Training to access inner light/shadow powers

[Makuta_of_Oz]

The Makuta of the prime universe trained themselves to push away their inner light and become shadow beings. Roodaka did similar, granting herself the ability to fire shadow blasts from her hands. Also, the Makuta of the Melding Alternate Universe trained themselves to purge themselves of shadow and become beings of light.

 

My questions are:

 

Can other beings (e.g. Toa, Matoran or Skakdi) train themselves in the same way?

Shadow Leeches and the Avsa drain light and make their victims beings of Shadow. Is there a method that can do the opposite, draining a being's shadow and making them beings of Light?

[Toa of Italy]

I think this topic should go in S&T.

 

In any case, I must begin with a small correction: the Makuta rejected their inner light, true, but they were already capable of using shadow power from before, apparently because Mata Nui gave it to them to allow them to control Rahi that dwelled in darkness (not a very satisfying retcon if you ask me, but that's what Makuta's Guide to the Universe says). I suppose the Melding Universe Makuta could have undergone the same process, the other way round, of course

 

Roodaka is different: the Vortixx don't have natural shadow powers, she developed them by tapping into her dark side, like you said. The same basically happened for the Shadow Matoran, who gained shadow powers by tapping into their dark side, though in their case they could do it simply because there was no light left within them. I don't know whether Roodaka, too, needed to fully reject her light to access her dark side, though personally I don't think so.

 

Coming to your first question, I would answer yes: since Roodaka, who had no shadow powers to begin with, was able to acquire them, there's no reason why another being undergoing the same training wouldn't be able to. We could, however, wonder about the extent of these powers. Roodaka could simply fire shadow bolts, just like Vican and Vultraz could. Kirop, Gavla and Radiak, on the other hand, also had additional abilities (if linked to a Makuta), which were basically the transformation of their respective Av-Matoran abilities. We have also seen that a Toa affected by a Shadow Leech becomes a true Toa of Shadow, with all the range of shadow elemental abilities available to them; this can happen even for a partial drain of light, like in Takanuva's case.

It thus seems that while shadow powers can be accessed by anyone through training, their extent might depend on the powers they had before.

It is also possible that the effects of training and of a Shadow Leech (or Kanohi Avsa) attack might be different for beings like Toa or Skakdi: after training, they would only be able to use shadow bolts, while a shadow leech would give them shadow bolts and additional powers depending on their original abilities (thus a Toa would have full elemental shadow capabilities, while a Skakdi would have just shadow bolts and would have to work with another Skakdi to access the full range of the shadow element).

 

Moving to the second question, I'd say that if a certain training can allow you to tap into your dark side, there should also be training that would let you tap into the light. Again, the extent of the power this would give you is uncertain. If my previous hypotheses are correct, then through training a being would only acquire the power to fire light bolts. To have more, a being would need something to drain their shadow, but nothing like that has been shown to exist in the canon storyline. If I were to speculate, I'd say that it might be possible to transform Kraata created by the Melding Universe Makuta into "Light Leeches", since main universe Kraata can become Shadow Leeches.

Edited December 15, 2017 by Toa of Italy

[Makuta_of_Oz]

I actually found this on BS01 the other day under Light (Generation 1):

 

"The balance of Light and Shadow also has an effect on a being's other Elemental Powers. Any being unbalanced in either direction will gain the ability to use the corresponding element of Light or Shadow. In addition, any being who previously wielded an Elemental Power will now wield the new element instead."

 

By this logic, beings CAN become beings of Light if they have little to no shadow in them. In theory, this should mean that Skakdi of Light can exist if instilled with enough light/removed of enough shadow, which is above all else what I wanted to know. It also means Toa of Light can be created from Matoran/Toa of elements other than Light as well if adequate technology existed.

 

But now I'm curious about something else: Umbra has no shadow, so if his light was drained he would die. Does that mean that an MU being would die if all their light followed by all their shadow (or vice versa) was drained?

[Vakuta]

Apparently Shadow used to be a normal element before the Makuta turned from the Light and claimed Shadow as their own. As for what you're asking, I think by lore it's not impossible but such things weren't ever written about.

[Master Inika]

I don't think the Shadow Matoran are an example of training to use Shadow powers. They just had natural Light powers, and when that was drained, they were left with Shadow. I believe Roodaka is canonically the only one in the prime universe we know of who had no natural Light or Shadow powers and trained to gain one of them.

 

Conversely, the Melding Makuta, as I understand it, had to train even harder to overcome their natural Shadow and then attain the Light.

[TERIDAX941]

Here's something that made me think: Matoran don't have the mental capacity to use noble and great Kanohi, so would they have the mental capacity to totally purge themselves of light if they wanted to? The way the story seems to tell is that it takes a long time and great effort to do so (namely with the Makuta and Roodaka with shadow, and the Melding Makuta with light) so would your average Matoran be able to even perform such a feat?

 

Following, maybe the shadow leeches are the "artificial" means to purge someone of light that Mutran and Tridax came up with since they knew Matoran couldn't do it on their own, and no Toa would do so willingly because of their status of "hero".