Bit of Analysis: Bionicle

Ahriman238 · Post by **Ahriman238** » 2014-11-27 04:54pm

Been meaning to do this one for a while, and with the series getting a 2015 reboot, it's never going to get more timely.

Running from 2001 to 2010 Bionicle was a LEGO IP created, yes, mainly to sell toys. The first Bionicle sets were pretty much "build your own action figure" with a knob on the back, when you twisted it the figure would whirl it's arms/weapons, and you could fight with them that way, knocking masks off to "win." Later sets were more sophisticated, with various projectile weapons to get lost until you found them with your feet getting up at 3 am. Bionicle came at an odd time for me, when I was just a bit old for the target demographic, jaded enough to scoff at the merchandising of the thing, but young enough to get sucked in anyway. My best friend at the time was young enough to get totally into Bionicle, and MNOG finished drawing me in.

What's that you say? What's MNOG? Well Bionicle was always meant to be a thing of many different media, with books, a comic book title, a Gameboy game (it kind of sucked) as well as toys. But it was also one of the first franchises to really exploit the internet, with online videos and MNOG a point-and-click puzzle game called the Mata Nui Online Game, or MNOG. This was brilliant, because it let you explore the setting and interact with the characters. In fact, Holy crap, MNOG is cached in a bunch of places (complete with cutscenes section) even today, thirteen years later. Yeah, it's kind of simple now, but in the days of dial-up it was huge.

I'm going to do my best to cover everything, from all sources. There are books with events that aren't duplicated in the comics and vice-versa. There are even four direct-to-DVD movies. For conveniences sake I'll be breaking things into three sections like the books, Bionicle Chronicles to start with, then Bionicle Adventures, then Legends.

But I should really talk about the story, Bionicle always had strong storytelling, well the characterization is kind of weak a lot of the time, but they always know how to dangle enough mysteries to keep you engaged. Our story takes place on the island of Mata Nui, named for the Great Spirit worshipped by the locals, the matoran, originally called Tohunga (1).

The matoran come in six flavors around elemental lines, the four classical elements (earth, air, fire, water) with earth divided in two: earth and stone, and with ice added. Aside from coloration, each matoran has special attributes based on their element. They live in villages called koro segregated by element and commanding a territory (wahi) for some distance around. Each koro is led by an elder called a turaga. The matoran may look like robots, but they're not. They breathe, they eat and drink. One oddity is the need for kanohi masks, an unmasked matoran will eventually weaken and fall into a coma. Some masks, in the same shape as others, grant a special power but can only be wielded by beings of exceptional willpower, such as the turaga. All the turaga have mask powers that, with some guile, let them engage or evade even the toughest of predators.

Ta-Koro, the village of fire, is perched in the caldera of Mangai Volcano atop a thick spire of rock. A bridge connecting the village to the road is made of three sections that sink into the lava when not in use. Ta-Koro is easily the most defensible and militant village, and Ta-matoran place a premium on duty and self-sacrifice, most matoran serving as reservists for the powerful Ta-Koro guard. Ta-matoran are so heat resistant the old videogame rule where "as long as I don't actually touch the lava I'm okay?" Actually applies to them. Their leader, Turaga Vakama, is respected as one of the wisest of the elders with the ability to see visions of the future in the Sacred Flame, and the mask-power of invisibility. Some other notable Ta-Matoran are Jaller, the Captain of the Guard, Kapura, his deputy, and Takua, the viewpoint character for both the gameboy game and MNOG, who as our story begins was banished for his perpetual wandering off and questioning/annoying others. Ta-wahi also include the Burned Forest and the observatory where matoran astrologers come from around the island to study the stars and figure which of the matoran prophecies is nearing fulfillment now.

Le-Koro, village of air, is a treetop village in the jungles of Le-wahi. Turaga Matau is like a playful old monkey, with a mask of illusion that lets him impersonate any matoran or animal, or a bush or rock. The Le-Koro Guard, led by Kongu, ride gukko birds into battle. Tamaru is a bird-tamer who wishes more than anything to join the airborne guard.

Ga-Koro, the water village, is built of and on a series of gigantic lily pads on the ocean. Ga-wahi is run through with rivers feeding into the sea, and over the village is a small mountain carved in the likeness of Toa Gali. Ga-matoran are strong swimmers, and can hold their breath far longer than other matoran. For whatever reason, they're the only matoran at first who are female, all of them, and fish for food. Their turaga, Nokama, can use her mask to speak and read all languages, useful for deciphering ancient texts and doing the Dr. Doolittle thing to convince beasts to leave the village alone, or even to defend it. Macku and Hahli are the big names in this village.

Onu-Koro, earth, is the only village without an attendant territory. Onu-Koro is deep underground, where industrious workers mine ever-glowing lightstones and other materials. It was never exactly meant that way, but the tunnels and shafts of Onu-Koro extend throughout the island, so once they started etching directions into the walls, the "Onu-Koro Highway" became one of the fastest ways of getting around the island, so long as you carry a lightstone and aren't afraid to maybe meet a giant Rahi in close quarters. Onu-matoran are really strong, and have superior night-vision to other matoran. Not as good as Turaga Whenua though, that guy can see perfectly well even in the total absence of light. The tunnels around Onu-Koro are kept reasonably clear by the Ussalry, crab-riding cavalry, led by Onepu. Other notable Onu-matoran include Taipu, a miner and Nuparu, a 3rd-class tunnel engineer.

Po-Koro is the village of stone, in the middle of the trackless desert of Po-wahi. The matoran here occupy their days shepherding sheep/goat-things, carving elaborate sculptures and playing a game called kohli. Kohli is essentially football/soccer with two differences. First, a kohli team is two people a goalie and a scorer. Second, the ball is made of stone. This is possible because Po-matoran are debatably the strongest and definitely the toughest of the matoran. Their leader is Turaga Onewa, with the mask power of mind-control. The two Po-matoran we see the most of are Hewkii (earlier spelled Huki) the world's greatest kohli player and Hafu, a gifted sculptor best described as "extremely neurotic."

Finally, the ice village of Ko-Koro is built on the slope of the massive Mt. Ihu. Ko-matoran are not bothered at all by the cold, and tend to be aloof and reserved in dealing with others. Their leader is Turaga Nuju, who uses his power of telekinesis to trigger preset traps or avalanches to protect the village. Nuju speaks the language of birds, and only his faithful right hand, Matoro, can interpret the turaga's whistles, chirps and squawks. So Matoro basically never leaves Nuju's side. Kopeke is a master ice-carver, maker of many bridges and sculptures.

In the center of the island is the Kini Nui, the Great Temple where all matoran gather annually for feasts, festivals and games to honor the Great Spirit.

But life isn't all peaceful, for as long as anyone can remember the matoran and their villages have been under siege by the Makuta. Makuta is the sort of devil of matoran myth, the brother of their Great Spirit who betrayed him and with a spell cast him into eternal slumber "In the time before time." Makuta corrupts kanohi masks, on both Matoran and the giant animals known as rahi, and those corrupted join the Makuta hive-mind. Some of these rahi are huge, and dangerous enough when not directed by the forces of darkness. Like giant scorpions, giant dragonflies with talons perfect for scooping up fleeing matoran, tigers larger than a house, Tarkava boxing-lizards and more. Sooner or later something's gotta give, which brings us to the beginnning.

(1) this term, like a lot of names, came from Maori myth and culture. Some Maori objected, most strenuously to the use of Tohunga (wise man) to refer to mere villagers. Lego sent down their legal team and.... actually compromised by changing the name and everything else the Maori didn't like in exchange for their seal of approval on the rest of it. And went on to write the book on how to treat other cultures respectfully even while mining them for ideas, so Lego gets class points for that.

Ahriman238 · Post by **Ahriman238** » 2014-11-27 10:46pm

Oh, I should clarify that the last picture was of matoran from each village but Onu-Koro and not the turaga, who look like this.

Now the 'Quest for the Stones' game for Gameboy.

So, Takua, the Ta-matoran in the blue mask, was banished for generally getting underfoot and not remotely fitting in with the regimented lifestyle of Ta-Koro. He's chilling on the beach when he gets a letter via courier from Turaga Whenua, and drops everything to go to Onu-Koro. When he gets there, he finds the larger half of the village was taken by the Rahi, including the turaga and his important glowy rock, the Toa Stone. On his quest to rescue the missing matoran, he finds every other village was hit. He rescues the matoran and turaga, goes on a few more fetch quests for their satves of office and finally rescues the Toa Stones, assembling them at the Kini Nui. Which causes a big lightshow, pillar of fire stretching up to the heavens and blasts him all the way back to the starting beach where he promptly forgets the whole thing in time for MNOG. This, by the way, is the Bionicle drinking game, you take a drink whenever Takua gets amnesia or is revealed to have lost his memories in the past, and whenever Lewa gets mind-controlled.

Well, the reason these Toa Stones were so important is when brought together they summoned the heroes of this piece, the Toa (2). Where a matoran is about a meter tall, a Toa is 7 ft. (2.13 m.) tall. Their powers can generally be divided into three categories. Physically, a Toa is quite a bit stronger, faster and more agile/capable than a matoran, or a human, and they often have a flexible weapon/tool. Second, like the turaga, a Toa has a mask power, and significantly stronger at that. Unlike a matoran, an unmasked Toa wouldn't go comatose, at worst their strength and powers would be halved. Finally, they have serious elemental powers, control yes, but they can also absorb their element (even if it's, say, stone) into themselves and create arbitrarily large amounts of their element, apparently ex nihilo.

The six Toa fall from the sky to the sea in canisters (remarkably like the toy packaging) and wash ashore seperately. Each emerges knowing nothing but their own name, though they do eventually recognize the matoran as that which they exist to protect. The Toa are-

Tahu, the fire Toa has a firesword for one hand. He is the face of the franchise and more-or-less the leader. He is hot-tempered and reckless, and occasionally arrogant, so probably not the best choice for leader. He gets better over time, but it takes a very long time. His mask is the Hau mask of shielding, which provides a forcefield to deflect any attack he can see coming, with the caveat that ambushes and attacks from behind don't neccessarily get stopped.

