some thoughts on the jae lee and liu xiao section of the dreamout (moth to a flame) trailer, and the repeating images that are associated with liu xiao in past music videos.
someone (jae lee?) covering liu xiao's eyes in the beginning reminds me of how, in the pain pv, liu xiao was shown being blindfolded while covering a mannequin's eyes. the mannequin only wears a blindfold after liu xiao's blindfold is gone, and in the brief moments that liu xiao opens his eyes, he doesn't wear a blindfold. they are now establishing a pattern of liu xiao's eyes being covered, which I feel is a pretty big deal since it runs contrary to the image of a mastermind, which he is also being marketed as. a lot of people see masterminds as some kind of all-knowing person, but liu xiao is being depicted as someone who probably can't see everything. this tracks with canon like how he doesn't seem to know why lu guang's heartbeat was like that in the airport scene in yingdu.
also, for later, note how liu xiao where's white while the person (jae lee...?) wears black. in the background, there are a lot of white feathers, and liu xiao has a lot of feather accessories in his outfit. we see white feathers during the blindfold section of the pain pv as well. I also find it interesting that liu xiao seems to be praying here.
next scene. there's some interesting religious imagery here. jae lee is depicted with symbols of justice (scale, cross, sword, etc) while liu xiao wears a hood to cover his head and holds a goat skull. we've seen goat heads before in the manipulator mv. like liu xiao in the moth to a flame trailer, people with goat heads are shown in a prayer position. meanwhile, it's implied that the headless statue with feathered wings is liu xiao.
note also how a lot of statues have human heads in the mv, and liu xiao throws darts on the heads.
there are many ways to interpret this. I'll just offer one, though I could very well be wrong here.
as a disclaimer, I don't think that the mvs are necessarily connected within a functional continuity, but I do think they share deliberate symbolisms between each other. so if we put all this together, I think the headless statue in in the manipulator mv might have once had a goat head instead of a human head. or, someone else threw the dart that lopped the statue's head off. in any case, there's a cycle of actions being repeated
liu xiao puts blindfolds on mannequins; someone else covered his eyes once. perhaps he guides people with goat heads like they're puppets on strings, because he once wore the head of a goat as well.
actually, I think the goat imagery could be about scapegoats. according to the merriam-webster dictionary, a scapegoat is:
1. one that bears the blame for others
2. one that is the object of irrational hostility
the second one is interesting, since sonnet 121 was quoted in the pain pv ("unless this general evil they maintain / all men are bad and in their badness reign") and it's a sonnet about bad reputations vs being actually bad, and the hypocrisy of humans to judge someone when they are capable of being vile themselces.
and according to wikipedia:
A scapegoat is one of a pair of goats used in the Yom Kippur Temple service during the era of the Temple in Jerusalem. The scapegoat had a band of red wool placed on it, and was then released into the wilderness, taking with it all the sins and impurities of the people as an act of symbolic atonement. The other goat was sacrificed.
this isn't the first time liu xiao is depicted with symbols of sacrifice. though the below image is a fanart from inplick and not official art, we also know how deeply inplick is involved with character designs for link click and probably knows where the story is headed. note again how liu xiao wears white here.
again, this is just one interpretation of many though...
next, the title card. the song is moth to a flame so already we're getting themes of temptation here. also, given the eye color change, jae lee seems to be an ability user?
I really like the detail of him stepping on the feather and the dead bodies to avoid getting blood on himself. but the moment liu xiao touches his sword, the whole screen turns red. the blood drips from the edge of the sword ans is inescapable now. chastity being "corrupted" by lust/temptation.
there are some interesting outfit changes here in this moment for liu xiao. initially he is tied up, wearing white, with feathers on his shoulders, and wearing something like a crown of feathers, or maybe even a laurel wreath, which was worn by victors celebrating their roman triumph.
after he touches jae lee's sword, his clothes turn to black and, interestingly, he wears a crown of thorns. which is famously associate with jesus christ. the romans placed a crown of thorns on his head as a mockery. more importantly, jesus was also a well-known sacrificial figure who took in the people's sins as an act of symbolic atonement on their behalf. you know, like a scapegoat.
however, unlike jesus, I don't think liu xiao is depicted as some kind of altruistic martyr, but more like a seductive temptation. "can a blade stained with the blood of lust still retain its righteous edge?"
the color change is interesting to me as well. liu xiao always wears black in canon, so to see him in stark white colors is jarring.
a couple of last thoughts on liu xiao's relationships:
I wonder if perhaps we'll see more of sonnet 121 play out with jae lee and liu xiao. for example, maybe jae lee knew of liu xiao's reputation and was going to enact justice based on that, but somehow he sees past that reputation and is himself corrupted instead. in both map of dreams and pain, liu xiao is shown to be some kind of wish granter in fantasy AUs, so I wonder if the canon equivalent of that is jae lee getting something desirable (a "wish") from liu xiao (chastity giving in to lust)
we've seen the wish granting with liu xiao and vein in pain. unlike jae lee, who sidesteps the blood, vein probably embraces it -- all the violence and carnage his desires entail. in that sense, jae lee is an interesting foil for vein. I wonder if vein ever had to deal with liu xiao's reputation before understanding him. maybe he's one of the few who doesn't have to, or doesn't care enough to
on the other hand, li tianchen. I've touched on before about how liu xiao and li tianchen share similar themes (control, puppetry) and that the doll in pain mv that liu xiao transfers the blindfold to is probably li tianchen. but as I was writing this, I also thought, huh. a puppet is also a kind of scapegoat too, isn't it? the puppetmaster is invisible, so blame is assigned to the puppet. goats leading goats, the once blindfolded covering the mannequin's eyes. "those lost in the darkness are my friend" and all that jazz
