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Look at the time. 24 hours is up, and a new set of 24 hours begins. A Matoran wanders in, asks a few questions, and then... You Have 24 Hours. Don't tell me you don't what the time limit's for - remember when I said 'no exceptions'? I didn't actually mean it. There's always an exception. If someone says no exceptions, you can practically guarantee there's a exception somewhere. Maybe the right circumstances will bring it forward into the light, or perhaps it's hidden away behind a loophole... perhaps it'll take a bit of what we prefer to call 'persuasion', perhaps they are the very exception they claim doesn't exist. In this case, the exception happens to be you. You're new. Too new to trust. We won't trust you, and we can't trust you. You just wandered in here and asked if you could join. You even proposed that I was an Ostrich! You were being rather obstinate about it. You even complimented me on my name, saying it was 'such name', which I have to wonder... why? Then you asked me if I had 24 hours. Once again... why!? That's where the exception comes in. You are the exception in that you have no known ties to me, no history, a clean slate. Too clean. Too clean for our tastes, too clean for us not to be suspicious. I want you to dirty that clean slate. I want you not to stop until it's the dirtiest slate in existence, a slate so grimy and unsightly that you disgust even the most degenerate of wastrels. When you're done, I want you to arrive back here, right at the moment when 24 hours is up. I want absolutely no second, minute, hour of that period to go wasted. I want to see it on the news. I want to see evidence of it. What I do not want to see is you relaxing, talking to others, or calling for help. Help is for the weak. If you do any of the aforementioned things during the period, or anything not especially heinous and unbefitting of a future criminal like yourself, then you forfeit your life. Ever since you wandered in here, you've been my possession. You belong to me, and if you want to live, you must become worse than I. Because I can't have you ruining the image of the Mafia now, can I? Remember: You Have 24 Hours. --- Well. You Have 24 Hours came out of nowhere and was the top-voted name.

Wouldn't it be cool if it actually had some story significance where in the summer the villains steal everyone's masks (because that's one of the possibilities I see from the way the sets are) but then Tahu realizes the power was inside him all along, and this cool ghostly mask appears on his face and he comes back and saves everyone? And then their powers aren't tied to their masks anymore. I think that'd be a neat way of possibly introducing mask powers in a way that's consistent with the new story and probably easier to keep track of (rather than introducing both the character's powers and the mask's powers at the same time). I picked up my Lord of Skull Spiders today, which made me think of this. It's an okay set. Also, my blogaversary was five days ago, but I forgot because I was distracted.

I have returned! The trip was fun, and yes, there will be pictures below. We arrived on Friday at 11:45 pm, and spent the next two days in the Hilton Barcelona preparing for the tournament. Monday and Tuesday we competed, and we did well (we Sophomores crushed it, having five of our six class members winning 1st place in one of out events). (Pictured above: the Sophomores of GMU 4N6, and the people I love the most on the team) By Wednesday, though, we were finally free to travel and visit places! We walked for an hour and a half to the Sagrada Familia, and I was not prepared for it. Wednesday I focused just on the outside, but even that was astounding. We then returned back to our new apartments (conveniently located literally in front of Camp Neu), and prepared for Thursday. Thursday I had a group go with me to the Sagrada Familia Archives for my project; we also used the time to visit the cathedral itself. Two things I want to highlight; the first being the stained glass and how the light made the inside literally change colours the second being how amazing and gorgeous the inside looks (and how it does replicate a forest) Needless to say, I cried. (I also got sweaty palms, but that was when we went up one of the bell towers. Fun fact: I discovered then that I have a fear of heights!) We then spent the evening in the Gothic District, where I found the chance for a literary inside joke that only true (15)90s kids will understand: Spent the next day again in the Gothic District, which conveniently is right next to the beach (Look at these nerds) (CURSE YOU, SEA!) The last day we went to Els Quatre Gats (and I began writing a meta short story right there and then, which I might post here in the future) We then ended the day by going to the Picasso Museum and taking some vague, heroic photos (Pictured here: a fool who thinks he looks cool). In all seriousness, this was a wonderful trip. I got to see one of my fave buildings in the world, spent a week with my friends, and ate amazing. I can't stress enough how lucky I am to belong to such a great program, that dazzles me every day and lets me be thankful for what I have. PS: While there, we filmed the pilot for our new sitcom, Pablo & Pablo. Below are two promotional images:

Probably 24 hours

YOU HAVE 24 HOURS *Snaps fingers*

Tahu's mask gives him the power of the transparent orange Nike shoe Kraata, defeating the skull armies with a bad case of athlete's foot.

That would be cool except man am I just so done with having Tahu being the center of attention so far. The idea of ghostly magic elemental masks is really cool though. But yeah, I expect that the Toa will eventually get a "power was inside them all along" kind of deal. They did that with Ninjago and it worked pretty well.

I feel like Barcelona needed a little Zatth.

Yeah, but then... I'd be the G&T universe, but I'm like Mata Nui in that I'd rather disregard my inhabitants and get flung out my heart in a tiny mask.

He doesn't know he's the most powerful firedrake in the north. Also, that Smaug set is totally worth the $70 I spent on it. Great figs, a good amount of pieces for that price (some good ones at it) and the dragon itself is quite amazing, especially the wings. Gosh, could you imagine if we have to pay $130 for it, that would be a total rip.

Hey, folks. It been awhile since I did a little ramble here, so I thought I pop in and do one today. I guess I’ll start off by confirming (as I have done in the topic here) that I will be going to BrickFair VA this year. Hm…I guess I kind did confirm this in last entry by mentioning what my Brick Badge would look like. Although at that point, I was still working out transportation details. Now those issues have mostly been resolved as the friend, I took the Day Trips with previously, has expressed interest in coming along with me. And well, I have now registered him for the event and placed a reservation for one of BrickFair VA reserved rooms at the Holiday Inn. So I feel pretty safe now saying that me being there will be a thing. Hopefully my friend won’t feel too out of place there. Not that I am saying I am going to fit right in or anything. I mean I am not that good of MOCer (Just look at what I sent on convention circuit last year.) and well, I am a loser with terrible social skills. *shrugs* So I may try to see about checking out some other stuff, outside the convention, like museums, while we are down there. Oh, and we will be there from Wednesday (July 29th) till Monday (August 3rd). Alright, that’s enough on BrickFair VA. I am sure I’ll have more thoughts and stuff on it as we get closer to the date. I imagine my nerves will be completely shot the day before we head down. XD In other news, I guess I mention here really quickly that I finished TV series, Farscape, recently. I must say I enjoyed it a lot. I’m actually still thinking about it, even though I am happy with its conclusion. Well, the conclusion that isn’t the Season 4 finale. That one was literally the worst ending ever (I would describe it, but I rather not spoil things.). I am glad the fans of show were able to push the studio to at least produce a better ending by means of the TV movie, the Peacekeeper Wars. The Peacekeeper Wars was a great ending to the show, although I imagine it could have been even better if a season 5 had been a thing as it was originally planned. But anyway, thanks again to Black Six for suggesting Farscape to me. Oh, since I finished Farscape, I have start watching Firefly for first time since I didn’t feel like jumping back into Star Trek right away. I am currently about halfway through it and to put it simply, I am quite enjoying it. Although I am rather sad that such a unique show (It’s a Space Western!) only had 14 episodes to play with. It feels like it deserve more than that. Maybe that’s just me though. Speaking of Star Trek, I plan on getting back to watching that after I finish with Firefly. Although I decide to change my viewing schedule of it. Originally I was going to watch TNG movies before watching the Enterprise series, but it looks like unfortunately Netflix doesn’t have all of them available for streaming. So new schedule will be as follows: Enterprise > TOS (+ Cartoon) > TOS & TNG films I am probably going to see if my uncle has a copy of any TOS or TNG films that I can borrow since I know he is a big movie and TV buff. That and I am pretty sure he is a fan of Star Trek (I recall him having like models of the Enterprise and stuff.). Alright, moving on from that topic, I guess I can ramble about video games next. Although to be honest, I hadn’t play much video games this month, outside the Beta for A Hat in Time. I guess I’ll talk briefly about A Hat in Time. It looks like it is shaping up to be pretty good from what I play of it (I managed to get 11 of 14 available Time pieces. I have no idea where the first two are, but the third one is on a brutal 3D platforming map called, “Beta Hero Challenge”.). Its menu interfaces are a lot better than they were in Alpha. The camera feature is pretty cool addition (It may of been inspired by Link Selfies feature in the Wind Waker HD.). Oh, and umbrella hookshot is really fun to play with. I admit when I first used it, I thought it made you swing too fast (It doesn’t really work like Wind Waker’s hookshot does as in Wind Waker, you have more control over your swing.). But once I got used to it, it is really ideal way of getting around Mafia Town quickly as you can kind of like chain swing your way to places on the map. So yeah, A Hat in Time is looking pretty good. I look forward to seeing the finished product. It should be fun. Like I said, that’s pretty much the only video game that I played this month. I should probably play more of Majora’s Mask or any other unfinished games that I have. XD Alright, that’s enough on that topic. Hm…I guess the next topic is how my convention circuit MOCs (Dragon’s Head) are coming along. Honestly I hadn’t made any process since I have been waiting for parts for over a month now to arrive. They supposedly ship out two weeks ago, but I have yet to receive the package. So yeah, it has been on hold. Although I am starting to think the Dragon project is too complex for me, so I might just disassemble it and starts over with something else. It’s hard though trying to come up with something that moves or has lights *shrugs* Okay, I think that’s enough rambling for this entry. Thank you all for taking the time to read this and I hope you all have great day. Talk to you later, BZPers. - JMJ 2015

