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Connecting The Yesterday Quest and The Powers That Be


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I started this a while ago but SPIRIT's topic inspired me to finish it.

 

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Alright everybody, this is pretty outlandish but bear with me. If we make a big assumption then a lot of the post-SM material ties together nicely.

 

Orde is Marendar.

 

(Note I'm referring to Marendar as a "he" because using "it" gets confusing.) Marendar was designed to eliminate Toa if they did not behave as expected. In other words, the Toa are a buggy program and Marendar's job is to terminate it. If Marendar had psionic powers, he could scan through Toa's minds (step through the code, find the error) and then kill them (terminate the program). A Toa of Psionics would be the perfect cover then; Marendar could integrate with the Toa and scan their minds without raising any suspicion. By skimming people's minds, Marendar could also build up a working knowledge of the MU that would allow him to come up with a convincing backstory. Whether Marendar was created as a Toa of Psionics or whether he can shapeshift doesn't matter too much, although if he could shapeshift that would explain the gender issue; Marendar could have shapeshifted into a male Toa of Psionics and rushed in among the Toa before learning Psionics was a female element. By the time Chiara asked Orde why he was male, he already had had several days to scan her mind for info that allowed him to cover up his mistake.

 

Now, why would Marendar join Chiara and Zaria's party? Simple: they were searching for the GBs. The GBs were SM's leadership and were also Marendar's creators. If the GBs, Glatorian, and Agori were all in danger, it would make sense for Marendar to prioritize the GBs' lives over the Glatorian and Agori's. Chiara and Zaria threatened the GBs, so Marendar tagged along to kill them.

 


Several things might have happened when the party was captured by the Vorox. I think the most likely possibility is that Orde never revealed himself to the Vorox and didn't know about Velika's power dampeners (in which case his line “You can’t shut off a Toa’s power. That’s like shutting off the ability to breathe!” was genuine).

 

Whatever happened, Orde expected the Toa to be eliminated by the Vorox. And when Orde finds out about Velika:

“It’s insane,” Orde muttered. “It’s … more than I can believe.”

 

The Toa turned to Gelu. “When the Great Beings made Mata Nui … one of them wanted to see, to know, exactly how their creation would function. So, without the knowledge of the others, he … I guess the best word is ‘transferred’ his spirit, his intellect, into one of the bio-mechanical beings they had made to inhabit the Great Spirit.”

 

Gelu looked puzzled.

 

“Don’t you see?” Orde said in a harsh whisper. “One of the beings from my universe … one who is on your world now … is really a Great Being. He’s been living among us all this time, hidden, fooling us all.”

 

“And he gave the information to Kabrua,” Gelu said. “Why?”

 

“I don’t know,” said Orde. “I had to break contact before I learned who he was. But he’s been waiting over 100,000 years to return here, concealed in another body … and I saw flashes of what he has planned for this world. He has to be stopped, Gelu … if there’s still time.”

Orde has been programmed to wipe out all Toa and to protect the GBs. Not only is there a GB disguised as an MU inhabitant (!!) but, as we learned later, that GB wants to rule over SM (!!). That totally goes against Marendar's programming to eliminate the Toa. Once Orde and Velika's true identities are revealed (maybe after Velika fails to kill Lifer and co. and Orde kills Chiara and Zaria?), we have a good lead-in to...

 

...the hinted-at GB civil war!

 

On one side is Angonce and the MU inhabitants, who want a peaceful SM society. On another side is Velika, who dislikes the GBs' leadership and wants to rule over SM with an iron fist. Meanwhile, Marendar runs around killing Toa against both sides' wishes. What Angonce doesn't know is that Velika is responsible for the MUians' sapience, and what Velika doesn't know is that Angonce accidentally released Marendar. Really, their goals aren't that different: after all, they both want the MU inhabitants alive, they just want to rule them differently. The two sides at least temporarily settle their differences (with the help of Takanuva perhaps?! his destiny has something to do with the war after all), and they ally to destroy Marendar. Maybe Velika agrees to end his power grab as long as the GBs agree never to interfere with the new SM society? That's speculation of course, but it would tie up the threads nicely—by the end the GBs, Velika, and Marendar would be a non-issue.

 

As for Kopaka and Pohatu, who knows? :P

 

At the end of all of this, you might be thinking Greg never planned for Orde to be Marendar. AFAIK you're right. But did Greg plan for Velika to be a GB? :P

 

Of course this theory isn't to be taken too seriously, but do feel free to poke holes in it!

 

Edit: Hi all, I'm gonna be gone without internet for a couple weeks. If you post any feedback and you don't get a response, I'm not ignoring you! I'll respond when I get back.

 

Also I just noticed that it's actually fitting that marendar means "salvation" in Agori. If Marendar weren't a threat, then following this theory Velika and Angonce wouldn't ally and the civil war would potentially last much longer than it would otherwise.

Edited by Infrared
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An interesting theory, but I feel like something is missing.

 

Something I whipped up myself (my banner is based off of this):

 The term 'war' is used for a large-scale conflict, and the term 'Great Being Civil War' makes me think it is the division of the entire population, not just two people and their alliances. The Great Beings left the planet, so I always envisioned it (that being, the war) erupting with the return of the Great Being population and the subjects they brought along with them (returning after Velika or Agnance send a transmission that Mata Nui completed his destiny). Open conflict would begin when half of the Great Beings (and their robotic subjects) would reveal a conspiracy that had lasted for thousands and thousands of years that heavily relied on the GB known currently known as Velika. The conspirators would land on a separate part of Spherus Magna and begin a planetary invasion while the 'good' GB's and their subjects would assist the newly created state of New Atero and any other willing potential allies (Skrall and Dark Hunters come to mind, though the latter might have their own agenda given TSO's unknown plans).

