#Toa Zaria
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"Zaria"
Archive Shorts, Entry #2 "Zaria"
The way they looked at me, after I had done it, it still haunts me to this day.
Every time I try and close my eyes, get some rest, I see their faces. My friends, my brothers, judging me for what I did. I know it was wrong, but they weren't the ones who were there. Who were they to judge? Where were they when we needed them? When she needed them?
One moment we were on our way back into the village, just shooting the shit, remembering old times. The next, he was on us, pure ferocity in his eyes. And that spear, that damned spear…
Her first instinct was to protect me, like always. Mata Nui, I use to hate that about her.
After all the years we'd been working together, she still treated me like the rookie I was when we first met.
The Makuta's spear only grazed her armor at first, she was tough after all, but that didn't deter the bastard. He called out his Rahkshi dogs and the next thing we knew they had us surrounded.
I'd like to say we fought our hardest, but we were holding back. It was in the Toa code after all; no betrayal, no cowardice or dishonesty, and most importantly, no killing.
When the first Rahkshi grabbed her leg I figured she'd be fine. We'd fought much worse than a pack of Makuta-spawn and still made it out in one piece. But when the second one got her, and I saw that she couldn't move, that's when everything went wrong…
I stopped what I was doing and made a mad dash over to her, but it was too late. I got there just in time to see his spear, with its large bladed tip pointed down, pierce its way through her armor as the Rahkshi held her down.
When my brain caught up with my eyes and I realized what I was seeing, it all just went red. The Rahkshi were sent flying out in all directions, as their master levitated up into the air. I knew what I was doing, I knew it was me. But somehow, in the moment, I felt like an onlooker watching someone else's actions. I used my power to lift him up off the ground and began squeezing in on his armor. His chest plate got tighter and tighter, cracks beginning to appear as horrible green gas leaked out from every escape it could find.
I had totally lost any awareness of what was going on around me, until the haunting final crack of his shell shook me out of it…
I let his body fall back onto the ground and began to notice a crowd had formed behind it. In my anger, I must have made a lot of noise and commotion, as it looked like most of the village was there now, standing at the mouth of the valley, watching as I knelt there surrounded by clouds of gas, broken armor, and her body lying where the Rahkshi had left her.
I noticed our teammates at the front of the crowd and began to stand up, to go to them, to explain what happened. But as soon as I went to move, they pointed their weapons at me. At me.
That was when I first noticed, the way they were looking at me. All the years we had spent together, fighting side by side, defending the weak and the innocent. In only a moment all that shared history was gone. No matter what I might have said, no matter how much I might have tried to explain, it didn't matter.
I was no longer Zaria, their friend, Zaria, their brother. When their eyes looked at me now I could tell, all they saw was Zaria, the killer.
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New spice for studio dropped so I had to put zaria in it
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Iron 🦾
This is mostly OCs (mostly Toa as well). Listed in order:
Njara, Techpriest Missionary (original design by Sue/LadyKopaka, character belongs to @mugbearerscorner)
Ferron, Toa Avotai of Iron (belongs to Geardirector)
Jhard and Strider, Uniters of Iron (my OC, they fuse into something like a g2 uniter but they are from g1)
Deui (belongs to @mugbearerscorner)
Jodhan (belongs to @currentlyunknown)
Zaria (canon character interpretation, I gave him a gun)
Koschei, Necromancer Turaga of Iron (my OC, she's evil)
Rauta, Skakdi Matriarch of Metal (my OC)
Sevetu, Toa Kaita of Inspiration, Ferron is one of their components (my OC, + Arkoa another Kaita)
Artworks are from anywhere between 2016 to 2020.
#bionicle#fe-matoran#toa of iron#biomech#biomechanical#biomecha#demi-bionicle-art#demi-oc-art#demitsorou-art#njara#ferron#deui#jhard#jodhan#zaria#koschei#rauta#sevetu
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Orde and the Pizza
In which Zaria and Chiarah are confused by their boyfriend's antics, but still love him dearly.
If you can't tell, it's inspired by this meme
#bionicle#bonkle#bionicle moc#toa#lego#squaredverse#bionicle: the legend continues#Orde#Chiarah#Zaria#meme#bionicle meme
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current thoughts on how some elements work in bionicle
#bionicle#iron and magnetism could be switched#those ones are harder to observe since their only toa are zaria and jovan
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Thing about me is that I'm a huge softie. I want everybody to get happy endings and be alright in the end. And that's great for fluffy headcanons. But when I actually buckle down and think about my ideas for how things would go post-canon, it's a little rough. Because the point of Marendar is to kill Toa, and to have it show up and be defeated or change sides or what have you before doing any Toa-killing would just be a cop-out (especially after 10+ years of irl buildup). So that means some Toa gotta die. But who?
