Quisoves Potoo

Making use of the legendary Ear of Mu (I'm a boojum, after all,) I obliterate McStudz's aberrant timeline. The proper flow of events is restored, and the Mask is mine. EDIT: Not for long, anyway. But I am awakened by a vision of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. I summon LANDSLIDES, which so overwhelm McStudz by their OCCURance that he is knocked unconscious and loses the Ignika. Additionally the LANDSLIDES damage the detonator in the lab, preventing it from exploding. I reclaim the mask. It is mine!

As you run, I appear in your way. I begin reading aloud from a tome containing the complete writings of Lewis Carrol (or, if you must, Charles Dodger.) My manxome intonations soon dispel all traces of McStudz's science. However, I continue to recite, doing so with increasing urgency and speed. Time has no meaning, matter seems to all be contracted to a span. There is only colorful snibbishnish. Out of this apparates a mighty figure, the Reverend himself, the mighty Carrol. The snibbishness has become hoteshtonality! Lewis Carrol freezes you with his ultish gaze, and nods, giving assent to my acquirement of the Kanohi Ignika. I rise, and advance towards your limp form. As I do so, a mankind enters a renaissance, Chro, Ringabel, and McStudz have a scintillating seminar on His Tawdriness Becomes his Emerald Kite, the greatest book never written by Emmanuel Dimitry Tandberg, Kopaka's Kool Kompanion saves the Speckled Howling-Kiwi population of New Wala Wala, and the Muaka cat joins a traveling showboat, and becomes first a renknowned performer, then a gentlemen, and then the respected owner of an Origami Tiger company. I, newly energized with the knowledge that I have become a boojum, grab the the mask, chortling. You pass from consciousness. When you come to, the only evidence of the occurrences you witnessed is the lack of the mask and my voice, which seems to come from everywhere at once, echoing "My good sir, I believe that mask belongs to me."

What I should have added is that, it seems to me, the use of the pilots suggests that the Great Beings did not want to build an auxiliary core-processor. Why they did not want to do so is, as you said, odd given what we know. They did, plan, after all, to build a second robot of Mata Nui's type. My best guess, given what I know, is that they considered the situation too urgent for them to take the time to build the extra core processor. On a side note, why was it so imperative that Mata Nui control the second robot? Why did the Great Beings not plan to create another intelligence to pilot it?

Except we would have to have the Agori invent the wheel. I think they've already done that.

I believe that the Great Beings did have a contingency plan for the Core Processor failing. They placed two Glatorians in suspended animation, to be awakened to pilot the Great Spirit should the Processor fail. However, said pilots were killed in the Great Cataclysm, suggesting that the Great Beings were quite confident that Mata Nui would not crash into a celestial body. However, the full sapience of the Great Spirit's inhabitants was not taken into account.

After all, why waste perfectly good stone?

This is a masterwork of building, use of pieces, and photography. Bravo! The Brothers Brick seems to think so too. In fact, I first saw it on there. I tip my hat to you.

"Forewarned is forearmed." The Inika were somewhat more aware of the danger they were heading into than the Toa Nuva, as the latter group had not returned. Furthermore, unlike the Toa Nuva, who encountered all the Piraka before they encountered the Resistance, the Inika only encountered Vezon before meeting Garan. Matoro would have been enslaved were the Inika not immune to the effects of Antidermis. Additionally, I believe that the Inika never actually defeated the Piraka in battle (though they came close the first time round.) Correct me if I'm wrong. EDIT: There are, I think, five total battles in which the Inika fought multiple Piraka. The first was the battle at the Piraka Stonghold, as detailed in Power Play, in which Hakann and Thok, both of whom had stolen Brutaka's power, emerged victorious over all other combatants. The second, also in Power Play, was the battle of Thok and Hakann against each other and against the Toa Inika and the other Piraka. This battle ended with a stalemate of sorts, the Toa Inika successfully restoring Brutaka's power to him and everyone being knocked unconscious by Hakann and Thok (who were themselves knocked unconscious by the Inika's zamor sphere which they used to restore Brutaka's power.) The next battle, detailed in Inferno, took place beneath the surface of Voya Nui and ended in victory for the Piraka. The next battle, also in Inferno, ended with the Toa Inika pursuing the Ignika up the 777 stairs. The final confrontation between the Inika (now Mahri) and the Piraka took place in Downfall, and would have ended in the deaths of the Mahri, but for the defeat of the Piraka by Axonn.

