The Bohrok make no sense

LEGO BIONICLE
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Everyone loves the Bohrok, right? Cute little destructive robots that curl up into a ball and take over your mind? Wrong! These little freaks make no sense, both in the story and in the meta, and I’m here to tear them apart.

Okay, fine, I love the Bohrok. They’re iconic, the ball function is great, and the Bohrok story is a fun one. But I can and will poke holes in everything I love, because I am Cinemasins. Er, wait, I read my script wrong. Because why not?

1. The Bohrok are unnecessary

We all know the purpose of the Bohrok: they are there to clear away the island of Mata Nui so that the great spirit robot can rise. But… why? They don’t actually get rid of the island, we see that when Gali goes back to it for the sundial, and in the Mata Nui Rising video. All they do is make it barren. This massive robot is perfectly capable of smashing right through the island in order to sit up, but some trees and rivers and hills stop it? This robot is able to move planets, but needs the Bohrok to clean an island off his face?

It might make sense if they cleaned off the whole island. Even though Mata Nui doesn’t really need them to, who wants to wake up with dirt all over your face? But the thing is, the foundation is still there, as we see twice; it just doesn’t have the forests and deserts and mountains.

2. The Bohrok powers make no sense.

Okay, some of them work. Fire and Acid are the most sensible, and jets of water can be pretty strong. Pahrak bringing down the mountains makes a modicum of sense, as does Nuhvok, though neither of these Bohrok actually gets rid of anything – they both move dirt and rock from one place to another. But apparently that’s what the Bohrok are supposed to do, so we’ll let them slide. I guess you can say the Pahrak turn big rocks into smaller rocks, so it’s easier to break through.

The Gahlok also decide to screw over the Nuhvok by flooding Onu-Koro, which accomplishes basically nothing – as much as I love the flooding of Onu-Koro plot, it makes no sense for these Bohrok to ever be underground. According to “Beware the Bohrok” they knock down some Matoran decorations, but the village itself isn’t destroyed. I don’t know how canon that is, since the 01-03 books are semi-canon, but still, the Gahlok are wasting their powers here.

But worst of all are the Kohrak. What do the Kohrak even do? They… freeze things. How does this help? If anything, they are making it harder for something to break through by freezing things solid and covering everything in ice. These Bohrok are actively working against their main objective. Not that it matters, though, since we’ve already established that Mata Nui can smash this island with ease.

3. Lehvak, the Bohrok of… acid?

Okay, here’s a meta one. Each of the Bohrok has the Toa’s elemental power. Some of them are a bit of a stretch, like the Nuhvok, who are basically just drills and don’t really have a ‘power’, but they’re all shoehorned to fit. Except Lehvak.

It’s not as if Air isn’t destructive. Ask anyone who’s been in a tornado to tell you. Heck, Lewa himself demonstrates this when he gets krana’d and starts working for the swarm. Why did Lego change this one? If you’re going to change one Bohrok power, why not make it the one that doesn’t actually destroy stuff? Why is Kohrak shoe-horned to the Toa element but Lehvak gets his own element? It gets even weirder when Lehvak-Kal gets to be air while all the other Kal get their own elements.

4. What’s up with the Krana?

Okay, so you have an island that’s not supposed to be there, and the Bohrok are there to clean it all. Except there’s people on it. What do you do?

Well, obviously those people need to be removed. For their own safety as well as the purpose of the Bohrok. So you have the Krana, which can control your mind and force you to leave. Makes perfect sense… except that’s not what Krana do. They assimilate their wearer into the swarm, make them part of the hivemind.

This makes no sense. Bohrok, despite being described as insectoid, are not insects. They’re janitors. The Krana controlling your mind makes sense if they make get out of the swarm’s way, but why do they decide to recruit you?

Okay, actually this last one has a perfectly logical explanation: the Great Beings were clinically insane. I can see them going “sure, let’s make the janitors recruit anyone who gets in their way.”

