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Recognition of "The Makuta of Metru Nui"


Azani

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So, sometime around the same time that Teridax infected the GSR with that sleep-causing virus, he took on the appearance of Turaga Dume in Metru Nui, presumably after subduing somehow and stuffing the real guy into a Matoran sphere. Now, according to BS01, Teridax went ahead and took over the person of "Dume" about a year and a half prior to the climax of Legends of Metru Nui. The question is... how did he avoid arousing suspicion right off the bat?

If Teridax was the "Makuta of Metru Nui", presumably one of the folks who could directly influence trade, communication, and regulations concerning Metru Nui and work with the inhabitants of other islands to keep the place safe, how could he possibly have disappeared for over a year without creating mass panic? Sure, the Matoran probably didn't see much of an effect, as it's possible that they didn't even knew who Teridax was; however, the folks in charge of Xia, Zakaz, Stelt, and the Southern Continent would have surely made an effort to communicate with him on issues concerning immigration and commerce. As far as always figured, Teridax was the de facto leader of Metru Nui after the Matoran Civil War, with the Turaga serving a strictly ceremonial role for social events and rituals like Akilini games. (IIRC that's pretty much what the Turaga did on Mata Nui as well.) At the very least, he would have been watched by the Order, which was definitely keeping tabs on him and his efforts at militarizing the Brotherhood. Wouldn't folks have been trying to reach him constantly, especially as rumors spread of the Morbuzahkh and certain Dark Hunters?

 

If anyone can clear this one up, then that would be phenomenal. Discuss. :)

 

-Azani

Edited by Azani
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Actually, that's the thing, I don't thing Turaga Dume was a ceremonial figure at all. It's never explicitly said, as far as I'm aware, but Dume's role absolutely did encompass things like trade commerce, immigration, and the like. I got the impression that Makuta himself only got involved when the Turaga requested new Matoran be created for the city (and don't ask me how that works, Greg wasn't willing to get into the creation process) or when something on the scale of the civil war happened. The day-to-day stuff was strictly Dume's territory, Makuta was largely absent and doing his own thing (like creating Rahi) 99% of the time.

 

Regarding the Order of Mata Nui's lack of knowledge, wasn't there some point where someone (I think it was the Karzahni plant) said that Makuta intercepted, interrogated, and killed an Order informant? That's how he knew to change the Toa Metru's names in the prophesies? I imagine that was before he replaced Dume, so if he knew of the Order's presence, he could have enacted his plans without their knowledge.

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I'm pretty sure that except for that one incident in the archives during the civil war, Terry wanted to keep a low profile to avoid raising suspicion. Another thing to consider is that it would not benefit him to keep Dume as just a figurehead and be the "real" ruler, since this way he'd be technically depriving himself of power when the time came to take on Dume's identity. The thing with puppet governments is that while the people are usually oblivious (though this is rarely the case in reality) the people higher up are in the know, so Terry up and disappearing and the puppet Dume suddenly acting with true authority would have been quite the anomaly. I think Terry kept to the shadows unless something absolutely required his immediate attention.

 

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Regarding the Order of Mata Nui's lack of knowledge, wasn't there some point where someone (I think it was the Karzahni plant) said that Makuta intercepted, interrogated, and killed an Order informant? That's how he knew to change the Toa Metru's names in the prophesies? I imagine that was before he replaced Dume, so if he knew of the Order's presence, he could have enacted his plans without their knowledge.

I believe that Makuta read about the Toa Metru in the stars and thought he was switching things up, but then Karzahni got hold of an OoMN member and learned that the stars had been altered, so thus Makuta did not know about the Order at that time. That's what I recall from Time Trap, anyway.

 

I guess I'd view the Makuta of the world as something like the National Guard or military; they're only going to show up if something has gone really wrong, and otherwise they're just a distant force. And even then, there was Makuta Mutran who completely ignored his region, to the point where he didn't even know that a giant portion had been torn out (Voya Nui) and a massive waterfall was pouring into the hole (Karda Nui). It makes me think that the Makuta weren't very public figures around that time. :shrugs:

 

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Let's also not forget how long a matoran's lifespan is. One year of a makuta missing probably wouldn't raise much suspicion. Multiple years, probably.

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I believe that Makuta read about the Toa Metru in the stars and thought he was switching things up, but then Karzahni got hold of an OoMN member and learned that the stars had been altered, so thus Makuta did not know about the Order at that time. That's what I recall from Time Trap, anyway.

