One thing that really drives home the age of Praedor franchise is the character of Ferron in the comics. While much of the setting has evolved, the lead character in the comics hasn’t changed all that much, gear included. Even looking at him in Taivaan suuri susi, while the contemporary youth probably didn’t notice a thing, teens of the 80s like myself (and Petri too, I suppose) would notice immediately that he is wearing pretty picture-perfect heavy metal concert outfit of the day. With spike-studded bracelets and everything. That was the cool look 30-40 years ago. I think I still have one of those bracelets lying in drawer somewhere in my parents’ house.
Although rarely discussed, Praedor has always had more than its fair share of heavy metal romanticism. It may be more visible in the early works where the artist’s angst is still more pronounced, but it has never really gone anywhere. And when I daydreamt about Praedor TV series in the previous entry, I obviously thought of the proper soundtrack as well. Now, different people have differing visions for it and that is all fine good – the official Praedor Inspiration Music CD by Markus Staaf is clearly inspired by barbarian themes with heavy drums and brass. My personal choice for Nejah’s stage entry music is “Golden cliffs” from the Two Worlds 2 soundtrack. Darn if I know what Petri would put in there.
For a TV series, I would use a fair bit of fantasy-inspired heavy metal themes, mixed in with more melodic soundtracks as needed. Theme song in particular would have to be fantasy metal. And no, I would stay away from Clannad “Legend”, even if I do love the first two seasons of Robin of Sherwood. Celtic vibes and Praedor do not mix, no matter how much I wish they would.
If Clannad sends the wrong message, what is the right message? Well, as a musical genre, 80s heavy metal carries an edge in attitude, a distortion of conformity and a threat in terms of energy and power. Much like the praedors themselves, it is nihilist, independent and selfish. It also has an undertone of idolized toughness to it, sometimes spilling over into machismo (and toxic masculinity, although luckily most of that bullshit has been buried for being shit). Praedors are though, the setting is tough, life in Jaconia is though and so on. Crying gives away your position to the horrors in the ruins, so please refrain from doing so until safely back across border.
Of course, these are all musings of an old man. The world has moved on and heyday of metal is as distant to us as the peak of Chuck Berry was to it. I once lamented in social media that I had a player in Kouvola come to the table, browse through the rulebooks and then leave saying that he was looking for “magic fantasy”. Someone then commented that he was looking for “high fantasy rap” but what he found find was “sword & sorcery metal”. I have to confess I really liked the sound the of that. Just don’t think it too long or too deeply, okay?