The Three Virtues and What They Mean | BIONICLE Deep Dive 

A big thank you to these people on tumblr whose insightful discussion really helped me crystalize my thoughts and provided huge inspiration to the thoughts expressed here! Thank you to @kanohivolitakk @noddytheornithopod @wjbs-bonkle-au @demitsorou @killy @0m3g45n1p3r4lph4 @tiredspacedragon @zesk @tenosit @crystaltoa @ghost-mantis @bioniscribbles

An interesting twist on how one's destiny will always have a positive influence on the world would be Makuta Teridax's destiny. Teridax was always destined to aid Mata Nui in restoring Spherus Magna. No matter how hard Teridax tried to resist, even going as far as taking over the Great Spirit Robot, he was still instrumental in the restoration of the planet. However, _because_ Teridax tried to reject his destiny, it ultimately led to his demise. Had he accepted and willfully chosen to aid in restoring the planet, not only would it have happened sooner, Teridax would've survived, be seen as a hero and (if Mata Nui still had to return to just being the Ignika) the people of Spherus Magna would've no doubt willingly accepted Teridax as their ruler. The irony that everything Teridax wanted to achieve by denying his destiny is exactly what he would've gotten if he chose to accept it.

Thank you for the mention! Like Takua said, the world wouldn’t be the way it is if a long time ago Makuta thought, “Hey, maybe I’ll do the right thing today.”

Nice of you to describe the three virtues that help give value, philosophy, & moral foundations to the Matoran, Turaga, Toa & others.

I'm really looking forward to the video on the six principles, as I feel like those don't get as much attention as the three virtues. The fact that LEGO essentially made an in-universe religion for its characters and then made each tribe distinct cultures with alternating views on the matter was super cool, most franchises don't give stuff that much depth.

Could Bitil have used his Kanohi to carve messages into his past selves? - since they would keep the injuries - therefore being capable of messing with people's destinies.

On the line of destiny, I feel that the Toa Mata aren't meant to become Turaga, but rather be the embodiment of the very concept of the Toa. It helps when you look at the fact that the Mata never had a matoran form, but were literally built and trained in Karda Nui before being sent up to Mata Nui itself

The Great Beings and Matoran sentience is indeed interesting. It fits thematically too, you've talked about how Bionicle often exposes the myths and especially deification of certain things and exposes them for what they really are, but still recognises the value in them in a way? Like, as the Matoran grew sentient, they interpreted what were just base directives into a whole culture. It might've just been some myths they made up because Velika made them all big brained, but they ended up creating ideals for themselves to strive for that work for them just beyond "it's my programming". And as you discuss at the end, isn't that kind of how religions and their values develop? Knowing there's darker takes on the three virtues with the swarm villains and Teridax is interesting too. I'm assuming the illusion you described was in Time Trap (gosh I really need to read the Adventures books someday)? And I do like you included stuff about the dystopian ideas of them (which I helped hypothesise on tumblr), because honestly you could argue that maybe the Great Beings want the MU and their creations to function that way, but those inside saw something more and made them into something better. If I did my personal take on Bionicle someday, it would have that kind of thinking in it, I'm influenced a lot by metamodernism lol. I guess the things I'd ask are: what if for example Mata Nui wasn't a force for good? Like, Mata Nui serves a heroic purpose in the story, but imagine if he turned out more like Teridax. Matoran would likely have no idea of the truth unless they actively sought it out, so they'd have no reason to think the Great Spirit was a malevolent force. I guess my idea is ultimately: things are what we make of them ourselves, and something one could present as good could easily be twisted and corrupted into a force of control and oppression. Also re Jaller and duty: didn't he call a strike when they were back in Metru Nui and the Turaga refused to admit Mata Nui was dying? I think that might be the best example of what you describe with him. He sees his larger duty to the collective good of society and the Universe, not just what he's told to do. Also, Jaller as union leader confirmed? :P Re fandom debate about the Virtues: I'm actually starting to realise the debates here parallel a lot of discourse I see about the Jedi in Star Wars, and how their code and beliefs are interpreted, with some people being like yourself with the virtues and seeing it all in good faith and understanding them positively, while others see the code as something cold and conformist and detached from humanity. And of course, how the Jedi relate to following the code is often a theme in stories about them. An interesting take I once saw was that the Miramax trilogy kind of had a focus on a specific virtue, but in reverse order and how those were central to the protagonists there. - Mask of Light: Takua coming to understand he's meant for more than just what he already is, Destiny. - Legends of Metru Nui: Vakama coming to accept that he can be a toa and fulfill his, well, Duty. - Web of Shadows: Vakama realising that he needs his team to accomplish their mission, Unity. Obviously you can read all three into the stories because, well, it's Bionicle, but it's a cool take on the movies I wonder was even intentional, or just worked out nicely.

