Issue 4.9: From Seconds to Epochs, Part 4
Chrono Cross... Time... Choice... Meaning... Magus... What Does it all MEAN?!
Game & Word Volume 4, Issue 9: Sunday, Dec. 18, 2022
Publisher: Jay Rooney
Author, Graphics, Research: Jay Rooney
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Special Thanks:
YOU, for reading this issue.
Table of Contents
Summary & Housekeeping
Feature: “From Seconds to Epochs, Part 4” (~28-minute read)
Food for Talk: Discussion Prompts
Further Reading
Game & Word-of-Mouth
Footnotes
Summary:
Today, we’ll finally wrap up our mega-analysis of Chrono, choice, fate, and the nature of time!
Housekeeping:
SCHEDULING UPDATE: There will be no new issue of Game & Word on Sunday, December 25, 2022, for what I hope are obvious reasons. I wish you all a wonderful holiday season, and hope you have a wonderful, festive week, no matter who or where you are.
Game & Word will resume publishing on January 1, 2022. To stay in touch before then, be sure to join the Game & Word Subscriber Chat:
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Previous Issues
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Feature: From Seconds to Epochs, Part 4
🚨🚨🚨 SPOILER ALERT 🚨🚨🚨
This post is one big, ginormous WALKING SPOILER for the ENTIRE Chrono Series (Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, and Radical Dreamers). Seriously, you really should experience this story firsthand. Chrono Trigger is easy to play and readily accessible on PC and mobile. A bundle with the remastered Chrono Cross and officially-translated Radical Dreamers is available on PC and all major consoles, though the former’s barrier to entry (gameplay-wise) is much higher. If all else fails, there’s always YouTube.
If you’re at all able to, I cannot recommend enough that you play before reading this article.
👾🤔🤷 CONFUSED? ➡ NEW GAMING GLOSSARY! 📚💬🧑🎓
Confused by any of the gaming jargon, slang, lingo, or other “insider terminology” on this newsletter? Just click on the term and it’ll take you to its entry on Game & Word’s comprehensive and user-friendly Glossary of Gaming Terms!
⚖️⚖️⚖️ ETHICS DISCLOSURE ⚖️⚖️⚖️
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⚠️⚠️⚠️ CONTENT WARNING ⚠️⚠️⚠️
Thinking too much about things like time can do strange things to one’s brain. If something doesn’t make sense, don’t force it, let the mystery be, and touch some grass for a bit. Game & Word assumes no responsibility for any existential crises incurred in the course of reading this newsletter, and you do so at your own risk. If you start feeling strained, take a step back and give your mind a break. It’s all you have. 💙
Welcome back, time travelers! Ok, we’re in the home stretch! Let’s finish this.
Where Angels Lose Their Way
As I mentioned last week, the most important story arc to wrap up this series is that of Schala's younger brother, Janus (later Magus). To put it in the most simplified terms: Magus is the most significant figure in the entire Chrono universe,being the only one to appear in all three Chrono games (Trigger, Cross, and prequel/spinoff Radical Dreamers), and understanding him is key to connecting all the tangled timelines and making sense of the story.
I promise, all the headaches you endured last week will pay off today.
To start, let's quickly recap his backstory. As previously mentioned, Janus was a prince of Zeal, and like everyone else who witnessed the Ocean Palace incident, was catapulted forward through time. Janus ended up in ~580 A.D.,1 where he eventually became leader of the Fiends, a race of magic-wielding monsters who have a serious axe to grind against humans.
Now… let us proceed.
Magus lives up to his new name, quickly earning a reputation as a prolific and ruthless mage. His mysterious aura—how nobody seems to know anything about his past, how he seemingly (well, actually) appeared out of nowhere—only adds to his fearsome persona. When he and his fiend army invade the human Kingdom of Guardia, he seems nigh unstoppable, and quickly steamrolls the non-magical humans’ paltry defenses. He easily slays Cyrus, leader of Guardia’s Knights of the Square Table, and turns his squire, Glenn, into a Frog (who later becomes a playable character).
