The Toa Mata were so inwardly focused as a team, that often their attentions towards their villages would catch me by surprise; they spent so much time and energy being around and dealing with each other that that 'I have to return to my village' moment came off more as a patron deity returning to the daily lives of its worshippers, not a guardian protecting the people it belongs to (now don't get me wrong, the Toa Mata loved their Matoran and their adoptive homes, but it was always that, an I have chosen this place and it has chosen me, a fierce pride and loyalty but still this apartness, this separate level of existence, mostly because they never were Matoran, they never had the day to day existence of their people, they always lived as Toa). But because of this it was with each other that they identified and to each other they most closely bonded, because of this when all else fails, it's to each other that they turn, they are a unit of six parts, a bickering sibling squad. Even their arguments and separations are born of this closeness, the knowledge that they are a family and, in the end, they come back together with calmer heads and stronger hearts. And that's not there in the Okoto team. They are so guarded, so tense around each other; they don't work together, they don't come alongside one another, it's only in singularly desperate moments that they display a moment of unity, which passes the same time the threat does. They aren't a family, a unit, they're barely a team; at this point, more comparable to the scrambling, argumentative Toa Metru than the Mata team. And they really get thrown into all of this with no breather, no moment to think or pause or get a grip on the situation, so is it any wonder? They came to this island in a blaze of flames, having to be told their very names and duties, and then they're off on their missions: find the masks, find the city, find each other, find Ekimu, watch out for Skull Spiders, watch out for Skull Warriors, watch out for Kulta, don't lose your mask, don't fight each other, keep fighting, hunt, run, fight, go. It takes the cave-in in the arena almost three quarters of the way through the book to give them even a moment's contemplation, and that barely touches more than "we have nothing but the destiny before us". So Lewa's devil-may-care snark, Tahu and Kopaka's instantaneous animosity, even Pohatu's flat-out "I didn't sign up for this", they are running on the verge of emotional breakdown and they don't trust each other, or they haven't taken the moment to think if they even should trust each other or not. And yeah, they are individually just different people, different Toa. But they're a different team, too. They literally hit the ground running, little to no chance to act on their own before being tossed at each other, and they still barely grasp the situation they are actively living. So, I'm proud of them. They're a mess and I'm proud