#i listened to the entire ost again

[nortedwayfinder]

every time.

[tentativelyteal]

'Hey, come on, that's enough. You've had your fun, my friend.' 'Do I know you?' / 'I don't want you to change. I want you...to always...be you.'

{a merlin playlist ⭒ that follows the narrative ⭒ all the way to its (bitter) end ⭒ (and hopefully beyond)}

His crown lit up the way as we moved slowly / 'Cause you're my king and I'm your lionheart

[darkhopping]

speakinf of mcsm the writing and worldbuilding was at least ass in a way i found rlly fucking funny but also the music goes hard . i have 0 faith in that being tje case 4 the minecraft movie

[abimee]

Just in case you haven't seen it already, "The People and the World [vs Mourning Mother]" from the Nier phone game has me gnawing on my walls SLKFH

I believe it's in direct reference to Drakengard 1 and 3, Nier Gestalt And Nier Automata. The specific one I've watched was uploaded by 'video game ost' and I like their edit of it cuz you can see parts of the game itself, along with the bits of lore that it's referring to

i still need to watch the 5 hour long cutscene lets play of the nier phone game but i just watched two versions of this, the one you recommended and a cut from the boss fight to get a full taste and all i can say is

[cardboard-aliens]

I will literally never ever ever be over how the advertisements for mother 3 were just a woman crying over the game. And how that really does tell you exactly what the game is.

[cursedthing]

[stumbles into the room covered in blood all scratched up and disheveled] hey guys so i just finished playing pesterquest. what the fuck

[twistedappletree]

and i need you to recover

because i can’t make it on my own.

[orcelito]

oh yeah uh i forgot to talk about my day. i havent rly been existing as a person whoops. uh

work kinda sucked but not NEARLY as bad as yesterday. honestly yesterday was probably the worst shift ive had in uh. well at least a year im betting. it was really so very bad.

today was better except Whoops my bike broke a little bit. forgot to mention that too. i left it at work overnight in the storage room n im gonna bring it to the bike shop tomorrow. so im gonna be without my bike for a few days </3

uhm. otherwise ive been procrastinating, still not doing my dishes, reading trigun fanfic and rewatching trigun stampede and reading trigun maximum. and also browsing etsy for trigun merch, of which i bought a few things.

now im thinking about skipping class again bc it's accidentally oh so late and i am very tired. i can rationalize it to myself that it's Totally for the sake of finishing my lab tomorrow. but really ive just lost control of this semester and i barely wanna do shit anymore. lol.

[i99zhuo]

Please make a routine guide inspired by Saranghoe u can refer to her youtube vlogs she us productive

How to live like Saranghoe .𖥔 ݁ ˖𖦹⭒°｡⋆

This is a guide on daily routines inspired by Tracy Sohn a.k.a Saranghoe! thank you for the request and sorry for the long wait!

content list (routines):

morning

study

workout

shower + self care

night

(_ _ ) . . z Z⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚୨ :★: ୧ ∗  ˖࣪ ໒꒱  ˚₊·

✸ ꒰ morning routine ꒱⋆ ࣪.* ࣪.⋆

👛 Tracy is definitely NOT a morning person, so everytime she wakes up the first thing she does is check her phone for a few minutes. After that she gets straight up and opens up her curtains to let the light in.

Then she goes to her bathroom and uses a hair band to get her hair out of the way so she can brush her teeth and wash her face with a gentle foam cleanser. After rinsing it out she uses her skincare products; toner sheets, serum, cream and a tinted sunscreen!

🌷 Now she changes clothes, Tracy usually wears cute knit tops with some plaid skirts in basic colors (white, gray or black) and she also wears some dainty jewelry and leg warmers. Remember to put on a hair roller to style your bangs while you do your makeup!

It's time for makeup! Tracy usually does the same makeup routine, eyebrows, mascara, eyeliner, blush, lip tint and a shiny highlighter, oh! also she only puts on a bit of concealer since the tinted sunscreen already works as a glowy foundation.

🍥 Clean your room a little before packing the last things on your bag and spraying perfume to you out to your uni / school or have brunch!

✸ ꒰ study routine ꒱⋆ ࣪.* ࣪.⋆

Tracy usually takes digital notes on notion! and she always includes useful links with videos and resources so she can review them later. For language learning though, she copies the vocab on a notebook and reads it before her test so she can have them fresh in her memory. She also always studies listening to ost of her favorite animes, kdramas or manhwas!

🩰 After a long day of school she likes to take a nap and have some rest!

✸ ꒰ workout routine ꒱⋆ ࣪.* ࣪.⋆

If you're curious on how Tracy takes care of her figure you need to know that walking plays a huge role in it! In her vlogs she always goes to most places entirely by walking! You can do this too and start counting how many steps you walk in a day.

🏩 Also you can try and dance to an energetic kpop song like Hype boy by NewJeans, practicing multiple times a day can definitely replace a workout routine!

✸ ꒰ shower and self care routine ꒱⋆ ࣪.* ࣪.⋆

If you want to have a selfcare, start your shower routine by taking a long bath, use a bath bomb, some bubbles and candles to set the mood, you can even use a little tray to watch kdramas like tracy!

🛍 Then you can play some music to actually take a shower, take care of your hair with shampoo and conditioner and then clean your body with a cleanser and a loofah.

When you're done it's time for skincare, use some toner pads, serum, moisturizer, eye cream and lip balm! also apply cream on your body and cuticle oil on your nails.

💞 Next you can dry your hair and use some leave-in products to have extra soft and shiny hair!

One of Tracy's keys to look extra cute and pretty always is to get appointments with professionals to get facials, lash perms, haircuts and her nails done!

✸ ꒰ night routine ꒱⋆ ࣪.* ࣪.⋆

👚 Tracy usually dines out with her friends or family! After she arrives home she gets comfy so she can have a long study session! If you're a night person, try and get all your assignments done at this time to feel extra productive! And don't forget to have a late night meal/snack.

After getting all her school work done she relax on her bed, often with a sheet mask on (specially on winter) and watch anime or dramas until she falls asleep 

Good night!

heyyyyy I finally post again haha, sorry for making you guys wait for sooo long but I got my period and I was feeling soooo bad I wanted to disappear 💀 also idk why my liz post getting so much attention made me a little anxious so I procrastinated all my requests for so long hehe im sorry :(

well that's all I will try to upload my next requests soon !!!

toodlezzzz!!111!

[pieroulette]

Did I, A Side Character Became the Male Lead's Wife?! : 「 Part 2 Teaser 」

2023 | 13+ | ONESHOT | YANG JUNGWON × READER | -> PART 1

SUMMARY the male lead was suppose to fall in love with the female lead, and yet how did he even gain an interest in you?! clenching your fist as determination blazes your orbs as you're now far beyond determined to make him dislike you for once and for all.

THEME SONG FIREWORK by &TEAM (yes I'm promoting this) if this story was a manhwa, this song is definitely the ost >:))) listen to the song while reading the teaser :3 or else i won't release this lols jk jk but who knows >:) gathering as many lunés as i can lmao.

"a lady like you, i'm afraid to say, intrigues me very much..." jungwon shots a kittenish wink right through your heart. "be my wife, milady. i'll show you how good I can be for you."

it's safe to say, that you punched a fist right to his face after spewing such shitty nonsense. that alone adding an nth time of gasps from everyone in the ballroom.

right now, unfortunately, you were sprinting to the long ass hallway without ever looking back. okay let's say you did look back and fortunately no one or neither the prince were chasing after you.

seriously, what has gone wrong with the male lead?! how in the actual fuck he had taken an interest in you? it seems as if every action you did to push him away only pulls him closer. might as well reset yourself from this world if you can.

whining immensely as you recalled your female lead's precious grin, "liz! what has come to my story?!"

yet to your utter disappointment and shock even, the news had somehow quickly reached the entire nation, everyone and anyone you could think of has been informed of the incident between you and the prince. confirming it totally as you walked through the market with the female lead.

"the prince has truly take a likening in you, milady." liz pulled up a proud smile which had you cringing. like please don't do that, please don't. you weren't supposed to be smiling like this.

"oh god, kindly refrain from uttering that prince's in front of my face, liz. he's nothing but a—" you immediately stopped yourself from spewing shit about the prince as you don't want to ruin liz's perception on him, which would possibly furthering the already inflicted damage on your original story.

