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In my first post on this subject, I explained my reasoning behind why I believe the events of Fantasy actually took place in a dream, and here I will discuss the implications of this analysis on how one can interpret the Dynamite and Fantasy MVs as a single body of work.
If Fantasy really is nothing but a dream, several elements of the overarching story are affected.
1. The Order
A good majority of the theories floating around out there adhere to the idea that Fantasy is a prequel to Dynamite, and the one presented here does not attempt to stray far from that seemingly now conventional wisdom. If Fantasy represents N’s dream, then Dynamite appears to show him waking up from that dream, clearly placing Fantasy before Dynamite in the order of events. (There are plenty of other clues hinting at this same conclusion concerning the time frame, but for the sake of space I will not go over them here.)
With this timing in mind, one can now start to dissect other MV elements.
2. The Doors
As has been pointed out by others, doors feature prominently in both MVs. In Dynamite one is the background focal point of Hyuk’s individual set, and in Fantasy another pervades the entire film with appearances in both member and story line shots.
In their own work, @90x93 discuss the possibility of the Fantasy door representing an entry point to the Underworld, standing in for either the Doors of Doom or the Door of Orpheus. In addition, another individual claims that the Dynamite and Fantasy doors were one in the same, theorizing that they were the portal through which the two hooded figures in the Conception Opening Trailer attempted to escape the forest in Fantasy. Only to be pursued by N in Dynamite. (I unfortunately cannot find the original post either on Tumblr or Twitter. If you recognize the original source, please let me know so that I can give the author proper credit.)
Building on the theories above, the dream interpretation of events lends itself to the possibility that the doors are the metaphorical link between the dream world of Fantasy and the real world of Dynamite. This means that when N walks through the door at the end of Fantasy, he is waking up in Dynamite. It’s important to note that the fact that a lamp with a black shade, contrasted with the white-shaded lamps scattered throughout the rest of the shot, sits right outside the door in Dynamite further suggests its connection to the Underworld.
The door may also double as the entrance to N’s bedroom, giving the door not only a metaphorical but also a physical quality. To better explain why this may be, the third element of this analysis needs to be introduced.
3. Leo
The Fantasy MV opens and closes with an ominous shot of a an eye-patch wearing Leo, dressed in black sitting in front of the dining table at which Ravi, Ken, N, and Hongbin conduct their meeting.
There are many different theories which attempt to explain the significance of this image. @babytaekwoon proposes that the love potion sought by N actually causes N and Leo to switch bodies, and that the scene is a representation of N in Leo’s form. @90x93 also offer up the idea that N and Leo are two parts of the same person, with the former representing evil and the latter representing good. Viewed in this light the above shot of Leo could represent his final turn to the dark side.
However, I believe that the person we see at the end of Fantasy may not actually be Leo (or N in Leo’s body), but rather an embodiment of how N sees Leo. Or, given the fact that Leo is wearing his hand-wrap, a blending between N’s perceptions and reality. If N believes Leo stole his love away from him, it would only be natural for him to view his nemesis as an evil force: envisioning him in black garb rather than in the white clothing Leo wears throughout the rest of the MV. Therefore, the apparent dichotomy of Leo’s character may be explained not by his actual nature but by the lens through which he his viewed by others.
But what does this have to do with the doors? To understand one must look at two pieces of evidence. The first is the scene of Ken apparently pointing N towards the door in Fantasy. All the images of this interaction in the teaser materials and the MV itself remove the action from its context. For this reason, I originally believed that the door in the MV represented the entrance to Hades’ palace, which was in turn depicted in the dining room scene. However, footage from the Fantasy MV Making Film paints a different picture.
The scene takes place inside the place. Therefore, the door Ken points to must represent something else.
This leads us to the second piece of evidence. In the Fantasy Official Teaser Hyuk attempts to prevent N from walking through the door.
It’s a scene repeated multiple times throughout the various teasers and MV, but there is something peculiar about its use in this particular instance. This is because in the official teaser this scene is directly followed by the image of “evil” Leo, suggesting a correlation between the two.
When we combine this with what is now known about N’s scene with Ken, the possibility arises that when N passes through the door he is choosing to confront his enemy, goaded on by Ken and counseled against by Hyuk. Fantasy presents a symbolic version of this. Dynamite an actual representation.
At one point in the Dynamite MV N arises from his bed and soon after he is seen crashing Leo’s wedding with the other four in toe.
One can logically assume that in this scene N has stepped through the door in his dream and awoken to now pass through the door to his room on his way to confront Leo face-to-face in real life.
4. The Keres
The presence of the other four in Dynamite, however, hints that the events of Fantasy are not confined to the realm of dreams, but instead have dire consequences on the real world.
At first their influence may appear to be purely psychological. The scene of Hyuk and Hongbin tempting N in Fantasy correlates with a shot of N sitting disoriented/defeated in his bedroom chair in Dynamite.