Anyway, that’s enough ranting for now. Bionicle was weird, we all know that. Just wanted to ramble a bit because I’m TTV. Wait, misread my script again. Because it was on my mind.

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All valid points, but have you considered the Rule of Cool? =P

No, but seriously, you’re not wrong. I suppose the Bohrok are mostly just a workers’ union for metamorphosed Av-Matoran who are given the most menial and inconsequential of jobs. And you get what you pay for. Which is to say, exactly nothing useful. =P

I do wanna hear your takes on the Bohrok Va and Bohrok Queens, though. The Janitor Sidekicks and Queen Janitresses.

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YOU GET AWAY FROM MY SETS MONSTER

oh wait… nvm

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Bohrok Va are cute, they’re justified.

Okay, but seriously, they make sense-ish. Sense adjacent. Bohrok can lose their Krana, because for some reason the Bohrok use their brains to get rid of living obstacles. Okay, we’ve established the GBs are weirdos. If the Bohrok Va can operate without Krana, why can’t the Bohrok? Well, the Va also don’t have fancy powers. The Krana probably make the Bohrok more powerful somehow (except Nuhvok, who are glorified drills).

As for the giant chickens, I mean Bahrag… sure. Having a single – well, double – unit to lead thousands of Bohrok and keep them organized makes sense. Though the Gahlok kinda screw over the Nuhvok in Onu-Wahi, so maybe the Bahrag aren’t so great at their jobs. Or maybe there should just be one Bahrag after all.

I say we fire the red one. Red is so oversaturated in Bionicle.

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You know, I kind of agree with all of this. I would argue, though, that clearing the island of Mata Nui was at least a kind of useful purpose. I haven’t refreshed myself recently on the Bohrok lore, but if I recall they were levelling mountains and caving in areas and getting rid of trees. These all have some level of purpose:

  • Levelling mountains: Getting rid of some of the biggest lumps of stone (weight) so the face can lift. Sure, the robot can smash through it, but hypothetically the Bohrok could do that to extremely tough things as well, in case the robot got stuck or something.
  • Clearing trees: Gets rid of places for wildlife to live. Presumably the Great Beings wouldn’t want their Rahi to get hurt, so getting rid of their habitats forces them to move elsewhere, namely back into the robot.
  • General janitorial duties: Bohrok were discovered inside the robot itself, so if I had to guess they’re a sort of automatic janitor crew, not a highly intelligent one. So, it would (somewhat) reasonably follow that they take care of basic things or simple tasks that are automatically detected by the robot, so it very well could have just been robot protocol that they get dispatched to the island of Mata Nui (and may have been one of those silly mandatory procedures that has to happen before liftoff).

On the Krana:

  • My guess as to why they recruit is because the Krana function as the brains of the Bohrok and the Bohrok have somewhat limited powers. Sure, they’re strong, but my guess is that they take over others if they need a power they don’t have.

As I said before, I haven’t refreshed myself recently so please correct me if I’m wrong. Overall, I think you have some good points. With a bit of stretching I think we can explain it, but I will say this: lego what the heck just give my mans lehvak air powers what is this

Too long, didn’t read: Points make sense, stretch it a bit and we can see some semblance of logic.

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I thought the nuhvok were else where on the island? Maybe flooding the caves is some kind of method to make them collapse?

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It’s possible the Mata Nui Robot just doesn’t have the torque necessary to overcome the counterforce of the island, needing all its strength just to lift its gigantic head.

Also Kohrak is the ice Bohrok because he is able to shoot icy blasts from his claws?? Willess how do you not understand why that is completely necessary for Bohroking?

I do think Miney has a point regardong the Bohrok found so deep within the robot. The citizens of GSR were never meant to be on the island to begin with, yet they’re the only life forms that can be assimilated by krana. It makes sense to me that the Bohrok would likely have alternative deployment, in locations that might result in crossed paths. Otherwise, like you basically ask, why have the assimilation tactic to begin with?