*⁠.⁠✧♡

groaning again you did as you couldn't possibly hid forever too, as the author of this novel; you are fully aware of how you crafted the prince's character, that despite all of the charms and dazzling traits you moulded into him, you've added one specific thing that had him stood out the most and that was he's beyond possessive and obsessed with the female lead as it was rooted from one of his traits; competitive, dedicated and most of the time, he doesn't like to lose and that he had to get what he wanted or else..

chaos it is, and such chaos coming from the prince himself are not to be underestimated.

you are having such an enormous urge to bang your head on your bed right now as how couldn't you? who doesn't want a male lead to live and die for their lover? of course you and your damn adorable readers!

well, fiction aren't to be confused with reality after all.

but damn your life for this is your reality now—here in your own very novel.

screw your novel, screw your life, screw reality, screw the prince! you might just as well fall into your slumber now as you try plan of another way to avoid that very prince you crafted.

*⁠.⁠✧♡

the sun rays peering through the swaying curtains glints against your fluttering eyelashes, causing your orbs to hid behind the shield of your splayed fingers. stretching your arms upwards, a sense of satisfaction surged through your veins—fueling the corners of your lips to pull up in the widest grin.

you've successfully overturn your fate by not attending the prince's second invitation, squinting mischievously—he must have lose interest in you for not visiting your manor, doesn't he? with his character, he couldn't have possibly had gone that long! he sure would've been tremendously patient regarding political affairs but never at the female lead!

in chapter 16 of your novel, "blooming romances" where you've written the development of their romance that had your reader's heart evaporating into nothingness as they weep under the comment section over how a single sentence you wrote had made them feel so damn single and why they haven't found a guy like the prince yet:

— after gaining the heart of lady liz; prince jungwon was beyond ecstatic to have another day out with his lover, however alike the eclipse's separation—royal and political affairs had ripped him away from the comfort of his lover's arms. thus, he had been occupied with so much papers within the palace's quarters.

yet as soon as the grey cloak crawled back over the blue sky, pulling the moon back with it—so does the prince himself, leaving the stacked up papers on his desk and appearing before the lady's quarters after much effort climbing onto the firm tree.

wasting not a breathe, as the apples of his cheeks serving as physical form of his infatuation towards the lady—the tips of his tongue mellowed in instinct for her, along with his hand that were accustomed to his sword's handle to enveloped beneath her fingers—pressing a lover's vow on the top of her hand through his faint red lips.

"milady, i fear i had no longer the strength to contain myself from letting out a single breath without your presence." his lips ghosted against his lover's ear, "it had my patience crumbling into nothing when you, milady had reigned over my heart."

ah! what a joyous occasion! you plopped on the bed with your gathered strength as you giggled like a child. bliss consumed your entire soul with your surging scream alerting the entire manor.

swaying your pillow in a circular motion as you sprint towards your hallway, "juliet! liz! i'm the happiest person ever in the world— oh jesus, someone host a damn buffet and tell everyone in the manor to join!"

"milady!" you saw juliet sprinting towards your way.

"juliet! oh dear, you should—"

"milady!" she panted right after falling on your arms. "the— the—"

"hm?! why are you sweating so much? what happened?"

taking a deep humongous breathe she did before uttering one sentence that had your head blasting into the ghost quiet vacuum of space.

"the prince has arrived!"

"what?!" your jaw dropped on the ground with gigantic mirror crashing behind you.

*⁠.⁠✧♡

"i seriously have no idea what do you find interesting in me?"

"i have yet to know, milady. that's the very reason i had the courage to ask for such a bold request from you."

"and what makes you assume i would agree to that?" you raised your left eyebrow.

"i have yet to resort to such foul actions, which i'd rather not to milady."

your blood surged cold through your veins, "a-are you threatening me?"

"certainly i do not intend it to sound that way, i prefer to keep this as civil as possible as you—milady, truly does has gained my interest and it would truly be vain if i.. wasn't given the chance to prove my worth to you. all i am asking is to grant me a chance to prove myself for you."

*⁠.⁠✧♡

"don't you have any rules you want to share?"

jungwon emitted a giggle as soon as he processed your words, "oh, i don't think i need one. after all, whatever you may wish, shall i grant."

"then, stop chasing me—"

"except that one." his lips pulled up in a mischievous smirk, the sun places a tender kiss on the strands of his hair—dripping honey hues on his cheeks which reflected against his feline orbs. "then shall we begin the countdown, milady?"

thirty days, it is; for him to pour his entire efforts to gain your heart and soul, while you extremely adamant in your mission to make him lose interest in you and make him fall in love with your precious female lead, liz.

*⁠.⁠✧♡

"i see, that this is the lady our prince had taken an interest for?" a middle aged man along with a young lady appeared before you, clearly trying to get your attention.

"she truly live up to the rumor, father." the lady snickered behind her lacy handfan, her eyes held traces of mockery in it.

"i dare say that his royal highness had quite a special taste.."

you tilted your head at them, sighing as you very well know where is this going. of course why wouldn't you? this was the dialogue you created during a crying session after your favourite manhwa ends on a horrible note. opting to torture your characters in your dusty side novel by using this dialogue on them, and later had a beaming idea to recycle it for the female lead's fateful encounter with the nobles.

"if you'd like to keep your tongue, then i advise you to keep it shut. sir?" goosebumps raised over the back of your neck when the prince appeared, his feline eyes held irritation in it as he stood beside you. "you had no right to speak that way to my future wife."

"i- apologize, your highness!"

"i'm quite sure the one of the rules i stated that you would refrain from calling me.. your wife? didn't we?" you sighed.

"forgive me, milady." jungwon shrugged. "such atrocious tongue had to be cut off before it grows, and aside from that, what kind of husband would i be if i couldn't do the bare minimum of protecting my wife?"

*⁠.⁠✧♡

"why.. is lady liz here with us too, milady?" dumbfounded the prince was at the presence of the lady. you suppressed the need to smirk as the prince were facing the female lead, and you in the middle.

ah, what a sight! you couldn't help but fangirl over, cause how couldn't you?! it's like a matchmaking session and you, obviously the cupid!

"i assume there's nothing to be curious at, as this was the pact, isn't your highness? i could bring whoever i please."

"yes, but.. the pact.." jungwon pauses, then pulls a tiny smile all reserved for you. "never mind it, i had been granted the honour to be invited to the lady's manor, how ungrateful would i be if i couldn't satisfy your wishes, milady." he continues as he turns his fluttering eyes at liz. "lady liz, it's my pleasure to meet you."

"so am i, your highness."

yes! yes! freaking finally, did he turned his damn head over the female lead! you got this, you were beyond skeptical at agreeing with the pact at first but now that you've seen it before your eyes, you could make the prince fall for the female lead whenever it's your turn to invite the prince!

this is truly a blessing in disguise!

make him fall in love her, bit by bit, till his interest in you slowly divert into the female lead before his eyes. simple it is! just make sure she's always in his line of vision, so that his heart would truly realise who it was beating for this entire time.

oh dear prince, look ahead and see the perfect lady that was meant for you! for if you still refuse to do so, i'll gladly force your damn kitten eyes to look towards her, mission start!

*⁠.⁠✧♡

jungwon emitted a slight giggle, a tender smile forming in his lips. "that's fascinating of you, lady liz. is there anything you had an interest for other than that?"

"hm, i adore looking after birds, they're my precious friends that tend to help me more than i could count, your majesty. and at times, i practise the art of embroidery.."

jungwon's eyes beamed at that particular word and it didn't go unnoticed by your eyes forming countless of neon heart shapes as you watched them converse with each other, heart quenching in top fangirling mode as they were truly a match made for each other! aaah, my favourite couple!

an enchanting frame of them, what a lovely sight indeed! you could watch them all day all night, for their romance to bloom into waterfall of florals.

"how about you, lady (name)? is there anything you in particular liked about?" the prince asked you.

"uh-?" your fangirling mode switches off when both of their attention were now on you. shit, just ignore me and talk to each other! pretend i do not exist!

"i'm curious about you, milady." jungwon tilted his head at you, curiosity glazed across his feline orbs as he leaned back on the chair in a leisure manner, with his usual smirk pestering you to death.

*⁠.⁠✧♡

you heard a few knocks on your door, the maid's head slipping in through the edge. "milady?"

"hm?" you didn't bother to pay a glance as you wiped off the excess soaking of your hair, still in your spiral of dilemma over what happened an hour ago. your stupid mistake of your damn foot conspiring to trip into the damn lake in a rare opportunity!

"his majesty were asking for your presence, milady."

"and what is his royal highness trying to conspire right here, huh? i am not his personal assistant to dress him up." you snorted, "what is this, barbie and ken? barbie girl in a barbie world?"

it's fantastic? this is nothing close to fantastic at all! you were so damn close to have them crashing their lips against each other!

"goddamnit why is this song kept repeating in my mind!" you whined to into your oblivion of despair.

the maid who had been patiently waiting for you to finish your emo session, spoke once again. "but milady, his majesty had been having troubles since an hour ago. he had only requested for you and no one else."

