The thing I love about Makuta is how he was introduced as your standard Saturday morning cartoon villain. A bit more of a threat than most but still readily defeated and sent back to his lair to twirl his mustache at the end of every arc. Then it’s revealed all those defeats were essentially him killing time until he could get the ball rolling on his real plan. We get a flashback to Metru Nui which shows what happens when he’s actually trying. Then we find out the whole “Saturday morning cartoon villain” was actually a ploy to fake his death and downplay his own intelligence to throw the heroes off his trail. THEN he makes his return diminished and working more as the shoulder Devil to one of the heroes before fading into the background again. *THEN* we get the most dramatic reveal ever as to exactly what his plan was and suddenly all the threads make sense. And it’s terrifying
And yet despite it all he still acted it out and made a big show of being in control of the universe, where he could have simply pretended to be mata nui. I find it perfectly in character too, dude is a huge theater freak who loves being the baddie, but his smarts and wits allow him to win even through all his cartoon villainy. He loooooves being the baddie, and he's damn good at it too.
Of all the villain victories in fiction that I'm familiar with, Makuta's has got to be the most triumphant. He literally usurps control of the entire known universe. Thanos had his Snap, but he didn't take full advantage of the power of the Infinity Gauntlet. Makuta took _everything.
The Makuta is still my absolute favorite villain of all time! I remember reading that comic, I thought the heroes had finally did it, after all these years they've awoken Mata Nui and though they have lost a lot along the way this'll be a satisfying ending... Then I saw Teridax painted his face across the sky and I couldn't believe what I was seeing...after all the heroe's effort, hardship, and loses it all lead up to the Main Villain getting everything he wanted and becoming god! I just sat there staring at the comic and muttering to myself "...he won..."
Honestly it's a great twist, to see our heroes thwart Makuta's plans, all these heroes fighting their smaller desperate battles, and Matoro's sacrifice, all to revive Mata Nui, only then for the reveal that Teridax won, and with the Mask of Life with Mata Nui's spirit in it launched into space we were unsure of what comes next, then the reveal of Bara Magna, that Mata Nui was nw the main hero and him exploring this new world and making friends and uncovering secrets, we saw Taridax's character arc mostly conclude, and the beginning of the God cast down into mortal flesh byt the "devil", now the god learns mortality, humility, and friendship, Mata Nui learns how to be.... Humanish. Eventually Teridax senses Mata Nui is still alive, and letting his ego drive him, heads to face his "brother" one final time, and so the series epically ends with a literal clash of the Titans as Teridax in Mata Nui's body, and Mata Nui in a smaller new body, clash over the fate of 3 worlds. Eventually Teridax is defeated, and inadvertantly helps Mata Nui fullfill his destiny. Teridax had claimed victory, and soon it was taken from him. Overall Bionicle has one hell of an amazing and unique story with a great bunch of heroes, villains, and Teridax especially. And to think this was created just to sell plastic buildable action figures.
@TheZamaron It really was - in terms of lego at least - a one-of-a-kind franchise that I doubt we'll ever see lego create the likes of again. Though a part of me still wishes it went on for just a bit longer, as well a myriad of other things (like the full of the Toa Mata getting back together for the grand climax), it still had a phenomenal ending that few can truly match!
@@ZadeWilson Except teridax does lose in the end. Cuz mata nui goes to where it all began and rebuilds his prototype and smashes his head into a million pieces, and that's the end of teridax!
SPOILERS! In the later comics, Mata Nui later finds his prototype body on another planet called Bara Magna (their original home planet). He uses his powers to draw Makuta Teridax to him (with old-new body in tow) for a showdown. After Makuta Teridax arrived, they fought (along with their armies), & Mata Nui miraculously killed him. So he still ends up losing (his life) anyway.. 🤓 But after the battle was won, Mata Nui decided to take another 1,000 year hibernation. 🥱
To be fair would you want to be woken up just to be kicked out of your body and forced to use an old one to fight yourself, I'd be cranky and tired too.
Ah, good ole Teri. He's perhaps my fave villain, and the shift in ideologies between him and his alt self during the battle with shadow Takunuva, where the alt one uses physical combat to smash through all three of em with little damage. And he's still around after the dust settles.
As TVTropes puts him, Teridax is The Villain to End All Villains. And can you really fault that analysis? Even if the "god" of the "universe" was the mind of the robot, literally overthrowing a god is no mean feat. I guarantee you that he would give Thanos a Code Brown.
He wins a lot. He only lost like three or four times in over a thousand years. Once by the metru , once by vakama's cunning, once by takanuva, and once by mata nui itself Edit. This i just thought of but. The matorin uprising is like cancer inside mara, nui's body and the makutas betrayal and take over is like when a killer T cel goes rouge and attacks the body. The bodies greatest protector becoming it's enemy.
Well that's fitting because that's what inspired the entire franchise. A kid battling cancer, taking medicine that he imagined contained little heroes to fight the corruption in his own body. It's why the Toa Mata came in those iconic cannisters (in-universe and the toys themselves).
makuta teridax will go down in my memory as the greatest villain of all fucking time. bionicle is the one series that has impacted my life the most for going on 30 (fuck im old) years. this is something i will NEVER forget.
This is a really good essay. My only criticism would be that the original toa weren’t retroactively called the Toa Mata until 2008. I usually just call them the Toa Nuva for new fans until that point
From the deeps of a island once called home by hundreds of beings, now a wasteland by the enemies they fought and risked their life to defeat, a wastelamd that was needed for their god's awakening, rose its face, the face of their creator, of mata nui, awake once more from its 100.000 years of slumber, he rose with rock and sea falling from his mechanical body, no longer bound by the curse of his own creation, with the sacrifice of many and suffering of so many more, finaly after so long... MATA NUI LIVES!!! And Makuta won...
You got some facts wrong for someone who more than loves bionicle They aren't cyborgs that Implies a living thing enhanced with robotic add ons the are they opposite They aren't magic its a form of science one of the great beings specialized in And they didn't add the other two elements to pad out the characters each on has a use for repairing Mata-nui(their are also 10 more elements than the basic 6)
@@Jumbledarrow Makuta has all 42 powers of the Rahkshi, which he occasionally uses in Time Trap, Into the Darkness, Prisoners of the Pit, Destiny War and some more. Makuta noted in his own diary in the official Bionicle guide to the universe that he and his siblings were created by Mata Nui.
The sacrifice of matoro had brought me to tears, as I read that chapter… that hope.. despite the loss, his rise to become what was truly a hero… then later, that realization… that all those sacrifices. All those heroics… every win and all those loses. To quote linkin park… “but in the end, it doesn’t even matter” In the end, makuta had that last laugh. Even after they defeated makuta again… he still won. And he would forever be remembered for such a triumph. He would forever be remembered for becoming a god, for accomplishing what no other mortal had ever dared attempt.
Given the context that the Kingdom Alternate Universe short story provided I'd say that Matoro's death, although it played right into Makuta's plans is a preferable timeline to the alternative. And as The Kingdom indicates Makuta would have just run berserk to take over what remained of the Great Spirit's world anyway.