10/10 Would watch Pablo & Pablo for the rest of my life 24/7

A topic was created for this event recently, so you should be able to check there to see if other people are going. I've heard good things from people about BrickWorld, although I've never been myself. As far as activities, there are seminars where people talk about building techniques and other AFOL things and games - lots and lots of games. Things like speed builds and combo builds and blind builds. BrickWorld also has a huge charity auction. And of course there's vendors selling all sorts of things.

See, you can do that with a string orchestra. Sadly us wind symphony folks can't drink anything before or during rehearsal/practice time lest the insides of our instruments become breeding grounds for bacteria. But your director seems like a great guy! -L

Glad you could make it Nato

[and tumblr too] This post, we're taking a brief detour from other projects to talk about something slightly more mundane: Is there something in the Matoran Language that marks verbs as verbs and distinguishes them from non-verbs? I would like to propose that there is at least one verb-marker expressed as a suffix (or "derivative particle") -ya. What's the evidence? Admittedly, there is only one canon piece of evidence, since we have only one confirmed verb in Matoran: zya "to attack". This verb occurs in the phrase Manas zya! "Attack the monster!" The verb is technically in the imperative (command) form, and so one might argue that it is a special form and shouldn’t be representative of what verbs in Matoran look like overall. However, making use of some insights from human language, this argument may be countered: Imperative verb-forms frequently represent the basic, unmodified state of verbal-morphology (witness English "Go!" same as present tense "They go" and infinitival "to go"). It stands to reason that the Matoran Language could follow the same pattern for purely functional reasons (e.g. commands must be transmitted quickly and efficiently). For this reason, I will assume that zya does in fact reflect the basic form of the Matoran verb. Back to the proposal: How can we apply the postulated verb-marker -ya elsewhere? Does it provide us with any insights? Enter voya: voya "journey" (cf. Voya Nui "Great Journey") This word is presented as a noun; however, it isn't unreasonable to allow the possibility that voya could be a deverbal noun derived from an older verb vo-ya. This is indeed what I propose, as exemplified by the following entries from the Matoran Dictionary: vo-ya |v.| to conduct energy, flow (along); to journey [From vo “elemental lightning” and the verb-marker -ya] voya-nui |n.| great journey [From voya “journey, current” (nominalized from the verbal complex vo-ya) and nui “great, significant”] So, the application of -ya in this case has provided us with some interesting insights into the history of voya (notice the fortuitous incorporation of the elemental stem vo "elemental lightning/electricity"). Where else can we go with this? For the purposes of this post, I will simply list several sets of words that might provide further support for the -ya proposal, with comments: amaya (a Ga-Matoran) maglya (a Ta-Matoran) zemya (an Onu-Matoran) Based on the proposal, all of these words could also be analyzed as verbs (or deverbal nouns derived from older verbs). Check out their respective dictionary entries for some possible etymologies. The words in the next set do not directly exhibit -ya, but could potentially contain a spelling variant -ia (once again, see corresponding dictionary entries for proposals): pelagia (a Ga-Matoran) zaria (a Toa of Iron) xia (a placename for the island inhabited by the Vortixx species) daxia (a placename for the island where the Order of Mata Nui has its primary base) The words in this final set all contain ia word-internally (either in stressed or unstressed position), but because of other factors the possibility that this is an example of -ya is even more remote. Hopefully they are helpful as reference: radiak (a Shadow Matoran, formerly Av-Matoran) spiriah (a Makuta) varian (a Toa of Psionics) chiara (a Toa of Lightning) niazesk (an swarming insect-Rahi) piatra (a Po-Matoran)

First off, hi there! Been a while. I'll post a life-update thing soon-ish. Anyways, my high-school orchestra conductor may be one of the nicest, most supportive people I have ever met or will ever meet. He's an older man, but he's always full of a joyful energy and can often be seen with a huge grin across his face. He always tells us that he loves us and that we're his favorites, and it's one of the most adorable, fulfilling things to hear him talk. So a few days ago (last Friday, to be exact) we come in for our daily orchestra class. We're all pretty worn out- it's been a long week. He picks up on this, and after we tune he selects me, one of my good friends, and maybe about six other kids and tells us to follow him as he briskly walks out of the classroom. We have to struggle to keep up as he exits the music hall and strolls into the school, finally stopping at the vending machines. Once we all get there, he pulls out a big wad of cash and starts inserting money into one of the vending machines and ordering drinks. He gives us all money and tells us to do the same, and we finally pick up on what he's doing- he's buying drinks for the entire orchestra. And there's maybe about 30-40 kids in the orchestra, too. So we do what he says and buy a bunch of beverages from the vending machines, and then once we've bought a sufficient amount we carry them all back to the orchestra room and distribute them. All the while he's just smiling and watching us enjoy our treat. To think that spending an hour a day with a bunch of high-schoolers makes someone so happy that they would spend their own money to cheer us up. I can't think of any words to describe him. He's just an amazing guy. Just think the polar opposite of J.K. Simmons from Whiplash.

This is the only correct answer.

Haha, yeah that does not sound like the most sanitary practice. Maybe if you guys use mouthwash directly after drinking something? Do not do that, that is a bad idea, I do not know how wind instruments work =(

BrickWorld is supposed to be a really good convention. I've never been, though. Like Brickfair Virginia, it's one of the bigger ones, so the experience should probably be pretty similar. What you do at cons depends on whether you're a public guest or a registered attendee. Public guest admission is much cheaper. However, it doesn't let you exhibit MOCs or participate in most of the special events. Attending as a public guest basically just means looking at MOCs, buying from vendors, and meeting up with friends from real life or online. There are also some interactive events for public attendees, but they are very limited and mostly geared towards letting parents and kids get off their feet (because ANY event of this scale where you're on your feet all day can tire you out). As an example, Brickfair Virginia has public bingo, but the prizes are extremely small, inexpensive things like keychains, not larger sets like registrants can win from bingo and raffles. Registering for the event costs a lot more, but allows you to exhibit your own MOCs and participate in a wide range of games, panels/seminars, raffles, auctions, etc. Registered attendees generally get freebies like a commemorative brick. BrickWorld has two levels of registration, with different perks. Also, you get to enjoy the event for longer as a registered attendee. Public attendees can only attend during specific hours on the weekend, but the days leading up to the weekend are only for registered attendees, and there are after-hours events on the public days. Which is nice, because public hours are very hectic due to all the coming and going, so it's a bit harder to relax and enjoy the event during that time. The BrickWorld website has a lot more information.

