Shadow Aesthetics in Chrono Cross
Fairy tales tend to lead to a certain universal truth about the human condition. They masquerade as a fantastic tale when, in reality, they speak more to our truths than non-fiction writing. The story of Cinderella is about how we want the illusion of perfection rather than a real human being. When the prince sees that the step-sister has cut off her toe for him and that she bleeds, like a real human being, he doesn't want her. He wants the illusion of perfection. E.T.A. Hoffman's stories were later analyzed by Sigmund Freud, showing that these tales of fancy spoke truth about human psychology.
Hans Christian Andersen's stories have always been a part of my life. Everyone hears the story of the ugly duckling, about how eventually it will blossom into a beautiful creature. I've always had a fascination with Andersen's darker stories, particularly The Shadow. As I was reading it again recently, I couldn't help but notice that it shared similarities with another story. One I've played countless times and have always wanted to analyze but I couldn't decide what to focus on. Well, today we're focusing on the shadow imagery showcased in Chrono Cross.
The Shadow tells the story of an educated man who goes on a trip. While sitting out on the balcony, he sees his shadow cast on the other side. He ignores this and resigns for the night. When he wakes up, he discovers that his shadow is gone. His shadow grows back and he believes the incident to be over. But this is not so. One day, his shadow shows up in front of his house, with a human appearance. The shadow is friendly and they sit down to recount how the shadow became human. While the main character believes in the good of humanity, the shadow is his opposite. Said shadow believes that his previous owner doesn't understand the world, that men are truly evil. And while the man grows weaker and paler over the years, the shadow thrives on his hedonistic nature.
The shadow is a caring sort though, and realizes that his previous owner had grown so frail. He insists they go on a trip together, for the man's health. However, on this trip, the shadow meets a princess who is charmed by his nature. They are to marry and the shadow suggests that his former owner become his shadow. The man could live in wealth for the rest of his life, so long as he gave up his humanity and became a shadow for the shadow. The man refuses and threatens to tell the princess everything. The shadow, with no regrets, has his former master executed.
In a simple analysis, one can read this story as criticism against the upper class. Just because one is rich or lucky in life does not mean that one is inherently good. And just because one is sickly or poor does not mean that one is inherently bad. In Andersen's story, the rich are blind to the man's truth. Instead, they accept the evil shadow who would do away with his former master in an instant.
Chrono Cross is the story of Serge (or you, the player), when he wakes up one morning and is transported to another world. But it isn't another world, more a different universe of his world, one in which he died as a child. Many hijinks abound due to this, including soldiers believing he's a ghost, collecting people to help fend off the constant spawning enemies of his hometown, and picking up a girl who threatens to kick people so hard, they'll hit the moon. All in one day. What the story comes down to is that the girl, Kidd, wants to steal an object called the frozen flame, from a creature named Lynx, who has been haunting her life. There are similarities between Kidd and Serge's stories, as Kidd is haunted by a lynx and Serge was haunted by a panther.
Their search for the frozen flame leads to Lynx switching bodies with Serge; this makes Lynx trustworthy in appearance, but still fairly chaotic in nature, and Serge untrustworthy in appearance, but good in nature. Lynx is able to trick Kidd into trusting him and Serge is thrust into another world, with no possible hope of returning. But like all good RPG heroes, he does return. Serge has to travel to the dead sea and visit Chronopolis before he can retrieve his body; instead of retrieving it, he is reborn.
This is where things have always been quite confusing for me, but I have pieced the story together as such: Lynx was actually Serge's father, Wazuki. When Serge was a child, he was attacked by a panther which left him near death. His father, Wazuki (along with Leena's dad, Miguel), took him to Chonopolis to find answers. There, Serge accidentally touched the frozen flame, which healed him and allowed him to become the "arbiter of time" (Serge is the only one who can travel between two worlds). The computer that lived there, FATE, had worked exclusively to keep the frozen flame for herself; Balthazar created FATE and Chronopolis, bu when it failed, it was sent into the past. Thus, Wazuki, Miguel, and Serge, entered a gate into another world, set far in the past. FATE, pissed that someone had touched the frozen flame, transformed Wazuki into Lynx, which was a projection of Serge's fear of big cats. FATE made Wazuki kill his own son; in another world, he didn't succeed.
