

On the other hand, he could still probably go back and find out what really happened, so long as he didn't try to meddle with events. Changing the fate of the Lombaxes would have a huge personal effect, and create a paradox (Lombaxes are safe, so Ratchet wouldn't try to save them) unless they could create some sort of Stable Time Loop. The original version of events on Zanifar and Gimlick Valley had nothing to do with Ratchet, so changing them had no effect on him or the events that resulted in him being there.

Lemme sum it up: the first time-travel in Zanifar was just to find Orvus and stop Nefarious and failing.2) The other explanation is that those portals were a one time thing, only able to be created due to the already existing damage of the Great Clock. Azimuth stopping Tachyon would have affected millions of Lombaxes and the entire Polaris Galaxy, not to mention being a shift of twenty years as opposed to just two. Gimlick Valley was a bit larger, but as only one conflict wouldn't effect more than a few thousand people. At Zanifar Ratchet only interacted with a few people and destroyed a few robots, and failed to do anything noteworthy. This bugged me too, though I have some theories.Also, there is no indication that Ratchet and Clank forget about having fought in the battle, so presumably they wouldn't have forgotten about meeting each other like Azimuth suggested. Why didn't they tell Azimuth he could use that? I know it could be argued that they just decided they didn't want to mess with the timeline, but when they went to the battle of Gimlick Valley, they did it purely out of convenience, because they needed a new space ship.

RATCHET AND CLANK DEADLOCKED CRACK
In A Crack in Time, Ratchet won't let Azimuth use the Great Clock to alter history and prevent Tachyon from destroying the Lombaxes because it could potentially destroy the universe and because it wasn't meant to alter time, only keep it.
