Why is the Tumblr Bionicle fandom so thoughtful and clever? Like, I spent ten years on the Bionicle section of Youtube and, while there's a lot of great stuff there, there was much more petty drama and much less insight. I spent two years on the Bionicle subreddit and saw an internet-coup by homophobic jerks (and one Putin-supporter). And yeah, lots of great stuff too, but not the same concentration of thoughtful interpretation. Then Reddit went haywire and I came here and found the community I've been looking for since I was twelve. Maybe it's just a matter of taste; there aren't quite as many Bionicle memes here, but so much more Bionicle literary analysis, and I just love it.

Dumb Theory of the Tryna...

Yo I forgot to post this last week lol

Don’t take this remotely seriously, I just thought it was a neat idea and a sort of interesting “what if” scenario. It basically all boils down to, if given little ot no physical or mental limitations by using his mask, could Kingdom!Matoro, in theory, reanimate Mata-nui’s dead corpse? And whether or not there is any sort of implication of this not only being true, but was his being given a Tryna perhaps pre-determined in case Matoro failed to revive Mata-nui in time?

Under the cut for length!

So in regards to Kingdom!Matoro (or Matoro as a Mahri I'm general) he was bestowed with the kanohi Tryna - the mask of necromancy reanimation. An interesting choice by the Ignika (which is the supposed source of his and the other Mahri’s mutation) but it got me thinking... (ie I was VERY bored at work).

Now again, this is not to be taken seriously, but after rereading the Into the Darkness podcast transcript again, something just really bugged me about the whole situation with Teridax and Matoro. So, Teridax’s goal was to blackmail Matoro into reanimating Tuyet, because she had remnants of the Nui-stone embedded in her armor (though apparently in the main universe, it wasn’t Nui-stone fragements), and the reason was...so he could bestow it on a Toa? 

That got me to thinking just what this implies. We’re all fully aware of Teridax’s psychopathic ability to plan and prepare a thousand backup plans to his backup plans. We also know he has an invested interest in The Plan to take over the Matoran universe, but it can’t be achieved if Mata-nui dies. So, taking into account his tendency to have backup plans in stacks, could he have, say, predicted Matoro being given the Tryna, and thus, his plans for the Nui-stone were in fact to somehow sway Matoro to his side, give him the Nui-stone, and in the event Mata-nui dies, have Matoro harness the stone and, I don’t know, reanimate the husk? At least enough to allow Teridax to slip into the Core Processor and do what he needed to do, because as it stands, it SOUNDS like for him to even get into the GSR, Mata-nui HAD to die at least briefly. 

And to me, it just doesn’t entirely add up. Or maybe I’m not remembering things correctly (it’s been A While since I read the books). Why would he want the Nui-stone to begin with? As far as I can tell, it’s used exclusively to enhance Toa.

He showed an unusual interest in Matoro, and I’m going to guess it’s because, one, Matoro is inherently linked to the Ignika for obvious reasons, and two, he has a mask that may or may not be of use to Teridax in some way if something goes wrong. 

So, if given the Nui-stone, could Matoro have proved useful in reanimating Mata-nui? My guess is yes. In Tuyet’s hands, she apparently was able to essentially take over the Toa Empire Universe. If given that enhancement, Matoro probably could reanimate a massive, universe-sized robot with very little strain; at least long enough for Teridax to do whatever he needs to do. 

On the flip side of things, there is also the possible reason why Matoro got the Tryna. The Inika/Mahri were mutated by the Ignika, and due to the Ignika’s sentience, I wouldn’t be surprised if it had chosen their masks from the get-go. So why the Tryna for Matoro? Why such an obscure, taboo mask? 

Supposedly masks are a sort of nod to a trait of a Matoran/Toa's personality or ability, or perhaps at the least prove utility to their programmed profession. So, supposedly, masks align with one’s destiny. Matoro’s destiny is to die to revive Mata-nui. If we assume over-use of mask powers causes strain, we can assume if he tried to reanimate Mata-nui without a Nui-stone, he would probably die in the procees. But what would be the point? There is no utilitary reason for Matoro to have the Tryna that isn’t just symbolism (which is rife within the MU, but I digress). The other Mahri, on the other hand, all got masks they could utilize to their new enviroment. Jaller got echolocation, Hewkii got gravity powers, Hahli can mimic Rahi, Kongu can summon demons and Rahi and god knows what else, and Nuparu got stealth ninja powers. One could argue there’s A Lot of dead things in the ocean, but there is literally SO many other masks Matoro could have been given that would have been much more useful in The Pit. 

