This is objectively incorrect. It has been explicitly stated many times that Jaller was revived by Takutanuva using Teridax’s life force to regenerate his mind and body:
(And that doesn’t even touch on all the times it was mentioned in published sources as well)
Again, this is objectively incorrect. Not only did Greg canonize the powers suggested in the Expanded Multiverse project, but he also answered later questions about the mask:
Well, basically what everyone else said…
Also,
There seems to be a confusion here. The ability to use mask powers of certain levels is not the same as mask dependence. If we take the entire MU population as a full set, we can distinguish a subset of beings who can wear masks and those who do not. The former can further be subdivided into those who need to wear them in order to function properly and those who wear them facultatively. Both of those groups can be subdivided again based on the power level of the masks whose power they can/cannot access (powerless, noble, great). The incompatibility I am talking about lies within this last group of subsets: Matoran cannot access the power of the noble or great mask because it is too much for their hardware to handle. Note that this only applies to the portion of the energy used to activate mask powers, not the one serving as an additional power source for the mask-wearing being.
So if Shadowed One could use Kanohi (there are mixed answers about this possibilty), then yes, he could no doubt use great masks at his power level. But if he cannot use masks in general, then the power level becomes irrelevant.
The story is saturated with life force mentions - that is the very reason I made this summary. If I were to include every single mention here, the topic would run out of character limit. Same goes for other energy types. But the information is out there for anyone to research. I just summarised what that information tells us about their properties and how they work.
Greg was part of the story team and he knew about it, so saying the story team had no idea about the mask is kind of silly.
What about the actual published physical book?
I never said anything like this. Squids suck out life force specifically. The example of reviving beings with regular physical energy was what would happen under your interpretation of life force not existing. And we see it does not work that way in story.
Obviously a damaged body eventually leads to death, that is why I said:
Also, Jaller’s body was not disintegrated like you seem to imply (we do see his dead body and it is intact). The reason we later see his mask only is because the body was teleported to the Red Star.
No, it’s because Hahli took the mask from Jaller’s body as a symbolic gesture. The story doesn’t tell us what happened to Jaller’s original body.
(though I do personally love the theory that it was in fact sent to the Red Star, and there’s a second Jaller up there)
Maybe not confirmed outright, but there certainly was discussion about it (I recall Greg saying it makes sense or something along those lines), but I would have to look deeper into it.
The point was the body was intact, not destroyed with only his mask left.
But that doesn’t really matter for @Ignition’s point:
Whether Jaller’s body still existed somewhere or not, it doesn’t change the fact that Takutanuva made a new one from scratch.
That being said, the point quoted above doesn’t really make sense either: it’s absolutely about energy. How else is a body going to materialize out of nowhere? I’m pretty sure that’s the whole point of the scene, that Takutanuva made a new body using Teridax’s life force, based off the imprint on the mask.
Yes, the imprint is like a temporary back up file with all the information needed to revive the recently deceased wearer if enough life force is provided.
It isn’t what Greg said about that. He said the process is similar to what Red Star does. And Red Star has no life force. It has machinery that makes protodermis and no substance else. His point is there is a universal energy that both organic and inorganic beings share, but Red Star doesn’t really deal with unemechanical life.
But Jaller wasn’t sent to the Red Star. He remained dead until being revived by Takutanuva, since Mata Nui is located outside of the GSR. This is the same explaination on how Reysa died and was never sent to the Red Star, as he was killed and dragged off by a squid near Mahri Nui, which was outside of the GSR at the time.
If the Red Star doesn’t have life force, how does it bring its duplicates to life?
Good point, although the whole thing about Jaller’s revival was always very muddy. Once the Red Star functionality came into the equation years later, it became even muddier. I am aware of the fact that RS shouldn’t detect beings outside MU, but there have been many different interpretations of the RS limits even by Greg himself. Also the story itself alludes to various options, some of which contradict the MU limitation. I don’t want to go into extremely long discussion about this here, but I can at least try to give few arguments for why Jaller could have been transported to RS:
First of all, one of the few general interpretations floating around, is that the RS can transport anyone inside the MU, but also anyone located within the outline of the GSR, meaning the island of Mata Nui - a product of GSR camouflage system - would be eligible. On the contrary, Reysa was specifically dragged into the Black Water, which lies beyond the edge of the GSR body, placing him outside the RS influence.
Next, Mata Nui island contains several key locations which are in fact elevated parts of the GSR body. One of them is Kini Nui, which includes an entrance to the robot’s insides. Even more interesting is the fact that Kini Nui has its own dedicated teleportation machinery - one able to communicate and transport between other similar key locations of GSR origin, such as the Great Telescope (we learn this in MNOG II). Jaller died in Kini Nui, so it is concievable RS would register him as located in MU. This coincides with the fact that we don’t see Jaller’s body after he died, only the mask. Of course this piece of continuity is retroactive, but it works perfectly. I will also note that Kini Nui is a sensor array of the robot and had a role in sending out summoning signals, so it realy seems the complex machinery and sensors of GSR and RS should be aware that someone is at the site and should be able to communicate this information.
