Plot Device: Hyperbolic Time Chamber
13 years ago
Posts: 157
I've read that the hyperbolic time chamber that was presented in Dragon Ball Z(though I never actually watched it), is many call it a cheap plot device that one can train themselves while the passage of time is faster(or slower?) in the inside. But instead of calling it a cheap plot device, it's actually very risky if used. If you train two years while two days passed in the real world, you'll lose the two years you were suppose to spend in the real world, and things could get complicated in life. Of course this kind of problem doesn't seem to bother the characters who uses it in order to get stronger( or if there in a hurry to surpass their adversary), but what about the characters who are actually concerned about that?
Here's some examples: if a character who is suppose to be in high school trains for three years in a place like a time chamber; nine monthes has passed(three monthes=one year), and that student is now 20-21 years of age, who knows what kind of problems would bring in their school life.
Or if a girl is pregnant and entered the time chamber and stayed there for one month(one month=ten years), her child would be nine years old by the time they get out, and the father would still be in high school then, THAT would be complicated.
It's just me rambling, but I'm really curious on how people would respond to that. If anything else, I would like to know any manga that has those kinds of themes.
13 years ago
Posts: 108
I think in Dragon Ball ChiChi mentions once the difference in her and Goku's ages, due to him being dead or in the Time Chamber half the time. I'd imagine she'd feel very insecure about that. It's interesting to think about, and something I wish they would have attacked in more detail in the series. I would like to see it, or something similar, used in a more serious-minded piece of science fiction that can really examine the implications of such a thing (though I imagine Clarke or Asimov probably wrote about something similar at one point or another).
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