Leitmotif - Television Tropes & Idioms

Tom Servo: Steve's dead now. From here on in, Steve's death will be represented by the oboe.

—Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode #209, "The Hellcats"

A leitmotif is a piece of music used repeatedly to represent a character, theme or action. This is a well-established technique used in almost every medium that involves music and story. The leitmotif technique was invented (or at least perfected) by opera composer Richard Wagner in the second half of the 1800s. In his operas, not only would every character have his/her own motif, but also objects, places, and even abstract ideas.

Leitmotifs are often named simply "<character>'s Theme" or "<noun> Motif." They often make up the bulk of movie and anime soundtracks, and a fair chunk of video game soundtracks as well.

Fairly common in anime, where often every major character will have a piece of theme music.

This is different from an Image Song in that image songs exist only outside of the scope of the show that produced them. Compare with I Am Song.

If a character with a distinctive-sounding Leitmotif is in a production or episode that breaks the Fourth Wall, one of his or her fellows may come to make a comment on how loud and annoying their theme music is. (To which the character will almost always reply, "What theme music?") The character might also have their leitmotif as their own ringtone, for a subtler joke. See also Sorry I Left The BGM On.

Can become a Recurring Riff when used throughout a long-running series.

Examples:

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Anime

Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni has the song "Dear You", with quite a few different versions appearing on the soundtracks and some characters getting their own version, each named something slightly different and features a different arrangement. It doubles as both a letimotif and an Image Song. It became so popular that fans made different versions for each of the characters who didn't get one. A mini-album was released with four different versions.
- Dear You -Cry- is Ryuugu Rena's version.
- Dear You -Feel- is Sonozaki Mion's version.
- Dear You -Hope- is Furude Rika's version.
- Dear You -Kind- is Houjou Satoko's version.
  - The mini album featured Otome ~You Were There In The Wind Of Summer, which uses the same arrangement.
- Maebara Keiichi also got his own version that used the same arragement but was called Ano Hi, Ano Basho, Subete ni, "Arigatou".
- Recently, a version featuring all the main cast was released, called With "You" -Kizuna-".
- The original letimotif that appears in the series has numerous versions arranged by various people, including You (M.Box Style) by Dai, You - Vision Im Spiegel by Yuzuki and a vocal version by Dai.
Sailor Moon has numerous bits of theme music and leit-motifs that appear repeatedly throughout the show. The first two seasons of the English dub used none of the original soundtrack, but it did retain the concept of having individual themes even though it used them more sparingly. When the show's license switched over after Sailor Moon R, the new license holder (likely out of laziness) just kept the soundtrack as is.
- The arrival of Tuxedo Mask was usually accompanied by his own tinkly romantic theme complete with castanets. The English dub changed this to a distinct Spanish-sounding guitar riff that also had a "mournful" version.
- Sailor Moon herself had the most individual theme music of any character. Each attack, transformation, and even her disguise pen had unique music themes. The transformations even had her name sung as part of the music. It was also common to hear one of these themes played as battle music when the Senshi had the upper hand in battle. The English dub gave her one transformation song and one attack song that were used regardless of what season it was, which led to some problems by the time they adapted Sailor Moon R because the songs clearly did not fit the length of the stock footage anymore.
  - Furthermore, Sailor Moon's requisite speeches also had their own theme music, though the dub gave her a different one.
- The other four Guardian Senshi, starting with Sailor Moon R and beyond, each had their own individual transformation themes. The dub, regardless of the season, gave them all one piece of music to share, but also added a second theme that played to indicate that a Sailor Senshi was attacking in general.
- ChibiUsa had a few themes exclusively for her in the Japanese version - one for whenever she used her Luna P, and one in Sailor Moon R that played whenever she was particularly upset and lonely, actually named "Chibi Usa no omoi" (ChibiUsa's feelings). In the Sailor Moon SuperS movie, she also had a full individual transformation sequence that included a song just for Chibi Moon.
- Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, first appearing in the third season, got their own theme, one for transforming and one for attacking.
- Hotaru, before actually becoming a Senshi, also had her own creepy song that played whenever she was being possessed by Mistress 9.
- So did Sailor Starlights in the fifth season. Some of the Big Bads, for example, Queen Beryl, had special theme music as well.
- Even Luna has her own theme music that plays whenever she gives the Senshi new items.
- In the first season, the show's theme song ("Moonlight Densetsu") is used as a theme for times when Usagi and Mamoru are remembering parts of their relationship from their past lives. This is accomplished via a locket that plays the song. The dub also used the theme song, but a new recording of it. The Japanese version also occasionally used a slower instrumental version of the first ending theme "Heart Moving" to the same effect. Later seasons would occasionally slip in instrumentals of ending themes as well to punctuate more serious moments.
- Each villain group has their own individual theme. The dub, with the exception of the aliens in the first arc of R, gave them all the same theme. In the case of the aliens, they have two different flute songs that Ali will play, one whenever he's playing for fun, and one when he's summoning a Cardian. The dub alters the first theme and uses it regardless of what he's doing.
- In the dub only, almost all of the incidental music was just various instrumentals of the opening version played ad nauseam to the point of madness.
- For obvious reasons, the Sailor Moon Musicals also made heavy use of leitmotifs and designated character theme songs. For brevity's sake, they shall not be listed here.
- Even Sailor Moon Abridged gives each character a leitmotif during their transformation sequence. One example is Sailor Moon's theme, which is Aqua's 'Barbie Girl'.
Like Tuxedo Mask, Tokyo Mew Mew's resident Mysterious Protector, the Blue Knight / Ao no Kishi, has his arrival marked by his own theme music. Each of the five girls has her own distinctive transformation music, and all of Mew Ichigo's attacks are accompanied by a special tune (except for "Reborn Aqua Drops", which is apparently so powerful that it required a song — "Glider" — to be accompanied with). There are leitmotifs for some other events as well, for example, the scenes with Kisshu talking to Deep Blue.
Excel Saga accompanied Pedro's scenes as a ghost with a sad, instrumental riff from "House of the Rising Sun".
- Il Palazzo also has his own suitably pompous and grandiose theme that plays during his big speeches. And Nabeshin has his own theme for his appearances as well.
- Excel's was really quick and had whistles and banging.
Super Robot Wars gives most of the Banpresto Originals (characters created specifically for the game) and bosses their own Leitmotifs. With Original Generations even minor characters like Katina have theme songs. The most famous of these is Elzam/Ratsel's theme of "Trombe!". Due to a mistaken high priority in his first game, Trombe will override even boss themes. the only way to disrupt it is to blast music out of a speaker.
Many wrestlers from Kinnikuman have their own theme music.
In the dub of the Kirby anime, Meta Knight is always introduced by a Mexican fanfare.
Vegeta's theme music from Dragonball It's iconic to his character, though its usage dropped considerably after the Frieza Saga.
- Leitmotifs were very common in the dub of DBZ. Piccolo had his own theme, usually played whenever he did something heroic (although it was occasionally used at other points). The various story arcs introduced new leitmotifs. Then there's the leitmotif that was first introduced when Goku shows off Super Saiyan 3. It's ostensibly the Super Saiyan 3 theme, but it tends to get played any time the heroes gain an edge during the Buu Saga
Ryoga's Theme is one of the most noticable in the Ranma One Half series
Also in Neon Genesis Evangelion. Note how Asuka's leitmotif sounds more American.
- Rei has like three different ones, not counting reduxes thereof in the Alternate Continuity movies. Guess why.
Yu-Gi-Oh! and its spinoff Yu-Gi-Oh GX (and presumably the soon-to-be-aired 5D's) have themes for most of the major characters.
- Obviously, Yu Gi Oh The Abridged Series makes fun of this, with all appearances of Duke Devlin being followed by Justin Timberlake's "SexyBack". At the end of the episode Yugi says he'll be friends with Duke if he stops playing that annoying theme music, to which Devlin replies "What theme music?"
