Questions regarding 2001's Story

[ToaFred]

Recently I've been trawling through the books, comics and biosector to try and piece together 2001's story. There were a few things however that I'm curious about that I can't really find answers for.

- The turaga made the toa stones that Takua gathers to summon the toa, why did they never use them in the first place? Was there any point in waiting a thousand years for this?

- In MNOG, Jaller sends takua to Ko-Koro to find the missing scouts from the Ta-koro Guard but I don't seem to remember if they were ever found or mentioned again. Takua seems to get sidetracked.

- We all know what Makuta's endgame was, so what was the point in harassing the matoran for a thousand years and why did he never try releasing the Bohrok or Rahkshi before the Toa arrived?

- The Makoki Stones are only ever mentioned as being things the Toa just so happened to pick up whilst searching for masks, was it ever elaborated on where they found them and if they were ever told to do so?

- I'm confused whether the Turaga hid the kanohi around the island or if Artakha hid them.

- Did the Toa actually collect Great Kanohi versions of the Turaga's masks? The only source that seems to suggest this is MNOG but we know that some aspects of this were non-canon.

- Was there any good reason for the Turaga not telling anybody about Metru-Nui are anything about the Matoran Universe? Did they just see no point?

 

 

[TERIDAX941]

*Whew* lots of questions. Let's see if I can address them all accurately:

 

- The Turaga made the Toa stones when they were still Toa and hid them around the island so Makuta couldn't find them. The Toa were supposed to show up the instant Mata Nui fell asleep, so why they waited for 1,000 I don't know. It might have started as a game mechanic for Takua to do, and got inserted into the story, not 100% sure of the time frame.

 

-I don't know what happened to them honestly... Biosector01 says they were "incapacitated" by Makuta's forces, whatever that means...

 

-His plan involving the Matoran was to keep them away from Metru Nui for 1,000 so that Mata Nui will eventually die. That's why he wanted the Vahi, to make time go by quicker for the Great Spirit to die, but with that plan out of the way, he had to delay the Matoran's return to Metru Nui. Now when the Toa defeated him, he was weakened, so he unleashed the Bohrok (and consequently the Kal) to buy himself time to recover. The only unforeseen event was the finding of the Avohkii. He never intended to unleash Rahkshi on the Matoran before then, because of the pure destruction they could wreck, but his hands were tied. He couldn't allow a major defeat at this time (even though it ultimately happened)

 

-I believe in MNOG game (and the unreleased Legend of Mata Nui game) it was mentioned that the Toa found them to open the Mangaia lair in Kini Nui to find Makuta. I'm not sure 100% about either because I haven't played MNOG in awhile...

 

-I believe the way it happened was, Artahka hid the Great Masks but Makuta's forces stole and hid the Turaga's Noble masks. But Makuta also sent his Rahi to guard the Great Masks too...

 

-No the Toa only collected Noble versions of the Turaga masks.

 

-They didn't want the Matoran to try to go back to Metru Nui because they knew Makuta would try and stop them. In the book Tales of the Masks the story is literally the Turaga struggling over the fact that the Toa need to know the truth, and the reasons behind hiding it from them. Once Makuta was defeated then they felt they could share everything once Metru Nui was found again.

 

There's my take on things. If you guys find need to correct or amend what I put down feel free to do so, I'm a little rusty in my lore

[ToaFred]

Haha yes sorry about the onslaught of questions, it's just all the things I thought of in my research and didn't want to create separate topics for each.

- I did wonder how much of what happened in the storyline was forced because of game mechanics becoming canon, I imagine the story would have been much more 'videogame-y' if the game had ever seen the light of day. 

- I assume they weren't killed, maybe they just found their way back after Makuta's defeat.

- That's an interesting way of seeing it, I never considered that he was stalling for time during the early years of the story but it makes sense considering how close Mata Nui came to death shortly afterwards.

- Yeah I understood their function, I was just curious how they were found, I assume the cancelled game would have answered that question, and many others.

