I’m realizing that some newer atiny may not be aware of the “Be Free” girl and her posible real life basis.
So for Atiny not aware of the lore,
LoreHwa was inspired to be himself and chase after what makes him feel alive when he watched a girl, wearing a bracelet that had the words “be free” dance outside a gas station.
The gif above is one of the scenes from the inception mv (WHICH IS TOO LORE HEAVY FOR ME TO UNPACK). Basically, in seonghwa’s dream, he is the be free girl.
(@lovetobemars has a really interesting theory on this and i need to ask him to either make a post about it, or explain to me again so I can make a post about it)
THIS ALSO connects to the lyrics of Inception. In which the lyrics state:
“For the first time I am swallowed by the feeling that I became who I am”
(i personally believe that the song inception is less about romantic love and more about being in love with one’s possibility to be who they are but that’s just my personal interpretation-)
Anyways-
Ateez have previously stated how some parts of ateez lore are based off of personal experiences of theirs.
IRL, Seonghwa has opened up many times about his vulnerabilities in expressing himself the way that is most comfortable to him. His character’s quest to be free very much mirrors his own and I find it very beautiful how he is able to portray his journey in atz’s lore.
Next up for analysis is the oldest member of Ateez, our beautiful Seonghwa. Click here for the masterlist!
Before Fever
Seonghwa's life prior to the main story is somewhat unknown. What is known about Seonghwa's life is that he wasn't happy with whatever he was doing. The Fever Diary Film depicts him in some sort of office, possibly a job he feels stuck in. Regardless, the imagery in the film clearly implies to us that Seonghwa has been blindly following the path of life which has been laid out before him. The event which propels Seonghwa to break away from this path is his encounter with a young woman dancing outside of a drug store or a gas station or something of that extent (a friend of mine likes to call her 7-11 girl). Seonghwa doesn't speak to her but, after she leaves, finds a bracelet which she drops that reads "Be Free". He then vows to be free of his life, dance like her, and find her again. This will prove to be difficult as he does not know her name and she never comes to that spot again.
In the Diaries (Fever & Beyond)
More or less as soon as the story begins, Seonghwa wants out. After the Grimes siblings take the time to explain the history of World Z and the hard work of the Black Pirates' resistance, he says that none of that matters to him at the moment, the only thing that matters is that they retrieve the Cromer from the Android Guardians and get home. I think this is actually the most realistic response from Ateez to learning all this information. Why would any of the history of this place be their responsibility to fix? They got there seemingly by mistake and are young and inexperienced. Why would they believe themselves capable of doing anything about such a prominent issue?
Seonghwa's directness allows him to direct the group's mission towards finding Left Eye in the dump in order to get to the Android Guardian base. When they eventually do get to the Guardian base, Seonghwa is the first to notice and investigate Yeosang's disappearance, who turns out to be okay and gives them the Cromer which he found. Unfortunately, when they're celebrating, Yeosang is grabbed by the Guardians and they're forced to attempt to hand over the Cromer. This is, of course, when Yeosang smashes the Cromer and gets trapped in World Z.
Upon returning to World A for the first time, Seonghwa expresses determination to find and save Yeosang. After Hongjoong suggests his idea to find another Cromer in World A, some of the members push back, talking about the legality of his plan. Seonghwa expresses anger and frustration at this, saying this rigidity to rules reminds him of his old self.
"If it were me in the past, who had a rigid mindset and was scared to break the rules, I would have reacted the same way as the other members ... Maybe this made me even angrier. But now, I'm not the person who I used to be. Saving Yeosang is my top priority." -Fever Epilogue
When they get back to World Z, it is Seonghwa who is the first to enter the room where Yeosang is kept and he is the one to release him. From that point on, Yeosang and Seonghwa stick together frequently in the story. One of the key times when they are paired up is for their infiltration of Prestige Academy. Both of the work together to help the older brother who is struggling to hide his emotions in school and struggling to handle his emotions in general. Yeosang is the one who delivers the speech to help the brother realize that hard emotions are a healthy part of life, but it is Seonghwa who provides the kind smile which convinces the brother it is safe to follow them in the first place. He is described as being protective of the brother, walking behind him and ensuring the door is locked.