All of Clannad's main female characters had their own themes. The ending song of the anime, Dango Daikazoku, even goes on to have the same tune as Nagisa's eponymous theme music.
- Worth noting that virtually all of the main female characters in Key Visual Arts' visual novels feature their own themes, and there's even one for a male character. (Natsume Kyousuke from Little Busters)
Eureka Seven has a rather frantic, chaotic leitmotif play whenever Nirvash and TheEnd fight each other.
Naruto loves this. All the major characters have more then one that changes on how dramatic the scene is or character development. Orochimaru has 2 versions of the same song: one used for fighting and the other used for plot relevance. Even non major characters like Konohamaru and Tenten have themes.
The anime Rockman.EXE always plays the theme song when the characters are about to win. In fact, you can reliably tell when the characters are going to turn around even the worst situation because the theme music will immediately start to play. It is quite possible, in this troper's opinion, that the theme music may be the only thing between life and death for the heroes.
- In the first season, the music accompanies the climactic final battle between Rockman and Blues during the Inevitable Tournament. Rockman loses, and his hard fight is congratulated by Netto and Blues over a quiet piano version: "Kaze wo Tsukinukete ~Ballad Version~".
- This was not retained in the Megaman NT Warrior dub, to great detriment. They won without their magic theme music.
The Big O had theme music for whenever Roger summoned The Big O that was a suitably dramatic orchestral fanfare.
In the Pokemon anime, Satoshi (Ash) has quite a few themes and songs (usually doubling as opening songs) with various variations. Haruka (May) has Haruka's Theme ~ Watashi Makenai and in the Diamond & Pearl series, Hikari (Dawn) has Hikari's Theme ~ Kimi no Soba de which is often played in scenes focusing on her (usually karaoke) and has many variations, including a slow version for sad scenes, a Christmas-y version used as the winter ending song, and more.
Pretear has some examples as well. It's a Magical Girl anime, so predictably there is a transformation theme music (actually with three slight variations), a couple of battle themes, and a theme associated with evil. What makes it weird is that main characters don't seem to have any particular tunes reserved for them, but comic relief side characters do. Tanaka the butler even has his theme named after him; there is also a leitmotif played mainly during Yayoi's crazy speeches, and a leitmotif for Mayune's shower scenes.
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann - And how! Every character has their own theme song, ranging from the silly (Yoko's 'Boing vs Boing', an ode to Gainaxing) to the unbelievably badass (Viral's 'Nikopol') to the just plain weird (Leeron's heavily electronic... whatever it is). The series also has several motifs as background music, like the very well known Fight The Powah rap, and the operatic One Woman Wail complete with piano accompaniment version of said rap, 'Libera Me From Hell' that plays to astoundingly awesome effect during the final battle.
The Death Note soundtrack has lots of tracks claiming to be Leitmotifs, but really the only one applied repeatedly and with narrative consistency is the Dies Irae, which always means a huge turning point as seen through Light's eyes.
- There's also at least one theme for L, Light and Misa. The rest of the songs aren't that much of leitmotifs, they just have titles related to their appearance in the anime For example, such songs are Ikari (anger), Himitsu (secret), etc...
- Near and Mello have their own themes together. When Near's Theme and L's Theme are played together, they actually have an almost call and response thing going on...YMMV, though.
Bleach has On the Precipice Of Defeatwhen someone on the side of the heroes is about to make a big comeback.
- And the fantastically bad Number One for when that someone is Ichigo.
- Bleach is incredibly fond of these. You also have the haunting "Nothing can be Explained" when the heroes seem to be on the precipice of total defeat.
  - Clearly, there needs to be a song called "Big Comeback" for when nothing can be explained.
  - Also, the song Destiny Awaits might as well be named Byakuya's Theme.
  - Even the arrancar have their own theme songs — flamenco and salsa-type tunes that go well with their overall Spanish theme.
Princess Tutu has leitmotifs for most of the major characters, pulled from (mostly) Romantic-era classical music. Fakir's theme is Beethoven's Coriolan Overture, Mytho's theme is the Dance of the Sugar Plumb Fairy from the Nutcracker (and later episodes also use Siegfried's Death March from Wagner's Ring Cycle when he's in danger which is appropriate since his true name is Siegfried), Princess Tutu's is Waltz of the Flowers from the Nutcracker, Drosselmeyer's is the Nutcracker March (often arranged in a minor key and played on an ominous organ), Rue has several pieces of piano pieces by Satie for her themes, Ahiru has the Nutcracker Overture (that has several different arrangements for her changing moods), Edel's organ plays a slowed-down version of Dance of the Automatons from Coppelia (can you say foreshadowing?)...even Professor Cat gets one—the Wedding March, of course! This isn't even going into some of the other leitmotifs used to represent various themes in the anime, or the fact that every episode has it's own major musical theme named in the title card.
One Piece doesn't have particularly prevalent Leitmotifs, but they're around. Some of the main crew have them, particularly Sanji and his jazzy theme, and some villain teams feature their own as well - CP 9, for example, had a strong leitmotif with strings and a mechanical-sounding beat. And then there's Sogeking... In the fighting games based on the series, each character has a short musical piece that plays during their finishing attack.
- Every crew member DOES have their own Leitmotif, though, little snippets of which play during their eyecatch. They don't show up all that often in the anime, though, except during their battles (usually at their moment of triumph.) Also notable in that they seem to each get their own primary instrument (Robin has the saxaphone, Chopper the flute, and so on) and musical style (Franky gets orchestral swing, Sanji has smooth jazz, etc.) Brook is the only one whose theme tune seems to have actual lyrics, since it's so important to his character arc.
Pretty Cure is positively drowning in Leitmotifs. Every Cure has her own theme music; these are slow and quiet for the more intellectual characters, and cheerful and upbeat for the others. Every complete team has a Leitmotif for when they're kicking some butt, distinct from the opening theme (which in turn is used as a Recurring Riff). Every evil organization has one, and every Big Bad as well, including the movie villains. There's one for every Magical Land. Every mascot creature has a Leitmotif—usually this is individual, though Coco and Nuts share theirs, and creatures from the movies tend to share themes as well. Yes! Pretty Cure 5 even gave the school its own Leitmotif.
This troper is fairly certain that there are many Leitmotifs in Code Geass, but the only ones she can think of off the top of her head are "All Hail Britannia" (for when The Empire does something epic), "Devil Created" (for when Lelouch uses his Evil Eye), and "0" (for when Lelouch's latest bit of magnificent bastardry comes to fruition.
The "Jullia" music box theme from Cowboy Bebop certinally quallifies, as it harkens Spike's myth arc.
One from a manga, carried over into the OVA: Rip Van Winkle of Hellsing is continuously singing from the opera "The Magic Bullet" (about a huntsman who makes a deal with a devil for bullets that never miss; Tom Waits based The Black Rider on it). At one point, when Alucard attacks her, he sings the demon's part.
In the Japanese Digimon series, each of the main characters gets their own Leitmotif. Hikari and Takeru get two, as they star in two separate seasons. If you're watching Digimon Adventure in Japanese, that quirky beeping techno music that plays every time Koushirou whips out his computer or realizes something important? It's called "Digital Scratch!" Get used to it. You will hear it a lot.
In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, if someone has an elaborate Transformation Sequence, it will be accompanied by their Leitmotif. Some, like Fate's "Flash of Gold" or Teana's "Meteoric Marksman", are action-packed enough to be used for Theme Music Power Up purposes as well. Others, like Nanoha's "Raising Heart, Set Up!", can't be used anywhere else so she has other character themes for befriending purposes, like "Ace of Aces".
- Special mention goes to the name of Subaru's personal I'm-Going-To-Kick-Ass-Now Leitmotif for managing to throw in yet another Gao Gai Gar Shout Out. It's name? "The Meaning of Courage".
Katekyo Hitman Reborn has a number but most notable is Hibari's which is about the only piece in the show on the piano and means that you know from the beginning just how awesome he is.
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei has some good examples, too. Each of the girls (and Itoshiki-sensei), or to be more precise the personality quirks their entire characters are based around, has their own specific theme - stalking, trolling, being incredibly positive, being incredibly depressing, you name it, it has a theme song.