 

Your interpretation of Marendar is unique, and I find it both interesting and quite cool. :D I always imagined him/it as being a big bulky robot that was really a mass of highly regenerative, metal-based semi-organic tentacles rooted to a skull and the bulky parts were actually metal casings that could be clamped and un-clamped at will (the casings giving it a humanoid shape), and beckoned forth to their initial places (kind of thinking of a more stable version of Stark's armor in Iron Man 3); also wielding a molten core and throw all dangerous things and hostiles in there instantly destroying the consumed and adding to it's own mass.

 

A shape-shifting Toa with psionic abilities sounds equally dangerous, so now I don't know which to go by mentally. :lol:

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Your interpretation of Marendar is unique, and I find it both interesting and quite cool. :D I always imagined him/it as being a big bulky robot that was really a mass of highly regenerative, metal-based semi-organic tentacles rooted to a skull and the bulky parts were actually metal casings that could be clamped and un-clamped at will (the casings giving it a humanoid shape), and beckoned forth to their initial places (kind of thinking of a more stable version of Stark's armor in Iron Man 3); also wielding a molten core and throw all dangerous things and hostiles in there instantly destroying the consumed and adding to it's own mass.

 

A shape-shifting Toa with psionic abilities sounds equally dangerous, so now I don't know which to go by mentally. :lol:

Why not both?

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It's an interesting theory. I'd have to go back and re-read the serials to talk specifics, but I thought I'd just point out that at the time of writing those last serials, Greg had very few character names left he could legally use. I don't think he would have used up two of them on one character, but I guess it is possible.

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Just for the sake of pointing out the obvious hole in this theory: Orde was in the Mata Nui robot before its crash, and had an established backstory that people knew about. 
 
The second problem is that Marendar is driven to kill Toa. So if Orde was Marendar, Chiara, Zaria, and maybe even Onua would be dead right now. Also "no Toa or team of Toa would be able to stand against him." Orde couldn't even calm down a horde of Zyglak - now you expect him to take down a Toa army? Under this theory, the backstory would be lie - but wouldn't that lie easily be outed? I mean, Orde could plant the memory in some people's heads of him, but one mistake in such a delicate procedure...for a guy that's supposed to be so emotionally volatile that the Great Beings decided on an entirely new course of action? We see his emotions in action later, so it's not all just bluffing. 
 
Thirdly, Marendar would need great strength to escape the vault, which Orde does not have. And then we have this: 
 

Is Orde really Marendar in disguise?
   
Just to test a theory in the TYQ topic.
   
No. Marendar does not use disguises. I didn't see the point in having to do that since it would make him too much like the baterra.

*takes bucket of cold water...*

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just for the sake of pointing out the obvious hole in this theory: Orde was in the Mata Nui robot before its crash, and had an established backstory that people knew about. 

 

The second problem is that Marendar is driven to kill Toa. So if Orde was Marendar, Chiara, Zaria, and maybe even Onua would be dead right now. Also "no Toa or team of Toa would be able to stand against him." Orde couldn't even calm down a horde of Zyglak - now you expect him to take down a Toa army? Under this theory, the backstory would be lie - but wouldn't that lie easily be outed? I mean, Orde could plant the memory in some people's heads of him, but one mistake in such a delicate procedure...for a guy that's supposed to be so emotionally volatile that the Great Beings decided on an entirely new course of action? We see his emotions in action later, so it's not all just bluffing. 

 

Thirdly, Marendar would need great strength to escape the vault, which Orde does not have. And then we have this: 

 

Is Orde really Marendar in disguise?

   

Just to test a theory in the TYQ topic.

   

No. Marendar does not use disguises. I didn't see the point in having to do that since it would make him too much like the baterra.

*takes bucket of cold water...*

 

Well the quote pretty much settles that then.  :P But notwithstanding that, I might as well address the other points.

 

We never actually are told by another character that Orde was in the GSR; we only hear his backstory from himself and from the narrator. If Onua told us Orde's background then that would complicate things, but I'm not sure there's anything (besides, you know, the Greg quote  :P) to indicate that his story is true. That plays into the second point as well: sure, Orde couldn't calm a horde of Zyglak according to Orde, but his story could easily be a lie--certainly Orde would scan Chiara and Zaria's minds to come up with a foolproof backstory so he couldn't be outed easily. That wouldn't require any risky memory editing, plus seeing as Orde provides lots of exposition when he explains the Zyglak issue I imagine the Zyglak's origins aren't common knowledge (if they were, he probably would have left it at "oh yeah, I was the guy who messed up the Zyglak"). Also, AFAIK we're never told how strong he is; in fact, "Orde picked up a heavy branch" in chapter 3. And I'm afraid I don't understand your point about Orde's emotions--he shows "incredulous[ness]" and "shock" in chapter 3, but that fits in with the theory as outlined in the first post....

 

In the end, all we really know about Marendar is, as you said, that "no Toa or team of Toa would be able to stand against him." Does that mean he will eliminate Toa on sight, or will he take the time to learn about them before killing them? We don't know, although based on the quote it seems like Greg was leaning toward the former. The angle that I outlined in this theory struck me while I was binge-watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (no spoilers, but if you've seen the show you know what prompted it) and wasn't intended to be taken too seriously, but it's great that you all find it worthy of discussion! :D

Edited by Infrared
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