Harle

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Harle
Harle, drawn by Nobuteru Yuki
Game series	Chrono series
First game	Chrono Cross
Character designer(s)	Nobuteru Yuki
In-Universe Information
Homeworld	Unknown (Another World)
Weapon	Shot
Innate (type of magic)	Black
Age	18

Harle (ツクヨミ, Harle^? Tsukuyomi in the Japanese version, after the moon god) is a character in Square Co., Ltd.'s console role-playing game Chrono Cross. She is a minor villain with ambiguous motives, and while she strays closely towards redemption, circumstances and her own destiny will not allow it. Because of her exotic beauty, flashy costume, and poignant story, Harle is a fan favorite and a frequent subject of fan art. In the English version of the game, her speech is written with a French accent and is often interspersed with French words.

As her name suggests, Harle is a harlequin jester. She wears full costume throughout the game, including a large horned hat and heavy facepaint. Her physical disguise and painted smile convey symbolically to the viewer that she is playing a role. She acts as sidekick to the main villain, a feline demihuman named Lynx.

Harle is a player-controllable character during part of Chrono Cross. She attacks with shot (small thrown projectiles) and with Element attacks associated with the lesser of the two moons in the Chrono Cross world (MoonBeams, MoonShine, Lunairetic). Her connection to this dark moon is spelled out more clearly after she leaves the player's party.

[edit] Parallels to Kid

It is suspected by some that Harle is a dark reflection of Kid. They share vital stats, her facial structure seems almost identical to Kid's beneath her heavy makeup, and when speaking to the psychic in Termia, both characters receive the same fortune. If Kid was produced by the remnants of Schala, who became the Devourer of Time, Harle may have come into existence at the same time to counteract this. It is revealed near the end of the game that Harle shares a link with the Time Devourer, the mutated form of Schala, Kid's "mother". It should be noted however that Harle inevitably strays closer to good than evil. The nature of the link between the two characters remain speculatory, but the existence of this link was confirmed by series creator Masato Kato in the Ultimania Guide.^[1]

[edit] History

The main character in Chrono Cross is Serge, a young man in his late teens from a fishing village in an isolated cluster of islands (the El Nido archipaelago). His journey begins when he is abruptly swept through a dimensional rift into Another World, in which he meets a young thief named Kid. Serge and Kid generally team up (the player may choose to decline her offer of help). Kid is in pursuit of the half-man, half-cat known as Lord Lynx, who abducted her childhood friend and 'big sis,' Lucca. Lucca (the same Lucca from Chrono Trigger) never returned, and is presumed dead. Kid wishes to kill Lynx and avenge her friend; Serge merely wishes to get home.

Parallels are drawn very quickly between Serge and his young friend Kid and Lynx and his enigmatic jester Harle. Harle appears primarily as a gadfly, taunting and distracting Serge and his party, and interfering with their plans, intermixed with flirtations directed at Serge. When Serge and friends confront Lynx, he surprises them (and the player) by using a magical item called the Dragon Tear to transform himself into Serge's likeness and Serge into his own. Kid attacks and defeats Serge, mistaking him for her enemy; Lynx in turn attacks her, fulfilling a disturbing dream-prophecy. Lynx then casts Serge into a dimension between worlds, leaving the fate of Kid unknown.

Harle finds Serge in the bizarre, cartoonish world in which he has found himself and tries to convince him that he is really Lynx and has never been Serge. When he emerges into solid reality (in the Home World), Harle accompanies "Monsieur Lynx" as he struggles to discover the fate of Kid and find another Dragon Tear to return to normal. To complete the painful irony, "Serge" attacks them at least once, with Kid, miraculously restored, at his side (hence the role reversal).

Shortly before Serge recovers his true form, Harle departs from the group with decidedly mixed feelings and resumes her own mysterious quest.

However, the party meets up with her one last time, inside Chronopolis. There, she steals the legendary Frozen Flame and disappears amongst the six dragons. The Time Prophet reveals that she was created by the Dragons, who are part of a single entity called the Dragon God, to spy on Lynx, who serves FATE, which opposes the dragons. This would mean that Harle was never aligned with Lynx, and that she serves the Time Devourer. Harle is the "Dark Moon" Dragon.

[edit] References

Chrono Cross

Characters
Harle | Kid | Lynx | Serge
FATE | Lavos | List of Chrono Cross characters
Other information
Chrono Cross Plot & Timeline | Frozen Flame | New Game Plus