Top 30 Character Themes Part 1 #30-21Â
Theme Song by Brian Setzer and owned by Walt Disney Records
Theme Song by Patrick DeRemer and owned by Walt Disney Records
Welcome back ladies and gentlemen to another installment of Musical March Madness! If there’s one thing I love more than main themes it’s character themes. Usually character themes are more iconic and memorable because they are a perfect extension of the character in question. The theme can play and a person will immediately be able to connect the piece of music to the character. These themes are that memorable and have that amount of impact. Another reason why character themes are so good is because they get down to the obvious qualities of the character as well as the subtext of the character making the pieces of music far more dynamic then a main theme which usually has to generalize the entire experience. There are so many amazing character themes that I couldn’t narrow it down to 13 so I decided to split it into three parts with a total of 30! Without any further delay here are the first ten of the TOP 30 CHARACTER THEMES!
#30 Captain Jack Sparrow’s Theme music by Klaus Badelt and Hanz Zimmer
I’m sure we all remember when we first laid eyes on Captain Jack Sparrow when he first sailed into Port Royal on a pitiful looking dinghy. Even though his situation is hardly what you would call dignified for his position as Captain, his theme is. It evokes confidence, a sense of adventure and a life without limits and a life of freedom. A brilliant theme for one of the most popular Disney characters in recent memory.
#29 Golbez Clad in Darkness music by Nobuo Uematsu
This should be a treat for anyone that has ever played Final Fantasy 4. This is the character theme to the game’s presumably main villain Golbez. It has a really over the top organ and oozes classic mustache twirling melodrama villain, but Golbez’s actions are far from the stereotype. The theme as over the top as it is evokes malice and destruction and that’s exactly what Golbez does when he decimates kingdom after kingdom in search of the crystals. The great thing is that the theme begins when Golbez is off screen so when the organ starts playing you know Golbez is there.
#28 Steiner’s Theme music by Nobuo Uematsu
This the theme to the character of Adelbert Steiner from Final Fantasy IX. He is the Captain of the Knigths of Pluto in the Kingdom of Alexandria. Steiner can be a bumbling knight, but as with all the best knights he is loyal to his charge to the very end. This theme captures the bumbling strength of the character well and fans to this very day can’t listen to this theme without imagining the distinctive clinking and clanking of his armor when you move him around the field.
#27 Mickey’s Theme music by James Dooley
This is probably the only theme that Mickey has outside of the Mickey Mouse Club March. Can you believe that? This theme was introduced in the Award winning videogame Epic Mickey. James Dooley is able to capture the bright optimism as well as the element of the trouble maker that created Wasteland in the first place. It’s a simple theme much like the character of Mickey himself. A perfect theme to the greatest mouse to ever exist.
#26 Shinra Theme music by Nobuo Uematsu
Here’s a question for you. What’s more evil or just as evil as a mad scientist, a dictator, Fox News or an Arkham Asylum inmate? A CORPORATION of course and there is no corporation more evil then the Shinra Electric Power Company from Final Fantasy VII (okay maybe Umbrella from Resident Evil and I mean the game continuity not the movies). This theme oozes evil corporate music. It shows the arrogance, the greed and the emptiness of the corporate world where money trumps reason, morality and even humanity. I don’t mean to get too political, but I’m going to anyway. One of the many themes as well as the game’s story shows the dark road that we are heading towards right now. Are Barack Obama and the liberals really the problem or is it everything about the system from the right or the left where the benefits go to the few that mostly reside in the private sector while we get nothing whether we worked hard for our futures or not? This theme shows us the cold and inhumane environment if a corporation owned everything in the world and does a very effective job of it.
#25 Auron’s Theme music by Nobuo Uematsu
The theme to one of the most badass characters in any Final Fantasy game. He is the mentor to the main character of Final Fantasy X. He is what is called a Guardian and the best to ever live as well as the strongest character physically in the game. His theme is much like the character laid back and just flat out cool. It captures the strength and confidence as well as his extremely strong will to fulfill his duty and promises even if he has to defy death itself . And don’t think I wasn’t peeved when this didn’t play in Kingdom Hearts 2 when he introduces himself to Sora, Donald and Goofy!