"oh god, fine!" you smashed your soaked towel on the table, huffing as you went on your way to the guest room. stomping your feet ever so loudly as you pause before the double door, "your highness, may i ask what in the world are going on for you to request for my presence?"

"come in, please."

you didn't think much as you pushed the door open, yet your lungs bursted into flames when his toned chest and down your eyes goes to his bunny pack of buns greeting your lazy orbs which had by far rattling into chaos as of now.

he's freaking half naked?! your mind chanted it like an unlimited quota. shirtless he was with that pestering smirk on his face as if he did this on purpose.

"milady?" jungwon smirked, "why don't you welcome yourself in? after all, this is your manor."

*⁠.⁠✧♡

"i'd certainly would not dare, milady. but if you insist." he shots a mischievous wink at your way.

seriously, you couldn't be bothered by this, aren't you? god knows how many filth you've written in the past few years of your life, you could even describe all of it without releasing a few screams or there, which shows how much of a pro you are.

you were beyond nervous when he pushes the door opened to his room, revealing the entire outlook of the furnitures, painting, couches, table, and lastly.. the king-sized bed.

bitch, get a hold on yourself.

*⁠.⁠✧♡

"milady," he pushed you on top of the bed, hovering over you as he caged you within his arms on both sides of your head.

"that's certainly brave of you, don't you think? milady?" he keeps emphasising the last word as if he adores to call you that very much, adding such seductive tone had your heart skipping a beat.

"milady." he whispered one more time.

he pressed a passionate kiss on your forehead, "milady." chanting the word a dozen more times as he continued on making you feel so loved.

his affectionate gestures were driving your soul insane and your knees weak as you indulged yourself in his love—the love he bestows only for you.

"milady."

「 © talesofyuan on tumblr 2023 」 all rights reserved. do not copy or post without permission.

[sourpatchsquids]

Hi I talk about In Stars and Time again!!!

Hi it's been like a week since i posted the last transcript! I am simply keeping the train rolling and going right into the next piece from the In Stars and Time OST that I wanna talk about: "We're With You!"

Just like last time, I'm gonna allude to/discuss the events of the game in moderate depth, so reader discretion is advised. Spoilers below the cut.

"We're With You" will play during moments such as Mirabelle's speech before leaving for the House of Change and a few other places where the focus is on Siffrin and how he relates to the party. Keep this in mind as we go forward.

As we open the piece there is already plenty to talk about! A small orchestration of Piano, Plucked strings and a plucked bass perform just about the strongest tonic harmony you could ask for. The figure in measures 3 and 4 where the left hand supports the right in the stepwise ascension to E is the first time I've ever thought to call a phrase of music adorable, and it really creates this air of togetherness and joy. You're with your friends! They're here to support you! Hey what's with that leading tone in the bass

The next chord to enter the progression is a iii7, which is a motion that I would best describe as Noncommittal. Essentially, putting a iii7 after a root position tonic chord is like splitting the tonic into its two neighbors. Things feel more or less the same, but it's like you've lost something that was keeping you grounded. Now that the quality of the chord is minor, it all comes together to creating this tender, vulnerable feeling. You aren't on sure footing, but it's okay. This is further elaborated when the line from the previous phrase's left hand returns in measure 7. The same support from the beginning is still here, your friends are still here.

As we continue, we move down to a ii7. iii7 -> ii7 is a nice mellow stepdown progression that doesn't shake up the harmony too much. As a predominant chord, it's setting us up for an expected dominant to take us back to the tonic and resolve this uneasy tension that has built up in the last phrase, and it delivers on that front. It takes the phrase from the first 4 measures and brings it down by a step, while keeping a little bit of that tension by having the left hand of the piano jump from the 5th to the 7th of the chord, as opposed to a simple arpeggio like last time. From here, the line repeats the beginning phrase and begins a nice gentle stepwise descent to set us up for that nice E major to make us feel all nice and happy hey what's going on here,,,,,

This isn't a dominant chord that will bring a satisfying resolution to the harmonic tension and take us home, this is a Neapolitan chord in 2nd inversion! To break this down a little, a neapolitan chord is a fancy name for a major chord built on the flat 2nd scale degree. Because of how much it can warp the harmony around it, it's typically used for very strong moments in music with a lot of emotional weight. Which is to say that compared to the choices in progression made previously, this is very potent. To make things even more jarring, the chord plays with the 5th in the bass, which is the most unstable voicing this chord could have. Even with the motion of the previous line, it still is striking when the Bb plays in the melody.

Because the strings have been following the same pattern this entire time, as well as the melody slowing down after this chord change, we are able to rest a bit as listeners while we adjust to this strange new harmony while we wait to be taken to the next section.

In the last measure of this 4-bar phrase, we get an Ab that pops in right before the change back to the tonic. This Ab turns the bII64 into a dominant 7th chord, which has a few implications. Namely, this chord becomes a secondary dominant into the key of Eb, which is a full tritone away from the original key. We have had a sudden jarring change to the harmony, and now we are about to go as far away from where we started as possible. So what do we do? We go back to the beginning of course! The V7/bV resolves to a I7 chord in a way that would make my old theory professors' skin crawl, but works perfectly.

See, dominant 7th chords like to resolve certain ways. The 7th wants to resolve down by step, the root wants to resolve to its tonic, etc. This chord resolves in such a way as to break those rules and more. Every pitch resolves to A, with the exception of the top voice, which resolves to E. This leads to multiple direct octaves, a phenomenon that occurs when multiple voices resolve to the same pitch across different octaves, which is typically frowned upon because it can sound as though the orchestration has lost voices. Perhaps we can make some connections to a certain main character failing to see his party members as people after a little progression through the story.

Regardless of how we got there, we are back at the beginning of the loop, so onwards we go!

Now that we are retreading old ground, we're gonna primarily focus on the things that have changed. Hey! The supporting friend line has moved to the melody now! Hey! The material that this line was supporting is no longer playing! I'm not sure how I feel about the implications there! Now that the right hand is playing what was in the left hand, there is new material in the left hand: A melancholy descending line with a strong focus on the 7th, which adds a new extension to the tonic that wasn't as pronounced in the first passage. Because the right hand is only playing the figure it took from the original passage, there's a couple measures where this line is able to ring out unimpeded.

First, we hear it as A-G#-C#, a nice way to add the leading tone into the bar to turn the old major tonic chord into something new and interesting. I could belabor the point here and talk further about how putting the leading tone in the first measure of this passage really digs into Siffrin's feelings of wanting to find home with his family, but I think you understand by now. What I really wanna belabor is how in the second measure of this example, the left hand's line changes to G#-E-C#, the triad for the following chord. The music is beginning to anticipate the changes further in the loop. The melody is skipping ahead to complete the motions of the last loop in the hopes of getting something different this time, just as Siffrin returned to the beginning of the loop and used his knowledge of his friends to try and make them stronger, more able to tackle the challenges of the House. But what if things still don't work out this time?

To our surprise, the left hand still plays their supporting line this time! Even when they think they know everything, Siffrin still can show new vulnerability, and their friends will still be with him in support. However, this little joy isn't enough to defeat break the loop. Despite the right hand's best efforts to change the momentum of the line in this second iteration of the ii->bII64, the change still comes. Once the line is forced back into the stepwise motion to Bb, the right hand makes no more effort to continue playing. This isn't how it was supposed to end, so the only option is to go back and try something different.

And oh boy do we go somewhere different! We have accepted that the key change is happening. We are thinking about how if things do not change from their predetermined course, we will end up going as far away as possible from where we want to be (home) (the place we feel safe and secure) (the place where we feel happier than we have ever been before). Hey look! It's the main theme of In Stars and Time making an appearance in the left hand! Hey look! That means the supporting line that I mentioned feels like it's helping the right hand light itself up has been lost! God I love music and its ability to tell you the themes of a story without saying a goddamn word!

What really gets me about this passage is that it feels far more natural than the Bb -> A progression, despite being so far from the previous tonic. It feels less jarring to confront the thoughts than it is to stew in them. This key changes carries such an immense weight because it represents the little voice in the back of Siffrin's mind. (They don't want to see you again.) (They'll go back to their homes, without you) "We're with you!" (But for how long.)

The variations continue in the left hand as we approach the next loop point. Now that we have changed keys, the lines are becoming more chaotic. Previously, the left hand would hold a pitch on the last measure of a 4 bar phrase (other than the first ii->bII64 in measure 12), but this time it is wildly jumping around in contrast to the strange ascending line in the right hand. We have looped many times now, and it is beginning to wear us down. Siffrin is failing to remember his lines, and perhaps in desperation is trying anything new to make headway against the time loops. No such luck yet. I should also note that while i didn't mark it in the example image, the same voice leading errors occurred as in the key of A. Despite all the changes, when we loop back into Eb it carries the same feeling of suddenly being snapped back, rather than any kind of a satisfying end.

