CTT:Crono
The Swordsman
"I am he who was living, and was dead. Behold, I live evermore."
--Jesus Christ, Revelations.
Full Name: Crono
Crono, the main character of Chrono Trigger, is parallel to Jesus Christ in many, many ways. In fact, his parallel is probably the strongest of all those listed (with the possible exception of Queen Zeal). There are many suggestions on this particular page concerning Crono. Most of them are undeniable telltale traits of Jesus Christ, but a few do stretch possibility a bit. It's a safe bet to say that at least most of the evidence in support of Crono's Jesus Christ parallel is as legitimate as it gets without an official confirmation from Square.
For a quick comparison of Crono to other famous Christ figures in literature and movies throughout history proving Crono's validity as perhaps the most well-supported, undeniable Christ figure ever, visit the
Christ Figure Comparison portion of this website.
First and foremost, Crono sacrifices his own life, as did Jesus Christ. Remember his death in order to save his friends from Lavos?
When Crono dies before Queen Zeal, notice his position: his arms are raised slightly above his head, and his legs are clasped together. It looks suspiciously like the position of a crucified man. Of course, Jesus's death was through crucifixion. This position is also the position Crono assumes when he casts a magic spell, so it could be coincidental. However, if you've seen the new Toriyama animation in the Chrono Trigger remake for the Playstation, you may have noticed that Crono looks even more like a crucified man when he dies during this particular scene. Not only are his arms stretched out and his legs clasped, but his chest is projected outward and his head thrown back, a position taken by a crucified person in attempt to hold himself/herself up to prevent asphyxiation, which occurs from hanging unsupported by one's arms. In fact, asphyxiation is believed to have been the number one cause of death during crucifixion.
After his death, Crono is resurrected miraculously, as was Jesus. Crono's friends use the Chrono Trigger atop Death Peak to help bring him back to life, but as Gaspar said when he gave them the Time Egg, it would still take a miracle. Also, Mary Magdeline is the first person to whom Jesus appears after his resurrection, the woman he was the closest to, and some speculate may have had a romantic relationship with. Notice that, when you reach the summit of death peak, Marle is the one closest to Crono when he comes back to life. As her page will show, Marle happens to step into the shoes of Mary Magdeline on occasion based on Crono's role as a symbolic Messiah. Of course, Crono and Marle seem to have a semi-romantic relationship as the game progresses.
After his resurrection, Crono finishes the battle against Lavos and Queen Zeal, and returns to Heaven. Jesus similarly preached to his disciples for a period after his resurrection, and then returned to Heaven once more. When does Crono return to Heaven? If you've seen the normal endings of the game, one of two things will happen: either Crono will float away in the sky holding a handful of balloons, or he will board the Epoch and fly away again. Either way, he returns to the heavens.
Before his death (though this does not directly lead to his death), Crono is put on trial in Guardia by the will of Yakra for crimes he never committed. Whether or not he wins or loses the trial, he is still sentenced to death. Jesus was put on trial before Pontious Pilate, the Roman senator, by the will of the Pharisees. As their respective pages
will indicate, Guardia is most likely Rome, and Yakra the Pharisees. This part is but one of each of their many similarities. More information exists on this matter near the bottom of this page.
Jesus was, according to the Bible, the son of God. The Virgin Mary was impregnated
immaculately without sexual intercourse. Notice that in Chrono Trigger, it's just a gigantic mystery as to who Crono's father is. Not once is his father mentioned at all. He lives alone with his Mom (much like the Virgin Mary).
One of the miracles of Jesus Christ was his taking one piece of bread, and somehow
feeding hundreds of starving people with it. When Crono travels to 600 A.D., he recieves one piece of jerky and somehow feeds an entire regiment of starving troops with it. This tidbit is also a bit of a longshot, but still considerably suggestive enough to wonder about.
Jesus also once saved the life of a woman accused of adultery from an angry mob who was about to stone her at the command of the Pharisees. Crono, similarly, saves the life of Marle by rescuing Queen Leene from Yakra. While Marle's role is Mary Magdeline, and not
the woman accused of adultery, consider this: Mary Magdeline is considered the patron saint of sinful and wayward women seeking redemption. By this, Marle may very well encompass this nameless example of female sin as well. Of course, Yakra is the role of the Pharisee body who brought about the attempted stoning.
Jesus raised his friend, Lazarus, from the dead after he had died of an illness. When
Crono, Marle, and Lucca travel to 2300 A.D., they find Robo, who is no longer functional. Crono's party fixes him up, giving him life once again. Had Crono not led Lucca to Robo, he never would have been revived.As Robo's page indicates, he is in many more ways similar to Lazarus.
