Toys / BIONICLE

Unity. Duty. Destiny.

"Gathered friends, listen again to our legend of the BIONICLE..."

— Turaga Vakama

LEGO's (surprisingly in-depth) Merchandise-Driven constructable action figure (or "Constraction" for short) story-line, originally released as a sub-theme for its pre-existing Technic line before spinning off into its own theme. Featuring Mask of Power-clad (Bio-)Mechanical Lifeforms in a Schizo Tech universe, the story mainly concerns the conflict between the followers of Mata Nui and the forces of Makuta. Hence the title, Biological Chronicle. Coming off of the rousing success of LEGO Star Wars, BIONICLE is LEGO's first in-house theme to be defined by an overarching narrative.

The toys themselves serve as a radical departure from LEGO's traditional "studded bricks" System: Building off its immediate predecessor Slizer, the figures consisted of specialized pieces attached using TECHNIC components such as pegs, cross-axles, and gears (often giving them unique action features), and were articulated via ball-and-socket connections. Each year consisted of two waves of "Canister" sets that depicted the main heroes and villains of that year's saga, supplemented by smaller "impulse" sets and larger "Titan" sets for the supporting cast.

The story is told through comics published by DC Comics for LEGO Club members and later widely distributed by Papercutz that hit the high points of the story, a book series that went in-depth, Web Serial Novels that told (side stories, and the occasional Direct to Video films (by Creative Capers Entertainment for the original trilogy, Threshold Entertainment for The Legend Reborn, and Wang Film Productions/CGCG Inc for all films, with both Miramax Films and Universal as distributors) that applied Broad Strokes. There are also a few beginning reader books, unimportant side stories designed to deliver An Aesop.

The main Myth Arc is that one thousand years ago, the evil Makuta sought to usurp the Great Spirit Mata Nui by casting him into and endless sleep. Since a Physical God protector being unconscious is a bad thing, the Matoran people and their Toa protectors are now working to wake him again. The tale is split into four Rotating Arcs (labeled by book series title), further divided into different sagas for each release year:

• BIONICLE Chronicles: The Toa Mata arrive on the island of Mata Nui and begin their quest to awaken the Great Spirit. Their series of struggles against the evil Makuta are concluded (in the Mask of Light movie) by the arrival of a Toa of Light and the discovery of the lost city of Metru Nui.
  • 2001: Quest for the Masks
  • 2002: The Bohrok Swarms
  • 2003: The Bohrok-Kal Strike / The Mask of Light:
• BIONICLE Adventures: While the Matoran prepare to return to Metru Nui, tales are told of when Mata Nui fell asleep, showing how Metru Nui became lost. Each half included a movie, Legends of Metru Nui and Web of Shadows.
  • 2004: Legends of Metru Nui
  • 2005: The Great Rescue
• BIONICLE Legends: The Turaga have discovered that Mata Nui isn't just asleep, but dying. The Toa Nuva prepare for his final awakening, but first a new team of heroes must save his life. However, it's revealed that Makuta has been running an Evil Plan the whole time that may ensure his ultimate victory, sending Mata Nui's spirit into the Mask of Life and exiling it into space. No movies for this one.
  • 2006: Voya Nui
  • 2007: Mahri Nui
  • 2008: Karda Nui
• Post-BIONICLE Legends: The story picks up on the wasteland world of Bara Magna, where tribes of Glatorian and Agori compete in Gladiator Games for scarce resources. Mata Nui lands there and ends up making friends and uniting the tribes while he tries to find his way home. There was one movie called The Legend Reborn, while a web serial kept tabs on the Matoran.
  • 2009: Bara Magna / Teridax's Reign
  • 2010: Journey's End / Spherus Magna

The series has numerous characters; check the Character Sheet for more info on them.

The toy-line ended in mid-2010. The storyline was continued on LEGO's website with Bara Magna restored as Spherus Magna and its people forming a unified society with the Matoran, but it eventually petered out. LEGO's Constraction play-pattern would continue ^note after a single small wave of Ben 10: Alien Force figures with the more sci-fi oriented Hero Factory, which boasted "From the makers of BIONICLE!" on the first wave's packaging. The concept of a Science Fantasy saga starring a team of heroes with Elemental Powers would find a Spiritual Successor in the form of the System-based Ninjago, which remains LEGO's most successful and long-lasting IP to this day.

However, the line restarted with a Continuity Reboot in 2015. Sadly it was a Short-Runner compared to the original, with LEGO announcing its cancellation on July 29, 2016. Tropes regarding this reboot can be seen here.

One very notable aspect of the story-line was that all of the comics and nearly all of the books and web material were written by one man: Greg Farshtey. Throughout BIONICLE's entire run, he kept in close contact with the fans, particularly the surprisingly large fan site BZPower (check it out here). He answered questions, dropped hints about upcoming storylines, and stayed commendably dedicated to his work for all ten years it ran. Likewise, BIONICLE continues to inspire a very passionate following that keeps its legacy alive with several fan projects that are about as wide and varied as its original multimedia blitz.

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BIONICLE provides examples of the following Tropes:

Common 2001 Series Tropes

• Absent Aliens: Inverted. No humans (or human-representing LEGO mini-figs) are ever seen in the series, whether inside the Matoran Universe or on Spherus Magna.
• Adaptation Distillation: The movies, which seem to be partially aimed at a wider audience, especially The Mask of Light tend to have short and simple plots compared to the overall story.
• Adaptation Expansion: The movie novelizations can get into the heads of the characters, better explaining their motivations and providing links to continuity that doesn't appear in the movies. See All There in the Manual below.
  • Oddly enough, however, the movie Web of Shadows, the novelization of the movie, by the same name, and the comics running at the same time all have somewhat different plots.
• Adaptation Personality Change:
  • In the first film, the protagonist Takua was written as irresponsible, goofy and rather dim to contrast with Jaller's Straight Man, whereas in previous and arguably every other incarnation he is an adventurous Guile Hero.
  • Additionally, Onua is characterized as a Boisterous Bruiser, whether as in prior arcs he was described as quiet and humble.
• Advertising-Only Continuity: Most ads fall under this. Some really stand out:
  • The Toa Mahri ads showed some sort of machine attaching their masks and gills before they go underwater. In the canon, the Toa Mahri's gills were a permanent anatomical feature, and they couldn't breathe air at the time the commercial took place.
  • The Piraka Ad implied that they were in a police lineup and breaking out of prison. The Piraka were never imprisoned at the time (and police lineups didn't exist in the Matoran Universe) and were instead leaving the Dark Hunters.
  • The "Creeps from the Deep" short film/commercial depicts Dekar finding the Ignika while running away from all 6 Barraki. While Word of God confirms this as canonical, as a vision given to Dekar by the mask itself, this is only loosely based on the actual storyline; for one thing, the Barraki were all still loosely allied with each other when the Mask of Life arrived in the Pit, and so they were working together (to an extent) over the period of time Dekar had the mask. Dekar also didn't find the Ignika himself- another Matoran gave it to him.
• After the End: It's been a very long time since the end, and the whole point of the story is the heroes trying to reverse it.
• All Deaths Final: There are a handful of Only Mostly Dead guys (see Matoran sections), but all those had special circumstances and everyone else who dies stays dead. This may have been subverted by the post-series reveal of the Red Star's function, in that it had immediately resurrected the characters after their death, but they apparently Came Back Wrong and were unable to go back to their former lives. For the purposes of the story, they were mostly dead, though.
• All There in the Manual: Everything, if you consider the toys to be the primary medium.
• Always Chaotic Evil:
  • There are several always-enemy races on both worlds. The Matoran Universe has the Makuta and their spawn, the Rahkshi; the Visorak, the Skakdi (which include the Piraka), and the Zyglak. Bara Magna has the Rock, Sand, and possibly Iron Tribes; the Bone Hunters, and the Baterra.
  • Originally Subverted in the case of the Makuta. They were originally working to maintain order and peace in the Matoran Universe, as well as create rahi (the Matoran Universe equivalent of animals). It wasn't until Makuta Teridax, with dreams of taking control of the Matoran Universe, overthrew their leader Makuta Miserix, that the Makuta became a force of evil.
• Ambiguous Robots: Races from both worlds are partly-organic and partly-mechanical, but good luck telling which parts are which. Officially the Matoran-verse races are more mechanical while the Bara Magna ones are organic with cyber-implants, but you can't tell just by looking.
• Animating Artifact: The first time the Ignika used its power was cursing a Great Being so that inanimate objects around him come to life and cry out their needs to him, with the unfortunate effect of being permanent.
• Apocalypse How:
  • Matoran saga: A Class 1 event occurs in Adventures, and two separate Class 4s are averted in Legends (The first of the Class 4s actually occurs in The Kingdom Alternate Universe, but there are enough survivors to scrape it up to a Class 2).
  • Spherus Magna suffered a Class 2 known as "The Shattering" a hundred thousand years previous, splitting the planet into three; a new planet called Bara Magna and its moons, Aqua Magna and Bota Magna.
• Arc Villain: Used often. Makuta Teridax is the Big Bad, but most story arcs put someone else in the lead antagonist role, with only a few being strictly affiliated with Teridax, and leaving him as the Greater-Scope Villain.
• Author Catchphrase: A few:
  • Characters always respond to someone shouting "Hang on!" with "That was my plan!".
  • Psychic attacks always escalate until they hit a damage cap, at which point the target realizes that "the pain can grow no worse" and "draws strength from the thought" to counterattack.
• Backported Development: An enforced example. Originally, the race of diminutive villagers was called "the Tohunga" until Maori activists threatened to sue the LEGO Group for trying to trademark culturally sensitive words from their language via the Game Boy Advance game Tales of the Tohunga. The Story team wrote a scene to change around a few names, with the Tohunga becoming "the Matoran" in celebration of their newfound unity. That was until the story expanded beyond the island of Mata Nui with a prequel arc. Since they certainly couldn't reuse the old names, the word "Tohunga" was retconned out, and later story pretended Matoran had always been their name. This also happened to other characters and terms that had to be renamed for legal reasons (Jala - Jaller, Huki - Hewkii, Koli - Kolhi, etc), as prequel scenes had to stick to their altered names.
• Backstory: Lots of them, especially some serials.
• Bash Brothers: Toa teams almost always call each other brothers and sisters, so technically any time two Toa team up to fight it counts. Each team will usually have a pair of Toa that will always work together when they can, like Onua and Pohatu. Tahu and Kopaka also count, but it's rare.
• Bathos: When the Toa Inika are confronted with a vision where they lose control of their powers and kill their heroes, they overcome the illusion after deciding they need to finish their mission and forgive themselves later. This is followed by a scene of the Piraka trapped in a different chamber, stuck in holes in the ground, bickering and arguing with each other like a bunch of teenagers.
  • In the novels a light-hearted and humorous scene will often follow a depressing one.
• Big Bad: Makuta, though there are several Arc Villains that push Makuta into a Greater-Scope Villain role.
• Big Good: Mata Nui, the Great Spirit that the heroes are fighting to reawaken from his deep sleep for majority of the series. Arc characters that have a similar role include Turaga Vakama, Dume, Lhikan, Keetongu, Axonn, Hydraxon, Toa Ignika, Raanu, among others.
• Bilingual Bonus: Initially, many of the original names and terminology were lifted from Māori/Samoan terms (some being corruptions of words), though this stopped early on in due to threat of legal action by Māori activists. Some already-existing names were altered or replaced, but several major elements remained until the end of the series, such as the names of the Toa Mata, some of the Toa Metru, and terms like Mata Nui (meaning "big face"), Rahi (meaning "big), and Makuta (similar to "makutu," meaning "witchcraft").
• Blue Means Cold: Blue is often used as a secondary colour for characters associated with the ice element (eg Matoro, Kopeke (in his original design), Thok, Kazi, Strakk, Metus, and Gelu) and most ice-themed characters have blue eyes.
• Broad Strokes: The story is told through several different media. They all contradict each other, but the basic, important plot points are (usually) left intact.
• Built with LEGO: Well duh, it's a LEGO toy line. (But also subverted — with the exception of a few playsets, BIONICLE uses specialized pieces based on the TECHNIC line instead of the standard bricks.)
• Cataclysm Backstory: The universe has had several, namely The Shattering, the Dreaming Plague, and the Great Cataclysm.
• Character Blog: The form some web serials took, a notable amount being from Takua/Takanuva's perspective.
• Colony Drop: First when Mata Nui crashes onto Aqua Magna thanks to Makuta, then Makuta finds himself, while controlling Mata Nui's original body, on the receiving end when Aqua Magna returns the favor. By his use of gravitational pull on the planet, no less.
• Color-Coded Characters: Every major group has members colored red, blue, green, black, white, and brown (in later years, brown tended to be replaced with other colors such as orange, yellow, or gray). In the case of Mooks there are six breeds in those colors. For Toa and Matoran and for Bara Magnans, the colors show the tribe they belong to; with Toa/Matoran this also indicates gender (most of the time) and Elemental Powers. Evil characters (the Makuta and Bara Magna's rock tribe) also favor black.
• Combined Energy Attack: Done a number of times when six Toa combine their powers to create a Toa Seal to trap a bad guy.
• Conlang: We only get words (and a single two-word phrase), but one enterprising fan has created an absurdly extensive dictionary from those alone — complete with its own rules of grammar.
• Constructed World: Notable in that it doesn't even have any humans. Part of the reason the series hasn't had any films or animated series that weren't handled in-house is because the pitches LEGO kept getting always involved humans getting transported to the Bionicle world or added earthly elements, which was the exact kind of cliché LEGO wanted to avoid.
• Crafted from Animals: Mata Nui's sword is made from a Vorox tail. Berix notes that this trope applies for most glatorian weapons.
• Crapsack World: Bara Magna after The Shattering split Spherus Magna, as well as the Matoran Universe in Aqua Magna following the Great Cataclysm. Both got better after Makuta's defeat, with further healing to come now that both have been restored back to Spherus Magna again.
• A Day in the Limelight: the web serials focused on characters who often had sets, but didn't appear in the main storyline, like Mazeka, Vultraz, and Sahmad. Overlaps with Lower-Deck Episode.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • In a weird example regarding the physical toy line, some pieces that became selling points/distinguishing features of older sets (such as the Bohrok-Kal shields and Vezon's head/Mask of Life hybrid piece) would become recycled as pieces for other sets later on, likely to save LEGO molding and design costs.
  • For an in-universe example, many characters often get this treatment, such as Toa and villains (with Teridax being mostly an exception) who aren't starring in a specific year; at most they star in side stories (such as the Toa Nuva in Legends starring in the Scroll of Preparations saga; best depicted in the Toa Nuva Blog story serial). Special mention goes to the Turaga of Mata Nui/Metru Nui, who were major side characters in Chronicles and starred in Adventures, but progressively became more and more obsolete from Legends onwards.
• Dismantled MacGuffin: The Makoki stones, the Keystone, and the Prototype Robot parts, each of which had to be reassembled.
• Doing In the Wizard: After the Mask of Light saga, many of the more mystical aspects of the universe were gradually revealed to have more sci-fi-oriented explanations, with one of the biggest being that the "great spirit" Mata Nui is actually a physical Humongous Mecha the known universe's inhabitants simply live on, a reveal that the story had been building to since promotional material from its very first year.
  