Third and perhaps the most obvious piece of evidence is that RS has built in system specifically designed to detect Matoran outside of MU - the one that transformed Toa Inika. Since the RS can do this, there is no reason why the revival function could not make use of this detection. Perhaps it is connected with the first point I made - the one about the outline of GSR. While the future Inika travelled in toa canisters, they were inside the GSR outline during their whole journey.
I will finish this write up mentioning the theory about Jaller’s revival, which multiple people (including myself) came up with independently. Details may vary, but the core of it is always identical. Takutanuva’s act of transfering his life force temporarily re-energized the broken down components of the RS which prevented revived individuals from returning to the MU, thus teleporting Jaller’s body back (and yes they were inside MU at this point because they were in Mangaia). The mask imprint in this case would serve as a recognition for which body to transport.
The other popular version of this theory also assumes Jaller was revived on RS, but does not include the transportation back. In this verion, a brand new Jaller was created in Mangaia with identical memories personality etc. to the original, while the first Jaller was revived and subsequently trapped on the Red Star. This created a sort of Dekar/Hydraxon situation.
I believe Greg has commented on both versions at some point and the answers he used, did not rule out the possibility of Jaller being teleported to RS after his death. As to the theory as a whole, he did not confirm either version but I recall him saying it made sense.
I don’t think there’s any evidence for this theory, and Greg has specifically stated that beings must be inside the robot.
I specifically disagree with this part:
We don’t know exactly where Mahri Nui was located. We can’t make this claim with certainty.
I agree that this could make sense conceptually, but, again, it is contradicted by the fact that Greg has explicitly stated that beings must be inside the Great Spirit Robot to be revived.
Ultimately, though, I still agree that Jaller could have been revived by the Red Star by virtue of the points in your second paragraph; Kini Nui and the Great Telescope kind of blur the “boundaries” of the Matoran Universe, so it’s conceivable that someone could be revived from these locations.
Beyond that, though, I can’t think of any point at which the “must be inside the universe” rule might have been violated.
Also, the novelization of The Mask Of Light sheds a bit more light on the specifics behind Jaller’s revival:
The shadowy side of Takutanuva reached out a hand. A powerful pulse of dark and light energy shot out from his fingertip, blasting into Jaller’s mask.
Hahli stepped back as the mask took on a life of its own. As she watched in amazement, Jaller’s body quickly regenerated from the mask —his head, his body, his legs bursting into existence out of nothing. A dim glow lit up the eyes behind the mask, and a moment later Jaller fell backward weakly.
This seems to show that the body is being generated from scratch from the mask, rather than being transported from somewhere else.
(I also personally prefer this interpretation because of the idea that there’s a duplicate Jaller on the Red Star)
True, but he also answered some questions in a manner where that did not seem to be the case (at least not strictly). I believe those kind of answers initiated the theory.
Actually we do. I made extra sure when posting this bit. Please see the following evidence - first this paragraph describing the geography of Mahri Nui:
Keeping this description in mind, here is the illustration of all geographical locations in relation to the GSR made by Faber:
We see that Mahri Nui (here Ancor city) is located on the very edge of the GSR body. Another illustration by faber shows the edge and Mahri Nui itself as described in the text:
This shows that Greg’s text exactly follows the geography put forward by Faber.
Reysa was dragged into the black water…
…which we know is part of Aqua Magna landscape and not a feature of GSR:
Therefore, Reysa while alive was within the GSR outline, but was dragged outside of it and killed.
Probably, but it could also mean that the body was teleported and the observers present interpreted it as a new body being created. I personally don’t subscribe to either version 100%, but the duplicate scenario is certainly more interesting.
Hmm, interesting theory, even if I don’t fully agree.
Well, just saying, it said that he fired a blast of dark and light energy to create the body. A teleporter does not use elemental energy to transport bodies.
There are no canonical information he did that. In fact, canon clearly state light and shadow as elements cancel each other.
There actually is canonical information that he did that, in those exact words and everything. From the Mask of Light novelization:
The shadowy side of Takutanuva reached out a hand. A powerful pulse of dark and light energy shot out from his fingertip, blasting into Jaller’s mask.
Yes, the book itself would be the evidence. Although I think the choice of words was just an artitic depiction of the life force transfer emphasizing th It e duality of Takutanuva. It shouldn’t have been the actual elemental energy. Then again I mentioned in the opening post, how the various energy types do interact and affect each other even though they’re separate. Creation of a new body, or re-energizing RS both require lots of energy, so there is no reason why Takutanuva couldn’t in addition to life force, use some elemental energy to aid in either task.
I wonder if that was moral light and shadow coming from Takutanuva’s hand, and those moral energies combined play into the energy form we consider life?
The depiction being moral light and shadow is pretty interesting idea! I like it.
That would mean those whose balance isn’t perfect are not alive
