Azali dropped Deadlock and now I feel prompted to psychoanalyze the song with Kingdoms Arc Wemmbu and how he manipulates the narrative.
BUCKLE UP ITS YAP'O'CLOCK!
Kingdoms Arc starts with Wemmbu at the happiest he's been in a long time. He has a base that he's building, he has his best friend, he has other friends such as Jaden that he can call upon, he's no longer seen as a server wide criminal.
Kingdoms Arc ends with him being trapped and betrayed in a civilization he hates, down 2 maces, his best friend is captured, his other friend was willingly taken so he wouldn't be alone, being used as a weapon in war, and is once again a server wide criminal after blowing up multiple important cities, having lost all prior alliances in the process.
Did a full 180 on us there. I'm still recovering from the whiplash.
The entire arc has forced Wemmbu back into old habits, habits he tried very hard to forget or unlearn during Invis and Law, habits that have stemmed from Power Arc and beyond, only this time, his character development is in forced reversal. Wemmbu wasn't lying to Flame when he said he had no choice in all the destruction he has caused. Egg's life is being used as a threat against him, and Wemmbu values Egg's life a lot, so safe to say, he's willing to do a lot to ensure Egg doesn't die.
This motivation has been very different from his previous motivations, and while yes, he did want to become stronger to protect himself and Egg (that's another can of tax duo shaped worms), Wemmbu's motivation for doing the things he has done have been revenge (Zampire, Law and Pirates), power (Mafia and Power), or self-fulfillment (Power and Invis). Kingdom's Arc stands apart. Wemmbu's entire motivation for going after the Blue Trims, fighting against and for Arachnid, and participating in the Civil War are not for revenge, power or self-fulfillment. Wemmbu is purely driven by the need to ensure Egg stays alive and safe. We know the lengths Wemmbu will go to do what he wants done, so it's no surprise that Wemmbu dives headfirst back into his war criminal tendencies the moment he feels backed into a corner. It's a defense mechanism hidden behind layers of humor and laughter.
Now the reason why I wanted to bring ANY of this up with the release of Deadlock, is because I've realized how Wemmbu likes to manipulate his narrative to make it seem like he's unaffected and unbothered. Spoiler alert, he is not, he's very emotional actually.
First off, Wemmbu is very unserious, he doesn't care about the interest or well-being of others(general) or the server because to him, 'It's a game'. Direct quote taken from when Deputy_Ace (irdstln) confronted him in the Great Sea after his escape. My point is, Wemmbu seems to brush a lot of his war crimes/terrible actions off with jokes, laughter, humor, anything to make it seem like it wasn't a big deal. But it is.
Wemmbu never directly states he's bothered, or mad, or grieving. But he is.
This is where Deadlock comes in. Background music in UU serves mostly as hype music when it comes to Wemmbu and Flame, when a beat drops, you know people will be dying in mass. However, Deadlock stands out to me because of its name, but also how the music isn't the usual hype up/energetic exciting tune.
Chaos Construct and Playful Massacre (og version) are the two songs I will be comparing Deadlock to, primarily because they contain the uplifting/energetic beats.
Hints of Playful Massacre play in the background of Deadlock, split into intervals of a few seconds but the general beat is there. Playful Massacre sharply contrasts Deadlock because Playful Massacre is PLAYFUL, it's energetic, exciting, it sounds like someone is having fun, enjoying whatever they are doing. Deadlock, on the other hand, is frantic, it feels more stressful to listen too, almost having a 'hurry hurry hurry' sense to it. The bits of Playful Massacre played feel like they emphasis the massacre aspect more, the need to kill without the joy.
@wisdomsgemini (someone much more musically knowledgeable than me) yapped about this with me, and mentioned how Deadlock has a mixture of high whistles and blasting low notes that continuously get faster till the beat drops. "It has this specifically duality and independence that Azali has ALWAYS been amazing at. These high whistling notes just heard over a roaring bass line. It's almost a perfect representation of Wemmbu in this arc because it's an internal battle no one can see". (ty so much for hijacking my initial analysis of this, ur insight is actually goated)
The high whistle and low beats clash throughout Deadlock, it's chaotic, but not in the sense that Chaos Construct is. Chaos Construct, living up to its name, is chaotic, but the cello gives it this underlying sense of elegance. This is refined chaos, Wemmbu IS the chaos. However, Deadlock's chaos is frantic, stressful, the type of chaos that someone got thrown into, the type of chaos that is forced upon someone unprompted.