- So did the Turaga have their own set of masks too?

- But those masks were seperate to the Toa's quest and were found on the way? I assume they weren't stored in their suvas.

- That makes sense, I haven't gotten to that book actually.

 

I feel like a lot of the story for the first year was relying on the PC game to be released to actually tell the story, but when that didn't happen it left a few gaps that had to be reconciled by just 1 book later on.

 

Thanks for your help!

[Toatapio Nuva]

 

The turaga made the toa stones that Takua gathers to summon the toa, why did they never use them in the first place? Was there any point in waiting a thousand years for this?

 

It's likely they didn't know that the stones could summon the Toa Mata the way they did, at least until much later when Takua collected them. Also, under Vakama's instructions, the Toa Metru hid the stones in places where "only someone with the heart of a Toa could reach". This is probably why they didn't just recover the stones by themselves - they were waiting for someone "with the heart of a Toa" to do that. I guess they were relying on destiny there.

 

 

In MNOG, Jaller sends takua to Ko-Koro to find the missing scouts from the Ta-koro Guard but I don't seem to remember if they were ever found or mentioned again. Takua seems to get sidetracked.

 

Kopeke reveals in the game that "Makuta led them in the ice, and I fear they will not return". If you go and speak with Jala after that, he speaks about mourning for them and not forgetting their sacrifices. In other words, they died. This was later retconned by Greg, hence the stuff about them being "incapacitated". Make of that what you will.

 

 

We all know what Makuta's endgame was, so what was the point in harassing the matoran for a thousand years and why did he never try releasing the Bohrok or Rahkshi before the Toa arrived?

 

Iron_Man5 explained this perfectly.

 

 

The Makoki Stones are only ever mentioned as being things the Toa just so happened to pick up whilst searching for masks, was it ever elaborated on where they found them and if they were ever told to do so?

 

In the early canon material, the Toa received the Makoki stones from their Suva after gaining the golden masks. With the canon depiction of how the Toa received their golden masks being changed though, I'd assume the Turaga simply gave them the Makoki stones before that. The stones were originally planned to have a much greater significance in the story, but for some reason they were reduced to a minor plot detail.

 

 

I'm confused whether the Turaga hid the kanohi around the island or if Artakha hid them.

 

The original Kanohi the Toa had to gather were hidden by the Toa Metru before they became Turaga. They had brought those masks with them from Metru Nui. However, the Kanohi Nuva that later appeared on the island were teleported there by Artakha.

 

 

Did the Toa actually collect Great Kanohi versions of the Turaga's masks? The only source that seems to suggest this is MNOG but we know that some aspects of this were non-canon.

 

Like Iron_Man5 said, those Kanohi were indeed noble, and the Toa collected them for their Turaga to keep and use. However, they also used them occasionally themselves, before handing them over.

 

 

Was there any good reason for the Turaga not telling anybody about Metru-Nui are anything about the Matoran Universe? Did they just see no point?

 

What Iron_Man5 said, plus the fact that they felt like telling the Matoran about a home they might never see again would be cruel.

 

 

That makes sense, I haven't gotten to that book actually.

 

You can read all of the Bionicle books and stories, neatly compiled, here.

[TuragaNuva]

 

 

The turaga made the toa stones that Takua gathers to summon the toa, why did they never use them in the first place? Was there any point in waiting a thousand years for this?

 

It's likely they didn't know that the stones could summon the Toa Mata the way they did, at least until much later when Takua collected them. Also, under Vakama's instructions, the Toa Metru hid the stones in places where "only someone with the heart of a Toa could reach". This is probably why they didn't just recover the stones by themselves - they were waiting for someone "with the heart of a Toa" to do that. I guess they were relying on destiny there.

 

 

In MNOG, Jaller sends takua to Ko-Koro to find the missing scouts from the Ta-koro Guard but I don't seem to remember if they were ever found or mentioned again. Takua seems to get sidetracked.

