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Time Stands Still: Difference between revisions
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Occasionally [[Handwaved]] by saying that the characters aren't really stopping time, they're just [[Super Speed|speeding themselves (and their minds) up]] to a point where everything else seems stopped. To emphasize this, sometimes you'll get a shot of something that should move really fast, like the wings of a hummingbird, moving very slowly. This means that the illusion of time standing still can be achieved with enough raw [[Super Speed]]. And sometimes it goes the other way, with time manipulation being the explanation for a character's [[Super Speed]]. Of course, if they're really going that much faster than everything else, they would need lots of [[Required Secondary Powers]] to move normally.
More rarely [[Handwaved]] or [[Justified Trope|semi-justified]] if the character's power behaves like a personal [[Faster
Tends to require (often contrived) reasons for [[Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?|the character not being able to win every fight they ever participate in]]... which, depending on how Super his Speed really is, could be every single fight in a city, country, or planet. Usually doesn't offer any reason whatsoever for the character being able to [[The Air Not There|move through and breathe time-frozen air]], see despite the time-frozen light and such.
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* Played with in one [[Donald Duck]] comic story, "Super Snooper Strikes Back". Donald gains temporary superpowers, and tries to prove it to his nephews by running around the world super fast. But he soon realizes that his super-speed manifests itself by making everything else seem to stand still--so, even though the trip might seem fast to his nephews, it will still be incredibly long and boring to him! He decides to come up with a different test.
** In another story (both are from [[Don Rosa]] by the way), "On Stolen Time", Gyro has invented a stopwatch. A ''literal'' stopwatch. It freezes time for everyone who's not standing within about thirty feet/ten meters of the watch when it's activated. While others see the user teleporting from place to place and things disappearing and appearing, the user sees world frozen around him. At one point, Donald and his nephews manage to get into stopped time with the Beagle Boys, and a chase ensues, with such tricks as the ducks cutting across a pond to catch up with the Beagle Boys, Donald crashing against a butterfly and the Beagle Boys using flying pigeons as a ladder to escape.
* Marvel character [
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* The ''[[Homestuck]]'' fanfic [http://archiveofourown.org/works/108641/chapters/150305 "Scratch"]. It features [[Time Master|Dave]], as described below in ''Homestuck'''s entry in the webcomic section, who accidentally damages the magical turntables that give him time powers, thus freezing time permanently unless he keeps moving the turntables by hand.
** It's a [[Dead Fic]], unfortunately. It kinda became frozen in time after the third chapter.
* ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Anime)|Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'''s {{spoiler|Homura}} tries this on ''[[
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** MacDonald's novel tries to address some of the physics problems noted: Although the watch seems to freeze time completely, it actually slows it to a crawl, as a fired bullet still has a perceptible movement. Due to the slowdown, the air is thick and hinders movement, and everything appears to be red (presumably due to photon speed alterations).
* Larry Niven's ''[[Known Space]]'' series features several time-stopping force fields, e.g. the Slaver stasis field technology.
* The History Monks from ''[[Discworld]]'' have a version of this ability -- the Stance of the Coyote, for example, freezes time when in midfall (a [[Shout
** In the same series, characters such as Death, his fellow Horsemen, and his granddaughter Susan, can move around "outside time". Milkman Ronnie Soak, the Horseman Formerly Known As Kaos, uses this talent to get milk delivered on time every morning. That is to say he delivers the milk at 7 am every morning, to everyone in the city ''at the same time''.
** Slicing may be a [[Deconstruction]], since it has a number of requirements to avoid the [[The Air Not There|"solid air" problem]]. At deeper levels, you see red/blue shift and have to keep moving so the air in your personal [[Bullet Time]] pocket won't all get used up.
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* In ''[[There and Back Again]]'' by Pat Murphy, Bailey finds a metal Mobius strip with the ability to alter the flow of time in a bubble around it, and frequently uses it to speed himself up to the point where everyone else is effectively stopped.
* This is a focal point of [[Stephen King]]'s short story "The Jaunt" - {{spoiler|the titular teleporation system appears to send things through it instantaneously, but sentient minds perceive the transit as an "eternity", to quote the first human test subject, with corresponding physical aging.}}
* ''[[The Alloy of Law (Literature)|The Alloy of Law]]'' contains Wayne, who can generate a speed bubble where time goes much faster than outside, and {{spoiler|Marasi}}, who can make one where time goes much ''slower''. The second one is considered [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|pretty much useless]]. {{spoiler|Until they need to ''stall for time''}}
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**** [[A Wizard Did It|A witch did it?]]
**** The Cleaners also had the power to stop time, and it was a much more grand effect then Piper's; also angels of fate could do it, the demon of time can do it for a quick burst, in the [[Spin-Off|comic book]] Wyatt can perform a version of slow-time which only makes things appear to stop at first.
* In the ''[[
** There's also a moment in the second episode of Season 1 when the Doctor appears to slow down time to solve a pendulum-of-death puzzle. However, this is probably a Flash-type scenario where he's actually speeding up his mental perceptions so that time seems to slow around him.
** And then there's the Key to Time from the classic series, which briefly stopped time for the ''entire rest of the universe''.
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** Something similar to the Sarah-Jane example happens in the DW 2011 finale, only it happens to all of history instead of just a few people. The result: Holy Roman Emperor Winston Churchill, pterodactyls in public parks, and cars being carried across London by hot-air balloon. People are still aware and moving, but all the clocks have stopped and the date is always the same. Only a few people notice anything wrong with this.
