Romance in Bionicle

[TERIDAX941]

But there are different kinds of love. A dog may love you, but it will never be able to love you in the same way as a human. In C.S. Lewis' excellent book, The Four Loves​, love is divided into four categories:

• Storge​: This is fondness through familiarity. It is the bond of family, or others who have likewise found themselves together by chance.
• Philia​: Literally friendship. This is different from the other loves because it is the least necessary. A species does not need friendship to reproduce, but it is considered a higher-level love because it is freely chosen.
• Eros​: Romantic love. This is connected to but distinct from Venus​ (sexual attraction).
• Agape​: Unconditional love. It brings forth caring regardless of circumstances. The essence of Agape is self-sacrifice. It is the highest form of love, and the other three must be subordinate to it in order for spiritual growth to occur.

Agape is the focus of the Bionicle story. It is the duty of the Toa to fulfill it for the rest of the universe, even at the cost of their own lives.

So basically the only love that is considered to be "non-canon" would be Eros, where the characters have romantic love for each other (which is basically what was depicted in the case of Hewkii/Macku & Jaller/Hahli, in which case it appears that they were allowed Philia because they were considered great friends despite their differences.

 

Storge is most often seen in Toa Teams, before they become true friends (Kopaka/Pohatu) where they at the least tolerate each other and at most, form a sort of family among themselves.

 

Matoro is of course the embodiment of Agape, when he willingly sacrificed himself to save the entire universe. (the Ignika also followed suit when it destroyed it's new body to awaken Mata Nui (although one might argue whether a mask is capable of true agape love, but I'll leave that up for debate).

[DuplexBeGreat]

Matoro is of course the embodiment of Agape, when he willingly sacrificed himself to save the entire universe. (the Ignika also followed suit when it destroyed it's new body to awaken Mata Nui (although one might argue whether a mask is capable of true agape love, but I'll leave that up for debate).

 

The Ignika's mini-character arc in 2008 might be one of the strongest arguments for the potential existence of love in the MU. The mask has never had a body or any cohesive thoughts before, outside of creating guardians and curses. In the space of, what, a few days in-story? it begins to strive to be a "hero" as it understands the term, starts to learn about the concept of other beings having rights and desires separate from its own, and finally by the end is willing to sacrifice its newfound consciousness for the good of the entire universe.

 

If a mask that was never meant to have sentience at all can comprehend the "highest" level of love after less than a month of being a person, surely it's not that much of a stretch to imagine that, over the course of tens of thousands of years, sapient beings can form romantic attachments to each other even though that wasn't part of their initial programming.

[Iver]

But Eros is the son of Venus. If there's no Venus, there is no Eros. It's just Philia. How does understanding Agape relate to spontaneously developing romance without any need or desire to reproduce or create families?

[DuplexBeGreat]

But Eros is the son of Venus. If there's no Venus, there is no Eros. It's just Philia. How does understanding Agape relate to spontaneously developing romance without any need or desire to reproduce or create families?

Bionicle concepts of love--- and for that matter, real-world concepts of love--- are not required to hew as closely as possible to Greek philosophy. Bionicle science already violates real-world science anyway.