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On both of these, I think you’re correct. The Bohrok would function like the cleaning robots from Wall-E, removing obstacles that prevent the GSR from working correctly. In fact, the reason they don’t do their job correctly in the story is because Teridax activated them manually, without giving them a sufficient reason to destroy Mata Nui.

Also, the Krana and Va would easily be for help for the Bohrok. The Krana were used in-story for transferring commands to a being that was in danger of destroying a Bohrok, the Va were simply droids that work as foot soldiers for the main Bohrok force. Both would perform functions that the Bohrok by design would be incapable of performing, such as using handheld tools and commanding beings. A Rahi would be easier to remove alive if it has a Krana telling it to leave the island, rather than sending an army of Kohraks to herd it away.

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In the books the Nuhvok are shown drilling out the tunnels when a Nuhvok Va warns them to evacuate, just before the flood waters hit.

Which reminds me of another point: in the animations the Nuhvok are shown in Le-Koro, using their drills to chop down trees, after the flood. Theory: the Bahrag sent the Gahlok to flood the tunnels, meaning the Nuhvok had to leave because only the Gahlok are equipped for underwater destruction, so they went to Le-Koro to be chainsaws because they had nothing to do.

That’s actually a good point. The Rahi were mostly there because they were fleeing the Visorak, but A) the Visorak are something the GB’s planned for, and B) there could be Rahi or native wildlife that find their way to the island regardless.

Wonder if this means that there’s other Bahrag, too?

This would explain the Kohrak, too; their powers are useless for clearing Mata Nui, but they could be useful for something else Bohrok are needed for, like maybe patching an Energized Protodermis leak or something.

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I know that there were shown to be Bohrok being created up until the Battle of Bara Magna, so that would make sense that there would be extra Bahrag to control them. Unless Teridax overrode them by the end.

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…

begins MOCing

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Another thing here. Since the matoran weren’t always sapient, including them in the hivemind makes sense to me. The krana were essentially a flash drive with new code that would allow the matoran to partake in cleaning

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Because they are Kohrak, the ice Bohrok.

But ice do break rocks, or at least the constant change of phase of the water in mountains cracks the rocks, because ice use more space than liquid water.

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wait what do they do? its like cold or something? wouldn’t that be useful for taking trees and plants down

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The Bohrok make a lot more sense if one choose to interpret them as more generalized cleaning crew for the exterior of the robot, which is sort of implied by them cleaning off the island/face anyway (no matter what Greg specifically says on the matter). The various elements may not all make much sense, but it doesn’t hurt to have them around if they end up being needed for something.

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Honestly, a lot of the weirdness behind the Bohrok (and a lot of older concepts in BIONICLE tbh) is a consequence of the lore constantly evolving. While the twist about Mata Nui was planned since the very beginning, the precise details surrounding it were not and were constantly being revised behind the scenes. It’s like slowly building a puzzle but the pieces keep changing shape and older ones no longer fit.

Like the Bohrok were always planned to be related to the matoran but not how. One of the original ideas is that they shared a common ancestor but evolved in different directions. Why do bohrok have krana? Because it’s their counterpart to kanohi. Why do they have elemental powers (before air was changed to acid)? Because so do the Toa and their tribes.

Why does the Great Spirit need bugs to clean his face when he’s powerful enough to move planets? Because his backstory was only hammered out years later.

BIONICLE is like a masterpiece that’s held together by scotch tape and elmer’s glue.

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Forgive my lack of knowledge of physics and geology, I could be completely wrong about this, but I wonder if the Gahloks’ plan was to flood the tunnels to soften them to bring the entire mountain down from the inside. That could break up the ice, which could be easier than trying to melt it all from the top, where high winds and sheer cold could make it more diffficult.

Also, I can see there being times when the swarm can more easily cool the lava flows with ice rather than water.

Still, if the swarms are trying to keep other creatures from getting inside the robot, and they put a krana on a creature to get it to leave the island, what happens to the krana? Are there a bunch of planets where the GSR left behind krana?

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