#villain music

[xxscrabiesxx]

- I tried to group the music genres in a way that made sense stylistically, but I admit I'm not The Music Expert of All Time. Just choose which seems about right.

- I almost made options for just 90s/00s but then I realized those still fall under specific genres despite the time period. Again, just choose what fits best for you.

- Tag which song specifically, if you have one!

[adhdnursegoat]

Riddler headcanon: he loves Arctic Monkeys - especially the AM album.

"Kneesocks"

"R U Mine?"

"Arabella"

"I want It All"

[winwin17]

Alright, guys! Fintan theme music!

I feel like this captures his villain arc as well as just being a Fintan vibe. First subtle and unsure, compliant but hidden. Then the rising anger, the escalating power, the rebellion, the breaking out, the pain of hurting others, the revenge, the rage! And then succumbing to prison and uselessness, the silent seething in bitterness but no regrets, the quiet front of compliance while plotting to break free. And then a massive, chaotic, destructive end. (Like maybe a prison break? Where he takes down his enemies but also himself?)

Plus, isn't Everblaze drawn from the stars? Which makes it all the more appropriate and chilling that this is a version of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

[youwantedavillain]

Mood at the Moment:

Someone fucking shoot me, I'm almost done with gathering all of my fucking evidence, and yet every time I get onto that shitty ass program -- Discord -- and look at all the shitty memories that I once thought were all fantastic and fun, only to realize that they are no better than the bile that a drunkard chucked up outside the local back ally bar... it's painful and stomach-wrenching. Truly, I just want to shoot myself after I shoot my laptop with an AK-47.

I honestly wish I could separate those memories from the good ones that I had with my actual friends and now-boyfriend.

The memes that I had with them in League of Legends, doing Phat Damage Sona and Zooming Jhin memes. Making art and just writing the dumbest fanfics that make no sense and being so Goth that I LITERALLY QUOTE the goth band Evanescence.... But I can't.

The shit smeared onto my name is legitimately irreversible. I do not know how many people saw that gossip. I don't know how far that gossip was spread. The amount of math that could be done and how quickly a grapevine can grow is... maddening. So, I have to go this route.

I have no other choice because having to see that there were no lessons learned by these fuckers. No redemption for them. No genuine, heartfelt apologies from them. And no closure for myself. The fact that this shit has been repeated and done so much that there are others who suffered a similar fate- if not worse -- to myself, and one saved soul... Well... I guess I have to keep going.

And I'm gonna do it with all the grace of a wrecking ball - and I'm gonna ride it bare ass fucking naked like the villainous bitch they wanted and inevitably turned me into.

[moleculaa]

I created this beauty

[niamhthefae]

descovered a new music lady recently and i love her sm

her name is Lilli VanDaam and her music has villan vibes in the best way. My favorite song so far is moral compass (because it reminds me of my pirate OC) but she has a tiktok and i’m also obsessed with the music on there. Aaahhh i love her and i think everyone should check her out.

[wispedvellichor]

doctor who is so hilarious cuz its like yes we are a sci-fi show exploring dark themes of morality and obsession and the implications of present-day capitalism and yes our lead artists are Spice Girls and Britney Spears hope this helps <3

[seafoamandtragedy]

Why does posting for a new fandom feel like walking into a bar and having everyone just stare at you. Like I'm sorry I'm new here pls don't hurt me

[solacestea]

[theacademiccottage]

“An artist obsessed with perfection is bound to dim the light of his art.”

Michael Bassey Johnson

[benevolenterrancy]

May your hardened heart be woken By the soft and distant song Of all you left here unspoken All the shards we keep stepping on - Take this body home Take this body home Call the wind, and let her know Take this life outgrown Take this broken soul Call the stars, call them all And take it high, take it far, take it home

[moodyvoid]

The League of Villains picking a getaway car.

Giran: “I’ve got two options for you. First is a slightly smaller car, not enough seats for all of you, so someone’s going to have to sit on someone’s lap— the engine also stalls sometimes.”

Tomura: “… and the other one?”

