Epoch and the Conservation of Time

[Insane]

When the party firsts arrives at the End of Time, it is said by Jaspar that when four or more 'beings' enter a Gate, the Conservation of Time kicks in and sends them to the point of least resistance - The End of Time. What is a 'being', exactly? It's easy to assume that it is an individual, a person. This can't be the case, however, for one reason: Robo. Robo is not 'alive', but rather an insanely advanced machine.
So, why does the Conservation not affect the Epoch? It is from another period (either 12000 BC or 2300 AD - is it ever clarified?) and therefore should count as a being. Yet, when you travel in it, you go straight to the destination and not to the End of Time. Why?

[Mortalshuffle]

That depends on how you define a being. Robo is sentient, has a will of his own. He raises questions about his own existence and defies his programming. He may not be human, but I'd definitely say he's a "being." The Epoch is a little trickier in my opinion. It shows qualities that make it seem as though it's "alive" -- following the characters to certain time periods after they left it in others. After bringing Crono back with the Chrono Trigger, Gasper does say it "seems to have a heart and a mind of its own." However, it was built to be a time machine. By traveling inside it, that may be the loophole needed to bypass the "being" clause. If they were to try to bring it through a gate with them on the outside, then there might be trouble.

[Thought]

A minor item, but that point of least resistance bit isn't actually legitimate; that is, it appears to be an addition by the NA translation "team." Here's the retranslation:

When you enter a space-time distortion
with four or more people who live in different   
 times, the dimensional field distorts......   

However, there are many space-time   
distortions in this place.   
There are even those who, like you, appear   
here aimlessly......

But anywho, the key to your question is simply that the Epoch time travels in a manner different than the "space-time distortions," aka Gates, that the party usually uses. Given that the epoch specifically has seats for three people, it might have a way to counteract any undesirable distortions in time travel methods. Or, since it encases passengers, perhaps it only counts as one individual for causing distortions, like Shuffle suggested.

[deviant_ambition]

The Epoch certainly does seem to have sentient qualities. However I believe the fact it travels time differently than the gates (thus bypassing the Conservation of Time). Not only that, three people are traveling within it. Now, we can argue that a pregnant woman might cause some chaos in the space-time continuum, but I believe the fact that it is within the being, that it still counts as part of that being. Using the Epoch (if the Conservation of Time still applies to it, if it creates its own temporary gates) means only one entity is traveling through time.

Another question, Magus' gate. Four people entered, yet they were cast into different time periods, rather than ending up at the End of Time. This may be Lavos' influence, and the fact that Magus remained in the center while Crono & co. were spun around, and being such a large gate, the center (Magus) went one place, while the orbiting party was cast elsewhere. Thoughts?

[Mortalshuffle]

I agree. In fact, I think the black gate bears similarity to what happened originally in 12,000 BC when Janus and the Gurus were thrown into their own individual gates. The party's proximity to each other may have made it so that when they were sucked in they went together into a normal gate within the black one.

[Thought]

Well too many people traveling in a gate causes a distortion; as noted, that doesn't necessitate that they end up at the end of time. separate end points seems like a valid distortion to me.