Video Information

Information

  • Member: sanguine nightmare
  • Studio: Screwhead Productions
  • Title: The Ascent Of Man
  • Premiered: 2013-12-31
  • Categories:
  • Song:
    • Muse Uprising
  • Anime:
  • Participation:
  • Comments: I'd been wanting to do a music video for the Dark Souls games ever since I saw the Dark Souls 2 trailer from VGA 2012. I had to search for a long time to find a song that fit since Dark Souls has a very minimalist approach to its story — instead of multitudes of cutscenes to convey things the player is forced to find the story through in-game clues and immersion. Considering this, I decided to depict the games through the both perspectives of the player (the Undead) and the antagonists (Lord Gwyn and his followers).

    Having chosen this approach, I chose "Uprising" by Muse. I found that the lyrics fit with Dark Souls' imagery and it fit the pacing I had in mind as well. Ultimately though I settled on "Uprising" purely because of the chorus — it fits so well with feelings of perseverance and accomplishment that the player experiences from advancing through the game, but it also applies to the motivations of the game's antagonists as well. Lord Gwyn and his followers rose up and defeated their Dragon overlords and ascended to total supremacy... now it is time for the chosen of cursed Undead to rise.

    The 1st and 2nd choruses are my personal favorite parts because of the juxtaposition I wanted to create between who the chorus is meant to relate to — the 1st chorus is meant to be sung from the viewpoint of Nito, the Witch of Izalith, Lord Gwyn, and the Pygmy in reference to their uprising against the dragons; the 2nd chorus is the players making the same declaration... but against the aforementioned characters. Dark Souls has a running theme of moral amibiguity, especially regarding the ending since it can be argued that either rekindling the bonfire OR letting it die and beginning the Age Of Dark have pluses and negatives to them. In this respect, the Dark Souls lore revolves around cycles of supremacy — first there were the dragons, then Gwyn and his minions, then man (dark ending).

    Fun fact: there are no edits during the first chorus (1:24-1:53) whatsoever. Everything you see in that time span is untouched and exactly as it was in the original footage. That was the first part I "edited" to test out the song with the footage and after seeing that I knew I had to finish it.


    [ AWARDS ]

    A-Kon 2014
    Non-AMV Fan Favorite


    [ LYRICS ]

    The paranoia is in bloom
    The P.R. transmissions will resume
    They'll try to push drugs to keep us all dumbed down
    And hope that we will never see the truth around

    So come on

    Another promise, another seed, another
    Packaged lie to keep us trapped in greed with all the
    Green belts wrapped around our minds and endless
    Red tape to keep the truth confined

    So come on

    They will not force us
    And they will stop degrading us
    And they will not control us
    We will be victorious
    So come on

    Interchanging mind control
    Come let the revolution take its toll
    If you could flick a switch and open your third eye
    You'd see that we should never be afraid to die

    So come on

    Rise up and take the power back
    It's time the fat cat's had a heart attack
    You know that their time is coming to an end
    We have to unify and watch our flag ascend

    So come on

    They will not force us
    They will stop degrading us
    They will not control us
    We will be victorious, so come on

    Hey, hey, hey, hey
    Hey, hey, hey, hey
    Hey, hey, hey, hey

    They will not force us
    They will stop degrading us
    They will not control us
    We will be victorious, so come on

    Hey, hey, hey, hey

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Downloads

  • Link Format Bitrate Codec Duration Filesize Link Check Information Comments
  • Direct MPEG4 (.mp4)    h264  00:04:44    Last Checked: 2014-01-12 14:00:14 200 OK YouTube streaming version on my channel.
  • Local MP4 0/128 H.264/AAC 4:45 143 MiB
    Local File the ascent of man.mp4
    Duration 285.74 seconds
    Video Track 0 kb/s H.264 [avc1]
    1280 x 720 @ 29.97 fps
    Audio Track AAC @ 128 kbps
    48 kHz, stereophonic sound