Leo's theme is just perfect to me. An excellent example of a character's thoughts and motivations through music. And the emotion behind the way the lyrics are sung just makes it even better.
Ramlethal is a weird one. She's designed to be a Weapon of Mass Destruction, not too different from a robot. Due to her robotic nature, she was born without emotions. Her song is all about learning about the woes and joys of living and coming to terms with her newfound emotions. As her song says: _"The loving foolish world goes on",_ and that's enough for her. She gets to enjoy all the things life has to offer despite its lack of clear answers, despite her uncertainties. She will live on with the things she loves in her heart, because that's all she knows for sure is a certainty. It's why her song is so weird. She quite literally doesn't understand most human concepts, including a proper rhythm. Which is why her song feels so "off" in terms of instruments and lyrics. -------------------------------------- Poor Leo, he's suffering hard in his theme. Leo, much like Ky is a king of Illyria. However, unlike Ky, he's not doing so hot. Both of your interpretations of his theme were near spot on: As a king, you lead your men into battle, and naturally not all of them make it back. During the Crusades - the war against Gears and Humans Leo has had the worst-case scenario happen: *No one but him made it back.* Stricken with severe survivors' guilt, he's coming to _you,_ *_the player_* in this fight hoping you kill him. *Begging* that someone, *anyone,* calls him out on his faulty orders and takes his life so he can atone for what he's done. He's on his hands and knees swinging his weapons as wildly as possible _on purpose,_ deliberately leaving himself open so that you can get a kill blow. This is why the line _"swing the sword"_ is repeated, because that's all Leo can do to both repent for killing his friends and allies, and maintain what little sanity he has left. Contrary to this this "swing the sword" methodology of fighting, he is surpassingly effective against his opponents in combat - and many of them end up not killing Leo and dying themselves in battles against him - forcing him to continuously confront the families of the men he sent into war like lambs to the slaughter. Every time he fights, _"he comes alone again"..._ He is pure balls to the walls, Unga Bunga, button mash energy with a melancholic twist to his character. Sure, he's bombastic and spazzy, but not for the reason you think. All of it is to portray a wounded heart that just wants to atone. Leo doesn't want vengeance, _he wants to _*_friggin' die._* That Latin line _Arc de Triomphe_ translates to "Triumphant Arc" or victory. The lyrics said it was a lie, he had to lie to his soldiers faces. _He knew they weren't going to make it out._ Even the title *_Hellfire_* is a double entendre: both referencing the hellfire him and his army reigned down on the enemy, and what Leo expects for himself both whilst he still lives and once he dies. He fully believes that living on with this guilt feels like Hell, and that's where he'll be sent once he finally dies. To reference *Gekkosquirrel's* video on the interpretation of his theme, this song is just an extended panic attack with heavy metal. It's such an excellent story all revealed through his lyrics. One of the best in the game. ----------------------------------- Nagoriyuki technically has two theme songs: *_What you fight For_* and *_Crawl._* This video has the first one, but not the second. The former, tells the story about how Nago struggles with his vampiric nature. He craves blood, but doesn't really want to drink the life out of people. He's vying for a purpose in the world aside from sustaining his immortality. The entire song much like Leo's, is him talking to himself. He asking himself: "Is this all there is? Do you have purpose?" There are some hints in his theme as to what his purpose might be, however, to truly find out what that purpose he discovers for himself, you'll have to listen to his second theme song: *_Crawl_* *Crawl is unironically one of the best songs in the game* It is used signature as Nagoriyuki's arcade mode boss theme. Can't recommend it enough, as both its message and actual content is pure, unadulterated hype. Probably why I use it to work out so often.
Interesting thing about Ramlethal's theme! At one point the creator mentioned that if he didn't already have a theme for the series as a whole, he would have rather had her theme be for the game as a whole.
Something interesting about the lyrics for Ramlethal's theme is that they're in Esparanto which is an artificial language. This actually does tie into her being an artificial human, she's part of the Valentine series who are genetic clones of one of the scientists who discovered how to turn people into gears through the power of the Backyard. She was created by the Universal Will as a destroyer but, like the other Valentine's besides the first Valentine, she found herself unable to destroy humanity because she discovered her emotions.
Nagoriyuki's theme is about his contridictory nature, he lives as a samurai by the code of bushido, seeking enlightenment and honor. Yet he is also a vampire and thus forced to quell an ever growing thirst for blood, wich goes against who he is as a person. Theres also some lines about avoiding his own doom wich can be connected to the fact that he as a vampire is an immortal being, but it could also relate to him essencially being used as a tool/slave in the games story and his desire to break free from these bindings. The long and short of it is that he is forced to follow the commands of a blue demon man named Happy Chaos, who has bound Nagoriyuki with ancient magic that can impose any command onto him wich he has to follow absolutely, his body physically wont allow him to disobey Happy Chaos for as long as he is under his influence... though this aspekt is more clearly heard in his "second theme" "crawl" wich only plays when you fight Nagoriyuki as the final boss of the arcade mode.
Ramlethal's theme is about her healing from the abuse she received from her 'mother', a villain who created her only to discard her for having some unknown flaw. using her only as an emotionless pawn to further her goals of human extinction, instead choosing her younger twin sister Elphelt for the role that Ramlethal was originally intended for. After fighting Sol Badguy she's captured by him and is held prisoner. During this time, her interactions with Sin Kiske and Elphelt (who's also present as a sleeper agent for their mother) make her come to realise that she has emotions and she adopts a puppy during this time, that liked to bite her fingers. After a while, her mother learns of her capture and sends Bedman (at this time still alive and working with Ramlethal's mother) to go and kill her. Bedman arrives, and Ramlethal agrees to let Bedman kill her, but only if he kills her dog too, so the dog can accompany her to the afterlife. Bedman refuses on the basis that Ramlethal's naive nature makes her a child, and he refuses to kill her. Since she thinks she can be so easily replaced, he kills her dog and replaces it with an identical one and Ramlethal is suprised to find it doesnt bite her fingers, in turn realising that every living thing, including herself, is unique and irreplaceable, leading to her rejecting her mother and joining Sol's quest to stop her. (Also it's funny you thought she was a guy, considering she's a valentine - a species/race/group of female clones derived from the Sol Badguy's dead wife.)
I’ve somehow NEVER heard Ram’s theme after all this time….it’s dope! Meanwhile I’ve been waiting for Leo’s theme. That song and it’s theme of survival’s guilt and maybe even imposters syndrome since he acts so boisterous despite really feeling like he’s a failure for his men dying, was the first time I learned how deep these songs go when it comes to what these characters are all about.