Behind him, from left to right, Onua is the black Toa of earth, which here extends to soil and clay. Onua is a steady, dependable and friendly sort who gets very little characterization over the course of the series. His hands are a set of digging claws, his mask grants him tremendous strength.

Lewa is the Toa of wind. He is very friendly and playful, a huge joie de vivre who loves swinging through the jungle of Le-wahi. He gets an ax to start with, and his mask of levitation lets him fall slowly, hover and sometimes sort of glide, it can just never provide lift for true flight.

Pohatu, Toa of stone, is a very laid back and easygoing sort. Odd for his mask power, which makes him a speedster, or perhaps not. Whatever's going on, he has time to deal with it. No real tool or weapon, the toy came with a round rock/kohli ball and sometimes in the comic and on MNOG he'd kick rocks as weapons.

Kopaka is the Toa of ice, very reserved and logical, essentially the Spock of the group. He had a sword and shield, and his mask gave him X-ray vision and let him see the truth behind illusions.

Gali is the girl, and water Toa. She is the most spiritual and empathic of the group, though usually fighting with Tahu over his trying to be the leader and her trying to be the group mom. She had hooks for hands, for climbing the slippery cliffs of Ga-wahi, and her mask let her breathe underwater indefinitely.

Each Toa, after some confusion wandering the island and one or two misunderstandings of almost attacking (or getting attacked by) the matoran, meets their turaga, who tell them they are but one of a group, show them their suva, or shrine in their village, and task them. They must descend into the Makuta's lair and confront him directly, as a group. But first, they must quest for the duplicate great masks hidden around the island. When each Toa has all six masks (shielding, levitation, underwater breathing, x-ray vision, speed and strength. In my head-canon at the time this included the turaga masks as well, but this was false) they must put each into a slot on their suva, and they will form a Golden mask, with the powers of all six and stronger than the originals. Only then will they be ready because let's face it, more speed, strength, and invulnerability are priceless in a fight. The other three, while more situational, are the sort of thing you could find yourself really regretting not taking into someone's evil lair.

That sets in motion the plot for pretty much the first year, which is how it generally worked with Bionicle. Each year, new sets and a plot to fill out the relations between them.

(2) Maori guardian spirit

Ahriman238 · Post by **Ahriman238** » 2014-12-01 12:11am

Right, so neither the comic nor the book (released two years later) detail every part of the quest for the masks. MNOG only really touched on the parts Takua was there for, so we must posit a great deal happening off-screen.

Tahu, walking through the Burned Forest, was taken for some new kind of Rahi by the Ta-Koro Guard. They triggered a trap sticking him in a cage of tree branches, which he easily cut out of with his fire sword. Jaller rallied the Guard and was about to charge to his death when Vakama, alerted by one of his visions, arrived and ordered them to stand down. He then walked up to Tahu and bowed, telling the matoran that this was their new protector.

The other Toa generally had an easier time of it, only Kopaka had any misunderstanding. He caught Matoro spying on him but when a Rahi showed up immediately saved him.

Lewa is the first to get another mask (and now that I think of it, the first to get a gold mask too) because Turaga Matau just told him where a Mask of Speed was, in an underwater cave. The wrinkle being that he needs to don the mask immediately to swim out before running out of air, even so he barely makes out. And a couple of hours later rescues Gali, who was retrieving a mask from a swamp when she got stuck and surrounded by Nui-Jaga (giant scorpions). Gali returns home and gets to meet Takua, who had just arrived and helped them out of a jam. A Tarkava boxing-lizard had attacked, so the Ga-matoran took shelter in one of their lily-pad huts and sunk it, breathing through a snorkel, but the rampaging rahi broke the pump mechanism they would have used to surface after it left. Takua fixes the pump and raises the hut, just in time for the Tarkava to come back and get a beat-down from Gali. Gali and Takua have this psychic connection that's never adequately explained, but they generally seem to be able to sense where the other is, and have dreams of each other.

Meanwhile, Pohatu and Kopaka are also bonding as search Mt. Ihu for masks. Pohatu helped Kopaka reach a Shield Mask, and together they defeat a Kane-Ra (gigantic bull-thing) by luring it into a crevasse, which Pohatu seals tight with boulders.

The Toa all meet up in the wilderness, but all agree that they sort of have their own things going on. Masks to find, villages to defend. Much easier to worry about teamwork and crap when they're setting up the big boss raid at the end, yeah?

Takua by this time has made it to Po-Koro and is busy being baffled by the game of Kohli and dealing with a strange plague when he notices something odd, a green goo weeping from one of the stone balls. Well, Takua wasn't banished from Ta-Koro because of his ability to leave things alone. He investigates the source of Kohli balls and learns that while most are produced here in the village, the dealer Ahkmou has a "secret source." Further snooping leads to a Nui-Jaga (scorpions, again) nest where the balls are being exposed to the corruption of Makuta, allowing players of Kohli to be infected without the more obvious signs. Takua reveals all this to Pohatu, who gets blinded but still levels the nest with some aiming directions from Takua. Then sprints home inside of a minute (speedster mask, remember?) to throw all the tainted balls into the sea. Turaga Onewa is so impressed he gives Takua a gold chisel to show Turaga Nokama in Ga-Koro, his seal of approval. When he does, Nokama gives him a book containing a thousand years of the island's history, and says that by the blessing of two turaga, he will be the new Chronicler and record his adventures for future generations.

Lewa, as mentioned, was the first to assemble a complete mask set. But on his way home to Le-Koro with the last mask, he gets ambushed and his mask is knocked off, and replaced with an infected version. Yes, Toa Lewa is in the thrall of the dark enemy, have a drink. What dark designs can the Makuta have for an enslaved Toa? Will he be used against the others? Well, no. Actually Lewa is used as an overseer to Le-Matoran captured by Nui-Rama (dragonfly-monsters) and used as slave labor to expand the nest. Because that's easier than Makuta infecting and controlling them directly? Onua tunnels into the hive and after some struggle uses a Telekinesis Mask to pelt Lewa with debris and knock the infected mask off. Lewa in control of himself again, the two Toa have a merry time leveling the place and rescuing the Matoran slaves. Takua was witness to this fight, having made his way through Onu-Koro (and using his fire-immunity and lava-boarding skills to open the way to a new seam of lightstones) to help defend the village from the Nui-Rama. He also befriended an Ussal crab, like the Onu-Koro Guard ride, named Pewku (originally spelled Puku.)

Presumably the others are still questing for masks located in inconvenient areas of the island during this. I do know when Takua gets to Ko-Koro he gets too see Kopaka solo a Muaka (tiger as big as the Kane-Ra) using invisibility and illusion masks, plus his speed, agility and knowledge of the terrain.

The Toa all get together again, and while Lewa, Pohatu and Onua are all chill, Tahu's passion and arrogance war with Kopaka's cold reason and Gali's gentle spiritualism and they come this close to blows before Makuta realizes his enemies are meeting and decides to provide them with a common enemy. First he triggers a volcanis eruption, but Onua and Pohatu are easily able to channel the lava away from the Toa and the villages. He follows up with a sandstorm that Tahu turns into the world's largest abstract glass sculpture. Then the rahi pounce and may I say this was at least a good time to see the Toa really cut loose. Tarkava, Nui-Jaga, all in pairs, go down fairly easy as Gali hoses them down and Kopaka freezes them solid. A pair of Nui-Rama grap Tahu by the shoulders and fly him high above the treetops before dropping him. He doesn't have the feather fall mask yet, but shooting off tons of flame at least slows him down enough for Lewa to catch. Yay team! everyone did something impressive.

Between this attack and Lewa's earlier capture, the Toa decide it's the buddy system from here on out. The last masks will be collected by two teams of three. That works out alright, until Tahu finds a Speed Mask mostly embedded in the oldest and largest tree in Le-wahi and decides to burn it out, pretty much destroying the tree and starting a forest fire Gali was barely able to put out, while Pohatu looks on. Gali yells at Tahu for not considering the consequences of his actions, the damage to the forest or to all the creatures that live in and depend on that tree. Tahu retorts that he's the protector of the matoran not the guardian of the forest or the tree, and Gali storms off in a huff.

Takua forms an impromptu group of loners and outcasts from each village he met along the way; Hafu, Taipu, Kopeke, Tamuru, Kapura and Macku, to accompany him to the Kini Nui. There they meet the Toa, who all have their Gold Masks and have each received a Makoki Stone from their Turaga. It's time to find that ol' devil of this island and knock him down a dozen pegs. The stones fit together into a sphere, and once it's done they all fall through trapdoors into Mangaia, the underworld where Makuta dwells. But first they ask Takua and friends to hold the Kini Nui from any and all rahi that will try and pursue the Toa and attack them from behind. I guess the issues between Tahu and Gali have been dealt with or, more likely, tabled.

In the dark caverns of Mangaia we learn two new things. First, Makuta is protected by powerful guardians, the Manas crabs that no one has ever survived, far less overcome. Second, three Toa can fuse into a more powerful entity called a Toa Kaita, stronger and tougher with all their elemental and mask-powers. Though, you know, right now they all have all the mask powers. Tahu, Onua and Pohatu become the lava-wielding Akamai, spirit of courage, while Gali, Lewa and Kopaka fuse into the wisdom spirit, weather manipulating Wairuha. (And yes, you could actually do this with the physical toys.) They make short work of the guardian crabs but when they reach the antechamber to Makuta's lair they are savagely, painfully separated into six Toa again. Gali speculates that Makuta is such a spirit of discord and destruction, his mere aura prevents the Toa Kaita from existing. But hey, it's okay. The Toa Kaita couldn't do anything they can't do as six individuals if they work together really well. She also believes this will disrupt her link to Takua and, for the only time in the entire franchise, sends him a telepathic message telling him to get his butt down here if he wants to record history.