So does the Tryna just imply his destiny is to revive someone (ie Mata-nui)? Or was he given the Tryna because, regardless of the Ignika and REGARDLESS of whether or not Matoro dies or if he has a Nui-stone, the Tryna would act as an end all contingency? I can't see it being the former, and while the latter is REALLY pushing it, it makes more sense. This may or may not also be supported by the fact that a contingency mask DOES exist, and that is the Ignika itself. It’s supposed to both be Mata-nui’s defibrillator, but it’s also a reset button.  

I don’t know, it just feels very off to me, both Matoro’s mask and Teridax’s motivations for the Nui-stone. I can’t recall if it was ever expanded upon if he even had a Toa in mind to give the stone to, and if not, I doubt he would have gone to the trouble of finding it. That’s a HUGE detour to take when he’s on such a tight time crunch now.

Anyways, that’s gonna do it for me, so if anyone has any thoughts, discuss! 

I’ve been thinking about the location placement in the MU (I may or may not be trying to re-jig the official map to get all the islands to fit inside the shape of the GSR) and this particular piece of trivia is really throwing me:

Now, this is based on the Destiny War serial rather than word of Greg from answered questions, so it was probably written around the same time that Greg was giving the instructions on how the MU map should be drawn. Given the description, it sounds like the only island this could be is the one circled in red here:

Now, at first glance, this does indeed look like it’s just a short distance from Nynrah, until you remember that this island is in the GSR’s leg, while Nynrah is in the arm, meaning that from Nynrah you would have to go all the way up the arm then all the way down the torso to get there, which would be quite a journey.

Greg probably just wasn’t looking at the map when he wrote the line in Destiny War about this, but how do you think in canon this can be explained?

My current thought is that the MU is designed in such a way that some of the sea gates are actually Olmak style portals which help link the islands in the arms with those in the torso, and potentially the ones in one leg with the ones in the other. The idea is that these would be constantly activated, and so large that they just seem to the inhabitants to be a regular gate.

That’s the only way I can think of fixing this discrepancy anyway, but I’d love to hear everyone else’s thoughts on it.

I think this would help in keeping Artakha hidden too, as this way you wouldn’t have to sail past it each time you wanted to go to any of the islands in the western chain.

THE LEGO SHOW/MOVIE UNIVERSE

(I know this is very obvious but I need to rant 😔 also first post 🤠 also thoughts about this matter are appreciated and I tried to get all of the Lego shows,this is very much modeled after the scale of the universe)

Lego chima universe is canon in ninjago both were in the same period with nexo knight meaning it in the same galaxy. Dreamzzz had crossovers with ninjago Dreamzzz is connected somehow by a pizza logo from hidden side which begs the question: wouldn't most of the Lego shows be in the same galaxy ; to back this up you can look at the Lego movie where the master builders are in unikitty’s solar system

you can see Batman, unikitty, Michelangelo(tmnt),Lloyd ,worker(city), and Gandolf while the themes the classic Legos (medieval, space, western,and pirate ) are all there and in the same room with a cameo in one scene with the millennium falcon from Star Wars 

In the Lego movie 2 we are introduced to jurassic Park by Rex (he probably stole the dinosaurs ) and Lego Duplo

you may be thinking

“No Disney” character Disney has it own universe which includes marvel,Disney princess,Disney movies,etc. however star wars is really weird due to it making a cameo in the Lego movie (I still need to think it through”

"what about the Lego friends"

They have there own galaxy with Lego elves due the main character in elves being human presumably from the friends solar system who travel via amulet to the elves solar system 

"what about Lego monkie kid" to that idk hypothetically it would go in the Same galaxy as ninjago but it doesn't really work due to its animation style its drawn rather than cgi (yes the unikitty show and some of ninjago was too) but it's based of of journey to the west an actual story by being a twist off of it being set in the future a few hundreds of years after. (Will probably rant about jttw media)

Mixels and Bionicle are in the same galaxy because no humans/humanoids.

This is brain rot,and the Lego universe is weird

Did the Principles come from the Hordika?

Despite the extensive details about the Principles given in MNOG II, the fact that they only appear in that one game means there’s a lot about them that we don’t know, namely their origins. Were these beliefs that the Matoran held throughout their history, or are these beliefs that specifically emerged on the island of Mata Nui?