On that note, here's a potentially gruesome poll. Pick whichever option you think should happen most, and add anyone else you think should bite it in the tags.
Would have added options for surviving, non-zombified Toa from the Red Star, and Nobody <3, but alas, ran out of room. Also, Krakua isn't here because he has to survive to do the whole "lone guardian of an island fortress" thing and send Vakama that Kratana-induced vision he got back in Time Trap. So his survival is guaranteed. Everyone else, not so much.
Some anti-propaganda (reasons they all should die *evil laugh*) below the cut:
Toa Nuva: Would there be a bigger gutpunch than this? The flagship characters, the six heroes with one destiny! But that destiny is complete now, they don't need to be kept alive anymore. Imagine how much it would shake things up to take them off the board, how ruined the survivors would be if only a few of them went down. Wouldn't it just be so juicy?
Toa Mahri: They're one down already, so it's not like you'd be breaking up a complete set. Besides, we all know they're built for tragedy at this point. Jaller and Hahli could fall together. Hewkii could go down in front of Macku's eyes. Nuparu could sacrifice himself using one last invention to stop Marendar, perhaps making up for the perceived sins of the Vahki and Boxor. Kongu could accept death as it takes him, at least now he might see Matoro again.
Toa Hagah: These six are prime candidates, aren't they? Important enough for it to hurt, for us to care, but not so important that they aren't expendable. Never truly frontrunners. Named characters it's safe to kill. What more could you ask for? I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out Greg had planned to kill them so he'd never have to describe Gaaki, Bomonga, Pouks, and Kualus' appearances. Plus, Norik dying just after getting to see Varian again? Or even just before? Doesn't it hurt so good?
Takanuva: He only needs to live long enough to end the civil war between the Great Beings, but after that, if Marendar is still in play, he's fair game. What do you say? It would torture him more to see his friends fall while he lived on, but there is something poetic to "Takanuva, the first and greatest Toa of Light, whose life burned brightly, but quickly."
Yesterday Questers: These three are like the Toa Hagah, but even safer. Named characters, important enough for their deaths to matter, but brand new, without much audience investment. Besides, they're asking for it, aren't they? Ancient Orde, the chip on his shoulder as old as he is, could finally know peace in oblivion. Perhaps Zaria's death would finally clear his guilty conscience. And Chiara... Does anyone actually like Chiara? Would anyone miss her? Are these questions she asks herself? And wouldn't it hurt to hear her ask them in her final moments?
Varian: Talk about tragedy. Thousands of years, locked in a tube, dead to the world. Unaware time is even passing. And when she finally awakes, it's only to die. A waste of her character, perhaps, but if you don't mind fridging, it would piss off Norik somethin' fierce.
Tuyet: Doesn't she deserve it? And you know, Marendar does track Toa Power, and there's no greater source of that than Tuyet and the Nui Stone. It would be gunning for her. And it would be so deliciously ironic. All that power, all the effort she put in to get it, and it would be utterly useless to save her in the end. Her dreams of empire ground to dust in seconds, right before her eyes, as Toa Tuyet dies one last time.
Helryx: Think of the poetry. Marendar, the Toa's bane. What more worthy opponent could there be for the first Toa's last stand? It practically writes itself. Helryx has done her duty. The will of Mata Nui has been carried out. This is her perfect chance to go down fighting on her own terms, not as the leader of the Order, but as a Toa once more.
Lesovikk: This guy is Orde and Zaria but worse. He wants death so bad. And what else is there left for him to do? Karzahni is dead. His Matoran are found. What, will he become a Turaga and gift his power to the next generation of Toa? Will he wander the woods and care for the animals? Will he find joy and beauty in living? Lame. He misses his team so bad? Let him join them.
20-odd nameless mooks: By far the safest option. A Toa-killer would be pretty pointless if it never killed any Toa, but nobody said it had to be anyone we cared about, right? This is the best of both worlds. A pile of bodies to make Marendar a credible threat, but nothing and no one of consequence lost. A perfect solution, right? Just uh. Hope you don't have any OCs in here.
Mutants: The Dark Hunters are scattered, vulnerable. If these lost souls haven't found the greater group yet, they'd be easy to pick off. Good options too, right? Actual characters, so their deaths have some weight, but not major ones, so they won't be missed. Guardian was killed off in Reign of Shadows for those exact reasons. Why not have Savage, Spinner, and Prototype carry on the tradition, and tie off some loose ends in the process?
Shadow Takanuva: Sure, it might suck for their home universes to lose their Takanuva like this, but hey. If you have a whole army just sitting around, might as well put them to use, right? The fight could be interesting to watch too. Shadow might be the only element Marendar has no countermeasures for, since Toa of Shadow were never meant to exist. Maybe this is how it's finally beaten, after taking several alternate Takanuva down with it, of course. Besides, Melding Teridax flattened several of them already, so it's not like they were all making it home to begin with.