Finally, we have reached the end of the piece. I only have 2 things i want to discuss here. First is the circled pitch cluster in the bass. I haven't talked much about the bass in this analysis because after the first loop, it runs as an ostinato for the duration of the piece, until right here. It plodded away exactly as it needed to the entire time, providing a wonderful, grounding figure to help warm up the instrumentation and balance out the harmony as it took us around to the strange places it did. So when I heard this the first time I was a little shocked.

At first, I thought it was an error that managed to slip under the sound team. However, after thinking about the piece, I am confident that this was a 100% intentional choice by Studio Thumpy Puppy. Up to now, "We're With You" has shown a slow, progressive decline in stability to represent Siffrin's growing anxiety about the end of his adventure with the rest of his party. Little things hiding away in a happy, tender piece meant to play when their family is together and enjoy each other's company. While Sif has always shown doubts about how genuinely everyone cares about them, it is undeniable that they have given him their full support and care for their entire time together. So, what if he made a big mistake?

One that really made them withhold their support, if even for a second?

Next, I'd like to talk about the final measures of the piece. We are treated to an unbelievably sparse harmony. All E's, then a lower E in the base, and finally E-B-E to close out before relooping to the very beginning. There is no sudden jerk back to the loop, we have to sit with this empty, transitional feeling.

When I was first learning to play piano, I had a very bad habit. Whenever I would make a mistake during practice, I would always leap back to just before I made the mistake, rather than simply allowing it to happen and moving on. In my frustration, I would end up playing the lead up to where I made the mistake, unbelievably slowly, as though I were trying to grind the failure out of my body.

My mistake was not in redoing a section that I clearly hadn't perfected yet, practice is important after all. My mistake was that I treated it like a blemish. That because I performed incorrectly, there was no point in continuing with the piece until I could perform correctly. The thought of making a mistake in front of those whose opinions of me were so important filled me with dread. This is what goes through my mind when I listen to the very end of "We're With You!" When faced with the prospect of losing their family, Siffrin's reaction is to go back and do it right this time.

Every time.

Only took me a week to get this one out :3 This was a way bigger write-up than I thought it was gonna be! This music has themes in it y'all!

As always, if you haven't supported Studio Thumpy Puppy yet, go do that. They make good music!

And if you haven't played ISAT yet, then uh,,, I warned you at the top about spoilers, go buy it and learn why I love it to death :>

I won't promise a time for the next one, but keep an eye out for my next transcript, stardust :)

[gartenofbanny]

Today, I'm going to be discussing my problems with the DHORKS Fight which is one of the most popular fights in Helluva Boss. If you all like the fight, please don't read this blog because I hate this "fight" and I'm going to butcher it right now. I don't even consider the DHORKS Fight to even be a fight mainly due to how one-sided it is. This blog is gonna be very long, probably my longest yet, anyway let's get started

The Weapons DHORKS Use

So it's 4 Hellborn Demons against an entire agency filled with DHORKS Agents who wear suits and shades. Out of context, you'd think that the DHORKS Agents would win, but they don't due to the weapons they have compared to the weapons I.M.P. had. The DHORKS Agents all had weapons from the Edo Period which are primarily melee weapons, not firearms.

They stood no chance against IMP because

They're using melee weapons that require a close range

The weapons they are using are useless

They're most likely not experienced with the weapons themselves

There are three weapons that a couple of Agents use that are useless in this fight those being the Nunchucks, the Dual Sai, and the Throwing Stars/Shuriken. Nunchuck users have to get close in order to deal damage and in a battle like this, they're better off either not using the Nunchucks at all or sneaking up behind their target.

The Sai are also useless in a scenario like this as Sais are mainly used to trap melee weapons like swords. I've never really seen a Sai user go up against a gun user because they'd probably fail at subduing them. Sais also cannot cut, they can stab, but they can't cut. The Agent with the Sais tried to cut Blitzo for some reason and I know he's trying to cut Blitzo because we can see him using the Sais to slash instead of thrust.

Throwing Stars are not lethal despite what certain shows have shown. They aren't capable of penetration and were only used to distract an opponent for an upcoming strike or for a tactical retreat. However, if you're really really skilled or just really fucking strong, you can hit an opponent with the eye and injure them. The fact that a few Agents were using the shurikens and expecting them to do damage shows how incompetent they are at using the weapons.

An example of Shurikens being used in this episode is before the fight even happened. Four Agents throw Shurikens at Millie and Loona despite the fact that as said before, they're not really lethal weapons. What's even weirder is that none of them had actual close combat weapons or weapons to defend themselves with, they all had Shurikens and were left defenseless once Millie was inside the room with them.

Realistically, it would be very difficult to defeat someone with a gun while you're using a melee weapon that is unless you're experienced as hell. A popular saying that the character Hol Horse said is "The gun is mightier than the sword" and I agree with him because a gun is more efficient and quicker to kill someone compared to a sword.

Speaking of guns, whatever happened to the fancy-ass guns Agents 1 & 2 had? They quickly incapacitated Blitzo while using those. Oh, they don't have them because the weapons from the Edo period were badass. Agent 1&2's words, not mine.

The OST

The OST for this song is just shit. It wasn't fitting the massacre at all and the melody of the song just repeats over and over and over and over again.

I used to be in a band when I was in high school and this song just makes me wanna peel my skin. It's like they made the first 15 seconds of the song while making the song and just decided "Oh, let's just use that over and over and mix other soundtracks with it." Because they DID mix other soundtracks with it.

There isn't any uniqueness with the song it's like I'm listening to the average Friday Night Funkin song, it's so repetitive luckily the duration of the song is pretty short.

Referencing/Choreography

Despite the fight scene being long as hell, there's no referencing or choreography that the DHORKS Agents use whenever they are fighting. Hell, one of them don't even use their weapons right, and there's barely any technique when other agents use their weapons. So I'm gonna start off with the Kusarigama user. A Kusarigama is a useful weapon because it has a range and can give the user the opportunity to strike the opponent, however, the animation crew screwed up one thing when making this weapon. That is the agent who used the Kusarigama threw the fucking blade and not the spiked ball itself. The spiked ball is supposed to be used to strike the vital areas of the opponent, get rid of their weapon, and restrain them to kill them. And how do you kill them? Well with the sickle blade of course and to maneuver the spiked ball you must use the sickle handle to get a good grip on it and call it back. So not only did the DHORKS Agent throw the main component of the Kusarigama at Loona for some fucking reason, but he also couldn't get a good grip on the chain because the sickle has a handle on it which led to him getting tossed by Loona.

The Agents who use the swords which is the majority of them only run towards IMP in order to attack. So apparently running towards someone with a gun while you have a sword is always a good idea to them, except it isn't because as a result of their fucking foolishness they died.

I believe the fight this entire DHORKS Battle was taking inspiration from was The Bride vs Crazy 88 from Kill Bill, but the HB Team didn't do a good job or even tried to reference this fight because they all don't straight-up attack Beatrix one at a time instead they attack her either with another person or with two other people, they know how to use their katanas and other weapons, and the setting of the fight is actually pretty big which leads me to my next complaint.

The Setting

The size of the room of the entire fight keeps changing to give IMP an advantage. The size of the room firstly seems small as I.M.P are all surrounded by the Agents

But then the room itself enlarges to show that the Agents are separated when they were close to the main characters before.

The Agents show up out of nowhere to attack at a close range, they're nonexistent until they run toward the protagonists. And if they are close to the protagonists themselves then that gives the protagonists the advantage since they actually have rifles and can just gun them down at a close range.

Either the setting is big or small, pick one don't just make a small setting suddenly big and then small again because that ruins the placement the characters had previously.

The Agents are incompetent & IMP suffers no damage

This last section is going to be really short because I want to say what I wanna say and get this out of the way. In order to have a good fight scene both parties must take damage or one party should at least struggle against the other. Having incompetent antagonists go up against component protagonists doesn't make a good fight scene because we'll already know that it'll end with the protagonist winning.

The DHORKS Agents do not know how to use their weapons or know any techniques that will benefit them and IMP doesn't suffer any damage and look like they're having fun while killing a bunch of humans. This entire sequence in Truth Seekers isn't a fight, but more like a massacre with animation errors.

Conclusion

So I've said what I needed to say. I was expecting a well-drawn, well-choreographed fight scene in Truth Seekers but I was just disappointed. What I got instead was just a bunch of demons killing a bunch of humans, despite the fact that Moxxie, Millie, and Blitzo somehow were defeated by cannibal rednecks who worship Satan just a few episodes prior. Anyway, thank you all for reading and I hope you all have a nice day! ❤️

[nalyra-dreaming]

Hey,

Feel free to ignore if not an interesting question! But before we get into the finale where I imagine many emotions may arise and there may be many new things to add, I wonder if you have any favourite moments from S2 so far and/or any things that have surprised you?

