Time travel and the R=U theories (MASSIVE FRICKEN SPOILER WARNING)

[Sir Bahamut]

It's explained clearly by either Edea or Odine, Edea I believe. In order for the spell to take effect, it has to be activated at two different points in time, a certain distance apart. So, she activates it in her own time, then uses her machine and Ellone's power to go back as far as possible and use the spell again. Imagine time as being like a pond. Drop a stone in one point, and you get ripples. Those ripples won't reach the other side, though; they'll just reach the side they're closest to. So, you drop another stone - i.e; cast another spell - at the other side, which represents the past for this purpose. The ripples now extend across both sides of the pond; the spells' influence goes far enough to set off the cascade that'll make time compress. When a building's being demolished, two explosives can do the job, but not if they're in adjacent rooms. They need to be far enough apart that the entire structure is affected. That's my interpretation of how time compression works, based on the brief expanation given in the game.

No, it's not explained clearly by Edea or Odine or both. This is all they have to say about it.

Edeas information: "It's time magic. Past, present, and
future get compressed."

Odines information: "Dr. Odine: You vant to go outside!? You vant to fisticuffs!? Ok, we
continue ze story! Let's see... There is only one way to defeat
Ultimecia. You must kill her in ze future. There iz nothing we can do
unless we go to ze future. There is no way to jump to ze future under
normal circumstances. But there iz still a way! It iz because Sorceress
Ultimecia plans to compress time. Compressing time with magic... Vat good
will it do for ze sorceress to compress time? There may be many
reasons, but it doesn't matter. Let's just figure out vat Ultimecia iz
up to. In order for Ultimecia to exist in this time, she must take over
ze body of a sorceress from ze present. But ze machine must have a
limit. Ultimecia probably needs to go back further in time to achieve
time compression. Only Ellone can take her back further into ze past.
Zat iz why she iz desperately seeking her."

As you can see, neither know anything about why she has to be in the past to activate it, nor exactly what it does.

Your own theory about the ripples works though, if one assumes she casts it at two places.

As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't make a big difference. However, time and space are infinite; so to compress all time in all places would take infinite energy, which is not possible. Even if it's "done by magic". Magic is a manipulation of energy, so it couldn't have that kind of effect. Ultimecia's goal is to absorb the power from every sorceress who ever lived; that's her reason for compressing time. It's also explained if you cast Scan on Ultiimecia at a particular point during the final battle. Thus, she'd need only to compress time around her world, going back far enough to encompass the entirety of human history, thus ensnaring every sorceress.

Again, I need to stress that her motive is NOT explained, not even when you scan her. I have scanned all her forms and it makes no mention of that.
The whole gaining power thing is based off what the tutorial says "may" happen during time compression, nothing else.

But I'll agree it makes for a good motive, which can fit in with ripple theory nicely.

Once again, a clear explanation can be found through a combination of in-game facts and logical conjecture. The team are able to travel to the future while time is compressing, yes. They do that through their own willpower, controlling their passage the way they would a magic spell. Time compression is a form of magic, so this is perfectly logical. It's also consistent with Laguna's instructions. By traversing the beginnings of the compression, they reached Ultimecia's time - where she unleashed the time compression spell. It's possible that the effects of time compression get stronger in the past, and take a while to "catch up" to the future; this'd explain why reality was severely distorted in their own time, but things are slightly less abnormal in Ultimecia's time (NB: The Ragnarok airship and the CC group both moved through time and space, to a different place in the world, during time compression. There's clearly a bit of disruption to Ultimecia's world). But then, during the final battle, time compression progresses. The process is nearing completion when Ultimecia's in her final form; reality has almost entirely dissipated. It is undone when she is defeated and her control over the process is disrupted. Time then de-compresses, and history is largely restored, except for Squall's panic and indecisiveness temporarily returning him to an earlier point in time.

1) About controlling their passage, that is definitely what Laguna says. However, they do not know WHEN Ultimecias reign is, only that is a "many generations" away, a term so ambiguous it would be like randomly jumping off a train in the time it takes to travel a kilometer, and hoping that you just might hit that crucial 1 meter big area you want to get to.

No, all they do is decide WHERE to head for; Edeas Orphanage.
They then are mysteriously enough dropped off at the exact right time.

This either implies they had no choice but to stop riding time compression then, or that they got pretty damn lucky, or that they got there for an unexplainable reason.

