Lore and Symbolism in XLOV "Imma Be" (Fan Theory)
Hey so, I haven’t seen any EVOLs talk about this in any great detail (until today... haha), so I thought I would break down some of the imagery, lore, and symbolism in Imma Be! I’ve been an EVOL since a few days after debut and I would love to see the members get more recognition for the beautiful story they are telling through their music, videos, and styling. It’s groundbreaking, transgressive, and vulnerable; I think a lot of us (especially LGBTQIA+ and/or marginalised EVOLs like myself) see ourselves in their lore. I will be referring to various interviews as well as the lyrics, the MV, and the MV behind; as well as drawing on both my own knowledge of symbolism and the vibes in general.
These are just ideas! I might be totally wrong! Muti has been super tight-lipped about the meaning of Imma Be (both song and MV) and has only really started giving hints since 1&Only was released. He and the members want us to be able to draw our own connections and create our own meaning for it rather than tell us word for word what is happening in each scene. So this is just one of many possible interpretations.
I wanted to embed images and stuff to help point you to the parts of the MV that I’m talking about but I’m not really an images person, very much a words one (as you can tell by the word count oops!) and as you will see, I basically go through the entire MV so there would be a LOT of images and timecodes! I recommend watching the video straight after you read this post, then maybe reading it again after :)
Apologies in advance - I have a LOT of thoughts and feelings about this so it’s extremely long!
Summary and note on characterisation
XLOV’s debut “Imma Be” is a statement of intent/mission statement of a track that is about the members (or each member’s character)* and their journey to this point. The lyrics and the MV come together to show the restrictive, stifling world of prejudice and expectations that the characters came from, shows them realising that they could have something more, shows their unique personalities breaking through, and ends with Wumuti leading them to exit that world and enter the unknown.
*Note on characterisation: Muti shared in their first Arirang radio interview that each person is playing a character and that there are specific things to be learned about each character through the MV. However it’s very clear once you know a bit about the members that the characters share a lot of traits with the members themselves. I think that’s a bit of a signpost that we shouldn’t take the things we learn about the members from the MVs too literally - while there are parallels, things may be altered, played up/down, or completely invented for the sake of the lore. The story being told is quite intimate and vulnerable so it makes sense that they would want to put a little distance between their true selves and the characters they play in lore. I think it’s important to remember that :)
The very first shot of the exit door from later in the video, seen on its side. We zoom into this shot to enter the door and find ourselves in the school/chessboard set that establishes the tone for the whole MV. This is a symbolic cage as well as being a gamelike situation.
The regular students are well dressed in normal navy and white school uniforms and sit firmly inside their desk spaces with good posture. They are clearly focused on their work. In contrast, the members (while still in the school uniform technically speaking) are all wearing clothes/makeup that set them apart, and are sitting with more relaxed posture that pushes their bodies outside of the desk space.
I think they all have something in their representative colours: Rui is holding a pink pen with a heart on it, and you can see doodles on his notepad, one of which looks like a butterfly (Rui’s representative animal). Haru has doodled on a brighter yellow notepad; I could make out a star and a moon. Hyun appears to have a blue notepad, and Wumuti an orange-ish one (maybe this is red without the filter or maybe it was just the closest colour they could get!) I think the other members have doodles on their pads also but it’s a bit hard to tell as we don’t get good close-ups.
Interesting details from this set:
In Haru’s dancing (audition-like) scene in front of the students, the students judge him, looking disengaged. However shortly afterwards Haru is not in the scene, and the students’ faces are blurred. My partner had the idea that the people judging/criticising him only mattered and existed when he was performing, and when he’s not out in front of them, they cease to matter. This could also symbolise how the people who have power over his success in this setting don’t know him or see him for who he is.
There’s a couple of brief moments where the colours invert on the screen, first when a chess piece is taking another chess piece, then after you see a player walking along the chessboard towards Wumuti it cuts to him momentarily collapsing on the ground. This is a really cool visual moment where Wumuti is maybe experiencing a defeat or a setback (the chesspiece being taken). This directly links to his window scene, which we’ll talk about shortly, but it also could be read as Wumuti (like the rest of the members) not being able to win or thrive within the game/cage itself. Wumuti mentions how much he loves this scene in the MV behind and in the Kpop Nara Q&A.
In some of the scenes you can see that the chairs and desks have been thrown to the side of the room. This feels a bit like tearing down boundaries/rules/walls within the game even while you’re stuck inside it.
The first time we see the members all dancing together in unison is the start of the chorus (silly, silly, ya) and they are in their “Red Exit Door” Scene costumes. More about this further down!
This is a super brief scene that only Wumuti has. The lighting is red, the shots are super tight on his body, and he is alone, being grasped/smothered by hands. I don’t have a specific take on what this could mean, but it does feel claustrophobic, dangerous, and uncomfortable. Note that Muti is in his school clothes for this scene so this contextually takes place within the cage.