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Film

The King of the Leitmotif: Jaws. Here comes the shark!
The Star Wars series has instantly recognizable leitmotifs for many of its characters. Particularly notable are the Imperial March and Luke's Theme (also the main theme of Star Wars). Williams got to have some fun with his leitmotifs when scoring the prequel trilogy: Anakin's Theme has weaving through it Luke's Theme, Leia's Theme, and the Imperial March, thus telling us musically what we already know; this little kid is going to create some very big things before he's through. Likewise, when at the end of Attack of the Clones we see the Clone Army mobilizing, the fanfare morphs into the Imperial March played in a triumphant major key, telling us that while this is a good development for now, it's going to lead to much, much worse things. This troper's favorite, however, is Augie's Great Municipal Band, at the end of Episode I; the melody of the song is the Emperor's Theme, switched from minor to major and sung at fast pace by an exuberant children's choir. The Emperor's Theme is also used as the motif for Darth Sidious.
- This is notable to a lesser extent in Williams' other works; he has often been quoted as saying that Wagner was a great influence on his work.
- Knights Of The Old Republic uses many of the leitmotifs of the films along with at least two original ones. Most notably, Revan's Theme is played during character creation.
Rocky... Just Rocky.
- While that is the Official Theme, Rocky also has a second unofficial theme.
Christopher Reeves...I mean, Superman
Dr. Jones Jr. aka Indiana Jones, always plays when he pulls off an Indy Ploy... enough so that sometimes other shows will play this them when their hero pulls an Indy Ploy.
Manos The Hands Of Fate always played a generic four-note synthesized tune anytime Torgo came on screen, which Crow of Mystery Science Theater 3000 called "The Haunting Torgo Theme". In one instance, it played went he went to get luggage, stopped when he was picking it up, and then started up again once he continued walking.
- On Mystery Science Theater 3000 this plays every time Mike Nelson enters Deep 13 as Torgo.
- The Master Ninja episodes featured character Leitmotifs (including stereotypical Japanese flute music that played whenever the title character's recurring enemy appeared). The idea of Leitmotifs is explored during a skit where Joel and the bots — dressed up and acting like characters from the movies — "battle" each other with their theme music.
  - Not to mention the end of the episode, where Joel cheered up the bots by leading them in a loud, acapella version of the Master Ninja theme while reading viewer mail (occasionally pausing to loudly add "Master Ninja Theme Song!" to the music).
- Fugitive Alien had a recurring horn-heavy piece of orchestra go on whenever something actiony happened. Thanks to Joel and the Bots, it will forever be known as the "He Tried To Kill Me With A Forklift!" theme.
Davy Jones of Pirates Of The Caribbean fame goes so far as to play his own leitmotif on a gigantic Ominous Pipe Organ, in the bowels of his cursed ship, during a thunderstorm, with his beard, in case we'd forgotten he was a badass demon squid pirate who had the time and money to put a pipe organ in a ship that frequently went under water. He also possesses a locket that plays a music box version of the same, though it's not one-of-a-kind. This inevitably forms a plot point of the third film.
- This troper, for elaborate reasons, associates the same leitmotif with Mrs Danvers from Rebecca. It actually works.
- Jones also has an organ theme for his pet Kraken.
- The character Cutler Beckett and the East India Trading Company (pure eeeeevil, in real life and in fiction) had a creepy single string melody that played every time a character affiliated with him/them, or even every time their logo appeared on screen. In the third movie, this melody evolved into a full fledged theme. It was based on the melody of Ennio Morricone's "Man With a Harmonica", which gets a full, electric guitar-led homage in the third film.
The Lord Of The Rings movies are chock-full of themes:
- The "Fellowship theme", a traditional balls-to-the-wall triumphant brass theme as heard over the montage of the fellowship traveling out of Rivendell towards Caradhras. Later used for the Three Hunters, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli. Notable in that, according to the composer Howard Shore, it never quite makes a full reappearance after the events in Moria; at least one note is off, or the rhythm is changed.
- The "Hobbit theme", a sort of jaunty flute piece with bassoons and oboes evoking pastoral countryside. Plays over the "Concerning Hobbits" narration. Gets more and more wistful the more the hobbits, especially Frodo, go through Break The Cutie - only to be restored to full brass-filled glory when everyone bows to the hobbits during Aragorn's coronation.
- The "Rohan Theme". Wistful when we first hear it on the Norwegian fiddle when the heroes arrive at Edoras, it later appears in full-on brass mode for Helm's Deep. Plays over the charge of the Rohirrim at the Battle of Pelennor Fields, with Norwegian fiddle and brass sections working together.
- The "Gondor Theme". Majestic, soaring theme that wouldn't sound entirely out of place in a pirate movie. Heard as Gandalf and Pippin arrive at Minas Tirith and gallop up the city to see Denethor, as well as over the lighting of the beacons. An early version of this theme is played on solo French horn as Boromir speaks at the Council of Elrond.
- The "Mordor Theme". Dark and dramatic with lots of brass and ominous chanting when needed. Heard as Gandalf witnesses the arrival of the Nazgul. Used to excellent effect first as a threatening sound when Sauron first appears before the Allied Army, single-handedly stopping their attack with his very presence, and then blasting into angry brass and choir as he sweeps away scores of soldiers with casual swings of his mace.
- "Gollum's Theme", appears all the way through the second film whenever Gollum is around, but most notably as a song in the end credits sung by Emiliana Torrini.
- The "Isengard Theme," played with heavy brass and percussion in the Caverns of Isengard or when the Uruk-hai are on the move. Unlike other themes, which are in more conventional timing, Isengard's theme is done in 5/4 time, which sounds a little bit off or unnatural (as most music these days is done in 4/4 or 2/4 time), to reflect the twisting of nature and industrial methods of Saruman.
- The theme for the elves, or at least Galadriel's elves, is first heard as an ethereal, dreamy piece with generous amounts of Cherubic Choir and One Woman Wail. In the second movie, though, it gets transformed into a badass military march during the scene where the elven army comes to the rescue at Helm's Deep.
- "The History of the Ring", representing the power of the One Ring, especially when it changes hands or when someone tries to take it — plays under the title card of each movie, so easily mistaken for the theme to the trilogy itself — or perhaps it is, in a way.
The appearance of Mrs. Tweedy in the movie Chicken Run is always accompanied by what sounds like a mandolin.
In Kill Bill the same eerie, whining siren-like riff plays in several scenes when The Bride lays eyes on her targets of vengeance.
- That tune they play when the Bride spots a target and remembers what they in particular did to her, is the first few seconds of the Theme Tune from the series Ironside.
Fritz Lang's 1927 movie classic Metropolis featured specific tunes for nearly every major character. In addition, many recurring events (such as the worker's monotonous march into the factory) also had their own distinct tunes.
Hedwig's Theme (Lumos) from the Harry Potter movies grew to prominence over the entire rest of the score. It essentially became the theme for Harry Potter and, more interestingly, a musical cue representing good magic. It has been retained through all five films thus far, even as the original composer, John Williams, left after the third.
Similar to Hedwig's Theme above, the James Bond theme is another. When taken by itself or as accompaniment to the Bond Gun Barrel sequence it stands for the franchise as a whole, but within the movie it stands for "Bond being Bond". It plays in fragments and licks woven into the score when he's preparing to be awesome, and rocks out in brassy belligerence when it comes time to give him an awesome Theme Music Power Up.
- Bond's theme was notable in Continuity Reboot Casino Royale by it's absence — set up in several subtle moments across the duration of the film, it didn't play in full until the very last seconds, when he snipes a man and comes up to him looking dangerously dapper in a suit.
  - Bond's theme through the rest of the film was an instrumental version of the movie's theme song, up until the moment when the iconic Bond Theme appeared in full force.
The 2007 Transformers movie has a few notable leitmotifs, particularly the Ominous Latin Chanting of the Decepticons - No one has been able to determine exactly what's being sung, but by gum if it doesn't make you afraid of giant evil robots.
- According to the composer, he based the "Decepticons" theme on the Catholic prayer, Dies Irae.
Pretty much every Toho monster has a leitmotif. Godzilla himself has several of them depending on the composer.
Disney's The Lion King. The first time the theme "This Land" appears is during the rainstorm immediately following the confrontation between Mufasa, Scar, and Zazu, and it is as grand and choral as you could possibly imagine...that is, until it takes things a step higher during the scene where Simba speaks to his father's ghost. There's also a heartbreaking rendition which occurs in the gorge after cub Simba finds Mufasa's body. By the time the finale arrives, and Simba is ascending Pride Rock to the most powerful, stirring, and uplifting version yet, this troper was in tears for many, many reasons. Hans Zimmer is truly a genius.
In The Brave Little Toaster, composer David Newman gave all five the appliences a theme, which pops up whenever one of them does anything. You really have to pay attention. There are also themes for some secondary characters, the Master and Elmo St. Peters.
- There are similar tunes during when Blanky tries to snuggle with Toaster and he/she pushes him away and when Toaster similarly does the same to the flower later on, causing it to die and changing the Toaster's attitude to Blanky later.
The Batman franchise has spawned this a few times. Most notably, the famous title theme from the 1989 Batman movie became the initial leitmotif for Batman The Animated Series, but was phased out as the show came into its own and replaced with the animated Batman's true leitmotif for every show in the rest of the [[DCAU]] - Shirley Walker's Batman theme, which eventually got its own cinematic treatment as a gigantic orchestra/choir version in the opening credits of the animated movie Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm. When the film franchise was rebooted for Batman Begins, so was Batman's leitmotif — he got a sort of dark plucking of stings accompanied by strong percussion, reminiscent of the 1989 Batman theme but not identical to it. (Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard deliberately left the theme incomplete until the very last scene of the film, much like James Bond in Casino Royale, mentioend above). In The Dark Knight, the Joker got a leitmotif of his own... of a sorts. Rather than any traditional sort of motif, the Joker is represented by a single sustained violin chord followed by discordant strings growing in crescendo as he pulls off his big badness (appropriately based on the notes D and C). Also in The Dark Knight, the pre-existing Batman themes become more complex as the character does, climaxing in the leadup to the final fight scene with the Joker when Batman is taking down police—nonlethally—to keep them from accidentally killing hostages, and only setting up his further fall from favor at the end of the film to a frantic and complicated treatment of the main them.
- This use of villain themes began with the campy 1960s Batman t.v. series. In the 1960s film, the four primary villains (The Catwoman, The Penguin, The Joker, and The Riddler) are all introduced accompanied by their individual themes. The leitmotif for Burgess Meredith's Penguin became particularly well-known, even making an appearance in a then-popular rock song in the 1980s.
The Witch's theme in The Wizard Of Oz is also used for Miss Gulch, to demonstrate the connection between the two characters.
2001: A Space Odyssey, used "Also Sprach Zarathustra" for two key scenes, both times when humanity (or its forebears) made some kind of evolutionary/spiritual leap.
M created the cinematic Leitmotif. Everytime Hans Beckert is about to attack, hewhistles "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Edward Grieg.
This troper is astounded that Gone With The Wind hasn't been mentioned yet. How many times have you heard "Tara's Theme"?
'Dr Zhivago'. So many times that it gets annoying!
Iron Man combined a Leitmotif with a shout-out to the original Marvel animated shows by using a jazz version of the cartoon theme as background music when Tony Stark is being crass and selfish in Vegas, then later by using the tune as his ringtone on a friend's phone.
Repo The Genetic Opera is chock full of these, of course. They can be as subtle as Blind Mag's indiscernible vocals in songs she's not even part of (Things You See In A Graveyard) to the hilariously blatant "REEEEPO MAN!" that follows Nathan's alter-ego.
Calm but eerie music was used every time the title character in Mikey was scheming or about to do something evil.
How come no Once Upon A Time in the West with its "Man with a Harmonica"?
- Each of the main characters in Once Upon a Time in the West has a theme song, ranging from the sparse, minimalist and haunting "Man with a Harmonica" to the lush, operatic and choral "Jill's America." Later, director Sergio Leone and composer Ennio Morricone would give Deborah her own leitmotif in Once Upon A Time In America.
Every major character in Mary Poppins is accompanied by a signature tune. This is most obvious with Mary Poppins herself (Spoonful of Sugar), Bert (Chim Chim Cher-ee), Mr. Banks (A British Bank), and Mrs. Banks (Votes For Women).
Snatch uses Leitmoffs occasionally by sampling bits of songs from its soundtrack when it shifts focus to another group of characters. Perhaps most noticeable is the use of "Dreadlock Holiday" several times when focus switches to the pawn shop gang.
M makes good use of this with diagetic music. Whistling has never sounded so harrowing.
How could this list be up so long without the Third Man being mentioned? The Harry Lime theme underscores the menace and charisma of Harry's presence in the film.
The music of The Matrix (composed by Don Davis) uses a staggering series of horns as the primary series leitmotif. While it doesn't seem that Neo himself has a specific leitmotif, he shares a love leifmotif with Trinity in all three movies (you first hear it after Neo saves Trinity after jumping from the helicopter). Agent Smith shared the original foreboding agent leitmotif in movie #1 with the other agents, but later gained not only one, but two pieces of musical flair for "Reloaded" and "Revolutions." The first is a nasty chant (listen to it just as Neo begins wailing with the metal pole in "Reloaded's" 'burly brawl') and the second is a buzzing viral sound as he replicates relentlessly in the last films.

