Do you associate certain songs with your characters?

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Edited by Nukeli on May 9th 2024 at 4:33:23 PM

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Edited by Nukeli on May 9th 2024 at 4:33:35 PM

• "Mary, did you know?" by Pentatonix also reminds me of the bird story's secondary protagonist Esra in the civil war arc. The more intense parts in particular would fit some dark/dramatic scene ideas i have in mind for the arc. Basically this is the arc the earlier story builds up to; the monarchy is incompetent and corrupt, and and bigotry and poverty are rampant. Esra loses her job in the middle of a Great Depression analogy, funds a soup kitchen with stolen money, and talks to people about society. This leads to revolution and bloody civil war against the monarchists, with Esra reluctantly accepting presidency because everybody wants her to lead, and like revolutions and civil wars in general and russian civil war/finnish civil war/WWI analogues in particular, everything goes to hell. And pretty deep, but it's not all Esra's fault as the circumstances and other peoples' actions keep driving things forward to where most people don't want them to go but can't be stopped.

  "Mary did you know, that your baby boy will give sight to a blind man? Mary did you know, that your baby boy will calm the storm with his hand? / ... / Mary did you know, that your baby boy is the lord of all creation? Mary did you know, that your baby boy would one day rule the nation?"

• And the same band's "Soldier, poet, king". Apparently it's also about Jesus, which makes sense i suppose since Esra is kind of a messiah/Dark Messiah figure there.
  • Esra could be taken as being the Soldier, the Poet, and the King. Alternatively, her compatriots marshal Reponen and the KaPo leader Honkavuo could be the Soldier and the Poet.
• And also "Utopia" by Within Temptation.

  "Why does it rain, rain, rain, down on Utopia? Why does it have to kill the ideal of who we are?"

• Plus "Heavy is the crown" by Daughtry
• And "Huomenna" by Uniklubi. The original "Huomenna" is in finnish, this is my translation and might not be the best. The rest of "Huomenna" also reminds me of her and the second protagonist (and titular character) Myrsky's relationship.

  "If we were given all of the space, just a moment and i'd make it dissappear. Even if the world knelt before me, i'd only make it burn. And tomorrow, tomorrow i'll be sad again. Shadow carries us on, as it burns out, all that which we once chose"

Edited by Nukeli on May 9th 2024 at 4:34:00 PM

Why yes, yes I do

Kay Faraday's theme for Detective Annabelle "Ann" Angevin

Shi-Long Lang's theme for Marie "Mare" Mizutani.

Wrong thread

Edited by Nukeli on Jan 14th 2023 at 4:21:34 PM

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Edited by Nukeli on May 9th 2024 at 4:34:14 PM

My WWII superhero story's nazi supervillains;

• The Lightbearer
  • World So Cold (12 Stones)
    • His backstory, which is insufficient to explain his actions.
  • Ghosts (Jacob Tillberg)
    • About the deaths of his parents. Yes, both of them — his feelings about his abusive father are complicated.
  • Tomorrow Belongs To Me (Mark Lambert)
    • The scene from Cabaret is kind of how he ends up in the nazi circles, seduced by talk of a great future and the nazis looking good to him.
  • Chain Lightning (Steely Dan)
  • Sonne (Kausak)

    "Alle warten auf das Licht / Fürchtet euch, fürchtet euch nicht / Die Sonne scheint mir aus den Augen / Sie wird heut Nacht nicht untergeh'n / Und die Welt zählt laut bis zehn / ... / Eins, hier kommt die Sonne / Zwei, hier kommt die Sonne / Drei, sie ist der hellste Stern von allen / Vier, und wird nie vom Himmel fallen"

  • You're Gonna Go Far, Kid (The Offspring)
  • Das Omen (E Nomine)

    "Nigrae legiones / Ferus imperator / Sinus occultus / Fatum terminatum / ... / Du drehst dich im schwarzen licht / Dein schatten explodiert wie ein vulkan / Du bist wie ein stern der spricht / Verfallen bin ich dir in meinem wahn"

