So Guile being Magus has been an ongoing topic for a long time. The brief rundown is that in the original game, Guile was supposed to represent Magil from Radical Dreamers (who was indeed Magus). However due to the scope Chrono Cross was going for, the team had difficulty getting it to fit and made Guile as his own ambiguous character. This however seemed to have possibly changed with the DS release of the Chrono Trigger and the Dream Devourer ending. In this ending, Magus confronts the Dream Devourer (which is actually the Time Devourer we find in Cross in the beginning stages of its evolution), and Schala says to him that power alone cannot save her, and he would never save her as he is now. Magus then decides that if all the power he was seeking was for nothing, he would wipe out his own identity in hopes that he would become someone who would tread a different path and potentially find a way to save her, should any part of his former self remain.
He wakes in the forest, confused and ignorant of his former self. He says that he feels there is something he must do and something he must find, and will do whatever it takes to remember what it was. The idea behind this, is that he becomes Guile in CC who is wondering the world searching for enigma. If he is in your party when you approach the Frozen Flame, he even says something along the lines of, "Is this what I've been searching for? No!! I am no such thing... what good is it to have such dark power??"
Now we enter Chrono Cross Radical Dreamers Edition. While there is nothing new within the game itself, there is an extra monologue unlocked in the post credits once you have completed BOTH CC and RD. This is still open to interpretation, but it is most likely referring to Guile and expanding on the retcon that was started in the DS port of CT. Here is my interpretation and why I believe this to be the case...
"The time was near - the final battle awaited.
There, alone in the shadows, the man lingered.
HIs partners, a young man and a young woman,
had already made their preparations, and were
waiting for him at the place they had agreed upon."This seems like a reference to Opassa Beach at the end of CC. This would be the meeting place for the final battle, and Serge/Kid would be the young man and woman.
"Their foe was a fearsome opponent indeed.
Would the three of them be able to defeat him?
There was only one way to find out.
All the better - what fun is a battle
whose outcome is all but certain."The fearsome opponent would be the Time Devourer itself. The only thing that might be argued against this is emphasis on the word "he" and "him", instead of using the word "it" since TD is an evolution of Lavos (which is an a sexual being). However mislabeling such beings as "him" or "her" is a common thing for people to do, and not really enough to outright disprove anything. One theory is that "him" might be referring to Lynx in RD, but there are other factors that more point toward Guile over Magil that we will get into, the above point being one as there was no meeting place for a final battle or preparing to be made in RD.
"The man reached a hand to his mask-
silver and unembellished,
save for a few subtle details."The color of the mask goes against Guile and Magil as both wear gold masks, and is likely an oversight IMO.
"It had been many long years
since he last revealed his face.
Did he wear the mask to hide himself from others?
Or did he wear it to hide from himself?
Enough time had passed that
not even he was sure anymore."This is a direct reference to both Magil and Guile. Hiding from others would be Magil, who was very aware of his purpose and that (in RD) Kid is actually Schala. Hiding from himself is more of a reference to Guile not wanting to remember who he was, and his memory wipe. This can work both ways.
"But it didn't matter now.
The end was coming - an end to everything.
Soon, his long days of wandering would be over.
So too would the girl's ill-fated, fleeting existence."Now while the above point works for both, this points more toward Guile. The ill fated girl is most likely a reference to Schala's fleeting existence within the Time Devourer. This would end in the form of her being liberated from the Chrono Cross. His long days of wandering is again, a reference to Guile's character. He was searching and wandering in search of something...did not know what, but he knew he needed to find something (as confirmed by the above quote when he approached the Frozen Flame). There are several references to Guile being a wander in search of "enigma" as well.
"How many years had passed?
How many centuries?
How much love and prayer,
how much hatred and rancor,
how much despair and resignation,
had slowly and silently fallen over him,
piling up like snow?"This is a reference to Magus in general.
"On that fated day, long, long ago...
everything that he was had vanished...
Faded away into nothingness...
without so much as a whimper...
There was nothing he could have done to stop it...
But one memory stayed with him,
even after everything else fell away.
One unforgettable image...
That kingdom of winds, forever lost..."There was nothing he could have done to stop it, speaks to when he failed to save Schala from the Dream Devourer. "everything he was" vanishing is likely a reference to when he wiped his memory. The unforgettable image is Schala's smile and the reason he searches for "something". The Kingdom of Winds is a reference to Zeal itself, which could also interpret that this entire part is referring to the fall of Zeal, but the rest does not add up as well to that as it does for Guile. For example, Magus was not searching for Schala in the start of CT as he thought she was dead. He also did not know he could willingly time travel at the time either. This is why he was more fixated on revenge and summoning Lavos to kill it, rather than finding Schala.
"Those blessed days in a paradise above the clouds...
And that face... Her gentle, bitter-sweet smile...
Perhaps his time behind the mask
was coming to an end..."Reference to his days with Schala and the end of his quest.
"His icy gaze seemed to thaw for a moment-
and then he sprang to action.
The moonlight flashed across the mask's surface.
His silvery hair flowed behind him,
reaching out like the tail of a coment.
"The time has come, o fated star-
the king has returned."
And with that... he vanished into the darkness."The moonlight reference points that this was his thoughts from the night before (very early morning most likely) actually going to Opassa Beach off screen, and is further supported by the fact that above he speaks of preparation and going to the meeting place (opassa beach) suggesting he is not physically there yet. Vanishing into darkness was a trademark of Magil, but given all the other evidence pointing to Guile instead, it could also just be a tribute to the character Guile was originally supposed to represent as well. This could also be a reference to entering the Darkness Beyond Time as well.
"Though a life may end, a story lives on.
Not forever, perhaps, but...
What's eternity...
... compared to this moment in time?
fin."A life ending could be Kid if he thinks she will merge with Schala, being her daughter clone and all.
...
So a few side notes to bring up...as we can see Guile would have his memories back in this scenario. There is no outright confirmation that this happened, but it is strongly implied which is the only way to do it without messing with the original script of CC. So when could this have happened? A user by the name of Prince Janus came up with a good one that I subscribe to. Basically when he approached the Frozen Flame, he has a revelation from its influence and regains his memories. He keeps his thought to himself, as it serves no purpose to tell Serge and Kid what he came to realize. Magus was pretty introverted to begin with, so it fits the character too.
So when you look at all this, there is a much stronger argument to say this is an expansion of the original CT retcon than a reference to Magil from RD. Someone did bring up another possibility, that due to the silver mask we may be seeing yet another version of Magus in yet another timeline, but such a monologue serves no purpose unless they are teasing a new game, which I have my doubts about. It is for this reason I believe it must either refer to Magil or Guile, and for the reasons above I feel Guile fits the bill. However a hint at a new game is indeed totally possible, so I respect the opinion of anyone that feels that way. Myself personally however, I feel like I will cross that bridge if/when that is announced and draw my conclusions based on the data and lore we already have.
Thoughts?
https://www.chronocompendium.com/Forums/index.php?topic=13731.msg234624#msg234624 for those that want to read the original un-noted version of the new content.
