I was a bit hesitant to post this in the Analysis section, so I am posting it here. The premise is quite straightforward! We take Chrono Trigger characters, and assign them D&D alignments.
Before we get started, none of this discussion means anything without a common definition for these alignments that we can all work from. So, let us do that first.
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Good vs. EvilD&D, although being rather vague on the subject, suggests that
Good is closely associated with altruism, compassion, courage, loyalty, and dependability, whereas
Evil is associated with selfishness, malice, dishonesty, deceit, and conniption. (“Conniption,” for the 98 percent of you who don’t know that word, is a state of violent, overwhelming emotion…like a fit.)
This common depiction of Good vs. Evil suffers from being rather overly simplistic and often unrealistic, as characters assigned to one end of the spectrum will often exhibit traits from the other side. However, we will go with it for the sake of convenience, rather than, say, force my own definition on everybody, which would undoubtedly derail the topic.
Law vs. ChaosD&D does a slightly better job with this axis, probably because it is much easier to define. It suggests that
Lawfulness is associated with dutifulness, deference, dogmatism, and, in keeping with the letter D, deuteronomy. D&D takes a more relativist attitude with this axis, stating explicitly that residency anywhere on the spectrum has both its ups and downs. Thus, where Lawfulness is concerned, disadvantages include closed-mindedness, prejudice, disparagement, and conservativeness.
In contrast, in D&D
Chaoticness (sic) is associated with caprice, flexibility, freedom, and liberalism—or, for our Republican-voting friends, let us call that last one an “openness to new ideas.” Likewise, the downsides of Chaoticness (does anybody have a better noun form?) include anarchism, inconsistency, hypocrisy, and recklessness.
I once again disagree with D&D’s definitions, but we’ll use them for the sake of convenience. Now, let’s get down to business!
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Crono: Neutral GoodMost of the playable characters are rather dull in that they all fall predictably on the Good side of the Good vs. Evil axis. But things get a bit more interesting when it comes to the Lawful vs. Chaotic axis.
Crono is definitely a Good, almost to a fault. I say “fault” because his do-gooder schemes throughout the game are straightforward and sincere, but unnecessarily foolhardy and oftentimes brash. Things work out well for him, but often through sheer luck. Among other things, better planning might have saved his life—which was saved anyway, of course, but that’s RPGs for you. I would say that Crono is so far on the Good end of the spectrum that it becomes questionable whether he actually is Good anymore. If we consider his values only, and not his excessive zeal toward them, then he is clearly Good, but if zeal can be taken to an unhealthy extreme—and what a good game to highlight the idea that it can—then Crono is a hero only because the game dealt him a winning hand. In a more realistic world, his intentions and his fervor could have easily had disastrous results. Later RPGs finally began to explore this idea, but back in 1995 most RPGs were still black and white. Further insights might be gleaned by considering Crono in terms of the Zelda Triforce scheme; Crono has an abundance of courage, but with neither the wisdom nor the power to balance his persona. Fortunately for him, he has good friends to see him through.
Crono’s lawfulness, however, is not nearly so imbalanced as his goodness. He is very much a pragmatist when it comes to honoring established tradition and staying “inside the lines,” as it were—enough that you might even say he has a streak of anarchism in him. Definitely he would rate as a hardcore libertarian. Crono regularly breaks all sorts of laws, slaughters people without being provoked, and violates etiquette and ethic alike. He is a Neutral for all of this because his actions are always consistent in their reasoning; Crono always acts in the name of defending his friends and, later, saving the world. He is a Neutral without question.
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Marle: Lawful GoodIf I were the type to sneer—and I’m not saying I am, but if I were—then “Lawful Good” would be the most odious alignment of them all. For starters it is a boring alignment, but, more to the point, it is the home of an uncommon number of those holier-than-thou types who exult in pretending to be superior and holding their morality and niceness above other people’s heads. Definitely these kinds of people are the scum of the Lawful Good alignment. On the other hand, many perfectly ordinary people fall into this alignment too.
