Why a Fistfight?

[darkslizer]

So, I recently read the final comic that Bionicle published, and I noticed something. Why did Teridax just beat Mata Nui around when he could have hit him with a giant bolt of Chain Lightning? Why couldn't he have used laser beams the size of mountains coming out of his eyes to vaporize MN's head? (Ys, I am aware that Teridax did use gravity to bring the other pieces of SM back, but why did he stop there?)

[fishers64]

Limited experience piloting a giant robot? Also, not sure that the robot channels the powers of the sprit in the core processor or amplifies them to such a scale. Gravity might have been part of the robot's powers, but I don't think chain lightning would have been. Teridax might have only been able to do normal Makuta-scale chain lightning, which Mata Nui would have shrugged off. Also, the Great Beings designed the robot to observe and put a planet back together, not fight in a war. They probably didn't design it with battle powers like laser beams and chain lightning.

[bonesiii]

He did not stop there. Have a looksee at these images:

 

http://biosector01.com/wiki/images/0/0b/Comic6Cover.png

http://biosector01.com/wiki/images/4/44/Art_Teridax_Beating_Mata_Nui.jpg

http://biosector01.com/wiki/images/c/c9/Art_Mata_Nui_Versus_Makuta_Teridax.PNG

http://biosector01.com/wiki/images/4/48/Comic_Mata_Nui_vs._Makuta_Robots.png

[darkslizer]

Oh my. How did I miss that? Yeesh.

[Sumiki]

There's no reason not to put lasers in the palms of planet-sized robots. In fact, if I had my own planet-sized robot, palm lasers would be one of my first upgrades. It's good for self-defense if you're attacked by something big.

[Just A Dot]

One does not simply build a giant robot without the ability to shoot laser beams.

 

http://biosector01.c...Comic6Cover.png

 

For years, I've thought that the prototype robot's head reminded me of SOMETHING, and I just now realized that it reminds me of a Skrall helmet. Lucky coincidence that I happened to see this topic a few hours after dusting 3 years worth of dust off my Skrall set.

[25K Now!]

There's no reason not to put lasers in the palms of planet-sized robots. In fact, if I had my own planet-sized robot, palm lasers would be one of my first upgrades. It's good for self-defense if you're attacked by something big.

Actually, a giant forcefield would have been better, so the meteors that will inevitably crash into you will not damage your body.

 

Anyway, the Mata Nui robot may have had more functions that lasers, but Terry might not have mastered them when fighting Mata Nui, who had some experience despite using a flawed prototype.

[Toatapio Nuva]

He did not stop there. Have a looksee at these images:

 

http://biosector01.com/wiki/images/0/0b/Comic6Cover.png

http://biosector01.com/wiki/images/4/44/Art_Teridax_Beating_Mata_Nui.jpg

http://biosector01.com/wiki/images/c/c9/Art_Mata_Nui_Versus_Makuta_Teridax.PNG

http://biosector01.com/wiki/images/4/48/Comic_Mata_Nui_vs._Makuta_Robots.png

 

The last one of those pictures has Mata Nui blasting Makuta, not the other way around. Also, the Mata Nui saga images may or may not be canon at times.

[bonesiii]

 

He did not stop there. Have a looksee at these images:

 

http://biosector01.com/wiki/images/0/0b/Comic6Cover.png

http://biosector01.com/wiki/images/4/44/Art_Teridax_Beating_Mata_Nui.jpg

http://biosector01.com/wiki/images/c/c9/Art_Mata_Nui_Versus_Makuta_Teridax.PNG

http://biosector01.com/wiki/images/4/48/Comic_Mata_Nui_vs._Makuta_Robots.png

 

The last one of those pictures has Mata Nui blasting Makuta, not the other way around. Also, the Mata Nui saga images may or may not be canon at times.

And there's the post I expected. It just came a bit later than I expected lol.

 

Cue the prepared answers -- the main reason I included the last one was that it shows that these powers were hitting, and this wasn't defeating either one. So probably what we were supposed to conclude is that both of them quickly realized the nearly impervious substance they're made out of was just about the only thing that actually did any damage, so even though they did use a variety of powers they fell back to a fistfight because that was working better. Then they had to go for attempts at really big uber-powerful wowzer attacks using their surroundings to aid things, seeing that even punching wasn't coming close enough to anybody actually winning (Teridax with a black hole and Mata Nui with the headshot).

 

I was going to get into that in my first post but didn't have time and figured I'd wait for the inevitable reply about that.

 

To the non-canon point, that was true of nearly every source in the final year. It got rather chaotic. For example, the comics showed an awful interpretation of the megaplanet that would be much more befitting of a tiny asteroid. The general rule for such things is that they're canon unless they contradict something else. It's not entirely clear which source in the final year goes on top in case of a contradiction but this is irrelevant to this question because there's nothing contradictory about them firing powers at each other.

 

Plus: Worf.

[fishers64]

To the non-canon point, that was true of nearly every source in the final year. It got rather chaotic. For example, the comics showed an awful interpretation of the megaplanet that would be much more befitting of a tiny asteroid. The general rule for such things is that they're canon unless they contradict something else. It's not entirely clear which source in the final year goes on top in case of a contradiction but this is irrelevant to this question because there's nothing contradictory about them firing powers at each other. Plus: Worf.

Lol @ Worf. I thought Journey's End trumped everything, under the What GregF Writes is Canon unless GregF Says Otherwise Rule. On that note, the powers did work, at least in this case:

Power lanced from Makuta's outstretched hand. It struck Mata Nui on the shoulder, staggering him and tearing a gash in his robotic shell.

And here:

[Mata Nui] raised both arms, hurling a twin blast of energy at his opponent. "And here on Bara Magna."yelled Mata Nui, "we know what to do with insects."* * * Inside the robot Makuta controlled, a violent earthquake rocked every land mass...

Mata Nui fired a bolt of pure power, striking the same spot he had before. Makuta growled as he felt circuits fuse. His readout indicated that a molten protodermis pipeline had been severed inside him, causing cascading failures in his systems.

Right after this, Makuta goes for the gravity attack.

Towering above the fight, Mata Nui and Makuta glowed like stars as they expended all their energy in their own personal struggle.

Other melee attacks are mentioned, but it seems from JE that the robot fight used a balence of both.