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You got the touch! You got the power... Yeah!
do the impossible, see the invisible, raw! raw! fight the power! touch the untouchable, break the unbreakable, raw! raw! fight the power!
A character's strength and abilities are directly proportional with how cool their personal theme music is. The more sudden it starts up and the louder it is, the more butt-kicking is about to commence. This applies to both heroes and villains; and is a power that the Badass Normal is allowed to use.
If a Theme Music Power Up is defeated, expect the music to suddenly stop, Record Needle Scratch optional.
If you're really badass, you get to have Ominous Latin Chanting, the One Woman Wail or the Cherubic Choir. If you're totally badass, you get it to a techno beat or heavy metal riff.
Sometimes near the end, the series Theme Song will play, allowing every good guy to kick some major rear at the Grand Finale.
Examples:
Live Action TV
- Xena Warrior Princess, as sung by the Bulgarian Women's Choir.
- Numerous examples in Power Rangers in all of its incarnations. For example, after Tommy lost his Green Ranger powers in the first season, yet proceeded to fight off Goldar anyway (to the tune of "Go Green Ranger Go").
- Particularly, in the crossover episodes, the visiting team gets the theme music for the previous season when they escalate. In Operation Overdrive's Once a Ranger, we're treated to five earlier incarnations of the theme music, cleverly mixing together (Well, four; for some presumably legal reason, Adam gets a new theme song rather than the original "Go, Go Power Rangers" theme.).
- Happens in Super Sentai too... although ''Fiveman'' took it too far.
- The A-Team theme tune, during each episode's A Team Montage.
- Kamen Rider Den-O has a different version of "Double-Action" for each of Ryotaro's four forms. Ryuutaros, however, takes it a step further. He gets a hip-hop remix of the show's Theme Song and the above mentioned "Double-Action", that play almost every time he shows up. This includes when he's stalking rival Sakurai Yuuto.
- All Toku use this trope to one degree or another. Grand Finales usually involve the "series Theme Song" variant, while the debut of Sixth Rangers usually gives them a specialized theme. This may be to sell the soundtracks.
- Though it doesn't quite fit under a category, when one of the Riders in Kamen Rider SPIRITS is about to have a nice big one-against-all-of-his-monsters-of-the-week-ever battles, the lyrics to an appropriate theme song are written out on the page (V3's sequence is notably impressive).
- Not really sure if this fits, but at the end of the Season Finale of Doctor Who, a rather magnificent version of Martha's theme plays when she leaves the Doctor, returning to her family as the TARDIS dematerializes. The implication is that she will go on to have an amazing life without being in the Doctor's shadow constantly.
- Better examples would be the Ominous Latin Chanting that plays whenever the Daleks do something particularly awesome (which is a lot), or the four-beat "sound of drums" that plays whenever the Master is a Magnificent Bastard (which is a lot).
- The Doctor himself has two themes (not including the Main Title theme) in the new series: one for whenever proceedings get "too Time Lord-y", and another, bombastic epic theme to underscore various moments of heroism. In particular, the second theme played over a moving Remembrance Day service at the end of The Family of Blood, while the former was epic-ized for the Doctor's aristeia in Forest of the Dead.
- Airwolf, a lot, including literal cases, where the theme tune plays as Airwolf starts up.
- On Heroes a ticking clock sound starts playing whenever Sylar gets up to his serial killer shenanigans. It fits his backstory as a watch repairman, and is damn creepy to boot.
Anime
- Usagi of Sailor Moon had several theme songs based on the The Power Of Friendship. The Outer Senshi have their own Rule Of Cool music.
- Subverted in the final season, in which the new addition to the cast — the Sailor Starlights — had an appearance theme very different to the traditional "sudden and loud" ones: starting quiet and subtle and then getting louder during the close-up on them.
- Ichigo of Bleach; whenever he was about to kick serious ass, his Image Song ("Number One" by Hazel Fernandez) would kick in. This was subverted at one point: Ichigo moves to attack an unusually powerful badass, and his Theme Music Power Up stops almost as soon as it starts when his opponent blocks the attack with a single finger.
- More recently, the Big Bad and/or his Arrancar get classy, suspenseful Latin-style music in the background whenever they're making a grand entrance or are about to kick big-time ass. (This is in keeping with their Spanish-tinted theme.)
