"When It Falls" is the theme song of Volume 3 and is included on the RWBY: Volume 3 Soundtrack. The song plays in the Volume 3 Opening.
An instrumental version, arranged for piano and string quartet, is included on the album under the name "When It Falls (V.S.Q)". The title refers to the Videri String Quartet, who performed the arrangement of the song by Mason Lieberman.[1] This version of the song was used in the score of the episode "Battle of Beacon".
Composition[]
The piece begins with a piano piece, first with a fast tempo that quickly slows down to a pause. Immediately, an electric guitar riff kicks off the first verse, followed by Casey Lee Williams' vocals, along with a pair of backing vocals.
As the song approaches the hook, the guitar riff continues on until the last line, where it slows down, until the chorus picks up the pace by increasing the tempo and the backing vocals until they finally slow down.
Lyrics[]
Maybe red's like roses?
Maybe it's the pool of blood
The innocents will lay in
When in the end you've failed to save them?
Their dying eyes
Are wide and white like snow
And now they know
The cost of trusting you's obliteration
Mirrors will shatter
Crushed by the weight of the world
The pillars collapse in shame
There'll be no rest
There'll be no love
There'll be no hero in the end
Who will rise above
And when it ends
The good will crawl
The shining light will sink in darkness
Victory for hate incarnate
Misery and pain for all
When it falls
Swallowed by the darkness
Soon the moon is bathed in black
The light of hope is taken
And discontent is the contagion
The blinding eyes
That burn a yellow flame
The embers that remain
Will light the fuse of condemnation
Kingdoms in tatters
Hung on the brink of a war
The peace will succumb to flames
This is not a tragedy
It's not an accident
You placed your faith in fools
And now you'll smother in lament
They play the part of allies
Claiming peace their only goal
But once the fight for power starts
They'll eat each other whole
Their iron gloves point fingers
They'll wage a war of blame
And mankind will wilt in pain
There'll be no rest
There'll be no love
There'll be no hero in the end
Who will rise above
And when it ends
The good will crawl
The shining light will sink in darkness
Victory for hate incarnate
Misery and pain for all
When it falls[2][3]
Trivia[]
- The lyrics make reference to the four primary colors of RWBY, and may indirectly refer to each member of Team RWBY.
- "Maybe red's like roses?" is a direct allusion to "Red Like Roses", which is the theme of Ruby Rose.
- "Are wide and white like snow". White is the color associated with Weiss Schnee, whose name also literally translates to "white snow" in German.
- "Soon the moon is bathed in black". Black is the color associated with Blake Belladonna, and "Blake" means "black" in Old English. The "Black" Trailer, in which Blake Belladonna debuted, also opened with a shot of the Moon.
- "The blinding eyes / That burn a yellow flame". Yang Xiao Long is associated with the color yellow, and her theme is titled "I Burn".
- Some parts of this song that aren't in the Volume 3 Opening are references to Cinder's speech in "PvP".
- "Mirrors will shatter / Crushed by the weight of the world". James Ironwood and a small Atlesian army are also the focus during this line in the Volume 3 Opening, suggesting that it is a reference to Atlas. The name Atlas itself comes from Greek mythology, referring to the titan who held up the sky on his shoulders. It could also be foreshadowing Ironwood's death at the end of Volume 8 when the Kingdom of Atlas was destroyed after the capital city crushed Mantle.