#24 Chim Chim Cheree music and lyrics by Richard and Robert Sherman
RIP Robert Sherman. You will be greatly missed. Thank you so much for helping to give the world such meaningful and great music. Do I even need to say where this song is from?  I know this is a song, but it is so associated with the character of Bert that it is a character theme just like A Spoonful of Sugar is for Mary Poppins and in fact that’s what the Sherman Bros. had in mind when they wrote the score. This song is absolutely perfect! Perfect! Perfect! Perfect! I find it ironic that Bert’s theme is practically perfect in every way. The song shows how full of life Bert is and the credit is also due to the amazing Dick Van Dyke for performing the song and character so well bad cockney and all. It shows Bert’s optimism and cheerfulness. The theme of the song is also Bert’s creed. He doesn’t need to be rich or have a really well paying job. He gets fulfillment by providing a basic service to people and making them happy and that makes him such a lucky person and chimney sweep. An excellent theme!
#23 Lightning’s Theme music by Masashi Hamauzu
This is the theme to the main character of Final Fantasy XIII. For those of you who missed my review of FF XIII I gave the game a very good score because I genuinely like it a lot (Gasp! This can’t be!!! It is cause that’s my opinion if you differ write your own review!). I did comment on this theme in that review and I love how it is a slow arrangement of the battle theme for the game. Lightning Farron is a very strong character, but her cold and seemingly uncaring demeanor is a mask that she uses to hide her own true feelings that she does care about others especially her sister Serah. The journey teaches her to open up and it shows her what her behavior has done and becomes a capable leader and one of the best Final Fantasy main characters in years. The theme captures Lightning (Claire’s) strength as well as her vulnerability (again I say vulnerability NOT as weakness, but as opening up and revealing true feelings to cope with problems and draw genuine emotional strength that comes from being human).
#22 Battle on the Big Bridge Distant Worlds Version music by Nobuo Uematsu
This is the character theme to a recurring character in the Final Fantasy multiverse named Gilgamesh after the Babylonian king. Gilgamesh as well as this theme came into the series in Final Fantasy V and they have constantly been appearing in other FF games. The cool thing is that Gilgamesh is a dimension hopping wisecracking swordsman so when ever he shows up it’s pretty much confirmed that that’s the same character from the original FF V world. Gilgamesh in FF V is the right hand man to the game’s villain Exdeath and he is fought as a boss and this is the boss music that plays and is his character theme. This character in a lot of ways is like the Boba Fett of Final Fantasy. He’s not anything REALLY special that would warrant him as the ultimate badass or have him be this popular. He is cool looking and his abilities are very impressive, but that’s it. He’s popular for virtually no reason except maybe a deep character based reason I don’t know. The theme is great it’s grand adventurous and is just an excellent tune and when ever it starts the Gilgamesh fans go insane. So here’s to you Gilgamesh fans your idol has a character theme that is one of my favorites! Here are two versions of the theme. One is an excellent and epic orchestrated version and another is the metal version! Now I don’t like metal music at all, but when Nobuo Uematsu arranges his music in the style of metal it sounds awesome!!!!!!!!! You get that cool metal sound and the classical melody. Something you can hum and is very entertaining!
#21 Aria the Maiden of the Water music by Nobuo Uematsu
This is a very interesting theme because it is the theme to a character that is hardly even in the story she’s in. She is as the title suggests the Maiden of the Water in Final Fantasy III and guides the heroes into the Shrine of Water to get the Water Crystal and she is killed by Kraken and dies in the character Luneth’s arms. This theme is actually one of the most memorable pieces from this game and has a very calm and soothing melody from a flute and is absolutely beautiful. A very underrated theme. What’s so great about it is that Nobuo Uematsu gives us a character theme that is so beautiful and engaging that we can actually care about a character that dies shortly after meeting her and that is the power of his music and that is why he is my favorite composer EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hope you enjoyed part 1 of my list of the TOP 30 BEST CHARACTER THEMES! Join me next time with part 2 and the list keeps getting better and better!
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