Love and the Evolution of the Matoran

[Banana Gunz]

So, I was thinking, which as you all know is already a bad sign.

 

Let's talk about love!

 

Love in Bionicle G1 isn't canon, and it's been specifically stated as so by the mighty Greg Farsthey, his great power moving mountains and bringing back thousands characters from the dead in a single motion. And for many this has been a point of contention with the Greg-Nui, for to many it makes no sense why this would be the case. Is love not unity? Is love not allowed because they're part robots? I mean seriously, love doesn't have to be sexual, and Hewkii x Macku is the cutest thing ever!

 

Well gather round my young matoran and look into the fire, for there are secrets to be revealed: Love not being canon is deliberate, important, and one the smartest, most interesting and powerful themes in Bionicle G1. Yep, that's right. This is coming from the banana that's made posts about the unfortunate and cruel senselessness of the de-canonization of love.

 

So why? Why isn't Greg-Nui feeling the love? And far less importantly, why aren't I? There's a chance it has something to do with me being a simple banana but there's more to it.

 

Let's take a look at the history of the matoran. The matoran were designed by the Great Beings to keep the Mata-Nui robot functioning, like cells. In working, doing tasks, etc. they were keeping the Mata-Nui robot functional. Without their work, Mata-Nui would get sick and die.

 

They initially were simply unfeeling bio-mechanical workers designed solely to operate the robot. After all, them having relationships might intervene with their work. Some matoran might decide to go off and play kolhii instead or throw rocks at Ahkmou; it's just plain inefficient. The last thing I want is for some cell in my body to get lazy and decide it doesn't feel like keeping me alive, it can be a bad influence on the others.

 

But as Angonce (I believe) remarked, the matoran didn't stay that way. They began to wage wars for their freedom, fight for each other and their deity. They believed, learned, grew, and became more than the micro-workers were ever meant to be: truly alive. This was an evolution, and with this evolution they became alive in the mind. They were arguably the Great Beings' greatest creation, for it's the first thing they created that could fight for and shape its own destiny.

 

But if they can feel now, if they've evolved, why can't they love? It's senseless, ridiculous! Love is such a huge part of the mind, and it makes no sense for them to not have it... except that it does, for now.

 

Evolution is typically a slow sucker, never really in a hurry to be useful. But it never really stops happening. Even you, are evolving right now into the next stage in humanity. Why should it be the same for the matoran? Why would they just stop? They've established themselves as a growing and changing species, so picking a comfy spot to chill in for the rest of their existence hardly makes any sense.

 

So the answer is that they're not done evolving, and that love is something they're still developing. That's the ultimate difference between them and the agori: the agori are far more advanced them them biologically and more evolved. They've been in existence for far longer than the matoran, and in the story serve as a physical vision of what the matoran could become, as well as what they should not be (considering all the fun war and splitting your own planet into three pieces sort of thing).

 

The agori can love because they're more advanced than the matoran, and the matoran can't love canonically because they haven't reached that stage yet in their growth.

 

And what about Hewkii and Macku? Well they actually make sense here. They are shown being "very affectionate" of each other in the MNOG animations, and that's not untrue. They may love each other, but not really know what it means considering it's nothing the rest of the matoran have ever likely felt before. They are the anomalies, and it's always the anomalies that change the world. They're the pin that fate balances on, and when they take that step forward and recognize their feelings (likely to be sparked by meeting the agori and learning from their example), the rest of the matoran race will follow and evolve to learn that feeling too.

 

Think of it as the X-Men! The X-Men stories show an evolution of the human race, with small amounts of people gaining super-human/advanced abilities. More and more people gain that ability as they evolve as they become a part of it, except in Bionicle's case, the ultimate power is the power of LOVE! (Side theory: Mask of Ultimate Power actually the Mask of Love?)

 

Love not being canon doesn't mean it doesn't have the potential to exist for the matoran, and the evolution of the matoran is one of the smartest and most meaningful themes to come out because of this.

 

The evolution of the matoran is a reflection of the human race, and it demonstrates a people learning to grow and fight to become something, growing beyond the menial tasks they were build for and becoming so much more, even escaping and growing above the need for their deity and shell of a universe.

 

The migration of the matoran out of the robot is a metaphor for them literally seeing the light. Mata-Nui himself explains how the matoran don't need him anymore and how he would just be a shadow standing over them, limiting their potential for what they could become.

