#shadow takanuva

[bioniclechicken]

I couldn't come up with a good BIONICLE equivalent to "Thunderbolts" so I didn't bother

[angryraptor13]

Stars Shadow Takanuva

He has been built!

Metru!Takanuva is seriously freaked out.

Titan Takanuva: I think he's trying to bite me... 😰

Link to the planning post!

[toaarcan]

Bionicle in 2008: The creation of the Mask of Light terrified the Brotherhood of Makuta. They viewed the potential creation of a Toa of Light as an existential threat, one so severe that they were willing to launch a raid on the island of Artakha to steal the Avohkii, even though doing so could expose that they had fallen from grace before they were ready, in hope that it would prevent a Toa of Light ever being made.

Also Bionicle in 2008: Okay so a single Makuta has been kidnapping and corrupting AU versions of Takanuva. By himself. He's so good at it that he has an entire army of them, despite the creature he uses to do the corruption only being invented like a month ago. He's not even in the Top 8 Makuta Who Are Good At Shit that Terry wants to get rid of.

[pahrak-the-sinnoh-slizer]

Had The Dream (TM) again 😞

[teelguy]

just tridax things

[sepublic]

There really should’ve been a moment where Mazeka recognizes the Shadow Takanuvas as the same Toa he left to die in Destral, under the justification of prioritizing his grudge on Vultraz. Likewise, Melding Teridax would call Mazeka out on this revelation, since he seemed critical of Mazeka’s obsession back in Brothers in Arms.

I think it would’ve made those story beats feel a lot more meaningful and less arbitrary if those pre-existing connections were acknowledged, after all; Have Mazeka consider his own morality and mistakes, that moment’s juxtaposition of condemning the Shadow Takanuvas, but also sparing Vezon’s life.

Additionally, I find it interesting that Vultraz told Mazeka that he’s a reminder of the person Vultraz could’ve been... Considering Mazeka is caught between two potential, alternate versions of people from his universe, I think there could’ve been a thematic callback to that quote. Could Vultraz really have been a better person in a different life, or was he just referring to the ‘demeaning’ life of a hard working, law-abiding citizen?

Reversely, could Mazeka have been as awful? Considering the things he’s already done... Seeing how Takanuva isn’t anymore immune to the path of darkness would be jarring; How much worse would Mazeka be with a Shadow Leech? Vultraz never needed one, but could you argue the same for Mazeka? Of course, we know there’s a Melding Mazeka who was a hero, so Melding Teridax could also tell our Mazeka about him.

I think there’s a recurring idea of different possibilities and paths you could’ve taken in life; The person you could’ve been, facing that distorted reflection, and your messy reaction to it. Vultraz straight-up admits to Mazeka he considers him a reflection, so the reverse should naturally apply. And when you have Takanuva and Makuta fighting one another in a photo negative take on events, it makes you wonder what could’ve been, the kind of existential crisis, regret, but also hope that comes with the multiverse.

[jujucomet]

Because of irl I haven't been drawing a lot. This will change now, but I hope nobody minds me sharing subpar MOCs to fill space.

A Shadow Takanuva OC MOC. Personality-wise, he's a lot more of a twisted and slightly immature Takua than a Takanuva. His Avohkii broke during the process, still a functional mask, but gives barely a spark, so he readopted a Pakari and keeps the Avohkii for the emotional value. Weirdly, he still wants to be a hero but is as violent and malevolent as any other being consumed by shadow, so he ends up simply twisting his actions as heroic, or goes too far by trying to be heroic. He was taken before he could confront Teridax the first time and achieve his destiny and very much resents the fact despite working for the Makuta for a while, as well as resents main-universe Takanuva for achieving it and generally being what he was supposed to be. He would do more about it but is too busy wailing in self-shame and guilty when not causing small-scale destruction somewhere for fun. He's wandering Bara Magna, and I have this silly drawer fanfic where he and an unwilling post-main-story Ahkmou travel together, which works pretty great in the end, because they are good at keeping each other out of trouble despite their loud disagreements. (Also, TKNV is very lonely, but would never admit to it, and Ahkmou needs the shielding from those that hate his guts.)

