Sidorak

Sidorak is the only BIONICLEBIONICLE: Matoran AdventuresA 2002 GBA platformer where you play as one of six Matoran fighting Bohrok across Mata Nui's islands. villain who was handed a throne for a crime he did not commit. The four rebel Toa HagahToa HagahElite Toa teams appointed by the Brotherhood of Makuta to serve as personal guardians, later rebelling against their creators. were caught and mutated into the RahagaToa Hagah and RahagaThe Toa Hagah were appointed to guard Makuta Teridax, mutated into hybrid warriors, and mysteriously restored. by RoodakaRoodakaShe spent the entire Visorak arc letting everyone think they were using her, then walked away having beaten the Brotherhood and the Toa at their own game.. Sidorak said the idea had been his, the Brotherhood believed him, and he was made King of the VisorakVisorak (Rahi)Spider-like Rahi employed by the Brotherhood of Makuta whose name meant 'Stealers of Life' and whose swarms threatened the Matoran Universe. hordes for it. That is the founding fact of his whole career, and it tells you exactly what he is. Sidorak is competence theatre. He looks like a leader, fights at the front of his own troops, projects total confidence, and underneath all of it is a being who knows the crown was never his and is terrified the room can tell.

The Stelt method: fail upward, quietly#

Sidorak learned his trade on SteltSteltAn island in the Matoran Universe known for producing ruthless warriors like Sidorak and Krekka., and SteltSteltAn island in the Matoran Universe known for producing ruthless warriors like Sidorak and Krekka. is the worst possible school for the habits he built. It is a war-torn island run by clans, and Sidorak started as a minor power on it. He did not climb by winning. He climbed by collecting the wins of the beings under his command and presenting them as his own, and when an underling objected to the arrangement, Sidorak had the underling disposed of. The promotion and the cover-up were the same motion.

The betrayals scaled with the ambition. At one point he sold out one of the island's clan leaders to the Brotherhood of MakutaThe Brotherhood of MakutaAn organization of Makuta created by Mata Nui to police his universe and build Rahi, later seized by Teridax and turned into the instrument of the Plan that overthrew the Great Spirit., who repaid the favour by mutating that leader into VoporakVoporakVoporak is a mutant member of Sidorak's species and a servant of the Dark Hunters. Clad in dark red, black, orange-yellow, and silver, he wields Rotating Blade Tools and a Rhotuka spinner and commands the power of time. He resides on Spherus Magna., the time-warping monster the Dark HuntersThe Dark HuntersA mercenary organization founded on Odina by The Shadowed One and Ancient, contracted across the Matoran Universe for assassination and theft, and ultimately reduced to a battered remnant by the fall of the universe itself. would later put to work. Hold onto that one. Sidorak's first notable act in the canon is engineering a betrayal that turns a being into a weapon. His last act is failing to see a betrayal turn him into a corpse.

The Dark HuntersThe Dark HuntersA mercenary organization founded on Odina by The Shadowed One and Ancient, contracted across the Matoran Universe for assassination and theft, and ultimately reduced to a battered remnant by the fall of the universe itself. themselves are where the gap between Sidorak's self-image and Sidorak shows clearest. Around six thousand years before the Great Cataclysm, the Hunters considered recruiting him. They put him through a training exercise, and his lack of fighting skill got him beaten so easily that his membership was denied on the spot. They let him live anyway, because he was still useful, which is a sentence that follows Sidorak everywhere. Not good enough to keep. Too convenient to kill.

The crown he got for someone else's idea#

The Brotherhood of MakutaMakuta (Species)Shadowy Antidermis beings and the Brotherhood's elite, Makuta commanded darkness and shaped the Matoran Universe's fate. liked what SteltSteltAn island in the Matoran Universe known for producing ruthless warriors like Sidorak and Krekka. had built. They made Sidorak a lieutenant, the same rank they gave RoodakaRoodakaShe spent the entire Visorak arc letting everyone think they were using her, then walked away having beaten the Brotherhood and the Toa at their own game., and the two of them spent that service competing for the Brotherhood's favour. Sidorak, to his credit, recognised early that RoodakaRoodakaShe spent the entire Visorak arc letting everyone think they were using her, then walked away having beaten the Brotherhood and the Toa at their own game. was worth having on his side and proposed an alliance. She turned him down. They went back to competing.