I've always considered the 3 virtues to be a programming update, meant to help the Matoran to more efficiently and effectively fulfill their purpose in the MU. That programming would take on spiritual meaning as they gained full sentience and they became aware of themselves as living beings. As I don't adhere to the cannon of Velika giving the Matoran sentience, I like to believe that acting on these virtues so regularly actually *helped* the MU inhabitants gain self awareness and a sense of self worth. The ideas of Unity, Duty and Destiny would promote strong feelings of reliance on one another and the value of the individual to the whole of a society, which is intrinsic to a conscious, cooperative community. I'd also liken them to the Bionicle version of the 3 laws of robotics. Obviously different applications, but broadly similar in a conceptual context.

There's a theory going around in TTV channel that suggests all the islands and their local species weren't designed by the Great Beings for a purpose, but that they were created by Mata Nui imitating the civilizations of the worlds he visited in order to study their culture and evolution in depth even after leaving the planet. Maybe you can do a video on it.

I always found it fascinating that, in the end, Toa Nuva didn't accomplish their destiny in main universe. Despite being created and trained to awaken Mata Nui, despite Codrex specifically prepared for them, despite the fact Toa canisters were built on every possible island it was Ignika who eventually awoke Mata Nui. And their Nuva transformations weren't necessary, as they were protected by Teridax in every battle

An absolute masterpiece which, once again, makes a perfect common ground between the Technological and Mystical themes of BIONICLES!

You explained the Three Virtues how I see them and I lived by them. It was hard for me to put to words and that the Three Virtues is how we can all be great.

It was so lovely to hear you talk about all this stuff so thoughtfully! I do also wanna make an analysis of how the Three Virtues tie in with real-world religion.

Interpretations I personally have for the three virtues are mentioned here. Well done with going in-depth the way you did, It is complex topic with a lot of views and perspectives, so it definitely was not easy to make a video about. Maybe what I can add with the theorizing is that perhaps the Great Beings didnt initially follow or even believe of the three virtues, that it came later out of necessity. What I mean by this is that because they focused too much on gaining knowledge and technological advancement, they isolated themselves from the rest of the Glatorian society. Instead the best and brightest leading, guiding, and teaching the newer generations, they basically left them to fend for themselves, sometimes making things worse by toying with forces they didnt fully understand. With the discovery of energized protodermis, they essentially left toddlers with nukes, which would cause untold amount of suffering, death and destruction to the life and the planet itself. Their negligence, ignoring unity and duty essentially, would result in the eventual shattering of the planet. However there was a definitive shift in their actions, as seen with the construction of the giant robots. Rather than accepting the fate/destiny they have brought upon themselves through inaction, they challenged it and confronted it by banding together for a higher purpose of saving and reseeding their home planet. It would make sense to place guiding laws (sorta like 3 laws of robotics) withing this giant robotic organism, so as to not have the same fate as Spherus Magna. They would also be the guiding source codes with which the immense robot would deduct its research of the universe, to find the best solution to reform the planet. These 3 laws/guidlines would then pass down to the Great Spirits other subfunctions, aka the matoran, which then gained new meaning and complexity with the introduction of free will to the GSR Universe. While Velika tried to disrupt the function of the great spirit robot and its numerous subfunctions, he inevitably gave it an even higher form of understanding and purpose that he could never imagined or intended, or even attempt to control. With some unfinished storylines Greg had with Takanuva, we would probably see the culmination of the Great Beings machinations and how the three virtues had a part to play in all of it. Also It starts with Unity as Norik said, and you cant unify without understanding, and thats what Takanuva would probably bring to all the desperate factions of now reformed Spherus Magna (light of understanding and such).

