Why Do Rahi Exist?

[darkslizer]

As the majority of you have said, the Makuta were BIG scientists. They wanted to find out how many different things they could make. Another thing, I doubt that the Great Beings actually gave them an assignment of exactly what Rahi to create, so they probably created a plethera of Rahi so the GBs wouldn't bedisappointed. If not for those reasons, then I have absolutely no idea.

Edited June 18, 2012 by darkslizer

[Nuparu1995]

I dunno what purpose they're exactly intended to serve directly. Guess they're just there. But they were created by the GBs to populate the Matoran Universe.

[Flipz]

I also sort of think of the Rahi as a passive immune system; sure, the job of the Toa was to actively protect the Matoran workers from harm, but they're pretty obviously sentient--if an unwitting intruder was fought off by a Toa, they would know there was other intelligent life out there; Star Trek and other sci-fi shows illustrate the importance of not revealing to undeveloped races the fact that they are not alone in the universe, as it skews their development--usually in ways that are very bad for everyone involved. (In addition, said intruder could potentially break the masquerade that the Toa and Matoran are actually nanotech in a giant robot). On the other hand, vicious, snarling Rahi would be excellent discouragement against said unwitting intruders venturing further inside, and wouldn't have as much of an effect; either the witness is dismissed as crazy, or it's assumed to be a yet-undiscovered animal, or some non-extraterrestrial explanation can be made for it--and as an added bonus, said Rahi (likely) wouldn't be intelligent enough to recognize the implications of said intruder arriving inside the robot.