Then TeridaxTeridaxTeridax orchestrated a thousand-year scheme that ended with him occupying the Great Spirit Robot itself before his death on Bara Magna.'s own Toa HagahToa HagahElite Toa teams appointed by the Brotherhood of Makuta to serve as personal guardians, later rebelling against their creators. bodyguards discovered the Brotherhood was corrupt and rebelled. RoodakaRoodakaShe spent the entire Visorak arc letting everyone think they were using her, then walked away having beaten the Brotherhood and the Toa at their own game. caught four of them and mutated them into stunted, RahkshiRahkshiArmor suits powered by parasitic Kraata, Rahkshi were Teridax's most effective soldiers and among Bionicle's most visually iconic early enemies.-faced creatures she named the Rahaga. The work was entirely hers. Sidorak claimed the concept had been his, and the Brotherhood took him at his word. He was appointed King of the Brotherhood's VisorakVisorak (Rahi)Spider-like Rahi employed by the Brotherhood of Makuta whose name meant 'Stealers of Life' and whose swarms threatened the Matoran Universe. hordes. RoodakaRoodakaShe spent the entire Visorak arc letting everyone think they were using her, then walked away having beaten the Brotherhood and the Toa at their own game., who had actually done it, was placed under him as second in command.

Every problem Sidorak has for the rest of his life is folded into that exchange. He is a king sitting on a lie, and the one person who can prove it is the person standing directly behind his throne. He did not out-think RoodakaRoodakaShe spent the entire Visorak arc letting everyone think they were using her, then walked away having beaten the Brotherhood and the Toa at their own game. for the crown. He simply got his version on the record first, and she let him, because a king who owes his title to a stolen story is a king who can be steered. Sidorak never worked out that being given the throne and being trusted with it are different things.

"Marriage" and the alliance she would never sign#

The strangest thread in Sidorak's story is also the most revealing. Across their entire time leading the VisorakVisorak (Rahi)Spider-like Rahi employed by the Brotherhood of Makuta whose name meant 'Stealers of Life' and whose swarms threatened the Matoran Universe. together, he kept asking RoodakaRoodakaShe spent the entire Visorak arc letting everyone think they were using her, then walked away having beaten the Brotherhood and the Toa at their own game. to marry him.

It needs the Matoran UniverseMatoran UniverseA civilization of biomechanical beings living inside a colossal robot, destroyed when Teridax seized control. context to land, because there is no romance in it. Marriage there was a purely political instrument, a formal alliance between parties. For Sidorak, a union with RoodakaRoodakaShe spent the entire Visorak arc letting everyone think they were using her, then walked away having beaten the Brotherhood and the Toa at their own game. meant real influence with the VortixxVortixxThe amoral weapons dealers of Xia who sold to anyone willing to pay. and her standing on XiaXiaA hostile island southeast of Metru Nui, home to the Vortixx and their brutal mercenary culture.. For RoodakaRoodakaShe spent the entire Visorak arc letting everyone think they were using her, then walked away having beaten the Brotherhood and the Toa at their own game., it would have meant becoming a full Queen of the VisorakVisorak (Rahi)Spider-like Rahi employed by the Brotherhood of Makuta whose name meant 'Stealers of Life' and whose swarms threatened the Matoran Universe. and gaining a genuine share of the power she wanted. On paper it was a deal that served them both, and Sidorak could not understand why she kept refusing it.

The reason he could not understand is the whole tragedy of the character in miniature. RoodakaRoodakaShe spent the entire Visorak arc letting everyone think they were using her, then walked away having beaten the Brotherhood and the Toa at their own game. was not weighing the offer and finding the terms slightly off. She despised Sidorak for taking the credit that should have been hers, and she had been planning to kill him and take the crown outright since the day he was given it. A real alliance would have locked her into sharing what she intended to seize. Sidorak kept reading her refusals as a negotiation that had not closed yet. He was a good strategist in the field, the canon is clear about that, capable of planning conquests that worked. He just could not model another mind that was actively working against him, because his confidence in his own manipulation skill did not leave room for the possibility.