Giran: “It’s a nice car. It’s big enough to seat all of you, drives fast, has heated seats— there’s just one thing though…”

Tomura: “What?”

Giran: “The radio is stuck on the country music station.”

Tomura: “…”

The league all sitting in the smaller, shittier car. Twice is sitting on Dabi’s lap.

Dabi: “Why the hell didn’t we take the bigger car?”

Tomura: “I’ve been through a lot of shit in my life. Abuse, neglect, loss, manipulation, pain, trauma, death… but there is no way in hell I will ever subject myself to country music.”

The rest of the league: “Understandable.”

[artistrybyarielle]

It’s all fun and games until the film producer who murdered you in a past life shows up at your awards party and ruins your giant group dance number

[kj-beastboy]

"Kinky"

[woman-respecter]

people in real life: hey man, how’s it going?

[rin-solo]

Let's talk about "Monster" ... and one of Odysseus' criminally underrated traits: his lack of judgment.

I was re-listening to "Monster" the other day and it kind of just hit me... Overall, that song isn't my favorite (it's somewhere in B tier; the lyricism is great, and the part after "So if we must sail through dangerous oceans..." absolutely slaps, it's just not one that I go back to frequently.) But there are some things I genuinely adore about it because I adore the way it progresses Odysseus' character arc as clearly not a "corruption" and how this is conveyed through the way the song is set up and presented.

First of all, I simply have to yap about how Odysseus isn't justifying his foes' actions the way that I have seen some people falsely assume. He's describing what they did or do and essentially saying, "They aren't letting themselves be stopped by guilt from doing what they think they have to do, so why should I?"

Polyphemus doesn't overthink whether it's right or wrong to kill some people because they harmed him or his sheep.

Circe may deep down feel guilt but isn't letting that stop her from turning men into pigs to prevent any more harm from befalling her nymphs at their hands.

Poseidon isn't losing sleep over drowning a fleet because that is what gods do to retain their infamy and status.

Odysseus and the rest of his soldiers didn't use the Trojan horse tactic out of malice or bloodlust, but out of pragmatism. It was the most efficient way to win a war that would have only cost more lives on both sides if they hadn't ended it then and there.

You look at that and you may think, "That's all very fair, but that doesn't mean any of those actions are justified" ... and you'd be right. None of the actions above are actually right or justified.

But the thing about "Monster" that I love so much is that it's specifically NOT something like, "These people I've encountered are all evil and ruthless and they are right and justified in being that way; I'll be the same." It's actually, "These people I've encountered act with ruthlessness; it clearly aids them in achieving their goal, and they seem to have figured out how to not feel guilt over their actions. I want to reap those benefits too. So far, I've been acting with mercy, which seems to have disadvantaged me. If they can do it, I can and should do the same to level the playing field."

Odysseus isn't saying that their actions are right, wrong, or justified. He's simply exploring why these people act the way they do. And he does so entirely without judgment.

I'm not surprised about him not judging Circe; while she was still wrong since she went overboard and struck preemptively against people who were not guaranteed to ever cause harm, she was pretty much redeemed in the end and her point is the easiest out of these to understand.

But the rest? Polyphemus killed his best friend. Poseidon drowned his whole fleet. The Trojan horse? It never comes up anywhere else but since he mentions it here, I think it's safe to assume that Odysseus feels guilty for using a tactic such as this. And still... Odysseus talks about his foes' actions with understanding and an open mind. He acknowledges their points of view—all of them, even if none besides Circe ever acknowledged or understood his.

The only time we genuinely see Odysseus act out of resentment is when he tells Polyphemus his name... After that, he never shows anything of the sort ever again. If he ever held any resentment toward any of his foes, I feel like this is where he lets it go for good.

Hell, even Poseidon, whom he would have by far the most reasons to resent, Odysseus doesn't actually judge or resent. I wrote a whole mini-essay on why the Vengeance saga proves that Odysseus doesn't actually seek or want vengeance on Poseidon. One might argue that he sounded like he was avenging his crew in "Six Hundred Strike" but it's important to remember that he offered Poseidon forgiveness one song earlier. He didn't lead with vengeance or resentment, but he rekindled his anger when Poseidon rejected his mercy.

