My only concern in terms of contradicting canon is that I believe MU inhabitants don’t actually physically eat; they instead ingest the energy from food through their body without actually consuming anything. I think they do phsyically drink, however.
Some info from the Matoran article on BS01:
Matoran have the ability to eat by coming into physical contact with an energy-bearing object such as a fruit, berry, or fish. In place of an organic heart, Matoran have some sort of power plant containing their life force. Matoran breathe oxygen and, like organic beings, they need to drink water or liquid protodermis in order to survive. They do not need to eat or sleep as much as their Agori counterparts, due to their partially mechanical nature. Matoran will not undergo physical aging as long as their mechanical components are maintained, although it is unknown if they can show signs of mental aging.
EDIT: Just seen that Greg said apparently the story team never discussed any details relating to MU inhabitant anatomy, so you’re mostly fair game!
Ah, I remember that. I never really understood how they could absorb the energy from a fruit or something like that, though. Fish - well, in the Matoran Universe fish are also biomechanical, so there might be the possibility of leeching out their… electricity or whatever (now I have a picture in my head of some Matoran “vampire” stalking other Matoran…).
However, if they need to drink, what @Scorpion_Strike wrote about their digestive system might actually work for food, too. I mean, why do they need to drink? Does the fluid inside them work as some kind of cooling water? Or do they need specific ions and whatnot that are dissolved in the liquid in order to survive?
In any way the water or Protodermis they drink likely isn’t free of germs. And those germs probably would find a well temperated closed space pretty nice to grow in. So somehow this has to be prevented - with acid like in our stomach.
And if the Toa’s body needs ions, there also would have to be a way for them to get into the “blood” (although I’m wondering… blood?) Anyways, if ions can get into the blood, why not certain other molecules, too?
The problem is - how is “food” actually digested? Would acid really be enough or are there some kinds of enzymes needed, too?
An interesting addition would be how the kanohi actually modify the toa, stuff like the Kaukau could be simple with the mask being able to turn water into oxygen really easily, but then theres stuff like the pakari or kakama, would it inject some kind of adrenaline substance to the body to make it stronger? I have little grasp on biology so if anyone wants to take a shot they could do a way better job than me.
I get that a lot oh kanohi don’t have biological effects on the user but some do.
I’d treat Kanohi as some form of Technology rather than some sort of Biological enhancement otherwise stuff like the Olmak and such would get a bit bizzare. Either that or Kanohi are specialized and vary in how they operate from person to person. This would also kind of make sense when you think of how Lhikan’s mask turned into a normal Hau with Jaller. Maybe it’s like a software program that interacts with the hardware of the character in question and when something like a Greater Hau is incompatible with inferior Hardware it downgrades itself.
Yeah, I think that most mask powers could be modeled through manipulating one or more elements rather than actually altering the user’s physiology, though it can definitely appear as though they are doing the latter. A mask of speed, for example, would temporarily speed up the user in time; they’re not running faster from their perspective but they are faster from everyone else’s. A mask of strength would probably mess with the powers of gravity on the objects that he user is attempting to manipulate to amplify their effective strength… stuff like that.
In that case, how about ridiculously fast applications of the power of Magnetism to their metal bones to make his legs move unnaturally fast? Could also be done with gravity… or iron.
Also don’t forget this theory would also explain how things like infected Kanohi and Krana could put wearers under their control.
Since it proposed Kanohi as some kind of interface between the brain and the body, those things in Kanohi’s place could potentially disrupt wearer’s own commands, and instead transmit rogue signals from other sources (Makuta or Bahrag queens in this case) to the body, effectively taking complete control.
Yah as @AwesomeJoel27 says, The Makuta made all Rahi from Viruses (I assume this extends to Kraata as well as to Infected Kanohi, the latter of which might act as like a Trojan) Krana on the other hand are from Bohrok which I guess could kind of be another program that could aggressively take over the wearer.
