The Music of Death Note: Equestria and other stories · 1:45am Apr 10th, 2014
Hey all!
Sorry it's been so long since the last update. University calls, and it's fairly relentless around this time of year. So, for the sake of at least having something to contribute, I threw together this thing. I listen to a lot of music when I write, and occasionally it bleeds in. But what music, and why? For those looking for an official soundtrack to get their read on to, or those who want to know what goes on in my head in general, I've prepared this list of what I consider the main themes of my most musically-influenced stories. I also go off on some asides about characters and my writing process, so feel free to skip over those. Have at you!
Death Note: Equestria
So, obviously the Death Note soundtrack. Like, all of it. That’s a no-brainer. Here's a few things that didn't immediately spring to mind.
First on the list and I can’t even take credit for this one. Great job, me. This was the music used by Anon3mous, one of my first fans, in the PMV he made for the opening all that time ago. It’s something I never would have thought of, and it got me hooked; it’s amazing how perfectly the lyrics and tune match the story, and it’s only gotten more appropriate as Twilight’s character has evolved. When I sit down for a DN:E writing session, especially if it’s going to be a Twilight-heavy chapter, the first thing I do is load up You Know My Name.
Flashing my nerd card on this one. I know it's a bit silly, which is something that I apparently worry about, but I just love love love this theme. Always have, always will. The dark tone, the fast base, the adventurous melody that flows through it; I would probably have some quite clever things to say here if I knew anything about music. When I listen to this, my own version of the opening titles flash behind my eyes, and it's helpful for getting into Twilight's mindset. The world crumbling, her friends turned to enemies, an insurmountable obstacle barreling down towards her... but she stands strong and proud all the way, because she knows that she's the only one who has the power to make it stop. It's time to duel, motherbucker.
The majority of the time I prefer subs to dubs, so the fact that this is L's English voice actor singing is lost on me. Even so, it's a powerful and moving piece, quiet, slow, self-reflective, building up to a desperate and agonized plea. It's about wishing for goodness in the world even as the worst happens, and that's DN:E in a nutshell, really.
I'mma just take a moment, if that's okay, (and, honestly, even if it's not) to talk about character design.
Locket and Colgate are the two original characters who take up the most space in DN:E. Sure, their designs aren't unique, but I can't back their personalities up with canon; they're pretty clearly OCs wearing the skins of existing placeholders, and they're the only main characters who aren't based on pre-existing ones. I find it useful to compare these two because they came from very different places, and both taught me a lot about how to create a character.
Colgate was not supposed to survive. I made her to be the Ukita of the group, the character to be sacrificed at the start of season 2 when the Second Kira showed up. There's barely anything written about her in my initial notes; next to her name is "Ukita. A young, quiet pony. Killed by Fluttershy." That's it. That's the sum total of the work I did before I started writing her, and, as you can tell, that's not an accurate description of Colgate at all. See, the issue I took with Ukita's death in the anime was that we didn't know a lot about Ukita at that point, so his death didn't have the impact that it could have. Specifically because I knew she was doomed, I wanted people to like Colgate. (I'm kind of cruel like that.) So on the fly, I devised a new personality for her, and simply, organically, she grew into one of my favorite characters of mine. She's clever, friendly, and eager to please, but also stubborn to a fault and with a wicked temper if you ever cross any of her lines. Just like that, she became the heart of the team, and after some major convincing from an editor, I finally realized that she was too good to kill. There was no other character who was strong enough to serve as a proper foil to L, and no one who could really take her place. Now that Season 2 is done, I can't imagine how I could have finished it without her. The lesson I learned is that sometimes you've just got to go with the flow. Once a story's worked out, if you just let it go where it goes you'll end up not with the characters you wanted, but with the characters you need.
In sharp contrast, Locket was a complex character from the beginning. She's someone who's internalized the concept of being a "background pony" so strongly that she only thinks of herself in relation to others, and is used to being ignored. She's insecure and deeply neurotic, addicted to erotica and memories of her long-distance boyfriend, and really, really angry about how much she hates her life. My assumption at first was that if I was able to springboard Colgate out of nothing, then starting with a developed character to begin with would allow me to reach even higher once I started writing her. But pretty quickly I ran into the painfully obvious snag: I may know all about her life going in, but the reader doesn't. Instead of building, I ended up working backwards, going over things that I already knew just so that I could bring everyone else up to speed. It was also a bad idea to try this with a character whose personality causes her to spend most of her time in the background. To this I attribute my numerous false starts with her, as well as her seeming inconsistencies at points. From this I learned that a character needs to be built on the way they act, rather than specific aspects of their life, in order for the reader to efficiently learn about and relate to them.
