The lexicon page on BS01 lists ‘Roodaka’ as Matoran slang for ‘treachery’, and ‘Spiriah’ as ‘failure’. Now, this is obviously referencing an exchange between Spiriah and Roodaka in Federation of Fear:
“I would sooner offer my neck to a dull axe blade than trust you, female. Your name has become another word for ‘treachery.’”
“Better that than being another word for ‘failure.'"
But am I the only one who thinks this dialogue shouldn’t be taken literally? They’re just witty retorts. Both characters are insulting the other’s bad reputation. They’re not making linguistic statements.
Until a quote from Greg confirms that he indeed meant for the two names to be Matoran slang, I’m chalking this up to literal-minded wiki mania. But what do you think?
I would argue that the statements both are making should be interpreted differently. Spiriah is making the direct claim that Roodaka’s name has become slang for treachery, and in all fairness that is about 60% of what she does, so it’s plausible that Spiriah’s statement is true.
Roodaka’s statement, however, is a lot less specific. Spiriah was well known throughout the Brotherhood for being abominably bad at the one job every Makuta shared - the idea that his name was equated with the word Failure is also plausible, but not as much as the first citation. Whereas Roodaka’s identity was known to an entire continent of people who mostly knew of her legacy, Spiriah was known mostly among his colleagues, and it’s more likely that he himself was synonymous with the word Failure rather than having his name applied as an adjective with equal meaning.
Not that the Brotherhood was above doing otherwise, but given how the Brotherhood treated each other in other instances it seems likelier that they would deride him as an individual rather than immortalizing his name as a concept of incompetence. Plus, individuals associated with failure hardly get their names applied as adjectives in the real world, but treachery is another story - even people well outside of the U.S. know and understand the concept of a Benedict Arnold.