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One thing I've recently begun thinking of as strange is the time span of the Matoran Universe. The history of the Matoran Universe is 100,000 years, which is approximately the same length of time as homo Sapiens have existed. Then, 1,001 in-universe years ago, Teridax takes over, and 1 year ago, the Takanuva defeats Teridax, the Ignika is found, Mata Nui is awakened, Teridax takes over, and the Matoran Universe is destroyed. This recently hasn't quite seemed right to me.

 

My theory is that humans work on a base 10 system, while Matoran culture is based off of the number 6. 105=100,000. 65=7,776. If the Matoran Universe worked on a base 6 system, there would only be 7,776 years of history, approximately to the beginning of human civilization. I think it makes much more sense that the Matoran Universe history happens over the course of civilized human history, rather than since homo Sapiens first evolved, and that the number system was "lost in translation" for lack of a better term. Events that took place of X number of days, or 1 year, or small numbered timelines would likely stay the same. This could also be carried over to other aspects of the history, such as populations or distances.

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I don't think having a different base system would really change the amount of time, though. Just because you count them in a different manner doesn't mean you have more or less of an amount, just a different designation for an amount. A simple example would be base 2, or binary. "I have 2 apples." (base 3 and up) vs. "I have 10 apples." (base 2). The separate counting system doesn't change the actual amount of apples.

 

And, point of interest. 100,000 in base 6 is actually 2050544, so the number actually should appear to be larger--even though it isn't.

 

Also, think about interstellar travel: going at light speed it would take us a little over 4 years to reach the nearest star in our galaxy. Mata Nui likely didn't travel at light speed, and we have no clue how far he had to go during his travels. When he stopped at planets, he would make observations about the planet and its people, likely over long periods of time. 100,000 years isn't so very strange when you consider this part of the story. Also, MU and SM beings are confirmed to live longer than us anyway, and while 100,000 years is still a long time, it isn't as long (qualitatively, not quantitatively) for them as it is for us.

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I was more thinking of it being the base unit for each system raised to the same power, but I can see where I might not have explained that very well. I actually hadn't thought of the interstellar travel aspect of the robot's life. With this system, though, the lifespan of Matoran and Agori/Glatorian could be upheld, because under this theory, they would still be living for over 7,500 years, which is about 100 times a human life span.

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I was more thinking of it being the base unit for each system raised to the same power, but I can see where I might not have explained that very well. I actually hadn't thought of the interstellar travel aspect of the robot's life. With this system, though, the lifespan of Matoran and Agori/Glatorian could be upheld, because under this theory, they would still be living for over 7,500 years, which is about 100 times a human life span.

If I'm understanding you right, that's not how basing a counting system works. Our base 10 system means we have 10 digits (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, and 9), and once we reach 9 we have to go back to 0, placing a "1" beside it to indicate we've been through the process once already. In base 6 you only have 6 digits (0,1,2,3,4,5), so the numerical quantity represented as "6" in our base 10 system would need to be represented by "10" in a base 6 system. "7" would be "11", "8" would be "12", and so on.

 

If I'm understanding you wrong, then you're going to need to elaborate on what you mean by "the base unit for each system raised to the same power."

 

I just checked, and you're right: 100,000 (in base 6) is indeed 7,776 (in base 10), but I don't really think that there is much reason to make this conversion mainly because we do have representations of Matoran digits for the quantities 0 through 9, so they're likely to use 10 as a base.

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Why does the Matoran Universe's history have to relate to a human timescale? I mean, why can't it be 100,000 standard human years (or SM years)? I'm confused.

Then, 1,001 in-universe years ago, Teridax takes over, and 1 year ago, the Takanuva defeats Teridax, the Ignika is found, Mata Nui is awakened, Teridax takes over, and the Matoran Universe is destroyed. This recently hasn't quite seemed right to me.

Why is this? Sudden and catastrophic events happen all the time.

 

But this is especially true on a space voyage, which this robot was on. Things can be calm and tranquil for a long time, then suddenly an emergency happens. And then another. And another. Consider the Apollo Moon Voyages, especially Apollo 13.

