bonesiii

This. So, rather than this breaking the law against two elements, it's simply one element. Does seem OP, but we don't know how it works in practice. If it's just weaker control over some parts of both (and seen as connected because moving around in a jungle is much easier if you can fly/glide), it wouldn't be OP.

6) No, the replacement machines were in the MU, not the RS. The RS only handled revivals.

Munty is correct. As the removing of the information itself left so little to discuss, and it's already being discussed in active topics, I decided to just remove the whole post (sorry ), and close this topic.

Prowl: 1) Yes, that's possible, but it could work with alternate universes, so that doesn't say much. (Reminds me of an episode of the Hawaii Five-0 reimagining, in which brief clips apparently from an original episode were played as if, if badmem miraculously serves today, that episode had been in the same universe, even though the rest of the reimagining series clearly cannot.) 2) I presume you're asking how Xel's theory would answer this? Any number of events could alter them in many ways, knowing Bionicle's traditions of transformations (and memory loss). If you're asking canonically, they're alive on SM (but methinks you weren't asking that so yeah). Note that in-story the Toa weren't named after villages, but the elemental prefixes in general. Out-story I'm not sure which came first, but probably the Toa's names. And no, they're not the only Toa to be made as Toa from the start -- Helryx was too. There was also Orde, and possibly others. 4) G1 beings do die of old age eventually, so generations in that sense are possible. It would have one major hole, since the Toa Mata were some of the oldest MU beings... except the "timeless" description and the emphasis on the Vahi being involved somehow may imply they were preserved in some kind of stasis, which would actually make sense for Xel's theory (but a stasis of time slowing, to avoid the gradual rotting effect of the original canisters' stasis). And again, I think the theory has already fallen apart for other reasons, so these clues are probably a G2-specific thing unrelated to G1, same as Makuta being here with details changed. 5) I think you're now asking in context of the normal view of G2 as a reimagining. Seems pretty unlikely LEGO will repeat the issues G1 had with that, and especially make it much worse by making them all one gender. It's possible they'll do the Ga thing of G1, but I suspect it will be like Agori. 6) The G1 canon was that the artificial lifeforms didn't have romantic feelings. They did have close friendships. And there was no reproduction, at least not that would be relevant to romance; they were made in mysterious machines (which LEGO decided to never explain). The natural beings of SM did have romance and reproduction akin to the real world. Re: 'homages' -- not entirely sure I got what you meant, but for whatever it's worth, I think it's clear from the G2 design images LEGO has released that show some snapshots from G1 art that the callbacks to G1 in G2 are indeed homages. Xel: 3) No, the Order didn't wipe the Toa Mata's memories. That was an unforeseen side effect of spending so much time in the canisters. (I forget offhand, though, if that decay was happening throughout the 100,000 years, or if this only happened since the launch malfunction that caused them to drift in the ocean for 1000 years. I also forget how I handled it in my retelling. :| ) 5) Incidentally, how many Protector voices have we heard so far? I seem to be only recalling the one off the top of my head. 6) Incorrect about the finite number; see above answer. Dead MU beings were replaced, but that was supposed to only be needed for the ones whose brains were destroyed thus couldn't be revived by the RS, or vaporized completely, etc. It was a drain on (as yet unidentified) "resources" to make a new being (hence the RS), but it was still possible.

Re fishers' theory with the image about the directions in the Silver Sea: That logic seems reasonable to me. Yes, the land tunnel between Metru Nui's dome (with peninsula) and Karzahni is definitely canon. No sources as far as I know clearly state that it's in the chin, but the alternative is that Mata Nui's neck can't bend, which is obviously false. (Unless you wanna invoke some ad hoc rock-bending power, which would seem rather inefficient and has no evidence. And the fact that Metru Nui's dome is centered under the eyes, which are high up on the head of the giant, leaves room for Karzahni in the chin area nicely.) Yeah, I thought that one route came up in Po-Wahi but wasn't confident enough to say it (pretty sure my retelling says it but I wasn't sure offhand if I'd made that up or not). Thanks. Re: the eyes... I'm... still confused. Oh well... maybe it'll get cleared up at some point. FTR, my take was that the eyes being shown closING is canonically acceptable but that one of them must have ground to a halt partway (but open still enough for the airships to come through). It should also be noted that the glacier moved into place slowly, so it was covered much later. That was probably obvious because they could get airships through, but FTR. I suppose it's possible only one eye closing all the way wasn't a malfunction, though -- maybe automated systems or even Mata Nui's consciousness realized that eye was underwater. (There's been theories that water never would come in that way due to a forcefield, since it would seem one must be in place to keep air in but not solid matter blocked. But I don't know if we know water wouldn't come in.) This brings up another complication to add for the record -- IIRC, one of the books (WoS book version maybe?) actually does portray the airships as going through one of the cave routes. However, it leaves the story off before they emerge and it's left to be assumed they would, so this is reconcileable with the canon answer by saying they tried to find a route that way, but couldn't find any either still open or larger enough to fit the airships, and then eventually thought of trying the suns (since they already knew the sky had to be fake). Which would actually make a lot of sense, though it wouldn't have made for a dramatic movie or book addition.

Author's Comments for Chapter 38: Out of Control Note: Image for this non-canon character [the unnamed Order agent] done by Disciple, in response to a blog entry asking for submissions for some needed art for this story, used with permission. Note: There are no canon images of Toa Helryx or the Mask of Psychometry; this is my interpretation (a newer edit of my original version). Note ["The new system was announced" and surrounding context]: This telecommunication network is non-canon. It's based on one of Greg Farshtey's statements that news travels fast in the Matoran Universe. Given the huge distances involved, it would seem to make sense that some kind of fast messenger system is required to explain this, or something like the internet. I chose the latter route for purposes of this story. Note: All three Rahi images in this chapter [Cliff Screecher, Cliff Bug, and Blade Burrower] are non-canon fan artwork made by Evil-Accret, used with permission. Note: Mask [of Translation] image by TNT, used with permission, slightly edited by me. (Mask shape is canon, image is fan-made.) Note: The use of Blade Burrowers for Destral here is non-canon. Note: This mask [image going with "Mask of Visions"] is from a mostly non-canon Bionicle online game, and the mask itself is non-canon. This image is my color edit of the original. There -is- however a canon mask with a similar power; Clairvoyance. That one only gives visions that cannot be stopped or controlled at all, basically the opposite of my interpretation of the Mask of Visions here. Note: These weapons [two images] are non-canon. They are from a Bionicle video game, along with other weapons I will feature later. Most of the game's weapons are alternate interpretations of Bionicle's main-character Toa Tools. These are two that are wildly different from their canon forms (the canon version of the first is really a hook on the end of a chain for climbing rocks, the second a toe extension for kicking rocks), so I'm using them as entirely different weapons, unrelated to Toa Tools. Replies to reviews: TN -- Yeah, I'd wondered if the camera thing was unclear. I only vaguely remembered the reference myself on proofreading, though, and didn't have time to check for anything specific beyond it being a camera that at some point he'd been seen by the Order with. (I presume it was his first visit, but I'll have to check...) av -- Yes, it's canon. And yes, I downloaded it. Thanks for checking.

