I think G1 Makuta is the greatest villain of all time. He’s resourceful, intelligent, efficient, and successful.
Also, before JTO ended, I thought that maybe G2 Makuta was actually G1 Melding Alternate Universe Terridax (because, ya know, hammers. And gold.)
Since it seems this has been revived, I’ll give my thoughts.
As someone who learned about BIONICLE’s lore through the comics and the novels before ever seeing the movies, Makuta was always a perfect villain in my eyes. He was smart enough to fool everybody - multiple times - that he’d been destroyed or cast away, only to still be lurking nearby, waiting for the next step in his master plan to unfold. He was resourceful enough to never be caught completely off guard, and he always had a contingency plan in place. And he was evil enough to fool and corrupt and lie to just about anybody he deemed either a useful tool or in his way.
The way Teridax was written by Greg Farshtey was my second favorite portrayal, and my first favorite was (if this can even count) his appearance in MNOG. In the latter he came across as a truly demon-like being, untouchable and in a void state of nothingness (as he himself even claims) and smarter than any could comprehend. His dialogue of course was what made him in that game.
My very first true look into the character was through “Makuta’s Guide to the Universe”, written by Greg Farshtey. For those who don’t know, this was basically a comprehensive guide to the Matoran Universe’s most important happenings, accompanied by excerpts from BIONICLE novels and “diary entries” from Teridax himself. Reading “his thoughts” further solidified my opinion that this dude was evil and awesome, and purely unbeatable. Until of course he was crushed, in the end, by destiny.
So, I like him. I like his character and his personality. His name I’m okay with, but it doesn’t really communicate his evil; not like a name such as “Sauron” or “Morgoth”. Like many I would’ve preferred his name to stay a secret.
His portrayal in the movies was… pretty yuck, in my opinion. He came across as merely a greedy thug in my eyes. Which I guess he is no matter what, but in the movies that’s sort of all he was. So I didn’t much care for that. And speaking of things I didn’t care for (and going off-topic a bit), I kind of preferred believing he was actually brother to Mata Nui then knowing he was only one of a species - of which he wasn’t even really the most powerful. If he’d actually been related to Mata Nui instead of being one of the creations, it would’ve made the character’s entire arc that much more emotional - and evil.
But otherwise, I think Teridax is a very capable and cool villain; not the best out there nor my favorite, but definitely great. It was during the early years when his origins and appearance were still mostly unknown that he was the most malevolent, in my opinion. But he’s a pretty fly baddie all around.
And I definitely agree with all you have to say here, Esquire.
I still think G 2 Makuta is more interesting from a character standpoint
Why do you think this? Their motivations are pretty much the same, and any added depth that G2 Makuta has that Teridax doesn’t is just speculation.
Does anyone have any ideas what Makuta was going to do with the Great Spirit Robot once he conquered it? I know part of the plan was actually killing Mata Nui (which he failed to do) but if he had succeeded, what then? Was there a specific goal he had in mind?
from what Teridax told Mata Nui, he wanted to then counqer the universe.
i would just like to say that in truth, Teridax never became a god, oh he became a god of the matoran universe, but lets face it, he was just became a giant robot with an eco system inside of him which he could alter at will, outside of that though he was just a farly large robot, which i find laughable when one says that they are going to use it to take over the universe. Like seriously, just because your big i does not mean that you are all powerful, i can imagine that many alien races would be able to take on Teridax when he tries to take over the universe.
the only weapons the GSR had outside where laser and gravity beams, but really, Teridax did not really have anything like
all he had was a really large robot body, some lasers and a gravity beam in his hands.
oh and lets not forget the unstable energy source, which could blow up the robot if someone was not carefull.
Teridax’ problem is less aliens (which could very well be incredibly weak), and more the fact that it would literally be impossible for him to take over anything more than his local galaxy.
I think Doctor Who have the perfect quote to describe the main problem with Teridax goal to take over the universe:
You don’t want to take over the universe. You wouldn’t know what to do with it beyond shout at it.
Let’s be honest. When you’re a giant robot, that is really all you need 
Wouldn’t he still have control over some of his Makuta Powers also? I mean, he was able to use some of them whilst in the body of Maxilos, so I guess that except for stuff like shapeshifting, intangibility and other stuff that directly influences his body he would still have been able to use the more offensive powers in his Makuta repertoire.
And all of the Makuta powers except shape shifting, which were now about a million times more powerful because of the power of the robot body.
Because being in a more powerful body makes your natural powers stronger in the BIONICLE world.
That’s always been the thing with a character that wants to ‘take over the world’ or the universe, or virtually anything along those lines. Unless you have the ability to be everywhere in the world or everywhere in the universe you wont benefit from being the one owning it. Other than the title its rather meaningless - i mean, if he became a god like G2’s version seemed to be doing then potentially it could work (Unsure if we’re classing that as different version of Teridax or not)
the thing i found the most laughable about Teridax is that his master planning does come of as a bit over the top.
i mean this line from Teridax does come of as a bit silly:
“Little Toa, you have not yet begun to see even the barest outlines of my plans. I have schemes within schemes that would boggle your feeble mind. You may counter one, but there are a thousand more of which you know nothing. Even my… setbacks… are planned for, and so I shall win in the end.”
there just something about it that come of like one could joke about it, like how some people make fun of Batman’s need to plan for every possible event, be it if he is transported to an alternate reality with flying spaghetti monsters, or if he have to take on Cthulhu himself.
the best part is this from TV Tropes:
One of the Piraka once saw Makuta’s plan written out in its entirety. It took up the walls of an entire room, and the Piraka went partially insane after reading it.
is just sounds silly to me.
That’s not true.
However it is strange that Zaktan never mentioned anything to anyone come to think of it. Sure, he wasn’t the Shadowed One’s best buddy (or anyone’s), but wouldn’t reporting the Brotherhood’s Plan to someone have earned him at least some reward? Ah, well, but then it was some pretty dangerous knowledge.
It was also pretty silly to begin with that the Brotherhood wrote down their whole scheme on a wall. Pretty much anyone might have seen it there. What if Mata Nui had decided to take a look at what was going on within his body before returning home?
It was in code. I guess the code-unlock button was obvious, but still…
I think that Teri either forgot about his secret journal, or this fortress was taken by the Dark Hunters before he could erase it.
And then Zaktan destroyed it, so that was the end of that…
~W12~
But Pridak then was able to piece it back together some time later, if I remember correctly.
Worst “secret journal” ever.
i seriously would imagine Teridax writing the entire plan in a journal like this:
Well, all Makuta possess the power of laser vision… and I can’t really see a Makuta carving something into stone when there is an easier way… 
I think the entire Plan basically hinged on Mata Nui being a total donkey to everyone, and his lack of caring whether they lived or died. Mata Nui was a very libertarian ruler, though this was due to a simple lack of caring than any philosophical thought. Contrast that with Teridax, who sought to control it all, in a very fascist fashion.
One of the things that we forget about Mata Nui was how terrible a Great Spirit he actually was. I mean, Teridax had some valid points when he decided to overthrow the guy. If he had gone about it differently, I think there’s a chance that no one would have cared.