 

And you got to consider - sitting down and planning stuff out on paper (like Teridax's Plan) doesn't really change the status quo. Things are still calm and peaceful. It's when you start executing the plan that things start happening rapidly, things start blowing up in your face, failsafes start going off. Drama! Action! Explosions! Catastrophic Destruction!

 

And this, IMO, is what happened here. It's totally possible that the MU had 100,000 years of a relatively calm voyage (*cough* Matoran Civil War *cough* Barraki's takeover *cough* Toa-Dark Hunter War *cough*)

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Then, 1,001 in-universe years ago, Teridax takes over, and 1 year ago, the Takanuva defeats Teridax, the Ignika is found, Mata Nui is awakened, Teridax takes over, and the Matoran Universe is destroyed. This recently hasn't quite seemed right to me.

Could you elaborate on why? In-story? Just saying it doesn't seem right to you doesn't help us show you where your thinking might have gone off-track. All I can do is guess. Maybe 1) since you keep mentioning humans, you should stop thinking of Bionicle in relation to them -- it really is completely irrelevant.* And/or 2) Maybe you haven't realized that as the urgency of events goes up near the end, it makes sense that more important things tend to happen then. Just think of procrastinating for an important school report. :P

 

 

*Although there's nothing wrong with wondering how long the years there are compared to here, for example. The answer is identical, Greg confirmed. There's no room for some fancy math wandwaving, and also no need; they aren't humans at all!

 

And no, they don't work on a "base six" system. You're free to write fanfics like that if you like (although it wouldn't change the amount of Earth-time years, just your way of labeling them... of course, you could change that too in a fanfic!), but S&T is for the canon story, and there's no room for such a theory here. We have symbols for all 0-9 numbers, for example; if they used base 6, that would be impossible. It would also mess up things like having 1000 Matoran on Metru Nui, etc. Besides, it would be too confusing for the average target-age kid (though Bionicle isn't ongoing anymore, but it would be pointless to retcon such a major thing when the vast majority of kids at the time would never know it).

 

Basically, instead of drastically altering the official story due to something about it being different, simply realize that it's supposed to be different. :)

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Based on the partial timeline that was printed in the frontpages of the Ignition books, the discovery that Mata Nui's life was endangered occurred six months before the events of those books; because the last of those books covered the Karda Nui saga which immediately preceded Mata Nui's awakening, the events of that probably are counting back from that date. For example, six months B.A. (Before Awakening) or 1,000.5 years B.G.C. (Before Great Cataclysm).Given the assumption that the events of Ignition all occurred within one month at most, as the books, comics, and serials suggest, six months would have to have elapsed between Takanuva's temporary defeat of Teridax and the discovery that Mata Nui was dying. Likely, that period was taken up by the Turaga telling the stories of Metru Nui to the Mata Nui matoran.

 

Hope that this helps.

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I've always found the massively long lifespan of Bionicle beings a bit mind-boggling. I mean, it means a bit of sense for Matoran Universe beings, because they're designed by the Great Beings out of protodermis which is apparently extra-durable. But what about the Glatorian, Agori, et cetera, who evolved naturally, apparently without the help of sufficiently advanced technology like the Great Beings seem to have? How exactly did they each survive 100,000 years in an environment that we've already seen to be extremely harsh?

 

Like, take the Glatorian matches. Suppose a Glatorian fights one match per month, and only sustains a major injury every 120 matches. That's only one injury every 10 years. Divide the time since the Shattering by that, and that's... 10,000 injuries over a single Glatorian's lifespan. Wow. And only one of those needs a severe infection to kill the Glatorian. How are they still alive? Did Energized Protodermis make them biologically immortal or something? (Actually, come to think of it, that's a brilliant theory for their amazing lifespan.)

 

But that's why I lean toward the theory that Bionicle time is measured in Spherus Magna years, which are significantly shorter than Earth years. But that has potential ramifications for things like weeks and months and other units mentioned. Wasn't there a theory that Mata Nui days had 18 hours, though, based on the Great Sundial's markings? That could explain everything. I'd try and calculate what "100,000 years" would be if each day was only 18 hours, but my brain is half-asleep right now and thinks math is stupid. :P

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I've always found the massively long lifespan of Bionicle beings a bit mind-boggling. I mean, it means a bit of sense for Matoran Universe beings, because they're designed by the Great Beings out of protodermis which is apparently extra-durable. But what about the Glatorian, Agori, et cetera, who evolved naturally, apparently without the help of sufficiently advanced technology like the Great Beings seem to have? How exactly did they each survive 100,000 years in an environment that we've already seen to be extremely harsh?

