#matau metru

[musurvivalistguide]

So in my attempt to better grasp how to write the Bionicle fantasy!AU I'd brainstormed before, I decided to fiddle around with a classic case of "the Toa Metru get Isekai'd into a fantasy AU and meet fantasy versions of themselves and need to find a way home". 😂

Still working on this fic, but decided to share this little snippet I had! Will probably explore more aspects of this AU when they're on Mata Nui itself as well, but otherwise I'm gonna have fun with it. Enjoy while I continue hammering away at things/remember how to write these characters again!

//////////////////////////

“What happened to my Metru?!”

These were not the words any of the Toa Metru wished to hear, yet it was hard not to share in the confusion and worry as they looked around Le-Metru…or what appeared to be Le-Metru. All around them they saw Le-Matoran chattering as they continued their tasks, a sight that would be considered normal…save for the blatantly obvious differences. Each Matoran wore cloth or leather material over their armor, goggles and other odd accessories decorating their masks and body. Most carried normal tools the Toa recognized, yet others held weapons like daggers, bows, and short blades. Perhaps the biggest difference that unnerved them, however, were the rahi.

The strange organic beasts mixed in with the normal biomechanical ones.

“Uh…any idea what that rahi is, Whenua?” Onewa asked, pointing out the Toa-sized two-legged bird tromping by. It possessed a wickedly razor sharp beak, its wing-arms tucked close to its body yet showing just enough to reveal what looked like barbs hidden beneath the feathers. Yet strangely enough, the terrifying looking rahi seemed unbothered by the fact it was being led by a Matoran with a rope lead, carrying saddlebags and packs worth of unusual wares towards what looked like a bustling marketplace.

“Honestly? Not a clue,” came the response, though it was hard to tell if he was excited or worried as he looked around at the other creatures around them. “It looks like an organic rock raptor, but…I’ve never seen anything like it—like any of these before!”

“Great. Just great!” Throwing up his arms, Onewa said, “First, we fight a giant plant in a giant forge, and now we’re in some weird version of Le-Metru with no clue how we got here from Ta-Metru? With rahi beasts even our resident librarian hasn’t seen before? What’s next? Flying razor whales?”

A low, melodic cry echoed above them as a shadow fell over the group, looking up to see a tri-horned organic whale floating leisurely by with a large cargo-carrying platform on its back.

“……you know, when I said that, I didn’t actually mean literally.”

“This must be some illusion or trick of the Morbuzakh,” Nokama uttered. “Did the Great Disks not work?”

“No, they did what they were supposed to do. The Morbuzakh was defeated,” Vakama said, pulling out his own disk as he examined it. The disk was whole, looking just as it had when he first found it. And yet…he felt something off about the disk. The tips of his fingers tingled with energy—different than it had been during their last battle. “…something’s not right. We’re not in Metru Nui anymore—at least, not the Metru Nui we know.”

“Oh really? What was your first clue?” Onewa asked. “The fluffy rock raptor bird or the giant flying razor whale?”

“Vakama’s right,” Nuju said, surprising the others as he frowned and tapped the side of his scope. “Outside the obvious, there’s something…different about this place. My scope goes haywire every time I use it, but what I can see is that everything is…glowing.”

“Glowing?” Matau repeated, looking around in confusion. “I don’t see any bright-glow.”

“That’s because you’re not seeing it through the scope,” came the retort as the device in question clicked and whirred. “When I look at the Matoran, they appear to be glowing from within. When I look at these…these…monsters…the light is so blinding that I can barely tell them apart from a lightstone! There is no mass, just…light. It’s almost as if they were made of-“

“Magic,” Whenua rumbled, his eyes wide in either shock or disbelief.

“Don’t be ridiculous. Magic doesn’t exi-“

“No, look!” the Toa of Earth said, pointing towards a group of Matoran near the chute. “Magic!”

Surrounding a large chunk of broken protodermis, a group of Le-Matoran—with palms glowing a mysterious blue-green light—chanted unfamiliar words in unison. To their utter shock and amazement, the broken pieces rose from the ground, rising higher and higher as the Le-Matoran raised their hands palm-out. Following the path, the Toa Metru spotted another group of Le-Matoran standing on what looked like glowing disks or puffy clouds, their palms also glowing as the protodermis floated in place. The glow flickered on their palms before the structure began to mend, melding together until there was no sign that the chute had ever been broken.