And then, just as suddenly as he appeared, Magus disappears without a trace. Lost and panicked without their fearsome leader, the fiend invaders are eventually defeated by Guardia’s knights. They fall back to their island stronghold, never to challenge humanity’s dominion again.
Fast forward to 1,000 A.D., as the sun rises on a new millennium. Magus’ legend endures. His name is still spoken—by humans, in whispers; by fiends, in mournful chants. And Magus may well have remained a mere memory, a temporal flash in the pan destined to fade into history, then myth, then legend, then nothingness…
…That is, if a certain spiky-haired boy, his inventor friend, and a princess in disguise hadn’t accidentally leapt into a time gate back to 600 A.D.
Tears of the Magus
Crono and Magus’ paths crossing is one of the most significant moments in the Chrono timeline, surpassed only by Lavos’ arrival in 65,000,000 B.C.—it’s so consequential that the full extent of its significance only becomes clear after finishing all three Chrono games. And the changes that ripple through the timeline start long before the two foes actually meet.
For instance, remember poor Glenn? Turns out that murdering someone’s mentor and then turning him into a frog tends to give that someone a strong motive to seek revenge on you. And when time-traveling interlopers get the frog to snap out of his rut, rise up to the challenge, and wield a mystical sword that literally cuts through the shadows to open a path to your stronghold… well, let’s just say it tends to complicate your plans.
But wait… what were Magus’ plans in leading an invasion against Guardia? The fiends’ motives are clear—they hold a burning grudge against humanity for some past defeat. But Magus is himself a human, and even taking into account he’s lived amongst fiends far longer than amongst humans, it’s unclear what exactly he hoped to gain through his invasion.
But one thing is clear—Magus was trying to summon Lavos. Which would explain his sudden disapperance; the last time he was in Lavos’ presence, he got flung thousands of years into the future. If he were successful in summoning Lavos, he could’ve fallen into another temporal vortex (assuming he wasn’t just killed outright). His motives here are far clearer, too—Lavos took him away from everything he know, and the one person he loved: Schala. Whether he wanted revenge, to find Schala, or both, you understand his reasoning.
And once Crono hears that Magus was summoning Lavos before suddenly disappearing in 600 A.D., well, then their meeting becomes inevitable. And from the very instant they first lock eyes, their paths forever bind to each other.
Part of it’s due to Crono’s timing—he barges into Magus’ sanctum in the middle of the dark mage’s ritual to summon Lavos. The interruption throws off the ritual, and they’re both flung back to 12,000 B.C., where Crono, et al, learn the truth about Zeal, the Mammon Machine, and Lavos, setting the stage for Crono’s eventual victory over Lavos, the time crash in 2400 A.D., the birth of Serge, and the eventual merging of the timelines.
Yet, for as large a role as Magus plays in this saga, he’s rather unceremoniously sidelined after the Ocean Palace incident. His last major appearance after that is a final standoff between him and Frog, where the latter has the chance to fell Magus and finally avenge Cyrus. But the player has a choice—choose to spare Magus, and he’ll actually join your party! But even if he does, he’ll remain characteristically silent and sullen to the end, when he leaves the festivities at the Millennial Fair to presumably search for Schala.
And then… nothing. Well, sort of.
He’s entirely absent from Cross, and even though he appears as Magil in Radical Dreamers, that game never saw an official release outside of Japan until mid-2022, leaving Chrono fans in the dark about what might have become of one of Trigger’s most iconic characters.
Fortunately, Square threw the fans a bone in 2008, when it released a Chrono Trigger remaster for the Nintendo DS. Now considered the “definitive” version, the DS Trigger boasted a re-translated script that fixed translation errors and clarified a lot of confusion, some cool anime cutscenes first introduced in the PlayStation re-release, and (best of all) tons of bonus content that helps bridge the stories of Trigger and Cross.
Magus Misfortune
Once you clear the bonus content, you get to literally fight for a depressing ending. Some kind of dimensional vortex opens up, which takes you to the Darkness Beyond Time, where Lavos has started binding to Schala, becoming the Dream Devourer (which then becomes the Time Devourer from Cross).