  • Schwarze Sonne (E Nomine)
    • Less, but there are a few lines.
      "Du fliegst schneller als das licht / Du bist überall zugleich / Du bist vater, mutter nicht / Und auch nicht das himmelreich!"
  • Falcon In The Dive (Terry Mann)

    "How the devil do I ever prevail when I'm only a man? / But I'll never be duped by this scurrilous phantom again / I wasn't born to walk on water / I wasn't born to sack and slaughter / But on my soul, I wasn't born / To stoop, to scorn, and knuckle under / A man can learn to steal some thunder / A man can learn to work some wonder / ... / All those tremulous stars still glitter / And I will survive! / Let my heart grow colder and as bitter as a falcon in the dive / ... / These are the days! Yes! / Days of glory, days of rage, and the dream / And the dream of Paris preys on my bones / Gnawing night and day and clawing through my brain and / No, never bend! Never kneel! / Rend him to bits! Bite! / Now, the beauty of the fight / I'm not a man to hunger for blood, but the spirit can cry / To be younger and fiercer and fly / Piercing into the sky and higher / And the strong will thrive / Yes, the weak will cower while the fittest will survive / If we wait for the darkest hour / Till we spring alive / Then with claws of fire, we devour like a falcon in the dive!"

  • Stars (Russell Crowe)
  • Saints (Echos)

    "My dear, you're not so innocent / You're fooling Heaven's gates / So you won't have to change / You're no saint, you're no saint, you're no savior / Your revelations don't look nothing like the pictures / You read between the lines and don't stick to the scriptures / You only follow rules if other follow with you / That doesn't sound too holy, only playing victim"

  • Devil In Disguise (Elvis Presley)
  • Glorious Land (Sabaton)
  • Cities In Dust (Chroma Music)
  • Vengeance Is Mine (Sentenced)
  • Sinking Man (Of Monsters And Men)
    • His death. While he's drowning, he thinks of his girlfriend Gretchen.
• Romano Marchegiano
  • Dark Room (Foreign Figures)

    There's no knowing / No showing / Your fragile side / Want to be perfect / Untouchable like the sky / ... / You're stuck replaying / And gaining traumatic times / Want to be stronger / The story of your whole life"

  • Boulevard Of Broken Dreams (Green Day)
  • Lighthouse (Halsey)

    "There is a lighthouse / In the middle of the deep / And i'm still stranded on the shoreline / And nobody hears me scream / And i'll lure you like a landslide / And i'll show you lovely things / You rescue me, but they'll make believe / The lighthouse by the sea"

  • In The Blood (John Mayer)
  • I'm not a good person (Pat The Bunny)
  • Gasoline (Halsey)

    "And all the people say / You can't wake up, this is not a dream / You're part of a machnine, you are not a human being / With your face all made up, living on a screen / Low on self-esteem, so you run on gasoline"

  • Borderline (Nico Collins)

    "I look past all the flashing lights / Drive through, ignore the warning signs / When things blow up i close my eyes / And shake it off as if it's justified / Wash the shame down with another drink / I get high i don't wanna overthink / My body's shakikg, my head is weak / But i'm too afraid to leave / Life goes on new day same show / 'Cause if i change i could feel more low / So i do another encore, one more when it hurts the most / .... / Caughts up in the middle / Center of the limbo / Seeing through the shards of a broken window / If the looking glass disagrees / It could very well be the death of me"

  • Numb (Linkin Park)
  • Lifeboat (Elle McLemore)
    • Shortly after The Lightbearer's death, and shortly before Marchegiano deserts and everything falls apart.
  • Stop (Pink Floyd)
  • Achilles Come Down (Gang Of Youths)
  • Mothman (Joh Yoban)

• Adele Siemon
  • Not A Common Man (Matt Smith)