And anyone in comments or reblogs - I'd love to hear this from anyone!

If anyone's interested, for me here are some things I have loved:

Armand. Assad's Armand has been even more glorious than I could have imagined. Armand is my second favourite character in the books and I honestly did not think it was possible that Armand could be elevated even beyond how much I love book-Armand, but Assad has achieved that! Episode 4 and 5 especially I was just speechless afterwards how incredible Assad is.

DreamStat. I have absolutely adored DreamStat. I did not miss Lestat in episodes 1-5 AT ALL because I adored DreamStat so much and because even if the DreamStat in an episode was only 30 seconds, it was always 30 seconds of 100% emotion. I loved how they used DreamStat to convey feelings; to convey Louis' internal world and experience and subconscious, to covey Loustat's love and connection and to express vampiric longing and transgressive thoughts, feelings and emotions. Absolutely adored it. Ironically, the episodes I missed Lestat in most this season were E3, which he was in the most but I found Armands storytime-Lestat too unnerving... and obviously E6 as he wasn't in it bar 2 seconds!

Claudeleine. Oh my: Madeleine and Claudeleine were both written utterly perfectly. Madeleine, again, I feel so much more from than book-Madeleine and she was simply exquisite.

E5 - A Masterpiece.

The music. The piece that opened S2E1 - Imagine Never Being Able to Dream remains my favourite so far from this season (I haven't listened to the S2 score yet so there may be some new thing I love more in E8 I have yet to hear.) When I first watched E1 I was so moved by this piece I had to watch the first 10/15 minutes of the episode... it was at least 3 times over as I couldn't even focus on what Louis and Claudia were saying, I was so moved by the music.

I've been surprised they haven't resolved everything, or at least more things with memory. I thought memories would be (pretty much, if not entirely) resolved by the end of S2 and from S3 on that we'd be working in (relative) truths. I also thought the stuff with memory would be a lot more to do with Louis and Daniel uncovering their own true memories. For example I was surprised that some memory revisits were part of the trial as opposed to Louis' perspective. We did do some of that in E5 of course, but that felt only the beginning to me.

Hey!

I actually concur with a lot of what you listed here ;)

Especially Assad‘s Armand… and the memories-in-Dubai thing. I had expected it to be a lot more uncovering for Louis and Daniel as well, but I can see it why they didn’t. Still, as said before, I would have preferred a slightly different season setup (with more time to actually resolve things before it ends).

I do love that Claudia and Madeleine got a proper arc. You feel for them. I also love the OST and my personal favorite piece of it will come up still 😏 I did not think Loumand would go that dark, and I don’t think there’s much chance of reconciliation once it breaks in Dubai tbh. But… we’ll see. I loved DreamStat being Louis‘ inner voice and I also find e3 weird… I adore the harlequin Lestat though, even if only a fanfic 😅 Santiago was so much more than I had anticipated and I loved how they made the… labyrinthian… depths.. :) of coven life clear.

I did not like them doing Merrick in SF, and I have already written a few notes on it all for an after-the-season post. But we’ll see if they pick it up in the last ep.

So these are my thoughts (for now^^) - anyone want to chime in?;))

[khytal]

ok gamers I rewatched tristamp one more time in order to write a post about the soundtrack, and some of the stuff I found blew my socks off (even though I've seen every episode like 6 times) so buckle up because oh my god. oh my god

this will cover most of both volumes of the OST (which you can find on spotify), with a focus on wolfwood, and a little bit of vash, meryl, and the eye of michael

...and a very thorough breakdown of "drain arm" :)

notes before I get into it: -I won't be analyzing the plant song because I. already wrote an entire separate thing about that haha (a link to that doc will be in the replies section of the notes if you're interested)

-you won't need to know anything about music theory, because I'm just pointing out where certain themes come up (with the exception of "duet", but I'll explain terminology there). timestamps will be included so you can listen for them as you read

-if you're obsessed with the OST like I am, most of this probably won't be anything new x) but I hope it's enjoyable regardless

-my credentials: I was a pianist for 10 years and an oboist for 7.5 years and I only had 1 semester of intermediate music theory but I got to analyze the 1st mvt of tchaik 5 and I think that permanently altered my brain chemistry

-the tracks I recommend being familiar with to have a better grasp on this post are: -> "whistling/blues harp in the wasteland" (vash's leitmotif) -> "reality" -> "childhood memories" -> "duet" -> "human subject" (eye of michael, or EoM, leitmotif) -> "drain arm" (technically optional)

-please don't take any of my interpretations/speculation as fact! you are absolutely free to come to your own conclusions I just have a lot of thoughts about the soundtrack lol 👍

here we go :]

EP1: -you can hear a variation of the plant song in "immigrant space explorer" (0:36-1:00)

-vash's leitmotif is first heard in "no man's land" (0:41-0:48)

-only about half of "mystery man" plays, and his leitmotif (0:38-0:51) is actually cut from the scene so it's not heard at all

EP2: -"escape" has vash's leitmotif from 0:18-0:31. they also took out the lyrics in the episode's version of the track x)

-it's possible that we'll hear "might is right" or a new arrangement of it if we get to see the rest of the nebraska family in future episodes, since there were posters of marilyn. I think people largely associate the song with EG the Mine but due to the track title and the fact that it first played in this episode, I feel like it's more about the nebraskas

-I'll talk about "childhood memories" in ep12 because it's related to rem's themes

EP3: -the plant song can be heard in "compatriots" (1:01-1:11)

-"reality" is first heard here, right before the episode in which wolfwood is introduced. keep this in mind for later :')

EP4: -"undertaker" has a dissonant sax part (0:48-0:54) that's similar to the one found in "irritation" (1:05-1:11), but it's an ascending passage rather than descending. it doesn't show up anywhere else so it might become a motif we'll hear in the future, but there's no way to know until the next part is released

-"planet zaji", from 0:55-1:04, has that one part from "time left" (1:02-1:09). it's heard while wolfwood's spinning the punisher around but I think it's just something that sounds cool, and you can't really hear it anyway because of the sound effects/dialogue. if zazie gets any additional themes in the future I might have more to say on this

-vash's leitmotif kicks in in "hungry !" (0:21-0:43) when wolfwood introduces himself at the end of the episode. I really like this track I hope we'll get to hear it again x)

EP5: -I don't think there's any meaning behind "shadow" borrowing from "worms network". I'm pretty sure it was just for mood (and to be fair it is a cool track)

-you can hear vash's leitmotif at the beginning of "boy and vash". this is the part where vash is escorting rollo back to the village

-"cyborg" introduces a new 4-note pattern (0:07-0:14) that I'm calling the eye of michael leitmotif. if hearing this reminds you of episode 6 then you already understand what I mean

-"dud" has vash's leitmotif as well (2:20-2:59), which starts playing when vash is begging rollo to wake up after wolfwood kills him

-only a small part of "human subject" (0:25-0:35) is used for the final scene, right when the windmills start turning. using the EoM leitmotif as a sendoff to the empty village is. really haunting

EP6 (this is a long one I'm sorry): -the EoM leitmotif can be heard in "reborn" (0:09-0:14, but it's easier to hear in 0:26-0:30). this is the opening scene where wolfwood guns down the deserter

-they do reuse "worms network" when livio first opens fire on vash but that's more for mood in my opinion. you could say it hints at zazie monitoring the sand steamer though

-we're probably going to hear "the desert rogue" again when the bad lads gang shows up in a future episode, possibly with a new arrangement for brilliant dynamites neon (this is one of my personal favorite tracks actually. it's a shame they didn't get to use the whole thing because 0:45 to the end is really cool)

-"boyhood" contains the EoM leitmotif and it's very in-your-face in this song (1:15-2:19). in the episode itself the track gets cut at around 2:10, but in the OST the piano motif from "orphanage" can be heard one more time right at the end of the song at 2:18-2:20. which is an evil thing to do. anyway

-"nicholas the punisher" is an arrangement of "reality". let that sit for a second, maybe go listen to those two tracks or something.

okay so we can look at this in a few different ways:

-> the end of episode 3 is of course a reality check, supported by the corresponding track being titled "reality" (even though it's fabricated by nai: to suggest and then prove to the people of no man's land that vash is indeed deserving of the $$6mil bounty; and to tell vash that his presence will pose a threat to humans). you know who else is supposed to be* grounded in reality? the pragmatic nicholas d wolfwood, who's introduced at the start of episode 4 *tristamp wolfwood hasn't quite found his resolve yet, as shown by his hesitation when livio appears