 

Kopeke reveals in the game that "Makuta led them in the ice, and I fear they will not return". If you go and speak with Jala after that, he speaks about mourning for them and not forgetting their sacrifices. In other words, they died. This was later retconned by Greg, hence the stuff about them being "incapacitated". Make of that what you will.

 

 

We all know what Makuta's endgame was, so what was the point in harassing the matoran for a thousand years and why did he never try releasing the Bohrok or Rahkshi before the Toa arrived?

 

Iron_Man5 explained this perfectly.

 

 

The Makoki Stones are only ever mentioned as being things the Toa just so happened to pick up whilst searching for masks, was it ever elaborated on where they found them and if they were ever told to do so?

 

In the early canon material, the Toa received the Makoki stones from their Suva after gaining the golden masks. With the canon depiction of how the Toa received their golden masks being changed though, I'd assume the Turaga simply gave them the Makoki stones before that. The stones were originally planned to have a much greater significance in the story, but for some reason they were reduced to a minor plot detail.

 

 

I'm confused whether the Turaga hid the kanohi around the island or if Artakha hid them.

 

The original Kanohi the Toa had to gather were hidden by the Toa Metru before they became Turaga. They had brought those masks with them from Metru Nui. However, the Kanohi Nuva that later appeared on the island were teleported there by Artakha.

 

 

Did the Toa actually collect Great Kanohi versions of the Turaga's masks? The only source that seems to suggest this is MNOG but we know that some aspects of this were non-canon.

 

Like Iron_Man5 said, those Kanohi were indeed noble, and the Toa collected them for their Turaga to keep and use. However, they also used them occasionally themselves, before handing them over.

 

 

Was there any good reason for the Turaga not telling anybody about Metru-Nui are anything about the Matoran Universe? Did they just see no point?

 

What Iron_Man5 said, plus the fact that they felt like telling the Matoran about a home they might never see again would be cruel.

 

 

That makes sense, I haven't gotten to that book actually.

 

You can read all of the Bionicle books and stories, neatly compiled, here.

 

Yep, this covers it all pretty thoroughly. (Also, thanks for the plug  )

[Planetperson]

For what it's worth, I can also confirm that Toatapio Nuva's answers are all excellent.

 

Your first question is the most difficult to answer, and I don't think we have ever been given a single, satisfying explanation. I think Toatapio Nuva really hit it on the head, though: the simplest explanation is simply that no one (neither the Turaga nor Makuta) knew that the Toa Mata could be summoned by taking the Toa stones to the Kini-Nui. This does make sense, because as far as the Turaga knew, Toa stones could only be used to transform Matoran into Toa. It's not exactly intuitive to infer one from the other. Plus, unless Vakama had had visions informing them otherwise, they had no idea the Toa Mata were drifting in the ocean and waiting for a signal. For all they knew, they simply had to wait until the Toa showed up one day, and the Toa stones were items that were totally unrelated to this process (after all, the Turaga as Toa Metru were the ones who had originally created them, and for a different purpose). There was also the practical fact that the stones had been hidden in places only "someone with the heart of a true Toa" could reach, as we see at the beginning of BA6 -- so, the Turaga simply did not have easy access to them. The same part of BA6 suggests a reasonable explanation as to why the Turaga never made a serious effort to recover the Toa stones -- the purpose of hiding them was to ensure that they would only be found by Matoran worthy of becoming Toa. The Turaga seemed to like to leave things up to "destiny" like this, just like they did with the Mask of Light.

 

The reasons why Makuta did not release the Bohrok and Rahkshi earlier are simple. Up until his first defeat by the Toa Mata, Makuta was perfectly happy with the level of control he had over the island -- he merely needed to keep the Matoran from returning to Metru Nui, and he needed them alive for his later plans. The Bohrok were an emergency measure to buy Makuta time to recover after his first defeat, and he fully expected the Toa to defeat the swarms. And as said before, Makuta considered the Rahkhsi to be so destructive that they would do more harm than good in furthering his goals, since he did not want to actually destroy the Matoran.

