I am once again relistening to tma & screaming about the Web Lighter™️
MAG 14, “Piecemeal”:
“Five years ago, just before we’d been picked up by the police I’d borrowed his lighter. It was a battered old Zippo...After he turned on me in questioning, I didn’t feel much like returning it to the treacherous backstabber, so I held on to it. I hadn’t thought much of it, but here it was, still in the pocket of my jacket, all those years later. I handed it to Angela, and she gave me that look again, and told me that it would work just fine.”
Something which usually goes unnoticed? Which, when the time comes for it to be used, “works just fine” and in the process upends the life of the person who possessed it? Sound familiar? (Jon’s lighter is even described as “an old Zippo” when Tim first asks him about it in “Taken Ill”!)
light&time&space
a six monarchs playlist [ listen ]
foreword and lyric snippets beneath the cut
i wanted this playlist to be a narrative of sorts for the six monarchs storyline/oneus universe as we understand it (and as i liberally interpret it). the title comes from keonhee’s explanation on the official request video that the first trilogy of mini-albums covered the concepts of light, time, and space respectively.
a good majority of this narrative takes place within the dreamworld/sun prison of “to be or not to be” (for which i’ve assigned a particular song for each member - look for the tracks with a “+” designation and it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out whose song is whose.
i wanted to post this before “black mirror” because it has the potential to joss things out of my interpretation. please enjoy!
(as with most of my monarchs lore exercises, this owes some gratitude to @highponyleedo for suggesting a couple of the songs in the tracklist)
TRACK LIST + LYRIC SNIPPETS
HALCYON
lights ; ellie goulding
you show the lights that stop me turn to stone, you shine me when i’m alone
ARRIVAL
under the sun ; diiv
yes i’ll catch up to you, then i’ll ask “what have we done?” under the sun
AUGURY
prologue + twilight ; electric light orchestra
twilight, i’ll give you time to steal my mind away from me
SACRIFICE
given to fly ; pearl jam
and he still gives his love, he just gives it away
the love he receives is the love that is saved
COLLAPSE
helios ; space team electra
no apologies for burning; fire is its own reason
SLEEP
the wretched ; nine inch nails
the clouds will part, and the sky cracks open, and god himself will reach his fucking arm through just to hold you down
DEFIANCE
rise ; katy perry
they’re whispering, “you’re out of time” but still i rise
POWER+THIRST
help i’m alive ; metric
if we’re still alive, my regrets are few
if my life is mine, what shouldn’t i do?
BLOOD+ROSES
little dark age ; mgmt
forgiving who you are for what you stand to gain
just know that if you hide, it doesn’t go away
VISION+ISOLATION
miss it so much ; royksopp
my mechanical heart, how it tears me apart
PROTECT+HOWL
friction ; imagine dragons
why can’t you let go? like a bird in the snow, this is no place to build your home
FLIGHT+FIGHT
destroyer ; phantogram
i tried to save so many lives
i guess my heart got carried away
i guess the dark turned on the light
SUN+SON
big god ; florence + the machine
well, you can never know the places that i go
VENGEANCE
wolf like me ; tv on the radio
got a curse i cannot lift, shines when the sunset shifts
when the moon is round and full
KINGDOM
animal life ; shearwater
i held your name inside my mouth through all the days out wandering
but called up from the mouth of oblivion, cast away like dogs from the shelter
REIGN
brighter than the sun ; brick+mortar
have you ever had a daydream leak into your day?
have you ever had a nightmare bigger than everybody?
RUN
warrant ; foster the people
got to get away, yeah the warrant’s on my head
got to get away, they want me alive or dead
We first heard of Manuela Dominguez as part of the crew of the Daedalus.
And her last appearance ends with her getting trapped in a maze of endless corridors, with no hope of finding a way out - one might even call it....a labyrinth...
Gerry’s “thank you” after Jon tears his page out of the skin book is so soft...
Like, here’s this edgy goth ghost who has EVERY RIGHT to be defensive and angry for what he was put through both during life and after death. Here’s someone whose very existence hurts, who is trapped in one of the books he spent his life trying to destroy, and he is so overwhelmed by the possibility that someone might actually set him free from said book that all of his defenses just fall.
And it’s incredibly tragic, yes. Almost the entirety of Gerry’s life/existence as a ghost is tragic, because he does so much good in the world he is forced into only to be rewarded by manipulation and betrayal at every turn.