-> in the scene where "nicholas the punisher" is heard, vash is insistent on rescuing livio while wolfwood pushes back and says it's too late for him. he's clearly wishing he wouldn't have to eliminate livio though, and with "reality" as the foundation of this song, it presents wolfwood's inner turmoil in a new way for the audience: vash, who is physically right there trying to persuade him that there's still hope for his brother, vs his role as "nicholas the punisher" in sound, in his mind, and the "reality" that developed along with it (death is/can be a mercy, and sometimes it's necessary to sacrifice one life to save many)

(I also want to add that while legato's dialogue shows he intended for the orphanage to be eliminated through livio's death, it seems wolfwood didn't even realize that killing livio would mean more kids would be taken by the EoM for experimentation. he thought he had to choose between livio or the children, but it was a "test" of loyalty; and legato was attempting to obtain said loyalty by force)

-> outside of the episode, if you were to just listen to this track within the OST it's very representative of his character. contrary to "undertaker", which is fairly laid-back and....honestly kind of playful (and equally reflective of wolfwood's personality, when he's relaxed), "nicholas the punisher" is a more somber and contemplative piece. the fact that it's built on "reality" already suggests that he's someone whose beliefs conflict with vash's; and even without knowing that, both of wolfwood's themes contrast with the energy of "vash the stampede" quite clearly (even if I personally don't consider that track to be vash's official theme, it's still associated with him). I think it's really interesting that vash, the quieter one, has more raucous songs while wolfwood, the one with a sharp tongue, has calmer tracks :)

you might be wondering if "orphanage" is in "nicholas the punisher" and the answer is......yes, but actually, no. but kinda if you're delusional like me. this little pattern from 0:29-0:42 in "orphanage" is found in the low brass from 0:57-1:11 in "nicholas the punisher" (although it's in a different key and has a slight variation in the 2nd half). it's not quite the same, but both phrases start by going down a half step, then down a P5 interval (D->C#->F# for "orphanage", F->E->A for "nicholas the punisher"). lastly the sand steamer's leitmotif (I guess) is also present but that's. obviously because this is happening on the sand steamer lol

-"whom to kill, whom to let live" is just a faster/more tense arrangement of "orphanage" with saxophone over it. starting at 1:07 you can hear the worms leitmotif (1:31-1:34 in "worms network")

I can't say whether or not legato is already represented in the OST because he's currently not associated with any unique tracks, but they might tie the dissonant saxophone passage from "irritation" to him. it's first heard when legato stops wolfwood from escaping the facility, and as far as I can remember it's not played anywhere else. if he plays a bigger role in the next season, which I'm sure he will, I'll be keeping an ear out for this x) (I only mention the sax thing because I don't think he's represented by the sax solo that plays in "whom to kill, whom to let live")

EP7: -a little more of "the desert rogue" is heard when the bad lads make their way onto the sand steamer but it's very hard to make out over the gang yelling in the background lmao

-we're treated to the entirety of "human subject", for the scene where livio briefly returns to himself. if you somehow weren't convinced that those repeated 4 notes had anything to do with the eye of michael, this is the last instance where it's heard: the moment livio's overcome by whatever brainwashing was used on him by the EoM

-I think most people associate "time left" with ep12 but it's first played in this episode and I believe that it was primarily composed with the ion cannon sequence in mind (though a majority of the tracks in the OST only play once for specific scenes, with some songs being cut short and getting different parts played across 2+ episodes. "irritation" and "human subject" are examples of this)

EP8: -this one's a little hard to hear because the 1st note is implied in the C drone but vash's leitmotif starts at around 0:09 in "complicity" and runs all the way to 1:06

-it's also in "home" (1:38-1:57), playing at the moment luida hands vash the red coat :)

EP9: -I've talked about this before but I really like that there's 4(?) measures of polyrhythm (2 or more differing rhythmic lines that are played within the same time signature) when vash joins in, before the brothers come together on the same even rhythm. you can see how vash's quarter-note pattern doesn't line up with nai's quarter-note triplets, and in fact, neither of them ever land or start together:

(for the sake of comprehension I wrote it out with a faster tempo to stretch the polyrhythm part over 8 bars instead of the slow tempo/4 bars. I'm not sure what the official tempo is. I think a sane person would write it at a faster tempo so that the part doesn't look stupidly cluttered but a good musician would be able to play it regardless. anyway-)

it sounds even more stilted because vash is playing on the offbeat. polyrhythm's such a great way to represent the brothers' relationship because it seems so chaotic but both lines are still in time together, following the same beats. they're so different but in the end they're still brothers who (are trying to) understand each other. and I love that vash is playing secondo, a more harmonic/supportive part, while knives has primo, where the melody/ornaments are. it says a lot about their personalities :')

since I don't know what the original sheet music looks like I can't say if this is true but you can hear that the plant song at 1:03 is played in octaves (2 notes that're the same pitch with one higher than the other). because of the nature of a duet, and the fact that this was played by the twins when they were little, the octaves were probably split between the parts. so vash was playing the lower octave of the plant song with his right hand, and nai played the upper octave with his left hand (we don't get to see this because it cuts to nai playing the song alone at that point). also: vash favors his right hand while nai favors his left

-now for something far less interesting: "last run" is a medley combining "ethics and morality", "compatriots", and "millions knives"

EP10: -"a cruel sight" seems to be unused. it was probably intended to lead into "bio-power reactor" in the scene where meryl and roberto meet elendira in the tank (given that it ends the same way "bio-power reactor" starts), but they cut it and just played a version of "bio-power reactor" without the melody

-elendira's themes ("elendira the crimsonnail" and "which is the monster?") seem to have some lyrics that're most audible in the beginning of the tracks but they're almost impossible to make out without some kind of editing software, which I don't have lol. they're already very quiet in the background and they echo, on top of sounding like they were put through autotune

also this is entering speculation territory but it makes me wonder if elendira's theme is going to evolve with her. we've seen some concept art with her having a more teenage appearance, so I think it'd be really cool if the vocals also changed accordingly

additionally she doesn't have the EoM leitmotif anywhere but she DOES have a proper 4-note chromatic pattern that descends from D in "which is the monster?" (1:32-1:35), which is the same note that the EoM leitmotif starts on. if we consider EoM's broken chromatic passage to represent the failed experiments, then elendira, with an actual chromatic passage in her theme, is a success

-"meryl's regrets" is ALSO an arrangement of "reality" :') this is the track that plays during roberto's final moment, which was. you know. the consequence of meryl running off in pursuit of the truth. the "reality" roberto had warned her about several times prior to episode 10. interestingly, while "nicholas the punisher" expands on the original track, "meryl's regrets" is a reduction--it's mostly just the baseline with some notes here and there. she doesn't have a theme yet, but 1:23-1:33 might be something we hear again if/when she gets a track associated with her

EP11: -"nicholas and meryl" is an arrangement of "boy and vash", with erhu echoing vash's leitmotif. I think it's a neat way to show through music that both of them are here because of vash :]

-the tracklist goes slightly out of order at this point for some reason. after "memory retrieval", "memory of geranium" is what plays in the final memory, when nai decapitates rem

EP12: -"memory of rem" is a combination of "childhood memories" and "memory of geranium". "childhood memories" is also found in "knives's piano", which is based on "duet". one fun way of interpreting this is that the "childhood memories" part of the duet is actually from rem, if she was the one who taught the twins how to play piano, which would make "duet" a musical representation of vash and nai's roots (pun intended. sorry). this also suggests nai misses rem, with how often he plays the piano, even if he thinks he hates her.

but "childhood memories" can also simply be seen as a theme that's associated with rem, nai, and vash's brief time together x)

-okay this is the part where I get to rant about "drain arm" because THIS SONG was literally the reason I decided I needed to rewatch stampede. I was listening to "drain arm" a couple weeks after the finale aired and I heard vash's leitmotif near the end and I was like "NO WAY!!!! HOW DID I MISS THAT"

as it turns out, it was cut from episode 12.

:)

not to worry though, I still have plenty to say about it. even if I'm a little disappointed. just. a little.

