The Story You've Been Told
The elegiac hope in League's iconic tearjerker.
Porter Robinson’s “Everything Goes On” posits that life and memory persist through loss, and that continuity itself can be a gentle form of consolation.
Orientation
Throughout the song, Porter moves between addressing a significant other who is fatally ill and offering a fragile refrain of persistence through it all. The intimate, bittersweet lyrics that he has written himself—along with Brendon Williams, Fredrik Johansson, and Hige Driver—are paired splendidly with his expansive electronic production. The track itself might seem like a misnomer, a façade, if you aren’t proficient in English or didn’t pay much attention to the lyrics.
Brief context
The song, a single from electronic music producer Porter Robinson, was conceived in collaboration with League of Legends in July 2022. It draws notable motifs from the anime Madoka Magica, which is itself a foundational work within the mahō shōjo subgenre and is closely related to the Star Guardian arc.
Not being a League player or a devoted fan of Porter, I believe I’m likely to miss most of the “lore” surrounding League, Wild Rift, or Star Guardian. Nonetheless, the music video offers a powerful view on this entire matter. The establishing shots are comprised of quick glimpses of different characters, which I am inclined to believe show a parallel story instead of a single plot based on its composition.
As the MV plays, we get to know Kai’Sa first. She’s initially presented alone, introspective, and interacting with what feels like a memento, as though it represents her mission. She is visually carrying a quiet grief and a sense of responsibility that compels her to push forward. It reads like someone is in danger, and she’s trying to keep going. In the parallel universe, Xayah is shown reaching for a falling feather while being chased by a shadowy aura. She is still grieving the absence of Rakan, which fans tend to interpret as Rakan sacrificing himself for her sake.
Kai’Sa is then shown to have taken a new form—a magic-girl transformation of sorts, with a close resemblance to the themes and aesthetics of Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura. I haven’t mentioned Madoka Magica here for the obvious reason that it was a huge inspiration for the piece, and also because of its starkly contrasting violent tendencies. Porter himself admitted that he preferred to show a more emotional side to League, instead of the often-portrayed combative parts. Additionally, though seemingly irrelevant, I found Kai’Sa’s dress also resembling that of Yuki Asuna from Sword Art Online—a flowing ivory white with accents of crimson red.
That detail is probably unintended. Regardless, the ivory white represents their purity and innocence despite it all. The deep crimson offers an excellent contrast, symbolizing their burning willpower to do what it takes to reach their goal. And deep down inside, all the characters mentioned—who happen to be somehow similar—are all reaching for something. The difference, as it seems to me, is that Kai’Sa and Xayah are trying to reach someone from afar. As for the people in their universes, we can only guess if they’ll ever return, as the two have deeply longed for them.
Structure and form
The music video, however, runs for a far shorter time at approximately two minutes and thirty-nine seconds. Some verses were skipped, partially or entirely. Since I first listened to the song upon its release, I found that unexpected and a bit of a let-down. This puts it alongside the approaches of most anime series, where they opt to cut longer themes, such as the likes of Naruto’s “Blue Bird” and Code Geass’ “COLORS,” to fit with a more fast-paced setting. I’d be remiss not to mention that I soon realized I might be wrong, as I find the music video’s lyrical approach to be more bittersweet.
The song progresses from quieter, textural verses backed by a guitar accompaniment and subtle EDM—into a layered, anthemic chorus whose repetitions create a circular, “everything keeps moving” structure. It consists of seven stanzas, with four lines each. The rhyming is greatly subtle and is likely accidental in nature, given the seemingly free-verse approach chosen for this piece. And, of course, being as anthemic as can be, the piece starts off with its chorus, though on a much calmer note.
The song runs for a full three minutes and twenty-three seconds. Its lyrics use plain, accessible diction with repeated key phrases particular to the chorus. It is played in the key of G and a major mode. Its tempo runs at 157 BPM, leaning on the faster side of Porter’s works, running 79 BPM half-time and 314 BPM for double-time. Expectedly, the signature reflects the nature of his other pieces. Though the song rolls primarily in 4/4, it cuts down to 2/2 for faster tempos made manageable, and gradually paces to 12/8 which evokes a compound duple ambience, akin to those of ballads and flowing pieces.
Characterization and close readings
In a similar vein, I find it bittersweet how Porter transitions between vulnerability and reassurance. This emotional frame feels realistic; immediate and personal in nature. It perfectly portrays how a person who’s about to bid their farewell wishes things to be. It is elegiac in nature, yet ultimately hopeful for the best.
In this piece, many things are said, though a lot are reserved in the depths of a person’s heart. It makes sense how characters are implied rather than elaborated. It’s as if it pains to mention their name and remind yourself of it again. In the first part of the song, Porter takes on the persona of the one who is about to leave. That person tries to comfort the one who’s to be left behind.
Don’t try to make yourself remember, darling
Don’t look for me; I’m just a story you’ve been told
This line is central to Porter’s message in the song. It is an attempt to nudge that loved one to move on and not lose a sense of themselves in the passing. This is substantiated by the following lines:
So let’s pretend a little longer
‘Cause when we’re gone, everything goes on
I find this to be the gentle desperation that’s been stirring in his heart for quite some time. The speaker just wants to enjoy their final moments together, to make the most out of it, even if it takes pretending that everything is okay. They’re not trying to stop change here; it’s simply a matter of acceptance and naming it plainly, because there’s nothing we can do about it. It’s both comforting, in the sense that life doesn’t end with a loss, and melancholic because the world will keep moving without you. It reminds us of our smallness within the larger picture of the universe and the flow of time. As the piece goes on, we get to know more about this speaker.
