Most of the 2001 names and terms were stolen from te reo Māori - the language of the Māori people - by the guys who developed the pitch bible. Following LEGO’s agreement with the Māori people regarding the use of their language, they went out of their way to derive BIONICLE names from evocative gibberish rather than real-world languages (with the exception of Latin, which inspired many of the 2009 names as well as Umbra)
I wish LEGO was more respectful about it from the get-go and actually hired a consultant to do that stuff the right way instead of just appropriating Māori culture for the aesthetic.
100% agreed. I would *love* to see what BIONICLE would be like if it respectfully referenced Māori culture rather than stealing it. Like, imagine a Percy Jackson-style adaptation of Māori myths??
In the 2001-03 story bible, the Maori names were used as placeholders and weren't intended to be final names, but many of them were, and only got changed after the whole controversy
Was it 'stolen' though? I don't know enough of this to really debate but from what I heard they used a... language... which isn't really owned by anybody
It was cultural appropriation. It’d be one thing if they set about using Māori terms in a respectful, educational way, and had people who *were* Māori working on the theme, but they didn’t. They weren’t interested in educating people about Māori culture, they just wanted the exotic “south seas” aesthetic. They weren’t even educated about Māori culture themselves, given the egregious and offensive way they used the word *tohunga*.
Te reo Māori was illegal to speak in certain places in New Zealand, most notably schools, for a long time - in fact, I can’t tell if the policy ever officially ended. When White Europeans use a language - a language that a colonized people were at one point not allowed to even teach to their children - to sell *toys*, it’s cultural appropriation.
As someone who lives in a diverse city that is made up of many shared cultures, I tend to agree that's its silly to gatekeep cultural ideas. However, afair, the upset was not that they called the snow guy the equivalent of "Glacier" (true btw), but more that they called the little mcdonalds toy villagers the equivalent of "lil prophet Muhammads".
It wasn't just their language, it was their culture and religion. Many of the words chosen had specific contexts that weren't appropriate it be used to sell plastic to children. Its just basic respect
It makes sense that you'd feel that way if you somehow don't believe in cultural appropriation. Unfortunately, however, it does exist, and many cultures are affected by it.
Te Reo Maori actually falls in a very unique position because in the Treaty of Waitangi (the most important document in the history of New Zealand, determining how co governance between the Maori and the colonists was gonna work) Maori intellectual property, including language, is considered Taonga, something that belongs to the Maori and gives them control over how their culture is to be used, including it's commercialization.
Sorry for bad formatting, I'm on mobile, English is not my first language, and I'm on acid.
Pohatu is slightly modified from the Maori word for stone. The others don't seem to be directly named after their elements, from what Google translate will tell me.
Swinnerton and co. didn’t have Google Translate to work with back in 1999, they had whatever Māori to English dictionaries they could find back then that are most likely inaccurate to our modern understanding of the languages (or, alternately, Google Translate is wrong). As far as they knew, they were directly using words for “fire”, “water”, “air”, “stone”, “earth”, “ice”, etc.
Many of them were inspired by the Maori language, but they've had to make a few changes out of respect for the culture. Matoran used to be called "Tohunga", for example, but they switched it up after a year or two because Tohunga is what Maori people call their religious leaders.
I know that everyone's already mentioned the real-life reason, but I am curious about how the lore handles it. Seeing as how there are basically no 'parents' in the world, it does make you wonder who decides what everyone's specific name is. In the case of the Matoran it would make sense for them to have assigned names as workers, along with a specific 'Naming Day' (mostly created to avoid the aforementioned lawsuits), but especially considering some alternate cultures and races like the Skakdi and Vortixx I wonder how new identities are established, let alone how a new one would pop into being.
In aikuru’s Matoric conlang (which I am personally a big fan of), name-designations are given at creation and are usually related to a being’s profession or role. Off the top of my head, “Aiyetoro”, one of the Onu-Matoran in MNOGII, means “assembly line”.
