IXRollOutIX

Couple musings I've had: I looked back on the animations with the mindset that Korgot is a woman. Whether the decision was made before or after the episodes were animated, she's definitely got a little bit of characterization already. The Protector of Earth is all tough looking, but she really is sort of a scaredy-cat. She's the only one of the six who's shaking when approached by Skull Spiders, and she jumps up all startled when Onua slams his hammer down. Also, the book makes it clear that the Protectors Ekimu whispered the prophecy to are ANCIENT and the current Protectors are their descendants. I'm going to guess they're never going to tell us the names or genders of any of the ancient Protectors... Which is actually kind of brilliant because the animations would suggest they look the same as the current ones. You'd prefer the PoW to be female? Pretend the one up on your shelf is the ancient one and no one can prove you wrong. Same goes for the people who aren't sure about Korgot. Maybe the ancient PoE was male? Who knows?

Ooooh. That looks awesome!

From what I've read, there are a bunch more throwbacks just like that in this book.

Looking at the characters more clearly, it's WAY more evident that X and Y are probably swapped in the order, for some reason.

On the other hand, this alphabet resembles the Latin alphabet a LOT more than the Gen 1 Matoran letters. Throughout the book I was able to easily recognize words like "Lewa" and "Makuta" written in this language with little effort at all.

Added it up myself, just to make sure. Haha.

I dunno about that chart. Looks to me like it says "Makuta" on this page: http://imgur.com/a/9qy9M#40 EDIT: Actually. Looks like you skipped a couple letters. So I have no idea. SECOND EDIT: I think Makuta has enough letters in it that you can decipher the whole alphabet from that lineup. Find "K" and work forwards and back from that. There's a ton of similarities between the English/Latin letters and these Okotan(?) ones.

Has anyone seen a confirmation of Vizuna's gender in their preview yet?

Has anyone got any excerpts with Vizuna and Lewa? Not sure, but I think the PoJ is the only one we don't know the gender of.

Something about the writing style of that passage also just doesn't match the preview excerpts, to me.

More like he never LoSSt his spirit, amiright? (buh-dum-tss!) #LoSSLives2015

What store was it at? Target? Walmart? TRU?

WAT. WHERE?

You can do whatever you want, (because it hardly matters one way or the other) but I'm not sure if you saw that in one of the official descriptions on the website, the Protector of Water was confirmed to be male. Just can't tell if you're continuing to refer to the character as female through personal preference, or if you hadn't seen that. Either way is fine, I suppose. Gali's description in the "Take Down the Lord of Skull Spiders!" poll says "... The Protector [of Water] brings his own abilities and weapons as well..."

I feel like the Gali Mask should have been a Skull Spider mask. Especially since it's meant to be evil Lewa.

Thinking about it more, I actually think one of the most powerful moments was in Journey's End when Mata Nui came back from the Great Volcano and requested to use the Prototype Robot that was their home. There was just this fantastic tension in those scenes. Raanu's disbelief, disdain, and immediate refusal followed by his inner monologues that oozed character development. The stale silence around the campfire and seeing a new side of Gresh, who wasn't sure if he could trust Mata Nui anymore after hearing he used to hold the power to destroy worlds. Mata Nui's frustration and cold "I could use your help, otherwise get out of my way" mentality let us know he meant business. Finally Mata Nui's urgency after learning the truth about everything. His doubt that, even if he took the robot body and stole the Agori's home, it still wouldn't be enough to complete his destiny. And his genuine fear of Makuta's arrival; it all just felt so heavy. To me It was emotion and character devlopment, in Bionicle at least, at its finest.

Everyone always talks about Matoro's sacrifice, but honestly that's not my favorite moment for the character. One of my all time favorite scenes from the book is when Pridak summons his army of Takea sharks and Matoro summons his own army of undead sea creatures. "Across the span of black water. two armies stared into each other's cold eyes - one living, one an imitation of life. Pridak's gaze was fixed on Toa Matoro, searching for some sign of weakness. He saw none. "We appear to be evenly matched," said the Barraki finally. "Not so," Matoro replied, flashing a cold smile as he gestured to his reanimated army. "My side has nothing left to lose."" Still gives me chills.

That Vahi looks ace.

See this is why I opened my statements by saying "This is how I see it." I'm just throwing my two cents in. Those are my views on the subject and I'm letting them be known. I don't need your approval, and I'm not trying to force my opinions on anyone. Jeez. Why's everyone gotta be so hostile?

How I see it: There's no true genders. I agree with Munty on the notion that the lack of reproduction makes the MU inhabitants genderless. I think he's on the right track. That said, The Great Beings created these peoples based off of the natives of Spherus Magna, those who allegedly did have reproduction and true gender types. So while there aren't any true genders in a scientific sense, there is deliberate imposed gender association. It's like building a robot, giving it feminine traits, and programming it to act like a woman. Is it truly female? No. Is it recognized as female? Yes. Bottom line, genders do not need to exist in the MU. There's no reason for them to. Possibly The Great Beings were fascinated by female Agori/Glatorian and the role they played within the planet's social economy, so they thought it would be beneficial to include Matoran/Toa with those traits within their artificial universe, but that's it. Genders don't NEED to be there. So just be happy there are females in the MU to begin with.

I don't have any intention for this to come off as sexist, but is there any canonical reason as to why females (or really gender distinction to begin with) exist in the Matoran Universe? To tell a story and establish characters effectively, you need gender association, so I understand why you'd have to choose one or the other. And let's not pretend like marketing and target demographics aren't a real thing (just because you might think it's wrong) when I say this line is primarily targeted towards boys. So why not just make them all male? The real answer is "so that it doesn't leave girls out" and that's understandable. They shouldn't be. Anyone should be able to enjoy this great series and relate with the characters. That said, was it ever actually explained why the female gender exists within Mata Nui? I don't need the answer to be complex. There could be a line of text somewhere that essentially says "the Great Beings got bored and just wanted diversity, so they based a couple races off the female inhabitants of Spheres Magna," but does an answer actually exist?

If I'm honest, I would absolutely love for something like this to happen. I have for a while. Nidhiki, Tuyet, The Piraka; they were never exactly what I wanted from this concept either. They were all crazy, slimy backstabbers. Ideally, I'd love to see a group of capable Toa only with bad intentions. Ones who are just as strong as our heroes (if not stronger), use their elemental powers well, and work as a team. Sort of a "We're what your dysfunctional team could never be. Shame we're evil" sort of thing.

If and when Takanuva shows up (you all saw that grin on the reps faces when his name was mentioned at the NYCC panel ) I do kind of hope he's got something to ride. Whether that be a Rahkshi Corpse Hover Bike Mk. 2 or some kind of mount.

I remember for the first little while thinking that Metru Nui was in the same ocean as Mata Nui. It would be refreshing for that to be the case for the second island of Gen 2, if and when that happens.

Did you ever order any of these yourself? I'd really like to see some in person pictures of a couple of the materials.