#sopro

[pirate-queen-aurora]

The Target on the Captain's Back

Okay, so this is something I know others have noticed too, but I've never seen anyone really connect the dots here, and after the Golden Hour 5 concept trailer, I feel the need to put it out there.

I think Sopro has had it out for Hongjoong since the beginning. Hear me out.

It starts in Ice on my Teeth, when it's heavily implied that the members are chess pieces, with Hongjoong as our King.

But if you watch Ice on my Teeth, other than the group dances and one shot of him surrounded by ballerinas, our Pirate King is completely isolated by himself in the mansion.

And there's one shot of the King with his head cut off.

The mirror is cracked and the crack runs right through Hongjoong's neck, cutting his head off. A fallen King, isolated alone.

This was the warning that danger was coming for our Captain. Something was going to capture our King.

Then we have Lemon Drop, which I know everyone also caught. Yunho (or at least I think it's Yunho) locks Hongjoong in a hot car during a heatwave. Isolating our Captain again.

He even wakes up and stares into the camera while lightning flashes like he's aware that something is wrong. And when he...teleports into the elevator he still looks haunted. He knows he's being manipulated.

And since Lemon Drop (imho) is the shared dream Sopro gave them after Wooyoung activated it then this is all Sopro's doing. Sopro went after the Captain the second it could.

Then there's In Your Fantasy, where Hongjoong, bathed in red light, rips off his Captain's armband, something Hongjoong would never do.

THIS IS A WARNING.

He's being manipulated, his power over ATEEZ being usurped by something stronger. He's not in control.

Sopro is.

Then we have Ash, where Hongjoong seems to be trapped on a Moebius strip. Once again isolated. Is this a timeloop? Was this inevitable?

Then in Adrenaline, everything falls apart again when Wooyoung and Sopro invade and take over the space pirates bunker. Hongjoong starts the video in control, the Black Pirates in perfect lockstep around him.

But by the end, after a Yunho vs the other members fight, they have fully succumbed to Sopro's power. The Captain is no longer in charge.

And that brings us to the Golden Hour Part 5 concept trailer.

Hongjoong seems to be the one fighting Sopro's influence the most. He seems, more than anyone, to know that Something is Wrong.

Which is why Sopro is once again drawing a target on our Captain's back.

[handlebarstiedtothestars]

Asdfghjkl there’s SO MUCH TO UNPACK HERE

Aside from the Mean Girls of it all (!?!)

“Someone’s married”

“Getting summoned to court”

“He’s in the back”

The lowercase “e” below a portal?? Next to Sopro

Bad, Boy, Ateez, A to Zee

11 (???)

“GOLDEN HOUR NEVER ENDS” (!!!!!!)

And the one that made me scream:

“A ❤️ ? <- Chase her”

Like the ? from the balloon? The third dimension???

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON

Edit - see the reblogs for updates on hidden messages!!

[theythedeceivers]

♱⃓ and i will give you a heart of flesh.

[ghostjes]

i need people going to ateez concerts or meet and greets or whatever, bring photocards of Sopro, tell them that's your bias, and film the chaos. atiny needs this

[wooyoungisbaby]

i was Inspired™ by this snippet of the Bad Book cover

[more ateez memes]

[littleevilsquirrel]

As a loretiny, i feel kinda sad for Sopro. Imagine being born, not understanding what are you, not understanding what you feel. Your mother bird (father, Wooyoung actually) hating and kicking you and the whole world hating on you.

[vinhderys]

the motherbird

[bunnakit]

Hello, I was wondering what your thoughts were on the In Your Fantasy MV and its connections to the lore? For me personally it felt quite metaphorical and maybe kind of thematically connected, but not really showing something specifically happening in the diaries (aside from a lil sopro cameo). I’d love to read what you think!

aaa thank you, it's been ages since i've gotten a lore ask and i've missed them 😭

obligatory these are just my thoughts and theories, i'm probably wrong, sometimes the curtains are just blue, etc. etc.

so i actually do think the in your fantasy mv is lore but like you said very metaphorical or metaphysical even? it's sneaky but there are some little hidden morsels in there.

we can see here in the diary that sopro, when feeling what i think would be better described as shame rather than embarrassment, retreats into some sort of pocket space only they seem to be able to access. they describe the masked faces laughing and the spotlights with the masked crowd chasing them.

now this is all if we want to assume this is an actual space sopro is inhabiting and not just purely a metaphor for writings sake, but i think most of it still works even if we wanna just go with a metaphor.

so here we have the masked people in the club. ateez are largely avoidant of the crowd, weaving around them, and moving against them instead of with them. they're also completely isolated from each other for the better half of the mv. (yeosang briefly lays in someones lap but they literally don't even move, almost like a mannequin)

it seems like in conjunction with the lore knowledge the music video could be alluding to letting go of shame and embracing your inner fantasies or dreams. this works a bit more when you consider where the A World group is at in their current journey - wondering if they've done the right thing, trying to find their dreams/fantasies again, etc.

we see a bright glow from sopro before the boys are grouped together again and i think this is a visual demonstration of what we've already seen in the lore, the separation during work and the slow return to each other. from there we get the 'break it down' moment where the masked people assemble to watch ateez under the spotlight. if we wanted to play in this sandbox we could say the 'break it down' could be a reference to breaking through shame, uncertainty, etc. and furthering the message of embracing themselves.

another interesting thing we have in IYF is visual confirmation of new knowledge given to us in the diary.

on the left is sopro from the the world ep will outro where they're nothing more than a slightly larger than normal dice but what we learn in the diary is that each time sopro enters someone they come out a little larger than before, which we can see in the picture on the right where sopro is now roughly the size of wooyoung's palm.

i'm way too tired to make a gif for it now but another interesting thing i noticed when rewatching was in this scene with wooyoung the color is actually sucked into sopro which could be a visual representation of what they're capable of, fun flair for the mv, or something we just don't know yet.

overall, these are my basic thoughts for the mv; it doesn't give us a lot but there are little treats here and there.

for some bonus stuff i only just realized - in the scene with sopro wooyoung's eyes are red.

unlike the other screenshots i didn't modify this one at all (the others are sharpened, selective color, etc.) and if you look closely wooyoung's eyes are red compared to the grayscale of the rest of him. i don't think this is accidental as why would you color grade everything just to miss his eyes? if it's meant to be a reflection i think it'd be much brighter given the base color of sopro and the light we can see them give off, as well as the lack of a red reflection on his leather jacket.

i don't really have any thoughts beyond that (tho i'll be adding it to my secret lore wooyoung theories stash) but i thought it was something interesting to point out.

edit: @sparklyeyedhimbo has informed me that all their eyes are red during the b&w sequence so nvm lmao maybe it's just to represent sopro's influence over all of them.

you can see some of my other first impression thoughts on the mv here!

but yeah pretty much this was what i took away from GH3