Chapter 38 -- Out of Control I teleported Toa Helryx and another agent into the Control Annex almost immediately after the battle. Besides that being part of our deal, I begged them to quickly reprogram the communication system before those mysterious beings could take advantage of it further. "Why do we tolerate this error-ridden Matoran again?" the Order member asked Helryx. I frowned and almost retorted something mindless, but Helryx raised a hand to silence me. "If you cannot be polite to our host I will have him dump you off atop Mount Valmai," she said calmly. "No," I said. "Please, I... understand. I'm not feeling too great about myself either right now." "You did what you felt was in the universe's best interests, and I agreed," Helryx said. "And I certainly cannot blame you about the communication network." I realized then, belatedly, that I was now finally able to see Helryx's mask. I recognized it as a Mask of Psychometry -- the ability to sense the past of any object. She could probably learn a lot more about my past than I'd been willing to reveal -- maybe she'd known it for millenia already. I decided not to try to think about it too much. "Uh... boss?" the agent said. "I think we have a problem." He pointed to the screen. It was autoscrolling. Fast. New text was coming in -- had been coming in for a while. "Hold the shutdown," she said. "Scroll back to just after Koronga's last." He did. I now saw what her question had been -- "Nice weather today, eh?" And my 'reply'. There was one agent's coded report after this... And then thousands of new messages came after this. Most read something like, "Test. Isn't this amazing? They were right!" Soon they became more specific. How's that Turaga who fell ill doing? Should we use this system to coordinate maintenance work? Did you see that new mask design and do you agree the nose looks freaky? Isn't this system getting crowded fast and will Mata Nui upgrade it so all our messages aren't squished together in just one place? Every once in a while a message would seem out of place, and the agent would type it into my text program. After going through the whole thing, he decoded them and reported that other agents had figured out what was going on. "It's those two beings Koronga saw. They've been appearing in all the major cities, handing out copies of a tablet proclaiming that Mata Nui has designed and thoroughly tested an international telecommunications system. It has the Rubble password on it and instruction to set up accounts." "If we shut it down now..." Helryx didn't need to finish the thought. "Maybe we don't need to," I said. "This could actually be beneficial to a lot of people. Maybe we take the advice of that one message and enable messages to go just to specified users." "That would be very useful for us," Helryx agreed. "We would of course still use our coding system, or a new one perhaps, but at least the messages wouldn't be in public view." "What if some villain thinks of using it for the same purposes?" the other agent said. "Set it up so we can read every message on the system here," I said. "If we keep quiet about it, maybe we'll lure some into making the mistake, and catch them that way." Helryx nodded. "Alright," the agent said. "You're not bad after all, Matoran." He set about designing the new system. "This might not work quite right at first, though. How can we test it?" Silence met the question for a moment. Then I had an idea. "You are the Order of Mata Nui. You do his bidding. Perhaps you should be his representatives as well. Would it be too presumptuous to name an account 'Mata Nui' and use that to announce upcoming changes and times of unavailability in advance?" "If Mata Nui would talk to us, I would object," Helryx said, sighing. "But people need to believe that he hasn't tuned out completely. They cannot imagine what he needs to be focusing on instead of us, even if he has taken it too far, nor can we let them know, or some with ill motives could take advantage of it. So I say go for it." "It's even true in a sense," the other added, gesturing around at the room. "Are we not 'in his head'?" I nodded. "Exactly." The new system was announced, tested, and brought online in the months to come. The universe was jubilant to hear the short but gracious message from the Great Spirit, announcing his new gift to his beloved people. The horror of the sudden overthrow and laws of censorship about the League quickly faded from memory. I was still annoyed with myself for being so careless, but I couldn't deny the obvious benefits of the new system. Lives were saved through it, as now people often had an easy and fast way to call for faraway help, and the whole world seemed to shrink exponentially as we no longer had to wait for messengers to physically travel. On a more personal note, I had my password changed, to "Woodfacenemesis," though as it turned out the two strangers had not used my account at all. I had been spending too much time on vacation lately, so I went on the next trade voyage, and used the Antisleep power to have time to check on the Brotherhood's progress toward eliminating the last vestiges of League power. This time, I decided to bring Aldari along so he could witness some important events as well. I gave him a fully-charged Shapeshifting orb, and an Antisleep one, and whenever we had time off coinciding (which was easy enough as we worked the same shift), we shapeshifted into various small Rahi and went to spy on the nearest Brotherhood forces. Early in one such adventure I witnessed something very interesting -- which could have been so important... if only... It was on the northern continent, at a fortress that had belonged to Barraki Kalmah. Two Makuta had been dispatched to this area -- Mutran and Gorast. I flew to the scene in the form of a Cliff Screecher, a bat that kept its spirit housed somewhere other than in its body. I felt it was a better choice than my usual bird form, as someone like that telepathic stranger might not think it odd not to hear their thoughts. There was also a tall cliff overlooking the scene, that reminded me of the one I'd first awoken atop, and these bats tended to try to kill their prey by literally scaring them to death -- most people didn't like to go near them. Aldari had taken on a form that would fit the setting well also, a grasshopper known as a Cliff Bug. "What are they thinking about?" Aldari whispered. "Mutran is thinking about Rahi he sent to Kalmah, and looking for signs of the bodies of one type of them. Apparently he never sent Kalmah any that had a lifespan of more than three days." "Really? How about Gorast?" "Gorast is thinking, 'too bad -- I wanted to knock it down myself.'" I was referring to Kalmah's fortress, which already lay in a massive pile of rubble. Apparently the local remnant of League forces that had been left to guard it had heard of the defeat and knocked the tower down themselves, then fled. "I'm going to hunt them down," Gorast said. "At least there'll be some fun to this." "I'll stay and make sure no records survived," Mutran replied. "Happy hunting!" The female Makuta left Mutran alone, and he continued to wander the area, which was littered with the metal remains of many Rahi. I told Aldari that he was trying to remember which type he'd sent that he wasn't seeing. Mutran then turned to picking through the rubble. He disintegrated a few tablets he found in the process. "Is it always like this?" Aldari asked. "Perched somewhere watching things safely? Or are you ever in danger? I mean, you told me about the Toa Mata, but they were no threat, and those two strange beings recently. But normally?" "I never assume I'm safe," I replied. "Wise." "But usually I haven't had any problems. What I always fear most is that some enemy with a power I haven't factored for will sneak up on me from behind. And now somebody out there apparently knows I exist, other than Teridax. If they should team up somehow..." "I understand." Suddenly Mutran tilted his head, and kicked a giant boulder out of the way. He bent down to pick up a tablet. "Blade Burrowers?!" he muttered to himself. "He's thinking, 'I made those. I'm sure I sent him the dying ones...'" I risked turning my telescope real, though much smaller than normal, and used the claws on my wing to hold it up to my face. Read the tablet. Strange... I handed it to Aldari, cautioning, "Don't let it out of either of our hands or it'll suddenly get much larger." "What's that swirl shape?" Aldari said, looking. "It's the shape of the Shattered Spherus Magna," I said. "You don't know it?" "I wasn't sure. He's turned it so I can't see it very well. There. Yes. The symbol for the Three Virtues. But why? Kalmah wasn't a huge fan of them..." "Mutran's reading the tablet. Apparently the Blade Burrowers have been making their tunnels in that shape." Mutran ground the tablet into dust and ran off. "Follow," I said. "Hand me back the telescope first. Thanks. Now, stay near me, but don't just follow me exactly. I'll make sure I can see you at all times. Do the split eye thing." "I'll try, but it's hard to get used to." "And watch out for real Cliff Screechers," I said, to a chuckle. As it turned out, Mutran went to a nearby town where he knew of a Toa with a Mask of Translation. The Great version could even translate the languages of Rahi. He asked the Toa to follow him, and went to a spot near the remains of the fortress, where Kalmah's people had dug a tunnel down into the Blade Burrower tunnels. Once inside, the Toa asked a Blade Burrower why they were doing this. I skimmed both his mind and the Rahi's, because their words sounded like nothing but varied grunts to me. "He's asking why the Rahi survived, and why they're making the tunnels... But they... can't seem to express it in their language. I can't get it from their thoughts." "Strange," Aldari said. "Maybe Mutran just messed up... for their survival, anyways. But that symbol..." "You know, these are the same Rahi the Brotherhood used to cut Destral off of its bedrock," I said. "I wonder if they made that symbol there?" Later on this voyage we swung near Destral's old location, and went to look at the flat-topped undersea mountain. Sure enough, there was the symbol. "So they were doing that before the League asked for war Rahi," I said when we surfaced -- we were sure enough that we were safe out here that we remained in Matoran form, now treading water. "How is that possible?" "Maybe the Great Beings did it," Aldari said. "Think about it -- who would know what that symbol meant?" "Me... and Mata Nui." "Yeah." I saw where he was headed with that. "You're thinking... it's some kind of contingency? Since he's forgotten what he's supposed to be doing?" "Exactly." "But how? The Great Beings left this universe long ago." Aldari shrugged, the motion sending ripples out through the water. "All I know is what you've told me. You said they could program in some destinies. Maybe they made one that was supposed to find the first Rahi that would dig tunnels." "I suppose you're right. But it won't work -- Mata Nui isn't paying attention to his insides at all." "Maybe someday he will." "Or maybe he won't need to," I said, thoughtfully. "He is still working on the geologic question, as he's supposed to. It seems like he's forgotten why, but I can get his attention any time I really need to. I could go up to the Kini-Nui if I really must." "I wouldn't. You'd be risking your life, since the Bahrag know of you." "I know, but... Spherus Magna needs him. They'll all die if the planet isn't healed." "Are you sure?" "I don't understand it," I said. "But Mata Nui is sure." "Maybe you should try to find a way to get that symbol into his system," Aldari said. "Do what the Burrowers are doing, but instead of digging in the dirt, dig in his own subconscious." I smiled. "Brilliant! I could get the Order to help. Good idea..." Aldari bowed his head a little. "Now, my muscles are wrinkling. Let's get out of this water." The years wore on, and we both kept a close eye on events in the universe. From time to time we would return in our discussions to mysteries of the past, and of the future. I gained some good insights from Aldari, and I never regretted letting him know my secrets, but I did sometimes regret that I'd drawn someone else into this life of danger. Sometimes I got the impression he was only tolerating all of this craziness because he understood the stakes, but secretly wished I had kept it to myself. The universe had trouble adapting to the end of the League. The symptoms of this were all over the place, but none were felt more personally to either of us than the impact on trade. It began because of our special deal with Mantax's territory. As soon as the League was ended, Metru Nui's leaders declared that our prices would be the same with that land as with anyone else. But due to the Brotherhood's trying to erase the history of the warlords, they could not simply announce this on the telecommunication network. And it had been somewhat hush-hush in the first place. So guess who ended up delivering the news, in person? Often to people I had good friendships with, who weren't happy about it but understood -- but