#ugh listen to the music you'll catch it in the second time through the main theme

[aparticularbandit]

so i'm gonna take a moment to talk about the composition of mr. monokuma after class (which for some reason is translated here as mr. monokuma's tutoring, but like. not gonna fight it), and i'm gonna do it in the least musical terms possible because i don't know - or don't remember! - what those terms are.

and like. there are two distinct themes/segments in the piece - the main theme, which it opens with and then repeats once (with variation), and then the second theme, which is kind of like a cool down segment that does a trick where you think it's going to end but then doesn't and goes right back to that double loop of the main theme.

etc.

and you could be tricked into thinking that it's literally just a double loop of the main theme because the change the second time through is subtle, but it's important.

roughly 50 seconds in (52, if i'm precise, maybe 51 if i didn't look quick enough), there's a strings section. it's all of two notes.

but for a song that otherwise feels like junko's out here throwing a party, that subtle, blink-and-you'll-miss-it section is very much not a party. it's a little minor tragedy.

the first time i caught it, i thought it was just there in the end, but no, it's there in the first bit of the theme, too.

and like, yes, you can make the argument that it's about the surrounding all the things and how tense they are, but like. mr. monokuma after class is the herald of monokuma himself. it is his theme more than it is anything else, which means it's just as much junko's theme.

and that little bit of bitter underlying the chaotic dance that is the rest of the song is a signifier of her frame of mind - of the mastermind's frame of mind underlying the chaotic dance that is monokuma.

and it is so important to me.

#musings #danganronpa #thh #junko enoshima #monokuma #playlist #ugh listen to the music you'll catch it in the second time through the main theme #it's not a double loop; it's the whole main theme #you THINK it's a double loop IT'S NOT #i just #i have very strong music feelings sometimes y'all and don't the words to like #express how this is important or why this is important #but when you get the same thing again and it's different that's important #like how reprises in musicals function #think of a loop with an additional thing added as like a reprise #the important thing is /what changed/ #and what does the thing that is changed convey #like in meant to be yours - heathers the musical - when jd switches from the weird not-quite-triplet to the triplet in the final time #through the chorus #that MEANS something #so when you get an addition like that in this #it means something! #-sighs- #i feel like i'm just that xkcd comic #ranting about hey mickey or whatever it was