L_ST-_N-D_TA (LOST IN DATA) - PrinceWhatever
CONTENT WARNING: LOST IN DATA is a pretty intense song, the art features a robot that is half destroyed and the lyrics talk about existential crisis, betrayal and ultimately an attempt to destroy the robot
I used to be into MLP:FiM (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic) and I listened to some MLP fanmade music as a result. LOST IN DATA is one of my absolute favorite brony songs and I still go back to listen to it every now and again! I even remember crying the first time I heard it because it was so emotionally impactful.
LOST IN DATA can seem gratuitously grim (after all in the song the main character is not only going through an existential crisis but also literally being hunted down by her friends) but somehow I think they make it work, I get it if you disagree, not everyone is into the edgier stuff, I just happen to like it when people manage to make the grim aspects of their art be meaningful and not simply present for shock value, and I think this song is an example of that being done right.
But why tell this messed up story as an MLP fan song? That's a bit of an odd choice, were they just trying to juxtapose the wholesome aesthetic of the show with tragedy for the effect? Perhaps, and I'm not personally a huge fan of that, but I don't think that's the whole story, let's go over some background information:
Back in the 2010s there was a youtube parody of MLP called "My Little Pony: Friendship is Witchcraft", and while I don't think it's aged very well (there's a slur against Romani people that gets featured pretty heavily in the videos) it was hugely popular in the fandom, everyone knew about Friendship is Witchcraft.
There were some iconic things in FiW that fans really latched onto, like the character called Sweetie-bot, who is secretly a robot. For comedic effect they made her voice sound really clearly synthetic and she speaks in an overly dry and technical way, but no one actually knows she's a robot - not even herself - and that's good for her because bots are not viewed positively in this world, I forget the exact details (and frankly I don't care enough to watch the thing again) but I'm pretty sure it is a recurring joke that robots are perceived as being evil and dangerous.
(Picture of Sweetie-bot drawn by zaiyaki on Deviantart)
So that takes us to LOST IN DATA, it is actually part 2 in a series of songs that tell a story revolving around Sweetie-bot, but I personally didn't connect as much with the other parts, they're not bad, I just didn't find them as appealing.
I'll talk about the aspects of the song that stand out the most to me, firstly, the instrumentals fit my tastes pretty well, the electric guitar and drums are intense and I really enjoy the choppy, digital type of instrument they added, it's like a dirty chiptune-like synth and honestly I think it's wonderful, it also goes really well with the rest of the instruments.
Right out the gate we start with existential questions, here's the opening lines:
Ever since I found out what I am
Every second I can't understand
As time's ticking by, with tears in my eyes
Can I feel, or is sadness programmed?
I think this establishes something quite important for the rest of the song: despite being a robot and questioning on an intellectual level if her emotions are artificial we can tell she's actually feeling something, she's crying, she's doubting herself, and the intonation makes her sound quite distressed about her epiphany.
Once we get to the chorus we learn that Sweetie-bot is being hunted down, they're looking for her in order to kill her, and while the lyrics don't explicitly state it at this point we can see in the video that it's actually her two friends.
What I really love about it though is the way it's written, of course Sweetie-bot is in distress and you can hear a lot of emotion in the way the lyrics are sung, but if you pay attention she's not helplessly crying out for help, she's not angry or aggressive, she is having a dialogue:
I wonder what you'll do
"I have no choice" I hear you say
Well that depends on you
And if you've got the guts, then fire away
She's not condemning or cursing her friends, she is empathetic enough to understand that they don't actually want to do this to her, she's trying to reason with them, trying to get them to understand that ultimately this is their choice and no-one else's. And right after the chorus we have this gem.
Did they send you out here to kill me?
'Cause I don't think that you've got the nerve
I'm gonna be real for a moment, that is the most badass lyric I've ever heard, it genuinely gave me chills the first time I listened to this song. Not only is it a really bold and confident thing to say given her circumstance, but it showcases Sweetie-bot's incredible empathy to the people that are literally trying to kill her. She knows these people, they're her friends, and she's fairly confident that they don't have it in them to take a life. This empathy is further emphasized in my favorite lines, right at the end:
Your eyes look different
I swear they used to glow
Are you lost like me?
Am I a mare you used to know?
I want to highlight that the lyrics of this song sound pretty matter-of-factly, Sweetie-bot is not begging for mercy or furiously fighting back - I mean she's certainly not giving up since she's trying to reason with her friends - but the way her lines are written, not with super emotional screaming or pleading but with such clinical language resonates with me, especially because the vocalist does not sound emotionless.
I think the trope of robots speaking in a very stilted and emotionless way, while fun, doesn't fully make sense to me, because it's based on this false dichotomy between logic and emotion, there is this perception that they're opposites, you either have one or the other, but these two things are not in conflict with each other, in fact they go hand in hand.
I think the more factual style of writing works not because she's a robot but because it makes it feel like she's somehow very present and grounded during this whole interaction, it even makes it sound like she's in control of the situation or at the very least that she's accepted her potential fate without giving into despair, which only makes her come across as more badass to me.
Side-note: I'm not the first to point out how the writing in the lyrics sounds almost robotic with how factual it seems, Xidnaf actually points it out in this video at the 5:24 mark, I'm sure it was intentional (considering she's a robot) and I like my interpretation of it.
Then we get the bridge where the lyrics convey the utter despair Sweetie-bot feels, which interestingly enough seems like an internal monologue type of thing, like she's keeping this to herself.
Lastly, we hear the chorus once more, they do this thing where Sweetie-bot is going through her usual lines but this time we hear her friends' replies, and although it's a dialogue it doesn't sound like her friends want to listen, they're conflicted but seem to be determined to carry out their task:
Is this the choice you made?
(But is it right?)
I hope you brought the best you've got
(Why am I here?)
So steady on that aim
(Steady!)
And take your best shot
Ultimately I think it makes sense that someone ended up writing a song like this, Sweetie-bot lends herself to really emotional stories, I mean you have a character who doesn't know this very fundamental aspect of herself, no one around her knows, but if people find out all hell will break loose because it's not something that is acceptable to be according to the rules of this society, and it's not something that is in the control of the robot either.
This whole set up is used in comedic ways in the original material because the intent was for it to be a parody, the joke behind Sweetie-bot as a character is that the robot being the most human, complex character of all of them would be ironic, but the concept is full of tension, of course writing a tragic story makes sense if this is what you've got to work with, it doesn't feel arbitrary or random, if anything it's kind of obvious to take things in this direction.
I really appreciate the fact they didn't just try to make a sob story or just try to tug at your heartstrings for no reason though, they actually made the characters complex and interesting and the whole thing ends up feeling like a dramatic badass encounter instead of simply a tragedy, which is a wonderful direction to take things and makes this stand out.
So that's why this is one of my favorite brony songs, I hope that was at least mildly interesting to read, thank you for reading ✨