What is the timeline like if the entity doesn't interfere

[ZealKnight]

I feel like this exists somewhere, but something's been bothering me and knowing this would be helpful.

[chrono.source]

Just on brief reflection of the storyline, since it opened gates to collect the heroes from different timelines, Lavos would prevail, having maximum 3 heroes to take it on in any one timeline; (Crono, Lucca, Marle). However, they would be unprepared, unleveled, and unknowing of the impending doom. I would assume it would carry out as the timeline begins, where lavos consumes the planet, and attacks, destroying everything and leaving it as shown in 2300AD.

[Kodokami]

Since the Entity created all the Gates, I would assume Marle never gets whisked away at the Millennial Fair, and life continues on until Lavos's awakening in 1999 AD.

But here's a thought: The Gate at the fair didn't naturally form like all the rest; it appeared to have been created, from the reaction of Marle's pendant and Lucca's machinery (much like how a Time Egg creates a Gate without the Entity). So it's possible Crono and his two friends would've traveled to 600 AD regardless, only to return home to live out their lives as follows. Or maybe that first Gate's creation set in motion the creation of all the rest...? Who knows.

[Vehek]

What the timeline is like should depend in part on how much you attribute the results of temporary gates to Lavos and how much to the Entity. For example, if the Entity is responsible for when Janus and the Gurus ended up, then the no-interference timeline might not have Magus leading the Mystics, which should have even greater impacts on the timeline.

[chrono.source]

Actually now that I think about it, much of 1000AD is dependent on Magus' reign in 600AD.

12,000 AD would differ after the effects of the gurus being transferred to their separate time zones. Based on current knowledge of the Kingdom of Zeal, I still anticipate a downfall and ice age to follow. Others may have survived though, changing the course of history.

600 AD May remain peaceful, depending on Ozzie's actions without the guidance of Magus. Judging by his bumbling personality, I don't suspect he would have gotten very far.

1000 AD Having not had the battle with Magus years before, their military may be less equipped. If there was any attack by any monsters, they would most likely be ill prepared and suffer great losses. The gate key I did not take in to account. Now once they travelled back in time, was it the entity that created a gate for them to return? If so, would they not be stuck eternally in 600 AD? Which would then change the course of time once again....

I think it is safe to say anything beyond 1999 AD would remain relatively identical

[ZealKnight]

This is what bothers me. We don't really know how much the entity actually did. And some theories kinda use the entity as a Deus Ex Machina. But if we actually did know what the timeline looked like without the Entity we might be able to decipher some of these unexplained plot holes. And actually Kodokami and Vehek, you both point out two things I was thinking about. What if those things happen naturally in the timeline without the entities doing? Wouldn't make it safer to assume that the entity did choose Crono Marle and Lucca if they are to naturally learn about time travel anyway?

[EgyLynx]

?? Oh sorry... I was said it was somehow Lavos? but... i not sure...

[Random Factor]

I feel like this exists somewhere, but something's been bothering me and knowing this would be helpful.

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop?

The world may never know.

Have you ever played a game and realized that it will not progress past a certain point through sheer indecision or going off and doing other things, like it would in real life? The storyline has to be progressed through certain actions. You won't ever know what the timestream would have been like if the entity hadn't interfered because it did and because it did, you came to know chrono and co., your reality came to have video games based on the legends of their combined stories.

There is no taking it back and going back, but if we were to enter into a hypothetical stasis, it would only create another reality where another entity, if not the same one, did different things and different events unfolded.

[ThatGuy]

Since the Entity created all the Gates, I would assume Marle never gets whisked away at the Millennial Fair, and life continues on until Lavos's awakening in 1999 AD.

But here's a thought: The Gate at the fair didn't naturally form like all the rest; it appeared to have been created, from the reaction of Marle's pendant and Lucca's machinery (much like how a Time Egg creates a Gate without the Entity). So it's possible Crono and his two friends would've traveled to 600 AD regardless, only to return home to live out their lives as follows. Or maybe that first Gate's creation set in motion the creation of all the rest...? Who knows.

This is why I like the theory of Schala being the entity so much. She could have worked through the pendant and that's just brilliant.

Maybe even this: she got whisked away herself, or part of Lavos, or whatever, and came to understand the different potential timelines, and used her powers to open the gates to enable the timeline in which Lavos was defeated.

Holy shit, someone write this game.