#bionicle#bonkle#bonkles#marendar#toa#this was originally a much longer and more serious thinkpiece#about the pros and cons of killing off each of them#but indulging the evil writer in me like this was much more fun#choosing violence today#yay :)#plus a poll opens up more opportunities for discussion
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Toa Zaria lines and concept.
I imagined him carrying a massive shield and transforming it into weapons.
I believe it was Bioniclechicken that most notably gave Zaria a Calix, and that hits right for me.
Another example of overdetailed style, which I enjoy but I'm trying to phase out to focus on getting better at fundamentals and producing more content, since it consumes a lot of time and energy.
#art#illustration#my art#original#original art#beginner artist#digital art#illustrators on tumblr#my artwork#small artist#bionicle#character design#concept art#robot#robots#fanart#drawing#sketch#cyborg#lego#enigmart
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The lights were bright and buzzing, the sounds were loud and blinding. He had drunk some water, so his lips didn't feel chapped. Everybody seemed to be having a good time, which was pleasant; his eyes felt dry and he could not make out shapes, but only because he was not focusing on anything. He breathed in through his nose and exhaled before his lungs were properly full.
He was tired.
He couldn't tell, because being tired had made his mind numb to most sensations. But he was so, so tired. His arms were heavy and his legs seemed rooted in place.
He didn't even know what would happen now. He pressed his thumb against his palm absentmindedly, wondering only barely coherent if he'd stay like this forever. If they'd stay like this forever. Their situation hadn't even been addressed. No solution had been offered. He could try to remember if anybody had mentioned it, but he could not right now. Not right now.
He was tired.
Takanuva was talking. He had been talking for a long time, explaining everything he'd seen and heard, with Kazi sometimes interjecting without interrupting very loudly under him - something something that piraka something something, stupid riddles something something other motive something something, if I see him again I'll something something - only to be forcibly shushed by Dalu smacking him silent, followed by the conjoined effort of several other Matoran to stop her before he ended up concussed. Takanuva went on talking, completely engrossed, making shadow puppets as he had before the Great Beings to help his narration, and Vakama looked at him proudly until one of the other Turaga would elbow him gently without a word, only a sly smile, and he would avert his eyes for only a moment in a bashful manner. Takanuva continued talking, answering Kiina's questions as rapidly as she fired them at him, their velocity unmatched by everybody else - the amount of times Raanu had tried to have something repeated to him was too great to be quantified by now, though he still hadn't given up on it; Gelu looked at him, amused, only sometimes leaning over to Zaria so the quiet Toa could give him a very quick recap of everything that had been said, with Chiara inevitably hissing more details as she evidently found his narration utterly lackluster. Takanuva kept talking, talking, talking, like he could have never gotten tired of it, Kopeke at his side writing everything down so furiously that his hands were barely even visible.
Pohatu was so tired.
A hand grabbed his own and pulled him up.
He followed without thinking as it dragged him away from the noise and light. It was soft: the sensation dispelled some of the fog in his brain - not enough to let him see, but he knew he wasn't going anywhere dangerous. He wouldn't have done that to him.
He began focusing on his sorroundings again only when he was sat down on the bed.
He looked up at Kopaka. His mouth tried to grin at him like usual and thank him for taking pity on him, but his tongue couldn't move yet and he only managed the faintest idea of a smile.
Kopaka himself only stared at him for a little, standing in front of him.
After a little, he was the one to speak first.
"I won't call you brother anymore."
Pohatu felt like bursting into tears right there and then.
Not in earnest pain or sadness, necessarily. Just as a reflex.
But some numbness was still clinging onto him, and so he didn't; he just looked, lips barely parted in a quiet stupor, waiting for some of his faculties to return to him so he could properly process those words and hopefully find a way to reply to them that could have been deemed appropriate.
"Are you that mad at me?" he finally asked, very softly.
The other Toa's right eye (the one the visors of his Akaku tended to hide) twitched as if recoiling from a hit.
He stepped forward - he had sat him down on the bed and then stepped away, weird - and laid a hand on his shoulder: his fingers sank into his skin softly, with a comfortable chill, very gently caressing him with the tiniest of movements, and he hunched his back so that their faces were on roughly the same level.
"I am furious," he said, with an expression and a tone that was very much not furious at all, which made Pohatu straighten his spine in relief, "But this has nothing to do with that."
"So we're still friends," the Toa of Stone smiled.
Another twitch: "For now."
Something about the way the other held himself, limb tense against him, visage almost straining, reminded him of Lesovikk. Of how intense he had looked and sounded when he'd declared he'd be going off to kill Karzhani with his bare hands, unknowingly dooming the two of them to the Red Star's hellish metamorphic nature, leaving them trapped within these organic full body prisons.
