-TAKE YOUR TIME!! This is not meant to be read in one sitting. It is long but the slides go by quickly so don’t rush
-Read in the order I have written everything. It is arranged very intentionally for the best understanding and you WILL get confused if you read out of order I promise
-Click on albums in upper left to get back to the table of contents (these also represent what album I’m sourcing the info on the slide from so they DO serve a purpose I swear)
-Use Ctrl+Shift+F to make it full screen <3
-This was made for locals so if it feels like obvious information, it is for them.
-This was also made mainly for my best friend who likes SKZ and the FNAF DCA fandom so if there is seemingly unrelated stuff like that in there, it is for her. 🙂
-All sources are noted at the end of the slides, please go and support!!
Dedication/Special Thanks:
To @cacaocheri - Thank you so much for sending me your OC lore slideshows and inspiring me to make this. Without those incredible slides you made and your enthusiasm for hearing my retelling of the Ateez lore, I never would have even conceived of this idea.
To @stargardenmaiden - Thank you for being so encouraging throughout the process of making this! You were so supportive even when I felt like I wasn’t qualified and it means so much to me that you care about this even a little bit. I am also infinitely grateful for your help when I had internal conflicts about the intensity of this hyperfixation. I can’t wait to show you this final product in person.
To @atiny-for-life - Without your masterlist, I would never have gotten into the lore at all. You don’t know me but your blog is the reason I ended up downloading tumblr (because it stopped me from reading your whole lore post). Even beyond that point, your detailing of the lore served as a great jumping-off point for me to work with as I formed my own ideas and pieced everything together. It was VITAL for this slideshow.
To @hongjoongsgoat @halavibe @dontstaytiny - In my short time here on tumblr so far, I have been so grateful to my first true mutuals. You guys have been so kind to me and really welcomed me into the fandom with open arms. Thanks for being great friends here on tumblr!
To @wooyoungisbaby - Thanks for your enthusiasm about the project and thank you to everyone on your discord server for their encouragement and support as well! It means a lot to me!
I learned so much through this project and it has been really cool to dig into a community in this capacity so I hope you guys love it!
Theory on the chronological place of Treasure series
The age old question for Loretiny bc sadly Treasure series gives us very very little context. Everything I will say in this post is purely theory so take them for that.
Let's start with what we know: Fever is a prequel to Treasure, so Treasure must fall in thr gap between Fever and The World.
The main theme of this era revolves around piracy, a treasure to be found, a new world to take, and the Men in Black Fedoras. There is also a theme of overpowering desire, which i presented my views on here.
Now the interesting thing is, while the pirate theme is ATEEZ's main concept as a group and is explored heavily in this era, it doesn't really fit in with the general lore. What to make of it?
Well, at the end of Fever series, they had barely met the Men in Black Fedoras, who stayed in Guardians' Island, and took on their role as the leaders of the revolution with the Black Pirates organization. In The World Ep.Fin: Will we learn that the Men in Black Fedoras are still in prison. Now it really doesn't make sense that they never tried to bail them out of there given that they are crucial figures for this organization.
Here comes my theory: they did try and here is where piracy kicks in. Especially after seeing the resistance in my country I realized you don't leave your comrades in prison. Especially not the leaders. The Guardians' Island is on the sea and ATEEZ sail there from the mainland where Strictland is, as seen in Zero: Fever Part.2 diaries. However, no voyage is without trouble, Odyssey is the biggest example of that, and the group strays a bit from the main action of the revolution and thus is formed the sub-storyline that is the Treasure series.
"Pirate King" and "Treasure"
These two give us a soft introduction to the lore, and this is a bit meta since in real life chronology they are the first songs but in the lore they are basically an introduction in the middle of the story. We can think of these two as a worldbuilding paragraph in a book: the story is suspended and we get some explanations from the writer. They set up the motivation of our characters in this era, which is different from the motivation they had in Fever era. Now they have a certain place they aim to go through this journey and a treasure to obtain. "Treasure" specifically shows that the treasure is their destination place itself with the lyrics "To a place no one can find, my treasure".
I'd argue this place is the "new world", as I will also speak about in "Wonderland". Their treasure is the free world they will get at the end of their revolution, which they just became a part of. As a side note, in this era the "treasure" is spoken about in a very abstract way, as if they themselves don't know what it exactly is. On a deeper level of analysis, also using the individual stories of our characters, I could also say that the real treasure to them is a sense of accomplishment and psychological fulfillment. As if what the treasure is doesn't matter to them, it is just important that they obtain it. The theme of running after a sense of accomplishment/glory rather than the original goal/dream shows up in the Golden Hour diaries as well, so I think it is important to note.
