It's noted that all of the Toa Nuva lost their elemental powers, not just Lewa. Also Lewa wandered out of the fortress that Velika was going to blow up, so he's probably safe from that. (Although him not getting the language upgrade and getting stuck in a village of primitives is another way of the story slapping him, if you want to view it that way.) Greg not liking treespeak is a known fact, and may or may not have played into his treatment of Le-characters. For example, Greg wanted Matau to betray the group instead of Vakama. Kongu got the Suletu instead of the Mask of Flight (you can argue that it actually helped him in the end, but whatever.) Lewa was in the story the longest, so he could have gotten the shorter end of the stick. In Bionicle in general, though, that case could be made for almost any character (except for Teridax). Tahu and Gali got defeated by three Rahkshi. Tahu had to rely on Lewa for help in the jungle (that was Tales of the Masks, a Greg-written-book, BTW). And Matau was the one to save Vakama (although that was a movie thing, not Greg.) Onua and Pohatu got flattened by the Rahkshi, Onua ran from a Makuta, scared out of his wits... I just wanted to reply to the example I highlighted in your post above. I honestly wouldn't say that was due to Matau being a Le-Toa, but more so due to character development. Greg has said multiple times in the past that Matau would have been a far better choice to defect to the bad side, as he was a far more vain hero, and was quite frustrated with becoming a Hordika. He even showed greater weakness to becoming a Rahi, as duly noted with his making of a nest. Vakama was all about being a Toa, and was rarely ever confident... His character change in 2005 made absolutely no sense, which is why Greg would have preferred Matau. And honestly, I agree with him. Eww. No way should Matau have become the villian. It was vital for both characters development that Vakama was the antagonist and Mataus was the protagonist in WoS. I also think Vakama was way more susceptible because he was so insecure. So Im glad Matau became the hero in the end.