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Live Action TV

On Clarissa Explains It All, whenever Clarissa's friend Sam put his ladder up to her window, he would be introduced by a drawn-out guitar "twang."
The new Doctor Who series has several, including:
- "The Doctor's Theme", also known as "The Bad Wolf Theme", used as the character's "mystery theme" and later joined by the heroic "The Doctor Forever". The original theme finally got its heroic moment at the climax of Forest of the Dead.
- Themes for the companions: "Rose's Theme", "Martha's Theme" (which crossed shows, appearing with her on Torchwood), "Astrid's Theme" and "Donna's Theme".
- Several Dalek themes, generally including choirs: "The Daleks" and "The Dark and Endless Dalek Night" in particular.
- The Cyberman theme.
- "UNIT", beefed up for "UNIT Rocks" in Series Four (and joined by a B-theme in Planet of the Dead).
- The Torchwood Theme, used in season 2, and as the theme tune for Torchwood. Later crops up when Captain Jack comes back in season 3.
  - Most of the Torchwood cast have themes to themselves: Jack's barnstorming (literally) action theme; Owen, Toshiko, Gwen and Rhys, as well as Gray.
- Then there's the complicated issue of the Master, who hears the drums, using the primary four notes of the Doctor Who theme tune.
In Twin Peaks you usually heard the Theme Tune Falling whenever a situation or character demonstrated or expressed sincere love, in whatever ordinary, strange or abstract form it manifested itself.
Alias used these frequently.
Bear McCreary, the composer of all the music for the rebooted Battlestar Galactica, uses leitmotifs for the Cylons (Number Six in particular), Adama and Roslin (both a "love" theme and a "conflict" theme), the space battles (the oft-mocked "poundy drums"), and even "All Along the Watchtower" for the Final Five Cylons; the sitar-strains of that treatment were present in the first episode of the third season.
- And let's not forget "Wander My Friends", the Celtic-flavored theme that has accompanied the Adama boys through four seasons and has been used to express pretty much the entire emotional spectrum...
- Gaius Baltar changes personal identities and allegiances throughout the series, and gets a new leitmotif every time. His latest motif, to represent Religious Leader Baltar, is a prayer written in Anglo-Saxon and praising Gaius Baltar, divine savior of mankind. Yes, really.
Every Power Rangers Big Bad (and at least one Dragon) is recognizable by music, Lord Zedd's being the most well-known. A few rare good guys have a song (early in the series) or their own little tune, and there was one instance of a mystery Ranger's identity having a nicely sneaky Reveal: He mentioned that they'd met him before, at which point the intro to the music that always accompanied a certain little boy from an earlier episode is played. Sure enough, it turns out the mystery Ranger is that child's adult self, sent back in time.
- When Power Rangers crossover episodes happen, the previous Ranger theme will be used during that team's part of the final climactic fight. In the Operation Overdrive two parter this lead to the final fight having SIX themes playing based on who was on screen (Operation Overdrive theme played for Mercury Ranger. Mystic Force theme played for the Green Mystic Ranger, Blue Overdrive Ranger, and Black Overdrive Ranger. SPD Emergency played for the Red Rangers, Dino Thunder played for Yellow Rangers. Ninja Storm played for the Blue Ninja Ranger and Pink Overdrive Ranger. Finally while Rita and Zedd's son fought the original Black Ranger, Adam's theme (written for the episode) played. However it was kinda absurd since they did this for THREE fight scenes (the first two didn't have the Overdrive theme as they were powerless).
- Although, the most recognizable music from Power Rangers after the main theme has to be Bulk and Skulls theme, which is kind of silly and complimented with gag noises. Possibly due to the fact that the pair remain the longest running recurring characters of the series.
Star Trek has several memorable motifs: The Enterprise fanfare, the Klingon theme, the fight music of doom from the Original Series...
- The fight music was used in The Cable Guy in a clever Shout Out to the Spock vs. Kirk fight: Jim Carrey's character actually sings along to the music while it plays in the background. It also highlights just how unbalanced he is, as he takes the fight as seriously as Spock does and almost winds up killing Matt Broderick several times.
- Also used on Futurama, in an episode more or less directly parodying the Original Series' Amok Time - when Fry hears the iconic fight music, he knows he's really in trouble.
In Smallville, everytime some dramatic something hints at Clark's future as Superman, a few bars of the theme music from Superman: The Motion Picture can be heard.
Bridget, from Eight Simple Rules hears a short guitar chord every time the cool new guy, Damian appears. She is the only character to notice the music, which stops when she falls for a nerd instead.
Numerous Heroes characters have leitmotifs.
- Claude's theme involves wind and voices to create the feeling of a ghost-like presence in reference to his invisibility.
- Sylar's involves marimbas and bassoons with staccato to re-create the sound of clocks ticking in reference to the character's ability to see how things work.
- Matt Parkman's theme involves voices being played backwards when he uses his power of telepathy.
- Peter Petrelli's theme involves marcato strings.
- Niki Sanders' theme was based on her character's alter-ego named Jessica and involved winds and Indian voices chanting in an underscore to give a feeling that she was possessed.
- Mohinder Suresh's theme is the piano composition that plays at the end of some episodes.
Pushing Daisies is crawling with them. Emerson's and Oscar's are the most obvious, while the Ned And Chuck music is sufficiently prevalent to double as the show's Theme Tune. And in the episode [...]... Ned and Chuck's bed scene wasn't accompanied by the usual music, which was the most immediate clue that it was actually a Dream Sequence. Of course, Chuck pulling her skin off to reveal Olive underneath was also a bit of a giveaway.
Lester's Theme in Beakmans World played whenever he gave a wrong answer or was generally super annoying. Which was most of the time he was on screen.
As far as this troper knows, Supernatural only has "Dean's Family Dedication Theme", a slightly mournful tune played when that love for his Dad and brother gets a little too obsessive.
- There's also a much rockier "Brothers' Theme", played during the lighter brotherly moments and distorted a little when the relationship is being strained.
The first three seasons of Buffy The Vampire Slayer had a tendency to play Buffy and Angel's love theme every time there was a moment related to their relationship on screen. Its a semi-mournful tune most often played on a piano. Apparently the score for season 2 won awards, though that doesn't stop some people from mocking the Wangst factor every time it appeared. Listen here.
- There's also the dramatic music that plays every time Xander and Cordelia make out, played quite clearly for laughs.
Stargate SG-1 has 'Sam and Jack's Theme and the Goa'uld Theme'' among others.
Used frequently in Arrested Development, but especially with Gob. It's to the point that he, in-character, must consider Europe's "The Final Countdown" to be his own personal theme song.
Every character on Lost has a theme, and several characters have multiple themes for different types of situations.
In the series starring David Suchet, Hercule Poirot has his woodwinds heavy theme that is also used in the credits.

