#pakari

Onua Nuva - Toa of Earth

Making his enemies quake in fear!

Source

Yeehawgust Day 9, The Shifting, Whispering Sands

It's that time of year again. I'm a bit less happy than other years, but it does keep the streak going. I think it needed something to define the Pakari's shape.

Awhile back I did my own redesign of the Toa Mata from Bionicle. Mostly just trying to find a way to draw them without having to keep the toys permanently on hand for reference and a bit more streamlined to make them easier to draw in general. As far as universal details go, I gave them a segmented body template to lean into the biomechanical aspect of them, I also tried to find a consistent way to draw some of the more common limbs they had. I also tried to play with the gears on the back by giving each of them something unique and tried to give them unique kneeguards. I also tried to incorporate the orbs they had their chest by incorporating their elements matoran symbols into them

Tahu - Tahu served as kind of the template for the others, so he's probably the most standard out of them. I wanted to stick primarily with his original colors so made the bright red and orange the most prominent colors on him, but I also used the dark red he sported later as an accent color for more color blocking. His sword is based more on the Bionicle Heroes interpretation of it, though I may change that if I ever redraw this design. His left arm was never really stated to be anything, so I tried to purpose it as a sort of Aegis; it still matches his more aggressive personality, but also gives it a more utility. I also modeled his back gear after exhaust pipes to relate towards his element. Though it probably won't be seen that much, I did try to define his head too, making it kinda broad; specifically basing the heads off a combination of the originals, the glatorian heads from the end of the original line, and the heads from the reboot.

Kopaka - Since Toa of Ice tend to stick around cold places, I incorporated a bit of a coat into his armor for insulation. His sword also draws some inspiration from the Heroes version, but it also still works like his toy. His left arm was a bit awkward so I limited the armor to mostly just his bicep, I also tried to make the shield look like a snowflake on top of the radar dish look it obviously was piece wise. Kopaka was also one of the few toa consistently depicted is hauling around the McGuffins for whatever saga they're directly involved in, so I gave him a satchel to call back to that. His back gear is directly modeled after a snowflake like his shield, but a bit more obviously. I also tried to make his kneeguards resemble icicles. I tried to give his head a sharper look to call back to his cold and distant personality.

Lewa - Tried to make Lewa look a bit more lanky compared to the others since he's supposed to be the resident tree swinger. His axe leans more towards the original, but I still tried to incorporate aspects of the heroes version for fun. I tried to make his left arm a big grabby arm since most people turn it into a gun or something, but BlazeTBW thought it looked like a machete so I incorporated a fold-our arm blade to help him cut up vines and foliage as he swings around. His kneeguards are supposed to look like palm leaves but I'm not satisfied with how they turned out. I also gave him a few pouches since I figured he's want to keep a few snacks on hand or maybe even swipe a souvenir here and there.

Onua - Tried to make Onua look pretty broad since he's supposed to be strong even without his mask buffing him. Unfortunately his monochromatic color scheme can make things hard to color block, so I threw in some purple from his G2 version in order to help highlight some parts of his body. obviously made his claws his actual hands. I also did something a bit different with his legs sinw his original toy had them flipped around to bulk them, so I tried leaning into that while also making it look like a heavy duty hinge. I also tried to make his head particularly broad too.

Pohatu - Pohatu was pretty different from the original toa in that his torso was flipped around to make him more bottom heavy, so I tried to call back to that with his body shape. I also took inspiration from the toys arms to make them bigger than the others. I did include the two orbs on his shoulders, but recolored them to make them different from the chest one and included the extra pins on the leg. Since Toa of Stone live in the dessert I gave him a scarf to wrap around his head for sandstorms and gave him a decently sized backpack since he's also been happy to regale his own adventures (so it works for holding souvenirs). His kneeguards are based on boulders. I also inlcluded the orange his Phnatoka version sported to highlight parts of his armor

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.

Headcanon that Takua broke his original mask when skipping work exploring Ga-Metru. The Ga-Matoran gave him the first spare mask they could find so that he could make it home (probably while being escorted by Vahki, again). That's why it doesn't fit properly and why its, well, blue.

They probably expected him to swap it out for a mask that fit and was in the right colour when he got back to Ta-Metru, but because it's Takua he just never did.