It plays during the bid for Egg and the fight, and despite Wemmbu laughing a few times during said fight, though his tone before the fight began clearly showed his hostile intent. Deadlock demonstrates that Wemmbu is WORRIED, he's panicked, something we've never directly seen out of him, but something that is there, just in the background.
It reveals a greater depth outside of the tone and the words spoken.
And this isn't the first time we've seen this.
Wemmbu is notoriously loud. He has a laugh that breaks the sound barrier after all. So, when Wemmbu goes quiet, you know something is up, that Wemmbu isn't his typically arrogant, aloof self.
I remember this happening two times, but I'm sure it has happened more.
First, when Mane left the lost cause sign. The entire time reading it, Wemmbu was dead silent. When he broke the sign, dead silent. And this sign impacted Wemmbu a lot, he didn't joke about it, or brush it off, or ever even bring it up again. Silence means weight, it means it heavily impacts Wemmbu as a character and alters him in a way that isn't spoken.
The next time it happened was after Rejoice died. After his death and during the fight with Jaden, Wemmbu spoke as little as possible, only doing so to communicate to Lopezz and Egg, but even then, he barely talked, and while macing Jaden, Wemmbu was dead silent.
Rejoice was the first time someone Wemmbu cared about died, and Rejoice died in front of him as Wemmbu was powerless to prevent it (power arc has the buildup of the century). That really altered Wemmbu, and when he eventually got the elytra and defeated Jaden, he was more vindictive than usual, his humor was fury in disguise. He spared Jaden not because it was what Rejoice wanted, but it was crueler to leave him alive than kill him. Wemmbu never says he's angry, Wemmbu never says he's upset over Rejoices death. We only get that from silence, fury coated in humor, and a sunflower in an echest.
My final example of Wemmbu manipulating the narrative and hiding his emotions, is during the Battle of Highwater, after the battle is over. This is before Saps speech at the end. We see Wemmbu celebrating and joking around after it's concluded, so it's easy to assume that Wemmbu doesn't care about all the destruction he just caused (especially to Egg's favorite fishing place), however the battle has affected him, and we get this through amazing, titled shots of Parrot's armies gear floating in the waterways of the city. These shots evoke the sense that something is wrong, and including the dead's items, especially of the opposing sides, shows that Wemmbu isn't comfortable doing this, he's not here for his own goals nor is he okay with carrying out these orders. This is only furthered by how he intentionally misses the mace hit that would have either killed Parrot or put him dang close to death and how he stares at Flame in dead silence for a moment. Wemmbu hated it there, felt uncomfortable, being forced to work with people he didn't know or were furious with (staring at you Flame).
Not to mention the physical distance Wemmbu always puts between himself and anyone else during the Civil War. Even with his fighting style, Wemmbu has always been on the outside of any speech or conversation, hanging out at a higher perching point, away from everyone else. And the final fight in Capital City was Wemmbu dancing around Flame and Parrot, avoiding a fight with his rival because for them, fighting is a communication method, and Wemmbu HATES to be seen as powerless or weak. So he avoids fighting Flame in case he slips up and reveals the situation he's in. He uses his orbitals more, not only to destroy more of Capital City, but to avoid having to constantly mace players and be on the ground, close to everyone else. He's playing to his advantage, staying in the air where he feels safe and comfortable, something he hasn't felt since the war began.
It's a physical distance that represents how Wemmbu has isolated himself from the others, how he refused to rely on them or ask for help, even though Phoenix Duo would most likely help him out. It's stuff that never gets stated, but through looking at details, you can see more meaning than what is at face value.
There is so much of Wemmbu's character that comes from reading between the lines of what he says, of how the music contrasts his voice, the music itself, his tone, the silence, so freaking much is there, and I love it because it tells its own story of what is happening, how each of the protags are unreliable narrators, and how events are really up for interpretation and are heavily altered by perspective and biases.
Am I reading way into block characters of a video game? Absolutely, with no remorse. Thank you for listening to my song analysis covered in a Wemmbu yap as a disguise, having a lovely morning/day/afternoon/evening/night.
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