- Kirika and Mireille of Noir. ''SALVA NOS, DEUUUUUS!''
- Similarly, characters such as Light/Raito and Teru Mikami in DeathNote.
- The Twelve SISTERs of Coyote Ragtime Show.
- The climax of the Galaxy Angel games always follows the Theme Song variant, playing that year's version of Eternal Love (or, in Galaxy Angel II games, Wing of Destiny).
- Dokkoida hangs a Lampshade on this; the hero's power suit is able to induce this state by playing a heroic theme song. At least if they got that feature working. But the hero doesn't know that, and he manages to get the same effect just from suggestion and enjoying the Hot Blooded music.
- Pretty much every evolution sequence in every season of Digimon adheres to this trope. The more absurdly powerful the evolved form is, the more obnoxious and high-pitched the theme music will be, whereas less impressive evolutions (compared to the one available to the main character's partner at any given point in the series) often go by without music altogether. Also, true to this trope, evolution music invariably stops as soon as the evolved Digimon is hit by it's enemy.
- Card Captor Sakura seems to have a leitmotif that appears on the soundtrack whenever she finally joins battle with a particularly powerful enemy. (If you've seen the show, you'll recognize it as a disco-style instrumental with oddly-majestic sweeping strings playing the melody.)
- Various versions of a heavy, hot-blooded rap song are played during pivotal power-up moments in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Eventually they get so powerful that they actually get those lyrics superimposed on an 'opera' track.
- Mid-season brings another instance of this trope, when the song "Happily Ever After," which was originally just an extra track on the opening song's single CD, is played when the main character come out of his emo funk and turns into the leader he should be, complete with a 30 second beatdown on the up-until-then unbeaten Dragon.
- Finally, in the final episode, there is an actual theme-music power-up, the opening theme, which was omitted for that episode begins playing and the real butt kicking commences. The theme continues in its entirety until the final boss is defeated.
- Also works for the bad guys: whenever Viral shows up and does something awesome, the Surprisingly Good English song "Nikopol" plays.
- Futari Wa Pretty Cure: Nagisa and Honoka are undefeatable when the instrumental version of the theme song is playing. And if the background music has lyrics, they can accomplish miracles like defeating the Dark King or getting Kiriya to turn good. At the end of Futari Wa Pretty Cure Max Heart, the theme song was played with lyrics, which was both at once and thus gave Pretty Cure the ability to defeat the Dark King for real this time.
- Konjiki No Gash Bell brings a quite literal example of this trope. Italian Super Star Parco Folgore has a hit song known as "Muteki Folgore" (Invincible Folgore) with the ability to revive him every time he has been knocked down if it is sung by his partner Kanchome.
- The first season theme of Hajime No Ippo often plays during Ippo's final drive to victory in a given match.
- Subverted in one episode where during Ippo's first match against Japan Featherweight Champion Eiji Date, it is suddenly interrupted by Eiji's counter punch.
- When you hear Fate's voice actress, Nana Mizuki, start to sing her insert song for that season of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, expect every villain currently on screen to get their asses kicked within the next five minutes. Fate gets a particularly big one of these in the form of the awesome "Pray" during the final showdown with Jail Scaglietti and the Numbers.
- Likewise, whenever "Meteor" or "Vestige" play in Gundam SEED or Gundam SEED Destiny, expect Kira Yamato to appear and disable the entire opposition without a scratch.
- Many of the tracks of Eureka Seven are meant just as a theme music power up, be it for the heroes or the villains. Whenever Renton does anything especially awesome, a song insert, "Storywriter" begins playing.
- This was also done by Neon Genesis Evangelion. Whenever EVA-01 is about to kick some ass and tear some unfortunate Angel a new one, a distinctice track known as "The Beast 2" plays. The track is even used for such moments in the crossover "Super Robot Wars" games. Also, in the series' original, Mind Screw, happy ending, when Shinji realises his whole life doesn't need to revolve around piloting EVA-01, and he can live a happy life without it, a slow piano version of the show's theme, A Cruel Angel's Thesis, is played.
- Whenever Madlax is about to perform some brlliant feat of marksmanship, the show plays the track "Nowhere", which opens with the background singers chanting the nonsense word "Yanmaani." It is a joke among fans that the word gives Madlax super powers.
