legend-as-old-as-time

[legend-as-old-as-time]

OMG OMG OMG <3<3<3

My take on the Turaga Nui, from Shauni's (@legend-as-old-as-time) WIP fic set in Rags' (@magicalgirlmascot ) KNPS AU. Snippets of the fic here and here.

In which the Turaga form a fusion in order to defeat the Rahi Nui, but their past experience with the Hordika venom results in the Turaga Nui taking on a somewhat ...unexpected form. After the battle, the Toa Mata catch up with them. Pictured here is Lewa having the appropriate reaction to finding out his six mentors have turned into some kind of weird dragon-chimera-kaiju thing.

Some design notes under the cut:

The Turaga Nui's form combines traits from the forms the Metru had as Toa Hordika, known in this universe as the Kini Nui werebeasts. So, this was my take on them individually here:

(The Metru's human forms can be seen here) I hope it's fairly self explanatory which features come from which werebeast, but a few other fun design notes...

So, in KNPS, the Toa Kaita look a lot like the Steven Universe fusions, with extra eyes and limbs. The Turaga Nui follows a similar logic but on a more bestial body layout.

The top two arms are the most humanoid, as TN signs in ASL as well as speaking aloud whenever it is practical to do so (i.e. when there is not a Toa of Air attached to their neck). The next two pairs of limbs can function either as arms or forelegs, so the digits are more paw-like.

The wings are obviously based on a snowy owl and come from Nuju's werebeast form. Male snowy owls typically have lighter coloured plumage while females have prominent black bars on their feathers. Nuju in particular would probably have been almost completely white as a werebeast given he's an ice Toa and has white hair in human form. The Turaga Nui, however, is composed of five men and one woman, so I gave them a small amount of barring on the tips of one wing while the other is plain white. (The bars also help tie it back to the badger stripes on their face from a design standpoint)

The Kaita have metallic gold or silver skin, I suggested black and white patterns for TN's colour scheme to make them visibly nonhuman but also distinct from the Kaita.

Shauni felt that there should be more accents of each element's colours, however, so we decided on the "black" scales actually having an iridescent sheen to them.

I'd already been planning to give TN spots similar to that of a newt, but didn't realise until I started doing it that white spots on black combined with the iridescent colours gives the impression of a night sky/galaxy pattern.

I had previously suggested the name "Tien" to Shauni (Turaga Nui = T.N. Said aloud it phonetically sounds like "Tien"). Turns out Shauni had the exact same thought. Furthermore, it's a name in several cultures, various meanings include "heavenly being", "celestial" and "sky" (An etymologically related name is the Chinese "Tianlong", which means "Celestial Dragon")

So, accidentally coming up with a name that means "celestial" and then accidentally making them look like a living galaxy was a fun coincidence.

Also, apparently one of Rags' favourite DBZ characters was named Tien, so that was a plus for her!

The tail has owl feathers but is structurally more similar to the tail of an aquatic newt.

The eyes are based on the Turaga's animal forms but the colours come from their eye-glow. The three eyes visible in the image are Vakama's (green), Matau's (red), and Onewa's (blue)

As previous;y mentioned, photographs of jumping ferrets helped in drawing the dragon's limbs . I also ended up referencing hairless cats to get a handle on what the paws would look like with no fur.

I did do a version that shows the full body pose, which I quite liked, but felt that the cropped composition above was better to show the character details given tumblr's scrolling format

#knps au #turaga metru #human bionicle #in which the turaga nui metru is a kaiju #bionicle au #bionicle #bionicle fanart

[legend-as-old-as-time]

I have an old headcanon that the Toa Metru as a Toa Nui would rival the GSR's processing power on their own, no Core Processor needed.

We know that Mata Nui has some measure of psychic powers in canon: He planted the ideas for his Chosen in Teridax's brain.

These two unrelated points recently inspired another headcanon:

Mata Nui chose the Toa Metru because he sensed a resonance with them. Maybe he considered a back-up. If he was falling into a coma, he'd need a replacement to inhabit the Core Processor in his stead. What better matoran than the ones whose mind and souls resonate with his own? Who have the potential to bear this burden?

His choice plus the resonance between him and the six then-matoran left a mental impression in their minds.

