Soundtrack leitmotif in Fire Emblem games

[leafyleifster]

Pardon my tardiness, but as I was listening to Fire Emblem Awakening's soundtrack, I noticed a little bit of a leitmotif (?) in some of the soundtracks. Examples like Id Serenity, Id Purpose, Id Hope, Id Dilemma and Id Sorrow all have small pieces of melody shared between them. 

I happened to listen to the Fates soundtracks the other day, and I also noticed something similar, that many of the key soundtracks have leitmotifs from the line "You are the Ocean's Grey Waves" in Lost in Thoughts All Alone. Off the top of my head I can only list End of All as a soundtrack that definitely has the leitmotif but I'd like to know, is this a recurring thing in Fire Emblem?

I'm listening through the Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn soundtrack rips right now and it's going to take a while to spot anything common so I thought I'd get the discussion started.

[Interdimensional Observer]

Speaking of Tellius, it is pretty obvious that Caineghis's battle theme- March of the Lion King- is a remix of his normal character theme- Caineghis, King of Lions.

What is less obvious is that Tranquility of Goldoa and Wisdom of Ages are actually the same piece as well. Didn't realize until somebody pointed it out, but now I hear it and I like it. Goldoa's national anthem in peace and in war.

The penultimate boss theme is also a remix of the character's earlier personal theme.

Yet I can't identify whether Brave General, Brave King- Tibarn's theme- has King of the Sky as its own remix. Or if On Black Wings- Naesala's theme- and Wheeling Corby are the same. Listening to them, I'm inclined to say King of the Sky is, but I can't tell at all with Wheeling Corby, if it is a remix, it's been distorted too much for me to see it as such. 

[Baron the Shining Blade]

Leitmotifs are a great part of music in various media, especially in video games and movies. Fire Emblem's got an abundance of them, particularly with a character/faction's theme and their battle themes, most of them from Tellius. I liked Radiant Dawn's soundtrack a lot because of this frequent use of leitmotifs.

• Land of Dragons → Battle for Whose Sake (an exception, as Battle for Whose Sake doesn't seem to draw from Zephiel's Theme as far as I can tell)
• Dark Priestess - Idoun's Theme → Shaman in the Dark
• Black Fang → Softly with Grace
• Black Knight/The Black Knight Lives → Against the Black Knight/Unstoppable Destiny
• His Father's Son → Moving Up  {The repeating part after the class change}
• Ike's Resolution/Like Father, Like Son [FE9] → Champion [FE13]
• Brave General, Brave King → King of the Sky
• Lion King Caineghis → March of the Lion King
• Zelgius the Brave → The Strong
• Tranquility of Goldoa → Wisdom of Ages  {This was plenty obvious, are you kidding?}
• Sephiran's Sorrow → Origin's End
• Id (Serenity)/Id (Sorrow) → Id (Purpose)
• Prelude → "Don't speak her name!"/Old Battlefield {and I think a few other tracks. It's basically the Shepherd's leitmotif, or at least Chrom and family}
• Echoes → Twilight of the Gods

And more I probably overlooked. Here's to more FE leitmotifs in the future. ♪♫

[leafyleifster]

On 26/10/2018 at 9:40 AM, Baron the Shining Blade said:

Leitmotifs are a great part of music in various media, especially in video games and movies. Fire Emblem's got an abundance of them, particularly with a character/faction's theme and their battle themes, most of them from Tellius. I liked Radiant Dawn's soundtrack a lot because of this frequent use of leitmotifs.

• Land of Dragons → Battle for Whose Sake (an exception, as Battle for Whose Sake doesn't seem to draw from Zephiel's Theme as far as I can tell)
• Dark Priestess - Idoun's Theme → Shaman in the Dark
• Black Fang → Softly with Grace
• Black Knight/The Black Knight Lives → Against the Black Knight/Unstoppable Destiny
• His Father's Son → Moving Up  {The repeating part after the class change}
• Ike's Resolution/Like Father, Like Son [FE9] → Champion [FE13]
• Brave General, Brave King → King of the Sky
• Lion King Caineghis → March of the Lion King
• Zelgius the Brave → The Strong
• Tranquility of Goldoa → Wisdom of Ages  {This was plenty obvious, are you kidding?}
• Sephiran's Sorrow → Origin's End
• Id (Serenity)/Id (Sorrow) → Id (Purpose)
• Prelude → "Don't speak her name!"/Old Battlefield {and I think a few other tracks. It's basically the Shepherd's leitmotif, or at least Chrom and family}
• Echoes → Twilight of the Gods

And more I probably overlooked. Here's to more FE leitmotifs in the future. ♪♫

That's quite a detailed look at the soundtracks! I really need to go and continue playing through FE7 and FE9 to hear more of the soundtrack in action. It's always easier to analyse something in context. 

I did notice the Awakening leitmotifs, it's amazing how changing parts of a soundtrack (like the instruments, the pitch or the tempo) can change the emotions conveyed.

Oh man, now I really want to get my wii back from my friend so I can continue FE10 too. 

I'll come back and post an analysis of Id ~ Purpose later on.