Why didn't Belthasar save the world?

[Kodokami]

How It Should Have Ended: Chrono Cross

Belthasar: "With my largely unexplained clairvoyant powers I have determine that some essence of the dying Lavos manifested itself in the darkness beyond time, where it has merged with the unfortunate princess of Zeal to form a creature of unfathomable destructive power! What should I do...? I know! I'll use my convenient time machine to travel over 12000 years into the past, save Schala from falling into the vortex, and prevent the Time Devourer from ever maturing in the first place! Ho ho ho, I am a genius!"

Seriously, why could he not have done this? Is there some aspect of Time Error associated with the DBT that prevents changes to it once they've been made? Or is traveling to the DBT an act of time travel and thus protected by TTI (meaning Schala will be TB'ed regardless of if the above happens)?

[Acacia Sgt]

Seriously, why could he not have done this? Is there some aspect of Time Error associated with the DBT that prevents changes to it once they've been made? Or is traveling to the DBT an act of time travel and thus protected by TTI (meaning Schala will be TB'ed regardless of if the above happens)?

I'd say it's pretty much that. If he could just save her from 12000 BC, he'd have just done that. I doubt he wouldn't considering his priority was always Schala. However, since Time Error wise 2300 AD was still the bad future when Schala got sent to the DBT, then that option was out since he could do nothing about it at the time.

So now, he has to resort to this complex-plan. So yeah...

[Kodokami]

Ah. Thanks for the reply.

However, since Time Error wise 2300 AD was still the bad future when Schala got sent to the DBT, then that option was out since he could do nothing about it at the time.

So he couldn't even return to that point in time from his (good) future? Hm... Maybe I should look up Time Error again.

[Acacia Sgt]

So he couldn't even return to that point in time from his (good) future? Hm... Maybe I should look up Time Error again.

Oh yes, he can return to 12000 BC from the good future. However, since Schala getting to the DBT happened in a time line that still had the bad future, hence, why not even Belthasar could save her since she in 12000 BC has become a TB.

[Kodokami]

Gotcha. Thanks for the clarification.

[TheMage]

So he couldn't even return to that point in time from his (good) future? Hm... Maybe I should look up Time Error again.

Oh yes, he can return to 12000 BC from the good future. However, since Schala getting to the DBT happened in a time line that still had the bad future, hence, why not even Belthasar could save her since she in 12000 BC has become a TB.

Wait wait wait - if Schala in DBT was the one from the bad future, what happened to Schala ala good future?

[Acacia Sgt]

Wait wait wait - if Schala in DBT was the one from the bad future, what happened to Schala ala good future?

The same. Her fate remains unchanged since Lavos's defeat is an unrelated event to her involvement in the Ocean Palace events.

The actual turning point is Crono and co. altering those events.