Can Someone Remind Me About The Bohrok's Purpose...

[jimmybob83]

I know, their one and only job is to clear the island of Mata Nui. I just can't remember A) why that's at all necessary, (I mean, you've seen the video. It wouldn't matter how many trees or whatnot were on the island, Mata Nui tore through it like wet tissue paper,) or http://www.bzpower.com/board/public/style_emoticons/default/cool.png why exactly the task required thousands of robots whose power rivaled a Toa's, instead of just some big bulldozers...?Thanks

[WriterofReapers]

Well, since they were created for the purpose of clearing everything off of the island so that it would be in a barren state, I'd say it did matter.As for why, two things.1) Real life physics only apply to Bionicle when Greg wants them to (as he loves to tell us ).2) A lot of the things the Great Beings have done don't make perfect sense. Yet.Hope I was able to clear that up for you.

Edited February 14, 2012 by Despair

[Makuta_of_Oz]

Maybe the point is to drive local wildlife away so they aren't injured or killed when Mata Nui rises?

[bonesiii]

Well, since they were created for the purpose of clearing everything off of the island so that it would be in a barren state, I'd say it did matter.

Exactly. Also, it's not hard to figure out at all. One word; Jackhammer.When road crews need to remove old road, you don't just try to dig right in with the device that picks up the concrete to haul away -- first you break it up so it's more moveable. Much of the work the Bohrok did was like that -- producing fault lines in the island, and removing tree roots and the like, so that the earth and the stone would not be so firm.

1) Real life physics only apply to Bionicle when Greg wants them to (as he loves to tell us ).2) A lot of the things the Great Beings have done don't make perfect sense. Yet.

I really wish people wouldn't resort to these types of answers so much. It makes it sound like nonsense is okay. The real answer IMO is that you should apply your own imagination and try to answer the question the most reasonable way. Imagine you were laying on your back on the ground, with a cloth tied to you and anchored to the ground all around. You could struggle against it and probably rip it out, but you might seriously hurt yourself doing that, especially if you were a robot without the ability to easily heal biologically -- you'd want to avoid major trauma.If you instead had little cells which could come out and rot your bindings to a gooey consistency, you'd be at much less risk of damage when you finally stood up. :)And this also explains why the choices of elements, including acid versus air. Stone and Earth would be among the most useful, and fire for destroying plants. Water to help wash excess off into the ocean. Acid to further deteriorate everything. And Ice to split up just about any other solid.

[WriterofReapers]

While I agree with you, I'm simply not able to come up with creative answers like you just did. Very nice comparison, bonesii. :biggrin:And yeah, nonsense isn't okay. However, I do like to believe that eventually we will know more about the Great Beings and how they think, thus the "yet".

Edited February 14, 2012 by Despair

[Jowm]

I wonder why the GBs made Bohrok in the first place, if Mata Nui was never intended to crash land.

Edited February 14, 2012 by Jowm

[bonesiii]

While I agree with you, I'm simply not able to come up with creative answers like you just did. Very nice comparison, bonesii. :biggrin:And yeah, nonsense isn't okay. However, I do like to believe that eventually we will know more about the Great Beings and how they think, thus the "yet".

Fair enough.

I wonder why the GBs made Bohrok in the first place, if Mata Nui was never intended to crash land.

It seems that he was supposed to land on at least some planets he was to spy on, and form the island as camouflage. So they would be needed in each case. We're not exactly clear on why he needed to land to do this, though, nor how he kept concealed as he came in (perhaps a temporary cloaking device).

[jimmybob83]

Having them physically weaken the foundation of the island makes a heck of a lot more sense, I just never heard anything about that before. What I recall was always along the lines of "clearing," not "get a head start on breaking up the bedrock." But, again, that is a step in the right direction, as far as making sense goes.One would think that if Mata Nui had the ability to move that much material ONTO his face in the first place, he'd also have to ability to move it off by himself, too... But who knows.Thanks for the thoughts.