If you notice throughout the course of the game, Crono and Marle seem to be a bit closer to eachother than to other characters. Jesus was much closer to Mary Magdeline than to the other apostles, thus putting the roles into place. In fact, there were certain hints in the Bible that Jesus and Mary Magdeline may have had something conjugal, but nothing is really proven. Thus, though Crono and Marle are close, they never seem to have anything deeply romantic (though we are given hints time after time about how much they like eachother).
Notice Guardia Kingdom's attitude towards Crono throughout the game. Guardia, as aforementioned, is really Rome. At first,they won't have anything to do with Crono. He's simply pushed away. Initially, Rome wanted nothing to do with Jesus, and sent him away to face other authorities. Eventually, Yakra pushes and succeeds in getting Guardia to try Crono. Eventually, the Pharisees push until Christ is tried before Pilate. After Jesus's crucifixion, Rome ended up adopting Christianity as their main religion, and actually became the center of Christianity. After seeing past Yakra's ploy, Guardia takes in Crono as an honorable guest.
In the Bible, Jesus was very close friends with Martha of Bethany, and was a guest in her house often. As her page will show, Lucca is considerably similar to Martha. Well, Crono is best friends with Lucca, and from the way Taban and Lara treat him, it's apparent that he's been to Lucca's home many times in the past.
During Crono's trial in Guardia (Rome), only one man takes his side and defends him in court: Pierre (really Nicodemus). During Christ's trial before Pilate, only one of the Pharisees who sympathized with Christ stood up for him: Nicodemus. Seeing as how both Pierre and Yakra (at the time the Chancellor) are both lawyers, and both have the King's ear, this shows a definite peership between the two of them, just as Nicodemus was one of the Pharisees who took a different attitude towards Christ.
A character's magical element is an indicator of what role they play in the game. Notice that Crono's element is lightning. A pretty heavenly element, no? Lightning was often thought of as the wrath of God. This connects Crono to being a heavenly figure even further. Thanks to Rekka (kikoutei_rekka@hotmail.com) for this piece of information.
Mech Assassin (tiger@pp1.inet.fi) has elaborated on Crono's spell, Luminaire, even further. The word "lumin" is Latin for "light", and the actual spell itself is not anything associated with lightning or thunder, but rather a large blast of light. Light is connected with the aspect of God and holy elements even more so than lightning. Biblical references of Heaven and angels, for example, are always related to strong light. Angels, for example, were beings of light. God often appeared in a flash of light. This on top of lightning strengthens Crono's element as something divine even more so.
Though they themselves are not actually in the Bible, it is a common Christmas legend that three wisemen led by a star bring the infant Jesus each a gift. The names of these wisemen are Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthazar. Exactly the names of the Three Gurus of Zeal in Chrono Trigger (Save the Belthasar/Balthazar differences). Notice that each of them brings one gift of significant importance to Crono and his party. Melchior: the Masamune. Gaspar: the Time Egg. Belthasar: the Wings of Time. Also notice that they are all led by the crisis of Lavos (the comet/killer star Wormwood of Revelations) in one way or another to present these gifts.
Jesus Christ, upon returning to a temple of worship was disgusted to find that a huge bazaar and fair was going on inside of it. This bazaar was put on by the Pharisees. Jesus ran through the temple and expressed great anger towards those capitalizing out of a church. Remember the scene in Chrono Trigger where the church in 600 A.D. is infested with Yakra's minions? Crono runs through and puts an end to it. Again Yakra = the Pharisees, thus the purging of the church is quite similar.
Jesus, as mentioned above, was said to have the ability to raise the dead. Notice that Crono, though his element is lightning and all of his other abilities are strictly offensive, does have the Life spell. Seems a little out of place, dosen't it?
Jesus went out on a journey through the desert, where he eventually claimed to have spoken with God. The first time The Entity (God) is noticably mentioned in the game is right after you revive Robo (Lazarus) in the temple built around what used to be a gigantic desert.
Jesus Christ is said to have walked on water as one of his miracles. There is a scene in Chrono Trigger where, after entering the Heckran Cave, Crono is inconspicuously walking on top of running water instead of a normal cave floor. If you look below the water in certain areas, you will notice that the rocks descend downward until they are no longer visible, showing the water to be too deep to normally walk into and not sink. Square has had many games where you must walk through watery areas, and in all of them, even those that are technologically far inferior to Chrono Trigger, the person walking into the water is always submerged. Even when walking into a puddle in Seiken Densetsu 2 (Secret of Mana), the character's feet are at least submerged.