 

Like, take the Glatorian matches. Suppose a Glatorian fights one match per month, and only sustains a major injury every 120 matches. That's only one injury every 10 years. Divide the time since the Shattering by that, and that's... 10,000 injuries over a single Glatorian's lifespan. Wow. And only one of those needs a severe infection to kill the Glatorian. How are they still alive? Did Energized Protodermis make them biologically immortal or something? (Actually, come to think of it, that's a brilliant theory for their amazing lifespan.)

 

But that's why I lean toward the theory that Bionicle time is measured in Spherus Magna years, which are significantly shorter than Earth years. But that has potential ramifications for things like weeks and months and other units mentioned. Wasn't there a theory that Mata Nui days had 18 hours, though, based on the Great Sundial's markings? That could explain everything. I'd try and calculate what "100,000 years" would be if each day was only 18 hours, but my brain is half-asleep right now and thinks math is stupid. :P

First, agrees with your brain that math is stupid (half kidding).

 

Second, its true that when I think real hard the lifespans of Spherus Magnans sounds "mind-boggling", but then...these are technically aliens (ALIENS!) we're talking about, who are we to tell them how long their lives are or aren't.

One, last thing, I remember Greg saying that in human years Ackar was about in his fifty's, yet if you've seen "The Legend Reborn" you might think that that's not old enough for someone of his age. Thus, the harsh conditions of Bara Magna have perhaps reduced their lifespans, similar to how most humans died in their 50's - 70's until the advent of modern medicine.

Sorry, if this sounds disjointed, but my point is that it is completely reasonable (if you use a little imagination :P) that BIONICLE years can be equal to human years.

 

Hope this helps until someone smarter than me can answer this better. :P

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But that's why I lean toward the theory that Bionicle time is measured in Spherus Magna years, which are significantly shorter than Earth years.

Again, this is incorrect. You can imagine things in your own fiction however you like, but canonically Greg confirmed a year on Spherus Magna (and the other relevant places seen thus far) is the same as an Earth year. So, that doesn't work as an actual theory.

 

Like you said later, the Glatorian/Agori live on a planet whose core is energized protodermis. (And not just any planet but a megaplanet, not even possible with Earth physics.) We just have no way to plausibly say that there's any reason they couldn't live that long. Their biology is fictional, and we don't know its relationship to that also-fictional substance, the artificial version of which you gave as increasing plausibility for the lifespan of Matoran/etc.. As for your injury argument, are you asking if they have the ability to completely heal serious injury over time? I would say it's likely. Anything that doesn't kill them completely is thus probably irrelevant, or if they can't totally heal it, they probably could get some kind of technological, prosthetic-type replacement. (Or even maybe one of their implants grants total healing capability.)

 

Even in real life, there's no physics reason we couldn't live that long, it's just that our DNA doesn't happen to code enough redundant repair mechanisms to allow for it. But we now know of many ways it could be done (they're just beyond our technological ability to do yet, and knowing the principle and correctly coding for it in reality are two extremely different things).

 

Actually, the only problem I can see with it is that we must wonder how they 'fit' a counting system to set any lifespan at all, once you get past the telomere problem (and it would seem unlikely they have telomeres that long, as they wouldn't likely fit into a cell!). If say your DNA had 500 redundant copies and a constant checking system, and everything retained the ability to regrow, like ribs can, or the tail of a gekko (I think that's it?), the confusing part then becomes how you could ever die at all other than violently. So, LoTR-style elven immortality is easier to explain biologically than Glatorian super-longevity. It may simply be a measure of minor things that don't get completely repaired that slowly accumulate damage over time and cease being so minor.

 

Wasn't there a theory that Mata Nui days had 18 hours, though, based on the Great Sundial's markings?

