So it's been so long since I was on this website, and one thing that has changed, (besides my capability of typing
) is thought process. I've noticed that not many people have touched on the what the shades are, so I am going to take a shot and theorize of what I've been thinking.
What we understand so far is that the three shades take place within 12,000 BC, 1000 AD, and 2300 AD. Our past, present, and future, game-wise. Why then are the shades shapes of our three present day natives, no less? Further, who are they created by?
There are two distinct possibilities, that they are creations of the Entity, or DD/Schala/Lavos. Before I get into which I believe created it, though there may be little of mattering on it, I will go into why the shades are the shapes of our trio.
Scroll down to the end for simple condensation of what I state.
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12,000 BC – Marle's shade, the Alabaster Shade.
For those who don't know, the color Alabaster is a metonym of white. Interesting that Marle's element is water, mostly symbolized by blue, but then again things always look brighter in the past compared to the grim future.
12,000 BC is where everything begins from a storyline point of view. Of course in prehistory, that's where Lavos falls, but that's more a prologue to the events of what starts everything of the Chrono series. 12,000 BC is where the gurus are sent off, where Schala is met, where Zeal falls, where magic grows to grandoise, only to fall, where quite possibly the Guardia line truly comes into fruition.
Of course, Kino IS the supposed ancestor to Guardia, but it's all possible of what bloodlines meet where. For example, the pendant Marle has, has been in the line for generations, and of course, its Schala's pendant. 12,000 BC is the beginning of where the royal bloodlines of Guardia starts, with the differences of Earthbounds and Enlightened Ones shattering... 12,000 BC is also where the Fiendlord himself comes from, where the Mammon Machine comes, and so on, not to restate myself.
Like this time period, Marle is the representation of the past, of beginnings. It is with Marle that our story begins. A tomboy princess that starts our hero and eventually, our motley crew out on their way. It's with her asking that they should save the world and undo this terrible Day of Lavos that everything begins. A lot of the major storyline point begin with the Princess. Leene's Bell. The Pendant to get into the doors of the throne room of Zeal. Marle's own sidequest is the beginning of her and Crono's life together, after the shaky past she had with her father and the loss of her mother.
Most interestingly of all, this DV sits next to the new settlement in 12,000 BC.
1000 AD – Crono – The Steel Shade
Crono is the present in every sense of the word. He is always at our forefront, even when slain. He is our present, always in the present, and the group's de facto leader. It makes sense of course that the shade is represented by him. There is little much to say besides the point that he is 'always there'. When Marle needed to be rescued, he was there. To help Frog defeat Magus, he was there. To defeat Azala, he was there (Twice). Even when he had been killed by Lavos, he was in the thoughts and hearts of his comrades and it became their mission to bring him back. He is that important, he is that much a symbol of present time.
And no need to state it, 1000 AD is the present, current time.
That DV sit next to the fairgrounds, and Crono's home.
2300 AD – Lucca – The Crimson Shade
I truly love the fact that this dimensional vortex sits next to the Geno Dome. As you have guessed even before I typed the words, Lucca is a representation of the future. It is her machinery, combined with Marle's pendant that sends the princess through the first time trip. It is her genius that creates the Gate Key, her genius that fixes up Robo, many times no less. While major story points begin with Marle's hand, plot points advance with Lucca's.
It is also Lucca's technology that helps advances machinery, as stated by Chrono Cross. By her hands, those hands, the hands of that crazy, purple-haired scientist, Crono's best friend, that things would eventually get a little hectic with Mother Brain and insane machines. She learns how to create incomplete time eggs for goodness sake.
Lucca's hands are in a lot of cookie jars in Chrono Cross. She is the one who finds Kid, and Chrono Cross is the future of Chrono Trigger. Who better then the representation of the future to find her and raise her.
Now we understand why the shades take form of Crono, Lucca, and Marle, the three who come from the present, yet as a trio, they symbolize the world at large, in all senses and times. They are in a sense, the chosen ones. Yet we don't understand why they, the shades are into existence, and what's behind them.
Here is my theory, that they are creations not of the Entity or the planet, but heralds of the DD/Schala/Lavos, defensive linemen in the grand strategy. Lavos is defeated in some timeline, somewhere. This creates the Dream Devourer, and the vortexes. If you are an unstoppable entity, and a cavalcade of six, possibly seven beings from the world you've been feeding on succeeded in taking you down in one timeline, you would have to find a way to crush them. If you can't beat 'em, make clonesof the (arguably) three most powerful, and THEN defeat them.
I posted this in the "New Dungeon Maps" thread. Has anyone seen this text in-game?
このセカイにワタシはヒトリでいい…
アナタはキエなさい！{end}
One of me is all this world needs.
Begone, for all eternity!
{Marle}「…戦うしか、ないのね。
私もここでやられるわけには
いかない！！{end}
{Marle}: I guess...I guess I have to fight you.
I don't want to be gone for all eternity!
---
アナタさえいなけレバ…
キエテしまいナサイ！
You are all that stands in the way...
You must die!
(I don't have the complete Japanese line yet)
{Lucca}: So much for getting along...
Looks like we have some irreconcilable differences
to take care of, doesn't it?
Edit: Adjusted formatting to match game.
They are all that stands in the way after all, of DD's success, at least until it beats them.
However, since this is partly Schala's mind still at work, these may still be partly a trial. In some leftover hope in Schala's mind, though she fused with Lavos, she may hope that the time-traveling troupe can defeat the heralds, and by proxy, the DD. It's by her doing then that when the shades are defeated, they empower the trio, to help them in battling DD. Of course, failure is in the final curtain, and they are made to forget what has happened.
I hope that made some form of sense.
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So to condense everything I stated, the shades of DV are creations, heralds of DD, seeing as the trio are possibly the symbol of the entity/the planet's hope, the shades are everything DD has learned about them, formed into its personal advance guard. They fuse, and empower the said trio, because Schala partly tries to help her possible saviors in freeing her, though they, as well as her brother fail, and must be made to forget.
