#skelateez

[skelejor]

obviously the sound being fucked up is awful and i know EVERYONE is pissed. including me.

BUT

DID YOU HEAR MINGI AFTER HE REALIZED? THE POWER AND STABILITY IN HIS VOICE THE WAY HE WAS MOVING OH MY GOD

both of captain's "TURN THAT THING UP" felt so LOADED

everyone having to project so hard that they could be heard anyway in the encore AND IT WORKED

im upset on their behalf, this was absolute bullshit

but i am AWED by ateez themselves right now. our boys are INCREDIBLE

[skelejor]

ateez blog recommendations

because i give new tinyblrs reccs all the goddamn time, i need to just have shit in one place for the sake of my sanity

@ateezhub for news and see their pinned post for their platform specific update blogs

@thirstkanaphan for overall news and meta

@makesoneteam for meta and shipping

@storkmuffin for meta about ateez and other kpop groups from a korean perspective

@lute-illson does fun lighting based meta

@atiny-for-life for lore and fromm messages translated into english

@elviesarchives is exclusively gifs made by @elvenpathed

of course there's the daily photos of x member blogs, elvenpathed runs @dailydoseyunho, @dailydoseyeosang, @dailydosewooyoung, and @dailydosejongho while @hongjoongdaily, @sandaily, and @hwadaily are all run by other lovely people

@atzfromm is the untranslated archive of all the members' fromm messages

for unhinged mutual screaming theres @tangerines134340, @pirate-queen-aurora, @iovepinkgi, @moonlightpirate, @atiny-queth, @noctilucentminki among many, many others

@n1k9l1n4 and @octeeztic for STUNNING and creative visual art

i personally do visual art, meta, and fanfic but not as frequently as the others, im mostly a reblogger (my art tag is skeleton sketches and my ramblings are now tagged skelateez specifically because i made this whole damn list in the first place might as well make my OWN shit easy to find)

theres so many fic authors oh my god. these first few are my personal favorites

@cherrykpawp, @handlebarstiedtothestars, @kpopdiva89, @joongnoodle, @last-words-ofashootingstar, @yuyueater, @yungistiny

these are from literally just searching 'x reader' on my own blog to find fics i know i liked:

@matchamatz, @kisssan, @mingi-buffering-24-7, @sweatyracoon, @lilacmingi, @twinkieminkie, @noonatiny, @serendipithui, @honeyhotteoks, @lcvejjoong, @mingiatz, @witchleo21, @bro-atz, @dulceazucarmorena97

and i'm stopping here for now because oh my god theres so many its too fuckin' much. so have @ateezfanficawards which has so many reccs of the best of this fandom and the psychomingki archive because she was my FAVORITE author, as in got me finally reading fanfic favorite, but she got deleted and this is what i could salvage of her work

yes i know i forgot about a million and one people, that's why this post is subject to updates. if you want your blog and its niche listed or someone else's just comment it and it'll be added! any blogs recced to me that i can't vouch for will have an * next to it just in case

enjoy the feast of tinyblr! kay love you bye!

[skelejor]

mingi wants you to vibe with him

@minuscle-tea made this post about dinero which i agree with wholeheartedly. love it. required reading for this unhinged ramble.

most of this is just copy and pasted from messages i exchanged with @handlebarstiedtothestars but i think i'm gods gift to atiny (joke) so i'm posting them

so my initial reaction was very simple

"no thoughts just love for mingi no analysis just banger i love him"

because my brain didn't really light up the way it has for other things, i didn't go into analysis mode, i just went 'this is fun, i like it'.

which is NOT a complaint at all

and then i saw tea's post

and i started thinking about what he said on his last live, that he didn't learn the spanish he put in the song, he just put in words that sounded good to him. (i'm working off of translations so don't eat me if that's not what he actually said)

now, this is the same man who made the outfits and art and damn near everything on his roar set. who does silly ass shit when recording to make sure he has every sound down perfectly. who says that every layer of a mix is important and has purpose. he is meticulous when he wants to be. so i don't think this was out of laziness AT. ALL.

i said to handle, "this whole song isn't JUST a vibe but it is literally vibes based. its a collage of shit that sounds good, its just fun!"

they replied with, "That feels like such a [neurodivergent] process, 'This word feels fun to say' *says it 50 times as a vocal stim*"

