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Themes of the Bionicle Story


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Friendship, bravery, and fate are all pretty prominent themes throughout all the years of Bionicle I'd say.

 

-NotS

I don't know, the wording seems... off. Would you accept the slight-synonyms of unity, duty, and destiny???

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Those are subjects, not themes, at least not in the academic sense. A theme is a truth that a work conveys. For example, "Unity, duty, and destiny lead to success." would be a theme while "unity, duty, destiny" would not.

Edited by ToaKapura1234
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Aside from the obvious importance of unity, duty, destiny as guides to living successful and meaningful, BIONICLE has several important themes that consistently present throughout much of its story. I want to draw attention to Maze of Shadows, since I found during my rereading of several of the books that it best encapsulates a lot of the themes that permeate the story, especially the Metru Nui arc.

 

For such a short novel, Maze of Shadows is impressively dense, providing meaningful character development for a good chunk of the Toa Metru while also chock full of foreshadowing for both future events and character turns, while also containing a lot of plot in general. It’s also a very thematically consistent and coherent book, focusing on two things above all: selfishness vs. selflessness, and the uses of knowledge. This theme is basically stated in text near the very beginning of the novel, when Nuju remembers some words that Ihu once told him:

 

“All of life is a journey, and the journey is not about how high you climb or how far you walk. It is about what you learn on the way, and how you choose to use that knowledge. Use it to help others, and the glory of Mata Nui will live inside you. Use it only for yourself, and though you may walk among us, you will have no more spirit than a block of protodermis.”

 

The rest of the novel sets out to convey the truth in Ihu’s words. It does this mainly through Karzahni and the Energized Protodermis entity. The former is thirsty for power, wishing to get revenge on Makuta for abandoning him by transforming himself into a greater being, one who can surpass his creator. Karzahni’s thinking is entirely selfish; he wants more power and more knowledge only so that he can benefit himself. He didn’t even want to transform himself so he could help others better, only so that he could, in his words, “conquer in ways my creator could only dream.” Of course, the moment he poured the energized protodermis on himself, it completely destroyed him, burning him from the inside out and eventually killing him. His fate literally echoes Ihu’s words; in the end, he was nothing more than a dead ‘block of protodermis.’

 

The Energized Protodermis entity (I think I’ll just call it the EP entity from here) provides another example of someone using their knowledge and power for worthless reasons. Throughout the Toa Metru’s battle with the EP entity, it kept stressing its inherent superiority over them, looking down upon them and mocking them constantly. It despised their ignorance and their weakness, and only used its abilities to experiment and kill the Rahi that lived around it. The EP entity’s vast breadth of knowledge should have humbled it; instead, it made it arrogant. It could have used its immense power for good; instead, it sees it as a means of amusing itself at the cost of other living creatures. In the end, its existence is hollow and useless. At the end, when the Toa Metru finally make a deal with the EP entity to allow them to leave with what they wanted it, they were betrayed by it the moment they turned their backs, an ironically petty action by a being that claimed to be so wise. Onewa brought down the entire chamber on the thing, burying it beneath the rubble. It’s at this point that Nokama makes a statement that directly echoes Ihu’s from the beginning of the book:

 

“Such a waste. Makuta, the Karzahni, and now this…so much power, so much knowledge, but no spirit-only the drive to destroy.”

 

This idea comes up a lot throughout the story, especially during the Ignition saga (most obviously through the Piraka). It serves as a bit of an antithesis and contrast to the unity and selflessness that most of the Toa and Matoran display. The message is that they are the ones who are truly alive; those who lives for themselves, and only themselves, are just hollow shells.

 

The novels’ take on this is a little more nuanced than this, though, as can be seen in aftermath of near-fatal attack on Nokama by the Rahi Nui. Most of the Toa Meru advocated going back to Mata Nui, believing that it was too dangerous for Nokama to continue. Vakama objected, however, and quite callously said that their mission (rescuing the sleeping Matoran) was more important than the one life of a Toa. Basically, Vakama was ordering his team to leave Nokama to die, in the belief that the right thing to do was to focus on rescuing more lives. The narrative, through Nuju’s harsh scolding of Vakama, makes it clear that the Toa of Fire is wrong. Nuju suggested that they continue to Metru Nui in the hopes of finding a herb that could heal Nokama in the Knowledge Towers.  Both Nuju and Vakama wanted to continue onwards to Metru Nui, but for entirely different reasons. Vakama was arguably being more selfless in prioritizing the mission above all else, but in this situation he is wrong, because in doing so he is sacrificing the life of a friend.

 

There is also another interesting scene that focuses on a similar idea, though this time it is Nuju who is in the wrong and Vakama who is in the right. Onewa got a Kratana on his face, which gave him visions of the future. He was able to warn the Toa Metru about the Visorak, but at the cost of seemingly losing his sanity. When the other Toa Metru attempt to remove the thing, Nuju stops them, believing that this was a valuable opportunity to get their hands on knowledge they might need in the future. When it became clear just how badly the Kratana was destroying Onewa mentally, however, Vakama forcefully intervened by burning the thing off of Onewa’s face, saying, “To blazes with knowledge, this is one of us!” Sacrificing your friends for what seems to be something of value is a no-no.

