Auserv: Toa-Kal of Emotion

If you read What If?, you've probably noticed that my update schedule is grievously slipping. While I promise weekly updates, it's been more like monthly updates. This is because I bit off more than I could chew and started What If? during the summer, thinking I could keep up a chapter a week. As soon as I went back to school the September after the book started (I'm homeschooled, as I've mentioned before in this blog, but I'm taking classes at the local community college), it slowed down. By December the semester was over and I sped up a bit, but now the next semester has begun. In addition, I've recently been having a series of minor family crises, along with extracurricular things, and of course, sometimes even when I can be writing, I'm too stressed or uninspired to put any words on the page. I try not to force myself to write if I'm not feeling up to it, because I've noticed that when I didn't feel like writing at the time I wrote some scene, it's evident in the bland narration and dialogue and lack of anything interesting happening. Still, Book 7 is a 20-chapter book like most of the others in the series, and it started in late July, so it should have been finished by the start of December. It's inexcusable to only be on Chapter Fourteen when the book started 37 weeks ago. It's already gotten to the point where I will have to delay the start of Book 8. And like I mentioned in my last blog entry, I want the series to be finished by the end of next year. As of this writing, there are 90 weeks until the end of next year, and 60 of them must be used on Book 8, 9 and 10. The remaining 30 are obviously for the intermissions between books. Normally I give myself 8 weeks between books, so if we assume 8 weeks between Book 8 and 9 and 8 weeks between Book 9 and 10, that means I have 14 weeks to work with before I start Book 8. I could safely drag Book 7 out to mid-July and still finish on time. Obviously, I don't want to do that. However, expecting myself to write the remaining 6 chapters in 6 weeks is too much right now. Being realistic, I expect it to take at least 10 weeks. During school, it can take me almost 3 weeks to write a chapter (obviously depending on the length of the chapter, which varies from around 3000-8000 words), but when I'm off school I can occasionally manage one chapter a week. I seriously doubt that the rest of the book will take more than 14 weeks, especially considering there are only 5 weeks left in the semester, but if it does, I will simply have to shorten the other intermissions. Either way, there will be no intermission between Book 7 and 8. Because of these severe delays, Book 8 will start after Book 7 with no more than a single week of a break. This is well enough, because Book 8 picks up directly after Book 7 ends (I obviously haven't written Book 7's epilogue yet, but depending on if I can make it work as an ending, Book 8's first chapter might literally begin only seconds after the ending of Book 7). This segues into the next part of my plan: writing ahead. When I started this series, I was updating three times a week. This was because I had written all of Book 1 before I began to post it. If I had done this with subsequent books, we might be seeing nearly year-long breaks between books. Because the books were so short at first (Book 1 was only about 70,000 words - for comparison, Book 7 had hit that mark by Chapter Eleven), I decided I would write them as I posted them. With Book 2, it worked out okay - I stayed ahead of my update schedule until almost the end. As I got more busy though, that became increasingly difficult and with Book 7 I was practically behind the update schedule before the end of the first month of the book. To mitigate this effect, I'm writing Book 8 before I even finish Book 7. I'm already behind my intended schedule (I wanted to be finished Chapter 5 by now, but I'm only on Chapter 3), but since this is my final year of high school and I shouldn't have a very busy summer, I am hopeful (though not at all making any guarantees) to finish writing Book 8 by September, when I will start college full-time (as opposed to part-time as it is now). Whenever it finishes being posted really depends on when I finish Book 7, but I'm more concerned about staying ahead of my update schedule than I am about the update schedule itself. It may seem counter-intuitive to be writing two books at the same time. Wouldn't that just make both of them go more slowly? Yes, really, it does, but I've already basically given up on finishing Book 7 with any amount of regularity to my update schedule by now. Please just bear with me until I finish Book 7. As long as I finish it within the next 14 weeks, I'm still on schedule. I am really hoping to finish it before then, so I can have Book 8 written by the end of summer, but I can only write as fast as my circumstances will allow. By no means have I given up on the series - I will finish it out as long as I'm physically able to do so. Whether I will finish it by the end of 2012, and whether I will manage to provide any regularity to my updates from here on out, I can only make promises, but with this much work put into it, my own death (or losing my arms or something like that ) is all that's going to stop me from finishing. Again, I'm really sorry that I've been unable to hold to my promises regarding the update schedule. I've always prided myself on having a story where you could count on there being an update, even if it might be a few days late - not like the multitude of excellent fan fiction I've read only to find that the author has given up or isn't serious about updating regularly. But I've fallen into that myself now. Serves me right to make such steep promises, I suppose. But rest assured, any readers I still have - I am still here, still writing, and doing the best I can to keep putting out updates.