 

 

Ah, that's right, thought I might have mixed things up. You're right, the Karzahni plant was the only one that knew about the Order member. Maybe the Order did know about Makuta's betrayal before the public reveal and were ordered to let things play out, since they're the ones that planted false evidence on Mata Nui's behalf, I think.

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Not that I'm too surprised, but you guys really remember old canon pretty well; better than me, for sure. :)

 

Actually, that's the thing, I don't thing Turaga Dume was a ceremonial figure at all. It's never explicitly said, as far as I'm aware, but Dume's role absolutely did encompass things like trade commerce, immigration, and the like. I got the impression that Makuta himself only got involved when the Turaga requested new Matoran be created for the city (and don't ask me how that works, Greg wasn't willing to get into the creation process) or when something on the scale of the civil war happened. The day-to-day stuff was strictly Dume's territory, Makuta was largely absent and doing his own thing (like creating Rahi) 99% of the time.

 

Regarding the Order of Mata Nui's lack of knowledge, wasn't there some point where someone (I think it was the Karzahni plant) said that Makuta intercepted, interrogated, and killed an Order informant? That's how he knew to change the Toa Metru's names in the prophesies? I imagine that was before he replaced Dume, so if he knew of the Order's presence, he could have enacted his plans without their knowledge.

And see, that may be true; since it's never been unequivocally described in a forward-facing manner, I always assumed that he essentially filled a role similar to Vakama and Co. on Mata Nui; acting as arbiters of small-scale disputes and serving as "priests" while Matoran such as Jaller and Onepu ran the army. It's pretty clear, at least as far as I can see, that that was the role of the Turaga on Mata Nui.

 

Let's also not forget how long a matoran's lifespan is. One year of a makuta missing probably wouldn't raise much suspicion. Multiple years, probably.

Sure, but as I was writing in the opening post, I suspect that the Matoran probably weren't worried; if anything, it would be other leaders and the OoMN.

Edited by Azani

Find (digital) me under the name Azani on YouTube, Eurobricks, Discord, the BioMedia Project and the TTV Message Boards.

 

Please check out Project AFTERMAN on Tumblr and Facebook; I'm proud to have worked as their PR Manager and as a writer.

 

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Do we actually know Teridax began his impersonation about a year and a half before the Catacylsm? Not even BS01 is sure - they've marked that line as needing citation. My guess is the original source was, as per usual, an answer to a question Greg F. gave some number of years ago. And I'm willing to bet he made the info up on the spot, as he has many times before (what else explains the multiple times he retconned himself?).

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Do we actually know Teridax began his impersonation about a year and a half before the Catacylsm? Not even BS01 is sure - they've marked that line as needing citation. My guess is the original source was, as per usual, an answer to a question Greg F. gave some number of years ago. And I'm willing to bet he made the info up on the spot, as he has many times before (what else explains the multiple times he retconned himself?).

Sure, BS01 has that marked as "citation needed", but I highly doubt that the original source was a standalone Greg quote; I distinctly remember one of the Adventures novels referring to the direct "year and a half" bit. Typically, Greg has been on the fence about answering core canon questions like that. Heck, close to half of the concrete facts on that page are marked as "citation needed" including ones such as

 

"Back in Metru Nui, Dume and the other Turaga awaited the return of the Toa Nuva and continued the reconstruction of Metru Nui until the usage of the Staff of Artakha."

 

Source on that one is pretty clear to me: it's BL #1. :P

Edited by Azani

Find (digital) me under the name Azani on YouTube, Eurobricks, Discord, the BioMedia Project and the TTV Message Boards.

 

Please check out Project AFTERMAN on Tumblr and Facebook; I'm proud to have worked as their PR Manager and as a writer.

 

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Not that I'm too surprised, but you guys really remember old canon pretty well; better than me, for sure. :)

 

Actually, that's the thing, I don't thing Turaga Dume was a ceremonial figure at all. It's never explicitly said, as far as I'm aware, but Dume's role absolutely did encompass things like trade commerce, immigration, and the like. I got the impression that Makuta himself only got involved when the Turaga requested new Matoran be created for the city (and don't ask me how that works, Greg wasn't willing to get into the creation process) or when something on the scale of the civil war happened. The day-to-day stuff was strictly Dume's territory, Makuta was largely absent and doing his own thing (like creating Rahi) 99% of the time.

