Dark Reprise: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|''"You'll wash my tender leaves and smell my sweet perfume.

''You'll water me and care for me, you'll see me bud and bloom.

 

{{examples}}

* "Somewhere That's Green" from ''[[Little Shop of Horrors]]''. A song with some of the same lyrics is first about dreaming of a bright future with Seymour, and then about begging Seymour to feed her to a man-eating plant.

** This is made even more twisted because of her reasoning (she says she wants Seymour to take care of her ''as part of Audrey II'').

* ''Little Johnny Jones'' by George M. Cohen has the upbeat patriotic number "Yankee Doodle Dandy". Toward the end of the first act, when Johnny is framed for throwing the English Derby, he sings a slower, sadder version of the song as he deals with being disgraced. This scene is also enacted in James Cagney's Cohen [[Biopic]] ''Yankee Doodle Dandy''.

* Though not to be found in the Broadway soundtrack of the not-so-known musical ''Rags'', the song "If We Never Meet Again" gets one of these - first sung by Rebecca Hershkowitz and Bella Cohen during the boat ride to America, then reprised by Rebecca after {{spoiler|Bella dies in a sweatshop fire.}}

* Near the start of the trip, the characters in ''[[Cannibal! The Musical]]'' sing "That's All I'm Asking For," listing the things they're looking for in life. Near the end of the movie, they sing it again, but as they're all half-starved, all they want is some food, and they barely have the energy to sing at all.

* In the beginning of ''[[Fiddler on the Roof]]'', the citizens of Anatevka sing about their traditions and customs, explaining how they base their entire lives around them, and love doing so, in the upbeat "Tradition". Later in the musical, when Tevye disowns his own daughter, the main line of "Tradition" is sung by the ensemble in a much darker and more dramatic tone, showing that tradition is tearing the family apart.

 

 

* ''[[The Princess and the Frog]]'' has two.

** First, Tiana sings her [["I Want" Song]] "Almost There" a second time after she's outbid on the restaurant she wanted (or so the realtors claim).

 

 

* In ''[[The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie]]'', let's not forget the Goofy Goober song. Sung at the beginning in a childish, sugary haze, it is later reprised in a slower, lower key as the two main characters are literally being killed. Definitely counts as a ''Crowning Moment of Tearful''.

** The song is once again revamped later on as a ''Crowning Music of Awesome''.

 

 

* In ''[[Mary Poppins]]'', an already dark song gets an ''[[Up to Eleven|even darker]]'' reprise. "Feed the Birds" is first sung by Mary to the Children, and later played in an orchestral version [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYsSyCtjuNI as Mr. Banks heads off to be fired]. The reprise continues relatively toned down as Banks walks alone through the London streets until he reaches St. Paul's... and its steps are completely barren, of birds and bird woman alike. At this point the orchestra swells to its full tearful majesty as Mr. Banks looks skyward, forlorn and desperate.

** Earlier, after Mr. Banks sings a self-pitying song about said firing (itself a Dark Reprise of "The Life I Lead", Mr. Banks' theme), Bert (Bert!) gives him a [[Reason You Suck Speech|Reason You Suck Song]] by both echoing "The Life I Lead" and reprising "A Spoonful of Sugar" into a song about Banks' neglect of his children for his work.

 

 

* ''[[Titanic]]'': Near the middle of the movie, Jack is singing 'Come Josephine' to Rose as they stand near the front of the ship because it feels like they're flying. Later, singing the song is the only thing keeping Rose alive.

* In the soundtrack to the Kenneth Branagh movie of Shakespeare's ''[[Much Ado About Nothing]]'', the melody of the wedding march at Hero's first, doomed wedding reappears (in minor key) as her dirge when she is believed dead. By contrast, no music is played at the second wedding (during which the audience knows that the bride is Hero, alive and well, but her groom believes her dead and thinks he is marrying her cousin) until the moment she lifts her veil. This is very effective in setting the mood for all three scenes.

 

 

* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' gets one. The ending theme, "Fly me to the Moon" always seemed a tad out of place, even in the beginning, but by the end in the middle of all the [[Mind Rape]], [[Heroic Sacrifice]]s, [[Heroic BSOD|Heroic BSOD's]] and other assorted wrongness, that damn song just keeps on playing. [[Soundtrack Dissonance|And it freaks you out]]. Especially in the [[Mind Rape|Arael]], [[Heroic Sacrifice|Armisael]] and [[Heroic BSOD|Tabris/Kaworu]] episodes. WITHOUT CHANGING A DAMNED NOTE!!