  Interestingly, some elements of the story are still mystical in nature even after the theme's expansion, including Elemental Powers^note innately possessed by the mostly-biological Spherus Magna inhabitants, though they must be externally activated, and inherited by the mostly-robotic Matoran Universe occupants and the concept of "Destiny".^note Although it is said that Mata Nui decrees destiny for Matoran Universe inhabitants, the concept of Destiny was taught to him by the Great Beings, who apparently believed in it before building the Great Spirit robot. The fulfillment of said destiny also often remains out of Mata Nui's hands.
• Domed Hometown: The entire Matoran Universe is made up of continents and islands inside "domes". They're actually Underground Cities, since the domes are inside the body of Mata Nui, though they have artificial day/night cycles.
• Earth Drift:
  • Of a sort, related to Doing In the Wizard above. The franchise was never set anywhere close to Earth, but the first few years were very havily influenced by Polynesian themes (set on a tropical island, everyone wears tiki-like masks, actual Maori terms were used, etc). Part of it was legally mandated (see "Meaningful Name" in the Matoran section), but the theme was pretty much lost by the time they found a lost city Beneath the Earth.
  • Arguably, also inverted with the relatively much-less-alien Bara Magna setting, which featured such Earth-inspired themes as characters wearing armor (as opposed to having it be part of their bodies), having romantic relationships, or eating with their mouths.^note To be fair, there is a line in the fourth Chronicles book about Onua and Whenua having a meal, but this is the only instance of non-Rahi characters eating in the Matoran Universe.
• Earth/Wind Juxtaposition: Subverted with Lewa and Onua. Lewa is the Toa Mata/Nuva of air and is known for being high-spirited, playful, lacking attention span, and talkative nature. Ouna, Toa Mata/Nuva of earth in contrast is thoughtful, patient, one of the wisest of the team, and only speaks when he feels it's important. However, despite their opposite temperaments, they are pretty close, with Onua being the one to pull off an "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight on two occasions when Lewa was under mind control.
• Elemental Nation: Mata Nui and Metru Nui were divided into seven regions, six of which corresponded to each element of Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Stone and Ice (the seventh was a central neutral zone). Bara Magna has all the trappings of this, but nobody actually has innate elemental powers.
• The Epic: For what's ultimately a toy line made for ages 7-16, the series is among the most weighty, complex, dramatic, and Troperiffic toy-specific franchises in modern pop culture.
• Escaped Animal Rampage: After the Great Cataclysm, the Rahi stored in the Onu-Metru Archives escaped and roamed the island of Metru Nui, exacerbating its ruined state.
• Extremely Short Timespan: Despite the world and its inhabitants having existed for millenia, the entire present-day storyline takes place more or less in a single year.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: Most of these deaths were only described in the books or web serials, leaving exactly how nasty they were up to the reader's imagination. Still, for a Merchandise-Driven LEGO series, the deaths of characters were pretty graphic, including, but not limited to:
  • Icarax getting attacked mid-teleportation, scattering every atom of his body throughout the known universe.
  • Alternate-universe Tuyet getting hit by a Portal Cut.
  • The "Phantoka" and "Mistika" Makuta being incinerated (with the exception of Krika, who becomes so intangible that his atoms fly apart).
  • Zaktan getting his body blown to oblivion by then-god Makuta.Or so we thought.
  • The Bohrok-Kal who having their powers boosted beyond control, resulting in a few of these. Special notice goes to Nuhvok-kal, whose gravity powers crush it into an event horizon.
• Fantastic Fruits and Vegetables: Bula (berries that restore energy), Madu (explosive coconuts), and Thornax (spiky, sometimes explosive, fruit).
• Fantastic Livestock:
  • On the island of Mata Nui, Po-Matoran raise and herd Mahi and Husi (robotic goats and ostriches respectively) for trading.
  • On the island of Mahri Nui, Matoran use Hydruka as livestock to help harvest air bubbles as the setting is underwater.
• Fantastic Firearms:
  • The Kanoka are essentially superpowered frisbee disks. These can be thrown by hand, or fired from spring-powered launchers.
  • There's also an arc that took place underwater; some of the good guys used air bubbles as ammo (toxic to waterbreathers) while the bad guys shot vampiric squids.
  • Near the end, the ammo of choice was Thornax, a kind of fruit. Hey, don't laugh; would you like to get hit with a coconut at high speed? A spiky, potentially explosive coconut?
• Fantasy Gun Control: Played with; lots of projectile weapons, but the closest they get to firearms are launchers that fire Abnormal Ammo, from Kanoka and Bamboo Disks, Solidified Air Bubbles, Sea Squids, Madu, and Thornax. Frickin' Laser Beams also exist to some capacity with the Midak Skyblasters and Nynrah Ghost Blasters.
• Fire/Water Juxtaposition: Most Toa teams have a Toa of Fire as The Hero and a Toa of Ice as The Lancer, typically having a Red Oni, Blue Oni dynamic with one another. Tahu and Kopaka are the most prominent example, although they're both just as likely to start arguing with Gali, the Toa of Water, as they are with each other.
• The Full Name Adventures: All three Matoran arcs had this sort of title for their accompanying book series; and Bara Magna probably would have if it had enough books to warrant a unified title.
• Genre-Busting: It has magical epic fantasy, cyber-city sci-fi, plenty of action (both regarding the usage of special powers, or plain hand-to-hand combat), a Cosmic Horror Story or two, war tales, crime and mystery, western-ish Desert Punk, some mild philosophizing, tells moral fables, and showcases various kinds of humor (sarcastic and dry verbal jokes, or visual Slapstick). Comes in the form of plastic toys, comic books and novels, 2D and 3D animations and Direct to Video movies, and its music ranges from rock and techno mixes of varying hardness to orchestral choirs, tribal drums and hums and almost rural-sounding chimes.
• Geodesic Cast: Majority of the sets were released in their own teams of six, with many factions able to be herded into their respective teams.
• Gray Is Useless: The Masks of Power are grey until worn by a Toa, when they change to that Toa's colour. When the Bohrok-Kal steal the Nuva Symbols, depriving the Toa Nuva of their elemental powers, their masks turn gray again.
• Head Bob: Present a lot in the web animations, many of which lack proper voice acting.
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Inverted; rather than obscuring the face, headgear often is the character's face for all intents and purposes. And they're pretty cool.
• Hobbits: The Matoran and Agori.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: The characters often reference "Mata Nui" and "the Great Beings" as they would a God. They also use various Rahi in place of animal names for expressions (e.g. "Hold your Rahi").
• Large and in Charge:
  • Another common trope: The Bahrag for the Bohrok, Makuta for the Rahkshi, Sidorak and Roodaka for the Visorak, and Tuma for the Skrall.
  • Averted with the Brotherhood squad in Karda Nui, the Barraki and the Order of Mata Nui. For the Brotherhood squads Icarax is larger than the others and the best fighter, but Antroz is the leader (though there's an in-universe reason for why Icarax isn't in charge). For the Barraki Pridak was their unofficial leader, while their subordinate Nocturn was probably the largest of the lot. The Order of Mata Nui is filled with massive creatures like Botar, Brutaka, and even the Ancient, but their leader is Helryx, who is stated to be just a normal (but very old) Toa.
• Late to the Tragedy: More or less the standard storyline, as it was used in Chronicles, the latter half of Adventures, Bara Magna, and all three parts of Legends. See their respective folders for more details.
• Law of Alien Names: This was slightly averted in Mata Nui Online Game 2, where there were many names given to every character in the game, many of whom had never been seen previously, and — being mostly background characters — mostly did not appear in subsequent stories. There were some human-seeming names (albeit slightly modified), such as Kai and Marka. There were a few which don't seem to fit perfectly in either world, such as Nixie.
• The Lethal Connotation of Guns and Others: The characters never have realistic guns, but they do carry explosives, rocket launchers, lasers, swords, chainsaws, and squid launchers. Possibly justified in that the characters are bio-mechanical constructs for which small arms are more likely to be largely ineffective.
• Long-Lived: Everyone; apparently biomechanicals commonly have lifespans reaching at least five or six digits, even the organic people of Bara Magna.
• Luring in Prey: The Oohnorak breed of Visorak insects can telepathically read their targets' minds and then imitate the voice of a person that the target valued to lure them into a trap.
• Mechanical Animals: All life, including the fauna, in the Matoran Universe is biomechanical. Manas Crabs, Gukko Birds, and spider-like Visorak are just a handful of the biomechanical Rahi, as the equivalent of animals are called in the setting.
• Melting-Pot Nomenclature: In its first year, the brand drew its character names, place names, and other terminology from a wide range of Polynesian languages, though this led to some controversy over the use of Maori names, and in 2003 some of these original names were changed to My Nayme Is variants. Funnily enough, 2003 also introduced a massive cast in the Mata Nui Online Game II, who had Meaningful Names coming from even more diverse global languages. Examples include Nixie (English), Pelagia (Latin), Taiki (Japanese), Tehuti (Egyptian), Kalama (Hawaiian), and Pakastaa (Finnish).
• Minor Major Character: The Great Beings, the Shrouded in Myth creators of the universe, who at the beginning are only mentioned. Near the end of the story, we actually meet two; one was there all along.
• Mutagenic Goo: Energized Protodermis is either this or an Acid Pool, depending on the destiny of whatever is exposed to it (and even then, there's no telling what you'll actually transform into). The Pit Mutagen slowly mutates any being into Fish People, although the effect is much slower and less noticeable on organic creatures.
• Myth Arc: From the series first year onward, the overarching goal for the franchises first eight years is for the Toa Mata/Toa Nuva to awaken the series native God-like character known as Mata Nui. Seems simple enough, but right from the start, there are subtle hints that there may be more to it than simply "awakening" a mythical Matoran god not to mention the hints that point towards the very universe heroes and villains alike inhabit being a functioning body for Mata Nui himself or rather, was functioning until Makuta injected a virus into the computer systems of Mata Nui's body forcing it to crash land on a water planet where 2001-2003 and later 2006-2007 take place.
• Myth Prologue: The beginning of the first film, "The Mask of Light", shows Mata Nui creating the world before he got cursed by his brother Makuta.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Extensive use of K-names; plus Scary Nouns (Brutaka - "brute"), "Mor" (Morbuzakh), and The Adjective One (The Shadowed One). Bara Magna also has the option of invoking the Ancient Dead Language category via Canis Latinicus. Also see Miserix (Misery), Teridax (Terror), and Tren Krom, whose name sounds like that of one of the Great Old Ones (and is indeed a reference), as well as Helryx's name begins with the name of the Norse goddess of death, Hel.
• Never Say "Die": Averted; despite the line being mainly aimed for kids, characters rarely shy away from calling death what it is, especially after the Piraka saga.
• No Blood for Phlebotinum: One of these wars is what led to the Shattering and what started this whole mess.
• No Hugging, No Kissing: According to Greg Farshtey, there's no romance whatsoever in the Matoran Universe, though this does contradict early material which featured heavy Ship Tease between Hewkii and Macku as well as between Hahli and Jaller. This can be handwaved in that Matoran Universe occupants don't reproduce sexually and therefore have no need for romance, though it does raise some eyebrows and create Continuity Snarl. Spherus Magna does have canon romance, and Sahmad explicitly mentions a lover in Sahmad's Tale.
  • Promoted to Love Interest: Explicit mentions of romance within the Matoran Universe include Toa Matau flirting a bit with Toa Nokama in the Adventures movies, and Sidorak offering a marriage proposal to Roodaka (though given the No Hugging, No Kissing context, it's more treated as a politically-motivated civil union, not that Sidorak and Roodaka would have "loved" each other anyway. Plus they're different species).
  • Ship Tease: The last novel throws one in for good measure: Action Girl Kiina hugs Mata Nui and tells him that he shouldn't make her cry just before he places his spirit into the Prototype Robot and goes to fight Makuta alone. Of course, given the No Hugging, No Kissing rule, it's officially wholly friendly and platonic, but it's also not hard to think it would've been written a bit differently if the series wasn't already canceled by that time.
• No Power, No Color: When the Bohrok-Kal steal the Nuva Symbols, depriving the Toa Nuva of their elemental powers, their masks turn gray.
• Ominous Cube:
  • The Nuva Cube functioned as the lock on the Bahrag's prison. By placing the Toa Nuva's six unique Nuva Symbols into the Cube, the cage would be opened. It is also, in some way, connected to the Toa Nuva's elemental powers, as they lost them when the Nuva Symbols were stolen.
  • The power source for the prototype Great Spirit Robot was a smooth silver cube with strange markings on each side. It was extremely unstable and caused the original robot to explode violently, throwing its pieces across the planet. Energized Protodermis was capable of stabilizing it, making it safe to use.
• Only One Name: Pretty much everybody except Tren Krom and Mata Nui. In Tren Krom's case, that's probably to highlight his other-ness.
• Only Six Faces:
  • Thanks to the fact that Lego reuses parts often. Very extreme in Chronicles, where everyone had one of twelve masks. It was gradually being averted as the series went on (especially in Legends where we met more communities of Matoran with different masks), but never completely got free. Bara Magna had a similar problem.
  • This is even more hilarious if you consider that all of the "faces" are actually masks; Matoran, Toa and even Makuta possibly ALL have the exact same face. Ditto goes for almost all the residents of Bara Magna. Averted with everything else, since they usually have heads constructed of generic LEGO elements rather than a mask (subverted in the case of Hydraxon and Maxilos, whose faces are actually mask pieces, but are explicitly stated to be their actual faces, and Toa Ignika, whose whole existence is only a mask to begin with).
• Portmantitle: BIONICLE is a portmanteau of "biological chronicle".
• Red Is Heroic: The leader, representing fire, is usually (but not exclusively) red.
• Ridiculously Human Robot: Despite the Constructed World nature of the series and toy line leaning away from this, it still happens sometimes. Lewa wears fingerless gloves at the beginning, Pohatu is an Acrofatic, Roodaka has Rahkshi heads for breasts, and Bara Magna goes the odd route with Strakk's design implying abs. Pohatu even has attach pieces on his legs that seem to imply leg hair of all things.
• Running Gag: A running storyline joke regarding Onua is his tendency to save others at the last moment. Examples include removing an infected Kanohi and Krana from Lewa, among others.
• Sacred Flames: The Sacred Fire is a continuously burning fire that Turaga Vakama purportedly uses to divine prophecies, although in reality it's a cover for the visions he continues to receive. The fire itself does help him concentrate, however.