[Just A Dot]

Having them physically weaken the foundation of the island makes a heck of a lot more sense, I just never heard anything about that before. What I recall was always along the lines of "clearing," not "get a head start on breaking up the bedrock." But, again, that is a step in the right direction, as far as making sense goes.One would think that if Mata Nui had the ability to move that much material ONTO his face in the first place, he'd also have to ability to move it off by himself, too... But who knows.Thanks for the thoughts.

I don't believe he actually moved it onto his face. I remember it being something along the lines of Energized Protodermis creating all the plant life.

[T.B.O.C]

Having them physically weaken the foundation of the island makes a heck of a lot more sense, I just never heard anything about that before. What I recall was always along the lines of "clearing," not "get a head start on breaking up the bedrock." But, again, that is a step in the right direction, as far as making sense goes.One would think that if Mata Nui had the ability to move that much material ONTO his face in the first place, he'd also have to ability to move it off by himself, too... But who knows.Thanks for the thoughts.

I don't believe he actually moved it onto his face. I remember it being something along the lines of Energized Protodermis creating all the plant life.

Yes. After Mata Nui crashed onto Aqua Magna, Energized Protodermis leaked to the surface and created plantlife.

[jimmybob83]

Having them physically weaken the foundation of the island makes a heck of a lot more sense, I just never heard anything about that before. What I recall was always along the lines of "clearing," not "get a head start on breaking up the bedrock." But, again, that is a step in the right direction, as far as making sense goes.One would think that if Mata Nui had the ability to move that much material ONTO his face in the first place, he'd also have to ability to move it off by himself, too... But who knows.Thanks for the thoughts.

I don't believe he actually moved it onto his face. I remember it being something along the lines of Energized Protodermis creating all the plant life.

Yes. After Mata Nui crashed onto Aqua Magna, Energized Protodermis leaked to the surface and created plantlife.

By material, I meant, the dirt and rock of the island itself, which would account for 99.9% of the mass of the island.

[fishers64]

Having them physically weaken the foundation of the island makes a heck of a lot more sense, I just never heard anything about that before. What I recall was always along the lines of "clearing," not "get a head start on breaking up the bedrock." But, again, that is a step in the right direction, as far as making sense goes.One would think that if Mata Nui had the ability to move that much material ONTO his face in the first place, he'd also have to ability to move it off by himself, too... But who knows.Thanks for the thoughts.

Well, there is that specific Bohrok - the Nuvohk - which specializes in disintegration of earth.I imagine the point of the Bohrok was to avoid leaving a lot of evidence of Mata Nui's comings and goings. I mean, if a giant robot busts through a forested island, wouldn't you notice if trees start falling from the sky off an "invisible" giant robot face? Mata Nui (the island) had an active volcano on it. I'm not sure even a giant robot can bust through that without some sort of major-league damage. Also, the presence of the Bohrok would nicely murder any of the native inhabitants (to the planet he was visiting) that happened to take up residence on the camouflage-island. In further case, we must also remember that the Bohrok are part of the Mata Nui machine. Mata Nui "can" move that material off his face; this is just the mechanism that does it.

[Anti Nui]

I always thought it was more for the purpose of disposing of any evidence of Mata Nui being there. "Covering" his tracks, if you will. Maybe inhabitants of a planet would be less suspicious of some huge barren rocks in the middle of the ocean than a bunch of dead plantlife and wildlife that seemed to have randomly got there, I guess. So yeah, basically what fishers64 said.

I wonder why the GBs made Bohrok in the first place, if Mata Nui was never intended to crash land.

It seems that he was supposed to land on at least some planets he was to spy on, and form the island as camouflage. So they would be needed in each case. We're not exactly clear on why he needed to land to do this, though, nor how he kept concealed as he came in (perhaps a temporary cloaking device).

