What's With The Scarabax Malum From Legend Reborn?

[Dorkpool]

That's one thing I never quite understood: why was there a giant Malum made out of Scarabax beetles? Even suspending disbelief enough to think that Scarabax could form a large being, why Malum?

[Infrared]

There's no real reason they picked Malum as far as I know, they just decided to use his model (presumably since he wasn't in the movie).

[JAG18]

I believe Greg once said that the Scarabax Beetles would have seen Malum out in the desert and would have wanted to use him as the inspiration for their giant. Which, Greg also said was a defense mechanism that the Scarabax Beetles had; like whenever they (or their friends) are in trouble they all come together to make this giant creature that's twice the size of anything else on Bara Magna.

[Dorkpool]

If that's a standard defense mechanism, how come everybody was surprised by it, and it caused the Skrall to panic?

[fasggbfrfesv]

If that's a standard defense mechanism, how come everybody was surprised by it, and it caused the Skrall to panic?

Cinematics, I'd imagine. The plot was very loose around 2008/9.

[JAG18]

If that's a standard defense mechanism, how come everybody was surprised by it, and it caused the Skrall to panic?

Because the Skrall thought that it was the Baterra; who I suppose in their minds could have shape-shifted into anything. If you saw (or thought you saw) the shape-shifting robots that wiped out your empire overnight you'd probably panic in pretty short order.

 

Now as to why it surprised everyone, Skrall or otherwise, it could be possible that they had only seen Scarabax Beetle make small creatures (but still pretty big for the beetles themselves) and had never seen them create one so large.

 

Edit: I dug up some old Farshtey Feed quotes on the subject:

 

 

The Skrall believed the giant formed by Scarabax to be a baterra invasion, which especially unnerved them.

The act of forming a pseudo-giant is a natural defense mechanism of the Scarabax.

Edited March 31, 2014 by JAG18

[Pomegranate]

That might be one of the reasons the beetles all swarmed towards towards the Ignika when it first crashed into Bara Magna-- not just curiosity, but possibly getting ready to gather together into a big scary thing just in case it was dangerous?

Edited March 31, 2014 by Pomegranate

[JAG18]

Anythings possible I suppose, I've never heard the reason for them swarming being attributed to anything other than sheer curiosity, but it certainly could be true.

[fishers64]

8.Is there any reason why the form the Scarabax Beetles took when they worked together looked like Malum? Is it because they’ve seen him before, because I don’t know how that could be a coincidence.

 

8) Just the choice the animators made. It wasn’t specified in the script who they would look like.

 

6. in the legend reborn it shows click and his Scarabax Beetles form that massive being is this a power of theres

 

7. in the legend reborn it shows click and his Scarabax Beetles form that massive being why does it look similer to malum ?

 

6) It’s basically the "power" of a lot of insects -- they formed a swarm, in their case, a swarm that looked like something else.

 

7) Cause the filmmakers thought that would be a good idea.

[LordofBionicles]

I recall said the TLR script didn't specify how would the figure look, so the producers must have decided to use Malum because it was a set they could recreate and therefore they didn't have to try to come up with something completely new.

[bonesiii]

Now as to why it surprised everyone, Skrall or otherwise, it could be possible that they had only seen Scarabax Beetle make small creatures (but still pretty big for the beetles themselves) and had never seen them create one so large.

Skrall don't really seem like they study nature a lot. They're not the most observative bunch anyways, as they still didn't figure out, after 100,000 years of being attacked by Baterra, that the attacks were based on holding weapons. No reason to assume they ever saw it done. They also lived most of their history in the northern jungle, and even after moving south for the war and getting stuck on Bara Magna, lived in a mountainous region, where perhaps Scarabax were not as common?

 

 

 

I'd also note that Malum's "two big fingers" look is similar to the Baterra's "two blades" look. The Skrall probably assumed it was a giant Baterra made out of multiple Baterra, and the shape was a way of saying "it's us." Whether that's dumb luck or intent on the part of the beetles I have no idea, but they generally do seem to be pretty clever. They'd have to be to communicate enough to form a defined shape, after all.

