A walk through my current tinfoil hat loretiny corkboard because my brain is overheating like a laptop
I want to put this all down somewhere so my brain cools down so I have everything out of the echo chamber of my head and in one place before the Japan comeback probably throws everything up in the air again 🫠
There's something about the Wizard of Oz, about travelling (back?) to another world/dimension, and the first time they go it's a dream (Inception?), and the second time they go back (Return to Oz/Deja Vu "I go insane") everyone thinks they're insane....... Something something dreams and madness and death and going back again... And there's something lately about playing games....
Links to the Wizard of Oz
Green and pink (Wicked/representations of Good and Bad)
It says "Oz" over green and pink in one of the Bad teasers ^^ Was "Oz" the "upside down" they were all teasing last comeback??
The tornado... Sopro turning into a vortex.... Portals........
(Wizard of Oz; Adrenaline MV teaser; GH5 diary entry)
Somewhere over the rainbow bluebirds fly - We know how prevalent the bluebird is in the lore - in the Halazia prologue, it picked up Sopro at the end of Crazy Form, Bluebird delivery in the Outlaw trailer...
Drowning/dying or trying to defeat/kill something with water
(GH5 diary; the Wizard of Oz; Slide to Me MV)
Madness/Insanity and Dreams
Ok look I've nearly gone insane trying to compile EVERY mention of insanity/going mad/losing my mind/riding on the edge and every mention of dreams and dreaming and dreams within dreams and reality not being reality. THERE'S A LOT OF IT and I had to throw in the towel (for now) for my own sanity. I invite you to go peruse the lyrics and translations of the lyrics yourselves and draw your own conclusions. Needless to say, madness and dreams and waking up are prevalent themes in ATEEZ's lyrics. There's also a LOT of mention of "red sun" (something something Halazia, black hole sun, an eclipse...), toxic love, and yearning, particularly in both Deja Vu and Man on Fire, which I'm seeing in a very different light post-GH5. (Also Skin... "Kill me with that look, babe//She's got a way that makes it look bad" 👀)
I will just point out these couple of things that stood out from the latest comeback outside of the lyrics:
Madness - The use of a version of La Folia (literally means madness/insanity) as the music for the Bad MV trailer
Dreams - In the Bad MV - Doce encanto (sweet dream/enchantment) is written on a building in the background (which was CGI'd in!! So it's on purpose!!) I'm sure they're trapped in a Wandavision-esque illusion or dream world by Sopro. It's too uncanny/old musical/Truman Show feeling, too many pop culture references and past Ateez references, as if the world is built from their memories to try and keep them content and compliant.
One I haven't solved yet: In Bad's Music Core stage - On the set behind them it says Fuego but the F was crossed out with a black X, leaving 'uego'.
When I first typed this into translate it said it meant "game", but then it seemed to be doing a "did you mean" moment and translating "juego" instead. So whether this means anything or not I'm unsure, but it's interesting... Fuego with a crossed out F.... Putting out a fire? (a man on fire perhaps....) Open to theories or anyone with more knowledge! Apparently it also says "Euphoria" on the other side of the set.
Speaking of games...
Playing Games
San's original Bad choreo including a throwing dice move....
"You are not being tested" under the portrait of Sopro...
...to me it's giving "this is all just fun and games, not a test, nobody's scoring, relax". Is Sopro (or something/one else) toying with them???
And dominoes and dice and a black Rubik's cube in the GH4 concept photos....
And finally a few tired notes on:
References to going back
GH3 Bridge: The Edge of Reality "I throw it back"
Hongjoong walking on what may be a Mobius strip in Ash
The ATEEZ logo apparently being the instructions to make a Mobius strip?!?
Also there's something about that Halateez vs Ateez being two sides on the same strip and the theory floating around that Halateez are Ateez in the future.... And the fact we got Halateez singing Say My Name at the Seoul Music Awards for no apparent reason.... I'm still very curious about their current line up being an exact mirror image/reversed order of their debut order... Mirrors being yet another prevalent theme in their lore and MVs and imagery... Back through the Looking Glass.... Alice in Wonderland vibes in Birthday and a song straight up called Wonderland...
Hongjoong talking in a recent interview about going back to other eras....
And call backs to Deja Vu..... literally we've been here before/seen this before, see my Return to Oz thoughts at the beginning (ha ha back to the beginning ♾️)
