full image - Repost: [What If] Ending 14 - Eternal Zeal (from Reddit.com, [What If] Ending 14 - Eternal Zeal)
Mining:
Exchanges:
Donations:
What if by beating Lavos at the Ocean Palace we got a new and canon ending instead of a meta one like Ending 3: The Dream Team?Despite Chrono Trigger being already perfect, I've always felt that beating Lavos at the Ocean Palace was the ultimate challenge and achievement of New Game +, since Lavos is so strong and unbeatable there you are supposed to lose to continue the story in your first playthrough. So, what if instead of the meta Ending 3: The Dream Team (which we already get by beating Lavos as soon as we get to Lucca's Telepods), we got a new and canon ending?What would be the real consequences of beating Lavos at that point in time? This is the question I want the community to answer :DMy take is that, since this is such an achievement, the ending should strive to be mostly positive in tone. First things first, since Crono's party arrives at the Mammon Machine just after Janus, Melchior, Belthasar and Gaspar are displaced in the timeline, this event still occurs. However, the 600 AD, 1000 AD, 2300 AD on which they (bar Gaspar) respectively arrive would look VERY different from the ones we know from the game.By defeating Lavos, the Mammon Machine would have nobody to extract energy from and would deactivate. And since it was said that Queen Zeal corruption happened almost overnight since the Mammon Machine was activated, I think her corruption would be lifted. I don't even know how her personality would be uncorrupted since we see nothing of the sort on the story, but a few lines by Janus and Schala imply she was once a kind and caring mother that only became susceptible and ultimately defeated by Lavos corruption due to losing King Zeal.(I briefly thought that the Kingdom of Zeal would fall regardless because I thought that what sustained it afloat was Lavos energy being siphoned by the Mammon Machine, but now I'm almost certain that Zeal was lifted to the skies way before the Queen and the Gurus discovered Lavos and Melchior created the Mammon Machine, So I think it would stay afloat.)Since the Kingdom of Zeal still exists, the rift between Enlightened Ones and Earthbound Ones still stands. However, I think their relationship was getting better by the time of the events of the game, since the three Gurus and Schala treated them as equals. The Gurus were displaced at the Ocean Palace Incident but Schala remained and now Queen Zeal is uncorrupted, so I think the future between the two peoples is looking good. (Btw, I subscribe to the theory that the Enlightened Ones are descended from Laruba and the Earthbound are descended from Ioka, and since the two prehistoric villages seemed to have a good relationship despite radically different cultures, I think the Enlightened Ones and the Earthbound Ones can end up restoring that dynamic).(This is the point in which I think I can't make educated guesses anymore and just go full blown theory mode.)I think Dalton would be imprisoned by his enslavement of the Earthbound Ones. The Blackbird would probably go to one of his underlings. It would be a nice idea if Queen Zeal or, more probably, Schala offered the (now purposeless) Ocean Palace to the Earthbound Ones in compensation for their slavery into building it. I think most would move there, but some would remain in Algetty. Without the Mammon Machine and Lavos, I think the Kingdom of Zeal would return to the Sun Stone and derive their energy from the planet (or should I say the Entity) once again,The 600 AD in which Janus arrives is very different from the one we know from the game. The Kingdom of Zeal still floats in the sky, the Ocean Palace still rests in the depths of the sea and since magic never faded from the world, not possessing it would not cause a total rift between humans and Mystics like in the original timeline. Despite that, the Mystics would be closer to the descendants of the Enlightened Ones than to the descendants of the Earthbound Ones since magic linked them. Maybe Ozzie wouldn't even be hellbent on exterminating humans in this timeline, and when Janus arrived from 12000 BC, Ozzie could raise him normally (or as normal as a Mystic raising the most powerful mage ever could be) and/or send him to the Kingdom of Zeal, I think the Enlightened Ones may even be expecting Janus and the Gurus to arrive at some point in time, despite not knowing exactly when. Whenever they arrived, I think they would be well received as known historical figures since the Enlightened Ones would know of time travel. That means Glenn isn't turned into Frog and Cyrus isn't killed because they never even depart to find the Masamune. The Masamune wouldn't even be lost from 12000 BC to 600 AD since Lavos never destroyed Zeal. Janus would never summon (and presumably be killed by) Lavos on 600 AD. The Kingdom of Guardia would still be founded on 0 AD, but as descendants of the Earthbound Ones that remained on Algetty. Schala's pendant would never leave the Kingdom of Zeal in this timeline. (So, in my take, there are three major civilizations: the Kingdom of Zeal with the descendants of the Enlightened Ones, the descendants of the Eartbound Ones who moved to the Ocean Palace and the descendants of the Earthbound Ones who remained in Algetty, which would eventually become the Kingdom of Guardia).Now, Zeal had reached the zenith of their civilization in 12000 BC. HOW would the world look like if they never fell in 600 AD, 1000 AD, 1999 AD and 2300 AD is beyond me, but it would for sure look majestic. Just like Janus, Melchior and Belthasar could've been being awaited by the descendants of the Enlightened Ones on the Kingdom of Zeal, now much more advanced than before.Gaspar would be the sole exception: I think the End of Time would be exactly the same as the one on the game. However, with Lavos defeated he could, maybe, return to his own time before the Gates closed for good.So, that's my take :D I hope you enjoyed it (if you had the patience to read through it I mean...)How could we fit all this in a 10 minute ending of a game I don't know. If I knew how to ROM hack, I would certainly try to implement it tho... What would be your version of this ending? From which character POV would we watch it? What could be said on it and by whom? I look forward to your answers!
Social Media Icons