Did the Toa Metru already knew each other ?

[Zidonaro]

Before becoming Toa ? I don't read the books and stuff, but in the movies, Matau was acting friendly towards everyone and specially Vakama, calling him fire spitter. Plus, we didn't even got a single "What's your name ?" or "Who are you ?".

 

Also, we know Vakama made Nuju's mask eyepiece, but we don't know if they meet each other during the delivery.

[Makuta Miras]

I think that "fire-spitter" was more of an annoying nickname for Vakama. Also, in the movie, I remember Onewa saying to Nokama when she was trying to break up an argument (Probably between Vakama, Matau and Onewa) in the Great Temple just before they were transformed "Save your lessons for your class(es), teacher!" By this, I think that we can say fairly safely that at least Onewa didn't know Nokama, otherwise he most likely would have said Nokama's name, and probably wouldn't have acted so hostile towards her. That's just my interpretation of it, though. Feel free to tear it apart. 

[Edit] 222nd post!

Edited September 11, 2014 by Makuta Miras

[Zidonaro]

Yeah you could be right, especially since Matau likes to troll everyone. But I noticed another thing: When Matau slams into the pilar when he gets transformed, someone says "Nice move Matau", and after Vakama had the vision, Matau himself says "Thanks for dream sharing Vakama". Notice that in the temple, no one ever identified themselves by name.

 

Edit: It's also interesting to notice that Whenua refers to Vakama by "Mask maker". Maybe this means Whenua don't know Vakama personally ? He also calls Nokama by her name.

 

There is also a chance that this was a simple overlook from the movie creators.

Edited September 11, 2014 by HoloTheWise

[Cambion]

in Time Trap, Vakama acts as though the six of them knew each other beforehand, even if only as acquaintances. "Nokama" goes along with this, but seeing as she's not actually Nokama, the whole thing could have just been Vakama testing to see if what he was experiencing was real. kind of hard to tell, imo. at the very least, though, Vakama and Nuju did meet before becoming Toa, as Vakama made the scope on Nuju's mask.

Edited September 11, 2014 by Arc

[The 1st Shadow]

One thing to notice is that in Onewa's case, he called Nokama "teacher." That's her job. Other Ga-Matoran have different jobs--not all of them are teachers.  Whenua also calls Vakama a "mask-maker," instead of "tool-maker" or "maintenance worker." This implies that, in both cases, they knew the other well enough to know what their occupation is.

 

To add to that, they've lived in the same city for almost 100,000 years at that point. And with only 1,000 Matoran confirmed to be living in Metru Nui, I'd be surprised if they DIDN'T know each other by the time they became Toa.

[Cambion]

One thing to notice is that in Onewa's case, he called Nokama "teacher." That's her job. Other Ga-Matoran have different jobs--not all of them are teachers.  Whenua also calls Vakama a "mask-maker," instead of "tool-maker" or "maintenance worker." This implies that, in both cases, they knew the other well enough to know what their occupation is.

 

To add to that, they've lived in the same city for almost 100,000 years at that point. And with only 1,000 Matoran confirmed to be living in Metru Nui, I'd be surprised if they DIDN'T know each other by the time they became Toa.

good points. i always forget about that population statistic....or maybe i just choose to ignore it. it seems really small to me - 6,000 or something similar would make a bit more sense.

Edited September 11, 2014 by Arc

[Zidonaro]

A population of 1000 Matoran is still quite a big number tho. Also, Matoran from different Metru don't interact with each other too much.

[John Smith]

For what it's worth, I cracked open "Mystery of Metru Nui" (Adventures #1). On page 10 at the bottom, it says,

 

 

Moments before, they had been Matoran. Six strangers, each from a different metru, brought together by a plea for help from Toa Lhikan, the hero of Metru Nui.

 

So at least when Greg wrote this, it would seem he thought they didn't know each other.

 

Edit:

 

good points. i always forget about that population statistic....or maybe i just choose to ignore it. it seems really small to me - 6,000 or something similar would make a bit more sense.

 

 

I agree. My headcanon is that there were 1,000 who were native, but others who had immigrated. I'm not sure if that could be made to fit in with *actual* canon, though.

Edited September 11, 2014 by John Smith

[Chro]

There are people who I have met, and whose occupations I am aware of, yet I would still consider them strangers. I don't think that discredits it - it just adds proof to the fact that they weren't friends, which I would say we were certain of already.

[John Smith]

I suppose that makes sense, especially considering the pieces of evidence from later books.

[Sir Kohran]

The movie is a bit unclear on this. When they first meet, Nuju says "What will be asked of us? We are all just strangers!", but as has been said, they also seem to know each other's names and roles without question.

