Gaspar

General Information

Game Information

Chrono Trigger

Full Name: Gaspar
Age: Indeterminate
Species: Human
Home Time: 12000 B.C., End of Time
Home Area: Zeal, End of Time

Gaspar, a wise and observant sage, is the Guru of Time in Zeal and the guide that helps Crono and his friends throughout their journey. After serving in his homeland with a red uniform, Gaspar was accidentally thrown to the End of Time in the Ocean Palace Incident. Prior to the expulsion, he had worked in his labs at Zeal on what would become the Chrono Trigger. There, in his desolate destination, he somehow constructed a platform in the style of our own Victorian Era and created a separate station for the Gates, which he observed were created by The Entity for the oncoming quest to defeat Lavos. While awaiting the adventurers, he somehow came into contact with Spekkio (possibly a Nu assistant, akin to Belthasar's), who was given his own room. Passing his time by sleeping beneath the center lamp post (with a humorous, prominent snot bubble ever present), he was soon met with out of place travelers, revealing that Crono's group was soon on its way.

Throughout the adventure, he told the party, among other things, where to find the Epoch, the Clone, and what to do with a few Key Items. He also presented the finished Chrono Trigger to the party after Crono perished, the point at which he was revealed to the group to be the old Guru of Time. After the successful journey to Death Peak, he elucidated several other noble deeds that needed to be done, and would empower the party; after their completion, urged the party to finish the conflict and defeat Lavos forever. The Gates ceased to exist after the mission was complete, and Gaspar's fate is unknown -- a stark, sudden departure for a memorable and important character.

While Gaspar is painted to be mostly an old codger, reminiscent of his glory days in his sleep and subdued in his spirit, he does have a wry humor at times and a noble heart, shown fully in his remorse at Crono's death and delivery of the song Crono & Marle ~ Far Off Promise. Above all, Gaspar was a good friend to the group, and essential in their struggle.

Gaspar has a line that reads,

OLD MAN: One of you is close to
   someone who needs help...
   Find this person...fast.

Speculation on the meaning of this line and what sidequest it points to have raged since the game's release, and even Nintendo once fabricated a false answer to the puzzle on its website holding Lara's leg sidequest to be the referenced point. However, it is known through retranslation that the original line was simply meant to convey that talking to the party members at the End of Time would reveal specifically what needed to be done in their home era. Ted Woolsey apparently muddled the line in the US version. A breakdown of the translation can be found on its Analysis page.

Japanese Equivalent

Romaji: Hasshu
Translation: Hash

Name Origin

Belthasar, Melchior, and Gaspar are three wise men who brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the infant Jesus according to legend.

The following is from the afterword of the book "Lamb" by the author Christopher Moore. The novel itself is a work of fiction, but it is based on some truth. Moore did extensive research of both the Gospel and the Bible as a whole before writing. Here's what he says:

"Another Gospel misassumption is that the three wise men were kings, or, in fact, that there were even three of them. We make that assumption because there are three gifts given to the Christ child. Their names are never mentioned. The names Balthasar, Gaspar, and Melchior come to us from Christian tradition written hundreds of years after the time of Christ." (pages 442-3)

When the Catholic church committed those wise men to sainthood, they did so with the names Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthasar. There's no actual record in the primary sources, but all three names were canonized together at a much later date.

A couple of centuries after the Gospels were written (say, 7th or 8th century), though, the names Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar were traditionally used to describe the three wise men. Perhaps people were trying to "boost" Jesus' image by showing that royalty from the three major world powers were visiting him -- Balthazar would obviously have been a Babylonian name at the time, while Gaspar/Caspar would have been Persian and Melchior would have been Arabian.