King in Metru NuiMetru NuiThe city beneath Mata Nui functions as the Great Spirit's brain, housing the Matoran whose labor keeps the god alive.#

When the Great Cataclysm left TeridaxTeridaxTeridax orchestrated a thousand-year scheme that ended with him occupying the Great Spirit Robot itself before his death on Bara Magna. imprisoned, the MakutaMakuta (Species)Shadowy Antidermis beings and the Brotherhood's elite, Makuta commanded darkness and shaped the Matoran Universe's fate. telepathically summoned his servants to free him, and Sidorak led the VisorakVisorakSpider-like Rahi created by Makuta Chirox, conquered for the Brotherhood by Gorast, broken at Metru Nui, and ultimately destroyed in a volcanic eruption on Artidax. hordes to Metru NuiMetru NuiThe city beneath Mata Nui functions as the Great Spirit's brain, housing the Matoran whose labor keeps the god alive. to do it and earn his favour. This is Sidorak at his most effective. The horde took the city quickly under his command, sweeping through it and cocooning anything that moved, and he preferred to lead that conquest from the front rather than from a tower. In BIONICLEBIONICLE: Matoran AdventuresA 2002 GBA platformer where you play as one of six Matoran fighting Bohrok across Mata Nui's islands. 3: Web of ShadowsWeb of ShadowsThe Toa Metru's return to a Visorak-occupied Metru Nui, their mutation into Toa Hordika, the corruption of Vakama, and the rescue that closed the city's long captivity. he is visibly in charge, debriefing scouts, giving orders, every inch the VisorakVisorakSpider-like Rahi created by Makuta Chirox, conquered for the Brotherhood by Gorast, broken at Metru Nui, and ultimately destroyed in a volcanic eruption on Artidax. king.

It holds right up until the Toa MetruToa Metru and Toa HordikaSix Matoran elevated by Lhikan to save their city, mutated by Visorak venom, and restored in time to deliver the population to safety. are captured and a decision has to be made. Sidorak's instinct was correct and simple. Kill them immediately, while they are helpless. RoodakaRoodakaShe spent the entire Visorak arc letting everyone think they were using her, then walked away having beaten the Brotherhood and the Toa at their own game. talked him out of it. Worthy enemies of a great king, she suggested, deserved more spectacular deaths, and Sidorak, who could never resist being told he was a great king, agreed to the delay. That delay is the entire hinge of the Metru NuiMetru NuiThe city beneath Mata Nui functions as the Great Spirit's brain, housing the Matoran whose labor keeps the god alive. arc. It gave the Rahaga the window to save the Toa, and the Toa came out of it mutated into the bestial Toa HordikaToa HordikaToa mutated by Visorak venom into bestial hybrids, forced to fight their primal nature and hunt for a cure., a problem that gnawed at Sidorak's control of the city for the rest of his reign. By BIONICLEBIONICLE: Matoran AdventuresA 2002 GBA platformer where you play as one of six Matoran fighting Bohrok across Mata Nui's islands. 27: Fractures he is openly angry that the Toa are loose again, and RoodakaRoodakaShe spent the entire Visorak arc letting everyone think they were using her, then walked away having beaten the Brotherhood and the Toa at their own game. is the one calmly narrating what will happen next. The king is reacting. The viceroy is planning.

Out-played, and the one thing he saw clearly#

Sidorak died in the final battle for Metru NuiMetru NuiThe city beneath Mata Nui functions as the Great Spirit's brain, housing the Matoran whose labor keeps the god alive., and the canon does not let him die with any dignity except a strange, small scrap of it at the very end.

