Marle is a b**** (spoilers)

CT has two priority lists for dialogue, the "emotional" priority list and the "knowledge" priority list. The emotional one comes into play for highly emotional scenes like Death Peak, and the knowledge one comes into play for scenes calling on a character's knowledge like identifying the Sun Stone. Most scenes just go by order in the party.

The emotional priority list is easy to remember, as it matches the order of first joining:
Marle
Lucca
Frog
Robo
Ayla
Magus (will never be the main speaker)

The knowledge priority list is a little trickier:
Lucca
Magus
Robo
Marle
Frog
Ayla (will never be the speaker)

I wonder the knowledge priority list is customized per scene (I used the discovery of the Sun Stone), since I thought Robo was higher. It's also interesting that Marle outranks Frog; apparently her tutors did her some good.

I'm no Marle fan, but give her her due; CT makes it clear that she cares very deeply about Crono, and is at the very least more vocal about it than Lucca is. It's most likely that if Crono was found guilty she did spend the three days grounded with guards, pleading with her father to revoke the sentence. (If he was found innocent, she probably didn't know he was in any danger and spent the three days sulking in a guarded room. There is no questioning the purity of her heart, but she's not the sharpest tool in the shed.)
And, from what we see to that point, she probably wasn't able to escape if thoroughly guarded. She's not Alena, able to kick a hole in the wall and flee, and the guards are enough of a threat in cutscenes that "fight them all and win" wasn't an option for Crono and Lucca together.

I agree that Magus has a weak but real emotional bond with the rest of the heroes, as near-peers and allies. He would betray them in an instant if it would make Lavos more likely to die, but as long as the alliance holds he's forthright and helpful. (It's very heavily implied that years after CT he has become less cold and driven, one way or another, but that has no bearing on CT itself.)

Rocky2418 posted...

Ha. Ayla (a female human) has less emotion than Robo (a male robot). I mean, I already knew it to be true, but it's still funny to see definitively listed.

And Magus is rightly at the bottom. But still also funny. He's less emotional than the cave woman who is less emotional than a robot.

Awesome.

I think you misunderstood what I meant by "emotional". I don't mean emotional personality - for that Ayla has everyone but Marle beat - but emotionally close to the "core" of the party (the Lucca-Crono-Marle trio) and especially Crono.

Frog is helped by being articulate, but he's close to all of the Truce trio, and CT's most emotional moments are similar to his own experiences so he's guaranteed to react strongly.

Robo is hampered by being a robot, and by not being especially close to Crono; he's friends with the others, but he's only truly close to Lucca.

Ayla is an adult, with a boyfriend back home, a tribe to care for, and less time in the party. If Marle died, she'd be upset, but it's obvious that Frog would take Marle's death harder.

Magus wants you to think he doesn't have emotions. Alliances of convenience are rarely friendly, especially right at the start. Having a reason to bear Crono a grudge doesn't help at all.

Odd to see your message, because it duplicates some of what I was thinking today. Specifically, about the frozen moment in time when the clone is swapped for Crono. Not Schala. What somehow had eluded me is that Schala couldn't possibly be saved in that moment, not by your party; it would cause a grandfather paradox. Which wrecks my whole line of inference re: jealousy that Crono's history was changed and Schala left to die.