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How did the Toa Mata stop the Rahi?


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Makuta had a nearly limitless supply of Rahi, and there isnt any indication that the Toa ran into infected Rahi later down the road. I also dont remember them just hunting down every last Rahi and removing its mask. So what was it that stopped the Makuta from continuing to use them?

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They taught the Matoran how to do it, too. One canon bit of info we know from the MNOG is that the Matoran were more than capable of removing infected masks from the beasts, though not always easily in some cases such as Muaka and Tarakava. Besides, Teridax most likely didn't feel it necessary to infect every single Rahi on the island--just a few major ones in key locations, like guarding the Kanohi scattered around the island. 

tl;dr--Not every Rahi was infected, and the Matoran were able to free most of the remaining ones on their own.

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The first issue here is whether the Matoran and the Turaga knew that Makuta's control over the Rahi was due to the Infected Kanohi or not even before the Toa Mata arrived. In the Comics and in MNOG, it appears that they did (Nuju explains this to Kopaka the moment he meets him); in Tale of the Toa, however, the Toa discover this only after fighting a number of Rahi and then reveal the secret to the Matoran.

 

I'm more inclined to believe that the role of the Infected Masks was known beforehand, especially since the Turaga had been hunting the Kraata responsible for the infections for many years. It is true that the Turaga did not always share what they knew, but in this case there is no reason to believe they didn't and various sources that say they did.

 

At this point, the obvious question is: since the Matoran knew all along that the Infected Masks allowed Makuta to control the Rahi, how come they only managed to defeat all of them after the Toa arrived?

 

The first reason is undoubtedly the presence of the Toa themselves. Even if the Matoran were equipped with the knowledge necessary to defeat the Rahi, having a Toa on your side helps. The efforts of the Toa led to a great deal many Infected Rahi being unmasked and, as shown in MNOG, gave a substantial contribution to the villages' defense. The Toa therefore brought the number of Infected Rahi down and gave the Matoran the time to rally their forces.

 

Still, as you have pointed out, it wasn't the Toa that ultimately defeated the majority of the Rahi. A second factor that might have contributed to the final Matoran victory is the fact that the dynamics of the Great War against the Rahi changed towards the end. Before, Makuta basically used the Rahi to harry the villages, keep them off balance and isolate them from each other, but without actually trying to destroy tehm. Although there might have been episodes of the war that we don't know of, we can guess that the first big attacks, which inflicted significant damage on the villages, were those that, 1000 years after the settlement of Mata Nui, led to the theft of the Noble Kanohi, the displacement of the Toa Stones and the kidnapping of the Turaga.

I'm not sure why Makuta chose to change his tactics like this, since we know he wasn't out to destroy the Matoran; perhaps he thought they were on the verge of breaking and wished to deal a final blow to their morale. However, these tactics proved counterproductive, since these events were what led Takua to gather the Toa Stones and summon the Toa Mata (though we might speculate that Makuta actually knew that this would be the result of his actions, since he counted on the Toa Mata reaching Mata Nui eventually...). With the Toa Mata on the island, Makuta had to step up the pressure on the villages and thus unleashed bigger hordes of Rahi than ever before (we see this in MNOG). While this inflicted greater losses upon the Matoran, it also concentrated the Infected Rahi in a few places and thus gave the villagers the opportunity to confront them and unmask them. The best example of this is the final Battle of Kini-Nui, where Makuta fielded, and lost, what was probably a substantial portion of his army.

 

However, I don't think even this is enough to explain why every single Infected Rahi was unmasked. The final reason, I think, was that Makuta himself eventually decided that there was no point in continuing to use the Rahi. He had used them to test the strength of the Toa and had launched massive attacks against the villages and in both cases he had lost. This might have led him to conclude that using Rahi armies simply wasn't worth the effort. It might also be that, after his first defeat at the hands of the Mata, he was too weak, for a while, to create the Kraata that were necessary to infect new masks and replenish his Rahi army.

Whatever the reason, he decided to instead use the Bohrok to keep the Toa and the Matoran off-balance. I think that any leftover Rahi were simply released from his control, perhaps because of his weakness or more likely because he wanted to create the illusion that he had indeed been defeated by the Toa Mata.

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The first issue here is whether the Matoran and the Turaga knew that Makuta's control over the Rahi was due to the Infected Kanohi or not even before the Toa Mata arrived. In the Comics and in MNOG, it appears that they did

With mnog its kinda weird. There's no specifc 'aha!' moment, but in the second chapter jala says of the rahi

 

 

I have studied them extensively... it is possible they were once normal creatures, like the ones that inhabit Mata Nui, until the Makuta turned them... although I am not certain of this.

 

and then in the third chapter, we see gali claiming the tarakava's infected mask.So it seems to be an innovation of the toa, just discovered basically right when they arrive instead of some time later, like in the books.

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The first issue here is whether the Matoran and the Turaga knew that Makuta's control over the Rahi was due to the Infected Kanohi or not even before the Toa Mata arrived. In the Comics and in MNOG, it appears that they did

 

With mnog its kinda weird. There's no specifc 'aha!' moment, but in the second chapter jala says of the rahi

 

 

I have studied them extensively... it is possible they were once normal creatures, like the ones that inhabit Mata Nui, until the Makuta turned them... although I am not certain of this.