My point is that Odysseus doesn't judge or resent any of the people who attempt to stand between him and his home... which shows incredible character strength in and of itself. This occurs later, but he acts similarly toward Calypso in "Not Sorry for Loving You" as well.

This is such an underrated trait of his, especially considering it fits perfectly with EPIC's themes, which revolve around seeing every perspective and balancing between ruthlessness and mercy. Honestly, I don't think those themes would even work with a protagonist who isn't so open-minded.

Coming back to "Monster," as we've established, Odysseus doesn't pass judgment on his foes. Similarly, he isn't saying that his decision to embrace ruthlessness and "become" a Monster (read more to find out why I put that in quotation marks) or any of his future actions as this Monster are justified.

I genuinely despise it when people call his arc a "villain arc" or "corruption" because that's pretty much missing the entire point. He isn't actually becoming a monster, corrupting, or genuinely changing his personality—hence why I put those quotation marks earlier. He is deliberately choosing to embrace a certain ruthless way of acting, fully knowing that it is not actually right or justified. "So what if I'm the Monster?" is self-gaslighting. He knows it's not "so what?" But he's doing it anyway because he has seen this way of acting aiding his foes. He literally says, "I must become the Monster / And then we'll make it home." He is convinced that this is what he must become because he keeps being told this by everyone.

From the top, his values or person isn't actually being corrupted. He's not really internally changing. He's merely adapting a way of behaving because he thinks it's the only way he'll still get home, and only because of that. It's really f*cking sad actually. Especially because he is wrong; his not being ruthless is not actually the problem, as we find out later.

Genuinely, his monster act lasted exactly 3,5 songs; in the second half of "Mutiny" it's already all gone because he is so afraid for his crew and what they're about to do to themselves that he instinctively goes back to wanting to save them despite how they just led a mutiny, despite how they don't listen to him regarding the cows.

Odysseus' entire arc can be described as, "He tries out mercy, and it doesn't get him home. He tries out ruthlessness, and it doesn't get him home either. In order to get home, he needs to learn balance, in Hermes' words "Every trick in his domain"." And that is also, as I believe, the main theme of EPIC: Neither ruthlessness nor mercy by itself is the solution. Both have their place; one needs balance. Or: treat people as they ask to be treated.

Only by the time of the Vengeance saga does Odysseus seem to have finally figured this out, and that's where he genuinely starts succeeding.

So no, Odysseus is no longer "The Monster" by the time of the Vengeance saga, no matter how much the visuals in "Six Hundred Strike" try to convince us otherwise. But he isn't "Just a Man" either. Did anyone besides me notice how he stopped calling himself this or justifying his weak moments like that in "Monster" and how he doesn't go back to it even after dropping the monster act?

And here we have the perfect segway into an essay I haven't written yet that might answer the question, "If now he's not a man and not a monster, what is he then?"

Well, technically Odysseus told us himself that one time he acted out of resentment... "Neither man nor mythical." But that's an essay yet to be written... I'll get to it soon, and there we might answer what actually happened in "Six Hundred Strike" and why the line "If you dance with fate I know you'll enhance your state", that I see is mostly overlooked, matters so much more than we probably all think.

Until then, know that I am not actually the first one to address the "Neither man nor mythical" significance. Credit goes to @glisten-inthedark; coming across her post on this matter genuinely enhanced my understanding of what happened so much and I need all of you to read it because it's a truly brilliant conclusion. I'll write my own essay on this topic soon, I promise. But without that post, I would've probably not come to this realization for a long while.

Either way, we end this essay with words that I will never tire of repeating: Stop villainizing Odysseus, y'all. It's not cool, not only because it's undeserved but also because it pretty much shows that you have successfully missed the point and core theme of this musical.

... See you when we inspiration for another essay strikes me. In the meantime, have a brief introduction to what that essay will cover in meme form because I can.