“…huh…”

[bioniclechicken]

Happy Hero Factory Day

[beesgav]

them green boys

[knightofthenewrepublic]

When you search for the tag:

[cha5otic]

GO GO HORDIKA RANGERS

A less traumatic approach to the Toa Hordika redesign

Oh boy, where to start? Since I had alot going behind the scenes redesigning these. Well lets start with me having an idea to basically having the Rahi be like Power Rangers' helmet motive. So did a research on their Rahi, personality, profession, etc.

So ended up being: Tiger (Vakama), Shark (Nokama), Snake (Matau), Owl (Nuju), Bull (Onewa), and Boar (Whenua) (Was thinking of mole at first but somehow the final design makes it look more like a tapir-ish boar than a mole). Then had an idea to incorporate their Metru masks as their helmets' lower half, which then made me realize that pretty much their Hordika masks are just "Elongated Face, with Horizontal Markings". So had to get a bit creative with that.

Then had to design their silhouettes/bodytypes since, might as well. So scoured their set heights from photos and building instructions. Ended up with having their Turaga forms as the main height reference and then mixed up with their Metru Height.

Also designed custom Hordika chest pieces, which then prompts me to scour every toa team ever (+Bohrok and the Kals, cause why not).

So yes, its a lot of work. I have no idea why I do this to myself.

[tempelbeast]

I doubt this can even be called Star-ish Toa Metru, but they are the same size. Oh and Krahka here too.

[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.

[zachbiller]

[jayysnest]

HAPPY 810NICLE Day! Here’s my piece for this year’s Disks Zine, featuring some of my faves (and my og otp shhh)

20 years later, this storyline and these characters are still some of my all-time faves. Happy 20th anniversary of Metru Nui!!

[crystaltoa]

Saw this post and thought about Nokama being noticeably taller than Matau in set form (I know she's shorter in the movies shhh)

[legend-as-old-as-time]

A much talked about topic (Bionicle's story is sometimes a mess):

With the Metru arc aimed at young teenager boys, Matau's attempts at flirting with Nokama makes sense. Many teenager boys try to flirt and impress teenager girls with stunts and daring actions.

It's also a recurring plot in stories that a teenage boy flirts with a teenage girl who's utterly uninterested in him. This part of Matau's character is a nod to that. Thankfully he does so without the pushiness of many other examples.

What he wanted at first was admiration. He basked in the attention when a crowd of matoran gathered around him. He also seems used to garnering this attention, so this might not be his first fans. (Only his first fans as toa.)

His flirting with Nokama is mostly that - trying to garner attention and admiration -, but it's still very much recognizable as flirting to many of the readers.

Later the Metru books imply that he realized how deeply he cared about her, but only with hints that he was in love with her now.

There's no other other character he acts like that around.

It puts him and his interactions with Nokama, as well as part of his character arc, in a weird situation on a meta-level with the rest of the comics and books.*

*(Not counting the online games with Macku and Hewkii, and Jaller and Hahli.)

They don't have any of the usual and often very obvious tropes, motifs, etc. associated with romantic attraction that audiences in some Western countries are used to. Yes, there are intimate and close relationships that can be read as such. None of them are as obviously coded as "I want to impress pretty girl" as Matau's interest is.

Later story arcs and Word of God even retcon and deny the existence of romantic love and sorts of attraction related to that for the GSR inhabitants. It makes sense given the other worldbuilding.

Which doesn't change the fact that Matau does flirt with Nokama in the Metru books. In the text. In the comics.

[sammykat2hb-blog]

Game night with the Toa Metru: what not to play.

Vakama: Poker. Counts cards. Plays dumb about it without actually denying that’s exactly what’s up. He can do this with many card games, but Go Fish never got him tackled by Onewa, so. No poker.

Matau: Charades. He doesn’t even need the Mask of Illusion, his creativity is 100 and his dignity is 0. His team will win. Also sweeps the entertainment category of trivia games.

Whenua: Charades, but for exactly the opposite reason as Matau. He is hopeless and your team will lose. Overthinks every prompt and his clues are obtuse at best.

(“The card says ‘gukko,’ why did you start stomping??” “Because gukko derives from the Old Matoric ‘ugukk,’ meaning ‘stomp,’ describing their nesting habit of stamping in a perfect circle-")

Also opposite of Matau, he wipes the floor with every trivia category except entertainment.

Nuju: Chess. Duh. And he refuses to go easy on anyone. The only person who plays him is Vakama, but even he only wins 16% of the time.