Marle is just such a person. Other than being a princess and the love interest of a hero—perhaps even a hero herself, if you want to read the game that way—she is one of the clearest statements of Lawful Good in the whole adventure. I really don’t think I need to add further comment; you’re welcome to contribute.
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Lucca: Neutral GoodLucca is harder to pin down. She’s more interesting in this regard than many of the other playable characters, because her belief in science and innovation is almost
more innate than anything else about her, raising the possibility that she might be a Neutral on one or both axes.
We see in the game that Lucca always directs her creative energies toward D&D-sanctioned “good” goals, like helping others or, if nothing else, self-improvement. (“…Beat me up and get 15 Silver Points!”) Her affinity for Robo, who represents perhaps one of her life’s goals—that is, to fuse the human spirit with technology—leads her to great acts of kindness and bravery. And, of course, it’s a bit beyond the scope of Chrono Trigger, but let’s not forget that she opened an orphanage, for cryin’ out loud. I call her a Good.
Her place on the Law axis is harder to determine. She doesn’t get enough action in the game to really cement her on either end of the spectrum. Her willingness to help bust Crono out of jail, despite the fact that, from her point of view, he was only going to be in jail for three days, certainly suggests that her respect for authority is circumstantial at best. There is no specific event in the game to balance out this Chaotic tendency out; however, a quick look at her dedication to scientific enterprise establishes a clear acknowledgement of the importance of consistency, diligence, and perseverance—all of which work against the idea that she is Chaotic. In the end, I would rate her a Neutral, although it is a more difficult call than it was in Crono’s case.
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Frog: Lawful GoodI don’t need to say a thing on this one.
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Robo: Lawful GoodMost of the PC cast is, of course, Lawful Good, including Robo, but Robo’s explanation is more interesting than the others.
Lucca famously said in the game that machines aren’t capable of evil; that humans make them that way. It’s probably true, at least where simplistic machines like Robo are concerned, but also true is the converse: They aren’t capable of good either; we impart that to them, as well. Prior to the Apocalypse and the corruption of the Mother Brain, machines obviously served human society very usefully, living a utilitarian existence more so than anything else. It remains unanswered how humans felt about them, and I wouldn’t want to venture a guess, as this is a hot subject in anime and science fiction, but we can reasonably assume that the robots of 1999 were not as evil as they later became. Robo stands out in stark contrast to his counterparts from the 24th century; his adventures with Crono & Co., and especially his awakening under Lucca, contributed to create in Robo a Goodness that probably hadn’t been there before. Robo’s limited character drama is resolved pretty soon after his first appearance, and he spends the rest of the game being a clear Good, almost a goodie-two-shoes, to the point that by the time the Atropos episode rolls around, there really isn’t much drama at all, as we know what Robo is going to decide. Robo is definitely Good.
One of the interesting stereotypes about robots is that they are always designed to be fanatically lawful and always end up being horribly chaotic. Real life diminishes the extreme on both ends. No pseudo-intelligent machine could be as fanatically obedient as fantasy stories assume, for the same reason that computer programming is so challenging: Humans treat their language conceptually, whereas robots (simple-minded robots, anyway) interpret their programming literally. You can’t program “fanatical obedience” into a robot, because that’s a concept. To literally program obedience requires a much more quantitative, comprehensive effort, and the pragmatic expense of this undertaking would certainly be that no A.I. would ever be unwaveringly loyal. But, by the same token—and more importantly—these robots would never turn against their masters as colorfully and dramatically as the storybooks allege. Being possessed of a simpler intelligence than humans, their behavior would be inherently more obvious in its logical consistency, and will always tend towards Lawfulness. This is precisely what happens to Robo, just as his programming dictates:
ROBOT: Understood.
Madam Lucca fixed me.
Lucca: Just Lucca will do.
ROBOT: Impossible.
That would be rude.
Ain’t it interesting how robots are (written to be) so darn eager to ignore orders when it comes to respecting their base programming? A fanatically loyal robot would not have corrected its master, especially with a blanket statement like “impossible.”
