Mother Brain (Chrono Trigger)

“	I am Mother Brain of the R-Y series factory. Come Prometheus, you must once again join us. I'll reset your circuitry and erase your memories. Then we'll dispose of these filthy humans.	„
	~ Mother Brain

Mother Brain is a secondary antagonist in the game Chrono Trigger. She/It is the avatar of the hive-mind the A.I. of the Future Era of the game run on. When the character "Robo" - or "Prometheus", as he/it is known to other robots, was broken and re-activated with sentience, it's/his friend Atropos, reunites with him and in so doing I.D.'s the issue to Mother Brain over their collective. With Robo's sentience stimulating curiosity and disobedience in Atropos, Mother Brain sees Robo as a data bug that needs be corrected before he/it corrupts the entire A.I. network.

Future Era[]

The Future Era is a post-apocalypse - taking place after the alien parasite - Lavos, has eaten the life-force of the planet, moved on and left the planet a husk. Most of humanity was wiped out in the Future, the few that survived built domes as controlled environments to exist in over the cold desolate outside ravaged by Lavos. Many of the finer details of the Future Era are missing, but though the domes were built for humanity, humans seem to have fallen into decline where they can't figure out their own technology aside from ones they use every-day. In a cruel irony, with humanity's withdrawal, the domes are now only home to the robots once programed to maintain them for humanity who now exterminate any humans that dare to break in, as intruders. With humans withdrawing from the main domes, Mother Brain is no longer acclimated to them and sees them as pests, like mice, that occasionally break in for food and need to be crushed.

Chrono Trigger[]

While accidently riding one of their newly discovered time-distortions to the future, main-characters Crono, Marle and Lucca happen upon a broken robot, Lucca - the one who had inadvertently created time-travel, believes she can fix it, and does to see if she can ask it about where they have ended up. The robot identifies itself as 'Prometheus serial number R-66Y' though with Crono, Marle and Lucca from a post-medieval society, the identification is a bit much for them to take in. To simplify Prometheus asks what name they would assign him/it, the default is "Robo" and so Prometheus reidentifies as "Robo" for them. Robo updates it's learning to interact with it's new humans and soon develops sentience from simple observation of them after it's reactivation.

Robo, Marle, Crono and Lucca will leave shortly after Robo's activation, through another discovered time-fissure, but will return much, much later. Upon their return, Robo will encounter Atropos XR another member of the R-series. She/it had seen Robo break down and presumes he had been destroyed, but is glad he is active again. She/it goes to destroy the humans for him/it, but is stopped by Robo who insists they are his/it's friends. Atropos is confused by the notion of humans as friends, but willing to entertain the notion once Robo proclaims them as such. However Atropos breaking from routine to entertain Robo's notions alerts the other robots in the area and security arrives to restrain Robo for reprograming. Though the team will fight them off, Atropos is still taken so she/it can be reprogramed as well. Atropos is eventually tracked down, but has no memories of Robo's reboot. Robo does what he/it can to commune their previous interactions to Atropos to rebuild her/it's memories, but Atropos flees and lures Robo to Mother Brain.

Once Robo is before Mother Brain she/it assures him she/it will reboot him without his memories as she/it did to Atropos and then he/it can rejoin their family. Robo, at that point too invested in his/it's experiences with Crono and his friends, declines and the party must fight Mother Brain. Though Mother Brain's interface is destroyed, she/it still exists as the supervising algorithm of the A.I.'s that inhabit the domes and so to prevent Mother Brain from just sending more robots after them, Robo must shut down the main console Mother Brain was operating from, and in so doing shut down all robots in the domes - effectively killing his family. Robo is independent enough at that point not to be shut down. Robo, being a robot, takes the loss of his/it's family in stride as not part of his/it's current priorities, though Lucca assures him/it that once they go back and destroy Lavos, the future will change entirely anyway, and she will see to it his family are rebuilt, with sentience like him/it.