Both MVs take place in a desert.
A lot of loretiny discuss whether it is a real setting in the lore or not, some even saying it shows that the era doesn't entirely relate to our main storyline. However, this is what Hongjoong said in his Lore Lecture videos about the desert's meaning in lore:
"Think about the desert. In the desert there are no roads, directions, or signs, are there? We are walking towards the direction where we want to go, aren't we? You can see the desert as the background that reflects ATEEZ's situation in that way."
Therefore, I don't believe the desert in the MVs are a real place in World Z and just support the storytelling.
"Wonderland" and "Horizon"
"Wonderland" tells the story of them first joining the Black Pirates. They will make a new world of their own out of this corrupted one. They know that the government lies and hides the truth behind closed doors and they will open them. The whole song is about the beginning of an end: they just started the rebellion that they hope will put an end to all this. And their first serious mission is to get the Men in Black Fedoras out of prison.
"Horizon" represents their voyage on the sea.
"Illusion" and "Wave"
As I previously mentioned, no voyage is without troubles, and ATEEZ run into theirs here. The absurd setting of "Illusion", the crescent (which gives the Cromer the ability to communicate in dreams), the overall sudden cheerful themes in the smack middle of ATEEZ's dark concept, and the constant order to "open your eyes" in this album points towards characters being asleep and all these being a dream. There are two different theories on who is asleep:
1) ATEEZ ran into trouble and are put to sleep by force and some is trying to wake them up to resume their journey by the Men in Black Fedoras.
This is my own theory. The reason why I said "by the Men in Black Fedoras" is that at the end of "Illusion" we see a Man in a Black Fedora lead ATEEZ out of a tunnel.
2) The Men in Black Fedoras are seeing hallucinations due to the yellow smoke in Guardians' Island and are being told to wake up. This is a theory I saw in Loretiny spaces and is supported by subliminal MiBF mementos that show up in "Illusion" MV.
"Answer"
We know at the end of the story they are still imprisoned. What happened at the end of the story?
The toasting in "Answer" suggests a planning and agreement happened. There are two ways this went:
1) ATEEZ got Halateez out of prison but keep it a secret even from the Black Pirates, and the government is lying to the public that they still have them so as not to seem incapable.
2) Halateez have a plan and they willingly made ATEEZ leave them in prison. We don't know what the plan is yet.
Either way, "Answer" must be the first time ATEEZ have a proper talk with Halateez, which brings us to this famous VCR.
"Are you evil?" ask ATEEZ. A revolution is not without violence. They don't even properly know who these men are, they found themselves in this fight just because they called. In ATEEZ's eyes it is perfectly natural to doubt their intent.
"Are you good?" Ask Halateez. No person is perfectly good, who are ATEEZ to ask if they are evil? On top of that, they joined the revolution now, they are not much different than Halateez at this point.
On the table, not only do they plan the revolution, they also have a talk about their identities.
And this ends the Treasure series. Now they must realize the revolution in The World.
You may have noticed I didn't mention "Say My Name" at all, which is because it actually belongs in Fever when ATEEZ rescue Yeosang. It is the only outlier in this series and the explanation is very meta: on their second comeback, with barely a bit more budget, ATEEZ had to clearly show they had a lore so they did a flash forward with "Say My Name", which shows a more concrete part of the lore rather than the abstract moodboard-esque MVs of "Treasure", "Wonderland", or "Wave" and piques interest.
How did you even come up with this??
Completely reasonable question since this is a very speculative theory. I noticed a pattern. Whenever we see a ship in ATEEZ'S performances, we also see Men in Black Fedoras on the side (or their symbols). The mask in "Illusion" MV, the Kingdom version of "Wonderland", this "Horizon" stage. Therefore, there must ve a relation between them and ships and the only time in canon we saw it was when ATEEZ sailed to the Guardians' Island and met them.
It’s Ateez comeback season and based on the mv alone, it’s gonna be another lore heavy one!!
As promised, I am actively making sure my lore slideshow and character deep dives are caught up to date (I got set back by school a bit but I got this I promise) so y’all can refresh before diving into the new content 🙂↕️
Typically after a release, I like to take some time to sit with the new content, so expect probably like end of February-start of March for the GH4 info to be added to the slides and text posts respectively 🙏
Thanks for the support as always guys!! I’m so excited about this comeback!!!!!