• Same Character, But Different:
  • As a result of Conflict Ball, some of the characters in the movies have suffered this, but none more so than Takua/Takanuva. Before the first movie, he was portrayed as adventurous, if a bit unsteady, but ultimately a resourceful and very heroic character. In the movie, the "unsteady" part suddenly became "irresponsible" and at the same time lost all of his resourcefulness and selfless heroism, becoming almost a full-fledged load until the last act or so.
  • A less egregious, but still notable example would be Vakama in the third film. In the previous movie, he had constant insecurities with his role as a Toa and the leader, but eventually grew more confident and became the hero he was meant to be. Apparently in between the third and the second film, he became so confident that he pulled a brief Face–Heel Turn because one of his teammates questioned his leadership.
• Satanic Archetype: A Fallen Hero from one of Mata Nui's elite soldiers, grew envious of Mata Nui, wants to supplant him and believes himself capable of doing so, an absolute master of manipulation... yep, Makuta fits the bill.
• Scenery Porn: The island of Mata Nui is basically this, whether it's in the movie, or in Mata Nui Online Game (1 and 2), it's just amazing. Several other environments, when properly shown, including Metru Nui, also fall into this.
• Schizo Tech: The rule of thumb in the Matoran universe is "no wheels, no paper", regardless of how high the tech can be otherwise. Taken to its extreme in Chronicles, where cyborgs are mining with high technology to trade gems for fish and torches. Justified in Bara Magna due to the place being a Scavenger World.
• Scienceville: The city of Ga-Metru is Metru Nui's spiritual and schooling center, containing schools, universities, and research facilities.
• Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale:
  • The average lifespan of the characters, both biomechanical and organic, lasts for more than a hundred thousand years. After the Shattering happened, and the planet of Spherus Magna blew into three separate planets, all forms of advancement came to a halt on the largest chunk, the desert planet Bara Magna. The story picks up 100 thousand years later, and beyond the creation of the Glatorian fighting system, nearly nothing has changed. The death-rates are said to be high, yet no indication is given towards new people coming into being. Then, there's the fact that even 100 thousand-year-old fighters, such as Gresh, are considered youngsters, and others treat them as if they were kids. And he becomes a skilled veteran in just a few months' worth of story time.
  • Occasionally Bionicle would describe things as ancient, stemming from prehistory or time no one remembers. In one book, the Artakha Bulls are said to be one of the oldest animal species known, at over 3000 years old. The film Web of Shadows references a feral, primal age that seemingly no one recalls. When an incident causes The Shadowed One to rapidly age over 3000 years, he becomes frail and old. However, none of these make much sense when most people in the story live for 100,000 years at the least, and thousands of years seem to pass without anything significant happening. Being old or ancient has little to no meaning in the story. In fact, one of the oldest characters, at over 100,000 years of age, is none other than the juvenile, youthful Takua.
• Sealed Cast in a Multipack: The Toa Mata were Sealed Good in a Can, but the sealed and then awakened Bohrok, Bohrok Va and Bohrok-Kal provided the creators with one and a half year's worth of enemy sets and plot-engines for a cheap price. Subverted in all the Rahi species that escaped from their stasis tubes in the Onu-Metru Archives — those weren't released as sets, and for the most part weren't even that important to the plot.
• Sentient Phlebotinum: Energized Protodermis and Antidermis. Antidermis is actually the natural form of the Makuta when they aren't in their armor.
• Shattered World: Spherus Magna was split into Bara Magna, Aqua Magna, and Bota Magna by an even that's even called "The Shattering".
• Sibling Team: Sort of. In the Bionicle Universe, any number of beings who share the same duty are called brother or sister, but where it falls between 'brothers in arms' and 'literal family' depends on the team. The Toa Mata for instance were created together and act more like a Badass Family, while teams like Lhikan's and the Inika all came from different walks of life. This, of course, doesn't stop any of the Ship Tease between members.
• Single-Biome Planet: Justified as all known planets were split from Spherus Magna's larger ecosystem. Aqua Magna (where the Matoran saga takes place) is an endless ocean, Bara Magna is a desert planet, and Word of God says the last piece is mainly forest, called Bota Magna.
• Sinister Stingrays: Mantax, one of the six Barraki warlords, resembles a humanoid manta ray as a result of being mutated by the corrupting waters of The Pit. He is noted for his secretive nature and great distrust for the other Barraki (due to his knowledge that one of them betrayed the rest). Like real rays, he also has a tendency to hide in the seabed to ambush his enemies and has venomous spines (albeit on his head rather than his tail).
• Sixth Ranger: Played straight in many series. Beginning in 2003 (and arguably ending in 2008), Lego sold an extra basic toa-sized figure (usually referred to as a "Seventh Toa") packed in with a vehicle and sold at a higher price point, and usually joined the main team of heroes in-universe later in the story, though almost every year deviated from this in some way;
  • 2003: Takanuva was a new member who joined the team just before the finale of the first movie (and stayed with them afterwards) and was packed with the Ussanui (which existed for about 30 seconds before being destroyed in the movie) and is considered the basis for the "seventh Toa" in the rest of the franchise.
  • 2004: Toa Lhikan was packed in with a Kikanalo, though in-universe, he existed before the main heroes, is the one who gave Toa Metru their powers, and never had a connection to the Kikanalo.^note The Toa Metru, who share Lhikan's body structure, did greatly interact with (and ride) the Kikanalo, and while not advertised, it was intended to hold other Toa of the same build as well.
  • 2005: The only year without a true Seventh Toa, though the special edition Toa Norik and Toa Iruni were sold on the side and fill the seventh Toa slot (though both were sold at the same pricepoint at the regular figures, neither had a vehicle, and were completely disconnected from the main story in-universe). In some countries, Toa Lhikan and Kikanalo came out in '05.
  • 2006: Rather than a Seventh Toa, Vezon filled the seventh villain slot. Vezon was packed with two sets: first with the spider Fenrakk and then the Kardas dragon, and was (in-universe) a Literal Split Personality of the Piraka Vezok (Vezon is even the Matoran word for "Double") and fought both the Piraka and the Toa Inika.
  • 2007: Lesovikk filled the seventh Toa role toy-wise (being packed with a "Sea Sled"), but never met the main heroes (the Toa Mahri) in-universe.
  • 2008 had a few:
    • Toa Ignika, packed with a "Skyboard" was, in-universe, the Mask of Life given a physical body who joined and fought beside the team after initially being questioned.
    • Takanuva, the original Seventh Toa, would also get a new set, with a much larger-sized redesign.
    • Mutran was also released for another seventh villain example, being a basic figure and was packed with another smaller figure (Vican) and was sold as an exclusive.
  • 2009: Set-wise, Perditus was a Toa-sized figure (and canonically a Glatorian) with a vehicle that filled this niche but was nearly non-existent in the story. And there was really no "team" he'd be the seventh member of during the first half of the year anyways.
• Sky Face: Once Teridax takes over the Matoran Universe, the first sign of his control is rearranging the stars in the image of the Kraahkan, the Kanohi he wore.
• The Smurfette Principle: Five guys to one girl at best:
  • All Matoran/Toa/Turaga of Water are female by default. Since blue is one of the six colors in every rotation, this meant that every Toa Team, Matoran set and Turaga set had at least one female member, even if they looked nothing like it due to many lacking sexual characteristics.^note The Miramax trilogy had a habit though of adding Tertiary Sexual Characteristics to female characters to make them distinct though. Gali Nuva has an upside-down torso to emphasize her hips, Hahli has a feminine wave pattern chest plate, just everything with Roodaka, and most comically the cartoon breast pattern◊ on Turaga Nokama's flat chest plate.
  • This got worse with the Glatorian. Some viewed the change in setting means we might see more girls, as they're not exclusively tied to the blue sets of each rotation now. NOPE. The first blue Glatoran and Agori were men, and no different-colored females were present at all. The second wave came with one... then proceeded to release almost a dozen other male Glatorian.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil:
  • In order, the Toa Mata/Nuva fight Brainwashed and Crazy Rahi beasts, a huge swarm of Bohrok who threaten to destroy the entire island, the powerful elite Bohrok-Kal who aim to pick up where the Bohrok started and end the 2001-2003 story battling the deadly Rahkshi, Makuta's "sons" and most powerful servants.
  • The Inika/Mahri have their first villains in the Piraka, who are a threat enough that they managed to take down the Toa Nuva (though they got really lucky). This is followed up with the Barraki, who while not individually as powerful as the previous villains (they're not weak, the Piraka just won the Superpower Lottery) command great armies of sea creatures that manage to overwhelm the Mahri and made Jaller desperate enough to ignite a Nova Blast to stop them.
• Stars Are Souls: The souls of Toa are represented in the night sky by spirit stars.
  • In Mask of Light, Gali sees a seventh star join those of the Toa Nuva's when Jaller and Takua begin their quest to find the Seventh Toa.
  • In Legends of Metru Nui, Vakama indicates Toa Lhikan's spirit star in the night sky; as long as his star remains in the sky, Toa Lhikan lives. At the end of the film when Lhikan is killed, the star splits into six to represent the Toa Metru, affirming their status as Toa.
• Sticks to the Back: Common in animations, especially involving the Toa, as well as the Glatorian's weapons in The Legend Reborn, which makes it look like they have compartments in their backs that items could shrink into. Greg Farshtey has since confirmed that characters can attach tools to their backs magnetically. Some toy sets had weapon mounts for their backs, however, including the first Takanuva set and the Toa Metru.
• Team Shot: Every year has at least one of these showing the new sets.
• Survival Through Self-Sacrifice: One of the obstacles the Toa Inika are forced to go through to get to the Mask of Life was one where one of them had to sacrifice themself in order to allow the others through to the next section. Jaller attempts to offer himself due to having already suffered through a Heroic Sacrifice but Matoro offers himself up instead. He is killed, but quickly brought back, granting the Toa Inika access further towards their goal. This itself was a Secret Test of Character as it's because of this sacrifice that Matoro was chosen by the Mask of Life to be its host and revive Mata Nui.
• Those Two Guys: Every team will feature at least two Toa who actually get along and enjoy working together, most commonly the Toa of Earth and Stone. Pohatu and Onua constantly work together and visit each other's villages during downtime, and their respective Turaga are good friends as well, having had a similar dynamic back in their glory days.
  • The Inika/Mahri, interestingly, were already close friends before becoming Toa and have no problems working together for the most part. Hewkii and Kongu will fight and die for each other just like any other member of their team, but they also enjoy picking on each other and making jokes at the other's expense.
• Toyless Toyline Character: Several, including two-thirds of the Toa Hagah team, Lariska, Toa Helryx, Toa Tuyet and Artakha. There's also a number of quasi-examples that aren't directly marketed, but are built from existing parts. A number, like Graalok the Ash Bear^note This is actually an error attributed to the Maze of Shadows game, and it's supposed to be a Makuta Nui model. The two do have passing resemblance, however, the Shadowed One, and Botar, were designed by LEGO and alternate building instructions were included with the toys. Several others, mostly Rahi beasts and Dark Hunter mercenaries, were designed and built by fans and then canonized.
• Transforming Vehicle:
  • The Codrex Vehicles have an alternate form that extends and exposes more weapons
  • Thornatus vehicles can extend their side blades, while the Kaxium V3 has a detachable and drivable sidecar.
• Translation Convention: Nobody in the story is supposed to be speaking any human language, but a lot of Matoran words are left untranslated to evoke the feel of an exotic culture.
• The Thunderdome: The Coliseum in Metru Nui, Atero Magna on Bara Magna.
• Underground Monkey: The sets up to 2007. The Voya Nui Online Game also had these.
• Unreliable Canon: Making sense of the early year's stories can be a pain, especially since the first official novel decided to blatantly contradict much of the story material released priorly. The brand also suffers from multiple cases of Advertising-Only Continuity, tons of ads, animations, mini-comics and games are non-canon, and there are just plain old continuity issues. You can only get a decent sense of a consistent storyline by reading the Wiki's summaries.
• Villain Episode:
  • The Legends book Legacy of Evil (featuring the Piraka), as well as web serials "The Mutran Chronicles" (the Brotherhood of Makuta), "Federation of Fear" (various villains in a Boxed Crook team), "Empire of the Skrall" (the Skrall), and "Sahmad's Tale" (Sahmad and the Iron Tribe).
  • In the Voya Nui and Mahri Nui arcs, the hero toys got released in a later wave than the villain toys, so in the story keeps pace by focusing on the villains messing things up before the heroes come along to fix it.
• Water Is Womanly: Almost all the elemental tribes are One Gender Races, with most of them being male. One of the only all-female elements is water.
• Webcomic Time: As stated in the 2008 comic "Mata Nui Rising" the entire 2001-2008 story (save for the 2004-2005 Metru Nui prequel arc) all apparently take place over the course of about a year. This was actually a retcon, since in a 2003 issue "Rise of the Rakshi!" Makuta recounts that his first defeat at the hands of the Toa Mata happened years prior.
• World-Healing Wave:
  • The Staff of Artakha does this to the Matoran Universe, save for Karda Nui, for all damage caused by the Great Cataclysm.
  • Mata Nui does this to repair the fragmented world of Spherus Magna. Effects include Terraforming, growing lage amounts of vegetation, and curing the effects of some Mutagenic Goo.
  • A literal version in the Ignika, which was designed to heal Mata Nui in the event his life was at risk. It's technically this because Mata Nui (at the time) was the world.
• World of Snark: It would just be easier to list the number of characters who don't make a sarcastic or witty remark at least once in the story.
• World-Wrecking Wave: The Great Cataclysm.
• Wrap It Up: 2010 skipped over at least two arcs (one with the Element Lords and one on Bota Magna) to get to the final battle with Makuta.
• Year Zero: Two. The first is "The Shattering" about a hundred thousand years ago that split Spherus Magna; it also marks the beginning of the Matoran world. The Matoran also have the "Great Cataclysm", one thousand years before the story starts, when Mata Nui fell asleep, causing numerous disasters.
• You Can't Fight Fate: A rule of thumb for this series: anyone who tries to overturn their destiny will inevitably fail. This includes Makuta himself. That said, Toa apparently can fail while trying to achieve their destiny, so this does not make victory for the heroes a Foregone Conclusion.