THAT'S LITERALLY THE POINT I'M TRYING TO MAKE! he really just wrote a bunch of shit that was FUN TO SAY

freaky friday party, ten toes down, turn down for what, the literal word dinero said multiple times back to back despite him NOT LEARNING THE MEANING OF THE WORD? the whole song is a vocal stim!

why is it a vocal stim song? why would he write something like this? well tea already told us: he's been "attending edm shows where the crowd enjoys itself instead of only being focused on the artist and him enjoying that vibe."

he wrote something that's fun to say for him, fun to just have as a backdrop to your own experience as an audience member (his line in choose comes to mind, 'ill be your backdrop'). the goals here aren't to express HIMSELF like with youth and autobhan, its to get others to express THEMSELVES with his music as a canvas! bro said 'its time for VIBES' and i love him for it!

even the breathing feels tied to the edm inspiration and the whole point i've laid out here;

the breathing is about how the audience would feel mid edm show/rave but its also a break for them to do exactly that, breathe but also its anticipation that echos beat drop build ups but also its just an interesting choice but also its giving HIMSELF a break when performing incorporated into the song

im pretty much done so have some shit i loved that i couldn't tie into this cleanly

THE NECKLACE ZOOM SHOT. WHAT DOES THAT FUCKIN' TAG SAY, MINGI? TELL MEEEEEEEE THE SMILE ZOOM IN SHOT? THE STILL SHOT OF HIM AND THE DANCERS? THE SMEARING OF THE BODIES AS THE CAMERA JUST PANS OVER IT? such a cool choice THE BLACK PERSON TOWARDS THE END? WHO WAS THAT? THEY WERE SO PRETTY! THE SIDEWAYS CREDITS! hes so creative even in the small and simple ways and i love him for it

in conclusion:

MINGI MINGI MINGI MINGI MINGI MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINGIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

tag list: @elvenpathed - @n1k9l1n4 - @handlebarstiedtothestars - @moonlightpirate - @iovemingi

[skelejor]

transparent jongho at varying sizes for my your convenience

sizes are 1200x1200 bottom centered, 1920x1080 bottom side, 1920x1580 bottom side and centered

[skelejor]

NO1 Music Video

tldr: i love this man, this video, and im fucking INSANE about them both

just to get yalls attention heres my new favorite picture of all time

on to my unhinged rambling!

this entire train of though is thanks to @handlebarstiedtothestars who brought me 2 dots to connect that i turned into this whole mess. blame them for all of this

-

we're starting here: this song is him bragging, so it makes sense that the music video is an extension of that. when i first watched it, no pausing, no interruptions, i didnt quite Get It. i loved it but i was confused. why is this, as i said to handlebar, 'traffic themed'? why were there so many interruptions to the visuals? why is he bordering, and at one point literally using, meme formats? i dont understand what the point of these are? theyre fun! theyre interesting! but WHAT ARE THEY DOING HERE???????

this is where handlebar gave me the KEYS TO THE KINGDOM for this video. they said "I remember someone said it was interesting in IOMT they were scaring/traumatizing the old white dude and it was like allegory for we aren’t beneath the West, fuck you, we own this place now" i didnt see how that was relevant but it was interesting. AND THEN THEY SAID, "And something about the pissed off white dude in the traffic like why the fuck are these twinks stopping the traffic reminded me of that"

AND NOW EVERYTHING MAKES SENSE. IT MAKES PERFECT SENSE. HOLY SHIT I CANT BELIEVE I DIDNT GET IT.

theyre disrupting traffic? THEYRE DISRUPTING THE WESTERN MUSIC INDUSTRY.

all the shots are blurry or distorted everywhere but his face? HES FORCING YOU TO FOCUS ON HIM AND ONLY HIM. hes so talented that you literally cant look away!

the text interrupts and intrudes? THATS HIM. YOU CANT IGNORE HIM. HES LOUD AND BOLD AND YOU CAN NOT IGNORE HIS PRESENCE

this video is INCREDIBLY literal and I ADORE IT.

