Chrono Cross anaylsis
Posted: Sat May 07, 2005 4:06 pm
Okay, people...some have urged me to post a topic on this game explaining and defending several aspects of the story of Chrono Cross, etc., mostly because I've played the game several times and have spent a good long time noticing how the game intersects with Chrono Trigger's story and the subtleties that were actually put into the writing.
G1 is a big fan of this game, as am I, and many others. Unfortunately, this game often gets compared to CT and people criticize CC unfairly, when in truth the story to CC is actually very well-layered and thought out. It IS, however, a completely different TYPE of story than CT, and the plot of CC is a lot subtler and difficult to map out, and there have been many people who have (unfairly) dismissed the game as full of holes and the characters hollow.
In truth, regardless of how well you keep track of WHAT EFFECTS WHAT in the plot, the strongest points of Chrono Cross actually lie in subtler shades, in its themes and the HEART of its tale. As a creative mind in theatre and film, both games, Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, are one of my dream-projects for turning into films.
There are a lot of aspects of the story and the characters that get completely missed because they aren't explained "out loud" in the game. They are things you have to connect yourself from the aspects the game DOES give you, like being given 2 and 2 and having to make 4 yourself.
I really think it's unfair that people compare CC to CT, as the two stories are very different, like apples and oranges. However, when put TOGETHER, the two complement each other perfectly. So...I shall begin...
******MAJOR SPOILERS HERE********
Point 1: The Two Games
To begin with, you must look at the very types of stories the two games create. Chrono Trigger creates a wonderfully epic story from small characters. The unlikely group of people by fate (or providence, more likely) who go off on the grandest adventure ever -- they not only explore their entire world, but in multiple epochs throughout time. And they defeat a grandscale evil that threatens their entire world. The story is very adventurous and epic.
CC, on the other hand, has a story that takes a completely different approach. CC does not happen in different eras, and it only happens in a limited (in fact, rather teeny-tiny) section of the world, a small archipelago of islands. Chrono Cross is the story about a key person, Serge. It is smaller scaled than CT, but only on the surface level. The story of CC (unlike CT) is more subtle and subdued, and also more psychological and surreal. A lot of the story of CC is more difficult to grasp, especially for fans who were expecting a sequel to CT. The elements of CC are very abstract and sometimes hard to follow. This does not make its story less worthy than CT's. It simply is different.
However, these differences work together to complement one another. CT took a grand story and left an unresolved issue, the issue of a single being (Schala) and there are those who've never given up on her -- and this is NOT an invention that they made up for CC -- in CT, Belthasar, even in the ruined version of the future year 2300, is hoping to find Schala again and mutters about missing her -- also, the game ends with Magus endlessly searching for her. Chrono Cross then takes the events of Chrono Trigger and shows us the CONSEQUENCES of actions. The future has been changed, but at what price? Every action has a reaction.
In Chrono Cross, we see the grandness of Chrono Trigger being INTERNALIZED. It is taken into a small world, showing how large even the fate of two people - Schala and Serge - and how their lives intertwine, can be affected by large things, and how in turn their small connection, their story they share as merely two people, can affect the entire world.
We come full circle from Chrono Trigger showing us small people affecting the large world into Chrono Cross where we see the large events affecting two lives, and those two lives in turn affecting the whole world again. The point is made by Schala in the end -- There is no such thing as a pawn. The game series shows us stories of how everything we do, the smallest things, can affect others on a large scale. Chrono Trigger shows us this on the outside. Chrono Cross shows us this on the inside. Chrono Trigger is concrete. Chrono Cross is abstract. The two complement each other perfectly. And both are amazing tales.
Point 2: The Connection
My next point: what is the heart of Chrono Cross? The heart of the story is NOT the Dragons versus Fate, or Lavos's backup plan, or Serge being the Arbiter, or even what happened to Schala...
The heart of Chrono Cross is a connection made by two people. The connection made between Schala and Serge. It is the connection made when Schala's mind was nearly destroyed by Lavos in the Darkness Beyond Time, but my something amazing, something wonderful and moving and humane...she HEARD him...
Schala heard Serge's cries of pain, as a young boy, when he was wounded by the panther demon. She heard his dying pains. She heard them from across OVER TEN THOUSAND YEARS OF TIME and across SPLIT PARALLEL FUTURES, different worlds. This sound filled her heart and left her with one last shred of humanity.