[fishers64]

It may be because of the other people's achievements. I could be a fan of, say, a famous singer, and know who they are and what they do, but I would still consider them a stranger, and if I had to work with them to save the world, that would be really different than what my relation to them is now.  

[Sir Kohran]

One possibility I've thought of - the Matoran have lived together for a very long time in a community that almost never changes (Matoran mortality being much lower than human, and there being few other places to travel to), and it seems unlikely that most Matoran wouldn't know each other at all. So it could be that the word 'stranger' merely refers to people they're not personally close to or see regularly, rather than (the human definition of a 'stranger' as) someone they've never met and know nothing about.

[LordofBionicles]

I think Nuju and Vakama already knew each other because of the eyepice on his mask, as for the rest they may have heard about each other or even seen during the Matoran Civil War.

[Takhamavahu]

There are too few matoran for the not to have met, and they live much too long. frankly, I think it's an excersise in suspension of disbeleif that they don't all know each other quite well.

 

my own headcanon theory is that although they live a long time, their memories don't last. If they met 200 years ago, they may as well be strangers.

[bonesiii]

The population is 1000, so yeah, but "know" doesn't mean they were all great friends. Everybody would probably be at least dimly aware of everybody, but there's factors that work against it too -- Matoran mainly just do their jobs, and don't tend to explore a lot. And even though it's a small Matoran population it's a huge city in terms of land and the automated skyscrapers and robotic servants (and police). So, it might not be quite the same as a real-world small town.

[Banana Gunz]

I hate how much the movies are out of sync with the story...

 

But anyway as was said, you can have an idea of who someone is but not actually know know them.

Edited September 13, 2014 by Banana Gunz

[Lewa0111 Nuva]

I like to think they knew of each other, more or less, but between themselves they weren't exactly friends. As mentioned before, Vakama and Nuju probably knew each other for the mask-eyepiece, at least from Nuju placing the order and Vakama delivering it. I also always got the feeling that Matau and Nokama were more familiar with one another than the others, as after Matau hits the pillar in the Great Temple, Nokama seems familiar enough with his antics to just laugh it off as opposed to asking "Are you okay?" That's just my personal headcanon, though.

 

Lewa0111 Nuva

[Adventurer]

I think it'd be comparable to a school of roughly the same population, the Matoran from different Metrus (or classes/grades or whatever) would know each other as friends or acquaintances, whereas for the most part they'd probably see the Matoran from the other Metru around, be familiar with them, but not really know them, perhaps never having spoken beyond a brief exchange here and there.

[Thormen]

I agree that they were most likely not complete strangers, but still didn't know each other that well (Vakama for example might only know Nuju since the latter once bought a scope for his mask from him), kinda like Adventurer's school analogy. This seems the most sensible conclusion based on the aforementioned quotes from books and movies.

I don't think it's a good idea to speculate based on Metru Nui's population statistics or its geographical size, since those two figures are extremely weird in comparison to one another. Metru Nui is about one thousand square kilometers in geographical size, almost as big as New York City, but it has the population size of the average human village. Its population density is lower than any country on earth (i.e. sovereign states recognized by the United Nations General Assembly, for completeness' sake), and since that includes vast sparsely inhabited areas such as deserts and tropical rainforest, Metru Nui's population density is astronomically lower than that of any human city. In fact, the population density of the entire earth's surface, including all the seas and oceans, is 14 times as high as Metru Nui's. So if you start reasoning based on population statistics, you're going to have to wonder why these people live in skyscrapers instead of secluded farms.

Now, these statistics don't have to be a problem when we're talking about a fictional universe, it's simply what Takhamavahu calls "an exercise in suspension of disbelief". But trying to make estimations based on them doesn't lead anywhere good IMO.

[25K Now!]

I always took them to be acquaintances of a fashion. Maybe met each other a few times. But close? Definitely not.

[fishers64]

So if you start reasoning based on population statistics, you're going to have to wonder why these people live in skyscrapers instead of secluded farms.

It makes sense if you consider that these people are living in a high-tech spaceship, not a planet. 

 

(Also, Matoran probably live in secluded areas on the Southern Continent, Northern Continent, etc. Metru Nui is the exception, not the rule.)

Edited September 17, 2014 by fishers64

[Thormen]

 

So if you start reasoning based on population statistics, you're going to have to wonder why these people live in skyscrapers instead of secluded farms.

It makes sense if you consider that these people are living in a high-tech spaceship, not a planet. 

 

(Also, Matoran probably live in secluded areas on the Southern Continent, Northern Continent, etc. Metru Nui is the exception, not the rule.)