Literally this morning I was thinking wondering when you guys would upload the next video listening to these and here you are! Here's a rundown on these 3 Ramlethal (pronounced Ram luh thall) being the most confusing one makes sense. In order to truly understand her you'd pretty much have to watch the story of Xrd yourself, but the gist is that she's an artificial lifeform created by her enigmatic mother called The Universal Will. She also has a couple of sisters, including the original Valentine who is dead, Elphelt Valentine who she spends most of her time with, and Jack-O Valentine who was actually made by Asuka instead of TUW. The connecting thread between the Valentines is that somehow some way they are connected to Sol Badguys dead lover Aria Hale. Ramlethal first appeared in the story when she came down and declared war on humanity, kickstarting the main characters to want to go out to kick her ass. In canon it's Sol, Ky and Ky's son named Sin, who reach and defeat her, but as they do that she reveals she was just a distraction in order for the Conclave to... do something that really doesn't matter to you right now, and would take too long to explain. Regardless they manage to capture Ram and take her in for questioning, which is when everything unravels for her. When she was created her code basically informed her that she is just an emotionless tool for her mother to wield, but when Sin gets given a chance to interrogate her he ends up very slowly breaking down her walls and revealing that she is indeed a human (human *enough* anyways) capable of uniqueness and emotion, who loves things, including her sister El, and now she also loves her pet puppy, her new friend Sin, and CHEESEBURGERS YOU CAN'T FORGET THE CHEESEBURGERS! this is a really simplified explanation of her arc but Guilty Gear Xrds story mode is essentially an anime where you get to see this all unfold and it's really beautiful, she's an amazing character. The creator of Guilty Gear considers this song to be the secondary theme song for Strive after the main theme, which says a lot about how important she is. Leo Whitefang is the 2nd king of Illyria, alongside the 1st king Ky Kiske and the 3rd king Daryl. They all rule different sections of Illyria simultaneously and they collaborate often. Leo is a big player in the story of Guilty Gear Xrd, and he also fought in the crusades back in the day. You pretty much got what his theme is about lol it's pretty loud and clear. His theme is about his intense survivors guilt. Regardless of how powerful he himself is, and trust me he's no pushover, he considers himself a horrible leader. He feels as though giving his men orders is the same as sending them to their deaths. As a result in battle (including when you play as him as his survivors guilt does indeed affect his gameplay) he sometimes chooses a fighting stance that leaves his back turned to his opponent, eliminating his ability to block in exchange for unrivaled offense. He's borderline suicidal, he wants to do as his men did and die in battle, but if he dies hes going to die fighting as hard as he can. It's really dark, but it's just who he is. Normally he puts on a facade of arrogance to hide all this. Nagoryuki is a vampire, and his debut game was Strive meaning he's new! During the crusades he was forced against his will to cause untold havoc by The Original, and then at some point he found himself slumbering under a building in Illyria (specifically around where Rome is, since Illyria spans all of Europe, most of Asia and a little bit of Africa). During Strive he is woken up and is once again controlled to be nothing but muscle, but he managed to finally break free and helps Sol and gang avert a universe ending crisis. Afterwards he set out to go be alone, but then characters kept jumping him out of nowhere! Usually out of wish to be his friend, test their strengths versus his (Nagoryuki, being a vampire, is stupidly strong), or offer him a place in the world where he can live despite his affliction, but he just doesn't believe that can exist for him. Even so he seems to have sparked a friendship with a handful of characters including Chipp, who bonded with him over their fondness of Japanese culture. Despite his vampiric nature he's really cool and I think he's someone most people would enjoy being in the presence of. I know some other people have dropped their lore dumps too but I just really like talking about Guilty Gear lol, and I hope I've added good context. The next couple videos will definently be a doozy in terms of lore dumps lol. I-No, Jack-O, Happy Chaos, Baiken and Testament are all very deep and of course their songs all slap I'm excited for you two to hear them!
honestly, you guys are fine especially if you do Chaos's theme this month, cause if you ever decide to watch the story mode he's genuinely a strangely spooky character.
Leo is a King by necessity, but a soldier at heart, having been burdened by the responsibility of the lives of his people, which weighs on him, on top of his ptsd from his days as an ordinary soldier. His theme is basically an expression of his heavy survivors guilt, and striking out against it.
Necessary Discrepancy is my favourite track in the game (and it's a fun match to her character/lore) but, yeah, probably not a song you'd throw into a general playlist like some of the others!
Hate to be that guy but her first name is Ramlethal (Ram-luh-thaal), her full name is Ramlethal Valentine. She's an artificial person created in The Backyard (that alternate dimension Sol was in for a while that was one of his durability feats if you remember the Ragna vs Sol death battle) she was born without the capacity to feel emotions but has been in the process of learning how to feel since leaving The Backyard. I'm still not a Guilty Gear scholar though so some of this might be wrong.
sorry for wall of text but i gotta continue some ram info from what tiny bit of lore i remember and my 0 guilty gear game experience Like stated above, Ramlethal is a Valentine, a creature made by the Universal Will to enslave humanity, and said Universal Will lives in the Backyard, sometimes described as a room without a sky. Ramlethal, as well as other creatures born within the universal will, they basically dont know how to think for themselves at first. All they value is the orders of the UW, emotions have no weight or meaning to them... This is never a permanent thing though, as all Backyard creatures gradually pick up on emotions and their value, and this song i think serves as a good jorney through her story... Also i wanted to slap in more but i'm short on time, just want to put in the fact that... While Sol was drunk, Ram wanted to see herself as someone that smiles in the mirror, so sol said "fuck mirrors, dont need glass to tell you you're happy, lets get burgers." and thats probably the biggest (best) step in ram's good arc. Yes, an emotionless killer with flying swords realised that humanity is worth fighting for, worth interacting with, worth just sharing beautiful moments of life together... because of burgers. I wanna get good and play this game series just for ram's story oml
Ramlethal is basically the learning of emotion and what it means to feel feelings for something that was made to essentially be a disposable tool once her purpose was complete. Leo Whitefang is essentially a king and by extension a leader and its easy to see how a good leader that would put themselves on the frontlines with their men would have a lot of survivors guilt or also regret decisions of sending men into battles that end in travesty. Its a dark contrast to a character that otherwise can come off often as quirky and goofy such as the winpose of the soldier accidentally knocking the chair out of the way as he sits down. Nagoriyuki is a vampire or i believe part vampire of a certain clan. Vampires in Guilty Gear are powerful on a scale that makes them almost godlike which is why Slayer, the last known pure vampire that is playable in Xrd, always plays like hes not fighting seriously to the point his defeat pose is basically juat lounging back. Nago's theme plays well on describing his gameplay mechanic which is managing his blood meter that goes up depending on what attacks you do and requires certain attacks to drain it. If it maxes out he goes into a bloodlust state that drains his health completely in a manner of seconds but does give a massive boost in speed, striking power, and special moves.
The meme is that Hellfire is a panic attack put to music. It's more or less accurate. Leo is this overly macho and kind of silly dude who hides his overwhelming survivor's guilt with a facade of bravado. He actually fights with his back turned because he's borderline suicidal. Ram's theme is a bit more esoteric and benefits greatly from the context. It's about abuse, rejecting the explicit purpose of her creation, and learning to actually develop emotion. Her song, Necessary Discrepency, is actually the name of the album. Nagos' theme is about being a vampire and not evil.
Something that I don’t see get said often is that some of the lyrics are hard for us to understand simply because of Daisuke’s “version” of English. I definitely am not trying to talk bad about his work because I honestly think he’s a genius especially with his music, but in general there’s a lot of songs that when directly translated from Japanese to English, there’s idioms that are lost to us and with Daisuke’s work in particular (even before Strive), it is even more the case. All I can really say is that if you’re getting a general understanding of what a song is supposed to be about, that’s probably what it’s about and if there’s lyrics that throw you off, you don’t have to pay them too much attention because you’ll only confuse yourself further. It also helps if you learn of the characters’ lore beforehand but I understand if you want to get to know them through the songs first before delving into the rabbit hole that is guilty gear lore.
