Strategery and Time Travel

[FaustWolf]

So, if you were a giant porcupine with time displacement capability, it makes enough sense that you'd get rid of threats by tossing them around in the timestream. But is it smarter to send your enemies into the future, or into the past? Lavos did both during the course of CT I think, pending any influence by the Entity when Magus and Crono & co. were gated out of Magus' castle.

Within the confines of the most widely accepted time travel theories, what was Lavos' biggest strategic error? And how much more confusing does this question get if we consider other time travel models?

So, like, yeah.

[utunnels]

I don't know if Lavos intended to do that in Magus's castle.
Doesn't it easier to kill them than tossing them around? I mean since it knew the trio were the biggest threat to it.

In the first ocean palace incident, Lavas sent the Gurus to various eras of time to randomize the possibilities, when it foretold the battle in 1999AD. But what if it met its fated enemies in 600AD? It makes more sense for it to kill them there.

[FaustWolf]

Yeah, I do wonder about that. Lavos' ability to snuff out Crono on the spot is amply demonstrated, so why would it choose time travel for the Gurus (the one case where we can be somewhat sure the Entity wasn't exercising any influence?). Unless Lavos had another purpose for the Gurus and Janus by sending them to the different time periods in the original timeline...

[Manly Man]

Perhaps it threw them into the trio into the past, as it knew that it was about to land, and it had hopes that the explosion would have the chance of killing them. It would seem the most likely at the time I suppose, as that grade of a shockwave would kill everything over several square miles.

[FaustWolf]

I suppose we shouldn't overlook the possibility that Lavos had other motives too, like sheer amusement. I mean, putting Belthasar in a ruined future where his talents meant nothing could have been the ultimate practical joke (or so Lavos thought!). Or maybe opening up a Gate was less energy-intensive than the ol' beam of doom, though that seems like a stretch.

In the end, it may be a case where we have to accept that it's a deviation from realism on the writers' part for the sake of a cool story. Or that our temptation to place "time travel" higher on the power usage scale than "beam of doom" is unjustified since we have no real-world reference for making that judgment. But I'm really interested in seeing what everyone's reaction is -- temporal strategy seems like it could be one of the less explored topics so far.

[utunnels]

Lavos is no human, even not a creature from the planet.
Though as a creature, we think it is natural to try to survive. Because perhaps every creature must (usually) survive first to make its race last longer. But I also heard some interesting story that certain animals will try to kill themselves if they populate too many individuals. It is not clear they do that by their own will or there are other factors, it the result itself will keep their race healthier. There are also societal insects who will fight hopeless battle against strong invaders, when they can just run for their lives.

So I guess Lavos could be somehow different from our humans in the way it thinks. For example, its ultimate goal is to evolve further (at least it is mentioned in game), it can tolent some kind of threats before it is done. So it is also a protector of humans from a special point of view because it needs their DNA (in another word, it doesn't want undeveloped humans like Ayla). It is like some alien creatures from Lovecraft's novel, they created and fed creatures for food and labor force, but eventually, some 'workers' evolved to go against them as their civilization declined.

[Acacia Sgt]

Well, despite things, I think it's stated Lavos had some measure of sentience. While stuff like destroying Zeal, attacking Magus, and the 'Destruction Rains from the Heavens' of 1999 can be attributed to instinct reactions, there is the fact it took Chronopolis back in time as a precaution from the time travelers that wanted it's destruction. While acting on the instinct to survive, there is the fact the measure it took is much more complex than all the ones used before and does needs some level of intelligence for it.

But then again, since it evolved throughout the years, it could've very well gained it at some point, especially since human DNA was part of the harvest.

Well, in any case, I'd say the biggest mistake was sending the Gurus through time. Considering how many things couldn't have been possible if the Gurus hadn't been where they were sent to.