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Music

Professional Wrestling

Theater

The Phantom of the Opera. That is all.
Wagner's Ring of the Nibelungen is packed full of leitmotifs which represent each character or plot element. That makes this Older Than Radio. In fact, Wagner is regarded as the original creator of the leitmotiv technique in composition.
Jekyll, in Frank Wildhorn's Jekyll and Hyde musical, has a dark piano and violin theme that plays when he sings in group songs, from the dramatic Board of Governers to the light-hearted Engagement Party.
Rapunzel shares a Leitmotif with the magic beans in Stephen Sondheim's Into The Woods. The witch took Rapunzel as payment for the magic beans, so her story is tied to them in that way.
- In fact, Sondheim employs leitmotif in most of his major scores, but the technique is most evident in its truest sense in his Sweeney Todd; melodies, accompaniment figures, rhythmic patterns and chords are introduced, fragmented, developed, reprised and interwoven throughout the entire score, each of them representing a different character, mood or aspect of the story. Perhaps the most awesome example is also the most spoiler-y: The Beggar Woman's Jig motif ("How'd you like to fish me squiff, dear?") is actually the minuet waltz heard at the Judge's ball in the song "Poor Thing" when the Judge prepares to rape Lucy, Sweeney's wife, which clues us in to the fact that the Beggar Woman is actually Lucy. Likewise, the Beggar Woman's "Alms, Alms" motif - based upon a falling second - is derived directly from the "Eleison" motif used to represent Sweeney's keening for his lost wife ("And my Lucy lies in ashes"). The two motifs pointedly merge together in the underscore at the very end of the play, when Sweeney finally makes the connection too late.
In Show Boat, non-singers Captain Andy and Parthy have characteristic themes, though Andy's is sung by the chorus a couple of times. Though Magnolia is a singing character, she also has an instrumental motif first heard when she plays it awkwardly on a piano.
You might not expect to find Wagnerian Leitmotifs in a fairy-tale opera for children. But Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel has quite a few.
The Lord Chancellor's distinctive entrance music in Iolanthe.
Les Miserables has a ton of them. The Thenardiers' songs are almost entirely repeats of the melodies of "The Waltz of Treachery" and "Master of the House", and then "One Day More" is Valjean's main theme ("Who Am I?") combined with a transposed version of "I Dreamed a Dream", "Master of the House", and Javert's little leitmotif that's featured in "Fantine's Arrest" and "The Robbery" put into a major key. Oh, and not to mention "Look Down" is repeated 3 times in the show, and the song "Turning" is "Lovely Ladies" at a slower tempo.
- For that matter, "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" - Marius's song of mourning for his lost comrades - is the same piece of music that the Bishop of Digne sings in Act 1 when showing generosity to Valjean. Since true leitmotifs are meant to be associated with a specific character, mood or idea, it's uncertain to what extent the repetition of music in Les Miserables is actually leitmotif in action or just practical frugality on the part of the composer.
In Bernstein's Candide, Cunegonde's theme first appears as the melody of "Candide's Lament" (originally a Cut Song but included in most later productions). The theme is subsequently transformed into the "Paris Waltz," an instrumental valse brilliante which is echoed at the climax of "You Were Dead, You Know." The first act finale has the theme sung in counterpoint with the melody of "My Love," and the theme plays a decisive role in the finale ultimo, "Make My Garden Grow."