 

Another prominent theme here is the extent to which Toa are truly vulnerable, just as defenseless as Matoran in some ways despite their powers. Matau is almost killed by a Rahi (a milestone development for his character arc), Nokama almost dies at the hands of the Rahi Nui, Onewa is nearly driven insane by the Kratana, etc. Despite their immense powers and incredible abilities, the Toa are still weak people who need each other. Almost every single time, too, they are nearly killed by forces of nature, rather than evil villains out to destroy them. It’s an ironic twist because the Toa themselves control the forces of nature, yet they are slaves to them just the same.

Finally, the motif of treachery and deception comes up repeatedly here, as it does throughout the entire Metru Nui arc (a big part of this portion of the story, what with its extensive focus on masks, which often symbolize exactly that). This book in particular abundantly foreshadows Vakama’s switching to the dark side in Web of Shadows. Just a few quotes from the novel:

 

“Oh, come now. The false Turaga Dume…the Vahki…Ahkmou…even Makuta himself-you of all beings should understand, Vakama. What is life without a little treachery?”

 

“This journey has not been what it seemed, from the beginning. We fought creatures we thought meant to harm us, but who only sought escape. And you, so sure of your power…you have little time left, isn’t that right, Karzahni?”

 

“Makuta’s final jest, the promise of eternal power masking the reality of doom.”

 

“Yes. Makuta has a fondness for… masks.”

 

He does indeed.

Edited by toa kopaka4372
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Those are subjects, not themes, at least not in the academic sense. A theme is a truth that a work conveys. For example, "Unity, duty, and destiny lead to success." would be a theme while "unity, duty, destiny" would not.

Destiny on its own is absolutely a theme in an academic sense, though as I jokingly pointed out, it's often referred to as fate. The two are simple synonyms which, when used in a literary sense, refer to the dual ideas of free will and predestination. Heavy themes echoed throughout world history in both literature and religion. Otherwise, my post was a bit of tongue-in-cheek reference to how the very first answer in the topic simply chose close synonyms for the words the story developers for MoL decided were important. I have a lot of issue with the UDD as thematically relevant or as particularly important as a core story concept, but the joke was too good to pass up. ;)

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One of my favorite themes in BIONICLE is the price of victory; while many years end definitively, it's almost never without cost. Sometimes the price is obvious (Matoro), other times it's more ironic (the Bahrag), but there's always a cost to actions, no scott-free winnings.
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Main theme?

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One of my favorite themes that was explored sometimes was the burden of being considered a hero. Some took being a hero as a spotlight position, much like the Toa Mata/Nuva when looked upon by the Matoran, and the same can be said for Toa Lhikan.

Toa Tuyet and Nidhiki in the end chose not to be considered heroes, even though they were looked upon as if they were supposed to be heroes. 

Vakama... yeah, yeah, yeah, you get the idea.

Toa Lesovikk, after witnessing the death of his team and taking full responsibility for it, did not consider himself a hero even though he was still looked upon as a hero.

Matoro is one of the best examples of this theme as he never really felt like he should have been a hero, but ended up being the hero of the MU when his actions were needed the most. 

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One of my favorite themes that was explored sometimes was the burden of being considered a hero. Some took being a hero as a spotlight position, much like the Toa Mata/Nuva when looked upon by the Matoran, and the same can be said for Toa Lhikan.

Toa Tuyet and Nidhiki in the end chose not to be considered heroes, even though they were looked upon as if they were supposed to be heroes. 

Vakama... yeah, yeah, yeah, you get the idea.

Toa Lesovikk, after witnessing the death of his team and taking full responsibility for it, did not consider himself a hero even though he was still looked upon as a hero.

Matoro is one of the best examples of this theme as he never really felt like he should have been a hero, but ended up being the hero of the MU when his actions were needed the most. 

Reminds me of this:

"DO YOU KNOW... WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A HERO?"

But yes, themes include:

  • Destiny - whether we choose it or not, is becoming a (good) Toa hero something you are destined to do from birth, or from the actions you take?
  • What defines a hero/villain - Mata Nui neglecting Matoran, Teridax "saving" them, or is the Toa Code necessary to be heroic "they lit this inferno, let them burn in it" (Tahu).
  • Bestial desires and conscious desires - kind of like Jekyll and Hyde, but with the Hordika, fighting to control their beast side.
  • Sacrifice - RIP Matoro, RIP lots of Makuta and their reputation.
  • Power - you know, overthrowing Mata Nui and all that.

Brings up the question of how far a literary analysis of Bionicle or other lores could go.

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Friendship, bravery, and fate are all pretty prominent themes throughout all the years of Bionicle I'd say.

 

-NotS

I don't know, the wording seems... off. Would you accept the slight-synonyms of unity, duty, and destiny???

 

Teamwork, obligation, fate!  :P​ 

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special thx to Inary the Gunhaver for my new username. 

 

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