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On prophecies and stars


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The role of prophecy in the BIONICLE universe is well known. In the course of the storyline, we saw the Turaga and the Matoran often turn to the stars for guidance and to predict the future. The arrival of the Toa Mata, the coming of the Seventh Toa and the death of Mata Nui, to be averted by seeking out the Mask of Life, were all foretold by the heavens; in fact, these prophecies often contributed to setting the events of the storyline in motion.

 

But why did it all work? I've opened this topic to discuss this.

 

In Metru Nui, observing the stars and transcribing the prophecies was the task of the Ko-Matoran seers who worked in the Knowledge Towers, though there was also an exchange of information, writings and translations with the Ga-Matoran of the Great Temple.

In that case, though, their work actually made sense: the stars above Metru Nui were representations of the Great Spirit's thoughts and could be governed by his will. Thus, the work of the Ko-Matoran was the means through which the will of Mata Nui was made known to the Matoran. The stars could also supply information, such as the names of the Matoran who were to be transformed into Toa (in the case of the Toa Metru Mata Nui actually falsified the names to deceive Makuta) and the existence and location of the Mask of Life; this last piece of knowledge was revealed to the Turaga while Mata Nui was asleep, but it is conceivable that even then the mechanism kept working. It is not known, I think, whether the sky of other domes of the Matoran Universe worked the same way (personally I think not, since this would diminish Metru Nui's uniqueness), but it's not particularly important.

 

On the island of Mata Nui, though, everything changed. For a start, it was no longer up to the Ko-Matoran to observe the stars; they limited themselves to studying the prophecies inscribed on the Wall of Prophecy in Ko-Koro's Sanctum.

 

But where did these prophecies come from?

 

My guess is that they were the prophecies transcribed by the same Ko-Matoran back in Metru Nui (they would have of course lost their memory of this while on Mata Nui); Nuju brought them to Mata Nui and then he and the Ko-Matoran began to work to decipher them (this activity was called the Seeking) set the Ko-Matoran to work deciphering them. If this is true, though, it means that at least one thousand years before the stars of Metru Nui already contained relatively accurate information on both Takua and Hahli (the fact that there were prophecies speaking of them was made clear when they journeyed to Ko-Koro).

 

Is this possible, you think?

 

The greatest enigma of all, though, concerns the Wall of Stars. This was the name the Ga-Matoran gave to the stars above Mata Nui. Nixie the Astrologer used her telescope to observe these stars, from which apparently both the coming of the Toa Mata and of the Seventh Toa could be foretold.

 

How is this possible, though? The stars above Mata Nui were outside the Matoran Universe and were not controlled by the Great Spirit. How could they be used to foretell the future?

 

Of course, there were some bodies in the sky that were linked to the Matoran Universe. The Red Star was a part of the Great Spirit Robot and was actually very important for prophecy-making. However, why should the star move so as to foretell future events? It wasn't its purpose at all. Plus, prophecies were made by observing the movement of the Red Star in relation to other stars, which however were not controlled by the Great Spirit; could the movement of a single celestial body be enough to derive the prophecies mentioned above? Of course, there were also the Spirit Stars of the Toa, but when did these appear? Before or after the arrival of the Toa Mata? In the latter case, they would have been utterly useless in foretelling the coming of the said Toa.

 

Any thoughts?

 

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I think your assessment of the Ko-Matoran is spot on. As for the actual stars the Ga-Matoran studied...

 

It's possible that, as the Ga-Matoral were scholars, they too studied Ko-Matoran research on Metru-Nui. Surely Mata-Nui had a good understanding of the cosmos, and thus was able to impart some information to the matoran. When the matoran later moved to the surface, Mata-Nui had foreknowledge of certain events based on the position of the red star, and thus the Ga-Matoran are able to base their predictions on it's orbit. 

 

As for the constellation of the spirit stars, perhaps the fact that the seven toa mata's stars can exist outside of the MU is a sign that they are more important or "special" than all other toa who have come before, and thus watching the stars of the toa can yield more reliable prophesies.

 

Aside from information gleaned from watching the Red Star or the Toa Spirit Stars, there are some other alternate, more wild possibilities.

 

  1. A lot of their belief in astrology is based on superstition, and they only happen to get things right by coincidence.
  2. All stars in the BIONICLE universe are actually spiritual in nature, and thus are all able to communicate accurate prophesies.
  3. The Great Beings are in charge of it all. Of course, for this to happen, it needs to be retconned that there are in fact not Glatorian. Perhaps they only assumed the form of Glatorian while on Spherus Magna, and prior to that they existed in a more ethereal state whereby they can manipulate the very universe itself. The fact that Great Beings are able to transfer consciousness (as one did when he assumed the identity of Velika) may be evidence of this...but nothing Greg has said really supports this theory.
  4. The whole BIONICLE universe is actually all inside of an even bigger robot, and they are able to communicate through the stars in a similar way. Maybe all of BIONICLE occurs in a perpetual nesting egg doll, with each robot in side of a bigger robot ad infinitum.
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A lot of their belief in astrology is based on superstition, and they only happen to get things right by coincidence.

I'm pretty sure Vakama says somewhere in MNOG that "the Prophecies have changed," which to me kinda defeats the point.  Isn't a prophecy supposed to be static and predictable?  So I blame Vakama for spreading his weird prophecies and astrology all over Mata Nui.

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I think a lot of the prophecy stuff from 2001-2003 was largely retconned by Greg.  Revelations like the Red Star being a space station and not having anything to do with predicting the future kind of wipe out the validity of any prophecies made outside the Great Spirit Robot.
 
(Like he could've even said "oh yeah, there was someone piloting it around the sky trying to send messages to the Matoran down below".  Or he could've even taken the time to explain how Jaller's friends became the Toa Inika, but instead we get Mavrah: Bionicle's freaky fish guy.  But I digress...)
 
So with that, there are two options that make sense to me.

A) The prophecies were just good guesses or vague enough to be interpreted in various ways.

B) Upon becoming a Turaga, Vakama's visions began to include the positions of the stars, possibly to help him roughly estimate their timing.  (Hey, you're on a tropical island for 1000 years without any clocks or calendars, the stars are your best bet for tracking time.)  So the star moves randomly, but the prophecy specifies where it will be when a certain event is set to occur.

 

 

And don't ask questions about the Spirit Stars.  No one knows what those are!  Not Greg, and clearly not the filmmakers otherwise we wouldn't have all these plotholes about them.

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And don't ask questions about the Spirit Stars.  No one knows what those are!  Not Greg, and clearly not the filmmakers otherwise we wouldn't have all these plotholes about them.

 

Apparently, the stars outside the MU are created by the Red Star, which explains how they can exist (says so in Biosector). Still, I'm sure you're right about the film makers not understanding them.

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