After a brutally difficult battle, you “defeat” the Dream Devourer just long enough for Schala to regain her senses for about a minute. She informs Magus that no amount of power can stop the Dream Devourer, and pleads with him to forget about her and spend his days doing something else before time itself is inevitably destroyed. She then warps Crono and Magus back to 1000 A.D.
Magus, naturally, is despondent. If he can’t save or be with his sister—remember, the only person who ever showed him love, and the only person he ever had love for—then he concludes that life is simply not worth living.
He then wills himself to literally fade away into nothing. As he disappears, he expresses hope that wherever he ends up, it’s a less cruel timeline where he can be with his sister. And just like that, he’s gone.
If there’s one thing you take away from Magus’ tragic tale, it’s that everything he did—and all the misery he inflicted—was in the service of reuniting with Schala.
So, let’s circle back to Schala for a bit.
The Scales Schala of Time
So, just to quickly recap Schala’s Sad Story so far:
Schala, Princess of the Eternal Kingdom of Zeal, is prodigiously gifted in the magical arts, much like her little brother, Janus. Unlike her brother, Schala is beloved throughout the kingdom, perhaps the only royal to engender feelings of warmth instead of fear (Queen Zeal) or aversion (Janus).
So obviously, fate2 repays her kindness by repeatedly dunking on her, culminating in her banishment to the Darkness Beyond Time, where she binds to Lavos after the events of Trigger, jumpstarting its evolution into the all-consuming Time Devourer. Fortunately, Serge is able to use his time magic to extract Schala from Lavos, erasing it from existence for good. From the looks of things, Schala then lives out her days looking for Serge in modern-day Japan—quite a step up from being an unwitting conduit for a time-eating monstrosity, all things considered.
So… what’s so special about Schala that Lavos binds to her, specifically? The lore is light on details here, so of course, fan theorists happily stepped in to fill in the blanks. Quite a few… opinions abound.
The simplest theory? Lavos binds to Schala because she’s there. Nothing special about it. You don’t see anyone else in the Darkness Beyond Time, do you? Schala was as good a conduit as any, really—had it been Crono stuck there, Lavos would’ve bound to him, instead.
While Occam’s Razor usually applies to these scenarios, Masato Kato’s writing tends to dull the Razor’s blade. There are simply too many convenient coincidences to entirely discount the possibility of Schala being an ideal (or the only) agent with which to bind.
Among them:
In Trigger, we see that Marle’s pendant (which tripped up Lucca’s telepod, opening the first Time Gate) originally belonged to Schala;
The pendant’s original use was to control the Mammon Machine;
Only Schala could wield the pendant—even Queen Zeal has to goad, threaten, and generally strong-arm Schala into ramping the Machine up into overdrive;
As for why Schala had such power:
The Frozen Flame powered the Mammon Machine, by harnessing Lavos’ power (remember, the Flame’s a part of Lavos);
The Frozen Flame was a shard that broke off Lavos as it crash-landed onto the planet in 65M B.C., and was the catalyst for humanity’s runaway evolution (which included being able to use magic);
In Cross, we learn that the last person to touch the flame becomes an “Arbiter”—someone who can “intermediate” between Lavos and humanity;
An alternate storyline originally planned for Cross (and later confirmed by Kato) shows us that if the Arbiter were to make the “wrong decision,” they’d bind to and merge with Lavos, completing its evolution;
As Zeal kept the Frozen Flame since its discovery up until the Ocean Palace incident, Schala would’ve been its caretaker, and thus the Arbiter—which explains why only she could control the machine;
So, Schala is the Arbiter in 12,000 B.C., which gives her a direct physical and psychic link to Lavos;
ERGO…
Lavos binds to Schala because, as an Arbiter, Schala posesses the power of the Frozen Flame—and as such, both provides a direct link to Lavos, and feeds it than enough power for Lavos to once again threaten humanity.
Oh, and to further bolster this theory:
In Cross, Serge touches the Flame and becomes an Arbiter himself.