** And another Gainax-example: [[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]] has Libera Me From Hell, a remix between the classic, Latin song "Libera Me", and the up-beat rap-song "Rap is a Man's Soul". And that's not the only time they took a classic song and used it in an anime. Just watch the [[Rebuild of Evangelion]] version of Shinji versus Zeruel. THEY'RE PLAYING A CHILDREN'S SONG WHILE SHINJI IS CAUSING THE END OF THE WORLD, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!

** Yet another Gainax example: in the penultimate episode of ''[[Mahoromatic]] [[Something more Beautiful]]'', the music track at the end of the episode gives way to a [[Lonely Piano Piece|sad piano remix]] of the generally-happy opening song, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zV22pSPyeE So Re I Yu.]

** It also has "Black Star (never lose myself)" and "Black Star (lost myself)". The first is a stirring hip-hop song that serves as Black Star's leitmotiv, the second one is a complete jumbled mess with the voice turned incomprehensible and the entire musical arrangement sounding like a carnival on acid.

* [[Macross Frontier]] has the song ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHpt2qikj1I Aimo]'', a love song/lullaby taught to Ranka Lee by her mother. Later in the series, Ranka sings a version created by her manager, ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URzO2BT8l-A Aimo O.C.]'', which changes the song into a battle hymmn.

* ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'' has a weird version where the darker version shows up first... in the ''very first scene''. It's a creepy song and fits the dark atmosphere of the scene. It turns out to be a slowed down, distorted version of the ending theme, "Magia", which the show deliberately avoided using until [[Wham! Episode|Episode 3]]. The ending version is... only slightly less creepy than the one used in the opening scene.

** Another weird variation comes up late in the series. Homura's theme, "Puella in somnio" (Girl in the Dream) tends to follow her arrival onto a scene without fail, and is a mysterious and airy. A reprise comes in the form of "Inevitabilis" (Inevitable), a heavy and melancholic piano reprise that plays {{spoiler|during Episode 11 when she breaks down in front of Madoka and explains everything before resolving to fight Walpurgis Night by herself}}. While the reprise came up much earlier in the series, it's particularly more poignant in the context of this scene and sets a much bleaker tone from thereon in (which, for ''Madoka Magica'', is saying something).

 

 

* In ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', Bilbo and Frodo sing almost the same song as they leave the Shire. A single adjective is the difference between Bilbo's song of adventure and Frodo's complaint the arduousness of his task.

{{quote|('''Bilbo's version''') Now far ahead the Road has gone

 

 

* In the ''[[Fringe]]'' episode Brown Betty, the story version of Walter is introduced amongst the cheerful sound of corpses singing The Candyman. Later, he sings it to himself as his son abandons him and he is left to die alone.

* One episode of ''[[The Wonder Years]]'' opens with Kevin extolling the virtues of his sweetheart Winnie as the Beach Boys' classic "God Only Knows" plays. The song is used again at the end of the episode when {{spoiler|Winnie dumps Kevin.}}

** The music in the final scene of "The Pandorica Opens" is a dark reprise of Amy's theme.

** The Eleventh Doctor's secondary theme, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g04jyyuXXSg&feature=related "The Mad Man With A Box"] is given a dark reprisal towards the end of "The Big Bang", entitled [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzOhu24WNbE&feature=related "The Sad Man With A Box"].

* In the BBC adaptation of ''[[Gormenghast]]'', Lady Fuschia sings a childish (and rather stupid) rhyme to announce herself in the first episode ('I am Fuschia, I am me...') and in the final episode, Steerpike [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|sings a seriously twisted version gloating about his utter madness]] and the fact that he has {{spoiler|mudered several members of Fuchsia's family, including her two aunts, whose corpses he is dancing around at the time.}} And it's all downhill from there...

* ''[[NCIS]]'' does this in several episodes with their theme song, both with 'darker' versions as well as several sad versions. Interestingly, they often only change the speed of the song.

 

 

{{quote|99 dreams I have had

And every one a red balloon.

* Ne-Yo's album ''Libra Scale'' opens with "Champagne Life", which is an easygoing, upbeat party tune, full of vitality and celebratory swagger. The album closes with "What Have I Done", a regretful look back at past mistakes and broken love whose backing track echoes the carefree tune of "Champagne Life" with piercing guilt.