    "I do suspect, i'm one of few / I can show you something new / All the constraints, they are long gone / I confess no interest in right and wrong / I am needing, so much more / Every pleasure is a bore / I am something other than / A common man / I'm not a common man"

  • Agatha All Along (Timmy Sean)

    "Who's been messing up everything? / It's been Agatha all along! / Who's been pulling every evil string? / It's been Agatha all along! / She's insidious / So perfidious / That you haven't even noticed and the pity is, the pity is"

  • Outrunning Karma (Alec Benjamin)
  • Snake Eyes (Feint)

    "You kept rolling snake eyes / You kept rolling snake eyes / One too many times / One too many times / And all you see are the cards you can play / And you thought you'd get away with these games / And all you see are the cards there in your hand / And you thought you had everything planned"

• Living Inferno
  • Firestorm (Sabaton)

    "Burn! Burn! Rage of the heavens / Burn! Burn! Death from above! / Die! Die! Merciless killing! / Burn! Burn! Death from above!"

  • Almost Human (Voltaire)
    • Not really the devil reference, more just parts of the song. He joins The Lightbearer's coup.
      "I'm just like you / I'm made by He / Despised by they / I'm almost me / I'm nearly human / Look at me / I'm almost a human being / ... / I'm nearly human / Pity me / I'm almost a human being / ... / I'm just like you / Better than He / To Hell with they / I'm almost me / I'm nearly human / Pity me / I'm almost a human being"
  • Substitute AFA (The Oppressed)
    • The general gist is similiar, Inferno is looked down upon because he's non-human but fights for those people anyway.
  • Peregrine (Jude Arden)
  • See The Funny Little Clown (Bobby Goldsboro)
  • Leaves From The Vine (Reneiry)

    "Ash in the snow / Falling so slow / Like fragile broken hearts with no place to go / Little soldier boy / Taken from home / Forced to fight a war / That was not his own / Little soldier boy / Cold and alone / Brave soldier boy / Never made it home / Leaves from the vine / Changing so slow / Like empty fallen souls / Looking for a home / Little soldier boy / Thought he could soar / Brave soldier boy / Fallen in the war"

    • He's a child soldier and meant to be in a way tragic despite what he did, and he dies by sacrificing himself just when the war is ending.

Edited by Nukeli on May 9th 2024 at 4:34:40 PM

"Brutus" by The Buttress reminds me of a side villain prince Oleksi from Mustarastas Myrsky (the "you/him" in the song being his little sister, queen Kreetta. It was a gender-reversed Heir Club for Men situation because they live in a matriarchial society).

Edited by Nukeli on May 27th 2023 at 2:47:19 PM

Chrissy Graham gets Black Sheep by Dorothy. She's the sort of character who dyes her hair a different color every week, has a bunch of piercings and gets a few more (along with a bunch of tattoos) as soon as she turns 18, and has a closer bond with her friends at school than she does with her largely-absent parents.

One of the aforementioned school friends, Tiffany Seiber, gets Everything I Wanted by Billie Eilish. Unlike Chrissy, whose reaction to being treated like a freak was "screw you guys," Tiffany internalized it, which left her with some serious mental health issues by the time she enters the story. She has a hard time accepting that anyone could genuinely like her for who she is, which is particularly tough on her girlfriend Liz, who wants more than anything for Tiffany to be able to see herself the way she does.

Yep. For most of them, it's usually music from this playlist.

I haven't even decided on most of their names yet, but I already know what kind of theme song they would have for some reason.

Edited by InvisibleWater on May 29th 2023 at 4:56:30 AM

Two Birds by Regina Spector could also be appliciable to Marchegiano's and Inferno's friendship if not completely, the last two parts being Inferno's death.

"One tries to fly away" is Marchegiano in the sense that he's distant and alienated and doesn't really want this, while Inferno keeps trying to ear acceptance no matter the cost, "never going to let go of that wire". The second-last "one tries to fly away", however, would be Inferno's death.

