Well, i dont know if this board has a topic like this or not..im not going to sift through 10 pages to find it (sorry, dont have the time, and i didnt see a search function on that board). Now, what makes this series so interesting to me is the aspect of time/space travel. More specifically, how the hell these timelines can still exist without creating time paradoxes which leads to a serious problem.

Of course, the initial time paradox most think about is the one that is created in 1999. The defeat of lavos creates a whole new timeline, which brings a peaceful and life filled world in the year 2300, contrary to the 2300 that was left in ruin. Of course, if Crono and Co. cannot notice the future in ruin, they arent going to save it, which leads to a time paradox.

Now, how can square avoid this? On one timeline alone, its impossible to avoid this, however, on two, with one acting as a fall back, it is. It was said in Chrono Cross that there were multiple timelines in time/space that fell to the hands of lavos. (chronopolis, researcher)...however, the one that they were on was one of the few, if not the only one, that was saved from lavos' wrath. Not only this, the entire game is based on skipping from one world, or timeline, to another, meaning that one can actually travel to a whole differnet timeline. At this point, one can infer that there was one timeline that was used as a fallback during the CT travels in order to save that one timeline from the wrath of lavos.

...well, its a start..and still only a theory. but i would love to hear what the rest of you have for your theories.