* Lit's "Miserable" has this happen all within the chorus: "You make me cum/You make me complete/You make me completely miserable."

* In the ''Domain'' concept album The Last Days of Utopia, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7CoAw_ZBsg&feature=related this song] is played when the main character is washed up on the shores of the titular city, and is breathtaken at its majesty. Later on, after the destruction of the island and with the main character floating alone lost at sea, we get [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70RplPqHwzs this].

* Happens within a single song for [[The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets]]' concept album ''The Shadow Out of Tim''. The song is called "Operation: Get the Hell Out of Here," and the chorus goes "Take your time, take your toll, everything's under control/Execute Operation: Get the Hell Out of Here" until after the last verse of the song, where the protagonists accidentally unleash an [[Eldritch Abomination]], it's changed to "Take your life, take your soul, everything's out of control/Execute Operation: Get the Hell Out of Here".

* Front242's ''Front By Front'' reprises "Until Death (Do Us Part)" as "Agony (Until Death)".

 

* The reprise of La donna e mobile near the end of ''Rigoletto''; it's the moment when Rigoletto realizes the prince is alive...

* Echoes of the Toreador song in a darker tone while Don José kills ''Carmen''.

 

 

* ''[[Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories]]'' has a dark reprise (fully instrumental) of its main theme Sinful Rose play during the credits of the worst ending. Post credits, horror ensues.

* ''[[Silent Hill 2]]'''s (instrumental) theme tune is strangely light and optimistic for a horror game - until a scene near the end, where a much more melancholy version plays on [[Lonely Piano Piece|piano]] and [[Playing the Heart Strings|violin]], making the moment {{spoiler|(Angela's decision to commit suicide)}} that much more heartbreaking.

 

 

* ''[[Homestuck]]'' uses this multiple times over the course of the soundtracks; for example, the lighthearted song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6LcnuowRc0 "Harlequin"] from early in the story gets a pretty effective Dark Reprise called [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APWIMf9cIro "The Carnival"] to represent {{spoiler|[[Monster Clown|Gamzee's]] descent into insanity.}}

** Another song, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So0ptdMJj0Y "Chorale for Jaspers"], is used in Volume 1 as a sort of silly, self-parodying epitaph for Rose's childhood cat. The same melody appears [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUbUFb5stQI hundreds of pages] later in a dramatic scene where {{spoiler|Rose faces [[Big Bad|Jack]] to avenge the mother and friend he murdered.}}

 

 

* ''[[Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog|Doctor Horribles Sing Along Blog]]'' has one with "Slipping." The song's melody is first heard as background music as Horrible is attempting to steal the Wonderflonium. When we actually hear it as a song in its own right, it's significantly darker...not that it doesn't have totally random humorous moments (such as the Doctor interrupting ''his own song'' to give a reporter the correct spelling of his name.) This is Dr. Horrible, the king of [[Mood Whiplash]], we're talking about.

** Also, the theme song. Also a mild subversion in {{spoiler|Brand new day / the music at the party after Hammer's defeat. The subversion is that BOTH usages are dark, but in different ways.}}

{{quote|...and then ''I'll'' be the one who is ''totally awesome!''}}

 

* [[Doctor Who]] And The Pirates (one of the [[Expanded Universe|audio stories]]) has Evelyn Smythe and Red Jasper claiming to be a Pirate Queen and King respectively, filking a Gilbert and Sullivan song while Evelyn (a sixty-something history lecturer) attempted to intimidate a pirate crew. Red Jasper sings it again shortly afterwards, celebrating his absolute authority after forcing a crewman to eat his own tongue. The enthusiastic pirate chorus is... somewhat less enthusiastic.

* If you've ever rode on the Disneyland ride, Splash Mountain (based on the movie, [[Song of the South]]) the annoyingly addictive song "Laughing Place" becomes more sinister when the ride passes by the two sinister, animatronic crows anxiously waiting for Brer Rabbit's death (and, in the Disneyland Anaheim version, before that scene, the dark reprise starts earlier with two Mother characters exclusive to that version of the ride singing mournfully about Brer Rabbit being caught facing certain death warning their children to not go to the laughing place). and when it climb up the last and highest hill in the cave before descending below. 4:54 in this soundtrack - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIEvJfKSex4&feature=related

 

* "The Flowers That Bloom in the Spring" from ''The Mikado''.

