Friday, November 7, 2008
I'd like to thank those people who have told me they read the Farsthey Feed and like what I'm doing -- that's very encouraging!
MAKUTA TERIDAX
- Teridax could not have succeeded had Mata Nui not died. Had his efforts on Voya Nui and Mahri Nui failed to delay the Toa long enough for Mata Nui to die, he would have had to amend the Plan, just as he did after the Metru's victory in Metru Nui.
- Just as it takes time to install a new operating system on a computer, it takes time for a new spirit to fully be prepared to control a universe. Since Mata Nui was also asleep when he was brought back to life, Teridax was able to have the time to replace Mata Nui's spirit.
- Teridax banished Mata Nui's spirit into the Ignika by power he acquired from Mata Nui's body. Teridax would have had to put Mata Nui's spirit in something that he could banish from the universe, since it would have been too dangerous to have Mata Nui that close by. He also locked his spirit in the Ignika and expelled it so it would not turn black upon his takeover. Both Mata Nui's spirit and the Mask of Life were threats to him.
- Greg: "Mata Nui is clever, knows every detail of how his old body works, and is the rightful owner of that body -- it makes him too dangerous to have around. Outside of the other Makuta, who are now dead, and the Great Beings, Mata Nui is the only one who would know how to shut that body down."
- Teridax wanted to strike down the other Makuta so there would be no one left with knowledge of how to attack the Great Spirit. "Trust" was not in the Makuta vocabulary. What the other Makuta expected was that Teridax would be busy doing Great Spirit-like things and would need other members of the Brotherhood to manage the day to day running of things -- which was a very practical idea. But Teridax decided the threat to his safety outweighed the practical aspects of the idea.
- Only the Great Beings or Mata Nui could put a stop to Teridax's Plan. No one in the existing Matoran universe can.
- Teridax's controlling Mata Nui's body jeopardizes Mata Nui's mission.
- The whole Matoran universe has been made aware of Makuta's triumph. The Toa, Turaga, and Matoran in Metru Nui now know Teridax's name.
- As ruler of the universe, Teridax can kill anyone with a stray thought, although there still needs to be some means involved with the actual killing. Teridax can also now create new beings as Mata Nui could, as well as set their destinies.
- Teridax's Plan does not end with taking over the universe, but rather moves on to bigger things. Now that Teridax is in Mata Nui's form, he is ambitious enough to traverse to other worlds and attempt domination on an even larger scale.
MATA NUI
- The name Mata Nui means "Great Spirit."
- The Matoran universe, which is the body of Mata Nui himself, is an artificial construct, and it has not always been on the oceanic planet with which we are familiar. The Great Beings created Mata Nui in their home world and sent him on his way. The record the Toa Hagah found beneath Metru Nui was made before Mata Nui left the Great Beings' world. Mata Nui was not aware of these inscriptions.
- Mata Nui is a living machine -- the beings inside him are the nanotech who help the machine to work. Mata Nui is fully mechanical and does not need to eat. The Matoran universe extends throughout Mata Nui's whole body. Within the Matoran universe, artificial gravity and stabilizers keep things on an even keel for the Matoran, same as they do on a starship. So far as Greg knows, Mata Nui is the only one of his kind.
- During the Great Disruption, Mata Nui was weakened and slowed.
- Mata Nui travels to a new planet fairly often. Mata Nui gathers information from the worlds he visits by means of sensors. Mata Nui does not send the information gathered from his observations to the beings in the Red Star.
- Mata Nui was flying around in space when he was attacked by the Makuta virus. Mata Nui did more than fall over when the Great Cataclysm occurred; he crashed into the ocean from outer space. Mata Nui was observing the endless ocean planet before he fell, which is why he was close enough to be drawn in by its gravity. Mata Nui was also going somewhere important when he crashed. The oceanic planet we are familiar with will also be very important, just as important as Bara Magna is next year. It will be given a name.
- The island of Mata Nui was shaped like Metru Nui because that is the template Mata Nui's system had for creating the shape of an island. The telescope is deployed whenever Mata Nui lands in order to monitor the Red Star. Greg believes the telescope's purpose is to be synchronized with the Red Star's movements.
- Mata Nui's body has powers that pertain to the world outside his own body. He does not have a light power. Mata Nui has a greater purpose than that of maintaining the Matoran universe. This mission does not involve energized protodermis. The Three Virtues map is connected to Mata Nui's mission.