Topside, Takua and friends did great against the first three waves of rahi, but seem to be in some trouble now. Tired, hurt, and almost out of the frisbee-things they use as ranged weapons. Luckily, every single village thought to send reinforcements that collectively arrive at the eleventh hour. Just in time for Takua to get Gali's message and run off.

Back in the Antechamber, the Toa encounter half-black copies of themselves, the Shadow Toa. They're really evenly matched until the Toa agree to switch opponents rather than just pounding away at their evil duplicates. Any comic book fan could have told them that one, but whatever, it gives Takua time to catch up before the big finish.

In the throne room of the Makuta the Toa find a bunch of random parts whirling above and Makuta as a matoran, covered in rust. He's explicitly a shapeshifter and this isn't his natural form, which is a helluva lot more intimidating, which begs the question of why appear that way? Personally, I figure he was going for the hesitation at hitting the thing they've been told over and over they need to protect. Makuta claims, all within the span of a minute, to be; Mata Nui's brother, the void, nothing, and the potential for destruction within the heart of each matoran. Without getting too spoiler-y, each and every one of these claims is a lie and as far as I can tell, knowing exactly what the Makuta is and what he's after, they're easily disproven and entirely pointless lies. Well, they keep up the Mata Nui's brother one for the longest time and that one's arguably true.... from a certain point of view. From a more rational one, well, Takua has as much claim to brotherhood with the Great Spirit as Makuta does. But I digress.

After reaching peak-monologue, Makuta comes apart and is swept up in the storm of whirling parts, to which he adds ultra-quick whipping tentacles that bat the Toa around for a bit. Finally the Toa agree they can only take him together, as if they hadn't said that at the Kini Nui, or a minute ago in the antechamber, and hit him with one of their signature moves, what I call the Your-Powers-Combined-Six-Elements-Kamehameha where they all hit the villain with their elemental powers at the same time. Sometimes they surround the villain, more often they stand in a semi-circle and hold their fists out together. This always works, and only once has any negative consequences, leading even my thirteen-year-old self to ask why they never open with that one.

Makuta says they can never destroy him "For I am nothing" a show of humility that's really rare in a villain, even more so for a dedicated monologuer like him. Of course, Makuta will return, he's the main villain after all. A mysterious process teleports the Toa one-by-one to the surface, even as Gali asks what about Takua. Said matoran digs himself out of the wreckage and, having witnessed his people's guardian spirits vanquish the devil himself, naturally can't resist the urge to poke around the lair a bit. He finds a vast chamber with a lot of glass bubbles set in hexagonal plates, decidedly hive-like. As he tries to look inside, a round monster bursts out and unfolds, followed by all the thousands of other pods doing the same. At this point, Takua decides to book it, smart man. His golden chisel from Onewa just happend to slot into a gold pedestal, and a strange mechanism engulfs him in a bubble and launches him to the surface.

He even meets Vakama who apologizes for banishing him. It seems the others distrusted his adventurous nature, most matoran are not driven by curiosity, they're more like workaholic hobbits. They don't explore, they don't visit the other villages. But now they have found a place in their society for him, and Vakama has set aside a large inner span of Ta-Koro's wall for Takua to record the things he's seen in pictographic form. Nevermind how they beat Tahu back, the bubble thing took Takua to the beach of his exile, where Tahu washed up, just outside Ta-wahi.

Ahriman238 · Post by **Ahriman238** » 2014-12-02 02:45pm

In MNOG, you would find two bits of etchings in stone practically on opposite sides of the island, and if you bothered to look up the letter-substitution matoran script from Bionicle's website, you would letter-by-letter translate these messages: BEWARE THE SWARM and WAKE ONE AND YOU WAKE THEM ALL. They were another part of the mystery of Bionicle, like the prophecy telescope, the strange statues and ancient inexplicable devices. Only these ones paid off in the ending to MNOG and the very next story year.

After defeating Makuta, the Toa are teleported back to the Kini Nui and get to feel good about themselves for a whole minute until a Ta-matoran runs up to them gasping out "Bohrok....Bohrok!" before passing out. Incidentally, neither Takua's company nor the village reinforcements are there despite it being literally five minutes since the place was swarming with rahi and matoran. But moving on, the Toa agree that something is terribly wrong, probably at Ta-Koro, so they activate the speed function of their Golden Masks and race there in just a couple of minutes. Enjoy this, by the way, because after this the Golden Masks completely disappear from the narrative and the artwork with no explanation and despite being phenomenally useful for just about everything the Toa do.

They find Ta-Koro under siege by hundreds of strange creatures, which fall back when the Toa appear and start kicking butt. Turaga Vakama uses this lull to explain that these are the Bohrok they'd just heard of. So what is a Bohrok? Well essentially....

They're Daleks.

No, really, the word 'Dalek' wouldn't have meant anything to me in 2002, but that's the closest parallel. Bohrok are robot shells controlled by an impotent fleshy creature within, called a Krana. They are relentless and totally without mercy as they pursue their mission. Their mission isn't actually to kill everything, but to restore the island to how it was "in the before-time" but since Step One in that process is to remove all plant and animal life, and all traces of the matoran civilization, it kinda amounts to the same thing.

There are six varieties of Bohrok, divided, yes, by element. Each Bohrok has some approximation of a Toa's elemental powers, though lacking in finesse, and except for the green Levahk, who instead of air can squirt seemingly endless streams of acid from their hands. The other Bohrok are, Tahnok (fire) Gahlok (water) Pahrak (stone) Nuhvok (earth) and Kohrak (ice.) See how the naming convention holds? But where the Toa have half a dozen people wielding elemental powers, there are thousands of Bohrok. And now that they've encountered serious resistance they're going to shift priority from walking from one end of the island to the other, leveling everything in their path to specifically seeking out and eliminating resistance. This is very, very bad.

Also, this was the year we learned that, appearances aside, the Toa and matoran are not robots. Neither are the rahi. They are biomechanical beings, flesh and machine melded to the point where it's genuinely difficult to say where one ends and the other begins, and with advantages of both. Matoran eat, but can subsist off power instead. They sleep, but are practically tireless compared to purely organic life. We never really see the Toa eat or sleep, but I suspect it happens, unless their powers carry them through somehow. The Bohrok though, are legitimately robotic.

The Bohrok are explicitly a hive-mind led by the two Bahrag queens. There are 8 kinds of Krana which not only provide a brain and role to a Bohrok drone, but a Kanohi-like power. Matoran (and Toa!) can wear a Krana like a mask, losing their individuality to the hive-mind, and Bohrok can eject a Krana specifically to enslave their enemies, the clear part of the head flips right open for that emergency eject. Swarm Leader Krana are the big strategic brains behind the swarms, Squad Leaders lead smaller groups of Bohrok and can coordinate telepathically with each other and their subordinates. Effectively they act as relays for the hive-mind, sort of like Synapse Creatures for the Tyranids. They're also the only Krana we've known to speak while controlling matoran. There's a Surveyor Krana that lets a Bohrok fly short distances, they scout for terrain obstacles and to find paths for the swarm, or move as small strike teams where the rest of the swarm can't follow. A different Scout variety has a highly developed radar sense, and actually searches for hostiles. When the swarms stop for the night, the mechanical bodies need no rest but the Krana do, nocturnal Sentry Krana with perfect nightvision watch over the others. They also lead the swarms in lightless places, like the tunnels surrounding Onu-Koro. Mole Krana let the Bohrok tunnel around fortifications or unpassable terrain, Clearance Krana act pretty much like Tahu's shielding mask, and they usually form the vanguard. But most Bohrok have Worker Krana that grant them tremendous strength, even more than the Kanohi mask that does the same thing. Oh, and according to Vakama, the Toa must collect 48 Krana, one of each type from each of the six swarms, to access the nest and the lair of the Bahrag. Meanwhile, thousands of Toa-level powers will be trying to wipe out the villages the Toa are sworn to protect, so maybe hurry it up some, huh?

A third part of the swarms is the Bohrok Va, also called drones or in at least one case, goatdogs. These are tiny humanoid robots, about a matoran's height, that also sometimes serve as scouts but mostly as couriers. A Bohrok without a Krana completely shuts down, but Bohrok Va are more independent, and their primary purpose is to run fresh Krana to Bohrok bodies that have lost theirs, or to swap out suboptimal Krana for a specific job. They're quick, agile, and clever, hard to intercept or capture but probably the best shot for collecting all those Krana.

By now you might have noticed that the matoran and turaga seem to know an awful lot about the Bohrok. I, for one, blame Turaga Whenua. The Onu-matoran delved too greedily into the earth, and too deep. No, that's not why. But that's a story for later. For now, Vakama is empathetic on one point, the Bohrok are an essential part of the natural order, the only problem here is that Makuta awoke them now rather than at the end of this era, and stopping the Bohrok is a whole lot harder than kicking them into motion. They don't tend to respond well to reason, nor to pleading from those that stand in their way.

So the Toa try to ambush a squad of Tahnok, but the Scout spots them, two Clearance types tank the first shots and the Bohrok prove able to fight the Toa on equal terms. They're lucky to get away with their lives, much less the two krana they actually obtained. Great! Now just do that 24 more times. The Toa agree to split up and Lewa rushes home to find the entire village of Le-Koro has been captured and enslaved with Krana, and the matoran and Turaga Matau hold themselves hostage to get Lewa to surrender and also take a krana to the face. Goddamit, Lewa!

Seriously though, hostages against Toa actually seem to work more than half the time. The rest of the time, well, they just get massively brassed off. So risky plan, and I think they mostly carried it here because there was realistically no way for Lewa to save all or even a significant number of the matoran.