 

Regarding the Order of Mata Nui's lack of knowledge, wasn't there some point where someone (I think it was the Karzahni plant) said that Makuta intercepted, interrogated, and killed an Order informant? That's how he knew to change the Toa Metru's names in the prophesies? I imagine that was before he replaced Dume, so if he knew of the Order's presence, he could have enacted his plans without their knowledge.

And see, that may be true; since it's never been unequivocally described in a forward-facing manner, I always assumed that he essentially filled a role similar to Vakama and Co. on Mata Nui; acting as arbiters of small-scale disputes and serving as "priests" while Matoran such as Jaller and Onepu ran the army. It's pretty clear, at least as far as I can see, that that was the role of the Turaga on Mata Nui.

 

Let's also not forget how long a matoran's lifespan is. One year of a makuta missing probably wouldn't raise much suspicion. Multiple years, probably.

Sure, but as I was writing in the opening post, I suspect that the Matoran probably weren't worried; if anything, it would be other leaders and the OoMN.

 

 

Regarding your first point, the Makuta were assigned their positions as overseers so that they could be, like xccj said, a kind of National Guard. Remember, Makuta couldn't even be bothered to involve himself in any capacity in the Toa-Dark Hunter War. In fact, the sole event we know he put an end to was the Matoran Civil War, and that was because it was affecting Mata Nui's health directly. Dume most certainly took care of the vast majority of the responsibilities of running a city.

 

I don't know the exact time frame Makuta disguised himself as Dume, but roughly a year or so sounds about right. He was the one, pretending to be Dume, that sent the members of Lhikan's team to seal off the sea gates (and get killed by a waiting Dark Hunter in the process). I'm not 100% on this, but I think he sent them to do that one by one, so it didn't seem as suspicious that almost the whole Toa team left on a simple mission and never came back. Even then, Lhikan was smart enough to figure out something was going on with that anyway. Point is, though, that probably took some time, so he was probably in disguise for a good bit of time before the Morbuzakh showed up.

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Not that I'm too surprised, but you guys really remember old canon pretty well; better than me, for sure. :)

 

 

Actually, that's the thing, I don't thing Turaga Dume was a ceremonial figure at all. It's never explicitly said, as far as I'm aware, but Dume's role absolutely did encompass things like trade commerce, immigration, and the like. I got the impression that Makuta himself only got involved when the Turaga requested new Matoran be created for the city (and don't ask me how that works, Greg wasn't willing to get into the creation process) or when something on the scale of the civil war happened. The day-to-day stuff was strictly Dume's territory, Makuta was largely absent and doing his own thing (like creating Rahi) 99% of the time.

 

Regarding the Order of Mata Nui's lack of knowledge, wasn't there some point where someone (I think it was the Karzahni plant) said that Makuta intercepted, interrogated, and killed an Order informant? That's how he knew to change the Toa Metru's names in the prophesies? I imagine that was before he replaced Dume, so if he knew of the Order's presence, he could have enacted his plans without their knowledge.

 

And see, that may be true; since it's never been unequivocally described in a forward-facing manner, I always assumed that he essentially filled a role similar to Vakama and Co. on Mata Nui; acting as arbiters of small-scale disputes and serving as "priests" while Matoran such as Jaller and Onepu ran the army. It's pretty clear, at least as far as I can see, that that was the role of the Turaga on Mata Nui.

 

Let's also not forget how long a matoran's lifespan is. One year of a makuta missing probably wouldn't raise much suspicion. Multiple years, probably.

 

Sure, but as I was writing in the opening post, I suspect that the Matoran probably weren't worried; if anything, it would be other leaders and the OoMN.

 

Regarding your first point, the Makuta were assigned their positions as overseers so that they could be, like xccj said, a kind of National Guard. Remember, Makuta couldn't even be bothered to involve himself in any capacity in the Toa-Dark Hunter War. In fact, the sole event we know he put an end to was the Matoran Civil War, and that was because it was affecting Mata Nui's health directly. Dume most certainly took care of the vast majority of the responsibilities of running a city.

 

I don't know the exact time frame Makuta disguised himself as Dume, but roughly a year or so sounds about right. He was the one, pretending to be Dume, that sent the members of Lhikan's team to seal off the sea gates (and get killed by a waiting Dark Hunter in the process). I'm not 100% on this, but I think he sent them to do that one by one, so it didn't seem as suspicious that almost the whole Toa team left on a simple mission and never came back. Even then, Lhikan was smart enough to figure out something was going on with that anyway. Point is, though, that probably took some time, so he was probably in disguise for a good bit of time before the Morbuzakh showed up.

i agree completely.
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