These impressions are so faint that nobody else but Mata Nui would find it. Even then he'd have to search to find them again. They have no effect on the Toa Metru / Turaga Metru if left alone.

However. The turaga and Mata Nui repeatedly meet on Spherus Magna in this headcanon. (They are not aware at first how close he is.)

The impressions grow stronger around Mata Nui's latent psychic powers, which had brushed against the turaga's minds before.

Slowly, that they mistake it for accidents and good or bad luck, the turaga develop their own psychic powers independent of any masks. An example: Nokama redirects a falling boulder with a jet of water. She shouldn't have been strong enough to do that - or she should feel a greater elemental exhaustion from this feat.

But unknowingly, she used telekinesis to nudge the boulder the extra distance away. As this happened without any visible signs, nothing else points at telekinesis.

Over time, they develop a telepathic / empathetic bond with each other. Again, they don't realize at first that this is what is happening. They believe it's instincts and having known each other for so long that they often can read or predict what the others are feeling and / or will say.

@crystaltoa

#bionicle #bionicle headcanon #toa metru #turaga metru #mata nui the character #toa metru sibling headcanons

[legend-as-old-as-time]

This is always a delight to look at. Nokama as a sort of shark monster is a delight.

Another go at Hordika Nokama.

She needed shark teeth

#bionicle #bionicle fanart #nokama #toa hordika

[legend-as-old-as-time]

‘Near the cockpit, Vakama and Onewa strategized. Despite their disagreements, the two Toa had developed a grudging respect for each other. If Vakama still had his moments of doubt, and Onewa still thought with his mouth too often, they remained the best tacticians among the Toa. Whenua had been invited to join their council, but had refused, preferring to keep to himself.

#bionicle #bionicle headcanon #toa metru sibling headcanons #onewa #vakama #whenua #vahki

[legend-as-old-as-time]

@randomwriteronline

I'm covering G3 AU because I know the most about this AU of yours at the moment. (The Kiwi AU and the Foster Parent AU are on my ask list!)

These two interactions between the Krikas and the Makuta (Teridaxes) are so funny.

The concept of childhood would confuse the G1 side so much. It has overlap with how some toa and turaga treat matoran. But alone the idea that a person needs at least some years to be able to care for themselves? That they grow over the years? Absolutely strange. The first time they encountered it in canon is with the migration to Spherus Magna. But each of the G3 Toa Metru and Toa Inika - who still resemble biomechs a lot - had a childhood.

On the sadder side of topics: The higher powers in G3 always reset the Toa Mata's memories when they were called back to the stars. Maybe not intended but it results in treating them as tools. They only get to live when there's need, then they'll be stashed again, memories gone, until the next time.

The G1 Toa Nuva have likely mixed feelings about their amnesia, ending on perceiving it as a good result. They used to have only their identities as soldiers. They only thought about doing a job for the sake of everybody else. People around them - except for the matoran - treated them only as soldiers. Forced them into stasis pods, only to be awakened again IF they were needed as soldiers. Forgetting AND washing up on Mata Nui as it was in canon allowed them to develop their own identity and have the chance to be more than tools.

If the Toa Nuva would ever talk about that, and if the G3 Toa Mata are aware of their own history at this point, the Toa Mata have a high chance to draw the parallels between them.

How would the same characters in your AUs react to their canon counterparts and vice versa? How would they react to other characters?

#bionicle #bionicle au #long post

[legend-as-old-as-time]

I think this confirms that Makuta was just reading Vakama’s mind to build the illusion.

‘Vakama took an involuntary step backward’ gotta say I do love when characters are openly intimidated when they ought to be

#bionicle #bionicle reread #time trap #vakama #makuta teridax

[legend-as-old-as-time]

OH!!

#bionicle #hahli #jaller #matoro #toa mahri #bionicle fanart

[legend-as-old-as-time]

I like the interpretation that Makuta is pulling this from Vakama's unconscious mind. Which could mean that he knows on some level that Metru Nui is already a dystopia, but isn't aware / doesn't like to think about it. Also, it's easier to let Vakama's mind fill in the blanks rather than directing everything. Even more when Makuta wouldn't know everything about the matoran and toa.