others were not so understanding. Sometimes I was accused of making it up, because surely they would have heard it on one of the news feeds that were now emerging in popularity? Many of these remained disgruntled as time went on... until suddenly they stopped doing business with us at all. Similar problems happened across the whole universe, since our agreement with the League in general had been a trade pact. We'd lowered our prices slightly for everyone, and now they were going back up. For a long time I couldn't figure out what could cause such a thing. But one day, that member of the Order who handled programming came to me and warned me of something he'd read in a one-on-one chat between a citizen of Po-Metru and one of the larger cities in Mantax's territory. "They're arranging barge schedules," he said. "Not your barge, or any of the ones like them. Not their normal assembled product barges either. These are parts barges, and they're offering low prices I'm pretty sure you can't match, with your higher quality. No offense..." I sighed. "Figures." I asked him to show me the conversation, and see if he could pull up others. To my surprise, Ahkmou was actually not to blame this time. It seemed that more clever Po-Matoran had stolen his idea, and in fact many of the businesses we ran unscheduled inspections of were secretly making knock-off parts in rented buildings in Le-Metru, of all places. An alliance of all these companies was now running a barge service following along our basic route, but timing their departures so they wouldn't run into us. A few days later, the agent returned. "I'm afraid I have worse news. One of your inspectors has figured it out. Your own bosses are meeting right now to discuss what to do about it." I was on a trade mission at the time, but I told Maglya I was sick, and locked myself in my room. But search as I might, I failed to find wherever they were meeting. But I did find them later -- walking out of Onu-Metru. The next day, I found evidence that they were actually setting up assembly huts in Ta-Metru. The idea was to lower our own prices -- even lower than the Po-Matoran, making them useless, because after all most flaws in an assembled thing would come from bad parts. Assembly was often fairly easy. Oh, no. I confided in Aldari, but he seemed at a loss as to what to do about this. "Maybe... both sides will balance out? Maybe they'll all end up making the same." "I don't know," I said. "But—" BOOM. An explosion ripped through the room. I was taken completely by surprise. We'd been pulling into port at Ta-Metru. I was aware of no major enemies. It wasn't a thousand-year point -- only five-hundred years after the downfall of the League. My vision was blurred and darkened. I felt myself slipping down into a coma. My mask was shattered. I hurt all over. And now I felt... Wet. Ignoring the wild theories that ran through my mind, ignoring the pain, I forced myself to shapeshift -- thankfully that still worked -- and zoomed over to a drawer where I kept an extra mask -- shaped like a Noble Mask of Mind Control, like the one I had originally owned on Spherus Magna, though painted red. Sent my liquefied head through the drawer without wasting time opening it, and touched the mask. Immediately I felt fully conscious. Pulled my head out and took normal form. A massive gash had been ripped into the metal wall, now revealed as smoke cleared. Water rushed in. Aldari's limp, maskless form floated face-down in the water. I ran to him, flipping him over. His heartlight wasn't flashing. Shapeshifted us both, zoomed under my door -- I was afraid to open it lest I let water in and sink the barge. "Help!" I called, taking normal form, carrying him out. Another explosion rocked the ship, and I dropped him, falling on my side. His head hit the floor at a bad angle. No! NO! I grabbed his body and pulled him up. Felt the boat tilting. Then another explosion. Sounds of vicious cheers in the distance, and shouts of anger and alarm from my own crew. Moavak ran by us. "Help!" I called. He stopped, and froze at the sight of Aldari's black eyes. "He took the brunt of the first explosion!" "Can't you get your friends to help?" he asked breathlessly. "I... I guess I'll have to try... But I'll be right back." Others among my crew had seen us, but I teleported all the same. Right to Keetongu's Island, shouting for help at the top of my burnt lungs. I saw several of the cyclops heading my way atop their steeds. Even so, in my panic, I waved my arms frantically to get their attention. I almost shapeshifted myself to seem larger and easier to see, but I realized at the last second I'd already gotten their attention, and stopped. "Stay with me, Aldari," I said. When the cyclops got there, Keetongu himself ran forward, and I blurted out what had happened. "I must return and save others -- I think it's sinking!" "I will do all in my power to save him," Keetongu said. "Though I fear that is not much." I teleported away right before his eyes as well, and found myself knee-deep in water. Nobody was around. But I heard screams, gurgling sounds. From below me. Water was rushing down stairs. I ran down, making scuba gear as I went, and dove under water. One crewman was trapped under some bent pipes. I swam over and touched the pipes, shapeshifting them away, and pulled him out. Together we swam back out to the hallway, but it was now entirely submerged. I put a shapeshifted air mask to his face, not caring anymore about secrecy, and he gratefully breathed through it. We swam out, and I beheld nothing but water all around. The whole barge was already under and plummeting toward the seafloor fast. A massive whirlpool had developed as it pulled the water around it down fast, and I saw Matoran all throughout the water, all moving down. I reached out with airmasks, one reaching up to the surface, and tried to give them all air, but some were horribly bent out of shape, beyond saving. I tried not to dwell on the horror of these sights. I found Moavak, and gave him air, and several others. We tried to swim up, but the water was just too much. The ocean current pushed us to the south as well, and the barge seemed to go out of our view. But I saw Captain Maglya swimming upward with all his might from the broken window of the bridge. He must have stayed behind to try to save others -- he was carrying another unconscious Matoran, swimming only with his feet. He was too far for me to reach -- I was at the limit. He just kept on kicking and kicking... I really thought he would die, but finally I remembered I could teleport everybody. Appeared in the air, farther out where nobody could see us through the mists, and then immediately teleported back to Maglya, and teleported him and the other too. Then I appeared back in the ship, ignoring the survivors' immediate questions. I heard the beginning of Moavak answering them, but I was too scared to care that he was betraying what little he knew of me. I swam all through the corridors of the ship, and I found several more Matoran. All dead. I was too late. And there were the others, floating lifelessly now to the surface. I swam up there as well, in the form of a Ruki. Saw a group of Po-Matoran standing there on the cliff, looks of horror in their face. I skimmed their minds furiously, even as I saw the projectile weapons in their arms. They hadn't realized that the barge could sink so fast, that the water would drag us down. They'd assumed we would all swim to safety long before that, and take it simply as a warning. They thought about what they would now say to their superiors, who, it seemed, had been spying on the Ta-Matoran and knew what our barges were soon to be ordered to deliver. Ahkmou was not among them, somewhat to my surprise. But there was one leading them that didn't look so upset at their mistake. His face was as tight as it could be, considering it was a mask that bent with expressions -- he knew what he had unwittingly started, but he was already beginning to accept it. He wore an extremely rare mask shape -- the Mask of Visions, not to be confused with Kopaka's mask of seeing through things; the power could enable people to see the near future, with strange rules and limits. The users were often viewed as impossible to kill, as they could see nearly any attack coming, and any attack they would not see coming would not possibly be fatal. It wasn't considered immoral, but it was seen as something that only the bravest Matoran would dare don, as it carried a connotation of a declaration of profound warrior prowess, even though of course the Matoran could not use mask powers. A Matoran wearing such a mask was saying that he, too, was impossible to kill, but not thanks to any power. It tended to attract wackos eager to test the claim. It was he that carried the largest weapon -- a rocket launcher. The others carried smaller dual-barrel weapons. I realized his weapon was the one that had sunk our barge. It was also he that broke the others' moment of shock and ordered them to pull back into the shadows, lest they be seen. But I saw that several Ta-Matoran had already spotted them and were pointing. Some were drawing weapons. And now one fired. The Po-Matoran cringed, and turned to run. I could not care about this anymore. I had to get to Aldari. Teleported. And saw, as if in a replaying of the scene I'd secretly spied on all those years before, a sad look on the one-eyed being's face, as he shook his head. There was nothing that could be done. The cyclops told me that his life had gone out of him the moment the explosion hit him. His brain had overheated. The neck was fine. It wasn't my fault. I'd done all I could. I watched my own body teleport his body back -- I felt as detached from myself as he now was from himself. I took him to the crew, out in the water. Together we swam ashore. Moavak grabbed a weapon and urged countless others from among my own barge and the rest of the Metru to race to Cog Mountain. Maglya himself joined them at first, but I shouted at them. "Stop this! Stop it! More deaths will come if you do this! Stand down!" "NO!" Moavak screamed at me. I was taken aback by the force of his emotion. He looked like he hated me. He blamed me. "You and your mysterious friends couldn't save him, so I will avenge him!" The others ran on, but I grabbed Maglya's arm. "Don't do it, Captain." He stared at me, and I realized he was walking around as if in a trance. "My... my crew..." he breathed. I noticed he was taking deep breaths, as if afraid air would suddenly cease to exist. "Come on," I said, directing him back to Ta-Metru. "We can't be a part of war." "Who are you?" I remembered the mask, but he interrupted my answer, pointing to my legs. "You're hurt," he said distantly. And so I was. My legs were bent out of shape. Thankfully not in a way that pinched my muscles. One of the benefits of having metal for bones and skin -- I couldn't feel the damage. But they would need replaced. My muscles were also singed, but I could heal that. I also discovered that my belt was destroyed. Only the sword had survived. I could quickly make a replacement. But could I ever recover from what had happened? It was my fault Aldari was dead. He wouldn't have been in my room, discussing the situation, if I had let him live his life in blissful ignorance. I can't confide in anyone again. Nobody besides Shonin and the Order. Enough is enough. Meanwhile, things spiraled out of control throughout Metru Nui. Moavak had led his forces to Cog Mountain, and reduced it to slag. They'd tried to hit others, but Po-Matoran led by that one I had seen moved in and blocked their way, overwhelming them, and they were forced to retreat to Ta-Metru. Our region declared war that very night, and Po-Metru declared it right back. Almost immediately, Le-Metru joined the Stone Matoran, and Onu-Metru joined us. Ga-Metru and Ko tried to stay out of it, but there was really no hope of that. Eventually the Water Matoran sided with us, and the Ice Matoran with Po, and full-scale war broke out. Warlords emerged -- Moavak himself became ours, patterning himself after Mantax and Axonn, recalling everything I had enabled him to learn to aid his battles. Why didn't I see this coming? It should have been incredibly obvious. Even without visions of this, I should have seen the warning signs and done something long ago to head it off. Meanwhile, I noticed that Mata Nui's health indicators began to drop. Nobody in Metru Nui -- his brain -- was working. The maintenance skyscrapers were falling into disrepair and the robots were breaking down too. Now Mata Nui's Core Processor itself was showing signs of wear and tear. A window was opening for him to be overthrown, if anyone knew how. And with how this had snuck up on me, I no longer doubted that Teridax would find a way. It's all happening. I can't believe it. I couldn't change the past. Maybe there was still a way to change the future. I would have to do something big now. But what? Review Topic | Post with author's comments for this chapter Unnamed Order member image by Disciple. Cliff Screecher, Cliff Bug, and Blade Burrower images by Evil-Accret. Mask of Translation (kit base) by TNT.

