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khytal · 1 year

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I’ve been meaning to write about this since ep12 aired but I haven’t had time until now. I'm sure someone's already brought it up by this point but I wanted to put it into my own words, so here I am :]

I’m gonna talk about the “plant song”, as it’s called in stampede’s soundtrack: an 8-bar motif that comes up in several songs in the ost (but I’ll only be going through 3 of them + some other things)

*I consider "common front"/"trigun stampede" to be vash's main theme, rather than "vash the stampede" (more on this later)

it's used (or not, in one case) in some very interesting ways, which have interesting implications :)

I'm referencing track 28 from vol2 of the ost, "plant song on erhu", as the base that I'm comparing the other songs to. aside from some stylistic ornamentation, it's just the 8-bar melody on its own (which I've transcribed in the above image). this is also currently the only version of the song in the soundtrack that features this melody as a solo, with no other instruments.

some notes before I get into it:

-for my sake, I refer to "common front" as vash's theme in this post x) I know it's a shorter version of "trigun stampede" (they're the same song), but the track title makes it easier for me to associate it with vash so I'll be using that instead of "trigun stampede". the titles are more or less interchangeable though

-the rests in measures 3-4 and 7-8 in the transcription for "bio-power reactor" and "common front" don't exist in the songs themselves. I inserted them so that the corresponding parts line up with when they occur in the plant song

-the excerpt from "bio-power reactor" is a diminution (note lengths were cut in half) to make the comparison easier to see

-in "common front" 's case, the transcription isn't entirely accurate but it's more about the notes than the rhythm u-u)b

-this motif is heard in more than just these 3 songs, but about a third of the ost recycles sections from other songs (ex.: "vash the stampede" is just "the jeneora rock resistance" and "trigun stampede" stitched together), so I picked the ones I felt were like "source" songs. since this is about plants, I only had to look for the tracks that were most representative of the twins and the plants themselves

-knives has like 7 different versions of his theme (including the piano/duet ones) but they're all more or less the same so. yeah. I referenced the vocal version in vol2 since it emphasizes the plant song as the melody, and has a slight variation

-I don't talk about the duet here since it's pretty clear that it's for both vash and knives, and it's just a fancy version of the plant song. not much to analyze about it for this post

-I did annotate the music I transcribed, but no knowledge of music terminology is necessary to understand it. it's all pattern recognition, and I mostly just highlighted where the similarities and differences were

-please don't take any of my interpretations as fact, I just thought it'd be cool to point out the motif. you're more than welcome to have your own interpretations using the transcriptions I've included ^^

okay here we go :)

-the songs are listed by how closely they resemble the original plant song, with "millions knives" (and any other related themes) being nearly identical and "common front"'s excerpt being something barely recognizable as the plant song

-"millions knives" has this motif everywhere. you could say it's representative of him being in tune with his identity as an independent plant. or almost like he represents the plants--oh wait, he does (self-proclaimed, but that's irrelevant here)

-almost every time the plant song is heard, knives is there/involved. prior to ep12's implication that it comes from the plants (and the ost outright confirming this), it wouldn't be odd to assume that it's his theme; that's how frequently it pops up. and it's even more obvious in the soundtrack..........except it might as well be his theme, despite its origins lying with the plant race

basically: *knives voice* my theme now

-even though "bio-power reactor" refers to the plants, their song is barely present in the track (it's heard at the beginning and end). kinda sorta makes it feel like a transference of the theme to knives. like the plants are just vibing (they are, mostly) while knives is taking the reins (he is, mostly)

-the reason the track "vash the stampede" isn't part of this is because the plant song is nowhere to be found in it. while it does use "trigun stampede"/"common front", it doesn't have the part that I transcribed

(if you really want to read into this, you could consider the motif's absence a reference to vash being more akin to a human than a plant. I can't say whether this was intentional or not though, considering "vash the stampede" is just a mix of 2 pre-existing songs and has no melodies unique to it)

[-feel free to skip this tangent: "common front"/"trigun stampede" stands out to me because the lyrics are more about vash than the track that's literally named after him (which isn't even an original composition for some reason):

"here I come, here I come any enemy is powerless in front of me here I come, here I come, keep anybody that get(s) in my way, away from me

get everybody involved like a typhoon pull the trigger, shoot down [on a/on the/'nother?] full moon can't you see what I'm [hiding/having?] in my hands call me vash the stampede, and feel love and peace"

not that "jeneora rock resistance" 's lyrics aren't about vash, but I think it's odd that "vash the stampede" doesn't use the lyrics from "trigun stampede" beyond the initial "here I come, there is no one anywhere who is a match for me"]

