[Content] Why Schala is Just as bad as Magus

[King Aquamentus]

(what follows is part of a series of thought-provoking articles on facets of video games, gaming, and whatnot.)


WHY SCHALA IS JUST AS BAD AS MAGUS

Nov 18, 2014 by King Aquamentus

Schala Zeal. The very image of beauty, kindness, and unfair tragedy. Her sad disappearance near the end of Chrono Trigger actually serves to make Magus an even more interesting and popular character, and given his cold, snarky nature, also makes her an effective foil. However, in her own way, she's kind of a terrible person herself.

Before I get into the reasons why, you have to understand one important thing. Schala's motivation is cowardice. She's a nice person generally, but has almost no backbone until such a point when it is too late in the game anyways, and she just has to be forced to continue. Also, SPOILERS AHEAD.

If it wasn't already obvious to those who have played the game, Schala and her brother Janus live in an abusive home. Their father is nonexistent, likely dead, and their mother not only cares more about herself than her own children, but will put Schala in harm's way (or even attack her) to get what she wants. However, Schala is actually said at one point to be more powerful than her mother, and could easily subdue her. So why doesn't she? Again, abuse. Schala loves her too much to see beyond subservience, except for one thing which only she and her brother Janus *can* see: their mother's ambition is about to get the kingdom destroyed.

Now the abuse alone doesn't make Schala a bad person, any more than a beaten wife is to blame for not leaving her husband. However, Janus is not afraid to call Schala out on the fact that the whole kingdom is at stake, and probably would have directly retaliated in her position, if his powers were as honed (He feigns impotence so that the queen doesn't try to use him as well.) When Schala finally does rebel, she has already completely empowered her mother, when she could have dealt with the issue months ago using just a few spells. Yeah, I get that Schala would not easily do such a thing (read: abuse), but even she recognizes and acknowledges the immense danger of letting her mother continue, while still deciding not to act.

And that's only a misdemeanor compared to what happens next.

All three members of the Zeal royal family have an obsession with Lavos, the game's primary antagonist. With Janus and the Queen it is much more obvious (The Queen wants immortality through its power, while Janus just wants to corner it in a dark alley and kick its ass), but not only does Chrono Cross reveal that Schala sympathizes with Lavos ("a predatory creature just trying to survive, as we are"), but the DS rerelease of Chrono Trigger shows that she actually lets herself become one with it in order to unleash her greatest desire: the complete extermination of existence

This circles back to Schala's motivation of cowardice. She cannot bear to live in a world where in order for some to live, others must die. Therefore, if she can't enjoy it, nobody can. But she's just mistaken, right?

Yeah, so were Magus and the Queen, and neither of them served as the final boss in either game.

[bigjoe]

This reply isn't going to go to deeply into the issue, but the question is begged: Why is the desire for the complete extermination of existence viewed as inherently evil? I always sort of sympathize with a villain that wants to reduce his or her universe to a void. It almost seems righteous somehow. Like restoring perfect order.

[Brasel]

You don't think it's completely and utterly immoral to end all life as it exists? Perfect order doesn't necessarily mean good, just as chaos doesn't necessarily mean evil. The person seeking to exterminate all life may be willing to sacrifice themselves, but ultimately, they don't have the right to make that decision.

[bigjoe]

From a moral standpoint, it is extreme and unjust, and I am not advocating the extermination of all life by any means. There are souls too far gone to see the hopeful side of things. To them, the universe is extreme and unjust. Does it make them evil to desire a release on that level? In the context of the thread, I do not see Schala as an evil character by any means. Selfish perhaps, but not demented or filled with the desire for suffering, like, say, Kefka.

[King Aquamentus]

extending on that last point, The inability to deal with hardship is something Schala mistakenly assumes of the whole world.

I feel I should mention again that Schala is really only as bad as Magus, here (and the party generally considers him a friend by the end of the game!) An obsession with Lavos and the possibilities it represented drove her to attempt this extermination, just as it drove Queen Zeal to chase immortality, and Magus toward revenge (in an ironic way.) It is also certainly not impossible to break this kind of madness, and bring about the decent people they once were.

[CJC]

Thinking that the state of all other human beings is identical to one's own state is the greatest act of selfish narcissism a person can commit. And narcissism could be perceived as a force of evil, depending on how morality is defined in your perception. To that extent, Schala wishing to end the world because of a belief that everyone suffers as much as she is an evil act.

Chaos can be a force of creation as much as order, and order can be as destructive as chaos. I am reminded of an X-Files episode where Scully wishes for world peace and, as a result, everyone but her is erased. What's more peaceful than silence? In a more applicable sense, machinery designed to work only in a completely ordered environment will fail when incalculable variables trigger chaotic behavior.
It's easy to fall into the belief that order is good and chaos is bad, but too much of either is terrible. A world of order is deterministic; there is no meaning to your actions because they are all preordained. Likewise, a world of chaos is also deterministic; there is no meaning to your actions because they have no impact on reality. It is only a balance of the two that makes life interesting and--as much as people would wish otherwise--suffering is a key component to joy. It provides contrast.


What's interesting about Lavos is the fact that it is essentially a mindless parasite. The greatest damage caused by the beast is that of the humans that see its power and foolishly believe it can be harnessed. In a sense La Vos (Ayla's word, "Fire Big") is a metaphor for playing with fire; it's probably not a good idea to roast marshmallows in a burning building: better to start with power you created and are capable of smothering than use an existing force that is beyond the point of being controllable.


In other words, yes I agree that Schala is a particularly malicious entity in the Chrono Trigger plot. Arguments could be made for other characters as well, including those that appear to have only good intentions like Lucca and Nadia. But such is a matter for a different thread.

[King Aquamentus]

Crimson Echoes goes into that a lot, too, to the point where you might actually side with the antagonist. But back to *canon* canon.

It's not just Schala's misguided belief that everyone suffers as much as herself, but, ironically, her empathy for Lavos as well, that leads her to perceive things as miserably as she does. When she becomes one with Lavos, she afterwards (In Chrono Cross) describes the experience, and Lavos himself. She had learned that while Lavos did indeed engineer the development of humanity just to harvest them, there's nothing evil about it to this creature: this is just how it survives and sustains itself. Either humanity would be destroyed, or this creature would starve to death. No matter what, somebody loses, and I think this knowledge further contributed to Schala's desire to wipe it all.

I can't say that she doesn't act with an evil heart in all of this, because on some level this is what she wanted, and let it totally consume her. All the Zeals had their moments, but once the purest of them all was broken... holy crap. But she herself is certainly not an evil person. Even as her sorrows and desires began to cloud her in the Darkness Beyond Time, she could hear the crying of Serge, and managed to intervene for him with kindness in her heart. This just demonstrates that none of the Zeals are truly evil, not even the Queen. Lavos, or what Lavos represents to humanity, just makes them that way.