On Lhikan's Death

[T.B.O.C]

This is a question I believe I've asked before, and my quick look over BS01 didn't enlighten me so I'll ask again.

 

So, after rewatching BIONICLE 2: Legends of Metru Nui again the other night, I got to thinking about the confrontation between Teridax and Vakama over the Vahi. After refusing Makuta's fairly weak attempt at persuasion, Vakama uses the Mask of Time to stop Makuta's shadow hand. The Vahi, being legendary, is harder to use than expected and Vakama finds himself merely slowing down his eventual demise - presumably unable to move. In the last moment, Turaga Lhikan intervenes and the hand instead grabs his shield. The vahi is knocked from Vakama's face and the two are thrown backwards.

 

So, it's this event that kills Turaga Lhikan. However, the movie does a little bit of a poor job IMO showing why that kills him. I can't remember off the top of my head if the novel says more, but I faintly remember hearing that the shock/impact of the shadow hand essentially was fatal and left the Turaga with a few moments to give his last words to Vakama.

 

Can anyone confirm this or shed more light on it?

[Zidonaro]

I guess the impact was too strong for a Turaga? 

[Sir Keksalot]

Lhikan's an old guy. He probably just threw out his back again.

[Toa Doublebee]

I'd like to think that the shadow hand was very deadly in its own right. i'd like to believe that it wasn't blunt trauma the killed Lhikan, but rather the shadow energies from the hand. The shield tanking just enough damage to allow the physically compromised Turaga some precious few secnds with Vakama.

[aldero]

The films were never particularly good with their consistency and coherency. I'm 99.98% sure that it was Teridax's Shadow Hand in this situation, but yeah, the film really does make this death ambiguous. He blocks the Shadow Hand with his shield and then Lhikan... gets... knocked out and dies? All things considered, not even a Toa, let alone a frail Turaga on their last legs, should be close to a Makuta's Shadow Hand. That ol' number is absolutely lethal. 

[SPIRIT]

I think in general you have to take the movie deaths with a grain of salt.  Lego was trying to avoid violence in an arguably fairly violent and conflict-driven story.  This is how you get deaths like Jaller "getting too much fear" from Turahk or Sidorak just being "crushed" by Keetongu.

 

I would imagine that in some version of the script, it was just a beam of shadow energy, but since they had already animated the shadow hand, they used that instead.

[Rahkshi Lalonde]

Sidorak just being "crushed" by Keetongu.

 

Your point stands, though i feel like pointing out that, offscreen as this was, it was probably VERY brutal on Sidorak's end...

[Sir Keksalot]

I think in general you have to take the movie deaths with a grain of salt.  Lego was trying to avoid violence in an arguably fairly violent and conflict-driven story.  This is how you get deaths like Jaller "getting too much fear" from Turahk or Sidorak just being "crushed" by Keetongu.

 

I would imagine that in some version of the script, it was just a beam of shadow energy, but since they had already animated the shadow hand, they used that instead.

To be fair, that would probably kill him in any case. I mean, Keet's a big guy. He probably can't so much as cut the cheese without hurting everyone within a cubic meter of him.

[Sir Kohran]

 

 

I'd like to think that the shadow hand was very deadly in its own right. i'd like to believe that it wasn't blunt trauma the killed Lhikan, but rather the shadow energies from the hand.

 

 

 

All things considered, not even a Toa, let alone a frail Turaga on their last legs, should be close to a Makuta's Shadow Hand. That ol' number is absolutely lethal. 

 

Aren't Nidhiki and Krekka actually grabbed by the shadow hand and not killed by it? They do die soon after, but that's due to being absorbed by Makuta.

 

And as the hand grabbed Lhikan's shield thing rather than him himself, I don't see how he even came into contact with it.

[TERIDAX941]

The novel BIONICLE: Adventures book 4 based on the movie give a slightly different explanation of what happened. Instead of a shadow hand, Teridax unleashed a bolt of shadow energy that Vakama slowed with the Vahi. But it ended up slowing Vakama down as well, so he didn't have the chance to move out of its trajectory. So that's where Lhikan intervened, the book depicted that the Turaga lunged into the path of the shadow bolt, with his Noble Hau active, disrupting the Vahi's power flow, the bolt of shadow struck Lhikan, shattered his masks shield and struck Lhikan, mortally wounding him. I think in the Encyclopedias they state that Teri used enough power to just weaken a Toa, but the effort was fatal to a Turaga. Obviously the movie and book address the story a bit differently, so take it with a grain of salt.

[Disciple]

 

 

To be fair, that would probably kill him in any case. I mean, Keet's a big guy. He probably can't so much as cut the cheese without hurting everyone within a cubic meter of him.

 

Funny when you consider that the Sidorak set is much larger than the Keetongu one. :P

 

As for the original topic, I always imagined that the Shadow element "bled" through the shield and into Lhikan. I don't remember how much abuse the Toa could withstand from Shadow bolts, but I like to think it's not much.The Makuta are the most powerful known beings in the MU, so it stands to reason they have the strongest element. One little bit of Shadow energy, and poof! Lights out for Lhikan.

[Sir Keksalot]

Actually, for a legitimate answer, what about this: as the shadow hand took Lhikan's shield, it used it to flick him back with enough force to cause lethal injury when he landed.

[Chip Wiseman]

Personally, I'm a firm believer in the novels' canon over the movies'.

So for the question "Why did Lhikan die?" I'd respond with "Teridax shot a lethal shadow beam at Vakama and Lhikan intercepted it."

But in terms of the movie specifically, many things could have happened. Blunt force trauma, shadow energy 'leaking' around the shield and onto Lhikan... but whatever the case, the real-life reason is that the producers didn't want to give him a violent on-screen death.