"A time freeze. I never thought it possible."
— Magus, Chrono Trigger
"ZA WARUDO! Toki yo tomare! ...Soshite toki wa ugokidasu." Translation
"Tomare! Jikan yo, tomare!" Translation
— Sailor Pluto, Sailor Moon Crystal
"Watashi no sekai..." Translation
"Time, be still!"
— Megumi Kitaniji, The World Ends with You
Shout at time, and command it to obey, as the world around you stands still.
— The description for the Slow Time shout, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
"TIME, I COMMAND YOU TO STOP!"
— Pearl, Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion
Due to lack of interest, tomorrow is canceled
Let the clocks be reset, and the pendulums held.
Let the clocks be reset, and the pendulums held.
— Kaiser Chiefs, "Ruby"
TIME FREEZE: Temporarily freezes all enemies, leaving them at your mercy. (Spoiler alert: You have no mercy.)
— Weapon X Flavor Text, Dead Metal
If I could save time in a bottle, the first thing that I'd like to do
Is save every day 'til eternity passes away, just to spend them with you...
Is save every day 'til eternity passes away, just to spend them with you...
— Jim Croce, "Time in a Bottle"
"Time flows like a river. In Tolaria we practice the art of building dams."
— "Rewind" Flavor Text, Magic: The Gathering
"PAUSE! ...Restart."
[Gaunter just froze time for everyone except him and Geralt]
Geralt: Are you really stopping time, or is this just an illusion inside my head?
Gaunter: What's the difference?
Geralt: Like day and night.
Geralt: Are you really stopping time, or is this just an illusion inside my head?
Gaunter: What's the difference?
Geralt: Like day and night.
Vast is the sea, its waves reaching horizons far and wide;
eternal is the radiance of its azure womb.
And so let us ride this moment and dash forth, swift as light, quick as a star eternal.
Hear my plea, and grant this one wish:
the world longs for an era of peace; days that know not strife.
In a world where only peace is lord, and men join hands in liberty…
Allow me to sing but this,
Halt, O time, for thou art fair beyond measure.
I wish upon your unending star – guide me to heights unknown!
eternal is the radiance of its azure womb.
And so let us ride this moment and dash forth, swift as light, quick as a star eternal.
Hear my plea, and grant this one wish:
the world longs for an era of peace; days that know not strife.
In a world where only peace is lord, and men join hands in liberty…
Allow me to sing but this,
Halt, O time, for thou art fair beyond measure.
I wish upon your unending star – guide me to heights unknown!
— Ren Fujii singing the aria of his law, Dies Irae
There were a dozen long tables down the middle of the room.
People sat at the tables, eating. Only... they weren't eating. They were holding forks. They were looking down at plates of food. They were getting ready to speak. They were holding mugs of coffee.
But no one was moving.
No one was breathing.
The steam rising from the mugs of coffee was frozen and still as a photograph.
People sat at the tables, eating. Only... they weren't eating. They were holding forks. They were looking down at plates of food. They were getting ready to speak. They were holding mugs of coffee.
But no one was moving.
No one was breathing.
The steam rising from the mugs of coffee was frozen and still as a photograph.
"When I woke up some time after passing out, I'd had the power to stop time for as long as I could hold my breath, the ability to stretch brief moments out. I'd had the ability to think, plan, and consider my actions. Every action I took, my power gave me the time to think them through."
— Emma Barnes, Intrepid
"Imperial Battleship! Halt! The flow — of time!!!"
— The Emperor of the Galaxy, Starcrash
Even though only three seconds had gone by between Kara's red boots touching the dirt of the ancient arena and the first blow being struck, it was enough time for her to size up her adversary, her surroundings, and her situation.
Time slowed down, subjectively, for normal human beings in a crisis situation. It gave you time to react in a way that might save your life.
Kryptonians were no different. Except that, under suns that weren't red, their senses were much superior to that of a normal human's, and their memory capacity so much greater. Their motive ability was beyond lightspeed. When activated, their reaction time rivalled that of The Flash.
So Kara had the time to note the presence of about 8,500 people packed into the stands.
Time slowed down, subjectively, for normal human beings in a crisis situation. It gave you time to react in a way that might save your life.
Kryptonians were no different. Except that, under suns that weren't red, their senses were much superior to that of a normal human's, and their memory capacity so much greater. Their motive ability was beyond lightspeed. When activated, their reaction time rivalled that of The Flash.
So Kara had the time to note the presence of about 8,500 people packed into the stands.
Hammond: By my reckoning, I was gone 20 minutes.
Carter: Well, sir, accounting for time spent coming and going, I would guess that time within the SGC facility has slowed to an average of about 600 percent below normal. When you ordered Colonel O'Neill to wait 5 minutes, you were really telling him to wait 6 hours, maybe more.
Hammond: Captain, relativity gives me a headache!
Carter: Well, sir, accounting for time spent coming and going, I would guess that time within the SGC facility has slowed to an average of about 600 percent below normal. When you ordered Colonel O'Neill to wait 5 minutes, you were really telling him to wait 6 hours, maybe more.
Hammond: Captain, relativity gives me a headache!
"You're closer now, aren't you. Yes, I see you are. But closer to tick or closer to tock? I don't know. Only time will tell. And here, between the moments, we have all the time in the world."
— Lorien, Babylon 5
Then Professor March stopped speaking and froze in place.
Alice had stopped, too. The room was silent. A chair creaked. Quentin couldn't move either. There was nothing restraining him, but the line between his brain and his body had been cut. Was the man doing this? Who was he? Alice was still leaned over slightly in his direction, and a fly-away wisp of her hair hung in his field of vision. He couldn't see her eyes; the angle was wrong. Everything and everybody was still. The man on the stage was the only thing in the room still in motion.
Space Fleet Commander Brad Brad sat in silence, surrounded by a slowly dissipating cloud of smoke, maintaining the same forlorn frown that had been fixed upon his face since he’d accidentally destroyed the phenomenon known as time, thirteen inches ago.
— Maxwell Archer, Canada, Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest 2019
