Hey it's Chrona! Back at ya with philosophical questions like "If you're an avid follower of this book, does that mean you've... drunk the cool-aid?" 

Just kidding we don't serve KoolAid here. Just the distilled tears of my characters, my readers, and myself mixed with a nice, frothy eggnog. Mmmmm.

Anyways TheGoldenWulf got this mix way back in the day but I wanted to share some of the songs that practically made the Hearts of Gold trilogy. Songs are a large part of my creative process, I listen to music while writing and have "mixes" and even individual character song tastes down. I also heavily correlate music with certain places, times, or experiences, so it's a way of mentally binding my stories to my real life as it happened. It sounds weird when you put it that way,  of course, but don't we all have that song that played at that one party or that one dance that makes you smile every time you hear it just because of the memories? A song an old friend enjoyed before you drifted apart?

Sort of like that, I guess.

(This isn't all the songs I have filed under this book series but seriously, do you want to be here all year?)

(ask for titles/tell me if anything doesn't load thanks)

HEARTS OF GOLD

https://youtu.be/yWbMz_aBlMU

I was halfway through the original draft of Hearts of Gold (then eloquently titled "Nuzlocke") when I found this song. I didn't even have a Wattpad account yet! Still, the song stuck with me for a long, long time. Family and community are at the core of the Hearts of Gold trilogy, and HoG!Ashley (maybe even sullen BS!Ashley?) would totally jam out to this.

https://youtu.be/kjWHpTkH7pA

Obligatory "gold eyes" lyrics drop. Ashley's music tastes range from peppy to peppier. How else do you convince the whole team to grind until they pass out? 

https://youtu.be/HuC2MUmQaG4

For some reason I really associate this with Ashley's temporal powers. Ashley had a dubstep phase before she left New Bark too. The walls of her house are thin and Elm used to come over in the middle of the night to ask if wild Pokemon had attacked their house.

"No, that's just my daughter's... music."

Ms. Hart is not paid enough for this shit.

https://youtu.be/h4nauNu7la4

My favorite Khrys x Sky song. The two of them like "anything you can dance to, preferrably in the air". Sky knows Khrys's arms are too short now to twirl her around, and around, and around, like he did as a human, but he's still awed as ever by the way she moves in the thermals. Sky's also canonically the best singer.

https://youtu.be/rjVlQwja304

Obligatory Lilly song. Can you FEEEEEL 

Lilly listens to a lot of electric music I guarantee it. Of course there's the obvious type deal but it's also so upbeat and energetic and that just screams Lilly to me. Speaking of Lilly's music tastes...

https://youtu.be/SL8VCJsHI4A

This was one of my very first "ship" songs. It was such a perfect summary for Lilly and Bronze's relationship... of course, title included. Ouch.

https://youtu.be/WUo9fSTgJ3k

(There are a lot of deaths in the series so this is obligatory. As for another  song that's up Bronze's alley...)

https://youtu.be/53gH1xyMGvQ

Bronze is a reformed weeaboo who likes indie and country music. In fact, his inability to play a string instrument as a Typhlosion is one of the things he dislikes about the form. Ashley learned how to play a ukelele and a guitar of some kind at Lilly and Bronze's request and will play songs for them while they sing along, because she knows they can't learn the instruments themselves with hooves and claws. It's the least she can do when they've given up so much for her, and there's something magical about the way they can make the forest light up together when they play to the empty morning.

https://youtu.be/UvJkKGqzzqg

GAME OVER, KIDS.

Second Chances 

https://youtu.be/-uEkDyHp4vA

One Lilly song. I always imagined this one being a Lilly x Bronze song, with a Lilly emphasis, because a lot of the HoG era Lilly x Bronze songs are from Bronze's perspective because he was a much stronger character than she was. She's still the emotional backbone of the team during this whole debacle and this is her kind of beat. Electric, friendly, just a lot of fun while still keeping that sentimental edge. 

"You don't have to be alone."

Lilly surrounded by her early team, not long before Juliet's demise. A new kind of family.

https://youtu.be/uNmpLwXXZN8

I love Dodie Clark???

I have a lot of Dodie under the HoGverse but I like this one for Lilly figuring out How To Human. Maybe it should be before the other one? I digress. Also Lilly LOVES her thighs so that is one lyric that doesn't have ANYTHING to do with her but 

"Do you think it will ever stop? Will I miss it when it's done?"