MEANWHILE, there is also a plot about dragon gods who are forming together to destroy the humans. FATE tried to keep them from forming, as she feared that they would touch the frozen flame. And there's also a plot about Kid being a double of Schala (from Chrono Trigger), who was merged with Lavos, and they must free her if they hope to see their world go on. This is why the plot of this game can get a bit confusing. There's just too much thrown at you, all at the same time. This is not to say that this game isn't worth analyzing.
In fact, one of the scenes in the game that has always intrigued me is when Serge first enters Chronopolis and he sees these shadow people of the past wandering about. The glimpse of a lost civilization, that created their world. Much like RahXephon, the utilization of different worlds seems to point to the difference between an earthly world and an underworld. In one world, Serge has thrived. In another, he was killed. In one world, Kidd has lived while in another dimension, her form of Schala is basically dead. Shadows are interesting creatures; they carry the feeling of an apparition, of a part of your being that is seen but transparent. As if there's a visible part of you that can't fully be seen. There's a darker part to your being that only you can see and that can only be cast on others.
I am talking about the Jungian shadow, a part of the mind that was founded by Carl Jung. The shadow consists of everything we've repressed in life, whether it be our shortcomings, primal nature, or weakness. Society can have an influence on this as well, as society often dictates what it is about us that is weak. It can be compared to the id, in that there are negative and positive aspects contained within it; think about it as the minotaur and the maiden, trapped in the labyrinth. Theseus had to leave Ariadne behind because he couldn't kill the minotaur and keep her. (Jung said once, "in spite of its function as a reservoir for human darkness - or perhaps because of this - the shadow is the seat of creativity.") If we can't accept our shadows, then we often cast them on other people, we project them onto others for comfort in our deluded selves. By doing this though, this makes our illusions even thicker.
Either one goes on living with these illusions or one accepts their shadow. And accepting a shadow isn't a one-time thing. It's continual, for the rest of your life. The more you accept your shadow, the closer you are to understanding yourself. In Andersen's story about the shadow, it isn't that his shadow is evil, but that is the projection the man has put upon upper-class society. The man believes in his goodness and places all of his rejected thoughts onto the shadow, as much as Dr. Jekyll would put unto Mr. Hyde. By not becoming his shadow's shadow, he's rejecting the possibility of accepting his shadow and becoming a full human being. He believes in his illusion of goodness so much that it leads to his death. But the shadow is plagued by never becoming a true human being. For without a shadow, he can never be a human being.
This is true of Chrono Cross as well, in which there are two doubles. The first double is Serge and Lynx, with added interest in that Lynx is his father. The second double is Kidd and Harle. In his study of the double, Freud found that the world unhomely in German eventually looped around and meant it's opposite: homely. What he found is that the double, what is seen as being the fearful double, is actually a reflection of the self. The double is a reminder of something repressed from the past; perhaps Serge being killed by his father is what he's repressed. His father is split into two beings, for the sake of his ego: Wazuki, the good father, and Lynx, the bad father. One wants to kill him, the other intercedes on his behalf. Perhaps Serge harbored horrible thoughts about his father. For Kidd, it's the death of her mother-figure, Lucca. But because we have difficulty believing that we would ever have these horrible thoughts, we cut it off as the shadow and place it on someone else, thus creating our own doubles.
By not accepting his shadow, Serge essentially becomes Lynx. And there is much to say about Lynx, upon becoming Serge, going about and tarnishing his name. This is also seen in A Wizard of Earthsea, but I would say that Chrono Cross pulls this off more effectively. Serge has projected every fear onto the shadow, including transforming him into a big cat, like the one that tried to kill him. Because Serge has imbued that shadow with all of his negative thoughts, he's allowed it to go loose. He's allowed it to run rampant with his face. And Serge has to live with the consequences of not accepting his shadow, including accepting the bad things Dark Serge has done and accepting the fact that he is the monster (Lynx). By accepting his shadow, by living as Lynx, he's allowed to see the memories that he clouded from his self previously. In Chronopolis, he sees his father bring him to the frozen flame. This results in his rebirth, becoming a better, stronger Serge.
