I know a lot of people probably want to see Takua in G3. He was a major character in G1, and leaving him out entirely wouldn’t be right. But I believe there is one main issue with using him in the same way G1 did. To fix this, I propose one key change to his role in the story. He will not be a chronicler.
The concept of a “Chronicler” worked well in G1. The island was unknown, so anything that the audience learned was through Takua being in the right place at the right time. He was just a regular villager who witnessed the adventures of the alien heroes who landed on their island.
However, this concept does not work for G3. The entirety of the story will be told from the toa’s perspective. The toa will start as just regular villagers this time around, so having a villager to pop up at random times to record the events no longer has much meaning. Also, the matoran of G3 seem like they wouldn’t be as interested in the “heroic tales” of the toa. Some of them don’t even like the toa. And having another matoran around for all the major events would only pull the focus away from the real protagonists.
So to fix this… Takua will be a cartographer (map maker).
I see this role fitting very well as a substitute for his G1 role, and it could also help lead to a few plot details in later years. I’ll just dive right in and play out his potential role over the three year run, and even afterwards.
After the toa save the matoran, they begin to have some down time as the lead up to the war starts building. The toa are back in their own regions to help their matoran with whatever they need. During this time, one of the toa sees Takua wandering around their region. Confused by this, they talk to him. He explains his goal of creating a full map of the entire island, instead of the smaller scale ones of a single village or something. He still has his goofy, adventurous spirit, but uses it for a specific goal, instead of just exploring for no reason.
Eventually all the toa would have come across Takua at least once. After having a conversation, they would go their separate ways and we don’t see him again till another toa runs into him. When the war finally begins, he will be absent. He is not much of a fighter, so he has no interest in siding with anyone. Instead, he continues his goal.
Once the war is done and things are settling down, he shows up again. Great news… the map is complete! Huzzah! His life’s mission is done. But this is Takua. He’s not going to be satisfied with just that. Now he wants to map the rest of the world. His first stop… that ominous storm in the distance that never subsides.
He’s just a matoran. He would die trying to go out there. But he won’t back down. So the toa have no choice but to go with him to ensure he doesn’t die. They originally do it for that reason, but soon get curious about the storm themselves. They enter the storm and find the Lightning Village. They explore a bit, until they meet the synthetic toa, Voriki.
Note: I say “synthetic” because Makuta would give Voriki the toa power. She did not gain it from the Elemental Gods, and there is no lightning toa spirit that she can become. Also, due to this, her original name as a matoran would still be Voriki.
The toa and Takua go back to the island and Voriki follows them. While the toa deal with Voriki, Takua decides to continue his exploration. He takes some supplies and a boat, and leaves the island. The toa continue to deal with Voriki and eventually deal with Karzahni too.
If TTV ever decides to take the story to a new island, then Takua returns. He shows them some new maps that he made of the new places he saw. This gives the toa an excuse to explore a new location, just like they did with the storm. If they don’t move to a new place, then Takua can just return with his new maps and be praised for taking his goal so far.