I think my favorite theory in regards to this is that the Principles came from the Turaga, who developed them based on their experiences as Toa and in particular, their experiences as Toa Hordika. Each of them struggled with the Hordika transformation in their own ways, ways that actually tie in nicely to the Principles and their enemies. Most of these characterizations of the Hordika can be found in the Challenge of the Hordika novel. 

Nokama very noticeably struggled with the feelings of corruption that the transformation brought, and how it caused the Great Temple to reject her, so it makes sense she would emphasize purity

Onewa began feeling very destructive, which contrasts with the Principle of Creation. His violent impulses also notably hampered his ability to think strategically, which is why he might’ve taught the Po-Matoran the skill of strategy.

Whenua very notably wanted to run off into the night and hunt, never having to deal with his responsibilities. This would mean abandoning his Duty and his Destiny, the virtues, Prosperity is based on, and his desire to hunt perhaps shows a dispensation with hunger. 

Nuju was most disturbed with the feelings of uncontrollable anger his transformation brought, and how it took all his willpower to keep his Rahi side in check, which could explain why he would emphasize Peace and Willpower. 

Matau struggled heavily with his feelings of hopelessness and despair. In addition, his harness towards Vakama during the arc contributed to the team fragmenting. His journey during the Hordika arc centered around rekindling his own Faith, and Vakama’s to bring him back and heal the team. 

And with Vakama, it can be argued that the root of his problems lie with his struggles with his fears and feelings of self doubt, that led him to first act too hesitantly, and then too brashly to overcompensate. What he needed was a more balanced view of Courage, and perhaps he taught that to the Ta-Matoran. 

Again, all the connection between their struggles and the Principles is just a headcanon of mine, but one I find very compelling due to how it connects their personal arcs to the cultures of their people.

There was an interesting point on another post about Vakama's tendency for anger, so I breezed through the first two Toa Metru books for references and found this interesting tidbit:

Which doesn't detract from the idea that Matoran Vakama was stubborn and argumentative, but more that he's now in a position of leadership where he's relying on others to get the job done (as opposed to the more solitude job of a mask maker) and so those traits are coming more to the surface

Vakama is also one of the few Toa for whom the word "anger" is applied, with the rest usually described as "grumbling" or some similar word. (Although the others do show anger, Vakama is similarly rarely described as "grumbling" or some such word.)

Anyway, I may add to this as I continue through the books, and see if this is a trend that continues or dies down until the Hordika arc

A little theory that I wanna share here: the matoran of light and shadow we got in Phantoka/Mistika years have the wrong color scheme.

'What do you mean, you crazy person?'

I'm glad you asked.

Takua was the only Av-matoran we knew of (even before they had a name) and his color was very much an outlier amongst the Ta-matoran, red and blue (and yellow) in a sea of reds, yellows and orange.

You know what has ties to the light matoran and a blue and red color scheme? Bohrok. A blue kraana inside of a red and orange shell. I don't know if that was intentional or just a design choice, but that got me thinking...

Theory: the matoran of light had similar color schemes to matoran of other elements, with a contrasting colored mask.

But how could this be a theory if I could only draw on one example? So I searched the other matoran of light sets. Blue and black, red and black, Grey and black, green and gray, orange and gray, white and gray. No, no, no, no, no, no. There had to be at least one other matoran to boost the believability of my theory...

Then it hit me. Vican. Black and like green. Just like his supposed Bohrok counterpart.

Of course the lime green wasn't exclusively on his mask but it was something!

Not only that, but when you think about it, Vican could easily have been one of the first shadow matoran, and was definitely the first to start reversing the corruption. So, his color, his light, was returning.

In summary, the matoran of light should have different colored masks.

So about Bio-Luminescence in the Underland...

This comment from @niumien got me thinking...

I couldn't find the screenshot that was just close up on the lamps, but it does exist I swear!

These are screen grabs from the Mata Nui Online game. All of the other Matoran use glowing rocks to light their homes, but the Ga-Matorian use these bio-luminescent jelly fish which I think is just so cool.

I wouldn't be surprised if they had something similar in the underland. They're obviously not great portable light given how heavy water is and how you need to feed them periodically, but I can imagine Luxa having an ornate container of them on her desk in her apartment. I bet Hazard got a lot of exotic colored ones as gifts for his birthday.

However... when we get to glow worms I don't think it's as cute and pretty.

Wow, isn't that amazing? Aren't those glow worms beautiful? Well... they are at our scale but the Underland makes everything BIGGER and more intelligent.