- The James Bond-ish opening theme tune in Read Or Die kicks up at the end of the first episode of the OVA, when Yomiko and Nancy square off against Otto Lilienthal and his transforming glider.
- The titular character of Naruto has "The Raising Fighting Spirit", which assures he's about to recover from a previous attack, and kick ass.
- There is also "Utsukishi Aoi Yajuu" (Beautiful Green Beast) which plays for Rock Lee when he starts WHOOOPING Gaara's keister in anime episode 48.
- In Dragon Ball Z, when Cell goads and torments Gohan to transcend his Super Saiyan power, Gohan does exactly that, to a tune called "Demon vs. Demon" (in some translations). A fitting name, considering what Gohan basically becomes in this state. An alternate translation is "Spirit vs. Spirit"; the concepts aren't as different in Japanese as in English, but both translations fit the scene pretty well.
- The Shakugan No Shana cast get one in the climax of the fight against Sabrac in Season 2.
- This happens in Death Note whenever Light reveals whatever Xanatos Roulette he has cooked up that week, just in case we had forgotten what a Magnificent Bastard he is. Near also gets one at the very end of the series.
- Likewise, whenever L really gets going, his guitar theme music flares up to match.
- "Little Busters" fills this role several times in FLCL, usually when it plays during a Naota/Canti gattai.
- In Katekyo Hitman Reborn, there is separate theme music for "Look, someone (usually Tsuna) is no longer failing at life!" and "Oh, by the way, I acquired some new way to kick your butt. SORRY FOR NOT TELLING YOU!" ...as well as everything else, to the extent that it's possible to tell what's going on just by listening to the background music.
- Both played straight, and played very straight by Gao Gai Gar. When Masaaki Endoh shouts "GA-GA-GA GA-GA-GA-GAOGAIGAR!", it's fair warning that Guy's power of raw courage is about to rip you apart. Meanwhile, Mic Sounders has a couple of songs on Disc P that literally power up any protagonist robot in earshot, restoring their energy and galvanizing their fighting spirit.
- Pokemon usually has one of the openings or upbeat endings accompany a sudden comeback (maybe even a whole battle) or evolution. Pokemon Symphonic Medley has been common recently, as there is no full version of the song.
- Almost the entire last episode of Stellvia Of The Universe is accompanied by various theme music pieces, including the OP. The sheer awesome of its Grand Finale takes more than words to convey.
- Gravion has a theme song that plays when it combines, in one episode Sandman and the maids powered the robot up by singing karaoke!!!
- Inverted in Paranoia Agent, where the Theme Music belongs to Big Bad Lil' Slugger. If it starts playing, you're extremely screwed -- Slugger gets the powerup.
- Macross Frontier does this a lot, especially episode 7. In episode 14, it's subverted - "Don't Be Late" plays as Sheryl goes into combat for the first time... only for her to be immediately shot down.
- Genesis Of Aquarion has a Theme Music Power Up in nearly every episode (along with the usual subversion with stopping the song when the attack fails), and the last episode gets an awesome, gospel style version of the first theme song.
Film
- The original Transformers movie has "The Touch" by Stan Bush, most memorably played during a Foe Tossing Charge by Optimus Prime, and also when the Matrix of Leadership is opened near the end of the movie. Some fans theorize that Megatron and the Decepticons also received a power-up from "Instruments of Destruction" during the attack on the shuttle where they killed Prowl, Brawn, Ratchet, Irohhide in about ten seconds. One can probably make an argument for "Dare to be Stupid" for the Junkions.
- The Bride from Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill.
- Indiana Jones has his distinctive theme play whenever he does something Especially Awesome.
- James Bond ditto.
- In the Spider-Man films, Spidey's action scenes are usually accompanied by his distinctive leitmotif. The villains also get their own theme music. In climax of the third one, Spider-Man's theme gets very noticeably cut off whenever the villains get the upper hand.
- "Holding Out for a Hero" in Short Circuit 2; for those too young to remember that one, it was also in Shrek 2. With full orchestra support from Harry Gregson-Williams in the latter case.
- At the end of the Mission Impossible movie.