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Video Games

Video game example: Nobuo Uematsu, the composer for the Final Fantasy series, is known for creating memorable leitmotifs for characters, locations, and events. In Final Fantasy VI, for example, almost all of the playable characters (and some of the villains) have their own leitmotif (with the exception of the twin brothers Edgar and Sabin/Mashe, who share one). Terra's leitmotif, which is also the Overworld Map theme, is effectively the Theme Tune for that entire game. Even more well-known, though, are the Recurring Riffs for concepts that span more than one game, such as the Crystal Theme/Prelude, the Final Fantasy Theme/Prologue, the Chocobo Theme, and the Victory Theme.
- The ending music for that game is often cited as Uematsu's magnum opus, as it takes new versions of every character theme, plus the main Final Fantasy theme (a total of fourteen pieces) and blends them together into a single 20 minute piece. It's impressive enough to make you forget you're listening to video game music.
- Likewise Yasunori Mitsuda, composer for some of Square's other games, including Xenogears. In a great case of combining forces, Mitsuda and Uematsu co-composed Chrono Trigger, which has some of the most memorable Leitmotifs.
  - In said game, "Lucca's Theme" probably got played the most, as it starts up whenever anything science-related happens.
- Contrary to common misunderstanding, Sephiroth's leitmotif is 'Those Chosen By the Planet', which is played during his slaughter of Nibleheim, not the immensely popular 'One Winged Angel'.
- Gilgamesh of Final Fantasy V, from his second appearance on, is one of only two enemies in the game to get his own theme, "Battle on The Big Bridge". This one was so memorable that when Gilgamesh made a cameo in Final Fantasy XII, his theme came with him (in a well-done orchestration, at that).
  - On top of that, The fight against Necrophobe, when the boss just doesn't seem to die, then suddenly you hear the theme. Crowning Moment Of Awesome for Gilgamesh.
  - This troper was extremely disappointed and annoyed in that he didn't have his theme in the FFI GBA remake. It did make it into the PSP remake, however.
  - Final Fantasy XII, on top of having the usual leit-motifs for the main characters, also had a short melody that appears in every track of the game at some point (besides tracks that are borrowed from other Final Fantasy soundtracks of course).
- Final Fantasy Mystic Quest subtly pokes fun at the idea with the character of Tristam, whose leitmotif begins playing just before he appears on screen. The main character, Benjamin, apparently hears this music and begins looking around for him whenever it begins playing.
  - And every time that smug treasure-hunting git did, he'd have something (Bombs, the Dragon Claw) that you'd end up getting off him. This troper was still surprised though, when you hear the leitmotif during the ending sequence, with Tristam showing up on your boat to continue adventuring.
- Strangely, "Aerith's Theme (Pure Heart)" from Final Fantasy VII sounds remarkably similar at some points to "Celes' Theme (Aria di Mezzo Caraterre)" from Final Fantasy VI.
House Of The Dead 1 and 2 feature the Magician boss leitmotif. The series also has the recurring "Game Over" and "Chapter Clear" ditties.
Kingdom Hearts also uses leitmotifs extensively, particularly in the sequels. Kairi has 4 different variations on her leitmotif, while Sora only has one. Bosses also have their own leitmotifs. If a character is fought as a boss at some point in the game, their battle music will be a remix of their theme. Nearly all of Organization XIII's battle themes use the piano. "The Other Promise" and "Rage Awakened" are also remixes of Roxas and Terra's themes, respectively.
- How could we forget "Dearly Beloved"? That's the series' opening theme. Now to name all the leitmotifs in the series: Roxas has a slower theme simply named his own name. Namine has her own theme. Riku has his own, though I think it was introduced in KHII simply titled "Riku". "Another Side" seems to be linked to the Organization Cloak. Xion has her own theme, though as an official OST for 358/2 days has yet to come out, we can only assume it'll be named "Xion". Plus a sped up battle version to boot. The Nobodies from Castle Oblivion and Luxord (Because he also has cards) also use "The 13th Struggle". Then there's Ansem's theme (Or should I say Xenahort's Heartless?) which was remixed numerous times for battles in the original Kingdom Hearts and in Chain of Memories. Wow, Yoko Shimomura certainly didn't want anyone in this series feeling left out, did she?
Until some of the more recent games, every character in Guilty Gear has had their own theme, which plays during battles against them. Certain storyline rivalries have their own themes as well; the theme for battles between Sol and Ky, "Noontide", is practically a theme for the game as a whole.
Whenever Proto Man showed up in the Mega Man games, his appearance was accompanied by a mysterious whistle. In Mega Man 5 his doppelganger Dark Man has a off-key version of the whistle, an early hint that he isn't who he says he is.
- Bass's battle theme in Mega Man 7, 8 and maybe Mega Man & Bass.
- The Mega Man Battle Network spin-offs often play a version of each game's theme song whenever a dramatic speech is being made by the main character. Many people were quite disappointed when the theme music changed in the fourth game because it wasn't nearly as suited to those scenes.
Done to death by fighting games, except for the ones that only have stage music as opposed to individual character themes.
- By far the most famous examples are the original character themes from Street Fighter II, with Ryu's, Guile's, Ken's, and Akuma's themes quite possibly being the most awesome and prolific music of all. When Final Fight characters showed up in Street Fighter Alpha, they got remixed versions of stage music from the original Final Fight as theme tunes.
- SNK has done this as well. Geese Howard's theme names always involve something "for Geese", but all of them are rearrangements of his Fatal Fury 1 theme, which was titled "A Kiss for Geese". Afterwards came "A Kiss For Geese -Cyber Dub Edit-" (Art Of Fighting 2), "Soy Sauce for Geese" (Fatal Fury Special), "One More Kiss for Geese" (Real Bout Fatal Fury), "A Stiff Neck for Geese" (The King Of Fighters '96), "Soy Sauce for Geese -End of The First Nightmare-" (Fatal Fury Wild Ambition), and finally concluding with..."Mustard for Geese" (The King Of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match). The only exception to the name rule thus far is "Kiss Geese Once More", from The King Of Fighters Maximum Impact. Most games after '96 in which Geese is present have used remixes of "Soy Sauce For Geese", the most recognizable thanks to its flute.
  - Subverted with Iori Yagami, who had a new theme every game up 'till The King Of Fighters 2000, but they all had a kickass saxophone solo.
- Melty Blood has used the same character themes since its debut. The most prolific ones are "The End of 1000 Years", used for Red Arcueid, and "For Crimson Air", used for Wallachia.
- Guilty Gear easily trumps everything else though. Some characters have had the same theme, only differently arranged, from the first game, and every character has had the same theme since 'X', and every [1] of 'XX' uses the rearrangements from the original 'XX'.
  - Characters with special relationships often get VS. theme music, as mentioned previously. Guilty Gear XX Accent Core even gave new VS. music to Order Sol and Ky, "Keep The Flag Flying". The King Of Fighters '97 gave two different VS. themes to the same fight: "Cool Jam" plays if the player character is Kyo Kusanagi vs. Iori Yagami, and "Esaka Forever" plays if it's Iori vs. Kyo.
  - The above two traditions continue in the Spiritual Successor to Guilty Gear, Blaz Blue: each character has their own unique theme, in addition to "relationship" themes, such as "Under Heaven Destruction" for Ragna vs. Jin and "Imperial Code" for Noel vs. Jin(which doubles as the theme of the organization they both work for). Should come as no surprise: Daisuke Ishiwatari is responsible for the music in both Guilty Gear and Blaz Blue.
- Bloody Roar 1 and 2 on Play Station. You could choose whether the games played stage-specific songs from the arcade versions, or new character themes created for the console ports.
The Sonic Adventure games used leitmotif liberally, having a theme for every playable character or character important to the plot. SA 2's themes for Sonic, Tails and Knuckles used the same lyrics as their themes from SA 1, but used different melodies.
- And on occasion, their leitmotifs are changed to a completely different theme. Shadow's has changed several times in particular. At first, he had "Throw it All Away", then he had "This Machine", followed by Sonic Team's attempt to give him six in one game depending on the path you took. Most agree the song "I Am All of Me" was the theme of that game, but the next game he's in decides to say it was the song from the good story of that game, "All Hail Shadow."
- Sonic has had to deal with the theme from the original series, then two versions of "It Doesn't Matter", and finally a hojillion (seven) versions of "His World."'
  - "It Doesn't Matter" has resurfaced triumphantly in Sonic and the Black Knight with two different renditions. Less so, Tails' theme from Sonic Adventures 1 and 2, "Believe in Myself" has been arranged as the theme of the Blacksmith(Who is 'played' by Tails.)
- In the original Sonic, in addition to the several versions of Sonic's theme (title screen, game over, continue, ending), Robotnik had two versions of his theme, one during the regular boss battles, the other, more intense version was played during the cutscene at the end of Scrap Brain Act 2, as well as the final battle.
- Sonic 3 & Knuckles's mid-boss and main boss themes were variations on a common riff. In addition, there were two different versions of each stage theme for each act, sometimes, as in the case of Lava Reef Zone, sounding almost totally different. And the first half of the main boss theme was a pastiche or The Jimmy Hart Version of Robotnik's original theme(the games had a different composer than the first two).
  - This was topped by (the underrated, in this troper's opinion) Sonic Advance 3, where each stage theme had no fewer than four variations - one for its map screen plus one for each of the three acts. Somehow it never seemed repetitive, either - the map's theme was more low-key and served to introduce the melodic material, and then each act was a progressively more intense version of the same theme. One of these themes, in fact, was the Green Hill Zone music from the original Sonic; all too appropriate for a stage (Sunset Hill) which was itself a sort of re-imagined and remixed version of that place.
- Sonic Unleashed reuses Eggman's instrumental leitmotif from Sonic 2006 and manages to build a new boss music out of it. Speaking of 2006, each villain had his own leitmotif, each with several arrangements for cutscenes and boss battles.
The Fire Emblem series actually had a soundtrack release made up of character themes.
- Absurd use, in Fire Emblem 9 (Path of Radiance) there's a trio of pirates with their own Leitmotif. Despite them being completely unimportant, to the point that they have less then half a dozen lines among them.
Lampshaded in Metal Gear Solid, when Snake actually hears Psycho Mantis's leitmotif play. It's a manifestation of his mind control abilities.
- Played straight however with Big Boss's leitmotif. It first plays when he's descending into Russia for Operation Snake Eater. It also plays for his reappearance in MGS4.
