Music / Razia's Shadow

"The unrelenting constancy of love and hope will rescue and restore you from any scope."

— The End and the Beginning

Razia’s Shadow is a musical written by Forgive Durden. Released in 2008, it showcases the vocal talents of many artists: Thomas Dutton of Forgive Durden, Brendon Urie of Panic! at the Disco, Greta Salpeter of The Hush Sound, and Lizzie Huffman of Man in the Blue Van, to name a few. It also features Rudy Gajadhar of Gatsbys American Dream on drums.

The album is composed of two acts, separated by a short intermission. The story begins with the creation of the world by O the Scientist and his angels, swiftly followed by his most talented cherub pulling a Face–Heel Turn because he feels his talents are being overlooked. This ends up plunging half the land into eternal darkness. A century later, we meet Adakias, the prince of the dark, who wants nothing more than to leave his home and venture into the light.

It is best known for its puppet show adaptation, which one of the performances can be viewed here.

Tracklist:

1. "Genesis"
2. "The Missing Piece"
3. "Life is Looking Up"
4. "The Spider and the Lamps"
5. "Toba the Tura"
6. "The Oracle"
7. "A Hundred-Year, Minute-Long Intermission"
8. "The Exit"
9. "It’s True Love"
10. "Meet the King"
11. "Holy the Sea"
12. "Doctor, Doctor"
13. "The End and the Beginning"

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Razia’s tropes:

