Chrono trigger ending question (Is bugging me a lot; related to time travel)

[mystaku]

Towards the end when everyone is bidding farewell, Marle asks Lucca if she isn't gonna say goodbye to Robo. Lucca replies back saying that they changed the future when they killed Lavos and as a result Robo mayn't be built in the future and may cease to exist.

Here's what I don't understand : Robo was still alive after they killed Lavos. Not just in 1000 AD but in the end of time as well (The three players who defeat Lavos would of course have to come back to End of time and inform everyone the good news) so why was Lucca worried about Robo ceasing to exist when he clearly exists even during end of time (which is needless to say after 2300 AD). Is there any particular time travel concept I'm missing here?

This never bugged me when I played the game years back. And this particular scene always made me tear up but now when I think about this it feels kind of awkward D:

Would be glad if someone could demystify this for me!!!

[Eske]

Towards the end when everyone is bidding farewell, Marle asks Lucca if she isn't gonna say goodbye to Robo. Lucca replies back saying that they changed the future when they killed Lavos and as a result Robo mayn't be built in the future and may cease to exist.

Here's what I don't understand : Robo was still alive after they killed Lavos. Not just in 1000 AD but in the end of time as well (The three players who defeat Lavos would of course have to come back to End of time and inform everyone the good news) so why was Lucca worried about Robo ceasing to exist when he clearly exists even during end of time (which is needless to say after 2300 AD). Is there any particular time travel concept I'm missing here?

This never bugged me when I played the game years back. And this particular scene always made me tear up but now when I think about this it feels kind of awkward D:

Would be glad if someone could demystify this for me!!!

First, we can say that Lucca's judgement is compromised because Robo is her friend and she cares for "him" deeply.  She fears that when he takes the gate back to his time that he will "cease to be" because the saved future might not include robots like him.  We know from other situations in the game that she is wrong - Robo has Time Traveler Immunity and is unable to be overwritten by whatever changes to the future come to be.  The ending, in fact, shows that Robo is alive and well and is even reunited with his "sister."  Since we killed her in the game, this gives the impression that Robo's kind exist in the new future and, due to Time Bastard, the Robo we are familiar with, after traveling to this future, probably replaced "new future Robo." 

[mystaku]

First, we can say that Lucca's judgement is compromised because Robo is her friend and she cares for "him" deeply.  She fears that when he takes the gate back to his time that he will "cease to be" because the saved future might not include robots like him.  We know from other situations in the game that she is wrong - Robo has Time Traveler Immunity and is unable to be overwritten by whatever changes to the future come to be.  The ending, in fact, shows that Robo is alive and well and is even reunited with his "sister."  Since we killed her in the game, this gives the impression that Robo's kind exist in the new future and, due to Time Bastard, the Robo we are familiar with, after traveling to this future, probably replaced "new future Robo." 

Thanks for the reply. Time immunity...Time Bastard...ahh I know there's a big section here in CC that explains the different time travel concepts of the game. Discovered it only recently. Have bookmarked it and will go through it sometime.

And I'm not really sure I follow you sorry. I still don't understand this : If Robo was alive at the end of time after defeating Lavos, why should Lucca worry about Robo ceasing to exist in a time period that comes before the end of time? (2300 AD) Obviously if Robo wasn't made in the saved future, he should cease to exist at the end of time too, after the three players defeat Lavos.

Or is it possible for someone to exist at the end of time after altering history and only cease to exist when they go back to their own timeline (a timeline that lies in between the altered year and end of time)? Do you think it'll be clear to me after I go through that article on time travel concepts?

[ZeaLitY]

This is definitely a dialogue inconsistency. I'm going to add it to the Plot Inconsistencies page.

[Scintillating_Void]

It has been theorized that Robo was actually made around 1999 A.D and thus would not be affected.

Then again Mother Brain was operational even in the bleak future and thus could have made Robo afterward.  Then again we also see Atropos in the ending credits.

Speaking of such, the Epoch also comes from a future that no longer exists.

[Razig]

What makes the conversation even more strange, is that Doan is standing right there the whole time. Lucca herself went and got him along with Marle's ancestors, which had to have happened after Lavos was defeated. Lucca had visited the new future and found Doan intact, so what reason was there to think Robo wouldn't also be fine?