-

now, onto talking about specific moments that i have comments for

these moments, along with the black circle framed shots from earlier speak to two things to me;

first - hongjoongs INSISTENCE that we focus on him exclusively. thats the most hongjoong thing i can think of, honestly.

second - all these shots are disorientating. you do NOT feel grounded as a viewer. which represents his impact on the music industry. he is moving and shaking and CHANGING things. the world is NOT the same when hongjoong is on screen. theres something different and is DIRECTLY because of him

next, i dont REALLY need to elaborate on these, they just further prove the point that HONGJOONG IS THE FOCUS. there is NO ambiguity here. he is saying it in as many ways as humanly possible. he shows boxes that indicate the camera is attempting to focus. HE INTERRUPTS HIMSELF WITH HIMSELF. if you even THINK about looking away, because you know what this scene looks like? because you know what part of the song sounds like? NOPE. he changes things. several people have pointed out that this is a remix of the song. its different from the one on the album. HONGJOONG CHANGES AND ADAPTS TO BRING YOU BACK IN. you get no rest, no escape. god this is starting to sound like a hostage situation. what am i, a hoettoek?

now we're on to what i call the meme formats! this speaks to hongjoongs cultural relevance. he is growing in popularity and people in wider kpop circles and even outside of them are starting to notice him! ateez was the first kpop boy group to perform at cochella! hes won awards with ateez and ALSO FOR HIMSELF. he is a cultural moment with lasting impact. he will NOT soon be forgotten.

SPEAKING OF LASTING IMPACT: i can NOT get this fade to black out of my head. i want to note a few things here;

first - the text starts to fade WITH the scene. they dont separate, BUT the no1 quickly becomes the only legible thing on the screen

second - building on that, the thing that i cant escape is the last frame of the no1 before it goes full black. it lingers, it dominates, it again speaks to hongjoongs impact. he will linger. in culture, in your thoughts, in your playlists <3 god he sounds like a ghost now! i stg im so bad at expressing my thoughts. i hope some of you are getting what im trying to say here. i just feel like im repeating myself a bunch😭

these two moments say the same thing to me 'i know youre watching me' and he LOVES that we are;

first - he starts by stretching, not looking at the camera, but ENDS it by opening one eye and looking directly at the camera. 'it may seem like im not doing anything, but i am' everything hes does has purpose. even if it doesnt SEEM like it. i know he LOVES that we cant take our eyes off him even when he seems to be doing something not for the audience. loretinys know this better than anybody

second - building on that is the other scene where he LITERALLY HOOKS US. WITH HIS FINGERS. me being horny about THAT aside this speaks to both the fact that his GOAL is to hook us AND the fact that we are, in fact, hooked! his honsamis are hooked. ateez fans are hooked because without hongjoong THERE IS NO ATEEZ which can also be said about other members cause this is a team after all but im here for joongie right now so dont eat me for this. and hes been sinking his hooks into others! either you ARE hooked or you WILL be. he will make sure of it

this is the one thing in the video i didnt understand. even with my dots now connected im grasping at straws here. anybody wanna take a crack at this scene for me? the best i got is that is either;

a - its showing that hongjoong is breaking into new territory. places not made for him.

b - hes above us. better than us. which he is but that feels wrong. im missing something here and i dont know what

another thing id like to bring up before the end here is that there are things i see, things i know have relevance and meaning, but my brain is NOT giving me the words to talk about it. so have the rest of my screenshots before i spit out what words ARE available to me;

god his smile is so knockout

WHY IS THIS HOW HE OPENED THE VIDEO I STG HONGJOONG

okay on to my stray thoughts

first -already brought up earlier but i think the choice to use white people in the vehicles at the start is extremely pointed. he is disrupting an industry he is not made for and, from a systemic perspective, not welcome in!

second -the fonts and colors feel extremely intentional. obviously it ties into the traffic theme but like. why traffic at all? arent there are other metaphors he could use for all this? obviously the text and the formatting of it read as very traffic sign overall, the colors too using hi vis orange. the men at work signs. the traffic lights. i just. ive typed out all this and i just. i can FEEL this fucking bit gnawing on my brain stem. i just cant elaborate on it.

third - the style choices are also gnawing at me. obviously he looks stunning but like. the vest and white shirt remind me of tradesmen. the shorts when standing on the car remind me of school uniforms. the DYED EYEBROWS. theres cultural commentary here i dont feel comfortable making because i think itll come out wrong but I SEE IT. I SWEAR TO GOD.

fourth - the graffiti is doing the same thing the style is doing to my brain. theres cultural commentary there that im just. not capable of articulating. something something the disrespect of graffiti as an art. hongjoong is a rapper and dj and the ties to graffiti and who participates in these art forms.

okay! on to the finale of this nonsense post!

this ending scene feels like the summary of his thesis and by extension, mine. he is disrupting how things are with his presence and his art. you only get to look away when HE LETS YOU. his dancers leave by going about their day, they leave the street but HONGJOONG DOESNT. he leaves the SCENE but not the STREET. the street is the stage literally and metaphorically. he remains, he lingers, and he WILL be back to either disrupt YOUR traffic or someones else's. he doesn't stay in the same place, he doesnt repeat performances, but he will always be center stage.

