#nidhikiposting

[kanohivolitakk]

Absolutely love how Nidhiki thinks he is a bigger deal than he actually is. He thinks that he this is super cunning and smart trickster who can outwit and outsmart everyone, when it’s implied that a lot of people can see through his shit. Like for instance Tuyet saying how Nidhiki doesn’t trust anyone, not even himself or Lariska saying Nidhiki isn’t as good liar as he think he is. Heck, even TSOs taunts have an implication he felt Nidhiki wasn’t as smart as he thought he was..

Makes me wonder...was Nidhiki really able to hide his true motivations and persona from anyone??? Or did everyone see through his crap and realize his true colors, seeing him for the cowardly snively opportunist who took the easy way out if it meant to survive he was rather than some super cunning, social and charismatic trickster? Perhaps this was the reason Lhikan dumped him so easily, as he felt it was a given more than anything else.

[tiftaf-the-world-jumper]

Sometimes a family consists of a toa team of 1 banished toa, 3 skakdi, one grumpy ga turaga, and 1 great being

@kanohivolitakk

[kanohivolitakk]

Cutting the vines of love: The Ironic tragedy of Nidhikis mutation

I find myself thinking a lot about how tragically karmic and ironic Nidhiki’s mutation was. Not just from the “he was turned into something he was repulsed by” angle, but also how it basically took away one of his core motivations: the desire for appreciation and adoration.

I have often talked about on how one of Nidhiki’s main driving force/motivation is an opportunistic survival instinct, but there is a second motive behind many of his actions I haven’t brought attention as much:A (somewhat selfish) desire for appreciation and adoration.

A reason for this interpretation comes from, where else, than a Word of Greg. In a Qand A about Nidhiki’s motivation, Greg responded with this:

Q: Did Nidhiki have any good left in him? It almost seemed like it there for a second. “ A: No, I think what Nidhiki missed about being a Toa was the adulation. It wasn't about doing good for him.

Now, I’m very aware that Greg’s word isn’t law, Death of the Author exists afterall. Heck I have mentioned how I have issues with the idea of Nidhiki being selfish. But I will go more depth about my feelings some other time. Point is, it was authorial intention to have Nidhiki’s motivation be stemming from a desire for adoration and glory. Therefor Greg most likely tried to portray this in the writing and characterization.

As such, even if we choose to ignore the Word of Greg and instead focus on the text itself, there is still decently enough to prove that is largely driven by adoration. Two snippets in BOADH in particular point to this direction. The first of these comes when Lariska offers Nidhiki to work with the Dark Hunters.

“The Shadowed One — my employer - is always looking for new talent,” she said. “Help us capture the Coliseum and you can name your price.”

The full impact of what he was to do struck Nidhiki then. If he betrayed the Toa, his name would go down in infamy… or would it?

Who’s going to tell? he asked himself. The Toa will all be dead. Matoran? They’ll believe whatever they are told to believe. And the Dark Hunters? Right, like anyone’s going to listen to them.

“Metru Nui,” he said firmly. “I give you Dume, Lhikan, and the rest, and I get the city to rule. That’s my price, take it or leave it.”

Nidhiki responds to Lariskas offer with wanting Metru Nui for himself and the glory. This answer is what I have seen people use to pinpoint Nidhiki as being selfish and self-serving. That “oh the reason he did that was to rule the city” which..I honestly don’t think he was planning to take over the city or anything, but  that’s a whole nother meta.

I have to admit that this line has always been somewhat unconvincing for me of seeing Nidhiki as glory-seeking. I personally took it as him just bluffing or getting on Lariskas good side, at least to some extent. It was a life-or-death situation, and Nidhiki chose to do what he saw being the best way to survive. Though I have gone in depth on explaining Nidhikis motivation in betraying his team, most notably here

However, even if I have issues with this line, there’s another line that honestly characterizes Nidhiki’s motivation quite well. That is his internal thoughts near the end of BOADH

He still had the lean, powerful look of a Toa. He still had a Toa’s powers. All he would have to do would be to find some island where they never heard of Lhikan or Dume or Metru Nui, and the population would line up to welcome him. Anything he wanted would be his, and maybe… maybe he might even be a hero again.

