Chrono Trigger – Part 36: Dancing in the Moonlight

Summary: A beautiful moonlight parade. The party members return to their proper times. Goodbyes that may not be as permanent as they first seemed. Time traveling cat adventures.


After Lavos

-Leene’s bell is the first thing we hear.

-Crono wakes in his bed. A soldier wakes him up.

-uhhhh

-“Your stay of execution has been cancelled. We must carry out the sentence.” I know that in your timeline you probably never heard of Lavos cause we killed him in 12,000 BC, but come on dude. Not the hero’s welcome I was hoping for.

-Before the throne. The king is worried for Marle, but Marle charges in, saying that everything is fine.

-wait, the king KNOWS they tried to save the future?

-DOAN IS HERE, the elder from 2,300 AD!

-So is the king from 600 AD! Are the gates just opening willy-nilly? Kino’s here too, vouching for us against the Reptites.

-HJDLSHFDLSHFKLDS LUCCA IS SUCH A FUCKING TROLL AND I LOVE HER

She pops out from behind the throne. She brought them all here across time to prove what we did. This is basically the plot of “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” but instead of a history report, it’s saving our lives.

-So what was all that about the stay of execution being lifted? The king was just joshing around that he was going to kill Crono, like “ho ho, that rascally scamp of a prankster king?” What a dick lol.

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Moonlight Parade



-Time to celebrate. It’s a moonlight parade! This is wonderful.

-Dancers and imps and balloons and lights and all manner of wonders.

-AND A CAT BLESS YOU GAME, A CAT

-THE CAT IS NOW LEADING THE PARADE

CAAAAAAAT

-Lara is here, delighted that the future got saved by someone she knows. She’s gonna brag to all her friends. XD

-Taban’s chugging down “lemonade.” Suuuuure. Nice, non-alcoholic lemonade.

Love the lights.

-hahahaha Crono’s mom is fine with him saving history and all, but finds it hard when the cat’s caretaker is away from home so often.

-Melchior is happy that the weapons business is slow now.

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Many Partings

-At the gates. The whole team.

-Oh no, the gates have grown weak and everyone has to return to their own time! That especially sucks for someone like Ayla, who has to return to a time of the Ice Age’s onset, a time of hunger and privation.

But she’s tough. She’ll be fine.

-Ayla takes Kino and flips energetically into the past. Bye

-Frog and his King leave too.

-Heeee! Frog’s all “No no, let us not tarry with long goodbyes!” and Marle ups and smooches him.

-IS ROBO BEING ERASED FROM EXISTENCE?? He lived in a bleak future. He may no longer exist in his own time.

-No, I misunderstood. Robo’ll do fine in the new, brighter future. I keep forgetting that this isn’t a traditional time-travel story, and it’s okay to change the timeline without real risk of erasing the time travelers.

This goodbye between Robo and Lucca is by far the toughest to take.

-Now it’s just Lucca, Marle, and Crono. They remember the conversation from before about whether your life flashes before your eyes before death, referencing the Entity. Saying that the Entity’s visions may now be coming to a close.

-Are they talking about me? Am I, the player, the Entity? I’m sure that’s not the canon meaning of it, given that there’s a sequel, but that’s the answer that jumps out to me. The time gates brought them to the most narratively impactful and interesting moments because those moments exist in the imagination of me as a player. The game is ending, and my engagement with the game as the main player is ending. My “visions are coming to a close,” you might say.

-They talk of dismantling the Epoch.

-And Crono’s Mom busts into the scene, chasing the two cats.

-lolol wtf the cats jumped into the open time gate and Crono’s mom chased after.

They won’t be dismantling the Epoch so soon. I wonder if this is the set-up for the sequel, with Crono chasing his cats across time.

-Marle goes back to see the king. He is happy that she can stay forever now that her adventures are over, gifting her with the “Bell of Nadia,” but she objects. Time to leave the nest, eh?

-HELLL YESSS

SHE RUNS AWAY LAUGHING

AND WE HEAR THE SOUND OF THE EPOCH BLASTING THROUGH TIME OFF SCREEN

GO MARLE GO

-Taban lights some fireworks and the credits roll.

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Credits

-The Epoch streaks across time.

-Robo and Atropos sitting atop a cliff together.

-Kino and Ayla, flying dactyls together.

-Frog in a waterfall. [Later edit: at first I thought he was just bathing, but he was glowing white.

Did he transform back into a human? I was a bit confused on the whole thing about needing to defeat Magus to break the curse. He defeated Magus a while back on the cape but the curse held. Maybe it’s just that he needed to defeat Magus and eventually the curse would break, not instantaneously.]

-The king refurbishing his castle in 600 AD with Queen Leene. We also see some dude in a green cloak with a quiver of arrows from behind.

Not sure who that is. Frog? I doubt it. [Later edit: as I look at the screenshot, I now think it’s a scabbard for Masamune, that we can spy the blue gloves, and that the green cloak is intended to make us think this is frog. Human frog, even.]

-Loving the outro music so hard.

That’s Chrono Trigger.

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Next time: final thoughts on Chrono Trigger.