KeetonguKeetonguThe legendary Rahi who broke the Visorak siege and lived to prove he was worth the legend., the RahiRahiThe Rahi were the biomechanical wildlife of the Matoran Universe, built largely by the Brotherhood of Makuta, ranging from background fauna to engineered war beasts. the VisorakVisorak (Rahi)Spider-like Rahi employed by the Brotherhood of Makuta whose name meant 'Stealers of Life' and whose swarms threatened the Matoran Universe.'s leaders had been told was a myth, turned out to be real and came for RoodakaRoodakaShe spent the entire Visorak arc letting everyone think they were using her, then walked away having beaten the Brotherhood and the Toa at their own game. and Sidorak at the Coliseum. RoodakaRoodakaShe spent the entire Visorak arc letting everyone think they were using her, then walked away having beaten the Brotherhood and the Toa at their own game. hit KeetonguKeetonguThe legendary Rahi who broke the Visorak siege and lived to prove he was worth the legend. with shadow energy, and Sidorak, watching the RahiRahiThe Rahi were the biomechanical wildlife of the Matoran Universe, built largely by the Brotherhood of Makuta, ranging from background fauna to engineered war beasts. go down, moved in to finish him. He found out the hard way that KeetonguKeetonguThe legendary Rahi who broke the Visorak siege and lived to prove he was worth the legend. was not wounded. He was enraged. Sidorak realised he could not win and begged RoodakaRoodakaShe spent the entire Visorak arc letting everyone think they were using her, then walked away having beaten the Brotherhood and the Toa at their own game. for help, and she refused, and in that refusal he finally understood the whole shape of it. She had not wounded KeetonguKeetonguThe legendary Rahi who broke the Visorak siege and lived to prove he was worth the legend. at all. She had made him furious on purpose, and she had positioned Sidorak as the thing standing between that fury and herself. The crown she had been denied for years was about to transfer the only way she had ever intended it to.

The detail BIONICLETakua's Quest for the Toa StonesAn alternate-continuity record of Takua the Chronicler crossing Mata Nui to recover the six Toa Stones before the arrival of the Toa Mata. Adventures 9: Web of ShadowsWeb of ShadowsThe Toa Metru's return to a Visorak-occupied Metru Nui, their mutation into Toa Hordika, the corruption of Vakama, and the rescue that closed the city's long captivity. preserves is the one that gives Sidorak his single moment of something like grace. Finally acknowledging that he had been outwitted, neither he nor RoodakaRoodakaShe spent the entire Visorak arc letting everyone think they were using her, then walked away having beaten the Brotherhood and the Toa at their own game. did anything to stop the fatal blow. He did not beg again. He did not flail. He saw it clearly, understood he had lost, and let it land. KeetonguKeetonguThe legendary Rahi who broke the Visorak siege and lived to prove he was worth the legend. killed him, RoodakaRoodakaShe spent the entire Visorak arc letting everyone think they were using her, then walked away having beaten the Brotherhood and the Toa at their own game. became Queen of the VisorakVisorak (Rahi)Spider-like Rahi employed by the Brotherhood of Makuta whose name meant 'Stealers of Life' and whose swarms threatened the Matoran Universe. without sharing a scrap of it, and the impact damaged Sidorak's body so badly that he could not even be revived on the Red StarRed StarThe Red Star was an orbiting facility that revived the dead and enabled the Great Spirit Robot's cosmic travels.. The being who spent his life claiming things he had not earned was, at the close, denied even a second chance.

Why the lesser villain is the one worth keeping#

Sidorak is not a great villain and the canon does not pretend he is one. He is something more useful. He is the franchise's clearest study of mediocrity that fails upward, and BIONICLETakua's Quest for the Toa StonesAn alternate-continuity record of Takua the Chronicler crossing Mata Nui to recover the six Toa Stones before the arrival of the Toa Mata. is unusually honest about how that actually works.

The temptation is to read him as stupid, and he is not. He planned conquests that succeeded. He led from the front. He recognised RoodakaRoodakaShe spent the entire Visorak arc letting everyone think they were using her, then walked away having beaten the Brotherhood and the Toa at their own game.'s value before anyone made him. His failure is narrower and more human than stupidity. Sidorak built every rung of his climb out of taking credit and removing the beings who objected, and a method like that only works on people who are not actively hunting you. It taught him that confidence and control are the same thing. So when he finally stood next to someone who was hunting him, patiently, for years, he kept treating her like a deal that had not closed. He could plan a war. He could not imagine being the mark.

Put him next to RoodakaRoodakaShe spent the entire Visorak arc letting everyone think they were using her, then walked away having beaten the Brotherhood and the Toa at their own game. and the contrast is the entire point. She turned her name into the MatoranMatoranThe most abundant species in the Matoran Universe, chosen by Mata Nui to inhabit and maintain his cosmic body. word for treachery. He turned his into a cautionary tale about the difference between being handed power and being able to hold it. The Brotherhood gave Sidorak a crown to see what he would do with it. What he did was wear it confidently, right up to the moment the being behind the throne decided she would rather have it herself.