davidrussell323 - Tumblr blog

[davidrussell323]

yeah

[davidrussell323]

[davidrussell323]

cannot stop thinking about this tweet… AUGH 😭

[davidrussell323]

Nick Hannes

[davidrussell323]

Within a few hours

[davidrussell323]

my children of the night¹…. what sweet music² they make ¹cicadas ²eeeeeeeeeeeee

[davidrussell323]

academic who writes a paper and just puts "credit to original author :)" for all their citations

[davidrussell323]

Stop "adding that to your lexicon" when I say something funny online and start absorbing my other traits. Sweet potatoes are your favorite food now. You have asthma. The line between you and I is beginning to blur.

[davidrussell323]

‘conversation’ for middle aged guys seems like it’s mostly just mentioning a series of related things

[davidrussell323]

genuinely in hysterics over this image actual united states senator ted cruz posted on twitter

- he watermarked it

- trains run on tracks so the point of the whole meme around who's steering it makes zero sense

- trains also don't have road signs

- i really don't think ted cruz has ever been on a train before

- bernie looks so happy at the front of the train it makes me feel like i'm five and he's the conductor of the train on the children's TV show i was invited to attend a live taping of

- no seriously i don't think ted cruz knows what a train is i think this should be the new "it's a banana what could it cost michael" in terms of rich people being hilariously out of touch with every day reality

- help

[davidrussell323]

Stolen right from x

[davidrussell323]

Woo!! I loved reading this--your interpretation of the scenario is a breath of fresh air!! Your arguments are well made -- and while I'm not sure it's quite enough to perfectly sway my opinion -- it's just so nice to read some musical analysis of this series that's not my own thoughts! As I understand it, your take on "Distant From You..." is "music representing yearning for lost hearts". With this, you interpret the Vanitas defeat scene in a way where this music is for Ven's (or the player's) perspective of seeing separation and wishing for reunion? That's very interesting; a perspective I hadn't considered before! I think it's a valid interpretation. My next thought along this road would be "do we have an older 'yearning for lost hearts' theme" ? I think "Missing You" (KH2) fits this, but it would probably be sort of inappropriate to play a Kairi Line (kairi/xion/namine) track here, so "Distant From You" is a fantastic runnerup--and it has the bonus of having been referenced in SanFran. I also super agree that playing a track with Vanitas' character motif would have been an inappropriate (and, frankly, boring) accompaniment. DDD just played Ven's theme when he appeared onscreen, so I would have rolled my eyes if the game did something similar and was just like "this is vanitas btw" hahaha. It's surprising to me that Vanitas is the only other character in the Real Org XIII who didn't get any new music playing upon his defeat, so maybe the ideal scenario could have been an original Shotaro Shima rearrangement of "Distant From You" with sprinkles of vanitas' character motif? The other musical options have accompanied Vanitas previously, but focusing on a 'restoration' idea for the scene instead of 'the villain has been defeated' idea gave me a new perspective. Thanks for sharin <3

Defending the use of “Distant From You...” in Vanitas’s Final Scene During KH3.

@davidrussell323 or "Green Requiem" creates these really good videos dissecting the songs used in Kingdom Hearts. I appreciate all the work he does, even maintaining a breakdown of all the themes and uses in a google spreadsheet. However, In Requiem’s sheet, he notes how “Distant From You” is a weird choice for Vanitas’ final scene. I disagree. Based on how he has documented the use of it in other scenes, I actually think it’s pretty consistent.

In Dream Drop Distance and Kingdom Hearts 3, it is used in scenes that reference lost hearts, usually those tied to Sora. During DDD, it plays when Sora interacts with Naminé and Xion. It plays when Riku interacts with Roxas, Xion, and Ventus on Destiny Islands, a scene where Ansem talks about these people needing to be saved. In KH3, we hear it when Sora feels kinship with Roxas in San Fransokyo. 

Requiem ascribes a yearning quality to the song, and I definitely agree. These are all moments where we are yearning for the hearts we have lost, or where hearts are yearning to return from being lost. Which, according to its use here, definitely can include Vanitas. 

As of the end of Re:Mind, Vanitas’ broken heart is still lost somewhere. Probably inside Ventus. Maybe connected to the Darkness that lurks there? Regardless, he’s just out there and nobody’s looking for him. 

This scene has Ventus leveling with Vanitas and actually trying to reach an understanding, this yearning reflected in the song. By the end of the scene, I don’t think they’ve arrived at a successful conclusion. (If it was fully successful, there would be no need to yearn for a better relationship between the two). But, at least they’ve acknowledged the distance between them, and it leaves me hopeful that Vanitas will get some sort of resolution in a later title. 

Requiem suggests a few other songs that could’ve been used and I’m going to argue why these choices wouldn’t work for Vanitas’ final scene. “Dual Hearts”, which is a cutscene version of “Enter the Darkness”, would be the worst pick. 

First, unlike "Enter the Darkness" which references Roxas's, Ventus' and Sora's leitmotifs, "Dual Hearts" cuts off before reaching Sora's leitmotif. This is because, in the scene, Vanitas is unable to reach Sora. I get Requiem has his issues with how the song is executed, and that’s valid, I'm not excusing those issues. But I still think the way the piece was used in the scene was very much intended for this specific interaction, and to my untrained ears, that’s kinda neat.  

Secondly, in his Birth By Sleep video, Requiem notes that “Enter the Darkness” acts as both a character theme and battle theme for Vanitas, making it difficult to categorize. I would argue that that is sort of the point. Vanitas is very antagonistic. We rarely have scenes with him where there isn’t some form of altercation. The way that it functions as both a character and battle theme encapsulates this characterization. 

I think it would clash tonally to insert a battle theme here. It's the one scene where Vanitas and Ventus are done fighting and instead are trying to connect with each other. “Dual Hearts”, “The Key of Darkness” and “Shaded Truths” would make Vanitas’ words much more nefarious and perhaps even threatening. I think Vanitas is just speaking his Truth™ nothing shaded about it, expressing the way he honestly feels. Ventus, too. 

“Tears of the Light” is waaaay too sad for this scene. As Requiem himself notes, it feels mournful, and is used to look back on better times. It plays around Vanitas scenes, but like, that’s because he often pokes at the Wayfinder’s conflict or causes them to feel worse about it. The “Tears of the Light” aren’t used when mourning Vanitas.

If they had played “Tears of the Light” during the KH3 scene I would’ve been like “Oh yea okay, Vanitas is never coming back, he’s dead and gone forever; Ventus is giving up on Vanitas as a lost cause”.

Because again, up until this point, “Distant From You…” is played with reference to characters we hope to see saved; those we yearn for their return, but still stand far apart from. It makes the Vanitas death scene a lot more intimate, wistful, and a little bit hopeful. 

So yeah, Green Requiem, love the dude’s KH videos. If you haven’t checked them out, please go do so. I just really don’t agree with his take here, and I think his suggestions miss the point of the scene. However, this is just one song of many, and his analysis is overall pretty great. I’m looking forward to seeing him cover Kingdom Hearts 3. 

[davidrussell323]

Hii

[davidrussell323]

Hey its me its fucking pukicho

[davidrussell323]

You've heard of the man, the myth, the legend. Now get ready for the woman, the omen, the portent.

[davidrussell323]