Interesting idea, but I don’t think that works. Doesn’t really explain how one could run up a wall using the Kakama, or vibrate really fast to escape something (Pohatu has done this to escape a stone trap before). If the mask only made them be perceived as moving faster, that would imply they already can move fast enough to do these things.
No, it’d speed them up in time; to them, they’re still just running or moving themselves back and forth in space at a normal pace, but to the outside world (which is “slowed down” relative to them) they’d be going so much faster, with proportional increases in momentum. If a character sped up 3x ran into a structure other being, they’d impart three times as much energy on whatever they ran into, hence producing the “force magnification” that would allow Pohatu to escape the stone trap or knock the utter crap out of a Makuta by ramming into them.
Vahi can speed up and/or slow down based on (desperate attempts at) user control. A Kakama has one setting, which makes it significantly more manageable mentally. Think of the Kakama as a lesser Vahi; the masks even share some similar features in the cheek area. By the same token, a Kiril could be seen as a lesser mask of creation (the g1 one) and a Kualsi a lesser Olmak.
On the other hand, power of these two masks could be thought in term of signal conduction of Kanohi. As I’ve said before, my understanding of this theory is Kanohi acts as interface that helps send the signal from the brain to the body, hence maskless Matoran loses control of their body and falls into a coma.
Kakama and Pikari then can be thought of as masks that are easier for the brain signal to pass through.
Kakama simply transfers commands more quickly than normal, so that it allows wearer to react more quickly, and thus superspeed.
Pikari has lower intrinsic resistance, allowing signals to pass through without any loss, so they remain strong when they reach the target muscle. This results in stronger muscle contraction, and thus superstrength.
The Kakama doesn’t just make the user have a faster reaction time, it literally allows the user to run incredibly fast, like Mach speed.
And that pakari thing doesn’t make sense to me, it makes the signal get there faster, doesn’t mean the muscle is any stronger.
And like the Kakama the pakari does make the user MUCH stronger.
If the Kakama and Pakari’s abilities only do signal enhancement, then that means that every Toa and Matoran would normally have a great amount of muscle strength that they are unable to use unless they at using one of those masks. That’s rather inefficient, but if that ‘clearance’ wasn’t there then those masks would have to push the muscle strands themselves well beyond their normal capabilities, which risks serious damage. More efficient signal conduction may well be part of what those masks do, but I can’t imagine that it alone could be responsible for the staggering power increase that they provide (and must provide to ‘compete’ with something like the Hau in power level).
I would point out that every human has an incredible amount of strength that they can’t use unless they’re in a life threatening situation.
Personally, I don’t think that you should focus on a Kanohi being a part of toa/matoran biology. I would think of them less as being designed to affect the user in some way, be it amplifying signals, or injecting adrenalin, or what have you, and more that it just happens to work that way.
A little over a year ago, I made a topic called The Making of Kanoka and Kanohi (link: The Making of Kanoka and Kanohi) sorry, I’d make the topic name the link, but apparently there’s no way to do that in mobile mode… In which I explored how exactly Kampala and Kanohi are made and work.
The TL;DR of the topic is that Kanoka disks are made of a protodermis allot consisting of purified protodermis and the active element. Depending on what element is used determines the disks powers and when it is later made into a Kanohi, the multiple elements in addition to the protodermis are what gives the mask it’s power. For more information please read the aformeantioned topic.
My point is, instead of saying “this mask is designed to affect the body in this way to get this result.” Perhaps it is better to say that Kanohi as a whole work by running a current through the particular alloy that the mask is made of and that yields the resulting power (This also explains why you can have a kakama shaped like a hau).
I hope people were able to follow my meaning her and get the basic gist of what I’m saying, I would try and explain farther but I fear I would become repetitive without imparting any new information…
Agreed; I think that the power of Kanohi comes from them producing complex, multi-elemental manifestations that affect the world around them more than they do the user’s body. Some of these power can make it appear as though some quality of the user’s body has been greatly enhanced, but the Kanohi only affects what the user touches, not what they are.