- The Rocky movies are no doubt well-known for their sudden comebacks, almost always accompanied by one of Rocky's many theme tunes. Usually, just as the finishing blows are made, the music builds to a dramatic climax. This is no more evident than in the fifth movie (otherwise not worth the time) where, as Rocky lies concussed in the streets during a brawl with Tommy Gunn, he goes into an almighty hallucination, remembering his dead trainer Mickey before finally snapping out of it as Mickey screams at him "Get up, you son if a bitch... 'cause Mickey loves ya." The music swells as Rocky rises again... then it suddenly bursts into a weird ghetto remix. Still, this editor has to admit he always gets a bit teary eyed at this part, no matter how cheesy it is.
- Parodied in Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, where Master Betty occasionally shouts, "Play my kick-ass music!" One of his minions then plays "Baby Got Back", to which tune Betty pummels his victim.
- And in the final showdown, the Chosen One throws a shuriken at the boom-box, causing it to start playing the Ram Jam version of (probably) Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter's "Black Betty".
- Sometimes done just before a scene's climax, when the heroes have the upper hand and the enemy hasn't made his final play yet - such as in the Scooby Doo movie, where a remix of the classic theme plays for a while before the gang really winds up in trouble.
- "Secret Agent Man" playing in the final battle of the first Austin Powers movie may qualify; again, it dies down before his final confrontation with Doctor Evil.
- Backs up the Guarani a couple times in The Mission. Sadly, it is not quite enough.
- The first twenty seconds of the track "Beelzeboss" from Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny act as a Theme Music Power Up for the Devil.
- At the end of Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Jack Sparrow's confrontation against the kraken is made even more awesome by the remix of He's A Pirate that plays during it.
- And then abruptly turns tragic as the heroic strings drop into a dying fall...just as the Black Pearl is pulled beneath the waves.
- How can anybody forget how Excalibur popularized O Fortuna.
- Star Wars: Return of the Jedi gives Luke a big Theme Music Power Up in the Sarlacc pit scene.
- This troper swears this is the case with Mr. Mistoffelees on the filmed version of Cats. His song, though enjoyable, is so odd and repetitive and full of praise that it seems he's doing the song mostly to get the crowd to believe in his powers so he can actually do anything.
- When it's time for a dogfight, what's the first thing the hero does in Top Gun? Put some rock into his tape deck, of course.
- Why the Superman wasn't added a long time ago is beyond me. It is the sound of powering up.
- In Godzilla Final Wars, Godzilla's new theme 'King of the Monsters' kicks in just as he blasts off one of Keizer Ghidorah's heads after being revived by Ozaki in the Gotengo. Godzilla then proceeds to utterly destroy Ghidorah by tossing him into the air and blasting him with a spiral beam.
Western Animation
- The heroes of most shows in the animated DCU. In one episode of Justice League Unlimited, Green Arrow even sang along to his theme as he kicked butt.
- The Joker in Batman: The Animated Series would hum his own theme music on occasion.
- A particularly awesome example comes from the Batman Beyond episode "Disappearing Inque". Terry gets kidnapped by the villainess Inque, and she threatens to kill kim unless Bruce shows up. Later on, we see a large figure in a trench coat walking towards Inque... which turns out to be Bruce, in a massive Batman mech suit. The moment he starts wailing on her, an orchestrated version of the Batman theme from Batman The Animated Series starts playing.
- Something similar happens in another episode where Bruce, rejuvenated by a couple dips into a Lazarus Pit, fights side-by-side with Terry, with the BTAS theme going, except it's electric guitars instead of trumpets soaring.
- The Popeye cartoons, with Popeye's spinach-induced theme music, makes this one of The Oldest Ones In The Book.
- Parodied in the South Park episode "Towelie", as whenever the titular Towelie got high, Popeye's theme music played and Towelie became dumber than he already was.
- Most of Kim Possible's flipping, fighting, and swinging is accompanied by a guitar-and-strings action leitmotif that's re-used in every episode. A few of the recurring villains also get their own theme music; the mini-episode "Adventures in Rufus-Sitting" features a four-way fight in which the soundtrack changes several times in the space of a few minutes to reflect whichever combatant currently has the upper hand. Check out this clip.
- The Futurama OVA "Bender's Big Score" has the climactic battle with the theme playing the background.
- The fifth season finale of Teen Titans (not counting the last-last episode) has a particularly stirring version of the show's theme playing during the final battle with the Brotherhood of Evil.