It wasn't a theory, it was a Story Squad proposal, which was canonized (each day is 36 hours long, with 18 "hour" equivalents of AM/PM). However, you have apparently misconstrued this as meaning 18 Earth hours, which it doesn't (necessarily) mean. I'm not sure if Greg ever did say the days are the same length as ours (meaning roughly 365 per year), but I would assume so too. So, the hour thing is just how in their culture they divide a day up; it doesn't speak to the length of the days in terms of Earth hours. :)

Edited by bonesiii
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We really shouldn't expect any similarities between the biologies of Glatorian and Glatorian as compared to ours. Spherus Magna, hasn't ever had contact with humans in the official canon, and neither has anything else in the Solis Magna system. Any genetic similarity at all would be the result of convergent evolution, and as such is extremely unlikely. Even the fact that they are humanoid is, from a logical perspective, nearly unbelievable. Agori such as Lein, who founded his trading post about 265,000 years before the present (Source is BS01), are still remembered and recorded. Even his original trading post still stands. Our species, Homo Sapiens Sapiens, didn't even exist 265,000 years ago.

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Disregarding the biological aspect of living that long, I'm wondering about their mental state compared to us humans. If someone tells me that a certain project will be done 100 years from now, that means that I will never be able to see it in life. For a BIONICLE being, however, 100 years is very much within reach. Still, it takes as long as our Earth years, while they live their daily life almost like we do. They don't go very slow, and things can change in major ways in just one year of war and strife. When the 100 years have passed, many would have forgotten being told about the hypothetical project in the first place, I imagine.

 

If you ask a Matoran what life was like a thousand years ago, is his memory really so good that he can recall it properly? I mean, I don't even remember what I did on this date one year ago, and if you ask me about my childhood I can only give you the high-points. Most older people remember a lot of things about the past, but I don't think anyone remembers everything. I imagine that if I live another 500 years, then I will barely even remember most of what I've done in my life, because there will be more and more "high point" memories to recall. There is so much that can happen in 500 years that even if they were utterly boring and repetitive I might start losing track of my past life sooner or later. Matoran brains don't really age, so they likely have a higher capacity for keeping memories 100% clear and sorted, but still. I hope they have Google Search installed up there. :P

 

The people who were around during the Core War will naturally remember quite a bit of it because it included life-defining moments. But the people who fell in the war, and the events that transpired between the war and present day... how much can possibly be remembered by the survivors after so much time has passed? And what will their mental maturity be? Living as a warrior for hundreds of years should logically give Gresh (for example) enough experience to become more of a hardened veteran than he appears to be (being referred to as a young Glatorian by their standards), especially given how Takua for example has changed due to the things he's been a part of after he became Takanuva.

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Disregarding the biological aspect of living that long, I'm wondering about their mental state compared to us humans. If someone tells me that a certain project will be done 100 years from now, that means that I will never be able to see it in life. For a BIONICLE being, however, 100 years is very much within reach. Still, it takes as long as our Earth years, while they live their daily life almost like we do. They don't go very slow, and things can change in major ways in just one year of war and strife. When the 100 years have passed, many would have forgotten being told about the hypothetical project in the first place, I imagine.

 

If you ask a Matoran what life was like a thousand years ago, is his memory really so good that he can recall it properly? I mean, I don't even remember what I did on this date one year ago, and if you ask me about my childhood I can only give you the high-points. Most older people remember a lot of things about the past, but I don't think anyone remembers everything. I imagine that if I live another 500 years, then I will barely even remember most of what I've done in my life, because there will be more and more "high point" memories to recall. There is so much that can happen in 500 years that even if they were utterly boring and repetitive I might start losing track of my past life sooner or later. Matoran brains don't really age, so they likely have a higher capacity for keeping memories 100% clear and sorted, but still. I hope they have Google Search installed up there. :P

 

The people who were around during the Core War will naturally remember quite a bit of it because it included life-defining moments. But the people who fell in the war, and the events that transpired between the war and present day... how much can possibly be remembered by the survivors after so much time has passed? And what will their mental maturity be? Living as a warrior for hundreds of years should logically give Gresh (for example) enough experience to become more of a hardened veteran than he appears to be (being referred to as a young Glatorian by their standards), especially given how Takua for example has changed due to the things he's been a part of after he became Takanuva.

Well, if a lived to be 100,000+ years old, I'd equate hearing that something would happen 100 years from now, as if I'd heard someone tell me that something would happen 25 years from now.