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Ayla: Lawful GoodAyla lives in a rougher world, and virtues like compassion don’t stand out as boldly in her as, say, courage, which is unquestionable. But her compassion is certainly there, too: She aided Crono & Co. when they first arrived in Prehistory; she aided them again after their defeat at Magus’ lair; and she even offered to aid Azala after defeating her just moments earlier. She is loyal to her friends, even committing to the fight against Lavos, despite the fact that its cold, selfless nature must have pushed the limits of her comprehension. She even altruistically agreed to hang out at the End of Time for easy recall, which must have been spectacularly boring for her. Ayla is Good.
Ayla’s Lawfulness is harder to ascribe than that of other characters, because her world is so much simpler than that of her descendents. But by the limited social constructs that do exist, Ayla loyally abides. My sig is a nice example of that, if somewhat dramatic. Ayla is consistent with a Lawful character type.
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Magus: True NeutralThe only playable character who isn’t a Good, Magus is bent on one objective alone, and will disregard or destroy anything that stops him.
As is true for some True Neutrals, there are interesting cases to be made for Magus from both sides of both spectra. Lavos is such an unspeakable evil to the world that Magus’ uncompromising hatred is the only proper response among any of the characters. Indeed, the attitudes toward Lavos of the others look awkwardly casual by comparison. In that light, it is tempting to wonder if Magus is indeed the most Good of all the characters. But here the inadequacies of the D&D scheme come to the forefront; they cannot accommodate difficult reasoning, and, by their relatively simple standards, there is no way to call Magus a Good character. The case for calling Magus an Evil is easier to make, mostly because he is the opposite of many of the virtues that typically defined Goodness, while embodying most of the Evil traits. But it just doesn’t seem right to look at Magus’ personality without looking at the reason his personality is the way that it is. Malice in him is not the same as it is in somebody like Dalton. Magus doesn’t seem to hold any particular grudge against anybody except Lavos, and although he developed a strong cynical streak in his life and times—such as would convince him that turning Glenn into a frog was a fun idea—he isn’t blatlantly malicious. His dishonesty, his selfishness…they all have a good reason. Moral purists might try to make the case that he is Evil, but I see in Magus a Neutral.
Magus’ placement on the Lawfulness axis is much easier, and runs along the same vein that Crono’s neutrality does. Thus, I needn’t repeat myself. Magus is a Neutral, which, together with his Neutrality on the Good vs. Evil axis, makes him a True Neutral.
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Now we leave behind the rather uninteresting main cast, and get to some of Chrono Trigger’s truly fascinating characters!
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Spekkio: Chaotic NeutralSpekkio is a very interesting character. Here we have somebody who we might think ought to be one of the most austere figures in the game, but instead he is one of the most fanciful and good-spirited. Being the Master of War is undoubtedly a mind-bending occupation, and we immediately cannot expect Spekkio to be Good or Evil, nor Lawful.
On the axis of good and evil, he encompasses none of the traits associated with either end. Good and Evil for Spekkio seem simply to not exist. Chrono Trigger is full of conflict and strife, full of wars fought for good reasons and bad, and battles between good and evil abound. The entity sitting at the top of this dubious monument to human nature is bound to be impartial, disinterested, and utterly neutral with regard to the reasons that bring people to war in the first place. When he imbues Crono & Co. with magic, Spekkio mentions that to use magic requires power of the heart, and “inner strength,” and that is exactly as I would define Spekkio: a personification of inner strength. Such a virtue is called upon by heroes and villains and life; it is a fundamental human trait. Spekkio is a Neutral.
His placement on the Law axis is just as intuitive and emphatic. Spekkio encompasses practically all of the traits that D&D associates with Chaoticness. The only law he seems to hold in any esteem is the physical boundary of warfare. Nothing else matters. Spekkio is bizarre, temperamental, boisterous, and utterly flamboyant—an unabashedly Chaotic figure.
