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Death Battle Predictions: Kai VS Tahu

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“One must never let the fire go out in one’s soul, but keep it burning.” – Vincent van Gogh

(GIF by GraveTLK)

Kai, Ninjago’s Elemental Master of Fire

Tahu, Bionicle’s Toa Mata of Fire

LEGO has been around for generations as the building block to all things creative and with that will always come the decades of sets to feed into that joy that expands into so much more than just a gimmick. Stories that unfurl and continue to burn away into the world’s imagination, and with such there will always be the need for the heroes in these tales. With the fiery will to continue the fight against the forces of evil, and hailing from some of LEGO’s most beloved series’ to release, our combatants will bring the heat to once and for all decide which of them is too hot to handle in a DEATH BATTLE!

Before We Start…

For Kai, nearly all Ninjago media can and will be considered, this includes the shows, specials, shorts, books, sets, games, plays, etc. An enormous portion of Ninjago’s side media is considered to be non-canon because it contradicts the show in some way. Under the soft composite rules in play, all of this will be used. This will however exclude The Lego Ninjago Movie and its associated media, as well as crossovers like Lego Dimensions or Dreamzzz. Ninjago’s creators Tommy Andreason and Doc Wyatt often answer questions about the story and lore over their Twitter and Bluesky respectively, these questions are plagued with powerscalers so their answers will be used seldomly, mainly in cases where there is no other source of an explanation.

For Tahu, we’re looking at essentially all officially released BIONICLE media. The previews for the episode have shown that both G1 and G2 material are being taken into account, so we’ll follow suit, but with a primary focus on the G1 continuity (that’s where Tahu’s best stuff comes from). Due to the BIONICLE storyline being presented through many different forms of media – comics, novels, games, etecetera – sometimes scenes and arcs are adapted in conflicting ways between different sources. For completion’s sake, we’ll be taking it all into account, even sources of dubious semi-canonical status to the G1 timeline, like the Mata Nui Online Game or the Quest for the Masks card game. (Don’t worry, it really doesn’t change much.) Crossover stuff and super-clearly-non-canon stuff won’t be included though – sorry, anybody who was hoping for R>F scaling from the Piraka kidnapping the All-American Rejects.

Also, we’re going to be pulling several “Word of God” statements from series author Greg Farshtey, as he has a long and storied history of interacting with the online fanbase, such as releasing canon web stories or behind-the-scenes material on fansites, or even using his position to accept fan made materials into canon. There was even an official LEGO forum where you could ask him questions about the series and receive canon answers. So yeah, little different from just pulling random Twitter WoG.

Website Source Credits:

Kai

Background

(Image by GraveTLK)                    

“A ninja never admits defeat. A ninja always picks himself up when he is down.”

Long before time had a name, the First Spinjitzu Master created Ninjago using four elemental weapons. But when he passed, a dark presence sought out to collect them all: Lord Garmadon. So, Sensei Wu, his brother, sought out to find four ninja to collect them first. This search brought him to the village of Ignacia, where a stop by their local blacksmith would change the history of Ninjago forever.

During that branching path on his journey, Wu met Kai, a young man running the Four Weapons Blacksmith. Their first meeting was rather hostile, with Wu offering some unwanted criticism being met with Kai’s fiery temper leading to him shooing the old man away. Not many could blame him, growing up looking after his younger sister Nya by himself due to his parents’ mysterious disappearance would give anyone an attitude.

Little did Kai know that the world was not done with him today, as his village was attacked by the Skulkin and their fearsome leader, Samukai. Kai fought them off bravely, but was unable to truly stand up to the powerful skeleton warrior. Lucky for Kai, a whirlwind of gold saved his life and pushed back Samukai, revealing itself as the old man he argued with not that long ago. However, Kai did not have time to think about it or give his thanks, as the retreating Skulkins kidnapped Nya along with a strange map inside of Kai’s smithy. As it turns out, the First Spinjitzu Master had trusted Kai’s father with a map detailing the locations of the 4 Golden Weapons of Spinjitzu, and now that map was in the hands of the Skulkin under the orders of the dreaded Lord Garmadon. With time being of the essence, Wu offered Kai to train him as a ninja in the art of Spinjitzu. Wishing to save his sister, Kai agreed, and after some grueling work became the Red Ninja, The Elemental Master of Fire. Though he wasn’t alone in this endeavor, as Cole: Master of Earth, Jay: Master of Lightning, and Zane: Master of Ice, were anointed right alongside him as The Ninja: Masters of Spinjitzu.

Now officially a team, the 4 Ninja sought out the Golden Weapons, obtaining The Scythe of Quakes, Nunchucks of Lightning, and Shurkikens of Ice, all protected by fearsome elemental dragons. Though, Kai never really got the “teamwork” part of working together, often rushing off on his own and handling things without thinking. This loner mentality and drive to save his sister was tested to its limit when Kai went off on his own to claim the Sword of Fire. Instead of a successful grab like the rest, Kai was actually lured there by Lord Garmadon himself, who manipulated him into taking the sword to save his sister. This series of reckless moves from Kai caused Sensei Wu to sacrifice himself to the Underworld and for the other Golden weapons to be stolen. Unfortunately for the Skulkin, Ninja never quit, so they ventured their way to the Underworld with their new dragon companions to take the fight to Garmadon. However, even after unleashing the Tornado of Creation, the 4 Golden Weapons were united, allowing Garmadon to flee his Underworld prison. With such a loose end untied, the Ninja’s adventures were only just beginning.

In accordance with their training, they are told of the status of the Green Ninja, the most powerful Elemental Master of all and chosen warrior destined to defeat Garmadon. Due to his fiery spirit and ego, Kai believed that he was the one destined for the role. With a dream in his head, Kai and the Ninja continued their goals as heroes against the Serpentine, a reptilian race awakened by Lord Garmadon’s brat of a son, Lloyd. However, as this battle for Ninjago continued, Kai’s dream of greatness would be kicked down during his battles against the forces of evil, as his friends all began to unlock their true potential, leaving him in the dust. Even Nya was showing him up by donning the title of Samurai X. Everyone was finally figuring out who they were, with Kai never really being able to fit in the mold he saw for himself. This only led to more mistakes, such as causing a volcano to erupt during a race for the legendary Fangblade, endangering the young Lloyd. It was here that Kai, in the heat of the moment, reforged himself. Kai looked inwards and accepted that he was not that great warrior of legend, and that his destiny was to fight right by his side instead, defending him at any cost. With that revelation, he unlocked his true potential and saved the boy, who turned out to be the Green Ninja of legend. Despite the cries of many fanboys, Kai accepted the news with his head held high, ready to be right by Lloyd’s side as he faced his destiny against his father and the fearsome Overlord.

Kai and the Ninja have had many adventures since then. They’ve fought the Overlord’s Nindroid army when he returned from the grave, honed their skills in the Tournament of Elements, where Kai helped foil Master Chen’s plans and met the love of his life, Skylor: the Master of Amber. They defeated the Ghostly Morro where Nya learned she was the Master of Water. They even found Kai and Nya’s parents as they defeated the Time Twins. After battles against too many foes to count, it all came back to the Overlord once again. The Ninja learned to “Jump up, Kick Back, Whip Around and Spin” and harnessed the powers of the First Spinjitzu Master, unlocking Dragon Form to defeat The Overlord once and for all (for now).

Now In the years since, where the Merge slammed all the Realms into a single supercontinent, Kai has dealt with some of his hardest times, whether he’s stranded in the Land of Monsters, trapped in the Netherspace, or stuck training his newest student and adopted daughter; Wyldfyre, Master of Heat, Kai has a lot on his plate. While many wouldn’t even try to rise to the challenge, Kai always takes Sensei Wu’s words to heart: Ninja never quit.

Experience & Skill

Right from the get-go, Kai has always had some degree of combat capability. Even before becoming a Ninja, he fought a group of Skulkin almost singlehandedly, only falling to Samukai himself. After meeting Master Wu, he took the Spinjitzu Monastery’s training course, completing it in only a few days, and even knocked Wu’s tea out of his hands in the meantime. After this, his training and natural talent allowed him to fight Cole, Zane, and Jay in a 3v1, with none of them knowing he was Wu’s next student, he fought the Time Twins with Nya and held his own, broke Nya free from a monster’s claw, fought a group of thugs using chopsticks, plates, and a conveyer belt, and held his own against Nokt, a member of the Forbidden Five who was around during the time of the First Spinjitzu Master, despite Nokt having almost all Elemental Powers in Ninjago.

And he’s not just skilled in hand-to-hand, he’s actually quite brilliant and a quick thinker. He tricked Chen into thinking he sided with him long enough to take the Staff of Elements from him, figured out that Krux is somewhere with the help of a helmet and a picture, outsmarted a Vermillion warrior and made them fall of an island, tricked a dragon by playing dead, and won the first round of the Tournament of Elements by making Karlof, the Master of Metal, think he got the last Jadeblade, only to unscrew his gauntlets when he’s off guard and take the blade for himself. Speaking of the Tournament of Elements, in his battle against Ash, the Master of Smoke, Kai managed to win by making him teleport out of the way of his fire, buying Kai just enough time to grab the Jadeblade. His quick thinking and mastery over fire allowed him to make a smokescreen with Skylor and even form images out of his fire.

And of course, being a Ninja, Kai has plenty of experience in stealth skills, being able to sneak across buildings and blend into the crowd of Chen’s henchmen with disguises. Kai himself snuck inside the Iron Doom without anyone seeing him, and Lloyd, who was also trained by Wu, took out a group of Nindroids before they had the chance to fight back and snuck around to avoid laser traps. On the topic of other students of Wu, Nya held off a horde of Chen’s soldiers by herself, Zane caught Ultra Violet off guard and froze her with Spinjitzu, Cole and a young Wu were able to build a fake Firstbourne that can breath fire, and Lloyd jumped over an unfinished freeway with his car. Even enemies not trained in the Ninja way like Harumi accurately threw a sword at a tree’s roots.

Weapons

Twin Katanas

Kai holds 2 basic katanas. Being the swordsman of the group, he’s naturally proficient with them, but they pale in comparison to his more advanced armaments.

Golden Katanas

An early upgrade to his basic kit, Kai and the gang all possess golden katanas, stronger versions of his basic swords but still only a rudimentary model for the ones he’d gain later in the series.

The Sword of Fire

One of the four legendary weapons originally forged and wielded by the first Spinjitzu Master to build the world of Ninjago. This immense power of the sword is now owned by Kai, the Element Master of Fire. The weapon possesses pyrokinesis, the ability that allows Kai to create, control, as well as manipulate fire however he wants, even before he developed his natural pyrokinetic abilities. He can shoot fireballs, ignite the blade, and by having full concentration to understand the potential of the sword, he can summon the Blade Cycle, a motorcycle surrounded by flames that can go at an incredible speed. Apparently it’s alive too.

Elemental Blade

From the First Spinjitzu Master’s Temple of Light, Kai obtained the Elemental Blade of Fire. The Blade is capable of the same mastery over fire as Kai is, even granting his powers back after he had lost them beforehand. The main shared ability across these blades is the power to bypass elemental immunities, as well as invulnerability. This proved useful against the Stone Army, who were immune to the First Spinjitzu Master’s abilities, yet were vulnerable to the Elemental Blades.

Techno Blade

Before New Ninjago City got infected by the remnants of The Overlord, the genius inventor Cyrus Borg knew about his digital presence in the systems. In secret, he created the Technoblades then hid them inside the golden statue so Kai and his ninja friends could handle the situation and stop The Overlord’s evil schemes. Surprisingly, it’s not considered a weapon used for combat, it’s actually a tool capable of hacking into systems and machinery, granting full control over them with a single touch. The Technoblades were even able to affect a Digital Overlord and potentially even destroy him.

Deepstone Aeroblade

When the threat of the Ghost realm and Morro rose for their ghastly plot to take over Ninjago, Kai and the rest of the Ninjas at the time were given a Deepstone Aeroblade. This allows them to specifically target the ghost’s weakness to water with the deepstone material, with it being able to function as a boomerang that will return to its user once thrown.

Dragon Blade

In search of his father who was assumed to be a traitor, Kai discovered this golden two-bladed weapon in a secret trapdoor beneath his parents’ blacksmith shop. It can be used for close combat and has a special ability of summoning the Fusion Dragon by merging both elemental powers of fire and water. Unfortunately for Kai, we won’t include the Fusion Dragon in this debate since it requires outside help from his sister Nya.

Reversal Time Blade (Debatable)

Originally in a set of four weapons forged by his parents, Kai obtained the Reversal Time Blade in order to combat the hands of time: Krux and Acronix. As the name implies, when charged this blade allows the user to reverse the flow of time. Its control of time de-aged Kai’s father after he had been aged to near death, reversed Krux’s actions, and rewound time by over a minute. Kai should likely have access as we know it was returned to the boiling sea where Kai and/or Nya would be able to retrieve it. Kai also possesses it in Lego Sets.

Chain Rifle

It may look like an old pistol, but it’s actually a reliable firearm. It shoots a long chain good for capturing people or giant creatures like dragons.  Most importantly, the chain it shoots out is made out of Vengestone, which is a material capable of dampening to completely remove the elemental powers by cutting the users’ connections to them, whether with the help of handcuffs or cages. Additionally, it prevents ghost physiology from activating, not allowing the ghost to fly, turn invisible, or phase through objects.

Prime Controllers
(In Prime Empire)

For all true gamers in the world, this controller isn’t just sleek in design to help power through the Prime Empire, it’s capable of turning into a weapon designated to its user and for Kai it turned into a sword. As limited as this weapon may be in the Prime Empire world, it was capable of firing air slash projectiles from itself and was used by Kai to steer a drone to attack the Unagami soldiers.