- Played at the climax of "The Drill" in Avatar The Last Airbender, as Aang hands Azula one of her few outright defeats in the series.
- Not to mention during the Season 2 Finale, any time Aang enters the Avatar State, and most especially during the climactic fight with Fire Lord Ozai. One of the coolest versions ever actually plays during the end credits after the series wraps up; the theme song was actually one of the first things that drew this troper to the show.
- Optimus Prime still has "The Touch" in "The Return Of Optimus Prime" when he opens up the Matrix of Leadership to wipe out the Hate Plague.
- In the first two season finales of X-Men, an even more-rousing-than-usual take on the show's theme backs them up in the final battle. Then the third season started applying it to just about every other fight they got into, and it kind of lost its potency.
Video Games
- Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney uses this trope to extremes unplumbed by man, playing it straight and subverting it at will as the case swings back and forth in and out of Phoenix's favor. A Double Subversion occurs in the first game's third case: Phoenix is out of ammo, the witness/killer is about to get off the stand... and then the song "Investigation ~ Cornered (Variation)" (very dramatic and heroic music) starts up as Edgeworth objects to keep the witness on the stand. The music dies as Edgeworth realizes he doesn't have a question, the judge is about to let the witness go... and then the music starts up again as Edgeworth has a burst of inspiration.
- The second game uses this in an interesting way: Edgeworth returns from a Journey To Find Oneself. Part of the sign he found what he was looking for is that he has gained his own theme music.
- This happens again in Trials and Tribulations when Phoenix finally backs Godot into a corner, exposing as the true "murderer" of Misty Fey. As he does, the "Cornered" song from the first game reappears. Mia Fey's spirit even shows up to cheer Phoenix on.
- This event is made even more awesome by the fact that the last time you heard that song was in the first game, because the 2nd and 3rd games had a new song for the situations "Cornered" was used in. When this troper heard the first bits of it as the song begin, he got even more pumped than he already was.
- In fact, the use of this trope verges on being a gameplay element - whenever you present the correct evidence at a contradiction, the cross-examination theme will always stop as Phoenix objects, in preparation for the heroic music to start up once he points out the contradiction. If you're wrong, the music will just keep going as he takes a penalty. This troper saved right before every objection she wasn't sure of, and waited for the music cue with her finger on the power switch in case she was wrong...
- However, based on this troper's experience with the first game, there has been at least one case where the music stops even if you present the wrong evidence anyway, fooling you into thinking you had the right one.
- In the third and fourth games, the main prosecutors had their own theme songs, both of which ROCKED ASS. Whenever their song begins playing, this troper would think any variation of the phrase "Shit. I'm about to get OWNED."
- Super Metroid's Final Battle, where the "Theme of Samus Aran" starts thundering when her 'My Name Is Inigo Montoya' moment comes.
- Speaking of Metroid... Late in Metroid Zero Mission, Samus is stripped of her armor, and is forced to retreat from a pack of murderous space pirates who can kill her in one shot. She gets two Theme Music Power Up moments:
- After gaining a new, more powerful version of her armor in the Chozo Ruins, Samus gets the "got item" theme, but this time in a much more glorified version.
- Samus then retaliates against the pirates with a vengeance, now able to destroy them in one shot, with an up tempo version of the Brinstar theme song blaring all the while.
- The final boss of Metroid Prime is accompanied by the already slightly creepy, Ominous Latin Chanting filled main menu music, warped to sound even stranger and more alien. Given that the main menu has the interior of a metroid for its backdrop, this really drives home just how wrong the final boss is, even compared to life energy sucking floating fanged jellyfish.
- Metal Gear Solid 3 invokes the series main theme (seldom used in-game) if the player is running out of time in its final battle. The getaway in The Twin Snakes also uses it.
- Metal Gear Solid 4 plays with this, where playing certain songs on the I Pod provides ingame bonuses. Naturally the ridiculously awesome Metal Gear Solid 3 theme (Someday, you walk through the raaaaaaain, some day you'll feed on a treeeee frog!) makes you almost unstoppable.
- Then there's the finale of MGS 4, where a final fistfight with Liquid Ocelot comes in four parts, with theme music from each main game of the series (and matching health bars) for each section, until the music runs out of steam and it's just two old men throwing their last ounces of strength at eachother.
