Musical Inspiration Challenge Part 4: The Antagonist

 

Kate Bush.

Never Be Mine by Kate Bush.

Kate Bush is a renowned name. Something that people who follow music should know about. She got her start back in the 70s, in Britain. She’s associated with other such musical luminaries as Peter Gabriel, and is generally considered a pretty solid progressive artist. She sings about weird stuff too. Personally, I’ve always liked her musical composition and singing voice.

I just didn’t envision her for an antagonist, but given that she’s made songs about evil songs, unstable mothers, devils dancing in red shoes and nuclear fallout bothering unborn children, I should’ve known better than to underestimate her. I keep getting thrown off by how soft her music is. 

Ok.. Let’s start trying to examine this one.. Lyrics!

…

I look at you and see
my life that might have been
your face just ghostly in the smoke.
they're setting fire to the cornfields
as you're taking me home.
the smell of burning fields
will now mean you and here.
This is where i want to be
this is what i need
this is where i want to be
this is what i need
this is where i want to be
but i know that this will never be mine.
Ooh, the thrill and the hurting
the thrill and the hurting
i know that this will never be mine.
I want you as the dream
not the reality
that clumsy goodbye kiss could fool me
but i'm looking back over my shoulder
at you, happy without me.
This is where i want to be
this is what i need
this is where i want to be
this is what i need
this is where i want to be
but i know that this will never be mine.
Ooh, the thrill and the hurting
will never be mine.
the thrill and the hurting
it will never be mine.
it can never be
the thrill and the hurting
will never be mine.

…

Ok. I was really, really wrong in thinking this wouldn’t be good as an antagonist inspiration. My apologies Miss Bush. Mea Culpa.

I was thrown off by how slow and soft the song was.

This is freaking GOLD for antagonism.

We’ve got reference to burning cornfields. Loss. Romantic desires, or other desires, left unfulfilled. Nostalgia. Loss.

So to continue to build.

We decided that our inspiration led us to the idea of Hellknights. So, with this particular development, we’ve got an idea for a potential antagonist.

Perhaps someone betrayed by the hellknights? A former lover of one? A child of one? Someone who had their family or love torn apart because of the hellknight’s relentless insane dedication to their brutal destiny and duty?

Loss and bitterness have motivated countless bad folks in the past, but an antagonist isn’t necessarily a ‘bad sort.’ They might just be motivated oddly.

We might also, conceivably, have  a Hellknight driven by their own sense of loss. A family destroyed, or a village decimated, driving them on to actions designed around attempting to conquer or attempting to recreate what they had. Or to preserve.

Useful.

I was wrong to doubt Kate Bush.

Musical Inspiration Challenge Part 2: Our Contestants

Well, let’s begin this poorly thought out challenge idea for an adventure.

I realize I should’ve thought of a way to determine level. Whoops.

Song 1: The Inspiration

A Sound of Thunder, by A Sound of Thunder, from the Album “Out of the Darkness”

This is going to be tricky.

Song 2: The Antagonist.

Never Be Mine by Kate Bush, from the album “Sensual World.”

..not making this easy, huh, iPod? Also yeah, I listen to Kate Bush. I’m old and she’s awesome.
 
Song 3: The aim of the conflict.

Computer Eyes, by Ayreon from the Actual Fantasy Album.

…oh boy. I probably shouldn’t have made this Pathfinder.

Song 4: Why should the players care?

Losing You, by Dream Evil from their Dragonslayer album.

This one should be easy. 


Song 5: The theme of the ‘dungeon.’

Pirate Song by Alestorm from the Black Sails at Midnight album.

Ok, I think I can work with this.. And getting an idea. Alestorm and Kate Bush, yeesh.

 
Song 6: The first complication.
Where is the Walrus? (Instrumental) by Alan Parson’s Project from Stereotomy.

An instrumental titled after walruses. Its ok, Spook, its ok. This is a dumb idea, but WE’LL POWER THROUGH! BWAHAHAHA!

Song 7: Encounter 1.  The first of our encounters.

With or Without You, by U2, from the Joshua Tree Album.

 Well, I’m certainly glad that in my iPod library, with all of the heavy metal I have, it chose the slow pop song by U2 for our encounter. Wouldn’t want to make this easy, would we?

Song 8: Encounter 2.

If I Could Change Your Mind by Alan Parson’s Project from The Definitive Collection. It’s certainly from a real album, but not on my iPod. Artwork on the video looks like its from the album Eve.

Ok, so two out of three of our encounters are now based on easy listening pop and progressive, and our antagonist is based on Kate Bush. I don’t think that this is going to be a barbarian overlord.

Song 9: The Climactic Encounter.

The final battle. THE CLIMAX. Of our opposition against our Kate Bush themed bad guy, and our other encounters involving U2 pop songs and soft 70s prog rock.. We get..

The Evolution of Circuitry by The Megas, from the Megatainment album.

And once again, hrm. Ideas!
Song 10: Reward.

Jonas Psalter by Styx, from Pieces of Eight.

That’s disturbing for its implications about rewards, but..

Song 11: Our Second Complication!

The First Man on Earth by Ayreon from The Universal Migrator.

Even weirder.

So, to summarize what I have to try to form a cohesive story and adventure from..

1.)    Inspiration: A Sound of Thunder by A Sound of Thunder.
2.)    Antagonist: Never Be Mine by Kate Bush
3.)    Conflict: Computer Eyes by Ayreon
4.)    Why should the players care?: Losing You by Dream Evil
5.)    Theme: Pirate Song by Alestorm
6.)    The First Complciation: Where is the Walrus by Alan Parson’s Project
7.)    Encounter 1: With or Without You, by U2
8.)    Encounter 2: If I could Change Your Mind by Alan Parson’s Project.
9.)    Climactic Encounter: The Evolution of Circuitry by The Megas
10.) Reward: Jonas Psalter by Styx
11.) The Second Complication:  The First Man on Earth by Ayreon

First impressions. Apple’s shuffle function is ass. Two Alan Parson’s Project songs and two Ayreon songs in a selection of 11 out of 2,704 musical tracks.

Second impressions. Pirates. Jonas Psalter and Pirate Song are both about piracy, pirates and privateering.

So at the moment, we’re looking at piracy as a potential thing. In our next post though, let’s start unpacking our candidates and see what we can do with them.