Webcomic / The Toa

This is exactly what it looks like

I've had this idea rolling around in my head for a while now, "If you had to condense all the best elements of Bionicle's story into one simple, cohesive narrative?" Streamlining it without cheapening it. Well... here, assuming I can find the time for it, that's what I'm going to attempt to do.

The Toa is a BIONICLE fan comic created by Nick Anderson of LegoRewind fame that retells the first story arc of LEGO's most successful IP, but with one major change.

The entire ten-year-long story of Bionicle is heavily condensed with some parts being left out entirely while other elements are mixed and matched to create an entirely different take on the series mythos.

Initially started in 2017 before being dropped for two years and then subsequently picked up again until the comic ended in August of 2020, The Toa can be read on Nick's DeviantArt page for it

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The Toa provides examples of the following Tropes:

• Adaptational Context Change: Makuta's "I am Nothing" speech is given a far more depressing meaning. In the original continuity, he delivers it to compare himself to the dark void he believes lies in the heart of all beings. In The Toa, he's long since hit his Despair Event Horizon centuries ago learning why he was made and that he was made to begin with, and when he delivers his speech he means "Nothing about us was ever real."
• Adaptation Distillation: As mentioned above, The Toa condenses Bionicle down to its best elements while keeping the story fairly simple for anybody to get into without having to deal with a mountain's worth of pre-established lore.
  • Namely, Bionicle's first year serves as the primary focus of the retelling. However, that doesn't stop the Bohrok from the second year, Metru Nui from the fourth year, and, in the distant finale, the Glatorian from the ninth year from showing up at various points throughout the comic. There's even an allusion to the original plan for the tenth year with a throwaway line in the epilogue about the Elemental Lords.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • Kopaka's elemental personality appear to be from a lack of social skills rather than any actual jerkiness.
  • Heavily downplayed. For all his sins and wrongdoing, Makuta is at least capable of expressing some momentary remorse for what his actions have resulted in, and those actions are born partly of a desire to try and give the Matoran, Toa and himself a greater meaning than they were built for.
• Almost Dead Guy: Unlike the original canon, Makuta's plan to hijack the Great Spirit robot does not go over as intended with Mata Nui's body exploding in the process leaving only his head and right hand to make it down to Aqua Magna.
• Awful Truth: The Toa and Matoran are really just nanobots, and Mata Nui was really just a computer program to help pilot the colossal-sized robot machine that the cast once lived inside. Takua has a brief mental breakdown about it before Tahu Nuva calms him down stating that whatever made them, none of it matters because the experiences and lives they made for themselves are still real.
• Baitand Switch:
  • Oh no, Lewa gets kidnapped by Nui-Rama and taken to a nearby nest to be corrupted by Makuta's shadowy influence like in the 2001 Mata Nui Online Game! Except not really since the other Toa come to bail him out of trouble at the last second though Kopaka does fall under Makuta's influence later after he splits apart from the other Toa for a time
  • Vakama reveals that Takua carries the seventh part of the Great Spirit within him, with the Toa carrying the first six segments. However, Takua does not become Takanuva in this continuity.
• Body Horror: Those Matoran kidnapped never to be seen again? Makuta's left them to slowly mutate into Bohrok as the Toa find out much to their shock when they accidentally open a canister containing one poor soul who's halfway between Matoran and Bohrok and is put out of its misery subsequently.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Like the original series, Makuta's corrupted masks take control of any animals, Matoran, or Toa that they're placed on.
• The Cameo: Gresh and Ackar appear near the end, when the Toa and Matoran make contact with Bara Magna.
• Composite Character:
  • The Bohrok in this continuity are made from Matoran, like in canon, but ones that were mutated like the Hordika, and instead fulfill the role of Metru Nui's enforcers in place of the Vahki.
