Quisoves Potoo

That's a good distinction. Come to think of it, the inhabitants of Metru Nui did not focus on him very much in their lives prior to the Great Cataclysm. They had a Great Temple, true, but it was devoted to learning rather than religion. In fact, Mata Nui was pretty much their equivalent of Santa Claus, as they had a myth about him riding the chutes to deliver gifts on Naming Day. However, I'm still not certain about those same Matoran on the island of Mata Nui or other populations in the MU. While the Matoran on the island of Mata Nui were never shown to have religious practices per se, they did seem to talk of the Great Spirit in such a way that it seems to me that they might have devoted themselves to him had he awoken without Teridax's seizure of power. The second Bionicle comic has the Turaga stating "In the time before time, when the world was new, the Great Spirit Mata Nui descended from the skies like a burning star. he walked the world, and marvelled at its beauty, and watched over all living things." So he was considered a protector on the Island of Mata Nui. How that would have affected his treatment had he been reawakened without Makuta's take-over I do not know. Additionally Axonn and Brutaka seemed to think of Mata Nui as a protector, and did devote their lives to him as agents of the Order of Mata Nui. So,for the moment, I'm on the fence. I see your point about the lack of total devotion on the part of the Matoran we've seen, but I can't help but wonder if the Matoran of the Island of Mata Nui might have actually worshiped him and whether or not the Order of Mata Nui could be considered religious.

On the contrary, I was saying that they were examples of the normal meaning of the word. That said, I apologize if I violated the rules. I assumed that because I was not discussing those religions, only using them as examples, that I was not writing about them in a way that might cause offense. I don't see how the mere mention of a dead religion can be offensive, but you are the forum moderator, so I respect your word on the matter. EDIT: I remember now that I did not mention only dead religions, so what I said doesn't apply to my first reference, only the subsequent example. But in the end, what is the difference? The Matoran respected Mata Nui. They honored him and believed that they were dependent upon him, which they were. They knew that he was more powerful than they any creature they knew, even if they did not realize the extent of his power. And as you said, they thought of him as a Great Spirit, so they believed him to be no mere corporeal being. And while the word "spirit" may not necessarily have religious connotations, they prayed to him, as I said before, so I think that in the case of the Matoran it did. Additionally, the fact that they thought that the Great Cataclysm was caused by his falling asleep, and yet did not realize what he truly was certainly suggests that they ascribed a supernatural existence to him. Most religions, with a few notable exceptions, worship deities who are limited. I don't see how Mata Nui was, prior to his reawakening (and possibly even after) was different. As for the paradise, while I'm foggy on the details, Greg did say that Spherus Magna was that paradise, so that suggests that the idea preceded the Great Cataclysm.

Only by a very strict definition of worship. Yes, they didn't see him as the [normal meaning of the term]. However, the term worship is not usually used in such a strict sense. [such] mythology is rather like the mythology the Matoran developed. Unaware that Mata Nui was a giant robot, and that the Matoran Universe was housed inside him, they saw him as a powerful spirit, lower in the cosmic hierarchy than the mysterious Great Beings. who came from a paradise and was eventually cast into sleep by Makuta. They anticipated his return, when all, they thought, would be set right. And we have seen various characters (Nokama in one of the Metru Nui books comes to mind) pray to him, saying things like "Mata Nui protect us!" There are also expressions like "Mata Nui knows what." The inhabitants of the Matoran Universe saw Mata Nui as a being surpassing all they knew, who cared and provided for them. In short, he was to them as [some others]. The only major difference I can think of between these examples and Mata Nui as he was thought of prior to his awakening is that the latter can die. But immortality is not a requisite for worship. After all, the deities conceived by most cultures are far from perfect.

*Sigh* People... Always thinking they're so special: "Look at me, Ma, I'm gonna tear reality to shreds!" Astounding. Now grow up and get a job. Reality is fine without your inane jiggery-pokery. Oh, and the next time you see certain pan-dimensional entity named "Eleanor" thank the being profusely for cleaning up the mess. Speaking of which, I'm real buddy-buddy with said entity, and he/she/it/them thought that I looked very fetching with the Ignika and so willed that it be my mask.

It's a fairly obscure piece of information, but all of the Makuta were actually created by the Great Beings. Actually, all of the Makuta were created by Mata Nui. The personalities and names of the Makuta, however, seem to have been per-determined by the Great Beings. For, in the Melding Alternate Universe, in which Mata Nui was never created, Teridax, Chirox, Vamprah, and Gorast all existed and were recognizable to Vezon and Mazeka.

Hmm... A mask of Elasticity.... There's a fascinating idea. I could definitely see that as a canon power. It could be useful in a myriad of situations.

