So answer me this

[Beach Bum]

Yesterday I was playing Chrono Cross, and was doing the Mastermune sidequest. Then something odd struck me about Karsh's flashback:

- Why does young Karsh have a portrait, while young Riddel does not? She has by far the most lines in the flashback, while Karsh has only one, which is little more then a stutter. They're both playable characters, so I really can't see what makes Karsh so much more important.

- Karsh says something along the lines of "was I really just possessed by that sword?" after Dario's unfortunate death. However, Karsh never touched the sword. Why would he be possessed by it? The one who was possessed was Dario, which led to Karsh dealing the fatal blow. I can't think of this as anything other then a very, very dumb writing mistake, but maybe there's an explanation.

Hope you guys have some insight on this.

[Manly Man]

The portrait I can't explain anything about, but the line I can. Karsh says that because the sword, as shown throughout the game, doesn't need to actually touch anyone to influence them. Karsh held a deep jealousy of Dario over Riddel, and even though the blows themselves were made in self-defense, that jealousy reared its ugly head, and felt like the sword was partly to blame, possibly having pulled the feelings to the surface while he and Dario fought.