Understood about the routes. Yeah, works as generically representing that there is at least one route something like that. Yeah, it's not a big hollow space. It's lots of little hollow spaces which are the domes. (Well, "little" compared to the giant itself.) Surrounding those is rock and technology (and a few tinier cave systems like the one Mavrah hid in). Again, I doubt Karda Nui is spherical canonically (in the final plans after the early Faber concept). You may have missed that part in my earlier post (easy to do I'm sure, heh). It would fit nicely with the spherical Codrex inside, but to fit as a sphere, it would have to be small, and it was described as vast. Yeah, the Pit is another complication. (FTR, it's in the ceiling of the Southern Continent cavern, just beneath the outer hull of the giant's front.) And thanks, but it's not that impressive -- been doing this for ten years and the subject comes up all the time. It would be hard not to remember most of it. (Somehow I managed to get foggy on the eyes closing thing though. If anyone knows the full story there I'd love to hear it so I can make sure that part of my retelling is accurate. )

FTR, that's right. Source was Greg. It was 100. Some of the other species probably were less than 1000 as they were probably limited to one island or whonot, like Tobduk's, but I wouldn't worry about that as the larger number can counter the likely inaccurate assumption earlier that we know all mask-wearing species. Math is probably fairly close in the totals as a result. Your math lost me in places later, but that's because you're taking a class on that subject so unsurprising, heh.