Mind you, when the Toa attacked Reidak, they were without their masks. Furthermore, Reidak is capable of adapting to the attacks of others, so he may have been more formidable as a result. I cannot remember all the exact details of Dark Destiny. Though I do recall that Reidak was subdued fairly easily in that instance. And as for their second confrontation with the Piraka, the Toa Nuva never had the chance to do much fighting then. If I recall, the sequence of events was something like this: The Toa Nuva and the Matoran Resistance burst into the chamber where the Piraka are fighting. Tahu Nuva: "It seems that you're trying to kill each other. Allow us to oblige." At which point Brutaka fells all of the Toa Nuva and the Matoran with one blow. In fact, prior to that, the Toa Nuva were actually rather powerful for Toa without masks, if I recall correctly. As for how well the Inika fared against the Piraka: In the battle in the Piraka stronghold Jaller was able to match Hakann, but he had a Calix (a Mask of Fate,) allowing him to dodge Hakann's attacks. Kongu was almost suffocated by a prison of Avak's making, but was able to overwhelm Avak's mind with his Kanohi Suletu. Zaktan attempted to defeat Nuparu by swarming him with protodites, a method he used successfully against Tahu. However, Nuparu used his Kanohi Jutlin to drag Zaktan's mass along with him all the way to the sea, knocking the him unconscious. Hahli managed to overcome Thok's spellbinder vision by hitting him with her Laser Crossbow, but would have been frozen had Matoro not intervened. Hewkii managed to trap Brutaka in the ground, by catching him off his guard. As far as I can tell, these are all the confrontations in that battle that have been recorded in one way or another. So while the Inika did have the upper hand prior to Brutaka's power being stolen, the only one of them to gain an advantage using elemental powers was Hewkii. What if Zaktan had fought Hahli? What if Avak had fought Jaller? The outcome of those fights might have been different. But I digress. The Toa Inika did not demonstrate superior elemental energies to the those of the Toa Nuva in that particular battle. In the next battle they were allied with Zaktan, Avak, Reidak, and Vezok. The next battle they lost after it had barely begun when Kongu accidentally caused the bridge of land they were standing on to collapse. Their next encounter with the Inika involved no fighting, as the Inika began to fly away from the Chamber of Life, causing both groups to pursue it. Their final confrontation with the Inika/Mahri would have seen the deaths of the Toa had it not been for Axonn. I see no way to compare their elemental powers to those of the Toa Nuva based on what we've seen. Pardon the wall of text.

Des laeta nati ad tibi! (That's Latin for Happy birthday!)

Puritan! A madu plant by any other name would be just as explosive. I will always have a place in my heart for Teridax, though I'm bound to be biased towards him because of my love for Bionicle. But I do think that he was, per his reinvention in Time Trap, a far more interesting character than most super-villains, not that that's necessarily saying much. But I think he was remarkable for being a villain who was simultaneously palpitable and likeable and yet also obviously arrogant, deceitful, manipulative, and malicious. A bit like some Doctor Who villains. In fact, I many of my favorite villains come from Doctor Who. One of my favorites, though he isn't a so much a villain as an antagonist, is the Meddling Monk. He, like Teridax, underwent a re-invention, thanks to the Big Finish Eighth Doctor audio adventures, resulting in an incarnation of the character (brilliantly played by Graeme Garden) who possesses the core of the character, a renegade Timelord who wants to better history regardless of his means of doing so, and added an intelligence, eloquence, and suaveness that the original lacked. He is fascinating because his goals are so like those of the Doctor and yet so different.

In the event that BNG is resurrected in a form which requires script-writing, I'd be up for the job. Movies did seem to be one of the main focuses of the project, and the proposed "Dark Mirror" adaptation was intriguing.

I give you a "Krataana," which gives you a vision about the all the actions that will take place in this mad Mask-stealing frenzy some fifty-posts hence. I take the mask while you are experiencing the vision and leave. My Mask.

You err. It was Fekoro who did not take the mask. Therefore, you simply have the fake with the (mostly) powerless djinii. I hope you enjoy the works of Joyce. The mask, as it has been for several posts now, is mine.

Ah, but the Mask you have is really a fake, home instead to a (mostly) powerless Djinii who loves the works of James Joyce. He proceeds to talk you blue-in-the-face. He then hypnotizes you and makes you order your Fohroks to imprison you in an antimatter universe (don't worry, you were converted to anti-matter beforehand.) You now must have your ear talked-off by a delusional Galifreyian engineer who made timetravel possible and who specializes in making deadly blobby dalek/gummy thingies and bipedal skeltoid chicken-like creatures. Best of luck! And that, my good sir, is why must always end your posts here with something to the effect of "My mask!"

I awake, now unfused from the Leprechaun. Now thoroughly not Irish, I am once more attuned to the whereabouts of the blood of Scottishmen (twas' so unpleasant having the Scot in me suppressed by that fusion.) I convince the guard that my possession of the Ignika is a necessary for the defeat of the Dark Hunters and the Brotherhood of Makuta, so he loans me a vortex manipulator and fakes my death. Using my Scot-detecting abilities (which I concentrate by reciting Robert Burns' "To a Mouse") I arrive at your location on the Lost Moon of Poosh. Using my Venusian alkido, I overcome you like the tim'rous beastie you are. I then use my vortex manipulator to land myself at the Festival of Ghana in 1996. IT'S A TRAP! The Mask is mine!