- Zero in the Mega Man X games has a different theme song in every game, and it always plays when he does something awesome (blowing off Vile's mech's arm in Mega Man X, sacrificing himself, destroying a copy of himself in just three shots, etc.).
- This holds true in the Megaman Zero saga. Whenever that particular game's Zero theme song starts sounding, rest assured - you're about to do something very cool.
- And Mega Man Battle Network games have a theme in each game, based around the same two tunes throughout the series, which is played for no other reason other than to show off how something heroic is going on.
- The tracks are actually called "Heroism".
- During the second fight with Dracula in Super Castlevania 4, the music changes from the level music to Simon Belmont's theme. Note that this has worked in reverse as well; Dracula's theme music, Dance of Illusions, usually plays in the fights where he's the most difficult to defeat (like in Dracula X, where the battle takes place over a series of bottomless pits).
- Actually, that's the only game where it's that damn difficult. Usually, "Dance of Illusions" is simply used for Dracula's first form.
- This is essentially the effect of Star Power in the Guitar Hero games. Once activated, every note you successfully hit earns you double points, and the crowd rhythmically claps in unison. This is a great way to save you from certain death on difficult songs like "Bark at the Moon" and the faster second half of "Hangar 18".
- Used throughout the Halo series. The Halo Theme generally starts playing whenever things get particularly exciting - a narrow, timed escape, a huge, 3-way battle, ect. And, of course, whenever Master Chief does something utterly awesome, the theme WILL be playing.
- Sonic The Hedgehog has been doing this lately.
- Odd; this troper thinks of the "invincibility stars" music from the first game as being the Sonic theme. Which is sort of a clever setup - unlike Mario, when Sonic goes kill-everything-I-touch invincible, he gets his theme music to accompany it, making this trope self-fulfilling.
- Inverted in Final Fantasy VII: A Flash Back to the Big Bad's deteriorating mental state is accompanied by a few, looping malevolent chords. When he snaps, they extend and turn out to be the opening of his leitmotif.
- When the main plot of Chrono Trigger starts up, they even let you bask in the theme music during random battles.
- Gig, Omnicidal Heroic Sociopath of Soul Nomad And The World Eaters, has three theme songs. Consequently, he has three different stages of Theme Music Power Up depending on which one's used, ranging from 'you'll receive a verbal smackdown' to 'you're Deader Than Dead, and so's your Throw Away Country And Your Little Dog Too'.
- In the Advance Wars 2/DS/Days of Ruin, when a CO Power is used, the normal CO theme will be replaced by a heavy metal tune depending on the CO's faction.
- Some of the effects last until the next day/turn however, even though the theme is replaced by your respective enemy theme during their turns. Weather effects caused by CO powers can even last up to 3 days.
- An observed property of the upcoming game Fable II is that the more rhythmically you kick ass, the more awesome the BGM becomes.
- Super Robot Wars uses this by default. The music that plays during any unit's Attack animation is often it's series theme song. Same for the non-Badass Normal characters in the Original Generation games, until the remake gave everybody their own. In all SRW games, they will also play the trope completely straight at appropriate moments in the plot, and will play an entire game's theme song when some serious beatdown is about to commence. Through the Alpha and OG series', Elzam Branstein's "Trombe!" is so Bad Ass, overrides almost all other theme music (even bosses), and results in much ass-kicking. Particularly from Alpha 3 onwards, there is the option to change the unit's battle music, with exceptions (such as 'Goldion Hammer' and 'Goldion Crusher', which only play during their attacks - their Bad Ass attacks). In addition, the Sound Force from Macross 7 literally defeat enemies by singing at them - and can also power up your other units with their music.
- Though, of course, that was rather the point of Sound Force. Up to and including powering the Wave Motion Gun of the show by the end.
- The spin-off game Mugen no Frontier also uses this liberally: while the normal battle themes are randomly selected from 4 different possibilities depending on who's in the party, the character-specific theme starts playing whenever someone uses one of their special attacks.
- Speaking of song overridings, Dynasty Warriors have Lu Bu, which Elzam seems to be an Expy of. And finally, in Samurai Warriors, there's Honda Tadakatsu for the man of theme song overriding.
- In the best scene in Super Smash Bros Brawl's Subspace Emissary, after Ganondorf and Bowser's gigantic Subspace Battleship shoots down the heroe's recovered Halberd, the heroes escape in their personal fighters to the Theme Music Power Up. The music being Dramatic Latin Chanting doesn't hurt.
