Some notes I made last night because I need my brain to work on whatever the hell is going on in Chrono Cross. Current checkpoint: Just finished the burning orphanage sidequest. Trying to find a way into Terra Tower.
Honestly, the story hasn’t stop being convoluted for me but I can’t really say I hate it? I actually like that CC is turning the concept of “fate” into something that’s “material”. Fate is now simply a super computer, created by scientists for their El Nido missions (to build a civilization there, to manage this civilization, to find and manage the Frozen Flame, to defeat the Dragonians). Then there’s all the time travelling mess that I don’t really want to stress about…
But what I do find interesting is how the mess caused a “time distortion”, despised by the heroes and heroines of Chrono Trigger because it changes the Lavos-free future they had built, but liked by those who want certain futures to be eliminated and those who would rather live in suspended time (i.e. Miguel). There’s basically a lot of mulling about what could have been, and how great and not great it is to control it by distorting time.
I haven’t talked with Belthasar (the person who created super computer Fate!) yet and I had also tuned out to most of Kid’s additional explanation about the old Mother Board blah blah blah it’s just too fucking complicated. So there’s probably another huge portion of the story that’s missing from my takes but anyhow, I’m enjoying this existential crisis that CC is making players go through lmao
Don’t really want to talk about Lynx = Fate because… whatever but I have to harp on the very last point: is Serge really Janus? I’ve reached this conclusion from the letter from Lucca. I mean… who else would it be?
I don’t see any way that Serge could be Janus (I mean, anything is possible, but there’s no other mention of it), but I have no idea what else the narrative point of the letter would be. In-universe, there’s no way for Lucca to know who’s going to be around when Kid reads the letter; but it doesn’t make a lot of sense from a storytelling perspective. The thing I’m wondering is, Belthasar didn’t KNOW the Frozen Flame was connected with Lavos, right? So as callous as his confusing plan is, does the whole thing unravel not because of Crono and company killing Lavos, but just because they missed a piece? That’s hardly their fault.
Anything that happened in Chrono Cross isn’t because of Crono and co.’s defeat of Lavos. In some way, you’re right. It has a lot more to do with Belthasar’s research, in relation to the Frozen Flame, actually!
It’s because of him using the Frozen Flame as a power source for his research centre, Chronopolis that time distorts, caused the research centre to come into contact with Dinopolis, and the war between the centre and the Reptite city - all of which set into motion the historical events of Chrono Cross. Then, his maneuvering of Serge’s rescue sets into motion the present events of Chrono Cross (i.e. Lynx, FATE etc).
When you speak to him at the mock library of Viper Manor in Terra Tower, he admits to his faults but really said “hehe i messed up”
