionicle fandom, looking through the reference books is quite the treasure trove of little nuggets.

In Bionicle World, a book written to seem like Helryx is writing it based on information collected by OoMN agents, I happened to notice something in the Metru Nui chapter.

Now, according to the wiki, it's not unheard of for the characters in Bionicle to use family terms such as brother and sister. But for a species that can't reproduce, I find it interesting that this term pops up--from Helryx nonetheless!--as though they know what parents or mothers or fathers are.

This makes me wonder if--since she's the first Toa that was made--she might have learned about these terms from the Great Beings? After all, even when there's fighting going on all around them while the planet is getting ready to shatter, I'd find it hard to imagine that she hadn't noticed any Agori or Glatorian children running around or hiding (protective Toa instincts activating and the Great Beings having to stop her from rushing off to save them? 😂). Perhaps even one of the Great Beings we've heard nothing about had a kid of their own and had to do what they could to keep them safe from the fight by bringing them along!

I certainly have memories of when I'd go to work with my parents, so it's not hard to imagine this happening. But if Helryx understands this concept and the family terms are in their programming...would everyone else in the Matoran Universe have any comparison to understand what paternal means, or would they attribute it similarly to how Turaga (specifically the Mata Nui Turaga since we know them best) would treat and protect their villagers?

Would Toa develop a similar role/pattern of behavior as their Turaga, and it's like the Matoran have two sets of parental figures? Or would it be a clash of "Toa, can I do this?" "Ask the Turaga." "Turaga, can I-" "No." ?

And would Makuta refer to themselves as the mother/father of the krataa they create from their bodies, or would they refer to themselves as their creator? Considering that Teridax literally calls his krataa/rahkshi his "sons", it feels like a term he'd just throw around even though he literally commanded a horde of them to die to Sentrakh in Time Trap. >.>

I dunno, it's late, and my brain is getting tired 😂 Would love to hear a second opinion or two, though!

[thereadingaddic7]

It's a bit of a funny and sad mix, how much of a Lohrak around Dume's neck the Vahki are. Certainly Dume is meant to be flawed as a Turaga, a somewhat suspicious character and cranky old man who think Matoran these days need to learn to respect their elders, but ultimately he's a good guy who'd give his life for the cause while spitting in the face of whatever killed him (see him telling Vezok, Avak and Reidak to go do something anatomically improbable when they try to extort him with a Kanohi Dragon). And given how important Metru Nui is, and how dangerous the outside world was, yeah Metru Nui does need some sort of standing army/police force to ensure that shit like the Barraki rebellion or the Matoran Civil War doesn't threaten to kill Mata Nui and doom the MU to drift endlessly through space, but holy shit the Vahki are so insanely bad at it, it's hard to think he'd sign off on it.

As an army they're pretty okay, they're very mobile with two modes of walking and one flight mode, their equipment is also extremely good offensively (mind control, seeing through your targets eyes, you hurt yourself in your confusion, etc), as well as a Kanoka disc launcher for more direct combat, and they're smart enough to think tactically, all without risking any Matoran/Toa/Turaga in combat (and that's without getting into the elite versions). But for Police work... well, they're okay for a Police State where you don't have to give a shit about what your citizenry thinks, their borderline psychotic nature means they're very effective at terrorizing a population into compliance even before bringing in the Brain Hacking they can do, and they are supposed to be the Police for Makuta!Dume's Police State...

They just also happened to be the Police for Regular!Dume's (Police(?)) State, which is a really bad look for someone who's supposed to be Not Actually A Villain. Based on what we see of them, the Kralhi that preceded the Vahki were probably much better at police duties (given that after being driven out of the city by Matoran who tried to "shut them down" they were totally willing to aid and protect Mavrah without issue they clearly don't share the Vahki's abusive nature) without having to take a number of Matoran away from work to do the police work instead (and thus potentially imperil Mata Nui and the MU as a whole by having them not do the necessary work in his brain). If the issue with them was that they left Matoran too weak to do their job after being policed, then maybe all the Kralhi needed was an equipment overhaul rather than being completely scrapped?