First of all I found your channel just recently and you are very quickly becoming my fav bionicle channel, your vids make me feel like I'm falling in love with the series all over again. Secondly sorry for the long message but I wanted to say what is probably obvious but I feel like a big reason for the idea some bionicle fans have that the three virtues are actually restricting or harming the matoran somehow, is that the culture most people in the west live in, and so most bionicle fans live in, is so hyper individualist that a value system so opposed to that just automatically reads "evil" to a lot of people. But honestly the fact that bionicle as a series is so willing to explore messages and concepts like that, always has been a big part of why I love it. Lots of media for kids has a superficial "power of friendship" or "you can't always get what you want" kinda message but I can't think of anything that explores the idea of unity of finding strength in other people, and the message of duty that people sometimes must sacrifice their personal desires for the better of others, on the level of bionicle, really diving into both and being willing to show both their positives but also how they can be twisted. And of course what also stands out is the way almost all villains in the series are themselves hyper individualist, almost all of them motivated by selfishness, from the makuta to the dark hunters, even the visorak while like you said they are superficially "united" they are really only motivated by their own survival, and themselves exploited for the selfish gain of whoever leads them. Like even if someone disagrees that individualism is bad or thinks the three virtues are harmful or whatever I still think it's an important part of what makes bionicle so unique that they are willing to put great worth into ideas that a lot of culture primes us to dismiss almost out of hand.

This talk about the three virtues and the deep dive into the Great Beings , Spirit Robot, Spherus Magna, and the Tribal Matoran makes me wanna see you go in-depth with the Horizon video game series and how its thematics, concepts, storylines, and visuals are very much Bionicle, most importantly G1 Bionicle, and how it expanded upon those elements and in some ways executed things better. I mean technically both are Lego themes so its not going off topic if you make a video about it.

Thank you! You do remenber the video request in one of my messages. I think its a very important subject for every Bionicle fan.

Here’s my own interpretation of unity as once quoted from Iron Man: “Unity doesn’t mean being the same. What you can’t calculate is that our differences are our greatest strength.”

If I ever want to make such good skripts and videos, I still have to learn much. I am impressed and hyped at the same time while watching this. Nice work👍

Awesome video. I don't have anything to add to the convo because you already covered like everything lol. I look forward to learning about the principles and maybe about the cosmic aspect of destiny too. Slightly related, I am curious of people's interpretations of the alternate dimension, when Takanuva placed his mask on alternate Takua's face out of curiosity, and nothing happened (I don't remember all the details). Was Takua's destiny different in that dimension? Would it have worked if it was that dimension's version of the mask instead? Or (my favorite) is it showing how the main factor that allowed Takua to become Takanuva, the journey of self-discovery and the acceptance of his destiny?

I think God of War Ragnarok said it best on destiny, there is no grand design or fate, only the choices the people make and how it affects themselves and others. (I am mostly ad libbing the quote)

Hm, interesting analysis. I think, from a fanfic/cntinuation/reboot perspective, exploring the conflict between the good and the bad view of the virtues could be an interesting idea for a villain. A villain that embodies the three virtues in their negative view. Similar to the sympathetic Makuta you talked about in oine of your other videos in idea, a character who embodies the virtues and believes in them, believe they are doing the right thing, but the interpretation of how they do this is in conflict to the others. For a reboot/AU idea, this could be something like the Vahi but as a leader-type person - the "protocol" meant to keep the matorans in line to ensure the body keeps functioning properly. Not in the way the vahi were misused by Teridax, but but fully duing what their purpose is, not aware, or not able to act on the awareness, that the Matornas have gained sapience maybe. ANother inspiration for this idea, that I thought about while watching the video, was another one about D&D. Specifically, in that video the youtuber explains a scenario he had in a campaign, where a priest of Tiamat sees her and by extension the "chaotic" side of the alignment table as "freedom" while seeing "Order/lawfull" and Bahamut as "opressive". This would be a similar thing.