Templar Studios, makers of MNOG released a series of video shorts about the Bohrok Invasion that year that can be found here. I'll wrap things up soon, I promise.

Ahriman238 · Post by **Ahriman238** » 2014-12-02 10:30pm

When Pohatu gets to Po-Koro he finds the village under siege by Tahnok. Turaga Onewa already ordered the demolishing of the village gates to keep the Bohrok out, and Pohatu manages to rescue Hafu, who did the actual deed alone, with some help from Hewkii. Onewa orders the Po-matoran to evacuate their village.

Meanwhile, Onua saves Lewa from himself. Again.

While Onua was busy, the Nuvhok flood Onu-Koro. A strange ray of light comes out of this when Nuparu, a lowly 2nd Class tunnel engineer, is trapped by falling rocks along with Taipu, Onepu, and a deactivated, krana-less Bohrok. Nuparu makes like MacGuyver and rebuilds the Bohrok (from mining with hand-tools to advanced robotics, that's the magic of Lego) as a mecha called a Boxor. Because it can punch Bohrok heads open and the krana out, conveniently providing the resources to build more Boxor. By the name they've fought their way out of the tunnels, they have almost a dozen.

Kopaka tracks some Bohrok and finds their lair in inside a hidden cave near the base of Mt. Ihu. He shows the site to Tahu and they return to collecting krana off-screen.

Takua gets Nuparu and the Ussalry, now riding Boxor, to help him liberate Le-Koro. With the help of the last two unenslaved matoran, they lure the controlled matoran, Matau, and the Nuvohk into a prepared field. The matoran are pulled down into hidden pits and the krana wrestled off them, while the Boxor spring from the ground to engage the Bohrok.

The Toa have by now finished their quest and venture into the cave Kopaka found. After a steep descent, they hit a stone wall, literally. And get cut off from the entrance as a trap starts filling the chamber with lava. Kopaka freezes it to buy them time, but not their tools, nor their powers can so much as scratch the wall. Even in tandem, until Lewa realizes the wall is a rare illusion that can fool even Kopaka's anti-illusion mask power. Once he longer believes in the wall, he can walk right through it, returning to explain his breakthrough to the others.

They descend further, coming to a vast chamber with six sealed doors, each with eight krana-shaped holes in the frame. Each Toa opens one door, finding a short hall and a room with.... an Exo-Toa.

Exo-Toa is a sort of power armor for Toa, it boosts their strength and makes them pretty much invulnerable, but they can't really use their native agility or elemental powers while wearing one. They get a one-shot missile too, so there's that. Or, the Exo-Toa can function as semi-autonomous robot meat-shields under a Toa's supervision, sort of the best of both worlds. But for now, the Toa armor up and return to the central chamber just in time for the last wall to finish opening, revealing the Bahrag, Gahdok and Cahdok, twin queens of the swarm, in the process of making new krana by dipping some king od plate into a slime-vat.

What follows is a fierce but largely pointless battle. The Bahrag have the powers of all the Bohrok, and only grow exponentially more powerful the closer they get to each other, but neither fire nor acid, shockwaves or snapping jaws can hurt the Toa inside their new armored shells. Conversely, the Toa aren't having much luck hurting the Bahrag either. Stalemate. Until Tahu orders the others to shed the armor, now, and ,quickly, quickly, hit the queens with their YPC6EK attack. The combination of six elements works it's magic and the Bahrag are sealed within a large mound of protodermis.

What's that, you ask? What's protodermis? Well, it sounds like a skin graft, but it's actually the nearly indestructible metal that Kanohi Masks are made of. And Toa armor. And Exo-Toa. The point is that it's super-tough and super rare. But there's a rarer variant, you see, for as the Bahrag are defeated, trapdoors open and drop our heroes down six shafts lined with energized protodermis. Energized protodermis causes bizarre transformations, in this case...

It turns them into the Toa Nuva. Each gets a substantial power increase (five or six-fold is the number usually thrown around by fans) and new weapons/tools that generally double as 'X-treme Sports' gear. Like Kopaka has a double-blade sword that can double as either ice skates or skis. Tahu can use the double blade arrangement, dual wield swords or use them as a lava-board. Lewa can glide better than ever using his twin swords, Gali has a pair of axes that can work like her old climbing hooks or (can't believe I'm writing this) she can twirl like propellers to swim at high speeds. Pohatu gets these claw-thingies, while Onua gets a blade-staff with chainsaw-like qualities he can use sort of like motorized rollorblades.

Oh, and their masks also get an upgrade. They're back to one mask power, but it's more powerful than even the boosted Golden Mask (not sure how this works for underwater breathing) and as they soon discover, they can share their mask-powers with up to five nearby allies. In Tahu's case this means a forcefield large enough to protect everyone when a wave of lava splashes down on them. Time's up, the whole place is collapsing and filling with lava, now wasn't that a silly trap to have at the beginning? Well, with incredible speed, strength and what lift the levitation power can give them, the Toa easily leap up the walls a few times and get to safety.

While all this is going on, Takua and the Boxor Squad go to Ga-Koro, under siege by Pahrak, just as the refugees from Po-Koro show. The gate doesn't stand up long to the Bohrok, but Ga-Matoran are already busy dismantling the lily-pad causeway into the village. Hewkii saves Macku from a flying rock, slamming it into the causeway with a metal pole (that's apparently used for fishing... somehow. It's got a hammer on one end and a semicircle on the other) and severing the connection to the mainland. The Pahrak back off for a few hours, blasting the giant Gal statue to make a stone bridge. The Boxor advance and the Pahrak tear up the path, plunging them into the water, but leaving the Bohrok stranded again.

This time they just sit tight while some Bohrok Va deliver the flying surveyor krana and things look real bad. But then a spinning stone tile with a strange design appears over Gali's suva shrine, and all the Toa's at the time of the Bahrag's defeat and the Toa's transformation. Beams of light from the suva strike each nearby Bohrok, and propagate to the next nearest and so on, until all collapse. There is much rejoicing.

The Bohrok are retasked to help in the rebuilding before being returned to their nest and slumber. The krana are all collected and buried in a few deep, dark pits and sealed with boulders. Hewkii starts a sort of romance with Macku, and Jaller with Hahli. Happy ending all around!

Or not, because Tahu announces the team is now obsolete. A single Toa Nuva is more than a match for any possible threat, words that I'm sure could never come back to ironically bite him. He has it out with Kopaka and the whole team splits up to check on their villages, over Gali's increasingly desperate and pathetic protests.

Okay, checking up on their individual villages right after a major crisis is a sound idea. Shutting the door on any future cooperation is not.

Ahriman238 · Post by **Ahriman238** » 2014-12-02 10:53pm

Oh, I can't believe I forgot the measurement system. Alongside the matoran script/number system for easter eggs, the island of Mata Nui itself was described with a fictional matoran measurement system.

The root of the system is a matoran's height, or bio, which in imperial would be 4.5 feet, in metric, 1.37 meters. A thousand bio is one kio, 0.85 miles or 1.37 km. A thousand kio makes a mio, 850 miles or 1370 klicks. The Toa are 1.6 bio tall (7.2 ft or 2.19 m.)

The island of Mata Nui is 357 kio north to south, and 178 kio east/west. Unless my math fails me (and it wouldn't be the first time) that makes the island 303 x 151 miles and 489 x 243.8 kilometers.

Ahriman238 · Post by **Ahriman238** » 2014-12-03 12:21pm

2003 was a big year for Bionicle fans, but sort of cluttered for reviewing purposes. There were three different storylines, MNOG II was released, the much-hyped all-CGI direct to DVD Bionicle movie, with tie-in video/computer game. So while this is the last story year of the first phase, Bionicle Chronicles, it's not something I'm going to be able to cover in one sitting.

The easiest beginning seems to be MNOG II, it got a lot less official hype than the movie, but I was far more stoked for it. But this was the year that Lego and Templar Studios parted ways. At the time, I was led to believe this was because Lego objected to the subtitle for MNOG II, the Final Chronicle. Looking back with more adult eyes, I figure that can't be it, or all of it anyways, because MNOG II was released unfinished after the split, with the subtitle intact.

The game promised to expand on the original, giving all the villages more scale and depth, but because the project was abandoned they only finished the Ga-Koro part and no matter what you did you could never leave the village. In the game you were Hahli, a Ga-matoran we've seen before, but who was supposed to, over the course of the game, theoretically replaced Takua as the Chronicler. We'll never know what that journey was going to look like though.

Ahriman238 · Post by **Ahriman238** » 2014-12-04 12:44am

EDIT: removed, wrong thread

Ahriman238 · Post by **Ahriman238** » 2014-12-09 03:27pm

First major story line, the Bohrok-Kal as told in the comics and the book "Revenge of the Makuta" which has nothing to do with Makuta. Or revenge.

The Bohrok-Kal are six elite Bohrok (and 48 Krana!) that were put through the same energized protodermis shafts that turned the Toa into the Toa Nuva. This results in Bohrok that are far smarter and more independent than the ones we've seen, which is good for them, their purpose is to free or revive the Bahrag queens, should they ever be defeated. They look exactly like their vanilla Bohrok types, except for an elaborate flame design over their clear krana-shields and different hands. Must have made things easy from a manufacturing standpoint.

Oh, and the Bohrok-Kal don't have the same elemental/acid powers of the standard model. Instead; Tahnok-Kal controls electricity, Gahlok-Kal magnetism, Kohrak-Kal has sonic powers, Nuhvok-Kal gravity, while Pahrak-Kal can project superheated plasma that will burn through pretty much everything, including protodermis. Lehvak-Kal seems to have been short-changed in the powers department. His power is "vaccum" not in that he can create or maintain a vacuum, he can just create a powerful suction effect pulling in vast quantities of air, then fire it as a pressurized air-burst capable of shattering large boulders.