I remember Greg commenting on that once, he said something along the lines of it being the same situation as Superman somehow uprooting buildings, but then later returning them to their original locations in perfect condition (even though logically underground pipes and stuff would be severed in the process); the fact that Mata Nui can seemingly descend upon a planet in his massive body and not be noticed by anything whatsoever is because it's a story, and we're not supposed to take it too seriously.Despite that, though, I always imagined that Mata Nui had some way of turning invisible, or he had some kind of mind-wiping device, or perhaps he's like the Silents from Dr. Who where people will forget that they've seen him as soon as they look away (though this wouldn't apply to SM inhabitants). Edited February 17, 2012 by Anti Nui

[bonesiii]

I remember Greg commenting on that once, he said something along the lines of it being the same situation as Superman somehow uprooting buildings, but then later returning them to their original locations in perfect condition (even though logically underground pipes and stuff would be severed in the process)

Hm... I think I remember that quote being used in reference to the lifting up and setting back down of the Coliseum, by the Toa Hagah. Are you sure it was about Mata Nui?

; the fact that Mata Nui can seemingly descend upon a planet in his massive body and not be noticed by anything whatsoever is because it's a story, and we're not supposed to take it too seriously.

Well not "too" seriously doesn't mean that nonsense is okay or that we can't have fun theorizing about big mysteries like that. It is entertainment after all and that's the whole point. In this case, I would venture to say, since it's such a complicated topic, it's probably best to leave it to fans' imaginations and theorizing anyways, to avoid contradictions. Also Bionicle physics is different; often there are powers that simply handle all the possible problems.In the Coliseum case for example, the Toa had elemental powers so could make (if I recall correctly who was involved here... which is kinda unlikely 'cuz I'm forgetful lol) stone around the breaks in the pipes, etc.Those ideas are possible, although personally I don't think the mind wipe or forgetting power are likely. There is evidence in the Time Slip though. I just think it would make a culture more curious, and after he left they'd be more likely to find even the stones, and maybe put to and two together. Another problem to overcome is water rising due to him displacing it; I've theorized before he would convert huge volumes of water to energy and store it until he stood up. Edited February 19, 2012 by bonesiii

[Katuko]

I believe the uprooting quote was in reply to the dilemma of Mata Nui reforming Spherus Magna. Some where concerned about what would have happened to the life on Bota Magna when half of it suddenly became smashed underground. Greg said that the moon was as good as uninhabited on one side, since that half was indeed "underground" when it first lifted off from Spherus Magna, and thus replacing the missing part could be seen as "unfolding" it a bit and just setting it back down where it came from.

[bonesiii]

Yeah, definately remember that one, as it was relevant to my old theory about why the reforming made sense. I think that one might still be in my sig on the old forum, heh.

[Anti Nui]

I remember Greg commenting on that once, he said something along the lines of it being the same situation as Superman somehow uprooting buildings, but then later returning them to their original locations in perfect condition (even though logically underground pipes and stuff would be severed in the process)

Hm... I think I remember that quote being used in reference to the lifting up and setting back down of the Coliseum, by the Toa Hagah. Are you sure it was about Mata Nui?

Well, maybe I remembered wrong. That was a while ago.

; the fact that Mata Nui can seemingly descend upon a planet in his massive body and not be noticed by anything whatsoever is because it's a story, and we're not supposed to take it too seriously.

Well not "too" seriously doesn't mean that nonsense is okay or that we can't have fun theorizing about big mysteries like that. It is entertainment after all and that's the whole point.

Well yes... I would agree with you. I was just saying that I recall Greg saying something along those lines in the past.One thing I do remember Greg clearly saying one time is that if Mata Nui felt the need to, he could simply observe a planet from space. He would have to do so in the case that the planet had no large bodies of water. Or, perhaps, if the planet was too populated to descend unnoticed. Though I would think that even if he chose to observe from space, he would still need some way of cloaking himself. But then again, if he could turn invisible, would he have any need for the island of Mata Nui or the Bohrok to begin with?

[bonesiii]

Well, I was thinking maybe direct contact with the planet, and maybe looking up at the stars' apparent motions with respect to it, might help him get more accurate measurements. Maybe, for example, he "had eyes in the back of his head" (measuring instruments, that is) that maybe bored into the crust, took samples, or did huge-scale versions of ultrasounds (or lotsa different things). Orbitting or even hovering as close to perfectly above it would certainly make accurate measurements much less likely. At least of some things (admittedly satellites in real life help us better measure some things, but he was in space at some point with each planet so could do those types of measurements too).