Fire Sword

During his time trapped in the Land of the Monsters, Kai at some point came across this trusty blade. A special blade that can suddenly engulf itself in fire, not Kai’s own. Kai can use this sword to easily cut through opponents, burn them and illuminate dark places. It was also the blade that did the famous massive AoE slash and created a massive explosion. After some time, he found another fire sword in the book. Kai is capable of reflecting projectiles back with his twin katanas such as Acid and he can also shoot fire from them. The heat from the blades is able to empower other attacks, such as Acid Balls.

Reveal Blade

The Reveal Blade is an enhanced Prismatic Blade capable of seeing Invisible Spectral Dragonians, and destroying them. Given Spectral Dragonians are ghosts, it should be able to hit other incorporeal foes.

Red Katana

A replacement for basically the sword of fire, he wields a red katana in the game Shadow of Ronin. This blade besides being a strong weapon that is also capable of manipulating fire, it is able to transform into the Blade Cycle and even the Kai Fighter.

Obsidian Sword

After getting his memory stolen by Ronin and losing his elemental powers because of it, Kai and his friends needed to find their specific obsidian weapon to gain their memories back and once Kai pulled out his obsidian sword, he immediately gained back his memories and elemental powers. It could likely also remove implanted memories that were put in the user. Besides that, the sword is similar to the sword of fire being able to control… Well, fire. It allows Kai to absorb fire from his surroundings and shoot out streams of flames.

Golden Point

A golden dagger Kai uses in melee combat. They’re more useful than most when it comes to cutting apart enemies up close as they’re able to hone in on their opponents and slice them apart.

Lava Spike

A nice fire based scythe that Kai has in his arsenal. While it cuts really well, its main power is that the Spike actually has the power of fire in physical form. Cuts will burn and sting like fire for days, and the wounds it leaves on its enemies take longer to heal than normal, needing a special potion to soothe the pain and heal the cuts.

Dark Chained Whip

What may look like regular chains, is in truth, something far more dangerous. Stated to be dangerous to all life and for a good reason. This whip is made from the heavy chains in the underworld giving it a cold and deadly feel. If it even touches you, it will pull you down and steal your soul forever. Killing you in an instant. Why the heck does he have this?

Wu’s Tea

Who doesn’t like tea, certainly not the citizens of Ninjago as there it’s quite the popular drink and the Ninja’s have access to a bunch of Wu’s magical secret teas that he has hidden in the backroom in the Mini-series; Wu’s Tea.. There are a bunch of them too;

Scroll of the 4th Dimension

A remarkably powerful item that Sensei Wu initially believes might even be beyond the abilities and skills of the ninja. This is for good reason too, as the scroll possesses incredible abilities if properly utilized, armed with control over both space and time. Using the scroll, one can wield the power to stop time, control and redirect attacks or items across space, move things to a dimension of pure nothingness, rewrite gravity, and even rewind time. Kai himself has successfully utilized the scroll before, and while he doesn’t have the mastery of it like Wu, it is worth noting that unlike most of the others, his usage didn’t completely blow up in his face, and was generally productive to moving things forward. As such, while Kai doesn’t have the same skill in using the scroll as Wu, he still has some measure of capability with it, and could potentially tap into the scroll’s powers to do things like stop time or mess with gravity.

Misc Weapons/Equipment

Mega Katana: Plain ol’ swords are just not cutting it for Kai, as he needs something more fitting for his stature and the Mega Katana fits that need. It isn’t anything special outside of being bigger than an average katana, and looks pretty cool.

Binoculars: Kai has access to a set of high tech Binoculars.

Grappling Hook: Kai possesses an energy based Grappling Hook he used during his Rising Dragon Training.

Throwing Stars: Of course being a ninja, Kai has access to a bunch of throwing stars.

Jetpack: A jetpack able to fly through space.

Glider: A winged glider that can fly through the air at great speeds

Red Pencil Crayon: For when you need to Doodle.

Golden Wings: In one of the magazines, Kai is given a pair of golden wings that help him fly and glide in the air to help fight Dire Bats.

Armor

Stone Armor

Once belonging to the Stone Army, Kai now possesses their Stone Armor, which grants immunity to even the First Spinjitzu Master’s elemental powers.

Techno Robes

Outfits created by Cyrus Borg which block facial recognition software.

Space Suit

Kai has worn a space suit on a couple occasions which allows him to breath in space

Deepstone Armor

Dawning this armour above his regular gi, it’s embedded with a material called Deepstone. Deepstone is a rare aquatic mineral that’s molecules are constantly moving despite always remaining solid, allowing the user to ward off spiritual possession.

Hero Armor

Kai’s main suit in Master of the Mountain, given to him by the Geckles. Unlike most of his normal getups, his body is covered in plated armor in this suit, making him more resistant to enemy attacks.

Scuba Suit

A scuba suit for underwater adventures. Something Kai should avoid as the Master of Fire

Mechs & Vehicles

Mechs

Ground Vehicles

Air/Sea Vehicles

Support

Rusty

When Kai was trapped in The Land of Monsters, he found a broken down mech in the Cave of Change and repaired it with his fire. That mech was Rusty, a sentient robot whose purpose was to serve the Elemental Masters of Fire. Much like his new master Kai, Rusty also possesses the power of Fire. He’s shown the capability to absorb outside sources of flame for a power boost and self destruct as a last resort.

Abilities

The Element of Fire

In the realm of Ninjago, The elements make up the Prime forces of the world; fire, lightning, earth, ice and many many more. Elemental masters are the only group of beings that are not only able to use the elements, but master and control them as well, and their control over the elements come from deep within. Inherited from his father, Kai wields the element of Fire, a core component in the creation of Ninjago. With it, Kai is able to manipulate…well, fire. Of course having mastered the element of fire Kai is somewhat versatile with it. Of course he can do basic stuff with it like shooting fireballs, big fireblast, explosions or powerful streams of fire, strong enough to overpower and straight up incinerate the ice dragon: Boreal, when he was rusty after having just regained his powers. Of course he isn’t stuck in place as he can shoot his fire mid-air and while running.

He can coat his hands in flames for enhanced strikes or power up vehicles and even energize & repair mechs and robots, he can create big walls of flames and elemental forcefields for protection (more on that later). He can use his fire to boost his speed and to fly in the air using jets of flames (yes this does make Airjitzu redundant but ssshhh). Speaking of flight, Kai can even form wings made entirely out of fire to fly or attack others with and of course he can create the elemental dragon of fire for him to fly around with (more on that later as well). Kai has enough control over his fire to form it into images, use it as a lightsource, melt metal for blacksmithing, surround others in fire, and most impressively he is capable of take over and control the fire of his enemies and redirect it right back at them, in fact he’s even able to manipulate fire from other sources as shown in the gif above, which was also stated in the elemental book, at times possessing a sort of telekinetic control over fire and he’s even able to absorb other’s fire directly into himself to enhance his own power. It even works in space. Even stuff like basic combos, will leave trails of fire behind him.

His fire and seemingly elemental powers in general have some weird extra powers to them. Such as how with his Elemental Powers, Kai capable of closing Mergequakes on his own, Mergequakes are tears in reality caused by The Merge where two realms attempt to occupy the same place. Or how The Ninja’s Elemental Powers are able to counter Dark Matter’s influence covering a group of vehicles, Dark Matter is described as pure concentrated evil with a dangerous influence that are able to siphon one’s spirit and mind. Wyldfyre was able to use her Element of Heat to heal Roby from a lethal illness, somehow.

Notably while Kai has had his powers stolen from him, absorbed or even nullified, he never completely lost them. As they state “elemental powers can wax and wane, but never be stolen”, which holds true as after Kai’s powers got stolen by Aspheera, through concentration he reawakened them. He also regained his fire powers through remembering his journey in the Quest for the Lost Powers.

Melting/Heat: Kai’s fire is incredibly hot, The elemental book states Kai can melt metal and matter, and we see that he can heat up Hot Tubs, spot weld with his hand, melt crystals or fuse a Dragon Skull to his mech. Most notable in this department is his ability to glass large quantities of Sand (1,650°C/3,002°F) and even forge the Golden Weapons which were only partially melted by being launched into space and the creation of a Star (15,700,000°C/28,300,000°F)

Elemental Shield

Through the use of his elemental powers, Kai is capable of forming a barrier of fire around himself acting as a powerful forcefield. He first discovered it upon reaching his full potential, where he saved Lloyd from the heat of a volcano with his flaming aura, as it can allow him to protect others as well. He can also use it to help himself fly through the atmosphere after falling from space.

Elemental Dragon

While he’s ridden many Dragons, none are quite like Kai’s Elemental Dragon. Through his Elemental power Kai can manifest a dragon formed from pure Elemental Energy, the Dragon represents Kai and manifests directly from his own Elemental Power. That of course means he radiates and can breathe out fire.

Spinjitzu

The most iconic ability to ever have as a ninja, it’s basically a martial art involving spinning constantly to form an energy tornado with different colors depending on the user’s elemental power (Fire in Kai’s case obviously). However Spinjitzu is more than just ancient martial arts, It’s a philosophy of living that takes a lifetime’s journey to acquire. Spinjitzu is about balance, how a ninja balances the light and darkness within them and the world around them. Spinjitzu is the art of rotation, which is key to how a ninja moves, teaching flexibility during battle and in life, which is full of change. Rotation is the source of strength. It adds force and momentum to its blows. Blows so powerful even one’s first Spinjitzu can send enemies flying “halfway to the Lost City of Ouroborus”. The strength of Spinjitzu comes from the mind, great for overcoming unpredictable enemies.

However if Spinjitzu is not performed exactly right can create great harm, even simply rotating one’s hip too much can create big damage. In general, using Spinjitzu incorrectly can destroy everything around them. Using Spinjitzu for evil purposes could affect the balance between good and evil and that whoever gives in temptation could use Spinjitzu to destroy the world.

Spinjitzu acts like a vortex energy shield that blocks incoming attacks and increases overall strength. But that’s not all, the Spinjitzu can be a lifesaver with the speed it provides, like how Master Wu was able to save Kai when he met him for the first time. Spinjitzu also has plenty of movement based utility, such as scaling up caves, drilling through the ground and moving underground or even just blatantly flying. Which does make Airjitzu totally redundant, but hey, they don’t really use it anymore anyways.Kai himself has shown to be able to grow his fire tornado into a massive maelstrom.

The very steps to create a Spinjitzu tornado goes as follows:

Airjitzu

A martial art similar to the Spinjitzu but for different purposes, it creates a bubble-like energy around the user, allowing them to levitate temporarily for the sake of reaching higher grounds. After Kai and the rest of the ninja mastered the technique with enough practice, they were able to fly longer than the usual time, accomplishing great achievements like the time where they reached the Blind Man’s Eye, a hurricane above the peak of Wailing Alps which is the tallest mountain in all of Ninjago. Kai was the first ninja to master this and was especially proficient with it using his Spinjitzu experience, which was used as a basis for this technique. It can even be used to counteract strong winds with the vortex it generates.

Spinjitzu Burst

When an Elemental Master is surrounded by an enormous amount of their Element, they can achieve the Spinjitzu Burst, unleashing a massive vortex of Elemental Power. In Kai’s case would need to be akin to something like being on the sun (similar to Wyldfyre). While we haven’t seen Kai use it, it is stated that he knows it.

Rising Dragon

Rising Dragon is an ancient technique developed by Egalt and Rontu to counter Shatterspin. The user is fully aware of their motion on an incredible scale. The user then encases themselves in an energy dragon allowing them to fly and strike even through the brutal strength of Shatterspin. Kai was the first of the ninjas to learn and master Rising Dragon. He has used it to defeat Cinder and even hold his own against Nokt while he possessed the Elemental Powers of many other masters.

Visions

Kai has had visions of the near future that he and the ninja would get attacked by a dark force and literally just a few seconds after they do get raided by the wolf warriors. After the fight Kai quickly gets another vision that something bad is coming in the near future.

Smoke Blast

Through the use of his fire, Kai is capable of producing thick smoke, which he usually uses as a smokescreen to blind his enemies. Master of Smoke who?

Resistances

Dragon Form

Forms

True Potential

As the name suggests, this state is the culmination to Kai’s preparation as a ninja. He discovered it after realizing his destiny was not as the Green Ninja, but right by his side, and thus was able to save his life. In this state, Kai is able to fly and coat himself in a ball of fire. The best part of this form is the fact Kai becomes the very embodiment of his element. Turning his body into nothing more but pure fire. While Kai has only done this once it is stated that one’s True Potential can be achieved multiple times.

Dragon Form

“Lemme get this straight. To assume Dragon Form, we have to jump up, kick back, whip around, and spin?”

As a wielder of an Element of creation, Kai has unlocked the immensely powerful. Following the Prophecy of Quanish The Elder (a fool) The Ninja united against the Overlord and fulfilled his Prophecy. To assume this form Kai has to perform four special moves: jump up, kick back, whip around, and spin. In this form Kai’s Elemental Power is enhanced by Golden Energy, he sprouts wings powered by Elemental Energy, and wears a Golden Helmet. It also gives him the ability to purify The Corruption of Crystal King. It also grants a massive power boost, comparable to the Oni Form, which Lloyd could easily overpower the Overlord with. Using this form Kai, Zane, Jay, and Zane defeated the Overlord’s Crystal Council, before giving up their power to create the Golden Ultra Dragon which destroyed the Overlord once and for all. (until he comes back)

While Kai has not accessed this since Crystallized, this is more than likely because of the lack of Golden Weapons. It’s specifically stated to be unlocked by the prophecy, and it’s directly equal to Oni Form which can be accessed at will. Additionally multiple Lego Sets feature one of the four ninja in Dragon Form alongside one not in Dragon, which would support the idea they can activate it individually. Regardless this is absolutely Kai at his peak and should be included.

