The Christology of Chrono Trigger

The orthodox reader is probably absolutely upset at the title of this post. It is my hope, though, to show the reader that the character Crono in the game Chrono Trigger is a Christ-figure, and, though this is not Christology per se, an allegorical understanding of the story of Chrono Trigger reveals a deeper theological message than the skeptical critic might admit.
The character of Chrono is like many other main characters within role playing games (RPGs). He starts out as being a mere nobody and eventually becomes the magnificent hero of the world. Game designers utilize this technique for two reasons: 1) it makes a decent set-up for a moving story line. Stories are much better when the hero of the tale is the underdog. Think of Lord of the Rings with Frodo or Star Wars with Luke. Though both characters have legendary destinies, they begin the story as rural peasants. 2) It allows the player to identify more with the character. For this reason, many games leave the protagonist silent so that the player can imagine providing his own dialogue. This tactic works so well that it has been used from the very earliest Zelda games until even recently in the Fallout games.
The rest of the game follows a fairly systemic RPG pattern with the story being revealed along the way of battling minions, henchmen and bosses and eventually the world-destroying final boss. Chrono Trigger is unique among RPGs because of its heavy usage of time traveling. Fans of the game, however, enjoy the nuanced plot which develops each and every (playable) character so that we feel as if we know them. The exception, of course, is Crono.
Without further ado, then I shall make my case for why this silent, seemingly stock-copied protagonist is a Christ figure. I shall do so in the first place in a Thomistic fashion by addressing contrary arguments and then following these up with my own arguments for my case.
In the first place, Crono, is a silent character. As the theologically-minded reader will no-doubt contend, we know Jesus primarily through his words. How, then, can a figure who says nothing at all throughout the game, save one line in one of the secondary endings, be a Christ figure?
To address this question, I respond that, in the first place, leaving Chrono silent allows the reader to make the connection to Jesus. Were Crono a wise-talking character like Gex or even a mostly silent character like Cloud, the reader would no doubt have formed a concrete understanding of the character of Crono. Leaving Crono silent allows the player some interpretive license, which allows the player to understand Crono in many different ways, much as Jesus is in contemporary theological thought.
Furthermore, Crono most often communicates through his actions. Many of the main missions involve feeding the poor (in 2300 AD), saving others (600 AD) and fighting evil. Many of the side missions in the future also are focused on good works, such as reforesting the desert in 600 AD, exorcising troubled ghosts in 600 AD, restoring families and even healing the crippled ~1000 AD. There are also many moral options available throughout the game that include uniting a little girl with her cat, freeing a wrongly-imprisoned young man and healing the relationship between two feuding brothers. 10 years before games started implementing morality as an essential feature of play, Chrono Trigger was allowing players to make moral decisions that had no Karma effects (but did often have some sort of reward attached to them). In other words, the character of Crono opposes the wicked, heals the wounded, feeds the hungry, and liberates the oppressed.
Secondly, Crono is not ever given divine status. He is, after all, just a regular child at the beginning of the game whose mother lectures him for being lazy. At no point is he ever defined as some great son of a god or even a messiah prophesied eons ago.
This, at first seems true. However, I should contend that, in the first place, we have no idea what Crono's lineage is. We only ever see his mother, and never his father (though both Lucca and Marle's parentage is explained). We are not even given some sort of stock answer such as "Crono's father is dead" or "Crono's father moved away." The mystery of Crono's father is just as mysterious as that of the protagonist of Pokemon.
Furthermore, as I shall explain below in my contentions for Crono's representation as a Christ figure, he does exhibit many features of a messianic character. But chief among these is how overpowered he is. Crono's attack is stronger than Frog's and his best technique (Luminare) is more powerful than anything Magus possesses. He also has high speed, high defense and the best weapon (the Rainbow). Furthermore, while Marle has the power to restore life, only Crono wields the ability to restore life with all hitpoints. That's correct, Crono has the power to resurrect his friends as well as deal more damage to enemies than any other character. Nearly every triple tech involves Crono and most double techs do as well. In short, Crono is the closest thing to a god in the game.
