Did Turning the Rahaga Back into Toa Annoy Anyone?

[Banana Gunz]

Okay, so I always hear people complaining about the serials and stuff and how Greg always did weird stuff in them. Was making the Rahaga toa again one of them for you?

 

I personally liked it because it gave something back to the Rahaga, but I think I can see why some peeps would dislike it.

[Rider Of Spiders]

I honestly don't care. Sure, the Rahaga were cool and all, but them as a team with major storyline part, they kinda fall flat. The changing them back was reasonable, but they still didn't convince me.

 

I think someone said here that Dwellers in Darkness could've been rewritten with Norik and Iruini only.

[fishers64]

Mostly this complaint rises out of the idea that the Rahaga didn't do anything after they were transformed back into Toa except fight some big Rahi on Xia, find the Core Processor, get duped by Teridax into believing that the world is fine...yeah, apparently that's insignificant.

 

Personally I thought it was an awesome moment - after than much time as Rahaga with little hope of ever being what they once were, now they're back. That whole "charging into battle" thing with Iruni really nails it home - he's really happy to be a Toa again.

[Mailli]

It was cool to see them as toa. Kind of like when we found out vakama and his team were toa.

[Regitnui]

I liked it. It was, and is, a sort of "The boys (and girl) are back in town!" moment. The Hagah are some of the oldest Toa around, and they're not broken like Lesovikk or concerned with the 'big picture' like Helryx. This makes them ideal candidates for training and advising younger Toa, and even teaching the Glatorian how to fight. They're also likely experts not only on fighting Rahi, but most of the Matoran species' natural enemies. In short, while they might've been more unique as Rahaga, they're better Toa.

[Toa Smoke Monster]

I enjoyed the Rahaga becoming Toa again. Not only did we get to see the whole team in action, we also learned the rest of the team's Kanohi Mask powers. Not to mention we got to see them fight the Kanohi Dragon, Tahtorak, and Toa Mahri. I feel that their return wasn't a waste to the story. It was definitely one of the better things to come out of the serials.

[ALVIS]

YES.

 

The Toa Hagah, after their revival, did successfully save Xia from two gigantic dragon Rahi, and that is to be commended. But thereafter, all their unique characterization seen in Challenge of the Hordika melted away, turning them into cookie-cutter stereotypes of their elements. Norik lost his wizened aura and became a default Fire Toa leader; Iruini lost his morally grey aspects and became a default Air Toa trickster; and all the others lost everything but their ability to snark. Sure, we learned what their mask powers were, but was it worth the complete lobotomy of their personalities?

 

It doesn't help that they were relegated to a dead-end side plot that accomplished nothing, but the loss of their characterization is the biggest shame of that whole story. As Rahaga, each was an interesting, if undeveloped, side character with a unique outlook and close experience with Rahi. As Toa Hagah, they bore no resemblance to themselves whatsoever. Sure, turning them back into Toa was a heartwarming thing to do, and provided Greg with more snarky superheroes to fill the ranks of the cast -- but I'll take a unique mutant over a boring hero any day.

[Zidonaro]

I liked it, specially Norik, a character that I admire. The more Toa, the better.

[TheSkeletonMan939]

I was fine with it, especially when we found out they were battling the Kanohi Dragon on Xia. I thought that was awesome - and something they could never do as Rahaga. They were back in the game, and I thought that was exciting.

[Sharnak the Bohrok Lord]

I was never really invested in the Hagah in general. It was cool that they were turned back into Toa, but at the end of the day I didn't care.

 

YES.

 

The Toa Hagah, after their revival, did successfully save Xia from two gigantic dragon Rahi, and that is to be commended. But thereafter, all their unique characterization seen in Challenge of the Hordika melted away, turning them into cookie-cutter stereotypes of their elements. Norik lost his wizened aura and became a default Fire Toa leader; Iruini lost his morally grey aspects and became a default Air Toa trickster; and all the others lost everything but their ability to snark. Sure, we learned what their mask powers were, but was it worth the complete lobotomy of their personalities?