Nokama: Any word game, at all, ever. Did you think she was too nice to be competitive? Think again. Words are her thing, and being willing to die for her team doesn’t mean she'll let any of them beat her at her thing. She kicks ass at Pictionary, too.

Onewa: Jenga. He has an artist’s fine motor skills and an architect’s intuition for structure. Jenga is also banned after The Incident — Onewa has not beat the “moved the floor during Matau’s turn” allegations.

[bioniclechicken]

Barbie

[beesgav]

metru nui's favorite idiot

[afanofmanyhats]

Age headcanons for the Toa Metru, from oldest to youngest! Also some headcanons about how the Matoran Civil War affected Metru Nui apparently.

Onewa: Definitely the oldest member of the team, created before the Matoran Civil War (though not necessarily long before). That would account for his vast amounts of experience in different random trades, especially if there was a large depletion of the Po-Matoran population following the Civil War and the Archives Massacre. And he gives off "grumpy old man" vibes even as a Toa.

Whenua: Whenua is the next oldest, made within a few centuries after the Civil War ended. Considering Onu-Metru was sandwiched between Po- and Ko-Metru, two of its enemies, I imagine it was one of the fiercest battlegrounds of the war, and lost a lot of its population and infrastructure. Imagine the Eastern Front in the first World War. The brutality of this conflict probably shook Onu-Metru culture to its core, and would help explain the nihilism and sense of personal expendability that a lot of Onu-Matoran exhibit.

Nokama: I don't know when exactly she would've been made, but Nokama does seem to be older than the rest of the team, so I put her here. She's been teaching for a long time, and has only ever known prosperity and peace, so she was likely created a good while after the Civil War, after Ga-Metru had been repaired. It may not have taken much damage to begin with, as its only hostile neighbor was Po-Metru, and we all know how Po-Matoran are when it comes to water.

Nuju: Nuju is probably just a little bit younger than Nokama, which is part of why he respects her; she's the closest thing to a peer he has amongst the team. He's not young per se, but he's also been sheltered; Ko-Metru probably didn't see much conflict in the Civil War since their troops were mostly focused on flanking Onu-Metru with Po-Metru. Might have gotten a bit of his superiority complex from Ihu, who likely was alive during the Civil War, though it's impossible to say.

Matau: The second-youngest of the Metru. Le-Matoran have some of the most hazardous workplaces in the city, made even worse by their general cultural recklessness, so Matau was made after too many test pilots got killed. At this point the fact that he's alive is a miracle. Matau remembers a time before the Toa Mangai, so their arrival and subsequent heroics stand out strong in his memory, and helps explain why he romanticizes them so much.

Vakama: Definitely the youngest. He was made during the Mangai's tenure as Metru Nui's protectors- after either the Kanohi Dragon ravaged Ta-Metru, or after the war with the Dark Hunters. Skilled, but not very experienced yet.

[bionicle-ramblings]

Things that stick with me after reading the books:

Most of the Toa Metru had people who envied them in their respective lines of work, which raises a question: How many Matoran see other Matoran in respectable places/lines of work, and leave them be, pray for their downfall, or just become obsessed with them?

There's a train in Metru Nui

Vakama gets tied up how many times again?

Nokama was literally two steps from dying

Pre-Hordika arc, the team had poor communication and it nearly got them all killed. During their capture in WoS/WoTV, Vakama could only say, "I don't know," when asked what they should do, though in the movie WoS he's completely silent as he watches the Visorak advance toward them. That silence still sits with me more than it should

Matau was not planning on returning if he failed to bring Vakama back. His line, "Leave that to me," and everyone feeling tense for a moment implies Matau was going to kill Vakama if he couldn't bring him back

In the book version of WoS, Vakama's line, "Don't fight it, Matau," likely referring to the Hordika venom taking root

Onewa's open hostility towards Vakama in the early parts of their Toa adventures

Mata Nui pulling an, "I knew you were going to do that, so I did this," with Teridax

Teridax calling Vakama "Little Toa" and both coming off as an old Disney villain; evil with flare

Matau called Roodaka a screw-brained monster

The Karzahni knew about the Toa Metru before capturing them

Lhikan and Vakama knew each other on a conversation basis before Vakama became a Toa

Nokama, before becoming a Toa, had possibly never had a healthy friendship

The Toa Mata were trained by a brutal militant and sent into Toa canisters, not knowing if they'd ever wake up again