Since Makuta were able to create Rahkshi and dangerous Rahi up until the end, without problem- a process requiring Kraata/Virus transforming them via Protodermis as it's their destiny - could this mean conscious beings were the ones with individual fates like Takua not transforming in dark mirror despite the Avohki, Matoro still sacrificing himself in the kingdom despite Mata Nui having died..., while wild beasts were uneffected of individual fates? Or were the Makuta an exception since they originated from the conscious antidermis and it maybe being destined for a greater purpose allowed the Makuta spawnlings to keep making Rahkshi, Visorak, Rahi Nui,... despite those creatures being counterproductive for the Toa ( and Co.) s' destinies.

Amazing!

Destiny as a "cosmic force" only really applies to characters like Motoro, Jaller, Takua, ect. Imo. Like, being "destined" to become toa is a common thing but Jaller and Takanuva were arguably the only 2 who absolutely should've. Jaller had everything going for him and was bbn uncorruptable, while Takua was one of the first Matoran so he had to be the one to fulfill the prophecy since there were no other Av Matoran present to become a Light Toa. And even in Motoro's case, he more-so just took one for the team cuz he understood he was the most expendable and believed in the cause. Furthermore, Mata Nui choosing who becomes Toa is literally just a robot promoting its effective red blood cells to white ones. It's like a teacher picking who would be the leader of a school project.

I feel like this is as good a place as any to ask this question, but what does the word Bionicle mean in the Bionicle universe? Vakama says he’s telling “the legend of the Bionicle” in the movies and while that may just be for the audience, it’s also specified in the novelization of the movies (at least in Web of Shadows) that he literally said it to the Toa and Matoran gathered to listen to his tale. There’s probably not a real answer to this but it’s something I’ve thought about a lot and I’m curious of what other people think

The two principles of peace (state of no change according to the wiki) and creation seem very antithetical even though they are both derived from destiny, does this reflect on the Matorans' tasks? - Ko-matoran recording, filing Mata Nui's thoughts and experiences for his greater purpose and Po-matoran as builders adapting and improving the inner structures, both working towards Mata Nui grander purpose in their own way.

The way ive always viewed destiny has been greatly shaped by Bionicle and the old Star Wars expanded universe aka Legends and that is Destiny is unavoidable events and choices that no matter what we do are unavoidable but it is our choices and actions between those moments that help shape us as a person and decide what choices and out comes are available to us in those destined moments and weather we get the results we want from them or not is down to us as people and the choices we make we shape our own paths and decide the outcomes of our destiny all based on the actions we take.

Okay, Bohrok were just awoken too early, and i would argue that in some way they were a corruption of all of the virtues, as they were performing their duty not when it was supposed to happen, therefore making destiny an outcome that wasn't beneficial but disastrous, and they were forcing their unity onto everyone. As for Makuta. He knew many things. Honestly I believe he was aware of Robot's purpose, and was planning on reuniting the planets. I do believe that. But i also feel like he would make so in the most beneficial to himself way. In many ways he saw himself as the most important thing in the universe, and so he very much warped three virtues around himself. His version of Metru-nui was this sort of thing. He made Metru-nui work, flawlessly and without break. Honestly in a sense that makes him rather tragic, since to some extent I'm pretty sure he thought this was correct thing to go about his destiny. Makuta don't die from old age. Imagine being ageless being, and one day learning about the ultimate purpose of life. There's only so much conquering you can do and control you can get before you'll start getting bored, and with each year that unknown feeling of ultimate purpose grows more and more on you.... And then you see that the God of your existence is not only not doing his purpose, but you can take his spot, and then you can achieve what you and everything around you was meant to do. Honestly, who wouldn't be tempted to take that opportunity and then try to speed up the process as fast as possible

I’ve heard one theory that the three virtues are similar to some themes of Hinduism.

31:19 So the Matoran are the Jews of Bionicle, nice!

I'M SORRY, "ROBOTS"? **glares at intensely**

Mctorin duty

Toa unity

And Taraga are destiny

I think Bionicle is some weird Nietzsche x Christianity mix

huh. You could make a religion out of this.

I think entirely unintentionally, their principles happen to be quite fascistic. It can easily be twisted into a united race, with a duty to serve their state, and a common racial destiny. A very unfortunate coincidence.