This must have been intentional, and I can't believe I never noticed.

[Pakari]

Hello everyone on the Boards!

Allow me to explain…

At the beginning of Bionicle, this is what we were shown, and promised. Two insanely powerful beings fighting for the souls of the dozens of tiny beings on the sand beneath their feet.

At the end of Bionicle, this is indeed what we got, just in a way we never could have imagined. Two insanely powerful beings, fighting for the souls of the beings on the sand beneath their feet.

One more thing:

The distinctive three cheek marks on the Mata Nui stone.

The distinctive three cheek marks of the Ignika, Mata Nui’s signature mask.

Now, listen, I realize this is sort of an obvious realization. Hence the title.

But how did I not ever realize this? The story came total full circle, and we haven’t been giving it enough credit.

Makuta really was Mata’s Nui evil brother. There he is, standing before him, perhaps even more powerful. He wasn’t some random individual of a species that did the impossible. He well and truly was Mata-Nui’s destined equal, and no one can tell me otherwise after I’ve noticed these obvious parallels.

Thank you for reading my insane ramblings. Please leave any other revelations you might have noticed of other such obvious narrative parallels below.

As always,
Comment and Discuss!

[ToaNoah_Wafflemeister]

Even better about the rock part is that Mata Nui’s position has been uprooted and taken by Makuta, just like in the story.

[rainsong]

I can’t believe I never realized this, that’s kinda awesome. As another point in the “Makuta is Mata Nui’s brother” column, iirc it somehow became known that Makuta was always intended to take control of one of the robots and help him rebuild Spherus Magna anyways? Don’t know why it would be Teridax in particular… I had remembered something about Teridax being the first made, but BS01 has nothing to say on the matter; must be remembering it from a fan-fic or something. I’ll have to think on it some more, see if I can’t come up with something.

[Lesnichiy]

Very cool revelations! Especially those two pictures with amaja circle and the final battle. About the second one: on early years of Bionicle Hau was the symbol of Mata Nui… And it also has these marks on cheeks! Maybe somebody already noticed that before me, though…

[Toa-of-Snow]

This is why I love the Ignika so much - it’s not just an insanely cool design, it’s the only mask design with such intentional symbolic references embedded into the plastic. The fact that Faber himself, an independent art designer, created that mask - as opposed to just a product team - really shows, and it’s one of the most iconic masks in the series as a result, I feel.

And I’m saying that without ever having even noticed the cheeks, which just makes that even cooler. It might be why having Mata-Nui wear that mask never felt out-of-place.

I kind of subconsciously connected the stones thing, although I never explicitly noticed just how similar those two visuals are.

Bionicle had some much more sophisticated strokes of foreshadowing and symbolism than most people ever realize (and, frankly, way more than you’d expect from a companion story to a plastic toy).
It’s an incredibly rare thing to see in any media these days, but especially in something aimed at children, and it’s probably a big part of why a respectively high proportion of those children still care about it now that they’re adults, as opposed to having moved on as they got older.

Awesome find, well spotted.

[TheMightyObsidianDude]

@Pakari

The distinctive three cheek marks on the Mata Nui stone.

The distinctive three cheek marks of the Ignika, Mata Nui’s signature mask.

To be fair, originally the cheek marks (and the open mouth, and so on) signified the Hau. There’s a reason that the infected mask in the promo material was a Hau, it’s Mata Nui’s symbol of protection, safety and guidance being corrupted by the Makuta’s influence. Though recontextualized in this way, I imagine Faber did intend the marks on the mask here to be reminiscent of Mata Nui’s representative stone in the Amaja circle. Good spot!

[Pakari]

@Lesnichiy

About the second one: on early years of Bionicle Hau was the symbol of Mata Nui… And it also has these marks on cheeks!

@TheMightyObsidianDude

To be fair, originally the cheek marks (and the open mouth, and so on) signified the Hau. There’s a reason that the infected mask in the promo material was a Hau, it’s Mata Nui’s symbol of protection, safety and guidance being corrupted by the Makuta’s influence.

These are both correct, and I’m embarrassed that I forgot this! Yes, the original Mata Nui Stone design is meant to be a representation of the Hau.

That being said, I agree with @TheMightyObsidianDude:

@TheMightyObsidianDude

I imagine Faber did intend the marks on the mask here to be reminiscent of Mata Nui’s representative stone in the Amaja circle.

Definite intentional callback, for sure. Not to mention the visage of the GSR that’s also iconic to the mask, but that’s something we all realized post-2009.

It’s important to note that these marks were always intended as a part of the design from the beginning:

And even appear in other forms of the mask that were less developed:

We don’t need to talk about the Bionicle Heroes Ignika.

So yes, it’s clear to me that the Ignika was, to some degree, intentionally based off the Hau, and therefore linked to Mata Nui.

Something else I’m thinking of now that’s a massive stretch, but neat to think of anyways, is the three prongs on the top of the Ignika. These were also always meant to be in the design, and the fact that there are three of them could mean different things. Of course, they could be the well-known Bionicle trinity of Unity, Duty, and Destiny, and I think you could read them that way. Alternatively, interpreted alongside the GSR on the mask, could they be representations of Aqua, Bota, and Bara Magna? Was the Mask of Life the key to deciphering the entire story this whole time? I doubt anyone could have figured it out just by three random prongs on a mask, but the fact that the entire story revolves around a giant robot and a set of three objects makes the design of the Ignika even deeper, if not retrospectively.

Also the pose of the robot on the Ignika could be taken as this moment:

Outstretched arms, wide legs, gathering together three pieces.

[TheMightyObsidianDude]

I think that’s definitely a very interesting possibility. As outlandish as it sounds, I certainly wouldn’t put it past Faber as a designer, that sounds right up his alley

[darkbrick999]

The straight eye-line and grove directly down the middle of the mask makes the original comic Ignika look even more like the Mata Nui Stone than the final version.