Real life glow worms trap bugs in their long sticky strands to eat them. They're harmless to humans because we're just way way way to big to be eaten, they eat moths mainly... but how big are the moths in the underland? You seeing where I'm going with this?

Underland Glow worms would be fucking terrifying!

Imagine being an ovelrander, thinking you'd escaped because you see stars in the sky, but then something sticky grabs onto you and doesn't let go.

If I was sandwitch my first port of call after arriving in the Underland would be exterminating every single glow worm I could find because holy shit I would have nightmares just knowing they were out there.

Random Bionicle Headcanon

The Kanohi masks that the Toa Mata wear always seemed a bit eclectic to me. Most of them seemed to be rather weird and seemingly incredibly situational, which gets even weirder when you consider that the Toa Mata were designed as the spec ops team

And now, suddenly, in the throes of post Factorio sleepiness, I wonder. What if the masks were originally picked by the Toa Mata not out of any practical concerns, but entirely due to their personality quirks?

Let's take a look at some potential rationales for those choices, purely from my view.

Toa Tahu, the Hau, the mask of protection. On one hand, it is the mask in Bionicle lore, the symbol of Mata Nui himself. Perhaps Toa Tahu was particularly religious back before the amnesia, and chose the mask as a sort of icon?

Alternatively, he was always a bit afraid of getting hurt, and by the time he got over that fear, the mask already became part of his fighting style.

Toa Kopaka, the Akaku, the mask of X-Ray vision. Part of me wants to say that he picked it entirely in order to always know whether there was someone in another room so that he may be able to avoid unnecessary social interactions. Another part of me wonders if he may have been interested in machinery, which would explain why his mask of choice also came with several additional lenses for better zoom. He must have been annoyed when he lost some of them after going Nuva.

Toa Gali, the Kaukau, the mask of water breathing. The potential reason for that one is rather obvious. Gali simply always loved to swim, and so picked out an incredibly situational mask just to be able to do that more and better.

Toa Pohatu, the Kakama, the mask of speed. I'd assume that the reason for that one is equally as simple. He just likes to go fast, but sucks at piloting.

Toa Onua, the Pakari, the mask of strength. That one is equally as straightforward, but from the opposite direction. He got trapped in one too many cave ins and so chose a mask that would let h get out 9f them easily.

Toa Lewa, the Miru, the mask of levitation. My first thought was that he mostly picked it out as a joke to be able to literally float away during conversations, but then discovered that it actually works.

Any other thoughts? It's always possible that the masks have also just been assigned to them, but honestly, the idea that they picked them themselves, not for combat utility but due to their personal interests, seems rather intriguing to me.

Do you think that one of the reasons why Mixels failed was due to the excessive production of figures

I’m honestly kinda doubtful that was the reason Mixels died out, the original run of Bionicle also had a shitton of figures and characters and that series lasted like almost an entire decade. So Mixels dying out due to there being too many characters and figures is kinda unlikely if you ask me (especially when you consider the fact that Mixels were made with the normal system bricks that Lego would already be making a shitton of anyway for other sets).

A far more likely explanation for Mixels getting cut short is likely just sheer negligence from both parent companies (mostly on CN’s part but Lego is still guilty of it too, just to a slightly lesser extent.), as is often the cause of death for many beloved toy lines and cartoons sadly, Lego likely had too much of a boner from all the money those stupid Star Wars sets were making them to give a shit about the vastly superior Mixels franchise, so they decided to axe the series after wave 9.

~ Mod Niksput

whats mata nui to an angry onu-matoran

(aka the moment Nuju became absolutely smitten, though he would not admit this for another 500 years)

The Three Virtues Aren't Virtues

At least, not in the sense that they stand for anything morally good. Before I go any further, though, I want to clarify that this isn't me critiquing Bionicle, but suggesting some depth and foreshadowing to the story that I think many people may have missed.

So let's look at the virtues one-by-one:

Unity: This is maybe the closest to an actual virtue, since it implies some love for your community. But what unity really comes down to is "working together," and so how morally good unity is depends entirely on what the community's goals are. The matoran of Metru Nui might have caught on to Makuta impersonating Turuga Duma if they weren't so united behind their leader.

Duty: This one basically means "do your job," which is only really as moral as the job. Most of the matoran of Voya Nui were dutiful enough to follow the Piraka's orders even before they were mind-controlled with Zamor spheres, but that was hardly for the best, and the least dutiful rebels were the heroes in the end.