Any position that requires an election is, by definition, not a King. Why? A king is a ruler who is, ostensibly, the supreme head of state. A government can be set-up so as to elect its kings. The method of coming to power does not necessarily change the power bestowed. Denmark used to be an elective monarchy. Hence all the talk of an election in Hamlet.

What you seem to be suggesting is, on a certain level, the Bionicle equivalent of the Clone Wars. A series set in a largely unexplored time period that deals with grittier but less epic events as well as political intrigue and the like. More, "How do we keep everyone safe day-by-day?" as opposed to "How do we stop an extraordinary and far-reachhng threat?" but with a bit of the latter thrown in occasionally. I can certainly see the dramatic potential for your idea. For it to actually become a reality, I suspect that a network would have to approach LEGO about collaborating on the project (I believe this is what happened with the Mixels.) The Toa Maingai period would be one undeveloped enough to not overwhelm new-comers whilst being familiar and interesting enough to longtime fans of the Bionicle franchise.

According to BS01: "The six thieves took advantage of the Toa Nuva's ignorance of their powers to quickly defeat them in open combat." Since Island of Doom is one of the few Bionicle books I have not read, I cannot comment on the veracity of the statement, but that makes sense to me. Some Skakdi powers are quite unusual. It also occurs to me that the Kanohi Ignika may have been manipulating events in the Pirakas' favor. After all, if each one of the Toa Nuva was integral to reawakening Mata Nui, then surely none of them could have been a bearer of the Ignika. The Ignika would undoubtedly know this, and might well manipulate the Toa Nuva's downfall so as to prompt the arrival of other, more expendable, heroes.

This comic should shine some light.

You seem to be making too much out of the word choice I happened to use there which was only meant to give a general idea that the Core Dimension isn't where all the right decisions are made. Again, I'm not setting out to give you a crystal clear, easily understandable idea of how I think it works because that would be spoilers for my story. The fact that what I said doesn't dispell the mystery in your mind is probably a good thing. Although most of the examples you gave actually were likely given the situation. That makes sense. In short, it's not like the Melding Alternate Universe or the universe in which the Makuta never rebelled against Mata Nui. But, by the same token, some events go better that in other universes, such as Matoro sacrificing himself. As for the examples, I think that we are going to have to agree to disagree.

Your idea is interesting, but it lacks obvious evidence. Can you give more examples? I can think of a number of events in the Core Universe that did not unfold as they most likely would. One of the most striking ones, or so it seems to me, is the defeat of the leader of the Brotherhood of Makuta by a team of amateur toa and a turaga. Ditto, that same toa team, mutated into Hordika, together with the Rahaga and a few rahi (granted, powerful ones, but two of whom were nonetheless banished to the Zone of Darkness by the Kahgarack), managed to withstand the Visorak Horde and defeat its king and lieutenant. There's also Teridax fusing with Takanuva and being consequently crushed by a stone gate. And a team of six Matoran escaping Karzahni and making their way to Voya Nui. These hardly seem the most likely of events.

I'm looking at you, LEGO Racers 2. "Crummy crummy soda." No one seems to have mentioned the Summer 2007 animations. Those used spoken English, albeit with voices that sounded like they were being spoken over intercoms (which was probably the intention, given that they took place underwater.)