So I’m weak and had some extra money and I bought Alpha Sapphire. I don’t plan on updating as much as a did when I played Omega Ruby, but I do want to try to develop some characters and mythology and such. Since I’ve done a lot of transferring via Poke Bank this time around, I’ve decided that Poke Bank is the Void that connects worlds from Final Fantasy, which is why the player characters are named after legendary creatures of the Void (Omega and Shinryu). I have some other ideas, but I don’t know that any of them really fit, so I’m just going to see what comes up naturally. I already discovered my starter is a vampire, so that’s cool, and feels fitting after the unfortunate events unfolding in Twitch Plays Pokémon. Anyway, current profiles! TEAM PROFILE: Shinryu the Human TITLES: The Player Character, Bearer of the Stone Badge, Bearer of the Knuckle Badge, Bearer of the Dynamo Badge Named after an otherworldly dragon, the counterpart to a superweapon named Omega. Shinryu is a True Neutral, and really doesn’t care about other people or the world around him. He only does things that benefit him. In his boredom, he decided to take up the Pokémon League Challenge. His relationship with his Pokémon is…developing. They tend to keep him on his toes, and he does seem to care about them, he’s just not particularly affectionate. TEAM PROFILE: Garland the Grovyle TITLES: The Starter, Count Garland, Gym Slayer A sassy vampire lizard plant who is somewhat of a clown. Garland was Shinryu’s starter, and is constantly poking fun at him and anyone else, sarcastic bordering on malicious. He is best known for healing himself with the energy of his opponents, first through Absorb and now through Mega Drain, revealing his true nature as a vampire. He only feeds on his opponents, though. Actually, it’s questionable if he really needs to feed, he might just do it for fun… TEAM PROFILE: Lily the Lombre TITLES: The Doomed, The Bystander, The Strategist Shinryu caught a Lotad because he knew he was going to need a Surfer before catching Kyogre, and doesn’t use her in battle. At all. With her impish nature, she gets flustered by this and argues with him and the rest of the team constantly. She is thoroughly cunning, and has offered some advice to the others in times of need, showing that she still feels like part of the team. TEAM PROFILE: Bladebird the Skarmory TITLES: The Jetsword A Skarmory just as sassy as Garland. The two get along famously. She likes to run…despite the fact that she has wings, which Shinryu finds quite odd. Currently the slowest leveler of the team, so she is frequently sent out first in random encounters. TEAM PROFILE: Hyouhana the Froslass TITLES: The Blizzard Angel, The Youkai Hyouhana tragically died as an infant Snorunt, but what her body lacked in strength was made up by her perseverance of spirit, allowing her to live on as a Froslass. This has given her a great respect for all life, leading to her being very careful. She tends to hang back most often but can always jump in with precision in any situation. Sometimes she disappears, and, unbeknownst to her teammates, seeks out travelers lost in blizzards—but rather than leading them to their death as legends state, she actually leads them to warmth and safety, causing her to be revered in cold regions as a guardian. TEAM PROFILE: Usagi the Lunatone TITLES: Gym Slayer, Champion of Love and Justice, The Lunar Guardian Though Usagi likes to fight, they are actually quite careful most of the time. They do, however, have a habit of delivering long introductions and dramatic attack names, much to Shinryu’s frustration. Garland and Bladebird will occasionally poke fun, but aside from a few incidents it’s all in good fun. TEAM PROFILE: Trapinch TITLES: The Bulldozer, Gym Slayer A lax Pokémon capable of taking hits. Due to her laid-back nature, she is the one Shinryu is most comfortable around, since he doesn’t need to invest any extra effort in keeping up with her. She has a background in construction and has a habit of bulldozing her opponents. She’s already developed a rather fearsome reputation, actually…

RIP Leech King For Trapinch, I thought she would be like a parallel to my Mega Metagross in OR; it looks like the Omega of Final Fantasy, but I couldn't nickname it (and Omega was the player), meanwhile Flygon looks more like Shinryu but that name is now taken by this player.

All hail the King! ... ;-;

I should post this to the front page. -CF

So in class tonight I mentioned Bionicle in a discussion about fantasy and sci-fi and the professor was familiar with it So that was pretty cool

Quite a few other students at community college seem to recognize Bionicle when I play modded skyrim.

you all are making it too complicated [] You see, this represents the singularity of the human experience, and the emptiness and futility of it all that one feels inside of themselves on a daily basis. As well, the outside of the bracket represents the walls that each and every one of us puts up to keep others out, and more importantly, to keep ourselves in and at check. Therefore, my brackets are simply the best because of the rich texture and thematic meaning behind it all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0mhtDAJjqs (starts at ~0:47) "Battle Chant of the Toa (Prayer to Mata Nui)" O’I HIKI HOIHA OU IHIKI HAHKO ... HAHKO! O’I HIKI HAUIHA OU IHIKI HAHI ====================== Literal Translation: 1. Protect us from deception; 2. You will save us from deception. 3. Make us safe from deception; 4. You are a protector against deception. ====================== Note: I've been a bit fast-and-loose with constructing vocabulary here--you won't find most of these words in the Dictionary. Wordlist: o |pron.| I, we (first person) ou |pron.| you, you-all (2nd person) hiki |n.| deception hahi |n.| protector -i |aff.| to, toward i- |aff.| from, against hoi-ha |v.| to protect, defend against [hoiha < ha-yi-ha, from ha "protection", yi "together, unified", and the verbal affix -ha] ha-ha |v.| to protect, save, cleanse [ha-ha, from ha "protection" and the verbal affix -ha] haui-ha |v.| to defend, make safe [haui-ha, from haui "safe, protected" and the verbal affix -ha] ====================== Line-by-line explanation: 1. The verb hoi-ha appears in this line in the imperative (command) form, taking the objects o-i "to-us" and hiki "deception", with an implied subject "you" (Mata Nui). Literal gloss: "to-us deception protect". 2. The verb ha-ha is inflected for future tense with the suffix -ko, thus: haha-ko > hahko "will protect/save/cleanse". The subject is ou "you". The noun hiki also appears here with the affix i- "from, against" (i-hiki "against deception"). Literal gloss: "you against-deception protect-will". 3. The verb haui-ha also appears in the imperative here, with objects o-i and hiki, identical to line 1. Literal gloss: "to-us deception make-safe" 4. This line contains the elements ou "you", i-hiki "against deception" (same as line 3), and hahi "protector". There is no overt verb, but it is understood to be "be", thus the literal gloss: "you [are] against-deception protector".