Destiny: This has a moral dimension if you believe in a destiny written by some benevolent and omniscient higher power but, in the Bionicle universe, Mata-Nui and the Great Beings are capable of making mistakes at best and amoral at worst. Destiny seems more like a way to tell characters to stay in line and accept their appointed tasks. Yet over and over we see characters who do the most good by rejecting their appointed task (Takua, Jaller's team when leaving for Voya Nui, the Voya Nui rebels), not because they think they have some other destiny , but because it's the right thing to do.

Looking at all these points together, it seems clear that the three virtues are really just an order of obedience dressed up in the language of morality and religion. Considering that the creatures of the Matoran universe were built to be nothing more than workers keeping the Mata-Nui robot alive, then it makes sense that they would be taught to worship obedience and hard work. This gives dark undertones to the adoration of the three virtues, but in turn makes it all the more beautiful that these characters developed culture, individuality, and true morality when they had been made as nothing but slaves.

(By the way, this is all on my mind because I'm planning on shirking unity (in my family), duty (to my job), and (biological) destiny by transitioning female in a few months and I wanted to set up a moral backdrop for that).

Okay then...

Thought Process of the Great Beings Regarding the Design of the Great Spirit Robot

This post is going to be a long one, so buckle up. Hopefully my ramblings below make sense to you all.

I’ve been thinking lately of the design of the GSR and how at first glance it doesn’t seem to make any sense. The Great Beings had two problems that they built the GSR to deal with:

Fixing the Shattering of their home planet into 3 pieces

Figuring out how to avoid the cataclysmic war that led to the shattering of the planet in the first place.

So, they build the GSR, a giant mechanical system that had the power to fix the planet (once the pieces stabilized and with the help of another mechanical) and could go out into space to observe other cultures to see how they deal with war. However, beyond that, the questions about why they made the GSR the way they did keep building up:

Why make it a giant humanoid robot? Wouldn’t other shapes be more efficient for the completion of the task?

If the nano-machines inside the robot that kept it running (the Matoran) were never meant to be sentient, why give them a universe inside the robot with diverse islands, seas, skies and wildlife for them to inhabit? Wouldn’t it have been simpler to just build the sections required to keep the robot running and then place service corridors etc. for the Matoran to travel between areas?

Why are there species inside the robot other than the Matoran when it appears that it’s only the Matoran that are essential to the functioning of the robot?

Why are the Toa needed at all? They are there to protect the Matoran and ensure they can keep working, but the Matoran Universe is a closed system, so why create a universe that would have dangers that the Matoran would need protecting from in the first place?

Why, when observing alien cultures, does the robot land in their world’s oceans and disguise itself with an island over its face? Surely observing them from space would be more efficient. Also, if you are wanting to observe their culture as it is, why introduce to their planet a very noticeable new landmass basically overnight? Wouldn’t that cause a massive disruption to the very culture you were trying to observe?

However, I think there is actually a very sound logic to all of this, and its all linked in with the secondary mission of the GSR – observing and documenting other alien cultures.

I think that nearly every non-Matoran / Non-Rahi species within the Matoran Universe (with notable exceptions such as the Makuta) are a biomechanical representation of one of the alien species that the GSR encountered along its 100,000-year journey through space, created within the Matoran Universe to act as a physical storage medium for the data gathered, as well as acting as a way of simulating that species and its culture for further study and experimentation once the GSR leaves their planet. This would explain why there are so many different species within the Matoran Universe, each one is a different alien observed by the GSR (I know canonically that the different species were all pre-programmed into the GSR by the Great Beings to be created later, but this could have easily just been the Great Beings loading the already known information about these species into the GSR for it to build upon later with actual observations). This would mean that the Vortixx, Skakdi etc., all exist in some form out there in the wider galactic universe, with biomechanical copies now also existing within the GSR.

If this were the case, it explains why the Matoran Universe needed to be an actual universe – it was not for the benefit of the Matoran at all, but instead so that the GSR could create a better simulation of the natural habitat of the copied species for their biomechanical representations to inhabit and thereby enabling further study to be as accurate to the real thing as possible. Mata-Nui can manipulate the universe inside the GSR to have any landscape or conditions that he wished, which means that each island can be shaped perfectly to match the conditions of the planet that species was copied from, allowing for a better simulation of the species going forwards. This can also explain why there was such a preference for islands within the Matoran Universe – each island in its own dome, linked by the silver sea, was analogous to planets in space. Each species (other than the Matoran and the other exceptions) was largely restricted to one island, but the potential for travel and mixing between the species was possible via sailing the silver sea, representing the possibility of these cultures developing space travel and going to each other’s planets. That way, Mata-Nui could simulate what would happen if these alien cultures were ever to meet and interact, something that would provide further valuable insight: would they go to war with one another? How would those wars be resolved?