Draconus Form (Inapplicable)

In what is literally the most recent episode of the show as of this blog, Kai was briefly given access to Draconus Form by his connection to Lloyd, who gained the form from the Source Dragons after he completed the Ritual of Unrooting. In Draconus Kai has access to enhanced speed, agility, and clear boost in strength allowing him to take on Elemental Monsters. Kai also spouts wings, claws, and a tail allowing him to take flight. From what we know Kai cannot activate this without being close to Lloyd and thus it is currently unusable.

Feats

Overall

  • Became the Elemental Master of Fire and a Master of Spinjitzu
  • Saved Nya from Lord Garmadon and the Skulkin
  • Wielded the Sword of Fire, the strongest of the Golden Weapons
  • Achieved True Potential by rescuing the Green Ninja, Lloyd Garmadon
  • Competed in the Tournament of Elements and outwitted Master Chen
  • Fought the Time Twins and ruined their plans
  • Reforged the Golden Weapons of Spinjitzu
  • Survived the Land of Monsters without losing himself
  • Escaped the Netherspace (because he apparently hasn’t been trapped in enough horrible places)
  • Single-handedly held Nokt off long enough for him to be defeated despite his possessing all other Elemental Powers
  • Defeated too many evil armies to list here, Master Chen, Morro, Acronix & Krux, the Colossus, Aspheera, a bunch of stuff in the Land of Monsters, and helped defeat The Overlord multiple times.

Power

Speed

Durability

Scaling

(Images by Yuix)

Kai is very clearly comparable to most of the characters in Ninjago. Even early on in his training he could 1v3 the other Ninja and has held his own against many other Elemental masters like Karloff, Skylor, Ash and Cynder. He’s fought against villains like Chen, Morro and the Time Twins. He’s held his own against Nokt and harmed Thunderfang. While other Ninja have held their own against other threats like when P.I.X.A.L defeated The Preeminent, or Cole fought and defeated Vangelis. He’s easily within the realm of power of individual Golden Weapons as he possesses the Sword of Fire, the strongest of the Weapons and is more than comparable to a young Lloyd who was as strong as The Scythe of Quakes. Scaling or not Kai to Teen/Adult Lloyd’s power requires further explanation, but he should scale to Lloyds base speed feats.

With Dragon Form Kai takes a hold of the First Spinjitzu Master’s Power becoming on par with the Oni Form. The Oni Form can fight against The Oni and even The Overlord. The Overlord of course stalemated the First Spinjitzu Master and is clearly comparable to the power of all Four Golden Weapons. The Overlord is also stated to be potentially able to overpower a single Source Dragon. This would put Overlord clearly above the scaling of Dragon Icons, Ark Dragons, or the Dragon Cores if you buy the statement. Dragon Form very concretely puts Kai on the level of the strongest characters in the realms like Base/Oni Lloyd, Garmadon, The Oni, Wojira, as well as the aforementioned Overlord and FSM, with potential to scale to the stronger feats from Dragons Rising.

If you are interested in the more dubious high ends for base Kai, there are arguments that would allow Kai to scale to the highest ends without Dragon Form that we will also explain. By the end of the series Kai should be somewhat comparable to early Garmadon who possessed the strength to wield all four Golden Weapons, further supported by Zane managing to withstand their energy long enough to use it to destroy the Overlord. Kai’s aforementioned showing against Nokt is also notable in that at the time Nokt possessed enough energy to create Dragon Icons. Nokt also pretty easily overpowered Ras and his Hammer which is a Dragon Icon. Dragon Icons are nearly as powerful as the Dragon Cores. These arguments could let Kai heavily downscale from the previously mentioned scaling of Dragon Form

The Ninja

Cole

Jay

Zane

Nya

Wu

Lloyd

Dragon/High End

Dragons Rising Crew

Elemental Masters
& Dragons

Villains

FSM/Golden Weapons

The First Spinjitzu Master

The Golden Weapons

Misc Characters & Artifacts

Weaknesses

While Kai is a very skilled fighter and one of the best ninja in all of Ninjago, he is far from being flawless. Kai is the Element Master of Fire, so it’s only natural that water would be his worst enemy. Water is known for absorbing a huge amount of heat. Meaning it prevents his fire from growing stronger during a fight. That could lead to limited ranged attacks on his part. Fun fact: Kai used to have aquaphobia (the fear of water) during the events of Possession. However, he was able to overcome it later on when he saved Lloyd from drowning. Kai may have gotten rid of his water fear, but it’s still considered a major counter to his fire abilities.

Another flaw of his elemental power, it can be deactivated with a material similar to the Vengestone, a fictional rock capable of nullifying abilities in the Ninjago universe. If he got trapped or handcuffed with Vengestone, he won’t be able to use his power. Kai can also be drained when caught off guard, just like how Aspheera was able to take his fire power, causing him to lose consciousness. Furthermore, his ego and underestimating foes can get the best of him, leaving him vulnerable to incoming attacks. He can also be reckless from time to time, which drives him to jump to conclusions and make rash decisions that can only cause trouble to himself and his friends. Being stubborn is nothing new to Kai, he’s always been known as the cool single-minded fighter who refuses to give up even over the simplest things. And usually relies on brute force over the brain in battles, which explains his lack of knowledge, like the time Kai thought he had infinite lives just because he’s in a video game, making him the least strategic and intelligent ninja of the team.

Tahu

Background

(Image by Seb)

“Where wisdom and valor fail, all that remains is faith. And it can overcome all.”

Gathered friends, listen again to our legend of the BIONICLE…

In the time before time, the Great Spirit Mata Nui descended from the heavens, carrying a humble species known as the Matoran to an island paradise. He blessed them with three virtues – unity, duty, and destiny – and provided them a peaceful existence. But his brother, the shadowy Makuta, coveted his power, and so cast a dark spell that sent him into a deep slumber. The island of Mata Nui fell into peril, beset by plague and harried by monsters of Makuta’s making. Only one hope was left for the Matoran, one story that kept their spirits bright: the legend of the Toa, six elemental spirits who would arrive one day to reawaken Mata Nui and restore order to the universe.

And arrive one day they did. After the adventurous Matoran Takua recovered six magical stones strewn across Mata Nui, canisters began to wash up on the island’s shores. From them emerged the Toa heroes of legend: Gali, Lewa, Onua, Pohatu, Kopaka, and their brave (and hot-headed) leader, Tahu, Toa of Fire. Though their contrasting personalities clashed at first, these “Toa Mata” would soon find their footing, and accomplished many great feats together. They recovered the lost Kanohi masks, beat back hostile Rahi monsters, and even triumphed over the Makuta in battle – though the dark spirit had only been testing their abilities. All the while, Tahu learned to control his temper and lead his Toa team more effectively, guided by his mentor, the Turaga Vakama.

When the Bohrok emerged – endless swarms of all-consuming machines – the Toa took them on all the same, with Tahu leading the charge. Their efforts brought them deep underground, and after defeating the swarm’s queens, they fell into a chamber filled with a mysterious substance: energized protodermis. This liquid enhanced the heroes’ abilities, turning them into the supercharged Toa Nuva – and Tahu into Tahu Nuva, fiercest of them all. But with this great power came infighting and division: Tahu and the others clashed once again, and the team temporarily separated. On top of that, their powers were stolen away by a new, even stronger set of Bohrok. But Tahu managed to rally the splintered team back together and win the day once more, just in time for the emergence of a seventh Toa.

Remember Takua? Yeah, his destiny was far greater than just waking the Toa up – he was to become one himself, the long-awaited Toa of Light. He defeated Makuta in a duel and led the Matoran back to their true home, a lost city buried far beneath the surface of Mata Nui: Metru Nui. As it turned out, Vakama had once captained his own Toa team here, fighting the Makuta ages ago.

Eventually, Tahu would come to learn of the true nature of his reality and the reason for his creation. The universe he inhabited wasn’t a universe at all: it was a colossal, forty million foot tall robot, devised long ago by the scientist-kings of a dying world to study the universe and mend their shattered planet. He and the other Toa were just pieces of nanotechnology meant to maintain the robot’s systems. The Great Spirit Mata Nui wasn’t some benevolent god, it was an operating system, and Makuta wasn’t a dark spirit, he was Teridax, another cog in the machine, one whose ambitions extended far beyond that simple island. That “dark spell” was a computer virus. Mata Nui wasn’t asleep. He was actively dying. And it was Tahu and the Toa Nuva’s duty to save him.

They couldn’t. Even after battling Teridax’s Makuta brethren and traveling to the heart of the universe, there was nothing they could do. Through a master plan devised over a hundred thousand years, Teridax ejected Mata Nui from the robot and took complete control over the universe within. He set loose swarms of monsters and mechanical enforcers, driving the Toa into hiding. Without their Great Spirit, it seemed that all was lost. But even when their hope was gone, Tahu moved along. His year of adventures had honed him from a impetuous warrior into a determined leader, except now, he led more than just a small band of heroes: he lead all of them, every surviving Toa, joined together in an uprising against Makuta’s reign of shadows.

Soon would come the final battle for the fate of all creation. Having secured total dominion over the universe inside the robot, Makuta turned his sights towards the greater universe without, towards crushing Mata Nui. As part of Teridax’s plan, the Mata Nui consciousness had been sealed into a mask and shot into space, eventually crash-landing on Spherus Magna, that same broken world where the robot had been created so long ago. Teridax landed the robot on that world, finding that Mata Nui had taken control of a similar colossal robot created as a prototype.

And so began a fight that would shake the universe. Tahu had an important role to play, donning a special set of Golden Armor and destroying Teridax’s hordes of monsters, giving Mata Nui the opening he needed to take down Makuta for good. So fell Teridax – and Mata Nui and the Matoran universe with him. But Tahu would be there to help rebuild, to unite the societies of the Mata Nui robot with the natives of Spherus Magna into a new, peaceful order. Unity, duty, destiny – Mata Nui may have been gone, but his values persisted.

Experience & Skill

Tahu and all of his teammates are, plainly speaking, old as dirt. Having been created 100,000 years ago to maintain order within the Great Spirit Robot, it should be noted that, for a significant period of that time until the present, for thousands of years they were dormant inside of canisters. Although the overall series effectively takes place for around a year, Tahu’s experience as a Toa of Fire still should not be underestimated. The basic timeline before the canisters is that Tahu was created, then trained with Hydraxon, who put them through their paces by dueling with them in harsh climates and siccing his energy hound Spinax on them. And, he spent months fighting Avohkah with the other Toa in Karda Nui, eventually exterminating them, then spent 100,000 years in canisters. Afterwards during their post-canister hibernation, they fought evenly for a time with the Piraka, who themselves were active for 7,000 years. Though unsuccessful during their initial encounter, a far more impressive example are Tahu and his Toa companions helping take down Teridax, a Makuta who has been waging battles as the main villain for 95,000 to 100,000 years.

Tahu himself is infinitely tactical, patient, and mobile despite his initial issues with being a literal hothead. As the leader of the Toa Mata and beyond, he now knows how to avoid being ragebaited during a serious combat scenario unless you put his friends in extreme danger. With his own tools and quick thinking, Tahu can surf on lava with just about anything and turn a precarious fall into a somersaulting maneuver. When he was overwhelmed by a horde of scorpion monsters, he made use of a spinning technique to defeat them all. And, upon recalling a prior fight where a foe was the mountain itself, he was able to delegate moves his teammates could pull off with their own elements in a quick plan he came up with on the fly to carve out and catapult their foe, Reidak, into the air to crush him with fall damage. He’s also been clever enough to deliberately fake-surrender to meet up with Helryx when he needed to.

When it comes to fire, Tahu is a natural and creative thinker with manipulating flames, knowing the responsibility that comes with weaponizing such a volatile element. He used flame bursts to intentionally obscure the vision of an enemy so his team could advance on them and heated up the air to slow his descent from high above. When he wanted to quickly trap an opponent, the Toa of Fire crystallized the sand on the ground beneath them so it would shatter under their feet, and later did something similar when he boiled the ground around Makuta Krika. While up against Shadow Gali, a watery copy of his teammate, he knew to wreath her entirely in flames to dissipate her. And the same goes for Shadow Kopaka, whose ice fragments Tahu melted down so that he couldn’t reform or regenerate. (In another variant of the Shadow Toa fight, Tahu actually defeated his fiery copy by accepting him into himself. This is considered the more canon version of the encounter, but both were referenced in officially published material.)

Weapons

Fire Sword


Every Toa has their very own Toa Tool, which serves both as a focus for their elemental energies and a weapon all its own. Tahu’s original Toa Tool was the Fire Sword. Formed out of two pieces he snaps together, he can channel his power through the blade for a variety of effects. He can launch bolts of fire from it, combine it with the Mask of Speed to whip up a cage of flame, or even deftly wield it to deflect projectiles, such as a Kohrok’s ice blast.

The Fire Sword is sharp enough to carve through boulders, and Tahu can increase its slicing power by superheating it, which he once did to split an enemy’s weapon in two with a single several-thousand-degree stroke. He can also simply slam the blade into the ground hard enough to crack open cavern floors or create huge trenches. Given that it’s able to stand up to Tahu’s powers, the weapon is remarkably durable – his fellow Toa Kopaka’s sword was just fine after being used as an oar to paddle across a lake of molten lava.