If you’re someone who remembers BZPower back before the archive deletion and downtimes (I confess, I’m getting murky) and roughly prior to '08-'09, you might know me as a different person. I mostly lurked 'round this little forum called Artwork II, which was the place where all the shops and "sprite kits" were safely hidden from the world. Back then, most of my contribution to BZP came in the form of pixel art. Yeah, it was a different time. Well, I haven’t done any pixel art for quite a while—nothing worth posting, at least. Even so, I get the hankering every now and then. And in fact, for a long time I’ve been wanting to start something long-term: a project to fiddle with in my spare time. Pixel art is quite cathartic, I find, and it’s actually a great stress-reliever. Go figure. Unfortunately I haven’t really had that much spare time lately. That is, until last week. It was spring break...for students, at least. =P Even so, in between the grading, I did find a few moments to get creative: The project is a roughly to-scale isometric map of the island of Mata Nui; 1 pixel = ~.25 kio (these images are at about x3 magnification). I find landscapes to be very enjoyable to do, and isometric pixeling suits that pretty well. The images above should be kinda familiar: the Mangai Volcano and the southern tip of the island coast. This is only a few hours’ work, so it’s absurdly rough, but you should get the general idea. So yeah, the plan is to keep messing around with it, and maybe post some updates as things progress. I confess, even now I’m still pretty much an amateur at this, but I hope I can do it justice. =P JRRT

Does the southern tip really have those sheer cliffs? Personally, I'm still waiting for somebody to generate some really great 3D models of the island of Mata Nui from the greyscale bump map that Christian Faber lovingly provided. But sadly everyone who's tried to make it in either LEGO, or Minecraft, or any other 3D rendering software seems content to "wing it". I'd love to see a depiction of Mata Nui that you can view from all angles, because that would offer a fantastic opportunity to get a really legitimate sense of the island's scale and elevation.

[ tumblr ya] Treatise: Translating the Avohkii : Part 4 : Whoa, hold on! It’s dangerous to go alone! First, read this, then this, then this. All done? Good – let’s get moving. Here’s the full transcription of the Avohkii-text once again: The bolded part of the transcription has already been translated in the previous posts. To recap: Mapaku ke-whenu-ka kitu ak-ila ... “Reader, seek out an individual originating from within a secret underground (place)” This portion of the passage seems reasonably self-sufficient, and I have chosen to analyze it as an independent clause: it contains a verb, its arguments, and their modifiers. If we start from that assumption, it stands to reason that the rest of the passage will form its own unit/clause, separate from the first clause but presumably still related in meaning. We can start by identifying already-familiar terms in this portion of the inscription. We actually have an easier time of it than before. Makuta is pretty self-evident, as is taka. The relevant entries are as follows: makuta |n.cmpd.| 1. master of knowledge; 2. higher knowledge [mult. potential etymologies; one proposed etymology is makuta < ma-akuta, from ma(t) “mastery, control” and akuta “knowledge”; another proposed etymology is makuta < mai-akuta, from mai “up, upward, above” (variant of mi, see entry) and akuta “knowledge”] taka |n.| firelight, torchlight, illumination; heat [taka < ta-ka, from ta “elemental fire” and ka “power, force, ability”, yielding a sense of “light cast by fire/torch; light that leads the way”] Alright, now that we’ve identified some familiar terms, let’s continue with the same line of reasoning we used for the first clause: if this section of the passage is a clause in itself, we’d expect there to be a verb and some individual(s) involved in the action of the verb (subject, object, etc.). How do we go about identifying the verb? Well, one aspect of Matoran syntax that hasn’t come up much yet in this discussion (but probably should) is the fact that, according to the only example of a clausal-unit that we have, it appears that verbs in Matoran stand as the final element in a sentence. The example that we have is the phrase Manas zya, translating to "Attack the monster!" The verb is zya "(to) attack", while the object is manas "monster". This is an imperative (command) clause, so technically we can only determine that verbs appear in final position in simple imperative constructions – other clause-types might be different for all we know. Then again, for all we know, the verb-final pattern might be a strict rule for independent clauses in Matoran. For what it’s worth, verb-final patterns show up in ~40% of human languages, so Matoran wouldn’t be all that strange as a non-human language. Well...let’s see where the verb-final logic leads us: Based on its clause-final position, we might assume that taka is the verb. Does this make sense? Hm...taka doesn’t necessarily look like the only example of an actual verb that we have – zya "attack" – but of course morphophonological similarity isn’t a requirement, even if that’s pretty much the only thing we have to go on. It really depends on the categorial status of taka. Do we know anything about that? Possibly, yes. Taka shows up in Takanuva. Nuva means "new". It’s clearly an adjective in its other uses (Tahu Nuva, Gali Nuva, etc.). If we assume that nuva is generally an adjective, that would imply that taka is not verbal, but nounal. Then again, an argument could be made that nuva can modify nouns or verbs, or that Takanuva is an exception based on the fact that nuva appears to be morphologically incorporated into taka, rather than a syntactic modifier as in the other cases. All of these arguments are equally legitimate. This is kind of a sticky situation. On one hand, we’d rather not violate the only potential syntactic rule we know of by looking elsewhere for the verb. On the other hand, it’s iffy to just define taka as a verb. How to decide? Ultimately, the decision should be made based on its overall consequences. If we decide to redefine taka as a verb, that will entail making a variety of alterations to our understanding of Matoran etymology (how modifiers work, the categorial status of nouns and verbs, etc.). These are things that, to some extent, are already "established". In contrast, if we assume that Matoran is not strictly verb-final, we aren’t actually violating any established rule, since we’re simply postulating that there’s more syntactic variation than the single piece of evidence we have suggests. The second option is far more appealing to me, so I’ll run with it. Taka is not the verb – something else is. Where do we go from here? Let’s look at the other candidates for verbhood: We can probably cross out makuta, since that has a pretty well-established nounal status. That leaves ahano, nano, and atuana. Previously, I’ve already hinted that I think atuana contains a variant of toa, so I’ll cross that off as well. That leaves nano and ahano. Hm...time for some more educated guesswork. If Matoran is not verb-final, are there any syntactic patterns that we can observe at all? I’d rather not jump to the conclusion that Matoran word-order is completely free, since that would leave us without any direction whatsoever. Instead, we might come to the more conservative position that Matoran is verb-final in independent imperative clauses. Think about it: Manas zya is an independent imperative clause and the verb is in final position. Furthermore, I’ve also translated the first part of the Avohkii passage as an independent imperative clause, and the verb happens to be in final position there. That’s a convenient match, go figure! So if we say that the verb-final syntactic pattern is restricted (at the very least) to these types of clauses, we are free to postulate a different pattern for other clause-types. Specifically, I will propose that the clause under discussion (the second half of the passage) is not independent, but is instead dependent upon (or "subordinate to") the first clause. This is because of the status of the first clause as a command or instruction: do X. If the first clause is defined in this way, what is its relationship to the second clause? It makes sense that the second clause would describe something about how/why the command of the first clause must be performed. For example, we might interpret the relation as cause-effect: do X so that Y. Alright, so the second clause is subordinate. How do we apply this to the translation? Well, if Matoran is verb-final in independent imperative clauses, a simple pattern that could be used to mark dependency is to reverse the standard order, i.e. to place the verb at the beginning of the clause: verb-initial. This is actually pretty milquetoast when it comes to human languages – different syntactic patterns are used to mark dependency-status all the time, so I don’t have many qualms about postulating it for Matoran. However, this does lead us to a specific conclusion with respect to choosing between candidates for the verb: ahano is the first word in the clause. If we adopt the assumption about syntactic patterns above, ahano would be the verb. This is progress! Very small progress, but progress nonetheless. Even so, this post has been really wordy, and it’s getting a bit too long at this point, so for now, I’ll leave you with a recap of the translation. It’s a slow crawl, but hopefully worth it by the end: Mapaku, ke-whenu-ka kitu ak-ila ... “Reader, seek out an individual originating from within a secret underground (place)” ... ahano nano atuana makuta taka. "(so that) VERB ... [smthg. related to Toa] Makuta light/illumination." Still on the to-do list is determining a translation for ahano, as well as nano and atuana, and we also have to flesh out the relations between these elements and makuta and taka. It’s a daunting task, but I think we’ll make it. Next time.