So because of huge delays, Book 7 (which should have been done a month or two ago and instead could possibly take into March to complete) isn't done yet, but I have set my schedule for the remaining three books of the series, and regardless of when What If? finishes, Book 8 will be launched on April 18, 2011. I will begin writing it in about two weeks, so the beginning of Book 8 and the ending of Book 7 will be written alongside each other. That's probably a recipe for disaster, where I'll be forcing myself to write a chapter and a half of stuff every week until Book 7 is finished, but I'm set on sticking to my schedule with no more delays if at all possible, and I want to have a safe cushion of chapters already written when I start Book 8. At this point, the only thing that could stop Book 8 from being posted then is if Book 7 somehow takes longer than that to finish, since I won't have them running concurrently. That would just make the break between Book 8 and 9 shorter though; there's plenty of built-in time to still finish the series by the end of 2012 (which is what I'm planning for). Book 8's preliminary title is Six Voices in Harmony. Despite Book 7's first-person style, Book 8 will be returning to form with a third-person omniscient narrator. There will be two plots in the first part which come together in the middle: The first plot will show the gods at the beginning of time, chronicling the creation of the universe and what really happened between Koenori and the others, since we have heard conflicting stories from different characters about whether Koenori is the hero or the villain. The answer may be a bit less clear-cut than it would seem. The second plot will pick up right where Book 7 will leave off, with only a few timelines separating Guutana and his friends from their goal - Harmonization of all timelines. Actually, going into any detail about how the two plots will intersect will spoil a few upcoming plot details of Book 7, so I'll leave that for the Book 8 preview whenever Book 7 finishes. In other news: I am toying with the idea of doing a reboot/rebuild trilogy after the ending of the series. It would be at my own leisure so updates would be infrequent, and if my life just gets too busy I could possibly drop the project early, but I don't really want to stop writing for BZP when the series finishes, nor do I want all of my characters just sort of die off from my consciousness when their story is finished. I have already made somewhat detailed plans for this trilogy, but the question is, come 2013 when the series is over and I'm a full-time college student, will I still feel up to writing three more books? That's something we'll have to wait and see in two years. That's why I'm not officially announcing that this will happen, just throwing it out there that it might. This rebuild trilogy (I hesitate to call it a reboot since that implies that I'm just telling the story again, but better somehow - rather, this is a separate continuity with the same characters and settings, but an entirely new plot, so I'm calling it a "rebuild") would be called "The Storm Trilogy", with each book named after a different type of storm (Hurricane, Blizzard, and Thunderstorm would be the titles of the individual books). In the Dairuno Toa series, storm motifs have always been associated with the character Auserv, and this trilogy will take a greater focus on him, as he will be a main character from beginning to end. I am aiming, with this "Storm Trilogy", to tell a new version of my series that is completely accessible to new readers but still exciting for old readers, and I'm also aiming for something that will fit within the established Bionicle canon (so the supernatural elements - the gods, the Dying Breath, Tinporu, the Chosen Three, the Dairuno Stones, etc. are all out). The books will go in chronological order and cover the same story arcs as Books 1-6, but in entirely re-imagined ways. For example, Hurricane would open with a similar scene to A Strike of Lightning's opening scene, but quickly take a turn for a story more resembling Story of the Dead, only with Auserv and his team fighting alongside Onathei, Feyain and Gyotaren, eventually ending with those teams running into Rakdan and following him to Tonryak for the Storm Trilogy's version of The Minister of Destruction. Blizzard would be closer to The Tables Have Turned, To Be A Hero and In The Dying Breath, but with Auserv (and what's still left of his team by then) being part of the main cast from the beginning, and obviously with largely different reasons for the heroes to be going to Dyteeli and fighting Sihnozu, given that Dairuno and the Dairuno Stones won't exist in this version of the continuity. Finally, Thunderstorm would be entirely new material, tying up the stories of all the characters from the first two books, featuring new adventures of Auserv's, and ending somewhere around the short story Honey. In other words, all the same plot (and then some) will be covered, but in different ways. Also, obviously, each book would be much longer than the average book of the series, since they're effectively covering three books worth of story per book. Probably the trilogy would take 3-5 years to write, depending on how fast or slow I write them (and obviously depending on whether or not I decide to finish it or drop it early). This is an exciting idea for me because I can explore relationships between characters who never would have met, and I can freely do whatever to whoever even during what was, for this series, flashback story, because the plot doesn't have to be related. For example, maybe in this continuity Onathei will die early on and Barnoka will survive to the end - I can do whatever I want along those lines so it won't just be the same thing all over again. Anyway, back to writing Book 7 for now...