Twin Magma Swords

Tahu’s reliable twin blades are typically seen in a lot of his classic promo material, though there they’re snapped together to form a radical board so he can surf on lava! And, as that suggests, these blades are highly heat resistant and can swat away magma projectiles with ease. During active combat, Tahu’s been able to channel his elemental energies into the swords. What this accomplishes is that every time you clash your weapon against Tahu’s swords, the Toa of Fire can superheat it through his blades and swiftly melt whatever they come into contact with.

Adaptive Tool

The Toa Mistika gained neat upgrades in their Adaptive Tools and Adaptive armor. Rather than the tool changing itself only, it functions in a way that it changes both the tool itself and the user’s capabilities based on the situation at hand. Adaptive Tools come with four forms those being its base mode which functions for combat and shooting energy blasts, a flight mode which has much longer blades and provides long range capabilities, water mode which forms propellers and harpoons for water endeavors, and lastly the unground mode, containing a bomb thrower and a drill.

Adaptive Launcher

After acquiring their Adaptive Armor, the Toa also gained adaptive launchers that take the form of the Makutas’ Nynrah Ghost Blasters upon initially encountering them. Unlike the one the Makuta use, the Toa version can fire energy projectiles that can be shaped, controlled, and morphed by the user’s mind into any form they think of.

Nuva Symbol

Upon transforming into Toa Nuva, Tahu and all of his teammates came to own a physical manifestation of their Nuva powers, housed within their villages and later stored in suva shrines. These weren’t just symbolic rocks, however, since all of their elemental powers are stored within and imbued to them by these Nuva Symbols. If Tahu’s Symbol is stolen, then he will be entirely de-powered and lose his elemental abilities. While Tahu boasts his physicality is still intact after this, though he’s mostly saying this out of pride, the Toa Nuva’s powers were now all specifically tied to these Symbols. Upon reclaiming their Nuva Symbols from their thieves, all of the Toa Nuva’s lost elemental powers were restored. And, if a Toa Nuva is near their Nuva Symbol, they can actually channel their energies through their symbols, even while de-powered, to force the energies into nearby enemies to overwhelm and overload them, making their foes lose control of their powers and be destroyed.

Kanohi Masks

Like most of the inhabitants of the Matoran Universe, Toa Tahu wears a mask called a Kanohi. Unlike most, he has access to a ton of them, and each grants a superpower that is devastating in combat… okay, well, the Mask of Water-Breathing isn’t that devastating… and neither is the Mask of Translation, really… but y’know, they can’t all be winners.

Tahu and the other Toa Mata each collected six primary “Great” masks, plus six lesser “Noble” masks. When they got their Nuva power boost, so did their masks, upgrading into “Kanohi Nuva” that grant stronger abilities than before. Kanohi Nuva masks uniquely allow their user to share their ability with those nearby. The masks operate by willing what you want to activate their powers, but they require training to master. In order for a Toa to use their Kanohi masks, their power is focused through it.

Tahu can swap between these masks on the fly, even in the heat of combat, but they must be already wearing one mask to summon another. This is thanks to his Suva shrine, originally located on Mata Nui (the island, not the guy… well, actually both, technically speaking), later rebuilt in Metrui Nui, where his extra masks are stored. As long as a Toa is wearing one mask, they can nigh-instantly teleport a different one from their Suva onto their face and vice versa. So yeah, they don’t have to like, reach up and pull it from their face or whatever.

And, even in a slightly different form, such as a fleshy, living state, the masks will operate the same way. They have restorative properties as well, which allows them to fully re-energize a Toa if their personal energies have been fully drained to the point of badly weakening them, leaving them “no worse for the wear” soon after they put them back on.

Hau – Mask of Shielding

The Kanohi Hau is the main mask that Tahu wields, allowing for reactive forcefields, tactical use of barriers to divert magma away from a village, block a wall of lava, or protection of teammates. When Kopaka donned his Hau for the first time, he felt as if “a cushion of strength had settled in around him, protecting him from all harm”. However, it notably can’t shield its user from ambushes, such as returning attacks from boomerangs. Though the shield can’t defend against sneak attacks, Tahu can raise it and keep it up in advance, like when he used it to cautiously approach the Codrex, which turned out to have an invisible barrier that shot him across the Karda Nui swamp.

Akaku – Mask of Vision

The Kanohi Akaku’s purpose is fairly self-explanatory. It grants the wielder x-ray vision, allowing them to spot hidden items! By wearing it, Toa are able to see through rocks to view the minerals inside see through a craggy bluff. On top of its basic function, its abilities also allow the user to perceive heat signatures, see the environment in a near-pitch black cavern, and see through illusions. They even provide a telescopic eyepiece.

Kaukau – Mask of Water Breathing

Primarily wielded by Toa Gali, this mask is self-explanatory. It allows you to breathe underwater.

Miru – Mask of Levitation

Toa Lewa uses this one the most, which is a mask that (you’ll never guess this one) allows you to levitate, effectively granting a means of flight and smoother avoidance of threats.

Kakama – Mask of Speed

The Kanohi Kakama is one of Pohatu’s main masks, which grants the Toa wearing it superspeed. When compared to other characters not using it, it explicitly amplifies and boosts the character’s running speed so they can cover great distances at a “lightning pace”, allowing Pohatu to run from Po-Koro to Mount Inu in a blur, and he runs so fast with the mask that it burns the sand under his feat into glass. It’s allowed its wielder to even sprint fast enough that they can sprint along canyon walls, defying gravity through sheer speed, counter the direction of a cyclone’s spine, and Tahu himself has combo’d it with his Fire Sword to encircle enemies in cages of fire.

And, like the Flash, the speed that it imbues in its users allows them to harmlessly phase through objects, giving them complete molecular control over their body through vibrations. The Toa Nuva have technically used this as an attack before: Pohatu, Kopaka, and Lewa used the phasing while escaping a Makuta base, and deliberately slowed themselves down while passing through the Makuta Chirox and Vamprah, “disrupting the Makuta’s substance” and causing them both excruciating pain. Of note is that Makuta are essentially formless energy beings at their core: if used on a fully corporeal foe, this attack could hypothetically be more dangerous.

Pakari – Mask of Strength

The Kanohi Pakari is pretty much what it says on the tin as well, granting the user an amplification in power and super strength. It’s able to power up the user’s jumps, and Lewa even implies it can increase the wielder’s elemental powers as well.

Noble Masks

As mentioned previously, in addition to their six main Great Kanohi masks, the Toa Mata collected six Noble masks. These masks are weaker than their standard counterparts – so while we have seen Great-level versions of these masks used by the Toa Metru, the ones Tahu owns wouldn’t be fully comparable. The Toa Nuva can still use the Noble Masks they found, they just don’t have a reason to most of the time.

Huna – Mask of Concealment

Kopaka uses the Kanohi Huna most of the time, wielding it to conceal himself and stealthily slip past great beasts through its granted power of concealment. More specifically, it temporarily turns you invisible, though it also doesn’t hide your shadow.

Rau – Mask of Translation

The Toa have their own auto-translation artifact in the form of the Kanohi Rau. Helpful when traveling!

Mahiki – Mask of Illusion

By using the Kanohi Mahiki, the wielder can create illusions to confound their foes or use illusory disguises. The Great Mask version of this allows for actual shapeshifting.

Komau – Mask of Mind Control

First found and mostly used by Toa Gali, the Noble Mask of Mind Control can be used on multiple targets at once, such as when Gali used it on various Ruki fish to make them eat through thick kelp.

Ruru – Mask of Night Vision

As the name implies, the Mask of Night Vision allows its wearer to see clearly even in “total darkness”. When Toa Onua and Turaga Whenua were travelling together in a series of deep underground tunnels, the Turaga used his Noble Ruru to see further into the pitch-black darkness than Onua could.

Matatu – Mask of Telekinesis

The Kanohi Matatu allows the user to mentally wield…telekinesis! For example, Vakama once used Matatu to move huge boulders, and it’s been used to move around heavy metal crates.

Golden Mask

Alongside the other Toa Mata, shortly after collecting his original set of six Great Kanohi, he traded them in at the Kini-Nui temple for a Golden Kanohi. It has the powers of all six original Great Kanohi, but their effects are even stronger, something Tahu hoped to use in the resistance against Makuta. This mask grants the wielder all of the combined powers of the Kanohi Hau, Akaku, Kaukau, Miru, Kakama, and Pakari, but they can only use one power at a time.

Vahi – Legendary Mask of Time

One of the three Legendary Kanohi, the Vahi is an incomprehensibly powerful force in the Matoran Universe, granting its wielder control over time itself. By summoning and calling upon it, the Toa must focus and control it properly to perform super potent time slows. If they screw up and lose control, however, there is a risk that all of reality will unbind and unravel, time would be ripped to shreds, or the user could simply be slowed down themselves. No pressure!

When the Toa Inika were in the middle of being speedblitzed by Umbra, they actively commented that the Mask of Time would even the playing field. This is actively supported by comments from the creator, Greg Farshtey, who confirms that the Mask of Time can be used to slow time to an effective standstill, acting as a permanent pseudo-time freeze so you can set up a deadly trap. The mask is also able to slow or speed up time at the whim of the user. Greg Farshtey later specified that the “reality” and “universe” the Vahi affects is only affecting the time within the Great Spirit Robot, not the greater cosmos. By speeding up time around its victim, the Vahi can rapidly age them.

G2 Equipment & Abilities

The short-lived Bionicle reboot of 2015 featured its own version of Tahu, similar to but distinct from the G1 original. It’s unclear if DB will use G2 (footage from G2-era animations has been seen in the previews), but for the sake of comprehensiveness we opted to include it. Since it doesn’t have loads of content and is clearly separate from everything else, we’re filing all of Tahu’s abilities from it under one section.

The G2 version of Tahu, much like the original, was a prophesied hero launched to the island setting (now called Okoto) to save it from a great evil alongside his fellow Toa. Wielding his fire blades, which can surf on lava when paired together as usual, and a pair of golden swords, he fought his way across the island to claim his destiny. While possessing some basic abilities from his ordinary Mask of Fire, such as being able to fire small flame blasts and giving resistance to heat, Tahu’s true power came from donning his Golden Mask of Fire, allowing Tahu to use element power and control the lava around him, blowing away the Skull Spiders with a huge energy burst. Tahu can precisely control his flame bursts, able to release broad heat waves or small fireballs for light.

His fire is hot enough to melt metal bars and rock boulders after only a short duration of exposure. Fellow Toa Gali’s elemental water abilities work by drawing moisture from the air, indicating the precision of the Toa’s powers. As there is a special link between master and mask, removing the mask will quickly drain the Toa of their energy. Beyond its power over fire, the Golden Mask allows its creator, Ekimu, to speak to the Toa telepathically and grant them visions, and gives enhanced senses. Despite never having met before and some initial in-fighting, when the Toa united, they were able to work together and move like an elite tactical unit to defeat the Lord of Skull Spiders and resurrect Ekimu, who proceeded to defeat the even more powerful Kulta, the Skull Grinder.

In the second year of their journey, the Toa were upgraded with new armour and weapons forged by Ekimu. These new Unity masks each boasted a spiritual link to one of Okoto’s elemental creatures, millennia old being who are the source of the elemental power Ekimu imbued into his many masks, allowing the Toa to merge with their respective creature for new powers. After battling for hours to tame it, Tahu’s creature, Ikir, enhances his elemental powers and bestows upon him endless fiery courage, and grants him a vision of the location of the Mask of Control, a legendary mask wielded by Ekimu’s dark brother Makuta. Bonded with his creature, Tahu could now fly at high speeds and seemingly generate a bubble of fire around himself (though it’s unclear who’s doing what here). His enhanced elemental powers were demonstrated when he manipulated the lava around himself into a huge wave to take out his enemies.

At the end of their journey, the Toa faced down Makuta, wearing his ultimate creation, the Mask of Ultimate Power which had previously threatened destruction to the entire island of Okoto. Gali had come to a realization through her adventure; she learned that the planet pulls elemental powers from the Toa, not the other way around. The Toa, upon learning that the true power was inside them all along, channeled their belief into huge elemental blasts together, which overpowered Makuta, banishing him to the realm of shadows while the Toa returned to the stars, awaiting the day they would be called upon once again. But given how much money Lego is making off of the millennial audience these days, safe to say the heroes of Bionicle won’t be needed again any time soon.

Armors

Exo-Toa

By wearing this big mech suit, the pilot will be able to fire electro rockets and have their powers enhanced, although using this mech will inhibit elemental powers too.

Nuva Armor

As demonstrated by Onua, those silver bits on the Toa Nuva are actually pieces of “Nuva armor” which can be detached from their body. Why would they ever want to, though? This enhanced armor is tougher than that of their original forms, described as “almost impregnable” and stated to withstand both devastating “rock falls” and “the “incredible heat of lava flows”. This armor is superior to their prior Toa Mata armor as well.

Adaptive Armor

Thanks to Artakha’s handiwork, the Toa Nuva all gained their own adaptive armor, one that automatically and passively adapts its form without user input by using its sensors to detect the environment. However, it cannot adapt to a combat situation and reflexively adapt to an opponent’s attacks. Its adaptations are purely environmental, such as shifting itself if you find yourself in space to prevent you from freezing.

Golden Armor

From an old contingency plan, Tahu acquired the six pieces of the Golden Armor for his climactic confrontation against the Rahkshi and Makuta Teridax. One commercial makes the bombastic claim that the armor grants its bearer invincibility. While such is never stated in clearly canon sources, it’s still impressively tough, with each piece being completely unscathed after being blasted across Bara Magna by a shot from the Teridax-possessed Mata Nui robot. Tahu was able to reclaim the armor pieces, although it should be noted that he would still die with everyone else if Makuta stomped down on him with the Great Spirit Robot.

