Lucca Ashtear

Lucca Ashtear
Chrono character
Official art for Lucca Ashtear.
First game	Chrono Trigger (1995)
Designed by	Akira Toriyama

Lucca Ashtear (

.

She has received praise for being a positive example of a female scientist in video games, with one critic suggesting that she is a positive influence for aspiring female scientists and engineers. She has also been discussed as a character defying gender stereotypes, due to her style of clothing and high level of intelligence. A scene where her mother loses the use of her legs and Lucca has the opportunity to use time travel to prevent this has been the subject of positive reception, both for the possibility of failure and in how it impacts Lucca emotionally, regardless of success.

Concept and creation

Lucca Ashtear's design was created by

One significant scene relating to Lucca has her going back in time to save her mother from having her legs crushed, a task which may succeed or fail depending on players' ability. Originally, it was going to be impossible to prevent her injuries.[5] While the solution to the scene involves inputting L, A, R, and A in the English version, the original Japanese version required players to input L, A, L, and A, which did not appear to have an easily discernible explanation since Lara's name is written in Japanese.^[6] In the Japanese version, past Lucca has letters written in the third person and initially wants to be a "normal bride" and thus dislikes science. If present Lucca fails to rescue her mother, she begins speaking in the third person; if she succeeds, her writing is a mixture of the first and third person. No matter whether she succeeds or fails, Lucca is driven to learn science to make sure something like this cannot happen again. In the English version, the bride aspect is dropped and replaced with an annoyance that her father is too busy with science to spend time with her.^[7]

In the original Japanese version, fellow playable character

Appearances

Lucca first appears in the

who emerged from the Earth in 1999, and they vow to stop this from happening. They arrive at the End of Time, where Lucca gains the ability to use Fire magic. At this point, Lucca may be left out of the story for much of the game after this point due to time travel only allowing three entities to travel at a time.

After aiding in the growth of a forest, Lucca discovers a red time portal that sends her back to the day where her mother lost the use of her legs due to an accident with a machine of her father's. If present Lucca is able to input the correct password to deactivate the machine it stops and her mother in the present is no longer handicapped. She bonds with Robo following returning to the present, who tries to console her. When Crono is killed by Lavos, Lucca is visibly upset and feels guilty about not being able to help him. Lucca and the party eventually managed to defeat Lavos. In one ending of the game, Lucca is saddened over the possibility that Robo may cease to exist due to changing history.

In the PlayStation release of Chrono Trigger, one of the endings show Lucca finding an abandoned child who she takes in.

A figurine of

Reception

Since appearing in Chrono Trigger, Lucca has been met with positive reception, particularly as a positive example of a female scientist in video games.[12] Jamin Warren of PBS' Game/Show listed her as one of the best female video game characters due to her scientific prowess, which he feels can inspire future generations of female scientists and engineers.^[13] Author Michael P. Williams discussed her agency in Chrono Trigger, contrasting Lucca to Marle, particularly that Marle's advancement of the plot is passive while Lucca is a catalyst for multiple events. He goes on to discuss her design, which he matches with a stereotype described by journalist Miki Tanikawa of a female scientist who does not care about beauty.^[9] He goes on to discuss her status as a mother in Chrono Cross, questioning whether this takes away from her as a scientist.^[9] Author Madeleine Brookman noted Lucca's defiance of gender expectations, citing Lucca's non-feminine clothing, agency, and a level of brilliance that enables her to deal with advanced technology.^[14]

The scene depicting Lucca going back in time to when her mother became handicapped from a machinery accident has been covered by journalists and in academic studies. McGee Maxwell of GamesRadar+ found that it contrasts with the rest of Chrono Trigger due to being time-sensitive and permanent. They also discuss the stress players experience from guiding Lucca through this.^[15] Chad Concelmo of Destructoid suggested that one of the reasons it makes such an impact is that players can fail to save Lucca's mother. It was one of his favorite video game moments and one that made them feel for Lucca, particularly due to her being upset regardless of the outcome.^[16] The scene was covered in detail in the essay Playable Tragedy: Ergodic Tragedy in Squaresoft's Chrono Trigger by Luis Torres Meza. Luis uses the scene as an example of an argument made by author Jesper Juul in his 2013 work The Art of Failure, where Juul argues that video games allow for players to be complicit in what happens in a story, thus providing a "new type of tragedy". Juul suggests that her view on robots – that robots do not behave evilly without human influence – may have been influenced by the incident.^[17]

References