- Mata Nui normally has yellow eyes instead of red. Mata Nui's eyes are red in the Mata Nui poster because it shows Teridax in possession of the body. Mata Nui's body has red eyes as long as Teridax is actively controlling things.
- Mata Nui's consciousness now overrides Ignika's. Mata Nui can control the Ignika's powers, but Mata Nui's spirit itself pretty much has no power. Mata Nui cannot direct the Ignika's course as it flies through space. The Ignika is still cracked.
- Greg doubts that Mata Nui would know a Great Being if he found one.
- It would be impossible for Mata Nui to get back into the Matoran universe without Terdiax's noticing. Mata Nui has no experience in close combat.
BARA MAGNA
- Bara Magna is neither the name of a universe or an island; it is the planet.
- The Matoro lookalike on the back cover of Comic 15 is the returning character.
- The new heads for the Agori and Glatorian sets have a dual-orientation feature.
- Bara Magna will have organic creatures.
- The events of 2009 will affect the Matoran universe.
- There is no protodermis on Bara Magna, since it is not an artificial world.
- The 2009 characters would not recognize the name Mata Nui.
GENERAL
Metru Nui
- The vehicles are in Metru Nui right now. Artakha will most likely teleport the vehicles back into the Codrex.
- It won't take Takanuva that long to return to his old size. Takanuva's destiny is not yet completed.
Storyline
- Greg sees it as making sense that Krika would be the Makuta of the northern continent, since then it would not be a stretch for him to oversee Zakaz additionally after Spiriah's exile. In this case Krika would be overseer of the northern part of the northern continent, since Gorast oversees the Tren Krom Peninsula.
- A member of Jovan's team wore an Olmak, which allowed them to escape Karda Nui ahead of the storm.
- Tridax worked on the Tridax pods with Mutran.
- Trinuma was not a Hand of Artakha member. He has been an Order member for quite a long time.
- It took the Toa Nuva a couple days total since their arrival in Karda Nui to reawaken Mata Nui.
- The kind of energy in Karda Nui vaporized the swamp in very short order.
Toa Mata/Nuva
- It would certainly be logical for the Toa Mata's bodies to have been based off of that of Mata Nui, but that is not all they were based off of.
- Adaptive armor changes very quickly. It uses sensors to detect what environment it should adapt to.
Real Life
- The next Bionicle web update will have another new CG animation. The last update will be a flash teaser for 2009.
- Kelly McKiernan (Binkmeister) test built and named the 2009 model Skirmix.
COMMENTARY
Many people are still asking about the place beneath Metru Nui to which Teridax traveled in order to replace Mata Nui's spirit, but I think it's obvious enough for us to guess exactly what it is: Mata Nui's kernel of consciousness. While Metru Nui is Mata Nui's brain, this location buried deep beneath its surface is the physical locus of his mind's capacity to be aware. It is this place to which one would need to go in order to enter his mind in the way that Teridax intended to.
Also, on the subject of Teridax's destiny: we know that Mata Nui determines the destinies of the beings he creates, and that to this rule Teridax is no exception. Greg has made it somewhat ambiguous whether destiny in the Matoran universe is inescapable or whether it can be denied and changed. We seem to be sure that destiny is not totally immutable, however, and Greg has hinted that Teridax may have fulfilled the destiny Mata Nui assigned him simply at the wrong time or in the wrong way. So this leaves us asking: what in the world was Teridax meant to do? Well, we know that as things have so far played out, Teridax killed Mata Nui, knocked his spirit out of his own body, and seized control of the Matoran universe itself -- and all of the responsibility of maintiaining it. Here's the quintessential beauty of the Great Beings' design of the Matoran universe -- even after all hope is lost and the villain has achieved total domination, it is imperative that life must go on. The Matoran cannot live without Teridax, but neither can he without them. There is no annihilation. It is a guaranteed quality of the Matoran universe that as long as beings submit to the essential instinct of self-preservation, the Matoran and their ruler will survive.
What if Mata Nui ever needed a hiatus? What if he needed someone else to accomplish something he couldn't or wouldn't? Whom would he turn to? Teridax may very well still be playing Mata Nui's game, not his own. After all, as Mata Nui flies helplessly through space, we hear him uttering with certainty: "I will return."
Greg also seems strangely secretive about the origin of the organic birds that migrated to Mata Nui, saying that that has yet to be revealed. Reya came up with the golden idea that the birds came from a land Mata Nui crushed when he fell into the endless ocean. The endless ocean was, in fact, not always endless. And, of course, there are many storyline possibilities when concerning a lost land.