Time Devourer question

[Chrono'99]

hmm also, just how did Schala got thrown into this DbT?

[ZeaLitY]

Dimensional vortex at the Ocean Palace. The Mammon Machine is suggested to have interacted with Lavos and Schala to produce a gate or distortion that managed to transport her there. Whereas the gurus were gated through small disruptions in the Lavos timeline, perhaps the plunging of the Red Knife into the Mammon Machine in the Keystone timelines has an added effect.

[GrayLensman]

The Time Devourer as a Product of Lavos' Pocket Dimension

The generally accepted definition of the Time Devourer is the merger of Lavos and Schala in the Darkness Beyond Time (DBT).  Lavos exists there because Crono defeated it in 1999 AD, sending the ruined future into the DBT.  Schala was sent into the DBT after being caught in the dimensional vortex surrounding Lavos during the collapse of the Ocean Palace.

However this presents a problem.  Every time the travelers warp through time, another version of Lavos is sent into the DBT.  The same goes for Schala.  Each time the travelers warp to 65 million BC, another version of Schala is sent into the darkness. This creates dozens of potential Time Devourers to threaten all existence.  We know, of course, that there could only be one Time Devourer.

Also consider this:

Belthasar: The Devourer of Time is a new life-form... Born out of the fusion of a life-form from this planet with Lavos, who nests on the far side of the dimensional void. In the far-off future, when the fusion becomes complete, IT will awaken... Then, the Devourer of Time will begin to consume all space-time continua... Despair and hatred... To return all things to nothingness... That is what IT desires. Here... Take this with you.

Was Lavos inside the Darkness Beyond Time, or beyond it?

By applying the pocket dimension theory to the Time Devourer, these problems are easily resolved.

Lavos exists within a pocket or warp in space-time, which is connected to all time periods simultaneously.  In the pocket, time flows along an axis perpendicular to the normal timeline.  Thus, as time passes within the pocket, to any external observer Lavos is unchanging for all time.

Within the Pocket Dimension, Lavos is unaffected by any changes made to the timeline of the outside world. Only when Crono enters the pocket itself and destroys Lavos there, is the pocket dimension timeline altered.  In the new timeline, the pocket dimension simply collapses, but the original timeline containing the future version of Lavos is cast into the darkness, pocket and all.

Since only one Time Devourer ever existed, we can confirm that the TD did not arise from changes to the normal timeline.  If Lavos exists outside the pocket dimension after 1999 AD, eliminating the ruined future does not create a TD.  The pocket dimension theory provides the solution, so long as we surmise that the TD originated from the pocket dimension within the DBT.  There was only one version of the pocket dimension in the Darkness Beyond Time.

We must also consider how Schala came to be inside the pocket dimension with Lavos.

As the palace collapsed around her, Schala was sucked into a dimensional vortex along with the Lavos Mammon Machine.

This can be taken to mean that Schala was bodily transported into the DBT, or that she was caught up in Lavos' pocket dimension as it erupted through the surface.  In both versions of the Ocean Palace disaster, she would have been consumed by the living version of Lavos inside the pocket dimension.  However, by defeated Lavos in the future, Crono changed the past as well.

Since the "present" state of the pocket dimension is static for every time period; for all time, Lavos is frozen in the Darkness Beyond Time.  Instead of being devoured by Lavos, Schala is pulled into the eliminated pocket dimension inside the DBT.  Because Schala retains existence in the DBT, it is possible that her presence revitalizes the frozen pocket, giving Lavos new life.  Schala and Lavos would slowly merge in the perpendicular timeline of the pocket dimension, and when the Time Devourer was complete, the destruction of the universe would occur simultaneously throughout all time.

[LepidusZero]

i think that would make the most valid sense

[Zaperking]

Except that Schala heard Serge crying through time, caused the storm as she was falling and saved him, even though she was merged or merging with Lavos.

[AuraTwilight]

Yea, so? Schala still had some control over herself

[Zaperking]

Yeah, I'm trying to say that she wasn't acctually in the DBT till Kid and Serge were saved/ sent out.

[AuraTwilight]

Says who? If Serge and co. could reach IN to the DBT, I don't see how Schala can't reach out.

[Zaperking]

It said that she heard him whilst she was falling through time. And even is said that she travelled 13,000 years to get to him. I'm thinking this means that the moment she got gated, she fell and when she arrived in a parrarel to 1020AD, she arrived in the Time crashed timeline, saved him, around 1999AD Lavos entangled her as he is sent to the DBT too and then sometime later she falls into it. It's not stated that "As she was in the DBT, she reached out and saved Serge." Things in the DBT aren't exactally linear.

[ZeaLitY]

Inquiry

How did Lavos bind with Schala after being clearly defeated in Chrono Trigger? Was it a spawn?

Answer

The answer lies within the nature of the Darkness Beyond Time. We already know that due to a horrible distortion, Schala was shunted to the Darkness Beyond Time as a physical object (not rewritten history) and left there. Now, considering the [[Pocket Dimension Theory]], there existed a future within the Pocket Dimension of Lavos in which he had already destroyed the world and proceeded to spawn. When Crono and the group defeated Lavos directly at 1999 A.D. and later inside the Pocket Dimension, it nullified this future, sending it to the Darkness Beyond Time. The explanation goes, Lavos was able to use Schala, a physical object in the DBT, to somehow prevent its nullification and achieve a physical existence there. The anomalistic nature of the binding and the unique vantage from the Darkness Beyond Time afforded it the capacity to become a Time Devourer.

~

Also, GL, I believe your post was made before the concept of Time Bastard was created, which would prevent multiple Time Devourers anyway. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[Mystik3eb]

I have a feeling it was the real Lavos that was slowly rebuilding itself back to it's former physical glory thanks to the ability to physically phase into existence that absorbing Schala gave...'it'.

I'd like to note that since it was apparently possible for Lavos to open a gate to the End of Time, then Lavos definetely had the ability to open a gate that led to the DBT.

[Chrono'99]

As for how Schala reached the DBT, I have a small theory (which relies on another one though :/ ). The more or less accepted theory about the Gates in the Ocean Palace is that Lavos created them but that the Entity "chose" the destination of each of them. Basically, Lavos sent the Gurus and Janus in the "corridors of time" (the dark blue/purple tunnel between 2 Gates), but the Entity was the one who made each person exit in each era.

So, my theory is that maybe Schala was also gated in some corridor of time, but the Entity had no power or need to send her to one era, so she instead drifted in the void... until she somehow reached the Darkness Beyond Time and the defeated Lavos.

...a bit far-fetched or complicated maybe?

[SilentMartyr]

Yea, that seems a bit complicated. Especially since it would really make any sense for Schala to just default to the DBT. I would assume she would default to the EoT if anywhere.