Favorite Music Reprises in Media

[Mido]

Music has the ability to capture atmosphere like few other mediums. Whether it is synonymous with a location, a character, or a specific moment; the stopping power of music is incredibly resonant among audiences. When music is used repeatedly in a piece of media, it often calls back to specific moments or themes of said media, reinforcing these moments and themes as progression occurs. In light of this use of music, what would you say are some of your favorite moments in which certain music pieces are repeated in a piece of media that you enjoy? What makes the reprises effective?

Spoiler: A Couple of My Favorites

Super Shadow Theme - Shadow the Hedgehog

Shadow the Hedgehog may not have the best reputation, but the soundtrack still holds its own with this short piece as no exception. It acts as a reprise of both the game's own theme and Live and Learn, the theme of Sonic Adventure 2. What makes it works so well is that it ties a neat bow (or as neat a bow as possible) around Shadow's story before the final conflict at the end of the game.

Previously on Galavant - Galavant

Galavant is one of those show that just clicked with me from the moment it began with its ear worm of an opening theme. While the second season switches the theme, it returns to the original for one more round before the final conflict begins. Sung wonderfully by the Jester, it is both a great lyrical summary of the season's events and a reference to the first season.


Objection 2001 - Ace Attorney

There are few trilogies like the Ace Attorney Trilogy; it's soundtrack is just one piece of the delicious cake.

Spoiler: Ace Attorney 4 Spoilers

When the series moved into a somewhat new direction with its fourth installment, there were many surprises launched at players with hints of the familiar. Faced with a mostly familiar defendant early on, players soon got to witness the brief return of an old theme. While the mostly familiar fellow had gone through much change, hints of the old still remained, capturing a different, yet still familiar take on an old favorite.

 

[twilitfalchion]

One of the first to come to mind is the repeating of the Tarrey Town theme every time a new "-son" character is asked to help build the town. That small detail just adds to the charm of building a town "from the ground up" like the quest is titled. And each time a new race of Hyrulean is added, a new instrument is added to the town theme. It's very satisfying to have it all come together at the end of the quest.

 

[MapelSerup]

Spoiler: My Favorite Reprises/Leitmotifs!

Azula’s Theme from from Avatar: The Last Airbender is very eerie and easy to recognize. Whenever she appears or does something evil, it plays the little bell sound effect.



The Imperial March being barely audible in the background whenever Anakin does something a bit... iffy in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. It’s present in many of the moments in this video.



The Item Acquisition jingle from Metroid, specifically Super Metroid.



I couldn’t find a video, but I always thought it was cool that Midna hums Midna’s Lament when appearing in Hyrule Warriors.

And of course, the main theme and Zelda’s Lullaby from the Zelda series!

 

[Spirit]

Ooh, I know this one!

There's a band called Dream Theater and they have an album called 'Scenes from a Memory'.

The album is a conceptual and tells the story of a man who undergoes hypnosis to trigger a regression to relive the events of a murder.

During the album there's a song called One Last Time


Then, during the final song where things come full circle the song is used again and it is pretty powerful