Serge is then repeatedly warned to consider how he confronts the Time Devourer carefully, lest he also merges with it, pushing the Time Devourer just over the power threshold to gobble up all of space-time;
This is, indeed, what happens in the game’s “bad” ending.
So, yeah. Turns out, just any human won’t do. Lavos can only get the power it wants by binding to Arbiters.3
Which makes Schala one of the saga’s most significant characters, if not the most significant. Certainly the most important NPC, in any case.
Fortunately for Schala, Serge is able to use the titular Chrono Cross to extricate Schala from Lavos, erase the alien parasite from existence, and merge the “Home” and “Another” timelines. Free at last, she bids farewell, promising to look for Serge (or is it the player?) later on. And that’s how she ended up in modern Japan. Somehow.
So, we’ve finally covered the tragic tale of these star-crossed sorcerer siblings. Which means we can finally start talking about what, exactly, all of this even means.
Magus Without a Cause
As Magus fades away into nothingness, he also wipes his memory—presumably to fulfill Schala’s wish of him not wasting his days futilely searching for her. So, when he awakens in a forest somewhere, he has no recollection of anything that had ever transpired in his life. Well, save for a gut feeling that he’s supposed to be looking for something. And that’s his last canonical appearance in the Chrono universe.
Ah, you caught that qualifier, didn’t you? Good eye! Yes, I said his last canonical appearance… not his last appearance, full stop.
So… does this mean he makes other, non-canonical appearances? Basically, yes. The games don’t explicitly say so, but the implicit hints could not be more obvious.
Wait, games? As in, plural? What other games are left besides Cross?
A real dark horse of a game, that’s what: Radical Dreamers, originally released in 1996, the year after Trigger. In Japan, that is. Square only released it internationally this very year. And it sheds some light on the links between Trigger and Cross, while hinting at what Magus has been up to, as well as the main, overarching theme of Cross, and (to a certain extent) the entire Chrono saga.
Dream to be Radical
Radical Dreamers is an interesting piece of retro gaming esoterica. The 1996 title was originally released for the Satellaview, a Japanese peripheral for the SNES,4 that involved the Satellaview company literally beam the game to your satellite dish, then play it on your TV.
It was an interesting experiment, if nothing else, and it may well have remained yet another obscure game history footnote, were it not for Chrono publisher Square Enix bundling its 2022 remaster of Cross with the Satellaview’s most famous offering:5 Radical Dreamers.
Satellaview was radically different from any other gaming setup at the time, so it tracks that Radical Dreamers likewise made some radical (heh) changes to the Chrono experience.
For one, it’s a mere three (3) hours from start to finish, dramatically shorter than both Trigger (~20-30 hours) and Cross (~30-40 hours). It’s also in an entirely different genre—while Trigger and Cross are pedigreed JRPGs, Radical Dreamers is a text-based visual novel (albeit with some RPG elements, like random battles and a (hidden) HP meter).
But the story is where Radical Dreamers tinkers with the Chrono blueprint the most. It’s entirely different, and arguably non-canonical—Square eventually confirmed that it takes place in an entirely separate timeline from the ones in Trigger and Cross.6
But it’s also familiar: you play as Cross’ Serge (though this one’s not nearly as silent as his Cross counterpart), Kid similarly reprises her role (same personality, and everything), Lynx (an early-act antagonist in Cross) serves as the villain, and the goal is to break into Viper Manor to find the Frozen Flame—which mirrors a similar mission in Cross.
But most relevant to our analysis is the third character in your party: a tall, pale, quiet, sullen, seemingly ageless, prolific dark mage with long, silver hair, called MAGUS er, Magil.
If Square was trying to make Magil an explicitly separate character from Magus, it didn’t do a very good job. Name aside, everything about the character’s Trigger rendition—his speech, mannerisms, all-around edgelord mopiness, could not have come through more obviously. Square could’ve slapped one of those gag disguise mustache glasses on “Magil” and it would’ve done a better job at differentiating him from Magus.
