A bit more advanced than yesterday's Random Set.

I don't recall him ever using the element of the Jungle though. It makes sense because he's green, but I'm pretty sure he still used the Air to move plants around. Also making Lewa the Master of Jungle means that Air is left vacant while Stone and Earth, and Ice and Water are allowed to coexist. Maybe if G2 had lived long enough, a Seventh Toa would emerge, the Toa of Air, but that's a bit anticlimactic to Takanuva's Toa of Light in G1.

Only our second Bionicle G2 RSotD!

Ten years? Oh my gosh ten years already?

Full disclosure, I haven't actually added the 2016 stuff to my G2 lore breakdowns yet 'cause I only remember bits of Journey to One but... here we go!

Long ago the land of Okoto was home to two legendary Mask Maker Brothers. Ekimu, who wore the Mask of Creation, and Makuta, who wore the Mask of Control. The two crafted many Masks of Power for the people of the island, but Ekimu’s were always more treasured. Jealous of his brother’s praise, Makuta decided to break their land’s sacred rule that no mask may contain more than one element. He forged a mask with all six, the Mask of Ultimate Power.

When Makuta tried to use the mask it corrupted him and drove him to madness. In the ensuing conflict there was a great explosion. The Mask of Ultimate Power was shattered, Makuta was sent to the Shadow Realm, and Ekimu was left dying in a crater. As the Protectors of the villages approached, Ekimu used his dying breaths to recite a prophecy he was given by the Mask of Time.

“When times are dark and all hope seems lost, the Protectors must unite, one from each tribe. Evoke the power of past and future, and look to the skies for an answer. When the stars align, six comets will bring timeless heroes to claim the Masks of Power and find the Mask Maker. United, the elements hold the power to defeat evil. United, but not one.”

1,000 years would pass, with this prophecy being passed from generation to generation of Protectors. Eventually, evil beset the land. Mysterious Skull Spiders began attacking the villagers, latching onto their faces and stealing their minds, marching them off never to be seen again.

But as luck would have it, the stars aligned, so the Protectors traveled to the Temple of Time and recited the prophecy. Six brilliant comments fell from the heavens carrying the Toa, giant warriors imbued with elemental power.

Lewa, Toa of Jungle, landed in the Region of Jungle. There they were met by Vizuna, Protector of Jungle who informed them of their quest. While Lewa’s mask provided the wearer with stronger elemental control than the Protector, they still lacked mastery over their element. They would need to claim their Golden Mask of Power to reach their full potential.

And so the two set out, traveling to a tall pillar surrounded by thick brambles. The two were beset by Skull Spiders, but Lewa recovered the Golden Mask and used its power to fend off the swarm. Vizuna then instructed Lewa to travel to the City of the Mask Makers to meet up with their siblings.

The six Toa met at the bridge to the long abandoned city, only to find it guarded by The Lord of Skull Spiders, a massive arachnid. The Toa each insisted on their own methods to defeat the beast, but were easily repelled. Eventually they decided to attack as one and threw the beast off the bridge’s side.

Past the bridge they found the city’s gates and were ambushed by a swarm of undead Skull Warriors. Wielding ice bows and spears, these zombies tried to overwhelm the Toa with their numbers, but the Toa were able to dislodge them from their battlements and proceed.

Inside they were attacked by the four armed Skull Slicer. Using his chain and claw, he was able to steal Lewa’s Mask of Jungle and began draining it of its energies, weakening the Toa. The Toa gave chase into the great Arena at the city’s center and fought the Slicer. Pohatu and Kopaka managed to retrieve Lewa’s mask, but in attempting to press the heavy stone button that would turn off the Arena’s traps Onua accidentally caused the structure to collapse.

The Toa survived and found themselves in an underground tunnel that led to the city’s graveyard. There they were ambushed by two Skull Scorpio’s who used their massive and powerful tails to steal Pohatu’s Mask of Stone. Lewa managed to lure the Scorpios to the tomb of Ekimu, where he knocked the headstone off its roof and crushed them.

Inside the tomb the Toa found the lifeless body of Ekimu. By combining their elemental powers they were able to bring the Mask Maker back to life, though his golden armor was rusted and rotten. Ekimu informed

Inside the tomb the Toa found the lifeless body of Ekimu. By combining their elemental powers they were able to bring the Mask Maker back to life, though his golden armor was rusted and rotten. Ekimu informed the Toa of what these skeleton creatures were doing in the abandoned city. Kulta, the Skull Grinder, had retrieved Ekimu’s legendary Mask of Creation, and planned to destroy it at his Mask Making Forge. The seven proceeded to the hill at the back of the city to find the door to the forge blocked by Skull Basher, a minotaur-like beast who stole Onua’s Mask of Earth. Ekimu reminded the Toa of their unity, and once more they charged as one making quick work of the brute.

Inside the forge they confronted Kulta just before he destroyed the Mask. Rather than break it, he decided to use its power to finish them off. This powered up titan was able to fell all six Toa with a single blow, knocking off their masks. But Tahu refused to surrender. He rallied his team to fight on and, weak and frail as they were, they latched onto Kulta’s legs to hold him at bay. They bought Ekimu enough time to find and repair his Hammer of Power, which he used to reclaim his Mask from Kulta’s face and fully restore his body.

Ekimu would go on to craft new weapons and armor for the Toa heroes, but that's a story for another day.

