Time, the fourth dimension, and the most difficult to control. Is it any wonder then, that the few who can control it are quite powerful, and those that misuse this power can have devastating effects on reality itself?
Time manipulation, when executed well, is a neat game mechanic. It’s also one that makes you feel powerful – how can you win against someone who can stack the deck in ways you can’t? Amongst those who have mastery over time, these time lords are a cut above.
7 Max Caulfield – Life Is Strange
Though Max is not physically intimidating, nor is she really one for a fight, she has some powerful, yet precise ways to control time. She can rewind time to try out other options or work with information she wouldn’t have normally had.
She can freeze time while remaining mobile herself, and if she has a picture of herself, can send her current consciousness to that time and alter the timeline. So Max can not only control time, but reality itself. She uses her powers in the most dangerous battlefield of all, the high school social arena.
6 Ekko – League Of Legends
Ekko is a teenage scrapper from the mean streets of Zaun, who’s good in a fight and with tech even without any time shenanigans. However, with Z-Drive empowered time technology, getting Ekko on the back foot becomes a nearly impossible task, unless he’s in Iron.
If he can land enough hits, he not only deals a good chunk of damage, but steals your time, temporarily making him faster and you slower. He can throw out grenades that will slow and even stop anyone caught in the blast. Most powerful of all, his ability to rewind time, blasting anyone in his landing zone for good measure.
5 Blinx – Blinx: The Time Sweeper
Once a strong contender for becoming the mascot of the fledgeling Xbox brand, poor Blinx has ironically enough, been forgotten to the sands of time. However, he was an impressive cat, both in his own game and in the history of the industry in general – walking, so that future games time-based games could run.
In his eponymous game, Blinx’s Time Sweeper allows him a suite of powerful ways to manipulate time. He can rewind time locally to repair and reset nearby objects or get himself out of a pickle. He can pause time, rendering everything immobile except himself, allowing for some free hits. His fast-forward ability not only makes him much faster, but renders him invincible, and his slow-mo makes everything around him slow down to a crawl.
His most interesting ability, however, was Record, It rendered him invulnerable for a set amount of time, where he could act freely. Once the time passed, he would reset to his starting position and create a clone that would carry out the recorded actions.
4 The Prince – Prince Of Persia: The Sands of Time
Even without the Dagger of Time, the nameless protagonist of The Sands of Time is a formidable combatant, showing peerless physical strength, agility, and martial skill bordering on supernatural.
However, with the Dagger of Time, he’s nigh unstoppable. The Dagger gives him the ability to freeze opponents in place, speed himself up to attack with blinding speed, and combine both abilities to clear out a room in the blink of an eye.
Never mind that he’s almost invincible, given that he can just rewind time to get out of a jam. And good luck if you’re planning to trap him – the Dagger also gives him visions of possible futures to work with.
3 Sakuya Izayoi – Touhou
Though she’s a mortal with a humble occupation, the Scarlet Devil Mansion’s sole maid, Sakuya Izayoi is not one to be messed with. The sheer power and control over time and space she has is godlike – stretching the definition of the word “mortal”. Sakuya’s mastery over time rivals that of gods themselves, with the caveat that she can only control it in one direction, forward.
While that’s quite a limitation for a time manipulator, it’s hard to say that when she has so many ways to control time. She can control the rate of time of individual objects – capable of slowing down, speeding up, and even stopping them in place. This includes herself, making her functionally ageless. She can also straight up delete objects from reality and manipulate space so that multiple instances of her can exist at a time. Funnily enough, she mostly uses her powers to keep the spacious mansion she works at spotless all by herself. Nevertheless, if you get on her bad side, you may end up finding an infinite amount of knives flying your way.
2 Ultimecia – Final Fantasy 8
The big bad of Final Fantasy 8, and supreme Sorceress of time, Ultimecia is a powerful magic-user with a Machiavellian mindset. In addition to having access to the most powerful elemental spells magic has to offer, she is a master of time magic.
With her ability to possess other sorceresses across time, she can carry out her machinations and prepare a future where she always wins. Not only that, her power also works the other way, as she can summon the collective power of all the sorceresses that ever existed. Her evil plan succeeds, as she creates a world where all time exists at one point, under her control. Her only downfall was a bunch of teenagers and the power of love and friendship.
1 Kronika – Mortal Kombat 11
A Titan born at the dawn of time, Kronika is a being even greater than the Elder Gods. In fact, she’s the mother of Shinnok and Cetrion. As the Keeper of Time, she naturally controls it, with the ability to create, erase, and even fuse timelines at a whim – which is why Mortal Kombat 11 is full of temporal weirdness. This also explains the arcade ladder endings throughout the series, basically being rejected timelines in Kronika’s design.
In addition to controlling reality, she can stop time in whatever configuration she wishes or even erase her enemies from the timeline. She can also summon combatants from other timelines to fight for her with unquestioning loyalty, and when all else fails, she can just spam time projectiles. However, she does have limitations, such as lacking omniscience, and requiring an outside energy source for her time control.
