Chrono Trigger - Schala
The graphics hold up very well!
Chrono Trigger is definitely not pro-royalty
One of the philosophers Crono talks to here explains all people do not have the ability to do magic. Only those who do live up here. The ones who don’t, still live on the ground and are known as Earthbound (I am one hundred percent sure this is a derogatory term in their world). There is no rhyme or reason to who gets the ability to use magic and who does not. It is luck of the draw. Sort of like being born into wealth. Already we can imagine the inequality of this society. We are only witnessing the lives of those who are well of so everything looks great. But those left behind on the ground probably have a hard life to suffer through. The magic users could easily share their talents and improve the lives of the unfortunate, but they choose not to. They are too selfish to care about “Earthbound”. Maybe the Queen was never benevolent. These people liked her because she was cruel to others, but not to them. Now they are worried because the leopards are eating their faces.
Who is this Janus?
Queen has two children, boy named Janus, and girl named Schala. Janus is the kid we met earlier, who predicted one our friends is going to die. Schala is the older sister. She is supposed to be the smart one. She is talented in magic; some say she is even more so than the Queen. When Crono walks into the room, he overhears them discussing the condition of their mother. They are worried about the Queen and the sudden change in her attitude. She is acting like a completely different person. They are especially worried about the control this new prophet has over her.
Crono follows Schala as she makes her way to the throne room. She has a pendant not unlike the one Marle carries (the one that got us all in this mess). The only difference is, Schala’s pendant is glowing. She stops in front of a door that looks familiar. Crono knows he has seen it before, but cannot remember where. The pendant glows and opens the door. Once Schala walks in, Crono tries the same thing, but without the glow the pendant does not have the power to open this door. There must be a place in here where we can charge the pendant and make it work. The answer lies in a room guarded by the most inept guard you will have the pleasure of meeting. He moves out of the way at the first sign of trouble. No fight, no struggle, only compliance. Inside there is a mech imprisoned in a beam of light. There is a glowing button on the front panel. When Crono interacts with it, Marle’s pendant starts glowing as well.
Is this a mech or golem?
Back to the room with awfully familiar looking door. Marle’s pendant works this time. This place looks eerily similar to the court room where the corrupt judge conducted a sham trial to wrongfully imprison Crono. The Queen is not amused with the team barging into her throne room. The prophet is also here, and he pours gasoline on the fire of by accusing Crono of being the seditionist he warned the Queen about earlier. She immediately orders Dalton to teach these people a lesson, who immediately orders his subordinate, Golem, to do the same. Neither Crono, nor his team is ready to deal with the Golem. He is too powerful for them, and the whole party is subdued in a matter of minutes. This is a fight the game expects the player to lose since the loss does not result in a game over. It is winnable when the player comes back to it in a New Game Plus mode. But even then winning does not change the ultimate outcome (just like being acquitted did not stop the judge from ordering Crono to be imprisoned). Dalton puts them in a beam jail just like the one mech was imprisoned in.
Against the protestations of her brother Schala decides to rescue our friends. She frees them from the beam prison and in return asks them to rescue Melchior. He had the audacity to disagree with the Queen and he was imprisoned somewhere. I always knew Melchior was old but had no idea he was ancient. At the fair in the beginning, ha had asked Crono to convince Marle into selling her pendant. He must have known the powers this pendant possesses. It is only logical to assume Schala and Janus are part of the same royal family that rules Guardia now. Marle is Schala’s descendant and this pendant has been passed down each generation through the ages. Somewhere along the way it probably lost the glow that made it special. I also wonder how many other places Melchior has popped up and I did not recognize him.
Before we can even begin to formulate a plan of escape, the prophet shows up. He wants to be rid of these pesky time travelers for good. This man is acting suspiciously like the Chancellor who was also hellbent on hanging Crono. Before he kills our friends, he wants to know how they came here. The prophet forces everyone to go to the cave on the ground where the time portal is. Once he has thrown the whole party through the portal, he makes Schala seal it so they can never come back. Schala is devastated but has to obey the prophet.
I have not played Crono Cross, but apparently that whole game takes place in an alternate reality just to explain what happened to Schala after the events of Chrono Trigger.
This is not a fight are heroes are prepared for at this time
Back in the prehistory, our heroes exit the portal, and it is sealed on this end as well. There are no more leads for them right now. AS they are going over the recent events, they realize why the throne room door looked so familiar. Crono and friends had seen a similar door in the post-apocalyptic future when they were trying to access the food stores. With the charged pendant, they can go back to the future and see what is behind the door. There may even be another portal there leading them back to Zeal.
The prophet has no idea what kind of a tenacious bunch of heroes he has messed with.
12-20-2020
Schala is forced to seal the time portal