 

Yeah, I agree you in hoping that those guys have google search installed. :P

 

I have thought along the same lines as you have, but I've alway been a bit more interested in thinking about how much their personality's must have changed. I know that most human personalities are about (more or less :P) the same from five or so until later in life, but of course people do change though life, whether it's taste in food or opinions and imagine how much someone could change in 100,000+ years!

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Well, if a lived to be 100,000+ years old, I'd equate hearing that something would happen 100 years from now, as if I'd heard someone tell me that something would happen 25 years from now.

 

Yeah, I agree you in hoping that those guys have google search installed. :P

Agreed.

 

Although I would question how vital it is to remember something 100,000 years ago, as it is very likely that it is not relevant to the present in any way whatsoever.

 

I have thought along the same lines as you have, but I've alway been a bit more interested in thinking about how much their personality's must have changed. I know that most human personalities are about (more or less :P) the same from five or so until later in life, but of course people do change though life, whether it's taste in food or opinions and imagine how much someone could change in 100,000+ years!

Actually, the Myers-Briggs personality theory indicates that human personalities are actually very dynamic during that time. It's just a theory, and it's under dispute for good reasons, but assuming that human personalities are static is probably not the best.

 

Of course, that gets into how you define "personality". This is just my opinion, but I think our personality is very dynamic, because our world and our emotional feedback from that world is dynamic. If you were doing the same tasks over and over for thousands of years as Bionicle characters tend to do, your personality would probably change less. I think they have the same potential for personality changes as we do, however. Looking at the Toa Nuva or Toa Metru's character development over time would show that.

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I have thought along the same lines as you have, but I've alway been a bit more interested in thinking about how much their personality's must have changed. I know that most human personalities are about (more or less :P) the same from five or so until later in life, but of course people do change though life, whether it's taste in food or opinions and imagine how much someone could change in 100,000+ years!

Actually, the Myers-Briggs personality theory indicates that human personalities are actually very dynamic during that time. It's just a theory, and it's under dispute for good reasons, but assuming that human personalities are static is probably not the best.

 

Of course, that gets into how you define "personality". This is just my opinion, but I think our personality is very dynamic, because our world and our emotional feedback from that world is dynamic. If you were doing the same tasks over and over for thousands of years as Bionicle characters tend to do, your personality would probably change less. I think they have the same potential for personality changes as we do, however. Looking at the Toa Nuva or Toa Metru's character development over time would show that.

 

Not necessarily static as so much as very similar; like their is a thread that runs through them so that anyone can look and say, "Yep, your just as hard headed as you were twenty years ago.". If that makes sense :shrugs: , but your probably right about not assuming personality freeze.

 

And your right about our world being very dynamic and extremely so when compared to the BIONICLE world and what effect that would have on BIONICLE personality's.

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Not necessarily static as so much as very similar; like their is a thread that runs through them so that anyone can look and say, "Yep, your just as hard headed as you were twenty years ago.". If that makes sense :shrugs: , but your probably right about not assuming personality freeze.

Yes, I think that makes sense. I would also argue that some aspects of personality change in some people and others do not, causing such threads to remain while other aspects of the person may change.

 

Side Note: The lack of change might make 100,000 year old memories more relevant, but also easier to recall. If all you've been doing is watch stars for the past 100,000 years, then it would probably be easier to remember that "100,000 years ago, I started watching stars". It would also be easier to remember any disruptions to the routine of star-watching. But if you had 300 different roles in the past 100,000 years, and none of those roles were marked by a routine, then it would be easy to forget stuff.

 

Edit: Ninja'd by bones.

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Most of what they'd be remembering is repetitive life-maintaining things like eating and normal work. While I'd agree that even if they had photographic memories, they must forget most of that (just from sheer amount of data and brain capacity), they also would have no reason to want to re-live it in memory except in a "this is usually what happens" sense (which would take up far less space, sort of like data compression in computers). That applies both to SM and MU beings.

 

And what will their mental maturity be? Living as a warrior for hundreds of years should logically give Gresh (for example) enough experience to become more of a hardened veteran than he appears to be (being referred to as a young Glatorian by their standards), especially given how Takua for example has changed due to the things he's been a part of after he became Takanuva.