Well, you were staring at the the window
And I said, “I wanna take you to the sea
And when I’m better, we’ll do everything”
I gotta stop makin’ promises I can’t keep
This is also instrumental to the perspective of shallow comfort that Porter embraced. The speaker is going through an agonizing, heartbreaking pain and is saying things they don’t mean, or can’t follow through on. It can be reflected here that the speaker would like to spend more time with them but is mostly unable to. They comfort the other person by promising to do lots of things with them to assure them that it will be better soon, despite their awareness that they are unable to fulfill that promise. The themes of this verse continue onward to the pre-chorus.
But if I was gone tomorrow, won’t the waves crash on?
Is it selfish that I’m happy as we pass the setting sun?
Someday, I’ll be overcast, but you won’t have to cry
‘Cause we’ll do the grieving, while I’m by your side, I said:
The pre-chorus deepens this perspective of shallow comfort, with the speaker shifting from promises they can’t keep to reflections on their own absence. The first line recognizes that the world will carry on without them, while the second line admits to finding peace, even joy, at the close of their shared time—a feeling that clashes with the grief of the one left behind. The “setting sun” serves as a gentle euphemism for their impending departure, softening its sting but not erasing it. When they add, “Someday, I’ll be overcast, but you won’t have to cry / ’Cause we’ll do the grieving, while I’m by your side,” they offer the idea of “pre-grieving,” trying to absorb the hurt in advance. Yet, as Porter himself has acknowledged, this is a comfort that ultimately fails. You can’t truly grieve before the loss, and in attempting to ease the pain, they may only make it sharper. It’s a moment of flawed tenderness: love expressed in the ‘wrong’ shape, born from the desperate wish to spare someone the heartbreak you know is coming.
Will you meet me in the daylight like we did before?
Then, I felt you on my shoulder, and you weren’t suffering anymore
You said, “I’m sorry that you worried,” but don’t apologize
I told you to forget me, but you stayed by my side when I said:
This second pre-chorus acts as an emotional resolution that revisits the earlier dynamic of loss and comfort, but softens it with gratitude. The first line recalls moments of connection untouched by grief, while the second line paints a vision—or perhaps a memory—where the pain has lifted. The exchange, “I’m sorry that you worried,” met with “but don’t apologize,” strips away guilt and affirms mutual care. Then comes the crucial reframing Porter described: “I told you to forget me, but you stayed by my side when I said:” turns the earlier chorus—telling them not to remember—into a past, misguided attempt to shield the other from hurt. By placing that sentiment in quotation marks, the narrator admits it wasn’t their true desire, but something said in the depths of pain. In this way, the pre-chorus becomes a quiet thanks. “Thanks for staying here, even when I told you to forget all about me.”
Historical overview
The cathartic lyricism presented, though contrasting with most of Porter’s works, is not entirely alien to him. Riot initially reached out to him for a collaboration, but he refused under the pretense that “it’s not the time yet.” He wasn’t always a big fan of their works either. His fiancé, Rika Mikuriya, was the one always trying to get him to play it. He was finally convinced to give it a go at the beginning of the pandemic.
Robinson eventually saw Arcane and was awestruck by its themes. Despite his initial refusal, he then hoped he hadn’t missed his chance. So, he approached the studio and offered to do something for the second season of Arcane. Riot, however, mentioned the Star Guardian event, and the rest was history.
A promotional material from Madoka Magica included in Animage 2012.
The 2022 Star Guardian event itself, unsurprisingly, is a tribute to Madoka Magica. Porter drew parallels from the series and imagined the Star Guardians taking an oath to become superpowered beings. However, that would require them to forgo their real life, and their loved ones would forget that they exist.
“What if I was with someone that I loved and I knew that when the sun rose the next morning, that they would forget that I ever existed. What would that last night be like and what would I want to say?”
In an interview with The Verge and NME, Porter revealed that his fiancé had suffered with health issues back in 2021. From his words, “When someone you love is suffering, it brings to mind ideas of mortality, grief and loss.” And so he set out to write about that which he described as having “really clicked” because he wasn’t faking anything. It was his own pure, raw emotions that he had held for some time.
He described it as a portrayal of love for mortal creatures like us. We want to experience life fully with those we love, while being perturbed by the thought that we might not be able to do these things due to circumstances set out for us. This forgoes the format of League’s rowdy anthems, such as the likes of Alan Walker and Against The Current’s “Legends Never Die.” As Porter put it, “I wanted to make something that was more of a tearjerker.”
Conclusion
Through this historical lens, the shift in the earlier second pre-chorus reflects Robinson’s own navigation of his grief and connection. What began as an attempt to distance and protect, telling someone to forget, becomes an acknowledgement of strength and comfort found in those who remain. The hyped-up chorus is no longer a directive, but a relic of pain now tempered by gratitude.
In grounding the piece’s resolution in his lived experience, Porter was able to transform the ache of anticipated loss into a quiet, ever-so-bittersweet celebration of lasting presence. It is a reminder that love certainly can outlast the shaow of its own impermanence. That even when the sun rises and the weight of yesterday has slipped away, I’ll still be here; not because you asked, but because I chose to.
References
- Everything Goes on Lyrics
- BPM and key for Everything Goes on by League of Legends
- Porter Robinson on crafting a new anthem for League of Legends
- Porter Robinson releases ‘League of Legends’ anthem ‘Everything Goes On’