A couple last-minute decisions... 245: With the amendments, I'm okay with this. Aye. 247: Having considered Ausar's reasoning on this, I will approve it. Aye.

261: Aye... I've never been a fan of adding planets that can't logically be related to the rest of the Bionicle story, but if Vahkuax wants to do a story set on this planet, I'll approve the idea. 262: Aye, good idea. 263: Aye; like dotCARBON I'm sort of ambivalent to this one, because it cheapens the sheer alienness and fun of the early parts of the Toa Inika's story, but I won't say Nay. 264: Aye; again I'm not really fond of the idea but I don't have a good reason to say Nay beyond personal preference. 265: Aye, pretty interesting idea and would work well for a plot device. 266: I'm not sure how any society could possibly hope to survive something like this, or how it could ever be kept limited to one dome, but since it's obviously going to play a big role in Zorrakh's writing, Aye. 267: Aye; yet again I am somewhat unsure on this one but mostly because of personal preference.

253: Aye, no problem with the name. 254: Aye, no problem with this. 255: Aye, no problem with this. 256: Going to have to say Nay, just because of the name. It would be like naming a Bionicle organization The Freemasons or The League of Nations; the Illuminati were a real-life organization that existed at one point in time. However, I have no problem with the concept itself, so I will change my vote if the society can be given another name. I understand that's kind of a major upheaval especially if the epic is already written, but I can't approve of the name for a Bionicle organization. 257: Aye, I don't have a problem with this if, as Koji says, it is properly explained in the epic how it was possible for an organization without powers to do this. 258: Aye, this is a pretty cool idea. 259: Aye, no problem with this. 260: I love the idea of a Toa of Fungi. Aye. While I must agree with dotCARBON that it is uncomfortably close to overlapping with a Toa of the Green's power, I think because fungi are not actually plants but their own separate type of lifeform, it's passable.

245: Undecided. From the somewhat vague description, this sounds too powerful to not be a Legendary mask, which should have side-effects to breaking it and shouldn't have a wearer. I will consider changing my vote if we could specify exactly how it makes things chaotic (like, does it confuse people, cause natural disasters, etc. - I want to know what the limit of its power is), and preferably if we could also have the curse be just a side-effect of using the mask (the "bad luck" is transferred to the wearer as well as the target) rather than an actual act of self-defense on the mask's part, which would imply it is sentient. 246: Aye, but I would prefer if we could say it is a very rare Kanohi, because if these are easily accessible, it raises a big plot hole in the 2004-2005 story: if this mask is at all common, the whole "planting the wrong destined Toa team in the stars" subplot now makes Teridax and Lhikan look dumb because either just could have used this mask (both would have had good reason to be cautious about who got the Toa stones) and seen through Mata Nui's trick. I'm totally fine with the idea of it being a rare mask that only organizations like the Order or a few powerful individuals had access to. 247: Undecided. It's similar to the canon Kanohi Matatu as well as Ballom's Kanohi Dayku, but it isn't quite identical to either. However, I'm not sure if it's really different enough to qualify for a separate Kanohi. Maybe we could find some way to differentiate a bit more? 248: Aye, pretty cool idea. 249: Aye, good idea. 250: Aye, though the Great version never wearing off after just ten seconds of concentration seems a bit overpowered. 251: I'm kind of adverse to having Matoran words that sound too obviously like an English synonym to their translation but Aye, I suppose. 252: Aye; it doesn't really make sense why any language would use the same word to refer to two individuals primarily defined by their glaring difference in authority, but I'm assuming it has some relevance in one of Koji's stories.