Leo is a king and fought against the gears in the crusade this song is about him saying he’s a coward and led many of his people to die in the crusade against the gears and his survivors guilt and him regretting how he led so many people to their deaths
To get a pretty clear interpretation there's a video about the songs you can watch after you do your interpretations of the songs... I'll post it here in case you want to watch later th-cam.com/video/4VzRhScn0rs/w-d-xo.htmlsi=k_PAGs4y25g9__bo
I think it could be cool to see what you think about the guilty gear story which is a bizarre but really fun one, there is a guy in TH-cam called staiven who did a really good video where he goes through the story in just 14 minutes which is probably the fastest way to consume the story in pretty good detail still. TL:DR there is a video talking about the main story off guilty gear called “the entire guilty gear story in 14 minutes” that would be really cool too see a reaction on
These are some very good Themes, i wonder who you cover next? Also, i hope you do: Guilty Gear - Todas Aberturas - All openings - 1998 ~ 2021 by Muita Luta Na Mente at some point. I also hope you do BlazBlue OST too at some point.
Right, short term explanation, Ramlethal Valentine, A Gear who was made by That Man, she is very robotic and very unaware of the feelings that humans experience, she has begun learning the joys and woes of the world throughout the story mode, which is what her theme is about. Leo Whitefang, A king of the Three Kingdoms and was part of the crusade wars against Gears in the past, to keep it short, his theme is essentially Survivor's Guilt: The song, he's a high-risk character for that reason. Nagoriyuki, what is basically a Vampire Samurai who drains blood through honorable combat, he has a separate song called "Crawl", which relates more to the story mode and can be heard as the hard mode final boss theme song against him. (There is a They/Them character in Strive, named Testament, and even a Trans character named Bridget, who was raised as a girl, but I guess finally is a girl as of Strive, Ramlethal Valentine is indeed a She.)
Leo Whitefang one of the three kings of a country where ky kiske is also a king of. His theme is basically about survivor's guilt cause he always lead his people to war and he always came out alive. So he made up his mind to go to a fight as reckless as he can be so that he can cope with it.
It's more that he wants to die but can't off himself cause it would be stomping on the memory of everyone who died, so he fights recklessly to try to die but no one can kill him cause he's unpredictable
Alright, a bit of lore about the characters and what their songs are about: Ramlethal is a "Valentine", an artificial human (or at least humanoid) created by the (now former) big bad Universal Will to be an emotionless and powerful but expendable pawn in her plan. However, after Ramlethals powers were neutralized by Elphelt, her sister who had changed sides and she was captured, Ramlethal slowly awakened to emotions through a combination of friendship, puppies and cheeseburgers (yes, really). Her song is about her rebelling against Universal Will, her mother. The female vocalist in the background is the Universal Will, whose view of humans and humanity as useless Ramlethal eventually agrees with, but then starts to fight against, and eventually she drowns out her mothers voice, concluding herself that "The loving, foolish world is just fine". Leo Whitefang, you pretty much got spot on. He suffers from heavy survivors guilt, which is even shown in his gameplay where he gets more powerful when he turns his back to the enemy, but this makes him unable to block, and therefore easier for him to die in battle. Towards the end of the over a century long war between humans and gears, known as "The Crusades", Leo was a great captain in the Holy Order, the army that fought against them. So great was he, that when the united kingdom of Illyria (consisting of Europe and the western half of Asia) was formed a few years after the end of the Crusades, he was elected as one of the three kings. However, while many were his victories, there were a good number of times when he was the last standing, the only one to make it home. Again and again, he would lead soldiers to battle, knowing the very real chance that none of them would return, while telling the usual lie that they were all going to make it home. Despite being king, he still fights to pay back for all the lives that were lost under his command. He will fight until he feels all of the lives have been answered for, or until he dies. It is quite possible that these events will be one and the same. Nagoriyuki, the noble vampire samurai. He is one of the few remaining Nightless, a species of near-immortal vampire-like creatures. While his vampiric roots make it so he needs blood for sustenance, he prefers to take it honorably in battle rather than the usual vampiric ambushes or manipulation. He was imprisoned in stone for a hundred years, and even when he was released, he was forced to be a pawn in a villains game. Though he is free now, he is in a world that has left him behind. He is a relic of the past, stuck in a new world where he knows nothing and no-one. His song is about his distain for a world that has left him behind, trying to find a new place to belong while also fighting the eternal tide of hunger rising within.
On the topic of fighting games, defo recommend reacting to Street Fighter 6's Arcade cutscenes. Shows off great personality and backstory for all the fighters!
Three pretty cool themes and characters! Don't worry, Ramlethal does go by she/her! Ramlethal Valentine was a being artificially constructed in the Backyard (like, an alternate realm of pure information) with the purpose to aid in humanity's anhililation, and as a result was born without emotions. However, over the course of the prior game, she has begun to develop feelings on her own, and has since joined the side of the protagonists. Her theme can be basically interpreted as being about her reflecting upon her lack of understanding of the purpose of emotions and caring, seeing them as illogical, yet still having come to understand the desire for them. Interesting things to note about it: The beginning lines are sung in Esperanto, a deliberately designed language, which likely alludes to her origin as a being constructed from information. The main vocalist also prominently uses a masculine performance, while the female vocalist only has a few lines. This obviously confused you two, but it likely alludes to Ramlethal's companion "Lucifero", a ball-shaped devil-like creature also born from the Backyard, but much older than her, so much more emotional and chatty (though he usually is split up in two halves that cannot talk - they're the two balls that hold her swords!) Since Lucifero is the more talkative of the two, one could interpret the song as being sung by him to Ramlethal, encouraging her pursue her blossoming emotions. - Leo's song has abit of a different effect if you don't know what he's like in the games, cause it is in complete contrast to his outward personality. Leo Whitefang hails from Germany, and was one of the knights that fought in the Crusades, (the century-long war that preceded the main story of the games), and as a decorated war hero, he has since been named one of the three kings of Illyria (country formed from the remains of europe and russia, plus some surrounding land) He is one of the more "goofy" characters, being very boastful and vain, but easily getting stumped by the things happening around him. He has quotes when he loses a match like "my shoe was untied!" and the like, to give you an idea. I guess you could say he almost has Mr. Satan like vibes, in a sense :^P This song however, revealed a completely different side to him that he pretty much never, ever showed on the outside before. See, back when he fought in the war, he fought in Australia, which was the fiercest and most brutal frontline to be protecting back then, cause the whole continent had fallen to the Gears. Leo was one of the strongest knights the Holy Order had ever produced, so he was naturally the leader of his own battalion, but while he himself could make it through any battle alive, countless of the soldiers under his command died again and again. This is just the reality of war, but Leo has been deeply affected by these losses, calling himself a "liar" for sending soldiers into battle with words like "we'll be going home alive", knowing full well most of them won't. To him it's essentially like he himself was killing his own men. Basically, we now know Leo actually has huge survivor's guilt from his time in the war, and his ego-centric boastful persona is to a degree a facade he puts on in order to deal with those feelings, and to keep leading the people that have chosen him as king, even if he believes he is absolutely unworthy of such a title. -- Nagoriyuki, we don't actually know a tooooon about yet, but he's pretty cool and interesting! He's a vampire, the second vampire to appear in this series, though unlike the first, he wasn't a vampire since birth, and was instead turned. As a result, he has trouble dealing with his blood hunger, both physically and emotionally, and at some point before the series' events, he confined himself to the basement of a building in indefinite meditation, to hopefully not hurt any people. However, the main antagonists of Strive break him out of that and mind control him, to essentially use him as an obstacle for our heroes during the main story. Since then, he's been freed and retreated to the wilderness, but, pretty much most of our heroes are seeking him out, with the intent of helping him in the future. (Which is why in gameplay he's the boss of Arcade Mode) ...And that's where we've left off with him so far. In one scenario, Zato-1 has offered to take him to Slayer, who's the other vampire from the series, so maybe that's where we will go? But yeah. As far as his past goes before he was turned into a vampire, we know he is a samurai that used to serve a lord of his own, who may have a connection to Chipp's master's style of ninjutsu, but yeah, it's only bits and pieces right now. Really Nagoriyuki has been interesting in how he contrasts to Slayer, who's a born vampire as far as we know, and has always seemed super chill and in complete control of himself, whereas Nago is a turned vampire and seems to still be in the phase of struggling with that transformation. --
Ram's theme can basically be broken into 3 sections. The first where she's born and her mom tells her about human history and how horrible we are, and that we need to be exterminated. The second where she shows up to do it, and through actually meeting and interacting with us she falls in love with humanity and the world. Then the third where she attempts to convince her mom that humanity shoudl be given a chance, and that rather than killing them they can help them rise above and be a better species overall. Which is actually what her mom was created to do in the first place by a guy you'll be seeing later, and who's theme I think will be one of Ken's favorites. The female vocals are her mom while the male ones represent Ramlethal. A cool detail is that from the second part on the female vocalist just holds a near constant note as if its Ram's mom actively ignoring all her attempts to tell her to reconsider; while the male one at the very end says "I have the key to leave the door. It can hurt me. It can hurt you" meaning that she gave up reasoning with the universal will, and that she will join the good guys. Both of them knowing full well that she has the power to stand up to her, and even though Ram might not survive the battle she knows for sure in her heart that the loving foolish world is worth it. Also little fun fact the language spoken at the beginning of her song, as well as what all her moves are in is called Esperanto. It's a universal language that was created to be the official "earth" language if we ever become spacefaring and interact with aliens or something like that.
