Concerning An Aqua Magna Year

[That Matoran with a Vahi]

Hey look! My first actual Bionicle Theory!

This thought was actually inspired by the Korahkazi project's current thread in the board; however it's not actually related to the topic other than in the most basic sense - being about time passing in Bionicle - so rather than derailing that thread, I thought it better to start my own. It was just a thought that absolutely hit me when I saw their thread title, and I wanted to share it.

So. For a long time now, there's been this discrepancy between early story material that said the 2001 to 2003 storyline took place over multiple years - most notably a text box early in comic #13 where Makuta himself says "For years the Toa have believed me defeated, banished from the island I once ruled." - and the later fact that the entire story that we see took place in a single year. This has always been regarded as an awkward retcon, but I'd like to posit that it could be Fridge Brillance when you think about it: nowhere, NOWHERE, does it say that time is measured the same way inside the GSR as it is outside.

Let me explain. The GSR presumably runs on Spherus Magna time, since that's where it was built. Since the robot was specifically made to travel between various planets, it's likely that it would run on its own internal chronology rather than adapting to that of any world it visited; therefore a Matoran year on Metru Nui, or anywhere else within the robot, is presumably the same as a Spherus Magna year, however long that may be.

But.

The island of Mata Nui isn't inside the GSR, and therefore doesn't have to be subject to GSR time. It would be entirely reasonable, in fact, for the Turaga to devise a new time system based on Aqua Magna's day / year cycles, which are quite unlikely to be the same as Spherus Magna's - especially given that it used to be part of Spherus Magna that broke away in the Shattering, so would inevitably have fallen into a different orbit to Spherus Magna. If Agua Magna ended up in an orbit that takes it nearer to the system's sun than Spherus Magna, then its years - a planet's year being measured by how long it takes to revolve around it's sun - would be shorter, perhaps significantly so.

So what I'm getting at is this: the Makuta was believed defeated for years statement was referring to Aqua Magna Years; i.e. the only reckoning of Bionicle time we knew about when it was written. These potentially being significantly shorter than a Spherus Magna Year - which, given the difference in year lengths between the planets in our own solar system (SOURCE), isn't an unreasonable assumption - it's entirely plausible that one Spherus Magna year takes multiple Aqua Magna years. Therefore yes, Makuta was believed defeated for multiple years: Aqua Magna Years. And also yes, the entire storyline from 01-08 took place in one year: one Spherus Magna Year. Neither statement is incorrect, they're just using different reckonings of time.

Thoughts?

Edited October 12, 2021 by That Matoran with a Vahi