IN CONCLUSION:

HONGJOONG MY BELOVED

[skelejor]

someone please scream at me about how hot jongho is. please. i keep screaming. i need to be screamed at. or just give me some jongho filth.

give me something. ANYTHING. please. hes been KILLING me lately, im going INSANE

[skelejor]

jongho jongho jongho jongho jongho jongho jongho jongho jongho jongho jongho jongho jongho jongho jongho jongho jongho jongho

[skelejor]

minsang, jongi, and why i love them

my two favorite dynamics in ateez belong to mingi:

mingi and yeosang - the princess takes care of the dog

mingi and jongho - the bear takes care of the princess

neither of these dynamics are as simple as they seem though.

before i elaborate know that this is about both shipping AND the actual friendships that we get to peer into while engaging with ateez content as fans. also, mandatory disclaimer: i'm still less than a year old atiny, an ateez exclusive fan who hasn't watched everything, and i'm probably wrong about everything all the time forever.

also, there a few clips im struggling to find because youtube's search is fuckin' useless so if you see moments that seem like they SHOULD be linked but aren't or that are linked incorrectly, please forgive me. i'll try to get them later. now, lets go!

minsang - my second favorite

minsang is very 'two flavors of neurodivergent that overlap but dont match" vibe. even in princess mode mingi seems to take care of yeosang in a very specific way: less pressure to be affectionate and similar styles of thinking that play well together without being perfectly matched. this can be seen in how mingi seemingly gives yeosang autonomy that the other's don't (see the marshmellow incident) and he isn't as blinded by finding yeosang cute nearly as often as the other members (see wanteez episode 27). he trusts yeosang to be his own person even when he shouldn't. which not only allows us as fans to see sides of yeosang he doesn't usually get to display, but it allows yeosang the dignity of making bad decisions. this feels like a big deal to me. idols, especially yeosang, have so many demands put on them by the nature of their career. getting to fuck up is a luxury once you become an idol. this is also an important concept to disabled adults of various stripes (not that yeosang is, to my knowledge, but its important to ME so it's getting brought up).

when a person is disabled in some way, people often treat them as fragile and unable to make choices for themselves. 'this is for your own good' even if it makes them miserable. it feels like a scold, a punishment for the 'crime' of being ill or neurodivergent, rather than actual care. i personally have about 5 prescriptions assigned to me and i take two at most. i drink alcohol. i'm awake at night and sleep through my days.

i'm also married to a person whose opinion i love and respect. he could force me to take better care of myself. he could make sure i eat healthier and never drink and always go to bed on time. but he doesn't because he respects my autonomy. he brings his concerns to my attention and we discuss what i'm willing to change in response. he trusts me to respect his opinion on my choices and i trust him to not force me to only make The Correct Choices™ all the time forever.

why is this relevant to minsang? well, if you haven't noticed, ateez loves yeosang. they love him so much that, while i don't think they disrespect his autonomy and personhood, the way they treat him reminds me a LOT of people who override ill people's autonomy 'for their own good' and it makes me uncomfortable at times. while jongho is one of the few members i don't see doing this often or at all, even he feels protective of yeosang in a way that COULD get overbearing for them both if not kept in check. ending up with jongho feeling like he MUST be protective over yeosang with no room for flexibility in that role and yeosang feeling watched under jongho's care rather than standing on equal footing in the dynamic. while it's clear that's not the case it wouldn't take much for that kind of dynamic to develop from the relationship they already have which means i find their dynamic somewhat uncomfortable and mildly uninteresting.

i've never felt this way when watching mingi and yeosang interact. mingi is a very free person with a lot of, what seems like, contradictions. while he is a very blunt person who needs things explained to him more than others, he is also very receptive to non verbal cues (such as when only some of the members of ateez fulfilled his wish to be sung to). mingi can take no for an answer and more than that, he doesn't need that no to be verbal or obvious. he knows his members, he knows what 'no' sounds AND looks like and doesn't take it personally.

