Schala started Chrono Trigger

[IrishReaper]

Schala is the only force that could have caused the events of Chrono Trigger. The Lavos Timeline does not have Crono and Marle meeting at the Millenial Fair, thus causing the events of 1999 AD. By the time of the future, Schala, Belthasar, the Planet, and possibly Gaspar and Lavos could have influenced time in such a way to cause Crono and Marle to meet, thus sparking the events of the game. Belthasar was too insane by this point to travel back. the Planet was only awakened by the creation of the orignal gate by Marle. There is no evidence to suggest that Gaspar ever left the End of Time after being sent there, and Lavos would not change the past with the future going so well for him. The only possibility is Schala.
We know she can do it, as seen with the events of Chrono Cross.
We never did find out what happened to her in the Lavos Timeline. We assume she died, but she may have been sent into the Darkness Beyond Time in the first place.
She has some control over time anyway, as seen when she seals the gate for Magus with her pendant.
She certainly has reason to(Fall of Zeal, Insanity of Her Mother, Loss of her Brother)
She seems to be the trigger for a lot of events in ths series(The Entirety of Chrono Cross)
The means, the motive, and the background info all point towards her.

[Acacia Sgt]

I think that is very unlikely.

We never did find out what happened to her in the Lavos Timeline. We assume she died, but she may have been sent into the Darkness Beyond Time in the first place.

Schala in the Lavos time line survived the Ocean Palace events since there was no party members and Magus to use the remaining power of the pendant on. Add to that the loss of magic afterwards, and she was left in no position to do anything.

She has some control over time anyway, as seen when she seals the gate for Magus with her pendant.

Sealing the gate was so that it couldn't be opened, yet it didn't changed it's time-related properties. Besides, again as above, she lost her magic after.

[IrishReaper]

Then explain how the events of Chrono Trigger came to pass. Some force had to exert an influence to change the Millennium Fair so that Crono and Marle ran into each other. Schala is the only being that we have proof of being able to change time like that, however unlikely the possibility may be. It could be, and probably was the Planet, but Schala is a viable possibility.

[FaustWolf]

It's all in the cigarette lighter.

I'm not kidding -- I'll grab a pic here unless someone else does before I get back. It's the one irrefutable proof, or at least an incredibly strong suggestion of proof.

[Schala Zeal]

It appears I'm the catalyst of both games. Who'dve thought...

[Acacia Sgt]

Then explain how the events of Chrono Trigger came to pass. Some force had to exert an influence to change the Millennium Fair so that Crono and Marle ran into each other. Schala is the only being that we have proof of being able to change time like that, however unlikely the possibility may be. It could be, and probably was the Planet, but Schala is a viable possibility.

It wasn't Schala, that is fact. In her position, her reasons (if she had) of wanting to change how things happened, would include Zeal not falling, having her brother back, etc., which, as you know, are changes that never happened. Besides, not having magic anymore, how would she be able to influence events that will happen thousands of years later after her death?

By the way...

By the time of the future, Schala, Belthasar, the Planet, and possibly Gaspar and Lavos could have influenced time in such a way to cause Crono and Marle to meet, thus sparking the events of the game.

Since when did Schala ever knew about the ruined future? Unlike the rest of those listed, Schala never saw or even heard about what Lavos did in 1999 AD. This is another reason why Schala isn't the one who started it. It was the entity/planet that did it.

[IrishReaper]

I never said Schala knew about the future. I am just saying that she could have subconciously reached out and caused the events of the game during the Fall of Zeal in the Lavos Timeline. She did it at the beginning of Chrono Cross, and yes, i know she had access to the power of Lavos at that time, giving her the ability to conjure the storm. Human beings can gain extroardinary powers during times of great duress(Dead man's grip, etc.), and magical power should not be exempt from that. Thus, with her entire world falling apart around her, she may have subconciously reached out with her powers and attracted the attention of the Planet. The Planet may have then directed that power to what it considered the best shot for eliminating Lavos, being Crono, Marle, and Lucca.
Hell, i could be wrong. I probably am. But the theory makes sense in a way, and with nothing on the horizon for the series, it seems as if crazy theories need to be bounced around.

[FaustWolf]

Here's the lighter of which I speak:


That's from the Chrono merchandise page.

I had some trouble believing it was the Planet at first too, but the lighter convinced me, at least. It could be, like, an Eastern cultural concept or something.

[Acacia Sgt]

Thus, with her entire world falling apart around her, she may have subconciously reached out with her powers and attracted the attention of the Planet. The Planet may have then directed that power to what it considered the best shot for eliminating Lavos, being Crono, Marle, and Lucca.

Remember that in Time Error terms, when the Ocean Palace events happened for the first time, even if the Planet noticed Schala during those moments, Lavos's destruction on the world hadn't happened. And even if the planet would have wanted to eliminate Lavos just for destroying Zeal (and why would it? Zeal had abandoned it and in turn turned their attention to Lavos after all), the Millennial Fair events still hadn't happened, and as such, the planet wouldn't have known yet they were it's best shot.

It wasn't until after Lavos destroyed the world that the planet now wanted to get rid of it, and now, it looked into it's past to see what it could use, and that turned out to be Crono and company.