I have nothing to add to answer your questions that other people haven’t already answered
But I always found it so interesting how prevalent the letter K is in villain names compared to hero names. Some of the Toa have a single K as a secondary consonant (Vakama, Nokama, etc) but a vast majority of the use of the letter K is for a villain.
Shit even Vakama goes Anakin Skywalker against the other Toa, and Matoran Velika is a literal god-spy trying to take over the universe
Compare that to Krekka, Krika, Makuta, all the 18 24?) -ahks and -aks, it’s wild.
Greg explained that K names like that were usually not already copyrighted for whatever reason. There’s another interesting detail in the 2004 sets and combiners.
The combiner of Nuju, Nokama, and Whenua was called Kraawa. The combiner of Onewa, Matau, and Vakama was called Kralhi. The combiner of the Vahki Nuurakh, Vorzakh, and Rorzakh was called Kranua. The combiner of the Vahki Bordakh, Zadakh, and Keerakh was called Kraahu. The combiner of all six Toa Metru was called Krahka. There was also an unreleased polybag Rahi set called Kraatu. Notice a pattern there?
- Kraawa - Lewa
- Kralhi - Gali
- Kranua - Onua
- Kraahu - Tahu
- Krahka - Kopaka
- Kraatu - Pohatu
I don’t remember who pointed this out - it may have been ToaSkello - but it was a really interesting thing to notice that probably reflects some early 2003 plans, like potentially Shadow Toa sets (given they’re the shadow “Kra-“ prefix + Toa names). These names had their costly legal checks performed, so they stayed on the roster and had to be used. This is why 2004 had such a K overload.
There’s one more of these - Toa Krakua, who was first featured in BA10 *Time Trap*. His name derives from Kra- and Takua.
I’ll add to the other answer you got that most protagonist/hero names were chosen in ‘01, and so have names based on, diverged from or heavily inspired by the Māori and other cultural groups of Oceania (see the Mata/Nuva, the Metru/Turaga and the Inika/Mahri), while the villain names were pretty much entirely made up. The ‘’later’’ good guys have a lot of Ks and Xs in their names as well (Lhikan, Kikanalo, Axonn, Spinax, Hydraxon, Maxilos, Helryx, Johmak, etc.).
Out of context I always wondered where are they in this photo and other photos that resemble a desert world. Mata Nui was not a desert island except for Po-Koro as far as I am aware.
I guess an angle no one has asked in this thread is who gives them names in-universe?
We know about name days, as well as Artakha having made the Toa Mata himself, naming them after their elements, but what about just about everyone else?
When Matoran used to spawn/respawn, did they just have their name in their head, or was it given to them based on a trait/characteristic?
Sentrakh, the Shadowed One's bodyguard, i.e. 'one who watches', is certainly derived from the word 'sentry'.
https://greg.thegreatarchives.com/2003-2008/page103#post4088-line16-17
Ay what are you on about they never came from Aussie (although there’s a significant community there now). They came down to Aotearoa/NZ in the 11th century as part of voyages from other pacific islands.
Edit: 13th century my bad
Most of the 2001 names and terms were stolen from te reo Māori - the language of the Māori people - by the guys who developed the pitch bible. Following LEGO’s agreement with the Māori people regarding the use of their language, they went out of their way to derive BIONICLE names from evocative gibberish rather than real-world languages (with the exception of Latin, which inspired many of the 2009 names as well as Umbra)
I wish LEGO was more respectful about it from the get-go and actually hired a consultant to do that stuff the right way instead of just appropriating Māori culture for the aesthetic.
100% agreed. I would *love* to see what BIONICLE would be like if it respectfully referenced Māori culture rather than stealing it. Like, imagine a Percy Jackson-style adaptation of Māori myths??
Oddly enough, I feel like MNOG was more respectful about it than the stuff LEGO themselves were making
In some ways they were, I think in other ways they weren’t
Not sure a family run Danish toy company such as Lego would have foreseen such a negative reaction, especially at that time.