To the OP: -Like Fordianl said, you've got it just about right. All I'm seeing to correct are a few nitpicks. -First nitpick: The Toa Metru took several routes. When I first looked at the topic, I skipped your text to see the image first, and assumed that was meant to be the volcano's pipes. More about that in a second, but about the Metru's routes... First, I think they exited somewhere near Ga-Koro's future location? Then they went back down through another tunnel, which I forget where it was exactly, but neither of these were near the center of the island as far as I recall. Finally,* they brought airships up through the sunholes (the eyes). *Except Vakama apparently walked alone back up through the second route, or one close to it. This is actually much more complicated and I think I'm misremembering a detail or two, so I won't try to add more than that. Short answer is just, more than one route. -I'm not sure what you mean about cavities versus literal domes. For most of the islands, they are probably literally dome-shaped. The continents' caverns are probably more like disc shapes, like giant frisbees, than proper domes, though. And your image shows an actual dome, so... confused what you mean here. Basically, I don't see why the two things in your "or" statement are mutually exclusive. You can accurately describe them either way. I could guess what you're driving at but don't wanna put words in your mouth. Now to the image itself: -Starting at the top, the peak you show over the nose looks volcanic. Canonically the tallest peak is Mount Ihu and would be in that position; it is a "pointy" mountain ( ), not a volcano. The volcano is farther south, over the mouth of the giant; the Mangai. (These features formed the nose and mouth of a "face" in the island's shape, with the Ga-Wahi bay forming one eye.) This is why my earlier confusion about the black line came up; your image makes the black line come up inside the volcano so it looks like the lava pipes rather than a Toa Metru route. If you were to use it that way, it should come up in the mouth, not the nose. Anywho. -Note that which routes end where on the lower side is not known in most cases (I'm talking here about the Mata to Metru routes), but the southernmost point (toward the chin of the giant's face versus the top of the head) is the least likely, since that was a tunnel to Karzahni. North is a major candidate for many of them, or any other point around there. (There was also at least one sea route south. I take this as probably two sea routes following those tubes on the sides of the giant's neck, so south-southeast and south-southwest.) -Speaking of Karzahni, it is placed in the chin region of the head, since its connection to Metru Nui's dome is a land route and thus cannot bend like the sea tunnels between most domes. So, Metru Nui's dome should be a bit smaller and farther to the north, centered under the eyes, not the nose (also because the sunholes were at the top of Metru's dome, though that matters little as an illusion effect bent their light so they seemed to rise and set). And Karzahni should have a (probably smaller) dome south of Metru Nui, with a depiction of land going clean through a tunnel and a land peninsula extending north a tiny ways into Metru Nui's dome. -Which brings me to the last nitpick: Metru Nui should be much smaller, with a lot more open Silver Sea between it and the Great Barrier. I did an image showing the size relationship between the two islands here (ignore most of the other details, though -- this was before we knew about the giant robot; see clarifications below the link): http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/bonesiii/Bionicle/bionicle_dome_3d.jpg The size of the dome in my image was way, way too big, and the tunnel should be pointing south (left), and there should be at least one other. There's a dim line of darkened brown on the right representing Takanuva's route to the Mangaia (Makuta's lair, not to be confused with the volcano of Mangai) -- this line is more or less accurate, just imagine it adjusted to a smaller dome. And the thin silver line going from the leftmost side of the image, underground but above the dome itself, to the rightmost, represents what at the time was simply a mysterious impenetrable layer mentioned in MNOG, but that we now know is not shaped like I've put here, because it's Mata Nui's face. Okay, now to Ford's reply, got some nitpicks there too: -Please note that seeing the Silver Sea as comparable to fluid around organs would only be a very loose metaphor. Technology that was part of maintaining various functions of the giant would surface in certain places on the islands and continents, and the rest of the land was basically habitation for the maintanance workers (and workers who supported maintanance workers with other things like food production). The Silver Sea should be seen more as a transportation system for those workers and their economic stuff from island to island within the habitation. So... I guess it's more comparable to blood vessels, specifically in their capacity to transport white blood cells and other things that help protect the body from threats. (But not in their oxygen-transporting capacity for energy distribution; that would be more akin to the "wires" or whatever presumably running underneath the domes from Karda Nui.) -That Faber image was concept art, and is not canon. Later the plans changed, so there should be a dome for the Southern Continent above Karda Nui. Karda Nui probably is also not spherical if seen from the side, as it was said to be vast, and for that to fit inside the giant, with room for an also large cavern for the SC both sandwiched into the body of the giant, it has to be flattish. The Faber pic does give a vague sense of the idea of the other domes, though. -This is probably the most nitpicky of all, but describing the barrier as a way to travel may be confusing. The barrier was simply the edge of the dome, and tunnels between the domes (so cutting through the barrier) were for travel. But I got whatcha meant. -I didn't understand the "opened" part of your last paragraph. You might have a misconception there, but I don't wanna put words in your mouth either. -It's better to describe the island over the face as camouflage, not a cloak. Cloak is normally used for invisibility, and IMO it's almost certain that the giant did also have an actual cloaking device (invisibility for when he flew down to land on the alien planets). -Also, it was the crash landing on Aqua Magna that activated the camouflage system, not the virus directly, although the crash was of course caused by the virus. Icarus -- some of the routes may be spirals around the dome, but they might also spiral in shorter distances going down one side, or zigzag like a tall building's stairway. And only one eye was uncovered in the Aqua Magna, crash-caused version of the island, and only a little. The Ga-Wahi one was buried by sand and water. The Ko-Wahi one was also buried, but by a glacier, and since ice can be more translucent, evidently enough light made it down. (Also, if badmem serves, one of the eyelids closed when Mata Nui fell asleep, and the other partially closed. Apparently they were both supposed to close, but one malfunctioned due to his deteriorated state after the virus attack.) (Yeah. Complicated, huh? ) Edit: *sees several other posts came in* Yeah, I thought there were some discrepancies about the eyes. Regardless, that has no real effect on anything. One of them was definitely open so gave enough sunlight, and this only mattered for the most recent 1000 years of the 100,000+, during which only Dume, the Rahaga, Keetongu... and I think Dweller were living there. I think different sources said different things about that. So... just take that section of my post above with more salt.