General Matoran Tropes

• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The Matoran and Mata Nui's other races. Designed to be essentially "nanotech" in Mata Nui's body, they turned out sentient and developed their own cultures and such.
• All Myths Are True: Many are heavily distorted, yet tend to be fundamentally true nonetheless.
• All Your Colors Combined: Six Toa can combine their power to create a Toa Seal.
• Anatomy of the Soul: Spiritual light and darkness, and losing the former, are a major part of the Karda Nui arc. Destiny is also a big deal to the Matoran.
• Ancient Order of Protectors: The Order of Mata Nui.
• Because Destiny Says So: The Toa Mata/Nuva are destined to revive Mata Nui. Technically, everyone has a destiny, but the Mata/Nuva are one of only a few to know theirs before it happens.
• Bilingual Bonus: Many scenes with Matoran script tend to contain hidden messages.
  • For example, seen at a trader's stall in the online game: "My friend went to Po-Koro and all I got was this lousy rock."
  • The walls of the Sanctum include packaging information from a LEGO set and a quote from Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series: "What do you get if you multiply six by nine?"
  • In the Mask of Light movie, the message inscribed inside the titular mask reads "Technic Organic Apps One Destiny". With the first part reading "TOA", it could be a reference to the old "Six Heroes, One Destiny" tagline.
  • At the end of the credits of Mask of Light, a small message in Matoran symbols can be seen. It translates as "No Rahi were harmed during the making of this film." This is a reference to when Jaller is about to kill Graalok the Ash Bear, but Lewa stops him.
  • The huge poster of Turaga Dume that Toa Matau crashes into in Ko-Metru has the Matoran writing for "play well".
  • In The Legend Reborn, the diagram of Mata Nui is labeled in Matoran lettering. The diagram as a whole is titled "Mata Nui Robot", with individual diagrams labeled "front view" and "side view". A line pointing to Karda Nui identifies it as Mata Nui's "heart chamber". In the lower right-hand corner of the diagram the words "Bara Magna test site" are shown.
• Cain and Abel: Mata Nui and Makuta, so the Back Story claims. Also Artakha and Karzahni.
• Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp"/Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit": "Rahi" is the Matoran term for animals in general, and each species has its own name that often goes between the two (Ussal crabs, Gukko birds, etc.)
• Code Name: The descriptive kind; most Dark Hunters have them (because stuff like "Silence" and "Darkness" don't have to be cleared through Lego's legal department; unlike, say, "Lariska")
• Combining Mecha: The theory behind the Toa Kaita, shown with the Toa Mata (Wairuha being formed of Lewa, Gali, and Kopaka, and Akamai being formed from Tahu, Pohatu, and Onua.) It's stated that most Toa groups are able to form Kaita forms, but never comes up in canon beyond the Toa Nuva. The Toa Metru were implied to be able to do it (but didn't know how), whereas the Toa Hordika were one of the few groups that could not (due to the Visorak infection that turned them into Beast People).
  • Meanwhile, there are other fusions, but very few have come about in the storyline, such as a Matoran Nui and Bohrok-Kal Kaita.
• Conditional Powers: Kanohi grants the wearer powers as long as it is worn.
• Cypher Language: Matoran script.
• The Dark Side: The element of Shadow
• Day Hurts Dark-Adjusted Eyes: Matoran of Earth typically live underground, so light stings their eyes.
• Domed Hometown: The Matoran world is located in underground domes (actually Mata Nui's body cavities)
• Dug Too Deep: Subverted; in Metru Nui, Onu-Matoran miners stumbled upon a Bohrok Nest, during which the Bohrok were still asleep and posed no threat whatsoever at the time or to the island. In fact, four years of real-world time after this information was introduced, these Bohrok would be intentionally awakened to help Metru Nui defend itself against the Brotherhood of Makuta.
• Egopolis: The lands of Artakha and Karzahni are named after their rulers.
• Elemental Powers
  • Major Elements:
    • An Ice Person (Toa of Ice)
    • Blow You Away (Toa of Air)
    • Dishing Out Dirt (split between Toa of Earth and Toa of Stone with Earth being Dirt and Stone being Stone and Rock)
    • Making a Splash (Toa of Water)
    • Playing with Fire (Toa of Fire)
    • Holy Hand Grenade / Light 'em Up (Toa of Light)
    • Casting a Shadow (Theoretical Toa of Shadow) ^note Matoran of Shadow did exist, and there were plans to make a Toa of Shadow, but it was cut due to time constraints
  • Minor Elements:
    • Extra-ore-dinary (Toa of Iron)
    • Psychic Powers (Toa of Psionics)
    • Shock and Awe (Toa of Lightning)
    • Make Some Noise (Toa of Sonics)
    • Green Thumb (Toa of Plant Life/The Green/Jungle)
    • Gravity Master (Toa of Gravity)
    • Plasma Cannon (Toa of Plasma)
    • Selective Magnetism / Magnetism Manipulation: (Toa of Magnetism)
  • Sub-Elements:
    • Hollywood Acid: Acid
    • Playing with Fire: Heat
    • Psychic Powers: Telekinesis and Telepathy
    • Weapons That Suck / Vacuum Mouth: Vacuum
  • Legendary Powers:
    • Time Master: Time
    • Creating Life: Life
    • The Power of Creation: Creation
  • Elemental Absorption
  • Elemental Punch: they can charge their Toa Tools with their powers
• Eldritch Abomination: Tren Krom. Subverted in that, while powerful and immeasurably ancient, he is not an alien - he was created by the Great Beings like everything else in the Matoran world. Written as a Shout-Out to Lovecraft.
  • Also the Energized Protodermis Entity, who existed within Spherus Magna even before the Great Beings discovered Energized Protodermis.
  • Makuta tried to appear as this when the Toa Mata first faced him, turning into a mass of swirling pieces and tentacles. After being defeated, he tried to be more direct in later confrontations (largely because the Toa have then learned what he really was).
• Fantastic Light Source: Lightstones, the Light Element, and Karda Nui's Lightvines
• Fantastic Measurement System: "bios", "kios", and "mios" are units for distance used. The distance units are as follows:
  • 1 bio = 4.5 feet = 1.37 meters
  • 1 kio = 1,000 bio = 4,500 feet/0.85 miles = 1.37 kilometers
  • 1 mio = 1,000 kio = 850 miles = 1,370 kilometers
• Fantastic Nuke: The Toas' Nova Blast ability
• Fictional Sport: Kolhii (a lacrosse-like game), Ignalu Lava Surfing, Huai Snowball Sling, Ngalawa Boat Racing, Kewa Bird Riding, Great Ussal Race on Mata Nui. Akilini, Kanoka Toss, and Disk Surfing on Metru Nui.
  • Kolhii was originally "Koli," a soccer-like sport, but using many balls (made of stone) and four goals.
• Fire Is Masculine: Toa of Fire and Ta-Matoran are exclusively male. Examples include Jaller, Tahu and Vakama.
• Genius Loci: The Matoran world is actually inside Mata Nui's submerged body, with the island of Mata Nui perched on his face.
• Greater-Scope Paragon: Without so much as making a physical appearance, Mata Nui is practically responsible for all the good things that happen in the story.
• The Ghost: Mata Nui, until around the end of Legends, was only ever spoken of and never directly seen.
• Ghost City: Metru Nui for a thousand years after the Great Cataclysm, the island of Mata Nui after the events of Mask Of Light.
• Goal-Oriented Evolution: Matoran to Toa to Turaga. In their case it's more akin to Goal Oriented Puberty; Matoran who first become Toa are rather naive compared to more experienced ones and act more like teenagers, and the Toa who become Turaga have gained enough knowledge and experience that both Toa and Matoran respect them without question. Matoran of Light can also be Matoran to Bohrok. The Makuta species also evolved to the point of being Energy Beings in Animated Armor.
• The Gods Must Be Lazy: Something has to be really wrong in the world to grab Mata Nui's attention. Makes sense when you consider the Womb Level nature of the world - do you think of your stomach when you don't have indigestion? Of course, once he does start paying attention, his hands get tied.
• Gods Need Prayer Badly: Mata Nui suffers if the Matoran don't do their jobs. Eventually explained as his robot body will shut down if not maintained and kept working.
• Heart Light: All the people of the Matoran Universe have these, at least according to the books and movies. They're even called heartlights.
• The Heavy: Usually the Arc Villains are the Heavy to Makuta's Big Bad, though sometimes even the Arc Villains stay mysterious and leave Heavy duties to a lesser villain.
• Hufflepuff House: Any tribe outside the main six and Light, really.
• Humans Through Alien Eyes: No humans around, but once in a while there's an item that's strange to the characters; the list includes roller skates, eggs, and a scroll.
• Humongous Mecha: Mata Nui. He's about 40 million feet high and contains the Matoran world.
• Island Base: Odina (Dark Hunters), Destral (Brotherhood of Makuta), and Daxia (Order of Mata Nui); Destral is able to teleport to any location in the Matoran Universe thanks to a device on the island.
• Kansas City Shuffle: Everyone thought Makuta's plan was just to knock Mata Nui unconscious and then stay in power while he can't do anything about it. That was his original plan, but he eventually revised it with bigger prizes in mind...
• La Résistance: Matoran tend to form these when they're taken over, with the Voya Nui and Karda Nui ones being the best examples. The Toa Hordika and Rahaga also formed one against the Visorak. One also formed against the Toa Empire in the "Dark Mirror" alternate universe.
• Lava Surfing: Ignalu Lava Surfing is practiced as a sport in Ta-Koro.
• Letter Motif: Each element has a syllable representing it: "ta" for fire, "ga" for water, "le" for air, "po" for stone, "ko" for ice, and "onu" for earth. These show up in some variation in the names of the Toa Mata/Nuva, the Bohrok, the Rahkshi, and the Visorak; as well as in reference to the Matoran tribes (the fire Matoran are called the Ta-Matoran, for example).
• Living Ship: In a sense. Word of God states that Mata Nui wandered space with the Matoran world inside - not that the Matoran were aware of where they were (either in space or inside their Great Spirit).
• Mask of Power: Kanohi Masks
• Mechanical Lifeforms: Mata Nui. All the other races he looks after - which have a few organic parts (save the Bohrok, though they may not be "alive") - qualify as well.
  • Clockwork Creature: Everyone's mechanical parts are this kind, not electronic.
  • Mechanical Evolution: The Makuta evolved from Mechanical Lifeforms to Energy Beings in Animated Armor.
  • Wetware CPU: We don't know if the brains are organic or not, but it otherwise fits the trope. Actually, the Bohrok and Rahkshi can be said to play this dead straight.
  • Silicon-Based Life: The organic components of the MU inhabitants are made out of an organic protodermis variant.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Mutran's name is derived from the English words "mutate" and "transform".
  • Krika and Bitil are named for crickets and beetles, respectively, to match their insectoid designs.
  • The three Phantoka Makuta all get their names from bats (Chirox = Chiroptera, Antroz = Antrozoini, and...Vamprah = Vampire). Fitting, considering how all three of them are blind and have a Bat Out of Hell visual motif.
  • The prefix for Iron "Fe-" is derived from the chemical symbol "Fe" for the real element iron.
  • The prefix for sonics "De-" was derived from the word "decibel," a real-world measurement unit for sound.
  • The prefix for gravity "Ba-" was derived from words with the Greek origin of "baros", meaning "weight".
  • The prefix for psionics "Ce-" was derived from the words "cerebral" and "cerebellum", words relating to the anatomy of the brain.
• Miniature Senior Citizens: When a Toa completes their destiny, they are transformed into the shorter Turaga, serving as the elder for Matoran.
• Minor Major Character: Mata Nui
• Monster Compendium: The Rahi Beasts guide, in-universe and in real life.
• Mordor: The realm of Karzahni
• No Name Given: Makuta (until a late arc revealed his name is "Teridax"), "The Shadowed One", and a few fan-made Dark Hunters such as Prototype.
• Nonindicative Name: The "Great Spirit" Mata Nui has a physical body. Subverted when he is ejected, leaving Mata Nui little more than a spirit inside a mask.
• Oh, My Gods!/Thank the Maker: Mata Nui is invoked occasionally
  Nuhrii: Mata Nui protect us!
• One-Steve Limit: Averted somewhat; Mata Nui, Artakha, and Karzahni all have locations named after them, and a plant creature also has Karzahni as a namesake.
  • "Makuta" and "the Makuta" also sounds confusing, but there's a reason for it: it's a title, and one character prefers the title to his actual name. It's like a group of Dukes, one of which likes being called "Duke".
  • Also averted when it comes to soundalikes; the series includes characters named Krekka, Krahka, Krakua, and Krika.
• One-Winged Angel: All Makuta are capable of shapeshifting, and the Makuta of Metru Nui used this power to take on bigger, nastier forms for his battles with the Toa Mata and Toa Metru.
• Our Souls Are Different: Disembodied spirits (including the Makuta's energy forms) can possess robots or soulless-but-still-alive bodies. Makuta can dispossess their bodies at will since they're Energy Beings, but others need to use Applied Phlebotinum (like a Mask of Spirit). And souls depart to whatever afterlife at death, but the death can be reversed and the soul restored if done quick enough (though woe to you if some other soul gets to your body before you do!)
• Patchwork Map: The islands of Mata Nui and, to a lesser extent, Voya Nui are clearly divided into different environmental regions corresponding to different elements.
• Personal Dictionary: Farshtey used "universe" to mean the Matoran world, not the entire cosmos, as from the Matoran perspective that is their universe and they are aware of very little outside it.
• Phlebotinum: Protodermis, the substance that makes up the entirety of the Matoran world - metal, water, living tissue, everything.
  • Phlebotinum-Handling Equipment: As Energized Protodermis either transforms or destroys whatever it touches, there are special containers that are able to hold it. Exsidian is a component of one type of resistant materials.
  • Single Phlebotinum Limit: We did say "everything", right?
  • States of Phlebotinum: Protodermis is classified by liquid, solid, and energized forms.
  • Unobtainium: Ultra-hard metal Protosteel and transformation-causing Energized Protodermis
• Pulling Themselves Together: Downplayed. You can obviously rip off and reattach the limbs of the toys as much as you like, but this ability is not really explored in the canon. The only exception would be when Lewa mentioned having to reattach his legs and arm when originally arriving on Mata Nui. And Tahu is shown doing the exact same thing during the original Toa Mata commercial.
• Punny Name: Gavla's name is a reference to the word "galvanize".
• Rage Helm: The Kanohi Hau's eyes are cast in an angry scowl, which is fitting for its most prominent wearer, the angry and Hot-Blooded Tahu, but is also worn by other characters with a variety of temperaments.
• Retired Badass: Turaga, out of necessity rather than choice, being former Toa who sacrificed their powers.
• Sailor Earth: Common in the fan community. Just choose an Elemental Power, a stock superpower, and a weapon; and think up an exotic name and you've got your own Toa!
• The Savage South: The southern edge of the Matoran Universe (meaning areas below Mata Nui's waist) are said to be so dangerous that not even Makuta go there.
• Sentient Cosmic Force: Destiny, spiritual Light and Shadow as well.
• Single-Species Nations: Most island nations in the Matoran Universe are dominated or exclusively populated by one sentient species:
  • The Matoran have several islands, most notably Mata Nui and Metru Nui, which are usually further divided into smaller provinces based on the elemental subspecies.
  • The Vortixx are from Xia.
  • The Skakdi are from Zakaz.
• Stars Are Souls: Spirit Stars appear before a Toa is created or when a Toa completes a certain task.
• The Starscream: Deliberately invoked by the Shadowed One, who encourages his minions to constantly observe him, and, should he show signs of weakness, kill him.
• Super Drowning Skills: All stone characters sink like, well stones, and being mostly mechanical won't keep them from drowning, as everyone has lungs and needs to breathe air.
• Taught by Experience: all the Toa to some degree, but especially the Toa Metru
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: The Toa hold this view but it's dealt with rather pragmatically; this code of conduct was officially adopted on the grounds that they need to keep the trust of the Matoran, but they are willing to waive it (or at least just consider killing) if necessary, such as in wartime or when facing extreme threats. And one of the Order's reasons for existing is to allow the Toa to have this code, doing the Dirty Business in their place.
• Time Dilation Field: The Vahi Mask of Time. Damaging it causes... problems, and destroying it utterly would cause a Time Crash.
• Tunnel King: The cave-dwelling Onu-Matoran are an entire tribe of these.
• The Underworld: Karzahni is the place where broken Matoran who cannot work are sent and is regarded in legend as the closest thing to hell. In reality, it pretty much is.
• The Wall Around the World: The dome that encloses Karda Nui.
• Weaksauce Weakness: A Toa's power is halved if they lose their mask, and Matoran eventually shut down if they lose theirs.
• Weather-Control Machine: Certain Elemental Powers allow for weather manipulation. Bonus points most beings able to do this are part machine.
• Weather of War: Toa often manipulate the weather offensively, such as Lewa and Gali combining their powers to create a storm to drive off Bohrok attacking Ta-Koro.
• We Will Use WikiWords in the Future: Le-Matoran "treespeak"/"chutespeak" slang
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Minor characters from past arcs don't usually get mentioned in new story material.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway??: Toa of Water tend to get stuck with limited-use Mask Powers. (Though the water powers are of course still good, which probably makes this more Flight, Strength, Heart.)
  • Heart Is an Awesome Power: In Mahri Nui, as Toa Hahli had a Mask of Kindred that let her copy the abilities of animals that shared her environment. Since she was quite knowledgeable about sea creatures and what they could do, she used this mask to great effect.