He caught the slightest motion on his lower lip. He was probably biting a little bit of it. He seemed nervous.
He tilted his head again in lieu of asking.
A sharp inhale.
"There is," Kopaka spoke again, very quietly, looking directly into his eyes, "A very specific word I want to call you by."
How interesting.
They both waited a moment: silence.
"I just don't know which it is." the Toa of Ice admitted.
Pohatu widened his smile.
"Can't be harder to find than a Kanohi mask," he joked. "And we've got plenty of experience with that already, anyways."
The other cocked an eyebrow: "We?"
He nodded: "I'll help you look for it, of course. I wouldn't want you to get caught in another cave avalanche without me there to shove you to safety. And this time you won't even have to save my life! Since, you know. Our elemental powers haven't been stolen. Yet."
"Don't jinx it."
The Toa of Stone laughed gently at his friend's furrowed expression.
He looked at him - really looked at him.
Past the skin and hair.
Past his lovely face.
Past everything.
"I could call you by it too," Pohatu said. "When we find it."
Kopaka did not respond.
His eyes widened slightly. His hand tightened just a tad around the other's shoulder. The room was fairly dim; his cheeks seemed to grow a little bit darker still.
"If you'd like that," he breathed at last.
All he got back was a smile.
Slowly, carefully, he went to sit next to his fellow Toa, looking out towards the other end of the room, not meeting the brown eyes that wouldn't tear away from his head; he breathed in deeply, barely producing a sound as he inhaled and exhaled.
They could still hear the entire world erupting with life far into the night just outside.
Forgetting them long enough to allow them some peace.
Without a single word, Kopaka lifted his legs to lay them across Pohatu's lap, pulling himself onto it and letting his nose sink into the crook of his neck; the other let him, only loosely draping his arms around him, tired grin going unnoticed.
He shifted himself to easy himself down across the length of the cot, dragging his fellow Toa along. He laid both their bodies on their sides, feeling his embrace be replicated onto him.
They adjusted for a moment - their grips, their positions, until they were fully, completely comfortable.
They'd fallen asleep on each other so many times in these bodies, whether it be in search for comfort or just because they were too exhausted to realize it, that they knew how they felt almost too well. They knew how it felt to hold something like this so close; how the texture of their skin differed, the weight of each other's hair on their arms, the warmth or chill of their breaths, the strange scents they couldn't get rid of, the way they each jolted depending on whether they were having a dream or a nightmare, the direction each preferred to turn towards, how long it took them to fall asleep.
They were so used to it all that barely noticed any of that.
They just held, having already drifted off.
#bionicle#pohatu#kopaka#kohatu#random writing#organic au again babeyyyyyyy#(through a megaphone) THE PROBLEM WITH ME IS THAT I SOMETIMES COMPLETELY FORGET THE MIDDLE PARTS AND JUMP STRAIGHT TO THE END#ive had their conversation in my brain for some days now i needed to get it the hell out#anyways. them#(explodes)
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Loose ends I have questions to
So I am working on a story about Tahu and the Golden armor post Journey’s end, and research on Biosector has led me to find some interesting things about a lot that Greg wrote for the end of Bionicle. In no particular order:
1) Did the Dark Hunter Kraata Kal survive the whole golden armor ordeal? I think he did because of the mutation. It seems like his mutation made him more than solid antidermis, so it seems as if he is going to survive into the post canon.
2) In “The Powers That Be”, Chapter 3 into Chapter 4 in the Kopaka-Pohatu Story:
All three little beings produced wicked looking hand weapons. (Chapter 3)
The three Kestora raised their weapons higher in answer and began to squeeze the triggers. In an instant, Pohatu had seemingly vanished. When he reappeared, the Kestora had been disarmed and he held all their weapons.
“I said – oh, never mind, you know what I said,” Pohatu chuckled. “Now what’s all this about coming and going? What is this, some kind of a transport hub?”
“In a sense,” said one of the Kestora.
“Yes, you might say that,” said the second.
“Or you might not,” the third interjected. “Anyway, the three of you need to be going. You got what you came here for, time to leave.” (Chapter 4)
I am wondering, what were these devices? What did they do? The Kestora said Pohatu and Kopaka had gotten what they had came for, so does this mean that they were supposed to get three of these hand weapons? And if so, what were they for?
Going down the rabbit hole with this...
Maybe they were supposed to somehow cross paths with Orde, Chiara, Zaria and Gelu from the Yesterday Quest, and get these weapons to them? Maybe these weapons were supposed to work on a Great Being gone biomech, and that this could have been pivotal in the battle, possibly banning Velika to the Star.