1b: Aye. 32b and 34c: Aye. 145a: Aye. 240-241: Aye, welcome to the group. 242: Aye, I'm a bit wary of it but I guess it does no significant damage to canon. 243: Aye, nothing wrong with nailing down some specifics. 244: Interesting idea, though a bit awkward (can't really imagine Matoran carrying handguns ) - Aye.

Over at his blog, Toa_Ausar is hosting a contest in which entrants create names for various categories, where the best names will be inducted into C.I.R.C.L.E. fanon (i.e., everyone in the C.I.R.C.L.E. will use the winning names when those things come up in their epics). The grand prize winner for each category will receive copies of Graphic Novels 8 and 9. The contest is open to all BZPower members. If you're interested in entering, click the banner above or see this blog entry for more details and to enter. I'm debating the usefulness of making this entry, since I don't have that many people who read my blog, but I might as well just do my part to spread the word.

More or less - there are still overarching mysteries and the chapters still flow one into another, but for the most part, they are disjointed. The big bad shows up pretty early, actually, but first as more of a mysterious force, only gaining a face towards the end (kind of like the Monster from Lost, if you ever watched it).

Coming next month is the seventh book in The Dairuno Toa, What If? The flashback story arc has finally concluded with The Minister of Destruction and we are moving on with where the story left off in In The Dying Breath. The book stars Guutana, Roqini, and Desurk, some of the heroes of the first three books, as they travel down the paths time shouldn't have taken and correct it to the main timeline. In each of the twenty chapters, a different timeline is featured, each exploring different scenarios such as "What if Matoro had hesitated too long in Karda Nui?", "What if the Toa Mata's canisters hadn't malfunctioned?", and "What if there had been no Toa Metru?" (the first three chapters). The only main characters are Guutana, Roqini, and Desurk, which will be a refreshing change from the usually rather large casts of this series. Other characters will appear, but aside from appearances from more cosmic characters (the creators mentioned above will play small roles) and a certain antagonist who begins to appear a bit later in the book, no one else will appear in more than one chapter. Aside from just a series of disjointed stories about random alternate timelines, the story advances the overall mythology of the Dairuno Toa series, giving some answers and showing a much clearer image of the big picture I am building up to. And as in any story, the main characters will grow as people over the course of the book, as they react to their new powers and learn to deal with them. The message of the story is developed through these characters, and deals with power, and what rights it gives those that have it, and what rights it does not give. You can expect to see the Prologue posted on July 19th. Updates will be posted on Fridays, and as usual there will be twenty chapters, a prologue and an epilogue. PM me if you would like to be notified when the story goes up. I'm looking forward to the next leg of the story and I hope everyone enjoys it. (PS: The banner up there is preliminary and could be changed before the book goes up. If anyone would like to make me one that has the same basic structure and color, but looks better, I'd appreciate it a lot. )

Well, I haven't blogged in a while, so I'm just writing this to say that I'm on vacation in Charleston, South Carolina for the next week. I have Internet access at the place I'm staying, but for the most part I'll be out and about (at beaches or sightseeing) during the days and will probably be mostly gone from BZPower and other sites I frequent (though, to those who have my e-mail address, Gtalk address, or AIM screen name, I will still be answering e-mails and will try to get on AIM and Gtalk once a night). I'm hoping to use the week away from most of the Internet to write. Book 7, which I decided like 2 years ago would be called What If? (breaking the series tradition of four-word titles ), is doing well so far. I'm almost 3 chapters (or perhaps more accurately, about 10,000 words in, because I've been kind of jumping around as far as chapters go) in so far, but I'm hoping to get a lot done over this vacation. The book so far is a lot different from anything I've done - it's largely episodic rather than a flowing narrative. It's also told entirely in first person, except for a short scene at the beginning of each chapter, inspired by how in crime dramas you might see the murder being committed in the first scene while the rest of the show is the characters trying to figure out what led to what the viewer saw at the beginning. In this case, since the premise is that the characters are going to all the alternate timelines, figuring out what made them alternate, and fixing them to line up with the main one, we see the first major divergence from the main timeline in that first scene (though I will be shamelessly using the butterfly effect, so what you see in the first scene will rarely ever be the first divergence point). Again much different from my previous epic is the tiny cast - just three main characters. Many series regulars (the other Toa-Kal, the Dyteeli characters, Onathei, Auserv and his team, etc.) will be appearing, but because the group is working on a different timeline each chapter, the characters besides the main three don't stay consistent. One chapter, the divergence point might involve Dyteeli, so we'll see Barnoka, Krandorn, Zirralo, etc., and the next chapter it'll be on Metru Nui and that chapter won't have any series regulars. I don't plan to introduce many or any new characters, since I have (I recently counted) 96 named characters already available for me to use, but I will be using many more canonical characters whereas previously I had only used the Barraki and a few Dark Hunters. When I get home next Sunday or the day after, I will post a proper preview of Book 7 with a short excerpt. The book should begin to be posted on July 19th. As per usual, plans are for it to have a prologue, an epilogue, and 20 chapters. Updates will generally be on Fridays (except for the Prologue and Epilogue, which will both probably be posted on Mondays). As usual, anyone who wants a PM notification at the time the book is launched can feel free to ask. Since Book 6 was rather sparingly reviewed (by which I mean - only Takuta-Nui reviewed at all ), I'm kind of hoping for a larger audience this time around, so I would be more than happy to even give notifications every chapter if it would get me back up to the number of regular reviewers I had during Books 4 and 5. It just feels kind of pointless to be writing for only one person, and while at this point I'm finishing the series just for my own gratification no matter what anyone else does, it is nice to know people like what I'm doing, and if they don't like it, it's even nicer to know, because it can help me improve as I continue. Anyway, guess I'll end this entry here. I will be back on June 6th, hopefully with another solid 10,000 words under my belt.

