Hahli and I...

[senoritafish]

I’ve mentioned my kids like Bionicles, and in reading them the stories about them, I’ve gotten sucked into the mythos myself, a bit. I think the character Hahli and I have a lot in common; her story seems to be paralleling my life recently. Minus the athletic bit.

(summarized/paraphrased from various Bionicle websites)



The people of the Bionicle universe take three forms: Matoran, the common people who live in the villages and are aligned by their colors to an element – Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Stone, and Ice. They form the normal everyday working society of Mata Nui, the island they live on. Those who live in the village of Ga-Koro are aligned with water, are generally shades of blue, and moreover, are female, whereas all the other Matoran are male. When some great need arises, certain Matoran are transformed into Toa, much larger beings with special powers, usually one for each element, sort of superheroes for their communities. The masks they wear also confer additional powers. When the crisis passes, they transform into Turaga, similar to Matoran, but with a wiser, older aspect – the village elders who lead each community.

Hahli of Ga-Koro, a water Matoran, never knew she had the potential to be a great athlete – but became a kohli ball* champion for her village. While Hahli was a humble flax-weaver by trade, she was shocked to be elected to the Ga-Matoran kolhii team by Turaga Nokama, her village elder. In her training for the tournament, she ended up collecting a set of Charms, which soon unlocked another set of Crystals. Though the purpose of the Crystals is unclear, Hahli's use of them earned her the right to replace Takua as Chronicler (as the latter had become a Toa himself). She dutifully fulfilled her role, recording the tales the Turaga told of the fall of Metru Nui (the city the Matoran formerly inhabited), and the tales of the Toa Metru (now the Turaga). Despite all of this she is still very shy and quiet.

Now a Toa of Water herself, Hahli is having trouble adjusting to the harshness of her new life, and is very unsure of her new abilities. She wields a Laser Harpoon, and wears an Elda Mask of Detection, which lets her see hidden things.

And we both have big feet. ;)

Not to say I'm any kind of a superhero, but I picked up a Toa Hahli figure at Target the other day, sort of as inspiration, I guess. I put her together at lunch the other day, and of course got all kinds of questions about her. I got a few dubious looks from some people, but others liked the idea.

So she's now standing by my monitor, giving me suggestions for the SAFE document - water Bionicles should know a lot about fisheries, right? I wonder if she'll let me borrow that mask during Advisory Subpanel meetings - it could come in handy...

(VT just came in my office and commented that Hahli didn't look much like a girl -they use the same parts for the female water Bionicles as for everything else; quite frankly her mask looks as if it were inspired by a combination of old-style scuba gear and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. That kind of fits too; I'm not all that feminine either. I tried to demonstrate Hahli's zamor sphere launcher for VT; it worked a little too well. All the little green plastic marbles shot clear across DP's cube and rolled under the cube walls to the offices on the other side. Luckily, most everyone was at lunch, so I only had to ask DB if I could duck under his desk to retrieve a glow-in-the-dark marble.)

*Matoran sport sort of like a combination of hockey and soccer, played with two person teams.