This connection is what created the entire story of Chrono Cross. This "possibility" is what Belthasar foresaw and what allowed him to create Project Kid in order to save Schala from the darkness. Lavos was expelled from the future, but he still exists in the world, on a different level, an internal one. He exists with Schala. The darkness still taints the light of their world and of the future.
This connection is what caused Kid to appear. It set the possibility of salvation into motion.
There is also an amazing loop created in the irrevocably linked stories of Serge and Kid (the essence of Schala):
In the game, we know that Serge, in the future where he is still alive, was saved from drowning by some mysterious woman, when he was ten. Later in the game, we see Serge going back in time to save Kid from the burning orphanage -- the scene that follows, in my opinion, is breathtaking, as it is one of the moments where their connection is strongest. By the end of the game, we learn that it is actually Kid, in the future, who is called back in time to save Serge from drowning. This creates a loop where their lives are eternally linked together. Serge cannot exist without Kid, and vice versa.
There are scenes where Serge (as Lynx) is sorrowfully remembering Kid, BEFORE he switched bodies and she hated him. A lot of people mistake this scene as a cheesy love-connection that comes out of nowhere. This is not true.
That scene has nothing to do with romance. Not a thing. That scene is Serge feeling lost. He has ceased to be Serge, and what's more, the "missing piece" to his own existence, Kid, has not only been removed from his life (which is in limbo at that point, as he is neither himself nor in a world where he is alive)....but her enmity has now turned against HIM.
The connection they share is established throughout the game -- in Serge's opening dream, when he first sees Kid at Cape Howl, in the scene where she shares her lonely and cynical view of life and being alone in the world...
The heart of the story lies at the fact that Schala healed Serge long ago, when he was a child, and now it is Schala who needs to be healed, which brings me on to my next point...
Point 3: The Mark of a Beauty and the Mark of a Beast
There is one character in Chrono Cross who is the game's greatest mystery and whose fate is actually strongly linked not only to Serge, but also to Kid. This character is, actually, MORE entertwined to Kid's fate than even Serge is, because of the nature of who this character actually is.
This character is Harle.
Harle is one of the story's greatest devices and the use of her character is actually so subtle that there is a major story point that many people completely miss, the first time they play the game--
Harle and Kid are, in essence (not physically), the same person.
This is not my speculations. This is not game-theory. This is true. It is never SAID in the game, but it is true and solid, nonetheless.
There are people who argue about "interpretation" of clues, etc. But from a WRITER'S standpoint, I can tell you this:
A writer does NOT put clues and subtle hints into a story unless they WANT you to think that way and believe that that is the truth A good writer wants to engage their audience and make them solve some of the puzzle themselves.
To continue with my point...Harle was created by the Six Dragons on the night of the Storm...
The night of the Storm was the night that Schala's spirit found Serge's dying spirit from across time and dimension...
This was the night the Fate computer was shut down, and the Dragons gained temporary access to the Frozen Flame...
The Frozen Flame is the ESSENCE of the Schala/Lavos combined soul, the planet's love/enmity combination....
The FLAME created Harle, used by the Dragons. Harle is the "seventh Dragon", but look at what the Dragons are:
They are the elements of the planet. The seventh element (Cross Cross) is the element that will "harmonize" the planet again.
What, in the story, needs to be harmonized again? Schala.
Harle is another daughter-clone of Schala, but she is the opposite of Kid, which is why she and Kid are constantly ready to claw out another's eyes.
If you really pay attention to the story, this can be deduced not only from clues but from logic.
If you look at Harle, other than her eye-color, underneath the makeup, her facial structure is identical to Kid's. In addition, the fortune-teller in Termina gives the EXACT same fortune to Kid and to Harle -- "In your eyes I see both the mark of a beauty and the mark of a beast. Be careful not to bring about your own destruction, my dear."
Many of you already realized this point, but it leads on to my next, which goes into why this connection between Harle and Kid (and Serge) is so crucial...
Point Four: The Burning Orphanage and Frozen Flames
Harle and Kid are opposites, but not in an obvious way. It's not a black-and-white division, they are both very complex characters, both with light and dark sides.
Kid is generally good-natured and wishes to help others (such as Serge), but beneath all this she is carrying a strong and deep-seeded hatred, the result of her past being destroyed and those she loved being taken from her. Deep within, she feels lost and alone and darkness.