  • The unnamed Great Being fulfills the same role Velika does in canon, by being the one who gave life to the Toa and Matoran, while also possessing Angonce's benevolent nature, and piloting the Great Spirit Robot like the two unnamed Glatorian found at the end of 2008's storyline.
• Doing In the Wizard: As was the case in the original canon, the very way of life for the primitive robotic cast of characters is revealed to be artifical as Takua and the Toa find out their purpose as a set of nanomachines meant to serve the giant robot body of their "god" Mata Nui who is likewise a sophisticated computer program. Even Makuta was meant to be another servant to the Great Spirit robot as an overseer, had he not rebelled and taken over.
• Distant Finale: The epilogue picks up 1,000 years later with technological advancements abound and the island way of life in a state of rapid change as the cast gears up to travel to Bara Magna having made first contact with the Glatorian through interstellar transmissions. Takua has an existential crisis upon seeing Ackar's grizzled humanoid face with Tahu Nuva having to calm him down reminding him that the truth about Mata Nui doesn't invalidate what they went through nor does it impede them from making legends of their own!
• Go Mad from the Revelation: Makuta was given full sapience by his creator, and then proceeded to go insane due to the reality of his existence, having more power than he knew what to really do with, and a lack of a friend or mentor to talk him through his issues.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Double subverted. The Toa are willing to give up their lives so that Mata Nui will live, but Mata Nui denies them that chance and instead chooses to let himself go dormant so that they may have a chance to live in prosperity.
• Inferred Holocaust: Teridax's attempt to take control of Mata Nui in this continuity resulted in the Great Spirit Robot blowing up into multiple pieces, and likely resulted in untold millions of casualities.
• Mordor: The ruins of Metru Nui take the role of Mangaia in this continuity as Makuta's lair, while using Metru Nui's ruined state and appearance from 2005's Visorak arc.
• My God, What Have I Done?: When Makuta learns that his attempt to conquer the Great Spirit Robot instead resulted in Mata Nui being mortally wounded, he seemingly expresses horror at his machinations and what they led to. And in the final moments before his demise, he has a look of regret on his face when glancing at Tahu and Takua.
• Mythology Gag: When the Toa come to choose try and choose weapons, a variety of them from throughout BIONICLE's history and even G2 can be seen.
• That's No Moon: Like in canon, the island the Matoran live on sits right on top of Mata Nui's face. Additionally, the three large rocks in the sea that the Toa and Takua travel to are Mata Nui's fingers.
• The Smurfette Principle: Gali is once again the sole woman on the team, as is Nokama amongst the Turaga. Averted with the Matoran tribes themselves however who now all possess a more balanced male/female ratio.
• The Stations of the Canon: Beginning with the Toa Mata's arrival (2001), the reveal of the Bohrok living under the island (2002), the elders originally being Toa from Metru Nui (2004), Metru Nui in ruins (2005), Mata Nui being on the verge of dying (2006 and 2007), Mata Nui being a Humongous Mecha (2008), and the Glatorians living on another world (2009).
• Take That!:
  • More lighthearted than usual, as Nick admits to being more fond of G2 than the average BIONICLE fan, but he pokes fun at all of the water Okotans apparently gaining water-breathing by default.
  Onua: So... isn't a Mask of Water-Breathing kinda redundant? Like, shouldn't it be a given that the Toa of Water breaths underwater?
  Gali: I dunno. Does the Toa of Earth still breathe when buried alive?
  Onua: Good point. Lemme check.
  [Onua covers himself with dirt to Gali's surprise and dismay]
  Onua: ...Nope.
  • 2005 is widely considered to on Bionicle's weaker years, both in lore and toys. Here it's story is mentioned twice like an In-Universe Big-Lipped Alligator Moment.
• We Can Rebuild Him: Tahu's body is left in pieces and his mask split in two due to crash landing onto the island of Mata Nui as opposed to the ocean water surrounding the island like his fellow five Toa which naturally cushioned the impact of their canisters falling from the sky. This doesn't stop Vakama and the Ta-Koro tribe from fixing his mask and picking up his scattered pieces, however.