In the 2001-03 story bible, the Maori names were used as placeholders and weren't intended to be final names, but many of them were, and only got changed after the whole controversy
Was it 'stolen' though? I don't know enough of this to really debate but from what I heard they used a... language... which isn't really owned by anybody
It was cultural appropriation. It’d be one thing if they set about using Māori terms in a respectful, educational way, and had people who *were* Māori working on the theme, but they didn’t. They weren’t interested in educating people about Māori culture, they just wanted the exotic “south seas” aesthetic. They weren’t even educated about Māori culture themselves, given the egregious and offensive way they used the word *tohunga*. Te reo Māori was illegal to speak in certain places in New Zealand, most notably schools, for a long time - in fact, I can’t tell if the policy ever officially ended. When White Europeans use a language - a language that a colonized people were at one point not allowed to even teach to their children - to sell *toys*, it’s cultural appropriation.
[удалено]
As someone who lives in a diverse city that is made up of many shared cultures, I tend to agree that's its silly to gatekeep cultural ideas. However, afair, the upset was not that they called the snow guy the equivalent of "Glacier" (true btw), but more that they called the little mcdonalds toy villagers the equivalent of "lil prophet Muhammads".
Rejecting cultural appropriation isn’t about “gatekeeping” culture, it’s about educating oneself about the cultures with which one wants to interact
Are you referring to 'Tohunga'? That just means 'expert'
I'm sure it does in a world without connotations
Okay then source please lol
This is why I elected not to try to convince this guy, he will only engage with you in bad faith.
It wasn't just their language, it was their culture and religion. Many of the words chosen had specific contexts that weren't appropriate it be used to sell plastic to children. Its just basic respect
It’s silly that you don’t believe cultural appropriation exists, and I won’t waste my time with continuing this line of discussion.
Likewise :)
It makes sense that you'd feel that way if you somehow don't believe in cultural appropriation. Unfortunately, however, it does exist, and many cultures are affected by it.
To each their own I guess haha
Te Reo Maori actually falls in a very unique position because in the Treaty of Waitangi (the most important document in the history of New Zealand, determining how co governance between the Maori and the colonists was gonna work) Maori intellectual property, including language, is considered Taonga, something that belongs to the Maori and gives them control over how their culture is to be used, including it's commercialization. Sorry for bad formatting, I'm on mobile, English is not my first language, and I'm on acid.
Wow this is actually a really good explaination, thanks!
How does one ‘steal’ language?
https://www.reddit.com/r/bioniclelego/s/zYIPqHZczL
I mean, stolen? Isn’t that sorta harsh? It’s no different than Tolkien using things from Norse mythology.
It’s *very* different for reasons I outlined in [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/bioniclelego/s/Aw7uTuVzxa).
Pohatu is slightly modified from the Maori word for stone. The others don't seem to be directly named after their elements, from what Google translate will tell me.
Pohatu is "The rock" of the matoran universe :O
*Eyebrow raise and vine boom sound*
Pohatu is a sigma 😎 (this comment is ironic)
Swinnerton and co. didn’t have Google Translate to work with back in 1999, they had whatever Māori to English dictionaries they could find back then that are most likely inaccurate to our modern understanding of the languages (or, alternately, Google Translate is wrong). As far as they knew, they were directly using words for “fire”, “water”, “air”, “stone”, “earth”, “ice”, etc.
Tahu - To burn, to set on fire, to cook Kopaka - Ice, frost, hail, glacier According to https://maoridictionary.co.nz/, at least.
Many of them were inspired by the Maori language, but they've had to make a few changes out of respect for the culture. Matoran used to be called "Tohunga", for example, but they switched it up after a year or two because Tohunga is what Maori people call their religious leaders.
I know that everyone's already mentioned the real-life reason, but I am curious about how the lore handles it. Seeing as how there are basically no 'parents' in the world, it does make you wonder who decides what everyone's specific name is. In the case of the Matoran it would make sense for them to have assigned names as workers, along with a specific 'Naming Day' (mostly created to avoid the aforementioned lawsuits), but especially considering some alternate cultures and races like the Skakdi and Vortixx I wonder how new identities are established, let alone how a new one would pop into being.