Personally, I've thought for a long time that pretty much only people who think that people stranded in the wilderness and forced to survive are in "paradise" are moderns sitting comfortably in their sofas or the like, typing at leisure on advanced technology gained through many generations of hard work. Admittedly, that wilderness had just gotten much safer with the defeat of the infected Rahi, but the Toa who were the key to that had a mission and they were going to go down to Metru Nui, so that wouldn't have necessarily been reliable. And the analogy also misses that the only reason they really survived in that wilderness was the leadership of the Turaga, who were now the very people telling them to move. Nobody would question that! (And yes, the real reason is they needed to repair the brain-machinery of Mata Nui so he could be awakened. Of course, the Matoran didn't understand this, so I'd say the above is more relevant in terms of their motivation in obeying.)

Well, just because MNOG showed Matoran head statues in set style doesn't mean all media for all time must do so. And the movies, at least the early two, had styles often deviating from the sets a bit. Let's keep in mind, though, that LEGO has already published several other concept-art images for Gen 2 (for Ekimu and the Toa). This could just be more of that.

Two ways it could. First, what I said above -- if the Mangai are an "average" team (more or less), and this mask is simply off-limits to Toa of that "rank", giving it to one of them would imply it's much more common. Second, the number of characters seen in-story is a tiny percentage of the number of characters in the MU. A rare mask showing up just once among them fits it being rare... twice? Not so much. Because theoretically (although statistics predicts "bunching" sometimes), a normal scientific sample should roughly approximate the percentage of the population as a whole. There are other masks that are seen as common that haven't even been re-used, at least not their powered versions, so to have two Rode and call them rare becomes much less likely. Not absolute disproof of it due to the statistics rule but it would create a confusing perception to fans. That's right. If you think about it, this argues against doing the same thing with the Rode. Statistical bunching once is fairly likely. Twice, with the masks on the faces of the VN titans, is much less likely. (Though I assume the Rode would be a little more common than the Olmak.) Also, when something is so rare as to have only one, two, or maybe three examples, its value goes up (like the principle behind gold and diamonds being seen as precious beyond their physical traits' advantages), and we start to want to know who has each one, because each of their story importance goes up by virtue of owning such a precious thing. If the Rode is rare, but not "precious", that wouldn't necessarily work. The power itself might also be seen as less valuable to start with, though I'm not sure what to make of that (Olmak is a pretty strong "trump card" power, though, and the main Great Mask that people often suggest should have been Legendary; I don't recall anybody saying that for Rode). They can, but making that Toa be one of the Mangai would seriously hurt the perception that Toa who have it are very rare. Keep in mind a few things about that Olmak Toa too. First, Artakha gave it to him specifically to get Jovan's team to Karda Nui to save the Great Spirit. It was hardly normal circumstances. Second, even if we ignore that part, a Makuta arranged to have him killed, apparently because of the mask, to steal it (although the Order somehow got it for a while, but it did end up in the Brotherhood's hands, apparently tied into some device to teleport Destral around). Maybe lots of Toa learned from that lesson and stopped wearing rarer masks, yanno? (This event was well before the forming of the Toa Mangai, so the timing would make sense there.)

Glad I could help.

Remember the long scene with Nuparu welding, for a long time, with that "dramatic heroic welder" music? The parts aren't left in their "raw" Bohrok shapes. And yes, as Bfa says, in-story the Bohrok aren't designed just like the set. The set is made that way to work as a plastic toy. So the "raw" shapes aren't necessarily what you see with Bohrok anyways; the sets are representations. Plus, the resulting Boxor set is also a representation of what the Boxor "would actually be" if it was a real universe. So the pieces picked for that aren't really relevant either. So, the Mctoran arm is for styling in set-design. It's not a Matoran arm, anymore than it is in a Mahi goat. Short answer: This is LEGO. They re-use parts in sets, regardless of the storyline explanation.