- Boss battles in Skies Of Arcadia are accompanied by music that changes according to how well the player is doing. If the player's party has taken a lot of damage, the music is ominous and fractured; if the player is only a few turns from victory, it's upbeat and triumphant.
- The final boss battle in Persona 3 is accompanied by a remix of Burn My Dread, the game's theme tune. It's appropriate for this trope because as the battle progresses, the Main Character powers up his final ability.
- In Phantasy Star III, the world map theme adds instruments and background to the main melody as more characters join your party. However, if the main character of the generation falls in combat, a much more tense and negative tune plays until said character is resurrected.
- This occurs at least once in each chapter of Live A Live, usually using that particular chapter's battle music. A notable example is during the Mecha chapter's giant robot Buriki Daioh (whose theme music is acknowledged by an NPC saying "Start the music!" whenever the player tries to activate it). Also notable is that the game's main theme is used as the battle music for the final chapter, making nearly every battle a Theme Music Power Up.
- Musical motifs from Exdeath's already evil and imposing theme in Final Fantasy V are used in his (even more awesome, in this troper's opinion) personal battle theme.
- In Age of Mythology, when the player's units attack an opponent's major buildings (Town Center, Palace, etc.) the music switches to a more stirring track.
- Three words: Grand Theft Auto.
- In Thunder Force 5, as you fly into space you encounter a replica of the ship you flew in Thunder Force 4 as a boss, accompanied by an (even more) awesome remix of the heavy metal theme tune of Thunder Force 4 (although this could be considered an inversion, considering its a Theme Music Power Up for your foe).
- The Captain America and The Avengers video game from the 16-bit era would play a cool Super-Hero type music when the level's boss was starting to lose.
- Played for laughs in Monkey Island 2, when Guybrush swinging heroically to grab a chest prompts the Indiana Jones theme tune. Then it's quickly subverted as Guybrush is left hanging from the rope and the music meekly fades out.
- In the arcade game Fate/unlimited codes, when Archer gets to the "Yet, these hands will never hold anything" part of his chant, the regular background music cuts off and "Emiya" kicks in. Unlimited Blade Works ownage follows.
Real Life
- This troper was about to create an article called "Music Glorification" or something, until he read this article and ruled that it was similar enough that the case he was thinking of could be included. What was this case? It was the work of 20th-century French composer Olivier Messiaen's gigantic suite for piano, "Vingt regards du l'enfant Jesus". In it, various things (such as God, Jesus, and pictoral elements) have leitmotifs, which are explicitly marked in the score as themes. The "Theme of God" first appears in the first movement, and reappears many times in subsequent movements. Then, at the end of the final movement, it reappears again in a much more glorious version, now marked as "Glorification of the Theme of God" (hence where this troper got the term "glorification").
- This troper has been using his own term for this effect while describing it to fellow musicians.
- This Troper still remembers an honest-to-goodness musical power-up he once had playing Street Fighter II back in high school. I had an unending hatred of Boyz 2 Men's "I'll Make Love to You," which was saturating the airwaves in those days, and while playing SFII with a couple friends, one of them thought it would be great to pump up the volume when that song came on to see my reaction. The next round, I beat him with five moves in roughly ten seconds, before he had a chance to do anything at all.
- This Troper's video gaming abilities seem to miraculously improve whenever a song by DragonForce is playing in the background. Unfortunately, this does not seem to apply to Guitar Hero.
- Even better, once some of this troper's friends were playing Fight Night, and one guy was getting owned pretty badly. Then someone put "Gonna Fly Now" on, and he made a heroic comeback in true Rocky style. I guess theme music powerups are contagious.
- Very true in real life. Doing any sort of manual labor or physical exercise seems to be better if you play "Gonna Fly Now" or "Eye of the Tiger."
- Various sports teams have been attempting this in recent years, especially the Boston Red Sox with "Sweet Caroline." Considering they put an end to their futility streak and then won another championship just a couple years later, I guess it works.
Webcomics
- DoctorMcNinja has to - I repeat, has to sing along to the Ghost Busters theme in order to empower himself to do battle with ethereal beings.
- Not the lyrics though, just the tune- "Dada, Dadadada!".
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