Kidd's shadow could be Harle, a woman who works with Lynx. In truth, Harle is a dragon and she was also there when Lucca was killed. Perhaps Harle represents the part of Kidd that may have wanted to kill Lucca. All these harbored bad thoughts; but while Kidd can't even tell Serge how much she appreciates him, Harle is able to have a close bond with him. Harle is capable of everything Kidd limits herself from having. The fact that Harle is really a dragon works into this well. That primal, animal nature that she doesn't want to admit she has. It's only by accepting Harle that Kidd can free Schala, or free herself.
There's also the fact that Serge and Kidd can traverse two worlds. In one, Serge is dead. He has to be reborn in this world. In Jean Shinoda Bolen's novel Gods in Every Man, she discusses the fact that the idea of "hell" used to be a feminine realm, originally gifted onto the Norse goddess Hel. Serge has to return to the world where he died, accept his past, and be reborn. He returns to this childhood fear and accepts it. By accepting their paths, Kidd and Serge change their two worlds to one, in which they can find each other as psychologically healthy people and start all over again.
The word arbiter is also closely associated with Serge's character. In Latin, it meant, "one who goes somewhere (as witness or judge)." This word was meant to denote a spectator at a trial. Eventually, the word came to mean, "one chosen by two disputing parties to decide the matter." Serge is not only looking down on two worlds, but two selves. His ego and his shadow. They do not get along; the ego doesn't want to accept the shadow. But Serge has to decide the matter between these two fighting parties. This adds to the universal aspect of Chrono Cross' story, in that this is going on in every single human being. We have to make the decision, how much of the shadow are we going to accept? Will we stay in our illusions?
This is why the dragons refer to Serge as "child of man." Because he is all children. A nameless protagonist that can be played by anyone. A universal truth that speaks to our collective unconscious.
I think this game has far too much for me to cover properly, so if you want to discuss it or ask questions, that's totally open. I love this game and I'm definitely willing to discuss it further.
Hans Christian Andersen's stories have always been a part of my life. Everyone hears the story of the ugly duckling, about how eventually it will blossom into a beautiful creature. I've always had a fascination with Andersen's darker stories, particularly The Shadow. As I was reading it again recently, I couldn't help but notice that it shared similarities with another story. One I've played countless times and have always wanted to analyze but I couldn't decide what to focus on. Well, today we're focusing on the shadow imagery showcased in Chrono Cross.
The Shadow tells the story of an educated man who goes on a trip. While sitting out on the balcony, he sees his shadow cast on the other side. He ignores this and resigns for the night. When he wakes up, he discovers that his shadow is gone. His shadow grows back and he believes the incident to be over. But this is not so. One day, his shadow shows up in front of his house, with a human appearance. The shadow is friendly and they sit down to recount how the shadow became human. While the main character believes in the good of humanity, the shadow is his opposite. Said shadow believes that his previous owner doesn't understand the world, that men are truly evil. And while the man grows weaker and paler over the years, the shadow thrives on his hedonistic nature.
The shadow is a caring sort though, and realizes that his previous owner had grown so frail. He insists they go on a trip together, for the man's health. However, on this trip, the shadow meets a princess who is charmed by his nature. They are to marry and the shadow suggests that his former owner become his shadow. The man could live in wealth for the rest of his life, so long as he gave up his humanity and became a shadow for the shadow. The man refuses and threatens to tell the princess everything. The shadow, with no regrets, has his former master executed.
In a simple analysis, one can read this story as criticism against the upper class. Just because one is rich or lucky in life does not mean that one is inherently good. And just because one is sickly or poor does not mean that one is inherently bad. In Andersen's story, the rich are blind to the man's truth. Instead, they accept the evil shadow who would do away with his former master in an instant.
