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Here Comes the Arm Lyrics
Tom:
Emily, a crowd has gathered here
And once again they fail to see.
You can't just set the world at someone else's feet
And not get trampled underneath.
And I think somehow Joe knew it,
He paid the price he thought he had to pay,
but Emily, that debt was meant for me...
That debt was meant for me.
This is not the world my father knew.
This is not the world, I know,
he would have wanted me to build,
But I can't undo it now.
It's like a train, and all its cars are filled with steel,
that I would stop if I knew how.
And it is bearing down on me.
So I will stand here with my shoulders square and tall,
and when the whistle blows, not falter,
but when the crash comes I will fall.
With so much steam and steel behind it,
I won't slow it down at all.
Oh God...
Oh God...
Here comes the arm.
Joe, when you see Emily,
tell her to wait for me.
'Cause I still have work to do...
Emily, a crowd has gathered here
And once again they fail to see.
You can't just set the world at someone else's feet
And not get trampled underneath.
And I think somehow Joe knew it,
He paid the price he thought he had to pay,
but Emily, that debt was meant for me...
That debt was meant for me.
This is not the world my father knew.
This is not the world, I know,
he would have wanted me to build,
But I can't undo it now.
It's like a train, and all its cars are filled with steel,
that I would stop if I knew how.
And it is bearing down on me.
and when the whistle blows, not falter,
but when the crash comes I will fall.
With so much steam and steel behind it,
I won't slow it down at all.
Oh God...
Here comes the arm.
tell her to wait for me.
'Cause I still have work to do...
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The beginning of the song, Light has given up. He's downtrodden with Wily's complete dominance and Emily's death, and has lost hope that there's anything he can do to stop it. Sniper Joe, in Keep Quiet and Light up the Night, has turned back to the side of Light and risen up against Wily, but falls in the battle, adding to Light's overall feeling of hopelessness.
I think the Train metaphor is a very powerful image, and the delivery of "Oh God, Oh God, Here comes the arm" raises goosebumps on my arms. However, "Here Comes the Arm," without having the album book/backstory yet, is a bit cryptic. For now, I assume it's a double entendre for either the long arm of the law (or just the long arm of Wily's power) and of course, the "Arm" as in the Blaster arm of Proto and Mega.
As Light sits, wallowing in his hopelessness, he is reminded that Emily would want him to fight for the city.
"Joe, if you see Emily, tell her to wait for me, 'cause I still have work to do."
I imagine Light standing up, walking to his workbench, and grabbing his hammer.
I now know that the Arm serves as a metaphor for Wily's tower falling.
I now know that the Arm serves as a metaphor for Wily's tower falling.
There is actually a section in the song right before the last verse where Light reads Emily's letter she wrote before she was murdered. Emily sings this section, which goes:
There is actually a section in the song right before the last verse where Light reads Emily's letter she wrote before she was murdered. Emily sings this section, which goes:
"Thomas,
"Thomas,
Please don't cry for me. I know you never meant for this. I love you completely. Just remember that if I try to leave you now, then in my final hour, I pray this letter finds you well before it all goes to hell. He could never cage the world. It's too big for anyone and soon the dark will pass. I want so much to be with...
Please don't cry for me. I know you never meant for this. I love you completely. Just remember that if I try to leave you now, then in my final hour, I pray this letter finds you well before it all goes to hell. He could never cage the world. It's too big for anyone and soon the dark will pass. I want so much to be with you, but in my heart I know, Tom, the city needs you now. The city needs you now.
Emily."
I thought this ended the album on a very different note than their self-titled one. When Megaman initially refuses to fight Protoman, he is eventually goaded into raising his arm cannon and killing him, both by Protoman's taunting the defeat of man, and the crowd surrounding them both. In this song, I imagine Tom Light being alone, run down after the death of Joe and Emily. Fighting against Wily has taken away so much from him that he can't imagine going on.
He feels destroyed by his own power. Where once he proudly exercised his control over steel, he now fears that the strength of his own machines will destroy him. Only when he remembers how much there is still at stake, does he rise from the self-imposed guilt that has anchored him since The State vs Thomas Light, forget the death behind him, and set his sight on the vengeance to come. Despite everything that has happened to him, and how hopeless the future for humanity appears, he chooses to fight. Here comes the arm.