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sepublic · 2 years

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Introduction of New Bionicle Species

So Bionicle has a pretty bad problem with its sapient species for the Matoran Universe; Namely that there’s way too many of them, and most are only vaguely-defined, leaving major questions of what function they’re supposed to contribute to Mata Nui’s body. The introduction of a plethora of different sapient species detracts a bit from the original concept; The Matoran are the operators of our humanoid spaceship, and the Rahi also help them. Presumably the Rahi would’ve assisted in manual labor and transport, and the Toa are self-explanatory as security; The Turaga are the overseers.

Introducing other sapient species that are a part of Mata Nui’s design suddenly messes things up; Because why do they even exist? It takes away from how everyone exists to contribute to a giant robot, representing bodily functions… But looking at how different sapient species were introduced, I have to wonder if it really was meant to be just the Matoran who populated the Great Spirit Robot. Keep in mind that Bionicle was originally envisioned as a seven-act story; This includes the first three years on the island of Mata Nui (Rahi, Bohrok, Rahkshi), then the Metru Nui prequel, and presumably the Ignition Trilogy. The Bara Magna saga wasn’t part of the original plans, and we know 2005, the Hordika arc, was shoehorned in.

Up until 2004, the only sapient species were the Matoran; The Toa and Turaga are derived from them. But then we get Nidhiki and Krekka… As I’ve speculated before, Nidhiki and Krekka weren’t originally supposed to be individuals, but just elite models of Vahki; Hence why they, especially Nidhiki, look so much like them. The Vahki don’t need an explanation as to where they fit into Mata Nui’s design, because they don’t; They’re robots made by Nuparu, a Matoran, to create better security, especially since there weren’t a lot of Toa at the time.

But for some reason, the writers make Nidhiki and Krekka into living, named individuals with personalities; Why, I don’t know. Maybe it was the result of miscommunication and/or a writer deciding the Toa Metru needed enemies with actual personalities to bounce off of… Either way, Nidhiki and Krekka become people. Now we need to explain why they exist, where they fit into the system of the Great Spirit Robot; Nidhiki is easy, he’s a mutated Toa. But Krekka?

Krekka is eventually revealed to be part of an entire species, separate from the Matoran; And I believe the Steltian bruisers are the first instance of a sapient species beyond the Matoran, who exist to operate Mata Nui’s insides. Then we get 2005, which was originally unplanned; And thus the characters of Sidorak and Roodaka, also unplanned. They’re sapient beings, so their existence needs to be explained… And just like that, they’re clarified to be members of their own separate species.

I can see why Krekka’s species would’ve been introduced; Not only was his a tentative first, but the enormous strength of Krekka gives us a pretty good idea of what role his people play in the GSR’s maintenance. But then we get Sidorak and Roodaka, the latter of whom belongs to the Vortixx, just to explain where these two even came from in a worldbuilding sense… Suddenly, there are more species. The role of the Steltian nobles nor the Vortixx is ever elaborated upon…

At this point, the cat is out of the bag; The writers have already broken from the original, simpler concept of the Matoran as the primary operators of the GSR. If there are other sapient species besides the Matoran, why not more; It’s easier to just say this new villain came from a separate species, than coming up with a backstory like there was for Nidhiki. Hence, the combiners of Sentrakh and the Shadowed One are their own new species; Voporak is clarified to be a mutated member of Sidorak’s species, so he’s technically not new.

I think this led to a bit of a slippery slope, where after tentatively allowing for the existence of Krekka’s species in the Great Beings’ design… Eventually, the writers, mostly Greg perhaps, stopped trying to explain/hint at what each new species actually contributes to the GSR; And thus the metaphor/twist of everyone being workers on a ship/functions of the body is slightly lost in translation.

And I think that just leads to the Dark Hunters contest, which brought in a whole slew of sapient species; All of these being the ideas of fans, but evidently the writers were willing to accommodate these ideas, even if they didn’t jive so well with the Matoran Universe being a giant machine, because no fan realized that twist yet. Thus, we have a bunch of unique individuals, with a few explicitly part of their own species, such as Primal or Poison; And since there are a bunch of new sapient species who don’t have an explained purpose, that just sets more of a precedent to include new species without trying to worry about whether they make sense in the larger context of the setting. Thus, we get the Barraki each being a new and unseen species, characters such as Axonn or Brutaka, Hydraxon, etc.