 

Evolution stands for so much in humanity. It stands for the breaking of the shackles that bind us and hold us down to the slavery of mortality, and climbing the ladder to become more than submissive and worshiping, but becoming productive to ourselves and each other. And while the agori nearly destroyed themselves, it is out of them that the matoran were shaped, except directly changed to have Unity, Duty, and Destiny, so they would not make that mistake. In being given this, they were by design destined and shaped to become more; to work on themselves, on each other, and the future they would all occupy as one. They show that their destiny IS their evolution, and vice versa.

 

So rather than cursing Greg-Nui for de-canonizing love, we ought to be thanking him, for after thinking about it the design of it makes so much more sense this way and makes for a far more meaningful and powerful story. It's beautiful, like poetry, and is just one more reason to love the Bionicle.

Edited May 18, 2016 by Banana Gunz

[aldero]

I've always thought of the Bionicle incarnation of love as an exotic offshoot of altruism. After several thousand years of Matoran development and events such as the Matoran Civil War, the migration to Mata Nui and the destruction of the Southern Continent, I'd like to think that these Matoran would have learned to share their opinions and feelings, further developing themselves as more humanistic beings the more they strayed from their programmed task of managing the upkeep for the Great Spirit Robot. 

 

The whole Hewkii x Macku (Mackii? Hewku?) thing could be explained away pretty easily, though. If you're spending one thousand years on the lush, exotic island with the constant threat of whichever Tarakava or Nui-Rama decides to invade, human emotions are going to surface themselves. In my eyes, if the Matoran could break away from their programmed purpose and learn to express human emotions, any form of sexual love is inevitable, in my opinion. Granted, I don't want to start talking about the logistics of Matoran sexuality, but I'll just use the term for readability.

[The 1st Shadow]

*slow clapping*

 

Bravo, Gunz. You're the first person I've seen yet make a logical explanation of it. We know the Matoran didn't develop their sapience right away, so the time it took them to do so may have been a couple thousand years, just to have some sense of identity. The rest would have taken who knows how long? We know that they were organized enough after 20,000 years, which was about when the Barraki had their thing and got imprisoned. 

 

But so far, we only have written descriptions of when major events happened, rather than chronological records of how Matoran society had developed. This theory broadens that scope and makes the lack of certain emotions make all the more sense.

 

I'd give you my Gold Star of Approval, but I haven't drawn one up yet. Until then, have a cookie.

[Regitnui]

Also, we're pretty much in the dark as to Matoran ages. Hewkii and Macku could be relatively young and so have the 'latest OS'. More importantly though, we know a lot of matoran alive now were alive before sentience was granted; it could be expected that they'd develop their individual personality quirks slowly. Evolution in the strictest sense takes place between generations; there can't have been more than three generations of matoran in the GSR.

[Petewa]

I like this theory, it's beautifully poetic.

[toa kopaka4372]

A topic defending the decanonization of romantic love in G1? Never thought I'd see the day.

 

A few points, most nitpicky:

 

1) MU inhabitants can love just fine. Its romantic love specifically that they cannot feel (yet?). We see our beloved MU characters expressing love throughout the story all the time: love for friends, love for home, love of good, love of evil, etc. It's a distinction that's usually assumed in these kind of discussions, but I think it'd be nice to be more explicit /nitpicky.

 

2) I know Greg is the scapegoat to blame for the non-canon-ness of romance, and I know it's become a bit of a joke at this point, but I wonder if the general tendency to credit him for the lack of canon romance in the MU is yet another example of him bearing criticism that should be directed at the story team as a whole simply because he was its most prominent member. It's kind of unfair too, since he gave us canon couples/romance stories in Sahmad's Tale and with Kiina when he didn't have to. This isn't directed at you, by the way, just general commentary on attitudes I see in the fandom.

 

3) This is a nice way of looking at it, and I appreciate you writing this out. You might be interested to know that Greg has basically confirmed what you're saying in terms of Matoran evolving to acquire romantic love. I can't pull it up right now, but a while ago Greg suggested in a Lego Message Board answer (on the ask Greg topic, I'd recommend people check it out from time to time) that the Matoran, based on their interactions with the Agori, could develop romantic feelings. He basically left the door open for that to happen on Spherus Magna in the future, which is probably as close as he'll ever come to making MU romance canon. Kind of surprised that doesn't get brought up more often (though it's likely because so few are aware of it).

[Alyska]

There's a discussion on Tumblr right now about the Matoran going through a "second awakening" after the Destiny algorithm had run its course. Because, if you think about it, every action committed by any MU being was done in accordance with their destiny. You can't say no to destiny, and any attempt you make to thwart it will just end with you accidentally fulfilling it. 

 

This means that although MU folks  were sapient and self aware, they actually had no free will at all. Their choices were not their own. 