Upon using up the Golden Armor, Tahu blasted the Rahkshi to oblivion and annihilated the Kraata slugs to dust, gaining a variety of upgrades from the Kraata themselves. With those powers, Tahu was more powerful than he was as a Toa Nuva, even more powerful than Tuyer with the Nui Stone, which upscaled her beyond Toa Mata by a factor of 200 to 300. He also gained a few Rahkshi powers, such as heat vision, quick healing, and more.

Abilities

Toa Physiology

Tahu is a Toa, just one hero out of an entire biomechanical race of heroes designed by the Great Beings to defend the inhabitants of the Matoran Universe. Patterned after two of the races of Spherus Magna – the fierce Glatorian warriors and the mighty Element Lords – the Toa are all natural fighters and each capable of harnessing one of sixteen elements.

Biomechanical Nature – While they may look like plastic toy robots, Toa are “about 85% mechanical and 15% organic”. In fact, Skakdi, Toa, and Matorans have fairly similar organic physiologies. So yeah, there’s an actual squishy brain behind Tahu’s mask, and muscles, a set of lungs, ears, and more under his armor. According to guides, Toa are all generally around 7.2 feet tall in human measurements.

Thanks to their primarily mechanical composition,they can pop their disassembled body parts together just like action figures, quickly regrowing organic tissue and fusing mechanical components back together in the process. Like people, they need water so they don’t dehydrate. And, Toa happen to have incredible stamina, with a group of them once being able to wage a month-long battle against a Kanohi Dragon.

It’s well-established in the lore that Toa do, in fact, have souls. Other characters that aren’t Toa can smack away non-physical entities, like a dimensional vortex, with a simple on-hand axe, meaning typical arsenals are able to interact with esoteric things.

Toa Power – Toa are imbued at their creation with a special power called – what else? – Toa power. This energy can be used to heal grave wounds, revive comatose beings from stasis, and even turn specific destined Matoran into new Toa. It doesn’t recharge like their elemental power, however. When Matorans are turned into Toa, they explicitly experience an amplification in power, receive new armor, masks, innate elemental abilities, and energy.

Psychic Powers – On top of all their other amazing abilities, Toa can train to achieve limited psychic powers. While Tahu doesn’t seem to be as psychically-inclined as the likes of Gali – who can form mental bonds with others and receive glimpses of the future – he did canonically train with Turaga Onewa and learn how to shield his mind from psychic intrusion. Takanuva, who received this same kind of training from Onewa, once repelled a psychic attack from the Dark Hunter Dweller, reflecting it back and learning the identity and location of his assailant. (In extended scenes exclusive to the Hungarian publication of the first BIONICLE chapter book, Tahu has visions of several events yet to happen, but this ability is not displayed elsewhere.)

Kaita Fusion – When you put three Toa together, they can become one, uniting into a powerful fused being called a “Toa Kaita”. With their powers combined, Tahu, Pohatu, and Onua could merge to create the valorous warrior Akamai, who (alongside Wairuha, the fusion of the other three Toa Mata) was able to defeat the Manas, a duo of powerful Rahi whom the Toa couldn’t defeat in their base forms. (While this obviously isn’t relevant to the one-on-one duel we’re covering with this blog, it’s worth mentioning for completion’s sake.)

Fire Manipulation

As the Toa of Fire, it should come as no surprise that Tahu’s main elemental powers come from wielding fire. Upon first being created, Toa Tahu melted thick metal straps to liquid almost immediately without even realizing how or what he was doing, giving us all an early glimpse at what he was capable of. As demonstrated by his teammates, the Toa have a molecular level of control over their respective elements, and they can seize control of another elemental user’s manipulated elements. Tahu can actually even combine elements with other Toa in order to create specialized attacks, like when he and Gali teamed up to make a steam burst, or when Jaller, another Toa of Fire, and Matoro combined their elements for electrified fire. As Toa Nuva, Tahu and his Toa teammates were the most powerful of all the Toa, meaning his own elemental might should be more powerful and potent than other characters or Toa that have wielded fire and heat throughout the series.

By manipulating the element of fire, Tahu can weaponize it into fire bolts, use flame bursts strategically to obscure his foe’s vision, or just use it as a light source. (While Tahu typically channels his fire through his different Toa Tools, he can just as easily toss fireballs barehanded.) Flames are slightly tied to a Toa of Fire’s emotions, requiring them to exercise control over their flames. Tahu himself has been able to create fire prison constructs in the past, and Jaller has also been able to use his energized flame sword to make flame walls. Other non-Toa fire users have used heat to counter water traps by turning it into steam, or use enhanced fire control to reduce a forest to ashes with a firestorm to hide in the smoke. Tahu is even able to superheat the air around him to cause explosions. Tahu discovered one particularly tricky use himself: manipulating heat so precisely as to cause a fireball to form and shoot out later on a delay, something he used to fake out the Makuta.

A Toa’s capability to summon their element can be impacted by their environment, but with enough willpower, they can overcome this. Tahu has created flames in a windy underground cavern that threatened to snuff them out and melted parts of an iceberg several times while training in a freezing-cold region of Daxia. Other Toa have accomplished similar things: Gali and Kopaka have summoned ice and water in a desert with “close to zero” moisture for them to manipulate, and Kopaka later created icy bridges and even froze lava while in the similarly dry environment of a volcano, though the ice did start melting shortly after.

Aside from applications of this elemental power for combat or utility, other properties of Tahu’s flames and flame control are worth going over in more detail:

Heat – Hakann, a member of the villainous non-Toa Piraka who has heat vision, used the crimson energy fired from his eyes to fully vaporize Mahi creatures into dust or leave them as nothing but smoke. Hakann’s heat can weld metal shut, melt his own armor and cause immense pain, and superheat Zaktan’s body temperature by several hundred degrees in seconds to combust his Protodites into puffs of smoke. Plasma shields wielded by Pahrak-Kal emits plasma that’s roughly 2,000 degrees. As a Toa of Fire, Tahu’s own heat should be far superior than those prior examples. Matoro, a Toa of Ice, has similar heat control in the opposite direction, plunging temperature far below zero in a fraction of a second. Tahu himself has some of the most impressive heat showings in the series, capable of using his fire to turn thousands of tons of sand into glass with a mere fraction of his power as just a Toa Mata early on (1,700°C/3,092°F). Nova Blasts from Jaller are even hot enough to vaporize hundreds of miles of water at once. In fact, Tahu’s stated to be able to melt “any substance”. If taken literally, the highest temperature needed to melt the toughest non-manmade substance (since humans don’t exist in Bionicle) would be tantalum carbide’s melting point of 3,880°C/7,201°F or similar substances like graphite that melts at 3,600°C/6,512°F.

Melting – Because of the heat generated from Tahu’s fire, he’s deliberately been able to target objects to melt them down. His magma swords can melt weapons it comes into contact with, and he’s used his own power without weapons to melt down city rubble into slag. As previously mentioned, Tahu melted down thousands of pounds of sand into glass with only a fraction of his power. Other Toa of Fire like Jaller have melted down stone with flames shot from their swords and melted ice shots fired from weapons in midair. Lhikan, another Toa of Fire, melted harpoons fired at him mid-flight in combat as well. Non-Toa creatures like Bohrok can melt giant stone statues and gates, and Kanohi Dragons can melt robotic Vahki guardians. Hakann, a member of the Piraka, uses heat vision to melt stone into magma and melt giant lava golems.

Targeting his opponent’s armor and weapons with his heat is a favored strategy of Tahu’s. He’s tossed a fireball to heat up Lewa’s mask, forcing him to remove it, melted the Skakdi Nektann’s armor passively throughout their fight to weaken and defeat him, turned up the heat around Maktua Gorast to soften her  protosteel armor, and as mentioned previously, melted Zaktan’s blade with his magma swords. He’s even targeted his own armor as a form of defense, superheating it.

Absorption – Tahu can absorb his own output of fire and heat to re-energize himself. In theory, he can absorb all the heat and fire in an area into himself, but hasn’t demonstrated it yet. Vakama, an ex-Toa of Fire, can also absorb and emit heat and flame. On one occasion, he absorbed all the heat around the Makuta Krika to cause him to freeze over – essentially turning his fire powers into ice powers. However, Vakama’s own fire absorption establishes that Toa of Fire have a limit on how they can absorb, such as when he absorbed all the heat in a vault to freeze a monster made of Fire but had to release it before exploding from how much his intake was, atomizing miles of tunnel from the heat upon doing so.

BIONICLE: The Game Powers

In 2003’s BIONICLE: The Game, all of the Toa Mata are shown to have the ability to create spherical “shields” around themselves, which can “convert dark energy attacks into elemental energy”. In one of the game’s animated cutscenes, Tahu uses it to deflect a dark energy blast back at the Bohrok that fired it, launching it away. This is evidently separate from the similar powers of the Kanohi Hau; all of the Toa can use it without needing to swap their masks, and the Hau never absorbs or bounces back energy like this.

In this game, the Toa can also toss out elemental blasts, draw in energy from their surroundings to recharge, and even double jump. Y’know, cause it’s an early 2000s tie-in platformer. Several of the Toa, specifically in their Nuva forms, can also pull off what’s called a “Nuva Blast”, basically a powerful omnidirectional burst of elemental energy – Tahu Nuva can’t, cause he’s only playable in dumb lava surfing levels, but y’know, he could probably still do one. (This is apparently 100% unrelated to the Nova Blast.)

Red Star Revival

The Red Star is a bizarre, ancient space station linked to the Mata Nui robot and the Matoran Universe within. Composed of both metal and organic protodermis tissue (ew), it serves a variety of purposes for maintaining the robot, such as sending down lightning to evolve a group of Matoran into the Toa Inika when there were no other Toa available.

Since the Matoran Universe is meant to be a self-sustaining ecosystem with a (mostly) set sapient population, one of the Red Star’s most important functions is to revive its deceased inhabitants. Essentially, the dead body is “beamed up” to the Red Star to either be repaired or have its consciousness transferred to a whole new body and sent back down. As such, a being from the Matoran Universe can never be truly killed, unless they’re completely destroyed beyond all repair, or don’t have a solid body to begin with, like a Makuta. This would naturally include Tahu.

For most of the story, the Red Star’s systems were glitched. Bodies could be teleported up and repaired, but not sent back down. The final published G1 BIONICLE story was set on the Red Star and would have apparently included its restoration, but was unfortunately cut short before the conclusion could be written.

Nova Blast

The peak of a Toa’s elemental powers, the Nova Blast is a simultaneous, devastating release of all their stored energies. This attack is so busted, we’ve only seen one performed in any canonical material, and it wiped out a whole island. Jaller, another Toa of Fire, has a confirmed Nova Blast that would have vaporized water for hundreds of miles, meaning the area of effect for these moves is enormous. For Toa of Fire, these generate massive explosions of flame, affecting beyond the entire range of Metru City and depleting the power reserves for the user for a long time.

Kraata Powers

The Makuta stand as some of the most fearsome warriors in the Matoran universe, thanks in no small part to their vast array of abilities. These forty-two powers are often called “kraata powers”, so named for the kraata slugs the Makuta can create from their essence and imbue with one of the abilities. After using the Golden Armor to destroy Makuta’s army of kraata-powered Rahkshi, Tahu gained the abilities of all the kraata he destroyed. Those who can make use of kraata powers can only use a single kraata power at a time: multiple cannot be stacked simultaneously.

While these abilities have been a pretty big topic of discussion, it’s worth noting that it’s never made clear how many of the kraata powers Tahu gained. The only ones he is confirmed to have are Heat Vision and Quick Healing, along with probably at least one more. While there were legions of Rahkshi around when he used the Golden Armor, visual depictions only show yellow Heat Vision Rahkshi present – though this could just be because that was the toy being sold at the time. Series author Greg Farshtey has repeatedly called into question the idea that he received all 42, believing it would make Tahu too powerful for the story. While the story ended shortly after he gained the powers, it’s clear that if they continued on, Tahu probably wouldn’t have been given all 42. It’s also not exactly clear if the powers lie in Tahu himself or the Golden Armor – author statements have implied both the former and the latter.

The kraata abilities come in different stages, and definitions for the powers were given by two different sources. The first was a “kraata guide” Flash game hosted on the official LEGO website, which has since been removed, but its text content was backed up by fans. The second was the Makuta’s Guide to the Universe guidebook, which reused some of the definitions from the old kraata guide, but updated some. For brevity’s sake, we’re only writing up dedicated sections on the two kraata powers Tahu is confirmed to possess. The other forty will be detailed in a chart that includes the most up-to-date definitions.

Heat Vision – If his fiery powers weren’t enough already, Tahu can now project beams of heat from his eyes capable of burning words into sand, turning a stream of water into steam, and countering the light beams of Takanuva. Official description: “Powerful long-range heat vision can ignite any object within sight.”

Quick Healing – When asked to name one of the other kraata powers Tahu gained, Greg Farshtey named quick healing as one of them. We’ve never actually seen this ability used in canon at all, either by Tahu or a Makuta, so all we have to go off of are the official descriptions. The website guide claimed that the power makes the user “almost indestructible” and “if captured, [they] can be used to heal the injuries of others.” Makuta’s Guide to the Universe instead states that the power “quickly heals any physical or elemental blow.”

