The Morbuzakh is still alive (theory)

We all know the Morbuzakh, the vines from the first half of 2004 that existed to give the Toa something to do until the movie happens. The Toa wind up using the Great Disks to destroy it, severing the King Root and leaving the vines to wither away, ridding the city of Metru Nui of the Morbuzakh… for at least a few years.

Yes, despite all their celebration at the end that they’ve defeated the Morbuzakh, we are given every indication that this is temporary at best. First, in both Trial By Fire and the comic Seeds of Doom, we see Morbuzakh seeds hidden in the rafters of an abandoned furnace. This particular excerpt is interesting:

“It’s reproducing,” said Whenua, “and we have no idea how many other seeds might be waiting to sprout. Their roots will link up with the king root and the Morbuzakh will be everywhere.”

So the seeds can take root, and they aren’t connected to the king root, meaning they wouldn’t die when the king root did. And even if we assume this is the only building that was seeded(unlikely), Vakama himself says that when Nuju and Onewa destroyed the building, they likely only slowed down the new seedlings.

Later, in Trial By Fire, we actually see some young Morbuzakh vines that have taken root, and are advanced enough to communicate with each other. The Morbuzakh itself is watching over these. They were in the Great Furnace, so they probably got destroyed when the King Root brought the building down.

In fact, this is actually confirmed. Check this out:

The Young Morbuzakh at the entrance died, but there may be more seeds waiting to hatch.

And again

It’s very jarring to see Greg saying “hee hee hee” in an answer.

According to the Encyclopedia updated, the vines were not seen again. However, we don’t know how long it would take for them to reach the size of the king root and start wreaking havoc. All we know is that the original Morbuzakh was created “several years” before Makuta took over Metru Nui, which in Bionicle could mean anywhere from 3 years to 30,000 years. Teri probably made the plant after his takeover of the Brotherhood, but that’s still 79,100 years ago.

But wait! Didn’t the Karzahni plant get reborn in like a few weeks? Yes and no. It didn’t reproduce, it was reborn when parts of its original root were submerged in the sea. That’s not what happened to the Morbuzakh. It’s quite possible that those seeds would grow a lot slower than the Karzahni chute.

Well, what do you think? Is old Morzy still out there somewhere? Could he come back? Is Greg just a massive troll author?

hee hee hee…

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I love this notion and I would not be surprised if a MU seed can hold for over a millennium, but didn’t the Morbuzakh need heat to live? That’s probably why the seedlings sought to link with the king root to begin with; if they have a means of communicating with each other, they likely don’t need to be linked to His Royal Highness Root to talk with it. That makes me think they link up for sustenance.

With the Great Furnace busted, there probably wasn’t enough juice to keep a king root thriving, so any sprouted seedlings wouldn’t last long on their own. But I 100% subscribe to the idea of the seeds surviving at least, and as far as I’m concerned so did Karzahni, and we were cheated of a Karzahni v. Morbuzakh invasive species conquest story arc

Or I may be super duper wrong

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He definitely liked to leave himself some loose threads to work with. Another example is the Toa of Plasma that Zaktan interrogated.

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That would be epic… Morbuzakh invades the jungles of Bota Magna, and Velika is forced to join with the Toa to defeat it.

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very interesting decision, pointed out a lot of things I’ve never heard of both

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hee hee hee

My headcanon is that Zaktan ate him

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It could be cool to see the Toa return in the future of the story, though I struggle to see how any scenario could arise where his previous encounter with Zaktan is relevant. Sure, he could just show up as a new Toa that happens to have been briefly mentioned before, but that just feels like a wasted setup.

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His spirit begins haunting Zaktan, driving him slowly insane (if that’s even possible) as the Piraka is unable to consume him a second time, and suffers hallucinations of the Toa pursuing him.

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They tend to waste alot of characters just for plot exposition.

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