Edited by Nukeli on Aug 20th 2023 at 7:34:17 PM

One part of Mary On A Cross by Ghost also sounds like Inferno's death to me (Marchegiano's POV). The one that's used in youtube animations.

"You go down just like holy Mary / Mary on a, Mary on a cross / Not just another Bloody Mary / Mary on a, Mary on a - - / You go down just like holy Mary / Mary on a, Mary on a cross / Your beauty never ever scared me / Mary on a, Mary on a cross"

Edited by Nukeli on Jul 24th 2023 at 5:38:52 PM

I actually wrote a bad cover of that incredibly depressing song by Metalica, except the subject is mourning and angry.

In the setting, he actually is well informed in the history of heavy metal and industrial metal. He's the only character who quotes foreign leaders or philosophers, but he's also the most aware of the history of his country.

Edited by WorkingOnBeingGood on Jul 17th 2023 at 5:12:58 AM

• Olettamuksia by Jonne Aaron from the finnish police series Koskinen is pretty good for my novel draft Kaamos. It's in finnish, but the beginning goes something like this (the song is much better than i'm making it sound, trust me);

  "Rainy wind / In nightly trees / So cold it feels deep in the bones / The city sleeps / Like rocking in a cradle / Steps heavy, but it's like there are in the air / Assumptions, mysteries / Did your tongue get stuck in cold iron / Questions, explanations / It's like stepping in an early grave / And just when you thought you'd solved everything / You'll just notice you only made a new mistake / And if you make the decision the situation allows / In the end you're chasing your own shadow"

• "Evelyn Evelyn" by Evelyn Evelyn goes very well for Tom's and Detlev's childhoods and the fallout they had as teenagers.

For context, they grew up in the same abusive orphanage but Detlev wouldn't run away with Tom because of sunk cost fallacy so Tom left without him. When they met again as teenagers it turns out Detlev ran away a year later, found care and belonging in and joined the communist party and the Rotfrontkämpferbund. Meanwhile, Tom had been adopted by a man who's a member of the social democratic party and Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold, and Tom is himself a non-communist socialist. Tom is happy to see Detlev came to his senses and ran away and tells him to come live with him and his father, but Detlev snaps at and threatens him because KPD's official party line was that all the other leftists are "actually" evil fascists and that it's the social democrats who are The Enemy (and not, you know, the fucking nazis) and Detlev believes all of that.

Edited by Nukeli on May 9th 2024 at 4:35:43 PM

The Northern Sisters:

Stefanie - "homecoming queen?" by Kelsea Ballerini. In Canada, Stefanie had a teenager's ideal life; she was a popular cheerleader and a loving family and girlfriend. But then it all came crashing down on her one day. Even the homecoming queen cries.

Sierra - "I'm Just a Kid" by Simple Plan. Sierra is angsty. She has a lot to be sad and angry about. But nobody cares, because no one listens to you when you're just a kid.

Sabrina - "A Million Dreams" from The Greatest Showman. Unlike her older sisters, Sabrina never abandoned hope that she would find a new life and start over. The only thing that keeps her awake at night are her big dreams.

Halsey's Young Gods is also pretty good for the cult leader from my other idea.

Edited by Nukeli on May 9th 2024 at 4:36:20 PM

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Edited by Nukeli on May 9th 2024 at 4:36:31 PM

This isn't really for a specific character, but I tend to imagine dramatic monologues having this playing in the background.

