Theory: Time Eggs Break Time

[Kodokami]

Bear with me, I'm making temporal omelets here...

Time eggs in the Chronoverse are quite the enigma. The only thing we know for certain about them is that they create isolated temporal distortions (Gates), and even then they seem affected by whatever the user desires most at the time. Crono's friends use one to save him before he dies. Serge uses one to reach Schala beyond time's eclipse. Kid's (in Radical Dreamers) reacts with the Frozen Flame to reveal her true identity (meanwhile Serge witnesses apparently all of spacetime).

There's only one¹ other time when a time egg is used, and I want to focus on that: Before (after?) most of the events in Chrono Cross, Kid, in her own relative timeline, uses a time egg to save Serge from drowning. Unique to this event, the timeline actually splits here, creating the Home world and Another with a 50/50 chance of Serge surviving. In other words, the time egg split the dimensions, but only in one of them is Kid's desire of saving Serge fulfilled. Is this event really unique however?

Consider Chronopolis for a moment, and its claim of being able to observe other dimensions. Radical Dreamers is at least one of those dimensions, since we can read about it within Chronopolis while playing Chrono Cross. In effect, Radical Dreamers is absolutely canon. Not just in the usual "they're from the same series/same director, 'cept one game got retconned for another"² sort of way; no, Radical Dreamers is part of the same timeline as Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, just more of an "other" timeline. Another world. See where I'm going with this?

It's a general concensus that, in Radical Dreamer's storyline, Crono is dead. Kid says as much by saying that Lucca wanted to bury the Frozen Flame "at her old friend's grave" so that he could be able to rest with it. Kid even has Lucca's old time egg (though, admittedly, it could be a prototype like the one she gave Kid in Chrono Cross). So how did Crono die? He died in 12000 BC, during the group's first encounter with Lavos, where Marle and the others, using the time egg, failed to save him. Except they also did save him. We just have two dimensions from this point forward: One where Crono lives (Chrono Cross), and one where Crono dies (Radical Dreamers).

¹ There's actually one other time when a time egg is used: While Kid's in her coma, Masa, Mune, and Doreen charge her prototype time egg to send Serge back in time to the burning of the orphanage. But this whole event never made much sense to begin with, since it suggests a paradox--Kid goes back in time to save Serge from drowning because Serge goes back in time to save her from burning, etc. And why was she in a coma "bound by the past" in the first place? Unless her proximity to the Frozen Flame in Chronopolis, while also carrying a time egg, triggered an event similar to what happened in Radical Dreamers... That would have been nice for the writers to touch on.

² Though I admit, this is likely how the directors think of Radical Dreamers. Even Masato Kato expressed embarassment with the final game.

TL;DR: Time eggs are like Schrodinger's cat, both fulfilling their users' desires while also creating an alternate dimension in which that desire is not met. Crono/Serge is both simultaneously saved/not saved, and as such, Radical Dreamers is to Chrono Trigger what the Home world is to Another. And if eggs = cats, and cats = Entity, then who was phone?

[Razig]

That's a good theory. Although all else being equal, I'd wonder why Schala reincarnated herself in RD but cloned herself in CC.

[skylark]

That kinda begs a question. Since a Time Egg has been used in every game so far, and Chrono Break was supposed to be a thing, could this mean there are more Time Eggs?

Also, the title looked like it was going to say Time Eggs Breakfast but it didn't, and then you go on to say you're making omelettes. Stop making me hungry, man!

[Kodokami]

That's a good theory. Although all else being equal, I'd wonder why Schala reincarnated herself in RD but cloned herself in CC.

Good question. In one of Radical Dreamers' side quests (so not the main story, mind), Magil suggests that Lavos would make a suitable host for Kid, which indicates Lavos still lives. It's possible that after Crono's death, the party lost motivation or failed to defeat Lavos. Thus, with nothing standing in her way, Lavos had no reason to keep Schala around and become the Dream/Time Devourer.

As a counterpoint: Magil's dialogue with Kid about the owner of the Masamune suggests that he and Glenn put aside their past and are no longer enemies. This means that the party spared Magus and likely recruited him to defeat Lavos.

That kinda begs a question. Since a Time Egg has been used in every game so far, and Chrono Break was supposed to be a thing, could this mean there are more Time Eggs?

Also, the title looked like it was going to say Time Eggs Breakfast but it didn't, and then you go on to say you're making omelettes. Stop making me hungry, man!

Mwahaha

But yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if there were more time eggs. Gaspar could make them. Lucca was developing her own. Belthasar had one in his possession, which isn't surprising since he founded Chronopolis; he may have picked up Gaspar's research.

---

Adding another, admittedly, far-fetched point to my original idea: If time eggs are isolated Gates, and the Entity has the power to create Gates at will, can the Entity create similar branching dimensions? Maybe Gaspar started his research based on that.

So maybe, in the very beginning, the Entity foresaw Lavos' approach, and split time like a time egg would, creating a dimension where Lavos crashed (all the events we play) and one where she didn't (giving rise to the Lost Sanctum, dragonians, Dinopolis, etc.).

I dunno.

[xcalibur]

You could say that new timelines and time-forks hatch out of the Eggs.

In fact, this is backed up by in-game text, referring to the Chrono Trigger as "pure potential".

[Michael Zeal]

Well, Kid having Schala's memories unlocked would explain why she suddenly knew about the Counter-Time Experiment, Terra Tower, the Dragon Gods, etc. when she gave out that plot dump before going into a coma; the Dragon God was eaten by the Time Devourer. Makes sense.

The theory in general seems to make perfect sense. Only hole in it is that I don't think it was outright said that Kid used a Time Egg to save Serge. Would make sense if she did, though.