 

It doesn't help that they were relegated to a dead-end side plot that accomplished nothing, but the loss of their characterization is the biggest shame of that whole story. As Rahaga, each was an interesting, if undeveloped, side character with a unique outlook and close experience with Rahi. As Toa Hagah, they bore no resemblance to themselves whatsoever. Sure, turning them back into Toa was a heartwarming thing to do, and provided Greg with more snarky superheroes to fill the ranks of the cast -- but I'll take a unique mutant over a boring hero any day.

I think this is a symptom of a larger problem. BIONICLE has A LOT of characters, so many that it is a real challenge to give everyone unique personalities all the time. Also, since the serials were a weekly thing, you've got to get them out under a certain deadline. So with all these characters in separate ongoing stories and having to write them all under possible deadlines, rather than taking time and thinking about their previous established traits, I think Greg just defaulted to what he knew - the standard Toa team dynamic, now with extra snark!

[Ragnar Lothbrok]

I was extremely happy that the Rahaga became Toa Hagah again. They were fantastic characters that aided the Hordika with their wisdom. You felt sorry for them.

 

The problem was the serial destroyed the personalities and characteristics that they had. So I'm not annoyed at the Rahaga. I'm annoyed at Greg as he should have respected their characters. Mask powers and spears do not equal personality.

[Toa R. Lih Nit]

Yes, I'm still mad about that.
Great heroes did great sacrifices, but now they are all fine and happy. 

[bonesiii]

Yes and no. They were part of the problem that later serials got overcomplicated due to Greg feeling like we needed running updates on what everybody from older story was doing all the time. On the other hand, since they had a major role in 2005 and their being wrongly mutated was part of that, it does make sense to bring resolution to that, and it wouldn't really be realistic to do that and the Hordika in 2005.

 

I just think they should have done the four others as sets, and spent more time on them. Maybe they might have, for the final war, had Bionicle not ended so abruptly.

[randomreviewerbros]

I didnt mind at all, it didnt really wreck any of the story for me, because they never appeared again after 2005 really so it didnt affect anything for me

[Toatapio Nuva]

YES.

 

The Toa Hagah, after their revival, did successfully save Xia from two gigantic dragon Rahi, and that is to be commended. But thereafter, all their unique characterization seen in Challenge of the Hordika melted away, turning them into cookie-cutter stereotypes of their elements. Norik lost his wizened aura and became a default Fire Toa leader; Iruini lost his morally grey aspects and became a default Air Toa trickster; and all the others lost everything but their ability to snark. Sure, we learned what their mask powers were, but was it worth the complete lobotomy of their personalities?

 

It doesn't help that they were relegated to a dead-end side plot that accomplished nothing, but the loss of their characterization is the biggest shame of that whole story. As Rahaga, each was an interesting, if undeveloped, side character with a unique outlook and close experience with Rahi. As Toa Hagah, they bore no resemblance to themselves whatsoever. Sure, turning them back into Toa was a heartwarming thing to do, and provided Greg with more snarky superheroes to fill the ranks of the cast -- but I'll take a unique mutant over a boring hero any day.

 

This.

 

The transformation back into Toa wasn't annoying in itself, but the way it was handled sort of off-handedly in one of the serials made it lose any emotion it might have held. There was no build-up on it, it just suddenly happened. The Rahaga almost magically appeared in the right spot conveniently and Roodaka just happened to be persuaded on the spot to revert them. The execution made the whole event... just flat and uninteresting.

 

And it didn't help that later on the Hagah totally lost any personality they had and were only part of Greg's confusing serials of randomness after defeating the Kanohi Dragon.

[Nidhiki of the Shadows]

Not really. I didn't care about the Rahaga all that much in 2005, bringing them back as Toa Hagah was alright but felt a little lazy to me. Alas, they are cool characters but not part of the main story, so I didn't really care what happened to them really.