while these videos are really cool. They tend to have the wrong lyrics. Just as a heads-up if you wan to think about what's being said. A lot here seem to be the official videos, but one fan channel has made these videos with wrong lyrics Edit: the puppy in Ramlethal's song has a pretty sad story. She starts to like the puppy, but Bedman kills it (reminder, Bedman is only killing because he thinks if Universal Will's plan goes through he can bring back everyone he has ever killed. He uhh, remembers all their names). He then tells that he can just create a new identical puppy. He does this to teach Ram about emotional attachment. Even though technically it's the same, she just doesn't have the same attachment to the replacement. Plus, she has a crush on Leo. Which is sad funny, because his song is literally about his war time PTSD, one which her creator caused.
Leo's theme is less "I want revenge" and more "Oh God. War is Hell, all these people are dying becuase of me, is this even the right thing to do anymore, but I have to keep up a brave face even as it tears me apart. So I'll overcompensate and be the most manly badass-seeming figure."
Ramlethal is an artificial being who was created as a arbiter of destruction. She's incapabale of emotions, and lacks the understanding of what drives people, and only understood the logic of the world. She's now trying to find the things she wants to do in life while surrounded by new found freinds and family, even if she was made to be a logical being made to kill 😅
I can't stand actually listening to Leo's theme, but damn if it isn't a great exploration of his character. Seeing him in Story mode, his entrances, and his moveset and you just think this guy doesn't care about anything other than himself. He's so damn sure of his invincibility that he turns his back on his opponent, daring them to try to attack. And then you get... that. A cry for help that completely recontextualizes his character and gives him so much more depth than the braggart he shows himself off to be. It's like my least favorite theme in the game, but damn is if it isn't the best.
calling Ram's song a love song is... kinda accurate? its a love song for the world she's come to know. the world she was sent to destroy, but through meeting it's people, chose to fight her creator instead. insisting that the world deserves to live after she saw the heart of others and her own heart. thus the main line "heart and heart".
Guilty Gear Strive music is ok on the instrumental composition but very weird on most of their lyrics. Not a good weird but that's my taste and opinion. This is a common occurrence for english lyrics written by japanese lyricists. On the 80's in Japan, it became trending to put random english words and short phrases on pop songs. From then to now, it became more and more popular and "it's cool because it's english", so it doesn't need to make much sense or be put together in a way that "sounds right" to native english-speakers. The problem for us is that it sounds like a rock-enthusiastic hyperactive 12 year-old wrote it.
Her theme is interesting as it describes all these emotions which she is learning for the first time and by the end comes to terms with the world that things will be okay even if the world is cruel sometimes. Also 🍔🍔🍔 It does feel a little lacking between other themes but It still holds up
It's funny how you were confused about Ramlethal's gender for a moment since Strive is absolutely determined to retcon any and all androgyny out of the franchise to the detriment of every character involved and their stories.
"Mankind knew they could not change society. So, instead of reflecting upon themselves, they blamed the beasts. But they found beauty in the lives of beasts, and could not lie to themselves about it."
![[Part 1] ทารกน้อยถูกทิ้ง👶 หญิงชราเก็บขวดขายเลี้ยงดูเขาจนโต #โลกการละคร](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/nPTDvFCExks/mqdefault.jpg)
Leo's theme is just perfect to me. An excellent example of a character's thoughts and motivations through music. And the emotion behind the way the lyrics are sung just makes it even better.
Agreed. His theme was made me look into the meaning of GG music and what they mean for the character.
Mid
@TheShockVox who actually cares
@@reggielacey2235 dude let people like whatever they want. Stop being such a cock about it
Yeah. I wish my panic attacks were half as cool as Leo's theme
Ramlethal is a weird one.
She's designed to be a Weapon of Mass Destruction, not too different from a robot. Due to her robotic nature, she was born without emotions. Her song is all about learning about the woes and joys of living and coming to terms with her newfound emotions. As her song says: _"The loving foolish world goes on",_ and that's enough for her. She gets to enjoy all the things life has to offer despite its lack of clear answers, despite her uncertainties. She will live on with the things she loves in her heart, because that's all she knows for sure is a certainty.
It's why her song is so weird. She quite literally doesn't understand most human concepts, including a proper rhythm. Which is why her song feels so "off" in terms of instruments and lyrics.
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Poor Leo, he's suffering hard in his theme.
Leo, much like Ky is a king of Illyria. However, unlike Ky, he's not doing so hot. Both of your interpretations of his theme were near spot on:
As a king, you lead your men into battle, and naturally not all of them make it back. During the Crusades - the war against Gears and Humans Leo has had the worst-case scenario happen:
*No one but him made it back.*
Stricken with severe survivors' guilt, he's coming to _you,_ *_the player_* in this fight hoping you kill him.
*Begging* that someone, *anyone,* calls him out on his faulty orders and takes his life so he can atone for what he's done. He's on his hands and knees swinging his weapons as wildly as possible _on purpose,_ deliberately leaving himself open so that you can get a kill blow. This is why the line _"swing the sword"_ is repeated, because that's all Leo can do to both repent for killing his friends and allies, and maintain what little sanity he has left. Contrary to this this "swing the sword" methodology of fighting, he is surpassingly effective against his opponents in combat - and many of them end up not killing Leo and dying themselves in battles against him - forcing him to continuously confront the families of the men he sent into war like lambs to the slaughter. Every time he fights, _"he comes alone again"..._
He is pure balls to the walls, Unga Bunga, button mash energy with a melancholic twist to his character. Sure, he's bombastic and spazzy, but not for the reason you think. All of it is to portray a wounded heart that just wants to atone.