But at the same time...how beautiful is it that Gerry’s last conversation is with someone he can actually trust - someone who reignites his hopes of being able to move on? Someone he genuinely connects with, someone who believes him when he tells his life story, someone who listens and empathizes, and asks him if he’s okay.
I just have a lot of feelings about Gerry, okay?💔🖤
A Unifying Theory of Loreography (Lore + Choreography)
(2/3/21) HELLO to all new folks finding this post! It is also now a YouTube Video, and I’m pretty happy with it so if you’d rather get your lore analysis visually please check it out!
Preface: I don’t think it’s just coincidence that we got full choreography for an intro called “Devil is in the detail”, and I’ve made it my mission since 반박불가 dropped to pull apart the threads that might link everything, lore-wise. This morning I believe I had an epiphany about it, so here are my thoughts.
If this flops I will feel my soul exiting my body so please validate me.
Notes: In forming this theory I mostly considered the events of the storyline MVs and teasers as well as the choreography, but a very important part of my epiphanies came when considering the post-MV stingers for TBONTB and 반박불가. It’s using these stingers that I feel like I can better understand the thesis statements in the choreo.
Part One: Now then, where were we?
At the end of TBONTB, the monarchs are approaching monumental, pitch-black gates made of skulls and desperate, reaching hands.
I can’t not interpret this as the gates of Tartarus, considering the Greek mythology in the canon lore already. Tartarus, however, is at the lowest depths of the underworld, and so my interpretation is that, while they reclaimed their souls from the necklace, they awoke physically in a realm beyond the underworld, and now have to make their way out of this psychological nightmare to breathe free the air, as it were. Through Tartarus, through Hell, this is not because I played 80 hours of Hades in the last three months but it might have a little to do with that. Stay with me. (Though if anyone is wondering, YES Leedo would be Zagreus, but that’s not why we’re here today)
Part Two: Devil is in the Detail
What an opening formation. The imagery is not 100% clear to me, but I feel as if this entire opening formation sequence is dual-wielding imagery of a crown (much like the killing part of TBONTB), but also the gates of Tartarus.
Look at this transition once Hwanwoong ascends to the top of the formation, and how the hands all come out, similar to the gates above. I’ll be damned if this is supposed to invoke anything else.
Rewinding a bit, this framing of Seoho being resuscitated and borne by their hands is stunning. Seoho’s journey in the TBONTB choreography merits its own post entirely, because there are a lot of moments that seem to be telling a story for him particularly, and this is just a continuation of that.
Ravn and Leedo being separated for the rap line part seems like an obvious utilitarian choice, and I agree that it is. However, before we prepare to dismiss all “pairings” as serving the progression of the song itself, I have another theory that ties together a lot of the inciting moments of choreo. I promise you this is going to sound like A Reach, but that’s just how my mind works and if you enjoy it I’m glad.
Leedo, Hwanwoong, and Xion are the monarchs who have absolved themselves by the events of 반박불가, and fully reclaimed their souls as well as their conscience. Seoho and Ravn, not so much. They have a lot of work to do to free their conscience - especially Seoho. Oh, lord, especially Seoho. Keonhee is an extremely interesting case, as he seems to have a foot firmly in both sides, More on that later.
For further paranoid conspiracy theorist proof of this, please note that their outfits in the choreography videos symbolically reflect this:
If you need more convincing, may I point out that Leedo, Hwanwoong, and Xion are the only members who got those wonderful “all clothed in white” shots in the back half of the 반박불가 MV? I tried to make a gif, and I did make a gif, but Tumblr doesn’t want to post it in this text post.
(you rn)
The most interesting moments of loreography in DiitD are the following:
1. These lotus hands. Again, the imagery, I die!! Keonhee is coming into his own, his character is blooming, expanding his consciousness, going sicko mode with the realization that he has power in the underworld.
2. Directly following this, Seoho offers a hand to Keonhee and literally drags him down (again, the light/dark dichotomy of Keonhee), while the two good good boys Hwanwoong and Xion are back there just trying to maintain balance so they can get through this Hell/Tartarus thing.
3. Good ol’ ONEUS Summoning Circle, but wait this time I think it’s actually meaningful beyond the imagery. Seoho is at the center because he has the vocal line, yeah obviously, but he stays there much longer than is objectively necessary without a formation change. This isn’t common in ONEUS choreography. As much as they love their Summoning Circles, they tend to move on to other formations quickly. This one has meat on its bones, and I think what’s happening here, loreography wise, are the other monarchs banding together in an attempt to save Seoho from the darkness. But Seoho is powerfully dark, y’all, even going so far as to overpower them in the moment above.
