If you want the EP version of this, consider the most relevant songs to be:
Virus and Down With Me - Thunderstone
Control - Poe
Light As Air - Deas Vail
Cover image | .zip of all songs
Vast amounts of explanatory text/song analysis stuff follows. Bear with it and be thankful I didn't make this even more elaborate. :D
The introduction to the story. There's a virus in the Tower, and everyone is afraid for their lives. Probably works best from Shurelia's point of view, given later lyrics.
All systems down, something's wrong
Unplugged and freezed to the bone
Feels like I'm locked out, helpless within
I can feel uncertainty's rising
We trust too much and we are too blue-eyed
We get careless and we will fail
And we will wake up when it's too late
Tower of power is crashing down
My life will be erased, no files will be found
2. Map of the Problematique - Muse
Mir being lonely and lost, basically.
Life
Will flash before my eyes
So scattered and lost
I want to touch the other side
And no one
Thinks they are to blame
Why can't we see
When we bleed we bleed the same?
Loneliness, be over
When will this loneliness be over?
3. Wanted - Vanessa Carlton
Mir trying to convince herself, and the world, that she is wanted.
I have wandered far and wide
for something real, something to die for
but I have found you and you do not see
all that is me all that is true and
I am more than you will see,
I am more than you will need,
I am more than you will see,
more than wanted
More than you'll love, more than you'll hate,
more than you'll hold, more than wanted
more than you'll crave, more than you'll cherish,
more than you'll have, more than wanted
4. Down With Me - Thunderstone
Mir loses faith in her hymn. Two songs by the same artist, yes, but they both fit so well. You can't tell me this doesn't sound like a song about EXEC_HARMONIOUS/.
Long time ago
Someone sang a song about living in a world
Where there are no wars, no hate
Just harmony and love
Long time ago
Someone told a story about a dream
Where people could live in peace
No matter who they are
For thousands of years
I have seen how man's been creating his own hell
Been wondering about the human race
And the ways they brought themselves down
I've never shed a tear
For the one that slowly killed himself
And never looked ahead
I will come when the time is right
Just to take another one
Down with me
There's no light
And no one will ever be free
I'll break every dream you've ever had
And make your life so, so sad
Make your life so sad
5. R-Evolve - 30 Seconds to Mars
Mir decides to do something about her pain. Destruction, death and chaos follow.
A revolution has begun today for me inside
The ultimate defense is to pretend
Revolve around yourself just like an ordinary man
The only other option to forget
Does it feel like we’ve never been alive?
Does it seem like it's only just begun?
To find yourself just look inside the wreckage of your past
To lose it all you have to do is lie
The policy is set and we are never turning back
It’s time for execution; time to execute
Time for execution; time to execute!
6. Tomorrow - SR71
When you're as powerful as Mir is, it's easy to be afraid of your own hatred even as you embrace it.
Is it any wonder why I'm scared
If I was a little younger would I care
Feeling like the walls are growing stronger
I don't know if this cage can hold me any longer
You never dreamed you'd have to live your life so guarded
'Cause they'll find a way to make you feel discarded
I'm not afraid of tomorrow
I'm only scared of myself
Feels like my insides are on fire
And I'm looking through the eyes of someone else
7. Sin - Nine Inch Nails
Pretty much speaks for itself.
You give me the reason
You give me control
I gave you my purity
My purity you stole
Did you think I wouldn't recognize this compromise
Am I just too stupid to realize
Stale incense, old sweat and lies lies lies
You give me the anger
You give me the nerve
Carry out my sentence
While I get what I deserve
I'm just an effigy to be disgraced
To be defaced
Your need for me has been replaced
And if I can't have everything, well then just give me a taste
8. Control - Poe
Basically the ur-Mir song. Everything in this is so very her, even (especially) the spoken words at the end. The actual lyrics of the song perfectly illustrate what led her up to this point, and the words at the end describe how she felt when she was young, when people told her she was powerful and special but at the same time took her power away from her and used her.
Don't you mess with a little girl's dream
'Cause she's liable to grow up mean
Surprised you to find that I'm laughing?