 

I could be mistaken, but I don't think that Makuta originally planned to use the Vahi to make Mata Nui die sooner. Makuta was continually improvising parts of his ultimate plan based on his series of unexpected defeats. As mentioned in Makuta's Diary in Makuta's Guide to the Universe, he was originally only trying to take control of Metru Nui, which would have given him considerable leverage over the rest of the Matoran universe. As explained in the LoMN DVD extras, he wanted to use the Vahi to erase the memories of the Matoran in the pods more quickly, so he could wake them up and convince them that he was their Great Spirit. In other words, Makuta was trying to hijack Mata Nui's "brain cells," although it is unclear to what extent he actually understood that that was what he was doing. He did not expect to be defeated by a rookie team of Toa Metru. And, as Iron_Man5 said, he did not expect to be defeated by a Toa of Light, so much so that he panicked when the Mask of Light was found and released the Rahkshi to find it. However, based on things Makuta said in BA10 and comments from Greg, my understanding is that Makuta makes a plan for all possible contingencies, which is how he is always able to stay two steps ahead (like Littlefinger in Game of Thrones). When Makuta realized that Mata Nui was dying, he improvised his elaborate plan to replace Mata Nui's spirit with his own. More likely, he didn't improvise it, but he had already planned parts of it out and decided he needed to switch gears.

 

As for why the Turaga did not tell the Matoran about Metru Nui, the explanation that has been repeatedly given is that the Turaga did not want to be cruel by reminding the Matoran of a home to which they might never be able to return. I think it was less about the Turaga being afraid of the Matoran trying to return to Metru Nui and running afoul of Makuta. The Turaga were trying to start a new life on Mata Nui, not realizing that Metru Nui was where they were "supposed" to be in order for Mata Nui to function properly. Makuta's presence made it very unlikely that they would ever be able to resettle Metru Nui, so they kept it a secret to make the Matoran's already stressful lives less complicated.

[ToaFred]

Thank you all for your excellent answers. It's really interesting to see how much 2001 was retconned or changed over time, and how years that followed added so many layers to that part of the story.

You say that the Turaga believed that it would be cruel to tell the Matoran about Metru Nui, whereas they referred to Mata Nui as an island paradise often, was it just that they were trying to encourage and reassure the Matoran when they knew their condition wasn't ideal.

I had obviously seen Makuta in the wrong light, I believed he had planned out exactly how he would take over the entire Matoran Universe, but he's more of an opportunist really, he'll take whatever he can get. 

It's interesting to me that they decided to change the story to not have any Matoran die during the dark times, with all the brutality in later years I don't think it would have hurt to also have some Matoran lost to help emphasise how trying those times were.

I hadn't seen that thread of compiled stories before, thank you very much it's amazing.

[xccj]

The Makoki Stones actually got a lot of extra history in some of the side stories. It was originally a tablet with details on the Brotherhood of Makuta (before they revealed they were evil) that was guarded by a rookie Lhikan. Then the Piraka stole it, and then they got roped into being Dark Hunters and it went to The Shadowed One. Then it was used as ransom to end the Toa / Dark Hunter war on Metru Nui... until the Dark Hunters stole it again, and broke it into six pieces so they could sell it six times. The Brotherhood of Makuta bought the pieces off them, but lo and behold, the Toa Hagah / Rahaga stole them and brought them to Metru Nui, where they were turned into keys to lock away the Avohkii. When the Toa Hordika came around, they were tasked with finding the Makoki stones to unlock the Avohkii, and then they took all of that with them to Mata Nui, where they repurposed the stones to lock the Kini-Nui, and the Toa Mata only got them after finding all their masks. (Or, if you want more details, there's the whole BS01 article.) So basically, they got to be the McGuffins in two-three side stories in the later years of Bionicle.