15/11/2023
A friend of mine and I were talking about instances in sci-fi stories where a character has a romantic relationship with a robot of some sort, and I asserted that I can only take such relationships seriously to a certain degree--like, I can appreciate the cuteness of it, but I can't hold it to the same level of depth and wonder as I would with any other (heterosexual) relationship since, as I insinuated, every romantic relationship will ultimately, sooner or later become sexual in nature since the deepest desire and longing of the human heart is not only to be loved but also to be KNOWN as to be loved and to love IS to be vulnerable (as the Scriptures say, "Adam knew Eve, and she conceived").
This got me thinking about how alien of a concept that truly is to the folks in the Bionicle universe. Although they are living, and although they can have romantic feelings for each other, none of the humanoid Bionicles (the Matoran, Toa, etc.) can procreate--they don't really need to anyway since they can live forever. This, however, got me thinking further that not only can they therefore not be ultimately known in that sense, but in fact, being seemingly not known AT ALL is a Bionicle's very identity.
What does every Bionicle have? A mask. Without it, they are weaker and lose part of who they are, and in some cases, like the Bohrok, they don't function at all. So to conceal their "nakedness" from each other is in of itself their true identity, not the mask FOR their true identity.
Sounds kinda lonely to be honest...