Edited by InvisibleWater on Sep 24th 2023 at 5:55:20 AM

I also have songs i associate with my WWII superhero story itself. Not in chronological order;

• Deutschland (Rammstein)
• Warriors (Imagine Dragons)
• Everybody Knows (Sigrid) (Wild Fire)
• Pumpkin's Revenge (Louie Zong)
• Victory (Two Steps From Hell)
• Game Of Survival (Ruelle)
• This Is War (30 Seconds To Mars)
• Immortals (Fall Out Boy)
• Uprising (Sabaton)
• The Story Of Tonight (Hamilton)
• Unbreakable (Sabaton)
• Paint It Black (Hidden Citizens)
• How Far Does The Dark Go? (Anya Marina)
• Trouble Is A Friend (Lenka)
• The War Was In Color (Carbon Leaf)
• Legends Never Die (Against The Current)
• The Partisan (Leonard Cohen)
• Land Of Confusion (Genesis)
• Bella Ciao
• Fire Meets Fate (Ruelle)
• Savages (Marina And The Diamonds)
• The Apocalypse (NIVIRO)
• Our Solemn Hour (Within Temptation)
• The Riddle (Terry Mann)
• Uprising (Damned Anthem)
• Cities In Dust (Chroma Music)
• Paint The Night (Joh Yoban)
• 1916 (Sabaton)
• Cat People (Putting Out Fires) (David Bowie)
• There Was A Time (Koethe)
• Dream Is Collapsing (Hans Zimmer)
• Mothman (Joh Yoban)
• Babylon Berlin (Johnny Klimek)
• Inglourious Basterds - Main Theme (???)

Edited by Nukeli on May 9th 2024 at 4:36:58 PM

Maximiliano Magna AKA Umbra, the MC of the story i'm currently writting, is an Billionaire heir who's also a Mercenary with an distorted sense of Justice: he kills several criminals and corrupted police officers while trying to put a sphere of influence, he's also a Prodigious with an IQ of 210.

This is the songs i usually asscociate with both his "Perfect Role Model", his Ruthless demeanor, and his Ambition of salving the world:

• Murder in my Mind
• Girei
• Theme of Death note
• Doom Service-Director cuts
• Diabolic Phantasma-5th Chord
• Neon Blade
• Slaughter House
• Jo Wandrinni-Annihilation

He also has a more "Shitposter" and playful side, which merged with his murderous attitude, perfectly fits with

• Born Slippy (Nuxx/Remastered)

Edited by GoldenPillar on Oct 5th 2023 at 4:14:02 AM

This rendition of "Die Forelle" could also work for the WWII superhero story, more specifically the part where the war is in its final weeks/has just ended.

As Moriarty said to Holmes in the movie that's from, who is the fisherman and who is the trout?

Edited by Nukeli on May 9th 2024 at 4:37:49 PM

Not a character singular, but the song Everything I've Lost by Shiro Sagisu makes me think of a situation between two characters from a setting of mine, King Otto Muller and his oldest child, Princess Freyda.

Freyda is an unsympathetic, irredeemable monster; she agreed to join the people who would wind up slaughtering most of her family, she would participate in absolutely heinous acts using forbidden magic on their behalf and when she found that she was slowly dying due to her own actions, she manipulated many people who were genuinely trying to fight to free the country for her own selfish ends.

Yet she also genuinely loved and cared for her family even as she made the deal that would result in their deaths, and she tried to spare at least some of them. Even though she and her father never saw each other again after the assassination, she held out some hope that they could be reunited and he would forgive her.

Since the song is about someone forgiving a partner for breaking their heart, it weirdly fits. Plus, you know, I was listening to it when thinking of this so maybe that's a part of it .

Edited by Swordofknowledge on Oct 27th 2023 at 1:53:51 PM

Hurricane from the Death Note musical sort of fits Joonas from the aforementioned bird story during the revolution/early civil war when he becomes State Sec / Secret Police leader and part of the ruling triumvirate.

Edited by Nukeli on May 9th 2024 at 4:38:51 PM

Andy, You're A Star by The Killers also reminds me of Marchegiano's and Inferno's friendship.

"On the field I remember you were incredible / Hey, shut up, hey, shut up, yeah / On the match with the boys, you think you're alone / With the pain that you drain from love / In a car with a girl, promise me she's not your world / .... / 'Cause Andy, you're a star / In nobody's eyes but mine"

Edited by Nukeli on May 9th 2024 at 4:38:08 PM