• Added Alliterative Appeal: Going by character names, three main characters are Ahrima, Adakias, and Anhura; there is also Toba the Tura, Doctor Dumaya, and the brothers Baba and Baruka Bawaba.
  • Not to mention these lines from the last track, "The End and the Beginning:"
  She requires riches, recherche, riding with rodomontading roues
  Casanovas have charmed with chiffons, so chichi.
  Chased her with their conceited coteries
  Maharajahs have magniloquently mouthed
  Their love for me through their menageries.
  She's been propositioned, propounded, by every pompous prince,
  Given panniers of peerless pears and plums polished
  I've been seduced with shimmering, sparkling, stones,
  Squired by suitors to sizable chateaus
• Adipose Rex: Anhura's father, going by his official character illustration, falls squarely into this category.
• Allergic to Evil: Adakias's presence is enough to make Anhura fatally ill due to the darkness inside of him. It's notable that the "evil" part is up to debate since Adakias doesn't seem like a particularly bad guy, he just happens to originally come from a place that was full of darkness.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Well, more like, "Girl Wants Nice Boy Who Happens To Come From the Wrong Side of the Mountain".
• Ambition Is Evil: Zigzagged. Ahrima is banished to the darkness he created because of his desire to have his talents recognized, but Adakias is shown in a good light for following his heart.
• Angry Mob Song: Parts of "The Exit", where the people start to rise.
• Bald of Evil: Well, evil in a way, in the case of Ahrima.
• Bittersweet Ending: In the end, Adakias is dead and the future of the world is left unclear, such as whether Anhura has to stay with the Doctor, if she stays with Pallis, or if she actually helps to fix up the world, etc. Still, the two halves of the world are together again and will live in peace and harmony.
• Break the Cutie: It's Sangara's part in "The Exit".
• Cain and Abel: Especially when you consider that Pallis kills Adakias.
• The Chosen One: Well, the chosen pair in Adakias and Anhura.
• Damsel in Distress: Anhura, once she comes down with the illness.
• Dark Is Evil: Most of the citizens of the darkness are not exactly pleasant. Enforced by the fact that their interjections in "The Exit" are almost jarringly discordant, as opposed to the rest of the song.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Adakias and the Bawaba Brothers.
• Dark Reprise: The End and the Beginning reprises the tunes in "The Exit" and "It’s True Love" towards the end.
  • Also, Ahrima sings to Nidria as a love struck boy confessing his love in "The Missing Piece". Later, Adakias reprises the tune to Anhura, except that he's confessing his origins.
  Nidria/Anhura please listen.
  I'd like to/I really can explain.
  I should've told/meant to tell you sooner
  It's been gnawing at my brain.
• The Dark Side: The world is divided in half with this as one side and the Light as the other.
• The End of the Beginning: Nearly verbatim the last song on the album, "The End and the Beginning"; also, in "Genesis", "This is the beginning and the end, the rise and the fall . . . "
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Most of the song titles, such as "It's True Love" and "Doctor, Doctor".
• Face–Heel Turn: Ahrima pulls this pretty early on due to the influence of the Barayas the Spider.
• Falling-in-Love Montage: Well, more of Falling in Love Songs with "The Missing Piece" and "It’s True Love".
• Family-Values Villain: Let it be said, Pallis does care for his brother to some extent.
• Fate Drives Us Together: Fate and prophecy are main points, including romantically.
• Fourth-Date Marriage: Averted.
• Greed: Part of King Malka's problem with his daughter's marriage to Adakias.
• Grief Song: Toward the end of The End and the Beginning.
• Heel–Face Turn: Pallis towards the end, after killing Adakias by accident.
• Heel Realization: "Toba the Tura" is the moment when this happens.
• Hypocritical Humor: Subtle example: when the citizens of the Dark demand to know why Adakias isn't more like Pallis in "The Exit", he gives the excuse that who his family is isn't a true indicator of who "he" is. But when he learns that he's a direct descendant of Ahrima in "Holy the Sea", it takes all of five seconds for him to proclaim that his lineage guarantees that he's The Chosen One.
• "I Am" Song: Sort of, in "Life is Looking Up".
• "I Want" Song: "The Exit" focuses a lot on Adakias' desire to leave the Kingdom of Darkness.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: Doctor Dumaya, and his price for healing Anhura from the sickness of the Dark.
• Incurable Cough of Death: Not a cough specifically, but Adakias' presence around Anhura causes her to become deathly ill due to her exposure to his darkness.
• "I Want" Song: "Life is Looking Up" and "The Exit" which does double duty as a "Somewhere" Song.
• Ironic Echo: Sort of. Pallis calls Adakias a fool for believing he's the chosen one, and that his journey will lead to his demise in "The Exit." Later on in "The End and the Beginning", he calls himself a fool for not believing that Adakias truly was the chosen one.
• Knight Templar Big Brother: Pallis becomes this in his efforts to drag Adakias back to the dark.
• Light Is Not Good: It's also not entirely evil, per se, but Anhura's father, King Malka is both greedy and bigoted.
• Meaningful Echo: In "Holy the Sea", Adakias repeats the chorus/prophecy from "The Oracle" after realizing he truly was the chosen one.
• Mind Screw: Gargul the Oracle looks pretty freaky.
• Morality Pet: Nidria is this. Sort of. Ahrima is powerful, but insecure. Nidria helps assuage his doubts, but it's not enough to stop him from burning the city to the ground.
• The Musical: Its full title is: "Razia's Shadow: A Musical".
• My God, What Have I Done?: Twice, once in "Toba the Tura", once in "The End and the Beginning".
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: Well, brother. And Pallis is not pleased.
• Mysterious Past: Adakias to Anhura, until she discovers his lineage.
• The Power of Love: It brings the world back together.
• Properly Paranoid: Aside from his greed, the King cites Adakias exuding a vague darkness as a reason for not allowing the marriage.
• Prophecies Rhyme All the Time: Justified, as it's in song form.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Ahrima and Nidria, Adakias and Anhura.
• Shout-Out: "I'm the spider, crawl inside her" in "The Spider and the Lamps" is a reference to "Spidersong" by Say Anything.... Max Bemis, the lead singer of the band, voices Barayas the Spider.
• Talking Animal: Specifically, a Talking Arachnid. He's got a pretty good singing voice, too.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: The first part of "Toba the Tura", where the titular character calls Ahrima a privileged, stupid kid whose actions have led to the destruction of their home.
• Time Skip: The entire point of the appropriately named "A Hundred-Year, Minute-Long Intermission".
• Villain Song: "The Spider and the Lamps", touches of one in "Meet the King", "Doctor, Doctor", to a point in "The End and the Beginning".
• What the Hell, Hero?: The entire point of "Toba the Tura", touched upon in "The Oracle".
• Would Hit a Girl: Pallis has no qualms about killing Princess Anhura.
• Your Days Are Numbered: Sort of implied in "Holy the Sea", for Adakias. "Watch out for the wicked ones who call themselves beloved ones," indeed.

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