I said so much because I kept seeing points that, while not on an important subject, appeared to be illogical, and I just don't like letting those stand. They give teaching opportunities about good thinking versus unreliable thinking. And I'm not sure if you're clear on it -- I'm not clear on what your summary means. The first clause looks clear enough, but just says what my first post already said, with synonyms. The rest of that sentence makes some logical connections I wasn't arguing about Toa, though that's plausible enough, I guess. And I don't understand the second sentence. Allicansayis... I chose the clearest wordings I know in how I said it earlier. Edit: I thought of another approach -- the timeline of how the Kestora were introduced. Let's take it as a given, hypothetically, for now, that LEGO intended them to be inspired-by standins for the concept of Kra-Matoran as Makuta plus <raata/Rahkshi seem to be standins for Kra-Toa. I don't think it was intentional, but lets ask, if it had been, how would they have to do it? The key here is that when the story first encountered them, Takanuva thought they were good guys, in trouble from a monster, in the City of Silver Dimension. That story's concept was a reversal based on assumptions of first impression (some irony there heh). The monster turned out to be good and the Kestora the enemies. So, it would not have made sense to use standard Bionicle colors for Shadow if Shadow was intentional in some sense (even if just symbolically). It would have been too obvious. Purple and black would remind of Onu-Matoran to many new fans, and just being "not red and black" would not make people immediately think of Shadow. Yet, the association was there, obscurely, and in this situation that actually would be a good thing that it's obscure. It would help make the twist make more sense. And although I've been speaking hypothetically, it's interesting that this does fit the theme of the art for the story; the City-Building creatures (the "monsters") are making a shining city that the art showed as practically white with its glow (canonically that may be just reflection off the silver, but still). But the outer regions where Kestora apparently dwell were depicted as dark, and whether any sun or anything like that existed in that pocket dimension was unclear; I get the sense they were perpetually dark. So, a Shadow association actually makes sense thematically with that story! (Huh. I'm even starting to wonder now if it might be somewhat intentional. Or at least, picking more obscure Shadow-associated colors because of that theme, rather than with the intent of their standing in for Kra-Matoran, may be intentional, which would make the standin theory work as an addition. ) Food for thought.

I don't know what you're asking about when you say a 'stance', though. I was just reacting to the suggestion in the OP and giving some possible evidence for a version of it, since its being literally true is clearly false, but it did make sense with those suggestions. "Stance" would imply, generally, that I think it is the case canonically or should be. All I was saying is that's one version that would seem to fit the facts. And I have a rule to generally not agree to others' attempts to re-word my meanings, as I don't know for sure that you don't mean something significantly different by it. It's better to understand my meanings from what I've already said, and I've frankly said way more already than the subject really warrants lol.

T, all I can say is read what I've already written as I've made it as clear as I know how to, more than once. I summarized my point in my first post and I don't see the need to go over again, as it hardly matters. It looks to me like it's not about me not saying something, but for some reason it not sinking in for you, or you not reading/catching it. Go back, and read slowly. To this specifically: You're apparently confusing evidence that there may be a correlation with proof of one (or justification of a universal assumption). I was not suggesting that; that idea is coming from your own head somehow. (And I already pointed out to you at least twice that I was saying no such thing... Not to mention, the fallacy you're alleging here, Hasty Generalization, is precisely the problem with your universal negative, based in incomplete examples! It's you who is suggesting such a thing... apparently, and as it was worded...)

To the contrary of what? The idea there's some species possibly with associations, and many without, is consistent with that list. But an objective test should state apparent contrary evidence to be fair anyways. I'm not saying there have to be any. We don't have to have even one example of evidence for a correlation in other species to see why the Kestora's similarity and the idea of purple and black being connected (however loosely, but connected) to Shadow makes the theory possible. Other examples just help show that the universal negative is especially unreliable. And I haven't seen you answer the big question -- did Greg say what you said? Unless he did, we can't be confident of it, no matter how many examples there are of other species not having the associations, due to the Black Swan principle. Also, this looks to be constraining the examples we're allowed to consider, to rule out exceptions we do know about and that would logically be relevant. This would rule out all those DH, for example, apparently, because they're MOCs, not sets. And would a purple Kraata piece count as a "set"? Onepu is a set showing purple and black associated with darkness as an idea -- dark caves, night vision for Whenua, preferring the dark for all the 2001 Earth characters -- but would you rule this out because he's a Matoran set? And the purple and black of Gravity being a loose idea connection isn't seen in any set, just in the story factoids. Rhotuka power of burning sensation certainly seems like an association, much more than a normal Matoran would have. I'm not going to go through every example you listed; it's getting too off-topic and I've already shown why listing any number of examples of non-correlation doesn't prove it never happens for non-Matoran species (and I took it as a given we all know there were those examples anyways). It seems like you still aren't getting that I'm showing there's some of both, versus your universal negative, so the version of the topic theory that I mentioned is fully possible. You even seemed to get that earlier, so what gives? You still seem to be acting as if I was arguing for some kind of universal positive, which I never suggested and have already clarified I wasn't saying. *is confuzzled* Again, who said they did? This is what I mean about apparently making a strawman that I was suggesting a universal positive. The second sentence here is true (it's consistent with a mixture among other species, which makes sense as it's multiple species, not just one like Matoran and their relatives), but the first doesn't follow from it (it's still phrased as a universal negative). And in the one universal color for all powers of any of the beings related to Makuta, we have the color purple (everybody else is shapeshifters so color is irrelevant or has a color associated with their power). I think this is very consistent with my version of the idea. Makuta aren't Matoran either. So we have two major GB-made/planned species other than Matoran who have purple as a major color in relation to them. Coincidence? In real life, probably, but as a theory of what the GBs could plausibly have had in mind based on the evidence we have (regardless of authorial intent), it makes sense to suggest it may be something more. And one of those species has a focus on Shadow. And Toa-like powers, but no Matoran equiv. So the connection for the Toa-like side with Makuta is there. What about the Matoran equiv? Other than Kra-Matoran made by draining inner light, of course. Could be the Kestora. They fit the pattern, and "coincidentally" have the right color scheme to work for it. Also fitting a common theme in other stories, which is relevant, especially since the Shadow Kraata already use that theme blatantly. I'm just saying, this does make sense to me, as unlikely as it is that anybody at LEGO planned it. Relevance? And the GBs could do the same thing with Kestora. Point is, variety in correlation versus not correlation, rather than all one or the other, is a thing with Rahi. It could be a thing among sapient species, rather than Matoran being the only ones with a correlation.

Interesting... FTR, Greg's statement about humans in Bionicle was clearly about the Gen 1 universe. It's irrelevant to Gen 2 unless the new story team says the same thing for it. Assuming this is canon (I have no idea), there's also the chance that it represents an alien species that simply resembles humans, in some relation similar to the Agori/Glatorian/GBs/etc. Or... if the Okoto denizens are organic as some have theorized... this may be what you'd see beneath the mask if not in a strictly set-style portrayal?? Or maybe it's a fan prank. >__>

