How Cynthia's Theme Terrorized a Generation

In this video I take a look at Cynthia’s battle theme as well as her “approach” theme, and try to spell out how the music sets the stage for the battle and delivers an appropriately threatening experience

0:00 - Intro
1:15 - Approaching Cynthia
8:34 - Battle Against Cynthia
13:42 - Connection to Pokemon's Musical Legacy
14:41 - Outro

#pokemon #champion #8bitMusicTheory

[ParanoidDrone]

There's also the psychological impact of walking into a random house on the beach in Pokemon B/W and getting smacked in the face with the approach theme the instant you're inside. No warning whatsoever. At least for the champion fight you knew to expect something epic.

[lyokhamishukov]

The literal embodiment of, "Why do I hear boss music?"

[hammdogporkington]

Piano is absent from battle themes throughout DPPt. We're conditioned to associate the piano with familiary and safety. Then Approaching Cynthia turns that on its head. Youre familiar with her, but you are not safe.

[mads_in_zero]

One thing that's notable about _Battle Against Cynthia_ being a slower intro that ramps up to a faster, disco vibe is that her theme was rearranged for Black and White (the famous House Jumpscare) and again for B2W2 (the Pokemon World Championships) and both times the rearrangement was up-tempo compared to the previous version.

Cynthia's theme gets faster and scarier and everyone cries.

[Narlaw]

I think the impact of these themes are greater because of how they contrast with how Cynthia is a friendly character throughout the game, yet her themes sound so villainous, making them even more intimidating.

[particleflow]

I went to Pokemon Symphony Orchestra in Japan last year, I saw so many people in the audience flinch immediately when they started playing Cynthia's theme lol

[JoeSmith-dbrq]

The one detail I would add regarding the “approaching” piece is that the fact that it’s a solo piece emphasizes her power. She stands alone in this room and she’s able to command that much power solely from her presence. It adds to her intensity and adds to your isolation as you have to face that force one on one.

[mr.stoneface]

9:00 "Champion Cynthia theme but it never starts" gave me as much anxiety as the battle did. Thanks for that!

[hwile]

Bro, hearing you talk about how menacing and daunting Cynthia is while you're showing chibi Cynthia I CAN'T😂

[roadtrain_]

The cynthia jumpscare is Game Freak telling you to NOT go looking around random people's houses looking for shit. You'll enter the wrong one... and then get your ass royally whooped.

[MarshmallowRadiation]

I feel Cynthia is the perfect champion for gen 4. To me gen 4 has some of the strongest storytelling in the franchise, rivalling B/W at its best. The previous generations were about kids coming in and cleaning up messes of problems made by adults, but Gen 4 is the first one that really makes you feel like you're _not ready_ to enter this scary adult world that's much bigger than you expected. Sure, Gen 3 had its adult villains losing control of forces they didn't understand too, but Max and Archie felt like petty squabblers who were too caught up in their own dreams to actually talk things out and think things through. Cyrus, on the other hand, is very understandable: he's an old man who never grew up. Fundamentally, he fully knows the world is scary and unpredictable, and he hates it. He wants to destroy and remake the world into something simpler easier to grasp, so that he doesn't have to face the difficulty of living in a world that's much bigger and more powerful than he can fathom. The irony is that he has to face uncontainable cosmic power in order to achieve this goal, and in Platinum this is especially apparent when the sublime eldritch horror that is Giratina simply ignores any attempt to control it.

But after defeating Cyrus, what's next? The story's basically over, right? Well yes, the threat is done, but Cynthia is still a continuation of the player's journey. She is in many ways Cyrus' opposite. Where Cyrus wishes to control pokemon and the world, Cynthia has already mastered it by accepting the world. She is calm, elegant, and at peace with herself. Her party is full of pokemon who are fundamentally "untamable": Garchomp, Milotic, Spiritomb. She is a pokemon master not because she can control her pokemon, but because she understands them and accepts them. She's tough not just as a final challenge, but also because she's an illustration of the final message of the game: that even though you've come so far, even though you've faced cosmic horrors beyond your imagining and saved the world, you still have only had a glimpse into the true grown-up world, a world full of wonders and horrors and struggles and triumphs you can't even imagine yet. Cynthia is the kind of person Cyrus wished to be without understanding what makes that kind of person great, an open person who is able to deal with life's problems with flawless grace and deceptive ease. And her fight and the music that accompanies it are so threatening not because she herself is a threatening person, but because she represents the true final boss of pokemon: the world itself.

Idk maybe I'm thinking too deeply about pokemon. But I love Cynthia and I love this music.

[Azira_Amane]

I didn't understand a word of this.
10/10 quality content.

[ThatRedHusky]

"A skeleton that will feel very familiar to any Pokemon fan."
-Shows a Cubone
You monster.

[YaraUwU]

Cynthia is the most well designed champion from her theme to her personality to her team which paints her as having an extreemly overbearing presence without even trying and a drive to never stop improving even though she is the champion and despite being that powerful doesn't see herself as someone above losing and learning from it.

All of that combined makes her an extreemly likable and intriguing character.

[WhiteVampire]

Ok but you forgot to talk about that beeping sound that permanently is played fighting cynthia that normally only occurs when your mon is low hp!😂

[cyn]

Damn, I love how you point out that Cynthia's theme, while menacing, also has bright, hopeful tones in it. It really highlights her outlook on life in the games: that all life is meaningful no matter how "useful" one is--a stark contrast to Cyrus' nihilistic view. Not only that, but as someone who's mentored the player character and personally witnessed their growth, she also has immense respect and high hopes for them. In such a foreboding melody, those bright major chords show that she's having fun battling with you. But like you said, the tone shifts back to its dark, oppressive tones. Regardless of how she feels about the player character, she doesn't intend to lose the champion battle. And against many challengers, she doesn't.

Thanks for the video!

[giggityguy]

I always thought Cynthia's theme was a brilliant study in contrast. Sure, some of the melodic motion is unsettling, but the bouncing bass and drums just give you such a powerful feeling of excitement. Heroic major sections clash with dissonant minor sections, and the darkest chord at the end leaps right back into the eager intro. To me, her theme evoked a mood of something tense and serious, but also joyful. It feels like one of the hardest things you've ever done, but also one of the most exciting.

[Professor_Wisteria_]

Approach is one of those few pieces of music that you recognize in your CORE as "oh fuck, that's boss music"
there are TONS of incredible boss fights with amazing scores that i could gush over for months on end, but there are only a couple (IN MY EXPERIENCE) that stand out to me as genuinely terrifying to hear

[Ba_Dashi]

13:18 I Love that you mention how these lines are "alien", because that actually connects in game with the Palkia/Dialga/Giratina themes(not only musically) of eldritch-like entities. Cynthia is probably the first spot you'll see a Spiritomb, a pokemon with no weaknesses, and having this type of "alien" structure in music combined with the overall theme of the game just makes it even more memorable.

[Theantininja]

There's two things that Jojo's fans and Pokemon fans are intimately familiar with: watching proxy fights instead of just having the characters physically fight on their own. And the absolute menacing feeling of approaching a blonde haired final boss.