Hi, Greg!
I know that it’s already been stated that the Vahi can only slow or speed up time around specific targets, and the Mohtrek brings past versions of one’s self into the present before erasing their memories and sending them back, but would it be possible for characters to travel forward in time via gravity as well?
Without going too much into the realm of physics, basically our perception of time relies on two major factors; how much gravity we are subjected to, and how far away we are from its source. To put that in perspective, our planet’s core is about 2.5 years younger than its crust, the peak of Mt. Everest is roughly 39 hours ahead of sea level, and astronauts returning from extended periods aboard the International Space Station are about 0.005 seconds younger than everyone else who stayed behind on Earth.
So taking that into consideration, let’s say some group of random characters thought that relations between the Spherus Magnan natives and the newly arrived MU inhabitants were going to break down and eventually lead to war, and they theoretically started building a shelter of sorts down near the core of the planet in an effort to ride it out. Would it then be possible, provided that they knew nothing of this beforehand, that upon spending a significant amount of time down there and emerging/returning to the surface, that they completely overshot their mark and wound up somewhere further into the future than they had originally intended? And could individuals capable of gravity manipulation cause themselves or those around them to age slower during the process (not that this really matters, given how long they tend to live anyway), or even enhance/inhibit this phenomenon?
I realize that time travel was always sort of a touchy subject when it came to the Bionicle universe and lore, but since this method would hypothetically only be one-way, and probably wouldn’t include any paradox-related issues, I figured I’d take a chance and ask. Regardless, thank you for taking the time to read through this, and, of course, for everything you did for the theme as a whole.
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No. Time travel cannot be a part of official BIONICLE. It creates too many problems in a story like this.
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This is time travel in a very limited sense of the term. Heck, the actual term for this is Time Dialation. Effectively, this just causes something to move slower than the rest of the universe; effectively sending them into the future. I don’t see any reasons as to why it shouldn’t be possible, especially seeing as how it can happen in our own universe.
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Yes, but I wouldn’t consider it time travel. It’s essentially the same thing as using the Vahi to speed up or slow down time in an area.
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