Eye Color

[ToaKapura1234]

Why did the Toa Metru change eye colors when they turned into Turaga? Matua: Red to lime green. Vakama: Lime green to pink. Onewa: Blue to orange. Nokama-Orange to Yellow. Nuju and Whenua: Stayed the same. Their eyes didn't change colors when they became Hordika. And why didn't all of their eyes change colors. I know the real-world explanation is that the new eye colors went better with their Toa color schemes, but is their a canon explanation?

[Cambion]

as far as i know, there has never been a canon explanation for any eye colors aside from neon orange (when used for villains, and which is inexplicably called "red").

[Taipu1]

I don't know any storyline reason. They had 6 colours that were consistent for element for the first 3 years, then they changed it for '04, presumably because of other Metru colour change stuff. I don't know what they did in '05, I don't have many sets from then. From then on it must have been cutbacks or something, because they kept green for good guys and red for bad guys, until '09.

 

It's annoying that the colours did change in '04, because up until then you could recognise a characters element by there eye colour, even if the colours were ambiguous. For example Taipu and Hafu are pretty easily confused element wise, but Taipu has green eyes and Hafu has red/orange, so you know their respective elements. I'd be interested to know if there is a storyline explanation for the change from '03 to '04.

[Toatapio Nuva]

The closest to an explanation was that the Solis Magna sun affected the eyes of the Matoran and caused some sort of mutatíon or other effect to them after they had been exposed long enough. Remember that before moving to Mata Nui, the Matoran had spent all their lives in a cavern-like world.

 

Also, when exposed to the sun, the eyes probably adjusted to a brighter environment while they changed colour.

[ToaKapura1234]

That would explain why Whenua and Nuju keep their eye colors as they don't see much sun. But why would sunlight change their eye colors? And shouldn't it make all of their eyes the same color?

[bonesiii]

There is at least some canon evidence that it's not accidental.

 

First, when Jaller and company were turned into Toa Inika by the lightning from the Red Star's special device, it was mentioned at one point that the lightning "even changed their colors" (to paraphrase from memory) in an official bio. So it is canon fact that transformations can change colors.

 

Second, the fact that when a Matoran is Toa-ized they take whatever shape their mental image of a Toa is. Logically this could apply to colors as much as shape and design.

 

Third, even when Lhikan's Noble Hau was placed on Jaller's face, a transformation of just the mask was triggered, to make it look like a Great Hau (apparently to match his personality or something like that).

 

So transformations seem to be an inherent part of the design of the protodermis molecule, based probably on mental image. They're not literally shapeshifters but whenever a significant change occurs and there is power to fuel it (masks specifically have innate power, if only to keep Matoran conscious, but a Matoran's own armor won't randomly change shape for example), color changes apparently go along with this automatically as part of the Great Beings' design.

 

It's not confirmed but this theory seems to be the case in all examples like this, including the Turaga.

 

 

So in other words, the armor and eye color changes orobably have the same reason in-story as out -- those colors schemes just plain feel more fitting for their new form.

[Toatapio Nuva]

That would explain why Whenua and Nuju keep their eye colors as they don't see much sun. But why would sunlight change their eye colors? And shouldn't it make all of their eyes the same color?

 

My guess is that each eyecolor has a reason for being like that. There were differences between the eyes of Ta-Matoran and Ga-Matoran, for example, so it wasn't just the color. The color seems to have been determined by the specific eye-type.

 

So that's why they didn't all beocme the same color on Mata Nui. They had been different on Metru Nui in the first place.

[Makuta Matata]

I don't think the eye colors are canon.

[Collector1]

I think it's because the Toa Metru weren't in the works yet so they chose the eye color that matched their respectable Koro. I think it's not so much as storyline wise just who ever made the sets.

[Madara: Mangekyou Master]

I would lean towards Bones' explanation of it. Practically speaking, it was probably about costs, but in-story, the self-image thing would make sense.

Edited May 25, 2013 by Madara: Mangekyou Master

[Makuta of Time]

This is a very arguable theory, that I have yet to come up with a answer, but...

 

From then on it must have been cutbacks or something, because they kept green for good guys and red for bad guys, until '09.

 

In '07 Lesovikk had red eyes, and he is still a hero. (Even though he says he isn't any more).

[Hexann]

Simple. The matoran sphere caused a mutation in thier size and appearence meaning it could have caused change in eye color as well. The turaga-well, they changed that's about the best I can give you.

[Just A Dot]

as far as i know, there has never been a canon explanation for any eye colors aside from neon orange (when used for villains, and which is inexplicably called "red").

 

What explanation is there for that?

[Hexann]

 

as far as i know, there has never been a canon explanation for any eye colors aside from neon orange (when used for villains, and which is inexplicably called "red").

 

What explanation is there for that?

 

An explaining explanation I dunno, when Vakama had given in to the hordika venom his eyes turned green.

[darkslizer]

There might not be a canonical reason. The Turaga were made first, so they might not have planned on making those Turaga into Toa at the time. What I can't explain, however, is why they didn't keep the colors consistent when designing the Metru and Hordika.

[Toatapio Nuva]

There might not be a canonical reason. The Turaga were made first, so they might not have planned on making those Turaga into Toa at the time. What I can't explain, however, is why they didn't keep the colors consistent when designing the Metru and Hordika.

 

From the beginning the story team knew that they had been Toa.

[bonesiii]

There might not be a canonical reason. The Turaga were made first, so they might not have planned on making those Turaga into Toa at the time. What I can't explain, however, is why they didn't keep the colors consistent when designing the Metru and Hordika.

 

From the beginning the story team knew that they had been Toa.

And your second sentence, dark, was answered in above posts including mine; transformations in Bionicle are simply allowed to change color scheme. After all, they are changing even more important features like body build, shape of mask, transforming tools into radically different shapes, so surely a little color change is nothing by comparison! When Hewkii was Toa-ized a canon bio even mentioned this explicitly.

 

Also, does it really matter when they decided to say they were Toa before? Either way they still designed the Toa Metru sets intentionally with different color schemes, so they were intentionally portraying a color change. Knowing in 2001 that they would later reveal this (if Bionicle kept going) would seem to be irrelevant to the decision to change the colors when the set forms for that revelation were designed.