But that's my experience. As the writer, I can't fully tell how effective certain things are. How have these two appeared to you? Which approach do you find works better for characters - fully planned out ahead of time, or allowed to grow entirely from nothing?
Oh, right, the music. To me, this song helps me feel Locket's loneliness, and her struggles as she finally forces herself to learn how to open up to others. That's about it.
Hah, speaking of OCs. This guy came out of even less than Colgate did; I threw him in off the top of my head when I needed to fill a twenty-second gap in the first chapter. I was pleasantly surprised to see he made a return in part 2. (Similar story with Ace; I arbitrarily added him, unnamed, to the crowd in part 3, then sat back and said to myself "Man, that guy's an asshole." That was when I knew that I'd be seeing him again later.) I deliberately made him the captain of the city guard, not the royal guard, since I knew that a canon royal guard captain would be in the works eventually, but I didn't predict that Bulk Biceps would show up to take so strongly after him in season 3. They're probably distant relatives. He's also not helping the accusation that I'm incapable of writing male characters who aren't jerks. Anyway, this theme doesn't have a whole lot to it for me; it just reminds of of force, combat, a single-minded battle against the faces of evil. Sometimes, that's all you need.
I always knew there was something up with Bon Bon. Although it's not explicitly brought up, a quick skim of the subtext shows that she's one of the more tragic characters of the story, and there's some stiff competition on that front. She's known for years that being with her love is slowly killing them both, but they've grown so close that one can't survive without the other. I love Birdy; my philosophy with music is that a truly great song is one that can be boiled down to the smallest possible number of instruments and still sound amazing. This particular one, a cover about a love that isn't working out, reminds me of Bon Bon's struggle, constantly picking up after L and trying her hardest to make her smile, all the while knowing that it's her fault that she can never truly be free.
That's about it for DN:E. I have more, but the rest are kind of general, with no specific thoughts attached. As a side note, I've also written three songs for DN:E so far, with a fourth on the way (sung by Ace!) because it's not a real MLP story without a musical episode. For the record, the "official" titles of those are The Ninja Song, Darkest, Locket's Lullaby, and the upcoming The Power of Neutrality. What do those sound like, you might be (but aren't) wondering? Sadly, I don't know. I know nothing about music, and while I can generally come up with a consistent tune while writing it, I would have no way of explaining how the music actually goes. A proper artist could probably come up with something better, anyway. I'd love to hear a vocal interpretation of one of my songs someday, but I feel like that's a bit of a pipe dream at this point.
Actually, one more: For making it this far, have this little ditty for someone from the future.
Our Equestria
Breaking the above rule for this one, since I'd say it's a fair guess that Bokurano's soundtrack isn't as well known. Which is a shame, because this opening song is what got me into the show in the first place. Even though the premise is about battling in absurdly huge robots, only a few of the songs in this series sound anything like combat. Instead it's mostly subdued, soothing. This opening captures the theme of the show perfectly; the song isn't promising awesome battles or world-shattering drama, but just the feeling of being small and helpless in the face of something too vast to be comprehended. It's sad, yet hopeful, and more than anything that's what I wanted to capture in my pony-based interpretation.
Same deal here. This is the show's second credits theme, which to me at least sounds like a kind of dark lullaby. Things are bad right now, but the world is going to get better. I promise.
Now we're into the fight stuff. Yeah, I'm not doing away with battle themes altogether. I'm still learning how to structure fight scenes, so doing the battles has been difficult. The biggest challenge so far was definitely Dream, which I think has the largest amount of fighting compared to talking. I tried a few things, but this was the theme that helped me get all the way through it; I just stuck it on repeat and let the clash flow through me. Awesome music.
This one's for a work in progress, but I couldn't resist throwing it in. One thing I'm noticing is that it's hard to find themes for really big characters. Most battle music is fast-paced, more suited for human-sized and human-speed combatants, but it's hard to find something that suits just how terrifyingly huge a monster is without losing some of its edge. You know, slow, ponderous, oh-now-you're-screwed themes. Anyone got any suggestions? Anyway, Enemy is an upcoming robot with an entirely new, slightly bizarre design that I'm looking forward to working with. To me, this music works in both its gigantic and alien terror, and the unpredictability of its fighting style.
No hints here. This is one that I'm saving for a special occasion.