I've always assumed that Robo was built sometime prior to 1999 AD due to his memories of there being lots of humans in Proto Dome. Atropos's assertion that he was created to spy on humans must be taken with a grain of salt, since she had been reprogrammed by the clearly delusional Mother Brain. Before Lavos awakened, Mother Brain was probably a benign program with no desire to eliminate humanity. Centuries of neglect most likely caused her to go mad and pass that madness on to her children. Robo was exempt from this reprogramming due to his being offline the whole time, possibly due to damage sustained during the Lavos disaster.

[EgyLynx]

Some said at ... it just dissapear... but ...

[Random Factor]

Towards the end when everyone is bidding farewell, Marle asks Lucca if she isn't gonna say goodbye to Robo. Lucca replies back saying that they changed the future when they killed Lavos and as a result Robo mayn't be built in the future and may cease to exist.

Here's what I don't understand : Robo was still alive after they killed Lavos. Not just in 1000 AD but in the end of time as well (The three players who defeat Lavos would of course have to come back to End of time and inform everyone the good news) so why was Lucca worried about Robo ceasing to exist when he clearly exists even during end of time (which is needless to say after 2300 AD). Is there any particular time travel concept I'm missing here?

This never bugged me when I played the game years back. And this particular scene always made me tear up but now when I think about this it feels kind of awkward D:

Would be glad if someone could demystify this for me!!!

Lucca is an engineer, not a master of time and space. Even masters of time and space get hemmed up in the logic loops and everything else that would prevent them from seeing. On top of it, She was probably also trying to deny her own emotionality and play the pragmatic scientist that hadn't yet begun to register or mourn the loss of her friend. Also, on the splitside of it is the sheer fact of all that they had been through together, facing life and death so many times to the point where they wouldn't be able to cry at the thought of losing each other any more. Not just lucca and robo; not some odd romance between the whole group, but the becoming hardened through the rigours of physical and emotional trauma and endurance.

[ThatGuy]

I'll have to review the exact words Lucca said... but I'd always assumed she was worried that Robo, being from a future now changed, would no longer have a place.

Which always me think that Doan's presence was the plot inconsistency. That future was changed, he shouldn't be there, at least, certainly not in rags... and not being a time traveler, he certainly shouldn't know about the bleak future Robo (and he) was from.

So, they way I saw it, Lucca's concerns were justified, but Doan's presence wasn't.


... You know, given that his era was changed about as much as it could be, it could have made sense for Robo to stay with Lucca. But I guess things wouldn't be as bittersweet that way.

[Zaulche]

I mostly agree with ThatGuy on this. What she says can be interpreted many ways, so I definitely understand how you got this impression. I always interpreted it more like ThatGuy, where she was worried about metaphysical place in the world, not his physical one.

I agree that Doan's presence is really the thing that is inconsistent. Unless we agree that the changes caused split timelines across multiple dimensions. Several plot inconsistencies support this, but based on how the characters interact and think I do not think this was the intention of the developers.

[Random Factor]

Sure, if you all want to detract from the point and cover up the reality of it and whatever truth might actually be there. Let me just bow out and tell you all to fuck off.

[Kodokami]

Lol, what? That was unnecessary.

[ThatGuy]

I think Random Factor is taking the "random" part of his name pretty seriously.

[Dalton]

1. Future can be cruel. But this way not because of Lavos.
2. Doan like only men who, our heroes knows about, survive in new reality but he is not chief this time. He just a bum

[Redline57]

Before Chrono Cross came out, and we knew Lavos being killed wasnt final, I sort of guessed that time got screwed up, and sending Doan and Robo into the gate effectively sent them into inexistence, that time snapped back like a rubber band. As if there was some force that saw that happened, the entity, and had to then erase and rewrite time.

I found it similar to back to the future, with the picture, fading back into correctness, when you altered time, it's not immediate, thus the grandfather paradox. Same reason Marle was there when you ran back into the room (ok that was for show, for our benefit). So...rubber band?

It was like they HAD to go, otherwise some other time paradox would happen?