Harle, on the other hand, is very taunting and self-absorbed, full of quips and stings, strutting and mischievous. But underneath that, she hides a level of humanity and sadness that wishes for an answer. She has a love for Serge that she hides, and a love for the world. She secretly prays for an answer other than what she knows will come to pass.
When Serge's fate is reversed, so is Kid's and Harle's. The two sides of Schala are constantly at odds, but the amazing thing is that, because of Serge, there is a "good side" that continues to help and lead on. Once Serge is abandoned by Kid, Harle steps in.
There is a culmination of this duality of Schala that appears at the scene after Fate is destroyed and Kid is near the Frozen Flame. The "planet's anger", which is the enmity rooted in Schala, is about to awaken from Kid's contact with the Flame, and Harle understands this. She pleads with her to stop, but the enmity side of Schala is too strong, and is unleashed.
At this moment, you'll notice that Harle is "called" by the other dragons, and if you watch carefully, after saying goodbye to Serge, Harle actually disappears INTO the Frozen Flame, becoming one with it again.
The moment she does this and the "Flame" (with Harle embodying it) flies off to join the other dragons, Kid falls into a coma.
Kid's coma is also rooted within her soul, and is part of the Schala-duality.
This brings me back in another circle, b/c this brings us back to the burning orphanage...
Kid remembers Lynx burning her home, taking all her loved ones from her, making her alone in the world, and she is possessed by this. But there is something she doesn't remember, but which Serge SEES, when he goes back in time to save her...
There is something deeper keeping Kid's soul trapped within itself. There was another who stole her past from her and destroyed everything she loved. Harle.
And the irony of this is -- Harle and Kid are created from the same soul, from Schala, and they represent the duality of that soul. It was Harle who destroyed Kid's past and gave Kid the darkness she currently has. This in turn goes back to the Schala/Lavos love/hate mindsplit.
The theme is weaved through the story....planet versus humanity....Fate versus Dragon....Harle versus Kid......Another World versus Home World.....the Tear of Love and the Tear of Hate....etc....etc....
....phew.....anyway, this is all I'm going to post FOR NOW, as this much took me well over an hour. I want this thread to unlock discussion (and so does Mickey). And feel free to ask me questions, I'd be glad to answer.
G1 is a big fan of this game, as am I, and many others. Unfortunately, this game often gets compared to CT and people criticize CC unfairly, when in truth the story to CC is actually very well-layered and thought out. It IS, however, a completely different TYPE of story than CT, and the plot of CC is a lot subtler and difficult to map out, and there have been many people who have (unfairly) dismissed the game as full of holes and the characters hollow.
In truth, regardless of how well you keep track of WHAT EFFECTS WHAT in the plot, the strongest points of Chrono Cross actually lie in subtler shades, in its themes and the HEART of its tale. As a creative mind in theatre and film, both games, Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, are one of my dream-projects for turning into films.
There are a lot of aspects of the story and the characters that get completely missed because they aren't explained "out loud" in the game. They are things you have to connect yourself from the aspects the game DOES give you, like being given 2 and 2 and having to make 4 yourself.
I really think it's unfair that people compare CC to CT, as the two stories are very different, like apples and oranges. However, when put TOGETHER, the two complement each other perfectly. So...I shall begin...
******MAJOR SPOILERS HERE********
Point 1: The Two Games
To begin with, you must look at the very types of stories the two games create. Chrono Trigger creates a wonderfully epic story from small characters. The unlikely group of people by fate (or providence, more likely) who go off on the grandest adventure ever -- they not only explore their entire world, but in multiple epochs throughout time. And they defeat a grandscale evil that threatens their entire world. The story is very adventurous and epic.
CC, on the other hand, has a story that takes a completely different approach. CC does not happen in different eras, and it only happens in a limited (in fact, rather teeny-tiny) section of the world, a small archipelago of islands. Chrono Cross is the story about a key person, Serge. It is smaller scaled than CT, but only on the surface level. The story of CC (unlike CT) is more subtle and subdued, and also more psychological and surreal. A lot of the story of CC is more difficult to grasp, especially for fans who were expecting a sequel to CT. The elements of CC are very abstract and sometimes hard to follow. This does not make its story less worthy than CT's. It simply is different.