I don't know, Dume is meant to be Flawed but Good, but historically he's just made such a baffling decision with the Metru Nui's police forces, spurred on largely I think by Out-Of-Universe needs than because it made sense in-universe, he kind of ended up accidentally being the BIONICLE equivalent of Sentinel Prime, but because it mostly happened off screen it's easy enough for the story to sweep that under the rug. A lore hungry fandom on the other hand is not so easy to shake and I'm left trying to come up with a reason why he'd agree to the Vahki beyond the incredibly unsatisfying "he doesn't really care about the Matoran" or "he didn't think it through" and variants thereof answers.

[toacody]

Turaga Takanuva

A small glimmer in a dark future.

Source

Creator: Mate397

[that1cactus]

Turaga-Nui

Rarely would the Turaga of Mata-Nui would ever need to bring out their wrath.

[Ko-Fi]

[randomwriteronline]

many thoughts about mata nui meeting the surviving toa teams (including the mata discovering that their relationship is less "king and his loyal knights" and more "very proper very sheltered very excited princess and her favorite jousters who are very baffled by her joy and wondering if this is just The Standard Way To Feel In Front Of Your Praising Boss or if theyre developing a crush", the haga being too distracted by Holy Shit The Great Spirit to focus on anything hes saying, and the mahri briefly mistaking him for Matoro on vibes alone and interrupting his genuine apology for what they went through for him to give him a hug) but most importantly imagine youre The World's Least Known And Runner-Up For Most Dysfunctional Toa Team, feeling like you only barely achieved what you were supposed to do through continuous strokes of luck, and then God shows up and is your biggest fan ever. you try to explain in detail how you fumbled your way to tentative success and it just makes God even prouder. thats what the metru are going through

[legend-as-old-as-time]

@magicalgirlmascot

@crystaltoa

KNPS. Sad headcanon for Tien, or rather the turaga:

When they unfuse for the first time, not feeling their elements for over 25 years, then regaining that connection and to five others all at once, only to be cut off again-

It sends the turaga to their knees.

-

Alternatively, and happy: The connection returns. Their grasp and their reservoirs are even smaller that they used to be when they first became toa. Nothing else happens. But they have the connection again. They can feel their element again even outside of Tien.

Even Onewa is so overcome with his happiness for the others and himself that he can't stop smiling.

[autonomoustoybox]

Do you ever think about how jarring it must have been, for the Turaga, to see the Matoran doing their work after the move to Mata Nui?

Like... Think about it. Metru Nui was a very, very rigid caste system. Everyone was made for a role, they'd fulfil that role, they wouldn't change from that role for thousands of years. And more pertinently, those roles were largely academic, borne of a highly developed civilisation. Then, you get to Mata Nui, and suddenly everything changed. Everyone just lost all of their memories, and with that a huge amount of their identities, and their previous roles with it. In fact, many of their roles are just outright nonexistent, in a world of stone and wood, with no city, with no Metrus, with nothing that the Turaga would have known. Indeed, Matau's first reaction to Mata Nui was "Where are the chutes?"!

Obviously, the Matoran could adapt - a blank slate can easily have anything imprinted onto it, after all, and they were made to work - but for the Turaga, who were watching their warped, diminished friends and kinsmen who sounded the same as before but acted perhaps very differently, and already had to suffer through the lie of concealing Metru Nui, it must have been bizarre in a way 'suffocating' couldn't possibly describe.

Imagine being Vakama, a craftsman among a city of crafters, who only ever made armour, being forced to see his fellow forgemates sharpen blades and call themselves a guard, a militia, an army, hunters and killers. Imagine much the same of Matau, who once spent his time driving new machines down clear tracks with his kin, now having to make do with tempermental Rahi in a twisting maze of branches and vines.

Imagine being Nokama or Nuju, who spent all their life prior as academics, pouring through tomes and staring at stars, watching as those untold millenia of knowledge simply disappear, to be replaced with hard physical chores like fishing or crafting or, indeed, fighting off Rahi. Imagine the same of Whenua, who once spent all his time studying creatures brought to him, now only providing the knowledge to make them go away, as the the scholars of all the Rahi life of the universe spend their days digging through the earth with pickaxes (not even drilling machines)!

Certainly, these are necessary roles, duties to be honoured and fulfilled to a a standard high enough to ensure continued life, but... In some ways, it must have been utterly humiliating. Sickening, even, to some.