 

 

and then in the third chapter, we see gali claiming the tarakava's infected mask.So it seems to be an innovation of the toa, just discovered basically right when they arrive instead of some time later, like in the books.

In the very first comic, though, we see Nuju meet Kopaka for the first time. On that occasion, he says (apparently speaking in ordinary Matoran):

 

When they wear Infected Masks, they are servants of Makuta and only one of the dangers you will face.

 

And in MNOG, immediately after Gali's battle with the Tarakava, Takua meets a Ga-Matoran tending to the injured creature, who says:

 

This is the Tarakava that attacked the village. Don't be afraid... he is no longer under the dark influence of Makuta.

 

Shhh... he is resting. He has been through a great ordeal. In time he may be tamed. Sometimes Rahi become infected by Makuta's darkness. Only by removing their mask can they be saved.

 

This seems to indicate that, in Ga-Koro at least, the villagers already know a great deal about the infection process.

 

Both of these episodes occur chronologically before the battle against a Tarakava in Tale of the Toa, which is when, in the book, Kopaka, Onua and Gali discover that the masks are responsible for the infections. In addition, we learn in 2003 that the Turaga hunted down the Kraata responsible for the infections for many years, implying that they were aware of the infection process.

 

This is a frequent problem in the BIONICLE storyline. Something which at one time seems a great mystery or an important discovery is revealed at some other time to be common knowledge. I think there is no alternative but to choose between the sources that tell you one thing and those that tell you another; it's not really possible to reconcile them.

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I think the discrepancies in 2001-2003 between comics, book and MNOG was due to all of them being at different levels of canonicity. As the line continued, I believe both the C.A. Hapka books and MNOG were both rendered "semi-canon", with the comics and movies being the "true" canon of the first three years, after which the Farshtey books and comics became the main source of canon media. 

 

Nonetheless, since this happened in an era where exact canon is cloudy, I had some ideas. In 2001, we know Makuta wasn't truly defeated, only temporarily weakened. He did, however, make it seem like he was down and out, possibly to lull the Toa and Matoran into a false sense of safety, which paid off with the surprise attack on Ta-Koro in 2003. To make his defeat seem "real", he likely let go his grip on the infected Rahi, if he even can do that. If they stay infected and thus feral regardless of Makuta's presence or influence, I assume there was some sort of off-screen cleansing where, following Makuta's defeat, the Toa and Matoran systematically tracked all infected Rahi and removed the masks. 

 

That said, there is something interesting I'd like to bring up. Many of the infected Rahi in 2001 are, at least lore-wise, told to be violent or hostile even when not under Makuta's control. The Muaka, the Nui-Jaga and, though we never saw an infected one, the Ash Bears are all said to be hostile even when not infected.

 

Additionally, in Tales of the Toa, Pohatu encounters a Kane-Ra on the slopes of Mount Ihu when he meets Kopaka as well. This Rahi is hostile, but no indication is given that it is infected. In the same book, Tahu encounters a swarm of mini Kofo-Jaga on a narrow stone bridge. Here he removes one of their masks, and the Rahi becomes weak and limp, yet the 'little mask" is not described to be infected either. 

 

Back on topic, I just assumed that with his defeat, even if it was just for show, diminished Makuta's hold on the infected Rahi.

 

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Makuta had a nearly limitless supply of Rahi, and there isnt any indication that the Toa ran into infected Rahi later down the road. I also dont remember them just hunting down every last Rahi and removing its mask. So what was it that stopped the Makuta from continuing to use them?

That's the thing, though; there's a very serious chance that the Rahi weren't outright defeated by the end of the MNOG. Even though we jump right in to the 2002 story with less than a day in between the two arcs, it shouldn'ty be much of a stretch to assume that a few Rahi remained under Teridax's control, however minor of an aspect of his strategy they may have been by that point in time. We didn't have any films or books until 2003, so it's very possible that a lot went on in the background, while the Matoran struggle in pretty much every way.

 

Further, I'm relatively sure that there isn't a lot to suggest that he had a nearly inexhaustible supply of rahi - he likely had (close to) infinite Kraata, but when you consider the number of Rahi that could have been living on Metru Nui at the time of the Great Cataclysm, and then the number that survived to make it to Mata Nui, it probably wasn't too big; it's unlikely that there were as many individual Rahi as there were Matoran when the Toa hit the island. It may have _seemed_ as though the total number was huge, becuase they were comparably comfortable in many different Wahi and weren't as easily indentifiable on an individual level as people would have been. Of course, they were also much larger, so that increased the tension by a bit. As Pohaturon says, most of theme were probably an issue on some level well into the MoL days, without their masksl; it's implied that Teridax picked the most imposing, dangerous Rahi around for his army; I mean, he would know, right? :P

 

With mnog its kinda weird. There's no specifc 'aha!' moment...

See, even outside of Ta-Koro, there's a strong insinuation that the means by which the Rahi were infected was pretty widely known; Kongu pretty much says the exact same thing after the battle in the skies.

 

Y'know, maybe the MNOG was more clear-cut on this than we may have thought...

 

EDIT: Directly from the old Farshtey Feed. He isn't certain, but it's something more.

 

"Greg imagines that there were still problem Rahi with infected Kanohi on Mata Nui as late as the start of the 2003 story."

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