This could tie in with the fate Makuta assigned Matau here. Matau's sacrifice and near-death could be still fresh in Vakama's mind. It feels like Makuta is slowly cutting Vakama off - Nuju attacked by a vahki, Onewa rushing between home and work, Matau dead (,and Whenua not mentioned, what's with that?) - and directing him to "Nokama" as his guise, to have him guide him to the Vahi.

1. ‘Um, right. Remind me, why was that law passed?’ -me anytime i read some insanely totalitarian law passed randomly in the 50’s

2. So there’s 2 options here. Makuta is pulling all this stuff from Vakama’s subconscious, or Makuta is making this whole plot up himself. Why? Who knows. What does he gain from making an “evil” alternate Metru Nui where Turaga Dume is er, slightly more totalitarian than he really is? Dunno. But the idea of Makuta making up a dictator government only slightly worse than reality is funny

3. I am once again asking how the Metru met because I’m willing to believe some of them met at the Great Temple when they became Toa but others seem to have known each other already maybe vaguely, and here they act like Nokama knows Vakama, Onewa, and Matau already

4. Again, the bit about Matau dying. Was this made up by Makuta or read out of Vakama’s thoughts and kind of taken from there? Because if so 😭

#bionicle reread #time trap #vakama #bionicle headcanon #nokama #matau

[legend-as-old-as-time]

What would the Piraka and Barraki hypothetically be like in the KNPS au during its version of the Igniton arc?

I'll be honest that's something I've been struggling with. For the Piraka, making them a gang of high school delinquents would be very funny since the Inika arc is basically a glorified high school AU, but also not really what I would want them to be, both character and story wise. Part of me wants to make them teachers, to contrast with the Toa and also as a nod to how they pretended to be Toa in canon, but like. Zaktan is made of bugs and you want him to just carry on teaching math like that's normal?

Honestly I might go the route of making them be some kind of supernatural force like Krahka that has been dragged into things by Makuta for Spoiler Reasons. I could still make them teachers but in more of a "how do you do fellow humans" way. They don't have nearly the same amount of practice at Human Shit that Krahka does after all.

For the Barraki, I still want them to be trapped underwater, but with the time dilation effect thrown in there. They're like "oh we've been trapped down here for 1000 years" and Jaller and Nuparu run some on the spot calculations based on Nuparu's observational data of the time effect and are like "oh it's actually only been about 40 years give or take" and Pridak tries to claw their faces off

#bionicle #bionicle AU #knps au #piraka #barraki #lhikan

[legend-as-old-as-time]

Another story aspect the writers liely wouldn't have covered with the reveal of the Red Star and its functions, but which would've had massive repercussions. Not only for the former Great Spirit Robot inhabitants but for many if not most or people on Spherus Magna:

Reviving dead GSR inhabitants (and imperfectly, at that).

That's (another piece of) world-changing information. Information some will not believe or misinterpret. Even more so if the spread of information is uneven, and gossip, rumors, and misinformation makes the truth unclear(er).

Depending on the story you want to tell and the Red Star's part in the story:

You have to consider the spiritual and philosophical consequences of upsetting different beliefs. What do life and death mean if you ccan manipulate them so?

People's grieving processes will be thrown into disarray.

Practical concerns rise about what to do with that information. An example: some GSR inhabitants start to destroy the bodies of their dead - like with burning into ashes - to save them from being resurrected.

A different reaction: Some will seek out the Red Star, hoping to find their loved ones, hoping to have them return to them.

Another reaction: Some will try to reverse-engineer the technology or adapt the Red Star. True resurrection (or so they believe, depending on the story). Some will try to reverse-engineer the technology to work native Spherus Magnans. Which hasn't even included why any of these people want to resurrect people or how, if it does work, it'll affect them.

To repeat: This would be world-changing in-universe. Actions, reactions, and consequences would spiral out of control.

#bionicle #red star #spherus magna

[legend-as-old-as-time]

The Everyman Problem

So, I've had a kernel of a Bionicle post rattling around in my for a couple weeks that I haven't quite been able to articulate, but I think I might have the angle to explain it now.

I'm an "old Bionicle fan": by which I mean, I'm old enough to have got into Bionicle in the "Mata Nui" era (2001-2003). A glance at the notes on my big [unfinished, looking abandoned] alt-canon fanfic shows that I'm old enough to have disliked the change of the Toa from Mata to Nuva... in 2002.