But even more than “Magil” acting exactly like Magus, more than a few lines in Radical Dreamers’ narration and dialogue all but give it away. For instance:
Hmmm… let’s see, here. “Magil”:
“Might as well not have had [a past].” [Fig. 1.1]
“Seemed like an interloper from another world.” [Fig. 1.2]
Such a mysterious past that not even a magic mirror can reveal it. [Fig. 1.3]
Is so obviously experienced with/knowledgeable about the sacred swords from Trigger (Masamune) AND Cross (Einlanzer) [Fig. 1.4]
It’s not inconceivable that, after wiping his memories away and fading himself out of the timeline, Magus could’ve ended up in the Radical Dreamers timeline, perhaps hoping to find Schala. After all, why else would he be searching for the Frozen Flame, a shard of Lavos that Schala has a direct connection with as a former Arbiter?
And then there’s Magus in Cross.
Wait… what?!
Be-Guiled
“Hold up,” I hear you thinking, “I thought Magus wasn’t in Cross?!” And indeed, he’s not… technically not, anyway.
You see, one of Cross’ ~45 recruitable characters is a tall, pale magician with long, silver hair, who happens to look a lot like another tall, pale mage with long, silver hair, save for the mask that covers his eyes and nose.
Oh, did you already forget? Magil also wears such a mask in Radical Dreamers! (Check [Fig. 1.2] in the Radical Dreamers section above)
Now, Guile doesn’t say anything that hints at a possible past or alter ego that’d conclusively pin him as Magus. But director Masato Kato did! In fact, he had originally intended for Magus to be in Cross, and more specifically for Guile to be Magus.
So… what happens?
Well, it turned out that when you have 45 playable characters in game, it’s really hard to write anything approaching a satisfying character arc for any of them. And for a character as iconic and vital to the Chrono lore as Magus, there was no way Cross could’ve done him anything close to justice.
Sure, there are similarities between the two characters. For one, neither Magus nor Guile’s feet ever touch the ground when moving around—they literally hover around the map. They’re both top-tier magic users, and they both rock the anime prettyboy long silver hairdo that I’m 99% sure Japanese law requires that each JRPG include.
Now, there are differences between “Magus” and “Guile.” For one, Guile talks a lot more than Magus (granted, he’s still not quite a “talker”), and is far less cold and sullen. Guile’s also got a flashier, more flamboyant flair to him—far more becoming of a tacky Guardia Millennial Fair stage magician than the tortured yet talented sorcerer he was originally fated to be.
But these differences are so minor—especially in the context of Cross’ chaotic and bombastic story—that if, knowing all this, you still want to play through Cross pretending that Guile is Magus… well, there’s nothing stopping you. Hell, since Cross (like Trigger before it) lets you rename playable characters, this is even easier than it sounds: just erase “Guile,” type in “Magus,” and let your headcanon run wild.
Doing so actually gives Magus a nice bit of closure, should you stick it through to the end.
After Serge uses the Chrono Cross to extract Schala from the Time Devourer, erase the beast from existence, and unify the timelines, Magus Guile gets a look on his face that can only be described as relief and contentment. So when it’s all said and done, you could say that Magus does achieve his goal and get his happy ending, after all.
So… we’ve come full circle. We’ve reached the end of the Chrono saga. Which leaves us with only one question, now that we’re so well-versed in all this esoteric JRPG lore: what does it all mean?!
Lavos, Schala, Time Crashes, Crono, Magus, Serge, Timelines, “Entities,” and so on… what do they all point to? What is the Chrono saga about? And I don’t mean the plot—what are these games, actually, truly about? Underneath the veneer of time travel and eldritch space parasites and magical cities, what are they trying to tell us?
Now, mine is just one opinion out of several (as any visit to a Chrono fan site or wiki will show you). Regardless, I’ll share it. Since you’ve stuck with me this far, I owe you at least as much.
The Meaning of… oh, Whatever
A few issues back, we talked about Trigger’s core theme being fate—are we in control over our futures? Or is choice an illusion, a comforting myth that gives us the illusion of agency against the chaotic forces of the universe (including other people)?