This leads to our third argument. Jesus advocated peace and worked through preaching and performing miracles to bring peace. Crono, on the other hand, seems to mostly slice his way to justice, leaving behind him a trail of (well, enemies disappear when they're defeated in Chrono Trigger so it's inappropriate to say a trail of bodies).
This is actually a good argument. However, very few gamers would play a game where the main character goes around casting demons out of enemies instead of attacking them. Here I would once again mention Crono's "Life 2" ability as well as other techniques such as "Aura whirl" wherein he heals rather than attacks, but I think it's safe to say that, for the most part, we should not be confusing Crono with a pacifist anytime soon. My one response is to say that as an RPG, fighting enemies is a necessary condition of the game and, the defeat of evil enemies is metaphorical for the defeat of evil.
Now, for my arguments for Crono's status as a Christ figure. In the first place, Crono is wrongly sentenced to death. After rescuing Princess Marle from 600 AD and restoring the timeline, Crono is tried for kidnapping and treason and imprisoned and, afterward, wrongly sentenced to die in three days. The player can affect the voting of the jury before hand by committing only good deeds in the fairgrounds in which case the king will put Crono in jail simply in order to hold him there for a few days. If the player does everything wrongly, Crono will be convicted of kidnapping, though at no point does he ever actually kidnap the Princess. Anybody who has read the Gospels will recall that Jesus is wrongly tried, and though the ruling politician finds no fault in him, is sentenced to die.
Secondly, Crono exhibits many messianic qualities. For one thing, he is able to seemingly unite peoples from many different times and lands to rally them against evil. For another thing, though there is no prediction of Crono's involvement in history, the game subtly suggests that history could not have happened without Crono. The Massamune, for example, the legendary sword, is created by Crono thrusting a red knife into the Mammon Machine. The evolution of humanity as well depends on Crono helping Ayla defeat the Reptites. Even the defeat of Magus depends upon Crono. Though some events, such as defeating Lavos and rescuing Marle, seem to be altered according to Crono's involvement with the time stream, many of the other story events of the game suggest that Crono had to be involved otherwise they would not have happened. Thus, though there are no "prophecies" or predictions of Crono's messianic role, his meddling is a necessary function of the history of the planet in Chrono Trigger.
Third, Crono dies and is resurrected. That's right, just like Aeris in Final Fantasy VII, one of the main story events is Crono's death. The player, of course, has the option to leave Crono dead and finish the game, but the storyline of the game directs the player to complete the mission wherein Crono will be resurrected. And, of course, as if Crono's messianic role was not yet clear enough, Gaspar, the guru of time, when explaining how Crono will be brought back from the dead informs the player that Crono must be necessary for the flow of time. That's right, not only does the game encourage you to revive your dead leader, but suggests that his role is necessary in the game. Then, to top this all off, when Crono is resurrected, the scene presented is one of apocalyptic and Biblical significance. The sun becomes darkened and Crono appears, arm stretched out cruciform. If this is not evidence for Crono's Christological semblance, I don't know what is.
But, to finish this all off, there is the plain fact of the metaphor of the battle against Lavos. Lavos clearly represents sin. Lavos falls to the earth when humans begin to become dominant (in fact, in the very moment that the Reptites are defeated). Lavos threatens to destroy the planet and his arrival is the arrival of original sin in the human condition. Throughout time, the evil have ties to Lavos (the Hechran, Queen Zeal and mistakenly Magus) and when the world is destroyed, it is because of Lavos. Furthermore, Chrono Cross corroborates this interpretation by explaining that humanity's evolution was caused by Lavos and that we are the spawn of Lavos (original sin taints us). Crono's entire mission, however, is to do battle against Lavos. Crono dies at the hand of Lavos (as Christ dies because of sin) but is resurrected and defeats Lavos, liberating humanity from its awful threat. When Lavos is destroyed, the screen turns white and Crono's silhouette can be seen, once again cruciform. Crono is the one who overcomes death and sin (read Lavos) and saves humanity.
There are other interesting parallels to be drawn between the person of Jesus and Crono (the recruitment of disiciples for one) and other interesting theological parallels to be drawn from other characters in Chrono Trigger (might Magus be a Pauline figure?). Suffice it to say for now, however, that the figure of Crono represents the figure of Christ and the story of Chrono Trigger is therefore an allegory for the story of salvation history.