I read the article on this site about the Ethics of Lavos, and I did find it interesting. I hadn't really thought too much about Lavos' intent for its point of view. It's weird because in basically every other game you understand the main antagonist's goals and why they are trying to achieve them. Lavos is much different; its intent isn't so clear cut. I think that looking at the duality of Chrono Cross can shed some light on the matter and raise some interesting questions.
Chrono Cross has a lot of duality in it. I mean A LOT. A world with you and one without, Dinopolis being used to counteract Chronopolis, good Serge and bad Serge, Kid and Harle appear to be 2 sides of a similar coin, how one element is strong against or weak to another element, and there are others you can probably think of too. The game even focuses on the duality of certain characters; Fargo in one world is different than Fargo in another world. You get a few star levels during the game on Fargo's ship. The reasons why you are on his ship and the resolutions revolve around the duality of his character. There's the guy in your home town who is a fisherman in one world and worships the straw man in another. The game points these out to you, and to me, it is very apparent to me that duality is at the core of this game. Want to understand why some things are the way they are? Duality might just be the answer.
If nature is allowed to take its course and Lavos never interrupts the normal flow of events, humans die out or become subservient to the Reptites. They create Dinopolis and become at one with nature. The Dragon God is used to control nature, I guess to help terraform areas to make them more inhabitable, prevent natural disasters, that sort of thing. I believe the Entity is the planet as well, so the Reptites are at one with the Entity. Makes it look like the Reptites are the good guys, doesn't it?
The humans and Reptites are at war, probably because they have a different nature, different values, and could never get along. Even Demi-humans aren't accepted by humans; once again it appears that mankind is the problem). However, the nature and character of Reptites does not appear pleasant (though when two forces are at war with each other it's hard to know what one's character is truly like during peace time). It should also be noted that snakes and crocodiles and similar types of reptiles do not have a very pleasant nature, and if the Reptites are an evolved form of those creatures, then one would expect the Reptites not to have a pleasant nature either.
At this stage it appears that Reptites are the best species for the planet (since they have a way to control the weather, the Terra Tower has an organic feel to it, they appear to work with the planet rather than just use its resources). All of this becomes moot when Lavos hits the planet. Humans become the only sentient beings that can help the planet. The Entity may prefer the Reptites over us, but Lavos is slowly killing it.
We can try to assign Lavos as being evil and the Entity as good here because the Entity is innocent whereas Lavos is not. It's a stretch, but I prefer to see it as the Entity representing nature and Lavos representing forces outside of nature. There's a chapter in
Chrono Trigger entitled Unnatural Selection. Natural selection refers to the favorable traits being passed down to future generations and the eventual emergence of a new species. This whole process was interrupted and the dominant species was decided when Lavos hit the planet, leading to an ice age that killed off the Reptites. The Frozen Flame also played a big role in this. Lavos does not represent what is right or proper or pure, whereas the planet does, because it does not interfere with the normal flow of events.
Where does this leave humans? Humans are always at a crossroads where they can determine what category to be placed in. Someone like Crono, sacrificing himself for the sake of his friends and the planet can be seen as good. Someone like Queen Zeal who utilized Lavos, which was slowly killing the planet, to help her subjugate her people, can be seen as bad. We don't truly fit into either category; it is for each person to decide what kind of person they are. We ourselves are a duality.
So if someone like Crono can be seen as good, and the Entity can be seen as an innocent being, representing the natural progression of things, and Lavos is intentionally trying to interfere with all that, then I believe we can finally assign Lavos as being evil. But what made it evil? Lavos is like the pinnacle of evolution, "pure logic" as I have heard some call it. And how did Lavos corrupt Queen Zeal?
There is a well known line that I think applies perfectly in this case. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Lavos is this absolute power. Just a piece of Lavos, the Frozen Flame, was the cause for our accelerated evolution. Just a piece! There's a good chance that it was inside the Mammon Machine, used to commune with Lavos and draw its energy. Lavos needs to feed of the planet to stay alive; those are some serious carbs! It can unleash devastating attacks to completely annihilate the surface of the planet. It can travel through space and survive an impact. It can manipulate time. With some help it can evolve into the Time Devourer and threaten all space and time in the entire universe (and perhaps even the other dimensions)! How much more absolute power can you get than that?
Simply put, Lavos is corrupt. Whatever it is, however it got to be the way it is, it got corrupted somewhere along the way. It's angry (that anger corrupted Schala), selfish (killing the planet and its inhabitants), and that power will corrupt others (Schala and Queen Zeal). The Entity is incorruptible, whereas Lavos is completely corrupt. The decisions made by Lavos were on made on purpose and reflect its nature. It isn't just "trying to survive", it is interfering with the course of nature, corrupting those that interact with it, and doing whatever it takes to survive and reproduce. It will corrupt Schala, one of the nicest characters in the series, in order to become a being that will destroy time and space. It is very angry, probably resentful, and looking for payback for being beaten. Nothing will exist any more if it succeeds in its plan. This to me makes Lavos the truest and purest evil.
Is the Entity the truest and purest good? No. Once again it is innocent and is itself just trying to survive. It does do good things; it takes care of the things that live on the planet, it helped Crono and company in their journey to save it and their friends, and in the Reptite dimension it apparently was at one with their species.
The Dragons were seen as evil in the game, but they too had been corrupted by Lavos; we cannot know what their true nature was like. It's interesting to see the Reptites as good, or at least less evil than they have been portrayed to be. In short, Lavos is a corrupt being who performed his actions with the clear intent to do whatever it took to survive. When it was defeated it began a process to become a being to destroy everyone and everything. Everyone who came in contact with it became corrupt. It is the opposite of what the planet and its inhabitants represent. It is an act of defiance against innocence, the natural progression of things, selflessness, and just about anything "good" you can think of. Lavos is a duality of all that exists; it tried to destroy all that exists.
If you read all that, thank you for reading it, and let me know if you have anything to add, anything you question or don't agree with, or if you actually agree with me.