Given that this is internal thought, it is most likely true that Nidhiki felt that way. And yeah sure, one could argue that he was projecting, something I talked about here. But the thing is, here Nidhiki isn’t justifying his past actions  or even his need to escape Odina as much as he is expressing his desires what to do when he is free once more. As such, I don’t think he is lying to himself here, I do think becoming a Toa and being loved again was his greatest desire at that moment.

There is a couple of other scenes and characterization details which make it rather clear that Nidhiki was, at least partially, driven by adoration. From small things such as Nidhikis somewhat showoffy mannerisms to how TSO outright called him out on this desire. There’s also the infamous Nui Stone scene, which doesn’t make sense at all if Nidhiki is just driven by pragmatic opportunism.

And really, this is why TSO taunting Nidhiki is karmic. It’s essentially “you wanted glory and adoration, well bad I will cut that”. It feels like him calling out on desires.

And sure, selfish attention seeking character gets cut of the desire for attention is rather karmic in and of itself. But it isn’t that tragic, rather its moreso “you got what you deserve” than a tragic fate. It’s just another karmic irony in Nidhikis fate like how him hating bugs and ending up turning into a bug monster is. No, What makes this all tragic is that Nidhikis desire for adoration may not just be selfish glory but ratherso, from outright love-starvation.

I admit, this is a reach. I’m overthinking a bit and thinking way outside the box and what Greg intended. A lot of this goes into a non-canon headcanon theory zone. But even then, there is still canonical basis for this hypothesis.

Something worth to note is that the desire for love and affection, is , at the end of the day, a rather fundamental and human need. The famous Maslows Hierarchy of Needs classifies the need for love and belonging as the third most important need for humans to function and express themselves, right after physiological and safety needs. We need love, affection, stable relationships and a place to belong in order to feel safe, loved, like we have a purpose in this world. If we don’t we are essentially unfulfilled, and can hurt our psyche.

Now knowing Nidhikis upbringing there is a good chance he never had affection prior becoming one of the Toa Mangai. He was too focused in his survival, and as such not only never learned to love, but most likely rarely recieved affection. Which then left him affection-starved. No wonder he ended up desiring love once he got it: he was so long without love he wanted to have it a smuch as possible. It became a driving force for him.

And this is a reason why Nidhikis fate, and the way TSO taunted him hurts so much. Because not only is he cutting of glory desire, he is essentially cutting of a fundamental need for someone who didn’t have it and outright craves it. TSO is essentially telling Nidhiki that he will never be loved again. That he will never get appreciation, or adoration he desperately desires. That the only way for him to have a place to belong is to is with Dark Hunters (who had ostracized him prior).

And that cut of an essential need is one of the reasons why Nidhiki is,in my opinion, one of the most tragic characters in the series

[tiftaf-the-world-jumper]

@kanohivolitakk

[tiftaf-the-world-jumper]

What if Nidhiki just like… fell off the dark hunter ship he was leaving metru nui with… and ended up on an island with very few toa and nobody new him… and he gets to learn how to hero again

[tiftaf-the-world-jumper]

Warning some songs are explicit

[kanohivolitakk]

Some late night musings on how I feel about Nidhikis fate

One thing I think a lot is “Did Nidhiki deserve what happened to him?” (being humiliated by forcing to go on lesser missions with a stupid brute,being mutated into a thing he utterly despised and eventually killed off in a rather pathetic fashion). And honestly, I’m not quite sure on how I feel about whether or not he deserved it.

On one hand, yes. Nidhiki betrayed his teammates and the city he swore to protect, and for rather selfish reason too as it was to save his own hide. His fate was essentially a karmic punishment by the universe for his actions, and considering how he was a rather selfish individual even prior to his betrayal it’s easy to not feel bad for him as horrible as his fate was.