These are very interesting reads, you seem to derive mostly from the words and making conclusions from them, may I interrupt your method of work and suggest you try to look at the context and fill in the blanks? I think you've considered and rejected this option already, but maybe it will help you on your journey to find out what the Avohkii says. Obviously we know that Takua becomes the Toa of Light, he is the individual originating from Karda Nui. We can shorten the entire first half down to "Find Takua". Then what? According to what you've figured out so far it's; "Find Takua (so that) VERB ... [smthg. related to Toa] Makuta light/illumination." I'm pretty sure the verb is transform or something like that. He's gonna become(VERB) [smthg. related to Toa]. Then the Makuta light/illumination part makes it trickier for me. My initial thought is that it means "Makuta illuminate", or rather "Makuta illuminated". But then there's a piece missing between [smthg. related to Toa] and that. Either that dilemma is solved through further examination of the [smthg. related to Toa]-word, OR it's something different. I dont know what in my mind made me associate the sentence with illuminating Makuta. It's a metaphor, nothing concrete there. So maybe that was a bit of a stretch because Orkham's razor(hehe, puns). Looking again at context and the concrete things. Beware, I haven't read any books, so maybe it makes different sense in them but here goes. Takanuva and Makuta fall into the pool of energized protodermis and become one, this is what I thought my metaphor meant. It could be any kind of defeat though. But maybe the sentence is trying to say "Find Takua (so that) VERB ... [smthg. related to Toa] Takutanuva." In either case, the verb is most likely become or transform. Hope this was helpful, I don't know, just thinking out loud.

Has Lego heard about your achievements in Matoran linguistics? Somebody from the company has to see this one, at the very least.

Someone call in the logic police - this makes too much sense! We must stop this insanity at once!

this has to be the pinnacle of your Matoran linguistic achievements

Hi folks. It's been a terribly long count of years (months), but I'm still, here, writing this stuff. I think it helps keep me sane. . .Whatever the case, if you're here to read this new lesson on the Matoran Language, it might do to read up on some of the older stuff. I don't know, maybe like the previous four lessons? Lesson 1 Lesson 2 Lesson 3 Lesson 4 And now that that it's all fresh in your mind, move on to Lesson Five: Pronouns I: =l Pronouns I l= Matoran pronouns have much the same function as they do in English: they replace nouns, serving as the subject or object of a sentence, and fulfill most of the roles played by nouns. Consequently, Matoran pronouns are modified for the same functions that nouns are: Case, Motion, and Time/Location. However, the current means of modification is through inflection, rather than a particle system. Although pronouns were previously modified by particles, these particles have since become “eroded,” in a sense, and have now developed new pronoun forms. Pronouns and Case: Pronouns are inflected for the same three-fold case system of Nominative (Subject), Objective (Object), and Genitive (Possessive). Now, in English, whereas nouns function in these roles by their Word Order in a sentence, pronouns also have the extra feature of inflection. For example, the Nominative (Subject) form of the first person pronoun is “I”, while the Objective (Object) form is “me” and the Genitive (Possessive) form is “my”. These characteristics manifest in the other persons as well. Third person Nom. “he/she/it”, Acc. “him/her/it”, Gen. “his/her/its”. Second person Nom. “you”, Gen. “your”, etc. Matoran features a similar—if a bit more complex—structure, with pronouns being marked for the various cases and numbers (singular or plural). As with nouns, we’ll start off with the Case Pronouns: -Nominative: As is the case with all the pronouns, there are three Persons: first, second, and third. These come in singular and plural forms, the plurals being historically formed from the singulars by a particle -ee, which has since been assimilated to the pronoun stem. There is also a "fourth" person, which is the equivalent of English "one," as in "One is bored when one has nothing to do." This is classified as the "impersonal" subject and has no plural form. Here are the forms of the nominative pronouns, beginning with the singulars: 1 o – “I” 2 oa – “you” 3 ia, ai – “he/she/it” 4 hua – “one” Now the plurals: 1 oe, u – “we” 2 ue – “you (pl.), you all” 3 ie – “they” These pronoun forms are usually placed directly before or after the verb, regardless of the verb’s position in the sentence. This is a pretty strict placement rule. -Objective: Next, the objective case forms. Historically the singulars were formed with the addition of a particle aak-. The plurals were formed by a combination of the ee particle and the addition of the n-prefix from the nounal case particles. Singular: 1 ako – “me” 2 akoa – “you” 3 akia, akai – “him/her/it” 4 ahua – “one” Plurals: 1 ngoe, ngu – “us” 2 ngue – “you (pl.), you all” 3 ngie – “them” -Genitive: Lastly, the genitive pronouns. Singulars are formed with the addition of the genitive particle ui (which you should recognize from the general nounal particles). Plurals are formed by the further addition of plural ee and the n-prefix (with subsequent assimilation): Singular: 1 uio – “my” 2 uikoa – “your” 3 uikia, uikai – “his/her/its” 4 uihua – “one’s” Plural: 1 moe, mu – “our” 2 mue – “your (pl.)” 3 mie – “their” Genitives are placed after the nouns they modify in the same way that genitive-case nouns are. -Usage and Examples: The usage of the different cases with respect to pronouns is the same as with nouns. Thus, nominative pronouns are used as subjects, objectives are used as direct or indirect objects, and genitives are used to show possession. I will now offer some examples of these different cases forms: Ia teryo ea matoran. “He/she/it attacked the Matoran.” Teryo i rahi uikia akia. “His/her/its Rahi attacked him/her/it.” O kanna wo wahi a. “I went through the region.” Na oro orakhe oa. “You will say words.” Matoran akia kharmo. “The/a Matoran made it.” Oe kamo ii koro uio. “We went toward my village.” Na kanohi moe kharmo ie. “They made our Kanohi (pl.).” [Note once again that the word order is not crucial in these examples (except for the placement of genitive pronouns, of course): it is the case inflection that determines the role of a noun or pronoun in the sentence.] This concludes the discussion of case for pronouns. Still to come: Time/Location Particles on Nouns, Motion/Time/Location and Pronouns, Adjectives. Stay tuned. JRRT

We need this canonized so bad, it's not even funny. Seriously, when it's done, we need to see about contacting Greg to canonize this. It's so fantastic!

He returns! For a time I had given up, but checked today on a whim. Very good stuff. I've actually been doing a lot of language stuff recently (Not as much as you, obviously, I'm an undergrad and language is a hobby, not area of study), and one of the coolest things I find about it is etymology. I was wondering, have you considered how the matoran language might have developed? It sounds really cool, but to be able to associate words and gramatical concepts with matoran culture would be (I think) really fun. Obviously this wouldn't work (as it would require overhauling much of the language), but it would be neat to have multiple "declensions" (I don't know what the proper term is for a particle-based system) based on the six base elements; this would also replace the need for gender. When considering the matoran universe, I notice the tahunga separate themselves purely on this basis. Ga-matoran have what we see as feminine characteristics, but in the matoran universe they would be seen as Ga characteristics, and so-forth. It's all for fun though. I just love discussing language. P.S., Unfortunately it will be some time until I can study this in depth again (though I will keep up as it progresses). I'm currently studying Anglo-Saxon for a humanities GDR, as well as learning latin online (And greek is in the queue). Let's just say I have a thing for the classics.