Leo doesn't want vengeance, _he wants to _*_friggin' die._*
That Latin line _Arc de Triomphe_ translates to "Triumphant Arc" or victory. The lyrics said it was a lie, he had to lie to his soldiers faces. _He knew they weren't going to make it out._ Even the title *_Hellfire_* is a double entendre: both referencing the hellfire him and his army reigned down on the enemy, and what Leo expects for himself both whilst he still lives and once he dies. He fully believes that living on with this guilt feels like Hell, and that's where he'll be sent once he finally dies. To reference *Gekkosquirrel's* video on the interpretation of his theme, this song is just an extended panic attack with heavy metal.
It's such an excellent story all revealed through his lyrics. One of the best in the game.
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Nagoriyuki technically has two theme songs: *_What you fight For_* and *_Crawl._* This video has the first one, but not the second.
The former, tells the story about how Nago struggles with his vampiric nature. He craves blood, but doesn't really want to drink the life out of people. He's vying for a purpose in the world aside from sustaining his immortality. The entire song much like Leo's, is him talking to himself. He asking himself: "Is this all there is? Do you have purpose?" There are some hints in his theme as to what his purpose might be, however, to truly find out what that purpose he discovers for himself, you'll have to listen to his second theme song: *_Crawl_*
*Crawl is unironically one of the best songs in the game*
It is used signature as Nagoriyuki's arcade mode boss theme. Can't recommend it enough, as both its message and actual content is pure, unadulterated hype. Probably why I use it to work out so often.
Ram's not a Gear, she's a Valentine!
@@kaialone
Nice catch. My GG lore is super rusty, didn't know there was a difference.
Couldn't have explained it better myself. They'll need you to explain Ino's I'm sure.
@@kaialonethat’s actually funny moment because it’s true lol
@@Bondrewd__21 I wasn't making a joke :^p
That "Grim Reaper" part in Leo's theme makes me burst in tears every time.
Poor man didn't deserved all of this.
Interesting thing about Ramlethal's theme! At one point the creator mentioned that if he didn't already have a theme for the series as a whole, he would have rather had her theme be for the game as a whole.
It IS the best song to be fair.
They even named the games soundtrack Necessary Descrepancy, I never knew it was for that reason but I guess it makes a lot more sense to me now lol.
@@ImCroozyWell non bias it’s not but since she’s my favorite character it is (but I still think Smell of the game is the best song)
Something interesting about the lyrics for Ramlethal's theme is that they're in Esparanto which is an artificial language. This actually does tie into her being an artificial human, she's part of the Valentine series who are genetic clones of one of the scientists who discovered how to turn people into gears through the power of the Backyard. She was created by the Universal Will as a destroyer but, like the other Valentine's besides the first Valentine, she found herself unable to destroy humanity because she discovered her emotions.
Btw, Nago technically has another theme. It's called 'Crawl' and it's the arcade boss theme and one of my personal favorites in the entire OST :)
Seconded. Best song in the entire OST.
Freedom for Carl!
@@r3dr4te963 FOR CARL! ROCK AND STONE!
Nagoriyuki's theme is about his contridictory nature, he lives as a samurai by the code of bushido, seeking enlightenment and honor. Yet he is also a vampire and thus forced to quell an ever growing thirst for blood, wich goes against who he is as a person.
Theres also some lines about avoiding his own doom wich can be connected to the fact that he as a vampire is an immortal being, but it could also relate to him essencially being used as a tool/slave in the games story and his desire to break free from these bindings.
The long and short of it is that he is forced to follow the commands of a blue demon man named Happy Chaos, who has bound Nagoriyuki with ancient magic that can impose any command onto him wich he has to follow absolutely, his body physically wont allow him to disobey Happy Chaos for as long as he is under his influence... though this aspekt is more clearly heard in his "second theme" "crawl" wich only plays when you fight Nagoriyuki as the final boss of the arcade mode.
Ramlethal's theme is about her healing from the abuse she received from her 'mother', a villain who created her only to discard her for having some unknown flaw. using her only as an emotionless pawn to further her goals of human extinction, instead choosing her younger twin sister Elphelt for the role that Ramlethal was originally intended for. After fighting Sol Badguy she's captured by him and is held prisoner. During this time, her interactions with Sin Kiske and Elphelt (who's also present as a sleeper agent for their mother) make her come to realise that she has emotions and she adopts a puppy during this time, that liked to bite her fingers. After a while, her mother learns of her capture and sends Bedman (at this time still alive and working with Ramlethal's mother) to go and kill her. Bedman arrives, and Ramlethal agrees to let Bedman kill her, but only if he kills her dog too, so the dog can accompany her to the afterlife. Bedman refuses on the basis that Ramlethal's naive nature makes her a child, and he refuses to kill her. Since she thinks she can be so easily replaced, he kills her dog and replaces it with an identical one and Ramlethal is suprised to find it doesnt bite her fingers, in turn realising that every living thing, including herself, is unique and irreplaceable, leading to her rejecting her mother and joining Sol's quest to stop her.
(Also it's funny you thought she was a guy, considering she's a valentine - a species/race/group of female clones derived from the Sol Badguy's dead wife.)
Wow Ram Lethal has an incredibly sad story 😢
And Sin that gave her a hamburger
I’ve somehow NEVER heard Ram’s theme after all this time….it’s dope! Meanwhile I’ve been waiting for Leo’s theme. That song and it’s theme of survival’s guilt and maybe even imposters syndrome since he acts so boisterous despite really feeling like he’s a failure for his men dying, was the first time I learned how deep these songs go when it comes to what these characters are all about.
Nagoriyuki’s Theme is my favorite out of the three.
Literally this morning I was thinking wondering when you guys would upload the next video listening to these and here you are! Here's a rundown on these 3
Ramlethal (pronounced Ram luh thall) being the most confusing one makes sense. In order to truly understand her you'd pretty much have to watch the story of Xrd yourself, but the gist is that she's an artificial lifeform created by her enigmatic mother called The Universal Will. She also has a couple of sisters, including the original Valentine who is dead, Elphelt Valentine who she spends most of her time with, and Jack-O Valentine who was actually made by Asuka instead of TUW. The connecting thread between the Valentines is that somehow some way they are connected to Sol Badguys dead lover Aria Hale. Ramlethal first appeared in the story when she came down and declared war on humanity, kickstarting the main characters to want to go out to kick her ass. In canon it's Sol, Ky and Ky's son named Sin, who reach and defeat her, but as they do that she reveals she was just a distraction in order for the Conclave to... do something that really doesn't matter to you right now, and would take too long to explain. Regardless they manage to capture Ram and take her in for questioning, which is when everything unravels for her. When she was created her code basically informed her that she is just an emotionless tool for her mother to wield, but when Sin gets given a chance to interrogate her he ends up very slowly breaking down her walls and revealing that she is indeed a human (human *enough* anyways) capable of uniqueness and emotion, who loves things, including her sister El, and now she also loves her pet puppy, her new friend Sin, and CHEESEBURGERS YOU CAN'T FORGET THE CHEESEBURGERS! this is a really simplified explanation of her arc but Guilty Gear Xrds story mode is essentially an anime where you get to see this all unfold and it's really beautiful, she's an amazing character. The creator of Guilty Gear considers this song to be the secondary theme song for Strive after the main theme, which says a lot about how important she is.