Somepony who loves you
N/A
Well, that's not strictly true. There are things that I listen to when writing SWLY. But silence is an important part of what makes that story effective, and I'd kind of like to keep it that way. This was the year that I finally read The Road, and I can see why my style's been compared to it; there's an oppressive element that lies throughout. In the book, it's the cold; in the film, it's the greyness. In SWLY, it's the silence. If you have any themes that you think go well with it, by all means, go ahead; suggest them if you like. I just thing I'll refrain from adding any sound to this particular one.
Mirror Fidelity
Now this was a story I never expected to write. I don't make it a secret that I write sex scenes when I'm in a bad mood - they're really great practice for description - but I didn't think I would end up publishing one. The reason I ended up doing it is because this particular story isn't about sex at all; it's about Twilight. (Technically it doesn't qualify as clop, since the story contains exactly zero ponies, even human-transformed ones.) I've always wondered about the idea of a series based around the Twilight we saw in the first episode of MLP, the one who didn't care about friends and was only interested in studying. Heck, my proposed DN:E reboot revolves around that very premise. I chose this music to listen to while writing because it reminds me of human!Twilight, tragic, angry, and just trying to find some happiness.
And that's a wrap! Thank you for being patient with me, and for not sending me hate mails for not writing very often. (Which is a shame, because they're usually pretty effective. "So you think I'm a slow writer, do you? Well, we'll see about that!" *typing frenzy*) As you may have guessed from all of the above, I also tend to overthink things. That's not always a bad thing; by my estimation I could have finished DN:E by now, but it would just be Death Note with names swapped out. All the good stuff came from excessive planning. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.
And hey, speaking of sticking to things, as a reward for sticking with me for so long, how'd you like an excerpt from the next chapter?
“Forever. Gotcha.” He held out the apple a little further, only for the squirrel to wrinkle its nose and dart away across the floor. “Aw, don’t be like that! Little fella?” The god charged after, sending more critters scurrying across the floor and walls. Puzzled, he straightened up. More animals were glaring in his direction; not only at the apples he held, which to them would have appeared to be floating unsupported, but at his entire body. “What’s gotten into them?” he asked, drifting experimentally across the cottage. “They can’t see me, right?”
“Um... I have an idea.” The answer, which had been lingering on the edge of Fluttershy’s senses for a while now, was slowly starting to fill the room. “Um... Byuk...” She turned towards him, blushing and looking down. “When you... that is... after you eat an apple... where does it... go?”
He looked at her blankly. “Go?”
“I mean, um... do you... poop?”
“Do I... Oh! No, I don’t do that.” He shook his head. “Shinigami organs are super evolved... or is it devolved? I forget how it works. Even though we can eat things, we don’t need to. The Death Note does everything to keep me alive. Most of my internal organs don’t really do anything.”
“I see.” Fluttershy gulped. “So whenever you eat an apple, it just...”
“I guess it just stays... inside... me...” He paused. Byuk looked down at his belly. He tapped one talon against it and felt something slosh. Just like that, everything clicked. “You mean...”
“I’m afraid so,” Fluttershy confirmed, covering her nose. A few animals did the same. There was no denying it; Byuk stank of rotting and fermented apples.
“So that smell is me?” Experimentally, Byuk phased out of the material plane. The apples he held tumbled to the floor, but those inside of him did not. The decayed remains were now a part of his body. “I was wondering why everything smelled so delicious lately,” he commented.
“That’s... nice.” Now that she’d identified it, the smell seemed to cling to everything. Fluttershy coughed, her appetite gone. “Is there any way to get them out?” she asked.
“I... don’t know.” Byuk shrugged. “I guess they’ll rot into nothing eventually. Everything does.”
Death Note: Equestria 34
*Laughter*
*FORESHADOWING INTENSIFIES*
Here are what I think the character parallels are:
Light - Twilight
Soichiro - Spike
Matsuda - Rainbow Dash
Aizawa - Colgate
Mogi - Locket
Ide - Derpy
Ukita - None
Misa - Fluttershy
L - Lyra
Watari - Bon Bon
Near - Snails
Mello - Snips
Whenever I read DNE with a soundtrack, I often found that the original Death Note anime soundtrack worked perfectly fine for it. Particularly fun were the moments where something that parallels the original came up, and I could play the same music. Like whenever L had a speech or monologue, and I'd play one of L's various themes. It really made it feel like authentic Death Note.
Ew.
1996983 It reminds me of what once happened to me. I too listen to Deathnote soundtrack while reading, but don't choose pieces, just let the playlist in the background.
Last chapter I did so too and just as I got to the part where Twilight has a Kira moment and collapses in laughter when this played It was awesome.
Nine: if you're looking for giant battle music, try Mass Effect soundtrack