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Methods to Resolve Problems with the Avatar Calendar
In my first post on the subject of the calendar in the Avatar world I discussed the element-animal combination cycle of years, and in my second post I talked about the conflict this created with canon evidence.
The problems I see with the ATLA calendar as it stands (or my understanding of it) are twofold: First, there are only 48 combinations, making for a short cycle that is less effective in keeping time because the years repeat more often, and which is not as much of a milestone in individual lives. Second, it conflicts with the canon as discussed in the second post because "Superior Mighty Monkey" and "Cultivated Commanding Dragon" can't both exist in that system.
I have thought of three alternate methods to improve the calendar system. The first is the "brute force" method of matching every element to every animal, which has a 192-year cycle (16 times 12) and forces the offending years play nice with each other. The second is changing the animal list every time that list is done, swapping out the first element in the list and moving it to the end. This has a 144-year cycle and resolves the contradiction, but it is inelegant and hard to remember.
The third, and my preferred method, is to cheat like hell: Resolve the underlying mathematical problem (discussed in the second post) by changing the size of the animal list to either a 10-animal or 14-animal one so the highest common denominator between the elements and animal lists is 2 rather than 4. The 10-animal option would result in an 80-year cycle, which is a plausible age to be celebrated as a milestone, especially considering the probably longer lifespan of the Avatar world compared to pre-industrial Earth.
I'm rather partial to the 14-animal option because it has a 112-year cycle, making it long enough to be useful in keeping time while short enough to plausibly occur in a lifetime, especially given the longer lifespan. I like the 112-year cycle even better for another reason: It would mean Aang returned from the iceberg on his birth year, assuming 12 years of age and exactly 100 years in the iceberg.
I have a whole bunch of Python scripts I used to run these simulations, but decided copying them to DW/LJ would be too much hassle given how the formatting screws with the indentations. If you're interested in the code, drop me a line and I'll happily share. As of now I've nattered on way too long about something that like 0.1% of fans (if that) are interested in, so I'll stop and move on to more interesting things like fanfic and Azula ranting.
The problems I see with the ATLA calendar as it stands (or my understanding of it) are twofold: First, there are only 48 combinations, making for a short cycle that is less effective in keeping time because the years repeat more often, and which is not as much of a milestone in individual lives. Second, it conflicts with the canon as discussed in the second post because "Superior Mighty Monkey" and "Cultivated Commanding Dragon" can't both exist in that system.
I have thought of three alternate methods to improve the calendar system. The first is the "brute force" method of matching every element to every animal, which has a 192-year cycle (16 times 12) and forces the offending years play nice with each other. The second is changing the animal list every time that list is done, swapping out the first element in the list and moving it to the end. This has a 144-year cycle and resolves the contradiction, but it is inelegant and hard to remember.
The third, and my preferred method, is to cheat like hell: Resolve the underlying mathematical problem (discussed in the second post) by changing the size of the animal list to either a 10-animal or 14-animal one so the highest common denominator between the elements and animal lists is 2 rather than 4. The 10-animal option would result in an 80-year cycle, which is a plausible age to be celebrated as a milestone, especially considering the probably longer lifespan of the Avatar world compared to pre-industrial Earth.
I'm rather partial to the 14-animal option because it has a 112-year cycle, making it long enough to be useful in keeping time while short enough to plausibly occur in a lifetime, especially given the longer lifespan. I like the 112-year cycle even better for another reason: It would mean Aang returned from the iceberg on his birth year, assuming 12 years of age and exactly 100 years in the iceberg.
I have a whole bunch of Python scripts I used to run these simulations, but decided copying them to DW/LJ would be too much hassle given how the formatting screws with the indentations. If you're interested in the code, drop me a line and I'll happily share. As of now I've nattered on way too long about something that like 0.1% of fans (if that) are interested in, so I'll stop and move on to more interesting things like fanfic and Azula ranting.
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That is, because it is limited to a 60 year cycle, the years are distinguished from each other by placing the name of the emperor by the year. For classical human Chinese lifespans, 60 years was wide enough to not have many problems with overlap (in fact, the longest Imperial reign in history was 61 years).
So the simplest solution that makes sense then is they use a 192 year cycle prenoted with the current Avatar to distinguish periods beyond 192 years.
The only “womp” this would have would be the reign of Kyoshi which would have a second “mini cycle” of 38 years because of her long age. (Which as we know, was canonized by a mistake in writing, in old China this was called a gaiyuan and was usually cuased by political shifting of an era name midstream). So something like “The Year of the Dragon of Brilliant Light of Kyoshi’s Second Age” would work.
So for example the events of the first book of Avatar take place in 安昂 氜武申年 (Aang’s Year of the Monkey of Superior Arms) with the name of the Avatar being considered implicit.
Thoughts?