However, these differences work together to complement one another. CT took a grand story and left an unresolved issue, the issue of a single being (Schala) and there are those who've never given up on her -- and this is NOT an invention that they made up for CC -- in CT, Belthasar, even in the ruined version of the future year 2300, is hoping to find Schala again and mutters about missing her -- also, the game ends with Magus endlessly searching for her. Chrono Cross then takes the events of Chrono Trigger and shows us the CONSEQUENCES of actions. The future has been changed, but at what price? Every action has a reaction.
In Chrono Cross, we see the grandness of Chrono Trigger being INTERNALIZED. It is taken into a small world, showing how large even the fate of two people - Schala and Serge - and how their lives intertwine, can be affected by large things, and how in turn their small connection, their story they share as merely two people, can affect the entire world.
We come full circle from Chrono Trigger showing us small people affecting the large world into Chrono Cross where we see the large events affecting two lives, and those two lives in turn affecting the whole world again. The point is made by Schala in the end -- There is no such thing as a pawn. The game series shows us stories of how everything we do, the smallest things, can affect others on a large scale. Chrono Trigger shows us this on the outside. Chrono Cross shows us this on the inside. Chrono Trigger is concrete. Chrono Cross is abstract. The two complement each other perfectly. And both are amazing tales.
Point 2: The Connection
My next point: what is the heart of Chrono Cross? The heart of the story is NOT the Dragons versus Fate, or Lavos's backup plan, or Serge being the Arbiter, or even what happened to Schala...
The heart of Chrono Cross is a connection made by two people. The connection made between Schala and Serge. It is the connection made when Schala's mind was nearly destroyed by Lavos in the Darkness Beyond Time, but my something amazing, something wonderful and moving and humane...she HEARD him...
Schala heard Serge's cries of pain, as a young boy, when he was wounded by the panther demon. She heard his dying pains. She heard them from across OVER TEN THOUSAND YEARS OF TIME and across SPLIT PARALLEL FUTURES, different worlds. This sound filled her heart and left her with one last shred of humanity.
This connection is what created the entire story of Chrono Cross. This "possibility" is what Belthasar foresaw and what allowed him to create Project Kid in order to save Schala from the darkness. Lavos was expelled from the future, but he still exists in the world, on a different level, an internal one. He exists with Schala. The darkness still taints the light of their world and of the future.
This connection is what caused Kid to appear. It set the possibility of salvation into motion.
There is also an amazing loop created in the irrevocably linked stories of Serge and Kid (the essence of Schala):
In the game, we know that Serge, in the future where he is still alive, was saved from drowning by some mysterious woman, when he was ten. Later in the game, we see Serge going back in time to save Kid from the burning orphanage -- the scene that follows, in my opinion, is breathtaking, as it is one of the moments where their connection is strongest. By the end of the game, we learn that it is actually Kid, in the future, who is called back in time to save Serge from drowning. This creates a loop where their lives are eternally linked together. Serge cannot exist without Kid, and vice versa.
There are scenes where Serge (as Lynx) is sorrowfully remembering Kid, BEFORE he switched bodies and she hated him. A lot of people mistake this scene as a cheesy love-connection that comes out of nowhere. This is not true.
That scene has nothing to do with romance. Not a thing. That scene is Serge feeling lost. He has ceased to be Serge, and what's more, the "missing piece" to his own existence, Kid, has not only been removed from his life (which is in limbo at that point, as he is neither himself nor in a world where he is alive)....but her enmity has now turned against HIM.
The connection they share is established throughout the game -- in Serge's opening dream, when he first sees Kid at Cape Howl, in the scene where she shares her lonely and cynical view of life and being alone in the world...
The heart of the story lies at the fact that Schala healed Serge long ago, when he was a child, and now it is Schala who needs to be healed, which brings me on to my next point...
Point 3: The Mark of a Beauty and the Mark of a Beast
There is one character in Chrono Cross who is the game's greatest mystery and whose fate is actually strongly linked not only to Serge, but also to Kid. This character is, actually, MORE entertwined to Kid's fate than even Serge is, because of the nature of who this character actually is.
This character is Harle.
Harle is one of the story's greatest devices and the use of her character is actually so subtle that there is a major story point that many people completely miss, the first time they play the game--
Harle and Kid are, in essence (not physically), the same person.