So, which that as background, remember that I'm old enough to remember a time when it wasn't known at all that Matoran, Toa, and Turaga were all the same "species."

Thinking back on it, I don't think I initially "noticed" the revelation that no only were the Turaga were former Toa, but the Toa (Metru) were Matoran before that--Takanuva too, but he was something of a special case. In 2004, I was really just absorbing that Vakama, Onewa, etc. were former Toa--that "Toa" might mean something other than "single demi-urgic hero of each element." I got there eventually, as far as acceptance goes, but it part of my age-related fade out of the Bionicle fandom.

2006, on the other hand, emphasized the other part that I'd ignored more during the LoMN/WoS era: that Toa came from Matoran. I still don't love this, but until last night I couldn't really lay a finger on how to express why.

I thought it might just be my habitual stick-in-the-muditude: you changed Jaller from Captain of the Guard! You changed Matoro from Nuju's stoic interpreter to a worry-ridden saviour.

I also thought it might just be the genre shift: it's all fantasy, of course, but it's a different thing from the island mythology-vibe of Mata Nui to the Lost City of Atlantis vibe of Metru Nui (and then the vibes beyond). I like the Toa more as unique elemental avatars than evolved Matoran, but that's not really it either.

Last night, though, I watched later era Marvel movie--it doesn't matter which one, because they all have this problem--and as the credits were rolling, I realised that the reason I don't really like the MCU is much the same as this "problem" I had with Bionicle: if just about anyone can be a superhero, you lose the "ordinary" members of the story.

Putting it another way, I realised I prefer "chosen one" stories to "X-men" stories. This is probably the Tolkien fan to some extent: you can have a world full of magic and heroes and super-powers, but if it also has "ordinary" folk, their specific importance in the story is that they ARE ordinary: Gandalf and Aragorn are heroes and amazing, yes, but Frodo never "levels up"--he is a greater person at the end of the story than the beginning, but it is the growth of an ordinary person.

Because superheroes are so common in the MCU (or DCU, etc), it's hard to have ordinary people be front and center--and harder still for them to stay ordinary people. And something like that is my problem with where Bionicle went that I don't think ever fully resolved for me: part of the wonder of Mata Nui, the whole storytelling point of MNOG is that the Matoran contribute to the victory too: they have no mask powers, no elemental powers, but they are there to help the heroes and do their part and its essential.

This already starts changing with MoL, it changes more with LoMN, and by the time we get to the Voya Nui arc, we've gone "Full MCU": everyone in the story can be a Toa.

I think, if the Inika had been "four or five" new characters and only one "already-known" Matoran, I'd have been much happier. But when you take the most prominent Matoran from every tribe and make them all Toa... who's left? The headcanons that the Chronicler's company become Toa too both satisfy and don't work for me for this reason. They satisfy me if they leave the Inika as Matoran, because I think that was a better way to go; they annoy me if they're BOTH Toa now, because that exacerbates what I think is the "problem" here.

It's not really a problem, objectively, but it is my subjective sticking point. And it's the reason that even though I might keep most of this lore, despite the grumbling, I'm willing to jettison completely and utterly the idea that "only some Matoran are destined to become Toa." Destiny is always a hard thing to make work in the story, but the Doylist result is that Matoran now come in two categories: Special Protagonist and Ordinary: and the Ordinary is now completely swept off the stage and I really don't want that: I want the story to include a real focus on some powerless, ordinary individuals.

So I'd rather it be that ANYONE can turn into a Toa: they don't, maybe, because the circumstances lead there, but every Matoran has that potential. Because if anyone COULD be a hero, then at least when they do become a hero, it's more ordinary.

But I'd still rather that none of them could--but I'm not sure that is a concept you could return to without retconning Gen-1 so far that you end up with Gen-2. And I don't think I want THAT either.

#bionicle #toa #matoran #bionicle meta #bionicle analysis

[legend-as-old-as-time]

I loved the entire chapter, from the beginning to the end. But the last paragraphs took me out by laughter. XD

Teacher AU update day :)

Summary: On the PA day before the next round of report cards are due, everyone gets a few things done.