Just another Theory I've had sitting my Documents since September. Thought i'd post it up here for some thoughts. MU Inner Workings Each Element holds a key part of Functionality for the Matoran Universe. When the Great beings initially created the matoran universe, upon planning the construction and design of the Robot a need for a robust nano-tech worker emerged. A Base template of a generic template matoran was designed. In order for the system to work as it was being constructed the base matoran template included an "Element" as which this worker would contribute sub-consciously as it worked inside and throughout the system of Mata Nui. These became the Matoran of Light which would both moderate power transfer throughout the MU . Initially They were programmed with several initial functions including self defence algorithms and an inner "System protection algorithm". We know this as the Moral light/shadow settings. This system was implemented to prevent further damage cause by corruptions in the programming of the Matoran workers. For example; if a matoran becomes corrupted for some reason (Bad moral choices, virus, Error in programming, refusing to obey system parameters to build the robot) The System will enact physical and visible changes to the matoran which allow the other parts of the system to easily identify and quarantine the threat. Thus preventing further corruption. At this point we have the two basic matoran types. Matoran of light, the initial matoran created. Matoran of Shadow, Corrupted matoran After various successful and unsuccessful testing of the matoran and the construction was coming along nicely. Some changes were to be made to the further templates. Anti-Virus Protection would now be assigned to new improved dedicated system protection and maintenance modules known as Toa. As the Matoran universe requires workers of many differing types to maintain functionality of the robot, the remaining 'elements' were created as differing templates assigned to the matoran AI programming . These templates contained passive systems maintenance subroutines which kept the varying systems of the MU working. These templates also spread throughout their biomechanical structure allowing them to be easily identified based upon whatever color scheme the template had. The differing Templates had the following functionality of maintaining the MU. Systems Maintenance Psionics - Regulate and maintain programming of internal components, CPU Maintenance. Lightning - Regulate and control flow of power through the circuits. Gravity - Inertial Dampeners, Artificial Gravity Stabilisers. Sonics - Engine and internal MU Noise Dampeners, Communication Circuits Magnetism - Robotic Movement control, Control Resulting Magnetic Currents and polar stability. Plasma - Weapons and Propulsion Systems Iron - Internal Structural support maintenance, prevention of internal and external breaches. Fire - Regulate Internal Heat levels, Maintain Temperature. Ice - Regulate Internal Cold Levels, Maintain Temperature. Light - Regulate Power flow in universe, Regulate Lighting systems esp. Day cycles, Systems running mode. Anti-Virus capability. Shadow - Regulate Night cycles, System shutdown/Sleep/hibernate mode. Anti-Virus containment Inhabitant Maintenance The Green - Maintain Internal Organic and Mechanical Flora. Psionics - Maintain Internal Mechanical Fauna's/Flora's Programming Protodermic Maintenance Earth - Maintain Fine Solid Protodermis throughout Ecosystems. Stone - Maintain Raw Solid Protodermis throughout Ecosystems. Water - Maintain Liquid Solid Protodermis throughout Ecosystems. Air - Maintain Gaseous Protodermis throughout Ecosystems. Ice - Maintain Frozen liquid Protodermis throughout Ecosystems. Fire - Maintain Molten liquid Protodermis throughout Ecosystems. Iron - Maintain Pure Solid Protodermis throughout Ecosystems. Toa -Workers with increase functionality and Protection sub algorithms. -Designed as an Anti-Virus System. -Designed to be unable to destroy internal components(Toa Code/Do not kill) and harm inner workings of MU. -Quarantine Viruses / Threats when able (Toa Seal/Capturing). - Make sure Internal Systems function and keep working (Protect the Matoran at all costs) - Have limited run time in order to maximize efficiency. ( Completing Destiny) - Able to Create more Toa if Virus Threat too big to handle (Toa Stones) - Still has Functionality to increase worker efficiency once no longer Toa ( Turaga mode). - Once in this mode, able to warn and prevent against previously encountered Viruses and keep System aware of threats ( Prophecies about Bad guys, Telling Stories of Evil) Kanohi Masks - Backup / Residual storage system. - Creates a temporary cached backup of the wearer in case of system corruption. - Contain Extra Sub-modules/Subroutines which are able to be accessed by the wearer, like adding an extra function to a program or giving your body an immunisation which can help fight viruses. -Legendary Kanohi Masks - More advanced Kanohi which hold a program filled with many subroutines and maintain a core part of the matoran universe. Skakdi - Designed to integrate the varying MU Systems together. -Hence why Can only use Elements in Tandem with each other. - Located on Zakaz at the base of the MU Neck. A place Filled with nerves that link throughout a human body/ the MU robot. Artakha and Karzahni Were both Assigned the Task of Maintaining the Matoran's Physical, Biotic and Mechanical well being to make sure they continued powering the Matoran Universe. The Great beings rewarded them for their hard work during the creation of the MU with the Mask of Creation to aide them in their duties. However they quickly fought for it and Artakha emerged the victor. After Artakha gained the Legendary kanohi he chose to continue his job via inspiring the matoran to work harder by rewarding them with a paradise of his Creation. Whilst the dejected Karzahni worked on repairing the broken and injured matoran so they could continue working. His Mask designed especially to show him visions of what could happen should he stop doing his job. Makuta -Systems Internal Method Of Learning and adaptation. -Equipped with 42 various powers for experimentation purposes. -In charge of Studying "Shadow" Elements of the MU, to understand how they work, How they became corrupted, and create new ~antibodies~ to prevent further infection via the same methods or via methods discovered. They also Created Various other components to the MU in order to make it work more efficiently and keep the MU working. - This is also known as their ability to Create Various Rahi to populate the MU. Vortixx - Originally designed to maintain the flow of Resources throughout the MU's Body. This distribution of both tools and other materials allows the matoran workers to work more efficiently, whilst simultaneously providing a system somewhat akin to the human bodies resources systems . Though, due to Evolution of the programming in their AI, The production and Selling of Weapons eventually became their primary function. Zyglak -Rogue Creations of the GB's, Code was corrupted during the Krana Energized Process. Bohrok - Designed quite simply to Destroy the Active Camouflage Created to cover the MU robots Body. -Originally The Av-Matoran had a Sub-module to turn them into Bohrok after they complete their destiny of creating the Robot. However, this was deemed as an inefficient management of resources by the GB's. As more matoran would constantly need to be created once they transformed. Instead the Toa/Turaga Destiny System was implemented with newer Matoran AI Templates, though it was never removed from the programming of the Av-Matoran. The Bohrok at this time were programmed to be one of the preposed Six main elements the GB's believed to be used in the MU somewhat modified to be capable of destroying the active camouflage: Fire, Ice, Water, Stone, Earth, Jungle(Acidity). However later in the MU Design Process, it was decided that Air was to replace jungle as a primary element. Tren Krom -Primitive AI Designed to maintain the MU whilst under construction. Yeah its a bit messy and all over the place, but i'd like some feedback if anyone can be bothered to read it all -Roki

As I mentioned in the preface, the grammar and phonology are not meant to be entirely canon (although I have tried to keep aspects of the lexicon at least semi-canon). The pronunciations given thus far for Matoran words are all heavily influenced by English phonology. Your pronunciation of "Lewa" with a schwa (technical name for "uh") serves as a good example, since, in English, there is a marked tendency toward reducing vowels in unstressed syllables to schwas. The conception of Matoran that I've posted here is more of an "ideal" system, and is instead based more upon Polynesian phonological systems. More like Spanish, IMO. In Japanese, the "e" sound is a bit more like the English "e", as in "extra". But in this Matoran conlang the "a" is a bit more like an "awh" sound, unlike the sounds found naturally in most languages. Actually, the vowels are, more or less, based on a synthesis of Hawaiian and Māori vowel systems. JRRT

Well....I could name some of them, but it wouldn't really mean anything to anyone. Most of them have been "experimental", playing around with various linguistic characteristics, but there are three or four that are pretty well-developed. Are you a conlanger yourself, Waffles? Glad you're interested! JRRT

Out of curiosity, what other conlangs have you made?