BIONICLE Chronicles

• Abandoned Mine: In the Mata Nui Online Game 2, the Great Mine was abandoned due to flooding by Gahlok in the previous arc. Hahli, a Ga-Matoran and experienced swimmer, has to dive through the mine to retrieve tools and materials for the Onu-Matoran miners.
• Amnesiac Hero:
  • The Toa remember little beyond their names and powers upon arriving on Mata Nui.
  • Poor Takua. During the Time Slip, he was relocated from the homeland of the Av-Matoran and placed in Metru Nui in the guise of a Ta-Matoran, and his memories were erased and altered so he thought he had always been there. At the start of the Great Cataclysm, Makuta put all the Metru Nui Matoran into special spheres that put them into a coma, diminished their stature, and erased their memories (including Takua). Finally, at the end of the Quest for the Toa Game Boy Advance game, Takua crashes on the beach and gets amnesia, so during the Mata Nui Online Game he has to ask everyobody who they are and even asks Vakama "Who am I?"
• Arc Villain: The Bahrag and Bohrok-Kal take over in the middle arcs.
• Bag of Holding: Used in both Mata Nui Online Games.
• Bee People: The Bohrok, who are hivemind working for two queens called the Bahrag.
• The Blade Always Lands Pointy End In: Happens to Tahu's Magma Blades and Kopaka's Ice Blades in Mask of Light when they get knocked out.
• Blade Brake:
  • Kopaka uses his Ice Blades so slow his fall in a crevice when the Bohrok-Kal steal his Elemental Powers.
  • Tahu uses his Magma Swords to slow his descent down a wall in Mask of Light.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: The Bohrok aren't really evil, they're just doing what they were built to do. The Bahrag were placed under Mata Nui to return the island to the "before times". However, they were awakened early and the Toa had to seal them away to protect the Matoran. Ultimately, the Toa had to release them so the Bohrok Swarm could accomplish its goal, allowing Mata Nui's body to move again.
• Bowdlerise:
  • Though often made fun of for its light tone, Greg Farshtey mentioned that the movie Mask of Light almost didn't see a release in some European markets because distributors feared it might be too scary for little children. In the end, the movie's German version was heavily edited to remove intense scenes, and close to 10 minutes were deleted from Web of Shadows. The other two movies survived German censorship unharmed.
  • Greg also kept assuring people that the "blood" on Pridak's model wasn't actually blood. Just something that was "part of his natural coloring".
• Brainwashed and Crazy: The Rahi of Mata Nui were brainwashed into violent monsters by Makuta's infected masks. It was also used against the Matoran twice: originally by the infected masks, then by Bohrok Krana; Lewa had both an Infected Mask and a Krana, and Onua bailed him out both times.
• Braving the Blizzard: In the Mata Nui Online Game, Takua travels through The Wastes in Ko-Wahi in search of Matoro. After finding a rock with a cryptic message regarding the Bohrok, Takua finds himself in a blizzard. He loses consciously as it gets worse but is fortunately saved by Matoro.
• Building Is Welding: When Nuparu was finishing building the Boxor.
• Building Swing: Lewa and the Matoran of Air do this to transverse through Le-Wahi.
• Canon Immigrant:
  • The Mask of Elemental Energy first appeared in the non-canon BIONICLE: The Game, although it has since been established as canon. It finally appeared and was used in the fan-written No One Gets Left Behind by Shadow-Nui by Shadow-Nui; this short story was accepted into canon.
  • The Nova Blast was first acknowledged in the non-canon BIONICLE: The Game as a "Nuva Blast," but was later included by Greg Farshtey as a part of the BIONICLE canon.
• Cave Behind the Falls: one behind Naho Falls in the Mata Nui Online Game
• Cave Mouth: The entrance to Po-Koro and the Ice Gate in the Mata Nui Online Game. The entrances to the Temple of Courage and Temple of Creation in the Mata Nui Online Game II.
• Changeling Fantasy: Everyone, audience included, thought that Takua was part of the Fire tribe — until he became a Toa of Light (even then, there's enough Phlebotinum thrown around that him originally being a Fire character was a possibility, until we learned that a tribe of Light did exist)
  • Moses in the Bulrushes: the Order of Mata Nui secretly spread Matoran of Light throughout the world so the tribe wouldn't be wiped out if their homeland came under attack.
• Chekhov's Gun: For the Mask of Light movie. Takua's failed Kolhii strategy to flip upwards and fling the stone ball becomes important when he battles Makuta in Kolhii as Takanuva. This time, he is more successful in using this tactic, winning in the process.
• Citadel City: Ta-Koro, a walled city that is surrounded by lava, within a volcano.
• Continuity Snarl: As a result of multiple writers (Templar Studios, C.A. Hapka, and Greg Farshtey) depicting the same scene in contradictory ways:
  • A scene in the Mata Nui Online Game depicts Lewa placing all six of his Kanohi on his personal Suva, and emerging with the golden mask; another scene depicts the Toa Mata's Kanohi simply transforming into the golden masks when they arrive at the Kini-Nui. However, the scene described in the book is the canon one.
  • The Toa's battle with the Manas is described as two Manas that are defeated by the two Toa Kaita in the book Tale of the Toa. However, in the Mata Nui Online Game, this battle is with a horde of Manas that are defeated by smashing control towers. In the canceled PC game, the Kaita also fight an entire Manas horde plus a Mana-Ko, but beat them in combat. Later canon combined these scenes: there were only two Manas, and the Kaita defeated them by targeting their control towers.
  • Originally, Greg Farshtey wanted the battle to be won by having the Toa "absorbing" the Shadow Toa into themselves; Cathy Hapka, however, decided to have the Toa working together to defeat them with their Elemental Powers. However, Greg has said that his way is canon, and is referenced in the BIONICLE: Encyclopedia.
• Counterpart Artifacts: the Mask of Light and the Mask of Shadows.
• Creation Sequence: The formation of the Toa Kaita in the Mata Nui Online Game and The Legend of Mata Nui.
• Death Is Cheap: Notoriously so in Mask of Light. The two lead characters are both killed, but neither stay dead. Jaller is revived by Takutanuva, and Takanuva... well, his revival has never really been explained.
• Decapitation Presentation: Gali presenting a removed infected mask from a Tarakava, heavily, but notably, subverting the trope.
• Department of Redundancy Department: BIONICLE is short for "biological chro'nicle". So BIONICLE Chronicles is "Biological Chronicle Chronicles".
  • Sometimes, especially in the movies, characters would refer to things like "Kanohi masks" or "Rahi beasts", despite the word meaning that exact thing. Of course, we say "Sahara Desert", so it's probably a Translation Convention for viewers unfamiliar with the terms.
• Did You Actually Believe...?: "...I would let them return?" Makuta in Mask of Light, after Takanuva summoned the Matoran to his lair.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: In the Mata Nui Online Game, Taipu and Hafu had their Kanohi switched. This caused confusion, as Taipu wore a Pakari in CGI images while Hafu wore a Ruru in the Power Pack set. He still had his Kanohi switched in the Bohrok Online Animations and the Bohrok-Kal Online Animations. The error was eventually fixed in the Mata Nui Online Game II: The Final Chronicle, with both Matoran wearing their respective Kanohi. There is a reference to this in the game when the player first talks to Taipu and he says he is always mistaken for Hafu.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • The names Papu and Rangi come up at some points in the Mata Nui Online Game. After showing Nuju's letter to Nokama, she will say "Papu and Rangi have great plans for you" in response to the question "Who am I?", even though every other time she merely says "someone". In the German version of the game, Jala also mentions them as being the founders of Ta-Koro — the English version omits this part. The names are complete mysteries and haven't come up anywhere else. BIONICLE writer Greg Farshtey commented that they must have been made up by the developers. Polynesian mythology (on which the brand's early story was based) contains similar-named entities (Papa the Earth goddess and Rangi the sky god), so this is probably where they got the ideas for them.
  • Other tidbits omitted from Jala's English dialogue but left in his German text file reveal he belonged to the tribe of Lhii surfers (which was part of his canon bio but never came up in the story) and that he was a Haka dancer (which is a real Maori dance and not canon to the BIONICLE universe).
  • In an advertisement at the end of Powerless!, there was information on the six Nuva symbols. The page claimed that Tahu's symbol was forged in the Mangai Volcano; Gali's drawn from Gali's Bay; Kopaka's as cold as Mount Ihu; Lewa's born of the living jungle; Pohatu's carved from the hardest stone; and Onua's a treasure from deep within Mata Nui. This has since been declared non-canon.
• Elemental Personalities:
  • Tahu, the Toa of Fire, is bold, short-tempered, and aggressive to the point of recklessness.
  • Kopaka, the Toa of Ice, is cold and aloof, and prefers to work alone.
  • Gali, the Toa of Water, is wise, warm, and gentle, and serves as the group's main peacekeeper.
  • Lewa, the Toa of Air, is free-spirited, humorous, and independent.
  • Pohatu, the Toa of Stone, is reliable and dependable, although in a break from conventions he's also boisterous, cheerful, and easygoing.
  • Onua, the Toa of Earth, is wise, patient, and level-headed, and prefers to speak little.
• Featureless Protagonist: Takua, throughout the prologue video game and almost all of the Mata Nui Online Game; his features and name are only revealed in the end of the game.
  • He then gets some series Character Development and appears as a character in every story arc set in the present in Mata Nui.
• Filler Villain: Although they are more accurately an ensemble of Elite Mooks than a single villain, the Bohrok-Kal were created by LEGO to fill the space between the defeat of the Bahrag and the return of Makuta.
• Foreshadowing: Mata Nui Online Game contains numerous hidden messages the coming of the Bohrok, and indeed Mata Nui's true nature, which was only revealed 8 years after the game had been made.
• Forgotten Phlebotinum: Kaita fusions, once this arc ends.
• Fusion Dance: Various "Kaita" fusions and Takutanuva.
• Gainax Ending:
  • Mata Nui Online Game II: The Final Chronicle ends on a particularly confusing note that only makes slightly more sense if you've seen Mask of Light. After winning the Kohlii Championship and collecting five of the six crystals, Hahli encounters Lerahk in Ta-Koro and escapes, watching as the village sinks into the Lake of Fire. She then arrives on the very beach where Takua's quest had begun, where she finds the last crystal and places the crystals in the Amaja Circle. Hahli is then enveloped in bright light and transported to Kini-Nui, where she sees three Rahkshi fly overhead. Then, Nokama tells Hahli that she's the new chronicler. And... that's it. That's how it ends.
  • Mask of Light also has a particularly odd ending; some of it got partially explained in the following year, but a big chunk of it was left unexplained. After defeating Makuta in a game of Kohlii, Takanuva takes off the former's Kanohi Kraahkan, and they both fall into a pool of Energized Protodermis which fuses them into Takutanuva. Takutanuva then lifts up a giant door (which, aside from a passing line by Makuta minutes earlier, was never mentioned before) to let the Toa Nuva, Turaga, and Matoran pass through, stopping Hahli along the way to bring Jaller Back from the Dead. Then, Takutanuva dies as the door's weight crushes him, sending the Kanohi Avohkii spinning across the floor. Turaga Vakama takes the mask and positions Hahli, Jaller, and the mask on the BIONICLE logo on the floor whilst proclaiming, "Let us awaken the Great Spirit! Unity, duty, destiny!" This ritual...somehow revives Takanuva. Then, Takanuva, Jaller, and Hahli are standing on a beach and all have glowing, golden masks which send out a beam of light, revealing some new island which Vakama refers to as "home". Oh, and despite all that constant talk about "Mata Nui will be awakened this day!" for the final act, they don't awaken Mata Nui that day after all.
• Glowing Gem: Lightstones; guess what they're used for.
• Going to Give It More Energy: This is how the Toa Nuva defeat the Bohrok-Kal.
• Good All Along: The Bohrok ultimately turn out to be this. Their job is to clear the island of Mata Nui of all debris (vegetation, leftover structures, etc.) so that the Great Spirit could be awakened; Makuta just threw a wrench into things by activating them while the Matoran were still living on the island.
• Golden Super Mode: The Golden Kanohi worn by the Toa Mata.
• Gondor Calls for Aid: The climax of the Mata Nui Online Game has Takua's team surrounded by Rahi, only for Matoran armies to arrive just in time to save the day.
• Gotta Catch Them All: First with Kanohi Masks, then again with Krana, then Kanohi Nuva again; though each one had less emphasis placed on it than the one before.
• Grappling-Hook Pistol: The Volo Lutu Launcher from the Quest for the Toa video game.
• Ground Punch: Onua does this twice, once in the Mata Nui Online Game and another in Mask of Light.
• Hammerspace: The Toa Mata/Nuva's extra masks are explained as being stored in their Suva shrines (and later, Metru Nui's Great Temple) when not in use, with the Toa able to mentally switch them at will.
• Handy Helper: In the Mata Nui Online Game, Takua becomes Pohatu's eyes when the latter was blinded by a Nui-Jaga scorpion.
• Heal It with Water: In Mask of Light, Gali uses her elemental power of water to purify Tahu from Lerahk's poison inflicted earlier in the film.
• Herald: Takua was "the Herald of the Toa of Light" before finding out he was to be the Toa of Light.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Jaller Taking the Bullet for Takua in Mask of Light. Takutanuva brought him back soon afterward.
• Holding Out for a Hero: The Matoran of Mata Nui were threatened by Makuta's forces for 1000 years until the awakening of the Toa Mata. In that time, they managed to become pretty self-reliant, though still in need of a hero.
• Horde of Alien Locusts: The Bohrok
• Horse of a Different Color: Ussal crabs, specifically Takua's pet, Pewku. The nature of the BIONICLE universe makes this cross over into Mechanical Horse as well.
• I Know Madden Kombat: The final battle of Mask of Light pits Takanuva against Makuta... in a game of Kolhii. However, the sequence plays out somewhat like an actual fight, and ends with Takanuva using his special technique to slam Makuta into a wall.
• "I Know You Are in There Somewhere" Fight: Toa Onua to Toa Lewa twice, while he was under the influence of an infected Kanohi and a Krana Za respectively. The latter event wasn't even a real fight; Lewa managed to gain the willpower to remove the Krana by himself.
• Imposed Handicap Training: A flashback reveals that one part of the Toa Mata's training was to retrieve their Kanohi Masks... thing is, being without their masks is a major Achilles' Heel for the Toa.
• Improvised Scattershot: In the comics, Pohatu and Tahu defeat a pair of Tarakava by the former kicking a large boulder at the latter to cut in half so each half would hit each Tarakava behind him.
• Industrial World: Ta-Metru serves as the manufacturing district on Metru Nui, where most tools are forged and smelted. However, assembly is done in Po-Metru, which has much clearer skies compared to Ta-Metru's smoky atmosphere.
• Instant Runes: Appears when Onua uses the Mask of Shielding in the Mata Nui Online Game.
• Interim Villain: The Bohrok swarms. Before their introduction, Makuta had just been defeated by the heroes and disappears. Shortly after their story arc was finally wrapped up with the defeat of the Bohrok-Kal, Makuta returns to the spotlight. Although it was later confirmed via Retcon that Makuta was responsible for awakening the Bohrok, he did so to distract the Toa and thus buy himself some time to recover from his previous loss, thus directly invoking this trope.
• Ironic Fear: Tamaru, an Le-Matoran, is afraid of heights, and given his village of Le-Koro is in the treetops...
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: subverted with the Toa Mata; the Laser Guide was off a bit so they forgot more than intended.
• Lava Adds Awesome: Lavasurfing
• Levitating Lotus Position: Gali has a similar pose to this while meditating in the first movie, managing to levitate despite not having psychic powers of any sort, other than telepathy between herself and Takua.
• MacGuffin: Despite all the emphasis there was on collecting the Kanohi and Kanohi Nuva, they never affected the plot in any meaningful way. The only exceptions are the Vahi and the Avohkii, which were also the only two masks that the Toa were not tasked with finding.
• MacGuffin-Person Reveal: In the movie Mask of Light, Takua believes he must find the Toa of Light and spends the movie searching Mata Nui for them, only to discover that his destiny is to become the Toa of Light himself.
• Mage Killer: the Rahi Nui was created to hunt Toa, and one of its abilities was feeding on Elemental Power, thus being invulnerable to it.
• Meaningful Name: Most names and terms introduced in the first year were actual Māori words. Lego stopped the practice and switched to Foreign Sounding Gibberish when Māori activists criticized Lego for the use of Māori words as a trivialization of their culture (though most of the original names still survive). A lot of the Matorans' names in Mata Nui Online Game 2 were foreign words that were in the theme of the place they were in (example: in Ko-Koro, names meant things like winter and snow). At least Hungarian, Finnish, Chinese and Czech words were used.
  • Several of Mata Nui's geographical features were named to foreshadow the twist of the island covering the Great Spirit's face. Mount Ihu is derived from the Hawaiian word for nose, the Mangai Volcano comes from the Maori word for mouth or speaker, Kauae Bay on the southern coast is named for a Maori word for jawbone or chin.
• Midseason Upgrade: The Toa Mata gain golden kanohi that give them access to all six mask powers. A later transformation would turn them into the Toa Nuva, with greater elemental and mask powers.
• Mind-Control Device: Infected Kanohi Masks and Krana when worn.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: The Rahi Nui, a creature that combines elements from several Rahi species: the head of a Kane-Ra bull, the arms of a Tarakava lizard, the body of a Muaka panther, the stinger of a Nui-Jaga scorpion, and enlarged wings from a Nui-Rama wasp.
• Monumental Damage: In-universe example: the Pahrak destroying Naho Falls (which gets rebuilt later, and destroyed again).
• My Nayme Is: Some of the source words got changed to alternate spellings: "Jala" to "Jaller", "Huki" to "Hewkii", "Hali" to "Hahli", "Maku" to "Macku", "Puku" to "Pewku", "Koli" to "Kolhii"
• Mythology Gag: In Mask of Light, the Matoran begin their kolhii match by wishing each other "Play well". The name "LEGO" comes from the Danish phrase "leg godt", which translates to "play well".
• No Animals Were Harmed: "No Rahi Were Harmed"is mentioned at the end of the credits of Mask of Light in the Matoran Language.
• Noisy Robots: In the Mata Nui Online Game, its sequel, and the web animations.
• Ominous Latin Chanting: Shows up with techno in web animations via The BIONICLE Music, and during momentous moments in the movies.
• Only Mostly Dead: Jaller and Toa Takanuva in Mask of Light
• Opponent Switch: Done by the Toa Mata against the Shadow Toa, at least in one version of the fight.
• Phlebotinum Breakdown: Why it took the Toa Mata a thousand years to arrive on the island of Mata Nui
• Pillar of Light: In the online animations, when the Bohrok were defeated.
• Puff of Logic: During the Bohrok arc, Pohatu and Onua, both the strongest of the Toa Mata, struggle to break a rock wall to escape before the room fills with lava. However, they're unable to make a single chip in it. Lewa realizes that there's nothing the two of them are unable to smash, which means the wall cannot exist. As soon as they stop believing the wall exists, it disappears. Sure enough, the projectors of said wall, the Bahrag queens, are able to create illusions at will. Several of the Toa again end up fighting false opponents, being helped by their teammates that can see which Bahrag aren't real.
• Power of the Void: Makuta claimed to have this power early on. He wasn't shy about it, either.
  Gali: How are you like the sea? The sea bears life! The sea bore us!
  Makuta: I bore you! For I am Nothing. And out of Nothing, you came. And it is back into Nothing that you shall go.
• Powered Armor / Mini-Mecha: the Boxor (which can strike with its arms) and the Exo-Toa (complete with Boxing Claw and Electro-Rocket).
  • Armor Is Useless: The Exo-Toa block their users' Elemental Powers. They also have the AI to act autonomously, but haven't exactly been shown to have a stellar track record in this regard since they frequently fall victim to The Worf Effect.
• Praetorian Guard: Most notably the Bohrok-Kal.
• Psychic Link: Gali establishes one with Takua in the Mata Nui Online Game, so that he can witness the battle from afar.
• The Psycho Rangers: The Shadow Toa, dopplegangers that Makuta created from the negative emotions in the Toa Mata's hearts.
• Rage Against the Mentor: By the end of the arc, the Toa Nuva had tired of the Turaga's secrecy and began to confront them on it.
• Real Life Writes the Plot:
  • Naming Day was introduced as a way to change characters' names to non-Maori words (see "Meaningful Name" above).
  • A more infamous case is "Tohunga." The Maori found this the most offensive, as it means "priest" and it was applied to the helpless villagers. In 2002, a storyline excuse was made: the Tohunga realized they were one people, and so changed the name of their species. However, the entire thing was later retconned so that the word "Tohunga" never existed in-story at all.
  • Matorans who become Toa was ret-conned to take on the appearance of whatever they thought a Toa was suppose to look like at the time of their ascension. This way Takanuva could re-use the pieces and molds for the Toa Nuva (the most recent Toa sets at the time) and not have to explain why he resembles a set of Toa that was the byproduct of a freak accident and not the original Toa Mata or any Toa sets released after 2003.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The Bohrok play with this; it seems to be played straight before it turns out (six real-world years later) that they're just doing their Great-Beings-given job (and therefore Sealed Neutral).
• Sealed Good in a Can: Very literally with The Toa Mata (see Phlebotinum Breakdown, above), who were sealed in Toa Canisters.
  • The Mask of Light (encased in a rock).
• Shield Surf: In Mask of Light, Takua and Jaller use Kopaka's Ice Shield to escape from Rahkshi in Ko-Wahi.
• Ship Tease:
  • Jaller and Hahli have plenty of moments before and after the ban on romance.
    • At the end of the Bohrok animations, Hahli comes up to Jaller and puts a flower on his Kanohi, prompting him to stay at Ga-Koro to hang out with her instead of leaving for Ta-Koro.
    • From The Mask of Light movie.
    Jaller: Nothing gets by the Captain of the Guard. *suggestively* Unless he wishes it.
    Hahli: *flirtatiously* I'll keep that in mind.
    • They were constantly trading flirts and compliments, Hahli keeps Jaller's mask as a memento after he dies and makes a Rousing Speech about his bravery to moralize the Toa and Turaga, and after Jaller gets revived by Takutanuva, Hahli hugs him!
    • In ''Mata Nui Online Game II', if Hahli talks to Kylma in Ko-Koro, he offers to tell her her future, which will have happiness and pain in it. The happiness is that she will relight the darkness within Mata Nui; and the pain? "The one you love will be destroyed".
• Sinister Geometry: Pohatu comments on the tunnels leading to the Bohrok Nest as being rather smooth and not dug by Matoran or even the Bohrok.
• Smash the Symbol:
  • In an online animation, the stone used to represent Mata Nui explodes, representing the Bohrok razing the island.
  • In the Mata Nui Online Game, the stones representing Makuta and the infected Rahi explode when the stones representing the Toa surround them.
• Special Effects Failure: Invoked. Word of God states that several of the choppy movements of Makuta and the Rahkshi in Mask of Light were inspired by Ray Harryhausen's work.
• Split-Personality Takeover: Takutanuva. Though he's an entirely new entity, Takanuva's mind is dominant over Makuta's because Makuta was weakened during their fight, which is why Takutanuva aids the Matoran.
• Standard Snippet: The music played when the Le-Matoran were preparing to attack the Nui-Rama Hive is "Ride of the Valkyries", by Richard Wagner.
• Sudden Name Change:
  • Before the Maori controversy against The LEGO Group, the Shore Turtles were called Hoi and Bog Snakes were called Kuna.
  • The Mata Nui Cow was originally called the "Mukau" (a pun on "Moo-Cow"), but it has not been called by this name since 2001. The name was taken out of canon because the story team head considered it too silly.
• Summon a Ride: In the Mata Nui Online Game, a flute can be used to call a Kewa for Takua to fly to other villages.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The Gukko was introduced in 2003 as a replacement for the earlier birds ridden in Le-Koro. These earlier birds, the Kahu and the Kewa, had to be written out of the storyline because of legal issues with their names. The change was explained away by the revelation that all three of these birds were, in fact, the same species, and had been called by different names in the past. Since then, it has been changed again to say that the Kahu and Kewa are subspecies of the main Gukko breed.
• There Is Another: The Wham Line leading into Adventures: "You are not the first Toa!"
• Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Takua during the first year.
• Tunnel Network: there were tunnels throughout and underneath the island of Mata Nui, made by the Onu-Matoran.
• Uncatty Resemblance: Graalok's facial structure in Mask of Light was based on the Kanohi Miru Nuva. This was done to accentuate the connection Lewa had with her and other wild Rahi.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Takua and Jaller constantly trade insults with one another but are undoubtably best friends. They still treat each other the same way after Takua becomes Takanuva.
• The Worf Effect: Three Toa merge into Toa Kaita Wairuha and corner three Bohrok-Kal. The bug-monsters fuse into their own giant monster which proceeds to kick Wairuha's butt in five seconds.
  • Worf Had the Flu: The Bohrok had already neutralized the Toas' elemental powers, leaving both the individual Toa and their fused form at a disadvantage.
• Yin-Yang Bomb: Takutanuva, an immensely powerful fusion of Takanuva (Toa of Light) and Makuta (a being of Shadow).