Honestly these scenes are probably the most delicious for the information they give us about the characters! Each of the members is shown in front of a window through which we see different images for each member. Each member also has different styling elements and different props within the room itself. All the clothing is colourless here (predominantly white/gray/black/off-white), and is more childlike in style.
Each member is shown on this set at least twice, with a marked shift in behaviour between the first and second shots. I believe this set is designed to show us different fears the characters have, or the things that weigh heavily on them. Then when they return to these sets later in the MV, they reject, overcome, or subvert the fears that were previously shown.
Interestingly, these scenes are shot in the red exit door set - it’s not immediately obvious in the MV unless you’re paying extremely close attention, but you can see it clearly in the MV behind. So I wonder if these are the fears that are preventing them from leaving the cage/game world, and they have to overcome them in order to get out.
Action_Aggressive posted a cool theory on reddit looking at the links to fears/desires as well - check that out here: reading their thoughts helped me to summarise my own a bit more cleanly and there are some super interesting comments too!
I’ll go through each member one by one.
Window: An abstract rainbow reflective pattern.
Props: A podium showing first, second, and third place.
Style elements: Muti has a very subtle swirly pattern painted across his nose and cheekbones. It almost looks like a reflection of the rainbow in the window.
Interpretation: There’s a number of ways you can interpret the rainbow pattern in the window. I am going to stay away from making specific guesses here because the pattern itself is very abstract, and I think it’s more about a fear of displaying your true light/talent/soul as a whole than any specific element of yourself.
Regarding the podium itself, in the MV behind, Rui describes this scene as a situation where the character must remain in the #1 spot no matter what. We don’t actually get to see at the beginning of the video that Wumuti is standing on top of the #1 spot in the podium, but you see it in the MV behind. So I connect this to the pressure to remain on top, to win, to be successful and the best at everything - especially relating to idol training and competition shows like Boys Planet.
Then, when he is lying across the podium later in the video, I think this is a rejection of that pressure - refusing to exist within that system. This connects to reality in that Muti left behind the big companies and the competition shows. He found his company (which basically just started with one guy who supported him), and he did it his own way.
Window: A flower that is alternately opening/blooming and closing.
Style elements: Rui has a string of beads across his cheeks, and a plant with a blooming flower emerging from his shoulder. I think the visual implication is that this flower is blooming out of him.
Interpretation: Rui mentions a fear of heights in the Arirang interview but I don’t think that fits here! Once again there are a couple of ways you can interpret this. One is that he is afraid of not being able to blossom/bloom and could relate to his feelings of failure at working so hard and not being able to debut, especially when you consider his story about Wumuti telling Rui that he would find a way for Rui to shine. Another is that he is afraid of the act of blossoming/blooming itself and therefore afraid of his own depths - maybe in a similar way to how I interpret Wumuti’s rainbow window. I think that since the flower in the window is both opening and closing that there are elements of both present here. Another thing you could take into consideration here is that Rui says in the MV behind that when he’s stressed or anxious, he can’t show his skills properly, so maybe there’s an element of being able to bloom in front of other people, or even blooming at the wrong time? So many options!
Rui’s scene to me is the most unified - for some of the others, their props and their window show quite different things, but as Rui’s is so abstract and thorny it seems more closely connected. His subversion also is to me the subtlest of the members. His window is the only one where we are shown the visual without the bars of the window in the shot - I feel like depending on the interpretation of the fear, you can take this as opening himself up to or being enabled to bloom. There’s a lyrical connection here too - while earlier in the song, Hyun says he’s “walking on the rain”, Rui says that he is “blooming on the rain”. This feels like it could tie in with the body horror elements that appear in 1&Only if you accept that the plant is coming out of his actual body.
Window: darkness/night and a lightning storm
Props: a chair and papers flying/blowing through the space
Style elements: interesting eyeliner details around his brow.
Interpretation: The window itself seems to be a relatively straightforward fear of the dark, the night, or of storms. However, Hyun’s props require a bit more examination! In the Arirang interview, Hyun says he is afraid of “losing the Evols”. We also are told that Hyun had given up on his dream of debuting before he was approached by Wumuti and was therefore a little bit skeptical about the dream that Wumuti was pitching him. That leads me to believe that Hyun’s fear is something related to not being able to do what he loves and being stuck in a desk job, paperwork, a dull working life kind of thing. There could also be elements of the expectations of grades and education/schooling.
The subversion comes twice for Hyun - first, there is a lightning strike and he doesn’t flinch or curl in on himself as he does early in the MV. Second, near the end of the MV there is a shot of papers lying on the ground scrunched up, showing that Hyun has left that behind.
Window: Dancing vegetables
Props: A bed covered in soft toys
Style elements: sparkly rhinestones in his hair and trailing down to his eye, where one large rhinestone looks a bit like a tear.
Interpretation: This is actually an established fact about Haru. In one of their Japanese tour vlogs he said at least twice that spring onions were one of the only vegetables he could eat. And then when asked about his fears in one of the Arirang interviews, he said he had a fear of consuming vegetables. So the window part is easy here.
