seonghwa crossing a line and joining the women, not as their leader but by blending in as one of them..... how when he sheds his previous skin he now no longer blends in, but becomes his more authentic, messy, outstanding self..... oh my gender and self exploration and becoming
Like I could talk HOURS about the skin MV and it still wouldn't be enough like AHHHHHHHHH the GENDER ASPECT THE GENDER INTERPRETATION THAT IS CLEARLY THE MAIN ONE WE ALL HAVE (having another interpretation isn't wrong ofc)
Also yes if anyone wants me to yap about the detail I added here you are welcome to do so!
(First time drawing a human and not a stick figure and a snake so I think I did well lol)
And yes the sketch I did for this art piece was largely traced from a screenshot in the mv
Spoilers for Seonghwa's Skin MV under the cut so please GO WATCH IT FIRST and we can crash out together
Holy Seonghwa Mother of ATEEZ we have been BLESSED by our insane Demonic Joker Mother and I need to talk about it because I’m curious if anyone got the same things from it as I did!
Fair disclaimer: this is a very gender-questioning-focused view from my very non-binary mind and based off Seonghwa's own fashion choices and comments about enjoying genderless fashion, and the lore around him and 'the dancing girl'. Others may not see this or disagree with this, and that's cool! This is just my opinion and may not be THE meaning or interpretation intended behind it, it's just what my genderless ass sees!
Ok firstly they foreshadowed the demonic possession with those dark veins crawling up the back, we're going for horror once again here, noice, I want to vomit. Initial thoughts were this is either demon possession OR a disease/infection overtaking the body and track lines spreading (something something a conservative culture's view of gender differences.........anyway...)
Oh look now we're inside my endometriosis-ridden uterus lolll
Seriously though I realised I may have been onto something - are we in the womb here? And WHAT is that gory bloody little thing he ripped off himself? Is it some manifestation of assigned gender expectations?? (more on that later)
And now - Mother brings out the Girls! And we dance! I screamed because of all of y'all who were saying "what if he's a girl in this MV?" because you were onto something - he's dancing with the girls, and that seems to be important (more on that later)
We get a flash - literally blink and you miss it flash - of past Seonghwa with lighter hair here (silver/grey?). Again with the being haunted by the ghosts of their past theme that's been ongoing recently...
And then we dump the possibly-gender-bleeding-nugget into a container and...everyone picks up a surgical scalpel. Something something wanting to change your assigned gender but the only way is surgery??
We go back to the womb to see that Mother was plagued by demons from the start and - interestingly - we flip from Seonghwa having a breakdown to a girl having a breakdown. Are they both Hwa? Is she the female side of Hwa? Or the inner Hwa?? Or who Hwa wants to be?? Like is this an allegory for being trans or just for being non-binary/feeling elements of both genders?
And now the bit that made me YELL AT THE SCREEN and skip back to rewatch it.
Hwa comes to look at the girls. They are separated from him by a line of light. At first I got a pit in my stomach like wait is he here to judge them or pick one or something? But NO - the line is separating the girls from the "boy" - separating the genders. So HWA CROSSES THE LINE AND JOINS THE GIRLS - model-walking in a line with them (representation of him modelling womenswear?)
But he stops and turns back towards the camera, letting the girls walk on. Something isn't fitting right, and he needs to find the secret third option. Not boy, not girl, but himself, just Seonghwa.
And in comes this creepy ass demon thing, that Hwa reaches out to and morphs with... Something something embracing your inner demons and integrating them to become self-actualised?? Maybe it’s less demonic possession and more self possession, darkness and all? I have no other interpretation of this thing, but I love the spooky horrorness of it. No wonder this man is my wrecker if this is his style 👻
...elevating into his final form as beautiful terrifying snakeskin jacket wearing DemonicJokerHwa with smudged wild makeup and one red eye and one pale eye. He is embracing both sides? He is not boy or girl, he is snake, he is Seonghwa, light and darkness embraced and integrated and assimilated into a whole glorious being. He is breaking the mould and the Matrix, with these creepy red glitchy shots. Because if conservative people/society want to see him as a demon/freak/weirdo etc. then fuck it, sure, he's a demon and he's OWNING IT
Final curious tinfoil hat thought - we see a Seonghwa break apart like he's been Thanosed, just like we saw happen to him in the Ash MV.
What does it mean? I'm not sure? The old Seonghwa who was afraid and confined is dead, long live JokerSnakeHwa? Or Seonghwa is dead and this one has replaced him?? Again we're going down the demonic possession route we've theorised with Yunho. And him and Hwa were the only ones wearing white that time everyone else was in black....
I don't know. This is not at all a full analysis or even an accurate one!! It's just what I saw, and there's a lot that I don't know the meaning of. I'm curious if/how this may tie into the horror/spooky vibes we've been getting in heralding the February comeback, or whether this is just Hwa's own vision, in which case I love his Halloweeny spooky bitch self even more <3
As always feel free to add to this with your own thoughts and interpretations or anything I've missed!
If I had a nickle for everytime there was an imagery of crossing a white line metaphorically representing stepping out of gender norms or a visual representation of societal restrictions, performed by individuals with a gender-less worldview and androgynous style, I'd have two nickles, which isn't a lot but oh dear gods what a time to be alive.
Where are my evoltinys? I'm the not the only one who thinks that's what the rizz mv circle represents right? It literally says 'don't cross the line' in the shot with rui, and we all know xlov is all about redefining self-expression and gender.
Da ich letztens wieder voll ins fandom rein gerutscht bin gibt es paar doodles für euch die so entstanden sind haha (eigendlich sind die zwei letzten eher memes pff...und das erste shipart) ;p