Chrono Cross is the story of Serge (or you, the player), when he wakes up one morning and is transported to another world. But it isn't another world, more a different universe of his world, one in which he died as a child. Many hijinks abound due to this, including soldiers believing he's a ghost, collecting people to help fend off the constant spawning enemies of his hometown, and picking up a girl who threatens to kick people so hard, they'll hit the moon. All in one day. What the story comes down to is that the girl, Kidd, wants to steal an object called the frozen flame, from a creature named Lynx, who has been haunting her life. There are similarities between Kidd and Serge's stories, as Kidd is haunted by a lynx and Serge was haunted by a panther.
Their search for the frozen flame leads to Lynx switching bodies with Serge; this makes Lynx trustworthy in appearance, but still fairly chaotic in nature, and Serge untrustworthy in appearance, but good in nature. Lynx is able to trick Kidd into trusting him and Serge is thrust into another world, with no possible hope of returning. But like all good RPG heroes, he does return. Serge has to travel to the dead sea and visit Chronopolis before he can retrieve his body; instead of retrieving it, he is reborn.
This is where things have always been quite confusing for me, but I have pieced the story together as such: Lynx was actually Serge's father, Wazuki. When Serge was a child, he was attacked by a panther which left him near death. His father, Wazuki (along with Leena's dad, Miguel), took him to Chonopolis to find answers. There, Serge accidentally touched the frozen flame, which healed him and allowed him to become the "arbiter of time" (Serge is the only one who can travel between two worlds). The computer that lived there, FATE, had worked exclusively to keep the frozen flame for herself; Balthazar created FATE and Chronopolis, bu when it failed, it was sent into the past. Thus, Wazuki, Miguel, and Serge, entered a gate into another world, set far in the past. FATE, pissed that someone had touched the frozen flame, transformed Wazuki into Lynx, which was a projection of Serge's fear of big cats. FATE made Wazuki kill his own son; in another world, he didn't succeed.
MEANWHILE, there is also a plot about dragon gods who are forming together to destroy the humans. FATE tried to keep them from forming, as she feared that they would touch the frozen flame. And there's also a plot about Kid being a double of Schala (from Chrono Trigger), who was merged with Lavos, and they must free her if they hope to see their world go on. This is why the plot of this game can get a bit confusing. There's just too much thrown at you, all at the same time. This is not to say that this game isn't worth analyzing.
In fact, one of the scenes in the game that has always intrigued me is when Serge first enters Chronopolis and he sees these shadow people of the past wandering about. The glimpse of a lost civilization, that created their world. Much like RahXephon, the utilization of different worlds seems to point to the difference between an earthly world and an underworld. In one world, Serge has thrived. In another, he was killed. In one world, Kidd has lived while in another dimension, her form of Schala is basically dead. Shadows are interesting creatures; they carry the feeling of an apparition, of a part of your being that is seen but transparent. As if there's a visible part of you that can't fully be seen. There's a darker part to your being that only you can see and that can only be cast on others.
I am talking about the Jungian shadow, a part of the mind that was founded by Carl Jung. The shadow consists of everything we've repressed in life, whether it be our shortcomings, primal nature, or weakness. Society can have an influence on this as well, as society often dictates what it is about us that is weak. It can be compared to the id, in that there are negative and positive aspects contained within it; think about it as the minotaur and the maiden, trapped in the labyrinth. Theseus had to leave Ariadne behind because he couldn't kill the minotaur and keep her. (Jung said once, "in spite of its function as a reservoir for human darkness - or perhaps because of this - the shadow is the seat of creativity.") If we can't accept our shadows, then we often cast them on other people, we project them onto others for comfort in our deluded selves. By doing this though, this makes our illusions even thicker.