"How did I get on this path?"

hey there's my girl

(like to tell lilly she's doing a good job)

and of course we wouldn't be able to round out the Second Chances era without the Pokemon themselves:

https://youtu.be/csNwIk3DL28

https://youtu.be/JyNqLOBlkFk

Rune has a lot of hallmarks of the traditional "fire" archetype from the Chronaverse: he's a little snarky (fiery!), a hard worker with a good hard underneath, a powerhouse on the battlefield, and he's fiercely devoted to those he cares about. Still I've never really seen him as the fire archetype in the way that Bronze and Torch are. I think in part this might be because at his core Rune's character arc was him growing up, from an abrasive kid to a slightly less abrasive adult, and most of the story casts him as a semi-rebellious teenager trying to make right and wrong out of a universe that WILL NOT GODDAMN COOPERATE AND STOP KILLING EVERYONE. As such, I put a lot of songs under him that are like,

the songs that everyone listens to and thinks "man I'm so far out of the status quo. i'm a cool kid. i don't listen to that pop shit" but really it's the most generic alt music you can get. seriously. 

Rune thinks he's tough SHIT tho trust me I made him 

https://youtu.be/xWZCk_Bj54s

I was surprised no one ever complained that Pich x Rune got developed all book and due to the Shauna 'swap, Chrona x Rune became the canon ship. I ship them a lot more because Pich, while well meaning, was awfully generic... regardless most of the songs are all three of them so this is my singular "Chrona and Rune were an edgy on and off couple in the Shauna timeline" song. 

https://youtu.be/DluD7vVHMvE

Now this one is great because in the main timeline it would be Chrona singing and in the Shauna timeline it would be Pich. Different parts of the song work better for either of them but I still go for that parallelism ha 

https://youtu.be/LMHu6PjK5UU

shoutout for the five minutes bronze's team was on screen rest in peace you will be remembered via this one song that makes me feel intense nostalgia to places i wasn't with people i don't know

Bronze was a lot closer to his Pokemon than he lets on because as a beacon of strength for Ashley's team he can't even afford to think about his Kalos team, just as he tried not to think about Ashley too much while he was in Kalos. Bronze is loyal to a fault but he still WORKS first and cries later. A lot changed after he lost Lilly the first time.

Still I like to think he has fond memories he looks back on sometimes, generally when he's alone.

https://youtu.be/Aj4UH_9lG0s

"but to her? I taste of nothing 

at all."

Unreciprocated feelings are one of the worst things in the entire world. 

I did not know this when I wrote Shauna's first confession but by the time I finished Second Chances I had my fair share of rejection. Given, much of it was platonic, but I definitely think it was part of why I ended up feeling for Shauna so hard.

That and what an awesome character she is. Probably my fourth favorite in the whole series? I change that around a lot. Regardless, I listened to this while I was writing a lot of Shauna scenes.

https://youtu.be/lguZG2tBfEI

The climax of this book has ten people jammed into an Impala blaring "Carry on My Wayward Son" after defeating a literal god. In the shotgun seat, a grown man has his head out the window like a dog (I give you one guess who that is). This works really well for the Kalos arc in general.

Also the PMV is rad.

Broken Souls

https://youtu.be/Ji9ciMqrjOc

what's the cheeriest way i can start out a book that takes place with a thirteen year old with body dysphoria (caused by time travel) panicking about what used to be the best day of her life since she's living it for the second time and everyone she cared about is presumed dead and it's all her fault 

oh yeah the next twenty something chapters are about her either a) panicking 

or 

b) reginae being a dick 

or 

c) early game deaths

either way i put this song on while writing death scenes to make myself cry the soft soft soil used to grow the tree of this book was watered with my tears 

https://youtu.be/_jaL8ef9lFk

Okay, early-game Reginae and Ashley was supposed to be a lot worse than it actually was but I still like how they lowkey feed each other's anxieties to an incredibly unhealthy degree and every time they flash one or both of them is having an emotional breakdown and they're just this strung-together mess of feelings they don't want and fear 

"I think I just might lose myself in you" 

also this is Ashley for a lot of the early book just 
"can i go"

the universe: no

"i will team up with red"

the universe: no you won't

"i will die"

the universe: no 

"i will scream the entire way for two years"

the universe: have fun with that

https://youtu.be/Tygs6LUm8gg

Speaking of Red remember how he kept showing up like every eight chapters with a drink like "yo hey Ashley how's your mental health today"

Ashley: mediocre

Red: lemme just... traumatize you a lil more right that's golden k thanks bye

I like this song for him because it's just so intensely electric and it's everything he wants to come off as to her. This force of nature, this integral THING, just like the very code he feels so entrapped by.