#bionicle #bionicle AU #knps au

[legend-as-old-as-time]

honestly so funny that the Toa Nuva and the Matoran of Mata Nui know NOTHING about the outside world (and that the Turaga didn’t bother to teach them like. anything hahahaha what the heck guys??). like Onua asks one of the Piraka what he is and Reidak’s like “I’m Reidak, I’m a Piraka” and Onua. oh my gosh. ANY other Toa would know that Reidak was a Skakdi so Reidak introduces himself by his name and team. but Onua was LITERALLY asking what species he was ahahaha. then the Mahri don’t know who the Barraki are, except Hahli, who’s actually done her research. and Makuta? THE TOA NUVA DO NOT EVEN KNOW WHAT A MAKUTA IS FDJNGDFHD THE TURAGA JUST. NEVER EXPLAINED TO THEM?? I’m dying. that’s like the SWORN enemy of Toa everywhere and the Toa are like “that’s that one guy we fought on our tiny home island :)” they don’t even know that’s a species. Tanma goes “look out for the Makuta!!” and Lewa, in complete honesty, assumes that one of the Matoran is Makuta because he thinks there’s only one.

like honestly how funny is it that Pohatu canonically goes “I’m going to assume that the guys who look like bats are the bad guys.” he knows so little about the universe that he’s just gotten used to assuming that the guys who look evil are evil. any other Toa would be like “ahh a Makuta!! ahh an angry Skakdi!” and Pohatu’s just like “uhhh if you’re attacking a Matoran I’m going to kick your ass” and that’s his whole worldview he’s perfect. we talk a lot about the Turaga keeping secrets from the Toa but you think they could have provided them with some bASIC WORLD BUILDING ahahaha

#bionicle #turaga #turaga metru #bionicle headcanon #metru nui #matoran #toa metru

[legend-as-old-as-time]

Get this into your thick skull: Bionicle addition

All of the names in bionicle that weren’t changed after the lawsuit, the Māori people ALLOWED Lego to keep. That means it is ok to use them. And even if there were names for new characters after said lawsuit happened that seem “culturally appropriative”, don’t you think that the Māoris would sue again? They didn’t. That means it wasn’t that bad. Also, I have proof that they SPECIFICALLY ALLOWED Lego to keep using the Māori names that were chosen for the toa mata (the main cast). Don’t you think since the Māoris had a problem with some of the names, if they had a problem with the toa mata’s names, they would have pointed that out first since the toa mata are the LITERAL MAIN CHARACTERS? A huge misconception is that the Māoris “didn’t catch” some things in bionicle, this proves that theory wrong! Even if they had missed some things at first, bionicle continued for less than a DECADE after the law suit! Don’t you think that they would have sued again if they found something they missed the first time?

The island from Moana is “Monte Nui”, the island from bionicle is “mata nui”. The island from Moana is not a bionicle reference.

The name “Jaller” does not fit in with the rest of the names in bionicle. It sounds soooooooooooo yankeedoodle! Even some of the characters who got their names changed sound more like bionicles than him. Maybe they were trying to make him an American stereotype? Like, his voice sounds like a dumb surfer dude. Even Tahu, an actual surfer dude, sounds like less of a surfer dude than Baller with a J over here!

If bionicle was that bad, it would be morally wrong to keep liking it. What a person likes dictates their character, but that’s only if you know the extent of what you’re doing and keep doing it. If someone got addicted to something bad as a kid without realizing how bad it is, it may be hard to move on from it as an adult.

in jaller’s name, they changed the “a” to an “er”, I think it might be a joke similar to the “clankers” thing in the Star Wars community.

the reason why Lego won’t bring bionicle back is because they fear backlash from twitter people, but considering that most people nowadays like bionicle, I don’t think they will get much backlash. They have even changed some of the names that the Māoris let them keep, because of how scared they are! Let them know they shouldn’t!

The matoran are not racist depictions of anything. Bionicle was inspired by christen Faber’s day dreams of the pills inside of his body fighting his cancer being actually alive. The depiction of antibodies as humans in media usually have them depicted as creatures rather than people. The concept of the matoran developed over time so they were more portrayed as humans than antibodies. Also, the previous names for bionicle seem a little iffy, but they probably didn’t know that voodoo was an actual practice, and the bone heads thing… probably either had to do with the fact that blood cells come out of your bones or since the bionicles were just literal animals back then, they didn’t have any problem giving them a funny name. Another candidate for a name was literally “doo heads” for crying out loud! 😂

#bionicle #bionicle meta #bionicle analysis #maori #lego #racism

[legend-as-old-as-time]

Honestly the Bara Magna arc is really interesting because like. Mata Nui is a god, yes, but only within the MU; outside it, he's just Some Guy in a cool helmet, who might also be the incarnated mind of that giant robot that was collapsed on the moon. And is also made of sand.