-> from 1:13-1:25, you can hear vash's leitmotif in the cello. this DID make it into the scene, and it plays when vash rises through the clouds

-> 2:44-3:10 is where some of the lyrics from vocal version of "millions knives" play: "remember how / we used to be / no turning back / sky's (skies??) falling down". although you can't actually hear the "remember how" in "drain arm" (at least not without blasting the song into your ears, which I don't recommend), it starts right when the image of vash and nai sitting in the geodome appears

-> we finally get the plant song at 3:36, when the condensed energy starts to leak out/charge. and then after it fires, but before nai dives into the beam, we hear "I still care for you" (3:44-3:52). and while it's originally from the vocal version of "millions knives", in the context of the scene I think it's a sentiment from both brothers: vash, who pleads for nai to let go and releases the energy away from him; and then knives, desperately reaching for the cube because he believes the success of his plan will ensure his family's (and especially his brother's) safety, the only ones he's ever cared about

in other words: plant song in cello = vash -> "I still care for you" -> continuation of plant song in low brass = knives. they're connected by this single sentence

-> knives's leitmotif (I didn't talk about it because it's only found in songs that signal his appearance, so it's really obvious, but yes he's got one of those) plays at 4:03 for the "nai is dead. you killed him" exchange

-> it goes back to a variation of the plant song at 4:29 (I LOVE the piano at 4:40-4:49 btw. it's so good. I could cry about it. probably)

if you've read my plant song analysis you might be wondering how to tell when it's being associated with the name millions knives instead of the plant race. since we know that a good chunk of the songs in the OST were written like a film score, the visual context (and/or the song titles themselves) can clue you in. "drain arm"'s use of the plant song is meant to highlight that vash and nai aren't human, so it's the latter

-> now here's the part that was removed, probably due to the runtime: vash's leitmotif in the cello again, from 5:03-5:09. if you revisit the part right before nai lets go of the cube, you'll hear that it skips these 6 seconds and goes straight to knives's theme ("but that's the plant song!" yes. we'll get to that in a sec). this missing bit right here?? fucks me up EVERY time. it's the most mournful his leitmotif has ever sounded, appropriately so, and it's absolutely criminal that it wasn't included. especially because knives's theme, the plant song melody, follows it up on violin as the cello continues to play a line in harmony.

and it's knives's theme because in this moment it's about him dying, not the plants. they spent a whole season tricking us into thinking that the plant song was knives's theme, and then they used it to send him off.

-> and then july city explodes o7

as much as I'd love to hear "drain arm" again for another chance to let the weight of vash's motif come through, I think it's too intertwined with this scene to be recycled. like. maaaaaaaybe they could use it for fifth moon if that's supposed to be the climax of the next part but they kinda?? already did the "fire a really big laser at the sky" thing? anyway yeah I'm totally normal about "drain arm". so normal

Extras: -the punisher and the double fangs have these cool sound effects when they transform and it kinda makes me think that their guns are built from lost tech, if the punisher's laser cannon wasn't evidence enough of this

-there's no equivalent of "sound life" in stampede, and I don't think there's going to be one. however, I do think that it would make a lot of sense if rem taught the boys how to play piano, because we could get something like:

-> rem asks vash about the plant song (the memory in ep12) -> she gives the boys piano lessons -> she helps them compose "duet"

-they didn't use "stampede out" for this season but I really hope we'll hear it in the next part. I know it's just a longer version of "escape" but it's a fun song :]

-this is. obvious but you can hear "gate" in "millions knives". no idea if they'll put "gate" into more songs, especially for vash now that he seems to have some control over it

-there's also something kinda fun with key signatures too: -> "millions knives" is in b minor -> vash's leitmotif is in d dorian (of course this changes depending on the key signature of whatever track it's used in) -> "undertaker" is also in d dorian -> I think songs associated with no man's land/humanity are usually in some dorian scale or specifically the key of a minor but this is solely based on jeneora rock since july city had its own unique theme so I'm not totally sure yet. "duet" is in a minor by the way -> "nicholas the punisher" is in d minor. if "undertaker" is tied to humanity (which is tied to vash) then "nicholas the punisher" is linked to the other side: knives, through the EoM. it adds another interesting layer to the contrast between wolfwood's two themes, but I don't consider this to hold any meaning lol -> I WILL say that b minor is the relative minor of D Major, so having knives and vash's songs be written in those keys was likely deliberate. and what makes it really interesting is that to get d dorian, you take a D Major scale and lower the 3rd and 7th notes by a half step

-I'm not 100% sure but I think plucked piano strings were used to create the low, scratchy string sound effect in some of the songs (one example is literally at the beginning of "irritation"). I think it's really cool that piano is everywhere in the soundtrack, but not necessarily by hitting the keys

-I am unbelievably excited for livio's/razlo's themes because they have the opportunity to do some REALLY COOL things with the music for them. we might not get them in part 2 (though I think we will) but whenever it happens I'll be so ready for it >:)

and that's all!! o(-< thank you for reading! if you actually took the time to go through all of this with the soundtrack pulled up, I'm. impressed. i think. anyway I'm a big fan of OSTs with strong storytelling and tristamp's OST is no exception :]

if you've got questions, feel free to ask ^^ I definitely didn't cover everything I just picked out whatever I thought was worth mentioning. which was uhhhh quite a bit x)

(also again if you're interested in reading the plant song analysis I did it's in the replies section of the notes 👍 I recommend reading it on a computer though)

[goldentlme]

i’m searching for you in my fading memories .

alternate versions .

whooh . WHOOH !!!!! good GOD !!!!

listen to the song linked while looking I think it really adds . look up a translation too if you want ! listen to the entire lies of p ost in fact . its fucking fantastic .

NOTES .

in april 2022 , i drew a fanmade book cover for the danganronpa x reader fic Sleep Awake . in december of 2023 i redesigned my reader for that story for the third time and thought it appropriate to redraw that old cover with their new design . and yesterday , january 13th 2024 , i finished that bitch . View the fruits of my labour .

in my last Notes section i talked about nerfing the lighting . well um . i nerfed it again . i dont know if it was fate or if i just . idk . didnt want to but i axed both original concepts - the yellow overhead light ( mostly) , and the light blue under light - and just Winged the fuck outta it . that ' mostly ' means that the light source is Still overhead but i just took the colour out to make it more neutral .

another thing i brought up were the shelves and how i wanted to add more items to them . I did it this time , but not to the extent that i really wanted to . i'd hoped for more Clutter and ultimately couldnt think of anymore than a few items . SAID ITEMS BEING !!!!

the pills . self explanatory , since they haunted the majority of cases 2 and 3 .

chess pieces . cute little reference to the chess scene ! even if the scene itself didnt feature real chess pieces , the imagery wouldnt work if i didnt use real pieces .

the letter opener . dont need to explain this one . but i Did originally plan to have it in shin's hand ( explaining why that one is balled like that , because there was originally a Thing in there ) but i couldnt figure out how to draw it and make it look Good . i only added it back when i was colouring the trinkets on the shelves and realised that i Forgot to put it back into the drawing .

the joker card in the bottom corner . also shouldnt have to explain this one .

LITTLE DETAILS I THINK YOU SHOULD LOOK AT .

THE HANDS !!!!!!!!! i decided at the very last second to make them vaguely see through . and theyre all a persons ! amami and shinguji are the obvious ones , but the two holding at the top are supposed to be ouma ( on the scarf ) and akamatsu ( on the rope ) . i would have included tojo's as well but i couldnt fit it in the composition without it looking awkward and out of place and i thought there were already enough references to case 3 as is .

and you literally cant even see it but if you look REALLY closely at oumas hand . his skin is a little grey and you can see the veins through the skin . wonder what happened there . Guess we'll never know !

THE BOOKS !! did the same thing as last time with a Little More . purple books are ouma , green are both amami and tojo , blue is both kiibo and chabashira , pink is akamatsu , and red is phys themselves . i know phys's canonical colour association is olive green but consider : shin is red . look at him . hes Red . that ones for me specifically .

with that . i did all of those books by hand . i drew about 9 variations of books and copy pasted them sure but i Shaded and Coloured them all individually . youll never guess how fucking LONG that took . so yeah . no one book has the exact same shading . goodie !

