#Baby Av-Matoran's been having trouble sleeping

[afanofmanyhats]

You've mentioned your dislike about the Bionicle timeline before. What's your take on it and what doesn't work about it for you? I'm curious to hear your interpretation.

The main issue is the fact that it's a ridiculously, laughably long time for people to stay alive. It takes me out of my immersion to remember that this whole storyline takes place over a period of time ten times greater than the existence of Jericho, but characters like Ackar and Kiina on Bara Magna and the majority of characters in the Matoran Universe have lived that whole time. I'm not opposed to immortal/long-lived characters as an idea, but the story needs to do something with that time scale.

For instance, in Tolkien's works, the ages of the Elven characters has weight in their characterization and relationships to the others. The Silmarillion highlights their horror and sadness as they realize their new human friends will age and die in what feels like no time at all to the Elves. In the Lord of the Rings, the lifespans of Elrond and Galadriel add extra gravity to their advice and foresight; they've lived longer than any of the main characters and know the threat of Sauron better than anyone. Their longevity makes them unique, provides diversity and contrast.

Meanwhile, everyone in BIONICLE ages the same way, so there isn't really a highlightable difference in how aging affects you. It's entirely subjective. Helryx and Artakha are all the same age as Takua, possibly even younger, but they're the ones noted for being ancient. I know Takua had several layers of amnesia, but his personality largely stayed consistent, so the fact that he was apparently an irascible scamp since creation makes him feel static. You're telling me he only underwent major personality changes in the last few years?

The ridiculously long timeline also makes the story feel static because it's frankly pretty sparse. Bara Magna has been a desert wasteland with a half-dozen tribes since the Shattering; the only major political shift occurred when the Skrall migrated to Roxtus less than two years before the '09 arc. The MU's timeline is more detailed, but the information we do have still suggests its development is relatively stagnant. The League of Six Kingdoms and the Matoran Civil War/Great Disruption happen back to back, but then the timeline's fairly empty for 75,000 years. All we have to go off of for the main markers is the Brotherhood consolidating power and Dume is active as a Toa. We don't get more detailed politics until the time of the Toa Mangai, and then things start happening with greater and greater intensity that feels natural.

All this to say: when you're making an expansive timeline, it helps to make it feel dense, especially the closer you get to the events of the story. Human history is intricately complicated, with even Dark Ages still providing us ample discussion through archaeology and the lack of written evidence. BIONICLE's timeline has great worldbuilding from a political and social development lens, but it's too stretched out. I'd say that cutting the timeline down to 10,000 years would solve a lot of the issues I discussed. Also reducing the ages of many of the characters, especially the ones on Bara Magna. It's hard to sell Gresh as young when he'd be old enough to remember when humans first started leaving Africa, you know?