- In Metal Gear Solid 4, the characters's leitmotifs change in order to reflect their changing personalities. Therefore, it's really alarming when we first see Snake (leitmotif "Old Snake") in his "young" mask, and the music that plays is "Opening Infiltration", his leitmotif from Metal Gear Solid 2 When Raiden reminisces about Rose, his theme tune changes from "White Blood" to "Who Am I Really?", his theme from Metal Gear Solid 2. Naomi borrows her theme from Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes on her first encounter with Old Snake, and later she is accompanied by "Enclosure", Sniper Wolf's theme, when she is in a situation very similar to Wolf's.
- In Metal Gear Solid 2, Snake's Theme from Metal Gear Solid 1 plays when the S3 tells Raiden about how putting him through Shadow Moses has turned him into a soldier with all of Snake's gifts. Footage on the screen from the trailers, where Snake was placed into Raiden's shoes during key boss fights, play on the screen.
Ridley in Metroid has had his own fight music ever since Super Metroid. Though it was not exclusively his music in Super Metroid, it has since become identified with his character, much in the same way that the Star Wars Imperial March theme was not intended for Darth Vader himself, yet became his de-facto music nevertheless.
- Although not quite so heavily linked to character, the area preceding a boss, (Particularly Kraid) have very memorable themes. This is a given, considering they made the same game three times (Metroid, Zero Mission and Super Metroid).
- Samus also got her own theme tune in Super. Notable occurrences have included Prime 3 and Super Smash Bros Brawl.
The Myst games are very fond of doing this, usually having themes for each villain (and for each age, in the later games). Also, Sirrus and Achenar, the evil brothers from the first game, have their themes return in Myst IV: Revelation, if only briefly.
- Don't forget the oft-interwoven Saavedro's Theme from the third Myst game and the use of the oboe to represent Gehn in Riven!
In the Star Fox series, the titular heroes and Star Wolf both get their own leitmotifs. Star Wolf's gets a little...over the top in later entries in the series, what with the vaguely flamenco beat and the blaring brass section.
- In the original, a common leitmotif is used in several of the planet musics, particularly Meteor, Titania, and Fortuna. Several themes are used for different types of boss battles, for example Corneria/Meteor, Outer Space, Venom, and the Atomic Cores(which is a rehash of the opening sequence music), as well as unique BG Ms used by the planet bosses.
- Hey, come on. The Assault version is really quite epic. Panther joined the group at that point, so maybe they had to Spanish it up a bit?
- In Star Fox Command, each character has his/her own background music.
Every party member in Tales Of Symphonia has their own theme music, and some have more than one. Zelos, for example, has an upbeat, samba-style tune that shows up when you first meet him, but if you take a certain plot path you'll hear an extremely sombre version of that exact same tune at one point. The Big Bad's theme music is also used for The Reveal at one point.
Castlevania tends to use "Vampire Killer" to represent Simon Belmont (from the very first game), although in Super Castlevania 4 he got his own theme music, called "Theme of Simon". Dracula had to wait until Rondo of Blood to get his theme music, "Dance of Illusions". When you fight the original Castlevania bosses before Shaft in Rondo of Blood, the boss music from the first game, "Poison Mind", plays.
- And Bloodlines, which first appeared as the music for the first level of Dracula X, seems these days to be affiliated specifically with Richter Belmont's frequent appearances in the games.
Approach a trainer (or have them see you) in the Pokémon games and their Leitmotif will play, indicating what kind of trainer they are. In normal gameplay, they only go on for a couple of seconds, but if you pause the dialog to listen to the music you'll be surprised how long they go on for (and how they're arguably better composed than the BGM).
- Because it loops? This troper sure the themes are around 30 seconds long without repeating.
Several other NP Cs have these as well, such as your rival, the Champion, and basically every character who shows up at more than one point in the story.
The Legend of Zelda series has leitmotifs for most major characters, most notably Zelda's Lullaby and Ganon's theme (which Ganondorf himself plays on an Ominous Pipe Organ in Ocarina of Time). In Twilight Princess, Zelda's and Ganondorf's themes are combined when Ganondorf possesses Zelda for a boss battle.
- There's also Midna's haunting theme from Twilight Princess, which she is aware of, because she's just that awesome.
- And Majora's theme, from the titular game, variations of which are used in each of the four provinces of Termina. And remixes of it are used for each of Majora's boss forms.
In the Super Smash Bros. series (specifically Brawl) each series has victory fanfare, however Meta Knight has his own unique fanfare (which is a metalish remix of the standard Kirby fanfare). Due to the music numbering it appeared that pretty much every character would have their own fanfare, but most of them were cut before release.
- The Smash series itself got its own leitmotifs in the course of three games. Namely, there's the first game's credits theme, Melee's opening and menu themes, and Brawl's main theme. All of these themes get reused and/or rearranged at some point in the series (Brawl's in particular was all over the place), and the credits theme in Brawl combined them all.
Every character in the Advance Wars series has his or her own theme music which plays during their turn. There's also (in Dual Strike) no less than six different power-up themes; which one plays depends on the power level (Normal, Super, or Tag) and which faction is using it (Allied Nations or Black Hole). If you use a Tag Power with an Allied CO and a Black Hole CO in Vs. or War Room mode, the theme will even change when they switch places.
In the video game Def Jam: Icon one of your character's weapons is the power to change the soundtrack to his own theme music which alters the world around you.
Romancing Sa Ga 1 and 3, Sa Ga Frontier and Unlimited Sa Ga did this; each character having their own theme.
Super Paper Mario has theme music for certain villains (Mr L, Count Bleck and Dimentio).
- Super Paper Mario also features a remix of pretty much every song in it. Most notably, the music for the fight against the Big Bad is remixed during the fight against the TRUE final boss.
- In Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, Ms Mowz has her own theme music, as does Jr Troopa in Paper Mario.
Super Mario 64 has Bowser's theme, which receives an Ominous Pipe Organ remix for the final battle.
Several characters in Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney have their own leitmotifs; for example, Godot's "Fragrance of Dark Coffee", which was used quite cleverly later on...
- Godot also earns extra points by having his own theme music as his personal cellphone ringtone.
- Klavier's theme music, "Guilty Love", is actually heard by other characters, although it's justified: it's the no. 1 hit of his band, the Gavinners.
- In the early games, only important characters have their own theme, but in later ones, almost every witness has one.
Every boss in La Mulana has their own boss battle music.
Several characters in Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune:
- Akio Asakura: "Blue Blazes" (WMMT 1 and 2), "Phantom of Blue" (WMMT 3)
- Tatsuya Shima: "Destination Blackout" (1 and 2), "Black Pressure" (3)
- Reina Akikawa: "Nothing Can Live Forever" (1 and 2), "Feel the Moment" (3)
- R200 Club: "Decoration for the Dement" (1 and 2), "Evil Association" (3). The latter has the distinction of being played in only one stage of Story Mode.
And in the original Wangan Midnight game, more characters have their own theme music.
RPG Baten Kaitos features Leitmotifs for many characters. The Cosmic Horror Malpercio has the impressive Ruler Of The Nine Skies. Recurring boss Giacomo uses the very catchy theme Chaotic Dance, which has electric and acoustic versions. In the prequel, a young Giacomo has the remixed Chaotic Dance 2.
Dawn Of War features Leitmotif for each of the factions, ranging from heavy drumbeating for the Orks, militaristic marching music for The Imperial Guard to the Asian orchestral of the Tau Empire.
In Time Crisis, we have Wild Dog's theme music and its arrangements in subsequent installments. It itself is a pastiche of the main series theme.
- Time Crisis 2 also has General Diaz's theme, which appears in the musics for stage 2-1 and 3-3, the Final Boss battle, and the ending.
- Time Crisis 3 has a different theme tune than the other games, but it still uses elements from the original theme, Musical Pastiche style.
Valve Software's new shooter Left 4 Dead utilises an AI system that spawns enemies, places items, displays visual effects and plays audio depending on players' actions and performance. Three of the five "boss zombies" have unqiue themes that play when they are attacking the survivors, but the Tank and the Witch (being the most deadly enemies) have motifs that play when they are in proximity, meaning that you will not want to hear them. Ever.
- There are also quick little riffs that play when one of the three spawn. This builds subconscious associations among casual players and gives hardcore players (the ones who will poke around the games sound files to find these) something to listen for.
Unusually for a western RPG, Planescape: Torment gave leitmotivs to all the principal characters, including The Nameless One, all NPCs and all of the principal villains; all being variants on the same underlying theme used for every piece of music on the soundtrack.
Halo features "Brothers In Arms"(mainly a battle theme, returns in part 3), "Shadows"(terror or suspense), "On A Pale Horse"(in scenes where Banshees attack, reprised as "Leonidas" in subsequent games), and "Devils, Monsters"(the Flood leitmotif, "Ancient Machine" in part 2 is a variation of it), among others.
- Halo 2: "The Last Spartan"(the Chief's leitmotif for this game), "Falling Up"(the Arbiter's theme, also a spinoff of the main game riff), the Delta Halo theme, which becomes a recurring riff in the third game, despite Delta Halo not being part of its story, "Earth City"(the Scarab walker's theme) and "Respite"(the High Charity/Prophet's theme).
Chrono Trigger has a few of these, namely Frog's Theme, Magus's Theme, and Robo's Theme, which sounds strangely similar to a certain song by Rick Astley.
- Holy crap, you're right! *pop*
Wing Commander II has a number of prominent leitmotifs, most notably the grim, minor-key brass fanfare accompanying Prince Thrakhath, the syncopated piano motif for Jazz, and the theme that plays during the love scenes between Blair and Angel.
Nearly every character of the large cast of the Touhou Project has their own leitmotif. This large influx of awesome music fuels not so much the fandom than it displaces it.
Persona3 and Persona4 both used this incredibly strategically. No specific character leitmotifs, however...
- Persona 3 specifically used about seven different versions of the Tartarus background music, representing the different blocks of the tower. The 'ground floor' rendition ends up more as the main soundtrack to the Dark Hour itself though. More notable, however, is the credits track, Memories of You, wherein musical segments from Your Memories (one of the saddest-sounding songs in the game) and Joy (playing during some of the happiest scenes in the game) are both used.
- Persona 4 is a little lighter on this. Two different versions of the regular battle theme are used depending on the strength of the enemy. I'll Fight Myself has two versions - one used during major boss fights, and one used for the scenes afterwards.
- Both used the 'Poem for the Soul' for the Velvet Room, however 3 is notable for turning it into an insanely rocking boss theme.
Alma gets her own leitmotif in the second FEAR game, which also serves as the game's main theme.