3) From the end of Reign of Shadows:
The Great Being should have been pleased by all this. After all, it was he and his brothers and sisters who had created Mata Nui and sent the robot on its mission, which culminated in the restoration of the planet. But things had changed a great deal in the last 101,000 years. What might once have been cause for celebration now provoked very different emotions.
They will seek the Great Beings now, he thought. They will want to tell us that all is well. Toa and Glatorian, Matoran and Agori, will join together on this 'joyous' mission. But all is not well ... and if they go in search of those who brought so much glory and so much misery to this world ... I fear they will find nothing but death.
Yes, there is a big hint in the second paragraph foreshadowing Marendar in the future sequels. However, let’s look at the first paragraph:
But things had changed a great deal in the last 101,000 years. What might once have been cause for celebration now provoked very different emotions.
It seems as if maybe the agenda of the Great Beings could have possibly changed. Could they have for some reason no longer wanted the planet whole and rejoined, or am I simply looking too deep into this? Is this still alluding to Marendar, or is this something else?
4) Again, from Reign of Shadows:
Angonce studied his ancient equipment. It told him much about the state of the newly restored Spherus Magna. Mata Nui had gone dormant, at least temporarily;
I wonder if Mata Nui had some other mission that he was eventually going to attend to. I like to think that even though his GSR body was destroyed, he retained a lot of the files from his 100,000 year venture through the stars and had reports to log somewhere.
This also leads me to wonder... as kind of a 4a.... there are mentions of several Great Being bases throughout Spherus Magna.
Valley of the Maze
The mad Great Being’s tower
The place Orde et al were supposed to reach at the end of TYQ that was where they were made
The Great Being Lab visited in the Legend Reborn
What other ones could there have been?
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The time has finally come, the last member of Orde & Spinner's team is... Orde himself, of course! Orde was the first Toa of Psionics ever to be built by the Great Beings, and upon failing his first mission was the catalyst for all future Ce-Matoran & Toa being programmed as female. Many years later, after the collapse of the Matoran Universe, Orde was recruited by the Toa Nuva, along with two other Toa & a Glatorian guide, to seek out the Great Beings on Spherus Magna and complete Mata Nui's final wish.... The Great Sanok used on this model was designed by @petrus_rsg & @redstarforge #bionicle #bioniclemoc #bioniclemocs #lego #legomoc #legomocs #legobionicle #toa #toaorde #toaofpsionics #TheYesterdayQuest #TYQ #zaria #chiara #gelu #spinner #spherusmagna #matanui https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm-TI8bJRj_/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
#bionicle#bioniclemoc#bioniclemocs#lego#legomoc#legomocs#legobionicle#toa#toaorde#toaofpsionics#theyesterdayquest#tyq#zaria#chiara#gelu#spinner#spherusmagna#matanui
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Made some updates to Zaria, now he can actually hold his wrench!!
And yes, he's a working metru build, so he has a play function! (Two if you count the spinny gear on the wrench ig)
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An outcast, conflicted because of his past violations of the Toa code yet incredibly driven, Zaria has been assigned to search for the Great Beings alongside Chiara, Gelu, and Orde. With his sword, shoulder-attached missiles, and Mask of Adaptation, this Toa of Iron is ready to take on any challenge that comes his way.
So I finally got around to completing Toa Zaria from that infamous serial The Yesterday Quest for #metrumarch . I’m satisfied with how it turned out overall. A militarized Toa super-solider is what I imagined Zaria to be. I plan to shoot a stop-motion video with this figure in the near future; perhaps I could even learn how to fire the missiles in after effects.
Aside from that, the Mask of Adaptation was made by my pal KhingK. I couldn’t have done this without his help and I highly suggest checking out his shop for masks. Here are some links to his work: Instagram, Thingiverse, Shapeways
Flickr (4K): https://flic.kr/p/2fejw3h
#metrumarch#bionicle#bonkle#lego#toa#zaria#toa zaria#yesterday quest#khingk#photography#toy photography#outdoor#vorox
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STAFF UPDATE
Ok so not too long ago, Toa Zaria’s weapon was confirmed to be a staff, as such I have come up with a couple of design concepts.
For my own personal Zaria, I went with a more beefy staff to match his look, as well as have the ability to fire the end off with explosive force to extend his reach and deal major damage (iron powder can be explosive so I think works nicely):
For the MOC of @bioniclechicken’s Zaria design, I felt that a staff that could break apart into a three section staff would be appropriate, as it is not too dissimilar to his original nun-chunks:
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these were meant for those ttv canon contests before those went poof
got everyone here except Chiara cuz I couldn't come up with anything for her
#bionicle#tuyet#lariska#orde#zaria#nidhiki#varian#golden-skinned being#gsb#marendar#I really like the non toa designs ngl#they were some of the coolest to work on
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Hot take but Zaria should’ve been female
Like for the longest time I thought that Orde was the only male Toa of the Yesterday Quest Trio and imagine my disappointment when I found out this wasn’t the case
#Kirika Talks#Bionicle#I don't even care for the Yesterday Quest trio that much but man it sucked#esp since if I'm being honest Chiara has the least interesting backstory of the three#like I don't even remember what her deal was#like I remember Orde being the guy that's the reason toa of Plasma are female (and why the monogender rule even exists in the first place)#and Zaria was one if not the last toa of iron who murdered BOM members/subordinates just to keep himself alive#what was chiaras deal again i don't remember?????