BIONICLE Adventures

• Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: Makuta! Dume manages to frame The Toa Metru as imposters in Legends of Metru Nui by demanding that they prove themselves as Toa, which they subsequently fail hard at due to having no idea how to use their powers (having just got them). This makes less sense in the comic version though (where the scene takes place between issues), due to the Toa Metru only revealing themselves to the public after slaying the Morbuzakh and saving Metru Nui from it. Making it a bit of a mystery how he managed to convince the public that they where imposters.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The Vahki. Originally intended to be robotic police, Makuta used them to round up all the Matoran. Even before he took control, they were pretty dangerous and prone to Disproportionate Retribution.
  • Their predecessor/protoype, the Kralhi, were worse. Their weapons were too powerful, leaving captured Matoran too weak to work for a while, so Dume ordered their destruction. The Kralhi were not happy about this, so they fled and went into hiding. Some ended up in the Great Barrier, teamed up with the rogue Archivist Mavrah, and eventually fought with the Toa Metru.
  • And later on when Teridax absorbs all the energy from the power generator for the coliseum, it ends up sending out a feedback that resulted in any Vahki not destroyed by it having their programming corrupted to the point that they saw the only way of enforcing order in Metru Nui was to destroy every living thing in the city.
• Always Second Best: Ahkmou and Nuhrii felt this way about Onewa and Vakama respectively in regards to carving and mask-making. Both of their resentment led to them falling into danger in an attempt to retrieve Great Disks in an attempt to gain fame.
• Amphibious Automobile: The Vahki Transport used by the Toa Metru to travel between Metru Nui and Mata Nui.
• Arc Villain: In order: the Morbuzakh, Nidhiki and Krekka, "Turaga Dume" (Makuta in disguise), and Sidorak and Roodaka.
• Assimilation Backfire: Vakama and Onewa managed to defeat a Tunneler, a Rahi which had the ability to take on the form of any force directed at it, by combining their Elemental Powers to transform it into brittle glass.
• Badass Armfold: Sidorak in Web of Shadows. It makes him look a LOT more badass than he really is.
• Beta Test Baddie: the plant monster Karzahni (no relation to the other Karzahni), abandoned in favor of the more controllable Morbuzakh.
• Big Brother Is Watching: The Vahki flash animations generally portrayed Makuta's reign while disguised as Turaga Dume like this.
• Big "NO!":
  • Vakama in Legends of Metru Nui after Toa Lhikan is captured.
  • Makuta does this twice in Legends of Metru Nui; first when Vakama shoots the Mask of Time out of his hands and causes it to fall into the sea, and second when he pulls a heavy rock towards him... and getting smashed against the wall behind him by the rock's mass.
• Blade Brake:
  • Matau uses his Aero Slicers to decelerate in a chute.
  • Done in Legends of Metru Nui, such as Nuju using his Crystal Spikes in stopping his fall on a Knowledge Tower and Nokama with her Hydro Blades in the Coliseum, and again with Matau and his Aero Slicers in the chute.
• Brains and Brawn: Nidhiki and Krekka.
• Brainwashed: Ahkmou was placed in a Matoran Sphere and had his memories erased just like everyone else. However, his sphere fell in the ocean during the initial voyage off the island, where it stayed until the end of Time Trap, where Makuta recovered it and filled Ahkmou's head with lies to make him loyal to him. Apparently, Ahkmou never changed his mind, being promoted to "Turaga" of Metru Nui after Makuta took over the universe.
• Bug War: Against the Visorak
• Cain and Abel: Toa Lhikan and Nidhiki.
• Call-Forward: Several in this arc, seeing as it serves to both set up how the Matoran got to Mata Nui and set the stage for the Mask of Life arc.
• The Cameo:
  • Several Matoran who had a prominent role in Mask of Light have cameos in Legends of Metru Nui; Takua, Jaller, and Hahli appear near the end, and Hewkii can be seen in the Coliseum.
  • As the novelization of Legends of Metru Nui confirms, the Le-Matoran Nidhiki and Krekka order to reverse the directions of the chutes is none other than Kongu, albeit with a different mask.
• Canon Discontinuity: At one point in Legends of Metru Nui, Matau mentions planning to have a "romantic ride-drive" with Nokama. This has been confirmed to be non-canon, as romance in the human sense does not exist in the universe.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Vhisola to Nokama. This escalated to higher levels when Nokama became a Toa.
• Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are: Vakama hiding from Makuta on two separate occasions in Adventures.
• Connected All Along: Nuju's eyepiece was built onto his mask by Vakama, who is friends with Jaller.
• Cool Airship: Especially used in Metru Nui, even more so in Le-Metru. Dark Hunters also use airships to deploy members.
• The Corruption: Hordika Venom mutates its victims into bestial forms. The Toa Hordika still had their Elemental Powers (and gained Rhotuka spinners), but lost their Kanohi powers and had to deal with Rahi instincts.
• Creation Sequence: The creation of the Disk of Time and then the Mask of Time by Vakama.
• Crystal Prison: When six Toa of different elements combine their powers,^note  Except for light and shadow, as they cancel each other out they can create a Toa Seal that not even Teridax can break out of. Said combination of elements are the only way of destroying Toa Seal.
• Data Crystal: Memory Crystals used in Metru Nui.
• Deadly Disc: Kanoka Disks. They have varying powers depending on the second digit imprinted on them.
• Deathly Unmasking: Done by Lhikan after he took the bullet for Vakama
• Devour the Dragon: Makuta does this to Nidhiki and Krekka.
• Disc-One Final Boss: The Morbuzakh
• Discontinuity Nod: Rahaga Kualus insists that "Gukko" is the incorrect name for some bird species and may even be an insult in their language (the original names got retconned out due to legal issues).
• Don't Think, Feel: How Turaga Lhikan trains Toa Whenua, Nuju, and Onewa to use their mask powers.
• Dramatic Unmask:
  • The Turaga sharing a cell with Whenua, Nuju, and Onewa removes his helmet to reveal himself as Turaga Lhikan.
  • The doppelgänger Turaga Dume removes his mask to reveal himself as Makuta.
• Enemy Mine: Makuta allies himself with Vakama when the Dark Hunters come looking for the Mask of Time. Vakama isn't happy.
• Engrish: A very odd example in Legends of Metru Nui when the Toa release the Matoran from their capsules. Despite being written out in the Matoran Language, the lettering on one of the capsules roughly translates out to capsue in English.
• Essence Drop: Amana Volo spheres
• Evil Versus Evil: Time Trap features the genesis of a war between the Brotherhood of Makuta and the Dark Hunters, a conflict that continued even into the Bionicle Legends era.
• Exploring the Evil Lair:
  • Onewa Hordika finds one of Makuta's lairs in the Visorak arc.
  • The entirety of the book Maze of Shadows, where the Toa Metru journey through Mangaia, Makuta's lair under Mata Nui.
• Fake King: Makuta impersonating Dume in the first half of the arc.
• Friendship-Hating Antagonist: The Shadowed One is the leader of the Dark Hunters, a group of Psycho for Hire rogues and murderers. He believes that things such as friendship and honor as shackles that hold one back and their only use being tools to manipulate others to his side, even pairing up different Dark Hunters for his own personal amusement rather than out of any desire to create strong bonds among his members.
• Foreshadowing: When dueling the Toa Metru, at one point Krekka throws an All Your Powers Combined attack. The result is a "strange crystalline substance."
• From a Certain Point of View: The legends the Turaga created about how the Matoran got to the island of Mata Nui. Adventures is them admitting this and telling the truth.
• Gate Guardian: The Visorak hordes include one species of Rahi literally named Gate Guardian.
• Giant Spider: The armies of man-sized Visorak.
• A Glitch in the Matrix: Vakama notices glimpses of the true ruined state of Metru Nui when he's in Makuta's illusion in Time Trap.
• Gotta Catch Them All: Great Kanoka Disks in the first half.
• Graceful Landing, Clumsy Landing: An example is seen in Web of Shadows. When the six Rahaga are introduced to the Toa, the first five make a graceful landing from flight but Iruni lands on his rear and skids across the floor.
• Hammerspace: Where does Vakama store his disks when he was a Toa Metru?
  • Greg Farshtey has stated that Toa can magnetically attach their tools to their backs, but visually, the movie makes it look played straight.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Turaga Lhikan by Taking the Bullet for Toa Vakama.
• Hijacked by Ganon: Guess who's really behind all the trouble?
• "I Know You Are in There Somewhere" Fight: Toa Matau to Toa Vakama during the Visorak invasion
• Invading Refugees: As the Toa Metru journeyed through the Maze of Shadows, they were frequently attacked by Rahi running in their direction. After some battle they realize these Rahi were fleeing something away from where they were heading.
• I've Always Wanted to Loud-Shout That: Matau says this after shouting "HELLO METRU NUI!" in the Coliseum.
• In the Future, We Still Have Roombas: Fire Drones from Legends of Metru Nui.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: The Metru Nui Matoran, which explains why they don't remember the existence of Metru Nui or that the Turaga were once Toa.
• Living Museum Exhibit: It was once mentioned that in a disk dueling incident, a Matoran was transformed by a Reconstitute at Random disk into something so grotesque that he nearly ended up on exhibition as a Rahi in the Archives.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: In Time Trap, Makuta put Toa Vakama in one to make him think he was a Matoran again and all his adventures had never happened.
• Mêlée à Trois: Toa Vakama vs. Makuta vs. the Shadowed One and his bodyguard Sentrakh in the final book.
• Midseason Upgrade: Inverted; the Toa Metru get a Midseason Downgrade into the Toa Hordika.
• Missed the Call: Subverted with the Toa Metru.
• Mistaken for Quake: BIONICLE 2: Legends of Metru Nui has Toa Vakama mistaking a rampaging herd of Kikanalo (big rhinoceros-like Rahi) for a "bio-quake."
• Mondegreen Gag: Onewa mishearing "Keetongu" as "The Key to Nongu".^note Despite them speaking a completely different language from English
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Makuta as "Ultimate Dume", though this didn't carry over to the movies; they just used the same Shadow Titan model with Nivawk's wings,
• Museum of the Strange and Unusual: The Onu-Metru Archives. It's so dangerous down in its deeper levels that not even Vahki are permitted in there.
• Mysterious Mercenary Pursuer: Nidhiki and Krekka
• Narrative Profanity Filter: In Time Trap, Toa Vakama is once mentioned muttering "something that would get him thrown out of Ga-Metru school", which seemed to amuse Makuta.
• No MacGuffin, No Winner: In Time Trap, Toa Vakama threatens Makuta Teridax by striking the Vahi with a hammer, which is more like No MacGuffin, No Universe.
• Not Quite Flight: Vakama has Nuju use his Mask of Telekinesis to move him towards Makuta Teridax.
• Objectshifting: One minor Rahi, the Archives Beast, lived in the underground Archives and disguised itself as an empty room.
• Oh, Crap!: Sidorak in Web of Shadows, realizing he has to face a very angry Keetongu alone.
• Plant Aliens: the Morbuzakh and the Karzahni.
• Plot Tailored to the Party: Legends of Metru Nui, as the Toa Metru discover their mask powers
• Power-Upgrading Deformation: Hordika venom causes this.
• Rapid Aging: Anything that gets too close to Voporak suffers this fate, including an army of Rahkshi and the Shadowed One, though the latter is a rare example of being alive after the aging.
• Recognizable by Sound: In the Hordika arc, Toa Nuju speaks to his companion Kualus about his old friend Ehrye. Just then, he hears Ehrye's voice calling for help. Kualus warns him not to follow it, but Nuju doesn't care. Sure enough, the source of the voice turned out to be from an Oohnorak waiting in ambush, having read Nuju's mind and then started mimicking Ehyre's voice.
• Scheherezade Gambit: Roodaka urges Sidorak to make a spectacle of the Toa Metru's deaths rather than just shoot them. While she only does this so their dead bodies could be available for use in her own schemes, it does give the Rahaga time to stage a rescue.
• Secret Legacy: The Turaga of Mata Nui were once Toa themselves, while their Toa Nuva charges had forgotten that other Toa besides them even existed.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Makuta in Web of Shadows
• Shattering the Illusion: In "Time Trap", Vakama shatters the illusion by stopping to believe it after firing a Kanoka disk at "Nokama", which just phases through "her".
• Ship Tease: Matau comments to Nokama that the Vahki carrier they're on would make for great romantic rides together in Legends of Metru Nui.
  • There is also an issue of the comics where, while Matau is being overpowered by a mind-controlled Nokama:
    Matau: I know I said I wanted to be near-close to you, Nokama, but not this near-close!
  • Lariska and Nidhiki were "close friends." Uh huh...
• Slept Through the Apocalypse: The Matoran of Metru Nui were unconscious while inside the Matoran Pods. Not only do they sleep through the Great Cataclysm, it was also a contributing factor to it.
• Spectacular Spinning: Rhotuka (from the Visorak arc), which are spinning wheels of energy.
• The Starscream: Roodaka in Web of Shadows is the Starscream to Sidorak, something that he doesn't learn until it's too late.
• Sudden Anatomy: Vakama in the third movie suddenly gains a white sheet of metal in his mouth to grin with when he turns evil. When he comes back to his senses, it visibly retracts into his mouth. Could be justified if the venom that had turned him bestial to begin with continued to affect and change his body depending on his mental state.
• The Swarm: Specifically, the Visorak swarm.
• Sympathetic Magic: Roodaka breaks off a piece of Teridax's Crystal Prison and hides it in her armor, tricking the Toa Hordika into blasting her with their elemental powers...and freeing Teridax.
• Teleporter's Visualization Clause: The Kanohi Kualsi, the mask of Quick Travel, requires the user to have a clear line of sight to their destination.
• Testing Range Mishap: Matau was testing the prototype Moto-Sled in the Test Track of the Moto-Hub when the handle broke off and ended up crashing. Fortunately, Lhikan stopped his fall before handing him a Toa Stone.
• To Win Without Fighting: In a flashback, the final confrontation of the Toa/Dark Hunter War.
• Transferable Memory: Memory Crystals were used by Ko-Matoran to store information from their minds.
• Transformation Trauma: Visorak venom is not kind to its victims. When the Toa Metru become Hordika, their cocoons hide most of the horror, but we do get to see newly-mutated body parts burst uncontrollably out of their webbing until their bodies are too grotesque for the cocoons to even hold them any longer.
• Unholy Matrimony: Sidorak mentions he and Roodaka are to be married in Web of Shadows. Word of God says that "married" in this case is some sort of political arrangement, as the Matoran Universe doesn't really do romance the way humans do (and they're not even the same species).
• Wall Crawl: a Vahki Rorzarkh climbs the wall of an Archives loading area in a promotional animation. The Visorak often do this, though that's to be expected from Giant Spiders.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Toa Vakama, over his Leeroy Jenkins actions.
• When Trees Attack: Morbuzakh and Karzahni are two monstrous (and sapient) plants that the Toa Metru fight.
• Whole Episode Flashback: The entirety of Adventures.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Matau gives one to Vakama, admitting his own faults and prompting a Heel–Face Turn.
• You Have Failed Me: One of the Shadowed One's Dark Hunters, codenamed "Eliminator", has the specific task of killing any Hunter that fails its mission, and take up the mission himself.
• You Mean "Xmas": Naming Day, an otherwise completely generic holiday, has an associated myth about Mata Nui coming through the transport chutes to deliver gifts.
• Zeppelins from Another World: The airships in Metru Nui.
• Zerg Rush: Makuta swarms Voporak with Rahkshi as a distraction in "Time Trap".

