There’s something that makes me so emotional about the original Champion’s Themes.
Revali, the disciplined, serious warrior having a flighty, jaunty melody in 6/8 time
Daruk, the rock solid Goron opens with the drums beats and evolves into something soft and airy, telling us so much about his carefree nature.
Mipha’s mournful piano, ever the healer, ever the lover, sacrificing herself for the good of her people and those she loves
and Urbosa, fierce and strong, and fast as the lightning she commands, but still mysterious in it’s harmonic minor key yearning towards resolution in the tonic.
Everyone knows that Light and L matched each other's freak but I think their dynamic in the musical (the Japanese ver specifically) is underrated. Like it's not super different from canon but they just had this extra edge of Violence that we never quite saw from the more methodical and careful mindgames in canon death note and I think it's great. Like, yes, they did declare in canon that they will bring each other to justice, yes L says he wants to send Kira to his execution, but in the lyrics of the musical they both outright say multiple times that they just want to straight up Kill each other. It's direct the whole way through. There's more mutual contempt. This game is about nothing more than simply being the first one to Kill the Other (they actually use the word "殺し合い" (koroshiau) or "to kill each other" to describe their game (translated as "murderous ... game")).
(Sidenote but all those references about wanting to send each other to Hell?? Beautiful)
Yeah this is a battle of justice and ideals, yes that clash is a key part of their final confrontation at the end of the musical, but throughout their duets (or even songs like The Game Begins where they're singing by themselves) there's this near singleminded desire to just fucking End each other. It's fucking Raw and it's great.
Also THIS FUCKING SCENE?? THIS SCENE FROM SECRETS AND LIES. Iconic. Actually Insane. My jaw dropped. Light looks like a crazy bitch it's beautiful.
Um. Also. Obligatory Playing His Game (yknow the gay sex song) lines dump. It basically says everything I just said above in like 9 lines. You see what I mean right.
In canon they're playing a game of mental chess, trying to use everyone around them to finally catch the other as their end goal, but in the musical you really do feel like all they see is each other. They would probably beat each other to death with their fists if it came down to that. Idk they're just so excited and fired up about their little game in the musical and it's so unhinged and fun and special and I love it. It's like the writers for the musical decided to kick their murderous intent up a couple notches and the result is absolutely Beautiful.
I also think that the intensity of their rivalry in the beginning just makes the wind-down of The Way It Ends soo much better. It's such a good contrast to their previous duets where they try to sing over each other (Secrets and Lies & Stalemate) or with each other but basically at the top of their lungs (Playing His Game). It feels like there's both a quiet mutual understanding but also an underlying disappointment that the game is finally over. In canon, L's death Is instead the peak of their game, the moment he gets confirmation that Light is Kira is the exact same moment that he dies. In the jdrama it's almost sudden, how L dies, after the quiet moment has already passed. But in the musical L's death, ironically, Is the one quieter moment in their game. Their peak was the game itself. It was Secrets and Lies and Playing His Game. But the end of the game in the musical is not a victory, it's just (as L says) the end of everything they'd been wanting up until this point.
Uh. Fuck it. Clip from the Kenji Urai version because I just love his delivery here. His tone just goes so well with the silence and the sound of the clock ticking. You see what I mean right.
Their rivalry in the musical may have been more shortlived but like Damn they were really enjoying every second of it. They were truly insane about each other until the very end. (Like despite everything I just said about the ending it was still unhinged as fuck. Light Making L Shoot Him and then Making L Shoot Himself with L's Own Hand?? Holy shit man. What the fuck /pos)
Musical Light and L your game might've been shorter but you'll always be famous <33 Please never inflict what you had on anyone else ever please stay in hell forever thank you
wait odysseus is suicidal wait he was really gonna end his life the way he ended the infant’s wait the only people who’ve called him ody are those who hurt him badly/betrayed him wait “let me close my eyes” parallels penelope and telemachus begging him to “keep your eyes open” wait wait calypso was trying to talk him down and “stay in my open arms” unintentionally triggered the memories/hauntings of polites, eurylochus, his mom, etc wait wait athena held baby telemachus wait wait athena is dead?? wait wait wait
"Wow...Guess he really is asleep..." You whisper, the kazoo you had been playing in an attempt to wake the Avatar of Sloth up now safely in your pocket, lest Lucifer confiscate it again.
You poke Belphie's forehead with your pointer finger, then continue poking it, because it was fun. Still Asleep Belphie seems to hate this more than you attempting to play Vivaldi's Winter on the kazoo and failing miserably, seeing as his cowlike tail swings out, wraps around your leg and pulls you to the ground.
"ARGH! What?!" You barely have time to process before you're dragged up by the tail that's latched around your ankles and quite meanly (may you add), dropped on the bed. Belphie entraps you in a hug, and thankfully this time, doesn't crush your internal organs. How sweet! <3
"Go to sleep MC...." The demon mutters half awake for a moment before drifting back off again.
You try to reach for your kazoo, for the second time, Belphie's tail whips out gently at you. "Don't even think about it." He pouts, before his expression and breathing even out once more.
You might as well get comfortable, seeing as you were now trapped for what looks to be hours.
Mcr, that one band where people get sad about voting on which member we like the most and which album we like the most, bc all the members are equally important and all albums are equally important so we try to figure out other ways to decide what we like the most, bc we suck at choosing between the four albums and the four members