The Melding is the very first time it happens. When you’ve worked and torn at yourself, forced your very soul in line; Something within you ignites as two separate parts of you become one, if only for just a moment.
It's the first time you extend your hands in either direction, and you find energy from both sources; the weave and the heavens.
I’ve seen it set someone on fire in golden, perfectly symmetrical flames, I’ve watched it fill someone with such joy that their laughter shook the earth.
It only happens once, but it leaves its trace forever.
- Agnir
Brothers In Arms has always been my least favorite serial. It features 9 chapters of a boring, underdeveloped protagonist with vague motives running errands for other characters who are far more interesting and entertaining than he is, all the while gearing up for a confrontation with an equally uninspired villain. And then Greg Farshtey managed to make it even worse, by having the hero and villain fly into a random portal and go hurtling into the weirdest and most unrelated-to-the-characters-we-care-about AU ever, where the villain is captured by the Great Beings and the hero just sits there and lets it happen, because Mata Nui forbid he ever actually take a stand for anything or show any convictions whatsoever. And to top it all off, out of this shitshow comes the worst character to grace the annals of BIONICLE: Melding Teridax.
Melding Teridax is a failure on so many levels. He was evidently intended to be the “good twin” of Core Teridax, meant to show how the main villain could have been a force for good if he hadn’t gone down the wrong path. He even gives this moralizing spiel about alternate choices to explain it:
A turn to the left instead of the right, a wound received or avoided, rising from slumber an hour too early or too late ... these are the little things lifetimes hinge on, Mazeka. Your Teridax took a step on a path that circumstances allowed me to avoid. If circumstances had been different, who knows? (Reign of Shadows, Chapter 9)
Let me explain why this quote is utter bullshit. Sure, little changes in his situation could have made Teridax a very different person. But Melding Teridax has such completely different origins to Core Teridax, the two of them are hardly even comparable. Core Teridax spent years of his life becoming jealous of Mata Nui and Miserix, and was inspired to evil deeds by the Barraki’s attempt at a coup. Melding Teridax spent his whole life as the Great Beings’ holy servant, with no Mata Nui or Barraki in sight. He didn’t even live in the Matoran Universe, he lived on Spherus Magna. Not to mention that the Great Beings purged Melding Teridax of all shadow, making it supposedly impossible for him to make selfish choices! Nothing in Melding Teridax’s life remotely resembles the situation that bred Core Teridax’s jealousy, so to compare them is laughably ridiculous. They’re not the same person with different choices; they’re two different people with completely different lives.
Here’s my next problem with Melding Teridax. We know he’s been drained of “moral darkness”, making him a being of pure light. This should mean that he’s a pure, noble beacon of goodwill and hope, right? But he’s not. In all his appearances, Melding Teridax does not say a single word about kindness, compassion, or self-sacrifice. The most he gets is a perfunctory explanation of his duties:
My role is to aid the Toa in looking after the villagers; to create new life forms, as needed; and to teach the virtues of unity, duty and destiny to those I and my brothers bring into being. (Brothers In Arms, Chapter 9)
Although he’s supposed to be wise and virtuous, Melding Teridax isn’t excited about this duty whatsoever, and he never mentions it again. What does excite him is violence. Rather than concern for the safety and comfort of other beings, Melding Teridax’s primary motivation in coming to the core universe is to DESTROY beings of darkness. Not even capture, or kill, or redeem; DESTROY. Take a look at the reasons he gives for joining Mazeka:
I have seen the rot in his [Vultraz’s] spirit. And much more … things that shame me. I have peered into a distorted mirror, one I wish I could smash to bits. He [Vultraz] will get no more and no less than he deserves. (BIA Chapter 9)
And take a look at his opinions about the Matoran in Teridax’s reign. Mazeka even calls him out on it, saying he sounds as heartless as Core Teridax, prompting the aforementioned bullshit quote.
If they died, maybe it was a mercy. Maybe they are better off not seeing what their universe has come to. (RoS Chapter 9)
But the most damning evidence has got to be his fight against the Shadow Takanuva. Melding Teridax clearly recognizes them, not just as Toa, but as Takanuva himself: “one Takanuva would be a challenge - three corrupted ones were deadly” (RoS Chapter 12). So he knows that they were once kindhearted Toa, who have been overtaken by corruption. Does he appeal to the goodness in their hearts, or the Toa they once were? Does he try to subdue them so that they can be cured and sent back to their home dimensions, where their friends are surely waiting for them?
Well, the short answer is... no.
He charged. Before the startled shadow Toa could react, Teridax had swung his hammer, striking one Toa in the face and shattering his mask to pieces. Whirling, he landed another hammer blow to the chest armor of a second Toa, cracking it down the center. Mazeka moved in then, catching the third Takanuva with a scissor kick and sending him to the ground. Teridax made sure he would never be getting up. (RoS Chapter 12)
"Where's the third one?" asked the Matoran, as the darkness dispersed around them.
"There," said Teridax, pointing to the north. "And there," he added, gesturing toward the west. "Oh, and there's some over there," he finished, casually glancing to the east. "His mask was shattered. I thought he might like to join it." (RoS Chapter 12)
Despite knowing that the Shadow Takanuva are corrupted copies of a noble, kind Toa, Melding Teridax decides the best course of action is to ruthlessly murder them, in the most violent ways possible. He expresses no remorse, no concern about the consequences on those Takanuva’s friends, and no empathy for the Toa he just killed. Mazeka says his methods were a little extreme, that Toa don’t kill, and Melding Teridax just says (paraphrased) “Considering the state of this universe, perhaps they should have bent the rules.” It smacks of the same for-the-greater-good, smite-evil mentality that made Helryx and Tuyet into cold, even villainous characters... and we’re supposed to like this guy? Greg, I don’t know what you were thinking.
In conclusion: Melding Teridax is not what Greg thinks he is. He’s not noble or good. He’s not a defender of the people, or a hero for justice; he’s a psychopath who’s simply been pointed at the bad guys (here defined as “anyone with less than optimal moral light”). In other words, he’s Miko Miyazaki.
And now he’s loose on Spherus Magna. Frankly, I don’t think Core Teridax’s death is going to convince Melding Teridax, to say, “Mission accomplished”, and ‘port back home. I think he’s going to stay until he’s wiped out every last evildoer on the planet, and damn the consequences. And there’s the real problem: where does he draw the line? He’s made himself judge, jury, and executioner; so in his mind, who deserves life, and who deserves death? If he found out Lesovikk were suspected in the murder of Karzahni, would he try to arrest him, like Kopaka and Pohatu... or would he just disintegrate him? Would he even ally with Velika, a coldhearted murderer, because Velika’s policies would bring peace? We know he’ll just keep on slaughtering Shadow Takanuva, since he clearly enjoys that so much. Who else will join the massacre?
