Ok so because the Cars fandom has dragged me down like Satan one day will with me to fieriest pits of Hell (/j) , I feel the need to hyper analyze this one segment of Finn’s theme song in relation to Leland Turbo’s death in support of why I ship them because I have nothing else to do
Now I’m not that great with music literacy, so this will be analyzed from a more general perspective
But theme songs, as one would expect, are meant to reflect whoever they are tied to. That’s their point. And without context, preceding and after this clip are the more “upbeat” parts of the song- which already makes this part stand out. It’s one of the only points other than the end where the song truly slows down and breathes for a moment. I like to think this reflects Finn’s life as a spy. Lots of action and stress with little time to decompress. This calmer part is meant to showcase a more vulnerable side to Finn. It’s the same motif, but much more somber rather than when it’s repeated before and after this part. Keep a note on that.
WITH context now, it’s Finn’s only time in the opening of Cars 2 (besides being on the boat) where he can stop and process everything properly. And it’s interesting, because this part of the song kicks in RIGHT AS we hear the static come back in response to Finn trying to communicate with Leland. It’s a small hint to what’s happened to him.
It also has to be noted that background tracks like this should reflect the emotions of the scene it’s playing over, to enhance them. This is already seen before and after this part, with the cords as he’s sneaking in being tense and crescendoing as he finally infiltrates the oil rig, as well as the action packed escape scene right after this. And given the audience can infer that Leland is already dead, it invokes the feeling (at least for me) of “it’s already too late.”
This all means that this part of the song is meant to represent Finn’s grief over losing Leland. He might not know it at that very moment, but it feels like the only time we can silently see him consider he might be dead. Especially as he tries to communicate with him again, almost in denial. Not to mention the way the music literally stops the moment he sees Leland’s mutilated corpse, like the world stops.
And because of the context of the scene, and how this is FINN’s theme song it can sort of be interpreted that by preluding the discovery of Leland’s fate, Leland himself is engrained in Finn’s identity. Whether that be just now after seeing what happened to him, or because they were possibly friends beforehand, he will always be apart of him now.
So in short, they’re gay your honor (but they don’t have to be, you can read this platonically too)
I hope this makes sense to people and that I’m not delusional-