 

 

No it doesn't. People live in skyscrapers because there is limited room to build houses, not because they live in a high-tech spaceship. Going by the statistics, room in Metru Nui is far from limited. Plus, even if the Matoran had this irrational urge to build their homes on top of each other and thereby create skyscrapers while there is clearly enough room to build them next to each other, this still doesn't explain how the skyscrapers are so close to each other in most parts of the city we've seen. In reality, they would have room to house about a million Matoran (and also provide work etc.), yet there were only about a thousand Metruans.

[fishers64]

 

 

So if you start reasoning based on population statistics, you're going to have to wonder why these people live in skyscrapers instead of secluded farms.

It makes sense if you consider that these people are living in a high-tech spaceship, not a planet. 

 

(Also, Matoran probably live in secluded areas on the Southern Continent, Northern Continent, etc. Metru Nui is the exception, not the rule.)

 

 

No it doesn't. People live in skyscrapers because there is limited room to build houses, not because they live in a high-tech spaceship. Going by the statistics, room in Metru Nui is far from limited. Plus, even if the Matoran had this irrational urge to build their homes on top of each other and thereby create skyscrapers while there is clearly enough room to build them next to each other, this still doesn't explain how the skyscrapers are so close to each other in most parts of the city we've seen. In reality, they would have room to house about a million Matoran (and also provide work etc.), yet there were only about a thousand Metruans.

 

They weren't living in skyscrapers. The only tall buildings I remember were the Knowledge Towers, which were observatories (higher up = better star view), and the coliseum (which wasn't living quarters). 

Edited September 17, 2014 by fishers64

[Thormen]

 

 

 

So if you start reasoning based on population statistics, you're going to have to wonder why these people live in skyscrapers instead of secluded farms.

It makes sense if you consider that these people are living in a high-tech spaceship, not a planet. 

 

(Also, Matoran probably live in secluded areas on the Southern Continent, Northern Continent, etc. Metru Nui is the exception, not the rule.)

 

 

No it doesn't. People live in skyscrapers because there is limited room to build houses, not because they live in a high-tech spaceship. Going by the statistics, room in Metru Nui is far from limited. Plus, even if the Matoran had this irrational urge to build their homes on top of each other and thereby create skyscrapers while there is clearly enough room to build them next to each other, this still doesn't explain how the skyscrapers are so close to each other in most parts of the city we've seen. In reality, they would have room to house about a million Matoran (and also provide work etc.), yet there were only about a thousand Metruans.

 

They weren't living in skyscrapers. The only tall buildings I remember were the Knowledge Towers, which were observatories (higher up = better star view), and the coliseum (which wasn't living quarters). 

 

 

Ermm, I'm pretty sure you're forgetting most of Metru Nui here... this is a picture of the Metru Nui skyline from the comics. You can also take a look at the Vahki promotional animations, they all start with the skyline of their Metru and you'll see tall buildings in 4 of the 6 Metru (not in Onu-Metru and Po-Metru, and Ko-Metru's towers are indeed Knowledge Towers, but that still leaves half the city with tall buildings). It's not like the entire city is littered with actual skyscrapers, but you can't deny that the Matoran clearly stack their homes, stores and whatnot on top of each other. Besides, even if the city were only to consist of bungalows (which completely goes against how Metru Nui has been depicted in the storyline), that still leaves approximately a thousand Matoran to a thousand square kilometers. Those are nowhere near the statistics of real world cities. If you'd say only 50% the city's area is used for housing (which is way too low a percentage) you're still giving more than a hundred acres to every Matoran.

[Nidhiki of the Shadows]

I think they probably had met at some point, but they were definitely not close friends at that point (Which is why they weren't quite so tight as a team for a long time).

 

-NotS

[son of the shadows]

To be honest you can know a person without actually knowing them well to be a stranger still.

 

For a real life example: I'm a car mechanic(or technician they call it now) for Goodyear. Even though I know some of the customers well (what they like, where they work or what they do for a living) while they know some about me as well, I only still view them as customers because they only there for the service we provide and nothing else while they just know me mostly for someone who can fix their car or change their fluids in the car.

 

The same can apply in the Bionicle universe. Nuju needed a telescope piece installed into his mask. He went to Vakama so he can have that done and in between the process of the installation they could have chatted a bit like customers and business do to pass the time till the job is done. They'll get to know some things about them, but not enough to really know each other well to consider them their friend. Probably just gain info of what their Metrus are like from the Matoran who live there.

 

Hope this explains some of it. D:

[V-N]

I think it's worth mentioning that Teridax "made" Toa Lhikan choose Vakama and company because the Makuta thought that those six were the least likely to get along as a team. This helps support the idea that, if they did know/hear of each other (which does for the most part seems likely), they weren't friends.