Theory:Space-time manipulation

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The following fan theories are about space-time manipulation.

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Theories

Theory	Citations	Notes
There is some kind of higher-power/cosmic authority that prevents Hiro from creating paradoxes.	When Hiro seems on the verge of saving Charlie and thus causing a causality paradox, he returns unexpectedly to the present. (Six Months Ago) In the novel Saving Charlie, Hiro makes several attempts over a six month period (though much longer for him) to try and put Charlie out of harm's way. These attempts, along with his first few attempts at intimacy with Charlie, result in Hiro teleporting someplace else relevant to his "destined" mission (i.e. saving Claire), such as the morgue where James Walker's body is being stored.	+ Hiro's forced return to present-day Japan and inability to use his powers to go back and make further attempts to save Charlie Andrews suggest that something is blocking his ability to go back to that specific point in space. + Also, Future Hiro has to get someone else to go back to present-day Odessa to save Claire rather than taking matters into his own hands, perhaps due to his inability to return to that point in space and time due to a rift his past self created. - If this were true, then Hiro shouldn't have been able to change the events of the explosion, because Future Hiro wouldn't have come back and told Peter to save the cheerleader. • If this is true, then it could be the same cosmic authority that controls Hiro's "accidental" time travel, in Genesis, Five Years Gone, and How to Stop an Exploding Man. Perhaps the authority is not simply keeping Hiro from causing paradoxes, but actually making sure he goes where he needs to go. • This "cosmic authority" could be the writers. - Hiro eventually did save Charlie's life (Once Upon a Time in Texas).
Hiro's presence in the past manipulates objects, but not people's memories.	None	- Charlie appears to know Hiro since she says she likes what he does when he blinks. (Seven Minutes to Midnight) + Charlie still had a Japanese phrasebook in the present after Hiro gave it to her in the past. Yet Charlie did not seem to remember Hiro when he first came to Odessa in the present nor did any of Hiro's co-workers at the diner recognize him despite his having worked there six months earlier. The change in the photograph of Charlie's birthday party also shows an object recording a historical event that nobody remembered. - However, when Ando shows the photo to Lynette, she does recognize Hiro, telling him "they were tight". This suggests the common comic book device of a second time dimension - the timeline is changed only "after" the time-traveler goes back in time to change them. • However, this would raise the question of who gave Charlie the Japanese phrase book "before" Hiro traveled back in time. This suggests that the timeline can be changed, but not in a way that would give the time-traveler no reason to travel back in time (which would create a paradox). • It is possible (though unlikely) that "before" Hiro went back in time, someone else had given Charlie a Japanese phrase book for her birthday. - The Novel Saving Charlie explains that Hiro went back in time six months and lived with and fell in love with Charlie Andrews after her death. It was built around the scenes seen in Fallout, Nothing to Hide and Six Months Ago. In it Hiro admits to Charlie his true identity and his powers and after a while tells her when and how she will die. Charlie accepts this and convinces a protesting Hiro that it is her destiny as it is his to stop the bomb. She leaves for work the next day, the day when she meets present day Hiro and then is killed by Sylar. The next day Hiro walks back to the diner and to Ando it seems as if he has been gone a day, not six months. Charlie knew she would die. - Adam Monroe remembers Hiro from his trip to feudal Japan. • We haven't seen Adam before Hiro went to 1671, so we can't be sure.
There is no predestination in the world of Heroes.	Hiro's trip to the past appears to have actually changed past events from his perspective. (Six Months Ago)	+ If Hiro's trip to the past to try and save Charlie were meant to have happened, then all of his former co-workers at the diner (to say nothing of Charlie herself) should have recognized Hiro when he came into the diner for the first time, six months after he had been working there. + From a writing stand-point, it doesn't make sense for Hiro and Isaac to have the powers that they do if they cannot use those powers to change future events. • However, although some events can be changed, it seems that others (such as Charlie's death at the hands of Sylar) are immutable. - But that changed, initially she was killed by Sylar, after Hiro went back in time, she refused to go to Japan because she had an inoperable aneurysm in her brain. He could change how she died, because that was the only reason for him going back in time. + Future Hiro's trip to the past allowed Claire to live five years longer following Sylar's first attempt to kill her. This shows that the timestream can be altered. (Five Years Gone)
A person with the power of space-time manipulation cannot have their memories altered by a change in their own personal timeline. In short, they are immune to the effects of a paradox changing time and if a person changes the past, their own memories of what things were like before the change will remain unaltered. The one exception to this is if they die in another time.	Future Hiro traveled back to talk to Peter to tell him what to do to save Claire. (Hiros) Future Hiro must have figured that Peter, who could copy his power, would remain immune to the affects of any paradox Future Hiro caused by going back in time to deliver the warning. Future Hiro's memories of what the Dark Future was like before he went to talk to Peter remained unchanged, though some details about the past did change. (Five Years Gone) + This would explain why Future Hiro needed to find an exact point to talk to Peter, before they "met for the first time" in the Dark Future. + It would also explain why he chose Peter - who he knew would gain his power and become similarly immune to the effects of paradox. + It would also explain why Sylar, disguised as Nathan, would be so insistent on killing Hiro - especially after it was confirmed to him that Hiro could travel through time.
Future Hiro could only change the time line by warning his past self.	Since a traveler from the future cannot change the past in a way that would prevent him going to the past to change it, Hiro found it necessary to imbue one in the present with the knowledge that could change that.	+ Hiro is at least somewhat free of normal space/time continuum rules. But not completely. By learning of the future and then going back to his original time, Hiro retained free will and can now actively work to change to future. + This helps with the "rift" problem that Hiro alluded to with Peter. By traveling to Peter and Hiro exclusively, beings who possessed his power and by extension his immunity to the "rules", he was able to change the future and quite possibly, eradicate his existence. Because the past Hiro knew of the future, the knowledge remained in place even without the Future Hiro having to necessarily exist.