Not to Onewa though. Pretty much nothing changed for him.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

This train of thought brought to you by the new Essenger remake of the Mata Nui Online Game II Soundtrack, specifically https://youtu.be/MAierT0S82o?si=XB9s03CUTCRubFOn . I never played much of it, but I distinctly remembered Hali being a weaver, creating thread from flax fibres; which, given the hindsight of Ga-Metru being a giant university/research centre, makes the role seem strangely small in comparison to her duties before. Of course, now she's a Toa, I suppose she doesn't have time much for either!

[Edit: I posted this at midnight when I was falling alseep and totally got the names of Onewa, Nuparu, and Whenua muddled up... This happens a lot even when I'm fully awake though. Edited for clarity.]

[crystaltoa]

My take on the Turaga Nui, from Shauni's (@legend-as-old-as-time) WIP fic set in Rags' (@magicalgirlmascot ) KNPS AU. Snippets of the fic here and here.

In which the Turaga form a fusion in order to defeat the Rahi Nui, but their past experience with the Hordika venom results in the Turaga Nui taking on a somewhat ...unexpected form. After the battle, the Toa Mata catch up with them. Pictured here is Lewa having the appropriate reaction to finding out his six mentors have turned into some kind of weird dragon-chimera-kaiju thing.

Some design notes under the cut:

The Turaga Nui's form combines traits from the forms the Metru had as Toa Hordika, known in this universe as the Kini Nui werebeasts. So, this was my take on them individually here:

(The Metru's human forms can be seen here) I hope it's fairly self explanatory which features come from which werebeast, but a few other fun design notes...

So, in KNPS, the Toa Kaita look a lot like the Steven Universe fusions, with extra eyes and limbs. The Turaga Nui follows a similar logic but on a more bestial body layout.

The top two arms are the most humanoid, as TN signs in ASL as well as speaking aloud whenever it is practical to do so (i.e. when there is not a Toa of Air attached to their neck). The next two pairs of limbs can function either as arms or forelegs, so the digits are more paw-like.

The wings are obviously based on a snowy owl and come from Nuju's werebeast form. Male snowy owls typically have lighter coloured plumage while females have prominent black bars on their feathers. Nuju in particular would probably have been almost completely white as a werebeast given he's an ice Toa and has white hair in human form. The Turaga Nui, however, is composed of five men and one woman, so I gave them a small amount of barring on the tips of one wing while the other is plain white. (The bars also help tie it back to the badger stripes on their face from a design standpoint)

The Kaita have metallic gold or silver skin, I suggested black and white patterns for TN's colour scheme to make them visibly nonhuman but also distinct from the Kaita.

Shauni felt that there should be more accents of each element's colours, however, so we decided on the "black" scales actually having an iridescent sheen to them.

I'd already been planning to give TN spots similar to that of a newt, but didn't realise until I started doing it that white spots on black combined with the iridescent colours gives the impression of a night sky/galaxy pattern.

I had previously suggested the name "Tien" to Shauni (Turaga Nui = T.N. Said aloud it phonetically sounds like "Tien"). Turns out Shauni had the exact same thought. Furthermore, it's a name in several cultures, various meanings include "heavenly being", "celestial" and "sky" (An etymologically related name is the Chinese "Tianlong", which means "Celestial Dragon")

So, accidentally coming up with a name that means "celestial" and then accidentally making them look like a living galaxy was a fun coincidence.

Also, apparently one of Rags' favourite DBZ characters was named Tien, so that was a plus for her!

The tail has owl feathers but is structurally more similar to the tail of an aquatic newt.

The eyes are based on the Turaga's animal forms but the colours come from their eye-glow. The three eyes visible in the image are Vakama's (green), Matau's (red), and Onewa's (blue)

As previous;y mentioned, photographs of jumping ferrets helped in drawing the dragon's limbs . I also ended up referencing hairless cats to get a handle on what the paws would look like with no fur.

I did do a version that shows the full body pose, which I quite liked, but felt that the cropped composition above was better to show the character details given tumblr's scrolling format

[ctrl-alt-tahu]

Counting Turaga

So... open question to the Bionicle fandom: how many Turaga are there? Or, perhaps, putting it better: how many Turaga are there supposed to be?

Without really thinking about it, I have two not-quite-compatible mental images, which we'll call "Plenty of Turaga" and "Turaga are Rather Rare."

Plenty of Turaga comes from the original years of the saga: there are six of them, one per village, as many as the Toa. There's a footnote on BioSector01, on the Turaga page, that Greg said there were more Turaga than Toa left at the end of the story (so, "more than 58" as the page put it).

