VI: The Dead SeaNote: The topic of the Dead Sea has already been covered extensively in the article,
Salt for the Dead Sea. This section overlaps partly with that article, but both should be read for a thorough picture of the Dead Sea.
Mechanics: Standard Time (Time in the Dead Sea flows parallel to time outside of it. However, the time in the Dead Sea is actually the time of 10,000 years in the future. The peculiar nature of this allows changes in the timeline outside the Dead Sea to affect the appearance of the Dead Sea.)
Nature:Analysis: In the incident known as the Time Crash, Chronopolis was projected 10,000 years back in time. When the dimension, Home, split off from Keystone T-2, the Sea of Eden (where Chronopolis was located) morphed into the Dead Sea. This happened because Home lacked a past previous to 1010 AD., and thus lacked a Crono to travel to the future and defeat Lavos. When the destruction was ensured, the Time Crash was mirrored in Home by pulling in the ruined timeline, centered on where Chronopolis would have been. This caused fragments of the ruined future to coalesce into the Tower of Geddon and surrounding structures.
One peculiar feature of the Dead Sea is that time appears to be frozen: Waves are frozen in place, and books are suspended in midair. Certain automatons and pieces of technology (the display on Lavos, the elevator, etc.), on the other hand, appear to be animate. This discrepancy can possibly be explained by Serge and his party's presence in the Dead Sea. Serge's status as the arbiter allowed the Dead Sea's Frozen Flame to connect with him, and create an environment suitable for him and his party (the lack of such an environment being responsable for the loss of Home's Lynx and the Acacia Dragoons). When this environment was created, it also allowed the previously frozen machines to become animate as well.
This begs the question of why the Dead Sea was frozen in the first place. Its mirror, the Sea of Eden, is completely animate, so this would imply that the Dead Sea would be so as well. There are two possible explanations for this. One explanation is that FATE has purposely kept it frozen to prevent the future there from spreading into Home. Another possibility is that the formation of the Dead Sea was so climactic and chaotic that the fabric of time was damaged in the process, and time ceased to exist within it. This also raises the question of if we can infer that since the Dead Sea represents the future, is the future frozen and demolished as well? If time has progressed since the Sea of Eden was sent back in time, the Dead Sea should represent 11020 AD. It's quite possible that this means the formation of the Dead Sea caused time to be frozen in Home from 2400 AD.
Residents:Miguel - Leena's father, who was trapped in the Sea of Eden after a storm threw his and Wazuki's boat off course while they were trying to bring Serge to Guldove. When the dimensions split, FATE made him the guardian of Home's Frozen Flame. He was eventually defeated by Serge's party.
Analysis: There is a theory that Miguel is actually Crono.
I actually posted this back before the crash (or the crash before that), but I like to trot this theory out every now and then and see what people think of it. Back when I played the game, this idea seemed abundantly clear to me, but then talking to other people I found I was the only one left with this impression. Specifically, that Miguel is actually Crono.
There's no evidence in the game to prove this, but there's nothing to disprove it either, and a lot of circumstantial evidence points towards it being right. For example:
- Age. Crono was about 16 years old in 1000 A.D., and Chrono Cross takes place in 1020. Miguel is clearly middle-aged, so that works out.
- Appearance. Miguel has red hair and lots of it, though he wears it in a much tamer style than Crono did.
- Game mechanics. Miguel is ludicrously powerful, far more than a simple islander should be. In addition, he's an innate White. Crono could have been a Yellow in CC's system for all his lightning attacks, but his most famous technique was Luminaire, which in CC is a White element.
- Family. Leena looks a lot like what you'd expect Marle and Crono's daughter to; she's basically Marle with Crono's coloring. In addition, her name is very similar to Leene, a name from Marle's family. It's true that we see her "grandmother" and "sister" in Arni village, but they don't look a thing like her. After Miguel never returned from his voyage with Wazuki, an old woman in the village probably took Leena in as her own, as she no longer had any family.
The scene in which you meet Miguel is also very telling. He seems to know a whole hell of a lot about the whole Lavos situation, for one thing. And if you watch carefully, the little Crono shade is always standing nearest him, and is standing directly over (behind) Miguel as he dies.
But doesn't the Crono "ghost" mean that Crono's already dead, and thus isn't Miguel? No; I don't believe the three childlike apparitions are Crono, Marle and Lucca at all. While we're not clear on Marle's fate, we know Lucca at least lived to her early 20s; that's when Lynx kidnaps her (and presumably kills her when she refuses to help). If she died at that age, her ghost wouldn't appear as a little child; ditto for the other two.