If you argue that Squalls time and Ultimecias time had been compressed together, meaning they didn't actually time travel, you still get a problem, as explained in the next point.

2) You missed my point I'm afraid. Here, perhaps this makes it easier to understand:

The reason they are able to get to Ultimecias time is because TC affects time from their own time to Ultimecias time(and much more of course). This allows them to travel by willpower through time compression.
IF TC had not yet linked both times, it would be impossible for them to get to that time.

Now, TC is actually pushing all of time together, so would you agree that their two times are linked because TC pushes them together?
That would seem to be the most logical assumption, don't you think?

This leads us to creating the diagrams you kindly ignored(or thouyght irrelevant, whichever):

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A – B – C – D – E – F – G

D is where Ultimecia casts the spell. E is Squalls present. F is Ultimecias present. B and C are the mirrored events of E and F by D (meaning there’s the same distance between C and D, as there is between D and E and so on and so forth). A is all events prior to B, and G all events following F.
Now we have a much simpler line to deal with.

Firstly, one could say TC starts at the outer boundaries, and is pushed inwards like that:

A – B – C – D – E – F – G --> AB – C – D – E – FG --> ABC – D – EFG --> ABCDEFG = X(compressed time).

When E and F are connected, giving Squall access to Ultimecias time, they should for one be inside TC, and two, TC should be completed within a fraction of a second, considering how fast the rest of time was compressed. Even if it gets slower the closer to finish it gets, it should still be finished very soon after you arrive.
This contradicts the ingame facts.

Secondly, one could say TC starts inwards:

A – B – C – D – E – F – G --> A - B - CDE - F -G --> A - BCDEF - G -->
ABCDEFG = X.

Here, the problem of why TC is not yet finished is explained, as A and G consists of millions of years probably.
However, BCDEF is definitely part of TC, which contradicts that you should be outside of TC.

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Please do try and make your own model based on your ripples theory, but I think you'll find the same problems arise. Either Squall is obviously fighting Ultimecia inside an area of TC, or TC should already be completed(or both).

That is the mystery. That is the thing which makes TC so unexplainable. The games tells us so little about, and on top of that, two of the facts we get even seem to contradict eachother.

The process of time compression is not a "huge mystery", nor is it "completely unexplainable". Of course, if you choose not to believe a particular explanation, that's up to you. However, you'll accomplish nothing by playing games and then saying, "Haha! This makes no sense at all! It's not spelled out in the course of the game, and if anyone has a theory, I can just say that their theory's not in the game either! This proves that the game is stupid and makes no sense!"
Such thinking is pointless. A good story doesn't assume that the audience is stupid, that they need every detail spelled out monosyllabically. Conjecture, theory and personal opinion can add colour and detail, just like the R=U theory.

Excuse me, but in the future, could you please keep your ridiculous, condescending assumptions to yourself, because it only makes YOU look like the idiot here.

Firstly, assuming that I merely played the game and then immediately declared TC as unexplainable is ridiculous, considering I've spent the last year arguing over Time Loops, R=U and TC in topics reaching close to 3000 posts before concluding that it was in fact too mysterious to be explainable.

I thought long and hard, and discussed it with many others(who thankfully didn't jump to baseless assumptions and accusations all the time) before realizing the things I posted above, which I will be waiting for you to make fit into your theory.

Secondly, your telling me that "they [don't] need every detail spelled out" and "conjecture, theory and personal opinion can colour the game" is also ridiculous, considering that I have been arguing FOR R=U for the last year, writing several papers on it, and getting a final paper up on the internet.
You saying that "I can just say your theory isn't in the game" is then espcially ridiculous.

Thirdly and finally, I have not said "this game now makes no sense". All I am saying is that TC appears to be one of those things we were never meant to understand properly, and that I personally think Square decided to go for Cool Factor over Logic.
They even get Squall to say how he could never grasp it.

TC is only a part of the game, and I never stated it makes the entire game stupid.

So please, stop jumping to ridiculous assumptions, and rather concentrate on understanding my actual arguments concerning TC, instead of my character, which is quite frankly irrelevant to the issue.

PS: Forgot to mention in all this, that my own theory is that TC is like two waves being sent off in opposite directions from where it is cast. Once the waves reach the end of the lines(in opposite ends of course), they fall back on eachother, bringing all of time crushing down with them.
Squall and Co ride the initial wave to get to Ultimecias world.

However, I still think it's a unexlainable mystery. My own theory contains it's own flaws anyway.