Some questions about Project Kid

[zamuz]

First post here. I played through Chrono Cross once again recently, after finding this amazing site, and I have some questions about Project Kid.

1. About Kid's role in Belthasar's plan. Kid travels in time in order to save Serge, and also calls him across dimensions at the beginning of the game at Opassa Beach (please correct me if I'm wrong). My question is, why does she seem to be unaware of these things? Although she doesn't seem surprised when this information is revealed to the party at Opassa Beach near the ending (except when it is revealed she is Schala's daughter-clone), when Serge meets her at Cape Howl it's pretty clear that it's the first time they meet. Essentially, I'd like to know (or discuss) how Kid gets involved in Belthasar's plan, and what happens with her after she saves Serge.

2. Schala creates a clone of herself as a part of Belthasar's plan. The question here is, how does Belthasar get her to do this? Reading through the CC Plot Summary I learnt that Kid is sent into the world in 1004 AD (if this information is in the game, I must've missed it), at which point I assume she would already be at the DBT (again, please correct me if I'm wrong), thus making it difficult for her to create Kid or for Belthasar to somehow reach her.

[ZeaLitY]

1. The game doesn't wrap this up very well. What it suggests is that Belthasar contacted Kid in Another World before Cross really got underway and had her do these things, at which point she...left the timeline or disappeared, leaving her past self as Kid to meet Serge before she was contacted by Belthasar. This is a problem for Time Bastard, because this original Kid would disappear at the moment the time traveling one went back to save Serge.

2. It's apparently another credit to Belthasar's planning that he knew, as part of the Time Devourer's merging process, Schala would lose her mind and try some last ditch effort to save herself by creating a clone. We don't know if there ever were contact between Belthasar and Schala, or Belthasar as the planet (concerning Dinopolis). So yes, Belthasar would be guessing her intentions or contacting her when she's already in the Darkness Beyond Time. The date of 1004 A.D. is just established by her age; Ultimania claims she came in 1006 A.D., but Kato's CT PSX cut scene clearly shows her as a fresh infant found by Lucca. That and something else which escapes my mind contradict any other dates for her arrival. Ultimania does have a few other errors in it.

[Syao]

I had a question about Kid's age:

Kids is said to have been cloned the night that Schala heard Serge's screams from the panther attack.  That night was in 1006 I believe, as it was 14 years before Chrono Cross' 1020.  That would make Kid 14 at the time of the events in Chrono Cross, but I believe she is said to be sixteen isn't she?  When she was cloned was she possibly not cloned as newborn, but a toddler instead, or perhaps she aged more than the fourteen years somehow?  I know that's a fair bit of speculation, but I was just wondering what is actually going on.

[ZeaLitY]

In this situation, we went back to Kato's CT PSX cut scene, which showed Kid in the forest as a true baby mostly without hair and perhaps a few days or weeks old. This overrules everything else. There are a couple other inconsistencies in Cross's dialogue that can be shrugged off, like reports that the Dead Sea Acacia expedition happened in 1016 A.D. rather than 1017 A.D. The only one that causes major problems is the Chronopolis guy's statement that they've been monitoring the dimensions before 1010 A.D., which is impossible, as the dimensions split in that year.

[Syao]

I'm not sure I understand what piece of information then to ignore.  If we ignore that Kid was born in 1006 then we are ignoring Schala's creation of Kid during the panther attack incident, which is impossible because it caused the electromagnetic storm that caused so much else.  Then we much either change Kid's age, or we much change the year that the events took place in, which is impossible.  Kid certainly does not look 14 to me.

[ZeaLitY]

We've been forced to ignore Lucca's words that Kid was created simultaneously with the panther incident, or assume that Schala sent Kid two years before the panther incident. It's impossible to reconcile her depiction as a newborn with the age issue, leaving Lucca in any case completely wrong. Thankfully, the plot is A-OK otherwise and a suitable interpretation of her dialogue is available, so it doesn't receive plot hole status.