The top 11 video game heroes- Number 8

Today we continue our countdown of the top 11 greatest video game heroes. On this entry, however, I'm cheating a little, in that there's not one hero, but many. That's right, it's a tie, only not really a tie per se, because these characters all come from the same game. These characters saved not just the world from a monster from outer space that threatened to destroy everything. The twist is that, to do so, these seven heroes needed to travel through time. I have a feeling everyone reading this already knows who I am talking about, so without further ado, I present to you the 8th greatest hero(es) in video game history, the crew of Chrono Trigger.

I have previously written about the game Chrono Trigger, so if you'd like to see that blog entry, it's in the September 2013 folder.

I will admit, Chrono Trigger is a game that I find to be excellent, but I wouldn't be so quick to call it "one of the best games of all time." Maybe it's the fact that I played Trigger a lot later than most of my peers (the PS2 was out by the time I played Trigger, finally) so I do not have that Nostalgia Filter to paint this game the same way others do. What I am trying to say is, you will not be seeing me gush about these characters.

Crono is the main, silent protagonist of Crono Trigger. Crono has no lines throughout the game, so his personality is very hard to pinpoint, so instead I'll focus on his achievements in game.

In the beginning of the game, Crono attends his country's Founding Festival, where he is to meet his friend, Lucca, and see her latest invention. Once there, he meets up a pretty girl named Marle, who bumps into Crono, losing her pendant. Once Crono finds the pendant for her, Marle joins him in partaking the sights and games that the Festival has to offer. Once that's done, Crono and Marle join Lucca to see her latest invention: a teleporter. After demonstrating the machine's capacity, Marle volunteers as a guinea pig. Stepping inside the machine, Marle eagerly awaits to be teleported, but something happens. In a flash, Marle disappears, leaving behind a strange wormhole where she was standing. Without thinking it over, Crono leaps into the hole, ending up somewhere he had never been to before: the past. Specifically, he is four hundred years into the past, in the year 600 AD (his calendar, not ours). Wasting no time, Crono searches for Marle, eventually finding her in the castle of his nation, Guardia. Unfortunately, she disappears...

Lucca, shortly after, follows Crono to the past, having discerned precisely what had happened and why. Marle, as it turns out, is actually Nadia, the princess of the Guardia Kingdom, and her pendant was made of a special rock that had magical properties. Because of the pendant, which Marle was wearing at the time, the teleporter became a Time Machine, and the wormhole was actually a Time Gate, which when passed, leads one to another time. Utilizing this knowledge, Lucca made herself a key that could open the Time Gates at will, allowing one to travel through these gates. I'd like to establish that the real world time gap between Marle disappearing and Lucca showing up with the key is about fifteen minutes. In game, I am assuming a time span of three to seven hours. And in THAT time, Lucca had discovered time travel, and found a way to do it reliably. Wow.

Lucca, upon learning that Marle had disappeared, had deduced that Marle's disappearance is due to a time paradox. Because Marle had been confused for her ancestor, who got kidnapped by a bunch of goblins, Marle's ancestor, Nadia, had never been rescued, which led to none of Marle's other ancestors being born. Lucca and Crono set out to rescue Marle's ancestor. With the help of a knight that got turned into a frog, named Frog, Nadia gets rescued, and Marle reappears. Saying their goodbyes, Crono , Lucca, and Marle return to their time.

However, Crono gets accused of kidnapping Marle! Having been thrown in jail, Crono awaits his execution. Ah! But it's Lucca to the rescue! Lucca bursts into the castle's dungeon, alone, to help free her friend! Eventually joined by Marle, the three escape Castle Guardia, stumbling into another Time Gate in the forest. They cross it, in hopes of evading the castle guards.

The trio end up in the year 2300 AD. The future is bleak, there is no plant life, no sunlight, nothing but dust and ruins. In the ruins of what was once a laboratory, the trio discover an old robot, which Lucca fixes, brings back to life, and names Robo.

Robo leads them through the factory, where they reach a computer. After Lucca fixes it, the computer plays a video of what happened to the world. In the year 1999 AD, a being from beneath the Earth, Lavos, arose, plunging the world into chaos, destroying all of civilization. The trio are shocked.

Marle suggests that the group do something to stop Lavos. Liking the idea, Crono and Lucca, along with Robo, agree to find out all they can about Lavos, to destroy this beast once and for all, and save the future. The group travels back in time to the year 1000 AD, where they land in the nation of Medina, a place ruled by goblins. It is here that they learn that a sorcerer named Magus had created Lavos, possibly intending to use it to destroy all mankind.

Deciding that the best course of action is to go back in time and stop Magus from summoning Lavos, the group seeks out the time gate that will lead them back to the year 600 AD. It is here that they reunite with Frog, who volunteers to help them kill Magus, due to a personal grudge he has with the sorcerer.