BIONICLE Legends and Afterward

• Adaptive Armor: Worn by Toa Nuva and used in-story to adapt them to the skies and swamps of Karda Nui, though the armor has more unseen capabilities for other environments.
• The Alcatraz: the Pit (though they skip the common "good guys have to break out" plot; the prison was long destroyed and nearly abandoned (it's been fixed since then))
• Almost Dead Guy: The Great Spirit is dying, and the only hope to save him is the Mask of Life.
• Alternate Universe / Alternate History: Takanuva interdimensionally visits a few of these on his journey.
  • After the End: "The Kingdom": The heroes failed to save Mata Nui's life in Legends; a number escaped the doomed "universe" by making their way to the planet surface.
  • Bizarro Universe: The Melding alternate universe appearing in "Brothers in Arms"; Mata Nui never had to be built and the roles of the Toa and Matoran characters are switched (for example, Macku is a small Toa and Helryx a tall Matoran). Oh, and the Makuta embraced the light instead of the shadows, with a highlight being a good, bizarro Teridax who then crossed over to the prime reality.
  • Mirror Universe: "Dark Mirror": Toa have become Knight Templars, and the Makuta and Dark Hunters are part of La Résistance (though calling them the "good" guys would be a stretch).
    • Expendable Alternate Universe: "Dark Mirror" kills off more characters in the space of one episode than total deaths in the entire series.
• Amplifier Artifact: Antidermis has the strange effected of strengthening Brutaka's species.
• Arc Villain: In order: the Piraka, Brutaka, Vezon, the Barraki, a Maxilos robot possessed by Makuta, and the Brotherhood of Makuta (with Makuta himself absent).
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
  • In Destiny War, when Vezon is asking Trinuma what they're supposed to do when they arrive at their destination, Vezon asks: "So what am I supposed to do on Destral? Theft? Assassination? Running with sharp objects?"
  • In "Inferno" when the Piraka get caught in a trap, Thok, in his irritation, says, "What's next?—The walls close in? Swarms of fireflyers attack? The Shadowed One sings?"
• Ascended Extras: The Toa Inika/Mahri, who were Matoran supporting characters back in Chronicles
  • The Matoran Ahkmou. Originally he was just a Matoran who was selling infected Kolhii balls, then during the Metru Nui saga was a major character. What would have been its logical conclusion: He was slated to be a Toa of Shadow during the Karda Nui Saga, but was cut due to time constraints; as something of a narrative consolation prize, Teridax made him the ruler of Metru Nui after taking over the Matoran Universe.
• Assimilation Backfire: In the Kingdom Alternate Dimension, Makuta is killed after he absorbs Matoro, who fights back successfully due to Makuta's weakened will due to his plan's failure in that dimension.
• Awesome Personnel Carrier: the Toa Terrain Crawler, a living example. It was only used once.
• Back from the Dead: Hydraxon subverts this trope. He's a copy who thinks he's the original.
• Badass Normal: The Voya Nui Resistance Team, although they owe it to their weapons.
  • Mazeka. He specifically requested that the Order of Mata Nui train to use any kind of weapon, how to win clean, and how to win dirty.
  • Goes double for Hydraxon, who also lacks elemental powers and instead relies on a bunch of weapons, a bunch of training, and enhanced hearing (which doubles as a weakness) to get him by.
• The Bad Guy Wins: The conclusion of the "Waking Mata Nui" Myth Arc and serves as the whole storyline's Darkest Hour.
• Ball of Light Transformation: Umbra has this ability and uses it offensively.
• Beyond the Impossible: At one point, Jaller sets Mantax ablaze on the ocean floor. It's Handwaved with the Wizard Did It rule; he has power over fire, and if he wants fire underwater, he can do that (not easily, but still...). Further justified by Greg on an online Q&A when he pointed out that it's possible to have fire underwater. It just takes either certain chemicals or a lot of energy.
• Big Bad Wannabe: The Piraka. Yes, they're considered the main villains for an arc, but they got put in their place real fast.
• Big Damn Heroes: Onua arriving just in time to give Tahu and crew back up against a group of Exo-Toa in "Reign of Shadows".
  • During Makuta's reign, Artakha manages to intervene right before Toa Helryx tries to destroy the universe in order to stop him before showing up in person to berate her for her methods.
  • The Toa Inika defeating the Piraka, after three disastrous attempts by both the Voya Nui Matoran and the Toa Nuva.
• Boxed Crook: in "Federation of Fear" and other Karda Nui web serials.
• Brainwashed: the Voya Nui Matoran by Antidermis.
• Break Out the Museum Piece: A variation; instead of technology, it's dangerous wildlife in the Archives. It's revealed that long ago, (then-"good") Makuta did this to end the Metru Nui Civil War. The results were gruesome.
• Brick Joke (dramatic variant): In Legends, Makuta disappears at the end of the Mahri Nui arc, and remains almost completely absent while the Brotherhood is waging war in Karda Nui. Then comes the final book's epilogue... (Undermined just a little by the fact that a web serial features a search for him, but played straight concerning the other media.)
• Brown Note: A Klakk's sonic scream can cause immense pain to a Makuta and cure Shadow Matoran.
• Cain and Abel: Axonn and Brutaka also count during Brutaka's brief Face–Heel Turn, though they don't refer to each other as "brother."
• Cataclysm Climax: The end of the Mahri Nui arc is set against Voya Nui sinking through the sea to rejoin the Matoran Universe, smashing Mahri Nui itself in the process- all while the Matoran Universe itself is dead. 2008, meanwhile, ends with a huge energy storm annihilating everything in Karda Nui besides the Codrex.
• The Charmer: According to Jerbraz, he was one of the Order of Mata Nui's "most handsome and dashing" members, before he was rendered permanently invisible following an accident. Now he has to get by on just charm.
• Chekhov's Gun: Makuta's ability to take spiritless bodies.
  • The mysterious underground sundial, great telescope, and Red Star from the Mata Nui Online Game all come into play again as the franchise began wrapping up.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: Consciously averted with the Brotherhood of Makuta - when the Toa faced more than one at once, Farshtey added Drama Preserving Handicaps to give the Toa a legitimate chance.
• Cool Garage: The Codrex.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Mutran recounts how Icarax tried to rebel against Teridax:
  Mutran: "[Teridax] allowed Icarax to pound him for hours on end, until the rebel's energies were almost exhausted. Then Teridax exerted the smallest amount of his will and turned the Manas against Icarax. Once he was surrounded, Teridax used every power at his command to defeat... no, demolish... no, perhaps humiliate would be a better word... Icarax."
  • Then he follows it up with a Breaking Speech.
• Cursed with Awesome: Some of the Mask of Life's curses end up being this (and once or twice it actively tries to do its bearer a favor instead, leading to Blessed with Suck).
• Darkest Hour: When Makuta pretty much assumes control of the universe, rendering all the Toa's previous battles and struggles rather moot.
• David vs. Goliath: Hewkii vs Brutaka on Voya Nui. Obviously he isn't able to defeat the much stronger Brutaka, but Hewkii does well in holding him back, by trapping him under stone. Keep in mind that Brutaka had only just recently knocked out all six Toa Nuva and the Voya Nui Resistance Team in one fell swoop, so surviving against the powerful warrior is an accomplishment in itself for Hewkii.
• Death by Irony: Makuta Mutran thinks of a way to try and control Karda Nui's energy storm, only to be zapped to dust after declaring he figured it out.
• Death Is the Only Option: In the Chamber of Death, the only way to proceed was for one member of the Toa Inika team to sacrifice himself or herself. Matoro volunteered, but was revived immediately afterward, as the purpose was a test of courage. This was because the Ignika, the mask the chamber was protecting, requires the sacrifice of the wearer to be used. Matoro's willingness to give himself up showed the mask that he was the true bearer.
• Death Mountain: A rock accidentally left behind by Mutran on the island of Xia became this. It happens to be also alive and eats whatever tries to scale it.
• Depending on the Artist: The reason the comic version and the CGI version of the Keystone looks different is that Leigh Gallagher didn't have access to the CGI animations when he was drawing the comic. The CGI version of the Keystone is the accurate one.
• Designated Girl Fight: Gali vs Gorast in the Swamp of Secrets, which is the first and only occurence of this, as female villains are rare in BIONICLE.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Subverted with Carapar, who tries to kill the Lovecraft Shout-Out Tren Krom and gets disintegrated by the thing's Eye Beam before his attack even hits.
• Diminishing Villain Threat:
  • While most of the Barraki are arguably less intimidating than their backstories had implied (having started a war that Toa couldn't contain and required Makuta of all people to step in and resolve), Carapar got the worst of it after the Mahri Nui Arc. He became essentially a prisoner of the Order of Mata Nui and was sent on a suicide mission with his jailer, then gets killed by Tren Krom's eyebeam in an instant. This is a far cry from his original position as a ruthless and cunning warlord who commanded a whole kingdom. That said, it is explicitly stated that being hypnotized repeatedly by Takadox did a number on his mental faculties.
  • Prior to the Karda Nui Saga, a single Makuta was a big enough threat to warrant an entire team of Toa. When they took center stage in 2008, however, their comptetence had to be toned down in order to make sure they didn't just steamroll the heroes entirely, and so every Makuta that received a canister set had a Drama Inducing Handicap, Icarax picked a fight with one of the most powerful entities in existence and got his ass handed to him, Teridax's frequent inability to remember or properly exploit his 40+ different powers became standard-issue, it was revealed that their Evil Plan required the Toa Nuva to win in the end anyways, and- most importantly- the Makuta were just as prone to infighting as previous villain teams, to the point that of all confirmed Makuta kills, only three were not at the hands of another Makuta.
• Doing In the Wizard: At the end of Legends, a number of mythological aspects got explained away. The biggest one is that Mata Nui, revered as a mystical Physical God by the Matoran, was actually a giant robot that they lived inside. (According to the creators, this was one of the founding concepts of the line, with foreshadowing being threaded into the story since its very first year.) About the only things that didn't were the Great Beings - we learned more about them here and on Bara Magna, but they're still mysterious Precursors.
• Don't Celebrate Just Yet: the Toa Nuva return from Karda Nui to Metru Nui to celebrate Mata Nui's awakening ... only to find out they were Unwitting Pawns in Makuta's Plan, meaning Makuta has taken over Mata Nui's body.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: The Makuta invading Karda Nui would have been unstoppable if they were at full power. Therefore, the "Phantoka" team was blinded, the "Mistika" team suffered Shape Shifter Mode Lock and lost some of their multiple powers, and Icarax was painfully devolved back into a physical being. (Mutran was unaffected, but was more of a Mad Scientist than a fighter anyway.)
• Dub Name Change: In some European countries, the Sea Squids are labeled as "Polyps."
• Dummied Out The Voya Nui Online Game's files featured odd figures. It is still not known if they were a prototype of Hahli, or a Barraki prototype, as the figure appeared to have a Squid Launcher. Another picture showed the underwater city Mahri Nui.
• Egopolis: Makuta renamed the Matoran world the "Makutaverse" upon taking it over.
• Empathic Weapon: The Mask of Life, which is sentient.
• Enemy Civil War:
  • The Piraka. They're not much in the way of a full-fledged faction, per se, but their incessant plotting to backstab each other escalates into its members trying to outright kill each other on more than one occasion.
  • Nuparu and Hewkii trick Ehlek into thinking Pridak's sharks attacked his army's spawning grounds, and Ehlek responds by sending some of his forces to attack Pridak, halting an attack on Matoro and Teridax-as-Maxilos in the process.
• Enemy Mine:
  • Makuta forces an alliance with Toa Matoro in Mahri Nui.
  • Hakann and Thok stealing Brutaka's power prompts the remaining Piraka and Toa Inika to team up to stop them. Naturally, both groups (especially the Piraka) try to directly work with each other as little as possible during this.
  • Once the Order of Mata Nui decides to go public in its fight against the Brotherhood of Makuta, it starts enlisting some of the biggest villains in the Matoran Universe to aid them; this includes such drastic measures as formally partnering up with the Dark Hunters (who are in the middle of their own war with the Brotherhood at the time), as well as re-establishing the League of Six Kingdoms, the would-be universe-conquerors that inspired the Brotherhood to turn evil in the first place.
• Enormous Engine: Jetrax T6 has two huge engines.
• Evil Twin: Inverted - The good "Anti-Makuta" from the Bizarro Universe has been recruited to help fight the main universe's evil one.
• Evilutionary Biologist: Every last Makuta has at least a little background in creature creation, as that was their original job; with Chirox and Mutran still focusing on it.
• Exploring the Evil Lair: The Piraka doing this is what starts all the trouble.
• Field Power Effect: in Karda Nui, where beings of Light grow larger than normal.
• Final Battle: Basically the 2008 storyline was called this, and it was part of the title of a comic and a book.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Twice in a single book to a corrupted Toa Takanuva in Legends.
  • If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him! is cited during one of these.
• Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul: The first Toa of Psionics, Orde, was created by the Great Beings to do something like this to the Zyglak. Unfortunately, due to Orde's violent temper, he made them in an Unstoppable Rage. Thus, the Great Beings made the rest of the Toa of Psionics female from then on.
• Giant Spider: The big-enough-to-ride Fenrakk (which incidentally gets...
  • Scaled Up into the Kardas dragon)
• The Great Flood: Gali unleashed a Nova Blast that completely flooded Karzahni.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: Reidak breaks up a squabble among the other Piraka by throwing Hakann at Avak. Hakann pays him back in the same way (to Avak's displeasure) during his A God Am I phase.
• Handy Helper: The Phantoka Makuta were permanently blinded by the light after the Mask of Life fell into Karda Nui. Thus, they have Shadow Matoran to be this for them.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Toa Matoro, Toa Ignika
• High-Tech Hexagons: In pretty much all the graphics of Voya Nui, plus a large amount of the graphics from Mahri and Karda Nui, there are hexagons in the background, most likely to give the images a high-tech feel. They even changed the shape of the Matoran alphabet characters from circles to hexagons. It does make you wonder, though, why they didn't use hexagons in the last arc, when the futuristic city of Metru Nui was the main setting.
• Homeworld Evacuation: In the Kingdom Alternate Dimension, Matoro fails to revive the Great Spirit Mata Nui, leaving the Matoran Universe in danger and prompt mass exodus onto the island of Mata Nui. Not all beings made it safely, but while many made it to the island, it is only a temporary refuge. The survivors settled quickly and also planned on how to leave the island for the stars.
• The Igor: Vican to Makuta Mutran.
• I Knew There Was Something About You:
  Vezon: Who are you, and why are you here?
  Mazeka: I'm here to kill you!
  Vezon: Oh. I knew there was something about you that I liked!
• I Like Those Odds:
  Kongu: Five of us, 5000 of them. I like your idea of fair odds, Hahli.
• I Would Say If I Could Say: Makuta to Carapar:
  "You couldn't snap your fingers without help ... if you had fingers."
• In-Series Nickname:
  • Each Piraka had a promotional nickname:
    • Hakann - "The Bully"
    • Vezok - "The Beast"
    • Zaktan - "The Snake"
    • Avak - "The Trigger"
    • Reidak - "The Tracer"
    • Thok - "The Drifter"
  • BIONICLE: The Quest Game gives the Toa Inika nicknames to go with the Piraka's. These names are non-canon.
    • Hahli - "The Catcher"
    • Matoro - "The Keeper"
    • Hewkii - "The Hitter"
    • Nuparu - "The Stopper"
    • Kongu - "The Tumbler"
    • Jaller - "The Striker"
  • Since their transformation by the Pit Mutagen, Ehlek is sometimes referred to as "The Eel" and Pridak is sometimes referred to as "The Shark."
• Irony: The BIONICLE team gave Nuparu a Mask of Flight because it would be humorous and ironic for a Toa of Earth, who rarely sees daylight, to actually fly, while Kongu, who lived in the treetops for most of his life as a Matoran, cannot.
• Jetpack: The Av-Matoran use these. Lewa has these in his Adaptive Armor's Sky Form.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Inverted with Makuta Icarax (he's a Leeroy, but his actions would've saved the Makuta instead of dooming them)
• Let's You and Him Fight: Toa Mahri vs. Toa Hagah in a web serial, complete with Lampshade Hanging
• Lightning Can Do Anything: the Toa Inika's origin and powers
• Lock-and-Load Montage: in a commercial featuring Piraka Avak, Avak builds a gun and test fires it, only for the recoil to knock him backwards.
  • In commercials for the Toa Mahri, the Toa Mahri are equipped with their Kanohi Masks, Toa Tools, and Cordak Blasters inside the Toa Terrain Crawler.
• Losing Your Head: Occurs to Hahli in an outtake animation for a non-canon commercial.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: Toa Lesovikk and the Toa Hagah went through these.
• Mêlée à Trois: The Mahri Nui arc, with five different main factions. The Toa Mahri, The Barraki, The Mahri Nui Matoran, Hydraxon and Maxilos/Makuta (who "allies" with Matoro for awhile). The Piraka return, but only briefly. Also featured is Lesovikk, who is hunting down Karzhani, but both of them are rather uninvolved in the main plot and never meet the heroes (though Karzahni went underwater because he followed the Toa Inika).
• Midseason Upgrade: Toa Inika into Mahri. Though in some ways, they are actually less powerful losing out on their lightning powers and ability to breathe air.
  • If you count their appearances in books and serials prior to 2008, the Toa Nuva and their Adaptive Armor.
• Mirror Morality Machine: Shadow Leeches used by the Makuta turn victims evil. Fortunately, they can be cured by a Klakk's scream.
• Missed the Call: Word of God suggests Makuta was destined to replace the Great Spirit at some point, but he did it at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons.
• Monument of Humiliation and Defeat: At some point in the "Dark Mirror" universe, Tuyet and her empire defeated the Brotherhood of Makuta. She has Teridax's Kraahkan mask displayed in the Archives to taunt him, and the mask is warded so that any attempt to take it will alert her and her minions.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Botar, Fenrakk/Kardas, Gadunka, and ANY Skakdi.
• Mysterious Mist: the Akaku Nuva is unable to pierce through the mist in the Swamp of Secrets of Karda Nui.
• Narrative Profanity Filter: Used for the Piraka, like when Avak flips Reidak out of a boat. His response is strongly implied to be the Matoran version of a Cluster F-Bomb.
• Neck Lift: Kalmah does this to Jaller with his tentacle, although this is done underwater.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In the Toa Nuva's defense, there's no way in Karzanhi they could have known that Makuta had already placed himself in control of Mata Nui's body so that all he had to do was wait for the Toa to reactivate it.
• Noodle Incident: Invasion, a canceled (but still canon) Legends book bridging Voya Nui and Mahri Nui. We know it involved a Body Snatcher plot and Vezon.
• Obvious Rule Patch: The reason why Greg Farshtey didn't want Matoro to have Elemental Powers in the story when he released his spirit is because it would give him an unfair advantage since Matoro could attack beings who couldn't sense him.
• Outrun the Fireball: The Toa Nuva escape Karda Nui's growing energy storm using flying vehicles.
• Our Zombies Are Different: When Matoro ended up in Mahri Nui, his Kanohi changed into the Tryna, the Mask of Reanimation. It allows the user to give artificial life to and control dead bodies for as long as the user maintains concentration.
• Outside Ride: How the Toa Nuva and Takanuva escape from Karda Nui on the Codrex vehicles (they seat three, with four more hanging on).
• Painting the Medium: In "Reign of Shadows", Artakha's telepathy is represented in italics, and Tren Krom's in bold.
• Pardon My Klingon: the term "Piraka" is the main one, though a few others show up (like "Go to Karzahni!")
• Precision-Guided Boomerang: Axonn can do this with his Great Axe.
• Place of Power: Karda Nui to Matoran of Light, which is why they're much bigger than other Matoran. Takanuva, a Toa of Light, also became much larger in Karda Nui.
• Pretty Spry for a Dead Guy: Hydraxon, except he's really just a Matoran transformed by the Ignika and given the real Hydraxon's memories. His apparent revival still confuses and frightens the Pit's former inmates.
• Psychometry: The Mask of Psychometry, which allows its user to learn details about the past of an object by making physical contact with it. While the user can see something of an object's past, they have no real control over how much information they actually receive. This power cannot be used on more than one object at a time, nor does it work on living beings.
• Punny Name: used increasingly in Legends; for example, the axe-wielding Axonn, the stingray-like Barraki Mantax, and the energy-sucking Makuta Vamprah.
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: any villain group of six that aren't Mooks; the Piraka and Barraki are the best examples. They might also qualify as The Psycho Rangers.
• Ragtag Band of Misfits: During Makuta's tenure in Mata Nui's body, Tahu finds himself in a group with Kopeke (a Matoran), Johmak (a member of Order of Mata Nui), Krahka (a Rahi), Lariska, and Guardian (two Dark Hunters), the latter of whom promptly gets killed by Makuta.
• Recursive Canon: BIONICLE: Rahi Beasts was mentioned briefly in BIONICLE: World as one of the books in the Order of Mata Nui's library, written by Rahaga Norik.
• Respawn Point: The Red Star was intended to keep resurrecting all the dead characters in the Matoran Universe into new bodies, so that there would never be a shortage of workforce. It did just that, but thanks to a glitch, they remained stranded there, unable to return to the MU. Due to this, it seemed like they had been Killed Off for Real.
• Rocket Ride: The Codrex vehicles.
• Room 101: the "Chamber of Truth" in the Piraka Stronghold
• Sacrificial Revival Spell: Matoro sacrifices himself with the help of the Mask of Life to save Mata Nui's life and, in turn, the Matoran Universe.
• Seal the Breach: The Great Cataclysm caused a portion of the Southern Continent (which would later be known as Voya Nui) to be dislodged and left a hole which caused sea water to drop through and fall onto Karda Nui. After the Toa Mahri destroy The Cord connecting Voya Nui and Mahri Nui together, the former returned to the Southern Continent and sealed the hole.
• Sensory Tentacles: Kalmah gained five tentacles on the back of his head after his mutation, which allow him to sense movement in the water.
• Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: Used in the climax of "Destiny War", pitting Bohrok against Rahkshi. (Adventures also had a Vahki/Visorak scuffle, though not triggered by the heroes).
• Ship Tease: In the Legends Novels, there are occasions where Jaller is the one catching Hahli whenever she's in danger, it's even how he first discovered his mask power.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: In "Dark Destiny", a member of the Matoran resistance of Voya Nui tells the story of a Rahi who believed the stars were food belonging to a larger creature and tried to climb a high mountain to snatch a piece for himself. After inevitable failure, he eventually accepted that the stars were beyond his reach - until one night he saw a great red star and tried to run up the mountain and jump high enough to snatch it.... only to accidentally jump off a cliff on the side of the mountain. Initially this story simply annoys the other resistance members, until the leader explains that the moral of the story is about not making the same mistake twice.
• Shout-Out:
  • During the "Brothers in Arms" serial, Vultraz remarks that he doesn't think he's in Karda Nui anymore and tries clicking his red feet together three times to get back to the main universe.
  • In "Federation of Fear":
    Vezon: We're gonna need...
    Brutaka: A bigger boat, I know.
  • The next issue teaser on the first 2010 story comic is And One Shall Fall
• Sickly Green Glow: Antidermis/Makuta energy, which the Piraka Zamor Spheres were filled with, explaining their green coloration.
• Slasher Smile: The Piraka (and by extension, their species, the Skakdi), in spades. So much that it's part of their head molds. The teeth in the sets also glowed in the dark. Charming.
• Smash the Symbol: On Voya Nui, Axonn carves a picture of a Hau on a rock to represent Mata Nui, then destroys it to represent how much danger the Great Spirit Mata Nui is in.
• Spell My Name With An S: In several pieces of official media, Carapar is mislabeled "Karapar."
• Split-Personality Takeover: in the Kingdom Alternate Universe, Matoro does this to Makuta when the latter absorbs the former into his armor.
• Someone Has to Die: Used regarding the Mask of Life, though subverted in one instance.
• Soul Jar: the Mask of Life is one for Mata Nui at the end.
• Supernatural Sealing: A group of Toa can create a Toa Seal using their Elemental Powers. The Toa Metru were able to seal Makuta Teridax in the 2004 storyline.
• Sword and Gun: The Inika, Mahri, and most (adaptive armor-equipped) Toa Nuva all have this as their armament.
• Taking You with Me: Combined with Fighting from the Inside and Split-Personality Takeover when the Teridax of "The Kingdom" absorbs that universe's Matoro.
• Tempting Fate: Toa Takanuva's blog telling of his hopes for a new era of peace. Especially when you realize it's set right before the Wham Episode.
• That's No Moon: Mata Nui as the Matoran Universe.
• Thrown Out The Air Lock: Makuta teleports a group of heroes out of the Matoran Universe into space. Don't worry, they were rescued.
• Trapped on the Astral Plane: Matoro finds himself in this situation when Teridax takes over his body as Matoro uses his mask power to scout ahead in astral form. The rest of the Toa Inika convinces Teridax to leave Matoro's body after threatening to kill it.
• Tuckerization: Order members Jerbraz, Johmak, and Tobduk, who were credited as providing pictures for the Order's atlas, were named for the guide's real-life illustrators Jeremy Brazeal, John McCormack, and Toby Dutkiewicz respectively.
• Twist Ending:
  • In the Matoran saga's conclusion, the books and comics show that Makuta wins.
  • In the Matoran saga's conclusion, the web content adds the revelation that the Matoran world is inside Mata Nui.
• Unpredictable Results: Kongu Mahri's Mask of Summoning; you never know what will be summoned.
• Upgrade Artifact: as mentioned in Amplifier Artifact, Antidermis strengthens Brutaka's species, but when Brutaka fell into a pool of Antidermis, he gained increased power along with many abilities of the Makuta, in addition to physically strengthening his body to the point that his muscle cracked his armor at several places.
• War Arc: Destiny War between The Order of Mata Nui and Brotherhood of Makuta.
• Water Is Air: Consciously averted in Mahri Nui, where characters like Jaller and Kongu had tremendous difficulty using their powers, and combat took place in a 3D environment. (Kongu decided just to go with more guns.)
• Weapon of Mass Destruction: the Ignika, which can suck all the life in the Matoran Universe in cases such as war, plague, etc.
• What Could Have Been: Some alternate plans for Legends:
  • Makuta was originally going to get pissy over his defeat in Mask of Light and throw a Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum, but Farshtey made him The Chessmaster instead, whose Evil Plan required the world to come to the brink of death in order to work.
  • Jaller's team was to have the starring role the whole time, but it was agreed that the heroes who started the saga should finish it, so the Toa Nuva were brought back for Karda Nui.
  • Also in Karda Nui, they would've taken the shadow corruption to its logical extreme and introduced a Toa of Shadow, but the plans for a toy set fell through so there was little reason to include one in the story.
    • As a Continuity Nod, the Toa of Shadow would have been Ahkmou, the traitorous Po-Matoran who was loyal to Makuta.
• What If?: Karzahni can show other characters what would have happened if a significant event in their lives played out differently. For negative results, it results in a Mind Rape, but if it has a positive outcome, it turns into a Lotus-Eater Machine.
• Why Are We Whispering?: A variation is used. Jerbraz and Mazeka have entered a village of De-Matoran. Jerbraz mentions that the locals can probably hear them whispering due to their acute hearing. Mazeka asks why they even bother whispering. Jerbraz replies, "Out of respect"— it turns out that their hearing is so strong that normal noise levels are painful to them.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Both Hewkii and Kongu in the Mahri Nui arc, as they both come from tribes that don't like deep water (Stone and Air, respectively). In an interesting inversion, the Toa of Fire was relatively unperturbed by the environment, save for the fact his powers were much weaker.
• The Worf Effect: The Toa Nuva got beaten pretty bad by the Piraka in Legends...
• Worf Had the Flu: ...Because Destiny Said So.
• The Worm That Walks: Piraka Zaktan was composed of microscopic Protodites.
• You Are Too Late: Sixth kind of use - By the time some of the heroes catch on to what Makuta has been planning and try encountering him at the place he needs to finish his Evil Plan they discover Makuta has already taken over Mata Nui's body.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Makuta sent Brotherhood members into Karda Nui without telling them the place would become a death trap once the Evil Plan played out.