(So if they're not ghosts, what are they? I think they're projections of the Frozen Flame, which is the essence of Lavos. The game assumes that your final party to fight Lavos in CT was Crono, Marle and Lucca, and that they would therefore be the last thing it saw. While they're not actually children, that's what Lavos saw them as; weak little human children who shouldn't have been a threat.)
Anyway, so what the hell would Crono be doing all the way down in the El Nido archipelago, anyway? Remember that Porre invaded and conquered Guardia. Like I said, we don't know exactly what happened to Marle, but it's pretty easy to guess: as then-queen of Guardia, she was either killed, taken prisoner, or is in hiding somewhere, possibly organizing a rebellion. Either way, not very pleasant. Knowing that things are going to get bad real soon, she entreats Crono to escape with their child. He gets as far away from Guardia as possible with Leena, settling down to a quiet life in a fishing village and changing his name.
So, maybe he is, maybe he isn't. Miguel could just be some simple fisherman whose life ended up sucking beyond all reason. Or he could be the hero from the previous game, imprisoned in an dead future that he helped create, and forced to fight against the only people capable of preventing it. I think it adds an extra level of emotion to think he's the latter.
Further evidence that Crono may be alive:
I wish to point out that if Lucca's burning is correctly dated at 1015 A.D., Crono may very well be alive. A child's drawing of him hangs in the back passage way. Considering the age of children, it couldn't have been done before the fall of Guardia.
Wow...good point. In fact, regardless of whether the date is correct, Crono would almost have to be alive. Consider the following: Kid, in 1020, is 16. She is able to talk to Serge coherently enough that she would have to be 6 or 7 at the youngest during the fire. Simple math dictates that the fire would have to have occured in or after 1010. The Fall of Guardia was in 1005.
Unless those were drawn in 1005, before the Fall of Guardia and Lucca simply left them up for memory, which is unlikely, given the fact that they did not appear to be framed or in any way protected from the elements, and even the inside of a house is not away from the elements enough to preserve something so unprotected for five years or longer. (Yay for runon sentences...as I write this I'm in the newsroom for TCU's newspaper...ironic...)
Also, since Robo and Ayla (and maybe Frog too? Can't quite remember) are depicted in the pictures as well, perhaps they continued to travel through time after the events of CT. Interesting how much a closer look at such a small detail can reveal...
I think that Guardia XXXIII might have still been king (unless, of course, he died because the Guardia line seems to have short life spans), and so Crono and Marle very well could have been spared. Indeed, they may not have even been in the area, or the era, at the time of the fall.
Of course, if they were in the castle, they most likely would have been executed, whether they were the rulers or not...see the Bolshevik Revolution (and the mystery of Anastasia) for a historical parallel.
Ghosts of Crono, Marle, and Lucca: Three childlike ghosts appear, resembling Crono, Marle, and Lucca. They accuse Serge of being responsible for the destruction, and call him a murderer. Miguel explains, "It's just a distant echo from ones far gone... It's just an illusion."
Analysis: If Crono, Marle, and Lucca are dead, these may be their actual ghosts. According to certain philosophies, ghosts appear as the person appeared when they were happiest in life. This would explain why they appear as children.
Speaking in metaphysical terms, many people theorize that when a person dies, their spirit reverts to the form of when they were happiest in life. After all, how many people want to spend their eternity looking like a dried-up and wrinkly transparent prune?
Naw, if they appeared when they were happiest, Crono would probably appear as he did the minute he killed Lavos.
Marle, as the minute Crono came back.
Because wouldn't you be really damn happy if you save your planet from certain destruction?
Good point. I don't have firsthand knowledge of these philosophies, but it may be that they appear as they were in the happiest period of their lives, rather than at the happiest moment.
Counter-argument: But, isn't it more likely that the happiest period for Crono and Marle would be after the defeat of Lavos and up through their marriage? I can't say for Crono's childhood, but it was probably not very happy for Marle.
Eh... looks like against wins.
Alternatively, they may be illusions conjured by the Planet in order to convince Serge to save it. They may appear as Crono, Marle, and Lucca because of their key role in saving the Planet from Lavos. Presenting them as children may be to show innocence, and to further evoke Serge's pity.