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Secondary Elements in the Story
Furthermore, I want to discuss the actual introduction of the secondary elements in the story, to highlight just how baffling their inclusion even is; Something as game-changing and borderline lore-breaking as these secondary elements is introduced, only for Greg… to not really do anything with them at all. Which then makes you ask why he messed with the established worldbuilding in adding these elements, only to do nothing with them; Especially if their introduction to lore is really casual, and the secondary element itself unnecessary to the moment.
Take for example Gravity; Its first and really only appearance in the story (I don’t count Word of God statements by Greg, which exist outside the narrative) is Time Trap. Sound is technically the first secondary element to be introduced on a meta level, given the canonization of Krakua and his element before Time Trap’s release. I’ll move onto that later, but back to Gravity; Gravity has the honor of being the first to break our rule, but its role is purely as an anecdote by Lariska.
The Shadowed One asks Lariska how her mission went, and she explains how she killed her target, a Toa of Gravity, by adapting to his elemental powers. That’s cool, but then Gravity as a Toa element never shows up again; Why bother breaking the lore for such a small, one-off detail? It’d have been just as easy to change the story so it’s a Toa wearing a MASK of Gravity; The details of Lariska’s training and preparation, as well as her target’s MO, still remain the same. It just doesn’t open the can of worms that is a secondary element.
Our next mention of Ba-Toa, or rather Ba-Matoran, is in Reign of Shadows, years later; And it’s a pretty useless detail, because it comes entirely from Mazeka and Teridax from another universe arriving in an abandoned village, observed to have once belonged to Ba-Matoran. These Matoran of Gravity don’t actually show up, and their element has no relevance nor effect on the setting itself; It seems to be just another typical village in a field. We learn nothing about Gravity here, and it wouldn’t have changed anything to say the village belonged to Matoran of any other element.
Then we have Sound; Sound is technically the first secondary element to be made canon, but the second to appear in-story, after Gravity. Its inclusion at all is weird… See, Lego held a Toa Building contest, and part of a participant’s entry included a description of their character’s elemental powers. Just like that, Lego casually opened things up for any fan to decide to introduce any new hypothetical element to the story, without any regards to whether it fit the lore or not; So John Dexter gives us the element of Sound. Because his entry won, Sound is now a canon Toa element, so it’s something that Greg has to work with…
And, I’d say he did the best job with this secondary element! We have actual appearances of various De-Matoran, we learn how their elemental affiliation affects their lifestyle; We get to see Krakua use his powers in-story (in a manner specific to Sound, that actually requires his element be Sound), Triglax pretends to be a Toa of Sound, etc. It’s weird then that they’re one of two secondary elements whose color scheme is never specified, when others with far fewer appearances get that privilege. Really, Sound’s inclusion at all is weird, because the story team apparently just… Willingly opened themselves to any fan’s suggestion, and thus had to deal with the consequences of that.
Next is Plasma. Plasma’s inclusion is terrible, or rather nonexistent; Its SOLE appearance in canon is when it’s mentioned that Zaktan killed a Toa of Plasma. But unlike Lariska’s story with a Toa of Gravity, the actual element of this Toa is of no consequence; We hear nothing of the Su-Toa using his element, he’s just a nameless, out-of-context kill. Our introduction to Plasma, and really its only story appearance as a Toa element, is basically a character saying it exists without elaborating whatsoever. Despite this, we got a color scheme for Plasma when Sound and Magnetism don’t have that, and a detail on how that element affects its Matoran… But this is all Word of God, so it doesn’t count.
Then there’s Magnetism; Introduced via Jovan, an actual Toa, with an actual set presence, specifically as a combiner! He’s an actual character with an actual name and appearance with contributions to the lore… The only problem is that he’s a purely posthumous character, introduced as already dead by the present-day. And he never actually shows up in-person, not even in a proper flashback in the story; Characters remember and allude to him, but that’s it.
And predictably, Jovan’s element is of no contribution to the story; It never comes into play nor is Magnetism used. He could’ve been a Toa of Earth and everything would’ve been the same; Magnetism’s introduction seems purely to, I guess, make Jovan a more intriguing character, and thus encourage kids to buy the sets necessary to build him. He has an actual physical depiction, but really, it’d have been just as easy to relegate his powers of Magnetism to the tools he wields, especially since we never see him use those either.