Having gained the mystical sword Masamune, Frog and the gang travel to Magus' castle, where they cross treacherous traps and confront deadly adversaries. Coming face to face with the Lord of the Goblins himself, the gang fight Magus in one of the game's best battles.

Having bested the sorcerer, the gang learns that Lavos was not, in fact, a creation of Magus, but a far more ancient beast. A Time Gate manifests itself, sending the five into the year 65,000,000 BC. It is here that the gang meet a woman named Ayla. (Actually, they met her before, but summarizing that part would take too long and make this entry longer than it needs to be)

Ayla's tribe is under attack by Reptites, dinosaur people. The gang agrees to help her out, taking some time off from their quest to help their prehistoric friend. Eventually, the gang learns that Ayla's boyfriend, Kino, has been kidnapped by the Reptites.  Heading over to the lair of the Reptites, the gang fails to notice the menacing red star in the sky...

After assaulting the lair of the Reptites, the gang come face to face with the queen of Reptites, Azala. A brutal fight to the death is interrupted by the coming of a great fireball in the sky. It is Lavos, heading towards Earth! Managing to escape, the gang is witness to Lavos' arrival to the planet, crashing unto the world, destroying the Reptite race. Ayla stares in awe, but swears to help avenge the death of the Reptites and destroy Lavos. Finding a Time Gate, the gang travel to the year 12,000 BC.

In this year, our crew encounter two civilizations, one that lives underground, and one that lives in the sky. And the one in the sky is using Lavos as a power source. The civilization in the sky is ruled by a greedy queen, who is receiving counsel from a mysterious figure, but one our heroes know too well: Magus.

Turns out Magus has a grudge against Lavos. In an attempt to increase the amount of power drained from Lavos, the Queen of the sky civilization attempted to hook the monster up to a machine named the Mammon Machine. This incident, however, cost the life of Magus' dear sister, Schala, sending her hurdling through time. Magus, upon seeing himself back in his home time, decides to change his own future and save his sister. On the day of the incident, Magus forces his way towards Lavos, challenging the beast. However, Lavos proves too powerful to destroy. Crono loses his life in the fight against Lavos, getting incinerated by one of Lavos' laser beams.

Devastated, Marle leads the group, attempting to find a way to destroy Lavos once and for all. Magus, who had isolated himself to reflect on his failure, approaches the group, telling them of a way to save Crono. Utilizing a Time Egg, the group can activate a Chrono Trigger, a brief pause of time that will allow them to save Crono from the wrath of Lavos. 

Having acquired a Time Egg, Marle leads the charge to save Crono. With Crono safe and sound (it's a bit of a long side quest, and one you don't have to take, but canonically it happens anyway) the gang gain a new weapon to fight against Lavos: a Time Machine that can be flown anywhere, the Epoch.

The seven then take the Epoch and confront Lavos in the year 1999 AD, as he rises from the ground. After a long, long battle, Lavos is destroyed, and the future is saved!

Ayla and Frog return to their time, while Magus aims to find his sister, who has been lost to the time stream. Robo disappears from the timeline, his point of origin having been changed, leaving him to exist in a different form in a better future. Lucca opens an orphanage, and Crono and Marle get married. Happy ending!

Then Chrono Cross happens... 

Crono, Marle, and Lucca didn't need to save the future. They were not going to live to see the year 1999 AD. Their children weren't going to live to see the year 1999 AD. NONE of their immediate progeny would live to see the year 1999 AD! These three had no stake in the future, they had nothing to gain from saving the world from Lavos! Robo as well had nothing to gain from it! In fact, changing the future would be detrimental to Robo, because he ran the risk of being wiped out of existence! Ayla had no stake in the future, she literally lived and died millions of years before any of it happened! Frog likewise, he could have just gone back home after attempting to kill Magus! The only one who had any personal stake in this was Magus! And he could have just attempted to keep his sister away from Lavos! So why? Why bother trying to save the world?

Crono, Marle, Lucca, Robo, Frog, Ayla, and even Magus. They all laid their lives on the line to destroy a beast that could destroy the world, all to create a better future. It was not for them, it was for the people in the future. It was to create a world where children would not starve, where people would live with hope for the future. It was to create a better world, a decent world. They didn't need to, and they still did.

Altruism, self sacrifice, these are some of the most desired, most venerated qualities in a human being. The crew of Chrono Trigger displayed these qualities in spades, destroying an apocalyptic beast to save a future they knew full well that they'd never live to see. And that is why they are deserving of the 8th spot of the greatest video game heroes in history.

The summary:

Names: Crono, Lucca, Marle, Robo, Frog, Ayla, Magus

Motivation: Create a better future, revenge (Magus only)

Main Enemy: Lavos, Azala (Ayla only), Magus (Frog only, temporarily)

Finest Achievement: Destroying Lavos and changing the future

Current Status: Ayla and Frog confirmed dead; Robo confirmed to be wiped out of timeline and existing in a new form; Crono, Marle and Lucca believed dead in at least one timeline; Magus unknown, believed to still be looking for Schala.