#leitmotifs

[ghostfacerseffect]

Thinking about film scores & concept albums & auditory storytelling

[patchwork-crow-writes]

do you consider the legend and castle town to be ralsei's themes or do you think he will gain his own individual theme down the line as he asserts himself as his own person?

This is something I'm really fascinated by - this idea that all three of our main characters are defined by leitmotifs that either aren't their own or were assigned to them before we got to know them properly and no longer really fit them.

This gets long, so read more:

Susie has a music track named after her - it plays twice in chapter 1, has a battle remix against Lancer, and never plays again, not even as part of a softer reprise. It's a track that growls at the listener with harsh electric guitar notes, as if trying to intimidate, and it perfectly fit Susie... or rather, it fits the persona she'd cultivated around her actual self. Once that fell to the wayside, it no longer fit her, and the music no longer plays.

Kris's theme/leitmotif could be considered "Don't Forget" and its various remixes and reprises... but the way it plays at the credits, and becomes more distorted as we complete chapters, suggests that it's more the theme of Deltarune itself - becoming more discordant as the situation becomes darker. Additionally, the title of this song gains new and increasingly-sinister connotations with revelations that occur in Chapter 4. Seen this way, the song is more like something that was forced upon Kris and defines them in a way that is at odds with how they truly are - not unlike the Player's control, or Carol's influence. As someone who is so musically talented and is likely capable of creating their own theme song, I imagine that would gall Kris to know someone else assigned music to them.

And then we come to Ralsei. Ralsei, whose identity was so tied up with the prophecy and with serving lightners that it was difficult to see where one ended and the other began. It's easy to assign the Legend leitmotif to him - it's the first piece of music that plays when he introduces himself, his Castle Town plays several different remixes of the song, he sings a rendition of the intro as a lullaby in Chapters 1 and 4. For all intents and purposes, the Legend is every bit his leitmotif as it is the Prophecy's.

...but the thing is, there are clues that this is not meant to be the case, at all.

First, we learn that Ralsei does not consider his singing talent a true hobby - he tells Kris that he learned to do so for the sake of his friends, and not for his own gratification. This suggests a disconnect between Ralsei the person and the music he sings - the reason he sings the Legend theme is likely because A) it's the only music he really knows, and B) he has neither the confidence or the inclination to express himself any differently through another piece of music. So what he sings does not necessarily mesh with Ralsei as a person, at least not right now.

Second, we learn that Ralsei was not obediently following the prophecy to the letter, like we'd initially assumed - he'd attempted to alter it in the recounting of it to Susie and Kris, emphasizing a radical kindness and compassion over violence and domination of their enemies (Note in the actual Legend theme, the use of percussion akin to a marching band, giving it an almost-militaristic feel - we could interpret this as the Prophecy's original interpretation being more akin to a crusade to fell the assigned enemies and win the day by force.)

To this end, he has either suppressed or neglected to learn the fire magic that his legend portrait associates him with, and he has cajoled his new companions into going along with this new direction, even to the point of pushing Susie away in Chapter 1. He did this in the hope that the story would change somehow... but it seems the fate he's been trying to avert - the ending of the song - is still every bit as inevitable as it always has been.

Consider what this means a moment, in light of how closely Ralsei is tied to the leitmotif of the Legend - it means that he fundamentally does not believe in the music he is associated with. When he sings the opening notes of that song, it is almost a tacit confirmation of his powerlessness and subservience in the face of those forces - he cannot change the notes, he cannot deviate from the melody. He does not like to sing - he only does it because he thinks that's what others want from him. The song he's forced to play is not the song he wants to play for himself.

A pet theory of mine in the run-up to chapters 3 and 4 was that Kris and Ralsei would eschew the melodies forced upon them by others and come up with a new leitmotif together - I called this Duet Theory. Now, seeing those connections through musical expression strengthened through Kris's piano playing, and Susie's earnest attempts to get better at making music as well... I think we can actually amend this to Trio Theory - Kris, Ralsei AND Susie are all gonna come up with their own music, their own theme songs that expresses who they truly are, rather than the roles that were assigned to them by external forces. They might not play note-perfect, they might make mistakes here and there, but that music will be entirely, 100% their own.

And THAT will be the Fun Gang's leitmotif.

