A little earlier today I asked myself a question: Do we know WHY everyone was afraid of Makuta returning? I mean, the Mask of Ultimate Power is broken, what makes him so “powerful” to everyone? All we know is that he’s good at manipulating people.
Then a small detail I previously thought weird but also insignificant hit me. When Gali goes to the Shadow Realm, she doesn’t do it physically, she does it spiritually. Her essence, soul, conscience, whatever you want to call it, was stripped from her body by Makuta, but her physical form stayed where it was. Her spirit could easily interact within the Shadow Realm, and it still contained the same characteristics that her physical form did. My question is, why was her spirit the only thing that was transferable to the Shadow Realm, and what does that mean for Makuta?
It then occurred to me that Makuta is actually in the exact same state. Whenever we see him appear on Okoto, it’s through a muddled spiritual connection, but not in a physical form because Okoto seems to reject having a spiritual entity without a body, so Makuta doesn’t appear all that clear. This might also be why he can’t return to Okoto without special outside help, and it’s the same reason Gali had to wait for that same outside help.
Now, Gali had a body to return to, but what of Makuta, who had nothing? That might’ve been his whole game. If he could return physically as a spirit to Okoto, that not only messes up the balance, but might also give him special abilities that we aren’t aware of. A spirit without a body isn’t constrained by physical limitations, and Makuta being their in full power only in a spiritual form would quite possibly be a dire situation indeed. This is a guy you wouldn’t be able to physically touch (you cannot destroy me, for I am nothing), but he could physically harm you. If only they had explained it like this at the end of JtO, he wouldn’t have felt like such a pushover, because it would mean that Makuta simply walking out of the portal would be the end of all of Okoto, that his power would be far too great for anyone or anything to stop. It would have made sense for him to be beaten at the time he was, because once he escaped no one would have been able to put him down. It would have made him seem mighty and unstoppable, so the only chance the Toa had was at that moment, and that’s why they were so willing to sacrifice themselves to end it right there. Too bad we never get exposition for anything, ever. That would have saved JtO’s extremely meh ending in my eyes.
All of that other stuff is trivial, this is the only argument that holds water, and even then it could easily be argued that Makuta’s own body was destroyed in the cataclysm, especially after all those cracks that were starting to develop on him. If physical forms were allowed in the Shadow Realm, then Gali’s body would have went there too. Now please, I don’t wish to argue over my headcanon, alright?
Are you actually denying that the events of the Great Cataclysm happened…? That’s how Ekimu ended up in the crater. There was an explosion. We’ve been told this ever since 2015.