At the same time, I don’t personally think it is that cut and dry as “yes Nidhiki deserved it”. While yes, Nidhiki did betray his team for a selfish reason at the same time one could argue that his reasoning could be seen as understandable. In his mind he had only two options: either follow his honor and die or betray others and survive. And considering how he orginated from harsh living conditions where you had to be pragmatic, shady and fight every day to see another day, it’s really easy to see why Nidhiki not only became a pragmatic opportunist but also chose the way he did. Values such as honor and justice are pretty much meaningless if you come from somewhere where you have to fight every day to survive. There’s also the fact that Lariska basically told him that if he won’t join she would eventually find and kill him, so Nidhiki really didn’t want to take that risk either.

There’s also the fact that he wasn’t really given a chance to atone or redeem himself. Once he chose to betray his team it was pretty much all over to him and he was constantly humilated.And yeah sure its consequences and karma and all that jazz but he was never given ANY chance at atoning himself. And his opportunity and becoming free was robbed from him.

But yeah just...This is why Nidhiki is so interesting to me as he is both a selfish opportunist who deserved everything that happened to him but at the same time, you can kinda understand WHY he is the way he is and feel bad that he never got a chance to atone as he DID have some small amount of goodness in him, as he did regret his actions and even went back and forth whether or not he should betray his fellow toa.

[tiftaf-the-world-jumper]

Who are those guys?""Some kind of fancy enforcers or something?"

"Nope. No. Just-Look at the em’ -They definitely gotta be criminals!"

"But why though? Also do you think they’d come after us?"

“Don’t know. Look, All we gotta do is keep an eye out, and please remember to blend in this time.”

“Can’t we just run?”

“From those freaks? On an island in the middle of nowhere with no transportation?! I don’t think so!”

“Look if they cause us problems we can just pick em’ off one by one and silence them.”

“If we can even get in that far…”

“You’re just so optimistic aren’t you?”

“How about we get them to trust us?”

“We’re dark hunters- we only do things if we get paid. And the locals can’t possibly have much to hand over.”

“You might be one but I’m most certainly not! …I’m going over.”

“NO! THEY’LL JUST TURN YOU IN.”

“You don’t know. I don’t care.”

[kanohivolitakk]

Sorry for just Nidhikiposting as of late and not posting of any of my other big faves™ but just

Nidhiki is a character I have VERY intense, messy and complicated feelings about and I need an outlet for those feelings

[tiftaf-the-world-jumper]

@kanohivolitakk

His slutty looks and abandonment issues have captivated me

[tiftaf-the-world-jumper]

@kanohivolitakk

What if Nidhiki just like… fell off the dark hunter ship he was leaving metru nui with… and ended up on an island with very few toa and nobody new him… and he gets to learn how to hero again

[tiftaf-the-world-jumper]

@kanohivolitakk

Who are those guys?""Some kind of fancy enforcers or something?"

"Nope. No. Just-Look at the em’ -They definitely gotta be criminals!"

"But why though? Also do you think they’d come after us?"

“Don’t know. Look, All we gotta do is keep an eye out, and please remember to blend in this time.”

“Can’t we just run?”

“From those freaks? On an island in the middle of nowhere with no transportation?! I don’t think so!”

“Look if they cause us problems we can just pick em’ off one by one and silence them.”

“If we can even get in that far…”

“You’re just so optimistic aren’t you?”

“How about we get them to trust us?”

“We’re dark hunters- we only do things if we get paid. And the locals can’t possibly have much to hand over.”

“You might be one but I’m most certainly not! …I’m going over.”

“NO! THEY’LL JUST TURN YOU IN.”

“You don’t know. I don’t care.”

[kanohivolitakk]

HELLO YES I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE CONCEPT OF THIS AU (the idea of Nidhiki having some kind of second chance is one of my fave ideas for bonkle) AND WOULD LOVE TO HEAR MORE/ TALK ABOUT IT IF YOU HAVE MORE TO SHARE

What if Nidhiki just like… fell off the dark hunter ship he was leaving metru nui with… and ended up on an island with very few toa and nobody new him… and he gets to learn how to hero again