[Zaulche]

Remember that in Time Error terms, when the Ocean Palace events happened for the first time, even if the Planet noticed Schala during those moments, Lavos's destruction on the world hadn't happened. And even if the planet would have wanted to eliminate Lavos just for destroying Zeal (and why would it? Zeal had abandoned it and in turn turned their attention to Lavos after all), the Millennial Fair events still hadn't happened, and as such, the planet wouldn't have known yet they were it's best shot.

It wasn't until after Lavos destroyed the world that the planet now wanted to get rid of it, and now, it looked into it's past to see what it could use, and that turned out to be Crono and company.

This is assuming that the entity was tied to time linearly. In the series great powers (such as Lavos, and by extension the black omen) demonstrate the ability to exist at all points in time simultaneously. It seems reasonable that the entity, being the life force of the planet and itself quite potent (at least enough to alter space and time), would also exist in the same manner.

[Acacia Sgt]

This is assuming that the entity was tied to time linearly. In the series great powers (such as Lavos, and by extension the black omen) demonstrate the ability to exist at all points in time simultaneously. It seems reasonable that the entity, being the life force of the planet and itself quite potent (at least enough to alter space and time), would also exist in the same manner.

Actually, they don't exactly exist simultaneously. It's more of being in an outside location of that time frame, which in turn has it's own time. Besides, if they could knew of their fates, why did they allowed them to happen before acting? It's illogical and without sense to prevent what happened to them if before they knew it would happen.

[Zaulche]

Ah, I misunderstood the pocket dimension a bit then. Thanks for the clarification.

Still, just because you know something is going to happen does not mean you are able to do something about it. If we found out tomorrow that a meteor was going to be landing on earth in a hundred years if we did nothing about it would we actually be able to stop it or circumvent it? Possibly yes, but also possibly no. Likewise, if the entity either knew Lavos was coming or knew Lavos was going to attempt to destroy it does not mean it would be in a position to actually do anything about it until Chrono and Company came along. It is a planet, presumably with a rotation and orbit. It's path is somewhat predetermined so it Lavos or anything else for that matter was going to hit it there is little it could do.

[Acacia Sgt]

Except the Planet most likely could open the gates before. Yet it only did it after the fact. One could argue it did it so that Crono and company could have motivation enough to stop Lavos, but if so, wouldn't a safer method have been more preferable?

[idioticidioms]

hrm. In the original time line, Schala didn't use her magic powers. The Pendant lost it's glow over time as it relied on the Mammon Machine to re-power it.

The planet awoke when Lavos appeared in the original time line just before Melchior, Balthazar and Gaspar were about to be dispatched by Lavos at Queen Zeal's command for speaking against her thirst for power. I believe the Planet knew that these three would be essential for Lavos to be defeated, as they are the only three who could assist Crono and Co. enough to make a difference.

Melchior was needed to create the Red Knife, which became the Masamune, and was needed to reforge the Masamune, which Glenn wielded against Magus, otherwise the team would have been defeated by him. Melchior was also needed to forge the Rainbow Weapons.

Balthazar was needed for his Epoch and to explain how to traverse Death Mountain to bring Crono back.

and Gaspar was needed in the End of Time, to guide Crono and Co. the most in their quest by giving hints of where and what to go and do next, to create the Time Egg which saved Crono, and to introduce the team to Spekkio.

Some of you seem to forget that Schala was needed in the Ocean Palace not because of the power of her Pendant, but because of the magical powers that she had aside from the pendant, that even Queen Zeal respected.

I think it is safe to say that the events in CC would have happened in any given outcome from CT, except for defeating Lavos at the beginning of a New Game+, or by defeating Lavos in the Ocean Palace, because those are the only two endings which result in the Debug Ending.

For the sake of a sequel, the planet could not prevent this from happening, but it could prevent a lot of the other tragedies from occurring.

The portal opened for Marle/Nadia in part due to the combined remaining energy of the Pendant and the Teleport Machine that Lucca had created, but the portal was there in the first place because of the planets' will, knowing that by sending Marle to the past, it would spur the events that happened after. Lucca was the only one since the Kingdom of Zeal that could possibly create a 'Gate Key' that would open those portals at will, so even with the 'others' that Gaspar remarked upon having accidentally stumbled through a gate and having to help them return to their times, Crono and Co were the only ones that had all of the skills on hand, and through their journey, aided by the Guru's, to defeat Lavos.

It all comes back to the Planets will for survival.

[Acacia Sgt]

I think it is safe to say that the events in CC would have happened in any given outcome from CT, except for defeating Lavos at the beginning of a New Game+, or by defeating Lavos in the Ocean Palace, because those are the only two endings which result in the Debug Ending.

Eh, not really. The nature of the Chronoverse should say otherwise, though at the same time, yeah, it agrees too. Like how in Radical Dreamers had a different fate for Schala. That's the thing about it, there can be many dimensions where Schala and Lavos's fates are the same, yet all seem to merge into just one by CC. Unless, that all about the DBT storing no-longer-existing time lines, they meant just the dimension's...