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Western Animation

In Batman The Animated Series, nearly every character, and every villain, had a leitmotif that was associated with them. Nearly every leitmotif, with the exception of the Joker's, originated in the title card for their premiere episode, and thus was featured strongly in the soundtracks of the episodes they appear in.
- Two-Face, for example, had a short but haunting two/three tone melody motif that would play every time he was onscreen (whereas most had their motifs simply played in larger scenes), even if the episode had nothing to do with him (IE, if a character was passing by his cell in Arkham). The Joker, whose theme never played in a title card, had a whimsical but subtly creepy theme that had a different version of it played (ofttimes with completely different instruments) for every episode he appeared in.
- This idea was used expertly in "Perchance to Dream". As Wayne races to the top of a church belltower the Mad Hatter's theme is being played by heavy brass (as opposed to light, cheerful flutes as per norm) despite the fact he's doesn't appear to be involved in Bruce Wayne's current plight. Discerning viewers get to notice this, figure out the twist, and feel happy.
- In the episode "Joker's Favor," the non-villain protagonist Charlie Collins gets his own leitmotif, a little whistled ditty this troper likes to call "Fanfare for the Luckless Schmuck."
- In the origin story for Harley Quinn, the Joker is whistling her theme the first time they meet.
- Clayface. Ye gods, Clayface. That descending string chord has haunted my dreams for years now. It oozes.
- Batman Beyond mostly had its own music, but would occasionally do a callback to leitmotifs for the previous series, and in the episode "Out of the Past," when Bruce Wayne is temporarily restored to youth and vigor, he and Terry take out the trash to a rock-anthem treatment of the BTAS main theme.
  - Another notable - and very effective - callback to the original BtAS score occurs in the episode "Disappearing Inque," when the aged Bruce Wayne appears in a suit of Batman Powered Armor to come to Terry's rescue.
In Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern and Green Arrow all have their own musical motifs (Batman and Superman retain their melody motifs from their respective solo shows). Green Arrow even hums his own theme while swinging forth into battle at one point.
In Inspector Gadget, every main character had his or her own theme. Gadget's was the main theme of the show, which played in almost every scene as a recurring part of the soundtrack. Penny also had a fairly thorough theme playing in each of her scenes. Brain, Quimby and Dr. Claw each had a short motif that played when their scenes began, while Claw had a longer theme that played in the background afterwards.
Kim Possible has a few pieces of music used in specific situations, including Rufus's theme, which was put to lyrics as the "Naked Mole Rap" in a third season episode. All the major characters also had their own individual Leit Motifs which would occasionally pop up. The most frequently was Kim's theme, a high-energy guitar variation on the show's theme tune. Ron had his own (somewhat sillier) up-tempo guitar theme, although it shows up less often. Dr. Drakken is accompanied by looming strings, although it's often replaced with a flute when he's being silly. Shego receives a techno beat. Killigan is aided by the bagpipes, while Monkeyfist often appears accompanied with a monk-like male bass chant.
X Men Evolution has these for several characters, from full-on Anime-like image songs (Toad) to sinister little villain tunes (Magneto). Magneto's piece is even based on the music playing at Auschwitz at the beginning of the first live-action film. Angel, the only character in the show to operate as a traditional superhero, gets very heroic music.
- Scott and Rogue (as a duo) get one too. It's weird, seeing as they aren't the Official Couple, but nonetheless beautiful music.
The Boondocks has Uncle Ruckus whose presence is always preceded by a trombone tune, reminiscent of Jabba the Hutt's theme. Although not heard until Season 2, it is quickly noticeable.
Every engine in Thomas The Tank Engine had their own theme in the early years of the show.
Momo of Avatar The Last Airbender has a distinct upbeat theme that goes with how his presence is used as an indicator of things being less serious.
- For the reverse, Azula has a "meticulously malevolent" bell-like twinge that can be heard almost every time she's onscreen. Usually a sure sign that something bad's about to go down.
  - And when she's in the middle of her Villainous Breakdown, we're treated to a disjointed amount of strings.
- Any time we see the Blue Spirit, we hear a "Tsungi Horn", a fictional instrument in the show made by altering the sound of a duduk. When he is engaging in stealthy moves, this changes to a vaguely bell-like sound, crescendoing and decrescendoing in time to the understated action. (This theme was even played briefly when the still-unpurchased/unstolen Blue Spirit mask went past Zuko and Iroh on a cart, before the character of the Blue Spirit emerged. You ALWAYS know when the Blue Spirit is about!)
- Apparently, every major character has a theme, as well as each nation, and even one for the Official Couple as a pair which gets a particularly swelling version in the last scene of the series. Iroh apparently had several, and Zuko's changed over time with his Character Development.
- Zuko and Azula share a Leitmotif because they're brother and sister. They just arrange it differently and use slightly different instruments so his sounds determined and serious, and hers sounds girlish, yet creepy.
Thundercats uses leitmotifs extensively. Each major heroic character has one (Panthro sharing his with the Thundertank), as well as having leitmotifs for danger, warnings, certain locations, and battle.
Sideshow Bob is one of the only characters on The Simpsons to get a leitmotif.
- Appropriately enough, given the episode it was first used in, his theme is heavily based on the title music for Cape Fear.
The Spectacular Spider Man Animated Series has leitmotifs for Spidey from previous animated series starring said wallcrawler. The 1960s one and the 1990s one that appeared on Fox are both audible in the soundtrack music for the show.
Megatron of Transformers Animated has a hard, militaristic drumline. The Decepticons as a whole also seem to have a theme, consisting of severe, drawn-out strings.
- Meanwhile, Lockdown has an utterly metal guitar chord.
The Life and Times of Juniper Lee features an interesting theme for June which is a mix of Ominous Latin Chanting and a series of wind instruments.
The 1970s British pre-school cartoon Bod had a prominent theme tune for each of its characters, all of which were short, simple and catchy so that kids would memorize them quickly.
In Disney's The Great Mouse Detective, the three main protagonists had their own recurring leitmotif tunes. Basil's leitmotif was also the film's main title theme music, Dr. Dawson's leitmotif almost always prominently featured a bassoon, and Olivia Flaversham's leitmotif was also used for the tune the musical dancing doll her father made would play. Professor Ratigan also had his own little leitmotif played on a clarinet.
Several characters and situations in Ben 10 have these, although this troper can only remember Grey Matter's.
In The Venture Bros. an absurdly dramatic theme song always accompanies Dr. Byron Orpheus's theatrical outbursts, which comprise a majority of his dialogue. The Monarch has similar dramatic music that plays whenever he's being particularly commanding or villainous: "MINIONS!"
In Doug, several characters, including Doug's sister Judy, bully Roger Klotz and twins Al and Moo have their own leitmotif.
Freakazoid's leitmotif plays virtually whenever the camera cuts to him.
In Animaniacs, whenever the characters of one segment made a cameo appearance in another they would be accompanied by a few bars of their own segment's theme (the Animaniacs theme served as the motif for the Warner siblings).
The Twins in Superjail! have a eurodance-esque beat whenever they appear or are about to appear on-screen.
Several characters of Static Shock have their own leitmotif.
Digeri Dingo has his own background music that usually when he's plotting something or saying a funny line in Taz Mania.
Every time Cho-Cho from Histeria! spoke, she'd be accompanied by the "Chopsticks" music.
Tai Lung from Kung Fu Panda gets his own theme, natch. What is interesting is that while it plays the first time we see him (complete with Vachir's solemnly intoned "Behold Tai Lung"), and at several points throughout his incredible escape sequence, with all the gravitas, power, and chilling effectiveness you'd expect, it also appears in a subdued, pensive, even sorrowful tone when he stands before his former master just before their climactic battle, and again in a darkly tragic and heartbreaking iteration as Tai Lung is attacking his father with his fists on fire. (As if we needed any more reminders of his Freudian Excuse and Well Done Son Guy status—this is during his "All I ever did, I did to make you proud!" speech.) And a heartwarming, sweetly playful version is heard during the flashback to his Start Of Darkness, when we see him as an adorable cub with Shifu and learning kung fu. In a moment of Fourth Wall breakage, this editor even wrote a Fan Fic in which Tai Lung plays his own theme on a flute. (It's explained in-universe as an old song from his cubhood that's often played for the dead, since he's playing it for Oogway. It Makes Sense In Context.)