Oh, so you met a strange, tall, broad-shouldered woman who took you under her wing, tied you up, injected you with hormones that changed your body, and made you howl for her?
*wiping sweat off my brow* That sounds like an absolute nightmare.
I know that out-of-universe, Roodaka is sexualized as hell because her toy model was built like that and because of how she was animated in the movie.
But in-universe? In the books, there's no physical or romantic attraction from Vakama for her. What starts his interest is her wielding her power and confidence. (And having no obvious affiliation to Makuta.) For a character as mired in self-doubt and desire for safety as he is in that time, seeing that combination when he's emotionally vulnerable would tempt him.
Then Roodaka does directly manipulate and tempt him with the promise of power as a way to fullfil his duty on his own.
Things that stick with me after reading the books:
Most of the Toa Metru had people who envied them in their respective lines of work, which raises a question: How many Matoran see other Matoran in respectable places/lines of work, and leave them be, pray for their downfall, or just become obsessed with them?
There's a train in Metru Nui
Vakama gets tied up how many times again?
Nokama was literally two steps from dying
Pre-Hordika arc, the team had poor communication and it nearly got them all killed. During their capture in WoS/WoTV, Vakama could only say, "I don't know," when asked what they should do, though in the movie WoS he's completely silent as he watches the Visorak advance toward them. That silence still sits with me more than it should
Matau was not planning on returning if he failed to bring Vakama back. His line, "Leave that to me," and everyone feeling tense for a moment implies Matau was going to kill Vakama if he couldn't bring him back
In the book version of WoS, Vakama's line, "Don't fight it, Matau," likely referring to the Hordika venom taking root
Onewa's open hostility towards Vakama in the early parts of their Toa adventures
Mata Nui pulling an, "I knew you were going to do that, so I did this," with Teridax
Teridax calling Vakama "Little Toa" and both coming off as an old Disney villain; evil with flare
Matau called Roodaka a screw-brained monster
The Karzahni knew about the Toa Metru before capturing them
Lhikan and Vakama knew each other on a conversation basis before Vakama became a Toa
Nokama, before becoming a Toa, had possibly never had a healthy friendship
The Toa Mata were trained by a brutal militant and sent into Toa canisters, not knowing if they'd ever wake up again
I can no longer take it seriously when Turaga Vakama is stricken with grief and sorrow thinking about his past. Like stfu peepaw we all know you’re just thinking about that milf you pulled during your emo phase
You ever notice how of all the characters Roodaka's pissed off, it usually seems like the Air Toa specifically have it out for her the most?
She's the reason Nidhiki got stuck in the Dark Hunters hanging out with an idiot like Krekka for the rest of his life, Matau hated his time as a Hordika the most out of the rest of his team, and Iruni came to Metru Nui with the rest of the Rahaga for the express purpose of killing Roodaka for what she did to them.
I'm not sure if this is an unintentional detail Greg accidentally wrote in, or if Roodaka just specifically goes out of her way to screw over any Toa of Air she comes across.
Actually got this Roodaka modeled! Been doing the rigging for the last few days, with varying success.
Still very imperfect because I had to manually tweak a LOT, and I'm not certain I'll be able to get rid of the intersections entirely but still some decent progress.
At some point I'll just have to accept some of the wonkiness and say "Some of the bones are only intended for small adjustments and will break if you rotate them 90 degrees"