History Main / BootstrappedLeitmotif

* In the ''{{Ys}}'' series, "Theme of Adol" and its variations is implied to be the titular hero's leitmotif, although it never seems to be directly connected with him in-game.

** On a related note, VinceMcMahon's theme, "No Chance in Hell" originally began as the theme to the 1999 Royal Rumble.

* In the ''TouhouProject'', a character's {{Leitmotif}} usually ends up being the music from their boss fight, but this trope happens a few times. Hong Meiling, Alice Margatroid and Konpaku Youmu all get their stage themes as {{Leitmotif}}s (along with boss themes); Suika Ibuki gets her pre-battle theme (again, along with the boss theme).

* In the TouhouProject series, usually a character's leitmotif ends up being the music from when you fought them as a boss, but nevertheless this trope happens a few times. Alice Margatroid and Hong Meiling both ended up with their original stage music as their leitmotif; Suika Ibuki actually got the incidental music that played right before her fight as her leitmotif.

* Happens all the time in ''{{Homestuck}}''. This webomic has its own music team who typically compose themes based on their own thoughts of what it means, and it will often get used in the comic in a completely different context than they imagined. A specific example is [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A91UB3QkdE "Crystamanthequins"]], a song originally supposed to be music for Dave, was used in [[http://mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=004478 this flash]] and became associated with Vriska and Terezi instead; lately it has been showing up as a RecurringRiff in that context.

* The stage musics in ''StreetFighterII''. They ended up being the themes of the characters who uses it as their home stage.

A slightly more specific version of BootstrappedTheme. The latter refers to a repeated theme that was initially meant to represent a character, place, mood, or other specific part of the story but eventually came to stand for the series as a whole. A BootstrappedLeitmotif on the other hand, is where a repeated theme that is initially tied to something else within the narrative mutates into a specific character's {{Leitmotif}}.

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!!Examples:

[[AC:Anime and Manga]]
* ''DragonBallZ'' applies for the original and English versions:
** Original version: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7bkURxX15s&feature=related Majin Buu's theme]]. It's actually the Super Saiyan theme variation for the Majin Buu saga (both the Freezer and Cell sagas have each its own variation of the theme), but it appears so many times during the Majin Buu saga as a BattleThemeMusic that it ended up associated with him instead of with the good guys. It's difficult to find anyone who doesn't think of Majin Buu when hearing it.

** English dub: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVf8007iFUg Gohan's Super Saiyan theme]]. It's actually the Hyperbolic Time Chamber theme, as the first comment says, but everyone knows it either as "Gohan's Super Saiyan theme" or "Gohan's Super Saiyan 2 theme", because of the 5 seconds or so that can be heard when Gohan transforms to SSJ2 for the first time. It doesn't help the fact that Gohan doesn't have an official Super Saiyan theme.

[[AC:Film]]

[[AC:ProfessionalWrestling]]
* Linda [=McMahon's=] entrance theme began life as the theme for {{WrestleMania}}s X to XIV.

[[AC:Video Games]]
* The stage musics in ''StreetFighterII''. They ended up being the themes of the characters who uses it as their home stage.

[[AC:Western Animation]]

** Also, Cloud was never attributed a specific theme, so he appropriated the game's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFs8-qGaoHU Overworld theme]] and Main Theme as his own. It roughly follows his character growth throughout the game, variations of it are used during moments of powerful emotion for Cloud, and it coincidentally disappears from the Overworld at the same time Cloud leaves the party, to be replaced with the Meteor theme. It's no coincidence that it plays again in the Compilation over the credits of ''Crisis Core'', to indicate that [[{{Understatement}} Zack's torch has been passed to Cloud]].

* Franky in ''OnePiece'' got this with the third part of a soundtrack tune called "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Uffqea9MW4&p=4A06A99E863DF5A9 Serious Games]]." The only other previous use in the series had been for one of Usopp's [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Crowning Moments of Awesome]]. It is now heard regularly when Franky does anything and on his eyecatches.

* Funny that [[StarFox Fox McCloud]] never got ''his'' own theme, yet his rival Wolf has a personal theme. It is usually attributed to Fox that Area 6 in ''Star Fox 64'' is his theme, as it was used in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Star Fox Command.
** The original StarFox Corneria theme is also very popular, though it took SuperSmashBros 3 games to implement the theme into its soundtrack.

* The composers of the ''{{Halo}}'' soundtracks said that they didn't intend to apply leitmotifs, but many music pieces can be bootstrapped to characters or locations, eg "Enough Dead Heroes" = Cortana, "Shadows" and "Devils...Monsters" = the Flood, "The Last Spartan" = Master Chief, "Weight of Failure" = the Arbiter, "Destroyer's Invocation" = Tartarus, "High Charity" = the Prophets, "Penance" = Delta Halo, "Earth City" = the Scarab, "Under Cover of Night" = Sgt. Johnson, "In Amber Clad" = Cmdr. Keyes, "Farthest Outpost" = the Ark.