Plantlife isn’t really any better; It appears briefly in Legacy of Evil, in which Hakann and Vezok ambush and pummel a Bo-Toa to unconsciousness. His color scheme IS identified and connected to his element, and Hakann makes a dark internal joke over it… But that’s it. We never get to see this Toa USE his element, he’s out of commission before the fact; And again, him being a different element wouldn’t have changed the ease at which the Skakdi beat him up. We do get confirmation of another Toa of Plantlife who exists in canon… But posthumously, after Bionicle’s run ended; Greg confirmed one of the Toa Mangai wielded Plantlife, and that’s really it. Like I said, Word of God doesn’t mean much, especially if it happens after Bionicle’s run already ended, after Greg stopped writing the serials.
Running up is Lightning! It’s also introduced and represented pretty arbitrarily via Nikila, as part of Lesovikk’s flashback/vision in Dreams of Destruction, circa 2007. Nikila’s actual element has no relevance nor do we ever see her use it; She could’ve also been a Toa of Water and her role in the story would be the exact same, save for a single word swap. Now eventually we DO get Chiara, who does use her powers… However, Chiara and her teammates are a weird case; They don’t appear until after Bionicle’s official end, in the post-canon serials. And Chiara’s element was only included because Greg let fans vote from a pre-existing number of elements; So it was solely up to the fans to decide if Lightning would have proper representation or not.
Given the meta nature and background of Chiara and her teammates’ existence, as well as the reason for their elements, picked by fans from elements already established by Greg, not necessarily planned out to be elaborated upon… And to me, it’s just another weird case of ‘Why does this element exist if it breaks the established lore’. I’ll also apply this to Orde, and Zaria; Speaking of which!
Iron’s first story mention is also alongside Nikila, and it’s… Even worse. Basically, Lesovikk observes the elements of his old team, and Iron is listed as one of them… That’s it. We learn nothing else about Iron other than that it exists, and its only known character is a Toa who is already dead by this point; We know this character is dead before we even know his element is Iron, a new element. Things get slightly better with the introduction of the Nynrah Ghosts, who… I can’t pinpoint a story source that confirms they’re Fe-Matoran, all I can find is Word of God statements.
The Nynrah Ghosts ARE a faction with some story relevance, and we do see one appear in the story, encountering Mazeka. Phantom is also revealed to be a former Fe-Matoran, as an extension of his past as a former Nynrah Ghost. Apparently, Iron IS relevant to these characters as an element, as it plays a role in their extreme skill with machinery and other inventions. Granted, Matoran don’t need to be connected to Iron to be great inventors; Nuparu was an Onu-Matoran and still created the Kralhi, Vahki, and Boxors. Again, Iron isn’t used in a way that’d truly necessitate its existence, unlike Sound; There is the character of Zaria, but as I said, he’s a weird example alongside his teammates. We do hear of a Fe-Toa genocide in Zaria’s introduction, but it’s post-canon serials.
And finally, we have Psionics! Correct me if I’m wrong, but it was first canonized as a Word of God post in 2009, during the Glatorian saga totally unrelated to it; Not a great start. We learn from Greg that Helryx studied Ce-Matoran to figure out the Order’s mental shields; Neat, but I wouldn’t say it justifies Psionics being an actual Toa element, instead of just another power, like the Kanohi Suletu. But we don’t get an actual character of Psionics until 2010, in a canonized fan story No One Gets Left Behind.
Varian is established as a Toa of Psionics, and this element is even made female! Finally, more girls. But the weird thing is that like with Krakua, it wasn’t really a decision of the story writers, but a fan; NOGLB was canonized as part of a contest to write a story regarding the Toa that the Shadowed One had imprisoned, introduced in Legacy of Evil, way back in 2006. But this unidentified Toa in stasis never has their element specified; It’s open to interpretation. Thus, this Toa only became a Toa of Psionics in 2010, via a fan’s decision; Greg merely canonized the entry based on its effectiveness as a story overall.
And it is a good story! Varian actually uses her element in a way unique to it; You can’t replicate certain scenes with a different element. Then there’s Orde, whom I’ve already explained with Zaria and Chiara; And then there’s the terrible, sexist reasons behind his gender conflicting with Varian’s, when fans clearly chose Psionics as an element in-part because they wanted more female characters.
When it comes to discussing the Bionicle story team’s inclusion and handling of the secondary elements, how and why they did it, and their actual plans to justify its inclusion, to make up for the way it kind of broke the lore and established worldbuilding… Most of it is just inexplicable, or entirely up to fans who realized these secondary elements needed to actually be shown, not just needlessly told. From a meta standpoint, it makes sense to include these elements as, well, ELEMENTS; The problem is that we’ve already established the elements beforehand, and how they can thematically combine together into stuff like Protodermis seals.