Well, why bother trying to find the real mask when you can blow everyone to bits. I take it you aren't Irish, Kopaka's Kool Kompanion. Mind you, I wouldn't have a drop if Irish blood if I hadn't fused myself to a leprechaun. Anyway, I use my powers of concentration to temporarily (ha-ha) to bend the fabric of time and space, and travel to the Museum of Kanohi on Terratalia in the year 5,000,000,000,002. There, I scan the records on the Ignika, up to immediately after the point at which I lost it. Using my newfound information, I travel back in time and space to confront McStudz on his holiday in San Diego, where I slip a sedative into his drink as he is dining on Italian food. After he is unconscious, I steal the Kanohi and then concentrate, sending McStudz through space and time, smack-dab into the middle of the court of Frederick the Great of Prussia. The Emperor is not amused by your abrupt interruption. But, that is your problem, I am over three centuries and over seven-thousand miles away. And the mask is mine! EDIT: Oh my giddy aunt! Contradictory versions of events. Oh well, I'll just have to accept that it's wibbly-wobly-timey-wimey.

They followed him for the same reasons that many other Dark Hunters do. They want glory or booty or the thrill of combat, or some such thing. The Skrall were without a strong leader (if any of them were being led at all in the wilderness,) and the Bone Hunters are bandit-nomads. Both groups would likely welcome the chance to more efficiently plunder and conquer.

It destroyed the original Great Temple, which, according to BS01 "Prior to the Great Cataclysm... was a popular tourist destination for Matoran." So it seems like its destruction and the circumstances thereof would be pretty well known. Though as discrepancies go, it's a very minor one, with little actual bearing on the plot. And the Protocairn invasion of Metru Nui is somewhat obscure, as facts go. I primarily remember it because it actually makes determining the age of one of the major characters of Bionicle easier (beings who were created at the dawn of the Matoran Universe are, of course, quite easy to date, but the ages of others are much more ambiguous.)

It's probably too late for you to change this in your story, for what it's worth Time Trap rather suggests that Vakama is young as Matoran go.

A wizened Alpha-Centaurian steps forth. "My worthy assembled senators, the Ignika has been proposed as a solution to our woes. 'Fools!' I say, 'fools and blind.' The Ignika could vanish from existence, and our galaxy would not be a jot more peaceful. It is but a plaything for the powerful and perverse. They care not for the dignity of other beings. The Ignika is simply a focus of their malicious aims. Remove it, and they will find a new focus. They will not cease sowing the seeds of woe until they can be made to see the light or they are constrained for their crimes. Therefore, I beg of you, do not waste the resources of the government, do not squander the money of tax-paying citizens. We must hound these knaves who would ground us underfoot for sport. We WILL do so, and we shall not rest until our aim is achieved!"

Exactly why do a Terridax who never became evil and a Takanuva drained of his light fighting not make sense? Strangeness is different from nonesensicality.

I use a mask of fusion to fuse myself to a Leprechaun. I proceed to appear in front of you ex caelorum and swipe the Ignika too swiftly for you to react. I begin to run in a circle, faster and faster, until I I am a blur. I slow down, but when I do, there appear to seventy-nine of me, each holding his own Mask of Life and switching places with one of his neighbors every thirty-seconds. Ignikam habeo!

I'm sorry if I'm being too nitpicky, but this does seem to contradict "The Powers that Be." Here are Velika's thoughts from that serial: "The sight of Toa Lewa being dragged off by nature-loving Agori was at best a minor obstacle. If need be, he would effect a rescue in some indirect way before the Toa of Air could get into any real jeopardy. The Toa Mata were too important to have their lives sacrificed needlessly. Oh, they would die, eventually, but it would be at a time of his choosing." Again, this is not literary criticism on my part, simply a note on the plot from which this follows. I mean no offense.

When I awake, I track you down with my Tirellian blue-footed Echidna, and bring the Spear of Fusion along (reconstructed from the ashes thanks to equipment I stole from McStudz's Super-Secret Lab(!)) I fire the spear at you and the Ignika, fusing you together. I then pick you up. My Kanohi/Ringabel!

I instigate a massive rebellion. The galaxy is in a state of civil-war. And the rebels are winning, thanks to the technical advice I gave them on genetically engineering the platypus into an uber tactician-cum-super soldier. Oh, and the incessant barrage of propaganda in the form of limericks, which so beguile the populaces they are aimed at that the members of said populaces start hosting perpetual Bingo-days in protest, effectively diverting materials and manpower that would otherwise have gone to the war-effort. Consequently, whatever legal protections you had are null and void in eighty-percent of the galaxy, including your own colony. Thus, I am able to overcome you with the aid of my trained cassowaries and take the Ignika. Then, by way of another tesseract, I leave for the Andromeda galaxy and enter the nation of Tyylredagrav, on the planet Uuuulllaaat.The mask is mine.

I don a spacesuit, and, using my handy-dandy physics pocket book, bend space so as to catch you. I also bring my best boxing kangaroo, who opens the box and gives the Ignika to me. Then, taking advantage of the ambiguities of language, he punches you with such force that you are knocked unconscious, and continue to fly through space for a good while, thanks to the general lack of any noticeable gravity and friction in the void. Ad mihi Ignika est!