Since the Avsa is already the Canon Mask of Hunger I don't believe that the prospective Arkaiva should be considered Elemental. ~ Åusår*** Kemet Nui Epic ~ Review ~ Inhabitants ~ Short Story *** Ah, true, I had forgotten about the Avsa being called Mask of Hunger. I'm still not quite sure, because now that you mention that, this mask is actually pretty redundant. But I guess I will give a reluctant Aye. As for 234 - assuming we can say it is considered immoral by only some Toa, my vote is also Aye.

I see what Auserv and ChocoLvr13 find strange about the powers being immoral, I would however like to say that, as was stated at the time of their proposal, Cu-Matoran are an environmental anomaly, and as such were never intended to exist, much less to become Toa. Maybe the solution is to say "Some Toa feel that the Kanohi Zech is an immoral mask, while others disagree.", like the Kanohi Xioth? ~ Åusår*** Kemet Nui Epic ~ Review ~ Inhabitants ~ Short Story *** Yes, I would say that is a reasonable solution and one that would cause me to change my vote to Aye on that proposal. But until we make that official and until I get some word from Iro on making the Mask of Leech an elemental mask, my vote on these two articles remains undecided.

My answer is the same to all of these, but since Ausar doesn't like "aye to all" answers, I will go ahead and write it all out. 4b: Aye, congrats to ChocoLvr13. 33b: Aye, congrats to Koji. 35b: Aye - thanks guys. 36a: Aye, congrats to Zorrakh. 50a: Aye, congrats to Zahaku. 107a: Aye, congrats to Tohunga Tahnok. 110a: Aye, congrats to .Carbon. 144a: Aye, congrats to Makar.

32a: Aye, I suppose this is appropriate. 34b: Aye, same. 100b: Aye, same. 111a: Aye, same. 235-239: Aye to all of these and welcome to the new members.

180a: Aye, a well-thought out idea and probably critical to Iro's writings. 229: Aye, no problem with it. 230: Aye, again, no problem with this. 231: Undecided. Can't we just call it a Mask of Hunger (with Leech as a common alternate title, in case someone's already referred to it as the Mask of Leech in a story) and make it an elemental mask, since this prospective "Leech" mask seems to be functionally identical to a Vorahk's power? (And if so, I wouldn't be sure if Toa would still see it as immoral - see my comment on Article 234.) I'm going to have to reluctantly say Aye. 232: Aye; I'm not particularly fond of the name, but that's my own personal preference. 233: Aye, this is a cool idea. 234: Undecided. My problem with this is that Toa find this power immoral. However, since we have already established Anger as an element associated with a Matoran tribe, doesn't that mean there are likely Toa of Anger? Unless they find their own power immoral, it doesn't seem to make sense that a Toa wouldn't use this anymore than they wouldn't use a Mask of Gravity. Aye, on the grounds that only some Toa find this power immoral, while others do not.