Cross delves into this question further—to the point of literally naming one of the antagonists FATE. Namely, it poses the additional question of “even if you could fight your own fate… should you?”
Well, as much as I hate to answer a question with another question… it all depends on the answer to an even deeper question.
For as deep as Cross gets with fate, that’s not ultimately what the game’s about. Or primarily about, in any case. It’s not the core theme.
Cross’ core theme is Meaning.
If Trigger implores the player to create her own fate, Cross urges her to create her own meaning.
Consider Magus—again, the only character to (kind of) appear in all three Chrono entries. His entire character arc is a search for meaning.
What, you thought it was the search for Schala? Well, guess what—it’s functionally the same quest.
Most people want to live a meaningful life. By this, I mean a life with purpose. What this purpose is, exactly, will differ for everyone. For some, it’s to provide for their children and family. For others, it’s to champion a cause. For others still, it’s to expand their knowledge and experience of the world to its very limits. And for others yet still, it’s to discover hidden truths about existence and—if they’re lucky—commune with or transcend towards the divine.
It’s clear that Magus sees his purpose as reuniting with Schala. This sense of purpose gives his life meaning, and is the fuel that drives his every action in the series—such as leading Ozzie’s fiend army, summoning Lavos, and ultimately allying with Crono.
Hell, even after Schala herself shatters Magus’ sense of purpose by begging him to simply forget about her, he can never entirely do so. Even though he does wipe his memories, and may have even hopped to different timelines, he still feels an overwhelming urge to seek… something. Schala as a source of meaning is so deeply ingrained in Magus that it’s an inextricable part of who he is.
This idea, of living according to what gives you meaning, constantly pops up throughout the series, and it’s especially pronounced in Cross.
In fact, Serge’s entire character arc—when you set aside the whole stopping the Time Devourer from nomming on spacetime thing—consists of his search for purpose, identity, and meaning in a universe that quite literally wants him dead.
And yes, I mean “literally.” At several different points throughout Cross, the world makes clear its apathy and borderline hostility towards Serge’s existence. Whether by fighting tooth and nail to restore the “dead Serge” timeline, compeling character after random character to tell him his existence is meaningless, or even having the ghosts of none other than Crono and Marle telling Serge (and I’m only slightly paraphrasing here) that the world would be a much better place without him, “fate” sure doesn’t mince words with the poor guy.7
And they’re not wrong—well, not technically wrong, at least. After all, Serge surviving his 1010 A.D. drowning accident leads to Lavos destroying the world again in 1999 A.D. (for reasons even I don’t really understand). There’s a reason FATE is so relentlessly determined to kill Serge—his survival is a violation of the “proper” progression of time, and thus must be “corrected” to restore time’s “natural” order.8
Then there’s the fact that Serge, having touched the Frozen Flame and become the latest Arbiter, now has a direct link to Lavos. You know, like Schala. Remember what happened to her? If Serge were to suffer a similar fate, then Lavos… sorry, the Time Devourer would grow so powerful that the apocalypse is all but ensured.
One of the endings reflects this—a portal opens over the Time Devourer, it goes through it, then the screen cuts to black. Roll credits. Makes sense—if space-time itself has been destroyed, there wouldn’t be an ending to show, would there?
Oh, and keep in mind that Serge, being a teenage boy, wouldn’t inspire a lot of confidence unless you’d been following his quest.
But Serge, knowing all of this, carries on. He is determined to live, and is determined to defeat the Time Devourer, not because of any intrinsic altruism or even to save his friends (well, not entirely, anyway), but rather, to stake his claim—nay, his RIGHT—to live a meaningful life in the world. Objections from said world be damned.
Hell, look at humanity itself. Trigger heavily hints at, and Cross all but bashes you over the head with, humanity’s awkward origins as the spawn of both Lavos and the planet. While humans already existed when Lavos crashed into the planet, it was humanity’s contact with the Frozen Flame that kicked human evolution into overdrive. From that point on, all human advancement—hyperintelligence, magical ability, technology—traces back to Lavos… as does humanity’s regrettably predictable penchant for violence, subjugation, and destruction (towards each other and all other life they encounter).