-"common front" is vash's main theme to me, since it references the plant song while also being about vash himself. it describes vash as he is amongst humans, with the motif serving as an acknowledgment of his race without overpowering the rest of the song (unlike with knives, where it's nearly constant and makes up the core of his theme. if this was intentional on the composer's part, it's very clever)

-the bit I transcribed from "common front" is from the part in the middle that features a flute solo (1:17-1:26; or 1:36-1:45 in "trigun stampede"). you can also hear this in the low brass around 2:27 of "millions knives", where it follows the same pattern as the section in "common front". it looks like this (written as it's heard, without the 2 measures of rest I added):

"millions knives" and this fragment from "common front" are both in the key of b minor ("common front" starts in d minor and briefly modulates to b minor before going back to d minor)

personally I like that knives's variation is grand/drawn out, while vash's is played freely. it highlights their personalities, though we don't really get to see much of vash being "free" in stampede

-there's a very short call and response bit in ep12, where vash sings the first 2 bars to the plants and they sing back to him:

nothing specific to write about here but vash's "La"'s in the jp dub are more articulated because of how japanese people pronounce the "L" sound; whereas jyb's articulation is much softer/barely noticeable (though he sings the 2nd measure with 1 "la" instead of articulating each new note. also his F# was a little flat but like. don't take that as an actual criticism lmao I just have a really good ear)

I don't know why the plants' responses are unique between the two dubs, but I thought it'd be cool to transcribe that part as well. the rhythms were a little hard to pin down since they're sung freely so idk if it's accurate but I know the notes are right x)

-I'm guessing the dub's VA for young vash couldn't sing the C so they cut it and had them start a beat later to compensate and match the lip flaps:

not a significant difference, since the altered part exists in the plant song so it doesn't stand out unless you're listening for it (like I was), but yeah. there you have it

(-I'm sure people know this by now but I figured I'd mention it anyway since I'm talking about it. the reason "knives" asks vash what he's humming in the flashback is because it was rem who asked him that in the original memory. the song seems to be something that all plants know instinctively, so knives should've known what it was. and this discrepancy is part of what caused vash to become aware of himself again......which means knives screwed up his own plan x)

(I wonder if knives will ever talk about what the song means to him))

-when vash is poking at the piano keys at the end of ep12, he's just playing an octave (between a low and high Bb, but that isn't important). my guess is that he's trying to play the plant song, specifically starting at the octave that ties into the triplet, but for some reason he can't get any further than that.

I think he's reluctant to hear the song of his people, the one that made up the duet he and his brother used to play; the one that used to calm him down but may now instead only remind him of what he did/lost. maybe he's trying to reassure himself with the song, and is unable to with the weight it suddenly holds for him

(side note: the duet is in the key of a minor and no Bb's are played in it, so he's not trying to play either parts of the duet)

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extra things I noticed that aren't very conclusive (so don't take them too seriously) but are still worth mentioning:

-these are also arranged from most to least similar

-........yeah I found the plant song in "tombi". the augmented triplets in the pre-chorus tipped me off. I'm pretty certain this is a coincidence though, since it's the only piece of the motif that I heard. I didn't look too much into it, but if "tombi" was written with stampede in mind and if kvi baba was asked to incorporate the plant song then. well. x) anyway I just wanted to point it out, coincidence or not

-knives's theme is here again but for the express purpose of being compared to "orphanage" of all things, because they're in the same key. this 2-bar excerpt plays from 0:18-0:22 in "orphanage", and it seems to be pulled from "millions knives"

the notes are split between 2 different instruments (3 if you count the piano chord reinforcing the A) but they form that exact phrase if you put them together and follow the main beats

which leads me to this point: knives's theme is in "orphanage" because he's linked to it through the eye of michael (again this is me reading deeply into the pattern, so I wouldn't say this was on purpose but if it was.....!)

-elendira's theme doesn't have the plant song in it; at least, not directly. she's actually the reason I ended up writing this whole post, because I wanted to know if the plant song was in her theme. and it's not. fascinating.

anyway this one's a HUGE stretch but I find it to be an interesting interpretation: the plant motif possibly being an inversion, as a way of saying she's neither plant nor human (as mentioned by dr conrad)

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that's all I have to say about this! I hope it wasn't too confusing x') thank you for reading, if you made it this far. the plant song is pretty significant in stampede so I'm really looking forward to hearing how it's used in s2 o)-<

(if there's anything I missed or if you have any questions feel free to ask!)

#trigun stampede #this is. a long one lmao #I never tag my rare analysis posts but I put a lot of effort into this one and I think it's worth sharing this time :')#(also please be nice I'm not the greatest at getting my thoughts across sdjkfhgskjdf)#I wrote most of this between the horrible hours of 2-4am so there might be some stuff I didn't catch #but I'm pretty sure this is everything I wanted to bring up o)-<#khyt.3gunposting

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