Theoretically, if Hiro can bend space and time, he could make himself look younger, physically become younger and make himself invisible.	None	- Bodily aging is caused by physical degradation of the body over time, not time itself. + If the user had full control over his power, he or she could reverse time on their bodies (making themselves physically younger), whilst keeping it still on their minds, to retain their memories and identity.
Space-time manipulation is actually the power to manipulate dimensions around oneself.	None	+ Time and space are both dimensions, the first three being space, and the fourth being time. + Noah Bennet said that all the evolved humans with whom the Company has come in contact have only had one power each. + It would seem that Hiro's space-time manipulation is different from ether time travel or teleportation. His power moves both these forces around himself, where as a time traveler would move through time, and a teleporter through space. - Future Mohinder explained to a skeptical Future Parkman that Hiro could time travel. "Hiro Nakamura can stop time, teleport by folding space, theoretically he can fold time as well". Hiro does not move through space when he teleports, space folds so that his location and the location he wants to be become the same place for a moment. If a time traveler moved "through" time instead of folding it, it would seem like they would then have to age however they would have if they had naturally aged to whatever point in time they went to.
If Hiro actually rewound time rather than teleporting, he would be able to change the past.	None	+ When Charlie was killed, if Hiro rewound the time, he would be there to prevent it. + It appears that Hiro can rewind time around localized objects such as a clock or a bullet fired at him.
The timeline can't be changed. All the time travelers will travel to "when" they must travel. The destiny is already written and can't be changed.	None	+ Despite all efforts from Hiro, he couldn't save Charlie. + Hiro was meant to be Takezo Kensei, the stories that young Hiro listen was of him being Kensei. - Kensei already existed, Hiro only made history know him as he did. + The ancient artworks of Kensei showed an Asian man not a Caucasian. • There are many times where artwork shows the artist's perception of a historical figure and it may not be their actual appearance, such as many pictures of Jesus Christ depicting him as Caucasian even though he was born to a Middle Eastern mother. - Hiro from explosion future said to Peter he was risking a rift. (Hiros) - Hiro time traveled fourteen years into the past and prevented Kimiko from developing a disliking of Ando. (Jump, Push, Fall) - In Once Upon a Time in Texas, Hiro worked really hard to keep the timeline intact.
Since this ability allows user to bend space, they can perform flight.	None	• A space-time manipulator can possibly move from one location to another without teleporting, but rather moving themselves all the way. - It's redundant to make the effort to fly when you can teleport. - The ability can't propel its user the same way as flight. + Says who? In Volume Three we saw a new trick - sending someone elsewhere without teleporting oneself to that location. Now that there are no more people with this ability, we can't discover other secrets it may keep, yet it's possible there are. - It was still teleporting, Matt didn't fly from America to Africa, dimensions were manipulated to send him there. - Since the user of the ability isn't frozen by it, it wouldn't work, since gravity would still affect the user. + What does gravity have to do with bending space? - Gravity is related to time because it affects the speed motion of things, and since time is related to space, so is gravity. • By that logic, gravity should be slowed down to a near halt when time is stopped. • It could have a selective effect, depending if the person is frozen in time, or if the person is the one freezing time. + If time and space can be bent, so can gravity, and a space-time manipulator may still perform flight. • We never saw a space-time manipulator who fell in a frozen time, so we can't be sure about gravity. - Yes, we can - the time does not stop completely, it slows down. + In season one, Hiro moved a bullet back through time by itself, not teleported. It stands to reason that something can be moved through space by the same ability • Hiro was actually reversing time when Hope shot him. • If this can manipulate time, fold time and space, it should manipulate space this would include gravity and dimensions. That could affect flight, gravitional manipulation, telekineticaly when the user move things.
Hiro can control the speed and direction at the destination of whatever he teleports.	None	+ Hiro teleports directly from Tokyo to New York City. The speed of the ground in New York City would be roughly 55 miles per hour faster relative to Tokyo, but Hiro emerges stationary. • The different in speed is due to the fact that Tokyo is further north than New York City, which means the circumference it travels is smaller in the same time period, which means it rotates faster.
Hiro becomes frozen in time, because he (unwillingly) accelerates it very much.	It was confirmed that when Hiro freezes time, it doesn't really stop, Hiro just slows it to a near halt.	+ Logically, by accelerating time, Hiro would become very slow and effectively freeze.
Travel through time eventually causes a fatal brain tumor.	Arnold died of a tumor and Hiro has been diagnosed with one.	• Samuel states that "his [Arnold's] body couldn't take the strain". (Once Upon a Time in Texas) - Hiro got the tumor before he could time travel again. - Masi Oka said in an interview that Hiro got the tumor because he took others into frozen time, which overloaded his brain. • Maybe Arnold also did that. • Neither Arthur Petrelli nor Peter Petrelli showed signs of a tumor, and Future Hiro seemed perfectly healthy. This could be because neither Arthur nor Peter used time travelling as extensively as Hiro.
"Freezing" time doesn't stop time for the entire world, but speeds time up for the user until the point where they're moving so fast the entire world appears to have stopped around them.	None	+ It would take an absurd amount of power to stop time for the entire earth, but it wouldn't take nearly as much to speed time up for the user, which would essentially achieve the same effect. + Daphne could move when Hiro froze time. She suggested Hiro only slows it, and it was confirmed by BTE. - However, BTE also said this happens everywhere. The entire world freezes when Hiro uses his ability.