#im really glad youre getting apparent mileage out of it lmao

[legendarybelmont]

OK. idk whether the last ask sent just without links, or it didnt send at all, so im gonna retype it. if you got it feel free to ignore this lol. links are at the end IF you want to listen to these to see what the hell in talking about, but absolutely no requirement/expectation/pressure to listen, its just for ease of access in the case you do

so basically for arikado’s whole arc for this story its him becoming his father, right? ill revisit that thought later

so first of all, alucard has a theme. we already have a basis of characters which sort of turn against everything they once stood for for one reason (possessed by evil wizard) or another, having motifs of their main theme sort of used in a way that almost bastardizes the main theme, so i think for phase 1 of the fight, that would work rlly well for arikado. his main theme is dracula’s castle, and his secondary is tragic prince, so we would take that and sort of bastardize it, make it sound unnerving and uncomfortable to the listener on a subconscious level. so lets look at how to do that in the first place.

with richter’s theme, divine bloodlines, the main motif is taken from that and put against a backdrop of much more unnerving music. blood relations, which keeps parts of divine bloodlines, sounds much darker, because it takes the piece and puts it in a very unusual signature that has less of a sense of innate balance to the listener (5/4) to kind of throw you off and make you feel wrong-footed. it also uses the percussion to sort of drive this unnatural beat a bit, so already it sounds sort of… wrong. on top of that, you transcribe the motifs used to a minor key, transforming it from a more heroic, triumphant piece, to one of more of a… sad and upsetting feeling. almost like a hero disgraced. it also changes the instrumentation a bit to more eerie sounding instruments, or instruments that can purvey the eerier sound better. It changes some of the chords slightly to add discord, and adds some quick and staccato harmonies, which utilize chords that, if all notes were played at once, would sound very uncomfortable. some of the scale (for lack of a better term) sequences are also used to build tension and add to the pervading sense of wrongness, ending in a way that doesn’t quite Sound right or complete

theres also other ways of making songs that sound uncomfortable or unnerving, as are utilized in songs like pagoda of the misty moon, which, yes, still utilizes the discordant chords of course, but it also utilizes the very, very deep piano part to add to the atmosphere, and utilizes what sounds to be runs with accidentals, as well as the timpani, and the tremolo on the violins, as well as, while being in what sounds like 3/4, uses percussion to make it SOUND like an abnormal time signature. so there are a lot of different ways to go about creating that type of atmosphere, and what youd utilize depends on the vibe youre going for, plus also the personality of the character themselves. for example, the deep piano part i think COULD work very well for arikado personally, but its up to debate.

(theres also the underlying theme of boss themes in general having weird time signatures, specifically BECAUSE while you subconsciously seek out cues from music, its much harder to do that with weird time signatures. 5/4 with richter, and, with other franchises, 13/7 or something like that for ganondorf from oot, and for marx in kirby’s games, the time signature changes every measure. thats not SUPER important, i just think its very neat :) )

so effectively, in writing an arrangement of this, you might utilize some of those ideas (and maybe do further research on other themes in music that make the viewer uncomfortable). THAT would be the best way to create a bastardization of the song.

there might be other aspects to consider, to give the song a feeling of repetition, as if repeating the past, but not SO repetitious that it bores the listener. this being a boss battle song already lends itself to repetition as that is the nature of boss battle themes, so ill skip that.

this may be difficult to do bc, as is the nature of boss battles being that you can transition to the 2nd phase at any time, BUT i do think itd be VERY interesting to have a very seamless transition into the 2nd phase theme, which would be dance of illusions, which. as you may or may not know. is draculas main and most iconic boss battle theme :) . id probably give it 4 repeats instead of the 2 that tends(?) to be more typical with that song, to add to the building tension and sense of dread, ESPECIALLY for those that recognize the song, either consciously or subconsciously, as they realize what song is playing. theres a few versions of that song but most likely itd take a lot more inspiration from the sotn & dos versions more than anything. of course it would utilize the more uneven sound of the intro, which would then lead into the much more balanced, march-like time signature the majority of the song is in. this theme combined with the song of the previous phase, which would utilize the more unnatural rhythm of a time signature like 5/4, COULD also kind of give the impression of like, the turbulence arikado initially feels as he sort of realizes hes becoming his father, transitioning to him accepting and embracing that role, or even more of SOMAS pov of this whole thing, of the discord btw how THEY view arikado vs who he rlly is, with the 2nd phase be more soma accepting who arikado truly is/has become, but thats more of a choose-how-to-interpret-it thing that would be more up to the listener, and would depend more on how you want to develop the story and arikado’s feelings regarding everything. more importantly the use of doi, ESP an arrangement more similar to the sotn doi, symbolizes how much arikado HAS become his father at this point.

these next 2 sections are more… optional.