Here are the official descriptions for the other 40 abilities:

Accuracy“Can strike the smallest target at a great distance or in any environment or condition.”Insect Control“Powerful enough to control and command an entire hive of Nui-Rama.”
Adaptation“Instantly adapts to take maximum advantage of any condition or situation.”Laser Vision“Fires powerful eye-beams that can burn through solid protodermis.”
Anger“Has the power to turn anyone, even Toa, against one another in anger.”Limited Invulnerability“Invulnerable to physical harm from most attacks.”
Chain Lightning“Controls devastating bolts of chain lightning that leap between multiple targets.”Magnetism“Possesses magnetic powers strong enough to tear a slab of protodermis in two.”
Chameleon“Has the ability to become completely invisible in any environment.”Mind Reading“Powerful enough to invade the mind of a Turaga or Toa Nuva.”
Confusion“Extended proximity can reduce even a Toa Nuva to mindless babbling.”Molecular Disruption“Has the power to utterly disintegrate any inorganic object with a touch.”
Cyclone“Has the power to create and control powerful cyclones at will.”Plant Control“Has total control over any plants in the area.”
Darkness“Has the power to consume all light in a large area; only Takanuva’s light is stronger.”Plasma“Has the power to instantly melt any object into vapor.”
Density Control“Complete control over own density, able to turn intangible or protosteel hard.”Poison“Dangerously toxic even to a Toa Nuva.”
Disintegration“Has the power to reduce even protodermis to dust.”Power Scream“Power scream shatters stone and can be heard all across the island.”
Dodge“Impossible to physically strike, no matter how swiftly or powerfully.”Rahi Control“Has absolute control over every living Rahi in the near area.”
Elasticity“Can stretch incredible lengths in the blink of an eye to infect a faraway mask.”Shapeshifting“Has total control over its own shape, although its mass cannot change.”
Electricity“Powerful electrical field can be controlled to surround or stun distant objects or creatures.”Silence“Aura of silence is powerful enough to temporarily deafen a Toa Nuva.”
Fear“Has the power to bring fear to the hearts of even the Toa Nuva.”Sleep“Has the power to instantly put an entire village into deep sleep.”
Fire Resistance“Strong enough to withstand the heat of Tahu Nuva’s magma swords.”Slow“Able to rob even a Toa Nuva of all speed as long as it remains nearby.”
Fragmentation“Has the power to create explosions in the immediate area.”Sonics“Blasts distant objects with powerful waves of sonic force.”
Gravity“Uses gravity control to crush any object in visual range.”Stasis Field“Has the power to freeze a creature in near-permanent stasis through eye contact.”
Hunger“Able to drain the strength of another and add it to its own.”Teleportation“Has the power to teleport itself through any wall or other structure.”
Ice Resistance“Impervious even to the cold of Kopaka Nuva’s ice blade.”Vacuum“Has the power to create gale-force winds or instantly reverse their flow.”
Illusion“Can create and control multiple realistic illusions anywhere within sight.”Weather Control“Can manifest powerful, dangerous thunderstorms and blizzards at will.”

Resistances

Tahu is extraordinarily tough, just like the rest of his Toa teammates, making him a legendary warrior and leader that has shrugged off and resisted various powers tossed at him over the years. Because he’s a Toa of Fire, and an even more impressive Toa Nuva, his own resistance against flames should be more resilient than the fire resistance demonstrated by other characters in the series too.

Fire & Extreme Heat: Tahu has a natural resistance to extreme heat. Tahu doesn’t feel the heat of his own flames. Zaktan’s eyebeams are laser vision, and Prototype, a fusion of a Toa of Fire and Earth, fully ignores the lasers hitting him and its accompanying heat. Other Toa suggest Jaller can’t withstand being in magma, but he says he can last a few seconds submerged in it with his natural resistance to heat and flame as a Toa of Fire. Vakama, another ex-Toa of Fire, could briefly survive in molten protodermis. Other characters besides Toa of Fire have demonstrated fire and heat resistances, of which the Toa of Fire would have superior resilience to, such as: Reidak and Vezok withstand water nearly at its boiling point. Zaktan is burned by white hot flames. Hakann can shrug off fiery breath from a lava golem. Nuparu withstands being struck by Hakann’s heat vision. This Toa survives getting blasted by Hakann’s heat vision. Gali is struck by Hakann’s heat vision and withstands it even as it superheats her water axe. Thok is struck by magma from Hakann’s blaster. Hakann withstands his magma launcher exploding. Hakkan, amplified with Brutaka’s power, survives a gas pocket explosion that vaporizes a forest. Even when depowered and without his resistance to heat, Tahu survived a dip in lava and a heat blast from a Bohrok.

Extreme Cold: According to Greg, the Space Form of the Adaptive Armor would prevent Lewa from freezing to death and generally provide insulated layers in cold environments.

Energy Draining: Retrieving their masks re-energizes the Toa Nuva, including Tahu, after their energies were drained, which left them badly weakened. Tahu kept fighting even as Makuta Krika drains his energy, using his reduced powers to boil the ground under him, then reabsorbing the heat he himself put out.

Mental Attacks (Limited): Lhikan, a Toa of Fire, takes and is affected by a mental blast from Hakann but quickly recovers, and Hakann can shatter thoughts into a million shards with mental blasts. While affected by fear inducement, Toa can handle and deal with it during a fight.

Various Kraata Powers: Many of the abilities showcased by Rahkshi/Kraata have listed that they are only able to affect Toa after an advanced stage of development. This idea of a resistance is further supported by Toa like Kopaka overcoming instances of these powers. As a result, Tahu should have resistances to the following abilities:

  • Empathic/Mind Manipulation: The Anger power can turn beings temporarily insane with rage, the Confusion power can cause memory loss and reduce the intelligence of those affected to the point of helplessness, and the Fear power can cripple victims with overwhelming terror.
  • Energy Draining (Stamina): The Hunger power can completely drain the energy of any living organism, regardless of size. This is typically depicted as a form of stamina or “strength” draining.
  • Telepathy: The Mind Reading power can detect the presence of creatures in the area, function as a “danger sense” style of autonomous dodging, and perfectly understand the thoughts of nearby creatures.
  • Poison Manipulation/Corrosion: The Poison power grants the Rahkshi the ability to create pools of corrosive toxic slime that render beings severely ill upon mere contact.
  • Perception Manipulation (Hearing Only): Rahkshi with the Silence power can create a village wide aura of silence that drains all sound from what it touches. Despite this, it explicitly needs to evolve further before being able to deafen a Toa.
  • Speed Stealing: Kraata with the Slowness power can drain the speed of any being they attach themselves to, and even bring a small area of their surroundings to a complete and total halt. Toa are immune to both effects up to the final stage of growth.

Forms

Toa Mata

The little red guy that opened a thousand parents’ wallets back in ‘01. This is Tahu’s base form as a Toa and primary appearance for the first story arc of the series.

Toa Nuva

After a dip in some energized protodermis, the Toa Mata gained both an increase in raw power and an increase in their ability to control it, plus new armor, weapons, and abilities. Should be superior to his previous Mata form, as well as any other base form Toa, as it made them faster, stronger, and more agile. Tahu actually spent most of his on-screen Toa adventures in his Nuva form; even after acquiring the Adaptive Armor (and getting a new toy), he was still technically a Toa Nuva.

Toa Mata (Reverted)

In order to fulfill his destiny and don the Golden Armor (also because they were selling a new toy of his old form), Tahu was reverted to his original Mata state by the Mask of Life. While Tahu initially felt as if his power had been reduced, he still had the Adaptive Armor and Adaptive Tool he gained during his Nuva days, and later got one hell of an upgrade with the Golden Armor. As discussed previously, statements differ on whether he absorbed the Kraata powers during Journey’s End or whether the powers remained contained within the armor, but either way, he came to be more powerful than he was as a Nuva,and more powerful than Toa Tuyet was when she held the Nui Stone.

Feats

Overall

  • Glassed thousands of tons of sand launched by Teridax with a fraction of his power as a Toa Mata.
  • With the other Toa Mata, used elemental powers to seal away the Bahrag.
  • Led an army of Tahnok against Nuhvok-Kal.
  • Successfully called on Vahi to slow time and use the Nuva Symbols to destroy the Bohrok-Kal.
  • The Toa Nuva acted as the key to defending Metru Nui against the Brotherhood of Makuta siege.
  • Reawakened Mata Nui with the rest of the Toa Nuva.
  • Designed and chosen to wield the Golden Armor by the Great Beings and the Ignika.
  • Unleashed the power of the Golden Armor to help Mata Nui crush Teridax.
  • Helped lead the reconstruction of society on Spherus Magna.
  • Defeated the Shadow Toa, the Bahrag, the Bohrok-Kal, Nektann, the Rahkshi, Teridax

Power

Speed

Durability

Scaling

(Images by Yuix)

As the most powerful of the Toa as a Toa Nuva, alongside being superior to Tuyet with the Nui Stone, who heavily upscaled normal Toa Mata by a factor of 200 to 300, by the end of the series, Tahu is amongst one of the strongest characters barring the obvious Great Beings and Great Spirit Robot. Becoming a Toa Nuva in general amplified both his raw power and speed from when he was a Toa Mata, and that was before his aforementioned further boost as a Reverted Toa Mata with Kraata powers in the endgame. Not to mention his Nova Blast expelling all of his power, something he already worried would incinerate his Toa teammates if he lost control of his powers without a Nova Blast in consideration.

Other Toa

Tahu should reliably scale over most other Toa. He and the other Nuva received a notable power upgrade over a Toa’s natural state from their exposure to energized protodermis, putting them above all basic Toa. Even after his reversion to his Mata state, author statements put him above his previous Nuva form and all other Toa, even Tuyet amped by the Nui Stone (though these could simply refer to the widened powerset granted by the Golden Armor).

Toa Mata

Toa Nuva

Toa Metru

Toa Inika/Mahri

Other / Multiple

Nova Blasts

Enemies of the Week

Naturally, the Toa can’t exactly do their duty of guarding and defending the lands and denizens within the Great Spirit Robot and Spherus Magna without coming across threats and bad guys. From dangerous creatures, organized criminal groups, dragons, and other guardians, Tahu by the end of the series should be more than a match for all of them after his constant power growth, missions defeating or outgrowing their threat levels, and physical superiority by the time the planet had a reprieve from constant fighting.

Bohrok

The Piraka

Brutaka

Miscellaneous Fighters & Foes

 The Makuta

While they were initially meant to preserve peace, the Makuta were a race of 100 powerful beings under the Brotherhood of Makuta that grew corrupt and desired the world for themselves. One particular member, Teridax, was the greatest schemer of them all who hoped and succeeded in usurping the Great Spirit Robot from Mata Nui. While we cannot scale Tahu to the gargantuan god robot, nor Teridax’s feats while taking it over, we can compare Teridax in his base form to the Toa through their confrontations.

G2 Continuity

The G2 reboot of Bionicle has its fair share of feats in its own right. While they started off cocky and struggled to work together, the Toa of this continuity overcame many challenges in their quest to defeat Makuta. By the end of their story, they were capable of defeating monsters which could overpower Ekimu, the Mask Maker and Toa of Light, who was far above them by the beginning of the story and who defeated threats like Kulta, and their true potential achieved at the very end of the journey was able to overpower Makuta while he used the Mask of Ultimate Power, the strongest force known in the continuity, meaning the G2 versions of the Toa scale to almost everything that happened in the story, Tahu included.

Weaknesses

Despite their large arsenals and immense firepower, the Toa aren’t meant to be unbeatable. For example, if a Toa’s mask is removed, their powers are “halved”, including their elemental abilities. Shortly after being brought to life, Lewa removing his mask caused him to become so weak he almost fell over. Incapacitating them and immediately stealing their masks and weapons has been a go to for certain villains in the past too. (In fact, in the first book, Tahu apparently can’t use his fire powers without his mask on, though this may be early installment weirdness.) Similarly, if you manage to locate where their Nuva Symbols are being kept, theft of the Symbols will de-power a Toa of their elemental powers entirely, something that happened to Tahu before. While Tahu is certainly a bit of a hothead, he is not so easily ragebaited like he has been in the past, as he’s learned to control himself and move past attempts to aggro him. 

While Tahu has worked to improve his own mental resilience and Toa in general are rather resilient to most forms of mental influence (see Resistances), when it comes to direct mind control however, they fall flat pretty hard. They’ve been puppeted by parasites, brainwashed by a virus, turned into weird freaky mutant slaves, and while they do have a better track record with corruption, direct exposure to Makuta’s presence can still screw with them.

Finally, as for more Toa specific weaknesses, while they are biomechanical beings as opposed to full on robots, their mechanical parts have been singled out and used against them multiple times. For instance, they’ve been locked in place both by magnetizing their metallic selves and striking them with the tech manipulating Nynrah Ghostblaster. Additionally, Toa possess an energy similar to a life force called an “inner light” which when drained, will leave them as nothing more than a corrupted husk of a body.

Before the Verdict

Legends of Chima

Some might be surprised by the presence of feats from Legends of Chima in Kai’s scaling. Legends of Chima, while a fellow LEGO property to both Ninjago and Bionicle, is rather obviously a completely different show and property in its own right, so what exactly are these feats doing here? Simply put, while Ninjago and Legends of Chima are two different shows, they are connected in the same wider world and lore, and outright canon to one another. As such, they can be used to scale to each other rather solidly, without any need for outside crossovers like LEGO Dimensions that obviously are not in play here.

Of course, to explain, it has long been suggested that Chima and Ninjago share a connection, and has been outright confirmed for a decent amount of time since. Even as early as Ninjago’s fifth season, Possession, it was implied that the two might share ties. Lloyd and Morro use the Realm Crystal to hop from realm to realm, and briefly end up at the top of the Spiral Mount in Chima, where they are addressed by Laval and the others before continuing their battle. This one alone is not sufficient proof, it is a pretty basic cameo, and a blatant reskin of the ending of Chima’s fifteenth episode, Ravens vs. Eagles, with Lloyd and Morro replacing Eris and Razar as the ones crashing onto the mountain and being asked by Laval what they’re doing. Even so, it is a good foundation suggesting a connection given how the Realm Crystal works, even if nothing more. This is far from the only instance though, with Chima appearing in realm traversal again in The Kaiju Protocol. During the search for the team, Wu and P.I.X.A.L. stumble across Chima, and a horde of beavers emerge from the portal with their typical chanting about fixing stuff. This one is a lot safer, given this isn’t a reskin of an already existing Chima scene, and is directly tied to the episode’s plot with the pair searching realms.