[the-shadow-takanuva]

Last Moments

The Shadow Takanuva were on their way to the enormous jungle that the locals referred to as “Bota Magna.” Story goes, the planet, Spherus Magna, was ripped apart in three pieces; the sea formed Aqua Magna, the jungle formed Bota Magna and the arid desert formed Bara Magna. After Mata Nui defeated Makuta - a fact Takanuva still couldn’t get over - he united the fragments once again and reformed Spherus Magna. Most of the inhabitants were stuck on Bara Magna, so most had no clue what lies within the jungles. For this very reason, “Takua Nuva” as their leader referred to himself as sent a group of four - himself, an amputee, a strangely armored and a scarred Takanuva - to do recon, so they could find out if there were any weapons, artifacts, items of interest or opportunities ripe for taking.

If only he knew the horror that awaited them.

“I still can’t get over the fact that Makuta is dead in this universe,” the most “normal” looking Takanuva said over the campfire. “In mine, the way Turaga talked, he must have been a real demon.”

“You haven’t even seen “evil,” kid,” the scarfaced Takanuva said back. “In mine, it took thirteen Toa and two Turaga to even weaken him. Your “Turaga” when they still were Toa, Toa Mata and I, as well as Turaga Dume and Lhikan. In the end, we lost five heroes. And I lost my eye.”

“The Turaga, obviously,” Takanuva presumed, to which the scarface nodded. “Who were the other three?”

“Lewa, Nokama and Onewa,” scarface recalled, with slight sadness to his voice. “And that’s just the lives. Everyone of us lost something; I lost an eye, like I said, Vakama lost his will to go on, the Mata lost their song-bird and Nuju lost his arm. Matau blamed himself for Nokama’s death, and had it not been for Whenua, he would have ran after Makuta himself.” Despite being drained of his light and feeling little to no sympathy to them, the scarfaced Toa still held those memories - and his friends - close to his heart.

Takanuva pondered. He began to see a strange pattern.

“Why is it that Lewa always dies or gets hurt?” He asked. The scarred Toa raised an eyebrow.

“You too?” He asked. Takanuva nodded.

“He was there when Tridax kidnapped me. Last thing I remember was the Makuta destroying his mask with one of his powers. For all I know he’s dead. Or worse.”

“What color was the attack?” Takanuva went quiet for a minute.

“It was brown,” Takanuva recalled. “That’s fragmentation, right?” Scarface nodded.

“If he’s lucky, he only lost the mask and bits of his face.” Takanuva sighed.

“Still, I heard from the others about how Lewa always got in some sort of trouble. One said he was infected, another mentioned mind control, a handful mentioned him getting killed or horribly injured-”

“And losing his powers? That happened in mine.” Takanuva nodded.

“And losing his powers,” he repeated. “I don’t know why, but it feels like he has this... aura of bad luck on him. Poor sod.” The scarface scratched his chin.

“Now that I remember, I think I remember some other Toa of Air going through some... unfortunate things,” He said, remembering the rogue Toa with a Faxon and a sea sled, and the other one who became a Dark Hunter.

Both were interrupted by frantic screaming coming from the woods. The third Takanuva, an amputee, stumbled across the bush flat on his face, dropping his tool.

“Was that the weirdly armored guy?” Takanuva asked his clone, who was too busy trying to stand up to answer. He grabbed him by the sleeve of his cloak and dragged him.

“We have to leave,” the amputee whispered, just loud enough for the two of them to hear. “We have to leave now.”

The screams became more and more frantic, eventually devolving into crying and begging.

“What’s going on?” scarface whispered, the three moving as quickly as they could. Before the amputee could answer, there was a deafening blast of energy. The begging stopped.

“We have to go,” the amputee began to panic. “It can see us, we have to go.”

Loud, mechanical footsteps approached them, at disturbingly quick speed. The three could see six red eyes in the darkness.

Humanoid, large. Larger than a Makuta or a Bruiser, and wider than most Rahi.

And it was sprinting at them.

“RUN!”

Marendar, the Toa Hunter, charged right through the bushes, tree branches and the campfire at the retreating, horrified Toa of Shadow.