 

-NotS

[DLVasco]

I thought it was an cool moment. They did suffer many years in Rahaga form after all.

[The Hip Historian Iaredios]

I don't remember much about the rahaga personalities, just there role in the overall story.

 

Matoran, Toa, Mature Toa, hired as Teridax's bodyguards, after Kojol's retrieval of the Shadow and Light Kanohi, Norik and crew recover the avokhii, roodaka mutates them, they become rahi ranchers to spite the visorak, Web of Shadows occurs, they sweep up cobwebs with a red elder, become a ghastly welcoming party for hobbits, continue sweeping cobwebs until they are dragged out of their janitor duties and whipped back into Toa by a magic blast that ends up with them getting high off of Teridax's magic wand, err I mean hand.

 

Did I miss anything? I had actually forgotten about them until I saw the topic title, are they really that forgettable?

[Pohatu: Uniter of Stone]

I might have said No, but now I say yes for the simple reason that the rest of the Toa Hagah were never released as sets, or even a picture of them.

[Toa Smoke Monster]

I don't remember much about the rahaga personalities, just there role in the overall story.

 

Matoran, Toa, Mature Toa, hired as Teridax's bodyguards, after Kojol's retrieval of the Shadow and Light Kanohi, Norik and crew recover the avokhii, roodaka mutates them, they become rahi ranchers to spite the visorak, Web of Shadows occurs, they sweep up cobwebs with a red elder, become a ghastly welcoming party for hobbits, continue sweeping cobwebs until they are dragged out of their janitor duties and whipped back into Toa by a magic blast that ends up with them getting high off of Teridax's magic wand, err I mean hand.

 

Did I miss anything? I had actually forgotten about them until I saw the topic title, are they really that forgettable?

The only things you missed was that, when the Hagah stole the Avokhii, they also took the Makoki Stone and defeated Makuta Teridax in a battle.

 

But to keep this on topic, I do see people's point about the Hagah losing the personalities they had when they were Rahaga. And I do admit that when I read the first chapter of Dwellers on Darkness that they didn't seem like they were back in 2005. I feel that if they were given their own side-story in a serial, not injected into the overall plot like they were in Dwellers in Darkness, their personalities would've shown through more.

[Ballom Nom Nom]

Meh. It seemed to me that if they were all-powerful Toa who could challenge Makuta himself giving Roodaka the power to nerf them into nearly powerless gnomes was a bit excessive and strange. So in that sense, I was fine with them returning to their powerful original selves eventually.

 

~B~

[jakest123]

Not as much as Tahu downgrading to his Mata form.

[Boidoh]

No, because I owned no Rahaga sets.

 

I do own Toa Hagah Iruini, so I'm quite happy...

[Thormen]

Meh. It seemed to me that if they were all-powerful Toa who could challenge Makuta himself giving Roodaka the power to nerf them into nearly powerless gnomes was a bit excessive and strange.

Can't say I agree, after all they weren't mutated by Roodaka in a fair fight. We don't know exactly how Gaaki, Pouks, Bomonga and Kualus got captured and mutated, but Norik and Iruini were hit in the back when they were running away. That's not a matter of power, you can defeat anyone by hitting them in the back as they're fleeing.

 

The Toa Metru challenged the Makuta and imprisoned him in a Toa seal, then they got themselves knocked out and mutated by the Visorak. Roodaka was the viceroy of the Visorak army, she was a lot more powerful than her minions, so even if you argue the Hagah are elite Toa and imprisoning the Makuta takes less power than reducing him to the size of a Turaga I still think it's a similar situation.

 

The Visorak army itself should also be accounted for. There's no way the Toa Hordika could have taken on Roodaka and her army, which is what the Hagah would have had to do. However, when Vakama dismissed the Visorak and Roodaka was alone, the Hordika just combined their elemental powers and knocked her out. If she had wanted to turn them into Rahaga as well, she could have done so while the Metru were still imprisoned in their cocoons at the start of Web of Shadows, they were completely powerless, but she wanted their Elemental Powers.