It's like if someone randomly appeared in the desert and it turned out they were actually one of the lunar rovers' onboard computers in human form. And also made of sand.

#bionicle #mata nui the character #great spirit robot universe #spherus magna

[legend-as-old-as-time]

While not physically dependent on Kanohi the way Matoran are, Makuta give them equal cultural weight. A Makuta's mask is their identifier. It is difficult to identify who's who if you are all natural shapechagers and illusionists, so it is customary to avoid altering one's mask too drastically in the company of other Makuta. The Hagah tradition to honor past heroes by wearing masks shaped like theirs is derived from this philosophy.

Masks are never swapped or gifted, with a single historical exception. Icarax inherited the Mask of Shadows, and gave his mask of Scavenging to a lowly Matoran as a show of power. Icarax was too foolish to realize Teridax had just done the same to him.

Masks are also emblems of a Makuta's character, their beliefs and philosophies distilled into a single object. Teridax's coup changed the Makuta from scientists and shepherds to occult chessmasters, but can be thought as a shift from the Mask of Mutation to the Mask of Shadows. Would the Makuta have become isolationist hermit-kings had Krika taken control? Accelerationists and disruptors had Gorast?

Only one of Great version each mask has ever been made*, and it is uknown who made them or the Noble versions rewarded to a Makuta's chosen Matoran. One would think that the Makuta's masks were declared immoral for Toa to use after the Brotherhood's betrayal was made public, but this was established in the Toa Code since its creation. A Toa would only ever be in a position to use a Makuta's mask if the Makuta had just died in front of them, most likely by the Toa's own hand.

*There is one exception, debatably two. Chirox and Mutran share the same mask. Some accounts theorize that Mutran initially had a different mask, and changed his mask in order to torment Chirox. Others say that the two always had the same mask, a symbol of their role as left and right hands of a greater whole. The Jultin is a matter of debate. The Jutln was Antroz's mask, but there are conflicting reports of his whereabouts just prior to the destiny war. The Matoran word for failure is 'spiriah', which is not only Makuta in origin, but constructed like a personal name. It is possible 'Spiriah' is in fact the Makuta of Zakaz expunged from history,and that Sipiriah donned an unpowered Jutlin in order to disguise their identity.

Rahi contain 'tags' within their core essence, instantly detectable and innately understandable by Antidermic creatures, but require a veteran archivist's knowledge to even to begin to comprehend for Protodermics. These tags are believed to be signatures by the Makuta who designed that Rahi species, maker's marks imbedded into their fundamental being. A codex of marks and their associated Makuta are are on the Makoki stone, allowing for researchers to know precisely which Makuta created which Rahi. Curiously, there are tags within Rahi found nowhere upon the Makoki stone. The history of the Brotherhood begins with the formation of the Makoki stone, which suggests an early "generation zero" of Makuta born prior to the brotherhood. None of these elder Makuta have ever been successfully identified or contacted.

It is common belief that Antidermis was a byproduct of Protodermis synthesization. This is only partially correct. Antidermis was an attempt at artificial energized protodermis. Both substances are mutagenic, both components of a gestalt consciousness, but while energized is damnably finite, new Antidermis can theoretically be created forever.

The earliest design documents for the GSR were found recently. They revealed that the Great Beings initially wanted to build *6* vessels, at least some of which would have been made from Antidermis. Only one vessel was ever created, but the Great Beings reformulated this initial concept into another failsafe for the GSR. This should come as no surprise though. After all, Teridax's plan hinged on the fact that the Makuta are potentially destined to inherit the role of the Mata Nui intelligence.

#bionicle #bionicle headcanon #brotherhood of makuta

[legend-as-old-as-time]

How would the same characters in your AUs react to their canon counterparts and vice versa? How would they react to other characters?

#bionicle #bionicle au