[JAG18]

Yeah, your observations on the Skrall seem dead on.

 

About whether the beetles meant to invoke the imagery of a Baterra or not, I'm wondering 1) do the beetle even know what Baterra are? And 2) how could the beetles have known that the Skrall are afraid of Baterra?

[Toa Zaz]

I doubt the filmmakers put a whole lot of thought to what exactly the Skrall were contemplating at that moment and the natural behavior of Scarabax or whatever. Most likely they just did it because it was kind of cool, and didn't think twice about it. Admittedly it was kind of a cool idea.

[bonesiii]

Yeah, your observations on the Skrall seem dead on.

 

About whether the beetles meant to invoke the imagery of a Baterra or not, I'm wondering 1) do the beetle even know what Baterra are? And 2) how could the beetles have known that the Skrall are afraid of Baterra?

Seeing Skrall running at the sight of Baterra?

 

They don't need to know what they are to recognize their standard form since they take that form often when attacking, and to recognize that Skrall run from it. Of course, then they should have formed a Baterra directly and not Malum, but maybe in their minds it's the same basic thing.

 

The beetles also might have thought of Malum as an intimidating figure since they would see Vorox obeying him often, and the similarity to Baterra may be entirely coincidence. (Unless Malum himself chose that form to evoke the Baterra form...?)

 

Or they might have just picked Malum simply because they see him around a lot and not be smart enough to think through the specific effect the shape would have other than "it's big and therefore scary, and it has to have a shape so let's pick that red guy."

 

Maybe the Scarabax themselves fear Malum and therefore assumed others would too?

[JAG18]

 

 

Seeing Skrall running at the sight of Baterra?

Lol, no. I was referring to what you said about how the Skrall don't study nature, or aren't very observant.

 

 

 

They don't need to know what they are to recognize their standard form since they take that form often when attacking, and to recognize that Skrall run from it.

But, where would the Scarabax Beetles have seen the Skrall running from Baterra? Since, the only place we've seen the Skrall battle (and run from) Baterra was in the cold, snowy, part of Bara Magna. A far cry from where the Scarabax beetle seem to live in the desert.

 

Your ideas about why the beetles chose to imitate Malum look possible and one (or more) could probably be right. I'd bet my money on one of them.

[bonesiii]

But, where would the Scarabax Beetles have seen the Skrall running from Baterra? Since, the only place we've seen the Skrall battle (and run from) Baterra was in the cold, snowy, part of Bara Magna. A far cry from where the Scarabax beetle seem to live in the desert.

The main Skrall habitat currently isn't snowy, and random small-scale incidents with Baterra likely happen all over the place, including the desert surrounding their mountains (hence the Vorox runs). Skrall like the ones that were traveling with Metus when he survived an attack and they didn't probably weren't in an elevated or snowy region at the time (though I'm not sure about that specific scene). So, I meant that beetles might have been around in a desert region to see one of the many random attacks after that point (the BS01 timeline confirms there were a variety of attacks over time).

 

Also, I didn't mean that the beetles only live in sand per se, but that the ones in the mountains, if there are any, are probably rare enough that they can't form massive groups. So a beetle could now and then see a Skrall attacked by a Baterra, without the Skrall necessarily seeing this swarm behavior of the beetles.

[ZippyWharrgarbl]

It's also because Malum's the best and literally every member of the Bionicle universe wants to be him in some way. This is usually a subconscious instinct, found even in the smallest of single-celled organisms. Scientists in the Matoran Universe have been studying this effect, though they have had no context to put it to before their arrival on Spherus Magna.

 

In all seriousness, though, they probably saw Malum a bunch out in the desert, leading his Vorox in attacks on Skrall or Bone Hunter camps. Also, seeing as there's not much to eat out in the desert, it's entirely possible that he ate scarabax occasionally. Bugs have a lot of protein in them.