If that's the case, then why include the ones that aren't helpful to the theory? What do you mean? Why wouldn't I? T1, why are you saying things like this? I never suggested such things. I was testing your statement here: Showing examples of possible correlations is evidence against this universal negative. Statements that Hasty Generalizations can't be made from this do not change that. I thought that was clear, but... hopefully this helps? I'm guessing your list of examples that don't appear to have a correlation is based on the premise of this apparent misunderstanding, so hopefully you see why that doesn't change what I brought up. (And it was assumed to be common knowledge before I started. ) Okay... lotsa points here: First, the interior of the giant robot is named after Matoran. You seem to be treating them like they're obscure in the MU. Surely it's much more believable that since elemental association is the case for the main species that Great Beings made, others having it (made by them or not) is very possible. Again, showing that some or even most others don't, is not at all an argument against this. Second, this argument doesn't really work against the theory, since like Matoran, Kestora were made by the Great Beings. (And the Makuta were also planned by them.) But I think you get that part re: your second-to-last statement, so yarr. Third, the Matoran and relatives are where the tradition is mainly seen. But prior to the Piraka, other than a few titans, we hadn't really seen a lot of other MU sapient species. Most of the other sets were robots or creatures of some sort. The DH added a ton of new species to the list. And affiliation goes to more than direct elemental powers, keep in mind. And since I was talking about adding variety to counter the tradition in general, rather than just sapients, those robots and creatures are relevant too. The Vahki had some obvious choices of "personality" and some power selections based on what was seen as a "good fit" to the city regions of those elements. The red Visorak seemed to have "fiery personalities." (They also have a "burning sensation" Rhotuka power incidentally.) Many Rahi with elemental associations were depicted as colored accordingly. Others weren't. Variety. But their design was made by the GBs, so it's much more relevant than most examples (like the many mutants). And if Kestora are "related" in the way I suggested, this actually helps. Let's face it, Kestora as described are almost indistinguishable from Matoran; they wear masks, they have no inherent powers, and they're diminutive. They already seem related in the sense that the same basic idea was used for both. They're more like Matoran than Bohrok are! It's not a stretch to imagine their color similarity to Shadow could be intentional as the standins for Kra-Matoran. Keep in mind too that the Shadow Kraata are already related to Shadow by their connection to Makuta, BTW, and Makuta and Kraata were planned by the GBs. So we have a loose connection of purple to the Makuta as beings of shadow. Their power makes them seem like the "Toa" standins... I stand by that it makes sense there could be a "Kra-Matoran" standin too, and that could be Kestora. (But this doesn't mean it's proven, or likely what they intended, just fits the facts we have.)

Er, that's why they are a good example, as I said -- seeing one that doesn't fit the pattern doesn't evidence against another seeming to fit it, since they're different species. And they cover so many of the other species, so I'd say they definitely are. I never suggested otherwise, but it's unlikely the color associations for at least a few are coincidence. They're positive evidence against the idea that non-Matoran never have color-element ties. I believe I commented on all the mutations in the examples I listed. I avoided examples in general that stated it (most of them are mutants of Matoran or relatives, like Firedracax, who I listed as an example of ones that don't count). Without evidence in the ones that are left, we can't know that they aren't natural powers either. And several are worded in ways that clearly imply they are in their natural species form. I don't see what you mean here. Their appearances and story roles are canon, and that the roles were given later (apparently) seems to help my case, not hurt it, as Greg himself would be picking the powers. His doing so in some cases because of colors is likely, as that's a Bionicle tradition. Something else I didn't mention -- they're all (far as I know offhand) of species made by Mata Nui. That does mean they aren't totally relevant to Kestora, who were, but the contrast here can be helpful too (if Mata Nui's species are the ones that tend not to have color-element associations, then that could imply Kestora are likely to), and it does seem to show that "(unmutated) non-Matoran don't have these associations" appears to be false, or at least very questionable. Worth adding that normal Bohrok have the associations too. Makuta don't, exactly... but they're shapeshifters. And black is probably fairly common, and black and red (2003 set) has been used as a generic standin template in one image. I think the examples we see in the DH, among others, of apparent non-association of colors and elemental themes is more meant to add to the variety of the MU, as before that, among sapient species at least, color associations were common. That doesn't require being absolute about it.

Curious about the glitch... did you write this in a program like Word? If so, how many pages have the chapters in question (and not in question? is it happening to all of them that you've edited?) been? I've been editing every single retelling chapter (to put in the author's comments post link each time), and haven't run into this, even though I've posted some in the teens of pages, getting close in a few cases to my pre-Part-Nine limit of 20 pages each. (I sure hope it's not a length thing, as later chapters will be in trouble. Wouldn't be the first time BZP has had discrepencies between maximums in posting versus editing, unfortunately. If it persists, might wanna ask if B6 might know what's causing it.) Am confused about the review link needing edited in though. Are you saying just that is going missing? Part of it? Whole thing? And was the review link (for the review topic as a whole) the purpose of editing? (I would think not, as you could include that the first time you post, no? Did I read this wrong?) 7: Animal perspective FTW. Perfect choice of POV there. I hope we see more from him, assuming you make sure the animal side statement doesn't get too repetitive. "The magic box was a metaphor, John." -- Ben Linus I seem to have completely forgotten the context of the last line here, or why it would be connected to the giant footfalls. As usual it's probably my fault (since memory is involved ) but I figured I'd let you know. I liked the part about the Gliding up with a kick. Clever usage of powers is a good thing to try to get in Bionicle fanfics, and it made me see the power as validly up there in terms of usefulness with Levitation and Flight. A bit redundant of both, but that's logical given that infinite powers are possible. And more to the point, nice to have it have a morale effect in the way Vyroko chose to use it. Second two sentences seemed unnecessary to me, since the reader was already made so clear on this. Does make sense Nehara might need to recall hearing their tale of it, but I think given the shock of the giants in the sky, she would probably do that automatically without having a conscious thought about it, or at least not a moment of forgetting it before that. I think it reads better in this case with only the quote, the said-tag, and the rest of that sentence. Okay so... the shard was used before, apparently by the illusions-caster, and that activated the tower of light that Jehui and Nela saw earlier? And then left at the base of the door/map. Odd. The caster went to the trouble of stealing it, then just leaves it there? Hm... And... this metaphor... the map seems to be a control interface at least for switching on this light (not going to even try to guess what this all means, but running with this much). And Jehui's "metaphor tower that was physically real" was activated at that time. Seems like a connection... A crazy idea occurs that maybe Jehui is the caster... maybe "sleepwalking" and unaware of it, in his spirit form, and it's some spirit-related thingamabob that makes the "bees". But that seems deeply unlikely and I don't think the timing works anyways, so nah. LOL Hatch. I suspect the theory's wrong, because a character is assuming it. A red herring for us LOST fans? Nice poem. *resists urge to take the bait about Vyroko* So apparently the egg contains truth, and the truth is that Tahtorak was fused with two Keetonguans. However, this cannot actually be true, because it doesn't rhyme.

Xel, I had mentioned the sand thing in my original post. I guess you missed it: Source is Greg; it's canon. I remember so clearly because the original answer that it was part of Stone came in response to a debate I had with another member back in the day. And the later answer making it part of neither comes up all the time because Earth/Stone confusion does, so hard to forget. (Even for me lol.) However, this does not absolutely disprove the theory either, since we're talking distant future, and the rules could change (esp. if Great Beings were contacted and resolution to their mysterious problems brought). But... unlikely. Just saying, it doesn't absolutely require a retcon of the past.

Lol, meant Toa Hagah. Fix'd. It was Hagah in my head.