On the other hand, the rest of the saga really has me imagining fairly scarce Turaga: there's never more than one mentioned in Metru Nui, Jovan seems to have been a Turaga alone. The norm seems to be: one Turaga, one village. Metru Nui, in particular, seems to highlight this contrast: there were 11 Toa Mangai, but there's only one Turaga.

Thinking about this, I suppose that it's partly just attrition: the same thing happening to the Turaga that happened to the Toa by the end of the MU. And not every Toa is going to survive to be a Turaga.

But...

What if it's by design? What if there aren't SUPPOSED to be that many Turaga? A village may need a team of defenders, but does it really need more than one sage leader in the same way? When the Great Beings made the first Turaga, how many Toa did they expect to transform?

What really has me thinking that the ratio of Turaga to Toa probably isn't supposed to be 1-to-1 is Destiny. If it really is the case (I've grumbled about this before) that only certain Matoran are destined to become Toa, why would it be the case that all Toa are destined to be Turaga? Doesn't it make more sense for only certain Toa to be destined to be Turaga?

(Sidebar: destiny in Bionicle is basically whatever you want it to be--it's as malleable as time travel in Doctor Who, but I don't think it matters for this argument if destiny means "programmed from the very beginning," "an ever-changing, ever-adapting plan of Mata Nui to meet the circumstances," or something else. At least as long as you don't stray too far toward the edges...)

I find that I actually really like the idea that Turaga might be rarer than Toa and only the destiny for a few of them, larger because it really makes the Toa Metru take center stage: if the norm is that only a few Toa become Turaga and then an ENTIRE TEAM becomes Turaga, that means they are special, right?

From a meta perspective, of course the Metru as special: they're the archetypes of Turaga for any fan who followed along from 2001. Having it turn out that they're actually a massive reversal of what is normal makes their personal destinies fit really well with the reveal that the island paradise of Mata Nui is not actually where they belong: fans imagine Mata Nui (and plentiful Turaga) as the default for Matoran, because we entered the story there, but an island paradise (and a whole Toa team becoming Turaga) is not what was normal in the MU.

I also like it because it lets you have fun with the "who really is the destined team of Toa" story, where Mata Nui is putting forward the Toa Metru and Teridax is nudging forward the Mask Matoran. If the Mask Matoran couldn't become Toa, then what was the point of that? Lhikan would give them stones, it wouldn't work, he'd take them back, and he'd try again (right?). On the other hand, if they were able to become Toa, what's the advantage to Teridax in picking those six rather than the other six?

My proposed answer: Teridax has no idea. He can just read the signs that Mata Nui wants the Metru, so being the contradictory bad guy that he is, he figures a different set of Toa has got to be slightly worse. After all, Teridax has picked off a lot of great Toa already--the new Toa will need to be superb to do what the Mangai couldn't, and if the new Toa aren't quite what Mata Nui wants...

But what Mata Nui really wants isn't warriors; it's wisdom. The Metru do important and valiant things as Toa, but the single greatest thing they do is sacrifice their power for the Matoran, and that was an act of wisdom. When Mata Nui picked them, he wasn't only picking Toa who could save them once in battle, but Toa who could save them again in transforming, Turaga who could lead them.

I think this takes a little bit of the sting out of the end of LoMN (not necessarily a good thing--bittersweetness and loss is a huge part of Bionicle--but I think we do want our faves to be happy and significant). If being a Turaga is special and rare, then there's a eucatastrophic miracle in all six of them becoming Turaga at the end: a miracle that speaks of hope in a dark hour.

Maybe it would also explain why they founded six villages on Mata Nui: one village for each Turaga.

[downtofragglerock]

My biggest problem with the Red Star reveal actually isn’t the “oh it makes death meaningless” bit, but rather how greg made the requirements for getting revived on it so inanely pedantic. It’s like “Oh, Sidorak got crushed by Keetongu so badly that he couldn’t be revived” or “Oh, the Toa Mangai got killed by Eliminator, who I just retconned to be able to kill people so hard that they can’t be revived” or “Oh the Makuta were made from antidermis so they can’t be revived” or “Oops, this character died outside the giant robot so they’re out of range of being revived”. 

Like seriously greg, you already opened the “characters can get brought back from the dead” floodgate, now you’re just being an “um actually” guy