Impossible to escape. A copy of a copy of a copy of a person worth saving, so hollowed by jpeg artifacts and compressions that there's nothing worth caring about anymore.

https://youtu.be/CMoftFoJKss

Edgy beginning-of-book Reginae is great and mid-book teen angst Reginae is also great and twenty-one pilots is also also great. Great. 

https://youtu.be/CYh1OlRWzp4

THE OWL IS A TIMELORD LADIES AND GENTS 

https://youtu.be/JnqAq3gUiAw

"and when I'm back and going fast... I'll still be second best."

Reginae has interesting ways of coping with Ashley always going on about the old team but he never really gets over the inadequacy that being "the second starter" brings which is why he and Bronze fight a few billion times near the end of the book

they never stop just in case you're wondering and Bronze feels the exact same way because it's like "??? WAS I REPLACED???" 

dorks

https://youtu.be/m959TIPoetg

Rose the Togetic would be my third favorite but then I'd need a second and first and I don't know how I'd ever put anyone DOWN when I love Lilly and Bronze and Ashley and Dill and (inhales) Red and Rune and Reginae and EVERYONE, really. Anyways, let's just say I really liked Rose and leave it at that.

I also think there was this curious, sort of strange vibe to her and I really liked this song with her (I drew her as a human to it once) so there you go.

https://youtu.be/5Je6YnLNpL0

Yeah but where has MORTY been on this list?

nowhere he's not important 

Kidding! Honestly, I don't know what compelled me to make him the love interest- in fact, I really don't think Ashley NEEDED one. I do think he fit the mentor role well and Miki wouldn't be a thing without him and people would probably ship Ashthan or Ashred so 

never mind I guess compulsory heterosexuality wins this one kids

This song has little to do with them lyricwise but it has a lot of sentimental importance to me for reasons I won't discuss here, and there's something about the uneasiness on both sides and constant feeling of "I don't belong here, at least not anymore" that just

I guess it spoke THEM to me so much that I had to go for it.

https://youtu.be/Or1yVwOf6EY

There are two characters who make me cry every time I write them. One of them I will not say because it is spoilers (but it is one of my current projects) but the other is Ethan. Every scene he's in I would physically begin tearing up-

you know the thing in Steven Universe, where Blue Diamond enters a room and everyone cries?

That.

In part I think it's because I listened to this for the very last scene of Arc 1, where they first see Ethan in person. 

Well... as much person as he has left.

You came.

https://youtu.be/Ku41cjwHZZs

I tried to avoid putting battle music on this list but look, you just can't not put on the vs Lance/Red music. It's literally what I listened to during both battles.

This remix is i c o n i c.

https://youtu.be/HQljxcELADE

Ashley gets better feat. the Ashley gets better song. This is the kind of music you go on an epic adventure with all your friends too.

https://youtu.be/jghicpMbKUE

Fang has a bunch of peppy instrumental electronic because of course he does. If it's loud, obnoxious, and makes you crack a smile, yeah, I'd file it under him.

https://youtu.be/0J2QdDbelmY

This is also a great Minerva song. In fact, it's Minerva at her height, smug and confident, razing hell down on her enemies, which is the only way to remember Minerva.

https://youtu.be/l3O8yhOmJFA

I had looked over this song in the past but a fan actually suggested that this song reminded them of my book. I was so incredibly touched that someone had offered this up to me that I put it on the list and ended up falling in love with it, from the soft melodies to Regina Spektor's incredible voice.

so yeah, far as I'm concerned, this is the reunion song.

https://youtu.be/JlE3VE2mTzY

and this would be my song for the old team in general and most of Arc 2. I imagine Dill singing this one because he's still the confident, plucky doggo who started this journey. The whole team, standing together-

yeah. There we go.

https://youtu.be/vpvJLg7cUbw

I found this the week after I finished Broken Souls and I think I cried. I think I cried more than I did when writing the ending- maybe because it was midnight? I think some of you out there were there that fateful night, I couldn't have been more glad than to have you with me. Finishing a NaNoWriMo or long project is always incredible not just because of the relief of finishing a project, but because I often do so with friends at my side. Nothing could be more rewarding than the silent reassurance that out there, somewhere, someone is waiting in the dead of night with me as I crank out the last few chapters. It has been an experience- and I can say nothing more, nothing that quite captures the true breadth of emotion this story has given me- to go on this journey with you all.

Of course, this is just a song list FOR said trilogy, which ended in April, but I'll still come back to it while it's fresh in my mind. I doubt anyone will check out all the songs, but if you've already heard any, drop me a comment even if you've never read the books and make no plans to! If you have read the books and HATE a song choice for (x) or think "OH SHIT THAT WORKS SO WELL", tell me that, too.

I'll update more tomorrow- I get the feeling things are looking up from here on out. :)