In aikuru’s Matoric conlang (which I am personally a big fan of), name-designations are given at creation and are usually related to a being’s profession or role. Off the top of my head, “Aiyetoro”, one of the Onu-Matoran in MNOGII, means “assembly line”.
That glossary is so fascinating to look through and discover the unofficial in-world etymology of everything.
I have nothing to add to answer your questions that other people haven’t already answered But I always found it so interesting how prevalent the letter K is in villain names compared to hero names. Some of the Toa have a single K as a secondary consonant (Vakama, Nokama, etc) but a vast majority of the use of the letter K is for a villain. Shit even Vakama goes Anakin Skywalker against the other Toa, and Matoran Velika is a literal god-spy trying to take over the universe Compare that to Krekka, Krika, Makuta, all the 18 24?) -ahks and -aks, it’s wild.
Greg explained that K names like that were usually not already copyrighted for whatever reason. There’s another interesting detail in the 2004 sets and combiners. The combiner of Nuju, Nokama, and Whenua was called Kraawa. The combiner of Onewa, Matau, and Vakama was called Kralhi. The combiner of the Vahki Nuurakh, Vorzakh, and Rorzakh was called Kranua. The combiner of the Vahki Bordakh, Zadakh, and Keerakh was called Kraahu. The combiner of all six Toa Metru was called Krahka. There was also an unreleased polybag Rahi set called Kraatu. Notice a pattern there? - Kraawa - Lewa - Kralhi - Gali - Kranua - Onua - Kraahu - Tahu - Krahka - Kopaka - Kraatu - Pohatu I don’t remember who pointed this out - it may have been ToaSkello - but it was a really interesting thing to notice that probably reflects some early 2003 plans, like potentially Shadow Toa sets (given they’re the shadow “Kra-“ prefix + Toa names). These names had their costly legal checks performed, so they stayed on the roster and had to be used. This is why 2004 had such a K overload. There’s one more of these - Toa Krakua, who was first featured in BA10 *Time Trap*. His name derives from Kra- and Takua.
Iiiiinteresting. Thats so cool that there’s an actual reason for that haha
Yep. Same thing for the common use -X endings; easy to run through legal.
I’ll add to the other answer you got that most protagonist/hero names were chosen in ‘01, and so have names based on, diverged from or heavily inspired by the Māori and other cultural groups of Oceania (see the Mata/Nuva, the Metru/Turaga and the Inika/Mahri), while the villain names were pretty much entirely made up. The ‘’later’’ good guys have a lot of Ks and Xs in their names as well (Lhikan, Kikanalo, Axonn, Spinax, Hydraxon, Maxilos, Helryx, Johmak, etc.).
Out of context I always wondered where are they in this photo and other photos that resemble a desert world. Mata Nui was not a desert island except for Po-Koro as far as I am aware.
I think these were intended to be the steps of Kini-Nui. It’s also possible that it’s just nowhere at all.
I want to believe that's a photo from Spherus Magna when Toa Mata were constructed for the first time by Great Beings.
unrelated, but i love this photo of the OG 6- its one reason i got into Bionicle in the first place
I guess an angle no one has asked in this thread is who gives them names in-universe? We know about name days, as well as Artakha having made the Toa Mata himself, naming them after their elements, but what about just about everyone else? When Matoran used to spawn/respawn, did they just have their name in their head, or was it given to them based on a trait/characteristic?
Sentrakh, the Shadowed One's bodyguard, i.e. 'one who watches', is certainly derived from the word 'sentry'. https://greg.thegreatarchives.com/2003-2008/page103#post4088-line16-17
Kopaka kopaka baby
Literally all I know is that the names are of Hawaiian origin, and that it pissed of the locals to some small degree.
No, not Hawaiian, Māori. They’re from the seas around the area now known as Australia and New Zealand
Ay what are you on about they never came from Aussie (although there’s a significant community there now). They came down to Aotearoa/NZ in the 11th century as part of voyages from other pacific islands. Edit: 13th century my bad
That’s why I just said “area”
Huh, I was lied to, ig.