I have always just chalked these kinds of things (like Takua seeming immature despite having memories going back 1000 years... and now we know he's even the oldest Matoran) to an understandable inability of us humans to guess at the extreme skills the more experienced (and more mature) people (Ackar, etc.) would have. We can guess accurately that Ackar will have more battle prowess than Gresh, but we will almost always fail to guess at specifically what that prowess would look like (for either Gresh or Ackar really). So, the writers and readers both of such a story sort of have no choice but to just suspend disbelief on that point.

 

I'm not even talking about obviously poor execution of battle sequences like Mata Nui vs. Tuma (though that's kinda the same thing, just so bad that you'd think they would have been able to guess closer...), but the best of the best fictional portrayals of battles like that would still only be a guess at what it would really be like if someone actually lived through all that experience.

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Disregarding the biological aspect of living that long, I'm wondering about their mental state compared to us humans. If someone tells me that a certain project will be done 100 years from now, that means that I will never be able to see it in life. For a BIONICLE being, however, 100 years is very much within reach. Still, it takes as long as our Earth years, while they live their daily life almost like we do. They don't go very slow, and things can change in major ways in just one year of war and strife. When the 100 years have passed, many would have forgotten being told about the hypothetical project in the first place, I imagine.

 

If you ask a Matoran what life was like a thousand years ago, is his memory really so good that he can recall it properly? I mean, I don't even remember what I did on this date one year ago, and if you ask me about my childhood I can only give you the high-points. Most older people remember a lot of things about the past, but I don't think anyone remembers everything. I imagine that if I live another 500 years, then I will barely even remember most of what I've done in my life, because there will be more and more "high point" memories to recall. There is so much that can happen in 500 years that even if they were utterly boring and repetitive I might start losing track of my past life sooner or later. Matoran brains don't really age, so they likely have a higher capacity for keeping memories 100% clear and sorted, but still. I hope they have Google Search installed up there. :P

 

The people who were around during the Core War will naturally remember quite a bit of it because it included life-defining moments. But the people who fell in the war, and the events that transpired between the war and present day... how much can possibly be remembered by the survivors after so much time has passed? And what will their mental maturity be? Living as a warrior for hundreds of years should logically give Gresh (for example) enough experience to become more of a hardened veteran than he appears to be (being referred to as a young Glatorian by their standards), especially given how Takua for example has changed due to the things he's been a part of after he became Takanuva.

Well, if a lived to be 100,000+ years old, I'd equate hearing that something would happen 100 years from now, as if I'd heard someone tell me that something would happen 25 years from now.

 

Yeah, I agree you in hoping that those guys have google search installed. :P

 

I have thought along the same lines as you have, but I've alway been a bit more interested in thinking about how much their personality's must have changed. I know that most human personalities are about (more or less :P) the same from five or so until later in life, but of course people do change though life, whether it's taste in food or opinions and imagine how much someone could change in 100,000+ years!

 

I'm not sure if even that figure for future events does the hypothetical Matoran experience of time complete justice.Based on how I'd perceive time if I lived to be 100,000 years old, hearing that something would happen in 100 years would be like hearing that that something was going to happen in a week. Their timescale is very, very challenging for a human to imagine.

 

It also puts the Matoran experience on Mata Nui in new perspective. One year of peace with Teridax would have been next to nothing, comparable to one hour of peace for humans. Vakama must have laughed out loud at that moment in Time Trap.

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I'm not sure about the "dog years" kind of reasoning. Would it really seem to compress? 100 years seeming like a week doesn't make sense to me. Maybe after it's over, you might have nearly as many memories as we would for say... a few years? But I can't imagine thinking of "something will happen in 100 years" as comparable to thinking it'll happen a week from now. You still have to pay close attention to events minute-to-minute and worry about those challenges; it can't all just blur out as it happens or you'd make more fatal mistakes.

 

I'm probably overthinking it lol.

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It also puts the Matoran experience on Mata Nui in new perspective. One year of peace with Teridax would have been next to nothing, comparable to one hour of peace for humans. Vakama must have laughed out loud at that moment in Time Trap.