And while the previous Bohrok were sort of a mindless horde with brain activity only occurring on the squad level, the Bohrok-Kal are fully sapient and capable of speech and independent reason. And their personalities seem largely intact even when swapping out krana. Speaking of the Krana-Kal, each type got an upgrade too. The old Swarm Commander type is now a Liberator with the ability to actually free/resurrect the Bahrag, the Squad Leader krana are now Overseer Krana and besides communicating between krana, can sense the emotions and to a limited extent the thoughts of others. The Surveyor flying ones now make the Bohrok-Kal speedsters on the ground or in the air. The Clearance are upgraded into Seeker types, able to sense the Bahrag when close enough.

And so it goes, the tunneling kind can now sense weak spots in rocks and fortifications and sense underground movement too. The workers gain greater strength, and toughness too. The scouts have vastly increased senses, and the sentries can tunnel as well as the tunnelers, besides their nightvision.

To achieve their mission, the Bohrok-Kal begin by swiping those fancy spinny tiles from each Toa Nuva's suva shrine. The combined elemental powers of the Toa imprisoned the Bahrag, and their combined power can free the queens. By the way, we learn, these Nuva symbols contain the Toa's elemental powers. As we see, the Toa lose their powers almost the moment the symbols are removed. All the Bohrok-Kal need to do now is find the Bahrag (they lost their own nest?) and slot the Nuva symbols into the Nuva Cube now hovering over the protodermis lump and the swarms are back in business, only this time the Toa are distinctly underpowered to deal with the Bohrok invasion all over again. Good thing a single Toa Nuva can handle any threat!

There's also our first canon conflict here. In the Templar Studios online flash animation, Tahnok-Kal steals Tahu's symbol, in the book and the comic, it's Kohrak-Kal.

In any case, the symbols are stolen, the Bohrok-Kal escape and the Toa meet up while pursuing. Tahu has to eat a little crow, but as long as there's a genuine crisis at hand, gloating will have to wait. The Toa confront the Bohrok-Kal in the desert of Po-wahi. The Bohrok-Kal don't actually want a fight, but aren't going to let anyone stand in the way of their mission. Having assembled the Nuva symbols, they demand to be led to the Bahrag. The Toa refuse and, restricted to their physical prowess and mask powers, get curbstomped and left for dead by the Bohrok-Kal, who then split up to search the island for their queens.

Ahriman238 · Post by **Ahriman238** » 2014-12-09 10:26pm

After this, the team splits in two. Lewa, Tahu and Kopaka will try and ambush the Bohrok-Kal, while the others check on the sleeping queens.

Lewa finds the Kohrak-Kal alone and tries to jump on it from above, and remove the krana, only to get sound-blasted for his trouble. Tahu wasn't having better luck with the Pahrak-Kal, until Jaller showed up and jumped on the Bohrok-Kal's head from behind to get the krana. The check-in team find the nest undisturbed but on the way back run across Tahnok-Kal and fight to keep him from the entrance. Three on one, and the Toa still lose. Turns out the Bohrok Va are still running, as one gets to the disabled Pahrak-Kal with a new krana.

Around this time there is a fifth book, Tales of the Masks, relating the Toa Nuva's quest across the island for Kanohi Nuva to give them an edge against the Bohro-Kal in a series of very short stories. I'm glancing over this, they have to figure out how to stop the Bohrok-Kal right now. because a.) it's very boring, forgettable, and a retread of ground covered in the first story year b.) even the writers think it's forgettable, nothing from that book effects the outcome against the Bohrok-Kal, nor are further Nuva masks ever mentioned or shown again and c.) it breaks the theme. Throughout this whole story there's a great rush, a sense that time is running out. In short, a terrible time for this sort of massive diverting scavenger hunt.

Lewa and Tahu, plus all the combat-capable residents of Le-Koro they could scare up try and ambush Nuvohk-Kal, spamming spears and those stone frisbees matoran sometimes use as weapons, hoping to hit some limit in his ability to make the objects to heavy to fly at him. No dice. In desperation, Kopaka, Gali and Lewa fuse together again into Wairuha Nuva, so the Toa Nuva can still pull that trick. But the Spirit of Wisdom doesn't have elemental powers either, and it turns out the Bohrok-Kal can also do the Kaita thing. Wairuha goes down in one shot.

And then Pahrak-Kal finds the queens, and telepathically shares this information. The Toa Nuva try and beat the Bohrok-Kal there so they can use the Exo-Toa as an extra advantage to hold the line. Though, logically shouldn't the Exo-Toa be scrap metal? Or at least encased in stone after the whole cave flooded with lava? Tahu does try and lead an army of reprogrammed Tahnok against Nuhvok-Kal, but it turns out his gravity powers extend to making escape velocity as he throws the whole gang but Tahu into orbit to be dealt with later.

Anyways, the Exo-Toa are still around, and are defending the sealed Bahrag on their own. However, the Bohrok-Kal rip right through them as even the queens never could.

And that looks like the ballgame, the Bohrok-Kal are advancing to place the symbols, the Toa are reduced to helpless onlookers. Even if they could pose any kind of threat, the Liberator krana turn silver in the chamber with the Bahrag, and the Bohrok-Kal become pretty much invulnerable to all harm. Then Tahu whips out his trump card, something crazy stupid, the Kanohi Vahi otherwise known as....

The Mask of Time. The Vahi lets the user slow or freeze time but there's a damned big catch. It takes exceptional willpower and absolute focus to use the Vahi, such that even the most strong-willed and disciplined of heroes might do use it only for a short time. Lose concentration for even an instant, fail to dig deep enough for the inner strength to make time your bitch, and all of space-time will unravel.

That's right, the Vahi is a universe-ending doomsday weapon with a slight chance, if you're both really lucky and really good, of slowing/freezing time over a limited area instead*. Which certainly goes a long way towards explaining why Tahu never used it before now**.

Gali is the only other Toa to have helife-and-death for the entire universeard of the Vahi, and she implores Tahu not to use it, even while he's using it and filling in the other Toa. I'm not really sure who deserves to be smacked more; Tahu for escalating a crisis threatening a couple hundred matoran on one island into a matter of life-and-death for the entire universe, or Gali who decides to pick an argument with Tahu during the period, however they got there, that Tahu's absolute focus has become one of the pillars on which the universe rests. Let's just say neither Toa was very impressive in that minute.

Anyways, after wasting far too much time arguing and explaining, the Toa try to make the most of their borrowed time. They still can't hurt the Bohrok-Kal, nor can they pry their symbols from frozen invulnerable hands. A couple half-baked plans are kicked around until, with seconds left before Tahu loses control of the Vahi, Gali hits on the solution. As time resumes, the Toa do... nothing.

Well, to be specific, they each grab a seat on the ground or go lotus and meditate upon their element, their powers and their Nuva symbols. The symbols begin feeding energy to the Bohrok-Kal, realized as a strengthening of their own powers. As the Bohrok-Kal gloat and dream of leading the swarms to victory though, something happens. Their powers outstrip their secondary powers and/or control. Tahnok, Pahrak, and Kohrak-Kal all die as their powers become far-greater than their resistance to their own powers, and it seems their invulnerability doesn't protect them from themselves (otherwise this would get awkward fast.) Gahlok-Kal is compacted by Exo-Toa debris, while Nuvhok-Kal gets sucked into a fist-sized black hole. While Levhak-Kal launched himself into orbit. From an underground cavern. Ouch.

And the Toa's powers are restored. The symbols are never shown or mentioned again, in my headcanon as a kid, they were destroyed by that little stunt, freeing the Toa's powers. The queens continue to slumber in their seal, and the remaining Bohrok are returned to the hive. All's well that ends well, in fact, the turaga gather the matoran at Kini-Nui to announce grandly that the time of troubles is over (rushing things a bit? We've got seven more years) and a special reward, a gift from the Great Spirit, new bodies! I.E. new matoran sets, bit more humanly proportioned and that's how the matoran are always portrayed after, even in the prequels. But to cast a little darkness on the general joy, Turaga Whenua calls Onua and Pohatu to reveal a not-so-little secret....

But time for that later. Right now I'd be churlish not to link to the Templar Studios Flash animation of these events. The very last ones they did for Bionicle.

*If anyone took part in the 'SDN gets Kanohi masks' thread about a month ago and wondered why I excluded the Vahi by name, well, now you know why I said I'd rather not share a universe with the thing.

** here's another small canon conflict. In the comics, Vakama gave Tahu the Vahi, and warned him never to pull it out except in the most stupidly desperate of circumstances, the very first time they met. That would make it the first mask recieved by any of the Toa since their originals. In the novel, Vakama explicitly gave Tahu the Vahi after the Toa defeated the Bahrag and came home changed. It doesn't matter much in the grand scheme though I personally consider the comics more reliable.

Ahriman238 · Post by **Ahriman238** » 2014-12-15 11:17am

Whenua leads the two Toa to a cave on the outskirts of Po-wahi, mostly hidden beneath a thin layer of sand. Inside, the walls are lined with tubes holding some kind of caterpillar/worms that Whenua calls the Kraata.

Remember when this started, rahi and matoran with infected masks fell under Makuta's mind control? Well the Kraata are how this infection was spread around in the first place. Each worm is created by the Makuta "from his own essence" with a single one of his powers. When first born, even a minute's exposure to sunlight will kill them, they operate entirely on instinct to avoid the light and predators, and seek out the masks of sleeping matoran or rahi which they infect by slithering all over. Their powers at this point just give them a slight boost to their ability to tunnel or otherwise evade capture.

They go through six distinct life-stages, distinguished by markings on the head, becoming more powerful and intelligent as time goes by. By the third stage they can endure daylight for a full hour. By stage four, their powers have developed into a serious threat to a matoran or rahi. By stage five the kraata are fully sentient and obey the will of Makuta. Stage six their powers equal Makuta's use and make them a genuine threat even to a Toa Nuva, and those with more offensive abilities can even destroy protodermis.