Once we get into Dragons Rising though, it just becomes extremely concrete. Chima is confirmed to be a major part of the realm known as the Wyldness, explaining how characters were able to reach it previously. In fact, one of the main antagonists of the show, Lord Ras, also hails from this same realm, and his design is a pretty obvious sign that he hails from the same realm as the likes of Laval, Cragger, or Eris. From there, Doc Wyatt has confirmed Chima’s role and presence in the world and lore of Ninjago’s history on multiple occasions, establishing how things work. CHI for instance is explained to exist in multiple realms, Mount Cavora was struck by the Source Dragon of Life to explain its incredible powers, and the Phoenix Tribe, extremely important characters from Chima’s final season, are strongly implied to have had a hand in defeating the Forbidden Five long ago, major villains in Dragons Rising. This is pretty decisive proof for the two shows being comparable to each other. The Wyldness has a major role in Ninjago right now, Chima is directly confirmed to be part of this realm by Doc Wyatt, and major characters from both shows have had a hand in the lore of the other, with the Source Dragon of Life playing a part in Mount Cavora’s creation while the Phoenix Tribe seems to have helped bring down the Forbidden Five. As such, we can safely conclude that both shows are fair game to analyze when researching one or the other, and fine to use for feats for either side.

As for scaling, Kai should reasonably scale to feats from Legends of Chima. In Dragons Rising Kai has held his own against an amped Nokt , while other Ninja have held their own with Forbidden 5 Members like Zane against Nokt and Nya against Roxx, while Lloyd was clearly superior to Zarkt. The Forbidden 5  possessed the strongest powers within the Wyldness. While human, Garmadon took a hit from The Gong of Shattering, which could affect the Sun within the Wyldness, plunging the world into eternal twilight, with Sunlight only returning when the Lycan King was defeated. The Wyldness’s sun is a godlike being known as the Mother Sun, which created the Phoenix Tribe. As mentioned prior we know the Phoenix managed to defend themselves from the Forbidden 5 implying they are comparable. Kai and the Phoenix are also both Masters of Fire which would make them very directly comparable. The Phoenix sit pretty comfortably as the top tiers of the Chima series, alongside the main cast with the Fire Harnesses and the Great Illumination. Given Kai’s ability to keep up with forces relative to these characters, he should reasonably scale to pretty much everything Chima has to offer, though one could argue Great Illumination level feats might require a bit of a boost such as the Dragon form.

Verdict

(GIF by GraveTLK)

Speed

Kai and Tahu are both able to consistently dodge Lightning, with Kai dodging Jay’s and Tahu’s fights against the Avohkah, which are basically living lightning bolts. Both are also easily able to reach relativistic speeds; Kai himself has deflected lasers (0.21c) and scales to other laser feats from Lloyd (0.41c) and Zane, as well as Galandria (0.14c) and a Freemaker (0.84c) reacting to the lasers from The Administration’s guns. On a similar note, Tahu is more than able to scale to characters able to react to or evade Umbra while he was moving as a beam of Light, as well as Tuyet parrying Takanuva’s Light Beams, Hakann intercepting laser vision with his Heat vision, a random Rahkshi accomplishing that same exact feat, and Lariska dodging said Heat Vision from Hakann.

While Tahu’s speed feats are not calculable due to the nature of Novel feats, they should be in the same ball park as most of what Kai scales to; where this changes is Wisp. Jay was able to outrun Wisp, who moves at the Speed of Light, making him at least slightly FTL. This happened some time between the Pilot and Season 1, which means Current Kai would upscale to an absurd degree given the nearly 20 Seasons of getting stronger and faster Kai has had since then, even without accounting for something like Dragon Form where he would upscale to an even greater degree.

Tahu certainly upscale his feats as well. The relativistic feats are accomplished by regular Toa (or beings a regular Toa would scale to), which are very clearly quite inferior to a Toa Nuva like Tahu. However, Tahu would still be upscaling a slower value, which would make him, well, slower. That is not to say Tahu is out of the speed game quite yet; Tahu is able to massively amplify his Speed with the Mask of Speed, which means, while he wears it, he should be able to take the Speed Edge. This does restrict the use of his other Masks though, meaning it’s unlikely for it to be a constant advantage, but it is still notable.

Kai has potential for higher speed Metas that we will also touch on; Kai is comparable to other Masters of Fire, Chima’s Phoenix Tribe, which flew to the Sun in a pretty short timeframe. This comes in at 6.79c; the problem would come with the disputable timeframe, where you could interpret a time skip during the sequence. In Dragon Form Kai, could also be potentially scaled to the Megaweapon being launched into space at 191c. Given the specific circumstances with two sets of Golden Weapons, in a situation not repeated outside of this, there’s not a great scaling method to this specific interaction. Both the Phoenix Flight and Megaweapon are at best dubious for the case of this debate, and not concrete enough to rely on.

To circle back to our main point, throughout the battle both combatants should have periods where they ultimately hold the Speed Advantage, With Kai being somewhat faster than Tahu without the Mask, and Mask of Speed Tahu being somewhat faster than Kai. The exact differences aren’t really quantifiable nor particularly consequential, meaning Speed is a Draw.

Experience

Kai’s been doing this a long time, long enough to the point where Harumi became a young adult between Rise of The Snakes, While Arin and Sora grew up since the Merge, likely placing him at 15+ Years of Ninja work, while characters like Wu and Garmadon are hundreds of years old. Kai’s fought characters who predate the creation of Ninjago, like Thunderfang, The Oni, and even the Overlord. How long it’s been since before time had a name is unclear but it’s likely thousands of years, if not more. Kai’s been trained in many Ninja ways, most notably Spinjitzu, learning many difficult techniques like Rising Dragon, Airjitzu, or Spinjitzu Burst. He’s quite a tricky fighter able to pretty consistently outwit opponents like Karloff, Ash, Chen, and many many Henchmen. His combat showings are nothing to scoff at. Despite his insane inherent disadvantages he’s taken on gangs of Skulkin solo, defeated thugs with just chopsticks, and even held his own against the other original Ninja at the start of his training. He has fought people like the Time Twins and even Nokt. Nokt is perhaps the most impressive given the immense power Nokt possessed at the time and the fact no one else could really even remotely match him.

Kai’s shortcomings come with his lack of book smarts. Kai’s really not all too smart, and is pretty concretely the least smart ninja, typically struggling with things like puzzles and taking the most simple approach if he has any reason to remotely think it works. He certainly has his moments of ingenuity but 9 times out of 10 his strategy is going to be fighting.

When it comes to Tahu, while he was created 100,000 years ago alongside his Toa squad, he was only really active for a few months back then before they were sent to hibernate in canisters for thousands of years. Once emerged, the actual timeline for the story of Bionicle only really took place for a year, give or take. However, much like Kai, the sheer “ancient-ness” of the foes present throughout the series shows he can handle himself when faced with way more experienced characters. The greatest example is how the Toa constantly take and thwart the plans of their big bad evil guy, Teridax. This actually is active for around 95,000 to 100,000 years. Even other, less experienced Toa Inika and the Toa Nuva themselves can clash with the Piraka, a group of criminals actively working together for 7,000 years, so this kind of comparison is actually quite consistent.

While Tahu has had his hotheaded streaks in his early years, he went through a little thing we in the business call a “character arc”. He’s had fairly explicit moments where he’s resisted losing his cool against typical ragebaiting, only lashing out when you literally threaten the lives of his people. The main point really is that he’s much more levelheaded and humble compared to the start of his series where his arrogance was on full display. Throughout his tenure as the leader of the Toa Nuva, he’s gotten far more tactical, delegating tasks based on the elemental strengths of his teammates, feigning surrender, and trained under legendary warriors in harsh climates and conditions. So, it’s fair to say that Tahu is a seasoned warrior, and his combat skills show this off. If he’s launched into the air, he’ll do a somersault technique to recover himself, or he’ll use spinning techniques to shake off hordes of enemies. When reminded of old battles, he quickly formulates convoluted plans or solutions on the fly, like his team fight against Reidak or his confrontations with Shadow Toa forcing him to adapt and immediately incinerate them to prevent regeneration. By using his fire in clever ways, he can draft up smokescreens to advance more safely, slow his descent from falls by heating the air, melt your weapons while his magma swords clash with them, crystallize the sand under you into glass with heat so it shatters beneath you, or even freeze you over by absorbing the heat around you. Basically, Tahu has no shortage of Battle IQ, which comes with the territory of tons upon tons of Bionicle villains showing up with random abilities that haven’t been seen before.

With relatively similarly ancient opponents, Kai being a tad more straightforward than Tahu’s creativity, but Kai having been active for longer with better direct fighting prowess, nothing truly tips the scales in either direction. They’re talented at what they do, but apply their combat skills in different areas of battle, with impressive enough careers, agility, on the fly thinking, training, and reputations in their respective worlds that nothing truly feels lopsided here. We’ll settle on calling their “fiery brand” of approach to fights and overall Experience a tie.

Abilities

When someone hears that two LEGO fire masters are gonna fight, it may seem surprising to see so many oddball abilities and resistances that have basically nothing to do with fire pop up. To start, anyone passively familiar with Bionicle is going to understand that Tahu has a sizable assortment of mystical masks he can teleport and swap onto his face at any point. Of course, the main drawback is that he wouldn’t be able to use any of their abilities simultaneously, so if he wants to use one mask, he’ll be locked out of the other powers the others offer while using it. Now, Kai doesn’t have many innate abilities beyond fire either, but his variety of weapons with absurd powers are similarly going to come into play. So, the main comparison we’ll make is whether or not they can handle each other’s abilities and how many can instantly decide the fight.

Tahu has some not so dangerous masks, and some very dangerous masks. By using the Mask of Mind Control, the Kanohi Komau, Kai would be in some serious trouble without an answer to that. Luckily for him, Kai has faced quite a lot of mental threats over his career. From shaking off the mind controlling effects of Dark Matter, breaking out of mind control from a cyclops, and snapping out of the corruption of Chen’s Staff of Elements, Kai pretty definitively has this covered on his end. Defensively, Tahu’s vibrational phasing offered by the Kanohi Kakama and the invisibility and illusions offered by the Kanohi Huna and Kanohi Mahiki respectively grant numerous ways to render the Toa untouchable and undetectable under normal circumstances. But with the Reveal Blade, not only can Kai view invisible beings, but it also allows him to damage incorporeal beings, negating two mask powers with one weapon. Plus, dragons in Ninjago are unaffected by illusions entirely, meaning going into Dragon Form would let him see through any trickery coming his way via the Kanohi Mahiki. So, mental manipulations and illusory tricks aren’t going to be deciding factors here.

Now, some artifacts that obviously immediately stand out to anyone reading this blog are the items both of these minifigs have that can toy with time itself. Kai himself has two on hand that can accomplish this, specifically the Reversal Blade and the Scroll of the 4th Dimension. They can do the usual things you’d expect a potent time-bending weapon can accomplish, such as rapidly manipulating your age or restoring it, reversing time, and stopping time. While Kai hasn’t exactly mastered the Scroll, his usage of it didn’t screw anything up like when his buddies tried it out. Similarly, the Kanohi Vahi, the Legendary Mask of Time, requires utmost focus and is difficult to sustain for long, since screwing up unravels the reality within the Great Spirit Robot. But, Tahu has managed to use it successfully in high stakes scenarios. Not only can it slow time to such a degree that it’s basically a time stop too, it can speed up time and even rapidly age you. We’ve already seen that Kai’s artifacts can match or cancel out these abilities, since time reversal is a decent counter to time being sped up or slowed down and he can restore any rapid aging.

However, the Scroll does offer other powers. While Tahu should be able to handle gravity being messed with by using the masks that grant him levitation, he doesn’t actually have any sort of way to combat getting kicked to a nothingness dimension. And the Scroll being able to redirect attacks would be a great way around the barriers offered by the Kanohi Hau given its weakness to ambushes or boomerang attacks. Of course, Kai isn’t an expert at using this thing, but this isn’t the only game-changing weapon he has. Tahu has zero means of dealing with getting his soul ripped out and stolen by the Dark Chained Whip, which is something that Toa would definitely have, especially considering that astral projection is a power only specific Toa can use in Bionicle. Although, on the topic of physiologies, this is actually a solid edge that Tahu has over Kai. While the world of Ninjago treats their main cast as typical human beings, Toa are bio-mechanical beings full of organs that can simply pop their limbs back on if they get lopped off like what you’d expect from LEGO being. They have a brain, lungs, and the mechanical parts of their body basically act like a metal skeleton. This would, by definition, give the Toa greater healing and an advantage in a regular sword fight.

Because Toa are weird like that, Kai’s Techno Blade is kind of a vague interaction. While he’s been able to immediately hack machinery, take over systems, and interact with digital beings, the Toa don’t exactly run on any programming and aren’t typical robots. However, Toa have had their mechanical parts hijacked and puppeted by the Nynrah Ghostblaster’s shots before, which is a weapon that works in almost the exact same way as the Techno Blade. Even though it’s not a 1-to-1 exact comparison, this instance would lend more credibility to the idea of the Techno Blade working if Kai struck Tahu with it.