4. This is flame imagery. Seoho has been engulfed in flames despite everyone’s best efforts.
5. At the last minute, he gets yeeted via backflip back into Hell/Tartarus
6. Keonhee takes the initiative in going back for him...
7. We’re back in Hell, that’s just great. Thanks, Seoho. You’re lucky we love you and your extremely disturbed conscience.
With this in mind, you can probably get way ahead of me, here.
Part Three: 반박불가
Perhaps not remarkably, the title track doesn’t have nearly as many loreography beats as DiitD. However, we know it’s part of the lore, and this was made abundantly clear simply with that opening move...
This is where we left off TBONTB, but not exactly. There is a slightly different formation of dancers here, which suggests it’s not picking up exactly where TBONTB left off, but rather that this is a cue to let casual fans know, explicitly: yes, this is a continuation of the TBONTB story.
Some moments don’t have choreography allusions, but they are loud in the MV, such as:
- “Youngjo, would you stop playing with flowers, our lead vocalist is going to Hell.” Ravn, who barely scraped out of Hell last time, ostensibly with Leedo’s help according to the rap line break in the choreography, has a rough time of it in the 반박불가 MV, but Hwanwoong isn’t going to let him fall back into toxic behaviors and lose himself to that psychological prison again. Hwanwoong drags Ravn back out of Hell, but not before Ravn successfully makes contact with Seoho. Obviously, Ravn would be the one to make contact, because Ravn’s still a little on edge about his own conscience and can easily backslide if he wants to. Who does he find down there? Seoho.
- Keonhee, who led the charge to return to Hell, is staying on task but seems to be the chief of operations to Hwanwoong’s chief of intelligence here, exercising his newfound sicko mode. Those two are certainly working hardest at keeping the servants of darkness in check down in the depths so they can make a quick break for it.
- Leedo’s actually having a grand time fighting his own demons - or rather, smirking at them and realizing that nah, he’s good. He can use his guilt and regret to motivate him towrd good things now.
- Xion is literally just above all of this and can move between Hell and Earth with ease, so he’s just waiting to see if he has to pull any Fallen God-Prince cards here to save his friends.
Now, for the key loregraphy moments. It’s obvious that 1Million was choreographing for a new direction in the ONEUS style, here, so it’s nearly bereft of the usual lyricism and formations, but they’re definitely there. Unsurprisingly they almost all deal with Seoho.
1. God, this moment whips. They’re all working to free Seoho and lock the gates behind them, with Keonhee giving Seoho one final push. That’s not a normal choreography move. That is storytelling and it sticks out like a beautiful sore thumb with an entire sonnet written on it.
2. With Seoho on lock, now Ravn may break out. He does so rather easily, but it’s not without Hwanwoong’s help. Please notice that Keonhee and Seoho are the two BEHIND him, and what that symbolizes.
3. This fucking bridge. It’s amazing with the loreography. First of all we have Keonhee, and the Summoning Circle is using the same imagery/texture that was formerly used to represent engulfing fire. Uh-oh.
4. Keonhee reaches out...
... but gets dragged under.
5. (excited football commentator voice) but who’s that on the outside making it to the surface, literally with the support of the other monarchs? IT’S SEOHO (cheers)!!
And Seoho finishes things out in the center, as well he should because he got us into this mess.
Part Four: What just happened to Keonhee
I’m so angry at this post-MV stinger. It took me forever to wrap my brain around what is being suggested here, because I thought “hey wait, the red lighting represents darkness/hell, doesn’t it?? DOESN’T IT?? RBW???? I thought we just GOT OUT OF HELL????
So I leave the final interpretation in everyone's individual hands, but the thought that occurred to me today was:
What if this entire scenario was a test of resolve and camaraderie, an illusion, a trick by the Devil (or that donger Helios, whatever). What if Keonhee was the only one who saw through this, and the only one who genuinely made it to Earth at the moment he appeared to have been dragged back to Hell? Because, as we know, Keonhee is a tactical genius, a monarch among the monarchs, and all his visual imagery in the MV suggested a sort of power cabal.
What if he realized that they weren’t all strong enough to face the challenge of breaking this cycle, so he schemed to leave them behind, but leave them safe in the illusion, while he struck out with the power of God and anime on his side.
I... I think Keonhee is about to go kill and dethrone a God, y’all.
