BIONICLE Story Time Scales

LEGO BIONICLE
#1

Does anyone else find some of the time scales in the Bionicle story odd? I'm more specifically talking about everything that happened in the story after the Toa Mata arrived on the island of Mata Nui. According BS01's timeline, everything between that point and reformation of Spherus Magna/Teridax's defeat only happened in the space of a year and a half.

Within this, it suggests that the length of time between the arrival of the Toa Mata and the Matoran's migration back to Metru Nui was only 3 months. That means that the Matoran only had that small amount of time to get to know the Toa before the conclusion of that part of the story in Mask of Light. I dunno, this just seems really odd to me. In addition to this, it also suggests that the Voya Nui/Mahri Nui part of the story only took one week. Somehow I find this incredibly hard to believe. That means Matoro had literally one week of being a Toa before he died. Then it's unclear how long 2008 took, because it claims that the story for that year began 'one year ago' (one year before Spherus Magna's reformation), and then claims Teridax takes over the MU six months later.

It just seems weird that the grand scale of time that takes place before the coming of the Toa Mata (100,000 years between the Shattering and this point, 1,000 years between the Great Cataclysm and this point) contradicts so much with this year and a half where so much happens. And even within that year there seems to be inconistencies. I'd actually like to know what the sources are for the timeline's time stamps, I'm sure they're somewhere but I forget. The only one I can remember off hand is in the comic where Mata Nui's body awakens in 2008 and it says that the Toa Mata arrived one year ago from that point.

Anyone else find this all a little bit weird? Am I getting something wrong here?

8 Likes
#2

Time has always been wierd in pretty much any Lego theme!

Here's a hunch, though; Did the Vahi perhaps allow some of this to occur?

#3

I highly, highly doubt that. I don't think this is anything more than just not very well thought out story planning.

2 Likes
#4

Funny thing, I've been thinking about this for awhile now. Immortality is an odd thing with quite a few implications that don't really get explored in BIONICLE. I agree that it is weird how so much happens in one year compared to the 100,000 years prior. It also implies weirdness in terms of characterization. How are Turaga so much more mature when everyone's the same age? Why is everyone's personality so stagnant?

5 Likes
#5

Yeah, It's just a hunch. It honestly could be used as a excuse by Lego itself!
It is really a big stretch, though.

#6

Well assuming you're talking about the Turaga on Mata Nui, bear in mind that they're the only people on the island that know the truth about what came before, since all the Matoran had their memories wiped. As a result of this, they have a massive burden and responsibility to lead the Matoran. In addition, they've been through a hell of a lot and will have naturally matured through that.

2 Likes
#7

Honestly a year and a half seems plenty to hold the main plot, assuming everything after mata nui happened in a relatively short time frame, voya nui was very much a smash and grab for the inika, basically b-lining for the ignika, equally karda nui was a smash and grab for the nuva, and mahri nui was about as short, none of these events would last for more than a few weeks max, basically 06-08 would have taken about a month-month and a half to happen tops.
The 100,000 years seems fine as well, though the 1,000 probably should have been 100.

7 Likes
#8

Exactly. The problem is, BS01 says that 08 lasted 6 months, and that 01-03 was only 3 months.

That's backwards. Rereading the old books, it seems that, from the moment the Toa arrive on Mata Nui to the moment they arrive on Voya Nui, that is about a year. 2002 took a pretty long time, and then the gap between the end of 03 and the beginning of 06 was several months just by itself. It took awhile to make all those boats, and then there was awhile of work on Metru Nui before the Nuva went to Voya Nui.

Basically, this is the timeline according to BS01.

2001-2003: 3 months
2003-2006: 1.5 months
2006-2007: a week at most
2008: 6 months
2009-2010: a little less than 6 months

Here's the actual timeline:

2001-2003: about half a year
2003-2006: also about half a year.
2006-2008: a handful of weeks, anywhere from 2-5.
2008: a week or two.
2008-2010: about 6 months.

~W12~

7 Likes
#9

Yeah, that seems, well, stupid frankly, if that's the official time frame I know something we need Greg to retcon.

3 Likes
#10

Sure, there are some pretty stupid aspects to the time scale for G1. That said, the whole "100,000 years and nothing happened" thing is silly. Tons of stuff happened; they just weren't made into sets and thus weren't covered as deeply. They include (not in chronological order):

  • Dark Hunters stealing the Makoki stones
  • The Matoran Civil War
  • Teridax's Takeover of the Brotherhood
  • The Adventures of Toa Dume's Team
  • The Construction/Fall of Mahri Nui
  • The Genetic Engineering on the Skakdi
  • Karzahni's Experiments on the Matoran
  • The Death of the Makuta of Artakha

...and a million other things that happened on Bara or Bota Magna, or that I forhot about in the MU. Saying that "nothing happened" between the construction of the GSR and the Great Catacylsym is like saying that nothing happened in the Star Wars EU between the creation of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace.

-Azani

6 Likes
#11

I didn't say nothing happened, of course. I was bearing all that in mind. It's just I felt that if the Bionicle story team wanted to stick to a grand scale of over 100,000 years, it makes much more sense to make the later part of the story from 2001 onwards span a greater period of time than 1 year.

#12

Not at all, 100,000 years of nothing going wrong, then massive problem, contingency plan kicks in, problem resolved asap, I see nothing wrong with that, the problem is with the 1,000 years of nothing between those two.

#13

Yeah fair enough, I see your point. With the 1,000 years inbetween, I guess that's just down to the fact that the Mata's canister's malfunctioned and it took Takua to summon them to the island. Meanwhile, most of what went on inside the MU was mostly centred around the Brotherhood/Dark Hunter war I believe.

#14

I feel like we're underestimating just how long 100,000 years is. That's almost twice as long as the existence of civilization itself. That's a long time for nothing to go wrong.

Also, is anyone else bothered by how technologically stagnant Bara Magna is?

1 Like
#15

Yes! That's been bothering me for a while now. Considering how long their society has been in place (we don't know how long their society was around pre Shattering, and it's been 100,000 years since the Shattering), they've had plenty of time to develop. Look at how much humanity has developed in just the last 1,000 years.

It's not as if nothing went wrong before the Great Cataclysm. The Matoran Civil War happened, which nearly killed Mata Nui. There was the Toa/Dark Hunter War, and there was all the conflict various Toa teams had with the Brotherhood after they went rogue. Not to mention the League of Six Kingdoms' attempted takeover...

2 Likes
#16

Three words:
Lack. Of. Resources.

2 Likes
#17

Like the ones they use to create and fuel their vehicles?

#18

They have near constant gladiatorial fights over resources, they've been scraping by for thousands of years, we're talking mad Max times ten post-apoc.

#19

That would make sense if it wasn't for the fact that it's been 100,000 years. Even in Mad Max, things would most certainly get better by then.

#20

Bara magna is a planet sized desert with most of it's resources stripped from it, there is nothing to get better, they don't have the resources to innovate.