Okay, let’s actually talk about how Kai and Tahu use their main abilities now. If these are so-called masters of fire, then one of them should have an edge in some areas, right? Both of them can obviously shoot fire, generate smoke, and imbue weapons with it, with Kai being able to re-energize machines and boost his own speed with his flames. And, while Kai is able to take control of and redirect fire from other sources and opponents, Tahu is able to very much do the same thing, seizing control at the molecular level much like his teammates can from their foes. Both Kai and Tahu can absorb fire into themselves to get a boost, although they do both have upper limits to how much they can take in before it overwhelms them entirely. And, their funny fire can be morphed into different elemental constructs, alongside having wide areas of effect normally. So far, while you can argue certain applications are more potent or aren’t matched by their opponent, nothing immediately stands out and the comparison is fairly even.

But, we should actually talk about how often Tahu and other Toa of Fire use their fire to target their enemies’ weaponry to melt them down mid-fight with swords or good ol’ fire blasts. Kai can melt things with his own fire, but it’s not really his go-to in the same way. This is especially useful for him given how many of Kai’s immediate win conditions come from weapons that do not have any established heat resistances. Should Tahu see the Techno Blade, Reversal Blade, Scroll of the 4th Dimension, or Dark Chained Whip come out, they’d very much be liable to getting melted down if Kai isn’t expecting it. Of course, after the first time he does this, Kai is going to be expecting it, but it serves as a way to keep Tahu in the fight.

Technically speaking, while Tahu does need to play rather optimally to try to melt every single winning weapon Kai takes out, he would hypothetically have access to various potentially gamechanging Kraata powers he received after using the Golden Armor. While we’ve only had a handful of them confirmed to be available to him, Kraata abilities such as Vacuum, which would siphon all the air out of Kai fairly quickly, and Disintegration basically would just reduce you to dust in seconds. There’s also the scary-sounding Molecular Disruption, but that’s stated to only work on inorganic tissue (big win for being a human in a LEGO property). However, the big issue is that these are all mostly hypothetical powers that Tahu has not only never used, but he’s never been confirmed to have them in the first place. Without explicit confirmation of what Tahu’s full “Kraata moveset” is, Kai having much more explicit win conditions makes this option look way less ideal or concrete to lean on.

However, Kai’s most effective weapon in this fight is undoubtedly the Chain Rifle. With a chain made out of Vengestone, even coming into contact with it will shut down all of your powers entirely. Tahu not only wouldn’t be able to avoid this with phasing given it can chain up ghosts and their phasing powers, but its ability to cut characters off from their elemental powers is actually a demonstrated vulnerability. As a Toa Nuva, when his Nuva Symbol was stolen, Tahu was entirely robbed of all of his elemental powers, graying out his armor and mask and everything, which persisted throughout that entire arc. Not only does this mean Kai would be able to shut down his masks too, but this means that Tahu basically has to try to not screw up and target the rifle immediately. Should he not fight optimally for even a moment, this would shut off any means of avoiding other weapons or simply getting overwhelmed with Kai’s fire. Additionally, his super speed from his Mask of Speed would be unavailable, giving Kai a speed advantage to work with now that that’s off the table. It’s also worth mentioning that Toa need to be wearing at least one mask to be able to swap between other ones, so that would offer another avenue to reduce him to this state. And, although Tahu does have some heat resistance even when depowered, the Elemental Blade that Kai has is able to bypass elemental resistances and immunities entirely.

All these weapons might make it seem like Kai is coming out on top, but he still has to be able to deal with a particularly powerful maneuver that Tahu has. With its gargantuan area of effect that would cover at least a city, and definitely even more given it can affect hundreds of miles and the island of Metru Nui, all those weapons would be rendered moot in the face of a Nova Blast. Kai must have an answer to this, since it’ll leave Tahu wide open and heavily weakened right afterwards, and the blast would theoretically be millions of degrees hot to be able to vaporize that many miles of ocean at once with a sudden enormous firestorm like that. With any initial exposure to it, Kai’s gamewinning weapons would also get melted down or vaporized outright. The main avenue that could get Kai around this move, luckily for him, is Spinjitzu itself.

By covering Kai entirely in a vortex of elemental energy to block incoming attacks, not only would his entire body be omnidirectionally blocking this blast, he’d be able to close the gap while Tahu is unleashing all that energy for an attack in the middle of the move. You could argue that his Elemental Shield could accomplish the same thing or that he could absorb it, but Spinjitzu is more versatile and there’s the potential danger that his absorption could be overtaxed.  And, with a Spinjitzu Burst, Kai can unleash his own version of an unleashed flaming attack. While it’s not as big in terms of the range it covers, there are several explicit statements both for the Spinjitzu Burst itself and from the potency of Kai’s fire element that he’d be able to withstand the heat of a star. So, with that level of heat resistance, Kai’s protective vortexes should be able to power through the enormity of the blast and overwhelm Tahu in return, plus it’d aid him in withstanding an initial exposure to the Nova Blast itself. Of course, there is one drawback to the Spinjitzu Burst in that the activation requires the area to be covered in fire, which, unfortunately for Tahu, the Nova Blast would undoubtedly facilitate, effectively activating one of Kai’s best powers for him. Without any other options, Tahu is in danger of being overwhelmed, especially since getting incinerated is far beyond being able to reattach limbs, or even the Red Star’s revival power. In terms of sheer versatility and ways to end the fight right away, Kai has much more to offer in terms of Abilities.

Firepower

The final and most important category for comparing these Masters of Fire is, of course, their Firepower. There’s a lot to consider here; at a glance you might think Tahu’s size would grant him an advantage off rip, but in reality he’s not actually that much taller than Kai. Kai stands at a typical human height of approximately 1.71m, compared to Tahu who is 2.19m. This is only a 28% advantage to Tahu, which is not really notable. In fact, it’s Tahu who needs to worry about Kai’s size advantage, when mech’s like the Climber Mech can fit people in the palm of its hand, and Rusty is even larger than that. (Though Tahu can fly, so this isn’t necessarily a huge deal.)

Kai and Tahu are both immensely powerful; Tahu is able to blow apart entire mountain tops (58.37 Tons) or glass thousands of tons of sand (1 Kiloton), and is comparable to other Toa like Gali and Lewa who can create a massive storm (9.5 Kilotons Each), or Pohatu, who reduced Ohina Fortress to dust (73.28 Megatons). The greatest feat in G1 Bionicle that Tahu can scale to would be the combined energy of 3 Toa who managed to reduce multiple entire mountains to slag (747.58 Megatons Each). However since we are considering G2, Tahu can scale even higher. The Toa managed to overpower Makuta and Mask of Ultimate Power, which could level and reshape the entire Island of Okoto (9.98 Teratons of TNT).

By comparison, Kai has tanked hits from Mountain Sized Beasts (70.21 Tons)and even vaporized the Ice Dragon (348.47 Tons); while he’s able to power the Cloud Splitting Power of Rusty (73.99 Kilotons),his scaling goes much further. Kai can scale to villains like Morro, who is able to create enormous storms (532-732 Kilotons), or the likes of Nahdahkhan, who held nearly half a continent in the sky (133.84 Teratons). Kai can even be compared to The Golden Weapons, like the Scythe of Quakes, which contributed to the Creation of the Continent of Ninjago (7.03 Petatons); the Golden Weapons may even possess the power to create entire realms on their own. This is not inconsistent, when Kai withstood being at the epicentre of the Merge, an event which sent multiple massive land masses crashing into each other (217 Zettatons); Kai could even be scaled to The Preeminent, who threatened to devour the other realms, and was even a realm herself.

The comparison between the two is pretty clear. Tahu caps out at 9.98 Teratons through the Mask of Ultimate Power, which is impressive. However this is massively exceeded by Nahdahkhan’s lift by a factor of 13.4x, The Scythe of Quakes by 704x the Merge by 21 Billion x, and the creation.destruction of Realms by an even greater amount.

However, with a Nova Blast, Tahu has much greater stats. Since he’s a Toa of Fire, it should operate similar to Jaller’s; being able to vaporize hundreds of miles of water requires a massive energy output, (11.13 Petatons), and It’d also scale to Gali’s Nova Blast, which could raise the sea level and flood Aqua Magna (2.2 Exatons of TNT). Given Nova Blasts expend all of a Toa’s power, this is the clear upper limit of Tahu; this would still however leave him leagues below the likes of the Merge, or the Realm devouring Preeminent.

Giving Kai Dragon Form makes the power gap even greater. Characters on this level can split continents (344 Exatons), create moons, suns, and even whole realms. If you were to buy the idea that the Overlord could overpower a Source Dragon, Kai could even reach the power of the Dragon Cores, which stabilized a storm tearing apart all of reality (Universal). Regardless of Source Dragon scaling though, he’d also scale to the First Spinjitzu Master creating the Grasslands, which are likely Infinite in size.

With such powerful attacks, needless to say neither is going to have a very hard time landing hits. Between Tahu blowing apart mountain tops and glassing large amounts of sand, or Kai tearing apart cliffs and destroying Gimon-Ogu, both should possess attacks with radii that would allow them land attacks incredibly consistently, and Tahu’s Nova Blast has an even greater range in the 100s of miles. Needless to say, Kai ain’t avoiding a Nova Blast

There’s also the comparison of the actual power of their fire, ie its heat. Tahu can casually glass sand and potentially melt any substance; the substance with the highest melting point is tantalum carbide, which melts at 3,880°C/7,201, and only slightly lower is graphite, which melts at 3,600°C/6,512°F as the highest melting point from a naturally occurring material. Kai is not too dissimilar from Tahu, also able to glass sand, but more impressively even melt the Golden Weapons, which survived the creation of a star; this would require temperatures of up to 15,700,000°C/28,300,000°F. Star Level Heat is not inconsistent for Kai, given the Phoenix, other Elemental Fire users, actually come from the Sun itself and even live there. Kai’s fire is certainly hotter than Tahu’s standard attacks, however Tahu’s Nova Blast would likely possess equally extreme heat, given its enough to vaporize 100s of miles of water. While the exact number is unclear and tough to calculate, it’s fair to say it exists within the range of Star Heat.

In regards to both character’s ability to absorb fire into themselves, both are known to have an upper limit. If this limit is exceeded, they could explode – this is a known factor for Tahu especially, given the two scenes of Vakama’s heat absorption calling it out as a possibility. Kai’s far greater displays of power suggest that his limit should be above Tahu’s. So, if the fight does come down to it, Tahu could easily blow himself up trying to absorb and contain Kai’s flames, while Kai doesn’t really have to worry about the same happening to him.

Kai takes a substantial lead on all fronts; he’s multiple orders of magnitude stronger than even a Nova Blast, possesses hotter fire with his typical attacks, has mechs far larger than Tahu, and has more than enough AOE to land a hit. Kai’s immense Firepower is the final piece of the puzzle that earns him his win.

Conclusion

“There’s no way of knowing what’s around the corner. But as long as there’s something worth fighting for, there’s always a need for a ninja. And we’ll be ready.”

Advantages:

  • Far Stronger, even against a Nova Blast
  • Slightly faster on average
  • Hotter Fiyah!
  • Reversal Blade and Scroll of the 4th Dimension offer superior control over time
  • Vengestone Chains can nullify Tahu’s entire pool of abilities, Masks included
  • Spinjitzu Burst is able to counter the Nova Blast
  • Dark Chained Whip and the Techno Blade can both pretty solidly deal with Tahu if they connect
  • Moveset is safer with fewer caveats
  • More Win Conditions across numerous weapons…
  • Similar levels of skill and experience
  • The Weekend Whip

Disadvantages:

  • Slightly slower than Tahu with the Mask of Speed without using higher speed ends
  • …But many of them could be melted by Tahu’s fire
  • Worse healing methods
  • Has nowhere near the AOE Tahu has with the Nova Blast
  • Generally less locked in
  • Not the Green Ninja…

“Where wisdom and valor fail, all that remains is faith, and it can overcome all.”

Advantages:

  • Slightly faster with the Mask of Speed…
  • Giant AOE with Nova Blasts
  • Better healing that pops lost limbs back on
  • Able to melt most of Kai’s arsenal that have dangerous abilities
  • Similarly skilled and experienced
  • Generally more locked in
  • Could absorb Kai’s flames…
  • Bionicle OSTs
  • Was 100% of LEGO’s profit at one point

Disadvantages:

  • Substantially weaker, even if using a Nova Blast
  • …But normally slower and cannot use other Mask powers like this
  • Vast majority of powers can only be used one at a time
  • Vulnerable to power nullification, which also negates the Kanohi Kakama
  • Vulnerable to soul stealing
  • Potentially vulnerable to the Techno Blade
  • Nova Blast leaves Tahu depleted of energy while enabling Spinjitzu Burst
  • …but doing so could overtax him and cause him to literally explode
  • Current Bionicle Prices

Tahu certainly matched Kai on a lot of fronts with his speed, experience and knowhow. However Kai has the perfect tools to get past Tahu’s greatest abilities and use his more straightforward fighting style to land his more practical win conditions or overwhelm Tahu with some good old fashioned Fiyaa-Power. With Kai’s overwhelming strength, ways to shut down Tahu, and reverse his powers back on him, it’s only a matter of time until the Master of Fire burns through all his options. Tahu might wish he wouldn’t get so Toa-rn up by this loss, but when this ninja-goes for a spin, Kai is just too hot to handle! The winner is Kai.

Final Tally

Kai (20) – 76SUP, Adamprimus, Brobuscus, GraveTLK, Lunge, MKF4, Noah, Pasbros, Random Guy #7, Seb, Serge, SpaceJellO, Spidey, Thicc Grimes, Toxin T Taker, TripleCX3, Trashy, Tru, Yerm, Yuix

Tahu (0) – move along, move along, like I know you do…

Abstaining (1) – Kingsly

(GIF by GraveTLK)

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