** Another [[Gilbert and Sullivan]] example is "Happily Coupled are We" from ''Ruddigore'', though Rose's verse was cut in several of the D'Oyly Carte revivals, thus adding the [[Second Verse Curse]] to the curse upon the Murgatroyds.

 

 

* "I won't say I'm in love" from ''[[Hercules (1997 film)|Hercules]]'' is one of the lighter forms of the sarcastic echo, with the Muses commenting on Meg saying she's not in love

* Similar to the above is the song "On the Open Road" from ''[[A Goofy Movie]]''. Goofy is excited and happy about his road trip with his son, who is inversely angry and depressed about leaving his new girlfriend behind.

 

 

* In ''[[The Producers]]'', the song "We Can Do It" has Bialystock and Bloom alternately singing about how their plan cannot and is sure to fail, respectively.

** Also, Max's song "Betrayed" is practically the entire show abridged, and includes mocking Leo.

 

 

* Two versions of the song "Aura" in ''[[.hack|.hack//SIGN]]''. One showing the majesty of The World, and the other the horror.

 

 

* ''Frosty Returns'' has one called "Let There Be Snow", but it's unique in that it gets ''two'' sarcastic echoes. In the first time the song was sung, the school children are playing and singing about how much they love the snow, while the snow-shovelling adults voice their complaints through song. Later in the special, the song is reprised as the protagonists explore a landscape filled with snow, singing about the benefits of snow. At one point, it cuts to the [[Big Bad]] [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] sitting in his limousine elsewhere, and the music takes on an industrial arrangement as he extolls his plans on becoming king now that his patented method of getting rid of snow has gone mainstream.

 

 

* During the climactic "Walk Through The Fire" in the ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' musical episode "Once More, With Feeling", quotes from the earlier, more positive "If we're together" appear as sarcastic echoes.

* The theme song of the show ''[[Green Acres]]'' is similar to, but lighter than the ''Candide example'', where husband and wife protagonists give radically different versions of the perfect life to the same melody.

 

 

* Used in Lupe Fiasco's already somewhat dark song 'The Die.' The second verse consists of the character's friend trying to convince him that he's safe, while the killer repeats the laundry-list of 'hidden' guns, and the two's plans for the evening and replaces the last line ('Go and get some grub') with 'Catch a few slugs'

** A lot of Fiasco's songs have a darker meaning in them. He can be extremely dark when he wants to be. For example, his smash hit Superstar can sounds cool, smooth and joyful at first, but if you know Lu's music, and know how he sometimes calls out other rappers for the content of their music and all that, the chorus will sound a little scary. If you are what you say you are, a superstar, have no fear.

 

 

* Used often in opera, making it [[Older Than Radio]].

** A good example is when we hear "Non piu andrai" from Figaro, reprised in Don Giovanni.

 

 

* During a famous angle in which his career was almost [[Ten-Minute Retirement|ended]] by Earthquake, a video shown on WWE TV (and later in home video) about [[Hulk Hogan]] started by playing his famous entrance theme "Real American", but cut to footage of Hogan being massacred by Earthquake on "The Brother Love Show" set to a sad, melancholy, string version of "Real American" which ended with a shot of Hogan's locker being slammed shut.

** Another WWE video detailed the history of the company set to [[Kid Rock]]’s Lonely Road of Faith. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84yacsM03H4\] As the [[New World Order]] were set to debut, they made their own version. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe8aFH-WWZk\]

 

 

 

 

* ''[[The Batman]]'' - Joker has his own version of [[Lock and Load Montage|gear up sequence]] when he decides to become Batman for an episode.

* In ''[[Adventure Time]]'' Simon sings the cheers theme song twice. The first time is to cheer up Marceline, the second time he sings it as [[Survival Mantra]] to hold onto his sanity while he uses [[Artifact of Doom|his crown]]

** Only made worse in that the song is about a soldier coming home. {{spoiler|Iroh's son}} was a soldier who died in battle.

*** Not to mention that the whole mini-episode doubles as a {{spoiler|memorial for the actor voicing Iroh up to that point}}

** "Come fly with us, come DIE with us."

* In ''[[Power Rangers Wild Force]]'', the standard music for the combination of the Wild Force Megazord begins with a jungle drumbeat, symbolic of the show's theme. When Zen-Aku combines the Predazord for the first time on screen, it's personal theme begins with an off-key version of the Wild Force Megazord's theme.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Theater Tropes]]