Now I have 38 minutes to make a post to keep on my daily schedule (because if I don't update daily, no one will want to read!). So I'm going to randomly search the Final Fantasy Wiki and get a character and make an update!
It's what we call RANDOM THURSDAYS. Actually, I hope to be better planned from now on. More on that later.
Oh! We got Zorn and Thorn from Final Fantasy IX!! This will be fun.
I don't know how many of you are familiar with Final Fantasy IX (if you're not, become familiar. It's my favorite of the series and my bias will be more and more evident as time passes.) We first meet Zorn and Thorn in service of Alexandria's Queen Brahne, and it's incredibly evident that they are out of the ordinary. Zorn, the blue one, speaks in normal patterns, and Thorn, the red, speaks in an inverted sentence structure. You can also see that Zorn and Thorn are somewhat different in that they alone hold the power to extract Eidolons (the FFIX version of summons) from a summoner. It turns out they will just follow whoever they need to in order to profit, leaving Brahne when the going is good and running under new management.
The moment in particular I'd like to explore is The Eidolon Extraction. I first feel that you should get a feel for the aesthetic in the scene, so I included the background music. It'll be incredibly helpful in following along with my explanation.
That kind of eerie, exotic feel is exactly what I'd want out of a song like this. I have one more reference to make as far as a musical reference point, and that would be "Playing With the Big Boys" from Prince of Egypt. As seen here.
Now having watched both of those videos, surely you're putting the pieces together. The two are clowny fools who speak in inverted structure and finish eachothers' sentences. Zorn and Thorn are incredibly otherworldly (and for reasons you'll find out when you play the game, this is heavily supported).
The song shouldn't be very long, as it doesn't do a lot to drive the story. In fact, I'm almost second guessing myself as to whether or not a song for the Extraction should be included, but I love it. I also think it would work wonders if it was reprised slightly when they reveal their true nature later in the game. I couldn't think of anything witty for a title, so I may just simply go with "The Extraction." Simple, and to the point. It's not necessarily a verbal narrative as much as it is an event with accompanying song, so I think that title works well enough, but if you have any ideas, share 'em!
The two videos above should inform your idea of my comprehension enough to know this much. The song should be INCREDIBLY creepy. They are literally ripping dormant spirits out of Princess Garnet's body while she's powerless to stop them. They should be slinky, offputting, and most of all just plain surreal. I love the exotic, almost middle-eastern feel that is presented in the game's original composition. I also think that influence could fit well in the musical because, unlike FF7 and FF8 which I said should be primarily rock based with either orchestral, jazz, or pop fusions, FF9's universe is fantastical enough to merit a diverse blend of genres to fit any occasion. Luckily "Princess" has the wonderful double-s sound at the end that allows them to slither around the lyrics, almost snake-like in nature and sound just straight-up creepy. I think the videos say more than I can with further explanation, but ideally you're getting the jist of what I'm trying to put on the table. The song would end with Zidane and crew bashing into the room. I don't know if the song would be over or if Zorn and Thorn could spend one more verse taunting them with their success over Garnet's motionless body. The ultimate slap-in-the-face, huh?
Hey, a little bit of completely shameful promotion, if you like what you see so far, please tell your friends and peers and bug them to come look at this blog. I really want this to thrive on community input. I can definitely come up with a lot of stuff on my own, but I want to cater to what everyone wants to hear. So have your friends come, enjoy, and suggest new ideas, alternate ideas, or paths to take for subsequent posts! Thanks. [/selfish]
Gahhh, sorry I haven't been keeping up lately. Finishing up school and all.
ReplyDeleteI freaking love the Prince of Egypt, despite the heavy religious storyline (which tends to make some atheists uncomfortable, I guess, but not me!). You couldn't have picked a better reference for Zorn and Thorn.
Also, Diana, Nmanic, TomDelano and I had an amazing breakfast. We wished for you to be there, but since you're failing at living in NC, we decided to take pictures of us enjoying ourselves. I'll post them eventually. :3
Eh, religion is just a story in essence. No different than watching Greek Mythology. Glad you like the influence for Zorn and Thorn, though!
ReplyDeleteWell... erm. You all fail at not living where I do. So there.