first would be the prelude, the part that plays during the dialogue leading up to the boss fight. for this i would say it would be best to have a music of slower tempo, with an air of uncertainty, and yet weight and inevitability. not a song from the cv series, but there are two parts of sealed vessel that do this in different ways; first is thw first few seconds of the song, as you have long, tremolo notes held, building up into a chord as you slowly prepare for the actual fight itself. theres also latter half of sealed vessel (2:16-4:34) is a very good example of this. it opens with a slow section where there are two parts playing in a minor chord, playing a very melancholy harmony, which then adds the long, legato, meandering violin run, which repeats itself, slowly adding instruments in a way that makes it sound almost like the piece is slowing down, until it begins a run DOWN the scale into the last either one of these make a good example of how you could build up the emotion to the fight, but that would depend on whether that would be included at all or not.

the second optional part would be something that COULD play at the end of the piece IF you get the good ending. itd be best if the note that doi ends on on its own were one that feels unfinished, unresolved, which works for both endings; in the bad ending, it IS left unfinished, as the cycle continues anew, and never finds a real sarisfying end, it just keeps. going. but with the GOOD ending, you instead have this section added on to the end. revisiting sealed vessel, the very end (starting at about 4:34), there is an ending to the piece that feels tragic, mournful, but complete, which, if mimicked, could symbolize a few things, but i like the idea that its adrian actually being like. allowing himself to truly mourn his father, and feel remorse for his own actions. i think the best thing for this would be to utilize the original, unbastardized, version of dracula’s castle, but in a much slower and more mournful and weighted rendition, to symbolize both his allowing himself to mourn and his regret, but also him potentionally resolving to attempt to return to who he once was, to the version of himself he forgot?

anyways um. i DO want to write an arrangement of this but well see how much energy i have to do that.

also absolutely no expectation of you to listen to All Of These but here are the links if youre curious and want to listen :)

dc: https://youtu.be/cyWTgLf-piE?si=i1yGDRVDe8xuddhe

ttp: https://youtu.be/hGUJcqxbRLo?si=dO_EGAw_ALrxejcR

db: https://youtu.be/XoGCokTDSyA?si=dAUfT1AGm9NgDhGU

br: https://youtu.be/PZZfQoxxeD0?si=B3ZyxOv47QEqjvUq

potmm: https://youtu.be/0v8nlnmT6Hw?si=ZB5YIYu0jKQBKEHU

doi sotn vers: https://youtu.be/_PPEZxVEgjk?si=pOrUR1PJIQiqhl49

doi dos vers jic you want to hear how that ones different: https://youtu.be/8cda69EXFRs?si=vV0oXvm6KQ2Kk1uI

sv from hk: https://youtu.be/ze0Rk-m0w2A?si=1FfwQKwBaHFoh53U (2:16-4:34) (4:34-end)

okay fair warning i dont have much to add because i dont know much about music and also youve laid everything out very nicely already but this is very interesting and i am paying lots of attention! dance of illusions isnt my favourite dracula theme but as the one thats most iconic and also the one that tends to appear most, it would be a bit silly if it wasnt used even though id also love to be able to jam dracula appears from loi into things somewhere just for the thrill of things, especially if the end goal is to emphasise a transition between alucard and dracula similar to the one that was already kind of happening in the background

i know even less about how any of it would actually function in practice, but some other themes ive also been hemming and hawing about are the alucard battle theme from legends (a deep cut, but hey) and encounter or big battle from cviii: one because itd be a nasty twist on things (new game new alucard yada yada but also im just a passionate cviii stan in general) and the other because its chronologically speaking sort of the first dracula battle theme and i think that. fits. as i said though, dance of illusions is iconic, so not really replaceable.

im writing this in a bit of a rush (busy but i passed out for 8 hours and feel bad leaving you waiting too long) but i think an important part of all this would be having soma slap some sense into him, seeing as soma is both the one who keeps trying to break draculas own cycle, is the one arikado has arguably used the most, and is also arikados theoretical foil -- personally i feel like soma and arikado are more acquaintances than anything before this, and getting alucard to talk about anything ever was like pulling teeth and im sure arikado is far worse so i couldnt see them really bonding at that point, but in a situation like this maybe it would be more feasible for them to form an actual connection? which ties into the idea of arikado, too, finally letting go of the cycle slash dracula and whatnot.

in the good ending, anyway

that said, julius and yoko are also obviously important, julius for what are probably pretty obvious reasons and yoko as both The Belnades (which is actually detrimental considering, their roles as the belmont and the belnades inherently force them to sort of 'adhere' to the cycular nature of this mess), but also as the one person who, throughout the games, arikado is shown to have the closest relationship with. she knows his identity before anyone else, they may or may not have been cooperating in aos, shes the first to defend his character to soma, etc etc, he even goes and visits her shop to give her the hot gossip in dos lmao. so bring them too ofc