And like with Serge, the game rails on humanity’s supposed irredeemability so frequently and so heavy-handedly that you can almost feel Kato’s keyboard overheating. At several points in the game, you’ll have to cause environmental catastrophes (of varying degrees) to progress the story, only to immediately get lectured by NPCs on how people unnaturally selfish, violent and boorish, how humanity cannot coexist with nature, and how the abominable spawn of Lavos known as “humans” will never change their ways. Ok, Kato, WE GET IT: everyone and everything would be so much better off without us filthy humans.
And yet, humanity endures. Why? Well, despite the many flaws humans inherited from Lavos, humans also inherited the planet’s virtues: love, compassion, and selflessness. Even if Homo Sapiens ended and Lavos Sapiens began with the Frozen Flame, “Lavos” is still only half of the “bastard” species’ name.
Indeed, the prehistoric humans in Trigger (from before Lavos’ fall) actually do live in peaceful, tight-knit tribal units in perfect harmony with nature. And, as shown by Crono & Co.’s herculean quest to save the planet from Lavos in Trigger, that harmonious spark has never gone out. Not even after millions of years of abominable space parasite-guided evolution.
This clash between wanton destructiveness and compassionate selflessness—our equal capacity for gracious benevolence and unremitting brutality—is the central contradiction of human nature. The Human Paradox, if you will. But as inextricable a part of our existence this Paradox is, it’s very uncomfortable to even ponder, much less discuss. So we bury our heads into the sand, and then when IRL Time Devourers come to mess things up, we conveniently label them as evil monsters so as to avoid acknowledging everyone’s innate capacity for evil (yes, everyone—including you and me).
Maybe we could take a page from Serge, in this regard. For he defeated the Time Devourer—and in doing so, defying FATE itself—not by ignoring the Human Paradox, but by leaning into it.
The Paradox Is Your Friend
The titular Chrono Cross that Serge uses to neutralize Lavos and save time is, in fact, The Human Paradox made manifest. Over the course of the game, you work to assemble the artifact—the world’s only hope against Lavos—out of two items born from the abstract concepts at the heart of the Paradox: love and hate.9
Love is the exclusive domain of the planet. Nature, nurture, life, love, peace, harmony—these are the elements that hold and sustain natural life on the planet. Plants, animals, gnomes, fairies, demihumans, pre-Frozen Flame humans, perhaps even the “entity” itself.
Hate, meanwhile, is the domain of Lavos. Unnaturalness, artifice, invasion, destruction, death, war, violence, conquest, exploitation, hate, rage, greed, madness—this is the way of Lavos, which it introduced to the planet on impact, then spread through humans post-Frozen Flame.
The planet and Lavos can access the highest levels of their respective domains (that’s love and hate, remember), but are completely incapable of grasping even the most rudimentary, basic expressions of their opposing domains.
Only humans, the only living beings with origins in both the planet and Lavos, are able to tap into love and hate equally, and therefore bridge the gap between the two domains. And if it were ever possible to reconciliate the two polar opposite forces, humans would be the ones to do it.
But humans must make a decision to do so. And when the stakes from making a wrong decision are as high as the continuation of existence itself, then no wonder FATE was so worked up about Serge being the Arbiter!
Fortunately, Serge chose right. By wielding the Chrono Cross and laying bare the contradictory juxtaposition of love and hate that links every human, he basically short-circuits the Time Devourer’s mind. The beast, so consumed by feelings of rage and vengeance, simply cannot wrap its mind around the fact that humans are capable of love and hate—and sometimes, both at the same time!
The rest is… well, history: the beast disintegrates, Schala breaks free, the timelines unify, everyone goes back to El Nido, and humanity once again has a future. Happy ending!
The subtext is clear: only by embracing the Human Paradox can people—both individually, and as a species—gain clarity and self-awareness, forge a meaningful identity, create meaning in life, and live life in pursuit of said meaning.