There's also a super-rare seventh life stage that few Kraata even have the potential to reach. At stage 7, some before all-purple Shadow Kraata that can infect a mask at range.

Oh, and the Turaga have spent centuries waging a silent war to corral the Kraata and stick them in this hidden stasis prison, never involving the large and heavily armed village guards sworn to fight and die at their elder's commands because.... hunting Kraata is too dangerous.

As opposed to living on an island infested with them? It's not like ignorance is any shield to any matoran that runs across one.

As for powers, Makuta supposedly has the powers of all 42 kraata variants at their fullest, but I admit to some skepticism. We only ever see him use two or three of these and frankly, if he had all these powers he must have taken a dive in his previous, and all subsequent, battles with the Toa. Which is possible. Otherwise I'd have to assume he was a drooling moron.

For example, just on defense I can see that Makuta is supposed to be invulnerable, and specifically resistant to the worst a Toa Nuva of fire or ice can do, while regenerating even serious wounds so fast as to be basically impossible to harm regardless. Not that it's likely to come up, since one kraata is so good at dodging it literally cannot be hit unless it allows itself to be, even from a speedster like Pohatu (no word on AoE attacks, the obvious next thing to try) and can turn intangible in any case. Or, if Makuta were less willing to fight with honor, he has near-perfect invisibility and sophisticated illusion powers. Okay, the golden masks used by the Toa might explain those last two not making an appearance, so try this, Makuta is apparently stretchier than Mr. Fantastic or Luffy, it's pointless to hit him with blunt force, or even pointy things as he can stretch right around them. Or did you know that he can adapt instantly to any extremes of environment or situation?

And most of these powers are actually offensive, beginning with all the powers of the Bohrok-Kal and getting progressively more exotic from there. He's got so many one-hit kill attacks the Toa should have all gone down before they could even use their mask's shielding effects. Along with subtler powers their masks couldn't necessarily protect them from, like his apparent ability to induce fear, anger, confusion or sleep in others. And Makuta can apparently control the weather, and all plant, insect and animal life for a range of many miles, maybe the whole island.

It's a real mystery to me, why if Makuta can do all this he didn't set out centuries ago to walk from one end of the island to the other to net all the rahi under his control, stop by every village to ask them where there god is now and infect anyone who seemed remotely likely to make trouble before moving on. It's not like the Matoran have any kind of trap, barrier, weapons or tactics capable of so much as inconveniencing the one with the powers of all the Kraata.

Also, if one being has all these powers, some of them are stupidly redundant. What the hell difference is there between disintegration and molecular disruption? Sonics is more flexible than 'Power Scream' but can probably easily achieve all the same effects. Ditto for electricity and chain lightning, and for weather control and the ability to summon cyclonic winds. And Heat Vision and Laser Vision both produce burning eye-beams.

But alright, alright. You want the full list there are Kraata with the power of;

Perfect Accuracy, Adaptation, Anger, Chain Lightning, Chameleon (blending in) Confusion, Cyclone, Darkness (snuffing light and creating clouds of dark) Density Control (basically the powerset of the Vision from Marvel) Disintegrate (by touch) Dodge, Electricity, Elasticity, Fear, Fire Resistance, Gravity, Heat Vision, Hunger (energy drain), Ice Resistance, Illusion, Insect Control, Invulnerability, Laser Vision, Magnetism, Mind-Reading, Molecular Disruption (also touch), Plant Control, Plasma, Poison, Power Scream, Quick Heal, Rahi Control, Shapeshifting (cannot alter mass) Shattering (explodey beams) Silence, Sleep, Slowness, Sonics, Stasis (another touch effect) Teleporting, Vacuum and Weather Control.

But wait! It gets better! See when a Kraata has reached it's six life-stage, against all odds it can be dipped into energized protodermis and transformed into a sort of power-armor suit that another Kraata of the same power-type from any stage can pilot. This is called a Rahkshi, "the sons of the Makuta" and they are generally a Toa-level threat.

Though, you never really see invulnerable Rahkshi (though logically, shouldn't they be the most likely to live to stage six?) or teleporting Rahkshi, invisible Rahkshi, etc. It's always the showier powers, and never the Bohrok-Kal ones either.

And naturally, as soon as Whenua has finished with the exposition, a Shadow Kraata arrives and begins a mass jailbreak, great cliffhanger comic...

That is rendered moot in the next issue, where Tahu and Kopaka fortuitously arrive and help. Onua and Pohatu had begun collapsing the cave, Tahu speeds things by melting the rock with Kopaka freezing it into shape. A few runners are hunted down and destroyed and the crisis is generally treated as resolved. Though, and I do hate to bring logic into this again, sealing burrowing worms into an underground cavern strikes me as an impermanent solution at best.

Ahriman238 · Post by **Ahriman238** » 2015-01-13 04:44pm

And now we get to the main plot of this year, and the much-hyped Bionicle movie, Mask of Light. You can find it pretty easy online.

We open with faintly depressing news, Hewkii's miraculous shot during the Bohrok invasion has spawned a new variant of Kohli, played with sticks but still basically one shooter, one goalie and a stone ball. Well, not needing to break their feet on rocks has made Kohli accessible to all matoran, and the Turaga have organized an inter-village league. So yay, more Kohli. There was even an online League thing to decide who would play in the finals at the beginning of the movie.

This movie also introduces the now-familiar Bionicle/matoran logo, representative of the three virtues, given to them by the Great Spirit. Duty, unity, and destiny.

Though I do have to protest that 'destiny' isn't much of a virtue. Duty and unity I can get behind, in fact, if I lived on an island full of hostile megafauna, they might just become my favorite virtues. Destiny is less of a character trait and more something that happens to you, if you believe in it at all, which the matoran clearly do. They do try and address this by saying the matoran virtue of destiny manifests a drive for self-improvement, so one is always ready when their destiny reveals itself, but I can't help but feel it's a bit weak.

From the three virtues are derived the six principles, in theory each matoran village is dedicated to one of these, yielding them a special advantage on the kohli field. Not off of it, mind, and these are never brought up again.

The Ta-matoran are dedicated to courage, which makes sense. Likewise the Ko-matoran, living on an avalanche-prone mountain prize peace. The Ga-matoran standing for purity I can buy, the Le-matoran standing for faith I think is more of a stretch. Shouldn't we have seen some evidence of that before? While the earth/stone types got prosperity (onu) and creation (po) respectively which, and I hate to keep bringing this up, aren't really virtues.

Anyways, three-way championship match at the brand new Ta-Koro Kohli stadium between Ta=Koro, Ga-Koro and Po-Koro. Only, Takua, the scorer for Ta-Koro is missing, which at least shows why he was kicked out of the guard and then banished. Jaller goes searching and finds him near the base of the stone pillar holding the village up, examining a stone totem. Takua removes the totem, triggering a booby trap and while they flee for their lives, the totem gets dropped into molten lava, and a strange mask is revealed from within. This is the titular Mask of Light, the Avohkii. Also known as as the 60-watt Mask, the Faceplate of Right and the Mask of Undarkness. Which gets left alone for a kohli game.

After the kohli game, Turaga Nokama translates the strange writing on the inside of the mask and announces that it is a sign of the foretold coming of a seventh Toa, a Toa of Light, who will rid them of the evil of the Makuta and awaken the Great Spirit. Wait, wasn't that the destiny of the other six Toa? Anyway, this Toa isn't just going to fall out of the sky, that would be ridiculous. Someone needs to find the next Toa and give him his mask. As the ones who found the thing, Jaller and Takua go. Well, Takua tries to deflect the whole thing onto Jaller, even though he both found it and is clearly the most qualified matoran for a dangerous quest around the island, and despite having always been driven by his curiosity and sense of adventure before this point. But for this film, he's doing the hero's journey and the hero's journey says he refuses the call. But Jaller, though named Herald of the Seventh Toa, ropes Takua in anyways.

Also, a distinct problem with the movie. Tahu and Gali are fighting, and the dialogue is painful while for time they cut any reason for them to fight. Normally, it's Tahu and Kopaka who are rivals, and Gali who has to play the peacekeeper. In the comics and novelization, Gali is amazed that Tahu has learned nothing from the Bohrok-Kal incident, seems more arrogant then ever before after his Hail Mary saved the day, and continues to do his own thing with no regard for the team. Tahu can even admit in private that Gali is right, but he's so sick of her harping on the subject that he's determined to give no ground. It's a very familiar dynamic to anyone with siblings. In the movie, they're sniping at each other for no reason whatsoever.

Makuta, meanwhile creates several Rahkshi to kill the pair and find/steal the mask for him. Poison, Shatter (explodey-beams) Disintegration, Hunger (energy drain) Fear and Anger Rahkshi. Just a handful of Rahkshi (three in the movie, six in the comics) manage to level Ta-Koro, despite the best efforts of Tahu and Gali. Tahu is poisoned by one.

(In the comics only) Tahu and Gali race to warn Po-koro about the Rahkshi, but are trapped in a rockslide trigger by the explodey-beams one, and that village is also searched and destroyed. The two matoran went through Le-Wahi to Ko-wahi, nowhere near Po-koro. The Rahkshi reverse direction and catch up. Kopaka alone fights all six Rahkshi and more than holds his own until he gets tagged with a fear-blast. Tuns out Kopaka's great fear is failing and shaming the other Toa so much they'll have nothing to do with him. Surprising, for the loner.

In the movie, Makuta sends the Rahkshi out in two waves, and the first group is easily frozen by Kopaka. Jaller and Takua head to the Onu-koro highway, but get separated in the tunnels and Takua gets to talk to Makuta. Yep, see Makuta also has a unique mask, the Kraakhan mask of shadows. It increases his darkness-related powers, lets him spy on or speak to others through shadows, and lets him literally see the worst in people, their fears and selfish, petty desires, and how to leverage them for his best advantage. So using this ability, he tells Takua that he knows everything, that the quest will fail and can only lead to Jaller's death, has already led to the destruction of several villages with more to come. He promises to spare the matoran, all Takua's friends, if he'll just give Makuta the mask. Because he's so very trustworthy?

