Disclaimer: I don't know a lot about music and I don't know Japanese. Shoutout to @saltprince for the translations, linked below. These are just a collection of things I noticed and liked, focused mostly on the main version where both characters sing.
They each essentially get to make their own intro. For the first verse, Seox takes the first half and Nehan takes the second. Both of them sing "Never gone; Not undone"
Nehan's part in the 1st verse has more leaps, low to high, than Seox's. Don't know if it means anything, i just like it.
I like the line, "My spite is like a vortex" that Nehan has. very evocative.
For the 2nd verse, it seems like they just split up Seox melody from the 1st verse and Nehan's melody doesn't appear. Perhaps indicative of the shortening of the distance between them as their stories intersect again in the SoR event.
Their lines combining in the pre-chorus and chorus, instead of switching off in sections, creating entirely new meanings.
Pre-chorus
Seox: A voice (resounds), the darkness (brightens)
Nehan: A star (dazzles), the night (illuminated)
Combined: A voice (dazzles), the darkness (illuminated)
Chorus
Seox: I spent an eternity (yet couldn’t keep running)/I’m repulsed (by my own mistakes)"
Nehan: Grudges have me (trapped)/It's cruelty (by fate's design)
Combined: I spent an eternity (trapped)/I’m repulsed (by fate's design)
It's like how their stories recontextualize each other. We've seen similar revenge stories with Jamil, Eustace, and other characters. "One day some guy came and murdered my whole family and i'm going to kill him." And that's all well and good if Eustace kills some guy we don't know and don't like. It's different when Nehan wants to kill beloved crew member Seox. You change that variable and you change the story.
Even if their stories are combining, that doesn't necessarily mean they're in sync. In the pre-chorus, after alternating, they sing the next line at the same time, but say completely different things. After the line, "A voice (dazzles), the darkness (illuminated),"
Seox: Bringing about a miracle
Nehan: Even if its meaning is lost on me.
The imagery is the light in the darkness, hope in the midst of despair. Seox has our dad, the Eternals, and us to bring about the miracle of a better life, the possibility of change, etc. Nehan has Mugen and his own innate kindness, but he doesn't know what to do with it or how to reconcile it with his need for revenge, so he's resigned to his life of destruction.
The complete opposite of the below line.
Nehan: It makes me want to die
Seox: It makes me want to live."
It's their completely different mindsets as they go into their final battle. Even though Seox doesn't know how to live with his sins, something inside him still says he wants to live, even if that in itself is also a sin. Nehan wants to die but forces himself not to in order to complete his revenge.
In the chorus, they have a lot of lyrics that are the same, but they mostly don't sing it at the same time. For example, they both have "The light is out of reach, and yet I crave it," but in the combined version, only Seox sings, "I crave it." I don't know if there's always meaning to who sings what in the combined version, but that's what I noticed here.
For most of the song, the only times they sing the exact line together are at the end of sections.
The end of the first chorus: This fate I’m dealt
The end of the second chorus: With the life I've got
The end of the bridge: Long after parting, a day will dawn where...
Everything prior is meant to be build-up to this, just as the SoR story built up to their final battle where it was just them together.
Then, in the final chorus, they have 3 lines that they sing together:
"One day I'll go back to the place we share"
"I'll see it through until the bitter end"
"This fate I'm dealt."
In the combined version, i really love the beginning of the final chorus, "I spent an eternity (trapped)/I’m repulsed (by fate's design)/One day I'll go back to the place we share."
The instrumental does that thing where it pulls back when Seox sings [Eikyuu ni] so that the lyric really hits before ramping back up and when they sing "One day I'll go back to the place we share" together, there's such a certainty to it.
Someday i will return home to Karm where both our stories began. One day, I will face my past and seek some kind of closure, no matter how painful our fates turn out to be.
That's where they're united and in agreement. It's why there could have been no other outcome or ending in their story.
Base: I have always been running. I ran from my old, death-choked village. From the wary eyes of outsiders and the avaricious hands of captors. All of it was in the name of vengeance. Or maybe... it was just so I could live another day.
Evolved: And I continued to run from all the misdeeds I caused through my own selfish actions. But I now know that neither sleep nor death can provide me with a place to hide anymore. I will suffer; I will live... And I will atone.
VA: Takashi Kondo (ENG)
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