* In the Mexican superhero comedy ''[[El Chapulin Colorado]]'' the hero occasionally had a gadget that allowed him to do this. He mostly used it to arrange embarrassing accidents for the bad guys.
* In the ''[[Friday the
* Hiro from ''[[Heroes (TV)|Heroes]]'' uses this ability often, as part of his more general ability to manipulate time.
** Season 3 revealed that he doesn't actually stop time, he just slows it down. Daphne, a speedster, is able to notice when using her powers and can speed herself up to compensate. It's also revealed that Hiro doesn't know if his ability is localized, or not. However, since he later carries a frozen Ando a considerable distance in a wheelbarrow with time staying frozen all around him, it seems likely that he's actually speeding himself up relative to the universe as a whole rather than freezing time in a localized area around him.
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* The stopwatch in the ''[[Castlevania]]'' games freezes enemies in time (except bosses). Later games gave it a reverse-color effect on the background to show it was in effect (like in ''[[Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure (Manga)|Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure]]'') and in ''Portrait of Ruin'', and weapons thrown while it's in effect will freeze in place after they're thrown (this includes ''knives'', JoJo's fans...).
** Though if Time Stop is used in ''Portrait of Ruin'', the grandfather clocks still move.
** The [[Shout
** [[Time Master|Aeon]] from ''Judgment'' is also able to inflict this as part of his [[Limit Break|finishing move]].
** Certain enemies in ''Symphony of the Night'' are not frozen by this effect - particularly spirits and ghosts - and others are only slowed in a [[Bullet Time]]-esque fashion rather than outright stopped. It's also necessary to use the stopwatch in certain rooms in order to access a couple of hidden areas. {{spoiler|Using it in the Clock Room is the only way to open the right-hand tunnel, for example.}}
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* A stopwatch appears in ''[[Super Mario Bros 2 (Video Game)|Super Mario Bros 2]]'' if you pull five large vegetables. Freeze effect is accompanied by a ticking sound.
* Weapons that do this show up from time to time in the ''[[Mega Man (Video Game)|Mega Man]]'' games. Flash Man's Time Stopper is probably the most famous.
** In ''[[Rockman No Constancy (Video Game)|Rockman No Constancy]]'', Flash Man's weapon is called [[Shout
** There's also Bright Man and his weapon (Flash Stopper) in ''4'', Centaur Man (but not his weapon) in ''6''. Also Dark Hold in ''[[Mega Man X (Video Game)|Mega Man X]] 5''.
*** And then of course there's Chronoforce from ''[[Mega Man ZX]] Advent'', who literally ''freezes the very fabric of time itself''. Also makes the game...[[Game Breaker|easier]].
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* The fourth ending of ''[[Drakengard]]''. Trying to describe the [[Hand Wave|logic behind it]] would drive me insane, so here's what happens: {{spoiler|Seere, who is immortal because his time was taken away from him as a result of his pact, meets up with the Queen Mother of the [[Cosmic Horror|Grotesqueries]], who can, for some reason, control time. When they meet, all time around the Queen Mother freezes, manifesting physically as a giant black conical spire that can be viewed from space.}} This is admittedly one of the weakest plot points in the whole game, but they really backed themselves into a corner with that ending anyway.
* Sakuya Izayoi, from the ''[[Touhou]]'' series, uses [[Time Master|time-manipulation]] as her main power, allowing her to perform such feats as throwing an unlimited barrage of knives (retrieving them midway via time-stop), [[Ninja Maid|or doing all the housework perfectly.]]
** Not coincidentally, one of her spell cards is named "[[Shout
* In the Roger Zelazny-authored game ''Chronomaster'', the protagonist travels through pocket universes which have had their time stopped. Possibly [[Justified Trope|justified]], in that the protagonist is surrounded by a bubble of time allowing him to breathe and interact with the world and characters. Walking next to a bird frozen in mid-flight, for example, would see this bird continue flying while it is inside the field of this time bubble. One puzzle also involves {{spoiler|giving a capsule full of "time" to an NPC, to gain his help}}.
* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' the Bronze (acting as [[Time Police]]) and Infinite (interlopers trying to change timeline) Dragonflights have access to this amongst other time-related magic. On some occasions these powers are granted to players to use, such as in an Occulus instance where you can ride Bronze Drakes who can freeze everybody except your party in the whole area – it gets most use during the final boss battle of the instance, where you have to freeze him when he increases his attack.
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* ''[[Fable]] II'' has this behind one of the demon doors for creepy value. Complete with monochrome.
** Both games also had a slow time spell that goes monochrome but that's not a full stop
* ''[[Unreal Tournament (Video Game)|Unreal Tournament]]'' provides an example of this: start a match against bots, bring up the console and type in: ''playersonly''. This will freeze time. [[Very
* In one of the worlds in ''[[Braid (Video Game)|Braid]]'', the movement of time is linked to Tim's movement. When Tim walks forward, time flows forward; when Tim walks back, time flows backwards. Time stops when Tim stands still.
* A [[Standard Status Effect|common status effect]] in RPG's (especially the [[Final Fantasy|Final Fantasy series]]) is Stop. It does [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin]]. The victim is essentially petrified, unable to take any actions. Sadly, [[Useless Useful Spell|it's usually far more effective on you than it is on your enemies]].
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[[Category:Time Tropes]]
[[Category:Time Stands Still]]
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