Bara Magna/Spherus Magna

• After the End: Spherus Magna was damaged and split apart by a catastrophic event called "The Shattering". The present-day story takes place in what's left, a desert wasteland known as Bara Magna.
• Animal-Vehicle Hybrid: The Skopio was a giant scorpion that the Great Beings tampered with and gave it Spider Tank qualities like tank treads and a cannon for a tail.
• Arc Villain: Rock tribe leader Tuma was this before Makuta asserted himself. The Element Lords were going to lead the next arc before it was scrapped. There are a few new bad guys emerging since Makuta's defeat, but none have asserted themselves as the "main" villain.
• Attack Its Weak Point: Mata Nui defeats Tuma in the movie by hammering on a back injury. (The novelization instead has Mata Nui study Tuma's strategy, then use Tuma's lack of speed to his advantage.)
• Bavarian Fire Drill: The novelization suggests that this is part of the reason the Agori traitor is able to take control after Tuma's defeat; the Skrall are so panicked by the thing attacking them that they'll listen to anyone giving orders.
• Beam-O-War: occurs between Kiina and Ackar using their new Elemental Powers of water and fire respectively in The Legend Reborn.
• Behemoth Battle: In the final battle between Mata Nui and Makuta, both of them are inhabiting enormous, multi-million-foot-tall robots.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: A promotional description for the Vorox is the Trope Namer.
• Bittersweet Ending: The heroes destroy Makuta once and for all and Mata Nui reforms Spherus Magna, allowing the various Matoran races to finally begin a new age of peace. However, the entire Matoran Universe is destroyed, forcing all of its inhabitants to leave their homes and begin a new life on Spherus Magna, and Mata Nui (seeing how the Matoran Universe fell apart partially due to the fact that its inhabitants relied on him too much) goes dormant once more, using his last words to tell the Toa and Glatorian to seek out the Great Beings. And that's not mentioning how many have died in the battle against Makuta, making the victory a costly one.
• Break Out the Museum Piece: Mata Nui has to use the prototype for his old body to fight Makuta.
• Cannot Dream: The victims of the Dreaming Plague, driving them to insanity and death.
• Cave Mouth: The entrance to Roxtus◊, which isn't surprising as it's the head of a Humongous Mecha Prototype.
• Character as Himself: Click in the movie
• Colossus Climb: Sort of. Mata Nui grabs the Skopio's leg as it winds up to try and stomp him and uses the momentum to throw himself onto its back.
• Combat by Champion: The Glatorian system had Glatorian represent the Agori villages in combat.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: Averted with the Skrall, rather noticeably. Strakk even gives a perfect setup with "We could barely beat one, how do we beat an army?" Answer: They don't.
• Continuity Nod: the Hero Agori from the My LEGO Network game is briefly mentioned in the first book.
• Cool Bike: Cendox and Kaxium vehicles
  • Cool Sidecar: Kaxium V3 has one, which also has a mounted Thornax Launcher and is detachable.
• Cool Gate: Spirit's Wish, an ornate archway that teleports whoever passes under it to wherever they desire.
• Cyborg: unlike the Mata Nui races, the Bara Magnans are mostly organic but have a few cybernetic implants
• Diminishing Villain Threat: Tuma is utterly upstaged in The Legend Reborn. He only has two scenes (one with no lines, and one where he gets his ass kicked), and ultimately comes off as merely The Dragon to the Agori traitor.
• Dragon-in-Chief: Tuma in Legend Reborn. Everywhere else, he's portrayed as the main villain.
• Dream Stealer: Annona, who was responsible for the Dreaming Plague that wiped out the Iron Tribe.
• Dynamic Entry: Double Subverted. Mata Nui doesn't Goomba Stomp Strakk, he lands normally... and then goes for a more standard "jump in from the side" deal.
• Early-Bird Cameo: The baterra and the Element Lords appeared in the '09 web serials and would have showed up more prominently in the original 2010 story.
• Elemental Embodiment: The Element Lords, created from a member of each of the Tribes save the Iron one (which was already defunct at the time), who were merged with their element totally by the Great Beings to govern in their stead while they focused on experimenting.
• Eldritch Abomination: As noted in the Matoran section, the Energized Protodermis Entity that existed within the planet until it was moved to the Mata Nui robot. There's also something that looks like a miniature sun that feeds on dreams.
• Equippable Ally: Click, Mata Nui's pet beetle, can transform into his shield.
• Evil Overlord: Tuma.
• Featureless Protagonist: The Hero Agori of the My LEGO Network BIONICLE Campaign.
• Field of Blades: or rather it's called the "Forest of Blades", only the corpses are still holding their weapons and being fused with trees, some jutting halfway out.
• Flat Character: The rushed nature of the story caused this to happen to the unusual character of Perditus, the pilot of the Thornatus V9. He has almost no presence in the story whatsoever, with him being given two bios that both describe him in about as nondescript a fashion as possible, with little beyond "he cares a lot about his job but he doesn't take much pleasure in it." Even design-wise, he is remarkably unadorned for a character of his size and price point. Word of God claims him to have been a spy for Velika, but this never comes up in his scant few appearances.
• Flawed Prototype: The giant broken robot on Bara Magna; a prototype to Mata Nui himself. He fixed it up to fight Makuta, but it still has a lot of problems.
• Foreshadowing: An early and possible hint to Metus' betrayal? In the My LEGO Network BIONICLE Campaign, he's friends with Atakus of the Rock Tribe!
• Gladiator Games: This is how the tribes in Bara Magna resolve disputes, though it's heavily regulated and doesn't descend into Blood Sport.
• Grew Beyond Their Programming: The MU inhabitants are revealed to be this.
• Grim Up North: The rock tribe (and even they were driven south by the baterra)
• Hate Plague: The Dreaming Plague's first symptoms included irritability, which then grew to hatred and violent behaviour, finally leading to complete insanity followed by death.
• Horse of a Different Color: the Bone Hunters' Rock Steeds.
• Incendiary Exponent: After being given the usual "A Storm Is Coming" warning by Malum, Gresh punctuates his response by setting his shield on fire.
• I Surrender, Suckers: Strakk pulls this in the movie and in the comics.
• Invading Refugees: The Rock Tribe from the north initially partake in the Glatorian system before straight up invading other tribes for resources. It turns out they were only doing this because the Baterra drove them out of their old home and killed a significant portion of the tribe.
• King Incognito: One of the Great Beings has been masquerading as a member of the Matoran Universe for the past 100,000 years. Well over a year after the story otherwise stalled out, Word of God revealed him as Velika, a Voya Nui Matoran.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Mata Nui was a victim of Grand Theft Me and exiled.
• The Magnificent Seven Samurai: "Raid on Vulcanus"
• Man of Kryptonite: Marendar was created to be an anti-Toa weapon if they threatened the Agori, and is thus completely immune to Elemental Powers.
• Make Games, Not War: The inhabitants of Bara Magna instituted a (heavily-regulated and not bloody) Gladiator Games system to settle disputes; the justification being that Combat by Champion is a lot less taxing on already-scarce resources than equipping entire armies.
• The Maze: the Valley of the Maze.
• Monumental Damage: In-universe; the Skrall destroying Arena Magna.
• Mystical Plague: The Dreaming Plague, caused by Anonna, a being that feasts on dreams.
• Neck Lift: Stronius does this to a Vorox that managed to free itself from its shackles.
• No Need for Names: The Skrall for the most part; names have to be earned.
• Nonchalant Dodge: Tarix performs a type 1 when Vastus tries to shoot him with a Thornax in Legend Reborn
• Oh, Crap!: At least three in The Legend Reborn:
  • Ackar's reaction to seeing the Skopio
  • General reaction to seeing a swarm of beetles forming a giant
  • Metus' reaction to the Vorox tossing him out of his getaway vehicle and into a pissed-off Mata Nui
• Opposing Sports Team: the Skrall
• Outside Ride: Mata Nui, Ackar, Gresh, and Berix on the Thornatus that Kiina drove in The Legend Reborn.
• Phlebotinum Bomb: the Golden Armor was designed to destroy all solid Antidermis.
• Power Source: Mata Nui goes to the Valley of the Maze to find said object in order to power the assembled Humongous Mecha on Bara Magna.
• Put Their Heads Together: Done by Ackar on two Bone Hunters in The Legend Reborn.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: the Skrall, and what the Vorox used to be. Used word-for-word in the Vorox's introduction, save the word "Guy".
• Sapient Tank: Subverted with the Skopio, it may look like a sentient scorpion tank, but it was actually just a giant scorpion modified to be like a tank by the Great Beings.
• Scarab Power: One of the weapons of Mata Nui when he is on Bara Manga is a the Scarabax Shield, made from a Scarabax Beetle he named Click. During Bionicle: The Legend Reborn, numerous Scarbax beetles created a massive being (that looked exactly like the Glatorian Malum) to scare off many Skrall.
• Scavenger World
• Serious Business: The arena matches. Explained that rather than waste precious supplies on armies to fight for resources, it's better for all sides to settle disputes with Combat by Champion.
• Shield Surf: In The Legend Reborn, Mata Nui uses his Scarabax Shield to surf down a canyon.
• Shifting Sand Land: Nearly the entire Bara Magna planet is a desert.
• Silicon-Based Life: Apparently the Agori and Glatorians (and presumably others), have a metallic bone structure. This probably contributes to their extreme longevity compared to Earthly lifeforms.
• Spider Tank: The Skopio, which were made more tank-like thanks to the Great Beings' tampering
• Stock Scream: The Wilhelm shows up in The Legend Reborn when some Bone Hunters get crushed by rocks.
• Superhero Trophy Shelf: Ackar shows one off in The Legend Reborn.
  Ackar: In that case... [casually tosses Strakk's shield into lava pit] Eh, I got plenty of shields.
• Super Prototype: The Element Lords were the basis for the Elemental Powers of the Toa, but the Element Lords are far more powerful, to the point of total physical and mental unity with their element.
• Sure, Let's Go with That:
  Metus: I was going to say "earthquake", maybe "volcanic eruption", but uh, "evil" works.
• Sword Plant: Mata Nui does this to cut part of a cliff to fall on a Skopio.
• That's No Moon: The Prototype Robot on Bara Magna, whose parts were used as shelter by the Agori up until its reassembly.
• This Cannot Be!: Spoken by Tuma when he is about to lose his fight against Mata Nui.
• Throw-Away Guns: the Thornax launchers used by Tarix and Vastus in the movie. Justified since Thornax are pretty rare.
• Time Abyss: Many beings on Bara Magna were around even before Mata Nui was constructed and departed.
• Tournament Arc: the Glatorian are gearing up for one at the beginning but subverted when the Skrall just come in and raze the place.
• Translator Microbes: Mata Nui gave everyone escaping the Matoran Universe the ability to communicate with the Bara Magna natives.
• Tron Lines: Skrall tribal markings
• 24-Hour Armor: To quote Greg, "they are on a dangerous world and shedding armor would be pretty stupid."
• Upgrade vs. Prototype Fight: Makuta Teridax in Mata Nui's original body vs Mata Nui in the Prototype Robot.
• Weaponized Car: many vehicles have Thornax Launchers.
• What a Piece of Junk: vehicles, such as Thornatus, are this, but they are still functional to be used.
• World Sundering:
  • About 100,000 years ago, the planet Spherus Magna exploded into three chunks in an event called the Shattering. One chunk used to be a major forest, and became the moon Bota Magna. Another was a significant part of the ocean, becoming the moon Aqua Magna. Between them, the remains of Spherus Magna became a planet-wide desert called Bara Magna. The climax of the story involved reforming Spherus Magna from the three pieces.
  • A second, smaller one happened 1000 years before the main story, when Mata Nui fell into a coma and crashed on Aqua Magna. This broke apart several continents inside the Great Spirit Robot, sending Voya Nui to the surface, punching a hole in Karda Nui that let mutagenic water in, and forming the island of Mata Nui over the robot's face.
• The Worm That Walks: The giant made of scarabax beetles that appears in the climax of Legend Reborn.
• Wrap It Up: The decision to end BIONICLE was made in 2009, but the Story Team pleaded LEGO for the chance to provide some closure to the plot. The sequels to The Legend Reborn were canceled, so two years worth of story had to be compressed into two comics, a serialized ebook, and an illustrated audio-blog. Numerous subplots had to be aborted or cut entirely.
• Xanatos Gambit: Makuta Teridax's Magnum Opus, which is just called The Plan and is so massive and complex that written down it fills a massive chamber and a character goes insane from trying to read and make sense of it. The Plan has a ridiculous number of contingencies, and backups ranging from setting a insect horde on the city of Metru Nui to deliberately engineering his own defeats in the 2001-2003 arcs to make the heroes think that he's gone for good. The only thing things that he doesn't foresee are Interdimensional threats and the re-use of older and/or discontinued systems, like Tren Krom and the prototype robot body on Bara Magna.
• You Fool!: Tuma says this when some Skrall managed to get lumber into the fortress, because the "lumber" is actually Baterra in disguise!
• You Have Failed Me: Tuma is intolerant of failure, which pressures the Skrall even further in succeeding in their assignments.
• You Won't Feel a Thing!:
  Brutaka: But if you want people to believe you caught this dangerous criminal, you will need to look like you've been in a fight. A light tap to your head would do the trick, perhaps. My colleague, Vezon, can handle it — you won't feel a thing.
  Vezon: Ever Again.
• Zerg Rush: The Skrall's attack on the Grand Tournament, though unlike most examples of the trope the Skrall are actually stronger than their Glatorian oppenents, not weaker.

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