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Kino: Lawful NeutralI was thinking to myself, wondering whether I could find an example of a Lawful Neutral character. I hit upon Kino by chance, but I think he fits the bill quite nicely.
Kino’s intentions definitely tend toward the Good, but, like so many of us, Kino finds that the real world can be pretty tough on our ideals. His betrayal of Crono & Co. is motivated by sheer jealousy, and the cowardice by which he refuses to confront Crono directly, or at least talk to Ayla directly, as well as the cowardice by which he confesses to his crime as soon as he is found, is the hallmark of a rather weak-willed character…someone to be pitied. As much as he may strive for what is good—and I certainly believe he does, given his status as second-in-command and love interest to Ayla—Kino strikes me as somebody who regularly falls short of his ideals thanks to the corruptive powers of temptation and sheer pettiness. He is an impressionable fellow, and I would rate him a Neutral more so than a Good.
In Kino we have somebody who utterly respects the law, even to the point of being scared of it, and dominated by it. When he steals the gate key, he knows perfectly well what he is doing and it terrifies him enough that he conducts his mission with treachery and cunning more, in defiance not only of the law but of personal conviction as well. He seems almost compelled by his own jealousy to do something he utterly does not want to do: violate Iokan custom, cross his chief, and hurt the visitors. You can see how much it pains him to do so, which is what I use as the basis for my case that Kino is a Lawful character. By the trepidation and discomfort with which he breaks the law, we see him to be an utter adherent to it.
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Flea: Neutral EvilSlash: Lawful EvilOzzie: Chaotic EvilI am taking these tone-deaf, evil fiends together at once, because they fit so nicely together. They are three of a kind!
What isn’t in doubt is that all three of them are Evil. They are horribly unreliable, they delight in their own mischievousness, and anyone who turns his or her back to them deserves what comes next! Flea is like a mook with delusions of grandeur, and none of the willingness to commit to achieving those big ambitions. Slash is like the Samurai who gets expelled from his order for flagrant dishonor. He is loyal and dutiful only on the surface, and utterly rotten underneath. And Ozzie! Heh. Ozzie. Ozzie is the king of kings when it comes to cowardice, treason, and gross ineptitude. And he revels in it so…
Magus! You lied when you said you wanted to create a world of evil! You used me!
Here’s somebody who isn’t meant to be taken seriously at all…comic book evil, as it were. I can’t believe Magus made him his top general.
But on the axis of Law, these three have an interesting relationship vis-à-vis one another. Prior to his first defeat, Slash behaves like a loyal servant. That’s why it seemed to me as though he was like a would-be hero who got thrown out for lack of qualifications. His famous last words are telling:
Unbelievable...! But falling in the line of duty for Magus...leaves me with few regrets!
I really like that quote, and for the purposes of this discussion it smacks of Lawfulness. Maybe think of Slash as that apocryphal butler whose proclivity for evil overwhelms his sense of lawfulness in the most unsuspecting of ways.
Flea definitely is not Lawful. Here is someone who also follows Magus before being defeated. But Flea’s motives are inscrutable; the dedication to Magus doesn’t seem to have much of an explanation besides the old standby of establishing a new world order of evil. In the absence of evidence, it’s very hard to make a case that Flea is a Chaotic character. That leaves only the middle of the road.
And Ozzie, of course, will do whatever he can get away with. He is utterly consumed by his own fancy and has no regard for the law whatsoever. Once again, it is amazing that this guy got to be the top general. Maybe Magus didn’t want anyone who could possibly threaten him, so he settled for a buffoon to distract the continent with a war while he prepared to summon Lavos.
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There are plenty of interesting characters yet to discuss, notably the three Gurus, the three Masamune spirits, Dalton, Alfador (tee hee), the Laruba chief, Yakra, and many more. I haven’t got the time to write about all of them just now, and I probably won’t for the next few days, so anybody who wants to try their hand at this is welcome. It’s a lot of fun!
Oh, and of course, as always, comment is invited. If you would align the aforementioned characters differently than I have, by all means do tell us about it.
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