In this instance, the former image may provide the symbolic depiction of the internal battle occurring within N in the latter image, since neither takes physical form in the second scene. But the crashing of the wedding suggests that Ravi, Ken, Hongbin, and Hyuk do not only exist inside of N’s head, and may explain one of the other more perplexing images in Fantasy in which the four members mentioned above don black masks.
The wearing of the masks could represent the four coming fully into their secondary role as the Keres (in addition to their primary god roles), taking physical form and eventually following N into the real world to bring destruction down upon N, Leo, and their love interest. (Remember how the door in Dynamite is ajar?)
In conclusion, N’s quest to recover his lover in the dream world of Fantasy is eventually played out in the real world of Dynamite, with the two colliding in a way that blurs the lines between the two realms.
I am well aware that there are potential holes in my theory and that it will most likely need revising, especially after the release of the drama version of Fantasy. And to be honest, I’m not one hundred percent sure about anything when it comes to Leo and N’s relationship, but a few more theories for the fandom to chew on until Kratos can’t hurt.
Let me know what you think. Hate the idea? Love it? See places where it could be improved? Don’t hesitate to message me. I promise I don’t bite.
Do you want to see the drama version of Fantasy? Do you want to see the dance practice? Do you want to see the boys win? Do you want to repay the boys because of those amazings performances and music?
Then go and stream that MV and song like there’s no tomorrow, may be we don’t have a lot of ways to support them but we need to do what we can. And yes, may be EXO came back but we need to try.
Things we can do:
*Stream the MV on Youtube/Tudou
*Stream the songs on Naver or Genie
*Vote in Mnet, Mango, Show Champion App
*Tweet using the hashtags #빅스 #더쇼 to @SBS_MTV
Those things are for FREE.
I remember one group once won over EXO, if we work together we could make that happen for VIXX too…
A lot of people didn’t support Dynamite because it wasn’t dark, then we got Fantasy, what’s the excuse now?
If you have doubts VIXXSUPPORT has tutorials and even guides… Even I can help with the little that I know Don’t let that MV and dance practice be another lost reward.
This is a multi-part theory. In the first part, I will set out my case in favor of the events of Fantasy taking place in a dream, and in the second I will explain why this interpretation may be critical in helping to understand how Dynamite and Fantasy tie in to one another.
And with that, let’s dive in.
Arguably, one of the most important sets in the Dynamite MV is N’s bedroom. While the majority of the members are placed against simple backdrops, N’s room is cluttered and packed with details, and it is these details which I believe make this set the key to understanding the relationship between Dynamite and Fantasy. This is due to the fact that practically all the objects in N’s bedroom are scattered across Fantasy’s varied sets. To demonstrate let’s start with a snapshot of N’s set from the Zelos Concept Film.
Near the upper right hand corner sits a small lamp. Bottles litter the floor on the left hand side of the screen, and candles nestle close to N’s legs in the upper left. By now, these elements may seem strikingly familiar, because we’ve seen them before.
The lamp...
The bottles...
And the candles...
All of them make an appearance in the Fantasy MV, and they aren’t the only objects to do so. The now famous love potion vial also makes a possible appearance in a shot from the Dynamite Official Teaser, situated below N’s outstretched arm.
And in yet another shot of N’s room, this time from the Dynamite MV, a chair comes into view (along with more lamps and bottles).
While not obvious in the Fantasy MV itself, the Fantasy MV Making Film reveals just how integral chairs are to another one of the music video’s sets.
And this isn’t the only notable element that comes into view. This angle in particular reveals that the walls of N’s bedroom are made of mirrors. At first I thought the choice of mirrored walls was simply a stylistic choice picked to make the room feel bigger, but then I realized that there’s something similar to it in Fantasy as well.
That’s right, our giant mystery box of doom, whose mirrors are shown to be located on the inside walls in the Fantasy MV Making Film. And if struck by the desire, one could find even more potential minute similarities between N’s room and Fantasy. The purple cloth that N and Leo sit on could be representative of N’s blue bed sheet, and the bedroom and alchemy room both have light sources located high on and in the center of their respective back walls. (Although including these last two elements requires a bit more of a stretch than the others.)
So what does all of this have to do with dreams? For the possible answer to this question, one must turn to a short sequence in the Zelos Concept Film. The black and white photo of N shown above flashes on screen, but, significantly, it is inter-spliced with a shot of N caught, as always, in the rain. Once again, seem familiar?
Here is yet another direct link between Zelos and Hades, but this time it is associated with a very specific action, namely sleep. The way the downpour scene is sandwiched between the image of N sleeping suggests that it is representative of his mental state and could very well represent his dreams. If this is the case, then the other objects in N’s room may appear in the Fantasy MV because Hades, in actuality, is a dream world that reflects reality or is a place that is accessible through dreams (which is a possibility I hope to explore in a separate post).
So why is this important? Stay tuned for part two.
P.S. Please feel free to let me know what you think. Am I completely off my rocker or could this actually be a viable interpretation?
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