Either one goes on living with these illusions or one accepts their shadow. And accepting a shadow isn't a one-time thing. It's continual, for the rest of your life. The more you accept your shadow, the closer you are to understanding yourself. In Andersen's story about the shadow, it isn't that his shadow is evil, but that is the projection the man has put upon upper-class society. The man believes in his goodness and places all of his rejected thoughts onto the shadow, as much as Dr. Jekyll would put unto Mr. Hyde. By not becoming his shadow's shadow, he's rejecting the possibility of accepting his shadow and becoming a full human being. He believes in his illusion of goodness so much that it leads to his death. But the shadow is plagued by never becoming a true human being. For without a shadow, he can never be a human being.
This is true of Chrono Cross as well, in which there are two doubles. The first double is Serge and Lynx, with added interest in that Lynx is his father. The second double is Kidd and Harle. In his study of the double, Freud found that the world unhomely in German eventually looped around and meant it's opposite: homely. What he found is that the double, what is seen as being the fearful double, is actually a reflection of the self. The double is a reminder of something repressed from the past; perhaps Serge being killed by his father is what he's repressed. His father is split into two beings, for the sake of his ego: Wazuki, the good father, and Lynx, the bad father. One wants to kill him, the other intercedes on his behalf. Perhaps Serge harbored horrible thoughts about his father. For Kidd, it's the death of her mother-figure, Lucca. But because we have difficulty believing that we would ever have these horrible thoughts, we cut it off as the shadow and place it on someone else, thus creating our own doubles.
By not accepting his shadow, Serge essentially becomes Lynx. And there is much to say about Lynx, upon becoming Serge, going about and tarnishing his name. This is also seen in A Wizard of Earthsea, but I would say that Chrono Cross pulls this off more effectively. Serge has projected every fear onto the shadow, including transforming him into a big cat, like the one that tried to kill him. Because Serge has imbued that shadow with all of his negative thoughts, he's allowed it to go loose. He's allowed it to run rampant with his face. And Serge has to live with the consequences of not accepting his shadow, including accepting the bad things Dark Serge has done and accepting the fact that he is the monster (Lynx). By accepting his shadow, by living as Lynx, he's allowed to see the memories that he clouded from his self previously. In Chronopolis, he sees his father bring him to the frozen flame. This results in his rebirth, becoming a better, stronger Serge.
Kidd's shadow could be Harle, a woman who works with Lynx. In truth, Harle is a dragon and she was also there when Lucca was killed. Perhaps Harle represents the part of Kidd that may have wanted to kill Lucca. All these harbored bad thoughts; but while Kidd can't even tell Serge how much she appreciates him, Harle is able to have a close bond with him. Harle is capable of everything Kidd limits herself from having. The fact that Harle is really a dragon works into this well. That primal, animal nature that she doesn't want to admit she has. It's only by accepting Harle that Kidd can free Schala, or free herself.
There's also the fact that Serge and Kidd can traverse two worlds. In one, Serge is dead. He has to be reborn in this world. In Jean Shinoda Bolen's novel Gods in Every Man, she discusses the fact that the idea of "hell" used to be a feminine realm, originally gifted onto the Norse goddess Hel. Serge has to return to the world where he died, accept his past, and be reborn. He returns to this childhood fear and accepts it. By accepting their paths, Kidd and Serge change their two worlds to one, in which they can find each other as psychologically healthy people and start all over again.
The word arbiter is also closely associated with Serge's character. In Latin, it meant, "one who goes somewhere (as witness or judge)." This word was meant to denote a spectator at a trial. Eventually, the word came to mean, "one chosen by two disputing parties to decide the matter." Serge is not only looking down on two worlds, but two selves. His ego and his shadow. They do not get along; the ego doesn't want to accept the shadow. But Serge has to decide the matter between these two fighting parties. This adds to the universal aspect of Chrono Cross' story, in that this is going on in every single human being. We have to make the decision, how much of the shadow are we going to accept? Will we stay in our illusions?
This is why the dragons refer to Serge as "child of man." Because he is all children. A nameless protagonist that can be played by anyone. A universal truth that speaks to our collective unconscious.
I think this game has far too much for me to cover properly, so if you want to discuss it or ask questions, that's totally open. I love this game and I'm definitely willing to discuss it further.