The bed and soft toys are a little less clear, but still clearer than those of Haru’s hyungs! Later in the MV Haru throws one of the soft toys at the camera. This could be a few things: maybe a fear of growing up, a fear of leaving behind the safety/security of childhood, or a fear of always being seen as a child or infantilised. This can be linked to Haru’s relative youth compared to the other members and how young he was when he entered Boys Planet. Throwing the toy to be is a rejection of this fear, whichever of the interpretations you gravitate towards.
This is the only scene in which the members are wearing bright colours and they are largely unified and dancing as a group when they are in this scene. This serves as the preparation stage for them to leave the cage/game behind them. There are 2 doors linked by a red carpet, and scraps of paper littering the floor in some shots (I think this is from Hyun’s papers-related fear subversion).
My partner noticed that the red carpet runs between the exit doors and doesn’t really go anywhere else. I’m not sure what that might mean, but it certainly feels like there is a meaning here! It also kinda looks like a door from far away. It’s definitely worth noting that red is Wumuti’s representative colour so this could show that Wumuti is the catalyst to them getting out.
There are a few moments in this scene that are different from the group dancing I have described above:
Rui’s insane dance moves. You know what I’m talking about! I think there’s a cool lyrical parallel here as Rui is singing about hearing the siren, the knock on the door, the hundred loud beeps. And then he spins, or his world turns upside down, after hearing the siren. I just thought that was cool.
Haru waving a flag. Flag waving or “flying a banner” traditionally symbolises loyalty or alliance. It could be a sign of Haru’s loyalty and belief in Muti and his lack of reservations - that he wholeheartedly trusts Muti. We know that Rui and Hyun had more setbacks to overcome and felt like they may have missed their chance to debut. But Haru is so young and sees Muti like a mother (his words not mine!) so it makes sense to me that he would be 100% in on whatever Muti proposes without the added layers of bitterness/fear/trauma that the others may have picked up on their journey.
The ticking clock sound and dance move. This is such a brief but cool choreographic moment. It makes me think of how time and age is so important for trainee idols. The clock is always ticking, you’re always running out of time.
Then finally (and this is one of my favourite moments in the MV - I literally gasped when I figured out what was happening), Wumuti points at the exit! The members look, then they all walk to the door, Haru opens it, and they leave the cage behind them. So. If we link this to what we know about the group’s story, we can draw the parallel to what happened in real life: Wumuti hand-picked all the members, had the concepts, and brought them all together under his banner to debut with him. Then in the story, Wumuti gathered people together who were dissatisfied and trapped, showed them potential and a way out, then was their catalyst to escape the “cage” that was their previous lives.
I think Haru being the one to walk at the front of the group and open the door could be relevant also, another display of the loyalty and trust he has in Wumuti that isn’t tempered by past disappointments in the way it may be for Rui and Hyun.
Four white doves on a gray sky. Hmmmm I wonder what that could be foreshadowing!
The more time I spend working on this essay the more unified, deliberate, and clever this song seems to me. It’s the perfect debut track for XLOV. It shows who they were, what they overcame to get here, and hints at what could lie ahead. Until I started watching this video with an analytical eye I didn’t perceive it to be especially deep. Of course the lyrics and the costumes and the choreography and the sets were all beautiful and clever, but I hadn’t pulled it all together into a narrative in my head. Now it makes me feel things! Like a lot of things!!!
I think this MV has also ended up being a bit of a love letter to Wumuti. Anyone who has spent any time following XLOV will be able to see how adored Muti is by the other members. I love that this video appears to honour how it was Muti who was able to recover from his setbacks, inspire and gather the other members together, then lead them out of the cage.
Observations I didn’t have room for elsewhere:
I think “I'm your wish” is actually a play on Wumuti’s name Umut, which means hope in Uyghur. “I’m your wish” is also a phrase Wumuti has used earlier in his career.
The “fox ears” dance move - I just thought this was a really cute detail. Haru referred to the section of the chorus where they make an ear-like gesture with their hands as the “fox move” and since his representative animal is a fox I thought it was so lovely! I wonder if they are all represented in some way in the choreography as well.
The partner dancing! Wumuti and Hyun have a really cool section of dancing where Hyun supports Wumuti while he spins/turns, then Wumuti literally lifts Hyun out of his dip. This could just be cool choreo but I like it as a little snippet of the members supporting one another and being stronger together.
Burning the school pictures. This is just a fun moment really, but all the members are shown on this sheet of photos. This symbolises them leaving behind the people they used to be, or maybe even destroying the performance/mask they had to display to fit into that world.
If you thought this was interesting or have your own perspective, please let me know by reblogging, sending a note, or flicking me a message! I would loveeeeeeee to talk lore with EVOLs.
I’m working on another long post about 1&Only too so keep an eye out for that!
Disclaimer: This is a cross-post from reddit - this is my work on both sites haha, I didn't nick it!
Imma Be MV Behind Part 1 and Part 2, Imma Be MV , Imma Be Lyrics (English translation) , Kpop Nara Q&A, Arirang interview 1, Arirang interview 2, XLOV Japan Vlog Part 2
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