Do you think the atom exist in the BIONICLE universe, or do you think the Elements are the base building blocks of everything in that universe, taking the place of the atoms?
Keep in mind you did say yourself that BIONICLE doea not use Earth physics.
I don’t see the elements as being the base building blocks, no, because I do not believe that protodermis is based on elements. I would be surprised if we never referred to atoms or molecules at some point in the story, in some context,
As far as molecules are concearned: Molecular Distruption, Molecular Transmutation and Self-Molecular Separation are known powers, and Disintegration has been described to disolve a target’s molecular structure. (No mention of atoms that I am aware)
In the Maze of Shadows novel, it was said the Rahi Nui’s atoms drifted apart once it grew to a certain size.
That reminds me: “As he began to teleport away from the scene, however, Gorast grabbed the Makuta and used her Kanohi Felnas to make Icarax’s Teleportation power go out of control. Vamprah then hit him with a blast of energy, scattering Icarax’s atoms in all directions and killing him.” - BS01
Oh. Well. That disappoints me. It just seems like, with how the elements were always described in the early days as “natural forces”, they would be the base of things. Which leads me to ask… why aren’t the elements not the atoms then? I know it sounds silly and lame. So many metals and gasses. Not variety. But it would just seem more cool and unique if there were more to the elements than them just being chemical compounds. Because what makes those compounds that we’ve seen as elements so much more special than any other? Are there more elements? I’ve been thinking of what makes an element in the first place.
I had this idea of the elements really being energy, somehow. The energy that moves the physical matter. Energy itself in our universe is not made out of any chemical element, but or anything else, but describe a trait of matter and non-matter fields. Ther could be an elemental dimension, like how we have spatial dimensions and possibly a temporal one.
It could also be that the elements came first. And then the atoms split from them.
There has just been so much emphasis on the elements and their importance to the physical make-up of the universe to the point of them simply being what they are in our world not making sense to me.
For instance, is fire just the burning of a gas? Seems kind of bland, right?
Or maybe the elements are just a mystical thing. We have explained a lot of things that seemed like mystical in the beginning in some scientific manner already. But maybe this is one that can’t be explained that way. Or like I said, many energy came before anything else. The elemental energies. Somehow. Which is why the elements we have are a thing, and can be controlled by people with the innate ability to do so. Instead of just being another normal bunch of matter lying around.
We also know the elements existed in nature outside the Matoran Universe.
It’s just kind of confusing to me to get what an element really is in the end.
Sorry if this is too long-winded for you Greg.
EDIT: Hmm, maybe if someone figured out how a Toa/Glatorian of a specific element might only be able to control certain specific atoms while another only has control over others, and they don’t have control over each others’. That would be rad. Wouldn’t be canon though haha. And some chemical elements do overlap in molecules I guess.