THE JOKER !!! yes i know i talked about it in the previous section but i WILL talk about the card itself . because i unironically am so in love with how that drawing came out . the little guy featured there is my Lies of P oc scaramouche or scaramuccia ( i use them interchangeably ) . hes a silly jester :3 . the depiction on the card is of him in his prime , before . All Of That Happened . story-wise he's a super famous circus performer known as " The One Man Show " because all of his acts are done alone and are absolutely insane . hes very good at what he does which is Why he doesnt have a crew . and the only reason hes so good is because he't not even human , just pretending to be !

additionally , i originally planned for that joker card to be a Real Life Joker . because a little known fun fact about me is that i collect playing card decks ! but i looked and literally NONE of the ones i currently own would have fit the piece . so . yeah . i just ended up drawing darling scaramuccia . heres the full image im so chuffed

i think thats all i got for the drawing itself . i initially started this back in early december but got stuck and picked it back up a couple days ago , so its been marinating for a bit . hope we all like it ! i think its Better than the original . THE SERIOUS STUFF .

its so fucking insane to think that its been almost 2 years . not only have i truly rediscovered my love of reader insert fanfiction after so many years unable to even think about it without feeling a little sick to my stomach , but ive made so many good friends and core memories through this fic . i even got back into writing . literally never thought id write again after my 11th grade english class and my 10th grade creative writing class . and im having FUN with it . wild .

anyways , this one goes out to vee @chihirolovebot for writing one of The Fics of all time , putting up with my insane ramblings about idol these past months ( READ SWINGING RIGHT NEOWWWW ) , and for letting me help design their dnd characters . godspeed .

it goes out to nex @nexuswrites for beating better genshin character builds into me , giving great fic recommendations , creating thief of detectives quandary fame . READ DQ ( THREAT ) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! , and being a fellow p5 and pokemon lover . i miss the coordinator and justice

and of COURSE !!!! rei @berry-creates . the gay the myth the legend . a fellow oc haver and lover , a fantastic writer , and an overall lovely person . this one goes out to u for sharing oc playlists , playing splatoon with me , and for creating maddie . theyre a little freak and i want to study them . i love seeing u go insane over them its like enrichment for me bc i too am also a little mentally ill about them im just really good at hiding it .

theres a whole lot more i could say and more people i could talk about but this is long enough , isnt it ?

thanks for a beautiful 2 years of physouma yaoi . heres to the upcoming sleep awake case 6 , epilogue , all the future additions to the one shot book , the entire rest of dq , tfp , and sams , and more blorbos to put in the smoothie maker . this took a whole two hours to write .

cheers , boys .

song of the post .

[jade-kyo]

Season 17 post restoration thoughts

Casually skipping 16 and going straight to 17 because lord knows I can’t afford to lose anymore braincells. I genuinely enjoy this season so I’m looking forward to the rewatch!

Ngl jumping straight from 15 to 17 really highlights how absurd this is like bro why is there gods and shit omg 😂

The fates are racist- that explains a lot

Donut my sweet baby boy

You know as much as I hate time travel stories this works way better for a “lets reference and call back to as many previous arcs and seasons as possible” nostalgia trip than Restoration did

Okay while I personally prefer the take that Donut is fully aware of all the innuendos he makes and is doing it to be a little shit I do think it being unintentional is really funny considering the ace Donut thing

“You have me all wrong” “I doubt it.” Donut the master at not getting gaslit

Donut knows Wash’s name is David- meaning Wash must have told all the reds and blues his real name

JESUS CHRIST DONT KILL JUNIOR

Felix is afraid of knives

Man I love it when Dr. Grey sounds like herself

We love insurance fraud

DONUT WASH TEAM UP MY BELOVED

Wash just silently shooting Donut again has me wheezing holy shit

The Wash and Carolina conflict is so freaking good man I love them

Man this season is just genuinely entertaining to watch despite everything- the way I wish we could’ve gotten this character writing with a better story

Oh what’s that a way to reference back to all the freelancers that includes Wyoming and the triplets. The concepts are wild again.

Also it’s just genuinely hilarious

WASH SCREAMING INSIDE HIS HELMET

DELTA OMG I FORGOT HE WAS IN THIS SEASON

I need to find the ost for when Wash and Carolina reunite and she’s saying how she trusts him and doesn’t know why bro this music is so pretty

Seriously I’m enjoying this as a nostalgia trip so much more than restoration

Oh I can feel my inner 15 year old desperately trying to take control of my body and send me down the carwash pipeline again holy shit- platonic or romantic. They’re good either way 🙂

OH GOD THE CABOOSE FEELS AGAIN THIS SHOULD BE ILLEGAL

Kai I love you with all my heart and soul but you do not disrespect Junior like that

STOP BEING MEAN TO DONUT HE IS DOING HIS BEST

Yes Caboose IS a genius and also my son

Kai messing with Tucker is glorious holy shit is that bit funny I love them

“Time is made of circles” what a nice, funny and succinct callback. Look at those concepts being wild.

Not Tucker dropping the “your mom” bit on Doc AGSKHAKS

HELL YEAH DONUT YOU FUCKING TELL THEM THATS MY BABY BOI!!!

PINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wash might be a competitor with Church for number one Donut Stan

Or simulation headcanon: Church is projecting his liking of Donut onto Wash

Okay but Donut should be in the caves not under the pelican FR PEOPLE STOP FORGETTING ABOUT THE CAVES!!!

Laughs in Spanish

I love competent Caboose and Donut

“My testicles send their regards” has no right being as badass as it is

Love a good Tucker moment- sure wish it wasn’t just redoing his character development that never should’ve been undone to begin with

OKAY BUT TUCKER AND DONUT MOMENT THO???? So good- can’t believe Donut is the “angsty bitch”

WASH AND CAROLINA AKDHAKBSKSHSKDHK

Love them talking about the AI like they’re Carolina’s siblings

Holy shit the voice acting between these two is so good

“If he’s single there’s no hope for any of us” sargington nation rise

Sarcastic Donut my beloved

I said this last time but seeing Church impaled by a golf club, even if it is actually Genkins, is entirely unnecessary bro I don’t wanna see that

THE LABYRINTH!!!

GOD CAROLINA VS CAROLINA AGAJSHKAH FROTHING AT THE MOUTH

Sarges vision is further proof that the correct ending for him is retirement

OKAY I STILL HATE THE LOPEZ VISION LISTEN I GET HE COMES BACK BUT ITS JUST IN POOR TASTE

“Don’t say toodles” LOVE sassy Donut so much

DOC BADASS MOMENT LETS GO

GRIF SIBLINGS MY BELOVED

Grif enlisted reveal you will always be famous to me

I never actually thought about it too deeply before but now that I am holy shit do I love that detail it’s so good and actually reminds me of my own brother who enlisted for similar reasons and regrets it now- seriously Grif enlisting is so realistic, a lot of kids sadly think the military is the only thing that can give them structure and purpose. It’s a great addition to the anti military themes of RvB

And yet- despite all these good red team moments- THEY FUCKING TURNED SIMMONS INTO A PENIS JOKE???? AND A BAD ONE AT THAT?????? COME ON S17 I THOUGHT YOU WERE BETTER THAN THIS THATS SOME S16 NONSENSE

TUCKER CANONICALLY HAS PANIC ATTACKS- the fact they kept his visions so vague is truly a CRIME

“Still got my penis” “what-“ GOD DAMN IT THAT ONE WAS ACTUALLY FUNNY COME ON I WAS TRYING TO MAKE A POINT EARLIER

AND WE DONT EVEN KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO CABOOSE- honestly I know they probably didn’t have this arc planned back then but they should’ve used the labyrinth for Caboose to find closure in Church’s death rather than the Time Machine nonsense in s15. I feel like that would’ve been infinitely more interesting.

Carolina vs Carolina MY BELOVED HOLY SHIT I AM FROTHING AT THE MOUTH

OH FUCK THE FREELANCER TRAINING ROOM IM AKDHKAHSKSH THIS SHIT IS SO GOOD

GIGGLING KICKING MY FEET WE LOVE THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP

Caboose gets it!!

GOD THE SLOW PIANO COVER OF BLOOD GULCH BLUES I CANT

AAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHH

Man what nice fairly satisfying conclusions to everyone’s arc- don’t we love wild concepts.

Sure maybe it’s not anything super poetic or perfect like 13 but at least it makes sense

Hell I’ve even warmed up to Donut leaving! Bro deserves some him time and it’s not like he said it was permanent or anything… doesn’t that just really hit you in the wild concept 🙂

You know what- this season is genuinely such a delight at times. Im thinking about adding it to my regular rewatch list along with 1-13 as just like a little bonus I can have at the end cause it’s just such fun. Glorified fanfiction! We love to see it- maybe Restoration sucking was a blessing in disguise cause it really gave me a new appreciation for 15 and 17 (but 17 especially). I probably won’t rewatch 15 as much cause being honest I don’t really enjoy it in its entirety as much as 17 but it’s got good moments I love.

Now- I know the logical thing for me to do is go back and watch 16 and then Restoration but here’s the thing… I don’t want to.

I genuinely do not enjoy those seasons. I don’t want to put myself through something that’s just gonna make me angry and bitter just for the sake of giving commentary on them- not right now anyway. Maybe one day I’ll feel like being a bit salty and do it but that’s just really not how I want to spend my time with my favorite show. I’ve already rewatched any clips from restoration that I cared to rewatch and I don’t think any of my feelings on it are gonna change. And I’ve seen 16 enough times to know my feelings won’t change.

Now what I am considering doing is rewatching 1-13 for the 20th time (<- accurate number, I’ve kept count over the years) and continuing to do these thought posts cause they’re good fun to do! So who knows whenever the time comes you’ll probably have to deal with more of my insane ramblings 😂