Takua obviously isn't going to give up the mask, but he's so afraid of failure and further temptation, of actually having to watch his friend die, that he quits the quest and heads to Onu-Koro alone. Naturally the Rahkshi are there and another village gets destroyed, leaving Onua and Pohatu trapped underground. Well, they're tough and quite literally in their element. The other Toa showed up to help, Lewa and Kopaka helped evacuate while Tahu gets zapped by the Anger one and, possibly the poison was an influence here too, turns on the team. Gali and Kopaka have to bring him down before they can wash/burn the poison out.

Takua meets back up with Jaller and the mask-light leads them to.... the Kini Nui. The temple at the center of the island they just walked most of a complete circle around.

Anyways, the Rahkshi jump them there, all six including the previously defeated, but it's okay, the Toa show up and a big brawl breaks out. The Toa, after getting smacked around by these things (except Kopaka) tear them apart. There's just one little problem, the Fear Rahkshi went down early and easily and gets up while the Toa are busy, blasting Takua and killing Jaller. Takua is so brassed off, he puts the mask on and turns into a Toa, the prophesied Toa of Light, Takanuva.

As the Toa of Light, Takua now has the power to create blinding light, holographic illusions (he's not great at them) and lasers. His mask power increases his elemental light powers, and as a true inverse of the Kraakhan lets him see the good in others, and understand how to inspire and lead them so as to bring out their best. I freely admit he's my favorite of the Toa, mostly because he was a hero long before he put the mask on, and I feel the movie both didn't really show off his better qualities (or let him have any real personality) and that he was criminally underutilized later.

Anyways, Takanuva decides he's going to solo the Makuta, and tears apart the robotic bodies of the Rahkshi to make a hovercycle, with a kraata guidance system. All the matoran and Toa follow however to wake the Great Spirit, which can apparently only be done in a chamber within Makuta's lair, behind a stone gate weighing many tons. In another dumb mistake, in the movie the long-awaited battle of light and darkness takes the form... of a kohli match... with exploding balls.

Anyways, in either version as they fight, Makuta and Takanuva fall into a pool of energized protodermis. Uh oh. This causes them to fuse together into a being called Takutanuva, according to the original published material the most powerful being in the Bionicle universe. Takutanuva is good though, and returns Jaller from the dead before dying opening the gate and holding it for everyone. This apparently kills both Takanuva and Makuta, but the chamber beyond and the brief ceremony to end Makuta's spell of sleep revive Takanuva, and we all know we'll see Makuta again.

Also not sure how they're getting out, it took something as strong as Makuta to lift the gate, and the room is sort of a dead end.

Oh well, that's the end, both of the movie/arc and of Bionicle Chronicles. With 2-3 villages simply gone and the Great Spirit restored, Vakama announces that the matoran are leaving the island of Mata Nui, and returning to their true home which they left in shame and exile a thousand years before, the great city of Metru Nui. And because ignorance is a killer, he will tell all, Toa and matoran, of the wonders and perils they will probably find there. First though, it's necessary for them to understand that they are not the first or even the hundredth team of Toa...

That's right. Prequel Arc.

Ahriman238 · Post by **Ahriman238** » 2015-01-16 03:23pm

So, Metru Nui, City of Legends. Another island, 24 by 47 kio across (20x40 miles or 33x64 km). With a recorded history going back over 80,000 years. The city is actually older than that. but records from before the Great Disturbance and the Civil War are fragmentary at best.

At the center of the island is the Colosseum, large enough for the entire city to gather for sporting events or public announcements. Less impressive than it sounds, since there are something like 3,000 matoran, tops. Stretching above the Collosseum is the mile-high Turaga Tower where the citiy's leaders lived and decided policy, back before there was just one Turaga ruling the city. Beneath the Colosseum is the power plant supplying the whole city, and the citizenry, with power along with the shadowed vaults of Nothing to See Here.

Going clockwise, Ta-Metru, the largest district and pretty much the eastern half of the city, is a sprawling industrial center, mostly focused on purifying, refining and shaping protodermis, a process best done by superheating it. Ta-Metru is dominated by the Great Forge, and is an OSHA nightmare with canals of molten metal running throughout with not a safety railing in sight.

Le-Metru in the south is the transit hub. The easiest way to get around the city in a hurry is through the chutes, tubes with a permeable membrane that send everything inside rushing along at high speeds, and the chutes all branch from and are controlled by Moto Hub in Le-Metru. This part of the sity is also covered with climbing surfaces, swing ropes and zip-lines, because of course it is. Also home to the Metru Nui dirigible fleet, because what's a city with dirigibles?

Every one in Onu-Metru wants to work in the underground Archives where records, samples and specimens from all the city's largely forgotten history are kept. Along with ancient artifacts of incredible power lost to the ages and filing errors, and terrible monsters kept under unreliable stasis-field technology. Yeah, expect our heroes to spend a lot of time here.

Ko-Metru is the home of philosophers, scholars and sages, Mostly dedicated to predicting the future and/or deciphering ancient prophecies. Ko-Metru is the quietest district, and kept chilled to better preserve old documents and memory crystals. It is full of crystalline skyscrapers, the Knowledge Towers, and observatories for astrology.

Po-Metru is largely desert, mountain and winding canyons with some residential areas, but mostly it's the holding place for tens of millennia of the best work of Po-matoran sculptors. Tiny handheld carvings to great Colossus of Rhodes type affairs, and they just keep adding more.

Ga-Metru in the north is a district of gardens, parks and canals. They do strain the sea for protodermis to send on to Ta-Metru, but mostly this is the place of schools, laboratories, hospitals and temples to Mata Nui. In particular, the Great Temple.

For 20,000 years, the city has been kept safe under the watchful eyes of their Toa (known by the fan-name of Toa Mangai) led by Toa Lhikan. Sadly, over the years his large and powerful Toa team have fallen, or in two cases turned to evil, until only he remains.

Guiding the city for all that time is the venerable Turaga Dume (and I spent most of a year mispronouncing it until the movie, it's Du-MA) the wise, the benevolent, the absolute and unquestioned ruler of the city.

Until, that is, Lhikan decided it was time for a change.

Ahriman238 · Post by **Ahriman238** » 2015-01-16 04:11pm

So, we finally found out where Kanohi masks come from they're carved from Kanoka disks. What's a Kanoka disk? Well, from here on out every story year will introduce a new ranged weapon, so waging battles with your Bionicle toys is less like rock'em sock'em and more like the world's most awkward toy pistol duels. Also, so the ammo pieces could get lost until you're stumbling around in the middle of the night going for a drink of water. This year, that's the Kanoka disk, basically the serious protodermis version of the stone frisbees the matoran used as ranged weapons on Mata Nui.

Each disk had a three digit numerical code. The first number, 1-6, told you which district made it, and thus something of it's flight characteristics. The second 1-8, told you what special power it had. The last number, 1-8 again, described the disk's power level.

Of the districts (1) Ta-Metru disks had extra force when fired or shot and could generally penetrate most cover or obstacles and knock surprising large creatures on their rears, (2) Ga-Metru disks respond to the shooter's thoughts, controlling trajectory and correcting mid-flight (3) Po-Metru disks alone could deflect other disks while (4) Ko-Metru disks learned the target from the shooter's mind and would swerve to avoid obstacles (5) Le-Metru disks have the greatest range and (6) Onu-Metru disks come back when they miss or get swatted off-course.

Of the eight disk powers-

1. Reconstitute at Random causes a temporary, totally random physical transformation. It might turn a Bohrok into a Goat, or if powerful enough a slightly hostile matoran into a massive dragon. Use with care and dread.

2. Freeze. Encases the target in ice.

3. Weaken. Drains strength, the stronger ones can topple buildings by weakening supports, the milder ones make your opponents too sleepy/disabled to fight.

4. Remove Poison. universal antidote, why is this a weapon?

5. Enlarge, makes things bigger.

6. Shrink. Guess.

7. Regenerate, repairs inanimate objects, does nothing to living things.

8. Teleport sends your enemies somewhere else, randomly within their range. Said range varying wildly by disk power levels.

Anyways, you can hold two disks together and they physically fuse. Providing a slight power hike to the strongest disk if they're the same type. Disks are carved to make Kanohi masks, and what mask depends on what disks, many needing you to fuse two separate disk-types. For instance, Tahu's mask of shielding requires Regeneration and Enlarge disks. Non-powered matoran masks can be made from disks at any power level, Turaga masks need power 7, Toa power 8.

There are legends of six Great Disks, one from each district city hidden or lost long ago, with a power level of 9. But if Bionicle has taught me anything, it's that legends are blatant falsehoods and can never be trusted. Even if the sheer age and low population density of Metru Nui leave all manner of places to tuck away crazy ancient stuff.

The matoran of this era also have a tedious sport, Akilini, where they try and throw/shoot kanoka disks through scoring hoops. Team is actually 3-6, and up to four teams can play in one match. Apparently they won't give a disk up to the mask-makers until it's been proven in the arena. Which is kind of funny, since these are also serious weapons.

And yes, Hewki in the prequels dominates this sport too. In fact, his day job is as a tournament disk-maker.

Ahriman238 · Post by **Ahriman238** » 2015-01-19 12:00pm

Not to say that Metru Nui is some sort of paradise. Crime, basically unheard of on Mata Nui, exists in the big city and since one or even a dozen Toa couldn't realistically police the entire matoran population they naturally had to assign some of their own as peacekeepers build an army of ruthless, merciless law enforcement robots with unlimited authority and no oversight save the single Turaga of the city. It's so obvious.

