When we were little, we used to ask ourselves: Which superpower is the best? Which one would we like the most? We had different answers, such as flying, telepathy, teleporting… But apart from these questions and those superpowers, there was another specific question in mind: time-travelling or stopping time? These two similar abilities actually differ a lot in different ways.
Let’s think about stopping time. You would have infinite time with limitless freedom. You could go anywhere in no time. For example, you could sit and spend your days in a moment of peaceful sunset. You could observe the raindrops hang on the air in a storm, or you could do ridiculous faces in front of people, but none of them would see it or feel anything at all. But wouldn’t it be depressing after a while when everything around you is paused? As if you are in a photo; no movement, nor any sign of life. Soon you’d be bored wandering around all by yourself. Especially me, as a social butterfly, I would regret my choice at the first hour.
What about time travel? You could go to any period of time, any century, or any war. You could meet your great-grandparents and their great-grandparents if you wish. Why need to stop time if you could rewind it as you want to? I wouldn’t need any other abilities if time were under my control.
Stopping time would be nice, but would it be as good as being able to travel to a time period of my choice? If you ask me, I’d rather choose the second option. If I had the power to go to the past, I would try to see all of the important milestones through time. And I wouldn’t worry if I might change the timeline; I could just go back all over, then stay in the normal time.