I remember picking this up from an online order at Walmart when the listing first got published... my first G2 set, which I savored as finally getting a new Bionicle set after five (then-feeling-long) years...

Despite Lewa being my favorite Toa, I'm not the biggest fan of the reptilian style they went for with this interpretation of his mask, and the element change seemed a bit arbitrary beyond surface-level "why is he green and in the trees if he's supposed to be air." Of course, as a kid, it seemed natural, like leaves flowing in the wind, but the corporate decisions behind G2 were pretty misguided as a whole, and this is a minor but present symptom of that.

71305 is the better set, more visually appealing as a version of the character with more creative limb builds, but this one will always have a special place in my heart.

Friendly reminder that Lewa is ALWAYS the best Toa :D

Oh almost forgot, should probably talk about the Jungle thing. BIONICLE elements have always been weird. Stick with me here.

MATORAN UNIVERSE

Originally the franchise was going to consist of the four Aristotelian Elements:
Earth, Fire, Water, and Air.

But LEGO was unhappy with this. They demanded six technicolor characters for their toy line up rather than four, and so two more elements were shoehorned into the cast:
Ice and Stone.
These six wound up being the "Primary Elements" of BIONICLE, with most waves of BIONICLE centering on them. While splitting Water and Ice into separate Elements is pretty common in fantasy settings, Earth and Stone being different things was always odd. There is a difference, it's long winded, I won't bore you. I did a live stream where I talked about it once but I can't find it.

As the franchise went on we also got the eight Secondary Elements:
Iron, Magnetism, Gravity, Sonics, Psionics, Lightning, Plantlife, and Plasma.
With those Primary and Secondary ones being a sort of standard set for species with Elemental affiliation (Matoran, Toa, Turaga, Skakdi, ect would have members for all of them.)

We also got the two Tertiary Elements:
Light and Shadow.
Light had Matoran and its variants, but not the other elemental races. Shadow was mainly the Makuta's element, but Matoran (and presumably other species) could be converted to Shadow Elementals through Shadow Leeches.

And then there are the two Technical Elements (as I call them.)
Acid and Sand.
Acid was an element seen in a few species, notably Bohrok. There were no Matoran or Toa of Acid... but Bohrok are technically a part of the Matoran species so like... its halfway there I guess? As for Sand we see fewer Sand Elementals in the Matoran Universe, but that Element is relevant for:

SPHERUS MAGNA

Spherus Magna has fewer Elements then the MU, at just 8, and lore-wise is the origin of it's Elements:
Fire, Water, Ice, Jungle, Rock, Sand, Iron, and Earth.

Fire, Water, and Ice were implemented in the MU largely unchanged as Primary Elements.
Iron was made a Secondary Element. Jungle was kicked down to Secondary while Air was added as a new Element (as flow of oxygen was more important and widespread on a spaceship than its production.)

Rock was renamed Stone and had it's color pallet changed, Earth also had its colors changed, and Sand was completely axed. Which brings us to:

GENERATION 2
For the reboot they once again went for 8 Elements.
Fire, Water, Earth, Ice, Stone, Jungle, Light, and Shadow.

For the most part these were the six Primary and 2 Tertiary Elements of the original franchise, drastically simplifying things, but even then there were complications.

Gen 2 Water was Gen 1 Water + Lightning
Gen 2 Stone was Gen 1 Stone + Sand
And Air was replaced with Jungle, which actually functioned a lot like Air + Plantlife.

Now that last one always stuck out as weird to fans. People had always said it was dumb that the green guy who lived in a jungle controlled wind instead of plants, but in practice it wound up awkward changing such a longstanding tradition. Especially as saying "Toa of Jungle" or "Toa of the Jungle" didn't have has much of a flow as "Toa of Plantlife."* As others have pointed out, Lewa even uses his air powers more than his plant ones, and his Elemental Creature in 2016 was a flying one. This change is actually cracked fun of in a meta joke during the 2015 animations. While lost in a cave Lewa says "I think I felt a breeze" and Kopaka retorts "what are you, Toa of Air?"

A less talked about oddity of these elemental changes that no one else seems to mention is they all happened to the $15 Toa sets. The $20 sets all have powers more or less the same as Gen 1, while the little guys have extra abilities, presumably to amp their cool factor compared to the bigger dudes dressed in gold.

*Well Gen 1 also used "Toa of the Green" which isn't much better, but that's Word of Greg lore, the only time it's mentioned in the books they say "Plantlife" and that's a better term and you can't take it from me.

@GSR_MataNui said:
[Earth and Stone being different things was always odd. There is a difference, it's long winded, I won't bore you. I did a live stream where I talked about it once but I can't find it.
]]
FOUND IT!:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr1njL4Mz8I
I start talking about the elements 8 minutes in. Don't remember how long I went on for or when it shifts to the Stone vs Earth debate exactly, but its in there somewhere.

When you look at the history of the green construction characters, it becomes pretty clear that Lego has always had a preference for green guys to be nature themed rather than air themed.

Its already starts in Bionicle's second year when they gave 8564 acid powers, unlike other Bohroks who mached thier Toa's elements. When the story shifted to Bara Magna they dropped air element all together, and even Hero Factory's green representative Breez, despite her name, didn't have any wind abilities, instead her main trick was talking to animals. You could even argue that this green=plantlife theme is even older than Bionicle itself, since 8505 and 8509 were also clerely jungle themed.

It really seems like Lego only stuck with Toa of Air because it was an already established lore, but used every opportunity to change the element.