Including these secondary elements later, rather than with all of the others at once, messes with the lore and canon; Why don’t the Toa Mata include members of these other elements? Why is Metru Nui missing out on over half of the Matoran elements in existence? Introducing these elements creates a painful absence that otherwise wasn’t there, because now they’re just inexplicably not there when they should’ve been, beforehand.
So then it boils down to; Well, at least the story can compensate for this mess it made of its worldbuilding, by actually utilizing these secondary elements to great effect! Except it doesn’t. The canon-breaking presence of these elements is never justified via actual story presence and action; I can understand incorporating Lightning or Plantlife as an element because they make sense as elements, but if you don’t USE them as elements, then what’s even the point? Why bother, when you could just as easily relegate them to Mask Powers; Allowing characters to still use these abilities, without breaking the canon and necessitating an entire population that is conspicuously absent?
Powers that aren’t elements have always been present, since the beginning of 2001; There’s the Kanohi, and then later the Krana. The Bohrok introduce Acid for the Lehvak, which is a cool power but doesn’t need to be made into an element, and also never was. Then we have the Kraata, which are another source of unique powers… And then the Kanoka as an extension of Kanohi, even as we get so many more added! Psionics is introduced as a Kraata and then a Mask power, years before it’s formalized into an element; We even see Kongu, a mainline character, use it as part of his Suletu, present in the official set!
Varian could’ve easily been written as a Ga-Toa wearing a Suletu, and her scenes with Norik still make sense. Lariska’s target could’ve been written as a Toa wielding a Mask of Gravity; Gravity as a separate power was already introduced via the Bohrok-Kal and even the Kraata, and it’s represented as a mask in the toys later on with Hewkii’s Garai. The Nynrah Ghosts don’t need to be affiliated with Iron, when Nuparu has shown us that elemental affiliation won’t hinder your engineering skills. And Jovan already has a tool that incorporates Magnetism as a power (also introduced earlier with the Bohrok-Kal and Kraata), it didn’t need to be upgraded into an actual element.
Plasma, Lightning, Plantlife; They have no story presence. You don’t have to worry about compensating for them, because their inclusion has no effect whatsoever; Chiara and that one Toa Mangai don’t count, because that’s posthumous stuff from after Bionicle’s run. They have no bearing on Greg’s actual intended implementation of these new elements, which… Given that this guy openly tries to avoid planning, is kind of an issue.
Really, the ONLY secondary element with a real presence is Sound; Since we actually see Matoran and Toa show up in the story, and their elemental affiliation actually plays a role. Vultraz incapacitates a village of De-Matoran via sensory overload; Krakua recreates the Bohrok frequency to awaken the swarms. These are all situations that require the element be Sound, that actually make use of its unique traits and attributes; Instead of being totally interchangeable with any other element. And Sound is a really weird matter, because its inclusion at all was entirely the decision of a fan, irrespective of the writers; Though they did choose to canonize it, but keep in mind their decision was influenced by the quality of the MoC itself, abridged from lore.
Honestly, Sound is the only secondary element that actually justifies and makes use of itself in the story… But given how most of its actual usage happens later down the line, past its introduction, it really makes you wonder; Since Greg and the writers have the liberty to alter details of a canonized entry to make it fit the lore better (iirc), couldn’t they just have made Krakua a Toa wielding a Mask of Sound? It’s not like his mask being a Hau would stop them; It didn’t stop them making it the first canon instance of a Suletu, for example. They could’ve made Krakua a Toa of Earth, with a Mask of Telepathy, and a sword imbued with sonic powers; Sound was already established as a power and even a tool earlier, through Kohrak-Kal.
In the end, Krakua’s more unique colorization and appearance might’ve played a role, in wanting to maintain an element that sort of matches that… But ultimately, the inclusion of secondary elements is just weird. IMO they cause more problems than solutions, far more issues than they’re actually worth; And you can’t even accept these issues because at least they’re used to good effect, because they don’t get that either!
Their inclusion and introduction to the story, if there was any, is just… Baffling, and makes you wonder why Greg bothered in the first place, in the face of the obvious problems these new elements would pose; Obvious problems that aren’t really addressed nor explained either, at least not to a satisfactory degree. There’s just far too much worldbuilding baggage that comes with introducing an element, VS keeping it as a ‘lesser’ power; People accept a Mask and Spear of Fusion, it doesn’t need to be its own element with an entire Matoran subspecies affiliated with it. It’s just choosing the more complicated option than the simpler one, and then refusing to address the complexities brought in. Plus, I wish Greg properly displayed these elements in the story and acknowledged their absence in-universe for the audience’s sake, instead of just casually dropping an elemental bombshell in a totally unrelated conversation.
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