Unfortunately, Seonghwa's focus is broken when the leader of the organization at Prestige known as Thunder comes in the room. He's immediately struck by some sort of shocking realization and he struggles to contain his emotions, drawing her attention to him. Seonghwa even goes so far as to grab her wrist and demand why she is there. After this happens, Seonghwa seems a small shift in her face and believes that she is feeling emotions. He watches her carefully to try to catch it again, using the Be Free bracelet to calm himself down.
This girl is, of course, the same girl from World A and Seonghwa had recognized her immediately. He understands that she is not the exact same as the World A girl but is rather the World Z version of her but it is still hard for him to process that this girl in any world would be on the side of evil. This is pretty world shattering. After all this time, hunting for someone who inspired him to break free of the rules of life, he finally found her in a role of rigidity and enforcing of some of the most freedom dampening rules he could have possibly imagined.
"He didn't know whether to be happy or sad. However, just as she had changed his life and set him free that one day, Seonghwa was determined to save her from this world." - The World Ep. 2 Outlaw
As the story moves forward, Seonghwa continues to be observant of everyone around him. When the boy's brother is about to jump from the top floor window, Seonghwa quickly covers the boy's eyes to shield him from such a horrible pain. When the members execute their primary plan to save people at the Prestige Academy that same day, it is Seonghwa who first realizes the boy is getting taken away in the smoke by an Android Guardian and goes in after him. At that moment, however, he gets grabbed by the Thunder girl and is described as willingly following her before he disappears with the boy and the Thunder girl into the smoke.
Seonghwa's decision to follow the girl and investigate whatever is going on with her is scrutinized many times by the other members. First, when they return to the bunker without him, Yeosang in particular is incredibly frustrated with Seonghwa and saw him go in willingly, believing him to now be a traitor. However, Seonghwa returns shortly with a map and it is proven to have been a good choice to trust the girl as she helped them significantly.
The second time it is scrutinized however is a much tougher one. Their bunker is broken into during a crucial time and Guardians kill many resistance members. Wooyoung is quick to blame Seonghwa, assuming she is the leak. Seonghwa is devastated, wondering if he made a mistake. With the four members in the bunker being shocked by the break in, they're not prepared to properly fight back and they get beat up super bad. I can imagine this would be tough for Seonghwa to reckon with.
After all is said and done, the Thunder girl proves to be trustworthy and she ends up taking Seonghwa for a walk. She explains her whole life story and how she decided to try to help save the world. I feel like this conversation is really important for Seonghwa's development as it sort of serves as a way to reinvigorate his faith in people, she becomes an inspiration for him once again. The Thunder girl is pretty attached to Seonghwa as well and so when she fails to shoot Z when the chance is presented to her, she ends up doing so successfully only when Z clutches on to Seonghwa in an attempt to escape. It is her love and care for Seonghwa which provides the right amount of rage for her to carry it out.
Back in World A, Seonghwa is plagued with flashbacks to all the deaths he witnessed. Even though he can now confidently say he wasn't the one who caused the information to be leaked, those deaths still way heavy on him (reasonably so!!). He constantly harkens back to the Thunder girl's memory to decide what he should do and ends up deciding that what she would want him to do would be to try and save people in World A. Thus, he becomes a firefighter.
"Saving oneself is the first step in saving other people. Believe it or not, that's why I decided to become a firefighter. I thought that if I could just pull myself out of my own misery, I would be able to do anything." - Golden Hour Pt. 2
Seonghwa's arc, for now, has ended with him as a firefighter. The closest thing he's gotten to his original dreams was being a model for the firefighter's yearly calendar. At least he's saving people now though, he even saves Jongho from a fire once, the dancing girl always in the back of his mind.
Seonghwa's Primary Symbols:
-Be Free bracelet (ie Fever Diary Film, Halazia)
-Light (ie Wonderland, Halazia Epilogue, arguably the chandelier in Ice on My Teeth)
Seonghwa's Primary Character Traits:
-observant
-independent
-honest
-brave
Closing Thoughts
Seonghwa manages to be simultaneously one of the most selfless members while also managing to consistently break out from the group out of his own ideas without really caring what the other members want from him. I think it's this constant juggling of his desire to be free of all rules and instruction and his desire to care for his members (Yeosang in particular) that provides the complexity for his character. Regardless of anything else, Seonghwa had an ongoing search and he stuck to it, all the way to the end. I hope that his firefighting job won't cause him more trauma later down the line.
Please send in any questions and please look forward to the next deep dive tomorrow! I'll be releasing them at the same time each day for the next week :) I hope this was interesting!
