#turaga

Merry Christmas!!!

Went to Galveston this weekend from the 6th to the 9th. Bionicle turns 25 this year. It'll be Bionicle day in a few days. Perfect opportunity to bring some of my figures along to take pictures for the occasion and also take them where they feel more at home.

Day 3 at Galveston. Turaga Vakama and Turaga Nokama on the shores of Mata Nui. The Turaga, and, later on, the Matoran, on the shore of Mata Nui.

New deep dive up on my channel, check it out if you're interested!

So the Turaga get clowned on a lot for their decision to keep Metru Nui and their past as Toa from the Matoran and Toa Mata, and to a degree rightfully so. The kept their people in the dark about literally their entire history, and kept relevant secrets from the Toa that could've saved them a lot of trouble.

But if I'm being honest, I'm a bit a of Turaga apologist, because I have a hard time believing I would've done anything differently. They had multiple reasons for keeping things secret, both practical and personal.

The Matoran had their memories wiped, and they had to build a new civilization in the wilderness while also constantly under siege. Telling them about a paradise home they had no way to return to might've been cruel.

From the way the Turaga talk, it almost seems like their original plan was to tell the truth once the Toa Mata came to awaken the Great Spirit. But the Turaga clearly don't tell them then, and there are still good reasons. For one, the villages are still under siege and don't even fully trust each other, and the Toa have yet to prove themselves trustworthy with that kind of knowledge, especially since they also had their memories wiped and had to be brought up to date about the situation on the island.

There's an argument that they should've told the Toa Mata just before they went to face Makuta the first time, especially since Makuta knew all the truth and could use that against them. Plus, it was entirely possible the Toa could've captured him without letting him escape, and the Matoran could've returned right then. But the problem is in canon, it took the Turaga nearly 2 weeks to tell all the tales of Metru Nui, and there really wasn't much time to do that in the active battles happening.

The best time probably would've been right after the defeat of the Bohrok-Kal, but they were also still repairing the villages and recovering from the Bohrok War. And from a certain point of view, that was when they planned to tell them. They originally resolved to tell the truth after the Kohlii Tournament, but then the whole Mask of Light thing happened and they had to deal with that.

The secrets massively damaged the previous unshakable trust the Matoran had with their Turaga. The Matoran still clearly admired them, arguably even more so after learning what they went through. But there was also a new deep resentment, shown when Jaller became furious that the Turaga were keeping secrets again. And all the Matoran clearly felt this way, since they all joined a city wide strike until the Turaga told the truth.

The burden of secrecy also makes me wonder why Nuju thought it was worth it to keep up the need for a translator, knowing that Matoro would then be privy to the truth but forbidden to tell anyone. Intentionally putting Matoro in that position was almost cruel, and Nuju himself directly acknowledges that at points. And I find that it makes Nuju a little more interesting, that he did this thing that he himself thought wasn't completely right, though clearly he thought it was important. Adds nice nuance and depth to him.

Ultimately, the story doesn't give us a clear cut answer as to whether or not what they did was the right thing to do. They gave us plenty of deeply understandable reasons why they did it, but the story also makes it very clear that their lies had very real, negative, lasting consequences that they, the Matoran, and the Toa Nuva had to deal with. Its an open ended question, and I really enjoy that.