Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

I know a lot of people were thrown for a massive loop by the ending.

You beat a relatively laid-back boss that has a copy of Kid in her nightie stuck in it. You play a pretty song for it and next thing you know the voice of Schala is talking about sperm and crap. Serge wakes up on the beach asking WTF as Leena wonders what the heck he's talking about as if none of it had ever happened. Kid in a dress wanders around modern day Japan during the credits. We get a repeat 'Nice to meetcha!' CG of her on Opassa beach. Cue the cute music box song. End.

What the actual hell, right?

Well, one bit at a time.

A major part is understanding that the real story of Cross is about fixing the damage unknowingly caused in Trigger, and it is a mirror reflection of Radical Dreamers. They don't explain it well, but the references are everywhere.

(As for Schala just having the Kid model from when she was sick? Probably either lack of time to create an actual Schala model, or more likely the stipulation that they not use Trigger characters, making them settle for just reusing a Kid model.)

If we think of the timeline of Trigger as a river with no branches because there was some form of predestiny at work according to the evidence at hand, the time traveling and changes that were made in the first instance of extreme deviation from that destiny.

When was it first altered?

My theory is Lavos was the first to change the overall fate of the planet. It was a major part of history regardless, but even then, things strained to return to a relatively normal state of affairs.

Like the fact that those with particularly strong magic, an ability that, according to the story, was best drawn out due to proximity to Lavos (or a piece thereof) in some way, felt compelled to segregate themselves and almost all ended up dying together. Nearly completely wiping magic out of the skillset of those who were not destined to have it.

Magic manipulation itself was not something mankind had before Lavos appeared, but the inherent power manifested itself in other, more natural, ways. Like amplifying talents or physical ability. A possible example is the inherent techs of Cross that don't require an equipped element, or Crono's wind attack. Also the fact that Spekkio remarked that giving Ayla access to magic would be dangerous. If she had no ability to use it in the first place, he'd have said so. It seems what Lavos caused was an ability to consciously tap into that inherent life magic and bend it to your will, creating the more traditional form of magic.

It still existed inside of some people in varying strength due to the very small handful of Zealite survivors as ancestors, but it quickly became diluted and humans couldn't tap into it again. It fell back into the realm of exceptional talents and strength. At least, not without a supernatural entity like Spekkio to alter it back into their skillset.

So the actions of Lavos, the planet, the party and several other factors caused what was once one singular timeline to splinter and branch, and for entire branch timelines to die when they were rendered null with no hope of continued existence. Those then filled the Dead Sea, where the entirety of those dead timelines are gathered in a kind of purgatory. Left to rot until the end of time, if they aren't devoured first.

When Schala is going on about reproduction and all that, it seems more like an analogy for those timelines. Telling the group not to doubt themselves because they were meant to exist, and how destroying the potential timelines and the different lives and choices contained within isn't something to feel guilty about because, had things proceeded normally, they wouldn't have existed in the first place. This works with the idea in section #5. That in that gameworld, a person will exist if there is any possibility for it because they are destined to do so, but that path can be corrupted by outside forces. (IE = Marle being a Frog if the King dies, Magil being a space rockstar policeman, etc.)

At first she seems to be musing to herself with the multitude of conflicts that trapped her in her situation and nearly drove her to destroy existence. That she was so upset about the cruelty in human nature and whether people were just helpless pawns in the grand scheme of things, but eventually she overcomes her bitterness and decides that every single person is important, no matter what part they eventually play in the world.

After coming to that realization, she uses her powers with the Chrono Cross to unify the splintered river of time back into the single stream it originally was and merges with Kid. (I personally believe this action merged every existence of Kid/Schala including the part that became Harle.)

Only by doing this was Kid able to become the whole person she was meant to be. She still had knowledge of everything that happened so she chose to seek Serge out and spend her life with him. As evidenced the picture on the desk.

You can see an adult Kid sitting on a chair in a dress with a man standing next to her. Her hair is in the Schala style ponytail and the outfits both she and the man are wearing can be seen in the CC Artbook. Kid is indeed shown in the dress the woman in the portrait is wearing and the outfit of the man beside her is worn by Serge.

So that pretty much seals the deal on Cross being the best possible end. The Time Devourer is defeated, the timeline is restored and no more dead timelines will be left frozen with regrets while waiting to be erased, and Schala is saved and able to finally live a life of freedom as a part of Kid.

If you go by my thoughts on it, Lucca, Crono, Marle and Magus are all still alive and well, Dalton's army has lost any shot at the weapon they were scouring El Nido for to turn the tide of the war and with the fixed timeline it's unlikely the FATE machine still exists. If the FATE machine and Frozen Flame are no longer an issue after the unification, then in the future, the Prometheus circuit (Robo) won't be used to seal the door and so his future is likely a brighter one, too.

That's my theory on what the heck that ending was all about.

A tangled mess is now a straight line once again for better or worse. I know there are some folks who would see it as a negative to have a singular timeline where things happen in such a way that it's almost predetermined what you'll do with your life. But they decided it was what was best for this world and there it is.