Wilds is giving me big existential ludonarrative dissonance with the passage of time.

I think its because of Nata. Like, I've always understood that the passage of time is fuzzy in Monster Hunter, and when one thing in the narrative leads to another it's probably not like... the next day or anything. Ecology takes time to adapt.

The Nata and Arkveld story on the other hand are really messing with my mental hand-waving. Guardian Arkveld lays an egg, we find it hatched, and then... it's a fully grown monster terrorizing Apexes? If Nata weren't there I'd just say all the characters are adults and maybe a decade has passed or whatever, but Nata's still a kid!

This goes beyond just gameplay mechanics not being realistic. This is pure narrative. At the very least a Guardian can grow from newly hatched to Apex of Apexes in less time than it takes a human child to go through puberty and change at all. In other words, maybe us hunting hundreds of monsters isn't so unrealistic. Apparently it's possible that they fully mature damn fast!