Note to self, never let Vakama negotiate your truce. :P

 

Joking aside, one year still means something in the MU apparently, after all in the "Mutran Chronicles", Mutran seems pretty enraged by Makuta's one year reprieve. Here's the quote,

 

"The Mask of Time – a treasure beyond price – wound up in the hands of a Toa, along with a pledge by Teridax not to menace the Matoran for a full year!"

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I'm not sure about the "dog years" kind of reasoning. Would it really seem to compress? 100 years seeming like a week doesn't make sense to me. Maybe after it's over, you might have nearly as many memories as we would for say... a few years? But I can't imagine thinking of "something will happen in 100 years" as comparable to thinking it'll happen a week from now. You still have to pay close attention to events minute-to-minute and worry about those challenges; it can't all just blur out as it happens or you'd make more fatal mistakes.

 

I'm probably overthinking it lol.

I don't think you are.

 

Sure, you might live for hundreds of thousands of years, but a LOT can still happen in one year. Convincing Makuta to not do anything for a year gives the Matoran time to organize, to build villages, to fortify themselves (Ta-Koro), to arm themselves (all the military forces of Mata-Nui), and to gain an understanding of the area they are in. If Vakama had felt that a year would be worth about an hour then that would imply that hardly anything could get done in that year. Looking back on that year it would seem to have been very short, but even we have those experiences. I swear I was just in High School, but I'm a junior in College getting ready to apply to Med School. Where'd all that time go? My remaining year until Med School doesn't seem like a lot, looking ahead, but I know that a TON is likely to happen in that year. Vakama would likely experience the same thoughts. A year wouldn't seem to be enough time, but he would know that (with work) they could get a lot done.

 

Just look at the story we've been told the BIONICLE. It happens, in story, over the course of a year, right? Look at all that happens! The fact of the storyline is, for me, proof enough that even beings who live for 100,000 years and more need and will have an appreciation for the shorter spans of time.

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I agree, the years would still feel just as long as our years do, no matter how long you live. We've seen this in the story; they don't just sit down for 10 years and no nothing as if it was the same as a day off. For a Matoran their life may stay the same for a hundred years, maybe, but for a Dark Hunter there would be far more things to do in that time. Assuming a few jobs done per year, your average Dark Hunter would be sent on hundreds of missions!

 

I think Toa Lhikevikk's earlier mention of Glatorian battles also brings up a fair point: If you spend your life as a warrior, does that mean you fight hundreds of battles in the course of these years - and naturally sustains a few injuries - or does it mean that kinda just hang around for a decade at a time while matches are set up? :D

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I'm not sure about the "dog years" kind of reasoning. Would it really seem to compress? 100 years seeming like a week doesn't make sense to me. Maybe after it's over, you might have nearly as many memories as we would for say... a few years? But I can't imagine thinking of "something will happen in 100 years" as comparable to thinking it'll happen a week from now. You still have to pay close attention to events minute-to-minute and worry about those challenges; it can't all just blur out as it happens or you'd make more fatal mistakes.

 

I'm probably overthinking it lol.

I agree that the century wouldn't seem like a week after it had passed, though I do think that it would seem like a week while it was going on. What I was really talking about was the perception of time while waiting for something, in that the number of distinct memories that a Matoran will hold on to after a century is probably comparable to the number which a person would hold on to in a week. Within a year, however, they'd probably remember enough memories for a few months of human memory, and the memories would all blur together as the years added up.

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Find (digital) me under the name Azani on YouTube, Eurobricks, Discord, the BioMedia Project and the TTV Message Boards.

 

Please check out Project AFTERMAN on Tumblr and Facebook; I'm proud to have worked as their PR Manager and as a writer.

 

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I guess that works, though I wasn't sure I got this part:

 

though I do think that it would seem like a week while it was going on

It's mainly while it's going on that I felt would seem least like a week. But I guess we're talking about different senses of "seem" here.

The Destiny of Bionicle (chronological retelling of Bionicle original series, 9 PDFs of 10 chapters each on Google Drive)Part 1 - Warring with Fate | Part 2 - Year of Change | Part 3 - The Exploration Trap | Part 4 - Rise of the Warlords | Part 5 - A Busy Matoran | Part 6 - The Dark Time | Part 7 - Proving Grounds | Part 8 - A Rude Awakening | Part 9 - The Battle of Giants

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