* [[TheSimpsons Sideshow Bob]]'s theme. His theme [[strike: is essentially TheJimmyHartVersion of]] ''is'' the title music for ''CapeFear'', since the episode it was first used in was a parody of ''CapeFear''. It wasn't meant to represent Bob, but since he was the bad guy, it naturally played only when he was onscreen. The producers ran with it and now it's quite explicitly his theme, always playing when he first appears in an episode (just in time for Bart and Lisa to shout in unison: "AAAAAAH! SIDESHOW BOB!").

* [[TheSimpsons Sideshow Bob]]'s theme. His theme [[strike:is essentially TheJimmyHartVersion of]] ''is'' the title music for ''CapeFear'', since the episode it was first used in was a parody of ''CapeFear''. It wasn't meant to represent Bob, but since he was the bad guy, it naturally played only when he was onscreen. The producers ran with it and now it's quite explicitly his theme, always playing when he first appears in an episode (just in time for Bart and Lisa to shout in unison: "AAAAAAH! SIDESHOW BOB!").

* [[TheSimpsons Sideshow Bob]]'s theme. His theme is essentially TheJimmyHartVersion of the title music for ''CapeFear'', since the episode it was first used in was a parody of ''CapeFear''. It wasn't meant to represent Bob, but since he was the bad guy, it naturally played only when he was onscreen. The producers ran with it and now it's quite explicitly his theme, always playing when he first appears in an episode (just in time for Bart and Lisa to shout in unison: "AAAAAAH! SIDESHOW BOB!").

* The now famous ''JamesBond'' theme was nothing but the opener of ''Dr No''. The actual James Bond theme from that movie is so much less memorable that nobody even knows it.

* The stage musics in StreetFighterII. They ended up being the themes of the characters who uses it as their home stage.

* A slowed down version of the Pollyanna theme was used as Ness' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcoFILRmugQ house music]] in ''Earthbound''. Not entirely recognizable at first, though. While not his official leitmotif, it's frequently associated with him.

*** Pretty much all the DragonballZ characters leitmotifs (except Gohan and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONyGzRnJyHI&feature=related Piccolo]], who have an official leitmotif) fall into this trope. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-rqq5u78Xs&feature=related Broly]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZjoUPgZA4M&feature=related Cooler]] also have an unofficial leitmotif.

*** Pretty much all the DragonballZ characters leitmotifs (except Gohan and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONyGzRnJyHI&feature=related Piccolo]], who have an official leitmotif) fall into this trope. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-rqq5u78Xs&feature=related Broly]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZjoUPgZA4M&feature=related Cooler]] also have an unofficial leitmotif.

*** To a lesser extent, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OYC4ScZeic&feature=related Freezer]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-gUfx5QEmA&feature=related Cell]]'s themes also apply. These are better in the sense that, at least, they're exclusive to that saga, but still fit here because they're not exclusive to Freezer and Cell respectively.

This is one step below BootstrappedTheme. While the BootstrappedTheme applies for a {{Leitmotif}} for a character that becomes so popular and synonymous with the series itself that it becomes the accepted Theme Tune of the series, this applies for a song [[RecurringRiff at first not associated with any character]] but, for some reason, becomes associated with one and ends up becoming his leitmotif.

** Also, Cloud was never attributed a specific theme, so he appropriated the game's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFs8-qGaoHU Overworld theme]] and Main Theme as his own. Not only does it suit him (it roughly follows his character growth throughout the game, going from calm, to heroic and passionate, to atonal creepy lunacy, and then to a more humbly heroic feel at the end) but variations of it are used during moments of powerful emotion for Cloud (such as when leaving Midgar for the first time, the moment in the Nibelheim flashback when Cloud witnesses Sephiroth's descent into madness, and when Cloud and Tifa are in the Lifestream together) and it also coincidentally disappears from the Overworld at the same time Cloud leaves the party, to be replaced with the Meteor theme. It's no coincidence that it plays again in the Compilation over the credits of ''Crisis Core'', to indicate that [[{{Understatement}} Zack's torch has been passed to Cloud]].

* The composers of the ''{{Halo}}'' soundtracks said that they didn't intend to apply leitmotifs, but many music pieces can be bootstrapped to characters or locations, eg "Enough Dead Heroes" = Cortana, "Shadows" and "Devils...Monsters" = the Flood, "The Last Spartan" = Master Chief, "Weight of Failure" = the Arbiter, "Penance" = Delta Halo, "Earth City" = the Scarab, "Under Cover of Night" = Sgt. Johnson, "In Amber Clad" = Cmdr. Keyes, "Farthest Outpost" = the Ark.