Leo Whitefang is the 2nd king of Illyria, alongside the 1st king Ky Kiske and the 3rd king Daryl. They all rule different sections of Illyria simultaneously and they collaborate often. Leo is a big player in the story of Guilty Gear Xrd, and he also fought in the crusades back in the day. You pretty much got what his theme is about lol it's pretty loud and clear. His theme is about his intense survivors guilt. Regardless of how powerful he himself is, and trust me he's no pushover, he considers himself a horrible leader. He feels as though giving his men orders is the same as sending them to their deaths. As a result in battle (including when you play as him as his survivors guilt does indeed affect his gameplay) he sometimes chooses a fighting stance that leaves his back turned to his opponent, eliminating his ability to block in exchange for unrivaled offense. He's borderline suicidal, he wants to do as his men did and die in battle, but if he dies hes going to die fighting as hard as he can. It's really dark, but it's just who he is. Normally he puts on a facade of arrogance to hide all this.
Nagoryuki is a vampire, and his debut game was Strive meaning he's new! During the crusades he was forced against his will to cause untold havoc by The Original, and then at some point he found himself slumbering under a building in Illyria (specifically around where Rome is, since Illyria spans all of Europe, most of Asia and a little bit of Africa). During Strive he is woken up and is once again controlled to be nothing but muscle, but he managed to finally break free and helps Sol and gang avert a universe ending crisis. Afterwards he set out to go be alone, but then characters kept jumping him out of nowhere! Usually out of wish to be his friend, test their strengths versus his (Nagoryuki, being a vampire, is stupidly strong), or offer him a place in the world where he can live despite his affliction, but he just doesn't believe that can exist for him. Even so he seems to have sparked a friendship with a handful of characters including Chipp, who bonded with him over their fondness of Japanese culture. Despite his vampiric nature he's really cool and I think he's someone most people would enjoy being in the presence of.
I know some other people have dropped their lore dumps too but I just really like talking about Guilty Gear lol, and I hope I've added good context. The next couple videos will definently be a doozy in terms of lore dumps lol. I-No, Jack-O, Happy Chaos, Baiken and Testament are all very deep and of course their songs all slap I'm excited for you two to hear them!
Well who doesn’t love a good cheeseburger 🍔 😋. Thanks for adding more details for these characters and giving us the lore to understand these songs 🙂
Ramlethal my personal favorite song
Nagoriyuki is a vampire so i guess that counts for spooky season
Always enjoy watching you guys puzzle stuff out, the insight is really impressive!
honestly, you guys are fine especially if you do Chaos's theme this month, cause if you ever decide to watch the story mode he's genuinely a strangely spooky character.
for context, a good way to describe him without spoilers is "too much of a good thing can make it bad."
Leo is a King by necessity, but a soldier at heart, having been burdened by the responsibility of the lives of his people, which weighs on him, on top of his ptsd from his days as an ordinary soldier.
His theme is basically an expression of his heavy survivors guilt, and striking out against it.
Can't wait till you two get to my favorite song, cause its so catchy, and so relatable.
Bridget's theme.
Necessary Discrepancy is my favourite track in the game (and it's a fun match to her character/lore) but, yeah, probably not a song you'd throw into a general playlist like some of the others!
Hate to be that guy but her first name is Ramlethal (Ram-luh-thaal), her full name is Ramlethal Valentine. She's an artificial person created in The Backyard (that alternate dimension Sol was in for a while that was one of his durability feats if you remember the Ragna vs Sol death battle) she was born without the capacity to feel emotions but has been in the process of learning how to feel since leaving The Backyard. I'm still not a Guilty Gear scholar though so some of this might be wrong.
sorry for wall of text but i gotta continue some ram info from what tiny bit of lore i remember and my 0 guilty gear game experience
Like stated above, Ramlethal is a Valentine, a creature made by the Universal Will to enslave humanity, and said Universal Will lives in the Backyard, sometimes described as a room without a sky. Ramlethal, as well as other creatures born within the universal will, they basically dont know how to think for themselves at first. All they value is the orders of the UW, emotions have no weight or meaning to them... This is never a permanent thing though, as all Backyard creatures gradually pick up on emotions and their value, and this song i think serves as a good jorney through her story... Also i wanted to slap in more but i'm short on time, just want to put in the fact that...
While Sol was drunk, Ram wanted to see herself as someone that smiles in the mirror, so sol said "fuck mirrors, dont need glass to tell you you're happy, lets get burgers." and thats probably the biggest (best) step in ram's good arc. Yes, an emotionless killer with flying swords realised that humanity is worth fighting for, worth interacting with, worth just sharing beautiful moments of life together... because of burgers. I wanna get good and play this game series just for ram's story oml
Ramlethal is basically the learning of emotion and what it means to feel feelings for something that was made to essentially be a disposable tool once her purpose was complete.
Leo Whitefang is essentially a king and by extension a leader and its easy to see how a good leader that would put themselves on the frontlines with their men would have a lot of survivors guilt or also regret decisions of sending men into battles that end in travesty. Its a dark contrast to a character that otherwise can come off often as quirky and goofy such as the winpose of the soldier accidentally knocking the chair out of the way as he sits down.
Nagoriyuki is a vampire or i believe part vampire of a certain clan. Vampires in Guilty Gear are powerful on a scale that makes them almost godlike which is why Slayer, the last known pure vampire that is playable in Xrd, always plays like hes not fighting seriously to the point his defeat pose is basically juat lounging back. Nago's theme plays well on describing his gameplay mechanic which is managing his blood meter that goes up depending on what attacks you do and requires certain attacks to drain it. If it maxes out he goes into a bloodlust state that drains his health completely in a manner of seconds but does give a massive boost in speed, striking power, and special moves.
Can’t wait for us to reach The Hourglass and Just Lean
Can't wait for the circle. My favorite for sure
“Ram Lethal” is really funny to me lmao
I always love the reaction vids. It might be beneficial to give thoughts about one so g before moving to the next.
The meme is that Hellfire is a panic attack put to music. It's more or less accurate. Leo is this overly macho and kind of silly dude who hides his overwhelming survivor's guilt with a facade of bravado. He actually fights with his back turned because he's borderline suicidal.
Ram's theme is a bit more esoteric and benefits greatly from the context. It's about abuse, rejecting the explicit purpose of her creation, and learning to actually develop emotion. Her song, Necessary Discrepency, is actually the name of the album.
Nagos' theme is about being a vampire and not evil.
Something that I don’t see get said often is that some of the lyrics are hard for us to understand simply because of Daisuke’s “version” of English. I definitely am not trying to talk bad about his work because I honestly think he’s a genius especially with his music, but in general there’s a lot of songs that when directly translated from Japanese to English, there’s idioms that are lost to us and with Daisuke’s work in particular (even before Strive), it is even more the case. All I can really say is that if you’re getting a general understanding of what a song is supposed to be about, that’s probably what it’s about and if there’s lyrics that throw you off, you don’t have to pay them too much attention because you’ll only confuse yourself further. It also helps if you learn of the characters’ lore beforehand but I understand if you want to get to know them through the songs first before delving into the rabbit hole that is guilty gear lore.