Meet the Vahki Enforcers, vaguely insectile robots. They sleep/recharge in great nests (much like the Bohrok) beneath the Colosseum, and in keeping with the tradition of Bionicle robots not have their own brains, all their instructions come from a central computer located in Turaga Tower. The Vahki usually get around in a quadrapedal configuration, letting them run at great speeds and scurry up the sides of buildings. In combat, they stand to free up their foreleg claws, which can also join to form a sort of staff with a ranged energy blast attack, the staff's blasts always have a mind-control component at least against the matoran. Their primary ranged weapon is the disk-launcher formed by their mandibles. I have this mental image of the Vahki cornering some poor matoran, only to hit him with a random teleport disk. Oh, and just for fun they can fold into a sitting configuration and fly short distances.

Nuparu (damnit, Nuparau! I thought better of you) designed the Vahki as predators, able to track, stalk and ambush any criminals, so they have some really acute senses. In times of civic emergency, the Vahki also serve as an army to defend Metru Nui. They're apparently good enough at fighting that the matoran saying about the Vahki is "Surrender or run" even given how futile running is, it works out better than resisting arrest.

Despite having one nest and one computer-brain, there are still six types of Vahki with different attributes patrolling each Metru. I'm unable to explain the stark differences in personality.

Ta-Metru gets the Nuurahk, red and easily the most aggressive and tactically-minded of the Vahki. Apparently after a quiet week they start brawling amongst themselves and the other Vahki have to be called to break them up. The Nuurahk staves of command fill a matoran's head with one order they must obey above all else and takes a large chunk of a day to wear off.

In Ga-Metru, they have the Bordahk who are known to prolong the chase for the sheer pleasure of it, like a cat. They also have possibly the scariest staff-power, instant brainwashing. Whoever gets zapped becomes fanatically loyal to the city, Turaga Dume, and the Vahki, and will cheerfully betray their fellow lawbreakers.

Le-Metru has Vorzahk, known for their lack of patience and basically bulling through everything between them and their prey. They have the other scariest staff-power, memory erasure. In fact, getting tagged by the Vorzahk means losing everything but basic motor skills, all your history, your name, even language. Death of personality and having to relearn everything from scratch.

Ko-Metru Vahki, Keerahk are so good at anticipating a suspect's movements they rarely bother to give chase and just show up at their quarry's destination, waiting. They're not infallible though, you can have a hidey-hole they don't know about but if you just run without any advance prep-work, they're probably going to nab you. Their staff-power is confusion, making matoran unable to remember where they are, where they're going, when it is, or what they were doing.

Patrolling Po-Metru, the Zadahk are the strongest, most fearless of the Vahki willing to pursue even to their certain destruction. Their staff-blasts render matoran extremely suggestible, and again take many hours to wear off.

Finally, the Rorzahk keep Onu-Metru safe with patient relentlessness brutal violence and a black-and-white view on morality. They have the least sketchy, yet most paranoia-inducing power. Their invisible staff-blasts link them mentally to a matoran. Whatever the matoran sees or hears, so does the Vahki. You never know who might be an unwitting snitch. You might be an unwitting snitch.

If all of this sounds at best ripe for abuse, at worst a police state that Eric Blair (George Orwell) would consider too terrifying for print, I'd have agree. So would Lego, just check out the series of short promo vids they did on their site. And all of that is neglecting one of the simplest, most frightening things about the situation.

It seems there are more Vahki in the city than matoran.

I'm dead serious, there are only a couple thousand matoran and we see at least that many Vahki several times, in different places and in different types. The nest complex seems practically bottomless. I think there are more robotic mind-controlling enforcers in Metru-Nui than there are people for them to police.

Ahriman238 · Post by **Ahriman238** » 2015-01-29 09:08pm

So we open the prequel era with Toa Lhikan on the run from a pair of Dark Hunters. What's a Dark Hunter? Well, they're sort of the Neutral Evil faction of Bionicle, a group of mercenaries, and also bounty hunters, assassins, thieves, mobsters. Basically a group of already powerful individuals willing to do pretty much anything in pursuit of further power and wealth.

They're also sort of a gathering house for outliers, probably unintentionally. But if somewhere in the Bionicle universe there's a weird mutant, supersoldier experiment, renegade Toa or a last member of a noble warrior race, odds are pretty good they're a Dark Hunter. In-universe, I figure this is because their leader, the Shadowed One (someone even Makuta was nervous about crossing) is a charismatic son-of-a-bitch who finds powerful misfits and outcasts and offers them both a purpose and a weird sort of family. Or, as we actually see with Nidhiki he makes the simple argument "Who else would have you?" Out of universe, This was the year Lego held a contest to design Dark Hunters, both physically with other Bionicle parts and in writing their backstories, with the top thirty or so being immortalized in canon. Until the reboot, anyway.

Lhikan and the Dark Hunters already have a bit of history. A team of Dark Hunters tried to kidnap Toa Tuyet and Lhikan defeated them, then Tuyet herself who had turned serial killer. Many, many years later, two millennia before the "present" the Dark Hunters invaded the island in force. Originally the Toa/Dark Hunter War started when the Dark Hunters requested the right to build a base in the city, which Turaga Dume refused. Then they tried to kidnap Dume, but Lhikan and his team foiled the attempt. Then over a hundred Dark Hunters stormed the island, reducing the Toa Mangai to huddling in the fortified Colosseum while one of their number ran for help. Ultimately, 400 Toa came to reinforce the Toa Mangai and save the city. In the war, Lhikan's comrade and brother Toa Nidhiki betrayed the Toa and was banished. Nidhiki has since mutated into a spider-monster and is one of the two Dark Hunters pursuing Lhikan today, the other being a huge brute named Krekka.

Keeping just a couple steps ahead of the Hunters, Lhikan distributes six mysterious stones among six different Matoran, getting captured before the eyes of the last, a master maskmaker named Vakama. Vakama finds the stone is wrapped in a map showing the Great Temple in Ga-Metru, also that it glows red. Oh, I know this one! Those are Toa stones, from the very beginning of the franchise. When they're gathered they summon a Toa Team.

Vakama goes to the Temple and meets five other Matoran. Nokama, Whenua, Onewa, Matau and Nuju. Sound familiar? The others are hoping Lhikan will pop up and explain what's going on, so Vakama explains that he was taken. They're all confused but find slots in the central Suva that weren't there before, and which fit the stones. They insert them and a hologram of Lhikan appears, telling them how brave they are and good luck on their adventures. Then they get blasted by lightning from the Suva and turned into the Toa Metru.

...

Yeah, it seems most Toa actually start as Matoran, the main team in the present being an obvious exception, with cases like Takua/Takanuva being the norm. Anyways, Toa Metru.

Vakama, as mentioned before, was at this time a master maskmaker. In fact, when Lhikan found him he was trying and failing to forge the Vahi, special commission from Turaga Dume. His special Toa Tool is a disk-launcher that doubles as a jetpack after he learns to channel fire through it.

Nokama was a school teacher, ancient languages, before all this, and is really the first of them to grasp the concept of fighting smarter, not harder. Close competition for my favorite Toa. She gets these "Hydro Blades" on the end of extending poles/cables (she can make them rigid or non) that can pull her very quickly through water.

Onewa was a sculptor, less talented and arrogant than Hewkii. He has a pair of rock-picks.

Matau is a test pilot, he'll be the reckless and comic-relief Toa. He has twin swords and can actually glide with them on his back.

Nuju was a student to a great philospher and sage of Ko-Metru. He gets snowshoe blades that let him climb the Ko-Metru towers.

Whenua was living the Onu-Metru dream as an achivist before Toa Lhikan dropped out of the sky, gave him a stone and told him not to archive it. He has this pair of scoops/climbingclaws that can join to form a power-drill.

They also get the mask-powers they would later have as Turaga, but there's no particular need to list them out now because, and I do like this touch, the Toa Metru have no idea how to use their masks. Or their elemental powers. Or do anything remotely Toa-related. This morning they were a disparate group of specialists in very narrow fields, completely unrelated to each other, and which did not generally prepare them for super-heroics. Though the skill they have will become relevant at various points. Sure they're a lot bigger, stronger, faster and more agile now, but they still have very little idea how to fight. And the various Toa powers they have to figure out over time.

To help them, the Suva opens up a little, revealing six Kanoka Disks with their names and faces on them. Tossing the disks produces an elemental effect, like Vakama's causing fire-bursts, but only if used by the correct Toa. They take the existence of these disks as proof that they really are Toa, and were always destined to be, no joke, no hallucination. And speaking of hallucinations....

Vakama has a vision of Lhikan telling him to save Metru Nui, of shadowy tendrils, the legendary Great Disks and the names of six Matoran. Nuhrii, Ehrve, Ahkmou, Vhisola, Tehutti and Orkham. Vakama wakes up and tells the others about it. He figures they must need to find the Great Disks to save the city, and the Matoran named must know where they are. Nokama is supportive, the others are.... extremely skeptical about the guy who had a fit and then suddenly knows all this. To put it mildly.

Eventually Nokama brings them around through the time-honored strategy of asking who has a better plan. Reluctantly, everyone agree to look up these Matoran, so they grab their disks and split up.

You know, that Vakama had visions and would simply... know things was occasionally a plot point on Mata Nui. It is, for instance, how they learned what the ultimate goal of the Bohrok-Kal was. In Metru Nui, Vakama's visions are a major plot point, constantly providing him and the team direction even as they make him question his sanity. Which makes it just a bit more frustrating that they're never explained in any way. Vakama has visions because- just because.

And a while back I blamed Whenua for the Turaga's advanced knowledge of the Bohrok. That's not because the Onu-Korons are digging them up or anything, it's because he used to work in the world's most dangerous petting zoo, where Bohrok, Rahkshi and scarier things are kept restrained only by incredibly fragile stasis fields, and occasionally heavy vault doors they hastily lock loose specimens behind.

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