Here's another can of worms. Under the standard sci-fi "make-a-decison-spawn-a-parallel-universe(s)" system that Greg embraces, the fact that a being in BIONICLE who leaves his universe does not return a moment after his departure (as seen clearly in the cases of Vezon and Mazeka) means that while that being is gone new universes are being split from the one he left, and that when he visits a parallel universe, that universe is also fragmenting (unless no free will normally exists there and he doesn't exercise his own there,) meaning that he now has multiple dimensions to return to and that there are multiple versions of him spawned from the other universes he visited, each one also trying to return to one of those universes. So, how many dimension-hopping Takanvas have you seen today? And how many can dance on the head of a Chronicler's Staff?

As cataclysmic as the Shattering certainly was, it couldn't have destroyed all technology and creations on Bara Magna. If that were the case it seems highly unlikely that any life or culture would have survived at all. Granted, we know comparatively little about Spherus Magna prior to the Shattering, but what we do know certainly suggests that a large number of Glatorian and Agori survived and that most Glatorians and Agori lived in tribes. Tribal culture does not suggest any great sophistication, and as far as we know, most of the fantastic technology on Spherus Magna comes from the Great Beings. The Skrall may be more advanced than the other inhabitants of Bara Magna, but they are still by all accounts pre-industrial. Their primary weapons are still swords. On the contrary, imagine if you had a lifespan of over a hundred-thouasnd years. You certainly wouldn't have the same incentives for productivity when you knew you had millennia upon millennia to live. The urgency brought about by the specter of death would be far delayed, possibly non-existent. You might even look forward with joy for death after a while. You probably would ultimately achieve more than if you lived only about a hundred years, but you would likely want to stop and smell the roses as well, meaning slower progress on your part.

So that's means that the 2003 legend, the topic of board games, videos games, movie, toy line and scenaristic plot is useless in front of a random Toa of Light ? Ironic ! (I stay on my first thought anyway...) Mind you, actually finding a Matoran of Light that was quite difficult for those who did not know of Karda Nui, given that the few Av-Matoran scattered about were unaware of their true nature. The Mask of Light, in addition to acting as a Toa stone, also indicated its "herald." Indeed, the Mask of Light was important not simply for creating a Toa of Light, which could be created by a Toa stone, but for actually finding the requisite Av-Matoran.

While the Skrall certainly seem to be closer to the Great Beings than the tribes of Spherus Magna, the Great Beings seem far too advanced to simply be a cabal of scientific, peaceful Skrall. Technology like that takes time. And it seems unlikely that such an experiment could survive long enough or maintain enough resources to achieve the Great Being's level of abilities. It is also worth noting that according to the Farshtey Feed the Skrall were not an invasive tribe as of 265,000 years ago. Mind you, I don't think we know how long the Great Beings have been around, but given the long life spans of Spherus Magna inhabitants and what is presumably a correspondingly slow rate of societal progress, I find it unlikely that the Great Beings have existed as such for less than 265,000 years.

If I recall correctly, a new Matoran comes into being on Metru Nui every time one dies, as a replacement. Mind you, Matoran were never intended to be fully sapient, and so the Great Beings likely never intended for them to raise one another. After all, if they were simply intended as worker drones, why would they need that kind of development?

This is a common misuse or misconception. The inhabitants of the Great Spirit were always intended to be sentient, just not fully sapient. The way the Great Beings planned it, they were supposed to be like robots, but with some of the advantages of life. However, they made their creations better than they realized (as far as we can tell) and so the intended workers became bio-mechanical equivalents of the Spherus Magnus inhabitants.

Definitely the Olmak. Even if I was too cowardly or uncertain to travel outside my own dimension I could still travel just about anywhere in my own.

I'm not a man of favorites, but I think the Olmak is cerainly a standout mask. The original twelve Kanohi are hard to beat, of course, but I think that the Mask of Dimensional Gates, as well as the Ignika and the Tryna, may actually succeed in doing so.