[moomoomeadowzz]

i made a chart of all the leitmotifs in deltarune + undertale!

it's HUGE, and not very well organized, but you should be able to figure out the basics just by looking at it!

i used the undertale & deltarune wikis as sources, with some additional help from this wonderful video by Andrew Cunningham!!!

i might have missed a few motifs here and there, or heard motifs where they weren't (ESPECIALLY with gaster's theme)- just let me know in the replies / reblogs!!!

here's an svg version for lossless scrolling!

[llamasocks-lou]

my analysis of project hail mary’s leitmotifs has begun…

[skydottedwithstars]

You know a piece of media has affected you when you look into the leitmotifs used within the music and how you can hear them upon relistening to the soundtrack.

And then sometimes you get inspired and make your own list of all the leitmotifs you hear!

[indiestsnake]

what. what if the reason that polites and eurylochus’s melodies are different in get in the water. because.

because Ody can’t remember them right.

It’s been seven years since he heard their voices. So their motifs are just a bit off. Eury isn’t even singing luck runs out.

And he remembers his mom bcuz she’s… his mom. She tells him she’ll stay in his heart, while eury and polites are fading.

hweurgh…

[mrsdaphnefielding]

#494 - listening to SdL

This ep was big on tragic emotion with Juanito in continued peril, and the SdL sound department pulled two melodramatic/farewell leitmotifs from the soundbank that have been prominnntly used for Mafin before:

During the baptism of Juanito, starting over the anguished faces of the shows OG OTP, Andrés and Begoña, there are a little under 10 seconds of the melancholy piano tune that underlies Fina writing her farewell letter to Marta (ep. 378), and that also underlies Marta burning parts of her diary in late Season 2. The motif doesn't advance to the orchestrated variation here and shifts into another motif when the scene cuts to the phone.

Then there's the Melancholy Farewell motive known among the Mafin crowd as "Marta swaggers into the Warehouse After Hours instead of going to London and proceeds to call Fina Mi Mujer". Interestingly, it gets exposure - briefly, likewise only as the piano take, not advancing to the orchestrated version - while Marta muses what would be if Juanito didn't survive.

Those lines stood out (quoting from a conversation with @madronash here, and the from liquor cart meeting of the episode) for their callousness, and while it may have been a dramaturgical necessity to give these lines to just anyone so Andrés can reply with "I'd rather renounce Begoña than have her suffer through this", it may also be a commentary on Marta having suffered that deep kind of loss (not of a child, but of a partner, out of nowhere) and being marked by it.

Dark!Marta might be an obstacle for a reunion with Fina - who knows what they are foreshadowing? At least the musical layer does still allude to the pain, and not just to someone being more jaded by loss.

[timkontheunsure]

do you think stolas sings is a lazy name for a song?

Nope. 🙂 It because it's reference to the name of Stolas' leitmotif*, which is called Stolas Speaks.

(*In music it's a repeating melody that's used when the character is doing something fundamental to their character).

It's the backbone of Stolas Sings.

You can hear it when you play them back to back.

Sam did the same thing, when linking the names You Will Be Ok and I Will Be Ok.

It's used to connect the songs. But also to show different between what Stolas assumed would happen when he was out of his daughter's life; Vs what really happened.

Via being broken by it, but her dad genuinely thought she'd be alright. Depression does a number on you, and tells you your loved ones would be better off without you there.

Stolas Speaks first turns up in murder family, when he rings to set up the deal with Blitz.

With Stolas being an excited dumbass, thinks that sex and the book is a great plan to be closer to Blitz.

He thinks that this is what Blitz want from him at the start, which is honestly pretty fair. But the deal wasn't any sort of way to get any sort of romance relationship he was actually after.

It shows the difference between how Blitz's affection, during those full moon nights, made him feel alive and new again.

Vs what was really there. A comfortable lie, that deal could lead to the real relationship he was so desperate for.

It important to point out Stolas Speaks isn't the only leitmotif that's included in Stolas Sings.

This bit here has the Stolitz leitmotif.

It shows up when the boys are thinking about eachother, or doing something together.

It first showed up in truth seekers when Stolas saves them.

Stolitz also has a visual leitmotif of holding hands.

Basically when they're on the same page they managed to hold hands.

and they fail when they're not

Even their soules hold hands.

which is pretty sweet because both Blitz and Stolas have physical touch as love language.