You thought that you'd find me in tears
You thought I'd be crawling the walls
Like a tiny mosquito and trembling in fear
Well, you may be king for the moment
But I am a queen, understand
And I've got your pawns and your bishops and castles
All inside the palm of my hand
While you were looking the other way
While you had your eyes closed
While you were licking your lips
'Cause I was miserable
While you were selling your soul
While you were tearing a hole in me
I was taking control
Now I have taken control
Now I have taken control...
[...]
"This cannot be all that there is to life, because in our confrontation
with an enormous and cold universe, there is something comical to the idea
that we can really enforce our will on humanity. Power... corrupts!
It's your world. Do with it what you want!
No. That's not the way to do it.
Power... That's not the way to do it.
Paradox.
No. It's your world.
No. It's your world.
No. It's your world.
No.
Control it! Control it!"
"This is scaring me..."
9. Still Alive - Portal (Bad Ending)
Mir being mocking and ironic, if you choose the bad ending. If you take it all as sarcasm on her part, it works.
I'm not even angry
I'm being so sincere right now
Even though you broke my heart and killed me
And tore me to pieces
And threw every piece into a fire
And as they burned it hurt because
I was so happy for you
Now these points of data make a beautiful line
And we're out of beta, we're releasing on time
So I'm glad I got burned, think of all the things we learned
For the people who are still alive
10. Light As Air - Deas Vail (Good Ending)
Mir from Lyner's perspective, as we offer her freedom and comfort in spite of everything.
Broken and blinded, there is a plan, so take my hand
You'll understand this in the end
You can't believe in everything you're told
Sometimes it's nobody that wins
But you fall down for your heart
And fight it out until the bitter end
The time is over for silent years of stored up fears
That are holding you down
A taken lover that you'll begin to find again
It's a hole inside your heart
You're coming around now
You want to get older
But don't forget how to stay alive...
And that's it.
20 comments:
Excellent song choices! They really do fit well with Mir. The lead singer for Thunderstone sounds like the lead for Judas Priest in the '80s...I forget his name. Anyhow some of these are going in my ipod.
Aw, thanks, Thunder! I felt a little strange about using so much dark and angry music, since like I said it's not my usual style; I really do not usually listen to Nine Inch Nails. XD But when I'm inspired by a character, I'll listen to whatever fits them.
You should make one of these for Aurica, no? :) I'd like to see what songs you associated with her.
You should post your Cosmosphere cover and Mir fancomic.
(I was just thinking I'd like to see a comic involving baby Ayatane saying his first letter of the alphabet...)
Oh, good point. I forgot about those. (I sort of want to retrace the fancomic if I can, because it's really poor quality...)
...and that would be super-adorable. Actually, just the idea of baby Ayatane is super-adorable, period. I may just do it. :D
Well, I've been listening to mostly metal only really since I was 15, so the dark music doesn't bother me. I'm used to it. If I had a cosmosphere, it'd look just like Aurica's. Different reason, but same result. One of the biggest reasons I'm such a huge fan of Aurica is because she was able to do (with Lyner's help of course) what I myself have done. Put the after effects of past pain, behind her. Because of that among other things (like her personality being the same as mine), I connected very very strongly with her character.
Every time she lost her confidence or got hurt, it drug up old memories of mine and that hurt me, too. What Falss did made my blood boil.
Anyway, enough of that. The darkness does fit Mir so well up until she is freed, so no worries there. Guess we'll have to wait & see how happy she gets in AT2.
I can very much understand you connecting to her for those reasons. I do admit, I always like to hear about your connection with Aurica, just because it's always so nice when someone gets something really positive out of a story, when it helps them or touches them or becomes part of them in some way. I've had so many of those experiences myself, and I like to see others getting the same things out of stories.
So would you ever create an Aurica soundtrack? Like I said, I'd be so curious as to whether there are any songs you think are really "her".
If I have any say in the matter, she'll be as happy as she possibly can be. :)
(...Mir, that is. Though, you know, I want Aurica to be happy too. Darn it, I want everyone in AT to be happy, you know?)
Yeah, I want to see everybody be happy, too. Mir's got potential to be a real A-1 top notch character in the series. I mean her dream to restore the world is definitely good enough to focus an entire game around.
About an Aurica soundtrack. I whipped one up earlier today & posted it on my blog. While all of the songs I picked were chosen for a reason, there are some that really strike a chord.
Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Send Me an Angel
Bring Me to Life
Higher and Higher
Holy Water
And that's quite a fascinating idea when you think about it. I don't know how much of this gets into AT2, but... to have the third game be one where Mir has done a complete 180 from how she is at the beginning of the series and is actively, passionately fighting to transform the world into a better place, and to have the game focus (at least in part) on that... that would slay me. That would absolutely slay me, in a good way.
Because a big part of what makes me so attached to Mir is that she had such a beautiful dream for the world in the beginning and she's always held onto it. Even if in her darkest hour she buried it deep within her, it was always there; if it hadn't been, the hymn would have been lost on her. (Actually, no... I don't think she buried it. She held onto it. She just had a really twisted idea about how to accomplish it.) And in that regard, I suppose she's like me too; I have such a strong desire to want to help the world and people be everything they can be.
So a game that had Mir emerging as this overwhelming force for goodness who was out to transform the world into a real paradise? That would... be such a fitting conclusion to the series, in a way, because we've always been told that there are forces out there that want to do that, and it would bring the whole thing full circle, and it would push so many of my emotional buttons. (Also, it would follow through with the whole idea that there are forces out there that can make the world a paradise, that not everyone who says that is lying about it, and would fulfil the hope I had in AT1 that that would happen.) Do want!
...anyway, yes, I rambled hugely, but that just got me excited for the series so much. XD;
And sorry about the comment; I should have read your post on the forums before I asked again about the soundtrack, eheh! I did see it, and I commented over there. :)
About Mir's dream. I agree. She definitely held onto it the whole time, but her negative feelings caused the ideal to warp in her mind. From what little I know of her in AT2, she seems to have restored the good version of that dream.
It's definitely going to be interesting to see if the developers expand on Mir's wish. I was thinking that after the third tower is saved, then Mir could gather everyone from all three games up (playable of course) & they all could 'un-do' the Grathnode Inferia together. Perhaps tacking on one or two extra phases to AT3...or adding the whole thing onto the end as DLC.
DLC? (Downloadable content?)
I think it's fantastic that she's managed to restore her dream in AT2. (Though from what I see of her official art the designers seem to be leaning towards keeping her character pretty "dark" visually. I'm gunning for her being in something more regal by the end of AT3.) This makes me even more excited for the game than I was before, which... is not an easy thing to overestimate.
Randomly, do you update the AT2 countdown on your blog manually or is it a JavaScript? (And where do I get one that displays in atomic seconds? :D)
Yup. DLC = downloadable content
I can't say I'm surprised by her goth styled costumes, since she does still harbor negative feelings. I'm thinking it's Chroah's job to help her through it, so she can be happy again.
About the countdown. I update that manually. I was thinking of finding a JavaScript to do it, but changing it manually reminds me that I only have two weeks to finish the final AT transcript.
Not sure where to get one that goes down to the seconds place, but Lazy had one like that, so he should know.
BTW, as a question have you checked already Harmonious_Fusion?
Since you are as obsessed as myself with Misha's Harmonious, I think that you should check the one made by Mir herself...
I have checked that song out, yes! Actually I have a YouTube video of it with the lyrics (in Hymmnos) currently up in my tabs.
I think the voice that's used in it really suits Mir; it's surprisingly soft, very calm, and I like it. I like it a lot. Is her speaking voice in AT2 actually like that? (Because I know they don't use the same VAs for the songs and the spoken words.)
I've been listening to some of the songs you posted again today. That song "Virus" has such a catchy melody! It reminds me so much of Tales of the Abyss' opener theme. That song rocks! I love it!
Oops. I meant the first battle theme in ToTA...no the opener, duh, haha!
Hey, awesome! I'm glad you're enjoying!
I haven't played Tales of the Abyss, but now I want to hear the battle theme to compare...
Actually, re: HARMONIOUS_FUSION, I meant to ask that about the first voice that's used in the song, since... there are a lot of voices in there, eheh. XD
A bit late, but here's the ToTA battle theme:
http://rapidshare.com/files/145579260/105_The_arrow_was_shot.mp3.zip.html
Thanks a lot! And don't worry about belatedness. :)
Post a Comment