 

But if the Destiny programming was no longer running, then they would start having to make choices for themselves. They'd probably retain the same personality, and some might not feel any different at all, but chances are that some would start to question what they knew and explore behaviours that Matoran wouldn't normally adopt, and I think romantic love- especially after melding with Agori society and adopting some of their customs- is actually a pretty plausible outcome of that. After all, good ol' Greg always used to argue that a) Romance is a social construct that the Matoran never invented due to lack of biological imperative, and b) Romance had no place in the Matoran's purpose of maintaining the robot.

So therefore, now that romance is part of the (combined) society, and they are no longer being operated by destiny and don't have to run a robot, it becomes an interesting possibility.

 

Ahhh, I'd almost forgotten how much fun it is to use Greg's own logic against him.

 

Though if you're identifying certain beings as "anomalies", I think you have to include Matau there as well. Greg trying to insist that romance was never canon holds absolutely no water when you remember how he wrote Matau flirting with Nokama in every second line of dialogue. 

 

Edit: Somebody find that Greg quote!

Edited May 20, 2016 by Alyska

[Xboxtravis]

I just assumed the Mata Nui era story stuff that hinted at romantic relations (Hewkii-Maku) (Jaller-Hahli) actually fits this theory in a way. Those Matoran lived 1000 years outside of the Great Spirit Robot. 1000 years of independence at freewill. It would make sense that without any purpose in their destiny, small quirks appeared in their personalities during their 1000 year stay on the island. And if Matoran shared genetic code from the Agori, it makes sense those notions would start to creep in, even if it only lead to platonic flirting. 

 

And it would also explain why during the events after the return to Metru-Nui this sentiment went away rapidly. The Matoran had returned to back to their programmed place of work, and reverted almost immediately back to their old ways. This derailed any romantic relationships developing as again they were being guided by Destiny.

 

So give it 1000-2000 years back on Spherus Magna and things will start to be shaken up again.

[toa kopaka4372]

 

 

 Edit: Somebody find that Greg quote!

 

Found it, top of the page (on my computer at least): https://community.lego.com/t5/LEGO-General/Chat-with-Greg-Farshtey/td-p/6605180/highlight/true/page/684

 

 

jesusHERCULESchrist wrote:

 Right off the bat, i understand fully why you and others wouldn't want it to be canon.  Romance in living animals exists for the rather singlular purpose of reproduction, and that is not something that exists within the Matoran species.  Plus this is a childrens toy and its probably best to stay as far from a topic like that as possible.  However, i feel that the relationships included in some of the older books offer a good reason to include the EMOTION of love at least.  Take the relationship between Nokama and Matau (or rather how Matau acts towards Nokama) for example. Normally he is a very confident character, sort of full of himself, but in the older books he has a major soft-spot for Nokama specifically. He is very protective of her, and is shy of his feelings. I know that these scenes are now non-canon, but i feel that choice threw away some really unique character building. Without those scenes, Matau is sort of a one-dimensional over-confident dude (no offense), but with them he gets that crutial extra bit of depth that makes his character that little bit more interesting.

You could argue that Matau/Nokama relationship is just one of very close friendship, but i think that at least leaving it open to enterpretation would make it a little more interesting. It is more fun and engaging for the reader to have two characters that you can't quite tell whether or not they are more than friends, than to have two characters that you know exactly what sort of relationship they have.  That unknown factor can spawn discussion, and ultimately that is a good thing (most of the time). 

 

So i guess my real question is this; 

 

Would you ever consider reinstating love (outwith what a sort of brother/sister love) as a thing that the Matoran kind can experience? 

 

 

Not romantic love, no.

That said, though -- you are now going to have MU inhabitants exposed to the concept on SM. So there is no telling what effect that might have

 

[Alyska]

Thank you so much for finding that! Made my week, seriously.

[toa kopaka4372]

Thank you so much for finding that! Made my week, seriously.

No problem! Glad to hear it. 

[Alyska]

Okay, now I'm really curious about how this would work. Which cultural aspects of romance/dating would be the most confusing or awkward for MU beings to figure out? (within BZP-appropriate subjects, of course)

 

I imagine Kanohi masks would make kisses a bit difficult...

[Banana Gunz]

Well matoran romance doesn't even have to particularly include kissing. They could simply have recognition of their feelings for each other and perhaps develop bond and marriage.

[Regitnui]

They'd probably figure out most customs pretty quickly, but their robotic designs would probably make physical intimacy of any level beyond hugs and snuggling rather more incomprehensible.