What tunes do you imagine playing...

...When you see the villain doing his/her thing?

Dont be a stranger, post your idea! Then if you want, another situation to keep the ball rolling...

Or feel free to just post your thoughts on other peoples suggestions, it's all just a little fun after all.

SOOOO.... the villain protagonist is strolling along the halls of a facility and his chaotic-good-but-not-really-evil companion is kind of nervously tagging along...

What tune should he be humming/whistling to himself as he throws homemade magical bombs left and right? For him, it's justified revenge against the scumbags that would try to control free will and twist it into what THEY see as acceptable... plus it's just a hell of alot of fun.

edited 8th Dec '11 3:33:43 AM by Zanzibar

I picture something chaotic like the Joker's theme in The Dark Knight when I hear a scene like that, but then again my mind instantly went to the scene where The Riddler blew up the Batcave in Batman Forever, so perhaps I'm trying to find something a bit more menacing and, well...less stupid. As to what he would be whistling? Easy. The Ants Go Marching

I have one villain who has the ability to create illusions within the mind of others and creates weird fantasy worlds where physics, distance and time are, for lack of a better word, fucked up, like the dreams in Inception. Despite that obvious bit of inspiration though, I always kinda imagine something like this, but perhaps a little more sinister sounding.

When my fantasy villain sits on his throne and manages his affairs of state.

When my sci-fi villain offers people a deal.

I still haven't found a tune for my apocalyptic villain—she's very much The Scourge of God, and I don't know of a song that quite represents that.

Based on my understanding of Scourge of God, may I suggest Hellfire?

Nega-Sophia slaughtering her own party => Atsuko Enomoto singing "Be My Angel."

For irony.

oh wow... some cool ideas already!

Anyway, I just wanna say you don't have to limit yourself to just a tune playing in the background. Describe the whole scene, if you feel like it, just show a little detail of it which you think would work especially well.

e.g. The villain casually throws one of the bomb canisters over his shoulder at one point("hold this") cue the poor sidekick character desperate bouncing the thing up and down in his frantic efforts to grab it, probably hanging over a stair banister all the while. He finally grabs in a comically appropriate manner (i.e. with his mouth JUST snapping shut over a loose rope or wire) and with a great sigh of relief gets back to a normal pose just in time for the villain to come back from whatever he was doing...

edited 8th Dec '11 4:35:30 AM by Zanzibar

For Grendel's mother? No music.

The theme music of Majora's Mask, the apocalyptic BGM of Clock Town and the reversed Song of Healing.

A villain who's happily doing his twisted job needs some eerie music.

edited 8th Dec '11 9:16:48 PM by YuriStrike

Xenakis. Always. Also, Carrillo.

Nerve-jangling classical spookiness aside, though, when I write a scene with one of my more unsavoury characters, something by Swans tends to pop into my head. Whether it's early, mid-period, late or post-revival varies by situation and character, however.

Some people on this wiki may be aware of my slightly vitriolic/cautious views on faith, so when I imagine the scariest villain possible I think of a fervent follower of a twisted religion, putting his senseless beliefs above empathy and reason. I imagine either "Vesuvius" by Sufjan Stevens or "Comfort Eagle" by Cake being his personal theme depending on how I flavored him.

YES. HELL YES. HELL FUCKING YES.

edited 8th Dec '11 3:56:53 PM by Aniventerie

For a Chaotic Evil villain running around being villainous and crazy...Start Wearin' Purple by Gogol Bordello. "All your sanity/and wits/they will all vanish/I promise/It's just a matter of time...."

I don't actually have any characters like that, though.

My villian is (working for) a Chessmaster alien. Similarly to everyone in the story, he is incredibly Genre Savvy, and revels in his villainy when the opportunity arises. So I can see him dancing, John Simm-style, to this.

edited 8th Dec '11 3:43:53 PM by Yej

Gravity getting tired of dealing with subordinates' failures and coming to carry out the assassination himself. Something ominous...the vibe I'm thinking of is that you get when the Imperial March plays in Star Wars, but that actual music is all wrong—for one thing, the guy is decidedly not the lackey of any government, so a march isn't great.

Perfect for the relentless, merciless type villain that will casually tell you how your plan is going to fail.

I tend to imagine a lot of my more disturbed villains humming and skipping to something like Ode to Joy or Lux Aeterna, perhaps Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life if they're about to do some particularly nasty puppy-kicking.

For the ones that are insane and know it, nothing but They're Coming To Take Me Away will do.

For a classy, eloquent, world-domination-through-aristocratic-takeover sort of villain, this is pretty good:

@Yej: That one definitely came as a surprise. I think of one of my heroes in terms of that song.

For the Enemy Within villain from the Fable fanfic I wrote a few years ago, I'd always imagined it being a mix of very low whispering cello, occasional sharp violin notes that disappear almost immediately, slow drum beats from very far off, lots of stuff that gives a feeling of presence, threat and dread. The villain never makes a direct appearance until almost the very end, but he influences the plot behind the scenes.

For the True Final Boss, so to speak, of Always a Hero, for a long time, I've known that their theme music was "Miracle Matter", which is ironically the theme music to the fake final boss of Kirby 64 The Crystal Shards. However, the Final Boss, New Dimension in the book was inspired by the Miracle Matter boss arena.

That's the only one I'm certain of, though.

For a baddie who calls himself the "Ghost Emperor" there can be only one choice — a song that lets you know it's time to run. (Or, alternatively, die trying.)

I've got to go with This is a Fight to Change the World from Sengoku Basara. Incidentally, the song's title is exactly what the villain's trying to do...by generally destructive means.

I don't really know enough musical scores to pick out anything in particular, but I can make general guesses about what a given villain's leitmotif or other music would be.

@feo, well, I think he sings more ironically than straight, since he's close to being in it For the Evulz. (Though there's a good reason for what he does)

Though I think I've found a better song.

I have an unpleasant villain, with a delightful tune to match when I write it. It also fits in that both the villain this was written for and my own simply cannot be defeated through mere violence.

@JHM: Damn, those were unexpected. But effective.

edited 9th Dec '11 4:54:43 AM by KillerClowns

I'm in the process of writing a theme for my villain. He's cold, calculating, and utterly ruthless, so I'm going with something slow, ominous, pounding, and a little off kilter.

[1]

To provide a contrast to the imagery of a 15-or-17-year-old with psychokinetic powers having to take on several individuals at the same time, all the while having to deal with her sanity slipping. To elaborate, she was forced to become a monster she never dreamed she'd be, and deludes herself into thinking of the situation in childlike, black-and-white fantasies so that the awful things she's doing are easier for her to stomach.

[2] NSFW- Violence!

To the scene of a character's body morphing uncontrolably as he struggles to keep himself in check. His rabid, animalistic nature in the scene provides contrast to his usual calm attitude, and clean-cut appearance.

edited 9th Dec '11 9:01:39 AM by DisasterGrind