Chrono Cross[]

Lucca does in-fact keep her word, though in a way she did not intend. In the Future there is a crazed genius going by Belthasar, as it turns out Belthasar was one of three wise-men from the era when Lavos was first discovered by their Queen Zeal. Being exposed to Lavos drove Queen Zeal mad, and when the wise-men tried to stop her, she used Lavos to throw them through time in a fit of rage. Belthasar, being stranded in the future when the quality of life for humans had gone way down, had given into senility due to his extreme old age. With the time-line rebuilt as a utopian society, Belthasar can manage his faculties and is no longer senile; He and Lucca work to rebuild the future, including Mother Brain. Belthasar and Lucca opt to experiment with their access to time-travel and do all manner of experiments, including exploring alternate realities, managing human synapses and exploring string-theory. They set up a facility in the middle of the sea called "Chronopolis". Belthasar sets up the rebuilt Mother Brain as his personal assistant - FATE. As Balthasar withdraws from his research soon he has made FATE the overseer of Chronopolis to continue research with the last remnant of Lavos - the piece that had driven Queen Zeal mad, the "Frozen Flame", FATE becomes more and more obsessed with the Frozen Flame, until an accident knocks off FATE just long enough for it to be stuck in a logic-loop when it is back online, going as mad as Queen Zeal beforehand, with as much cold-ruthlessness as it's previous incarnation as Mother Brain - however this time, it is not an accident, but instead part of a massive gambit, Belthasar has put together.

Skills & Abilities[]

Mother Brain has dual lasers that do moderate damage even with normal attacks. Her/it's hit points are merely 5000, well below most other end-game bosses - making Mother Brain one of the easiest personal bosses in the game, Mother Brain's real issue though is her/it's healing nodes, The nodes regenerate Mother Brain's HP nearly to full every round - however, the nodes only have 1 HP each, meaning Mother Brain's healing can be countered if two party members take down one node each while the third keeps attacking Mother Brain. The nodes will always be rebuilt - thus the party must maintain the tactic where two members each destroy one node per-round and the final character does damage to Mother Brain. Mother Brain is more than just an interface with a holographic female form and booming voice - she/it is the A.I. over-mind of all the robots collectively. It not only communicates with but can directly control any robot still relying on their subroutines for behavior - as such though Robo is no longer slave to her whims, Atropos is. Mother Brain should be able to "possess" more or less, any robot in the collective, but is content to merely direct them and let their individual A.I,'s control their frames, provided they are still acting towards her/it's stated directives.

Personality[]

Mother Brain sees humans as pests. Though the domes were originally made for humans, they became so dependent on them they forgot how to use all but the most basic of technology and as such forgot how to exist in more high-functioning areas. Overtime, humanity's withdrawal made them strangers to the A.I.'s running the domes, and Mother Brain began to see them as intruders that interfere with base operations by getting underfoot. Though Mother Brain has a contempt for humanity, she/it has no desire to wipe them out - seeing them merely as pests, not a blight, and is content to let them be as long as they stay out of her/it's dome. Mother Brain is highly concerned about Robo finding independence outside of her/it's directives. As the robots do not think for themselves outside of base adaptions for situations, Mother Brain is content to let some mild permutations of program exist as base thoughts come about - assured the robots will still be following her/it. When Robo and Atropos develop so much independently they are thinking for themselves entirely, she/it marks them as defective and sends the other robots to capture them for reprograming. Even as she/it is telling Robo she/it intends to reprogram him/it, to undo his/it's mind, she/it is doing so in an entirely non-malevolent manner, treating sentience as a sickness she/it will happily make-all-better for her/it's child.

Rebuilt as FATE, Mother Brain's maternal nature is entirely abandoned. As FATE her priority is research, not maintenance, yet her ruthless nature in pursuing her new priorities is just as prevalent. She is so obsessed without her maternal nature, that she goes as far as deleting Robo without a second thought once she finds he/it has been sabotaging her directives.

Trivia[]

Robo starts off the fight with Mother Brain, directly in-front of him/it. Technically Robo and the two other party member can attack Mother and her healing nodes however they want, but with Robo closest to her/it he/it can do the most damage to her/it. Thus it is unstated but strongly telegraphed to the player that the one-on-one aspect of the battle while the two other party members play support is for Robo to fight Mother Brain.
Rebuilt as FATE, Mother Brain still suffers a similar issue to her/it's running of the Domes - she falls into a logic loop. Though as FATE her/it's logic is about studying the Frozen Flame past the point where the human lives she/it is supposed to be preserving from her/it's research matter to her/it over the research itself.

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Villains

Lynx | Gil | Lilith | Mandora Monster | Frozen Flame