But this does make me wonder; Had Bionicle stuck closer to its original concepts with the seven-act plan, with a simplified roster of races inside the Matoran Universe, to reflect how each plays a role programmed by the Great Beings… Would the number be significantly smaller? And thus, would the writers have avoided straying away from the idea that each species represents a certain facet of the body/spaceship operations?

Let’s go with Nidhiki and Krekka still being Vahki, as I speculated. You don’t have to introduce Krekka’s species, the only race is the Matoran. There is no 2005/Hordika arc, so you don’t need to introduce the Vortixx nor Steltian nobles; And since there is no 2005, there’s no combiners for them, so characters like Sentrakh or the Shadowed One, and their own species, no longer exist.

Now we get to the Ignition Trilogy; In 2006, it’s established that the Mask of Life can transform living creatures into guardians, so this could’ve been the original explanation for Axonn and Brutaka’s existence… That, and the fact that when they were designed, there had already been multiple species introduced at that point, so it wouldn’t make a difference to add in two more. The Piraka would’ve been the villains, so I guess the Skakdi would’ve still been canonized as a sapient species separate from the Matoran.

Next we have the Barraki, who are mutated, and heavily resemble sea creatures. Since toys come first and THEN story, perhaps the Barraki would’ve originally just been generic sea monsters native to Aqua Magna and not part of the Great Spirit Robot, or like Nidhiki, extremely mutated denizens of the Matoran Universe. Maybe the Barraki would’ve been transformed Toa/Skakdi. Afterwards we have the Makuta of 2008, who… Given how they’re introduced and designed pretty late into Bionicle’s run, I guess the writers were just going full-throttle at there being multiple species; Especially since THE Makuta himself was turned into a species, rather than an individual.

In canon, a lot of new species by this point are also either from combiner models, or Greg just writing a character. With the exception of the Kaita and Takutanuva however, I don’t think there was much thought placed into what combiner models would be; They’re entirely secondary to the toys they derive from. So it’s possible that any combiners would’ve originally been Rahi or mutated monsters, or for the Toa of the Ignition Trilogy, a new wave of Kaita.

To summarize everything; I think that had the writers stuck to the original plans and concepts for the seven-year act, the actual number of sapient species would’ve been significantly smaller, and been mostly composed of the Matoran. We wouldn’t have a bunch of vaguely-defined, nebulous races with no discernible purpose, a clear contrast to the Matoran being operators, the Bohrok cleaners, and the Toa the white blood cells. Nidhiki and Krekka would’ve just been Vahki, and every character introduced in 2005 wouldn’t have happened; Really, it’s probably only the Skakdi who would’ve been introduced as a new species.

All in all, it seems like the introduction of various species who detracted from the story’s literal symbolism was the result of cascading decisions; Small story details and revelations here or there, combined with input by fans who didn’t realize what was going on, and Greg being Greg, infamous for his tendency to not properly plan things through, hence the plot holes. I think the plan was for the Matoran to be the only sapient species of the GSR, with all other sapients derived from them (Toa, Turaga, mutated characters like Nidhiki) but then the writers went F it and added a bunch of new species without bothering to think of their purpose and symbolism. It doesn’t help that toys come first, so it was up to the writers to decide how characters like the Piraka or Barraki would’ve fit into the Great Beings’ design.

TL;DR Krekka is the reason why we have a clusterfuck of too many undefined species who detract from the original intentions of a biological/spaceship operator motif. And the reason why a lot of these species make little sense is because they weren’t part of the original plan, but the result of arbitrary story decisions and needing to explain where these unique villains with personalities came from. It’s hard to build a living world and balance that with the fact that everything fulfills a distinct purpose.

#bionicle #meta #matoran #toa #vortixx #skakdi #analysis #speculation

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