It's just funny because Magus was the one and only Chrono Trigger playable character who was spared the insult of a travesty of a character assassination in Chrono Cross. (I take that partially back, Frog and Ayla weren't harmed much to my knowledge in CC, but only because they returned to their previous eras.)
But in CC, Crono and Marle's kingdom is taken over by Porre soldiers and they're (most likely) killed. I'm not exactly sure how Crono and Marle losing such a fight is even justified, or if it could be justified, but we're not even given the luxury of a cutscene resolving any loose ends or helping us feel closure with the loss of those characters. Lucca, of course, loses her life and her orphanage to...what exactly? Harle and Lynx's sneak attack? And we're given no closure with her, either. Schala is Kid and also Lavos or some shit. And Robo? I don't even remember what the fuck was going on Robo but it was something unnecessarily convoluted that did the once-lovable character absolutely no justice whatsoever.
Then there's Magus, who you could take some solace in not having been gang-raped by the idiotic "plot twists" of Chrono Cross...
...until just now, when Chrono Trigger DS did the dirty deed.
Let me reiterate that my problem with Chrono Cross isn't even the notion that the game attempted to have unhappy endings for the prequel's main characters! I mean, it does fly in the face of the happy, colorful mood of Trigger to leave the original cast mostly miserable, but the real problem with Cross was that the misery of Trigger's main characters was an afterthought It was as if CC was openly insulting everyone who ever gave the slightest damn about the main characters in CT; not only are they are going to be dead, dying, or suffering, but we're not even going to let you see what happened!!! And they definitely didn't provide much a justifiable, story-driven reason for all the shit to hit the fan, either.
Now they've roped Magus into this travesty, and honestly, I'd rather Magus have been killed then watch him mope around as this year's reincarnation of Squall Leonhart. "Hey, my sister I've fought so hard to protect and was once willing to sacrifice so much for said a few sentences to me! Whatever. Guess I'll just follow her advice and do absolutely nothing." There was no final quip of Earth-shattering defiance, no last hurrah for Magus standing firm against the odds. He just gave up, and set us up for...well, nothing, given that the "new" ending teases Magus having a starring role in Chrono Cross but Magus is actually not anywhere to be found in Chrono Cross.
Even forgetting about how Chrono Cross and CT DS' new ending completely destroy any purpose whatsoever to the characters of Trigger, even objectively speaking, this "new ending" sucks. It resolves absolutely nothing and requires a remake of Chrono Cross to make even the slightest bit of sense. But not only would Chrono Cross need to be remade, the entire plotline of Cross would have to be altered for this new ending to make any sense. The dialogue between Magus and Schala there is painfully vague, resolves absolutely nothing and only esoterically, through Schala, has any connection whatsoever with Chrono Cross. (Despite the notion that Schala tells her own brother to give up while apparently reserving a greater degree of hope for a bunch of total and absolute strangers in Chrono Cross).
Beyond that, remember how FFVI -- a game much more grim in atmosphere and tone than the trimuphant time-traveling nature of CT -- ended? You got a nice little "Thank you" message from the characters and epic closure to everything. This ends by telling you..."Thanks for playing?" Nope. "Great job, now here's your reward?" Nope. The message to gamers is literally you've come this far just to give up. To give up!!! That is the final and lasting image of this new "true ending" to the game!! Congratulations, now...give up because you can't win. Well, that's pleasant.
The irony is that Chrono Trigger is a marvelous game compared to Chrono Cross and nearly any other, and yet CT DS' ending makes it seem as if CT is just some pathetic tiny prologue to the real action in Chrono Cross, like "congrats for beating the demo, now buy the real product and enjoy the real thing!" It should be the other way around. It's just interesting how CT is being revised to effectively minimize its impact and maximize the relative importance of the events in CC (all the CT characters end up dead or with amnesia, after all.) It really seems to me a rather profound insult, to be completely honest, and it's an insult that transcends Magus' characterization and really has a startling impact on the entire CT "experience" -- hence, why I'm so upset about it.