Yes finally. Ram's theme is my favorite in the game
Leo is a king and fought against the gears in the crusade this song is about him saying he’s a coward and led many of his people to die in the crusade against the gears and his survivors guilt and him regretting how he led so many people to their deaths
Ram's song is a complex song to a complex character, so I understand you guys getting lost on the sauce
Lost on the sauce haha. Love that phrase
Nha he is the second king, the first is Ky Kiske
I love leo whitefang and his ost
To get a pretty clear interpretation there's a video about the songs you can watch after you do your interpretations of the songs... I'll post it here in case you want to watch later
th-cam.com/video/4VzRhScn0rs/w-d-xo.htmlsi=k_PAGs4y25g9__bo
I think it could be cool to see what you think about the guilty gear story which is a bizarre but really fun one, there is a guy in TH-cam called staiven who did a really good video where he goes through the story in just 14 minutes which is probably the fastest way to consume the story in pretty good detail still.
TL:DR there is a video talking about the main story off guilty gear called “the entire guilty gear story in 14 minutes” that would be really cool too see a reaction on
These are some very good Themes, i wonder who you cover next?
Also, i hope you do: Guilty Gear - Todas Aberturas - All openings - 1998 ~ 2021 by Muita Luta Na Mente at some point.
I also hope you do BlazBlue OST too at some point.
Yeeeeaaaah my baby Ram!
Right, short term explanation,
Ramlethal Valentine, A Gear who was made by That Man, she is very robotic and very unaware of the feelings that humans experience, she has begun learning the joys and woes of the world throughout the story mode, which is what her theme is about.
Leo Whitefang, A king of the Three Kingdoms and was part of the crusade wars against Gears in the past, to keep it short, his theme is essentially Survivor's Guilt: The song, he's a high-risk character for that reason.
Nagoriyuki, what is basically a Vampire Samurai who drains blood through honorable combat, he has a separate song called "Crawl", which relates more to the story mode and can be heard as the hard mode final boss theme song against him.
(There is a They/Them character in Strive, named Testament, and even a Trans character named Bridget, who was raised as a girl, but I guess finally is a girl as of Strive, Ramlethal Valentine is indeed a She.)
HO HO, ALL OF THEM ARE AMAZING :3 💜💜
Leo Whitefang one of the three kings of a country where ky kiske is also a king of. His theme is basically about survivor's guilt cause he always lead his people to war and he always came out alive. So he made up his mind to go to a fight as reckless as he can be so that he can cope with it.
Also there is a video by gekko squirrel where tell the meaning of the theme if you guys can react to it, it will be amazing
It's more that he wants to die but can't off himself cause it would be stomping on the memory of everyone who died, so he fights recklessly to try to die but no one can kill him cause he's unpredictable
Alright, a bit of lore about the characters and what their songs are about:
Ramlethal is a "Valentine", an artificial human (or at least humanoid) created by the (now former) big bad Universal Will to be an emotionless and powerful but expendable pawn in her plan. However, after Ramlethals powers were neutralized by Elphelt, her sister who had changed sides and she was captured, Ramlethal slowly awakened to emotions through a combination of friendship, puppies and cheeseburgers (yes, really).
Her song is about her rebelling against Universal Will, her mother. The female vocalist in the background is the Universal Will, whose view of humans and humanity as useless Ramlethal eventually agrees with, but then starts to fight against, and eventually she drowns out her mothers voice, concluding herself that "The loving, foolish world is just fine".
Leo Whitefang, you pretty much got spot on. He suffers from heavy survivors guilt, which is even shown in his gameplay where he gets more powerful when he turns his back to the enemy, but this makes him unable to block, and therefore easier for him to die in battle. Towards the end of the over a century long war between humans and gears, known as "The Crusades", Leo was a great captain in the Holy Order, the army that fought against them. So great was he, that when the united kingdom of Illyria (consisting of Europe and the western half of Asia) was formed a few years after the end of the Crusades, he was elected as one of the three kings.
However, while many were his victories, there were a good number of times when he was the last standing, the only one to make it home. Again and again, he would lead soldiers to battle, knowing the very real chance that none of them would return, while telling the usual lie that they were all going to make it home. Despite being king, he still fights to pay back for all the lives that were lost under his command. He will fight until he feels all of the lives have been answered for, or until he dies. It is quite possible that these events will be one and the same.
Nagoriyuki, the noble vampire samurai. He is one of the few remaining Nightless, a species of near-immortal vampire-like creatures. While his vampiric roots make it so he needs blood for sustenance, he prefers to take it honorably in battle rather than the usual vampiric ambushes or manipulation. He was imprisoned in stone for a hundred years, and even when he was released, he was forced to be a pawn in a villains game. Though he is free now, he is in a world that has left him behind. He is a relic of the past, stuck in a new world where he knows nothing and no-one. His song is about his distain for a world that has left him behind, trying to find a new place to belong while also fighting the eternal tide of hunger rising within.
On the topic of fighting games, defo recommend reacting to Street Fighter 6's Arcade cutscenes. Shows off great personality and backstory for all the fighters!
Three pretty cool themes and characters!
Don't worry, Ramlethal does go by she/her!
Ramlethal Valentine was a being artificially constructed in the Backyard (like, an alternate realm of pure information) with the purpose to aid in humanity's anhililation, and as a result was born without emotions. However, over the course of the prior game, she has begun to develop feelings on her own, and has since joined the side of the protagonists.
Her theme can be basically interpreted as being about her reflecting upon her lack of understanding of the purpose of emotions and caring, seeing them as illogical, yet still having come to understand the desire for them.
Interesting things to note about it:
The beginning lines are sung in Esperanto, a deliberately designed language, which likely alludes to her origin as a being constructed from information.
The main vocalist also prominently uses a masculine performance, while the female vocalist only has a few lines. This obviously confused you two, but it likely alludes to Ramlethal's companion "Lucifero", a ball-shaped devil-like creature also born from the Backyard, but much older than her, so much more emotional and chatty (though he usually is split up in two halves that cannot talk - they're the two balls that hold her swords!)
Since Lucifero is the more talkative of the two, one could interpret the song as being sung by him to Ramlethal, encouraging her pursue her blossoming emotions.
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Leo's song has abit of a different effect if you don't know what he's like in the games, cause it is in complete contrast to his outward personality.
Leo Whitefang hails from Germany, and was one of the knights that fought in the Crusades, (the century-long war that preceded the main story of the games), and as a decorated war hero, he has since been named one of the three kings of Illyria (country formed from the remains of europe and russia, plus some surrounding land)
He is one of the more "goofy" characters, being very boastful and vain, but easily getting stumped by the things happening around him. He has quotes when he loses a match like "my shoe was untied!" and the like, to give you an idea. I guess you could say he almost has Mr. Satan like vibes, in a sense :^P
This song however, revealed a completely different side to him that he pretty much never, ever showed on the outside before.
See, back when he fought in the war, he fought in Australia, which was the fiercest and most brutal frontline to be protecting back then, cause the whole continent had fallen to the Gears.
Leo was one of the strongest knights the Holy Order had ever produced, so he was naturally the leader of his own battalion, but while he himself could make it through any battle alive, countless of the soldiers under his command died again and again.
This is just the reality of war, but Leo has been deeply affected by these losses, calling himself a "liar" for sending soldiers into battle with words like "we'll be going home alive", knowing full well most of them won't. To him it's essentially like he himself was killing his own men.
Basically, we now know Leo actually has huge survivor's guilt from his time in the war, and his ego-centric boastful persona is to a degree a facade he puts on in order to deal with those feelings, and to keep leading the people that have chosen him as king, even if he believes he is absolutely unworthy of such a title.
