Compared to the previous write-ups I wrote here, this one I figured to share in tandem with my recent Hat in Time inspired medley on YouTube, which you can find here: https://youtu.be/Qr4uE2frTJQ
I owed it to myself to basically make a medley of songs, arranged in my own way, to throwback to 2011, when high school began and my troubles did too, up to 2020. In short, celebrating the decade of the good and bad experiences I personally had. This write-up basically expresses each of the meanings of each segment for my journey growing up throughout this medley. Listen along while you read!
Opening:
There’s nothing really much to describe here unless I gave away where I lived, but it’s basically home as you would be when you begin high school for the majority. Although at the same time, it also reflects the recent year as well, it’s a motif of one of my original tracks: Battle! (Mix Mistress). You’ll understand why I went along with this throughout the medley with every song I arranged as the years passed.
Planet Wisp — Sonic Colours (2011):
There’s simply the description of my “old” self: All about them video games, and I guess the first year of adapting through high school. But I had my conflicts I had to deal with, so it wasn’t exactly an easy start. It feels fitting almost with how in Sonic Colours Planet Wisp on one hand looked really awesome, but then Eggman had his influence on it.
Regina’s Theme / Storybrooke Motif — Once Upon a Time (2012):
When high school dramas and my mental health deteriorated, Once Upon a Time was probably the first show that ever had a big impact on me than I ever thought it would: It emphasised on hope, and fighting back against the people who I believed in my own context defined who I was… it was the one episode when Emma Swan, the main protagonist makes a pregnant woman stand firm the latter has to look out for herself and punch back against the ones who are wronging her and doubting her. From there on, I followed the show for the next few seasons. Since it was hard to figure out initially what motifs from the TV series’ soundtrack to use, I found The Evil Queen and Storybrooke’s motifs would work pretty neatly for here.
Funky Radio — Jet Set Radio (2013):
While it was hard to toss up between JSR and Skillet for this particular year (given the latter’s major impact at the time with their music), Jet Set Radio was decided on not simply because of being repetitive in the area of what song to pick for the later segments if I chose Skillet, but the SEGA game got me open more to other genres of music, especially due to the series’ diverse soundtrack. While not as impacting at the time, it did definitely help for the recent years. Of course, Funky Radio was the best suited for the medley and memorable for myself, though I didn’t really have great ways to arrange the track for the project.
Victimised — Linkin Park (2014):
Some high school issues got pretty confusing at times for me, so Victimised stuck out to me this particular year. Generally I had been into LP since 2013, but this year it really had more of an impact. It felt like a year of being.. betrayed in some sense. If not Skillet, Linkin Park played a big factor throughout high school in helping me manage, and thanks to the likes of Jun Senoue and Crush 40’s music, of course I liked them a lot. Rest in peace Chester… we still miss you…
This Will be The Day — RWBY (2015):
Once Upon a Time was an impacting show, but eventually with season breaks and waiting on the new series I had to find time to like something else if not also Sonic the Hedgehog and other SEGA games, or Skillet & Linkin Park music to get me through life. Come forth more fairy-tale power, RWBY was a big influence. Ruby’s optimism and essentially all the main protagonists had a big influence on me, and quite possibly my gender identity in hindsight. It had an amazing soundtrack; I’m certain it was a mashup request of From Shadows with a Metal Gear song that got me into checking out RWBY. And it, much like Once Upon a Time, gave a lot of hope in the roughest of times. I actually went to Supanova earlier in the year in Australia to see Barbara Dunkleman and Arryn Zech (Yang and Blake), and that was a really amazing experience at the time!
Ishgria World Theme (Unsealed Foreign Land) — Brave Frontier (2016):
Alongside RWBY, Brave Frontier was something else I got into in 2015, and since 2016 didn’t have anything majorly impacting that helped me through my graduating year of high school, Brave Frontier was still current and present. Despite it’s mobile availability and it’s “easy for me to pay real life money when I had it on trying to get the Limited Edition units”, it was very impacting given the amount of lore and to some capacity the relatable traits of some of the characters and the inspiration of the quotes characters gave. Also the reality set and possibility that not all “demons” are bad and not all “gods” are good, as the plot had indicated. Ishgria reminded me of high school since Ishgria brought out personally for me the potential and power I had deep down, as the latter did in the story with the allies in-game. That’s why it’s world theme was a pick for the medley.
Game Over — Falling in Reverse (2017):
This was my year I attempted to breathe recovering from high school… my “gap” year if you will. I had nothing new to experience past Cuphead that was big. Probably in hindsight this song was a means to sway me to get over my high school memories and keep moving on with life (similar to RWBY’s Let’s Just Live and Armed & Ready songs at the time), but this year reminded me that you should really if you can give yourself time to breathe if you can’t move forward with your mind held down by school if it was problematic for you as it felt for myself. Rest assured, I’ve pretty much forgiven everyone who’s been troubling over those years.
Mirage — BlazBlue (2018):
I didn’t expect myself to get into a fighting game past Smash, but here we are. I loved the humour and character stories from Calamity Trigger, and that got me into Chronophantasma (*cough Azrael & Terumi*). I related to Ragna so much actually, or felt like it with a “me against the world” mentality I had at the time at some stage. It had a bop soundtrack, and this game I believe is what had me appreciate furthermore (aside from Sonic Lost World), cutscene music. The soundtrack, especially Chronophantasma is brilliant. Battle music wasn’t going to cut it here, so I went for Mirage among the others.
It wasn’t until 2019 I got to play another Pokemon game… it was my childhood, but as things were a LOT changed between pre-high school and in my now “adult” years. I wanted to play the game, but differently… this was how my OC, Mikaela, who’d later have a huge influence on me, came into play. Technically she was designed since that Harry Potter mobile mystery game, when I raised the question of “who would I be if I were a girl”. Truthfully I was all for it. So when Pokemon Sword came into action, I was Mikaela. I wanted to have a “snowy” vibe in this arrangement like the prelude to the champion as the Switch game had conveyed, or foreshadowing I was to be the champion (bugger off, Leon and his amazing Charizard). But this game really helped me express myself… until…
Calamari Inkantation / Mix Mistress — Splatoon / Me! (2020)
Calamari Inkantation wasn’t the melody that touched the hearts of Inklings and Octolings alike when they heard it, it touched mine too! Upon having my Inksona Mikaela set up for Octo Expansion (and to that extent the main game as an inkling I guess), that’s when the questioning and exploring came to be. Then by the end of the year, or close to it, I made my own “themes”, which as you would’ve not dismissed here was incorporated into this medley.
