I'm sure that's what the Brotherhood of Makuta thought when they rebelled, and look what happened to them.

I've had that thought before. This is partly why I don't really say any of my characters were 'destined' to be Toa; I'd like some free will in my choices, or at least the idea that anyone could be picked.

Though I imagine Destiny might become somewhat obsolete on Spherus Magna -- I think a pre-programmed task put in someone's head won't be entirely applicable outside of the Mata Nui Robot.

That, or -- since the Great Beings didn't think that the Matoran would evolve and gain sentience -- the GBs put some kind of shutdown mechanic in the Matoran that would 'turn off' their need to complete their Destiny once Mata Nui finished his own. Since they started out as worker drones, they probably thought that not having a goal to work on would shut them down. Imagine their surprise if they check back on their experiment and find out that their drones are still up and about despite being supposedly 'shut down'.

-Inferna

Of the three virtues, Destiny was always the one that bothered me the most. It like, Destiny doesn't know what's gonna happen, but when it does it just brags that it called it correctly but didn't tell anybody. Destiny is smug, and nobody really likes it (but those who it favors pretend to.)

Also isn't the MU like a toxic place to be now? So like some folks could stay there and all as part of their culture, but wouldn't it eventually kill them? (Never mind, in Gen1 of Bionicle they would probably just conveniently mutate and grow resistant to it.)

Just as a note, and V-N had a point similar to that...

Teridax tried to rebel against the destiny thing. He ended up dying, and still completing it. =P

I think Destiny was used mainly to assure kids that "the good guys will always win"; the darkest use of it I can think of is Helryx saying some ominous line about what Takanuva's destiny might be. (Not sure anything even came of that?)

I once asked Greg if it was possible for MU inhabitants to die without completing their destiny.

His answer boiled down to, "In that case their destiny was to die."

It upset me.

That cult idea is pretty cool. Ahkmou'd fit right in. Short story idea?
 

I think Destiny was used mainly to assure kids that "the good guys will always win"; the darkest use of it I can think of is Helryx saying some ominous line about what Takanuva's destiny might be. (Not sure anything even came of that?)

 
Oh for what it's worth Greg said Takanuva's destiny was going to have something to do with a Great Being civil war. Of course that never happened in-story though.

I think Destiny was used mainly to assure kids that "the good guys will always win"; the darkest use of it I can think of is Helryx saying some ominous line about what Takanuva's destiny might be. (Not sure anything even came of that?)

I once asked Greg if it was possible for MU inhabitants to die without completing their destiny.

 

His answer boiled down to, "In that case their destiny was to die."

 

It upset me.

Well... that's... cold?

"HEY, MATORAN." boomed the obviously great Great Being.

"Yes, my master?" answered the tiny, small, meek, powerless Matoran.

"YOUR DESTINY IS... TO DIE!"  

"But, sir, that seems a bit extreme, sir."

"NONSENSE. I AM SO POWERFUL, I KNOW WHAT IS BEST FOR YOU. YOU ARE SO UNIMAGINABLY POWERLESS THAT ANYTHING YOU THINK WILL BE IMMEDIATELY DISREGARDED BECAUSE YOU ARE POWERLESS, STUPID, AND SMALL, MY CREATION. NOW GO AND COMPLETE... YOUR DESTINY! LIKE A NOBLE HERO IN ONE OF THOSE MAGNAN TALES. BEFORE THEY WENT AND MESSED WITH THE PLANET, ANYWAY. HAVE I EVER TOLD YOU WHAT THE PLANET WAS LIKE BACK THEN? IT WAS SO ORDERLY AND BORING. BORING? IS THAT THE WORD FOR NOTHING HAPPENING AND HAVING NO REASON TO CARE ABOUT THOSE PLEBEIANS WHO CALL THEMSELVES 'AGORI'? I THINK SO. YOUR INPUT, CREATION? CREATION? OH. YOU'RE DEAD! JUST LIKE YOUR DESTINY! SEE? I WAS RIGHT. YOU DID ACHIEVE YOUR DESTINY! ...NOW, STOP FOOLING AROUND AND GET UP. CREATION? OH,  WHAT'S A WORD FOR FRUSTRATION... KARZAHNI? THAT'LL DO. I'LL CREATE THAT THING LATER.  MUST ONE-UP THAT ARTAKHA PROJECT MY RIVAL HAS. AFTER SETTING THE DESTINY OF HALF THE UNIVERSE, OF COURSE.