--
Nagoriyuki, we don't actually know a tooooon about yet, but he's pretty cool and interesting!
He's a vampire, the second vampire to appear in this series, though unlike the first, he wasn't a vampire since birth, and was instead turned.
As a result, he has trouble dealing with his blood hunger, both physically and emotionally, and at some point before the series' events, he confined himself to the basement of a building in indefinite meditation, to hopefully not hurt any people.
However, the main antagonists of Strive break him out of that and mind control him, to essentially use him as an obstacle for our heroes during the main story.
Since then, he's been freed and retreated to the wilderness, but, pretty much most of our heroes are seeking him out, with the intent of helping him in the future. (Which is why in gameplay he's the boss of Arcade Mode)
...And that's where we've left off with him so far.
In one scenario, Zato-1 has offered to take him to Slayer, who's the other vampire from the series, so maybe that's where we will go? But yeah.
As far as his past goes before he was turned into a vampire, we know he is a samurai that used to serve a lord of his own, who may have a connection to Chipp's master's style of ninjutsu, but yeah, it's only bits and pieces right now.
Really Nagoriyuki has been interesting in how he contrasts to Slayer, who's a born vampire as far as we know, and has always seemed super chill and in complete control of himself, whereas Nago is a turned vampire and seems to still be in the phase of struggling with that transformation.
--
Ram's theme can basically be broken into 3 sections.
The first where she's born and her mom tells her about human history and how horrible we are, and that we need to be exterminated.
The second where she shows up to do it, and through actually meeting and interacting with us she falls in love with humanity and the world.
Then the third where she attempts to convince her mom that humanity shoudl be given a chance, and that rather than killing them they can help them rise above and be a better species overall. Which is actually what her mom was created to do in the first place by a guy you'll be seeing later, and who's theme I think will be one of Ken's favorites.
The female vocals are her mom while the male ones represent Ramlethal. A cool detail is that from the second part on the female vocalist just holds a near constant note as if its Ram's mom actively ignoring all her attempts to tell her to reconsider; while the male one at the very end says "I have the key to leave the door. It can hurt me. It can hurt you" meaning that she gave up reasoning with the universal will, and that she will join the good guys. Both of them knowing full well that she has the power to stand up to her, and even though Ram might not survive the battle she knows for sure in her heart that the loving foolish world is worth it.
Also little fun fact the language spoken at the beginning of her song, as well as what all her moves are in is called Esperanto. It's a universal language that was created to be the official "earth" language if we ever become spacefaring and interact with aliens or something like that.
Bridget Theme The Town Inside Me😌
while these videos are really cool. They tend to have the wrong lyrics. Just as a heads-up if you wan to think about what's being said. A lot here seem to be the official videos, but one fan channel has made these videos with wrong lyrics
Edit: the puppy in Ramlethal's song has a pretty sad story. She starts to like the puppy, but Bedman kills it (reminder, Bedman is only killing because he thinks if Universal Will's plan goes through he can bring back everyone he has ever killed. He uhh, remembers all their names). He then tells that he can just create a new identical puppy. He does this to teach Ram about emotional attachment. Even though technically it's the same, she just doesn't have the same attachment to the replacement.
Plus, she has a crush on Leo. Which is sad funny, because his song is literally about his war time PTSD, one which her creator caused.
Leo's theme is less "I want revenge" and more "Oh God. War is Hell, all these people are dying becuase of me, is this even the right thing to do anymore, but I have to keep up a brave face even as it tears me apart. So I'll overcompensate and be the most manly badass-seeming figure."
Ramlethal is an artificial being who was created as a arbiter of destruction. She's incapabale of emotions, and lacks the understanding of what drives people, and only understood the logic of the world.
She's now trying to find the things she wants to do in life while surrounded by new found freinds and family, even if she was made to be a logical being made to kill 😅
Also her two giant swords are carried by these bat zombie characters that cam combine into one being
Ramlethal (pronounced ram-leh-thal) identifies as female. We have a they/them in the game though and that's Testament.
Correction, testament is agender, meaning she doesn't care what pronouns you call him.
@@runedoom you might wanna check the wiki on that one.
@@Touya82TT eh, even his theme implies that testament doesn't really care about what pronouns you use on her.
@@ruiK774 Implication isn't the same as the official materials saying they/them though.
@@Touya82TT yes, but then again testament is too much of a chad to not really care in the first place
HELLFIRE HELLFIRE
Pls do the circle and just lean next
Ah yes, Leo Whitefang's theme aka survivors guilt the song
Should do baiken’s or Johnny’s ost there both so good.
Ramlethal's theme feels like...
A bit of Dream Theater and a bit of Muse. And a whole lot of emotion.
I gotta say. The loremasters in the comments are killing it. Still waiting for Happy Chaots.
Ah yes. Hellfire aka PTSD the song.
Guys, just saying but.
Ramlethal is spelt without a space
Thanks! Will correct
I can't stand actually listening to Leo's theme, but damn if it isn't a great exploration of his character. Seeing him in Story mode, his entrances, and his moveset and you just think this guy doesn't care about anything other than himself. He's so damn sure of his invincibility that he turns his back on his opponent, daring them to try to attack.
And then you get... that. A cry for help that completely recontextualizes his character and gives him so much more depth than the braggart he shows himself off to be.
It's like my least favorite theme in the game, but damn is if it isn't the best.
These themes are pretty weird sounding without context I bet lmao. I recommend Jack-o’s theme and I-no’s they’re both pretty good
🎉Guilty Gear🎉
Ramlethal's theme in a nutshell
Mankind kinda sucks but also lovely
Hi guys please react to the first black Samurai Warrior in history
calling Ram's song a love song is... kinda accurate? its a love song for the world she's come to know. the world she was sent to destroy, but through meeting it's people, chose to fight her creator instead. insisting that the world deserves to live after she saw the heart of others and her own heart. thus the main line "heart and heart".
Huge
Rams theme always has me conflicted cause the intro is sick but then it starts to kinda fall apart a bit
The song sounds confused, but I think thats the point of it.
Can you guys play persona 5, its a rpg game, and its a very long game,
Guilty Gear Strive music is ok on the instrumental composition but very weird on most of their lyrics. Not a good weird but that's my taste and opinion.
This is a common occurrence for english lyrics written by japanese lyricists. On the 80's in Japan, it became trending to put random english words and short phrases on pop songs. From then to now, it became more and more popular and "it's cool because it's english", so it doesn't need to make much sense or be put together in a way that "sounds right" to native english-speakers. The problem for us is that it sounds like a rock-enthusiastic hyperactive 12 year-old wrote it.
Agreed, still like it though.
Can you please do a reaction for naraka bladepoint please
Pls react to red vs blue
Ramlethal is a girl, just to clarify.
Ramlethal is a women 👍
Her theme is interesting as it describes all these emotions which she is learning for the first time and by the end comes to terms with the world that things will be okay even if the world is cruel sometimes. Also 🍔🍔🍔
It does feel a little lacking between other themes but It still holds up
Ram lethal is woman
It's funny how you were confused about Ramlethal's gender for a moment since Strive is absolutely determined to retcon any and all androgyny out of the franchise to the detriment of every character involved and their stories.
"Mankind knew they could not change society. So, instead of reflecting upon themselves, they blamed the beasts. But they found beauty in the lives of beasts, and could not lie to themselves about it."