Toa Metru being influenced by their metru's Toa Mangai not just Lhikan, anyone?
Nokama lived through Naho's death and the grief that followed as well as Tuyet's killings and betrayal. It's obvious which one of those Toa she would emulate, but Tuyet served as a reminder that Toa of Water carry power and the capacity for hatred and violence. when she becomes a Hordika, she remembers Tuyet's rage, and it makes her afraid. she always wants her brothers to see her the way she feels Lhikan saw Naho: patient, warm, and endlessly reliable.
I've written about Onewa feeling fealty to Lhikan's stone brother, whom he had seen in battle and trusted whole-heartedly. when the Stone Toa died, Onewa's loyalty transferred to Lhikan instead. truthfully, as they started losing the Mangai, Onewa lost a sense of security in Po-Metru and missed the feeling that the Toa was nearby to watch over them. he never had a lot of friends but had always felt that the Toa accepted him and liked him as he was. the Toa wasn't some distant hero to Onewa, he was a companion and a feeling of safety
less tragically, Matau is one of the Matoran who burns effigies of Nidhiki and helps graffiti the place where he used to live, celebrating his downfall. a lot of Le-Matoran laugh about his defeat and how solidly Lhikan paid back his betrayal, but really, it smarts to know their city's Air Toa did that. not that Nidhiki had had much of an interest in Le-Metru for years. the Mangai weren't from Metru Nui and some of them took more interest in the metrus than others. that being said, Matau thinks a lot about Nidhiki when Vakama is with Roodaka. even though Vakama is the one who turned on them, Matau still can't but think it would be a betrayal not to try and save him. he doesn't want to be like Nidhiki, who put himself first and turned on his Fire Toa. Matau decides to put Vakama first no matter if it costs him his life. he redeems Nidhiki's betrayal
I just see the Toa Mangai of Earth as the first person to get that idea of "we preserve the past to learn from it" into the collective conscious of the Onu-Matoran in Metru Nui and Whenua just took that and ran with it. that Toa was very very old and respected, although Whenua did not know him well. Whenua also once heard the Earth Toa and the Plant Life Toa arguing like they hated each other and then laughing together five minutes later. so he thought, oh, it's okay to disagree with each other sometimes when you're Toa. and it made him realize that Toa are just people too and not always perfectly measured and mature or magically heroic. some of his siblings didn't learn that lesson til they were already Toa, so he's grateful for it.
Nuju has a lot of possible heroes to learn from as a Ko-Matoran, and for all that he's an academia-focused nerd who enjoyed the isolation of his study, he loved the Four Brothers Frost. all of Ko-Metru did. four Ice Toa who fought Kanohi Dragons together?? they were so cool. but Nuju never ever imagined himself as a Toa, so to him, it was more like these were professionals in another field, or even storybook characters. it wasn't until he was a Toa that he started wondering if he was like them at all or asked himself what they would do in his place. the Brothers Frost were very independent, so it could have taught Nuju that he didn't need a team, but actually what he saw was that no matter how much they preferred working alone, they always came when Lhikan called and recognized a need for a united team. Nuju reflects on that a lot - it just takes him a long time to decide Vakama is the one who should be the head of that unity. sometimes, now that Matoro has also passed, Nuju fears that Ice Toa will die out in the world. you could call it an irrational fear, although it's true there are few Ice Toa left, but it comes from the memory of watching all four of them die one after the another. still, he tries to be like them: taking absolutely no shit from anyone, ever, but loyal to his siblings and his Matoran
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