---
title: "MAIN CHARACTER ENERGY"

meaning: "Bashō's frog pond, then RPG brain: speed-run life, empty inventory, stuck in cutscenes: main character energy, see it to believe it."

year: 2025
release: "US"
releaseType: "album"

artist: "Scoobert Doobert"
artistId: "#scoobert"

credits: "Written, performed, and mixed by Luke Francis Walton."

apple: "https://music.apple.com/us/album/main-character-energy/1786629815?i=1786629816"

themes: ["gaming", "identity", "Japan", "US", "main character"]

isrc: QT3EX2463508
isrcSource: soundexchange
lyrics: |
  古池や蛙飛ンだる水の音
  古池や

  I wanna speed run it
  Become rich and gun it
  Get to the side quest
  That seems like the fun bit
  I wanna slay a dragon
  But while I'm holding my action
  Some sorta magic
  I barely touched it

  I'm leveling up
  Pixel perfect glow up
  I will never grow up
  Hope my boss don't pull up

  I need to get more D L C
  Grinding on my life XP
  Why you never look at me
  Main character energy
  See it to believe it

  Stuck in a cutscene
  Oh, what a bad dream
  I'm getting sick of NPCs

  IRL lagging
  Memory sagging
  Digging through inventory
  And it's surprisingly empty

  I'm leveling up
  Pixel perfect glow up
  I will never grow up
  Hope my boss don't pull up

  I need to get more D L C
  Grinding on my life XP
  Why you never look at me
  Main character energy
  See it to believe it

  See it to believe it
  See it to believe it
  See it to believe it
  See it to believe it
  See it to believe it
  See it to believe it
  See it to believe it
  See it to believe it

draft: false

---

Sixth and final released chapter of [*US*](/albums/us/) (Jan 3, 2025), for now the last EP on streaming before the full LP exists.

It opens on Bashō's *old pond* haiku, 古池や, frog and the sound of water, then hard-cuts to game brain: *speed run it, become rich and gun it*. Stillness, then main-character syndrome at full volume. The chorus grinds *life XP* and needs more DLC; verse two names the glitch when the loot screen turns up nothing: *digging through inventory and it's surprisingly empty*.

The outro stacks *see it to believe it* eight times, affirmation or cope, which rhymes with the haiku up top: a single moment you have to witness to know. The Japan thread from [*KŌAN*](/albums/koan/) and [*Gonna Go to Japan*](/songs/gonna-go-to-japan/) meets internet-gamer Scoobert, and the anxiety of [*LOL*](/songs/lol/) meets the fantasy that you're the plot.

Also on the chapter EP: *MAIN CHARACTER ENERGY (Instrumental)*.

---