One of Christ's most famous speeches is known as "The Sermon on the Mound". During this sermon, Christ metaphorically refers to the seeds of goodness, and the seeds of Satan. The seeds of goodness must be planted and must flourish, while the seeds of Satan must be weeded out. There is, not surprisingly, a scene in Chrono Trigger in which Crono and his party retrieve a seed from inside the Arris dome (shaped like a mound...hint, hint) and, while still inside the dome/mound, give a speech to the inhabitants of the dome about how important it is that they plant and grow the seed into a food source. This is parallel to the "seeds of goodness" Christ spoke of. Concerning the "seeds of Satan", one must look to the fact that, during this speech, Crono and company also note that they are moving to fight against Lavos. Lavos, who is at that point in time believed to have been created by Magus.
It has been brought to my attention by Michael (Mad_MarchHare@Yahoo.com) that one of Christ's teachings was allegience to him over allegience to one's parents. The stress was on the idea that no man could serve two masters and be faithful to them both. In Chrono Trigger, notice that most of the characters who join Crono's (Jesus's) quest do so by leaving or turning against the wishes of their own parents. Marle denounces her father and her kingdom to travel with Crono. Lucca leaves her parents, with whom she had lived all of her life, to join Crono. Robo would rather fight and kill his creator, Mother Brain, than betray Crono. Magus, after his False Prophet charade, turns against his own mother, Queen Zeal, and joins Crono in the battle against her. Schala also betrays her mother, Queen Zeal, when she frees Crono and party from the prison she put them in.
It has also been brought to my attention by Michael (Mad_MarchHare@Yahoo.com) that even more parallels exist concerning Crono's trial in Guardia and Jesus's trial by Pontious Pilate, the Roman senator. Christ was charged with threatening the power of Caesar, the Roman monarch. Crono is charged with attempts to overthrow Guardia (as its page will indicate, Guardia is parallel to Rome).
Also (thanks to Michael Mad_MarchHare@Yahoo.com) for this parallel, too), note the nature of the relationship between Crono and Yakra (Pharisees). During Crono, Frog, and Lucca's storming of the Cathedral in 600 A.D., they slay Yakra I. For this, the descendant, Yakra VIII attempts to exact his revenge on Crono. Now, consider the aforementioned parallel between Crono's storming of the Cathedral and Jesus's cleansing of the temple bazaar, put on by the Pharisees. It is what Jesus says at the temple (that he will rebuild it in three days if they destroy it) that the Pharisees twist to get him accused of treason to Caesar...just as Yakra VIII uses Crono's actions during the storming of the Cathedral (killing Yakra I) as initiative to put him on trial in 1000 A.D. as a "threat to the well-being of the King (Caesar).
It has been brought to my attention by The Joiner (JonPBerger@aol.com) that the Chrono Trigger, the item used to resurrect Crono (Jesus), holds quite a similarity to Myrrh, one of the gifts brought to the infant Jesus by the Wisemen. Myrrh is a scented gum used to prepare bodies for burial, and, according to the Bible, was the gift that foretold the death and resurrection of Jesus. Similarly, the Chrono Trigger/Time Egg was the item from Gaspar, one of the Three Gurus of Zeal (Three Wisemen of the Bible) that was so strongly tied in with Crono's death and resurrection.
Nina has brought to my attention an interesting fact concerning Crono's resurrection atop Death Peak. Notice that, when Crono is brought back to life, he is sitting by a tree that immediately lights up like a Christmas tree. Now, we all know that Christmas trees are used to celebrate Christmas, the alleged birth of Jesus. A Christmas tree appears immediately after Crono is reborn, so it is extremely fitting.
Rekka (kikoutei_rekka@hotmail.com) has brought to my attention an interesting similarity between the Last Supper and the Banquet in 65 milion B.C. The Last Supper was intended as a celebration of Christ, just as the Banquet is intended as a celebration of Crono. Both took place during the evening, and at both, the Christ figure is seriously betrayed/screwed over by someone who was supposed to have been celebrating for him. During the Last Supper, Judas Iscariot, an apostle of Christ, betrays him to the Romans for thirty pieces of silver (a material motive), and the Romans raid the site of the Last Supper the morning after. During the Banquet, Kino, an Ioka tribesman, who was supposed to be celebrating for Crono, winds up betraying him instead and stealing his Gate Key (a material motive). The morning after, the Reptites (the enemies of Crono and Ayla) raid the site thanks to Kino, as did the Romans after the Last Supper.