Well, in light of the recent announcement, I thought it would be appropriate to write an entry about the End of Bionicle. Be careful, I may wax poetic here... As a fan who was there at the beginning, who watched the dawn of Bionicle and reveled in its mythic light, I can say that I am fully satisfied as it comes to an end. Bionicle has had a long and excellent run, and its tenth anniversary is a fitting time to bring things to a close. I look back over the entirety of the universe that Lego has created for us, and I can say that all the little things that irked me in the past cannot shine as bright as the things that enthralled and inspired me. There was a time when I spent a great deal of effort and energy raging against the great problems and failures and mistakes that I perceived in the storyline of Bionicle. It bugged me. I wrote books of mental criticism in my head about how the storyline should have happened, how it could have been done better, how the magic of the first years of Bionicle could have been preserved! But no! The story team was too callous--they didn't listen. It was all ruined, and I had to just move on. But as time passed, I realized that all these things that had built up ultimately did not matter. They didn't take away from the underlying themes that drew me to Bionicle and kept me there. In fact, they were mostly all superficial, and even if they were a part of the "official" storyline, they didn't have to be a part of my imagination. That is what has kept me an avid fan for nearly a decade--the fact that, as a fan, I don't have to follow the canon absolutely. This is a pretty simplistic idea, that one can simply ignore those elements of the storyline that one dislikes. But the thing that truly brought this home to me was the realization that the "foundations" of Bionicle that I love were not touched by these "bad things", even if I don't ignore them. The themes are still there. The same themes of Good vs. Evil, the same cosmic struggle of powers, the same inner struggle within an individual: to give in to the flawed evil within us all, or to follow Morality. And, most importantly: the struggle to regain the good that was lost through deception. The Toa strive to awaken their Great Spirit and return their microscosmic universe to its original, if flawed, state and purpose, while in the macrocosmic universe Mata Nui must ultimately seek to repair Paradise: Spherus Magna. What is the reason for pointing out these things? Perhaps simply to illustrate why I am not one of those fans who will inevitably say "Oh, I'm glad it's finally over." Those who have been jaded by all the "problems" that they perceive. Honestly, I've seen enough of that tripe written here, and it annoys me to no end. As if the people who say such things are so high up on their pedestals as to look down on the thing that they enjoyed so immensely in the past and say "Good riddance!" Really? Is that really what you want? How pathetic. What is your motivation? I don't deny that there are certainly missed opportunities galore in the Bionicle storyline, but these pale in comparison to the bigger picture. But enough of that. The real reason for this entry was to look back over the entire body of the Bionicle storyline and remember all the aspects that attracted me at the beginning, and to marvel at how I will remember the good far longer than any of the bad. It is remarkable that the truly mythological elements--that mysterious atmosphere that drew me and so many other fans to the line in the first place--is ultimately preserved if one goes over the storyline in summary form, perhaps because that feeling was never actually gone. I suppose it's also fitting, then that this announcement (and thus, this entry) comes at Thanksgiving. Thanks, Bionicle. Thanks for a decade of memories. I'm glad I'm still here, here at the end of all things... ...Sorry, I just couldn't resist. JRRT

All tests are taken. All papers are presented. All finals are over. Finally. Long sigh of contentment. =ll= Today I've been looking through some topics related to how Teridax (henceforth referred to only as Makuta or The Makuta, since that's really what he is now) will be defeated in 2010, reading some of the different speculations and ideas that members have. While I don't usually spend much time reading speculation anymore (it takes a lot of time...which I don't have), this has really caught my attention... So, here's my ideal imagining of how The Makuta will ultimately be overthrown and the Toa and Mata Nui will be victorious (in the most epic way possible): -Makuta arrives on Bara Magna. The Toa Nuva and Takanuva escape from the "Makutaverse" (probably with help from the Ignika) and Tahu is reverted to his original Mata form (reason for this: the "golden armor" needs a Toa in the "un-armored" form of the Mata). -By this time, Mata Nui has been successful in retrieving the ancient power source of the Great Beings and has been able to use it to repair the gigantic prototype synthezoid. -The Toa fight the remnants of the Skrall on Bara Magna while searching for the pieces of the golden armor. They find it and assemble it. Tahu dons the armor. *unknown what the purpose of the armor is, skipping ahead!* -The Toa enter the prototype synthezoid as Mata Nui rises from the desert to face the towering Makuta. -Epic "Battle of the Monolithic Giants" ensues. Complete with epic orchestral/vocal score. The portrayal of this battle ranges from physical action (shattering mountains, etc.) to mental action, as the minds of Mata Nui and Makuta battle across the robotic systems of their respective bodies. -Mata Nui's body is severely damaged, he departs from Bara Magna into space. Makuta pursues him into the dark void. -Makuta eventually catches up with Mata Nui somewhere in interplanetary space. Mata Nui and the Toa have constructed a plan. *unknown what plan is, skipping ahead!* -Result of the plan is that, after an incredibly intense struggle, Makuta and Mata Nui switch places. The Toa Mata find themselves faced with their old Enemy in the mind of the prototype. Makuta manifests himself as the Void once more, and the Mata fight him in a reflection of their first battle in Mangaia. Makuta is too strong. They are almost defeated! -Takanuva, the Toa of Light, finally exerts his power in the conflict. Makuta cannot withstand the Element of Light. He retreats into the shadows, taunting the seven Toa... -Suddenly Makuta realizes the damage that has been done to his body in the battle with Mata Nui. The prototype body is nearly falling apart. Makuta feels the sting of fear as it dawns upon him that he is trapped, imprisoned. He is too weak to strike back at the Toa now. Mata Nui, now in his rightful body, speaks across the void between the two synthezoids, telling Makuta to look "outward". -Makuta looks into space and finds himself floating beside a Red Star, but it is not the Red Star of the Great Beings. This time it is a real one, and it is something that his present body cannot withstand. Makuta says that he will take the Toa with him to the grave. Mata Nui says that he will not. -The Toa Mata and Takanuva are transported from the mind of Makuta, along with the Ignika (maybe using the same mechanisms that the Mask of Life used to transport the Mahri to Metru Nui?). Makuta is left alone, finally the Great Spirit of his own universe--a broken and lifeless shell. He screams rage and terror into the minds of the Toa and every living being within the universe of the Matoran as Mata Nui hurls him headlong across the blazing Void. -Makuta's last words as he hurtles into the inferno of the Star are "You cannot destroy me, for I am Nothing." He laughs, and then silence. I have to write this. Bye. JRRT

These ideas are good and could work in the story, but there are some things I don't like... [*]The use of the void form, as well as Makuta's last words, feels repetitive, as does the chance that he might come back as a villain. If good is to triumph, I want it to be at least somewhat conclusory. To achieve that, I think Teridax's story would have to come to a definite close. [*]Seven Toa being able to subdue Makuta, especially when unlimited power is at his disposal, sounds awfully sketchy. Granted, seven have never before faced him at once, but it makes those years of fighting him with less favorable odds seem like a waste when this was always an option. [*]The back-and-forth perspective switching from interior to exterior reminds me of Mario & Luigi 3: Bowser's Inside Story. There's nothing wrong with that, but for an epic final battle it makes the odds almost entirely arbitrary. [*]Makuta looks behind him and suddenly there's this star, completely unmentioned until this point, sitting right by him? It sounds like a Deus Ex Machina, especially when he was so close to dying in a way that made sense with the current events. [*]Makuta screams rage and terror, utterly furious, unable to control his emotions... and then the next second, he's uttering well-rehearsed final words and laughing maniacally? The change in mood is inexplicable. I do not want to see Teridax die a meaningless death. I do not want to see him live on in a tedious life. Looking at Teridax's recent intentions, we see that he has ultimate power, and yet he still isn't happy with that. It's not enough, and one has to wonder why. The way I perceive the current saga ending is as follows: Teridax is given a choice to make his pursuits meaningful. Perhaps, somehow, he and Mata Nui will be able to share power. If not for the instability of the prototype robot and its lack of ability to sustain a universe, perhaps Mata Nui could rule the prototype that houses the Agori, accepting that he had lost the rights to his kingdom when he failed to be a capable ruler. Perhaps Teridax could continue to rule the Matoran Universe, and differently than Mata Nui would, but with a better understanding of how his power depends on the approval of those he rules. The idea of giving Teridax a choice offers another possibility: perhaps he will refuse. And if he does, then he should suffer for it, because good must have a reason to triumph for it to remain good. Portraying good and evil as equivalent forces with equivalent actions neglects this important quality. It could make a realistic story, but it would be a story which dreamers would be unable to love. It's possible that my concepts of an end to the current BIONICLE saga are unrealistic, but I hope that if they are not realized, something equally meaningful will take its place. It should not be a battle of strength alone, or wits, but rather the ultimate chance for heroes to prove they are more than the villains they fight.

