Stefan Betke

First of all, if you understand the title, then I bow my head to you in defeat.

Second of all, turns out I had that poll up for a reason. You remember, the "Most Deserving Final Fantasy" for a musical or whatever I called it? Well... let's see what we got.

Final Fantasy X lost. Bad.  Not for any fault of Hedy Burgess.

If I recall correctly, Final Fantasy VII and VIII were tied for third, followed by a nice attempt by Final Fantasy VI (because Kefka rules all.)

Which leaves... oh. Well, fancy that!

FINAL FANTASY IX

Which means in honor of that poll result, I'm going to do something I've never done before.  Something brash.  Something daring!  Something EXTREME.

Final Fantasy IX: The Soundtrack

ACT I

1. Skies of Alexandria [Garnet, Zidane]

-An opening number begun by Garnet, picked up by Zidane, following the storm dream.   Garnet opens the window to her castle and sings about how beautiful the skies are and how she'd like to one day fly herself.  Zidane, sitting on the deck of the Prima Vista, sings about how great it is to fly in the sky, adventuring and all that.  They begin to sing with eachother without knowing.  A good, clean, upbeat opening number.

2. Follow Me [Puck, Vivi, Alexandrian Citizens?]

-A really upbeat, kinda rockish, kinda spunky song sung primarily by Puck, leading the disheartened Vivi around the town of Alexandria and mingling with its citizens (often just getting in their way.)  Puck, while being a somewhat tyrannical leader, becomes Vivi's first friend, and leads him to the start of his greatest adventure ever.

3. Trouble We Are In! [Zorn, Thorn, Steiner]

-Starts out with Zorn and Thorn popping in and out of the castle, looking everywhere for Garnet and generally just freaking out about where to find her.  They eventually appeal to Beatrix, who appeals to Brahne, who decides against her better judgment to send Steiner.  Steiner grandly accepts, and while Zorn and Thorn offer some backup vocals to their original melody, Steiner takes up lead vocals on his search, as they all bumble about and make fools of themselves.

4. Canary Finale [Zidane, Garnet, Vivi, Steiner, Brahne, Zorn, Thorn, Baku, Blank, Marcus, Cinna]

-A somewhat more elaborate number with the whole gang after Steiner is defeated and everyone is raised to the stage.  The final scene takes place, and then Tantalus tries to make their escape, being somewhat thwarted by Brahne (the bomb battle can be much shorter) and the crew crash in the Evil Forest.  If Brahne doesn't hit a soprano high C when firing the harpoons at the Prima Vista, I won't be happy.

5. Trance [Zidane, Steiner, Garnet?, Vivi?]

-The plant cages come and capture Garnet and Vivi.  Zidane goes into trance, freeing the two (I know that's not exactly how it happens, but for the sake of time...).  A short song, heavy rock influence, Zidane taking the lead and blasting the Plant Cages away.  Garnet is then captured, Vivi and Steiner wounded.  Zidane takes them back to the ship.

6. Brotherhood (Or, She's Just a Girl) [Baku, Blank, Zidane]

-Why did I want to call this song bros before... well, you know.  Zidane wants to save Garnet and continue to Lindblum, but Baku and Blank would rather he stick with his bros and help Tantalus.  Zidane counters them both and eventually Baku lets him pass.  Blank dissents, but Baku shuts him up.  After Zidane leaves with Vivi and Steiner, Baku sings a final verse to Blank about watching over Zidane.  Should have a rock edge, and be chock full of character conflict.

7. Brotherhood (Reprise) [Zidane, Garnet, Vivi?, Steiner?]

-Zidane sings a little reprise of the last song he sang with Blank, supplemented by Garnet's attempts at consoling him.  A much more mellow version of the preceding song.  The gang decide that they must continue on to Lindblum, through the Ice Cavern.

8. Waltz of Discord (or something.) [Zidane, Black Waltz 1, Zorn?, Thorn?]

-In the Ice Cavern, Zidane confronts the 1st Black Waltz.  Think Thenardier's Waltz of Treachery from Les Miserables.  The accompaniment should have dissonant violins, bells, and things that sound generally creepy (and they beat must be 3/4 or else!)  I haven't decided if the final stanza should be sung by Zorn and Thorn's disembodied voices warning Zidane of the other two Waltzes to come.

...this is harder than I thought.  Well, it's a work in progress, at least.  Tell me what you thought.  Any ideas for things I missed?  Things I should change?  Things to add later?  Tell me!

Every Rose Has its Zorn

Well, today's the first time since I started this blog that an actual outside song struck me with inspiration instead of picking a character and closing my eyes and thinking.

Today's update brings us back to our resident crazy twin clowns, Zorn and Thorn [Final Fantasy IX]

You may remember these little guys from my post about "The Extraction," and this time they're not gonna be quite so sinister.  Creepy and a little offputting, sure, but today I bring you a somewhat more light-hearted Zorn and Thorn.

Early on in the game, Princess Garnet til Alexandros escapes the castle, and Zorn and Thorn realize this.  Their very funny introduction scene involves them bumbling around the castle not know quite where they're going and fearful that telling Queen Brahne the news will greatly upset her.

Now with that in mind, take a listen to this gem of a song.

Zorn and Thorn's introduction, maybe called "Trouble Are We In!" as a nod to the in-game dialogue (most of which I imagine could be kept for the tune.) allows the two clowns to bumble about the castle, popping out of this room and that, getting in minor scuffles with eachother and arguing, and then losing track of exactly what they were doing.

The beauty of a song like this, I think, is that it would work perfectly as a short reprise later on in the game when Zorn and Thorn are under new management and confront the group again.  Though instead of this time the song being bumbling and comic, it could be seen as somewhat more condescending and sinister since we finally know Zorn and Thorn's true potential (and it's pretty terrifying).  Call it something like "Trouble Are You In" and I think we're in business!  I think it's a really nice change of pace from something so frightening as "The Extraction" moment, and very different stylistically.  A good challenge and fun for the listener.

Sorry that was relatively short, I don't have a fully fleshed out gameplan for that song, but I think you'll manage for tonight.

Snow day tomorrow, please!

Trouble are we in!

I decided to divert from the Hero path again because I didn't want to do Zidane.  He's my all time favorite Final Fantasy protagonist and I want to make sure I have a full idea for his.

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]