but that sounds wrong, doesn't it? our princess get confused easily! he pouts and whines and throws tantrums, right? mingi asks to be celebrated when he succeeds, looks for reassurance when his jokes don't land, gives seonghwa puppy dog eyes for answers. but that only happens when it isn't important. when ateez is playing games, when he wants food, when he wants attention from fans. but when its important? that no, spoken or not, is accepted. sometimes it isn't but even then that is only when the situation or established dynamic allows for it.

mingi's 'free use' status in both body and personality makes him putty that all of ateez members can form to fit themselves.

this affects his relationship with yeosang, of course. yeosang seems to be more outspoken around mingi. yeosang gets to be strong on mingi's behalf (see yeosang handling mingi's tantrum) or gets to direct his strength and wit at him (see him taking jabs at mingi's expense). he gets to be the doberman he insists he is; protective, aggressive, and strong. but mingi also allows him to be vulnerable and soft without invalidating that doberness. he doesn't treat yeosang like a maltese cosplaying a doberman. to mingi, yeosang is a doberman! but i think people tend to forget that dobermen are pets too. they're just as loving and loyal and soft as any other breed. and every dog, regardless of breed, has their own personality and quirks.

yeosang is a well trained and loving doberman, but a doberman nonetheless.

mingi makes yeosang feel seen as a doberman, not just heard.

jongi - my favorite, my beloved

jongho is strong. he loves being strong and mingi loves being taken care of, it's a perfect match! but obviously there's more than that simplistic overview, they wouldn't be so compelling if it were that easy to sum up their dynamic.

mingi, on his own, seems to invite play by just existing, which is why he has the 'free use' reputation at all, right? and jongho, of course, seems to have a very easy time engaging with mingi in a variety of ways due to that. again, mingi is putty but jongho is so much more varied than a lot of casual or uninterested-in-jongho fans realize. it even took me a while to notice just how expressive and interesting jongho is.

interacting with jongho is entirely based on the situation and his mood. the trick though, is that his mood is never fixed. many people take note of how yeosang will laugh and then school himself immediately afterwards but i rarely see anyone notice that jongho does the exact same thing. he literally did it in his newest interview. it's not as obvious or rigid as yeosang's habit but it's there and he does it often. he has incredible control over himself, he's the 'mature mankae' for a reason.

that reputaion though, is exactly why i feel like nobody has the ability to bring out ALL sides of jongho the way mingi does. it often feels like jongho is picking and choosing when to be the baby of the group and the mature mankae hes expected to be and mingi never forces him to be something he isn't. mingi doesn't hold people to the version of themselves they used to be, he just lets you be who you are in that moment.

jongho has said in the past he feels the desire to protect yeosang (see ateez+ episode one) and while i think mingi does invoke that desire in him, he doesn't feel like he has to protect mingi. its optional, only when he wants to, when he has the energy or care to. there is so much flexibility to their dynamic because mingi is easy to mold around jongho's complex personality shape.

jongi is everything to me because they can be anything together

the younger brothers who get away with everything

protector and protected (those roles are not exclusive to either of them despite their usual preferences)

silent judges who might not say it but you can see in their face they don't like something (see an interview with mingi's obvious, unspoken distaste and jongho's death glare during wanteez episode 43)

they both flirt and fluster fans with ease

they both also get flustered just as easily (see the panties incident and yunho's turn to hug mingi)

not to mention call out KINGS (see 'choi san are you watching?' and 'yeosang is your bias' (these both being directed at san is a coincidence and not at all a commentary on sansang i swear))

mingi can and DOES go out of his way to take care of his members when needed, but i think he just allows all of them a freedom they can't grant themselves by being mingi, pure and simple. mingi invites, rather than demands, and you can accept or reject those invitations however you want.

in conclusion,

mingi doesnt need yeosang to be verbal. jongho doesnt need mingi to be verbal.

that is really the best, boiled down version of what makes these relationships interesting to me. mingi brings out the unseen and under appreicated parts of both yeosang and jongho just by being there.

the princess takes care of the dog, the bear takes care of princess.

shoutout to @bark-for-parkseonghwa for prompting this discussion and encouraging me to post my thoughts.