This, by extension, explains the need of both the Rahi and the Toa. Rahi were created to better the simulations, filling these recreated worlds with wildlife and therefore making them more realistic and making the simulations more accurate. Toa were needed to make sure that the Rahi and the newly simulated species did not interfere with the work of the Matoran in keeping the whole GSR and Matoran Universe running. Though, the other species were still allowed non-disruptive interactions with the Matoran as this allowed for some simulation on how these other species might interact with the Agori society that the Matoran were based off of.

This mission to observe other cultures I think also explains why the GSR landed on planets and created an island above itself. The island didn’t just act as a way to disguise the face of the robot, but it also allowed for an extremely valuable research tool that wouldn’t have been available from other observation methods: a controlled environment. The sudden appearance of a large new island practically overnight would entice the populace of the planet being observed to travel to it to investigate it. They would likely also settle it as new land to expand into due to it being a new source of resources they could use. We already know from the canon that the island created by the GSR’s camouflage system can be fully manipulated as we saw Makuta Teridax do just that during the ’01-’03 storyline to create storms, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions etc. to challenge the Toa Mata with. So, Mata-Nui could use the exact same system to create situations for the newly settled alien cultures on the island to deal with and observe how they handle them, with all this feeding into the data gathered and being used to create their simulations within the Matoran Universe buried beneath them.

Because the island can be manipulated as Mata-Nui see’s fit, it can also be used to generate a situation that would allow him to re-create the starting conditions of the Core War, minus the Energized Protodermis. For example, if Mata-Nui observed that this planet/culture was lacking in a particular substance, he could manipulate his systems so that the island had an abundance of it. Once this was discovered, he could observe how the natives reacted – would they go to war? If so, how was the war resolved? If not, how was it avoided? By using the island as a controlled space from which he could manipulate certain aspects, Mata-Nui could experiment on the native population to gain insights into the answers he required, rather than just passively observing them and hoping the situation would come up (this is rather morally questionable of course, purposely starting wars and all, but hey, the Great Beings aren’t exactly known for their ethics).

All in all, while it may seem strange at first glance, a logic as to why the Great Beings made the GSR the way they did can be seen if you dig deeper. Did the story team intend for all of this to be the underlying in story reason for why things were they way they are? Almost certainly not. But its still fun to think about nonetheless.

And as for why the Great Beings built the GSR as a giant humanoid robot? Well, I think that the answer to that one is far simpler.

It’s rad as hell.

That’s why.

Subtext in Makuta and Takua's conversation

So I've got a new video essay just released, and I also wanted to continue the conversation over here, because it's really interesting, link to the vid in the reblog. So earlier I made a theory video that during Mask of Light, Takua, Jaller, Makuta, and maybe even some of the Turaga knew or suspected that Takua was destined to be a Toa. This is mainly based on Jaller's final words being "you know who you are" and Takua immediately understanding. With idea in mind, basically EVERY conversation in the movie becomes loaded with way more subtext, and especially the one where Makuta's spirit appears before Takua in the tunnels.

So basically if my theory is true, the entire time they both know that "finding" the Seventh Toa is a euphemism for becoming the Seventh Toa. So when Makuta says "you will not find the Seventh Toa, and deep down you know it" he's really saying deep down you know you're not worthy to become the Toa. And Takua actually agrees with him, he's been dodging this destiny because he doesn't think he's worthy. But then Takua says "maybe Jaller will" and to me that says Takua is hoping Jaller is the better choice to become the Toa (a belief that Takanuva actually carries long after, he says as much in Dark Destiny).

But Makuta isn't convinced and tells Takua if it isn't Jaller, then Jaller's gonna die and its all your fault, which if you think about it is a masterful manipulation, since it simultaneously forces it in Takua's head that he both is the destined one and isn't worthy, which is literally the worst case scenario. And since neither of them actually say what they mean outright, Takua can't even find solace in certainty of his destiny.

The whole scene plays out way more interestingly on rewatches and I think its really cool, but let me know what y'all think about it!

there are like three specific people on here who i think if they followed me i would just explode