And so we learn why =50% of the Matoran Universe's population's destiny is 'to die'.

The dumb part is that because of the red star, i guess their destiny was to die, then get repaired, and...just...get stuck up there?

The idea of rebelling against destiny is kind of messed up imo.........like don't get me wrong, i love the idea but there's only two options:

-the prophesied "destiny" was false and you're actually fulfilling your true destiny

-you fail to rebel against destiny, you just can't beat it

I mean ultimately destiny is just cause and effect, I think. The idea that some are "destined" to become Toa, or something's "destined" to transform when it touches Energized Protodermis, it basically just means "these things are supposed to happen according to the Grand Timeline." Like, the reason alternate timelines are different is because destiny is different there.

It's kind of weird using a word like "destiny" to describe how you're more or less a slave to the timeline, but in a super optimistic light? Works that deal heavily with time travel or prophecy typically touch on that (see: Homestuck, for instance) but focus on the negatives a lot. If a timeline is concrete and can't be changed, how messed up is it to witness your own death and the deaths of your friends and know that's how it HAS to go down?

Interesting how the Matoran put a positive spin on it. I wonder if other cultures, the Skakdi or Zyglak for instance, view destiny with scorn, considering they're not Mata Nui's "chosen" species?

It's a little part of "Bionicle culture" that's pretty cool, I think.

The idea of rebelling against destiny is kind of messed up imo.........like don't get me wrong, i love the idea but there's only two options:

 

-the prophesied "destiny" was false and you're actually fulfilling your true destiny

-you fail to rebel against destiny, you just can't beat it

 

I mean ultimately destiny is just cause and effect, I think. The idea that some are "destined" to become Toa, or something's "destined" to transform when it touches Energized Protodermis, it basically just means "these things are supposed to happen according to the Grand Timeline." Like, the reason alternate timelines are different is because destiny is different there.

 

It's kind of weird using a word like "destiny" to describe how you're more or less a slave to the timeline, but in a super optimistic light? Works that deal heavily with time travel or prophecy typically touch on that (see: Homestuck, for instance) but focus on the negatives a lot. If a timeline is concrete and can't be changed, how messed up is it to witness your own death and the deaths of your friends and know that's how it HAS to go down?

 

Interesting how the Matoran put a positive spin on it. I wonder if other cultures, the Skakdi or Zyglak for instance, view destiny with scorn, considering they're not Mata Nui's "chosen" species?

 

It's a little part of "Bionicle culture" that's pretty cool, I think.

Usually in stories with prophecies the term they use is fate, not destiny. Fate is played with a lot in stories and it doesn't seem to confuse people the way destiny does.

I don't know if anyone is familiar with the Aeneid (an epic poem written in Latin), but in it Aeneas flees Troy and (eventually) makes his way to Italy, where he "founds" Rome by starting the bloodline that ends with Romulus and Remus (they're the ones who actually establish the city of Rome). It reveals a pretty interesting take on fate. Someone can be fated to do something and they can know it, but they still have free will. At one point Aeneas decides to lollygag in Carthage and Mercury literally has to fly down from Olympus and tell Aeneas to get a move on.

The main difference I see between Greco-Roman fate and destiny in Bionicle is that you can know your fate but you usually don't know your destiny. Besides that though, they seem to work in similar ways. So maybe your destiny is like your fate kept hidden from you? In which case you're can't really rebel against your destiny, since you don't know what it is. You're just acting on your own free will in a way that seems to go against your destiny to us fans looking on.

MY DESTINY IS TO DEFEAT DESTINY!