#kojol

Makuta Kojol

Bonus nostalgic sketch from me way back in 2013. Oh how the times have changed.

Now, I don’t really like imagining MU inhabitants having 1:1 IRL neurological conditions, because they are robots and function in a different way from humans and live in a completely alien setting. But just because I don’t like inserting exact real neurodivergencies into this different setting doesn’t mean I don’t like the concept of neurodivergency existing in MU or that there being conditions analogous to real life ones. This is because I find the idea of some MU inhabitants being wired differently compared to rest of their species super interesting as a concept. Its also a good way to add neurodivergent representation in a way that feels authentic and believeable to the setting.

Now back to Kojol specifically, I think the reason I love the idea of him being neurodivergent is because I absolutely adore the concept of Kojol being this researcher/scientist type obsessed with his research and experiments. Now this isn’t that unusual since most Makuta are scientist types (or at least they should be given their purpose was to create Rahi to begin with.) But with Kojol specifically I feel that his dedication to his craft and research overseeds the typical levels of a  Makuta and instead become much more extreme. Like essentially Kojol  devotes his entire existence to his craft and doesn’t really care about much else. I feel that he didn’t really care about Teridax’s Plan to begin with, and just saw it as an opportunity to conduct his experiments and research in ways that weren’t precedent for him prior to Teridax’s takeover.

Another reason I like Kojol being neurodivergent is because...I kinda like the concept of a Makuta who was physically unable to completely purify themselves from their inner moral light and instead replace it with pure darkness. And given how my interpretation of Kojol isn’t as much arrogant  as he is deeply absorbed into his research, him being essentially unable to remove his light completely. Now Kojol isn’t necessarily “good” by nature (he’s more amoral than anything, though he is capable of goodness) and He did manage of turn some of inner light into inner darkness and he is still somewhat self-centered and -absorbed, but nowhere to the degree to rest of the Brotherhood. , but not to the extent compared to rest of the Brotherhood. It’s moreso that his inner light is diluded rather than completely gone. Another possibility I really like is that Kojol always had relatively low inner light so when he tried to remove it it never went away. I also like the idea that he has both inner light AND inner darkness rather than the latter replacing the former.

Lastly a big thing I like is how GBF suggested that “Kojol used to overshare other Makuta got mad at him for it and now he refuses to share anything” and that just...adds so much depth to his character that I really like. That essentially his secrecy isn’t as much a natural state as it is a defense mechanism and a means to protect himself from pain...which is just good.

So, what if it’s not so much that Kojol is secretive as much as he is selective with his knowledge? What if rather than him refusing to share anything to anyone,instead he’s very selective with what infromation he shares with and to which people he shares that information to?

Given the little we know of the guy this actually makes a lot of sense. It’s very reasonable that Kojol knows a lot about whats going on in the Matoran Universe,and most likely knew things most of his fellow Brotherhood members didn’t know of. Like I could imagine that Kojol was one of the few Makuta who knew the complete truth of Matoran universe and thus knew the true extent of ultimate Teridax’s goals (Teridax and Mutran not withstanding). Furthermore, I think that canon either implies or outright states that Kojol held a lot of secrets from the Brotherhood. Yet he still chose to reveal the location of the Avokhii and Artakha? Which feels rather OOC considering being secretive is his whole modus operandi.

As such, is it really a stretch of imagination to believe that Kojol most likely was being pick and choose with how share his information? That rather than being secretive he was willing to share the things he knew, but only if he saw sharing that information as benefical. Like Kojol operated on what was more useful for him: whether it was more benefical to share what he knows, or to keep it to himself. He is essentially playing informational warfare: he is using his information as currency, as a way of playing the long-game and strategically plan his moves. Kojol essentially controls the flow of information: he controls which parties are allowed to know what, and that then affects what his moves will be moving forward. Sure, Kojol is still secretive partially by his nature, but his secrecy also acts as a tactic he uses to his advantage rather than just a personality trait.

By having Kojol’s secrecy be just as much a tactic as a personality-trait gives him so much potential as a wild-card type of character. You never know what information he’s going to share and what he is going to keep to himself. Yet at the same time there’s a method to the madness: Kojol doesn’t just do things at random, but rather based on what he sees as the best course of action at that moment, and as such everything he does could be traced back to some sort of logic and reason. And that kind of wildcard whose actions are built onto a twisted logic that’s understandable when you know how they is more satisfying to me than a wildcard who does things at random or just for fun (sorry Vezon).

Furthermore, making Kojols secrecy situational gives him so much potential to be a much more interesting and dynamic character than if he was constantly secretive. Kojol’s secrecy wouldn’t be static, rather it would depend  on the situation as hand. As such, hiding information isn’t the only way Kojol could act: he could sometimes reveal information, other times keep to himself. This dynamism makes him not only unpredictable but multi-faceted character. He feels more real rather than just being confined to one trait and acting accordingly in a very static way. And that dynamism makes all the more interesting and fun.