I mean, just ask Magus!
Magus intimately understood the love/hate duality at the heart of human nature. Having spent most of his life ruled by his Shadow as Magus, then by his nobler side as Guile, the one constant throughout his life was his purpose, which he got meaning from: finding Schala. And, eventually, he did.
SIDE QUEST: Angelus Errare
Or: “Where Angels Lose Their Way”
Click the link box below to take a peek down a BONUS rabbit hole—or keep scrolling to get on with the article. Either way, make the most MEANINGful choice for you!
Anyway… here we are! The end of this analysis, almost the end of this volume, and damn near the end of this year. And I still haven’t told you what this whole Chrono stuff even means, as I’d promised earlier.
Well, a promise is a promise, so here goes.
If I had to identify a central message that Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Radical Dreamers, Crono, Serge, Schala, Magus, and Masato Kato (that mad, mad, madman) is trying to convey, it’s this:
Even if fate seems to have stacked the decks of time against you, don’t stop persevering. Find your purpose, and find your MEANING. Use your sense of MEANING to stake your claim to life, push back against the forces of chaos and those who harm you…
Live your life with MEANING, and maybe… just MAYBE… you could even change the course of FATE itself.
Well, there you have it, folks! My ultra-long analysis on Chrono and the free will, meaning, and the nature of time… is FINALLY at an end. This has been quite a ride, and I hope you enjoyed reading this series as much as I did writing it.
And now, to paraphrase the great Leder from MOTHER 3:
“It’s been such a long time since I’ve spoken [this much] to anyone. And now I’m exhausted.”
Good night, everyone.
And Happy Holidays!
~Jay
Food for Talk: Discussion Prompts
While you wait for the next issue, I invite you to mull over the following discussion prompts. Please reply to this email with your answers, or post them in the comments—I'd love to hear your thoughts!
What brings your life purpose? What gives it meaning?
If you had the ability to time travel, would you re-write your fate, or your purpose? Think carefully—they’re not necessarily one and the same!
Can the imposition of one’s force of will overcome even fate itself? What does that even mean?
Also, don’t forget to join the Game & Word subscriber chat! I regularly post new threads:
Games Featured:
Chrono Trigger, developed and published by SquareSoft (now Square Enix) — Steam | iOS | Android
Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition, [includes Chrono Cross and Radical Dreamers!] developed and published by Square Enix — Physical: Nintendo Switch | Digital: Steam | Xbox | Nintendo Switch | PlayStation
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Tags
#narrative #storytelling #physics #philosophy #metaphysics #spirituality
#TempusLudos
#ChronoTrigger #ChronoCross #RadicalDreamers
Footnotes
If certain details about Magus in Radical Dreamers are correct, that is.
“Fate” as is commonly defined; not FATE from Chrono Cross. Unless…
The lore is, like in many places, vague on this point, which opens it up to many interpretations, theories, and speculation. I’m sure some of you vehemently disagree with my take. And that’s fine—that’s the beauty of ambiguity. Just let me have my headcanon, and I’ll let you have yours.
Or, the “Super Famicom,” as it was named there.
Well, perhaps its only somewhat widely known offering.
Ok, I might as well get this out of the way… “But this begs the question… since all timelines are valid, doesn’t that make Radical Dreamers canon, in its own way?”
I’ll let you decide.
Well, neither does FATE, but that’s another convo.
Obviously, FATE’s motives are more self-serving—its prime directive, so to speak, is to protect Chronopolis from any threats to it carrying out its research into defeating the Time Devourer. Which, since Serge eventually defeats the Time Devourer, calls into question FATE’s predictive prowess… along with a whole other bundle of questions. But this series has gone on long enough already. I think I’ll just let the mystery be.
Well… and dragons. But let’s try and keep things simple… ah crud, it’s too late for that, isn’t it?
Loved this! Also-- it seems I tend to write a lot of stories about characters searching for/discovering their purpose. It’s a theme I love to explore in writing!
Happy Holidays 💃🏻🎄💖
Happy Christmas, Jay, and all best for the New Year!