165a: Aye. 223: Aye, no problem with this. 224: Aye, though if we do get some more Great Beings named, having to retcon this might be annoying. 225: Aye, it makes sense that there would have been some kind of organized force standing against the Brotherhood. 226: Aye, no problem with this. 227: Aye, that's a cool name. 228: Aye, no problem with this and it seems likely that Iro's stories depend on it.

I would say a probation for each of these members until/unless they can provide a good reason why they haven't been able to vote, as I usually say. As Kohila has explained his absence I would recommend exempting him from probation. Albeit, the explanation was really more of a "sorry, I forgot" than a genuine reason, but in case such a thing happens to me in the future, I'd like to think that would be enough to explain my absence, so I'll overlook it. As for Cap'n K, obviously, hold back on probation until that problem is straightened out.

Sure, I have no problem with this.

Well, at some point, the story departs entirely from the canon story. Already I've made too many radical changes for this to be a simple alternate universe (most importantly being that the universe has alternate timelines of its own). It would have to be another reality entirely, that just happened to have a few things in common with the C.I.R.C.L.E. Universe.

I guess this would be a good opportunity to point out to everyone that my series as presented on BZPower would have to be heavily altered to fit into the C.I.R.C.L.E. Universe - many events simply don't work in the canon Bionicle universe, which violates the rule that the C.I.R.C.L.E. Universe only adds to the canon story rather than altering what had already been established. Just a few examples - I have a story depicting the League of Six Kingdoms as a well-established force when the story takes place before the Barraki were even created canonically, and a few Dark Hunters appear before the Dark Hunter organization was formed canonically. Also, some stories are set on islands of a small archipelago that simply would not fit anywhere on the Matoran Universe map published in 2008, and of course, starting in my third epic I've featured events going beyond the scope of the canon Bionicle universe, introducing god-like characters and dealing heavily with their affairs. Books after the one I'm writing now will focus even more heavily on them, and by the ninth book (with the sixth one about to end now) they will move from mysterious players in the background to actual main characters. My overall point being: My series can only be semi-canonical within the C.I.R.C.L.E. Universe, and beyond the sixth book, it can't really be canonical at all. This is the main reason why I have added very little to the group yet, because I haven't had a chance to sort out what can even be suggested without conflicting the main story. Once I get some freetime, I will go through and figure out what parts fit in canonically and what parts don't, and then I'll start working on putting the adapted version on the wiki. Also, between books, I'll try to do some more short stories or even short sidestory epics that can fit into our canon, so I don't run out of things to contribute to the group after Book 6 ends. Oh, and I'm willing to do the work of a compiler or a sculptor. I have experience with MediaWiki markup, so once I get everything of mine onto the wiki, I can do some technical stuff.

190a: Aye, I accept the revisions. 195a: I voted Aye originally and I'm voting Aye again. 218: Interesting idea, but it seems almost useless. I guess I'll vote Aye anyway though. 219: I like the idea a lot; Aye. 220: Aye, another good idea. 221: Aye. I don't really like that it basically serves no purpose but to bypass training, but I'm okay with it. 222: Aye, good idea.

211: Aye, I think this is a pretty good idea. 212: Aye, interesting idea, especially their language. 213: Aye, but exactly why did Xarkhan wipe out the cult? That wasn't clear to me. 214: Aye, no reason to oppose. 215: Going to have to say Nay. Even ignoring the fact that Takanuva has repeatedly been said to be the first and only Toa of Light, this would just create a major plot hole. One Toa of Light was enough to worry the Makuta - six, devoted to purging evil, would certainly not have held out on killing off the entire Brotherhood a long time ago. (I suppose this article has been withdrawn anyway now, seeing as how it's been crossed out?) 216: Aye, this is a really interesting idea. 217: Aye, no reason to oppose.

164a: Aye, no reason to oppose. 184a: Originally I denied this because it sounded too impractical; the revisions haven't really changed this, but I suppose I will vote Aye because with the new details I just feel like it's so well thought out that I don't have a good enough reason to deny it. 205: Aye, this seems like a pretty good idea. 206: Aye, again, no reason to oppose. 207: Aye, both seem like good ideas. 208: Aye, I like the sound of the word. 209: Aye, I have always liked the idea of Matoran being able to temporarily transform into Toa, and the different forms add an interesting element to it. 210: Aye, another good idea that makes Matoran characters more capable.