As fitting with your name, "But an end is just a beginning."

This picture summarizes all the reasons why I have remained a fan of the Bionicle. JRRT

Two entries in one day...isn't that against the rules?! ------------- Well now, anyways, I've been working on this little project here and there for a long time now, and I think it's starting to come to a complete enough stage that I can post it. As a whole, it's basically my take on the form and history of the "Matoran Language" (in dictionary form). The language itself is called Matoranoro, which is "The Words of Those Who Speak" and also Kuitoronui, which is "The Great Speech". Right now I plan to post a short series of excerpts from it describing the etymology of certain Matoran words and names, and eventually to post the entire dictionary of it. Of course, I'm not really expecting many people to be extremely interested in it, since it's mostly just the long-winded and complicated ramblings of a linguistically obsessed geek. But we shall certainly see. I guess I don't care all that much one way or the other--it's my hobby, after all. And it's really fun to do. So, first "excerpt": a complete etymology of the word kanohi. Much of this stuff is actually given in a silly little SS I wrote called The Time. kanohi cmpnd. Mask of Power [Formed from the element ka “power, ability” and from the word nohi “face, mask” (see entries)] ka n. power, energy; ability, (creative) potential [Complete etymology uncertain. The word could have theoretically developed from a hypothetical form *kae; also spelled cah or ca (using the old orthographic letter c); also realized as aka, akha, kan, kar, khar and, in very rare cases, as the prefix gah- (separate from the elemental ga-)] nohi n. (outer) face, mask [used by mask-makers to refer to the powerless Matoran mask; nohi comes from the ancient form noehii, which, in turn, is formed from the ancient element noe, the elemental word for the substance of Protodermis and from the suffix -hii “thing, object.” Thus, nohi may, historically, be rendered as “thing of Protodermis”] ------------ And there it is. JRRT

This is just a quick story for my Screenwriting Workshop summer class -- everybody in class liked it, so I figured, "Why not have a blog entry AND homework done?" Inspired in part by the Hagar the Horrible comic strip. It's written in the format for a screenplay (as close as BZP formatting can do), which might be a little jarring at first. Some tips -- "beat" means "slight pause", and the all caps either introduce a new character or are sound effects. Enjoy! --------------------------------------------------------------- Wise Guy FADE IN: EXT. MOUNTAINTOP – DAY PILGRIM, young man, reaches the top of a mountain. Wise OLD MAN, short, long gray beard, thick gray clothing, cloth hood, sits atop mountain. Peak has a small plateau surrounded by a few pointy rocks on the edges. Small stone house behind old man on other side of plateau. Snow covers house, ground, and old man’s hood and shoulders. Sound of WIND WHISTLING through the rocks. PILGRIM Greetings, oh Wise Man! I have heard of your great wisdom, so I have traveled far to this mountain and struggled for days to reach the top to seek-- OLD MAN Yeah, yeah. My nose can tell. Go away. PILGRIM Oh! I’m so sorry if I have offended you in my rush to beg your advice! Such is my great foolishness compared to your lofty wisdom! OLD MAN I know. Scram. PILGRIM Please sir, I will leave quickly once you give me advice. You see, there’s this girl— OLD MAN You know how many times some random pilgrim has said that? Everybody thinks they can come here and say “How?” and I jump up, salute, and say “That’s how!” like a slave. I’m SICK of it. PILGRIM But sir! Your wisdom is so great, and I have traveled so far to learn of it! OLD MAN Well that was stupid. You think I came up here to have company? Pilgrim is silent, stunned look on face. OLD MAN Are you still here? Look, let me guess. You’re dating her, but she can’t stand your drinking problem, and you’re afraid to ask her to marry you. PILGRIM Why, yes sir! How did you know? OLD MAN Please. The nose, remember? Besides, look behind you. What do you see? Pilgrim turns. A line of OTHER PILGRIMS stretches for miles down the mountain, some coming, some going. OLD MAN Now do I have to spell it out, or do you have a brain? PILGRIM No sir. I mean, yes… (beat) What is your advice, great wise one? OLD MAN Marry the girl, quit drinking, work hard, invest in mountain climbing gear. (beat) Divorce the girl, start drinking again, retire, and write a book on why you shouldn’t invest in mountain climbing gear. (beat) Get rich. Then re-marry the girl, and keep drinking. Got it? Now go away. PILGRIM But sir! She doesn’t care about money. That’s what I love about her. OLD MAN Bah. Old man tugs his beard. OLD MAN Well, that was my giveaway advice. If you want anything else, you must answer a riddle. PILGRIM I’ll try. OLD MAN Where can a hermit find peace? Pilgrim looks deep in thought. OLD MAN And “on a distant mountain” is not an option… PILGRIM Well, I live in the city, and nobody ever asks me for advice. And I shave my beard. Old man’s eyes widen. He lifts his beard up, stares at it. OLD MAN Oh. I guess I forgot to shave again. Old man looks at pilgrim. Drops beard with a RUSTLING SOUND. OLD MAN Irony and paradox! The best place to avoid people is where the people already are. Brilliant! I say, young man, you are the wise one. (beat) You know, there really is no rum here. No beer, no wine. Would your girl, by chance, like a home with a scenic view? Pilgrim slowly grins. FADE OUT.

This week, being BZP's sixth Anniv., everyone gets a blog. This can be viewed as both a good and bad thing, since although it gives every member the ability to express their personal thoughts on things, it also multiplies the number blogs into the thousands. So for my blog, if anyone is fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of it in the rushing torrent, I thought I'd go back and take a look at how my spriting has developed over the approx. 3.5 years I've been a part of BZP. Here are the results: Tolkien's History of Spriting ------------------------------- Alright, here we have basically my first ever kit attempt. Quite bad really, but I was only just starting back then, so maybe I can be forgiven. There's obviously some RZ influence in there, particularly in the eyes and masks. But truth to be told, this is not actually my first Bionicle kit. The real first one is unfortunately locked away on the hardrive of an ancient Windows 95 computer. I'll recover it someday hopefully. It was truly massive. Next up, the second incursion into the spriting world. Pretty simple, though much better than the last, I think. I quite like this one actually , not too complicated. Yep, nothing much more to say. Ah, my favorite old kit. In my opinion, this is the first real kit I completed. It's got masks and some weapons, plus materials for building poses, and some pretty bad looking elemental effects too. Also, my shading skillz were a bit more improved, it would seem. Perhaps someday I'll revamp this one. I just wanted to throw this one in here. It's been sitting on my Brickshelf since I made the account, and I don't know why. The first kit I tried posting on BZP. It's kind of bland, there's not all that much resemblance to the Rahaga anyway. But, this was also my first try at making animations with sprites. Needless to say, the topic didn't last too long. An in-between kit. The first appearance of the Toa Metru in sprite form (check out their massive weaponry!). These were expressly made to be gamesprites (since I was making attempts at game programming), but they fell far short of what I was wanting. Don't animate the running sequence, it's horrid. Aha! Here we go, the first whispers of TGS. Left to right, this goes from the earliest form of the Vakama gamesprites to the finished form, and...beyond? The sprites for Piraka: Infight. Yes, the full sheets will be released very soon. Stop PMing me about it, I beg you. And that's all for the most BZP related kits, but what about the others? What about the kits that were never posted or completed? Well, here's a tribute to some of those lost kits. ------------------------ Hope you enjoyed this entry, only made possible by BZP's VI Anniversary. JRRT