This is not my speculations. This is not game-theory. This is true. It is never SAID in the game, but it is true and solid, nonetheless.
There are people who argue about "interpretation" of clues, etc. But from a WRITER'S standpoint, I can tell you this:
A writer does NOT put clues and subtle hints into a story unless they WANT you to think that way and believe that that is the truth A good writer wants to engage their audience and make them solve some of the puzzle themselves.
To continue with my point...Harle was created by the Six Dragons on the night of the Storm...
The night of the Storm was the night that Schala's spirit found Serge's dying spirit from across time and dimension...
This was the night the Fate computer was shut down, and the Dragons gained temporary access to the Frozen Flame...
The Frozen Flame is the ESSENCE of the Schala/Lavos combined soul, the planet's love/enmity combination....
The FLAME created Harle, used by the Dragons. Harle is the "seventh Dragon", but look at what the Dragons are:
They are the elements of the planet. The seventh element (Cross Cross) is the element that will "harmonize" the planet again.
What, in the story, needs to be harmonized again? Schala.
Harle is another daughter-clone of Schala, but she is the opposite of Kid, which is why she and Kid are constantly ready to claw out another's eyes.
If you really pay attention to the story, this can be deduced not only from clues but from logic.
If you look at Harle, other than her eye-color, underneath the makeup, her facial structure is identical to Kid's. In addition, the fortune-teller in Termina gives the EXACT same fortune to Kid and to Harle -- "In your eyes I see both the mark of a beauty and the mark of a beast. Be careful not to bring about your own destruction, my dear."
Many of you already realized this point, but it leads on to my next, which goes into why this connection between Harle and Kid (and Serge) is so crucial...
Point Four: The Burning Orphanage and Frozen Flames
Harle and Kid are opposites, but not in an obvious way. It's not a black-and-white division, they are both very complex characters, both with light and dark sides.
Kid is generally good-natured and wishes to help others (such as Serge), but beneath all this she is carrying a strong and deep-seeded hatred, the result of her past being destroyed and those she loved being taken from her. Deep within, she feels lost and alone and darkness.
Harle, on the other hand, is very taunting and self-absorbed, full of quips and stings, strutting and mischievous. But underneath that, she hides a level of humanity and sadness that wishes for an answer. She has a love for Serge that she hides, and a love for the world. She secretly prays for an answer other than what she knows will come to pass.
When Serge's fate is reversed, so is Kid's and Harle's. The two sides of Schala are constantly at odds, but the amazing thing is that, because of Serge, there is a "good side" that continues to help and lead on. Once Serge is abandoned by Kid, Harle steps in.
There is a culmination of this duality of Schala that appears at the scene after Fate is destroyed and Kid is near the Frozen Flame. The "planet's anger", which is the enmity rooted in Schala, is about to awaken from Kid's contact with the Flame, and Harle understands this. She pleads with her to stop, but the enmity side of Schala is too strong, and is unleashed.
At this moment, you'll notice that Harle is "called" by the other dragons, and if you watch carefully, after saying goodbye to Serge, Harle actually disappears INTO the Frozen Flame, becoming one with it again.
The moment she does this and the "Flame" (with Harle embodying it) flies off to join the other dragons, Kid falls into a coma.
Kid's coma is also rooted within her soul, and is part of the Schala-duality.
This brings me back in another circle, b/c this brings us back to the burning orphanage...
Kid remembers Lynx burning her home, taking all her loved ones from her, making her alone in the world, and she is possessed by this. But there is something she doesn't remember, but which Serge SEES, when he goes back in time to save her...
There is something deeper keeping Kid's soul trapped within itself. There was another who stole her past from her and destroyed everything she loved. Harle.
And the irony of this is -- Harle and Kid are created from the same soul, from Schala, and they represent the duality of that soul. It was Harle who destroyed Kid's past and gave Kid the darkness she currently has. This in turn goes back to the Schala/Lavos love/hate mindsplit.
The theme is weaved through the story....planet versus humanity....Fate versus Dragon....Harle versus Kid......Another World versus Home World.....the Tear of Love and the Tear of Hate....etc....etc....
....phew.....anyway, this is all I'm going to post FOR NOW, as this much took me well over an hour. I want this thread to unlock discussion (and so does Mickey). And feel free to ask me questions, I'd be glad to answer.