If you pick Magus, you are a loser

[RedPouch]

YouTube - Xytrasx's Channel
2:43 in, "Magus: Aaah!! My powers are being drained!"
I didn't notice it for a few playthroughs either.

You're saying that this had a permanent drain effect on him? I don't mean to be difficult, but wouldn't the others be suffering the same power drain in this situation?

Also remember how powerful Spekkio considers Magus to be. (I don't have a direct quote atm.)

This is true [he says something like "he could teach me a thing or two about magic"], but the fact still remains that Magus' spells [including Dark Matter] have the lowest damage multipliers in the game, which make his really high magic stat not mean much.

As you mentioned, he is extremely proud, so to me it seems joining with Crono & Co. is about on the same level as dieing for him, possibly lower.

In the end however, they're basically shown to all be "equals" [more-or-less] in terms of power since in the end it doesn't really matter who's in your party, so joining Crono & Co. can't seriously be all that bad. The only question I have is what truly motivated Magus to share the information about Gasper and the Chrono Trigger whether you kill him or not. It's all speculation if you ask me.

After going back and playing a little bit of CT because of this, I can definitely say that the awesome theme of his does certainly influence my affection for him as a character.

Magus' battle theme is one of the best boss battle musics ever made to this day. I always keep Magus in my party anyways so I can hear it when I fight Queen Zeal.